Herbert W Armstrong

   Now, frankly, folks, I tend to get down when it comes around the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. I think basically because — and it shouldn't be that way, I know — but I just have, I guess, a weakness or whatever to where I tend to get down when I began to look at the Bible and what it says we should be like. And I felt this way very much yesterday. I don't know exactly why. I think, there were a lot of things that did not go right yesterday in our meeting in preparation for it, and through it, it didn't go as smoothly as it should have, although the service, the sermon was excellent, but there are just other things that don't happen right.

   But anyway, I know I got feeling bad yesterday and we went out to eat and came home. And then more complications came along and I had to go downtown Houston to the Municipal Port Court of Harris County, and that's never a pretty sight. And then to sit in there last night for two hours and watch unjust judges or — well, I can't say that about this one man. He seemed to be a pretty nice fellow, but the critters that roam around him, called lawyers, just about hurt me. They are the scum of the earth, absolute lying little hypocrites. Vain, cocky little so-and-so's. It is a Sabbath, you know, and yeah, I don't know. It just turned me off. I just got so down watching them and watching the kind of people that are taking advantage of.

   The only kind of people in there who were, you know, coming in there wanting to fight their case or ask questions about it or whatever were those who were disadvantaged. You didn't see the rich in there. You didn't see the wealthy. No, their attorneys appeared for them. See, their attorneys appeared for them and say, "Well, let's do this, do that, you know," and blah blah blah, walking around making a big so-and-so out of themselves and big shots and doing all the work for them, but you find the little guy. The minority, the cripple, the number of cripples in there, some of them obviously being crippled in an accident and then being charged in some way for negligent driving apparently, and it was quite a sight to just sit in there and watch it all. And that just caused me to kind of feel down more and more to see that whole segment of, you know, of our city and the way it really is when you get down to the grassroots of things and the way people really are and the way they feel and what happens in their lives.

   And then I came back home last night and I didn't really know what to speak about, so I got to thinking about something I'd been reading that morning and decided to speak about this in that it can be very encouraging if we understand a little bit more of what Peter is talking about. I'm not going to give you anything this morning that is new. I'm only going to remind you, as the apostle Peter said he was doing when you turn to II Peter chapter 1 and verse 12 (II Peter 1:12). He said, "Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things though you know them and you be established in the present truth."

   The people that Peter was writing to were knowledgeable. They knew what God wanted them to do. Now they may have not had as much knowledge as we have today as far as technical facts, you know, or figures or maybe even a clear understanding of some doctrines. It's really hard to say whether they understood as much knowledge-wise, but they did have, Peter said, necessary knowledge, and that knowledge had established them in the truth, but he was reminding them of something. "Yeah, I think it meet as long as I'm in this tabernacle" — that is, alive — "to stir you up by putting you in remembrance." And then Peter even in verse 14 said that he was shortly going to die, and that he was going to do his part in reminding the people by putting a lot of these things in writing so they could later on, as we know historically, they were canonized by John. And we now have what we call today the Bible.

   Beginning to analyze your life and analyze my life, I think we can all say that our problems, or our basic problem, is not a lack of knowing what's right. We know what's right. We know what to do. We know right from wrong. We know all the right that we ever need to know to make it into the family of God. We have much more knowledge than we would ever need to know to qualify for that family. You don't have to have a great deal of knowledge, but you do have to have the character to apply what you know. Our problem is not a lack of knowing what's right, but it's carelessness. That is, not putting forth the energy, exercising the energy to apply what we already know.

   I would like for you to turn, if you've not already done so, to II Peter chapter 1. And I want to read Verses 4 through 9 (II Peter 1:4-9). And as I read them, read them along with me, and when we finish, analyze how you feel about these particular scriptures. The beginning of verse 4, II Peter 1: "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 besides this, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue. And to virtue knowledge. And to knowledge temperance. And to temperance patience. And to patience godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, charity."

   And that's a mighty long list. You know, it sounds like it would take a giant, a spiritual he-man, someone just short of God to fulfill that. In verse 8, "If these things be in you and abound" — not only be in you but abound — "they make you that you shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he that lacks these things" — could I see the hands of anyone in here who does not lack something here? — "He that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from his own sins, old sins." Excuse me.

   Now when I leave that on the surface, that to me can be very discouraging. Because I can read down through every one of those and I say, "OK, giving all diligence," there's the first problem. It says "add to your faith virtue." What kind of faith do we have? How much faith do we have? Add to your faith then, virtue, whatever that is. And then after you've added some virtue, then add knowledge. And after you've added knowledge, then add temperance. And now it begins to get kind of, you know, you began to get a little uneasy now because, you know, temperance, I mean, we all have some problems there, don't we? And add the temperance patience. And everyone says, "Well, I fall down there," you know? I think every one of us fails there. I know I do. And then after you've done that, add the patience godliness. And to godliness, brotherly kindness, and then after you've done all of that, add on top of that charity.

   And the Bible says if you have these things and abound in them, you shall never fall. If you lack them, you are blind and have forgotten that God has forgiven your sins. Now where do you stand? And when I read that, I look at that, I feel like just crawling under the rug and forgetting it, frankly. And I read that, that is the way I read it.

   Now what I'd like to do this morning is throw a little different light on this chapter 1, verse 1 through verse 10 or verse 11 (II Peter 1:1-11). And let's read it from a little different angle, a little different viewpoint. Because frankly, the way I read it and the emphasis I placed on it — and probably the emphasis that you may place on it at times — would disqualify you from the kingdom of God. Because the way I read it, you are not, I know I'm not qualified for God's family. How many of us has all these qualities added one to another and abounding and lacks none of them? Nobody. Only Jesus Christ had those qualities in full. Nobody has ever had them since then. Nobody had them before, and there will never be a human being who has those qualities as I read them. Impossible. Humanly impossible.

   I'll shed a little different light on it and read it from a different standpoint using other translations, and I think by doing it from this other standpoint and clarifying these words and clearing up maybe definitions and showing what words do not mean and what words do mean, I think you can shed an encouraging light. And rather than reading II Peter 1 and feeling yuck afterwards and feeling like, "Well, you know, let's just go have fun and live it up and drink and be merry and, you know, and chase around and do what we want to do because I can't qualify doing those things." What did Peter mean?

   Let me give you some clearer definitions, and I'll guarantee if we apply them according to clear definitions, it gives us hope, it gives us encouragement, and it is a very positive thing rather than a very negative thing. Let's start back now, beginning in verse one, and I'll turn to this other one and try to move back and forth between them, hopefully not confusingly at all.

   "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ." So here's Peter then saying we're all in the same boat. We've all been given the same calling by God, and we've been given that calling because of righteousness, the righteousness of God and of Jesus Christ. So then he simply says our calling is because it's good. Our calling is right. Our calling is to become like God is.

   In verse 2, "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you." Now, frankly, when I read this, I don't — the way I used to read it — I don't get any peace out of it. It doesn't give me any peace. It makes me feel nervous, you know, it makes me feel like there's some flames around somewhere. It makes me feel rather uneasy. He says "grace and peace." So the way we understand these verses should multiply peace. It should give us confidence. It should give us boldness to know that God is going to deal with us very fairly. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord."

   So what does God mean here? Whatever he means should produce peace. "According as His divine power is given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." So this should give us then encouragement to go on and to enjoy life and to prepare to become like God is. "Through the knowledge of Him that He has called us to glory and virtue." There's the destination. There's the goal. God has called us not to fail. God has not called us to be discouraged. God has not called us to give up. God has not called us and knowing ahead of time that there is no human way we can qualify. But he says he has called us to virtue, meaning this character that God has, and to glory, to become God.

   Now verse 4: "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises by these, you might be partakers of the divine nature." Now let's understand that a little bit better. First of all, you'll find that Peter emphasizes the fact that we have been given promises. Now that is an entire sermon to go through the kind of promises that the apostle Peter was talking about, but to narrow it down, to boil it down, he is talking about the promises that the apostle Paul frequently calls a mystery. A mystery that nobody understands except those whom God is calling. That mystery is further explained in Hebrews chapter 1 and chapter 2, in that we are to become not just a spirit being, but the promise is that we shall become the sons of the living God and live as sons and daughters with God in a kingdom of God forever.

   Now that's much more than angelic existence. It's going to be above the angels. It's going to be with God being God. Now those are the promises that he's talking about. "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these" — by these promises — "you might be partakers" — and even explain here what kind of promises he's talking about — "that you might be partakers of the divine nature."

   Now what is God's nature? Well, John said, wrap it all up in one word, he says God's nature is love. God is love. Now rather than spending a great deal of time on it because this is not what I want to emphasize this morning, when he says "by these, you ought to be the partakers of divine nature," he's simply talking about the fact that now we begin by putting into practice what we know. And by putting in practice what we know, we began to develop the characteristics of God.

   We might want to call it virtues of God. We might want to call it the graces of God. We might want to call it the character of God. Some translations call it the moral excellence of God. There are a lot of terms or a lot of words that can be used, and they all mean basically the same thing, but we must now in this life begin to develop this excellence, be shooting for it, and begin to, you know, to carve that kind of excellence, that kind of character out in our lives by getting rid of and paring away and carving away the areas that are not like God so that ultimately we can not only be somewhat like God in character, but we can become literally as God is by having a spirit body that has now been given to an attitude, a mind, and a character that is looking more and more like God looks.

   OK, "by these then you ought to be partakers now at this time and in the resurrection of divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." So God has now called us out of this world. God has forgiven our sins as we showed at the time of the Passover, and now as we begin to put sins out of our lives with the help of God's Holy Spirit by just crude experience, then we shall become as God is or take on divine nature.

   Now let's get into the nitty gritty, the stuff that doesn't fit the advertising. They find: "Besides this, Besides this, giving all diligence" — now he goes into showing how we qualify to take on divine nature — "Besides this, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity." And those are pretty tall orders. I don't know where you are at the totem pole of all these qualities. I think we all range in, you know, in different places. But hopefully we're all heading that direction.

   The thing that the apostle Peter emphasizes first of all — and that's usually the problem, and that's the problem that I pointed out when I first began the sermon — is that we fail to show the diligence that we need to show. Now you and I know that we need to develop these characteristics. We know that God requires them, but usually we don't put forth the effort to do our part.

   Let me read a few other translations here. The in verse 5, "Besides this getting all diligence, add to your faith virtue." What does this mean, "giving all diligence"? Let's put it in another words: "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith." It's a good translation. That's a Goodspeed translation, "making every effort." Another one is, "now for this very reason, you must do your level best to supplement your faith" — do as much as we humanly can do to develop these characteristics. Another one, "with all this in view, you should try your hardest to supplement your faith." Another one: "For this very reason, do your best to add to your faith."

   Now right there is usually the problem. It's not that we don't know that we should do it. It's not that we don't know what we should do. It's usually simply beginning to do it. And that's what Peter attacked first of all. He said, "besides this giving all diligence." Now that we understand that, what does he say do? "Add to your faith virtue." So it's a matter of growing or adding to. And I think we've gone through this process many times in sermons and sermons that God does not require that any one of us grow all at one time because that is impossible.

   Even Jesus Christ did not grow all at one time. The apostle Paul said that Jesus Christ learned by suffering. He learned or he grew by suffering. You'll find that the New Testament writers, particularly John, refers to the fact that Jesus Christ is a young boy and he speaks of Jesus as growing, growing in the grace of God, growing in the mind and the character of God continuously. As a young child, he didn't have the character of God as such, he was a small boy, but he had the spirit of God and that spirit kept him as a child going the right way along with proper discipline, along with proper education from his family. But the more months and years that Jesus lived, then he grew in the qualities of character. The only difference between him and us, basic difference is that Jesus never retrogressed. He never slid back. He never made mistakes. He never sinned. There's the problem we have, but he was continually growing.

   OK, "add to your faith virtue." Now let's first of all define faith. But sometimes I think we misdefine it and we set it up as too high a goal and it appears as though we can never reach it. What does faith mean? Now there are many, many degrees of faith, and sometimes we are shooting for the highest degree of faith and fail to realize God also honors the lower degrees of faith. Every one of us in this room has faith, or we wouldn't be here. But we all don't have the same degree of faith. Some may have the faith that God will heal them. Others may not have that faith, but do they have faith? Well, sure they have faith, because faith means a particular thing.

   Faith simply means belief. That's all the word means. You can’t get any other meaning out of it. Faith is a Greek word, P-I-S-T-I-S. And it means persuasion. You remember a man in the days of Jesus Christ who said, "I am almost persuaded to be a Christian. I almost believe that what you're teaching is right." That's all the word faith means. You'll find in Ephesians 4:4 it says there is one God, there is one baptism, there is one faith. Now if faith means working all kinds of miracles, well then, there would be more than one faith because there are different degrees of miracles and so forth. No, the word faith simply means belief. There is one baptism, there is one God, there is one belief. God's way is the same universally. There is one belief, there is one church, there is one body of belief.

   OK, the word faith, P-I-S-T-I-S in the Greek. It's translated 3 or 4 different ways. It means persuasion. It means, as you read in Hebrews 11:1, it means assurance. Or confidence or assurance knowing what's right. It could be translated conviction. Conviction or resolution. But I think the most fundamental way that it could be used or translated, it makes more sense to me, is the raw translation of the word: Belief.

   Now as soon as you began to hear the truth of God and began to study into it and you saw that it was right and you began to apply it, that is faith. That's belief. Now as you apply it and you grow in confidence that God is going to always do what he says, then you grow in faith. And finally you can finally grow in faith to where Jesus Christ says you can have faith beginning like a mustard seed until it grows into such a faith that you can move mountains. Now that's all faith. But you have to start somewhere. And the basic faith that we're talking about here is just plain old clear belief.

   Now that should be encouraging to you. It's encouraging to me because I realized, "Man, sometimes I don't have the faith, you know, to trust this or faith to trust in God for that or faith to do this or faith to do that. I don't know if I were faced with certain problems when I have the faith to trust God." Well, if I didn't, does that mean then that I have no faith? Absolutely not. Faith is your basic belief. What do you believe in? Do you believe God? Do you believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? Do you have belief that God's laws are real? That God is real?

   Read Hebrews 11:6 sometimes. In fact, I'll just read it to you right now since we're close to it. Hebrews 11 verse 6 is a very clear definition of what faith is. Of course, the approaches there from a little different angle. It says this is what faith is not: "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Then he says it in a positive way: "He that comes to God must believe that God is." Now that's the first element of faith. We must believe that God exists. Because if God does not exist, then obviously we cannot believe anything that God says or that is said about God. "He that comes to God must believe that God is and that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." Because if we do not believe that God is a rewarder, then we will not obey God. That's why faith and obedience go hand in hand.

   You must get all is based on diligence. "Beside this and giving all diligence add to your faith virtue." So I think we can better understand what faith is if we're just simply think of it from the standpoint of belief or persuasion. If you've been baptized, and you’ve gone that far, then you have faith. Why be baptized and not believe in God? Why ever be baptized and not believe that God — or fail to believe that God is a rewarder of those who serve Him. So being baptized is faith.

   Now how that faith has grown from that point is a different story altogether. Is it still a mustard seed? Is it still a very, very small minute little seed that has not developed or is it now a small plant? Or has that faith now grown into a bush? Or is your faith now developing into maybe a 2 or 3 foot high mustard plant? Hopefully by the time Jesus Christ comes we can begin to look like a mustard tree. Not just a seedling, not just a small bush, but more like a mustard tree, a larger bush. Maybe I shouldn't use the word tree. Maybe just larger bush.

   Ephesians 2:8 says that faith is a gift of God, that God gives freely. So we must realize then that it's not the kind of faith that you work up on your own. It must be a faith that comes as a result of obedience to God. In turn, God gives us a spirit, and that spirit, if we exercise that spirit, if we use God's Holy Spirit, if we ask Him for help from that spirit, then we begin to carve out and develop in our character the faith or the belief in God Himself and the absolute assurance in his promises. So faith we must realize is a gift. It is not something you can work up on your own.

   Now you can begin as a new convert to use some of your own faith. In fact, you'll find in Romans chapter one that Paul did say add faith to faith. Add one kind of faith to another kind of faith. Now let's not kid ourselves into believing that this world cannot have a certain degree of faith. Well, sure it can, before you ever knew God's way, did you not have a certain degree of trust or faith or belief in God? Most all of us did. But the kind of belief we had certainly would not have qualified us for the family of God.

   Now we may have believed that God was, you know, an old man. And he had long white hair, had a long white robe. Yes, we still believed in God, but we did not have a clear picture of God. Some people think of God is sort of a cosmic force or a universal good or a universal power. They picture God as being three people in some cases, some 2, some 1, some many. But mankind overall has a belief in God, or a faith in God, but not until we begin to realize who the true God is and what He is like, and we truly have the faith in the true God and began to receive from him a spirit which develops in us a mature faith.

   Let's go on from there. I basically wanted to show you though that faith does not have to be some great miracle working, mountain moving element at all. It starts small and it must grow. So I would think that all of us could say, yes, I have faith, but I've got to add to it.

   "Add to your faith" — and while that faith is growing, while it's developing — "add to your faith virtue." Now what in the world does the word virtue mean? Usually the word virtue is applied to young ladies. Proverbs 31 talks about the virtuous woman. We might talk to our little girls when they began to be older and remind them, "Now I want you to maintain your virtue." What do we need virtue? We don't even use that word anymore.

   The way Peter used it or the way it would have been translated — well, I shouldn't say we don't use the way Peter used it, but we don't use it the way 1611 James English use it. The word virtue, it's better translated as I'll show you here in this translation. They translated "moral character." Moral excellence or character. I think the best thing to do, just say character. Now what is character? Some people say, "Boy, you're a character." And usually the guy they talk to saying "you're a character" who doesn't have much character. So you know what, what do we mean by character? God says "add your faith character."

   Well, there are basically 3 or 4 different things here that we maybe we need to explain or understand a little clearer and I think I believe Mr. Siva explained this one day, but just to remind us all. You have basic knowledge. Then you have understanding. Then you have, we could say sometimes wisdom. And I think another element there would be character.

   Now what are the differences between these things? Well knowledge is just a collection of facts. Basic of what is right and wrong. Just say the things of knowing what's this way and what's that way, what's right and what's wrong. OK. Then you have understanding. Understanding is the ability to comprehend the meaning of those facts, to put them together and to get a clear picture. Put one scripture here and another scripture there and put them all together and you come up with a clear understanding of what God is talking about. That's understanding. Now we get into the wisdom. And wisdom is the proper application of understanding. It's the use of understanding because you can have knowledge and then put all these facts or knowledge together and come up with understanding on the subject, but still not know how to apply it in your life. Wisdom gives you that element to apply it in your life.

   Putting all these together by using your knowledge, by using your understanding of knowledge, by applying a wise decision and using the knowledge, we come up with what we call character. Character is choosing right over wrong. It is a resolution to stick with what is right, even though we face adversity. Character it is a quality of doing right. We could say righteousness. We could say godliness. There are many things we can do, but character is the ability, the power, the strength within us to see what is right, to stick with it, to be right, to be righteous. Now that simply takes time. We have to exercise our faith and if we exercise our faith and belief in God, then we begin to develop character by choosing right over wrong.

   Let's carry on here (II Peter 1:5-8). "Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue;" — I hope you understand translate that to character for clear understanding, “add to your faith virtue — and to virtue knowledge." Now, when Peter was talking about knowledge, I don't think he's talking about dates and times and nations and names of kings. He's talking about knowledge of what is right. You'll find them say, explain another, use another expression down here in verse 8. He says "you shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Knowing how Christ lives and how he would live today if he were on this earth, knowledge is what's right. That's the kind of knowledge that Peter is talking about.

   "Add your faith in virtue" or character and then add to your character, or your resolution to do what is right, add to that knowledge. I think this is an area we quite often fall down in and when we fall down in gaining knowledge, we can very easily become discouraged and we don't read the Bible. We don't remind ourselves of what God says in that Bible, then we can very easily look at the present and that which is around us and become very distraught and feel like giving up. That's why Bible reading, brethren, is so very, very important.

   That's why the book of Romans points out that we grow in faith by the word of God. Like a lot of these pictures, all these things kind of all go together. It's very difficult to separate them, you know, and divide them up and so forth, but I don't have time to go back and read a lot of those scriptures in Romans, but you'll find that faith is developed by reading the word of God. In short. Now how does reading the word of God develop faith? Faith is the knowledge of who God is and what God does. Do you know of anything else that you can read that tells you what God does, how God is, how God acts, how God thinks and how God wants you and me to be? There are no other books outside of the Bible. That's why Bible reading is so vitally important. There and only there do we find out how God is and how God wants us to be.

   Therefore, when you don't read the Bible, when I don't read the Bible like I should, then it's easy to begin to look around. Look at the present, look at the problems. Look at the other things that might be happening in our lives and become very discouraged because we don't have the faith we should have. And that faith is developed by reading your Bible along with, as I said earlier, asking God for that gift and receiving that particular gift.

   Let me add two scriptures here that I think are very important on this thing of knowledge. Going back here to James. Go back to the book of James and let's read one thing. James 2 and verse 14. I'm going the wrong way. James 2:14: "What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say that he has faith" — I'm gonna back up here just a little bit because all these kind of run together faith and knowledge and character, it's pretty hard to separate them. They all are all facets of the same thing — "Though a man say that he has faith and have not works, can faith save him?"

   OK, here's a very important principle to show us then that faith by itself is not enough to qualify for God's family because again, what is faith? Faith is belief. Faith is persuasion, but being persuaded or believing what is right cannot qualify us for God's family. We must have the guts, we must have the fortitude, or we must have the virtue or the character to apply what we know is right. So that's why James says without faith or faith without works is dead in verse 17.

   Then he makes another interesting statement up in verse 19: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. The devils or the demons also believe." What do they believe? They believe there is God. And the devils not only believe with all their hearts that there is God because they can see him and you and I can't, but they know that God is going to thwart them. And they know that down deep inside. That's why it says the devil believe and tremble. We don't even do. We don't even tremble of God and the Bible says that demons tremble of God. They're scared out of their skin so to speak of God. That's why as Ken Anderson was saying, whenever we are close to God, you know, a devil or a demon or that spirit of Satan, the devil flees from us, it’s frightened to death of God. They know the power of God. They know the authority of God, and they fear the vengeance of Almighty God. They fear that. They know their days are numbered.

   That's one thing that some of us in this church of God do not do. We don't tremble at God, but as Isaiah 66 says, God says, "To this man will I look for the man who fears me and trembles at my word." He's willing to read the Bible and get a little bit scared of what he reads there. Realize that God is a God of vengeance. God is a great God of power. God never varies, he said, "I am not a God of variance because I change not. I'm the same yesterday, today and forever." And whatever God has done in the past, he will always do in the future. And the way God deals with humanity, he will continue to deal with humanity.

   So we need to, you know, read the Bible and remember what God says to the prophets and remember that we are to read the Bible and believe it an tremble at what God says. That is tremble if we're doing wrong, if we're doing right, can be deeply grateful. The demons also believe and trembled. "But well you know, vain man, that faith without works is dead." And in verse 26 he says "faith without works is dead also."

   So I point these scriptures out to remind us that faith by itself is not enough. Belief or being persuaded to think this is the right way, being convinced that this is the way of God is not enough. Yeah, people who search for years on end. And yet never begin to practice what they know is right. Can that belief or that faith save them? No, not at all. We must be a doer of the law. Not just have faith.

   OK, I banked up a little bit here. I hope it's not too confusing to you, but I did leave that little section out and I did want to go back to it. So I might just go over that quickly. Faith simply means belief or persuasion or conviction. That faith is a faith in God's existence and the fact that God will always do what he says he will do. Now to find out what God says he will do, we got to read the Bible. Faith is a gift of God. It comes as a result of submission. It comes as a result of receiving the gift of God's Holy Spirit. But yet that faith by itself is not enough to qualify us for the family of God. Just that belief of being a part of that believing body is not enough. We got to add to that works, doing something.

   Now that's what we go on here it says "add to your faith virtue." Virtue is character that means doing what is right. Choosing right over wrong, in the right way and the wrong way and getting down and asking God, "Give me God the strength to go the right way." Now that's good. And there will be times when your character is better than at other times. There will be times when you will fall backwards. The book of Proverbs says so, but it says get up and repent and keep on going. So we'll fall back, we'll go forward, we'll sidestep, you know, we make our mistakes, but the righteous man is going to keep on going on, he's going to keep on going forward.

   OK, "add to your faith virtue, character" or choosing the right way and then add to your choosing the right way, proper knowledge so that you can go the right way and that knowledge is contained in God's word. So back to Peter in II Peter chapter 1. In verse 6 (II Peter 1:6), it says "add to your knowledge temperance, add to your knowledge temperance." Now what does temperance mean? Does it mean patients? What does it mean? Hard-hearted, you know, if you, what, what if you harden something or you temper a piece of metal?

   Now you can go down to the store and you can buy the Craftsman tempered tools or you can buy the imported Japanese untempered tools, you know, and one of them — I've had them both, and you take the Craftsman which is unconditionally guaranteed and you grab and you sink it down on a bolt or a nut, and you can put a lot of pressure on that thing and it's strong. It won't bend or break. I've got another pair made in Japan. I have nothing against Japanese, except that I haven't found anything good yet, but you take this one pair of vice grips. And I don't know how many times I've used them and I finally, I think I just tucked them in the tray. I'd push that thing down on the nut or a bolt that I wanted to hold if I wanted to put some pressure on it, little teeth would just, they wouldn't bend this way, they'd bend this way. They go in all different directions because it was an untempered tool.

   Now when we say a tool is tempered, we say that you know that it is hardened or it's strengthened. We strengthen it by changing the molecular structure, by tempering that piece of metal. OK, when God says we are to add to our knowledge, temperance, what does he mean? What does temperance mean? Temperance in your dictionary, temperance in the Greek means strength. That's all it means, it's strength. Add to your knowledge strength. Don't be wishy-washy about things. Don't just let things push you around floating here and there like a ship bobbing on the ocean.

   Now let's narrow it down really because strength is a little broad. And all these things we're talking about is strength, but the word temperance in the Greek does mean strength. What the word means. Now what kind of strengths are we referring to now? Well, you take your Bible and look up the word temperance, you'll find that it is used in specific ways. The way the apostle Peter here is using it is in reference to the main facet of strength. And that is self-strength or self-control. Now why would he call self-control strength? What's strong about being in control of yourself? Well, everything. Everything.

   Demon possession comes as a result of losing control of yourself, you have no control, you have no guard. You have nothing to protect you. Let me show you just as an example why temperance is so important. Why it is a basic strength of Christian character. I would like to take out these 2, one of them is back here and Proverbs 16:32. Proverbs 16 verse 32. Notice without self-restraint or without self-control is a good way to translate it. Notice what happens. In Proverbs 16:32, "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty." Well that's strength. Says he is better than the mighty. The mighty referring to a fellow who may be physically strong, has a lot of muscles and a lot of brawn, but has no head on his shoulder. He said "he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty" 'because if you're slow to anger, you'll think, run. You know, run. Don't stand around and try to beat up somebody twice your size, run. Now they can call you chicken, but you're alive, you’re a live chicken. You're not a dead one.

   And so the Bible says if slow to anger, you know, you don't want to say, "Put them up, fella. I'll meet you out behind the barn, you know, out in an alley." Just take off, call the police, run. "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty." Because he's alive. He's not beat up, he's not in the hospital. He hasn't made some serious mistakes. "He that rules his spirit" — temperance or self-control or self-restraint — "He that rules his spirit is better than he that takes a city" or the mighty, and I'll come back to one other one. These are just examples. Now you can use a lot of scriptures in the Bible to back up the meaning of the word temperance, but here are 2 or 3.

   Proverbs 14:29. 14:29. "He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalts folly." He flies off the handle as you do and as I do, exalts folly. And you know the times when you've gotten all upset and kicked something. Then what do you gotta do. Then you gotta fix the thing, you know you didn't solve the problem, now you got a new one.

   I’ll never forget when, I was a teenager, I had a Vespa. How many of you know what a Vespa is? A little Italian scooter. So real cute little old direct drive scooter, just really a nice little scooter. I was always tinkering around with the thing and painting it, you know, and repacking this and fixing that and cleaning out the carburetor. The only problem when I go around cleaning out the carburetor and things is it would never start. So what do you do? Wap, kick the thing. Now what do you have? Now you got a dent in the side. Now you got to take a ball, you know, a hammer, and you gotta knock it out, then you gotta sand it down, then you got to fill it in with body putty, then you gotta sand it down some more and then you got to spray it and the spray doesn't match, you know. Now you got a problem. Why? Because you exerted folly.

   I think we all or most all of us have somewhat of a problem with that. And God says that we are to exercise, add to our knowledge, and to our virtue, add to our faith in God, self-restraint or temperance and that can apply. You can just carry it right on through, you know, the way we act, the way we treat one another, the way we eat, you know, the way we do everything. Temperance, self-control. Because if we cannot control ourselves, then can God trust us to be in control of a part of the universe? Obviously not. You know, he just can't do it. He doesn't know how we're going to react. He doesn't know what we're going to do if God gives us power. What if we kick something? Being God, you know, God can't, he just can't take that chance. So we've got to develop enough character where we really mean it. We're really trying, we're really working against that which is wrong. Now you'll never be perfect, at least I won't, and I don't think any of you will, in this life, but we are to strive towards perfection the Bible says. God says that. He says "become you perfect." Work at it, have that as the goal. The intention. That's the light at the end of the tunnel.

   Now you and I may never reach that light in this lifetime, but we shall in the resurrection. But in the meantime, we got to please God by doing something that we really mean. And if we're not doing something with the opportunity that God gives us, then there's no way we can be a part of the family of God. There's no way.

   OK, temperance then means strength, if you want to just get a raw translation of it, but it means self-control or self-restraint is the best way we could use it. Now let me, let me ask you this. We talked about kicking things, you know, and about yelling out about saying things we shouldn't. Is anger wrong? Is anger wrong? You know, God developed something in us. We have something that was put in us the time we were born, before we were born, you might say it's a part of us. And that is wrath, anger. The ability to absolutely blow up. Is that a wrong thing to have? Well, obviously not.

   How would you like to be around someone in your life — things are going right, things are going wrong, evil's happening, good's happening, and this guy just smiles all the time. "Wonderful, you know, just great, you know, praise the Lord." He's just going right down the tube. Have you ever been around people like that? I have. And I can't stand to be around someone who just thinks everything's merry and wonderful and good, you know, and right's happening and wrong's happening and nobody's trying to correct the situation.

   Anger is good. God is also a God of what? Vengeance. Now man, that's the, that's the greatest anger you could ever get is the vengeance of God. God is a God of vengeance. Jesus Christ expressed absolute anger when he walked into his Father's temple and found that it had become a location for money changers and dove sellers, you know, and money makers. He became extremely angry. You'll find the apostle Paul became very angry with the sins in Corinth. Is anger wrong? Without anger you'll never correct wrong. So anger is something very good. Becoming just filled up with something and now you want to rectify what is wrong.

   The Bible says that the righteous should be angry with sin. Jesus talked about anger or a righteous indignation. So anger is right if we point anger against sin or against what is wrong. Then it's the right use of anger. In God's family, you will always have the ability to become angry. But God has to know now that we will use it properly. We will not use it to try to destroy somebody else. We will not use it trying to get our own way. We should not use it to throw our own temper tantrums and get our own way. That's the wrong use of it. But the right use is rectifying that which is wrong. And that's a very interesting subject of itself and the book of Ephesians has interesting things to say about it. You might want to study the subject sometime.

   Mr. Armstrong has said that it is not the thing that is wrong. It's the wrong use of anything that is wrong. Anger is good. But the wrong use of anger is incorrect. It's moral decadence. It's character decadence if we misuse it. So the right use of it is good and if you want to find examples of the right use of it, you could study David's life. He made mistakes and he also used it correctly. He studied Jesus' life. You can find how God dealt with sin in the Old Testament, how God looked down upon sin, how he will do in the book of Revelation. And see how anger is properly used. Now the only problem is being like that.

   Let's go on here. "Add to knowledge, temperance and to temperance patience." Now the word patience, we usually think of patience as being able to put up with someone driving in front of you or someone driving 35 on a freeway. Yes, that would be patience. Most of us cannot do that. What does God mean when Peter says patience? Actually, the word patience here is a much broader term. It means a lot more than putting up with a little kid with dirty diapers who won't go to sleep or take his bottle. Patience includes that, yes, but the patience that Peter is talking about means something much broader, much deeper with intrinsic values, something that's going to last forever.

   The word actually should be properly translated endurance. Some translations just simply say patient endurance. Now truly that's what patience is, is endurance, and I think the word endurance is a lot better choice of words though. Now you'll find at least 2 places in the New Testament where God says that he who endures unto the end shall be saved. Endure wrong. Endure conflict. Endure frustrating things even within the church of God. Endure things that you may not understand, but enduring them because you know that God exists. And that God is the head of the church and that God lives and God's laws are forever sure. So you endure that which you don't understand. You endure that which you know is wrong. And you endure evil against you. Now that puts a little more meaning in the word patience.

   He who endureth unto the end. And brethren, before this is all over, many of God's people have already begun to express their feelings and have said, "You know, I now have begun to realize what God meant when he said, endure unto the end." Because they're beginning to see things happening not only in the world but with their brethren in the church. Now they're beginning to see what Christ meant when he says, "Look, your enemies shall be those of your own household. Son against father, daughter against mother. Your enemies shall be those of your own household," literally and in the church, spiritually speaking. Because we have come to a time when love is waxing cold, there's no doubt about it, and people are satisfying themselves and turning on one another. And there's going to come a time, a good chance of it in your life, in this church, when a brother will turn against you if you stick with the truth. And God says "he that endureth unto the end shall be saved."

   "Give all diligence and add unto your temperance, patience or endurance, and to patience or endurance godliness." The word godliness — I don't know of another word that would be more fitting. I might just check it in here. I think I did read it, but I don't recall what it said. It simply means being like God or beginning to pattern the way God does things and try to pattern our lives after the way Jesus walked. "To patience, godliness," they translate the word godliness, "piety or devotion to God." In other words, paying attention to the way God does things, reading the Bible and paying attention to the way Jesus walked, the way Jesus reacted, the way he answered his parents, the way he talked to his brothers, the way he talked to those who were evil against him, the way he talked to religious leaders who hated him. The way he talked to Pilate. The way he talked to unjust judges. The way he talked to unscrupulous scribes. See how he did it. And we began to do the same thing. That's godliness. See, that's being more like God is.

   You'll find that all these terms begin to intertwine. They began to dovetail together. They begin to take on the same meanings to some extent. "And to godliness, brotherly kindness." And I do have a couple of scriptures I'd like to give you here on brotherly kindness because this is an extremely important area. We may say, "Well, I've got faith. I'm developing patience or endurance. I'm putting up with my mate. You know, I'm putting up with so-and-so in the church. I'm developing real endurance. I'm putting up with the sermon, I'm developing endurance, so I've got that, and I'm developing virtue because I did the other day, choose the right way to go and I stuck with it. I'm developing character." But now when it comes down to brotherly love, "Well, you know that's kind of a wishy-washy nicey-nice thing that doesn't seem to carry any real importance or weight to it." How much weight does God lend to brotherly kindness? How important is it?

   In verse 9, he says, "He that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off and forgot that he was forgiven." I want you to notice what John says about brotherly kindness and how very important it is. There are only two different verses or segments of verses that I want to read to you. The entire book of I John deals with brotherly kindness. The entire thing, and it is a book that should be read frequently.

   In I John 2 in verse 9, notice how important brotherly kindness is. I John 2:9, "He that says he is in the light and hates his brother is in darkness even until now." That means he's just as good as unconverted. Being in the church and not loving your brother is the same as being out of the church is what John says. "He that loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him, but he that hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and knows not whither he goes because that darkness has blinded" — same word Peter used — "blinded his eyes."

   Now go to chapter 4. Chapter 4, verse 11 (I John 4:11). You might say, "Well, I don't love, I mean, I don't hate, I don't hate my brother. I just don't like him. I mean, I don't feel like killing him, you know, I don't feel like turning on him. I don't absolutely abhor or hate him, but I just don't like to be around him. Can't stand his personality. Don't want anything to do with him."

   I John chapter 4, verse 11: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in God." Now you want to know whether or not you're converted. You want to know whether or not you're in the church of God. You want to know whether or not you're heading to the family of God. "We know that we dwell in God." We're a part of God. We're promised the same thing God has. "And he in us, because he has given us of His Spirit and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the savior of the world."

   Now let's keep on going, notice this. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in him, and he in Him." Now you may have done that when you were baptized. Now what about sins? "And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in Him." Now how do you know that you dwell in that love? "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love cast out fear."

   In verse 19, "We love him because he first loved us." I know this verse 20, "If a man says I love God," — I'm in God, God loves me, God's spirit is in me — "If a man says I love God and hates his brother" — might sometimes look up the word hate and understand how God uses that word. God says that we are to hate our mother and hate our father. Check it sometime in Luke 14:26-27. We are to love God more than — is a real translation. Hate God uses in a much lighter sense in the way we use it. And so when God says that we are not to hate our brethren, he doesn't mean to abhor and hate and desire to take their lives. He just simply means we don't care anything for them. That's how he uses the word. It's a lighthearted approach. A don't-care approach is what the word hate means.

   "If a man say I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. He that loves not his brother" — notice the other side of it — "He that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we from him that he who loves God loves his brother also." There's no way to get around that one. You know you can say "Well I don't hate him, you know, or I don't love him as much, or I, you know, I don't hate him but I just don't like him." John said, if we love God, we will automatically love the brothers. It's that simple. And there's no way to squirm under that one. There is no excuse.

   "Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," chapter 5 verse 1, "and everyone that loves him that begat" — referring to God, we say we love God — "begat loves him also that is begotten of God." Really hard squirm passed those and it should make us all think very seriously as to whether or not we truly have brotherly kindness. So we see then that brotherly kindness can be a very determining factor in our spiritual lives, and if we don't like the brethren, if we don't like to be around them, we just don't love them, we love the world more than God's church, then God says, how can we say that we love him. In fact, God not only says you can't say that you love him. He says you're a liar. Very important element of spiritual growth.

   II Peter, let's go on very quickly and wrap it up. "To godliness, brotherly kindness, and then to brotherly kindness, charity." The word charity simply means love. And you'll find if you want to study I Corinthians 13, I don't have time to go through that at this time, you'll find the last verse, verse 13, says that there are 3 elements that are extremely important in your life, and my life. They are faith, the belief that God is, and that God rewards those who serve him. Number 2, they are hope, hope in the promises of God and of being a member of God's family. But he said something that is greater, that is more far reaching, and something that will last for all eternity when these other two have been fulfilled.

   When we become like God is, then we won't have to worry about does God exist. Once we become a member of God's family, we won't have to take hope any longer in being in the resurrection. We'll be there, but there will never be a time. There will never be a time when the love that you and I have to develop now toward God will ever become obsolete. We'll have to always remember to love God for what He has done for us now. And that explanation of that kind of love is explained in I Corinthians 13. When he talks about that kind of love, one to another, and I don't have time to read that at this time, but read it sometime in the Moffatt or in another translation. And you'll find the kind of love there is very, very difficult to fulfill, and the only way it can be fulfilled is by having God's spirit in us.

   Or as Romans 5:5 says, it says "the love of God" — the agape — "The very way God is, God is love. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts," not by working it up, not by reading books, but it is "shed abroad in our hearts by His Holy Spirit." And God gives his spirit to those who ask Him. He gives his spirit to those who obey Him. He gives his spirit to those who repent and are baptized and receive that gift.

   So I think we could say in conclusion that the word charity kind of sums everything up. I think Mr. Seeley gave a sermon on this one time, didn't you, Mr. Seeley? On charity and showing how charity is sort of the cement. It's sort of like the glue that sticks all of this together, it puts it all in proper perspective. Without that love or that charity of God, it's impossible to develop these other characteristics. We've got to first of all love God and appreciate God and know that he exists and then get down on our knees and ask God for the spirit that makes possible these other very, very important facets of Christian living.

   I hope brethren, that this helps explain to you that these elements of faith and virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness, brotherly kindness and charity truly can be developed and are being developed in you. It's not something that is far reaching and way off out in the future and impossible to reach. It is not an impossibility that God has laid before us. Right now you're developing these characteristics now, maybe not as fully as you should. That's why we're exhorted down here in conclusion in verse 8, "If these things be in you." I think all of us can say that we have some of all of these in us. I don't think there's anyone here that would say, "Look, I don't have any brotherly kindness or I don't have any self-control, or I don't have any endurance, or I have no knowledge or I have no belief." I think we all have some of all of these, don't we? We should. Being a member of the church, we should.

   Well now what about this next verse? "If these things be in you and abound." How many of you feel that these things abound in you? You don't have to raise your hand because I don't. If you, if you read the word abound, the way I read the word abound, what does the word abound mean? Does it mean filled full to the brim? No, it doesn't mean that. Other translations clarify it, and I think this is to me one of the most encouraging things. "If these things be in you and abound," notice what the Moffatt says: "As these qualities exist" — and they do exist in you to one degree or another — "As these qualities exist and" — what does the word abound mean — "increase." They are growing. They are increasing, not already full, not already like God is, not already like Christ is, but shooting for that, increasing.

   "If these qualities exist and increase in you," and another translation says, "for when these virtues are yours in increasing measure." What is another way to say increasing measure? Growth, isn't it? Growth. So I think the words like "add to," we read that here several times, "giving all diligence add to your faith virtue, add to your virtue knowledge, add to this something else," it's talking about growing. We already have the basic stuff to work with. We all have the knowledge, we all have the belief, we all have some semblance of character qualities in us. Now it's a matter of growing. And that's what we're exhorted to do time and time again in the Bible.

   Philippians 2:12 says, "Work out your salvation." Work at it, get in there and dig around it and dung it and make it grow. Philippians, I mean John 15 verse 1, 2, 3, 4 says the same thing that we grow only as a result of being dug about. And working at the soil and being connected to Jesus Christ and allowing the sap of God's Holy Spirit, so to speak, feed us, then we grow, then and only then do we grow. That's why Peter concluded his writing in II Peter 3 and verse 18. II Peter 3:18, 17 and 18, he says, "Look," in fact, I'll just read it, read it to you. He says in verse 17 he says, "Look, seeing you know these things before, we already know these things. Beware lest you also being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness." He says don't go back, don't fall back, don't get discouraged, but realize that you are growing, hopefully. If you are not growing, then you've got to begin to grow. You've got to begin to do something consciously.

   "But grow in grace." Now grace, the word grace is a very, very broad term. The word grace embodies the feeling that you and I have as a result of what God has done for us. It's what grace is. It's a deep sense of joy. It's a deep sense of gratitude of being forgiven of our past sins and being thankful to God that God has done it. Now we're willing to put our shoulder to the plow and we're willing to do something. That's what grace is. "Grow in grace," in that gratitude toward God and the character qualities that God then will develop in us as a result of seeing that gratitude. "Grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

   Remember the case in Matthew 25, the case of the men who were given talents. And there was one guy, he said he took his talent, he wrapped it neatly in a napkin, and he dug a hole and hid it and covered it up. Jesus said, yes, he'd given him a talent, he had given him his Holy Spirit, He had given him an opportunity to qualify for the kingdom of God, but the fellow did nothing. He showed no diligence to grow. He put forth no effort. Jesus said, "That wicked servant, that wicked servant, take from him what he has and give it to the one who increased the greatest."

   So I think we can see very clearly by this that even though God calls us and he calls us into the church of God and makes us a part of it, that unless we do something with what we have to do with, unless we exercise our faith, faith mixed with works, we can in no wise qualify for the family of God.

   Now to me it's very encouraging now when I read II Peter. And I read back here where God says, "Look, if these things be in you and abound," I understand now a little bit more about what he's talking about because they are in us to varying degrees. Now what are we gonna do with them? Are we going to let them grow? Are we going to ask God for the strength and then put forth a human effort that we need to do? Diligence he calls it to grow or not. If we do, then he says "you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

   In verse 10, "Wherefore the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." And here's an absolute law right here. "If you do these things" — keep on growing — "if you do these things," not worry about somebody else's problems, you know, or worry about doctrine or worry about so-and-so or wondering, you know, "Where is the church going?" or "What's happening here?" He says "if you do these things, get your own life straightened out and do these things." Peter says, an absolute promise: "You shall never fall."

   And when he says fall, he doesn't mean mistake. Because the book of Proverbs says a just man falls 7 times and gets up every time. He is not talking about that kind of fall. He is talking about a fall away from the grace of God. "If you do these things, you shall never fall." I think that deserves a lot more reading, doesn't it? It deserves a lot more attention in our lives.

   I hope, brethren, that helps you to understand a little bit more that God does not expect you to be a he-man. He does not expect you to be a spiritual Goliath of some type. He realizes that you are weak. You and I are small. But God has given us the stuff. He's given us the opportunity. He's laid everything out before us. We all are growing to one extent or the other, hopefully. But the promise of abounding and being fruitful and never being barren is promised only to those who continue the process of regular daily consistent growth.