Luke 1:77, says, "To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins." There is nothing like the knowledge of salvation. That will get you thinking right. That's why we just need to know more about salvation!

But now this knowledge of salvation is not head knowledge only, but it says, "To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins." Listen, it's experience. This knowledge is knowledge given us by remission of sin, by Him doing it. So we need to hear more about what He's done for us, and remember when He did it. That's why He said, "I will not neglect to stir you up by putting you in remembrance though you know these things."

There ought to be a lot of knowledge passed out. There ought to be some hungering for it. There ought to be some wanting to know it. Now remember, you're having to add. Virtue needs nourishment. Virtue is going to have to have a little help. To be a virtuous person, you're going to have to have some help and the help that you need is knowledge. So you're going to have to start hungering for knowledge. You say, "Well, I've hungered for virtue, but my virtue is lacking." Now you need to hunger for knowledge. Because to get virtue, you've got to have some knowledge. So, you need to be hungering for knowledge about salvation. Well, where is this knowledge? It's in what God did for you when He saved you, because the knowledge of salvation came by what he did for you. So, it would be good for you to remember. You are going to have to be diligent, be diligent to think on what you know about salvation, about what He did for you. All I'm doing is trying to give you some practical things todo to help that virtuous person. And what you need to do is you need to feed virtue the knowledge of what happened to you when you got saved. Feed yourself with what you know God did for you! It wouldn't even hurt us to feed each other, would it?

Luke 11:52, says, "Woe unto you lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." In this passage we see another place this knowledge is. It is in a room with a door which is locked. So this knowledge has a key. This food's in your refrigerator and its locked. Now remember, we're talking about nourishment. Food is nourishment. Virtue needs some food to feed on. That virtuous life of yours is going to have to have something added to it. You're going to have to feed that virtuous life that God wants for you that's going to feed faith. It's locked in a refrigerator and the lawyers have taken the key and thrown it away.

Well, what is the key of knowledge? You've got to look in the verses before. Jesus said, "Woe, unto you! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchers of the prophets, and your fathers . Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed , and ye build their sepulchers. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zechariah, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." They killed the preacher and took away the honor from the pulpit. You know what the key of knowledge is? God-sent preachers. It's locked up in them. For God has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And, he said, "You've ." They killed the God-sent preachers.

He said, in effect, "I sent you the prophets and the apostles and what did you do with them? You took the key of knowledge from my people and you and slew them and threw them away." You know how you are going to get that virtuous life? Listening to your preacher and the preaching of the word. It'll feed you. It'll help your thoughts. And it wouldn't hurt you to think on what he's preached to you all week long. Listen, there is a lot of knowledge to eat on. There's lots of food out there, but there is healthy food and unhealthy food.

Some may say, "I'm going put out bad thoughts." And they've got this attitude about thinking right that says, "I don't want any evil thoughts and I'm gonna put in my mind only Christian thoughts." Because they want that virtuous life. They really desire the right thing. They want a virtuous life, but here's what they're doing. They are feeding on 'junk food.' They think because it's labeled Christian, that they can listen to it. They are deceived by the devil. The key of knowledge is a God-sent preacher to you. That is the knowledge that will nourish the virtuous person. Not just anybody, will do.

Then we say, "Well, we don't want to listen to anything ungodly; any ungodly music; so we'll just listen to Christian music. Even though I know the guitars are wild you know, at least they have Christian words to it." Not necessarily! You had best be careful what you listen to. It may not be coming from God. It's not just any knowledge. It's knowledge that comes from those who are God-sent.

So that virtuous person needs nourishment. He needs knowledge, and that knowledge needs something. Okay, so now we're at knowledge. Now I know I need to listen more to the preacher if I'm going to get stronger in the faith. That's basically what I'm saying, because one's going to feed the other. It's going to finally make its way to faith.

Here I am at knowledge; oh, then I've got to pay more attention to the preacher. Now remember what the Pharisees did. They closed the refrigerator up and threw the key away, right? They didn't live virtuous lives for sure. These were some wicked men. Even though they acted godly on the outside, they were wicked on the inside. God forbid that we would become Pharisees; I want to be real. But you don't get it throwing away the key of knowledge. The key of knowledge is found where God said He would give your pastors according to His heart which will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

But in order to get that knowledge, you need some self-control, which is temperance. Now why would a fellow need temperance, in order to get knowledge from a preacher? Well, what is temper-ance? Temperance is self-control. It means this: 'One who masters his desires and passions. The ability to listen and follow not our own desires and passions, but the desires and the will of another.' You know why they killed the prophets? They didn't want to submit to them. They didn't want to do what they said. Oh, they listened to their sermons, but they didn't want to do what they said.

You say, "There's knowledge there, but for some reason that knowledge isn't doing anything for me. Just listening to him preach won't help me." Maybe that's because you don't like what he's preaching and you're not even willing to do what he's preaching. You don't have any self-control. Self doesn't like it. Self is under control, when you listen to the preacher, and you are saying, "Self, get under him and listen to him. this will be good for you."

There is a refrigerator, but some are kind of like me. I want junk-food. I don't want this low fat, diet healthy food. Give me something that's bad for me. I open the refrigerator at my Mama's house and everything in there is fat free, diet, and even the potato chips are low fat! And you know what? That's the way some people are. They want what they want, and when they come into God's house and the refrigerator is open before them, they look at it and say, "I wasn't wanting that."

Self wants what he wants. Give me something that will tickle my ear. You know, give me the dessert. It's like my kids. Kids don't want what's good for them, they want the junk-food. Give me the sweets! Be sweet to me. Preacher be sweet to me. He wasn't sweet to me, therefore, let's kill him. That's what they did. The prophets reproved them for their sin and they .

Jesus said, "Woe," and they crucified the Lord, because they had no self-control.

It says in the scriptures that they gave our Savior over to men who had no self-control, and He let them do with Him as they wanted to do with Him. They took Him and smote Him and beat Him. They were out of control. They did things to our Savior that normal human beings wouldn't even consider doing, because they were out of control. If they had just gotten in control and said, "Wait a minute, what if He is God? What if what he's saying is right?" They would have received something that would have fed their souls.

You need to think, 'There's knowledge and I need that knowledge that my preacher has locked up in that refrigerator. Oh, but I need a little self-control to be able to get it out of there.'

So the knowledge of God has got to have some self-control. It has got to have some temper-ance with it. Self-control needs patience though. We're getting down the line now. It says to get to self-control, you're gonna have to go through some things. You're going to have to have some patience. You know what this word patience means. It's not just the word wait. It is the patience in enduring. It means 'noted of a man who has not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to the faith by even the greatest trial.' Patient in the New Testament always has trial and affliction attached to it. Waiting is test time. Patient! You know how you get self-control? It's like when you get a horse who is out of control and you want to get it under control. You are going to put a bit in its mouth and bring him under control. Self-control needs a little trial. It needs some affliction. For God to begin to get control of you, you need to be tried. You need some struggles in your life. Then you begin to get hungry for struggles, so self can come under the control of God. Self needs something; self needs control.

God says, "I know what self needs. It needs some trials." Wait a minute, Lord, I like all that other stuff; I like knowledge. All that's wonderful, but self needs some trials? It needs to be brought under control? It needs a little hardship? Yes, you have to minister nourishment to self-control. It will help you get a hold of self. Wait until God gets through with you. Be diligent. You say, "Well now, can I feed my own self trials?" Yes. You say, "Now how do I do that?" By not trying to get out of them.

You see what we're told in the book of Revelation. It says in the book of Revelation 3:17-18, "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see." He's telling them, "You don't want what I've got for your life. You're running from my trials." See, when you're patiently enduring, you stay in it until God works what He wants to work. You know how you can do this? Say God puts you in a job situation and it gets hard and you fly off and you want to just flee because you just don't want the circumstances. Stay in it until God says, "All right now I'll let you out."

See, you can run from your trials. You can run from the will of God. You can get out of it. You can flee. But when God says it's okay, then you can get out, because you know what He's doing in that job? He's bringing you under control. That's what He's doing in those trials. Say, "Okay God, I'm going to stay put. I'm not running from my circumstances. I'm going to learn to be content with them and let You work what You're working in my life."

There are some of you, who when you got lost, wanted to run out; but because you endured it and went through, God did something for self.

Look at Luke 21:19. I thought this was a good verse just to show you what patience can do. "In your patience possess ye your souls." Now, your soul is yourself. Temperance is dealing with self, and self-control. Your soul needs to be a soul that is under control. In your patience is how you obtain that. The word possess means 'to obtain' something. The self in you that has control, is obtained in your patience; in the trials that you go through. Patience feeds self-control. Self-control is going to help you listen to the preacher; going to make you needy; going to give you knowledge; going to help you think on God. Think on salvation. That knowledge is going to make you live a virtuous life. And guess what virtue is going to do? It's going to make you confident that you're saved.

Well, patience needs godliness. When you are going through a trial, how do you stay in it? It needs some strength that patiently endures. Well, it needs godliness. Now wait a minute. What in the world is godly? Let me give you some verses. Look at I Timothy 3:16, "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Now he's going to tell you what godliness is right here. This is the mystery of godliness: 'God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed in the world, and received up into glory.'

I Timothy 4:7, "But refuse profane and old wives fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness." You know what godliness is? It's that Jesus Christ loved me and came down and put on a flesh and dwelt among men and endured, suffered, bled and died, and was received up into glory, and honored by God, and all the Gentiles believed on Him. You know what godliness is? It's giving your life for others. You want to get help to endure trials that will bring self under control? 'Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame.' Was that not real godliness? So, now you may think godliness is perfection. But godliness is laying down your life for others. And that trial that you're going through needs strength to endure, and it gets it by looking unto Jesus who did the same thing. So you need to be thinking on the Savior, and what He did, when you're in trials. It'll feed you and help you get food. There's no telling how many trials I've endured because God said, "You're just being like My Son, which is godliness."

Do you know that you can have some godliness in your life and not be very virtuous? Wow! Because godliness is going to work virtuous life. Man, that's strange, isn't it? You don't know what God considers godliness. When you have endured a trial, you have been like God. Isn't that encouraging? I'll stay with it God! I endured the chastening of the Lord. I've endured it! You've done something godly then. Now remember what godliness is. It's what Jesus did. Jesus endured. Look unto Jesus!

Well, you may think, 'I'm going to think on what Jesus did, and that is going to do it.' No, it needs something. Even godliness needs some help. What help does it need? Brotherly kindness! He endured the cross for the joy set before Him, for others! Do you want to be like Jesus? That's good, Jesus came and died for men. Brotherly kindness, by the way, refers to the love of brothers and sisters. It's the word 'philadelphia;' love of the brethren. If I understand this right, I can be more like Jesus when I love the brethren more. It will help me endure trials. Now, wait a minute though, how can I love my brethren? 'By love, serve one another.' So ultimately, you know how to get what you need; Love.

You say, "You told me all this; now what do I do with this?" Remember, when I first started trying to understand these verses I was at faith, trying to add to faith. But let me just tell you what to do. Kind of move away from virtue a little bit and go down here to the source of all substance. Let's go down here to love. In love: we need to be in the love of God. The love of God will feed brotherly kindness. That's why the Bible says, in effect, 'Keep thyself in the love of God,' and, 'The love of Christ constrains us,' and, 'Rooted and built up that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is theheight, the breadth, the depth of the love of God. That ye may be filled with all the fullness of God.'

Love is the great reservoir of God. You put your roots down in that and out of that root grows faith. Love is the root, and faith is the fruit. It's the other way around from what you might have thought. You may have thought love was the fruit and faith was the root. I did for years, too.

Love is also a fruit, but in this scripture it is a root that draws food from God's strength. Because, notice, it says over in II Peter, that you should "be neither barren nor unfruitful." In what? The knowledge of our Lord Jesus. It's talking about the fruit of knowledge. And how do you get that? By having an abundant entrance into the kingdom of God. By walking with God. How do you get that? By confidence. And that comes by having strong faith, because we draw near and enter into the holy place through boldness, do we not? So therefore, that fruit of knowledge is produced by love.

Look at it like a tree. Underneath the ground there is water. Psalm 1 says that we are planted by rivers of water. You always plant something near a life source. What you do is you root yourself. Root and ground yourself in love. Isn't that what it says in Ephesians? You root and ground in love. Love fulfills the whole law. It will help you keep the commandments. Out of it comes all substance; love for God, God's love for me, and my love for the brethren. How great is the realm of the love of God.

When the love of God in my life becomes great and God loves me, and I know He loves me, and I see how much He loves me, then that's going to cause me to love others! You need to see it flowing like a tree. Love is always running through all the parts of it. You don't separate them because they are nourishing each other. It's like the members of my body. The blood is nourishing all the members of my body. It's running through it, coming from the source. The heart gets the oxygen from the lungs. It gets the life and pumps it throughout the body. So at one part of my body blood is being nourished and at the other end the foot is being nourished. All because the blood is flowing through it.

So, what I'm saying is that the object is for us to abound. I'm going to be thankful to God that a little bit of that sap gets through to that virtue up there at the beginning. It doesn't take forever to get a little bit of it through there. Thank God I have a little bit of virtue! At least my thoughts are better than they used to be. As I look back, I see that I didn't know anything. But now I have some true thoughts. There's some sap coming through. It's not as if all the sap has gotten there yet, but it's on the way, if I'll be diligent to feed the things which need nourishing.

You say, "Now how do you feed them?" You have to be diligent to root yourself and ground yourself in love and get your root in the love of God. A root is just a big sucker, that's all it is. Rooting, trying to get over there in the love of God. Keep yourselves in the love of God. Because, ultimately, when you do, love will work its way up there and you'll be strengthened. Your faith will be strengthened. It will effect it all. It just runs its course. I've always found that when you have a desire for one thing, God will say, "Okay, now that I've got you desiring it, forsake it and go get this and you'll have that which you were desiring." It's like when God got me desiring the power of God. He said, "Now forsake it and go get wisdom and then you'll have the power of God."

When you see how much God loves you, and who you were, you're going to love somebody else. Then you are going to want to be like your Savior and want to die for them. Before you know it, you'll go through anything for them. You'll be patient, and patience is going to help bring yourself under control before you start living for others. And in your self-control, you're going to get more knowledge because you're going to be listening more than you've ever listened. And boy, the knowledge you will get out of all of that! You are going to be listening to the preacher, and hanging on to every word you can get. You're not going to want your own will, but you're going to want God's will, and His compassion, not your own. And before long, you're going to be that virtuous person you need to be, and have what your faith is looking for. You're going to be that person your faith believes is in there. You know what? I believe God made a new man and he's in there, but his flesh is so strong sometimes he can't be seen.

I remember working for my dad, and I couldn't see what I wanted to see in my life. I was lazy, slothful, and had no virtue at all, that I could see. I knew there was a new man in me, and over time that man started coming out more and more. He's in there! He's just weak. I learned this a while back: for you to conquer the flesh you're going to have to have some strength to do it. And

the strength comes from the love of God. You say, "That's simple. We can all do that. We can all dwell on the love of God."

So that brings you back to just being thankful that God loves you. Boy, isn't that some truth. Now that's something you've got to do. He said, be diligent to add, to minister nourishment, to your faith virtue; to brotherly kindness you have to be diligent to add love. You start struggling at loving your brother and you know what you need to do? You need to stop and think about how much God loves you and who you are. Consider thyself. Who are you? And you know, you might find yourself loving like you've never loved before. But I guarantee you, when you have trouble loving your brother and your sister, you have stopped thinking about the love of God. But, when you get over there and think about how God loves you, then all of a sudden it isn't hard to love somebody else. Then you can go through anything. Then it just kind of goes on down the line, and before you know it you're a much better person than you used to be. Love is the reservoir underneath the ground that you need to tap into and it'll work its way up. But be diligent to do these things. Be active, zealous, and earnest to exert yourself and endeavoring to do it. Be rooted and grounded in love.