-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Glory to God. Thank you for joining me.
00:40 Today we are continuing our three-part series in temperance or biblical self-control. And why is this important? Because it pleases God. And in fact, this is a command from God.
00:53 And as we talked about in the last episode, Christ is our example for how we can live in temperance, having temperance, exhibiting temperance in our lives, showing self-control, showing discipline in godly ways as he’s called us to do.
01:08 You know, Christ was and is loving and joyful, patient, caring, truthful, charitable beyond all measure, diligent, meek, peaceful, gentle, good and righteous, having great faith, and obedient. These are just some of the characteristics of Christ.
01:30 But think about it. He’s loving and joyful because he knows that he’s brought himself into submission or obedience unto God. He’s patient because he knows that God’s will is what needs to be done, not his own desires.
01:43 He’s caring because he understands God’s heart for his people. He’s truthful because he’s living a godly life and he knows that God is truth and God cannot lie.
01:55 He’s charitable beyond all measure because God is charitable beyond all measure, even to the point of giving his own life on the cross for all mankind.
02:06 He’s diligent. You know, diligence is such a great characteristic of Christians, Bible-believing Christians, Christians that are living for the Lord. They’re very diligent.
02:18 They really think a lot about things and they’re conscious to answer correctly and they spend time and they’re quick to hear and slow to speak. Diligence, that’s completely who Christ was and everything that he did. Meek, completely under control, totally under control when he had all power.
02:35 That’s an incredible thought. Peaceful came to help us to have peace, not in this world because there’s so much strife and turmoil against God, but to have peace with God. And that’s the ministry of reconciliation.
02:48 Christ is very gentle and loving. You think of the way that he bestowed forgiveness on great sinners that would come to him. And Christ was good and righteous in every way.
03:00 In fact, no man is good or righteous. We can’t do anything good without Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness.
03:06 If we are righteous, we are only righteous by him. And Christ had great faith to walk with the Lord and to serve the Lord and not to bow down to the temptations of this world or to use his power for evil. And Christ is obedient.
03:20 Above all else, he was obedient. And that means being self-disciplined and having himself under control. Truly, much of what Christ endured, he probably didn’t want to go through, but he did go through it.
03:34 He did walk in faith, amen. And we are called to walk in faith as Christ did and to suffer as he had. And then we will be ruling and reigning with Christ and rewarded with him as he has now been rewarded and sits on high and is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
03:49 So now we look at the idea of who’s in control. A command to live out temperance. Galatians 5:25.
04:00 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Well, that makes sense. If we live in the Spirit, that’s capital S, that’s the Holy Spirit.
04:10 We understand that God in three parts is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And if we live in the Holy Spirit, that means that we’re saved because we know that when we accept what the Son did, the Father sent the Son, and when we accept what the Son did on the cross, amen.
04:22 We are saved by what Jesus did on the cross when we believe on him. And then we get the third part of the Trinity.
04:34 We get that Holy Spirit, that capital S, Holy Spirit, which is a him, it’s a he, it’s a person. We get that Spirit living within us, amen. That is the three-part Godhead, amen.
04:42 Only the Holy Spirit should control us. Do you know the Holy Spirit desires to control you? Do you know that? That’s interesting to think about. But do you know that when you do anything good, like anything that you do good and godly, that’s not you, that’s the Holy Spirit working through you.
05:00 That’s why, you know, an obedient Christian will say, I give God the glory if something good happens, because it’s not them, it’s the Holy Spirit working within them.
05:03 And the Holy Spirit should be the one that’s controlling us all the time. It’s impossible to live godly lives without the Holy Spirit.
05:16 We get and enable the Holy Spirit through temperance. You know, we get it by understanding our need and being saved by grace. We accept that Jesus Christ died for us because we don’t have the capability to save ourselves.
05:30 No matter how good we live, we think we’re living good. It’s not good enough, amen. And that we all fall short, and we go down Romans Road, and we understand our need.
05:36 We understand that God provided that lamb, that sinless, spotless lamb, like when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, and he sees that ram in the bush. God provided a sinless, spotless lamb in Jesus Christ. And that is the substitutionary death that occurs.
05:54 So Jesus is substituted in for us. So we’re sinful man. He’s perfect.
06:02 He goes to the cross and says, I’ll die for them. He dies and takes on the sin of the entire world, past, present, and future on his shoulders, is buried three days, and risen again, amen.
06:11 And with that new resurrection, we now have new life in Christ, and we believe on him.
06:16 That’s when the devil was defeated, amen. That’s when Jesus had finished the work, amen. And now we are saved by what Jesus did on the cross, and we accept that as Savior.
06:26 We accept Jesus Christ as Savior, and we live for God. We are having that temperance about us. Because think about it, once we’re saved, does all temptation go away? Of course not.
06:37 Does all desire to sin go away? Of course not. And so anyone that’s ever been saved and backslid understands that we need to use self-control to get ourselves under control, and reign ourselves in. Thy will versus my will is really the way it works.
06:51 Is it thy will, God, be done? Or is it my will be done? And that’s a huge battle we all face. You may love baseball and want to spend every day at the baseball game, and God says, I want you to go on the best day of those baseball games and go preach at the nursing home. And you’re saying, but I love baseball.
07:07 And God’s saying, is it thy will or my will? And so we have a choice. And we must get ourselves under control, whether it is something for a minister, or whether it is someone at a hospital, a nurse that’s working third shift and is very tired, and says, I just don’t go to church on Sunday mornings.
07:24 And God’s saying, I’ll give you rest throughout the week if you went ahead and went to church on Sunday mornings.
07:29 You’d be a blessing to a lot of people for them to see you, and you’d be blessed by being there. And I’m just giving simple examples. I have no idea what it is in your life, but that thy will versus my will, that struggle that we face, we must give it to God and get ourselves under Holy Spirit control.
07:49 Cease our will over to the Lord and say, Lord, thy will be done. Proverbs 25:28 describes the consequences here. He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down without walls.
07:59 What does that mean? A city with no walls has no protection. In Bible times, cities were fortified. They had big walls.
08:07 Why? Because enemies would come and attack it. That’s when you read the scripture about how God is a high tower. The idea is God protects you above all your enemies, a sword and a shield, a buckler, etc.
08:20 That is how our God is in our lives. And cities, that would resonate a lot with people in Bible times, because the cities were fortified. A city without walls is invaded by the enemy.
08:29 There’s no protection there. It’s compromised. You know, when we don’t get ourselves under control, we are invaded by our enemy, sin, a free-flowing life, a life of no control.
08:39 If you woke up and said, I’m gonna just live and do whatever today, and I’m not gonna think about anything moral, anything biblical, I’m just gonna live and do what I want, that will lead to sin.
08:49 And we understand the wages of sin is death. A city without walls is invaded by the enemy.
08:54 If you’re not exhibiting temperance, your life will not be ruled by the right spirit. Think about this. Will man naturally abstain from lust and fornication? Will man naturally forsake their idols, anything they put above God in their hearts and their minds?
09:03 Will man naturally pray without ceasing? Will man naturally read the Bible morning, noon, and night? Will man naturally give even when they have a need? Will man naturally forgive their enemies, their worst enemies, and pray for blessings upon them? So much in the Bible is counter to what man would naturally do.
09:26 We see that often in the Beatitudes, in the book of Matthew, I believe in Christ’s preaching, blessed, blessed, blessed. A lot of it is counterintuitive. It’s the idea that we are to be godly above our own nature, our own sin nature.
09:41 We have to bring every thought, idea, instinct, in subjection unto Christ. Every thought we have should be brought before Christ. Is it godly? Is it Christ-like? Does this line up with the scripture?
09:57 Is this how we should live? We being sinful are not apt to do this, and many are living undisciplined lives.
10:05 And the consequences, they’re great. I mean, you face sin. You’re not able to do what you want to do for God.
10:12 The Bible says a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. We’re not able to win souls for Him. The world sees, hey, this person is just like me.
10:18 I don’t need to change. We’re not set apart. We’re not holy.
10:24 We’re not living holy. The enemy destroys. We face destruction.
10:28 This sin will ruin you, your family, your life. I’m telling you the truth. There is no one more miserable than someone that’s been saved that gets the Spirit, and all they do is grieve the Spirit through living in sin.
10:36 God gives us a way to live by the Holy Spirit. If we accept His way, He gives us a choice. We have free will, but free will often will lead to natural living.
10:47 And the question is, why on earth would free will lead to natural living? Unbelief. Free will? God says, do what you’re gonna do. Let’s see what you do.
10:56 And you don’t believe. Amen? I’m studying in my morning Bible study the book of Exodus, and the Israelites, they’re left alone for, you know, a few days, a few weeks at the most.
11:07 They’ve literally just seen God, and now they’re doubting Him, and they’re asking Aaron to make them molten calves, and they’re worshiping idols, gold idols, and they’re doing crazy stuff.
11:22 They literally had just seen God. They actually saw the fire of the cloud on the mountain and so forth. They’ve seen like an appearance of God.
11:25 It’s unbelievable, and it’s scary. And just a few weeks later, they’ve turned away from Him because free will leads oftentimes to people having unbelief.
11:34 And unbelief will lead someone to live in sin because they don’t believe God is who He says He is, and He’s a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, to quote Hebrews.
11:43 So what we need to do is believe and have faith that, number one, God’s book is a good book, and that His ways are the right ways for our life, that they are like the right ways to live.
11:53 We have to believe this, and if we believe this, then we’ll say, okay, we believe you are who you say you are, God, and we’re gonna go ahead and live how you want us to live, and how you want us to live is be obedient to you. Remember, New Testament Christians, we’re not under the law.
12:08 We’re saved by grace. I hope I made that clear here today. We’re saved by what Jesus did on the cross, amen. So we’re not talking about salvation.
12:13 We’re talking about pleasing God. We’re talking about a closeness with God. The book of James talks about drawing nigh to God, and He’ll draw nigh to you, and cleansing your hands, you sinners, amen. How do we cleanse our hands? We repent before God.
12:34 We get right with God, and we work on that battle within to get ourselves reined in so that we can truly live for Him wholly and appropriately, and as He wants us to live, He’s given us examples in the Bible.
12:41 I think no better example than Jesus Christ. Another one, of course, would be Paul, especially after Saul has turned to Paul, and he suffers many things.
12:50 So much so, I believe the Lord had to show him a glimpse of heaven, as the Bible says, so that Paul could be prepared to suffer what he suffered on earth. But he was obedient. Did Paul have free will? He certainly had free will, right? We all have free will.
13:02 Yeah, you think of all the great men and women in Christian history, did they have free will? They did have free will, but they were obedient. They reined themselves in unto Christ. They weren’t perfect.
13:15 Think of David, for example, a man after God’s own heart. Far from perfect, but he was obedient to the Lord. You read the Psalms, and you see his love for the Lord, and you say, this man really loves the Lord, and really believes in the Lord.
13:26 And so it starts with belief, and then we must face these battles head-on, spiritually, rein ourselves in, get ourselves in a spiritually disciplined state, so that we can properly be ready to fight the enemy, properly be ready to serve God in whatever capacity He’d have us to serve Him, and to live for Him.
13:44 And when we do these things, when we rein ourselves in, when we judge ourselves so we don’t have to be judged in that regard, we have peace, we have happiness, we have joy, and it’s not like the world has, but it’s a godly peace, a godly happiness, a godly joy, that’ll make you shout, that’ll make you hug somebody, that’ll make you cry tears of joy. It’s a wonderful thing to have, and it’s only by God’s grace that He gives it to us.
14:10 Seek God today. Serve God today. Thank you for listening.
14:11 Take care. God bless, and amen.