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Here we are now, the ninth commandment,

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and this is the second in our little heart-to-heart talk

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regarding this God's ninth rule for living.

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And that's just exactly what the Ten Commandments are.

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They are God's ten rules

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for man's living here on this earth.

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The ninth commandment, and this is my second

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in our little heart-to-heart talk regarding this commandment.

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Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

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Now, this commandment has a twofold intention.

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First, it guards the reputation.

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And secondly, it closes the door of opportunity

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against unworthy men,

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against women who have gossipy tongues,

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against those who might seek to enter

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therein upon false testimony.

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And do you want to know something? Listen.

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So important is the reputation.

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So important is your reputation, my reputation.

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Watch this now.

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That God has literally given a commandment

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to protect, to safeguard it.

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A fool is the person who will shrug his shoulders and say,

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I don't care what my neighbors think about me.

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That person is nothing more or less than an idiot.

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That's right.

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Stupid is the person who will just sneer and say,

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well, I don't care what anybody thinks about me.

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I don't care what my relatives think about me.

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I don't care what the folk where I work think about me.

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A fool is the person who does not care about his reputation.

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When you consider that God felt that the reputation

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of an individual was so important, was so valuable,

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that he had a law which literally protected and safeguarded

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man's reputation.

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Isn't that something?

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Indeed, I do care what people think about me.

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Indeed, I do care what the man on the street thinks about me.

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I'm not ashamed to tell you that I value my reputation.

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I mean that.

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My reputation is something that is priceless.

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I care about this reputation of mine.

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And I am mighty pleased to know that my Heavenly Father

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has done something to help safeguard my reputation.

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Now, I'm not talking about character.

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Character and reputation are two separate things.

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Character is the true fact concerning oneself.

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Character is what I am, the real me.

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Somebody says, what is Catherine Koeman really like?

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They're not talking about my reputation.

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They're talking about my character, me, my true self.

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Now, God knows all about my character.

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In fact, he knows me better than I know myself.

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I know me.

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I know a different me than you know.

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I know a different person than perhaps the man on the street

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knows, or the fellow who parks my car,

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or even the next door neighbor knows.

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That's the reason, in spite of all of my mistakes.

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And believe me, they are many, because you

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see, I am not infallible.

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I make so many mistakes, so many errors.

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I do so many things wrong.

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I am so sorry at the close of the day for things

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that I may have said, things that I may have done.

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But it's the most wonderful thing in the world

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to come to the close of a day, lie down on your bed,

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look directly up in the face of Almighty God,

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and say, well, Heavenly Father, in spite of it all,

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you and I both know I didn't do it intentionally.

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No matter what anyone says about me,

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I can still look up in the face of my father and say,

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you and I both know that I'm sincere about this thing.

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Oh, I can't tell you how often.

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Since I first preached that sermon,

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when I was not more than 14, 15 years of age,

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I can never tell you how often, when folk had been critical,

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have said unkind things, that the two of us, the master

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and I, have just sort of had an understanding.

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And I've looked up and said, well, Lord,

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one thing we both know, I have been sincere

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in preaching the gospel.

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I have been sincere in what I am doing.

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Oh, I tell you, those early days when I was inexperienced,

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my feelings were so easily hurt.

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I hadn't become hard and do many things.

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I shall never forget those early weeks, those early months.

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I'll never forget the first meeting I ever held.

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I had worked so hard on that one sermon, Zach Kiasopatri,

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that I really, and I tell you the truth, I was so stupid,

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I was so young, so inexperienced, that I didn't know

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if you were to stand up, hope that you were supposed

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to have long sleeves and high collar

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and your dress is a certain length.

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I didn't find anything about that in the Bible.

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I was so busy getting Zach Kiasopatri,

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that to preach that sermon, I really had only one dress

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to wear, only one that I could wear.

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I didn't know the sleeves were a little too short.

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I never thought about the neck being a little too low.

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Are the skirt a little, well, it was, I think it covered my knees,

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but I'm never quite sure about that now when I think of it.

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But some old sister sat in that audience, and while I was trying

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to get Zach Kiasopatri and trying to be true to my call,

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all she could think about was the dress that was unbecoming

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to the girl that stood on the platform.

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I shed more tears over that, but that isn't the thing

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that I shed the most tears about.

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My call was definite from the Lord.

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That's the reason it ever fazed me when anyone would say

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that women were not supposed to preach,

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that I had no right to preach.

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It never has fazed me, never.

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That thing has never bothered me.

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It has never fazed me for one minute,

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because I know how definite my call from God really was

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to preach the word.

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It was something as definite, as real as my conversion.

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I mean that.

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No one could ever talk me out of it.

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All the forces of hell could never dampen my spirit.

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Nothing, all the steam rollers

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in the world could never stop me, because I had

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to preach the gospel.

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It may have seemed inconsistent to everyone else,

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yet it was something I had to do.

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I couldn't eat.

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I couldn't sleep.

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I had to do it.

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Those early days, I lived on five-cent rolls.

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Oh, that was the best Bible school.

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That was the best seminary.

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That was the best way of learning

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that I know anything about.

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Probably I wouldn't have the ministry that we have today

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had it not been for that early training.

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I began right down before the first rung on the ladder.

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Everything that I have gotten, everything I have learned,

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I've gotten it the hard way.

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Everything.

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I would stand on the platform after not having had anything

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more than a five-cent roll to eat,

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a pair of 15-cent Lyle stockings that I got from Grant's store,

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only one dress.

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And then some old sister would say, if that was my daughter,

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I wouldn't have her traipsing all over the country.

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I'd have her right at home, believe me.

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What does that girl's mother think

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of letting her out there?

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In Idaho.

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She needs to be back in Missouri.

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What does her mother think anyway?

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There I was, sleeping in a turkey house,

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not far from Caldwell to Idaho.

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Sure.

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That the Lowcountry Church had been closed for months

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and months and months because they couldn't pay a preacher.

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I went to members of the congregation

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and begged and pled that they would just unlock the church

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and let me preach.

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I had no experience.

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How else could I get experience?

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And I preached to those farmers.

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Just recently, I received a letter

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from someone in that same community who remembered me.

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And yet, an old sister could have killed me.

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She could have wrecked me.

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By spreading the word around the community, I was too young.

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I should be home with my mother.

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What was I doing?

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That young preaching.

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When beloved, she didn't know what was in my heart.

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It was something I had to do.

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I had to do it.

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From that day until this very hour,

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there's one thing that the two of us, the master and myself,

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know.

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And that is that in my heart, I've always been sincere

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in what I was doing.

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That's character.

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But the world can't see the inside of one.

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All that the world knows about me, about you,

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is by reputation.

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And reputation is the estimate which others form of you.

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Reputation is very priceless.

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But remember, your neighbor can misjudge you.

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You may be one thing by reputation,

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but something else when it comes to character.

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That is the reason, as you study the Word of God,

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read Paul, read the New Testament over and over again.

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In essence, we have the scripture saying,

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avoid the very appearance of doing wrong.

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Avoid the very appearance of evil.

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Inside of you, you may be just as pure.

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Inside of you, you can be just as far from wrongdoing

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as a baby.

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Inside of you, so far as character is concerned,

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you wouldn't do that thing for a title

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to be the whole world.

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And yet, just because the circumstances,

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just because the looks of things,

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just because some action may put doubt in somebody's mind,

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they accept it as a fact.

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You're so close to the borderline of the thing

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that maybe their eyes deceive them.

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Uh-huh.

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That's why, my friend, the best thing in the world

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is to avoid the very appearance of evil.

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I shall continue in our next broadcast.