Hello and welcome to another broadcast. We're talking of men that had understanding of the times to know what they ought to do. We're living in perilous times. We need to know what to do. Well, in our previous broadcast, we kind of got back into 2 Peter and really feel like we need to look at that again. We've looked at it before, but if we're going to make it in this age in which we're living, in this age of apostasy, there's a tremendous little outline here for us. It says here in 2 Peter 5, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge. And to your knowledge, temperance, and to your temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. In our last broadcast, we're looking at the first one that's listed here. It's talking about faith. And particularly, he says, add to your faith, your faith. Now, it says back in 2 Corinthians 13 and 5, we are to examine ourselves whether we be in the faith. And as we explained on the last broadcast, this is not talking about whether or not you're saved. We read at the beginning of the book of 2 Corinthians and 1 Corinthians also, for that matter, it's written to the saints. In fact, the word brethren is found 28 times in 1 Corinthians and 8 times again in 2 Corinthians. He's talking to people who are saved. So he's not saying examine yourselves whether you're saved or not. He is saying to these saved people, to these Christians, examine yourselves to see if you're in the faith. There's all kinds of faith mentioned in the Bible. There's unsound doctrine, and there's sound doctrine, and there's false prophets, and there's real prophets, and faith is simply what we believe. Now, two basic areas that have really been sold down the tube in our recent days is the doctrine or the faith that has to do with the plan of salvation. We've dumped that in recent days, that you don't need to repent. Well, what we're saying is that Jesus didn't know what he's talking about. Jesus said, except you repent. He shall all likewise perish. Paul said God now commands all men everywhere to repent. You got to wonder what part of that's too hard to understand. Now, he says, are you in the faith? What do you really believe about this? There are a vast number today of people who call themselves fundamental independent Baptists who don't believe you have to repent in order to get saved because Jack Hiles and Curtis Hudson said it, so it must be true. No, it's not true. It's a false doctrine. And so examine yourself whether you're in the faith. Then the next subject that we've sold lately is the subject of separation. That's gone. I mean, it wasn't too many years ago. That was the foundation for what we called fundamentalism. But not anymore. So when he's talking here about examining yourself, whether you're in the faith or not, take a good look. He says, check it out, see if you're really in the faith. Now, the phrase, the faith, is in the Bible 42 times, and your faith is in the Bible 24 times. So the faith is one thing, but what about your faith? Matthew 9 and 24 says, according to your faith, be it unto you. That's exactly the way it's going to be. According to what you believe, that's your faith, then be it unto you. Romans 8 and 1, Paul said, your faith is spoken of. And so whatever we believe, people are talking about that, believe it or not. They're talking about you and what you really believe. 1 Corinthians 2 and 5 says, your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man. 2 Corinthians 1 and 24 says that Paul says, I have no dominion over your faith, but a simply helper of your joy, for by faith you stand. Well, that's true. I mean, a father and a mother, parents, may be very concerned about their family following the Lord, You have no dominion over their faith. You can only preach the truth and love them and direct them. I have no dominion over your faith, but we're helpers to your joy, for by faith, or your faith, you stand. And so we can only lead you. Same with pastors. You can't make the people believe anything. It says you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. Well, we've got to be faithful about just putting the word out there and teaching people what the Bible says about the faith and your faith. And he says, so for by faith you stand. Well, he also said in 2 Peter 3, 17, beware lest ye being led away with the error of the wicked fall from your own steadfastness. And so when we talk about this subject of faith, about what you believe, He said here in 2 Peter 1 and 10, if you do these things, these things, you shall never fall. And so we don't want to fall, so let's figure out what those things are. And so we're back looking at them. We've looked at them before, but we want to go in a little more depth on these things in the hopes that they might be of help to some people who really do want to stand in this age in which we're living. We're living in perilous times, and we do not want to fall. Now, particularly falling for the apostasy that Peter talks about here in 2 Peter 2 and on through this book. Now, what he says, to your faith, Once we've got it figured out, whether your faith, what you believe, lines up with what the Bible teaches, then he said, add to your faith virtue. Now, I think it's very interesting that the first thing listed here in this list is virtue. What is virtue? Well, basically, it's God's standard of behavior, and our standards are the principles of conduct by which we live. Now, our faith, what we believe, is the foundation of how we behave. It's just that simple. So doctrine is what we believe, And that determines our behavior. And so it's first on the list. You would have thought, well, doctrine would be pretty important. Put that on the list, number one, or knowledge, or love, or kindness, or patience, or some of these other things. No, number one on the list here is virtue. Well, why? Well, what good is all the doctrine in the world if you have no virtue? If you have all the knowledge and you have no virtue, God's standard of behavior, your behavior, You know, we read in Colossians 1 and 4, we heard of your faith and the love which ye have for all saints. We heard of your faith, that's what they believed, and their behavior, the love which they had for all saints. And once again, what they believed was the foundation for how they behaved. Now, virtue is first mentioned in the Bible in Ruth chapter 3 and verse number 11, where Boaz said to Ruth, All the city knoweth that thou art a virtuous woman. Isn't that interesting? All the city doth know that thou art a virtuous woman. And ladies, the people that know you are talking about you. They know whether you're virtuous or whether you're not. So this is why virtue is so important because of the influence it has, in this case, on all the city. The second mention we have of virtue in the Old Testament is in Proverbs chapter 12 and verse number 4, where it says a virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. The third mention we have is Proverbs chapter 31, where that chapter is the chapter that talks about the virtuous woman. So interestingly enough, as we look at all of these in the Old Testament, the focus is on women. But when you get into the New Testament, We have a verse there in Philippians 4, 8 where it lists a lot of things on what we should think about. And he says, finally, brethren, he's focusing on the men now, if there be any virtue and it be any praise, think on these things. And there you have the list. And in the middle of it, virtue. Now, the devil does not care about what we believe. He doesn't care about our faith or our knowledge or our patience. if we have no virtue, because that's where we're going to be judged by how we behave. So you can rest assured that that is where the devil is going to attack. That's where he attacks the young people. In fact, that's where he attacks us all. If he can destroy us in this area of virtue, then our testimony is shot. And so Satan knows the power of a godly virtue because of the influence that it has on other people. So Satan attacks in that area of virtue. Look at Samson. Samson, he had faith. He even made it in Hebrews chapter 11, the great faith chapter. He's got his name there, but did he have any virtue? No, he was an immoral, unprincipled, disgusting child of the king. He rejected his parents, he rejected God's plan, he rejected God's purpose, he rejected the potential and the power of God that he had, and he died Just giving his life in revenge. He says because they punched out his eyes. What was his problem? He had some faith. Apparently it says so in Hebrews chapter 11, but he didn't add Virtue and then there was Solomon. He was very wise. He had a lot of knowledge. He Had a problem though. He didn't add the virtue we read in first Kings chapter 11 verse number one But King Solomon loved many strange women and they turned his heart read first Kings And so, by his own testimony, we read, he said, ìHow dieth a wise man as a fool?î Well, in conclusion, we need to understand that thereís two basic types of virtue. One is private, and one is public. We look at the life of Joseph, and you can see that he had virtue when he thought nobody else was going to find out anything that he did wrong. He just refused to do wrong, whether he was alone, whether he went to prison for it or not. In private, he had virtue. Well, we can determine whether we have virtue or not by how we behave when we're all by ourselves, when no one else is around. And then there's public virtue. Sometimes that's more difficult than private virtue because of the pressure from our peers. The young people, they might have virtue when they're alone, but boy, when their peers are around, they might be led into doing some things that they wouldn't normally do. or even want to do, but there's that pressure of the public watching them. Same thing is true with pastors, exactly the same thing is true. In this age in which we're living, it sometimes can be very difficult to stay to the truth of the Word of God because we might lose some friends who are our friends in the ministry. And so there's a private virtue and there's a public virtue, but whatever it says to your faith, And so we've been talking about men that had understanding of the times to know what to do. Well, Peter said, if you do these things, you shall never fall. First on the list was your faith. What do you really believe? Second, your virtue. Add to your faith your faith. Virtue. It's simply your choice. It's your faith and virtue is your choice. Next time we're going to look at the subject of knowledge. He says, and add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge.