Hello and welcome to our broadcast. This is number six in our series of Understanding the Times. Stay tuned. Well, we read in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse number 10, Peter said, if you do these things, you shall never fall. What are these things? Well, we go back here into verse number 5, and he said, beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity or love he said in verse 8 if if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if you lack these things, these things, you're blind, he says, and you cannot see afar off. He said, if you do these things, verse number 10, you shall never fall. So we have these things these things he said in verse 12 wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things these things moreover he said in verse 15 I will endeavor that you may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance. Now, Peter's at the end of his life, he's leaving an important message, and he's saying, above all, you need to have these things. Now, as we face this age of apostasy that we're living in, if we'll take this formula, according to the Bible here, and God does not tell us any lies, he says here, if you do these things, ye shall never fall. So it's He said, well, what are these things? First of all, he says, add to your faith. Your faith, number one, that's important. Your faith needs to be the faith. We've said before, previously on the broadcast, the phrase the faith is in the Bible 42 times. Your faith, that phrase is in the Bible 24 times. God says, make sure that your faith lines up with the faith in the word of God. Second, he said, to your faith, add virtue. Now our faith is basically what we believe, and what we believe will determine how we behave, and that's why it's so important that our faith be the same as the faith in the Word of God. Then the third one he says is to add knowledge, which is an accumulation of information, And if you study this little book of only three chapters, it is amazing how many times that Peter refers to the fact that we have to have knowledge. If we're going to understand the issues of the day in which we live today, we need to have some knowledge about that, and the only place to get it is in the Word of God. If we're going to understand how to beat the devil and how to win the victories in life, we're going to have to get some knowledge about that. So to your faith, add virtue. To your virtue, add knowledge. And then today we want to talk about temperance. That has to do with self-control. 1 Corinthians 9.25, Paul, he's using the illustration of an athlete. And he said, they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run that ye may obtain. They which run in a race run all. Everybody's running, but one receives the prize. So he says run like you're the only one that's going to get the prize. Now think about an athlete. They're very disciplined. They have self-control. They're very careful what they eat. They're very careful with their schedule. So if we're going to make it spiritually, Peter's saying here, you better have some self-control. You better have some discipline. You better determine to study the Bible and study it when you don't feel like studying it. Also, you better have a schedule. You better make sure that you're going to do this like an athlete would do it in order to run the race and win the prize. then they're very careful what they eat. You need to be careful not to get any junk food. There's a lot of junk food on TV. There's a lot of junk food on the internet. And in this age in which we're living with the apostasy coming in like a flood, you'll get a lot of junk food these days in the fundamental independent Baptist movement, too. Be very careful. You're going to have to have some control here. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9, And verse number 26, I therefore so run not as uncertainty, so fight I not as one that beat at the air. He said, now I'm running the race. Again, he's using the illustration of an athlete. And he said, I'm not going to run as one as uncertainty. I know where the path is. I'm going to run on the track where I'm supposed to run here. I'm not going to be all over the place. Oh, so many Christians haven't learned that yet. And then he said, so fight I not as one that beateth the air. He's talking about the boxing thing here. He said, I'm not going to, I'm going to make contacts. I'm going to just punch my boxing gloves around in the air. In other words, he has got some control here, some self-control. He has made some decisions. And the only way to really be successful in this area of self-control is to make sure that the Holy Spirit is in line of all of this. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse number one. He said lay aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset us Lay aside every weight you can't carry all that junk around with you on the racetrack and expect it make it you're not going to win You might come in dead last if you come in at all And then he said let us run with patience with the patience with endurance. We got to keep going the race that is set before us Now, the race that is set before us in this age in which we are living, we're living in an age where apostasy is coming in like a flood. And so we need to make sure that your faith is the same as the faith. Our faith is what we believe, which should dictate our behavior. And that'll be correct if we make sure that our faith and the faith is the same. Then we add to the knowledge, the knowledge, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 and verse number 3, that God would have us be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And so when it comes to self-control, what temperance here it's called, it's a time for decisions. The Bible says in Ephesians 4, 22, to the Christian, put off concerning the former conversation, the word means manner or life, of the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, that he put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now you have to make a decision. It's simply choice. You choose to do that or you choose not to. It comes into this area of self-control. Christians need to know that God does not want us to be involved with worldliness. It says, henceforth we should not serve sin, Romans chapter 6 and verse number 6. We're going to have to abstain from worldly pleasures, love not the world, These are the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. So it's a decision. It's a decision. Will I put off the old manner of life? Will I determine that henceforth I will not serve sin? Am I ready to make the decision that I would abstain from worldly pleasures? And what about my associations? The Bible says, be not unequally yoked together. with unbelievers, and then wrong habits. Now, these are the works of the flesh, the Bible says, and Galatians 5, verses 19 to 21, they're all listed there. The Christian that's going to make it, he's going to have to sit down and spend some time and get into those verses and say, Lord, I need to have the victory in this area, help me do that. Anything that Christ would not do, we should not do. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof. And so it comes down to this temperance, this self-control. Am I going to let the Holy Spirit have control of my self-life? The Bible says, if any man come after me, let him deny himself. That's his self-life. That's the thing that the old nature wants to do what it wants to do. self-will, self-pity, self-glory, self-esteem, self-love, self-seeking, just plain selfishness, self-interest, self-indulgence, self-satisfaction, self-depreciation, self-consciousness even. I can't serve the Lord, I'm just self-conscious. Well, you have to make some decisions here if we're going to get into this area of temperance or self-control. Holy Spirit wants control of our self-life. So, Peter said, if you do these things, you shall never fall. Your faith needs to be the faith. Your virtue, that has to do with your behavior. Your knowledge, that's going to take your time, and you've got to take and study the Word to find it. And then, temperance, those are your decisions. Those are your decisions. Decision is simply a conclusion reached after consideration, and we have no choice, but to choose. Either self will be in control or the Lord will be in control. The choice is ours.