Peter is about to depart. He knows that his time is short. He's concerned about false prophets who are leading others astray in the church. So he writes three chapters to help the church have a true and fruitful knowledge of God. Peter makes some very impressive promises for all who will heed what he is revealing 2nd Peter chapter 1 verse 8 Peter says for if these things are yours and abound you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ for he who lacks these things is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These things refers to the eight character qualities that flow from a believer's partaking of God's nature, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Today, we'll be looking at self-control. Of the eight qualities, self-control is one of the most important as it relates to keeping you from stumbling. Do you find yourself stumbling into sin? This message is for you. But remember to keep this in context. Remember what we're talking about as we go through 2 Peter. Faith connects you to God. It is God's power. His divine power has given us. It's not human power. You cannot have self-control in your own power. It's God's power. It is God's knowledge through the knowledge of Him. It's not through man's ideas. It is through God's calling. It's not of men. We respond to God. It's of God's nature. We must partake of the divine nature. And these promises are not mere words, but they actually lead us to the God who is. And this is motivated by God's promises. And God promises that as you grow in these things, you will never stumble. Why self-control? as part of these eight essential qualities is because you must possess the supernatural strength in your life to resist lust. Self-control is a supernatural strength that God gives to empower you to resist lust. When sin comes knocking, on the door of your heart, what do you do? When you feel the temptation for that sin within your heart, what do you do? So there's a temptation from without, and there's a temptation from within. In that moment, what you need is self-control. so that you do not give in to the temptation and destroy your life with lust. If you have self-control, you will not give in to the lust. And that will give you the essential time to escape and give you the time to grow in your faith. but also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to the brotherly kindness love. All these things work together. But an essential link in that chain is self-control. Without self-control, you will not be able to resist lust. So let's take a closer look at self-control. Faith connects you to God and God connects you to self-control. When you connect with God by faith and partake of his divine nature, the scripture says you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, 2 Peter 1.4. In this world, lust makes promises. God makes promises and lust makes promises. The promises that lust make are, you can have this fruit and you're not gonna die. There's no consequence for sin. So first removes the consequence. There's no consequences for sin. You will be like God. You'll actually know good and evil, and that will be good for you. You'll be like God. This will make you wise. So indulging in these things actually will be good for you. Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Come, let us take our fill of love until morning. Let us delight ourselves with love. What could be more important than this? Proverbs 7, 18. For my husband is not at home. He's gone on a long journey. You're not going to get caught. This is good for you anyway. You deserve this. Look at all you've gone through. Lust makes promises. Look, if you had just this, you know, then you'd be happy. If you had a bear, fill in the blank. A better this, a better that, right? If you had more, more money, more power, more respect, better wife, a better husband, a better house, a better car, if you just had more, right, you'd be happy. Lust makes all kinds of promises. If you want to be safe, you need to follow this. So lust makes promises. and the false teachers that Peter is exposing. They make false promises that appeal to the Christian in the church. They allure you through the lust of the flesh, 2 Peter 2.18. They allure you, Christian. The false teachers come into the church and they allure you, they make an appeal to your lust through the shiny bait that they dangle before your eyes. They make promises, 2 Peter 2.19. Well, they promise them liberty. So what do the false teachers promise? Liberty. Do you want to be free? Do you want to have a happy life? Do you want to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, and successful? They allure you. They make promises. They promise them liberty, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. So these false teachers that are being exposed all the time, they promise people liberty, but they're not walking in liberty. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. Neither the world nor the false teachers in the Christian church can make good on their promise. They cannot fulfill their promise. Lust never fulfills its promise. It's a lie. The false teachers can't fulfill their promise. They're walking in bondage themselves. They're not experiencing the promise that they're talking about. They're not even living it. They're hypocrites. But they still allure so many people away. Why? If they can't fulfill, if they can't make good on their promises, why do so many people follow their promises? And there's one word, and that word is lust. People in the world are not satisfied by the things of the world. Then why do they keep pursuing them, even though they're empty? Because they're lustful. because of lust. Lust keeps that pursuit going. But when you receive, when you believe, when you grow in God's promises, you begin to experience the reality of the promise. You begin to experience the reality of God's nature. And you know That he always makes good on his promises When you believe the promises of god you receive the power of god you partake of the divine nature you respond to god's calling The power of lust in your life is broken Because you no longer have to believe the lies you have something better to live for You have something better to satisfy you. You have something better to believe in than the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Your bondage to lust is broken. That's why Peter says in 2 Peter 1.4, you escape the corruption that is in the world through lust. You partake of the divine nature. David said it this way, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Before I knew my shepherd, all I had was wanting. I was wanting, I was wanting, I was wanting. But then I came to my shepherd. Oh my, no, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down. He restores my soul. I used to feel anxious about all the stress and difficulties in life and how am I gonna get through it? Now I can see through God's power, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4.13. Jesus said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. So there's a lot of people drinking and taking in physical things. Food, sex, medicine, all these things. They're taking in physical things and they're taking in physical things trying to find spiritual nourishment. And it doesn't work. Jesus said, you drink this water, you're gonna thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never thirst. The water that I shall give him will become like a fountain of water springing into everlasting life. John 4, 13, 14. This is the connection that we have with God. This is the satisfaction that we have with God. This is the blessing that we have with God, that when we partake of the divine nature, who needs lust? When you have the divine promises of God, I'm not gonna be deceived by these lies any longer. You literally escape the corruption that is in the world through lust when you partake of the divine nature. Faith connects us to God. God empowers us to escape the corruption of lust. And God connects us to self-control. What is self-control? When we come to God, when we're born again, we still have a sin nature. We have a regeneration, we have a power, we have a new power, we have a new nature. We can walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh, but we still have an old man that needs to be put off, that needs to be ignored. Self-control is the answer. Self-control is to exercise control over one's desires and actions. to exercise control over your desires and actions. Lo and night is a lexicon that's used to help Bible translators help take the Greek into other languages. And they state this, an accurate rendering of the expression to exercise self-control may require an idiomatic equivalent. For example, To hold oneself in. That's interesting, to hold oneself in. To command oneself. To be a chief of oneself. To make one's heart obedient. To command one's desires. To be the master of what one wants. Or to say no to one's body. The virtue of one who masters his passions and desires, especially his sensual appetites. That's Thayer's Greek dictionary. The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. Another definition would be the capacity to resist sin. So when sin comes knocking at the door of your heart, and you feel it without and within, the person with self-control shuts the door and keeps moving away from the sin. The person without self-control opens the door and is controlled by sin. The difference between the two is the exercise of self-control. Proverbs 28, I'm sorry, Proverbs 25, 28 defines self-control and gives us a very handy word picture. Proverbs 25, 28 states, whoever has no rule over his spirit is like a city broken down without walls. So there's a good definition of self-control. Proverbs 25, 28. Whoever has no rule over his spirit. So a person with self-control has rule over their spirit. That's a good definition. What does it mean to have self-control? To rule over my spirit. And then, that ruling over your spirit has a word picture with it. It is like a city broken down without walls. What were the purpose of the walls around the city in the ancient world? To protect the city, right? Because your family and your loved one and everything you owned was in that city. Who was outside the city? People that wanted to take the things that were in the city, including your family and your goods and your house, and destroy and take over the city. So you would build a wall around your city to protect your city from the enemy, from intruders. So that wall would be for protection. That wall would be for definition. It would also define the boundaries of your city. So this is my city. Where does this city start? Where does it end? What are the boundaries of the city? What is the jurisdiction of this city? So these are boundaries. They're helpful boundaries. The boundaries define the city. The boundaries protect the city. So that when the desire would blow against the wall, whoever has no rule over his spirit, so spirit is often pictured as wind. So as desire, as wind is blowing against the walls of the city, the city is intact. But what if those walls fall down? What if there are no walls there? What if there are no boundaries there? Whoever has no rule over his spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Then that wind can just rush through and wreak havoc. The enemy can come in and destroy and take whatever. There's no boundary. There's no definition. There's no protection. So a person with self-control stays in the boundary that God has given. A person with self-control stays in the God-given boundaries and definitions and receives the protection from the sin and various temptations that seek to remove those protective boundaries and to destroy your soul. Destroy your soul, destroy your family, destroy the nation. Again, Proverbs 25 20, whoever has no rule over spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Self-control is essential. The person who has self-control will not stumble. When sin comes knocking on the door of your heart, when sin comes and you feel that desire to sin within, you shut the door, you stay in the boundary. Where does self-control come from? I can see that this would be important, right? You can see how this would be important. Okay, where does self-control come from? I'm gonna briefly mention two human approaches to self-control, okay? And then we'll talk about the source of self-control being God. So there's one answer to self-control, which is a stoic. So the stoic answer would be, to deny human emotions. And this was popular in the Roman timeframe. Think about it. You have people totally giving over to their lusts and passions. Well, what eventually happens to them as they get a little older? They get destroyed, right? They're just destroyed because their life is destroyed because they've been living for lust. And they're like, you know what? We're done with this. All emotion is shut off. Done. Emotions, all of it, bad. So that's a stoic. So stoic would be to deny emotions, and it would be holding that a wise person would be free from passion, like any passion, that they'd be unmoved by joy or grief or lust. So we're just done with the whole thing. That's a stoic approach, which I would suggest is a human way to try to solve a human problem. That's man trying to solve man's problem. And it's been around. It's always there. It's not super popular, but it's always in a culture that's given to lust. The other side would be to be a hedonist. And that would be a person who is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. So the problem is that I just can't get enough pleasure. But he says, forget the stoic, I just can't get enough pleasure and they work very hard to find more pleasure. More pleasure, try harder. And this is obviously what the false teachers are doing. Peter says in 2 Peter 2.14, they have eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices. So their heart is trained in lust. So that's the hedonist. So man trying to satisfy himself with himself or man trying to stop himself from destroying himself with his own power. You have hedonism and you have stoicism. Is that where self-control comes from? Is that what we're talking about here? We're talking about man trying to either do his very best or pull himself up by his own bootstraps. No, no. Where does self-control come from? Self-control comes from God. God is the source of self-control. How is God the source of self-control? Well, for one thing, God always remains completely consistent within the boundaries and definitions that are established by Him. God is immutable. God does not change. Malachi 3.6, For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. God is not tempted to step outside of Himself to do something unethical like we are. We are tempted to step outside of ourselves To do things that we know are not right To do things that are unethical. We are tempted to do that God is not Okay So that's good news. So there is a immutable standard Who's a personal god? Who stands and holds up? all the world by his power and is an example of someone who has self-control. He is immutable. This immutable God says, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, Titus 1-2. God cannot lie, Titus 1-2. So can God do anything? God can do anything that's consistent with his nature. God cannot step outside his nature. God will not step outside his nature. God cannot contradict himself. God cannot lie. And people come up with all kinds of different philosophical questions about that. Can God make a boulder so big that he can't pick up? People come up with these ideas. Can God make a one-ended stick? It's like, no, God can't do anything that's not consistent with his nature. God is not, he's not nonsensical, he's not illogical. You can't use that kind of a mishmash of reason. God is always consistent with who he is. God cannot lie. God will not deny himself. He will be true, and he will always do what he says. In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began? So in terms of the promise of eternal life, It's good that that promise that we have is coming from a God who cannot lie. And he's immutable, and he can't even be tempted by sin, so you can always trust his promises. Because he cannot change, he will not change, he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So, let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. God is not trying to tempt you to get you to sin. God is not trying to tempt you to have a lack of self-control. God may test you, but His goal for you is for you to pass the test and to prove that you have faith, that you have virtue, that you have knowledge, that you have self-control. He's testing you to grow you. God cannot be tempted And God does not tempt anyone, James 1.13 and 14. But each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. So if God doesn't do this, where does it come from? It comes from our own humanity, from our own lust, from the fall. So we are tempted and drawn away by our own lust, by our own desires. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Don't be deceived in thinking that God is involved in this process. No, this is the process of lust. This is the sin spiral that destroys people, families, nations, churches. Don't be deceived. God is not involved in the temptation business. He may test you, but he does not tempt you. He tests you because he wants you to grow stronger, like the winds that blow that tree, making that tree stronger. Those winds are made to strengthen the tree. You know, when they put those trees, when they put them in an area, in a covered building, I forget the name of that place. It's here in Phoenix, the covered building, they grow all that, the eco place, they try to make it, yeah, what is it? Yeah, the biosphere. In the biosphere, they put all those trees and stuff, and they realized the trees got to a certain age, and they died. Because they didn't have any wind in there. There was nothing to blow those trees around and strengthen those trees, so they died. We need trials. We need testing. We need to be strengthened. We need to bend and twist and be, right? That's part of the strengthening process. So God tests us, but it's the devil. who uses those same winds to try to destroy us. Don't be deceived by your lust in succumbing to the destruction. God's will for you is to strengthen you. And that strength comes through self-control. And God has proven that in sending Jesus Christ. He wants to show you what that looks like. And he shows us what that looks like in the person of Jesus Christ. Matthew 4, 1. Matthew 4, 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry. So you can say, okay, that's God, right? Like God is in heaven. God doesn't understand what it's like to be me. God doesn't understand what I've gone through. God doesn't understand the passion raging in my body. How many here have ever had passion raging through their body? Raise your hand. Okay, how many here are alive? Most of you, okay. If you're alive, you've had passion raging through your body. What kind of passion? All kind of passion. The core of it would be, I want more, right? The two-year-old, that's mine, right? Give it to me now! And they'll throw a fit. That's passion, raging through our body. I want more. I'm not content. And so God wanted to show us what it looks like to overcome this passion. And he came in the person of Jesus Christ to experience what it felt like to be a man. 40 days and 40 nights. Would you be hungry after that? How many have ever thought, well, you kind of snap at someone and you say, well, I'm kind of tired. What is that? There's an excuse. Why did you get snappy with a person? Well, I'm kind of sinful, right? Truth be told. Yeah, I was being tested. I was really tired and I let my guard down. I didn't feel good. And so when someone did something, I used it as an excuse to be more sinful. I sin because I'm sinful. I don't sin because I'm tired. I don't sin because I'm hungry. unless I'm living for myself and living for lust, right? We think that way because we give ourselves excuses that way. So Jesus came to show us the opposite, didn't he? 40 days, 40 nights, and he, the Bible says, was hungry. He felt the pain. His body was screaming out for food. He was weak. And that's when the devil came to tempt him. Temptation number one, make the priority of your life food rather than the word of God. Jesus, make the priority of your life food rather than the word of God. Now the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered him and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So consider the context there. Jesus is starving. The devil says, why don't you use your power to make food? That wasn't God's plan. Jesus was being led by the spirit to do this. He was to obey God. When God the father said, this is over, it's over. But it's not over until he was given that by his father. Take a shortcut, right? Take a little shortcut. Jesus said, you're missing the point. The word of God is primary. The spiritual before the physical. The spiritual defines the physical. The physical doesn't define the spiritual. The spiritual defines the physical. The word of God is more important than food. For me, I was never consistent with seeking the Lord in the morning until I realized this. I never miss breakfast. I know some people do. I never miss breakfast. I'm not like one of those people that would, oh, I just forgot to eat. I have to plan not to eat. Okay. And so I was convicted of that because I would always eat breakfast, but I would be spotty on whether I would get up and seek the Lord and read the word. And when I, when I flipped that, so you know what, I'm not going to eat breakfast until I seek the Lord in the morning. I'm in the word and praying. Guess what? All of a sudden I became very consistent in seeking the Lord and praying. And that's been a healthy thing. The word of God is more important than food. So he passed temptation number one. Temptation number two, make yourself glorious in the eyes of men by doing something to magnify yourself. Jesus, why don't you do something to glorify yourself? In other words, seek your own pleasure and not the will of your father. Then the devil took him up into a holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against the sun. And Jesus said to him, it is written, you should not tempt the Lord your God. I'm not going to be tempted to do that. I'm not going to be tempted to walk outside of God's will and glorify myself. Jesus passed the second test. The third test. Power and glory. Power and glory. Take power and glory for yourself. The devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and said, all these things I will give you. I will give you power. I will give you glory. I will give you the kingdoms of the world. just fall down and worship me. Jesus said, away with you Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only you shall serve. We don't worship anything but God. Now this is a pretty extreme temptation. None of us could handle this. We would all put We'd all fall down somewhere. We couldn't handle this, right? Only Jesus could do this. And I think the Bible, I think history, and I think our own experience make that pretty clear, right? At some point we do give in. Jesus didn't give in. He went all the way. Then the devil left him. And he was so weak that the angels had to come and minister to him. But Jesus would face one more test, the Garden of Gethsemane, where even His relationship with His Father would undergo a complete alienation, as He who knew no sin would become sin for us. And Jesus cried out, take this cup from me. but he submitted to the will of his father, not my will, but yours be done. And Jesus was obedient even to the death of a cross. Now, I want you to realize something. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness. Now think about the grace of Jesus. Where you and I have all failed. Where Israel failed. We all failed. Food or spirituality? Food. Power or humility? Power. Do something great to glorify yourself? Sure. Right? We all just are a mess. But the one who overcame the temptation. He's not proud in that, meaning he doesn't condescend and look down on us, does he? If you come to him, he is able to sympathize with your weakness. That is, he's able to come along and say, I understand the difficulty and the challenge, And let me tell you what I learned from that. He's able to sympathize with our weakness yet without sin. So he has the compassion of someone who understands. Like, you know how you have compassion for people that have gone through the things you've gone through, right? Especially if you have an addiction to something, if you've been trapped in a sinful cycle. Let's say you're trapped in, eating too much and gluttony. There's all these groups for eaters anonymous, overeaters anonymous, right? And I guarantee you go into an overeaters anonymous meeting, they're gonna have great compassion on you. Why? Because they all know what it's like to suffer with that sin. Okay, that's the kind of compassion Jesus has. Yet Jesus has that compassion without sin. He has compassion. He has the understanding because he's been there and he's done that, but he's meek and mild. And he has that without sin. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted, as we are yet without sin. That's pretty amazing. So I want you to know that God cannot be tempted by sin. He is not tempting anyone to lust or lack self-control. God is the source of self-control, and He's been through it in Jesus Christ, and He wants to give this to you. So how about adding self-control to your life, like Jesus? How am I gonna do that? Number one, depend on God. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Be full of God. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Which would be more tempting to you to eat your Snickers candy bar? You just had Thanksgiving meal. And there's that Snickers candy bar sitting on the counter. Are you gonna be tempted to eat it? Or you've been busy all day, you haven't eaten a thing, it's five o'clock, you're getting ready for dinner, and there's the Snickers candy bar. Which is gonna be more tempting? Right? The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Faith connects you to God. If you are filled up to the full of God, you're satisfied in Christ. When the temptation comes, it's just like, ah, I am full, overflowing. Faith, be full of God. Virtue, see what is good. Faith connects you to God. God connects you to virtue. That's his moral excellence. That's his high moral standards, his holiness, his righteousness, his goodness, his grace, his love. When you're connecting and feasting on the virtues of God, whatever is good, Philippians 4, 6, whatever it is, think on these things, right? Your faith is connecting you to God. God is connecting you to virtue. God is connecting you to knowledge. You believe the truth, you refuse the lies, you have x-ray vision to see what is good and evil in all of life, knowledge. What flows out of that then is self-control. You choose to follow the truth when you're tempted. You choose to rely on the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5.16, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. When you're depending upon God, faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, when you're being satisfied in God, you're not gonna fulfill the lust of your flesh. And a fruit of the Spirit is self-control. So let's zero in on the practice of self-control. When the temptation comes for you to step outside of what God has shown you, You resist. That's self-control. You resist that. You resist that. So in the context of sexual sin, which is a very prominent context that self-control speaks to, Paul says, flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 1 Corinthians 6.18. Flee. So what does self-control look like when you're tempted to sexual immorality? Looks like fleeing, getting out of there, removing it from your eyes. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, 13, no temptation has overtaken you except such as common to man. So there's temptations that we all face. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted or tested. Remember, tempted and tested is the same Greek word. It's the English words that are different, and the nuance meaning has to be placed in the context. Remember that from our study in James? He will not allow you to be tested beyond what you're able. So when the test comes and God wants you to pass the test, Satan uses the test to tempt you to do evil because he wants to destroy you. When that test comes, which we all face, there's no temptation as such as common to man, but God is faithful. God is always active, God is always living, God is always aware, God is always right there. He's right there. When that temptation comes, God is right there, because he's faithful. And you can't unfaithful the faithfulness of God. He's faithful, he is there, okay? But with the temptation will make the way of escape. Every time. that you may be able to bear it. There's always a way of escape out of the temptation God brings to you. There's always a way of escape that God brings to you, no matter what it is. So self-control stays in the boundaries and looks for the way of escape. So when you are tested by God, here's the boundary. When the temptation comes, self-control says, I'm gonna stay in the boundary and I'm gonna look for the way of escape. Knowing that God is faithful and he'll provide a way of escape for me to get out of that. An example of that for me was one time I was praying and fasting out in the desert mountains, and I was going to a spot, and I'm not kidding you, there was a porn shoot right in the middle of the desert. That was a temptation for me. This was several years ago. It was here in Phoenix, and I was tempted to go check that out. And so I had to stay in the boundary, and I'm like, oh my goodness, this is crazy. Stay in the boundary. What was the way of escape? I had a phone with me. I took it off of airplane mode, and I called someone. And as soon as I called someone, I mean, I needed to talk to someone. Like, I did need that help in that moment. And I think I had to call more than one person, because the first person wasn't there. But they had their phone off airplane mode, too. And I was able to talk. Kept going, kept going. And I escaped, I escaped that. But to me, that was a pretty specific, that was an ambush. It was a bushwhack. That was an ambush for me. I escaped that temptation. But look how I had to stay in the boundaries and I had to look for the way to escape. And there's a lot of stories like that. I have a lot of stories and you have a lot of stories. You guys got some pretty good stories. I can't share your stories. But that's what that looks like. Self-control stays in the boundaries looking for the way of escape because you know God is faithful So when you get up and you don't have your devotions and you're hungry and you're cranky because nothing's going your way You have no excuse but to stay in the boundaries and look for the way of escape God is faithful humble yourself Don't step outside of God's will for your life. Self-control keeps you in those boundaries long enough so that you can see the hand of God and grab hold of Jesus and allow him to pull you through. Amen? Here's another one. Self-control connects to the honor of staying in the boundaries. You want to stay in the boundaries? That's kind of strange. What are you, kind of a strange person? Don't you want to jump out of the boundaries? You know, it'd be more fun if you jumped out of the boundaries. And I said, well, don't you know, Mick Jagger said, you can't find no satisfaction, though you try, though you try, though you try. You can't get none either. What is, side note, what is fascinating to me is to get guys alone. You know, when I was in construction, talking to all these guys, talking about all the sin they do, and they all boast about it. When you get them alone, and I would ask them, was it really that good? They said, Jason is horrible. Moments of honesty. Moments of honesty, right? Self-control connects to the honor of staying in God's boundaries. For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality. Abstain. Abstinence. That each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. That's separateness and holiness and honor. So as you abstain from sexual immorality, you connect to honor. Hear that? That's what the text says. As you abstain from sexual immorality, you connect to honor. As the world rejects abstinence, they connect to shame and dishonor. Now, what do you think the world is telling you? They're telling you the opposite. They say, oh, you're just a this, right? They make fun of you, but it's the opposite. They're connecting to shame. Obedience and abstinence connects with honor for this is the will of God your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel and Sanctification in honor not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who don't know God The reason why people act like they do is because they don't know God But we who know God we abstain from Sexual immorality and that would be Hebrews 13.4, marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled. So biblical lovemaking in marriage is honorable. And we honor that. We celebrate that. We say sex is great. Sex is an act of worship. Sex is God's plan. And the Bible specifically calls it honorable. And so we should call it honorable too. This is honorable. God knows way more about sex than the world. Amen? It's honorable. And the bed undefiled. But fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Should we talk about something shameful? Sex outside of marriage is shameful, brings judgment, is wicked, is defiled. It's a passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. So self-control accepts the God-given boundaries and connects with the honor of living within those boundaries. Amen? So connect to that honor and refuse to be dishonored like the passions of lust, like the Gentiles who don't know God. Self-control accepts the God-given virtues. Now you need to keep growing in this faith, virtue, and knowledge. Paul says this, modesty, 2 Timothy 2.9, in the like manner, the women also adored themselves in modest apparels with propriety and moderation. That word moderation in the New King James is self-control. So when Paul is writing, encouraging the women to practice modesty, he links modesty in their dress with self-control. moderation, self-control. And then he gets specific. He says, not like this, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing. In other words, the women were supposed to dress in such a way that would not bring an association with sexual perversion upon them. And that's specific to a cult. Some things are specific to a culture, some things are universal, right? Everybody knows what a prostitute looks like. Okay, so you're not supposed to look like a prostitute. You're not supposed to dress like a prostitute. Self-control, moderation, modesty. In other words, sexual restraint. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. And God, through Paul, specifically directs the modesty to the women, because the world says to women, if you've got it, flaunt it. Self-control embraces the modesty that seeks to cover the body parts. Again, Paul linked modesty and self-control and made that specific for women, because in general, that's how the world runs. Feminism is not powerful enough to redefine how the world runs. They may think they are, but they're not. I mean, we can have a long conversation about that, about what is actually happening to men and women today. I mean, what is actually happening to men and women? It's not working out too good. That's why you're seeing men and women separate at astounding rates. Now, if that's specific for the women, what's specific for the men? I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman, Job 31, one. So it's the man's responsibility, regardless of whatever the woman is wearing. not to look lustfully in his heart, in his eyes at a woman. So men have the responsibility to practice self-control with their eyes. Women have the responsibility to practice self-control with their hearts, how they associate, and with their clothing. Bible makes that very clear. These are God-given boundaries for men, And for women, self-control accepts these God-given boundaries. So let me ask the question. What are the God-given boundaries? That's a good question, isn't it? Self-control is a universal principle that we need. What are these boundaries? That's why we have faith, and we have virtue, and we have knowledge, because we need knowledge. I've given you some examples here. I've looked at the text of scripture that links these things together. How would you apply that in your life? You need to think about that. You need to pray about that. Do you accept the God-given boundaries? I mean, in our culture, just the boundary of male and female is radical, right? I am a man. She is a woman. We can't change those boundaries. Okay, let's, you know, God defines truth. God defines order. Self-control accepts that truth and accepts that order. Now, what do the false teachers say? The false teachers say, you don't need boundaries. Not like that. The false teachers say, you don't need boundaries. You don't need self-control. And they make an appeal to what? They make an appeal to lust. You can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you want to be. No, you can't. You cannot be whoever you want to be. You cannot be a lustful, you can't be a lustful person. I mean, you can, but it's not good, right? You don't want to be like a lustful person. You don't want to act like a lustful person. But the false teacher says, no, no. And they erase those boundaries and they obscure things. We need to be growing in the practice of self-control. Let's talk about growing in self-control. Now, be honest. You need to recognize where you may lack self-control. Is that fair? Let's recognize where we lack self-control. Now, the self-control words, I apply them to sex and sexuality because that's a lot of the context of scripture. That's why I pulled those examples. But that's not the only one. The practice of self-control. And I want to illustrate this with, when I first started thinking about this, my lack of self-control, I had a bag of chips. I was driving home from work, and I put that bag of chips on the seat next to me, because I just munch all the time on snacks after working. And I thought, I wonder if I could just practice self-control and not eat that. I was just shocked how hard that was for me. I was like, oh my goodness, I lack self-control. And so I'd practice having my bag of chips there and not eating them for the drive home. My mouth salivating, I'm just like. So it's good to think about these things. It's good to think about the practice of self-control. Remember, Lust does not make something good. What makes something good? God. And that's consistent with knowledge. And that's where we get tripped up. We think something is good because it makes us feel a certain way. We think something's good because we desire it. That's not what makes something good. I mean, we do desire evil things. That's not what makes it good. What makes it good is if God says it's good, or what makes it good is if God says it's evil. So self-control recognizes those boundaries in all subjects. Self-control respects the boundaries, respects the definition of good and evil. And it has the wisdom to discern if something is good, well, how good and how much? Like food, food is good, but gluttony is a sin. Where's the line? Gluttony is associated with a lack of self-control and a focus on earthly pleasure over spiritual well-being. We don't live for food. Food is a fuel that we use to glorify God. And if we flip that around, it becomes an idol. And what do idols hate more than anything? Boundaries and definitions. So you know you have an idol in an area if you have a hard time putting a boundary or a definition around it. Like my example with the chips. I didn't want to be told, no, don't eat those chips. I didn't want a boundary around that food. I just wanted to indulge myself. So you pick an area. And let's talk about the boundaries that you have that help you to define God's will in self-control. And then you can just go into all your life. Food. Entertainment, nothing wrong with entertainment. But if entertainment's your God, you're not going to want me to touch your entertainment with a 10-foot pole. You don't want boundaries around your entertainment. You don't want to define it. And you just get really irritated if someone talks about it. Modesty, don't talk about that with me. That's off limits. What is off limits? Bible has some things to say about that. Why do we get so touchy about that? Because it's lust. It's not an offense to your pride. I'm sorry. It's not an offense to your humility. It's an offense to your pride, right? You know it and I do. We all do this. We get touchy about stuff, right? Because of the lust. Shopping. Shopping's a good thing. But you can become addicted to anything. You can become addicted to shopping, play, sports, work. Workaholism. I mean, work is good. We're supposed to work, but if you're living to work and not working to live, Well, you got your priorities out of whack. You need some definition. You need some boundaries. You need some self-control to work here and then take leisure, take spiritual refreshment. Work can be one. See, in all these areas, self-control knows where the boundaries are, stays within them. So in this sense, we're talking about temperance. Temperance. Habitual moderation in the indulgence of appetites and passions. And an example of that would be Proverbs 25 16. Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit. Proverbs 25 16. So honey is great. You can eat honey. But if you overindulge in it, it'll make you sick. It's not what it's made for. Why do we overindulge? because they're trying to satisfy spiritual needs with physical applications. And that will never work. It'll always leave you empty. Everything has boundaries, virtue, knowledge. How about money? Money is a big one, isn't it? For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. for with some having strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness." Is money the root of evil? No. It's the love of money. So what self-control does, self-control says this, I can use money without lusting over money. I can use money without worshiping money. I can use money for its purpose and its boundaries. And that would be a budget. You just can't spend all the money, right? You gotta have a budget. You gotta give to the Lord your 10%, your principles. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. So you put God first. Give God your first fruits, right? Priorities. That says God is Lord over money. And then you tell your money where to go. You have a budget. In other words, you have boundaries over your money. See how the boundaries keep coming up? That's because the boundaries are helpful. Self-control stays within those boundaries, and that's how you follow the Lord in self-control. Okay. Do you see the importance of self-control? You see how important this is. You see the importance of practicing self-control. Now you say this. There's two responses. One, you say this. What if I'm not interested in growing in self-control? That could be one response, right? I'm not interested in this. Well, there's a warning. Peter says, for he lacks these things, is short-sighted even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you'll never stumble. So if you're not interested in self-control, think about what that means. Have you forgotten what it means to be saved? That's what Peter asks. Are you called? Are you one of God's chosen? That's what Peter asks. There's a warning there. Okay. And there's a warning and that warning is an invitation. The invitation is to come to Jesus. Okay. What if I've blown it? What if I've just lived a life of just sensuality? What if I had this secret sin? I just can't get, I just can't let it go. What if I just can't get victory in this area of my life? What if I've blown it? And I'll close with this. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness. Jesus has been there. He's been tempted at all points, yet without sin. And he holds out compassion for you, right? He holds out compassion. So let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So if you lack self-control, would you come to Jesus today? Would you come to God and ask Him to show you your lack of self-control? Would you ask Him to help you with your lack of self-control? Would you ask Him to help you believe the truth? To accept His boundaries for your life, to accept His contentment, and to accept His way of salvation. that you may flee and escape the boundaries. I'm sorry, escape the lust and stand the boundaries. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, let's stand for prayer. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you, God, for your word. We thank you for the message of the gospel. Lord, I do pray in Jesus' name that you would help us to grow in wisdom, that we will put on Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. That is our prayer. Lord, I pray God that you would help us all to grow in self-control. so that we would never stumble and an abundant entrance to heaven would be abundantly supplied to all my brothers and sisters here. Father, I pray for the children that you'd help them to discern these things. That you'd help the parents to train their children to discern these things. That you'd help us all to practice self-control so that we not be snared by the lust of our flesh any longer. We pray this in Jesus' name.