Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast
where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.
In this podcast series, we're going to be looking into biblical
words that have great significance to our faith.
The name of this series is called the Word of the Week, where
once a week we will dive deeper into these words that we are
familiar with in scripture.
So come along with me, let's study the Word of the week.
Pastor Josh here the word of the week is temperance or self control.
In the King James we see the word temperance, but a way that we
could describe that word temperance is self control.
And we know that in the list there of attributes of the fruit
of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five, the very last character
trait that's listed is temperance or self control.
Galatians 5.
22.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law.
And so we know that as a believer, the Holy Spirit indwells
us, which means he lives within us.
And when we yield to him, when we submit to him and obey his guidance
in our life, we will display these character traits.
And so we know that the character of God is that he is temperate
in all things.
And so we grow in our understanding of who God is, and
we grow in our understanding of God's guidance in our life.
And we're able to manifest that self control in our life.
So another way that we could describe it is God control.
Instead of saying that, you know, I myself am creating this control
in my life, it's allowing God to control my life.
And so the Bible uses this word temperance.
And the understanding is for us to be able to stop those fleshly
desires in our life by the power of God and yield to his work
in our life.
So one of the things that we can see in Scripture is that In Philippians
chapter 2, verse 13, it says, for it is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do his good pleasure.
And so it's really allowing God to work in our lives, dying to
our flesh, yielding to the Spirit.
And so everything that we do in our lives, when it comes to following
God's word, anything we do in our lives that shows the fruit of
the Spirit is really just God working through us.
And so it's in definition self control or temperance is the ability
to control oneself.
It involves things like having moderation, being able to restrain
those fleshly sensual desires.
You could, you could put it even this way, the ability to say
no to a temptation and so we know that before we were saved, the
Bible says that we were in bondage to our sin.
Basically, we couldn't do anything else but to feed our flesh.
But the Bible says that when the Holy Spirit indwells us, we now
have the capabilities of doing something different than that.
So we are no longer under the bondage of sin, but we are now servants
to the Lord.
And so we are saved by what Jesus Christ has done for us.
And so he's given us that freedom, he's given us that ability,
he's given us that path for living that righteous life.
And so I think it's Romans chapter six that speaks of that idea
of being in bondage to sin.
And now we have been given liberty, we have given that liberation
of sin.
And now we are now in the freedom to live our lives for Christ.
And so a lot of times one might think that, well, you, now
that I'm saved, I'm not going to struggle with the flesh.
But we know that even in Romans chapter 7 that there are still
the forces of evil that are manifesting themselves in our lives
through outside stimuli.
And our flesh, right, our flesh still battles with the Spirit.
And the Bible puts it this way, the old man and the new man.
The old man is the old ways, the old man is our flesh.
The new man is the Spirit.
The new man is the new path that we take as believers and we
go through that sanctification process.
And so if we are not exhibiting self control in our lives,
we are living in the flesh.
And it's very easy to fall into that trap.
That's our default.
And so the Bible speaks over and over again about dying to the
flesh, putting on the new man, mortifying your members, as the King
James says.
And so I would encourage you to think about how you can display
that self control in your life.
And it's not about necessarily just working harder or removing yourself
from certain situations, though those things can help.
It's completely relying on God to give you the power and the wisdom
and the ability to live this out in your life.
So it's the ability to say no.
It's the ability through the power of God as He empowers us to
restrain ourselves from just feeding what our body wants, feeding
what the lust of our eyes, the lust of our flesh and the pride of
life wants.
And so this manifests itself in many different ways.
I mean, manifests itself in our relationships, in our life.
It manifests ourselves in the way that we deal with conflict, manifests
itself in the way that we deal with just the day to day affairs
of our life, whether it be our workplace or our family or just even
within the church.
And so the Bible says, even in Philippians, let your moderation
be known unto all men.
And so I think that's an important verse to think about in
Philippians chapter 4.
Philippians chapter 4, verse 6 reminds us that there is this need.
I think it's verse five actually.
Let your moderation be known unto all men.
The Lord is at hand.
So the way that we understand that verse is that we display that
moderation, we display that proper lifestyle, we display that,
that self control, that temperance.
And then doing so, that's a testimony that the Lord is at work.
That's a testimony that the Lord is coming, a testimony that
the gospel message is true.
And then we know of course, right after that verse, in verse
6, it talks about the way that we should be confident in the Lord
through our prayer lives.
Be careful for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God.
And then of course we know that the next verse tells us then
the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
So it's a wonderful thing.
When we live out these character traits that God has gifted
us with, we then are able to rely on him more and we are then
able to be better testimonies for him and we are able to walk in
the peace of God.
And so a lot of times we think that, you know, if I don't do something,
I'm missing out.
But actually what God is saying is that when we restrain ourselves
with the power of God to, to be yielded to the spirit and not
the flesh, then we then gain something and we gain the peace of
God.
We gain a testimony, we gain further blessings in our life.
And certainly we're doing it because God commands us to do it.
But we know that God doesn't leave us alone.
We know that God gives us blessings when we serve him and live
this lifestyle of temperance and self control.
So I think that that's one of those passages of scripture that
we could go to when it comes to this understanding of, of temperance,
of self control.
Another passage of scripture that I think would be appropriate
to look at would be Second Peter chapter one, verse six.
So what's the outcome of this self control?
Well, self control leads to something and the Bible calls it
here patience or endurance.
So self control naturally, or we could even say supernaturally,
leads to a place of patience in our life.
So two Peter chapter one, verse six.
And to knowledge, temperance.
And this is that passage of Scripture that's talking about adding
things to our faith.
So yes, salvation is an amazing thing that happens in our
life.
It's a miracle of the moment we're justified.
And when we are justified, we are immediately put into a place
of being, a child of God.
And so positionally we are changed from a path to destruction
to a path of everlasting life.
So that is the start, but not the end.
And so we know that as a Christian we are called in that sanctification,
spiritual growth process to add things to our faith and our spiritual
maturity.
And so in that passage in second Peter chapter one, it's talking
about adding things to our faith, it's talking about growing,
maturing in our faith.
And so we get to verse five, we let's go back a little bit for
context and you can follow along with me here if you're, if
you're listening and following along with scripture or your phone.
It says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your
faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge.
And then verse six, and to knowledge, temperance, there's that
word.
And then to temperance, patience.
And to patience, godliness.
And to godliness, brotherly kindness.
And brotherly kindness, charity, that's love.
For these things being you and abound, they shall make you, make
you, that ye shall neither be barren nor fruitful in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And so the Bible says that when we exemplify Christ attributes
in our life, we will be fruitful, right?
Instead of being ineffective, unfruitful Christians, we can have
the knowledge of God in our life.
Specifically here it says the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So it says his attributes in our life.
And as we live those out, we're able to see effective fruit
for the cause of the gospel.
And then he says, but he that lacketh these things is blind.
So when we miss the opportunity to add these things to
our life, we're living as blind Christians.
We're near sighted to the fact that we cannot see the bigger picture.
And he says, even and have forgotten that he was purged from
his old sins.
And so essentially what we're seeing here is that, you know, we're
living like we're not saved.
We're living like we are still in bondage to sin if we're not adding
these things to our faith.
And so we ask the Lord to give us these things specifically, in
this case, self control, temperance.
And then when we ask him in faith, we then are Open to what God
does and works in our life, and we're submissive to his will.
And therefore we are able to add to our faith temperance.
And as we add to our faith temperance, as it says in verse six,
then we can then build upon that in patience.
And so, you know, a lot of times that word patience is not a
word that we want to talk about very often, but it is a necessity
in the Christian life.
Patience, endurance, pushing forward, not being short sighted.
And so part of having self control in our life, part of having
temperance in our life is seeing the bigger picture, playing
the long game, so to speak, the eternal perspective in our lives.
And so I would ask the Lord if that's something that you're struggling
with, ask the Lord to give you the power to live out that moderation,
that temperance, that self control in your life, that God control
in your life.
But then what I would say is this, after you ask him, be open
and willing to submit to him when he brings you those opportunities.
Because we can sit here all day and say, lord, give me the strength,
but then, yet we still choose the flesh when that choice comes.
And so it's over and over again, making these daily, sometimes
hourly decisions, even sometimes, in most cases, minute
to minute, Am I going to make a decision of the flesh and yield
to that, or am I going to make a decision according to the Spirit
and yield to that and therefore live that life of temperance
and self control?
That's how we should be known.
Our testimony should be, wow, that person is able to restrain his
or her desires because of the bigger picture in the cause of the
gospel.
Now we're not going to be perfect on this.
And that's why these attributes, yes, are communicable
from God to us, but we are never going to be perfect in that.
But the whole decision making process should be that we want to
be more and more characterized by our temperance and our life.
So I hope that this has been a help to you.
Obviously you could go through all of the character traits listed
there in the Fruit of the Spirit in the book of Galatians and
emphasize the need for the Lord's power in them.
But I thought it would be important to look into that character
trait of temperance or self control.
And so let's ask the Lord to give us strength.
Let's ask the Lord to give us the opportunity to exercise our self
control today and to model that before the world so that they
can see that the Lord is at work, so that they can see that the
Lord has a plan, so that they can see that the Lord can change
lives and influence his people and transform his people for the
cause of the kingdom of God.
And so let's pray and ask the Lord to give us strength to live
that life of temperance, to live that life of self control.
Well, again, we're going to continue on in our sermon series,
well, sermon series, podcast series, so to speak, when it comes
to the attributes of God.
Next week will be in the week of Thanksgiving.
And so we're going to talk about giving thanks.
But I would encourage you to continue on listening to these Word
of the Week episodes so that we can grow in our understanding
of what the Word of God has to say for us here in this, in this
time that we have for the cause of the gospel.
If you have any questions or suggestions about what we should
be studying or what we could be studying when it comes to different
words, I'd love for you to let us know.
You can email me @ Josh, that's Josh Massaromas, a R O@middletownbaptistchurch.org
well, we look forward to hearing from you.
Love for you to leave a review on either whatever platform you're
listening to this on and that would help us out greatly.
And I would encourage you to, hey, maybe share it with a friend.
The more folks that are able to listen, the more folks are able
to share the truth of the Word of God.
And we would love that.
So we hope you have a wonderful rest of your week.
Looking forward to talking to you next week when it comes to the
Word of the Week.
Well, God bless you.
Take care.
We will talk to you soon.
Hey, I really appreciate that you listened to the Word of the Week
podcast.
If you have any questions about the podcast or about our church,
Middletown Baptist Church, you can find more information about us
on Facebook or YouTube or you can find the podcast on NBCPodcast.org
you can contact me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.org
stay tuned for future Word of the Week episodes where we dive deeper
into words that impact our life according to scripture.
Thank you so much.
God bless.
We'll talk to you soon.