You read the opening fifteen verses. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like treasure, faith with us, through the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through love 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, parity. for if these things be in you and defound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor untruthful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ but he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was heard from his old sin wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure For if ye do these things ye shall never fall, but so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in the remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in this present truth. Yea, I think it means as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavour, she may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance. Now, I think most Bible readers very quickly learn to love the place from the shoulder of rugged Peter, the disciple who wrote this letter. Peter, somehow you always feel, speaks from it, period. He says, now I've learned something in a bitter school of experience, and I want you to learn that thing too. Now will you look please at the opening verse. A Simon Peter, a bond slave, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained life's precious faith with us. through the righteousness of God and our Savior and even of Christ. And when I looked into your face and I asked you the question, I wonder what your answer would be. Is Peter writing to you? He's writing to those that have obtained like precious things with us. Is he writing to you? I think if I asked Peter to come and stand on this platform and I said, Peter, will you tell us where you obtained precious faith? That rugged grand disciple would very quickly tell us. I think he would talk to us something like this. He would say, you know, I heard Jesus calling me from the fishing boat. Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And he said, we left all and followed him. And we watched him, and we listened to him, and we learned of him. And he said, one day at Caesary of Philippi, after two years living with him, the Lord Jesus gathered up around him, and he said, now listen, men, You hear the crowd talking. You know what public opinion is. As I break the loaves and hand it to you, you go amongst the crowds and you hear them talking about me. Whom do men say that I am? And that little group of men, they looked into its face as one said, Master, John the Baptist, they're all saying you're John, the one that Herod killed, back alive again. John the Baptist, wonderful thing to say. You know, John was known by the crowds as a man of pure character, a man of simple living, as they watched that man out in the wilderness preaching. They knew that that man's life backed up his message. And as the crowd watched Jesus, they said, John, back on earth again. Another disciple looks into the master's face and he says, The master, they're all talking about you. They say that you're Elijah, the one that was translated to heaven without dying, back on earth again. Now that was a wonderful thing to say. If you read the story of Elijah, you'll find he was a miracle-working prophet. He called down fire from heaven. He raised the dead. He wrought miracles, and they watched the miracles of Jesus, and they said, It's Elijah back on earth again. Another disciple looked into his face and said, Master, I heard the crowd talking. They think that you're Jeremiah back on earth again. What a wonderful thing to say. If you read the story of Jeremiah in the Old Testament, you'll find that weeping, sympathetic, tender-hearted prophet who stayed with the captives back in the manned of Palestine after the Babylonian power had devastated. Somehow a great, loving, strong, tender-hearted man. And as they watched Jesus and saw the little ones in his arms, and they saw the tears on his cheeks, they said, It's Jeremiah back amongst us again. Another disciple said, Well, Master, they're all talking about you, and they all say that you're a prophet of God, sent with God's message to us. And the Lord Jesus looked at those men, and he said, Yes, that's what the crowd think about me, but... You've lived with me for two years. Whom do men say that I am? You've given me your answers. Whom do ye say that I am? And I don't think Peter looked to the right hand and snubbed Andrew and said, Andrew, what's the answer? And I don't think he turned to John and said, beloved John, who do you think he is? No. Peter looked right into that lovely face of Jesus, and it seemed to rise up within him. It came from within him. It burst out. It was a revelation from God. Shall I ask the Christ, the Son of the living God? Blessed art thou, Simon, Bard, Jonah, flesh and blood, public opinion, never told you that. A revelation from my Father in heaven. Yes, I am the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's where Peter got his say, precious saving faith in the person of Christ. Looking into his face, the Lord Jesus said now, listen Peter, when you make a confession of faith, immediately an enemy is on your track. Satan hath desired thee. He wants to sift you. He wants to prove to the world that that confession isn't real, that you're just a sharp Christian. But I have prayed for you that in that testings I say, fail not. Treasure faith, says Peter. Treasure saving faith that gave me the knowledge that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And somehow my whole soul lays upon that mighty person. He says, I'm writing to those who've got life precious today. Is he writing to you? Amity, I'm not asking you what life you're living. That's very important. I'll ask you that in a minute. Not asking you what church you're a member of, that's very vital. Not going into that tonight. Not asking you what creeds you can look at each. Not asking you what poems and ceremonies you've gone through. Not asking you how much you read your Bible. I'm asking you one question. Has you got faith, pressure, saving faith, in the person of Christ? Is Peter writing to you? People come to me sometimes and they say, Mr. Wilyish, I wish I had a big faith like yours. And I say, don't be silly. And they seem rather hurt. They are silly because my face isn't big of it. Very small, but the little I've got is resting in a big graveyard. That's the trouble. People are always looking inside their hearts to see how big their face is. If I say, look at that door, you don't point out your eyes to see if you can see, you use them to look. And if only you've used the little face you've got and pin it in the person of Christ. There will come the joy and peace and power of a great salvation, because the eyes of your faith in all your need and guilt are looking into the face of a Savior. And the first look will take up an attitude of looking, and you will begin to live looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And the only evidence that I can ever give to a doctor, Georgia, that I look to Christ as a boy in school thirty-odd years ago in England, is that I am looking now. The first look began in attitude of looking. The first look brought the first glorious experience I am saved by its grace. But as the years pass, I take to this great salvation, and looking unto Jesus, the author, the finisher, the beginning, the end, the one who whispers, pardon, and I know I am saved from the guilt of sin, the one who can keep me right through the journey and present me falsely, from the throne of his father. In other words, this great salvation is wrapped up in a great Savior, and it isn't the size of your face that counts. Have you got precious faith, saving faith in the earthen eyes? Now verse two, grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. If you've learned to know God and know the Lord Jesus Christ is your own Savior and you have a simple saving faith in Christ, then certain things are multi-side to you. Oh, I want you to get this. When you looked into the face of Jesus and you said, Lord Jesus, I will trust thee in simple trials I trust in all my guilt and deeds. I rest in thee for my salvation. That moment Jesus came by the Divine Spirit to dwell within you, bringing you life, eternal life. And God and the Lord Jesus in risen power is willing to multiply by the indwelling Spirit everything you need to sustain and strengthen and equip you to be a victorious Christian. Now, if some of you have got a pencil, I would ask you to underline the word in verse two, multi-line. Multi-line. Grace and PC, multi-line. Now, let me see if I can do a little multiplication sum. Boy, boy, will you take me off on this? I'm going to multiply. Twice two are four. Twice four, eight. Twice, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, twice, thirty-two, sixty-four, twenty-four, a hundred and twenty-eight, twice, a hundred and twenty-six, twice, two, five-six, five hundred and twelve, one thousand and twenty-four. I have multiplied two, ten times, and I've jumped a thousand mark. And if I went on, I'd soon be over a million mark. Vultiplication makes big figure. It's big vision. Grace and peace be multiplied to you. To every sinner who's put faith in Christ, and Christ has come to dwell by the Spirit in their heart. There comes from God's throne. Grace, peace, everything you need for your spiritual life to sustain it. Now if you go to that throne of God tonight and you say, Oh God, I'm in a bit of a jam, I'm in a bit of a difficulty as a Christian, I'm very entried in circumstances and I need grace. Now Lord, how much grace have you got in your great big bank up there? Do you think that's enough to meet my need? And a whisper comes from the throne. My grace is what? Sufficient for you? And you can gore and gore and gore and gore and gore upon the face of God, and you'll never exhaust it. Never. Sufficient grace will go into your life for every time of need. Look at the next word. I don't care how trying and dark the days get, and I don't care how beset my enemies and foes you are. There comes from the throne peace that passes all understanding. It's the very peace of God that can garrison your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. Peace, perfect peace. It's there for you. Now listen, I don't want to be harsh and unkind. But if the supply of grace in your Christian life is small, it is not because there is no grace at the throne. There is sufficient grace there. It is because you are not drawing upon that grace. And if you are lacking peace, it is not because there is no peace. It can be multiplied to you. to meet your every need and make you a victorious Christian, the flow of the life of the risen Christ by the indwelling Spirit, to make you more than conqueror through him who loved you. Now look at this verse three. According as his divine power, that's the power of the Holy Spirit in your heart and life, according as his divine power hath given unto us, will you tell me the next word? All, and all means all, all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. I don't care what your spiritual need is. It's in Christ, the written Savior, and the flow of His life can come to you by the incoming Holy Spirit, meeting your every need, multiplied to you, to make you a victorious Christian. That's what Peter says. Well, you say, how can I get it? Verse four, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world, to rot. Now, that is, this book is a check-book. And just as you take out a check-book, and you write out a check, and go to the bank and cash it, so... the mighty resources of the written Christ are of such value, and the word of Christ is of such value that you can take any promise from the book and cash it in at the throne of grace, and there will be multiplied in spiritual resources to you, everything to make to a victorious system. Now, have you got that? I'm only laying a foundation. This isn't my message yet. I want you to get the words underlined. Verse two, multiplied. Multiplied. Multiplied. I press it. And I want you to get the word in verse three underlined. All things all. Now we'll move on. Verse five. And besides this. And besides this. And besides this. Giving all diligence. Add. A, B, D, add to your faith certain things. You put a little line under the word add. If you'd like to put a circle around the word bultiply and a circle around the word add and string a line between them through, you'll never forget this lesson. There are certain things that are multiply from the risen Christ by the indwelling Spirit to make you a victorious and spiritual child of God. There are other things that have got to be added by diligent watchful effort. Now notice this. Besides this, verse five, giving all diligence add. Now boys, will you check me up on this? Girls, I'll give the girls a chance. Girls, check me up on this. We did a multiplication sum just now. We're going to do an addition. Two plus two is what? Four. Four. Multiplication and addition is just the same. If you multiply two and two is four, and if you add two and two is four, I'm not going any further. It's silly. Multiplication and addition is just the same. Is that right? You say no fear. Go on then. All right, we'll go on. Four plus two six, plus two eight, plus two ten, plus two twelve, plus two fourteen, plus two sixteen, plus two eighteen, plus two twenty. I've only got to a list of little trinity, whereas in multiplication I jumped the thousands mark. You see the difference? There are certain things that are multiplied from the risen Christ, by the divine enduring spirit, to make you a spiritual and victorious child of God. But there are other things. Besides this, giving all diligence, which means gripping your teeth and squaring your shoulders, and by diligent watchful effort, air to your faith, certain things now will count them. Verse five. add to your faith virtue one and to virtue knowledge two and to knowledge temperance three and to temperance patience four and to patience godliness five and to godliness brotherly kindness six and to brotherly kindness love charity seven things now you can put it down in the margin of your bible some of you youngsters put seven things down because us in verse three it was all things multiply all things added seven things now i'm going to jump ahead a little we're coming back in a minute look at the bible verse eight are you looking for if these seven things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor uncruthful in the knowledge of our lord jesus christ but He that latcheth these seven things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure, for if he do these todden things ye shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherefore I, Peter, will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of These seven things, though ye know them, and be established in this present truth. Verse fifteen, moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my death to have these seven things always in remembrance. Now I hope by now it's beginning to dawn upon my heart that yours the tremendous importance of these seven things that have got to be added to your faith. Now, I'm going to do something that I very rarely do. I'm running away from you in two days' time, so I'm sort of running away from it, you see. I'm going to do something. I'm going to ask you a question, honestly in the presence of God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to Calvary to take your place and die for your sins on that cross? Do you believe that that wondrous person God manifests in flesh on the cross for the awful judgment and save your soul? And have you looked into his face and said he's the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and in all my guilt and need I put my faith in him, resting my soul on his finished work? Have you got a precious faith in the person of Christ for your salvation? Hands up those who have. Praise God for many hands. Hand it down, Alex. Add to your faith. Seventeen. It's your responsibility. If you do, you will be, verse eight, a fruitful child of God with vision. You will be sore-footed on the highways of God, walking in the path of His will. No one in Augusta, Georgia, will doubt that you were elected and born again as a child of God. And you will be one who is running for an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But if you don't add these seven things, you will be untruthful, blind, forgetting that you were purged from your old sins. In other words, the day of your conversion will be a sort of nothing to you, and you will be just a poor, frail Christian who might, by the very skin of your teeth, somehow slip in a shade before the Lord is coming and realize what a mess you're making. And I tell you, there's going to be some more of these things tonight. It's going to hurt me badly before I include the next half hour to listen to it. Yes. His part, multiplication. Our part, addition. His part, the mighty victorious conquering Savior, with an act of power in hand of thee. He says, by the indwelling spirit, I will let flow in that life, grace. Please, all the spiritual response is to make you a conquering child of God. But, you've got to add certain things to build up the Christian character, the container. Now, I hope you'll get this. Boys, try and get it. God says, I will pour by multiplication the content into your life that you have got to build the container. How long did you've got? I'll say this. If I said this tonight, you bring any container up to this platform and I will fill it with ice cream or soup. A little boy comes up with his mother's symbol. I fill it. He goes back with a symbol. I couldn't get any more. It's not the brim of the symbol. A little girl comes along with a little wine glass about this figure, and I fill it to the brim. And I say, would you like some more? She says, there's no more room, and she goes back with her container and sits on her feet. A lady comes up with a tea cup, and I fill it up. I fill it up to the top. She goes back to her feet. Another person comes with a nice big, you know, pint glass. I fill it up. Another comes with a jug. Another greedy person comes with a big bedroom basin. I fill them all up. I have filled them all according to their capacity. My resources can be poured into them. They're filled. They've gone back. And the Lord looks down from heaven and he says, I will pour by multiplication, by the indwelling spirit, all those spiritual resources into your life can be filled with them, to be a victorious scripture. But you have got to manufacture the container. You've got to create by doing the optimal effort the capacity. Now, I hope you'll begin to get a little daylight. I'm going very slowly for the sake of my young friend who just trusted Christ. With all my heart, I'm going to lay this responsibility that Peter lays on my heart, on your heart tonight. Verse five. giving all diligence, that is, with watchful effort, with square shoulders and gritty teeth, add to your taste what? Virtue. Now I don't think the translators, if they were translating that word into English in our common tongue today, would put the word virtue down. It's an old English word. It's lost in a great measure its meaning, the original meaning. I believe, honestly, if we were going to be plain in our putting an English word there, today we would have to put the word courage. Add to your faith courage. Now, I want you to listen very carefully. Peter, come here. Come here. Come here. Step up here. Talk to you, please. And this is what Simon Peter would say to you. He would say, my friends, Jesus said, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not. Satan's after you. He's trying to destroy you. He said, John took me in. We went through the door and we found a courtyard and in the courtyard a fire was burning. And to speak of I drew the other fire, for it was cold, and I was warming my hands for the fire. When a slip of a girl came round the corner, of course, if it had been a great big fat soldier who had come round and said, I say, guys, you're one of his disciples. Peter would have spared his shoulders and gutted out his chin and said, yes, I'm proud of it. But when a slip of a girl came round the corner, probably pented up to the night and said, Hello, you're one of the disciples of Jesus, don't you? He just seemed to shiver, wasn't he? No, I don't know him. Surely you are. You're the Galilee announcer. I'm one of his disciples. No, I'm not. And poor old Peter got me. The soldier said, yes, you are. I saw you down in the garden when he took him. I'm not. He says, and out came the oaths and curses. Now in that hour there's no doubt about it. Peter's courage failed completely. But did his faith fail? I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not. And all of a sudden, Peter, with the words, the knives on his lips, the oaths and curses, looks through the door, and he sees Jesus, looking at him through the open door, broken, flies to the door, and he's out into the night, and the tears are gushing down his cheek. If my courage fails, Faith never failed, and the darkest hour even, and oh, some curses are on his list. He knew that that was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He said, you've got to add to your faith courage. Now, I know some of you are going to quarrel with me after this thought, but don't mind. It makes you think. You can go back home tonight, and you can kneel down at your bedside, and you can put your hands together in earnest prayer, and say, Oh, Lord, I'm a pitted Christian. I want to be more courageous. Will you make me one thousand times more courageous tomorrow than I am today? And the Lord won't answer your prayer. He won't answer. You say, why? Because courage is not mortified from the throne. It's got to be ended by diligent lawful efforts. If you are not willing to brace your shoulders and jump out your chin and look at the other guys in the camp and say, I don't care what they think of me, I'm glad I'm a Christian. you will never form the character of a courageous Christian. You know, there's a shelf of distance between a timid Christian and a courageous Christian, and lots of Christians go on to years and years in a system because they haven't added to their faith path. You know, dear old Purgeon, the great preacher, was going down the east end of London once, and he passed by a stop, and in the stop there was a ticket. Just two words, bones wanted. And Spurgeon stopped and he looked at that ticket and he nudged his friend. He said, I say, isn't that true? Don't bones. Yes, that's a tremendous need amongst Christians for backbone. All so many Christians have got a honey bone, and they've got a whipping bone, but they've got very little backbone. Add to your faith, I... You know, I'm not a bit surprised that my Lord, when he entrusted to a group of men his gospel that he died to win, and he said, You see the perishing world that go out and preach this gospel to every creature? He said, The moment you see them believing the message, baptize them. Baptize them. Let them courageously and publicly in the open waters of believers' baptism contest their death, their burial, their resurrection, the walking newness of life on my side. Let them of disciples take that public courageous step. I'm going to rectify it. Why? Because the Lord wanted his followers as believers in him from the very start to take a courageous stand and be courageous. I think you know this. There's a big, strong man in this meeting tonight. He'll hate me for saying it, but he knows it's true. There's a big, strong man in this meeting tonight who could be a mighty man of God in the guts of Georgia, but he's not. Do you know why? Because he hasn't even got the courage to go home and look at his wife's face and say, Darling, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, and we ought to read His word together and bow the knee together, and our home should be a Christian home, and I should be a Christian businessman. And I'm just fooling about this business. He hasn't the courage to do it. And the result is the years of picking by and he's useless to God, and the devil laughed at him, and Christians mourn him. There has got to come the moment. When you add to your faith courage, it's your responsibility and your part. He has done all his part by going to Calvary. He has done all his part by making every provision for your spiritual and divine life. You must do your part in creating the capacity for him to multiply his content through. Add to your faith courage. Now notice the second thing. add to your courage, your virtue, knowledge. Oh, there's a tremendous difference between an ignorant Christian and an intelligent Christian. There's a doubt of difference between the two. If I called Peter up here on this platform and I said, Peter talked to us, and I think I know just what he would say, he would say, listen, friends, we were up on that mountain top of transfiguration. There was Jesus glorified, the very glory of his deity was shining out through the veil of this humanity. There was Moses, the Lord Giver and Elijah, the great miracle working prophet, and they were talking away about his dead. And then, said Peter, like a silly donkey, I opened my mouth. Oh, if I'd only kept still and glistened and watched. I opened my mouth and began to speak, and of course I said the wrong thing. I said, Lord, it's good for us to be here. There shall still be three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for myself. Now he put it down, not knowing what he said. He admits that he was so far away from entering into the purpose of Christ, pressing on to Calvary to die and finish that mighty work, that he would suggest him to the Lord that this is so wonderful, let's settle down here forever and build a barnacle and make this our own, not knowing what he said. Oh, he said, I was ignorant of the great purposes of Christ. Now, you won't like ever saying it, but there it is. You can go home to that dead side tonight, serve in heart, and you can kneel down, and you can say, Lord Jesus, please make me one thousand times more intelligent tomorrow than I am today in the things of God, and he won't answer your prayer. You know why? Because knowledge isn't multiplied from the throne. It's got to be added by diligent watchful effort. Here a little, there a little. You've got to set yourself to the task of studying God's Word, building up your ministry, taking into the wonderful minds the things of God until you get the mind of Christ. And it's not multiplied. It's added. I don't know whether you like it, but I'm very, very fond of looking at people's head. I love to sit and look at people's head. And I look at the head and I say, now that's a nice, shapely head. I should think that person is, and I begin to think, you know, it's the phonologist. You know, the phonologist can talk about all the different bumps of the cranium and try and get some idea as to whether a person is artistic or musical. It doesn't always go right with the bumps. Anyhow, there she is. I like to look at people's heads. And sometimes I look at the head and say to myself, hmm, that's a fine head. I see that's a very intelligent man. And everything's all right. Tell you, oh, eat it now. You know, tell me, oh, in our mouths, the ravine of what is now. Don't know if you know Esau's fables in America, but every child in England used to read Esau's fables. There's one fable that says that the donkey went out and one day found a lion's skin. And the donkey fought a while, frightened the other animals. So he took the skin and put it all over him, did he? And when he got absolutely covered up with his lion's skin, he went out amongst the other animals and they looked and saw the lion coming and they began panning off as fast as they could go. And so the donkey thought, oh, they're all running away from me now. They're frightened of me. I'll frighten them a bit more. I'll roar at them like a lion. So he opened his mouth. He aww! And all the animals stopped and looked around. They said, we thought it was a lion. It wasn't. It was a three-year-old donkey. And they came and tore him to pieces. You see, everything was all right till he opened his mouth. I want to tell you something. I had a crowd of boys in my Sunday school class in England before I went across the seas, and there was one boy, his name is Jack Hughes. If ever there was a gawky English schoolboy, he was one. So in the two parts, he hadn't been aware to put his hands or his legs, they were always in the way, poor boy. He could never look his face in the face, and he was always a bit walky. And if there was one boy in my class that I thought would go nowhere in life, it was that too. I left the boys and cast the seas and went to South America. I came back again. We got married and went out to South America. And eleven years afterwards, I was back in my home assembly, sitting in the wonderful Lord's Supper one morning. And as we were gathered around that spread table, waking the bread and drinking the wine and remembering the Lord's death until he comes. That lovely remembrance supper drew to a close, and then there was a quiet hush on that assembly, and they were waiting to see who the Lord the Spirit would guide to rise up and open up the Word of God and feed the flock of God. And as I sat there with an exercised heart-waking, all of a sudden I heard a chair pulled back and looking, who did I see standing up? But that too, my daughty boy. But no longer a boy, he had grown up to be a man now. In fact, he was a bank clerk working in the city of London. He opened his Bible and for thirty minutes he fed us on the rich wheat of God's Word. He made Christ wonderful. Old, gray-headed experienced brethren sat there for open bibles, drinking it in. At the end of that meeting, I went up to him and I said, Jack, I'm walking home with you and I linked his arm and we walked side by side. Did you know I found out the secret? I found out little by little. He told me, he said, you know, when I left school, Mr. Wildish, I went to work in a bank and he said, I realized that I must tell him about it. And he said, I made up my mind that I would give to the Lord two evenings every week for Bible study. He said, I couldn't give Sunday evenings because that was a busy day in the chapel. He said, Monday was prayer meeting night, but he said, I decided on Tuesday. I couldn't do Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday. Two nights, he said. When I came home and I had my meal, he said, I took the dog out for a quick wrist run just to get as it were some fresh air. And then he said, I shut myself in my bedroom with my Bible, my concordance, my notebooks, my pen. And he said, I began to study. Wee after week, Jack Hume gave two nights each week to study, to show himself approved unto God, a workman that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, adding a little, adding a little, building up his ministry and storing his mind in the truth of God. Listen, you go to London today and ask for Jack Hume, still working in a bank. I don't care in that great city of eight million. I don't care anywhere in the southeast of England. Today you'll talk to Christians. They'll put him up in any conference. They'll put him up in any youth valley. They'll put him up in any setting. And he'll open his word and from the treasure house of God's book brings four things you and those. Why? Because he's paid the price to add. Add, add, add in the wonderful years when a young man and a young woman can take in and take in and take in and take in and take in. You've got to add knowledge. I say something that will shock some of you, but it's cruel. You can no more kneel at your bedside tonight and expect your Lord to make you a thousand times wiser in the things of God than that nurse going into the hospital as a probation doctor can get down and say, Oh, God, give me all the worries that I ought to get in the next five years in five minutes. God won't answer your prayer. She's got to go through with her studies until at last. She's a fully trained nurse. And it's here, a little, there, a little, here, a little, there, in the build-up of her life. She gains that degree. And it's just the same in the school of God. You have got to add love. Now look at the next thing. Add to your knowledge temperance. Now there's again a word that I think would be changed today if the translators were bringing it down into our everyday English. You talk about temperance in England or America, and they think of the blue ribbon over there, and they think of prohibition here. Temperance in this matter of lifting the elbow and strong grip, that cursed thing that spoils so many lies. You say to you youngsters here, make up your mind in the presence of God not to touch it. Make a clean custom! Or you say a little won't do many harm. Well, a little has done so many people stronger than you harm in the long run that you are far better without it all together. Yes, this question of temperance is self-control. Self-control not only over the lifting of the elbow and a muggy amount with strong drink in it, but self-control over every member of the body. Don't you tell me that's multiplied. It says, Peter, come and help. Dear old Peter, I know just what he would do. He would stand up in front of you, dear folks, and he'd say now, listen. When I was in that garden, Jesus went a little way from us under the olive trees, and we'd have a sleep. And he said, just think of it. When we all two have been watching, we were sleeping. Now there's a time to sleep. I would say to every young person here, try and get seven or eight good hours healthy sleep every day. It will fix you for the other sixteen. Yes, you need good sound to me. Watch it carefully. There's a time to sleep. There's a time when the Lord Jesus said, come ye yourselves apart. Rest a while. Get to sleep. You need it. For the restoration of the body and the physical forces. But when they also had been watching under the olive trees, they were sleeping. And when they came and took that one from his blood-bloody sweat under the olive trees, when they took him, Peter rubs the sleep out of his eyes and he pulls out his great big heighten sword and he goes into the back and he starts slashing round wildly and he cuts someone's ear off and he drops it around and the Lord says stop it man put up your sword if I want my servants to fight I'll ask them when you ought to have been standing by and waiting the Lord Lord as he's snatching with a sword cutting people's ears off and you know this is happening today You see, what do you mean? I just mean that there are ears being cut off in an Augusta, Georgia by Christians, just because they haven't got self-control. Is the ears being cut off in this city yet? Some dear man or woman, have control over their lips. Just remember, God only gave us one, gave us ten fingers and two hands and two of most things, but only one tongue is all he could trust you with. And you haven't self-control over your tongue. And you just let her have it. And afterwards you realize what a mistake you had made and you cut her ear off. You go and talk to her about Christ now. You go and try and win us the deeper things of God. She won't listen to you. You cut off her ear. And there are many years being cut off by Christians today because they haven't control over their list. They lose control and they say things that cut off people's ears. But... And if you were to start right down to every member of your body and ask if you've got self-control, it's got to be added by diligence. What? Oh, yes. Now look at the next thing. Add to your temperance your self-control, patience, patience. Oh, there's all the difference in the world between a patient Christian and an impatient Christian. Peter, can you help me? And I know just what he'd say. Dear old Peter would step in front of us. He'd talk like this. He'd say, listen, those two days seemed to drag away so slowly. And when it came to three, I said, boys, I can't stick this any longer. I'm going fishing. and Solomon and Eden they all went fishing and they pushed the old boat down over the pebbles and soon they were out fishing on the sea of Galilee and they fished all night and caught nothing. And said, Peter, in the morning we saw Jesus on the bank with a fire of cold and a warm breakfast for his tired disciples. Boys, have you caught anything? Nothing, Master. Oh, said Peter, just because of my impatience. We might have spent the night with the risen Lord, and we spent it in fruitless drinking and never caught a scratch. But I tell you the impatience, all the impatience that spoils so many Christian lives. You ever met a person like this? They get enthused with apopathy. Oh, it's the most wonderful country in the world. Jesus is coming again soon. In the world we all can know it. husbandment waited with long patience for the precious fruit of the earth be ye therefore patient brethren a few years off and the person who was on fire for prophecy somehow has lost their hope never talk about it now you see the person who said oh yes now i'm converted i want to be a Sunday school teacher I'll convert all the kids to Christ and they were given a class and After about three or four weeks or six weeks, they said to the superintendent, I don't think I can tackle these kids. I can't keep them in order. They won't listen to me. And after this, she gave up the work. Oh, I tell you, if we need patience, I just think we do, to start cutting a furrow and go right through with it, to run with patience, the race which is set before. And if by diligence, watch for effort, the patience is added and we become patience, could it? Now look at the next thing. Add to your patience. God, then. Oh, I didn't like that word when I was a boy. Couldn't bear the word godly. He talked about a godly person I thought of someone with a long beard and a very black coat, little smile. God-wish. Oh, what a wrong conception I got in boyhood of God-winn. Do you know what God-winn is? Look, great is the mystery of God's likeness. God would manifest in the place. What is God like? Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is the likeness of God. God displayed to us in human flesh, in terms that we can see and understand. And godliness, a desire for godliness, is to be like Jesus. I don't know any little chorus that displays a desire for godliness quite like this. Be like Jesus. This is my song. In the home and in the crong. Be like Jesus all day long. I would be like Jesus. That desire after godliness. I could never talk to an unsaved person and say, then try to be like Jesus. That was his foolishness. It's impossible for them. But when someone is saved and the Lord Jesus comes to dwell by his spirit in your heart and you have a divine life, the whole example of your life could be Jesus. What would he have me to do? Where would he have me to go? How would he have me to act? How would he have me to speak? What would he have me to do? Oh, I tell you it would solve a lot of problems. You realize that Jesus had come to dwell within you and he was thinking through your mind and looking through your eyes and talking through your lips and loving through your heart and working through your hands and you say, what would Jesus have me to do? Oh, how quickly it would solve things if only we were brave enough to do it. When you say, how can I add doves in it just like this? The next time you feel you're tempted to take a pack of cigarettes and smoke it, you take the pack in your hands and you say, now, would Jesus try some action, pop away a cigarette and say, of course I can't live without this little thing. It's just master of me and beast me. This little thing is master of me, this strong six-foot man. Well, Jesus wouldn't. He'd say, no, that's a lot, Master Lee. It's not going to help me live for the glory of God. It's a goal. And ten chances to one, it will solve your smoking problem. And if you've got that nasty little thing called temper that rises up, that quick temper, that's something that wants to, you know, you know all about it. Every disposition isn't the same. It should only bring your whole life to Jesus and say he's my example. I want to follow his steps. I want to be like Jesus. It was so ever so many of those problems that people go about with and cling on. Godliness has got to be added by diligence, watchful effort. Peter, can you help me? And I think and know what dear old Peter would say. He'd stand up here and you'd say, Oh, I can tell you from my own experience. He said, I heard Jesus talking about going to die on a car. And he said, I opened my mouth and said, Be apart from thee, Lord, but thou shouldst do this thing. And he said, He turned down and looked at me with intense sorrow. And he said, Get thou behind me, God. Patience. In other words, the one who was controlling and using those lips to speak was not God, but Satan. And you've got to face it. Either God and the Lord Jesus Christ, by the indwelling Spirit, will use your lips to speak through, or the old flesh under the dominion of sin and under the control of Satan, leaving you captive at his will, will use those lips. Only tulips, there's nothing wrong with them, but either they belong to Jesus and he uses them, or they belong to the enemy power. And it's by diligent watchful effort you have got to. Godly! What would Jesus do? Now the next thing, add to your godliness a lovely word, brotherly kindness. Brotherly kindness. Most of us who've been saved for some years have lived long enough amongst that choice and lovely fellowship, the children of God, and there's nothing to package in the world. And may God save Harold Wildes ever to speak one word against his brethren, the family circle of the regime. They are loveless. I value their fellowship more than anything else in this world. But three-quarters of the trouble that breaks out amongst Christians is through lack of brotherly time. Instead of being kind to your brother or sister, you look at her with envy, or you look at her with jealousy, or you look at her with the idea, well, why is God meeting her like that? You're not meeting. And oh dear, he knows our frame and he remembers we as God. And oh, how often there is a lack of brotherly kindness in the family circle and it's by diligent watchful effort, by scaring your shoulders and gripping your teeth and breaking up your mask. But she will thank me. Brotherly kindness. Peter, can you help me and I know just what Peter would say? I believe Peter would say we were going up to Jerusalem and all of a sudden we were hobbling and the Lord turned round and he asked what we were talking about and he found out they were talking about who should sit on his right hand and who should sit on his left hand in his kingdom. Who would be greatest? He looked into their faces with intense sorrow. He said, Oh, no, you mustn't ask like that. And shortly afterwards they saw him rising from the supper table, and he took a big towel and put it round its waist. He took a bowl of water, and he knelt down, and took their feet and began to wash their feet. And he said, No, Lord! He said, if I, your Lord, and Master do this to you, you'll remember it one day you'll know that in the evening of it you must do this one toward another it is brotherly kindness the hundred and one loving acts shown one toward another and by this the world will know that we are christ's disciples because we love the brethren because there's brotherly kindness in the family circle know that the last thing Add to your brotherly kindness, love, charity. Hell, this is a bit of a puzzle to some people. Think it out. Look. The foundation of my Christian life, of a foundation can no man make, and that which is made, which is what? Christ Jesus. If I am going to be a Christian, I have got to put my faith as a guilty sinner in the person and work of Christ. I cannot be a Christian until I put my faith in Christ. It is precious, craving faith in the person of Christ that makes me eternally a child of God. Now my task is to build on that sure foundation made a Christian character. Add to your faith courage to be a courageous Christian. Add to your courage, knowledge to be an intelligent Christian. Add to your knowledge, temperance to be a dependable Christian. Add to your temperance patience to be a patient Christian. Add to your patience godliness to be a Christ-like Christian. Add to your godliness, brotherly kindness to be a kindly Christian. Add to your brotherly kindness something to cement it all together on the foundation. Now, it is the cat, the soul of a Christian. You read through Paul's epistles, you will find him using that word. He says this, you're a child of God. Put on the garments of the flesh, the old wardrobe of the flesh, and put on the garments of salvation. Put on this and put on that and put on the other. And if he overall as an overcoat in a cold world, put on love. It's the overcoat in the wardrobe of the child of God. Then it is the fruit. The fruit of the Spirit is love. The inner life will be the slave. The lovely life of Christ will be seen as in the building of a Christian character by diligent watchful effort outwardly for the world to see. Let the capstone that cement everything together on the foundation be loved. Now, indeed, if these seven things, if these seven things be in you and abound, They make to you that ye shall neither be barren nor untruthful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You won't be one who merely knows Christ as your Savior, but you will be a fruitful Christian, a fruit-bearing Christian. Verse nine, that he that lacketh these things is blind. Think of blind Christians with no spiritual vision. cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. I tell you it's one of the saddest statements in the word of God. It's not speaking of an unsaved, unregenerate man. It's speaking of a child of God to whom his birth. The family of God becomes almost meaningless with the passing of the year. You ever met people like that? Gloriously converted thirty years ago. But today you see them worldly. careless, and you talk to them about that happy day when Jesus washed their sins away, and they've almost forgotten the thrill of it. They've forgotten the experience of it. It means almost nothing to them. Poor, useless, dust-sliding, dishonoring Christian. Verse ten, wherefore the rather bedroom... Be diligent to make your calling of election sure. Let everyone in your city who watches you pay. There's no doubt about it that man was called of God to be paid. There's no doubt about it that that man was elected of God before the foundation of the world to be a blood-bought child of God. Let no one, no one doubts and say, look at your life, that you belong to Christ, that you're his redeemed child. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you of abundance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, I may never speak to you again in Gaza. We've had a very happy month here. I shall be with you tomorrow night, and I hope to preach the gospel for the last time here tomorrow night.