Hello and welcome to our broadcast. We're talking about having understanding of the times to know what we ought to do. Stay tuned for our program. We read in 1 Chronicles 12, verse number 32, of men of understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Today we're living in perilous times and we need men, first of all. Secondly, of understanding, understanding what? The times in which we are living to know what our families ought to do and what we ought to do in the churches, and the emphasis here is to do what we ought to do. Now we've been looking at 2 Peter, and in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 10, Peter said, if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. If That's a big word. If ye do, do, that's action, do these things, you shall never fall. Well, in 2 Peter 2, in verse number one, he tells us what we're gonna fall for. He says there's false prophets, there's false teachers, and they are among you, among you. Now, of course, he's writing to people in a local church. That's the only kind of church the Bible recognizes. There's no such thing as our so-called universal church. He said there's going to be false prophets, there's going to be false teachers, they're going to be among you, and they're going to bring in damnable heresies. Now we're looking at doing these things so that we won't fall for any of that, and the first thing we looked at was Faith. It says, to your faith, your faith, you need to add virtue, and to your virtue, you need to add knowledge. Verse number five. Now, faith. We said the phrase, the faith, is in the Bible 42 times. And the word your faith is in the Bible 24 times. And in 2 Corinthians 13, 5, it says, examine yourselves whether you're in the faith, the faith and your faith. Now, to examine is to inspect in detail to determine if my faith is the faith. He's not talking here as we've said. in a previous broadcast to examine yourselves whether you're saved or not. He's obviously writing to Christians, we've seen that, and so he's saying to these Christians, inspect in detail, examine and determine if the faith and your faith are one and the same. And so, how are we going to know whether our faith and the faith as recorded in the Word of God are the same? Well, the Bible says in Romans chapter 10 and verse number 17, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Who am I going to listen to? Well, 1 Kings chapter 19 and verse 12, Elijah listened to that still, small voice. In 1 Samuel 3, 9, it says, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. The psalmist said in Psalm 85 and verse number 8, I will hear what God, the Lord, will speak. So we're connecting here with hearing from the Lord, and we're going to do that how? In the Word of God. James 1 and 18 refers to the Word of God as the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2.15, the Word of Truth. Ephesians 1 13 the word of truth second corinthians 6 10 the word of truth jesus prayed to his heavenly father in john chapter 17 and verse 17 and he said thy word is truth and he also said that when the Holy Spirit is come, He will guide you into all truth. He will guide you into all of the Word of God. Now, faith cometh by hearing and listening to the Holy Spirit as He would speak to us as we are in the Word of God. And so in Acts chapter 17, verse number 11, Paul commended the Bereans. Why? Because they received the Word. Secondly, it says they received it with readiness of mind. I'm looking at Acts 17, 11. And then third, they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Now, if we are going to survive these perilous days that are upon us, we better be sure that the faith and our faith are one and the same. And the only way we're going to do that is 2 Timothy 2.15, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now, study. That word has been translated due diligence twice. It has been translated be diligent. twice, give diligence, it's been translated, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman, a workman, now that word has been translated laborer ten times, that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now to be one who is studying and to do it diligently and to be a workman, or a laborer is far different than going to church three times a week and listening to a 40-minute sermon and then going home. This one here where he says this word workman, one of the times when it's translated laborer is in Matthew 9 and verse number 37 where Jesus said the laborers are few. And the laborers are. You know, we think of laborers as being out there working for the Lord in some mechanical way, and that's true, but the laborers are few when it comes to studying the Word of God, a workman or a laborer that needs not to be ashamed. Now, as a byproduct of studying to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not to be ashamed, what happens is the faith becomes my faith. The faith becomes your faith, if we are teachable, rather than looking for some scriptures that we can take out of context to prove what we really want to believe. Now, we've been looking at this list in 2 Peter, and Peter said, if you do these things, you shall never fall. Well, what are the things? First, we saw faith. The second one is virtue. Add it to your faith. What is that? Well, basically, it's God's standards for us, as we're going to consider God's standard, let's say, for music, or God's standard of dress, or God's standards of who our friends are, where we go. Now, if we have the faith, the doctrine, we said, if we learn to have the faith, the true faith from the Word of God, then our doctrine will determine our behavior. For example, who our friends are. we saw in our previous broadcast, Samson. We find him in the faith chapter, in Hebrews chapter 11, as having faith, but he had no virtue whatsoever. He was a disgusting example of what a believer ought to be. So the Lord says, that we need to add to our faith, we need to add standards. We need to add the standards that God would have us to have. And so, do the things, do the things. Faith, it's a doing thing. Peter said, if you do these things, you shall never fall. So, it's an action. I'm going to get this faith, I'm going to get into the Word of God, I'm going to make sure my faith And the faith are one and the same. Then, when it comes to virtue, I'm going to do this. I make a decision. I am going to find out how does God want me to dress, what kind of music does he want me to listen to, who does he want me to be my friends, where does he want me to go and not go. It's a matter of doing that, doing it, not just hearing another sermon about it like you're doing now. Do something about it. Now, the third thing we come to here is knowledge. And he says in verse number five, giving all diligence, all diligence, we need to add our faith, our virtue, and then knowledge. Diligence, that word has been translated diligent five times. It's been translated haste five times. and then giving earnest care, it's been translated. So diligence is a careful and a persistent effort to do something. Now if we are going to be persistent, we are going to continue in spite of difficulty or in spite of opposition. If we're going to make an effort out of it, there's a whole lot more to that than just sitting in church listening to a couple of specials and a 40-minute message and then going home. He says to study to show yourself approved unto God. So if we're going to know, have knowledge on something, how do I get knowledge on anything? How do I get knowledge on how to play the piano? How do I get knowledge on how to run a computer program? How do I get knowledge on how to fix the mechanical problems on my car? How do I get knowledge of the Bible? It all boils down to the same thing. It takes time. We read that God, once again, commended the Bereans because they received the Word of God with readiness of mind, and they searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things be so. So we have said in previous messages on this subject, and we have about six or eight of them on this subject of knowledge and discernment if you check our website, but knowledge is simply an accumulation of information. And so we need to accumulate information concerning the issues of today. The issue, we have a big issue about music these days, we have an issue about the subject of repentance. We have an issue about the subject of separation. Now, knowledge concerning these issues is simply taking time to accumulate the information that is in the Bible concerning these subjects. Let me give you an example. One subject that is an issue in this age in which we're living is the subject of divorce and remarriage. Divorce and remarriage. There's an interesting subject. Let me give you my position here on divorce and remarriage as far as marrying young couples, or older couples for that matter, marrying any couple. If they will not take the vow that is found in the Book of Ruth and bow it to one another, I will not marry them. What is that vow? The vow is this, not marry them. Now, having said that, is there an exception clause for fornication? Yes, there is. However, if a young couple or any couple will not vow to say, all right, there's an exception clause, but I'm not going to take it, I won't marry them. How did I come to that conclusion? Well, I received Christ as my Savior when I was 12 years old. My family joined a Baptist church, and soon after I heard that someone in the church was getting a divorce. As a young Christian, I felt that was wrong, and back then, back there in the late 50s, that was unheard of. However, They were getting a divorce. So I felt it was wrong and I set out to see what the Bible says about this subject and I've been attempting to figure it out ever since. As I began my study, I asked myself several questions. Number one, what do I believe about divorce and remarriage? Number two, is there any possibility I might be wrong? Number three, am I teachable? And number four, will I allow the Holy Spirit to guide me into all truth? Now, no matter what the issue is, whether you're talking about music or separation or the subject of repentance, doesn't matter what it is, ask yourself those four questions as you begin to study. What do I believe about the subject? Is there any possibility I'm wrong? Am I teachable? Will I allow the Holy Spirit to guide me? As I studied on this subject about fornication and the exception clause here, I found in Matthew chapter 5 in verse 32, it says, Well, that's one verse. Then I decided, well, I need to look and see what Moses said about divorce. and then I need to look and see what the Pharisees said about divorce. And then I look to see what Paul said about divorce, and then I look to see what Jesus said about divorce. Now it's interesting, as he started out his ministry with his disciples, he met with them in Matthew 5-7, and the first thing he told them was they would need to learn and unlearn and relearn some stuff. Six times he said, ye have heard, but I say unto you. Now, interestingly enough, the first thing that Jesus dealt with them was on the subject of divorce and remarriage. And in Matthew 5 and verse 31, he said, it hath been said, but I say unto you. Now, not only did I have a hard look at what happens there in that portion of Scripture, what was said, but then I had a look at what Hosea had to say about this subject. And then I looked at, is there a difference between fornication and adultery? Then what did Paul say about divorce and the local church? What was he saying on that subject? And then, as he wrote the Corinthian church, what he said to them concerning church leadership, what did he say about that and divorce, concerning church membership. And let me just say this on this subject, all right? If as pastors we hold to the position that there's no grounds for divorce and remarriage, and that if they are living in adultery, we can't have it both ways, all right? If that is the case, we need to go through the church and discipline everybody out of the church who's divorced and remarried if they're living in adultery. You can't have it both ways. It's interesting how some pastors will take a stand and say, oh, there's no grounds for divorce and remarriage, and then let them join the church because they want to get their money. There's something sick about that. You cannot have it both ways. Well, in any event, in Matthew 19, Jesus said this, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. Now, I wish the only verse on the subject is this one, Therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. God and I, if we have anything in common, we hate divorce. Like it or not, Jesus did say, except it be for fornication. Well, last year I put over 400 hours into this one subject. You can read a little bit about it on our website if you want to look on what I put there on the subject of divorce. Here's the question. Is there an exception that would allow the so-called innocent party to remarry? Well, you get the Bible, you study it, you decide, and then answer to God for your decision. Now, as I said at the beginning, I was saved when I was only 12 years old. I heard about a couple getting divorced. I didn't like it, so I started studying it. I've been attempting to figure it out ever since, and I'm still working on it. Do I believe there is an exception clause? Absolutely, I believe that. Do I want to believe there's an exception clause? No, I do not want to believe that. When I first got saved, as I said, I heard about a Christian couple getting divorced. I hated that. I spent a lot of time in the Bible doing what is called proof texting. That is, I would grab verses, take them out of context to prove that there is no exception clause. Well, after 400 hours last year, I proved I was wrong. There is an exception clause. However, regardless of that, when it comes to me marrying someone, if they will not put the vow in there, and let me repeat it again because it's a good vow, entreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge, Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me." If a couple will not put that vow in their wedding, I will not marry them. I don't know any pastor that's any stronger on this subject than that. However, there are grounds for divorce and remarriage in the Bible. There is an exception clause, but I'm not sure who fits into it, so I am not going to just take it at face value and say, well, yeah, okay, I'll marry you because you say this or you say that. Well, we're talking about having understanding to know what to do. We said the faith needs to be your faith. Virtue, that's our behavior, needs to line up with the faith and our knowledge on the issues. The faith, that's what we believe, needs to be our faith. The only way we can do that is to study to be a workman that need not to be ashamed. If we're too lazy to do that, then the best thing you can do about these issues is to keep your mouth shut. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 5 and verse number 14, we need to have our senses exercised to discern what is right, what is wrong. If you're too carnal to do that, if you'd rather watch television than put the time into the effort into learning knowledge about the issues, then once again, let me say, you best keep your mouth shut. The Bible says we are to add knowledge. Let's be Berean. Receive the Word of God with readiness of mind. and then search the scriptures daily to see if these things be sold. That's how we get an accumulation of information on any subject. That's what the Bible's talking about when it says, to your virtue add knowledge.