3, down through verse 11, and ask
the Lord to bless it. Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious
thing with us, with us, myself, Peter says, and others, through
the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, grace
and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of
God and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power has given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to, or by, glory and virtue, and whereby
are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And
beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, add
to virtue knowledge, add to knowledge temperance, add to temperance
patience, add to patience godliness, add to godliness brotherly kindness. and to brotherly kindness, charity,
or love. If these things be in you and
abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren, or that
is, idle, nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things,
or laggeth behind in these things, is blind, cannot see afar off. and hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly. into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. All right, let's ask
the Lord to bless His Word. Our God and our Father, we thank
You once again for the privilege of being here. We thank You that You have seated
us He blessed us in all spiritual blessings and heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, seated us clothed and in our right mind. Surely many, if not most, in
here have obtained this life, precious faith, the gift of God. How we thank you, Lord. By your grace, we are what we
are, have what we have, know what we know. Grace and peace truly has been
multiplied unto us through the knowledge of our God and Savior
Jesus Christ. By His knowledge, your righteous
servant has justified us, and we are justified by faith
in Him. Thank you, Lord, for revealing
Christ to us and in us. But we're not satisfied with
what we know we know in part. Any man thinks he knows anything,
he knows nothing, yet he ought to know. We need knowledge, virtue,
patience, all these things. Lord, we need your help through
this Study of your Word tonight, Lord. Grant these things. At least grant a desire toward
these things, a will and a desire. Make us willing by Your power. Lord, we pray for these that
we've mentioned and many others whom we have not mentioned. We
ask Your healing hand. upon them, we first ask for your
will to be done. We ask for a patient submission
to your will in all things, a thankfulness even for this is the will of
God in Christ Jesus concerning us in all things. May we rest and be assured of the fact that all things work
together for good, for our good, according to your unchangeable,
all-wise purpose. Let us rest right there, especially
those who are undergoing these trials. Give them, and we know
you will, give them peace which passeth understanding, which
the world knows nothing of. Peace multiply. Grace for the
tribe. And now we ask again that you
would open this word to our understanding, and more importantly, that you
would apply it, plant it, cause it to bring forth fruit, fruitfulness,
that we be not barren, but rather bear fruit for your glory. This
is why you have saved us. created in Christ Jesus unto
good work for your glory. We do want to glorify you. We present our bodies, we pray,
as living sacrifices, as our reasonable service. Speak to
us, speak to all those who gather tonight under the sound of your
word. Speak, Lord, to your servants. Here, wait a word from you. In Christ's name, for his glory
and honor, we ask your thanks and ask forgiveness of our sin.
Amen. All right, let's read verses
3 and 4 again. This is, you probably already
recognize, the passage that we looked at Sunday morning. This
is a continuation of that. Verses 3 and 4 say, according
as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain
unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath
called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these You might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. Now, I know you'll be interested
in these things because I am. These things really caught my
attention, obviously. I couldn't get away from them.
Here we are again. I want eternal life. Don't you?
I want to win Christ and be found in Him. Don't you? Godliness. What that means. Escape corruption. I want to
escape corruption. Principally, me. Don't you? These things ought
to interest you. Now, notice with me. This is
important. Notice here how these things
are really in past tense. Look at it. Verse 1 says, "...to
them that have obtained," light precious things, have obtained. Verse 3 says, "...his eternal,"
according to his power, "...has given unto us," hath given unto
us all things. "...and hath called us," verse
4 said, They're given unto us exceeding great and precious
promise, having escaped. You see that? Those in Christ
by faith are new creatures. They are. They are new creatures. Now, the fact that you struggle with
sin, means that there's a new creature,
another law in your memory. You understand that? Romans 7
applies to those who have a new man and an old man warring with
one another. Before, there was no war, right? Is that right? So know that before. Like Paul and Peter both talk
about they used to be dead in sin, children of wrath even as others,
children of disobedience, not caring, not seeking, not wanting,
not thinking, no conscience. Right? So if you do struggle
with each thing, take heart that perhaps God has
given you a new heart to love righteousness and to hate sin.
It wasn't that way before, was it? That gives me some hope. All
right. And since then, since we are
new or believers are new creatures in Christ, God deals with us
as sons. Responsible children, just like
you deal with your children, we instruct, we admonish, we
correct and exhort our children, don't we? They're alive. They
should listen to us. They should obey us. They should
heed what we say. They're responsible to do so,
right? As long as they are under our
roof and under our care, they will be instructed and admonished
and rebuked and corrected and exhorted and so forth by us,
right? And expected to do what we say. Well, as long as we're under
God's roof, so it will be. So God deals with us, all right?
Do you believe that God rewards and commends good behavior? Do you reward and commend your
children? And we're not talking about salvation
here. We've already talked about them that have obtained, like
precious faith, through the righteousness. This is dealing with people who
were dead and have been brought back to life, saved by God's
grace, period. Saved by the righteousness and
blood of Christ, period. Exclamation point. OK? Alive now to God, and therefore
responsible children. That makes sense. Sure it does.
All right. And he does. He rewards and commands
obedient behavior. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Now, here's another evidence
of life is that you don't ever take, you don't ever, after we've
done all that's required of us, we still say, ah, unprofitable,
sinful. Nevertheless, God is not unfaithful
to forget, He says, your works of faith and labor of love, right? God chastens. God rebukes. Disobedient,
right? Yes, He does. All right? He says
we've been called, verse 3, called to glory and virtue. The word
is both by virtue, glory and virtue, and to glory and virtue.
Both words apply. We've been called by God's or
Christ's glorious work. By Him glorifying God for us,
right? By virtue of His blood and righteousness,
we've been made sons, right? By His glory, His virtue. We've been called to it, too,
right? We've been called to glorify
God. We've been called to virtue. Whereas before, we were absolutely
worthless to God, ourselves, or anybody. But not now. Now we're called a salt of the
earth. Right? Called to glorify our Father
and to be virtuous. All right. Now, verse four said,
But given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these we might be partakers of the divine nature. It's just
given to us. This divine nature is given unto
us all by a promise. This is the power. This is his
divine power, the word of his power. And all it is, is promises. He says, You believe in a church. But he gives us gift of faith
and we believe and old things pass away, all things come back,
a new creature. And we may make partakers of
the divine nature by faith. It's a mystery, really. It's
really a mystery. He says, come. And though we
don't know what that means, we come. And he said, I'll give
you rest. And we find rest. He says, believe,
we say, I believe, help my own belief. He said, you have eternal
life, never perish. He says, sin shall not have dominion
over you. Now, these are promises. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. He said, I am of very present help in time of trouble. He said,
Lo, I'm with you always, even at the ends of the earth. I'll
never leave you, he said. These are precious promises of
escape, to escape corruption. Now, the fact is, we have escape.
We'll never see corruption. Didn't Christ say, Who cannot
lie? He said, He that believes in me shall never die. Believe
us how it is? I'm Mary, Martha, you believe
that? He that believeth in me will never, won't even taste
death. Won't see corruption. No sir. And someday, actually, so we
have escaped the corruption, or that is, that final condemnation.
And someday we'll put on incorruption. This corrupt, this mortal will
put on immortality. This corruption will put on incorruption. But until then, we live by faith
on the promises, standing on the promises of Christ my Lord. And we have trials and temptations
to face and a world to overcome, a world to deal with, and either
be overcome by it or overcome in it. How? How do we deal with these things? How do we deal with trials? How do we face, deal with temptation? How do we overcome a world which
seems much stronger than us? How? Somebody like me can do it. Come right back where we started.
By faith. Christ said, without me, You can do nothing. But now,
now you like this verse, John, I can do all things through Christ
which strengthens me. All right? Scripture says, running
the race, looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Got a race to run. All right? Now, look at this. Verse 5. So this faith, you know,
without faith is where you begin. It's where you begin. It's where
you end. And Christ is the author and
the finisher. All right? We look to Christ before we begin
the walk or the race or the fight. We look to Christ during. And
in the end, we're going to look to Him in the end. keep it, but just shall live
by faith, totally, completely by faith. And you understand
what faith is? It's depending on Christ. That's
what it is. It's looking to Christ. It's
not leaning on the arm of the flesh. It's looking to Christ. All right? Now, he says in verse
5, all right, beside this now, give all diligence. Look at verse
5. Beside this. Giving all diligence,
add to your faith, and it goes on to name several things. All right? We all know what giving
diligence means, don't we? I really don't have to describe
this. Diligence means effort, doesn't
it? You know, when God, I thought
about this, when God saves us, He doesn't just save us in theory. Right? But in actuality, He doesn't
just save us in the mind. He saves us mind, body and soul,
spirit, a whole being. Right? The whole person, the
whole being is involved in this thing of salvation. Paul said,
let this mind be in you. And then in another place he
said, let's present our bodies as a living sacrifice. Right? This body is me. But yet It's all me. That's the reason God's going
to raise this vile body and fashion it like unto His glorious body. But it's still, it's part of
me. Isn't it? Sure it is. All right, and we're going to
glorify God in mind and body and soul and spirit. God saves
a whole person. All right. He says, give all
diligence in all things. Walking. The article in the Bulletin Sunday. Walking means you're making,
you're going in a direction, right? It requires a little bit
of effort. Walking requires some effort.
Sure does. Especially this lazy, no-good,
worthless generation. Who was I talking to the other
day? Who was I talking to? You, wasn't it? Yeah, you were
talking about somebody who'd walk up and fly the stairs and
just be totally out of breath. This is the couch potato generation. Well, walking requires some effort.
And walking implies you're making some progress. We walk by faith. Remember, well, it's going to
be in this week's bulletin. Enoch walked with God. And it says when it came time
for him to be translated, go up and be with God, he really
didn't have, didn't, wasn't much change involved with him. He
was headed in that direction anyway. That's the direction
he was headed. And I ask the question, what
would you do differently if you knew Christ was coming tomorrow?
Well, I hope nothing. We're walking by faith. If we're
looking unto Christ, we're just going to be looking and there
He is. If we're waiting, we're going to expect Him. Right? Running now. Running. Let us run the races. But that
requires a whole lot more effort. Running. Warring. What about warring? An old man that warred. The scriptures talks a lot about
warring. We're in a war. Did you see any battle? No? Did you? Well, did you see any
battle, combat, actual combat when you were in, well, were
you in the service? Nobody in here? Ward? Well, have
you ever wrestled with anybody? Let's put it that way. Surely
everybody in here has wrestled with somebody. I was telling
Andrew one day about the most taxing, tiring thing known to
man is wrestling. We used to have to wrestle on
the high school football team, and I was the smallest back then,
too. I had to wrestle with some big
fellow, you know, and it made my hair hurt after it was over. I'm serious. You remember? It's hard to remember, isn't
it? Seriously, you wallow all over. Every muscle in your body
hurts, and you just hurt all over. Wrestling requires some
effort, doesn't it? A great deal of effort. Jacob
said, I will not let you go. He wrestled with a man until
the break of day. There wrestled a man. The man
wrestled with him. He wrestled with him. He was
apprehended, and he got laid home to a man. Give diligence. We're not going
back into the kingdom. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violence take it by force, Scripture said.
Well, if I'm going to be saved, no, you're not. This is the context when our
Lord said, In the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on
the earth? It was right after that importunate widow. The widow
who would not let that judge go until he blessed her. And
he said, she's going to keep troubling me. I'm going to give
her what she wants. That's when Christ said, when the Son of
Man comes, will He find anybody seeking Him? Will He find anybody
wrestling? There will be very few in this
generation, rich and increased with goods that have needed nothing.
But He says to us, give diligence. There's still a war to fight. What's that song we sing that
says, talks about, shall we, shall we sail to heaven on flowery
beds of ease while others sailed in bloody seas? Peter, who said this, was crucified. Killed. Paul, who kept saying
this, had his head cut off. Well, he says, give diligence.
Give diligence, all right? He says, now, it's going to require
some effort, doesn't it? Now, remember now, where do you
start? Did we in our own strength confide
our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. He
said, I'm a very present help in time of trouble. Or when's
that? Just the moment I wake up, I need Thee every hour. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee.
I'm a very present help. You have not because you ask
not. All right. He said, all right, give diligence.
Give diligence. Add to your faith virtue. Or that is, in addition to faith
or building upon faith. Virtue. Now, what's that mean? Virtue. Virtue means this. Valor. V-A-L-O-R. Valor. That means another word for it,
you understand, is manliness. Paul said, be strong in the Lord,
in the power of His mind. James said, resist, didn't he? Paul said in another place, quit
yourselves like men. It doesn't mean quit. Quit yourselves,
that's an old term meaning act like men. Quit yourselves like men. Now,
listen, I need this. This thing starts right here.
I need this worse than anybody in here. Valor. Virtue. Now, Paul says, in malice, be
like children. have a meek and childlike attitude,
but in understanding, be men. Encourage, act like men, quit
yourself like men, act like women, grown women. When Paul kept telling us, put
off the old man, put on the new, what he's saying there is, quit
acting like a baby. That's what he means by that.
Quit acting like an old man. This is what Peter said when
he said, those that like these things, they've forgotten that
they purge from that. Quit acting like that. Quit acting like a good old man. My father used to tell me that.
Grow up. Did your father ever tell you
that? Well, you can't make yourself
grow. What he meant by that is act more like a man. Quit crying, or I'll give you
something to cry about. You heard that? We don't have
anything to cry about, do we? Very few, anyway. Quit yourself like men. Quit
yourself like women. And this means don't lay down
without a struggle. Don't lay down without a struggle.
The Scriptures use terms like this, resist. He promised them. He said, it's
yours. OK? He said, go in and take it. I'm with you. And nothing can
stand before you. Go in and take it. It's your
land that flows with milk and honey. Well, you remember they
sent in spies, Joshua and Caleb were part of it? And they came
back, and most of the spies said, they're giants, they're giants.
I mean, they're 12 feet tall, and they just kill us. They're
going to kill us all. Right? Oh, woe is me. And they
all started going, let's go back, let's go back, let's quit. And
Joshua and Caleb, I don't know how big they were, but they just
averaged me. Joshua and Caleb said, what's
wrong with y'all? Let's go. Have not God said? It's our, let's go. You see what he's saying here?
The same thing. by promises. Add to your faith virtue. Virtue. Paul said to young Titus, he
said, you tell the people, you reprove, rebuke with all authority,
let no man despise your youth. He said, you tell the aged men
to be sober, be chaste, be temperate and so forth. You tell the old
men to act like old men are getting ready to meet the Lord. He said, you tell old women the
same thing. Don't act like silly women or young girls. Act sober,
righteous. Then the behavior is becoming
holiness. That's what virtue is. That's what virtue is. I need
this. I need this. So much more to see the day approach.
All right, now he says, look at the add to your faith virtue
and to virtue. Knowledge. To virtue, knowledge, knowledge,
knowledge means. Awareness. Perception. Understanding. Facts accumulated. discernment. That's what knowledge means.
And he tells us, add to your faith virtue, manliness, and
to manliness or valor, knowledge. We're going to face, just tomorrow
morning, we're going to face situations. We're going to face
people. We're going to face the world.
We're going to face trial. We're going to face temptation.
We're going to face the adversary. We don't need some knowledge. If we're just naive and gullible
and ignorant of Satan's devices, we need knowledge. Listen, and
this knowledge comes from one source. You know where this knowledge,
this wisdom, James said it, this wisdom comes from above. He said,
if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask God who giveth liberally. He delights. You recall a man
asking, the Lord said he'd give a man anything he asked for?
Solomon? Remember what he asked for? Give him wisdom. Now, remember, knowledge is the
horse, wisdom is the rider. Knowledge is what you know. Wisdom
is what you do with it. And we're going to see that progression
there. But knowledge starts with knowledge. And it all comes from
right here. We're ignoramuses. Apart from
this, this world life in ignorance. Why, Sam? They don't know God's
Word. We're not in darkness even as
others. We're not in ignorance. We're not naive and gullible. We're Gert with truth. All right. And in Proverbs, listen,
it says this. These things are given the words
of understanding to receive instruction of wisdom, justice, judgment,
equity, equity to give subtlety to the simple. You feel like
you're simple minded. This will give you subtlety.
You'll be as wise as serpents. Harmless stuff. How? There's
only one way. A wise man will hear and will
increase learning. A man of understanding will attain
the wise counsel. The whole chapter of Psalm 119
deals with this. David said, Hide thy word in
my heart, that I might not sin against thee. Wherewithal shall
a young man cleanse his way. It's not taking heed to this.
There's only one way. God's Word, commandments of the
Lord are pure, clean. God's Word. Other than that,
apart from seeking God's will, God's Word, we're going to enter
into things just gullible, naive, and it's going to just overcome
us. We won't know what to do or say
or act. If we have not, if we seek not. Right. Virtue, knowledge. All right. He says, add to that.
Stay with me now. You're not wrestling right now
with your flesh and blood. Honestly. You're not wrestling
with fleshly tiredness. The principalities of power. Give a little effort. All right,
listen up. All right, listen to it. It says, add to knowledge
temperance. Temperance. Temperance means
restraint, self-control. That's what that means. And I
tell you what, knowledge, when you enter into something, real
knowledge, taking a real stock of things, I don't know if I'll do that
or not. You understand? You understand? Knowledge will
beget temperance. And let me see if I can't illustrate
this. Most people in this world Just go after anything that feels
good to it. It looks good, go after it. Just
gratify the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride
of life. Now, Eve did not take knowledge, did she? She
didn't stop and consider, did she? She wasn't aware. She wasn't
very aware of things. You understand what I'm saying
here? Temperance is self-control, wasn't it? Restraint. Now, listen to this. Real knowledge
will temper what you do. Now, I don't know if I ought
to do that or not. Maybe I'm not. That's not the
right thing to do. Real knowledge will temper what
you say, considering who you're dealing
with, the situation. It'll restrain. Real knowledge
will restrain your tongue. Why should I waste words on that
fool? Huh? It's just a waste of breath.
A waste of time to get mad. Real knowledge will restrain
your actions. Real knowledge will restrain
your indulgences, your passions, your wildfire, excess. This is the knowledge of human
nature will temper your anger. Paul of Peter said to me. Better handle this carefully.
Peter said dwell with women according to knowledge. Considering them
as the weaker vessel. I wish I hadn't brought this
up, but by that he means Dwell with them according to naught.
Consider everything about her as a woman. Consider as a result
of the fall, she is more prone to various things. For instance, certain times of
the month, she's going to act like a monster. That's just the
way it is. Consider that. And on the other
hand, women consider men. In other words, and consider
who you're dealing with. It's like we deal with children
as children. Don't we? Let me get even a little
baser than that. Dogs. Why do dogs do what they do? Which is all kind of stuff. They get in there because they're
dogs. That'll temper you if you stop
and take stock. See, if a dog starts chewing
on something, you know, don't act like a monster. Act like
a human being. Understand. Why is he doing that?
Because he's a dog. Aren't you glad our Lord knows
our frame and deals with us accordingly? Huh? And we're supposed to deal
with one another, and especially lost people. I need this, Stan. Like what
they are. Acknowledge that these people
are just blind. They're just blind. Well, can't
you see? Well, no. They can't. What's wrong with you? Well,
he's dead. That's what's wrong. That's what's
bad and wrong. I'm just certain that people
used to look at me and say, what's wrong with him? Why is he acting
like that? Because he's dead. Why did she get mad at me? Why
is she talking to me like that? Because she's a human. That's human. That's nature.
That's old man. Knowledge will temper. You understand
that? Knowledge ought to temper us,
ought to control our temper. You ever think about where that
word came from? Temper? Peter said, put away wrath, anger,
malice. Take knowledge that you're dealing
with a fellow human being that's prone to anything. Because in just a few hours,
you're going to act just like they did. And you're going to hope they
deal with you in mercy and grace. Right? See, knowledge. Is that
coming across, Amy? I'm trying my best. The knowledge
ought to temper us. Add to your knowledge You have
your eyes wide open. Discern the situation, who you're
dealing with and so forth. And add to that temperance, self-control. And knowledge of the world and
things around you ought to temper our indulgence, our passions
and all that. Oh man, I've got to have that!
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Take stock. Don't just absolutely go and
let your passions get the best of you. Stop and think. Think. Joseph says, what will happen
to me if I give in? David didn't stop and think,
did he? Knowledge. Temperance. You understand that? Oh, I got
to have that, got to have that. No, you don't either. No, we
don't either. All right, look at the next time,
add to your knowledge, temperance, temperance, patience. See, temperance
will beget patience. Temper, self-control, self-restraint. Now, where is it? Now, where
do we begin? Huh? Without me, you can do nothing.
No, you don't ever get away from that, from him. You see, without
me, you can't do anything. You can't add to your faith and
virtue. You'll be a sniveling, like Peter, a sniveling wimp
before a little girl without me and your own strength. But if you ask me, you'll be
crucified for me. See that, John? If you ask me,
I'll give you the courage to give your head cut off for my
sake. And knowledge, we won't know what we're getting
into if we just run ahead. Because if we ask Him, He'll
give us liberally. Temperance, can you control one
passion? Can we control one passion? Just by gritting your teeth?
Strength of sin is a law, but you're not under the law. You're
under grace, he said. Just ask. Help. A very present help. Time of
trouble. Add to your temperance patience. Patience. Patience, or restraint,
teaches us to wait. Restraint teaches us to wait. And after we wait, Stan, we'll
see. Whew, glad I waited. You understand that? After we
wait, after the Lord gives us the grace of patience, we'll
see. Boy, I'm glad I didn't dive into
that. How many times have we? And we
should wait. We should wait. I need this. I told you you'd
need this. I need this. Everyone in this world jumping
on the bandwagon, aren't they? Whatever is on the wagon, they
jump on it, don't they? Whatever comes along the way,
let's go, boys! No, let's wait, boys. Know this for a fact, whatever
the world is headed after, we'd better high-tail it the Right? And if you just wait and see,
we'll see everybody falling off the wagon. You know what? Whatever the world goes, this
is it, man. We've found it. Oh, you've got to have this,
man. This is the way it is. Just wait. It'll be brought to
nothing. Y2K, you better get ready. Get ready! Are you ready? Let's
just wait. The Lord didn't tell us to get
ready for Y2K. Here it comes. There it goes. Now listen to me right now. Listen
to this. Jerry Falwell. And it's the last time I mention
that dude's name. I remember I promised never to
mention that other fellow from North Carolina. I'm not going
to. It's a waste of breath. Falwell told people to start
stocking water and guns and all that stuff. Now, Scripture says if a man
calls himself a prophet and he tells you to do something and
it doesn't come to pass, you know what he's called? A false
prophet. And so you're not to believe
another thing he says ever again. Zero. You know how you know a
true prophet? Because whatever he says, it
comes to pass. true man of God don't make claims
and don't say who will be a better this better that anything other
than what God tells. That too hard to strong just
so. So patient why everybody. Know this for a fact. If the
world thinks we ought to do it, we ought not do it. Don't do
it. The world thinks we ought to
go in this direction, go the other. The world thinks we ought
to jump, stand. The world that says go, we say stop. Wait. Patience. Look at the next thing. Godliness.
Add to your patience godliness. I told one of the brethren that
I've heard this term used by these self-righteous, pious Pharisees,
and it almost made me not like the word, godliness. But the Scriptures now tells
us to be godly. That's used a lot in Scripture. You know that, Joe? Godliness
is used a great deal. And just because these fools
abuse God's Word doesn't mean I'm to throw it out. It's like
the term Christian. Man, this generation has made
that just a phew! That's a glorious type of Christian. He says, add to your patience
godliness, godliness. Now, what is godliness? Well, God, now this is vital, God was manifest
in the flesh. God became a man. And for a man, Godliness is for
a man to act like God. Understand that? God became a
man. How did he act? Godly, not fleshly. God became a man. In other words,
and Romans 8 deals with this, to be carnally minded, he says,
is death. Be spiritually minded. His life
and peace. Christ's body didn't rule him. His body didn't rule him. It
was godly. Does that make sense? He didn't
live to gratify his body. Dogs do that, don't they? Dogs do that. He was godly. That's what godliness
meant. Fleshly means carnal, like a beast. Godly means spiritual. Godliness is this, let this mind
be in you. Falsehood. He said, set your
affection on things above. That's godliness. Things that are higher, things
that are noble, and called to glory and to virtue, not base
and meanness. I need this. Things that are
higher, things that are nobler, things that are real, things
that are lasting. Paul said this, some people have a form of godliness,
or that Peter, have a form of godliness, Is that Peter? Think of what? They have a form
of godliness, but deny the power there. In other words, there's
some people, there's a bunch of people out there in the world
who profess to be believers, yet they're scared to death of
Y2K. They're stockpiling arms. Well, that's a form of godliness,
but without the power of it. Our Lord said, lay down your
arms. Turn your cheeks. If they come in to get your coat,
give them your coat, too. I'll give you another coat. Where'd
you get that one anyway? He didn't say, stockpile. He
said, sell what you have. Didn't he? He didn't say, you
better get bags full of bread. He said, cast it on the water. There's some people out there
who have a form of God. Oh, yeah, I'm a Christian, but
you better not come near my house. That's denying the power thereof.
Our God's on the throne. A bear can't eat that, can't
drink that. Your God's a weakling, isn't
He? You see what He's saying? God,
Christ, he said, the son of man came eating and drinking. He's going out in the draft. Not caring what the world thought
about him. Above that. That's what godliness
means, above caring about what people think about you. I thought you was a Christian.
You know, Joe, that's what they said about the Son of God. They mocked the Son of God. I
thought you was a Christian. Paul, you remember when Paul
in the end, he said, from henceforth let no man bother me. Remember
that, Sam? Why should I be bothered by worms? I've had to your patience and
godliness. Brotherly kindness, look at that,
brotherly kindness, brotherly kindness. There's not much kindness out
in the world, is there? Where are you going to get some? We better have some to give out
when people come in here. You know what it means to quench
the spirit? Paul said, quench not the spirit.
You know what that means? The Spirit is present. The Spirit
gives peace and love, joy and the Holy Ghost. The Spirit is
present where Christ and the two of them are gathered. The
Holy Spirit gives fellowship, joy and peace and love. It's
for somebody to come in all down the mouth. all moody and all
sourpuss and all that quench spirit. You come in, oh, I can't
wait to hear from the Lord. And you look at that person. How are you? That's quenching the spirit. If we can't find an encouraging
word, don't say anything. Brotherly kindness. We're not
going to find it out there in the world. When we come in here,
we need to find it. Brotherly kindness. We need to
find some kindness. The world is dog-eat-dog, isn't
it? You go to work tomorrow, it's
dog-eat-dog. The kingdom of God is brother helping brother. The world is love yourself. The
kingdom of God is love your brother. The world says, demand your rights. Demand your rights. The kingdom of God says, forfeit your rights. Look on
the things above. Don't come in here complaining.
If you're going to share a word of complaining, ask somebody
else how they're doing. You're going to think I'm crazy
that I'm taking my father's advice. He told us young preachers years
ago, he said, you ought to read the book, How to Win Friends
and Influence People. One of the chief points in that
book, and don't frown at this, we're talking about a man with
50 years experience, do you like him? Is he a nice man, do you
like him? He's learned something, hasn't
he? Well, he read the book. And the
principal point in that book is to be interested in other
people. Don't be talking about yourself.
Don't be just interested in yourself. Don't, I, I, I, I, me, me, me,
me, my, my, my, my. Say, how you, you, you, you.
Don't be interested in yourself. And the man goes on to say, if
you live for yourself, you'll be the most miserable person
on earth, not to mention you'll be alone. Nobody wants to be
around somebody that's only interested in themselves. Right? If you're genuinely interested
in other people, how are you? Good to see you. Can I do anything
for you? Well, thank you. I'm fine, thank
you. Not, oh, woe is me, but how are
you? Isn't that good advice? That's the principle thought
in that book. But I know where that came from. It came from
God's Word. Let's look on things of others.
Who said that? Paul, sitting in prison. Paul said, I don't need anything.
What do you need? You love Paul? How to win friends and influence people. How to
win friends? Be a friend, Scripture says. Nobody has me over. You keep having people over,
I guarantee you somebody will have you over. Guarantee it. Be nice, smile, I guarantee you'll
get a smile back. Brotherly kindness. Be kind,
you'll receive some kindness. This is exactly what our Lord
said. He said, if you want mercy, you're
going to have to be merciful. Didn't He? If I want forgiveness, I'm going to have to forgive.
How much forgiveness do we need from God? How much? Well, Peter
said, well, Lord, how often do I have to forgive my brother?
Seven times? If my brother treats me mean,
now, remember, he's flesh, and you're flesh, and you act mean,
too. You're going to need some forgiveness.
But if my brother treats me mean, how often do I have to forgive?
Seven times? Peter thought he was being real,
you know, real liberal, Dan. Seven times? What did the Lord
say? Seventy times seven. Well, that's just a finite number,
meaning you don't ever quit. Because when do we need, when
are we going to stop needing mercy?