Let's all pray. Our gracious God and our eternal Heavenly Father, we pray that today Thou wilt come to our aid, that Thou wilt grant to preacher and hearer alike copious measures of Thy Spirit. I pray that we might know the grace of God helping us as we come to the Word. I pray Thou wilt apply the Word to our souls, that it might make a difference in our lives. Truly, we pray with Christ in His great high priestly prayer, sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. Lord, I pray that Thou wilt give us the Christward vision this morning, that we will never lose sight of Jesus. Even as we come to the Word, may He be at the forefront of our minds and our hearts, and may He receive all the honour and glory through everything that is said and done here today. For we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. And once again, I'd like to draw to your attention the words of Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23. The book of Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. In our Lord's Day morning services we are studying together the great theme of the person and work of the Holy Spirit. And particularly in recent times, the wonderful topic of the fruit of the Spirit. Often people will say the fruits of the Spirit. Now the Bible does speak of the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus. But you should carefully note what the Bible actually does say rather than what it doesn't say. And verse 22 clearly says, but the fruit of the Spirit is. And I believe that's important for us to note. There are nine qualities that are mentioned here, but they are all flavors of the one fruit. They all grow on one tree. They are all the result of the work of the Spirit of God And I do believe that these nine characteristics or qualities of spiritual life are produced at least in some degree and measure in all Christians. Every true child of God has reproduced in his or her life the fruit of the Spirit. We would wish that there was more evidence of that fruit in our lives, no doubt. But this spiritual fruit in its totality You will note in other scriptures it is actually commanded of the believer. Not only is it commanded of the believer that we should love Christ, that we should love God, that we should love one another and so on, right down through the list, but this fruit is perfectly exemplified in the character, life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of love. He talked about the joy that was set before Him. He spoke of My peace which I give unto you and so on. The Lord Jesus manifested in His life the fruit of the Spirit in a perfect way. But we can also say that while this fruit is actually commanded of the believer, it is perfectly exemplified in Christ. It is progressively produced in the lives of Christians by the work of the Holy Spirit of God. Now it has been observed that the nine qualities may be viewed as three sets of three. And also that the first one of each three is a virtue that governs the other two. I want you to briefly notice this with me. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Love is actually the root quality which is manifested in spiritual joy and spiritual peace. The same is true of long-suffering, gentleness and goodness. It is genuine patience or long patience, long suffering wrought in us by the Holy Spirit that manifests itself in true kindness or gentleness and in goodness. And goodness is that which truly pursues the good of others even when it has to be done with what we have called tough love. And then the three qualities that we have been considering more recently. They are faith or faithfulness, meekness and temperance. is a trust in Christ that makes us trustworthy. It then enables us to manifest the spiritual grace of meekness, which as we noted last time, is not weakness. It is rather a joyful submission to the ways of God in providence, which actually tempers our response to people and circumstances. True meekness may be able to fight for itself, but doesn't because it submits to the ways of the Lord. And we see that perfectly exemplified in Christ. He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy the world and set him free. But he didn't. His was a meekness, a strength under control. And of course that leads us to look at the third of these final qualities. And that is temperance. Faith or trust in Christ. enables a Christian to control and to restrain the natural expressions of his flesh and sin. Now it has been said that temperance is a crowning virtue. It's the last one. It is to some the capstone of the nine spiritual qualities described as the fruit of the Spirit. James Alexander Stewart wrote, it is the last of the flavours of the fruit mentioned and closes the array of the graces holding the post of rear guard which checks on all stragglers and protects the march from surprise and treacherous overthrow. So you have this temperance, this self-control which holds all the others together. One preacher asserted that this grace is the most important of the nine, but I would beg to differ. I would contend that love is the crux of it all. And we pointed this out at the beginning. You could actually read these verses, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, dash, and then all of the others. Because everything else is rooted in love. Love is the great fruit of the Spirit, which is then manifested in all of the other eight flavours, if you like, of the fruit. And if you consult 1 Corinthians 13, And we don't want to expound that again, but if you look at it again, you'll see how that is set forth very clearly. For the word charity, we obviously substitute the word love, because that's what it means. And there are certain things that are said about love. It says there, for example, in verse 4, love suffereth long. There's long suffering. And is kind. There's gentleness. Love envieth not, love vonteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly, there is self-control or temperance, seeketh not her own. Love is not easily provoked, love thinketh no evil, love rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. The fruit of the Spirit is joy, rejoicing not in iniquity, rejoicing in the truth. Love beareth all things, love believeth all things, there is faith. And so love is the root grace, if you like, from which all of the other flavours come. But if the last quality, temperance, can't be said to be the most important, it certainly is vital to the manifestation of all the rest. If the word temperance chiefly signifies self-control, and I believe it does, then we might well say that without it, The other elements of the fruit of the Spirit will not be evidenced at all. Without self-control, or more properly, Spirit control, the works of the flesh cannot be overcome. And you will know that in your own experience. Without the work of the Spirit, you are not able to do what you want to do. You are not able not to do. what you don't want to do. And we'll look at that later in Romans chapter 7. But I want us to examine this great quality, temperance. And we'll probably deal with one point today which has a number of facets. I want us to notice first of all the scriptural definition of temperance. The fruit of the Spirit is temperance. The word, that is the noun, is actually employed three times in the New Testament. You'll find it not only here in Galatians 5 but in Acts chapter 24 and verse 25 where it talks about Paul preaching before Felix and how that he reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come and Felix trembled. Then we find it in 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 6 and there it is actually mentioned twice. We are to add to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience. You might ask now, what exactly is temperance or self-control? Well, let's think about what it is. There's always a Greek word in the New Testament, usually anyway, that underlies the English. There are one or two Aramaic expressions such as ifatha, be open, such as Eloi, Eloi lamas abachthanai. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Those are not Greek, those are Aramaic expressions. However, most of the time, it is Koine Greek. And in the Greek language, there is a word, temperance, that actually is enkreteia, which comes from a root word signifying strength or power. And it appears actually in the verb form in 1 Corinthians 9 verse 25, and we will come back to that portion. But just to read it now, 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 25, Paul writes, And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. There is the verb form of the word. Now there is at least one dictionary I have found where temperance is defined this way. Moderation or self-restraint in action, statement, etc. It's also defined as habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion, especially in the use of alcoholic liquors. A third definition, total abstinence from alcoholic liquors. W.E. Vine, who is a Greek commentator and scholar, believes that self-control is the preferred rendering for temperance, and I agree with him. Matthew Poole refers to temperance as a sober use of meats, drinks, apparel, or anything wherein our senses are delighted. Kenneth Wiest, whose comments I have in a set of New Testament studies, a Greek scholar, Kenneth Wiest says that this word means possessing power, strong, having mastery or possession of, continent, self-controlled. And he says, the word thus refers to the mastery of one's own desires and impulses. Another Greek scholar, Thayer, defines it this way. The virtue of one who masters his desires and passions, especially his sensual appetites. Another has called temperance the ability to keep yourself in check. I like that one. While another wrote, Temperance is the grace to hold one's appetites under control. And Robertson comments, it comes from the word Kratos or strength or power, which means one holding himself in. Now when you take all of these together, I would say it's far easier defined than it is to be developed. It's easy to define, not so easy to put into practice. But the idea of the scriptural term, the fruit of the Spirit is temperance, is of you and I as Christians having inner strength and the power to overcome the flesh in our service for God. We'll say something more about that later. But self-control, self-rule and even moderation would be proper interpretations of this word. This is what it means. Now let me say it's a historical fact. that temperance has been and still is connected in many people's minds to abstinence from alcohol. There's an annual parade held in July back where I come from and there are a number of lodges that march with beautiful banners and some of them have pictures on there depicting the Recibites of the Old Testament and the sons of Jonadab who were commended for their total abstinence and not surprisingly that lodge is actually called something or other temperance lodge. It's to do with abstinence from alcoholic beverages. Now I believe that the New Testament word goes a lot further than this. Of course it does. I agree with Kenneth Weiss who said the word refers to the mastery of one's own desires and impulses. The word does not in itself refer to the control of any particular or specific desire or impulse. The context in which the word is found will indicate which particular desire or impulse is meant, if a particular one is referred to. But you know the word has been used by the so-called temperance movements of the early 19th century in Great Britain and in America, and this is a legitimate application of the term. It actually does include a proper attitude to alcohol. And I believe it's noteworthy that far from abstinence being frowned upon or laughed at, as it is by the way in many so-called reformed circles today, the Bible actually commends it. In fact in the book of Proverbs it talks about looking not on the wine. That's a command. It says a lot of other things besides. And I'm not going to have a discussion today on alcohol and so forth. But I will point out that the Recibites were commended for their abstinence by God. The Prophet John the Baptist and others were actually commanded to abstain from wine and strong drink. And I've been struck recently in reading a book on Irish worthies, mighty preachers in the Irish Presbyterian Church in the early 19th century that many of them were crusaders for temperance. total abstinence from alcoholic beverages in the churches and in society. Such men as the Reverend John Edgar, the Reverend Walter Moffat, nicknamed the McShane of Ireland and called the godly Moffat who died at age 30 or 32, and the Reverend James Hunter who strongly promoted temperance in their day. Moffat actually established a congregational temperance society in his own church while James Hunter, in promoting temperance, humorously exclaimed that he would never taste anything that came out of the mouth of a bottle. I have to say I do become a little bit irritated at times, perhaps I shouldn't, but I get tired at least of the false charge that such a stance as our church takes on these matters is unreformed, or that it is somehow legalism. I reject that completely. I was reading a Dr. Cairns book in which he quotes Albert Barnes, a 19th century Presbyterian scholar, not an Arminian by any stretch of the imagination. This is what he said, abstinence from intoxicating drink as well as from all improper excitement is demanded by the genius of religion and on this subject there is no danger of drawing the cords too close. No man was ever injured by the strictest temperance by total abstinence from ardent spirits and from wine as a beverage. No man is certainly safe who does not abstain. No man, it is believed, can be in a proper frame of mind for religious duties, who indulges in the habitual use of intoxicating drinks. Nothing does more scandal to religion than such indulgences, and other things being equal, he is the most under the influence of the Spirit of God, who is most thoroughly a man. of temperance. But of course this is only one form of restraint. And we understand that. The scriptural definition, the fruit of the Spirit is temperance. It is much broader, it is much wider in application than that. It is self-control, but such control must be seen in every area of our lives. Look at 1 Corinthians 9.25, we turned it up a moment ago. Upcoming this summer, are the Olympic Games in London, England. And I know that there are people right now who are training as hard as they can to do well in the Olympics, whatever the discipline may be. But I can tell you, if they're only beginning now to get ready for July, they're too late. Because they've already been working at it for years. For years. And so When they come to their discipline, whenever it may be, that occasion when they have the 100 meters or whatever it may be, there's going to be an awful lot that's gone into that by way of discipline. And here Paul uses that analogy of the disciplined athlete, 1 Corinthians 9.25, and every man that striveth for the mastery. And you'll notice verse 24 tells us what he's talking about. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain? And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown. He's talking about the laurel wreath that used to be placed on the head of the runners in the Olympics, the original ones. But we, an incorruptible crown. The analogy used is that of the disciplined athlete. During that period in which he is training for the stadium athletic games, he exercises restraint and control over his body and its natural desires, whether that be food, drink, whatever it may be. Again, there is a reference to this kind of thing in 1 Corinthians 7 verse 9. And here is self-control in another area of bodily desire. Paul says, but if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn. It means to burn up with lust if you cannot contain. Exercise self-control in that area. That's what the scripture is talking about. But you notice as well, as I've pointed out, that there are three references to the noun translated temperance in the New Testament. The first of them is in Acts 24. Let's go there again and look at it more closely this time. And as he reasoned, as Paul preached of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come, Felix trembled. You'll notice that it follows righteousness. And here, righteousness actually represents the claims of God over a man's life. Therefore, self-control is to be man's response to those claims of God. That's the thought here. You find it also then in 2 Peter 1 verse 6, which we've read a couple of times already in the service. You're to add certain things, he says, to your faith. You add virtue to virtue, knowledge, verse 6, and to knowledge, temperance, or self-control, self-restraint, and to temperance, patience. Notice here that it is to be added to knowledge or it follows on from knowledge, suggesting that what is learned requires to be put into practice. And we're going to talk about that later, how that the knowledge of Christ and the knowledge of the gospel is what enables us to have this temperance. And then there's a reference in Galatians 5.23, and here it's seen as evidence of one who is walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit. That's the context. Temperance. And we might perhaps look at this more closely in another study, but to summarise, self-control, what it is, is being in control of oneself. And in the context of the Bible, it is the control of self, so as to be in harmony with the Word and the will of God. And what Christian doesn't want that? We desire that if we're truly the Lord's. Now, Philip Keller wrote about this. Self-control in the biblical sense means myself, my whole person, my whole being, body, soul and spirit come under the control of Christ. It means that I am an individual governed by God. My entire life, every aspect of it, whether spiritual, moral or physical, has become subject to the sovereignty of God's Spirit. I am a man under authority. The running of my affairs, my attitudes, my actions is a right that has been relinquished by me and turned over to God's gracious Spirit. It is really in the statement, Lord, take control. I don't want to be in control anymore. You take control. I want the Lord at the wheel. I want the Lord to be at the tiller in my vessel. I want the Lord to be controlling my life. That's the desire, I say, of every Christian. Easy to define, not so easy to develop. Now we see the antithesis of the fruit of the Spirit in the description that's given in Galatians 5 and 19 and the verses thereafter of the works of the flesh. Let's look at this. Galatians chapter 5, and when we introduced the fruit of the Spirit series, we talked about this, that what is talked about here, what is mentioned here in these verses, is actually the antithesis of the fruit of the Spirit. It's the opposite. He says in verse 19, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these? This is what the flesh produces. by nature, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like. And if you notice that list there, the one thing that comes to your mind above everything else is that here are people out of control in all of these areas. There's no temperance here. This is the antithesis of it. And He said, of the which I tell you before, as I've also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Does that mean that a person got drunk one time and that means that they're definitely not saved and they're on their way to hell? No, it doesn't mean that. Thank God it doesn't mean that. Or you can apply that to any of those things. But what it's talking about here is the tenor of a person's life. This is what their life is marked by. This is what they do constantly, over and over and over and over again, deliberately. This is how they live. This is how they want to live. And God says of them, people like that are not going to inherit the Kingdom of God. But, and here we have the contrast, verse 22, but, on the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit is, and then you have all these nine Beautiful qualities. The works of the flesh. If you think of temperance or self-control, self-restraint, it's the very opposite of the driving force behind those evil works. What lies behind the works of the flesh, and really that's sin, is self-indulgence. Someone once said, the letter I is at the centre of sin. I. It's all about me. And you can apply that to any sin that you can think of. It's selfishness, isn't it? It's all about me. And what lies behind the works of the flesh is self-indulgence, temperance, self-control. It's the very opposite of that. It's the antithesis of that. Illegitimate desires, that is those things forbidden by God, the things that God says thou shalt not, we are to abstain from. There's no question that this is what the Bible teaches. And Colossians chapter 3 puts it very, very clearly. It says there, in those opening verses, if ye then be risen with Christ, and we should understand that Paul is not questioning whether people are saved or not. The word if has the sense of since. Since you are risen with Christ, because you're risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. We sang earlier in our service, never lose sight of Jesus. That's the key to Christian living, isn't it? It's looking to Christ. When do we get in trouble? When we take our eyes off Christ. We start looking at other things or looking at other people or looking at other circumstances instead of looking to Him. Then verse 2, set your affection. And that word for affection there could be translated your mind or your heart. on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Then he says in verse 5, mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Now it doesn't literally mean, as the Bible does say, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It doesn't mean self-mutilation, that you are actually to do that. If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It doesn't mean that you're to be involved in blinding yourself. But it means that you apply the Word of God and the work of the Spirit to the manifestation of those sins that are done by those members. So in other words, when it uses the word mortify, and we all are familiar with the term mortician. It's someone who deals with corpses, with the dead. Mortify therefore simply means put to death. put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth, kill them, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness which is idolatry. You are to put off, verse 8 says, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth, lie not one to another, saying that you have put off the old man with his deeds. There is an effort to be made by us in the Christian life but it is something that is done not by ourselves, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Temperance is abstaining from those things forbidden by God, but we are also to exercise restraint toward legitimate things. What does that mean? It means avoiding excess, and satisfying all permissible and legitimate desires. There is nothing wrong with food. I love food. I like to have my several squares per day. And I also have been known in the past to be a chocoholic. I have to be very careful about that. But there's a serious point here where eating food is concerned or engaging in hobbies or activities that are legitimate in themselves to the detriment of more important things and even to the neglect of spiritual life. I believe that that's included under this self-control. I was really encouraged one day when I read where C.H. Spurgeon talked about his study habits. The Bible says much study is a weariness to the flesh and I can testify to that. There are times when you can see the books and the study far enough, believe me. And Spurgeon was talking about this, and he said he remembered treading with a very heavy tread to the study. He was having a hard time getting there. But once he got there, it was wonderful. Once he got there, and the Lord was opening things to him from the Word, he was greatly blessed. But boy, there was a battle with the flesh. And I'm telling you, there's not a preacher that I've ever met who's worth his salt, who doesn't experience that battle. Now, of course, if you're a lazy rascal and you just want to use everybody else's stuff all the time, that's a different thing. But I don't believe God will bless that. I believe also with Spurgeon that I'm allowed to milk many cows as long as I churn my own butter. John Brown of Scotland said that we ought to have a right attitude of mind, heart and life in reference to those objects in the world which naturally calls forth our desires, whether it be pleasure, profit or reputation. So this is what temperance is, and I could say a lot of other things beside, no doubt, but in short, it is the victory of the Spirit of God over the flesh in our lives. And I say again, is that not something that every Christian in this room desires? the victory of the Spirit of God over the flesh. I can identify, and so can you, with the hymn writer when he said, I hate the sins that make thee mourn and drive thee from my breast. But I want to say a little bit about what it is not in the time that remains. Self-control, temperance is not, let me emphasize it, it is not sinless perfectionism. Some people erroneously have taught and still do teach that you can, as a Christian in this life, attain a state of perfect sinlessness. Now let me say, that really appeals to me, that thought. Oh that I could attain that. I wish that that were so. And so does every Christian in this room. I'm sure you can identify with the words of Robert Murray McShane when he prayed, Lord make me as holy as it is possible for a redeemed sinner to be this side of heaven. That's a great prayer. But there are people who have claimed sinless perfection. It is an entirely false and spurious claim. And I think I could punch a hole in their little theory if I were to spend just a short period of time with them. Just to quote the great man from London again, Spurgeon was once in the company of a man like that who said that he hadn't sinned for however many years. Spurgeon looked at him incredulously, you haven't sinned for all these years? No, I've never sinned against God for X amount of years. So they're sitting at dinner, Spurgeon just looked at his glass of water and threw it round him. And the man got up indignant, raging mad, what do you do that for? Lost his temper completely. Spurgeon said, well, you've sinned now. That's it. The record is destroyed. That's a humorous story, but it really points up a very serious error. The Lord has taught His people and taught us to pray using a pattern. Now, what is the pattern? It's the Lord's prayer. Now there's nothing wrong with saying the Lord's Prayer. If you teach the children, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and so on, that's a good thing. Nothing wrong with that. And if you want to say it at night before you go to bed, that won't hurt you either. But that prayer is actually a patterned prayer. It's not just for saying parrot fashion at church or at funerals or whatever it may be. It is an actual prayer that contains within it the principle underlying all prayer. For example, in old true prayer, Our Father, there is an invocation of God, we are coming to God. There is worship, hallowed be thy name. We are to pray in accordance with God's will. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so on and so forth. But one of the things in that prayer, as you will know, is this. In Matthew's version of it, Matthew chapter 6 and verse 12, And forgive us our debts. As we forgive our debtors. And forgive us. We need forgiveness. The word debts is used there in Matthew. In Luke's version of it, in Luke chapter 11 verse 4, it actually is, and forgive us our sins. So sins are debts that we owe to God. Thank God it's Christ who's paid that debt for the sins of His people. Otherwise we're all in trouble. But notice, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Will you ever get in this life to the point where you'll not need to pray that prayer? Absolutely not. And neither will I. And forgive us our sins. Does that mean that we can just, you know, with great delight, sin against God because we can get forgiveness? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Christians don't want to sin, though they do sin. But until we get to heaven, we're going to need to pray that prayer. And of course, it is true that every Christian desires to be sinless. Who would not want to be without sin? Who truly loves the Lord? The hymn writer said, Oh, to be like thee, blessed Redeemer. This is my constant longing and prayer. And yet the fact is, it's not attainable in this life, though it is desirable. Some have erroneously talked about a second work of grace and entire sanctification. After conversion they claim to have experienced another work of God in which the root of sin was burned out. But this is entirely false. If you turn with me to Romans chapter 7 as I promised we would do. We can't study this portion in detail today. But if you do look at it in detail, and we will come back to it, you will see that it describes an ongoing spiritual conflict. Every Christian can identify with Romans 7. There is a battle that rages in the believing Christian all the time. And as one observed, for Paul, the fruit of the Spirit was not exemption from battling the lust of the flesh, but the power to keep under or to discipline the body and bring it into subjection. That's what he was talking about in 1 Corinthians 9 and 27. But look again at Romans 7. In Romans chapter 7, he says in verse 18, For I know, and I know that every Christian would be able to say the same thing, that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will or to desire is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me, Here is a wonderful statement. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man. I love God's law. I love to do His will. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Then you have this expression, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I think I have explained before that that is an expression that is borrowed from the practice of the cruel Romans when they would often take a living prisoner and tie or attach to his body a dead prisoner and eventually the putrefaction and the awful corruption of that dead body would make its way into that living person's body and take over his body till it killed him. That's what he means by this body of death, or the body of this death. Who shall deliver me from it? Is there no hope for me as a Christian? Verse 25, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. You'll see that the fruit of the Spirit, if you notice it correctly, it's not sinless perfection, but it is the subduing of the flesh Not its elimination, it's the subduing of it, enabling us to overcome. I've often wondered how those who believe in perfectionism can explain what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7 verse 1. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. How can you perfect something that is already perfect? Perfecting holiness in the fear of God. This is an ongoing, progressive work. You can't perfect that which is already perfect. But we all need the constant ministry of the Spirit of God within us, enabling us to overcome on the basis of the victory already accomplished by Christ at Calvary. The old man, with all his hatred of God and godliness, is in constant opposition to the work of grace in the soul. Self-restraint or self-rule implies fighting and subduing the natural propensities of the flesh. This is a battle in which we must yield to the Holy Spirit to help us, and He does and He will. The path of the just is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Next time the Lord willing we will see the ministry of the Spirit is to direct our vision to the gospel and to the work of Christ. Paul noted this as the secret of victory in Romans 7 in that final verse. It's through Jesus Christ our Lord in light of the precious blood that He shed for us We will desire to please Him in all things and to yield to His control. The hymn puts it ever so well. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. How can I put Jesus on the cross afresh by my sins? This is the secret of temperance. May God help us all by His grace to walk in the Spirit and not to fulfill the lust of the flesh. Amen.