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Would you believe it that we are still on this ninth commandment?

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Thou shalt not bear false witness

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against thy neighbor.

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Beloved,

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one's reputation is vitally important to one.

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One's reputation is something that is very precious.

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So precious,

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so priceless,

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so important is one's reputation

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that literally God has given a commandment to protect it,

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to safeguard it.

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Therefore, we know at a glance

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that a fool is the individual who cares not about his reputation.

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To just shrug your shoulders and say,

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I don't care what my neighbor 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 anybody thinks about me.

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That man is very foolish.

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When we see from God's word

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that in these ten rules for living

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a man's reputation is so important

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that God has given a commandment to safeguard it.

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Thou shalt not,

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don't you do it, God says,

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don't you dare do it.

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Do not bear false witness against your 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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who might seek to enter therein upon false testimony.

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Just one second.

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Because I closed my last heart-to-heart talk with you

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regarding this thing of reputation.

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And the fact that one is to avoid

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even the very appearance of evil.

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Character, you know, is the true fact concerning oneself.

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I may know you well enough.

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I may know you personally.

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I may have such confidence in your character,

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your principles,

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that I could stake my life on the fact that you would not do certain things.

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And yet there are those who may not know you so well.

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And you do things that are so close on the borderline

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that if their eyesight isn't extremely good,

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they may feel as though they saw you do the thing.

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You were so close to the thing.

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That's the reason over and over again the Bible tells us

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to avoid the very appearance of evil.

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In other words, stay so far away from doing wrong.

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Stay so far away.

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If needs be, walk on the opposite side of the street.

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Don't do anything that would even give the appearance of evil,

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the very appearance of doing wrong.

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Don't give that long-tongued sister something to talk about.

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Don't give your neighbor something that they can feed upon.

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Stay just as far away from it as possible.

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Because I'll tell you, that tongue,

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one of the smallest members of our body,

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is a very vicious thing.

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If you don't believe it, I'll give you the word of God.

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James describes it perfectly in the third chapter.

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If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.

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And the amazing thing is, there was only one who was perfect.

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Only one person who ever walked this earth was really perfect.

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And that one was the very Son of the Living God.

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No man, no woman is absolutely perfect.

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For I do not believe there is a person who has ever lived,

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who is living now, or who will ever live,

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who has not offended in word one way or another.

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It's because we're still in this body of flesh.

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This body is still corruption.

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And the most corrupt part of this which is flesh

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is that one little member, the tongue.

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If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man,

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and able also to bridle the whole body.

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If you can control your tongue,

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then you are able to control the rest of your body.

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Isn't that saying something?

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Behold, Jane says, we put bits in the horse's mouths,

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that they may obey us, and we may turn about their whole body.

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Behold also the ships, which though they be so great,

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and are driven of fierce winds,

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yet are they turned about with a very small helm,

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with us whoever the governor listeth.

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The tongue is the little member, and boasts great things.

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Behold, how great a matter, a little fire kindles.

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The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.

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I believe that the tongue, the human tongue,

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had done more damage, has broken more hearts,

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has committed more murder

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than all of the battles that were ever fought on anybody's battlefield.

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I believe that.

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A world of iniquity.

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That vicious little member of the body.

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That tongue that cannot touch your character,

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because remember the character is the true fact concerning oneself.

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But the tongue has besmirched more reputations

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than any weapon that has ever been used.

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God knew it.

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That's why in these Ten Rules for Living,

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he gave a commandment to safeguard, to protect.

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Your reputation against that one with a vile tongue,

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that one who would dare to bear false witness against you.

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Isn't that something?

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Now, remember this as we go a little deeper into this Ninth Commandment.

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I've been telling you over and over again

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that if any one of these commandments are broken,

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should you break any one of them, you will pay the price.

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You cannot go against any one of God's laws and get by with it.

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It's impossible.

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You will pay the price in this Ninth Commandment.

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Sooner or later, I'll prove to you from the Word of God,

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you will pay the price should you bear false witness against your neighbor.

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Take that portion of the Word of God as found in the seventh chapter of Matthew.

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Judge not that ye be not judged.

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For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.

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And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.

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And why beholdest thou the moat that is in thy brother's eye?

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Considerest not the bean that is in thine own eye?

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For how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the moat out of thine eye?

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And behold, a bean is in thine own eye.

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Thou hypocrite, first cast out the bean out of thine own eye,

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then shalt thou seek clearly to cast out the moat out of thy brother's eye.

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Oh, that's a masterpiece.

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Just five short verses, that's all.

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Only about 100 words, not more than that.

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And yet, it is hardly too much to say that at its simple face value,

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this portion of the Word of God that I had just read to you

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is the most staggering document ever presented to mankind.

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In these five verses, we are told more about the nature of man,

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and the meaning of life, and the importance of conduct,

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and the art of living, and the secret of happiness and success,

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and the way out of trouble, and the way into trouble,

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and the approach to God, and the salvation of the world,

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than all of the theologians and all of the philosophers

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have ever told us, all that they can put together and try to tell us today.

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For it explains the great law, God's great law of retribution.

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That's right.

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Right here in these five verses of not more than 100 words,

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you have more gospel, you have more down-to-earth truth

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than all of the sermons that you have ever heard preached in your life.

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You may have been going to the Methodist church

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ever since you were a little girl and you've sat there in the pew.

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Today, you're past middle age.

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You've had some of the finest ministers.

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You've had some of the greatest theologians in your pulpits.

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You've heard masterpieces, and you've heard the masters.

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But right here in less than 100 words,

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you have more of the meaning of life, the importance of conduct,

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the secret of real success and happiness, and the way out of trouble,

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than all of those sermons put together.

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Oh, to me, these five verses are something.

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And it's vastly more important than a man,

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and still more than a child should be taught the meaning of these five verses,

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than that they should learn anything else that is taught in schools and in colleges.

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I believe in education.

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I wouldn't for one minute sit here and decry education.

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Not for one minute.

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And please do not misconstrue anything that I am saying just now.

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What I'm trying to say, that it's vastly more important

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that your child should get the true meaning of these words

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that I've just given you from the Word of God,

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than that he should be taught some of the most profound things

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that come later in his college, his university, and his school training.

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That's right.

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There's nothing to be found in any of the ordinary courses of study.

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There's nothing to be learned in any library or in any laboratory

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that is one-billionth part as important as the information

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that's contained right here in the five verses

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that I just read to you from out of God's Word.

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Judge not that ye be not judged.

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For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.

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And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again.

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That's something.

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Read it.

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You've had the Bible on the shelf for so long,

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you only pick it up whenever you dust it.

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Maybe you have permitted it to remain closed too long.

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If you would open it, begin reading it, begin studying it,

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live according to God's laws,

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there would be success in your home life, in your own personal life.

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This Word of God can absolutely transform your entire way of living,

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can transform you as an individual.

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If the average man understood for a single moment

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the meaning of these words and really believed them to be true,

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they would immediately revolutionize his whole life from top to bottom.

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It would turn his everyday conduct inside out and so change him

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that in a very short time his closest friends would hardly know.

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And remember, this God's Word holds true

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for the man who may be in the highest office in our land to the man in the street.

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The man who's out there pushing the broom, cleaning the street,

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is as important to Almighty God as the man who is at the head of our government.

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We forget that sometimes.

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What holds true for one holds true for the other.

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When God gave his rules for living, he made no exception, none whatsoever.

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That's right.

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These few words express the simple and inescapable law of life.

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Go contrary to these laws, you get into trouble.

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That's what's wrong with the people in the world today.

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That may be what is wrong with you or your family, the peoples of our nation.

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We're trying to live contrary to God's laws.

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We forget he is God Almighty, absolute sovereignty.

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His laws are simple.

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They've almost gotten too simple for the men and women of this 20th century.

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We want something more complicated.

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We want something that has to be analyzed.

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Why, we are the people of the age of the atom bomb.

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We must have things given to us at our heart.

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Sometimes I think honestly the trouble with men and women of this generation

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is the fact that the things of God are just too simple for them.

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The word of God is just too simple.

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But my friend, his laws, his words are inescapable.

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The law of life is inescapable.

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And the plain fact is that it is the law of life that as we think, as we speak,

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as we act towards others, so will others think and speak and act towards us.

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It's that simple.

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A child can understand that.

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You don't have to go to a seminary to get that knowledge.

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You don't have to get all of your degrees to understand that knowledge.

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You don't have to go to some university to get the knowledge of God's word

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or to learn the law of life.

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It's just that simple.

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A little child, a little youngster five years of age can be taught that very thing.

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And that's exactly where and the age that we should begin teaching this law of life.

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You can't start teaching the law of life to somebody when they're in their 30s,

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in their 20s, 18, 19.

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But as a little child, when children are playing together,

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as a good parent, begin teaching this simple law of life

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that as we think, as we speak, as we act towards others,

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so will others speak and think and act towards us.

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Whatever sort of conduct we give out, that we are inevitably bound to get back.

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What you give will be returned to you, good or bad.

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Oh, listen.

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Anything and everything that we do towards others will sooner or later be done to us

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by someone somewhere.

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You dare not turn up your nose and say, I do not believe it.

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You dare not pull down the shade of your mind and say, I will not accept it.

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This is not my law.

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This is the inescapable law of life.

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This is God's law.

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I cannot escape it.

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You cannot escape it.

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The man in highest office cannot escape it.

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The prime minister cannot escape it.

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The queen on the throne cannot escape it.

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The garbage collector cannot escape it.

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The saleswoman cannot escape it.

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The doctor cannot escape it.

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00:21:38,880 --> 00:21:40,880
The preacher cannot escape it.

251
00:21:40,880 --> 00:21:43,880
The little housewife cannot escape it.

252
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:48,880
It is God's inescapable law of life.

253
00:21:48,880 --> 00:21:56,880
Therefore, I would be a fool to live contrary to it.

254
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,880
Yes, sir.

255
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:12,880
What sort of conduct I give out, that very thing will come back to me again.

256
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:22,880
I shall continue this heart-to-heart talk when I come into your home in our next visit.

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God bless you.