Now we are going to read our portion through again today, but I'm going to make a few changes which I want you to note. That is changes of emphasis and perhaps the addition of words that are not there just to make things very, very clear. Simon or Simeon, Peter, a bondslave, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, two of them that have obtained, like precious 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 has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that have 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 lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, that's watchful, hard effort, beside this, giving all diligence, add, I'm stopping a minute. I must stop just a minute. Flashed into my mind. Did you ever hear the story? It's just a story, but it's a gratitude just to emphasize something. Stories told that when the big ark, Norr's ark landed and they threw the doors open, that Norr went round the ark and he said to all the animals, now you can go out onto the Crens' earth and multiply. He drove the animals out and told them to go out to multiply and replenish the earth. When the elephant and the monkeys and all the other animals had streamed out, he was having a last look around the old ark. And he came to one of these little boxes in the ark, and as he looked, he saw two snakes lying there. And he said to them, Go on out, he said, and multiply. These snakes who were curled up in a corner, they looked up and they said, we can't. And they said, he said, why not? He said, all the other animals have gone out to multiply, gone out into the fresh, clean world to multiply. These two snakes looked up at him and they said, we can't. We are adults. Now, I don't tell you that as a silly story. It's not just that. It's just that I want you, I want you to learn one lesson from this chapter. If you get this one lesson from two people on, you'll get something for your life. Your responsibility is to add. God will multiply through the risen Christ for the power of his Spirit everything for your spiritual life. If you have taken Christ as your Savior, there will be multiplied to you everything for your spiritual victory and provision. Grace, I come to the throne of grace. Is there any grace for me? Grace sufficient multiplied for every time of need. Peace! Oh, Lord, I'm in a difficult situation. I'm all the worried. The peace that parteth all understanding shall garrison your heart and your mind. I haven't multiplied Peter's lips. He only picked out two in verse two. Grace and peace be multiplied. But the things that are multiplied by the Holy Spirit in your life to make Christ real and make you a victorious Christian, they all come from the risen Christ, by the indwelling Spirit. That is the content, the Christian content. But you've got to build the container. You've got to build a Christian character, and that's not multiplied. It's got to be added. Now, I've only got to the word add. You're adders. Don't forget you're adders. We're adders. Verse five. Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith one virtue. 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 charity or love seven. Now watch, watch carefully. For if these seven things added, If these seven things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse nine. But he that lacketh these seven things that must be added is blind and cannot see afar off and have forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Verse ten. Wherefore, the rather brethren, give diligence to make your calling a direction sure, for if ye do these seven things that must be added, ye shall never fall or stumble. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Wherefore I, Simon, Peter, will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these seven things that you must add, though ye know them, and be established in this present truth. Yea, I think it meets as long as I am in this tabernacle to stir you up, putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as the Lord Jesus Christ has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavour that ye may be able after my death to have these seven things that you must add always in remembrance. For we have not followed cunningly to thy fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. Now, we are launching out this morning on the seven things. We're going to start at verse five. Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Now I hope, I hope all of you before you leave camp are going to have this simple precious saving faith in Christ. I feel I ought to say just a word about it. I'm going to plead with some of you young people as God is moving amongst us and as God is working in many hearts some seen and some unseen. Don't, please don't, keep looking inside to see how big your faith is. The number of people today who try to open up and try to get hold of their faith to see if it's really big enough to be a precious saving faith, tremendous mistake. What you've got to do is to look when a very simple childlike sage into the face of the savior and ask yourself the question, is he big enough to save me? Is he big enough to take my place on the cross and satisfy every claim of a holy God? Is he big enough to bear the punishment as a substitute? Is he big enough to pay the redemption price for me to be taken out of the kingdom of darkness and made a child of God? Is he big enough to step into my life? to take over? Is he big enough to begin to think new thoughts and talk new words and pour his love through my cold heart? Is he big enough to will his will in my will? Is he big enough to make some use of this poor little child of Adam? Do you know your salvation from beginning to end is going to depend upon a big enough Savior, not upon the size of your faith? Now your faith is something that can grow. The Lord Jesus, talking to his disciples, said, Have ye no faith? Four times in Matthew, he said, O ye of little faith. Talking not to the disciples but to a foreign woman, he said, I have not seen such great faith. No, not in Israel. The Lord alone can measure our faith. But don't you try to dig within, to try and reveal the size of your faith. Look into the faith of the Savior and say, is he big enough for my little faith, my childlike faith, my simple trust, and he loves to be trusted, to be put in him. And I tell you, when Simon Peter at Caesarea Philippi, after two years of being in that little band, burst out in that crowd, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus immediately said, Blessed are thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood, public opinion, never told you this. It's come as a revelation from my Father. And there comes a moment of revelation when we see in Jesus the all-sufficient one who can meet the need of this poor, sinning child of Adam, who can meet the need from beginning to end. He's the author and finisher, the author and omega. He's the one who rushed away through. I'm utterly dependent upon to present he thought this before the flood. Now, as we saw yesterday, his provisions are the Holy Spirit who makes him real in our dead spirit and our souls. And the Holy Word of God, this wonderful book packed with precious promises, and he imparted to us the divine nature. And with Christ made real within us, we can say, Christ lives in me, and this life must grow, and this life should be magnified. But I've got to build the container to display Christ. I've got to build the container, the character, through which he will pour the contents. The ripples of water will flow through that container. The Spirit of God will make Christ seen through that container. But I've got to build it. Add to your faith some seven things. Now, do you remember, let's turn to it, actually turn to it. Luke's Gospel, chapter twenty-two. Luke twenty-two, near the end of the chapter. Verse thirty-one. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, the whole Satan hath desired to have you, but he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee that thy what? Faith fail not. And when thou art converted, when thou art turned back, Strengthen my brethren. I think that's why Peter, who found it so difficult to write, he said, I haven't got the pen of a ready writer like your old Paul. Paul's got all the theology. He knows how to write his epistles. It's very hard for me a fisherman to write, but I feel constrained to write my little letters because the Lord told me to strengthen my brethren after I was converted and turned back. Now look at those verses again. I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. Satan was going to come with an awful test to Simon Peter. Satan wanted to prove to the world that this man was just a chaff man. That's all. He was going to take him like wheat and he was going to sift him. And he was going to say, look, he's just chaff. And the loving Lord watched over Simon and he said, I'm going to allow that this thing and I'm going to prove that this thing that he isn't just that he's weak. And I begin to see here that temptation comes and it comes from the hand of an enemy but it's allowed by the hand of a loving Lord. But the object of that temptation, one to destroy and to prove it's only tough, and the other to test and reveal the weak. Simon, I prayed for you, and I'm going to pray through the tremendous trials that you are going to face. I know they lie ahead for you that you are weak. I'm going to pray that your faith fail not. Now when you go back to Peter, to Peter one, verse five, and besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, or in your faith supply something. What? The Q. Now I'm going to change that word. I don't know how many of you did Latin when you were at school. Do they teach it in American schools? The old dead language. Well, if you're going for medicine and nursing, you're going to find it very useful. I groaned under it and I thought to myself, this will never be any use. But in certain careers, it's basic. All those live languages like Italian and French and Spanish and those Latin-style languages come from the Latin, the old dead Latin language. And it's really useful. Now, I believe that that word, virtue, is a Latin word. And if it was going to be translated today into robust, good American English, you wouldn't put the word virtue there. What would you put? Courage. If I was talking to an English audience, I would say pluck. That's what they understand over the water. Pluck. add to your faith courage. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm conscious that I am a very timid Christian, that I haven't got much courage to speak to people. And so deeply exercised about it, I get down on my knees by my bedside and I have a talk with my Lord. And I say, Lord, I know you want me to be a witness and I know you want me to go out into the world and make me known, but Lord, I'm just failing thee. My mouth closed and I haven't got the courage. Lord, I'm going to ask you for something. I believe you answer prayer. I've proved you answer prayer, Lord. Please, Lord, will you make me tomorrow... One thousand times more courageous tomorrow than I am today, and I ask it in the name of Jesus at the throne. And the Lord will answer your prayer, and his answer will be no. He will not make you one thousand times more courageous tomorrow than you are today. He'll answer your prayer, but it will be no. You say, why? Because courage is not multiplied. It's got to be added. The moment, the moment you have the courage which you add, then... Many things will be multiplied for that courage to speak the right word in the right place and to make Christ known a thousand opportunities. But until you have gritted your teeth and squared your shoulders and stood up to face the battle and said, listen, he wants me to be a witness. He said, you will be my witness. I'm going to be courageous enough to say, why shouldn't I stand up for Jesus Christ? I stand up for an old Ford car in the face of a Chevy, Chevy. I stand up for Eisenhower in the place of Stevenson. I stand up for donuts instead of soft cakes. I stand up in a hundred ways for things that I like. Why shouldn't I stand up for Jesus Christ? And you've got to make up your mind courageously and say, I'm going to stand for you. It is not multiplied. Now, I wonder if I could get Peter to help me. Wouldn't it be a thrill to ask young folks if that door opened and the old big fisherman came in and thought beside of me, oh, Peter, I'm handing over to you at once. Peter, tell us, what do you mean? I see your faith courage as I can see the old fisherman looking at us. He said, listen, young folks. He said, that night he said, when John slipped me into that big hall where they were trying Jesus, he said, I slipped in out of the night, he said, and there was a big fire burning, and he said, as the big fire was burning, he said, I went over, it was a cold night, and warmed myself for the fire. He said, as I stood there, he said, the slip of a girl came round the corner, and she looked at me, and she said, hello, who are you? You weren't his disciples. He said, if it had been a man or a soldier at first, I'd have probably scored my showing. Yes, I'm proud of it. But he said, that's the little girl with her little face and her little waves and a little sneer on her lips. He said, I just said, no, I don't know him. No. And so it went on. And she said, but you are one of his disciples. You speak for crazy. You're a Galilean, aren't you? No, I'm not. I don't know him. I told you what. Big soldier comes down. He says, I saw you down in the garden with his followers. You were slashing around with a straw, cutting people's ears off, weren't you? I saw you. Look here, I told you I don't know him. And out came all those old fishermen old that he was so used to in the old days of Phileon, down in Capernaum. Hadn't used them for three years. They hadn't come to bring out. But they came up from somewhere. I don't know where. And out they came. I don't know him. And he went on with his swearing. And then his eyes turned through the hall and he saw Jesus turning round and he saw the lovely eyes of the Son of God looking straight into his face. And something snapped. Oh God. And out he went into the night with the tears of his cheeks and he was no blubbering baby. Oh God. Oh, God, I have a faith in Christ, but I wasn't courageous. I was a cow. Now, he never doubted for a moment that a year before he had said, thou art the Christ. And even in the darkest moments of that test, if you had got into the inner part of that man's heart, he would have said, He is the Christ, the Son of God. I know it. But in the face of the world, the hostile world, his courage failed. Now, his faith, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, but his courage failed. And so he takes his pen that he writes to us. He says, in your faith, add courage, supply courage. This is your responsibility. I want to talk to you about courage for a few moments because believe me, I know something about it when I was younger, what a timid, sort of reserved Christian I was, and the opportunities I lost and how slow I walked to really add courage to my faith. You know, dear old Spurgeon, C. H. Spurgeon, was walking with a friend of his through London. and they came to a shot window and as they passed the shot window they saw that the man had put up in the window a ticket and on the ticket was written two words, bones wanted. I don't know whether they wanted bones to make glue or what it was but they were buying bones. And so the surgeon stopped and catching hold of his friends, he said, isn't that true? Isn't that true? He said, backbones. He said one of the biggest needs amongst Christians is backbone, backbone. He said there's too much of the funny bone and there's too much of the wishing bone and there are plenty of other bones amongst Christians, but it's real stirring backbone that's needed, standing up for the Lord courageously. Backbone. Now, what ways can we add to our faith courage? I'm going to give you just one or two or three ways, and I may bring this into the question this morning, so take note. For instance... I believe that one of the things that we've got to learn is that when we ought to say no, we should say no. Proverbs one ten says, when sinners entice thee, consent thou not. And you know as well as I do how easy it is when some of the old friends come along with, oh, come along to us, come along with us to do this and come along to that. And you know you shouldn't, but it's so hard to say no. And if you just look at them, you'll take my advice on this, you just look at them with a smile and say to them, no, thank you very much. And then when they've come on with their, oh, don't be a sissy, come on, don't be a cute one, don't cut out on us, come on, just raise your voice a little bit and say, no, thank you. And then when they still insist and still urge you, just raise it a little bit more. And usually three times is enough, say, and they will never worry you again. They'll wash you quietly off their lists. They won't bother you. They say, no, he doesn't do this or she doesn't do that. She doesn't go here. He doesn't go there and they'll just quietly cut you out. It's settled and instead of being pulled around and trying to get out of it, quietly settle it with a no, a brave no. Now some of you will face this soon on the question of drink, on the question of gambling, on the question of swearing, on the question of going to doubtful places of amusement. On many questions it will come up and let me tell you quite frankly if you will courageously say no thank you, raise your voice. They won't trouble you, but you are going to be troubled as long as you can say no. All the number of young Christians who are being torn to pieces and pulled about because they haven't courageously said no. Then the next thing I'm going to put down is, I believe that every young Christian should take the step of baptism. Now, I believe baptism to be an outward public grave confession of faith in Christ, and I'm a bit troubled, I'm a bit troubled at the way some of our kids in America are being baptized before a select little group of Christians very quietly, and no one knows a thing about it. I was always glad that the night I was baptized in my hometown, there were a thousand people there to watch me. There were many of my old school friends sitting up in the gallery to see why this two getting a ducking, having to come a good laugh. And I thrilled as I walked down into the water to see that they were up there. We baptize in rivers and pools and ponds and streams in the open air down in South America and through the Caribbean. One of the sites that I love in the Caribbean is the early morning baptisms with hundreds, sometimes thousands on the banks of the river. And as the sun peeps over the hills, you see them stepping down into the water and giving their testimony as they stand up to their weights in the water that they are believers in Christ. and then they're immersed on the confession of their faith. Some tell me that they're baptized very young and honestly lots of the young ones, although they take the step courageously, don't understand what they're doing. Baptism is an outward public confession of a believer of death and burial and resurrection. Death to an old life, burial to an old life, resurrection to a new life. I am convinced, young people, that when Jesus said, go ye into all the world, preach the gospel, and those that believed, baptized them, they knew in the world of the Lord Jesus what baptism meant. There was no need to explain it. There was no confusion in their mind. You see, long before Jesus said that, he and his disciples had been baptizing for three years up and down Palestine. And before that, John the Baptist had been baptizing, a baptism of true repentance and turning from an old life to get ready for Messiah's coming. And before that, throughout the Roman Empire, it was a well-known custom in the slave market. They tell me in those slave markets, and at least one third of the Roman Empire were slaves in the day when Jesus was born. that you could go into a big slave market and see people being bought and sold, and here's a man who belongs to Mr. Smith, and here comes Mr. Jones to buy him. And these two masters get together. They arrange the price. And when this slave is going to be transferred from Mr. Smith's service to Mr. Jones's service, when the money and the papers have all been settled, they say to the slaves, get down under the water. And the forequage of that slave went down under the water. He went down Mr. Smith's slave, bearing Mr. Smith's name, engaged in Mr. Smith's service. But now he's been bought by Mr. Jones, and he's dying to Mr. Smith. He goes down into death. He is covered and buried. He comes up there in a new name, Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones's slave, henceforth engaged in Mr. Jones's service. And they knew that it was an instinctive thing that they knew, that that immersion in water spoke of death, burial, resurrection. And you know, honestly, I think lots of us take the step of baptism because we think mom and dad wanted it. We say, well, it's time for me to do it. Oh, it should be a courageous step. It should be seen by neighbors and friends and school companions see your brave, outward public confession of faith in Christ. Now, I'll only add one more thing. I think myself that witnessing, that is, speaking to people about Christ is something that is a very plucky thing. I have to tell you, confessing it to you, that at the end of the day, when I talk to the Lord before I sleep... Far more often do I have to say, Lord, I have failed you, not because of something I've done, but something I haven't done. I have to say, Lord, I look back over the day and I can't think of anything I have to confess and ask you to forgive me about, but, Lord, the things I didn't do. I was sitting by the side of that person, the Greyhound bus, or I was talking to that person over the table at a meal, and we talked about many things, but I didn't seize the opportunity to speak a word for me, Lord, could you forgive me? And we're rubbing shoulders with people and talking about the general things of life, and sometimes we say, Lord, to speak that word. We say, Lord, oh, I'm so timid. I don't seem to be courageous enough to speak the word in season. Now, I don't think we should be preaching at everybody. I'm all against people who go up and courageously point people in the chest like this and say, you're on your way to hell if you're not saved. I find that never does anything. It only offends people. It sort of scares them. But I think the Lord wants us to be exercised to speak the word at the right time. And I think every day should be an adventure, Lord, a new day. I shall meet someone. I shall talk to someone. Bring me to the right place at the right time. To meet the right person with the right message. And the Lord can in his will do that for us. Add to your faith courage. Courage. Courage. Oh, I've seen Christian courage that thrilled me. I remember a dear friend of mine who was called up into the army and he tells how he got outfitted and he took his equipment and went away to a camp, a new camp where he was posted, and they were put in a big barrack room with beds down one side and beds down another. About thirty fellows were all having to live in the same room with their stuff. And he said he came in and he put his stuff down in his cot. And he was wondering, would there be any other Christians amongst the thirty fellows there? And he was wondering how he would ever speak a word for the Lord amongst these trained boys. He said, as he was bending over his staff and opening it up, all of a sudden the Barakroom door burst open. And he said, a fine young soldier came in and looking right down the Barakroom he said, are there any Christians in this room? And he said, Instinctive in my hand and I was a liar. And he said, He came over to me with his hands as brothers. And he said, I had found the brother in Christ. And he said, That man's action of stepping into a room and taking Sturkey fellows who didn't know each other, all by surprise. Is there a cushion in this room? He said, In Jesus. He said, stiffened my spine. I am. And he said, we were friends at once. He said, I was too mingling with fifteen or twenty fellows for prayer. And I was right in the thick of a keen little Christian circle. I tell you, quite frankly, if you are not ashamed of your Bible or your New Testament on the top of your books at college and school, they'll expect you to read it if you put it on the top. If you take your stand and the stand will be taken and can be taken, all the joy that comes, the release of joy when you add to your faith courage. Now we must not linger. The next thing in this verse five, read it with me. Besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith courage and to courage what? Knowledge. You know, there's all the difference between an intelligent Christian and an ignorant Christian. There's a bigger gulf between an intelligent Christian and an ignorant Christian as there is between a courageous Christian and a timid Christian. And he says, I want you to add knowledge because I want you not to be ignorant. I want you to be an intelligent Christian. I don't know if this would interest you, but when the Lord Jesus called to Mary, Mary in the garden, and she said, Rabbonai, he said, Touch me not. He said, Go to my brethren and tell them. I ascend unto my father and your father. And one day I sat down in the New Testament and counted the number of times that disciples and Christians are called brethren. I just forget the number of the moment. I think it was a hundred and twenty seven or a hundred and fifty seven or something like that. But as I listed them down, I noticed that sometimes they were called beloved brethren. He's not ashamed to call us his brethren, beloved brethren, but sometimes they were called ignorant brethren. Never called Plymouth, brethren, but always. I got the money, brethren, or ignorant, brethren. And he said, I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren. He doesn't want ignorant, brethren. And yet so many are ignorant. Or you say, I don't want to be ignorant. Lord, please, Lord, I'm going to pray. Could you make me a thousand times more intelligent in the things of God tomorrow than I am today? Multiply the knowledge of the word of God and by truth. And he'll answer your prayer, and he'll say, No, my child, it's not multiplied. It's got to be added by diligent watch for it. Line upon line, precept upon precept. Hear a little, there a little, just as you go out into any great big area of knowledge, and then you're examined at the end of years. Same with the Word of God. It doesn't all come by multiplication. It's verse by verse. It's line by line. It's chapter by chapter. It's book by book. You will grow in your knowledge of the things of God. Now your mind is a machine, a wonderful, absorbing machine. It's possible for your mind to take in... Forgive my saying it, twenty, thirty times the amount of stuff that it is taking in. Did you know that? Believe me, you haven't stretched your mind, even though you're working so hard. The possibilities of the intake of the mind in those precious growing teenage years and in the twenties, it won't be so easy when you get to the forties, and it will become increasingly difficult to take in in the fifties and sixties. There's a time of intake for the mind. There's a time of maturity of the mind. There's a time of giving out of what you have from the great deposit. But the older you get, the harder it is for the mind to take in. Take in. Take in. It's now are your student days. Now are the days of the intake. Now let's be frank about this. Are you keeping your morning watch? Or don't you know a thing about it? I needn't look into your faces and ask you before you came to camp, whatever happening in camp, I don't know, but I needn't ask you before you came to camp whether you had three meals a day. I needn't ask you. I can see no signs of malnutrition among an audience like this. I often see it down in the West Indies. I see people who obviously are underfed. They're not nourished. But I see boys and girls growing up to manhood and womanhood well fit with the very best food. Now listen, spiritually, are you getting your meals each day? Are you taking God's word and opening it at the portion for the day and bowing your head and saying, Come now, Lord Jesus, speak to me, teach me, feed me. Open mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy word and you read to listen for his voice and to learn more of his ways. Half the backsliding and half the weakness amongst young Christians as I see it when I talk to them is a neglect of God's word, a neglect of the daily habit of reading it and applying it to your heart and life. You have got to add to your faith courage and to your courage knowledge. I say, Peter, come on in, and here old Peter ambles in and stands here. He says, what do you want? We want to know about this adding to your faith knowledge, Peter. What about? Can you tell us? Oh, says Peter, can I tell you yes. He says, do you know? He said, the Lord took us up onto a mountain of transfiguration. He said, Peter and James and John, the three chosen to go up. And he said, we were up there and we saw him. We saw him talking with Moses, the great lawgiver and Elijah, the great big prophet. And we saw him transfigured. We saw his glory on the mountain. And he said, then he said, I made the mistake of my life. He said, I opened my mouth. And he said, I began to talk. And I said, Lord, Lord, it's so wonderful to be here, let us make three tabernacles, one for Moses, one for Elijah, and one for you, and we'll stay up here the rest of our little lives and settle down on the mountaintop. And he had to write it, not knowing what he said. He revealed his ignorance by opening his mouth. I said, do you remember Esau's fable? Do you remember Esau's fable? The story of the donkey that got a lion's skin. Do you remember it? Oh, it's a thrilling one. You ought to have done this in the nursery. The old donkey got the lion's skin and somehow rigged it all over himself and got covered up with a lion's skin. And he thought, I'll frighten them. And so he went out and the big giraffe with his big neck saw him. Hello, you're just animal. Give that lion coming. And they all began to scantle off. The old elephant and jackal the monkey ambling along and the great big giraffe and the zebras. And they all ran away with the lions and chewing them. And the old donkey got so proud. He said, they're running away from me. I'll frighten them a bit more. You watch. You listen as I roar. He awed. He awed. And they all stopped and they turned round and they said, He couldn't allow it. It's a silly old donkey and they tore into pieces. I've been right. Is everything all right till he opened his mouth? I said, you ever look at the girl? You see, what a lovely face she's got. What a splendid shaped head she's got. Everything's all right till she opens her mouth. Now, honestly, if you open your mouth, does it reveal that you have a knowledge of God's truth and a God's word or not? If you open your mouth, does it reveal that you have spent quiet times turning the pages, touring up the truth of God in your mind? It isn't going to be multiplied. The deposit will grow as you learn God's word and store your mind with it. And it is the deposit that the Holy Spirit can use. He's not going to bring to your remembrance what you don't know. If you open your mouth, he'll fill it from the deposit of truth that you've made up. Fill your mouth to speak the right word out of that deposit at the right moment in the right situation. This has got to be added. Now, do you see the balance as I close? My time has gone. But do you see the balance? Look at that verse again. Besides this, verse five, giving all diligence, add to your faith or in your faith supply courage. And in your courage supply knowledge, oh, there's a beautiful balance there. God wants you to be a courageous and an intelligent Christian. It would be awful if you were courageous but not intelligent. It is almost equally awful to be an intelligent Christian with no courage. You've heard of the courageous Christian barber, haven't you, who used to love to witness for the Lord. And when he got a man back in his chair and loved him all over for a shave... He went away to get his razor sharp, you know, like this, and he's sharpening up his razor with exercised heart. Lord, help me to speak a word and excuse me to this man about him. Undying, hold. He's going to hell. He isn't saved, you know, Lord. Have you approached him back in the chair? He said, friend, I want to ask your question. Are you ready to die? That was courageous, but not intelligent. Oh, may God give us the balance of courage, and I have seen such courageous Christians. I've taken off my hat in admiration, but I feel that it's not balanced, not balanced by knowledge. And I have seen Christians with a deep knowledge of God's word, but they seem to lose every opportunity and never seem to be an instrument in the Lord's hands because of lack of courage. Add to your faith virtue, courage, and to your courage, knowledge that you might be a courageous and an intelligent Christian. Now we've only touched two of the seven, and we shall move into the others tomorrow.