Galatians 5, and I'll begin reading at verse 16. I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. So we've come now to the last of the fruit of the Spirit, the ninth one, that of self-control. And the word in the Greek, egkratia, is translated in the King James as temperance. But R.C.H. Lenski says that the word temperance is inadequate to convey all of what this word means to convey. I think that he meant that temperance only conveys the idea of voluntary self-restraint, that is, keeping yourself from excessive eating of food, drinking too many alcoholic beverages, when the word actually means holding all of your desires and passions in check. It's not only outward self-restraint, if it's biblical and godly, it comes from the inward self-restraint of the thoughts of your heart. Webster's 1828 Dictionary says that temperance is moderation, particularly habitual moderation in regard to the indulgence of the natural appetites and passions. This would include Restrained or moderate indulgence such as temperance and eating and drinking and temperance in the indulgence of joy or mirth. Temperance and eating and drinking as opposed to gluttony, eating too much and drunkenness, drinking too much and in other indulgences to excess. But secondly, this dictionary says that temperance is also exercising and exhibiting patience calmness, sedateness, moderation of passion. These two definitions together rightly describe our word self-control. But to truly understand what is meant here biblically, let us proceed on now to look at self-control from the negative and the positive sides of it. First of all, the negative side of self-control. The negative side of self-control is learning to hold in check all of your desires and passions by the power of the Holy Spirit. And I want you to look back up the page, and I've read you these words already. The verses 16 to 21, I won't read them again, but you see here all the things that the flesh does, lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So I hope that you can see here that obedience to God and to his word will require of you as a believer in Christ to exercise self-control. You will do this by the power of the Holy Spirit to keep yourself from the sins that are listed here. Now, these are the sins which begin, I think you know this, in the heart. You are not under law, I've mentioned this once today, but you are under grace. You are not in the flesh, You are in the spirit when you believe in Jesus. The flesh, as I explained to you this morning, is what you are, what remains in you of the person that you once were with all of your sinful desires. You are not in the flesh if you are a true believer in Jesus Christ. You are in the spirit when you have believed in Jesus, but you should know that the person with all of those sinful desires that you once were has now died to sin. So you don't have to think that way any longer, the way that you used to think. You don't have to live that old way of sin any longer. Why? Because you will not be denying and ignoring the truth of God's word. and you will not be living in your own selfish and God denying way any longer. Really, it's a marvelous reality that you've been called into in the life. of every believer. It should not be mistakenly thought by any Christian that the flesh was eradicated, taken completely out of your being when you first believed. Some people believe this and claim to be Christians and have even written books upon the whole subject. Some people believe that way, but you and I need to understand The flesh was not removed entirely from your being, or you would have been a perfect person from the moment that you were born again. In your heart, that's the way that you would have been. The ruling dominating power of sin has indeed been broken, but I want you to see, and this seems to be the theme of the day, that there is a real battle of the spirit against the flesh, that is just the beginning when you first believe, and it will continue all through your life. When you become a believer, the battle to be righteous and to bring forth fruit unto God begins. And I want you to look with me at 1 Peter 2. And verses 11 and 12, he says, beloved, I beg of you as strangers, sojourners, verse 11, and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works, which they observe, glorify God, in the day of visitation. So you see it takes self-control to abstain from fleshly lusts. The flesh is going to lust against the Spirit's good motions in the Spirit's directing you to righteous thoughts and righteous actions. That's what takes place. in your heart. These fleshly thoughts and desires will attempt to turn your heart toward the idea that these thoughts should be tolerated and promoted as they once were. This is called waging war. They will war against your soul's good desires and thoughts that come from the motions of the spirit. In unbelievers, in unbelievers. There is no principle of righteousness, no seed of righteousness, as it talks about in 1 John 3 verse 9. No principle of righteousness to keep these things from breaking out in their actions except their own self-determination not to engage in them. They do not have the Spirit. They do not have the fruit of the Spirit, which is self-control. In many unbelieving people, this principle of self-control is entirely lacking. With them, all of life revolves around themselves and self-indulgence. They want to promote and indulge the desires of the flesh and the mind, Ephesians 2 verse 3. They want God and other people around them to accept them as they are with all of their sins against God and other people, which they are not at all intending to repent of. And in this sense, they are completely lacking in self-control, and they need to be warned of the consequences of their behavior. And I want you to look over with me at 1 Corinthians 6, verses 9 to 11. Again, you're probably very familiar with these verses, but it's good to remind ourselves of them so that we can also tell other people what they say. 1 Corinthians 6, starting in verse 9. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were, past tense, some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. So I hope you can see here that if you've believed in Jesus Christ, that you're a person who's repented of all of your sins. That is, you turned away from all of them, even as they are listed here, and you were sanctified. That is, you were given a new heart with the ability to exercise self-control in relation to abstaining from fleshly lusts and harmful desires and also bad attitudes. That's just the beginning. Second, we have the positive side of self-control. How far does self-control extend in living the Christian life. So far we have now seen that it's holding in check and confronting ourselves in our heart. We do this by self-control in order to stop and put to death the desires and passions of the flesh. in relation to all that we think and say and do. In other words, we keep ourselves from sin and from wrong attitudes. The positive side of self-control relates to all the things that we say and do as well, but its primary focus is the spirit with which we do them and what we are trying to achieve as we live our life to God. Now, we need to understand this. To do good things for God and for Christ requires the grace of self-control to be an exercise. Now, as with all the other graces, you cannot allow them to stagnate in you. You cannot receive the grace of God in vain. And it is possible to do that. In other words, that Christ by the Holy Spirit is giving you grace, and yet you yourself are not exercising that grace. It's your responsibility to do so. So if you see as a Christian that you've believed in Jesus and the power of sin has been broken in you, you're no longer in the flesh but in the spirit, you have a new spirit with new desires, and these good desires are cultivated in relation to how you personally can glorify God in everything that you do and say. And I want you to turn over with me to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31. Just a few pages over from where we were. and just one verse. It says, therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. So to do all to the glory of God in everything requires the grace of self-control. Your renewed self is exercising a holy control over all that you take in, in terms of food and drink, in terms of whatever you do. And I've tried to tell you in past messages on the fruit of the Spirit, that being sensitive to the working of the Holy Spirit in relation to keeping the commandments of God is the true way to bring forth the fruits of righteousness and thus glorify God in the way that you live your Christian life. Look over with me at Proverbs chapter 25 and verses 11 to 13. It says here, a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver. Like an earring of gold and like an ornament of fine gold is a wise rebuker to an obedient ear. Like the cold of snow in time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him for he refreshes the soul of his masters. So let us ask ourselves whether we're able to speak in this way that I just read to you. To exercise self-control in a positive sense unto godliness, you must come to understand what it means to rule your own spirit. And I want you to turn with me over to Proverbs 29, verse 28. It says here, whoever has no rule over his spirit is like a city broken down without walls. So this means that learning to rule over yourself and to cultivate a good spirit, to have an excellent spirit, this is the finest of works. Do you see that? It will require that you have the grace of self-control to do what it says here, that is to be slow to anger, slow to anger. Being often of an angry spirit when things do not go your way the way that you want them to will bring discouragement to you. And you will find that you are continually hurting and offending people around you if you do not cultivate in your spirit the grace of self-control, the enemies of your soul, doubt, fear, Unbelief will come and gain entrance into your heart, and your highest, greatest usefulness to God will not be able to appear. For your work for Christ to be established is going to require that you pray to have self-control, and that you think of what God is looking for from you in the situations where you're tempted to be angry. I want you to think about Proverbs 16, verse 32. It says here, he who is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. But we must go further than this. A right spirit in glorifying God and doing good will only come through having the self-control to add virtue to your faith. And I want you to look with me at 2 Peter 1, and verses 5 to 8. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you can see here that the way to grow up into being a Christian who is useful in the master's service, that you've got to add things here to your faith. You've got to add knowledge into your knowledge self-control. And so you must see to it that when you speak, that you study to edify people around you. You study to build them up and not be critical of them and tear them down. So when it says brotherly kindness here, Brotherly kindness is your great object in exercising self-control. You may know much of the Bible and spiritual truth, but let me ask this, can you convey that knowledge to others with wisdom and with love? I want you to turn with me over to Philippians chapter one, and we'll look at verses nine to 11. And this I pray, Paul says, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. So you can see here that in order to make progress in bearing fruit unto God, to the glory of God, that you have to become a person of prayer. And to cultivate your prayer life, you're gonna need the grace of self-control, to learn to pray often and to learn to pray regularly. And further, in the process of your cultivating your own prayer life, you will even come to see your need of the prayers of other people, other Christians around you as well. And when you engage in prayer then for yourself and for others, you will be asking yourself certain questions. Does my love abound? more and more in real knowledge and discernment? How can I be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ? It's by being filled, Paul says here, with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And all of this I'm trying to show you is going to take self-control. You need self-control to be able to love people around you with the love of Christ. To be able to restrain yourself from bad and hurtful and unloving comments upon people and the way they act and the things that they say. You have knowledge, but is it real knowledge like Paul talks about here? You have discernment, but is it real discernment? But here in our text we find that self-control is the fruit of the Spirit. And now I want you to look with me over at 1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verses 24 to 27. It says this, do you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty, thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. Paul says here, so the word temperate here, is the verb form of the same word that we're studying here at this time, self-controlled. If you would be one who would win the prize from Christ, the person who would have a crown and a reward to be given to you by Christ at the last day, for the way that you have lived, you must cultivate a self-disciplined spirit and life, and you're gonna need to exercise much self-discipline and self-control. You're living your life to God's glory in the senses pictured for you as a race that you have to prepare for each day by exercising self-control. It says here, everyone who would compete in this race and win the prize is temperate. in all things. The King James translation says, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast away. But we should not think that Paul was worried about being a castaway forever from God's presence, or that he actually feared that he would be cast into hell. Surely, if this is a believer who is being talked about, this would go against a number of other passages in the scripture. We should rather understand this in the sense of disqualifying ourselves from being of use to Christ and of our being able to receive a crown or a reward for our labors on the last day. Charles Spurgeon says this concerning 1 Corinthians 9.27, the Greek word which is translated a castaway is adokokemos. it might better have been rendered disapproved. It certainly has no such meaning as that which has generally been given to it. Paul was not afraid of being cast away by God at the last. What he aimed at was this, as he had entered the lists as a Christian minister to fight for Christ, to wrestle against principalities and powers, to seek to win souls for Christ, he must keep his bodily powers and passions so in subjection that at the last, when the prizes were distributed, that he would be found to have won his. Spurgeon says this is quite another matter from being a cast away from salvation and eternal life. Paul was saved and he knew it. And some of us know to a certainty that we are saved, but we also know that there is another crown to be won, which the Lord will give to his servants who win in the great fight, he says with sin. To win this crown is our high ambition. And we long to hear the master to say to each one of us in that day, well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou has been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things, enter into the joy of thy Lord. So in conclusion, if we exercise self-control, we will not be disqualified. but rather our work will be established and our God will be glorified. Let us pray the prayer of Psalm 90, verse 17, and let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for this study, the short study of self-control. And we pray that we would have learned from it and by it, and be able to exercise self-control at many, many points where we need to, both in terms of the things that we will not or should not participate in, in sin, or those things that we need to do in terms of the good things that we say, or the things that we keep from saying that would be good and helpful to others. So help us to have the kind of self-control that we need to grow up to be more like you, O Christ, in the way that we live our lives, the way that we speak and act in your sight and in the sight of other people. For we pray it in your name, Lord Jesus, amen.