Dr Greg Bahnsen - The Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness and Self-Control (Part 9)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Tonight we're going to try to finish our study of the fruit of the Spirit in the Book of Galatians. We've spent some time on each one of them, and we're going to take the last two for our consideration in this evening's study. And then we'll continue the Book of Galatians and try to finish it out. I've kind of taken a lot more time on just these few verses than we have on the other passages because I wanted a special attention to how our lives should be changed if we would live by the Spirit. So let's read together the text that we've read many times now found in Galatians 5, and I'll begin at verse 19. The Acts of the sinful nature are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other thus far. The reading of God's Word. If we live by our own lights, if we live by our own moral direction and feelings, if we live in the strength of our own personal ability, what we bring forth, according to Paul, are the works of the flesh, works of the natural man in his natural state, the flesh, which is to say our sinful nature. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious, and he gives this long list. On the other hand, if we've been born again and God has saved us by his grace, we live new lives by the power and the direction of His Spirit. And the Spirit produces a different personality that should be obvious from just about every one of the fruits that we have studied. Where we were unloving and selfish, we become loving. Where we were bitter and in distress, and always worried about what we don't have, and so forth. Now the Spirit gives us joy. Where we could not find peace. The Spirit makes us peacemakers. The Spirit gives us a long suffering disposition, patience we learn to be kind toward others and benevolent and outgoing, and to be faithful. In our last lesson, we saw various ways in which our faithlessness comes to expression. But the Spirit provides our needs. And if we study the character of God, we would be more faithful as he is now. There are two other things, but there are many others as well that could be mentioned. But two others that Paul speaks of. Two other character traits that we have to look at tonight. Gentleness and self control. The word gentle or gentleness is sometimes translated meek or meekness. You might have that in your translations. And so it's important to point out at the very start, as John Sanderson does in his book on the Fruit of the Spirit, that meekness is not the opposite of courage. I think in our culture, especially with this macho man image and so forth, we have the idea that the opposite of being courageous is cowardice. And that's what a meek person is, a Casper Milquetoast kind of thing. But the Bible, I think, would teach us it takes courage to be a gentle person, to be firm and gentle in an evil world and in the face of opposition. And so you could be a courageous person and show your courage by not lashing out at others or trying to be pushy or whatever. A gentle disposition might show a great deal more courage and inner bravery than going on with a fight or an argument with somebody. The opposite of gentleness is not courage. According to Sanderson, the opposite of gentleness is self seeking. You see, the gentle person doesn't seek his own or her own. The gentle person, the person who's not gentle, if you think about it, is looking out for number one, is looking out for himself or herself. So the weed that we want to pull up in our life is the weed of self seeking. Let's look at an example. In Luke, the ninth chapter, verses 46 to 56, Luke 9, 46, 56, an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you, he is the greatest Master, said John, we saw a man driving out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he's not one of us. Do not stop him. Jesus said, for whoever is not against you is for you. As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him. But the people there did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them and they went to another village. Here you have an example of self seeking and what it leads to is very vicious. The story begins with the kind of obvious indictment of the conceit and the egocentric outlook of the disciples. They're arguing as to which would be greatest. That kind of pride leads to a story about narrowness and exclusivity. In verse 49 where the disciples are saying, here's this other guy doing these things. Don't you think we ought to stop him? I mean, they want the attention to themselves. Not only do they argue among themselves which of them is the greatest, but they want their group to be the only group. So they want to stop this other person. Jesus says no. And then in verse 53, the story advances to what is an ongoing feud between the Jews and the Samaritans. The reason the Samaritans didn't want Jesus there is because they knew he was heading for Jerusalem. And the Samaritans hated the Jews of Jerusalem, so they didn't want him to stay. Now, two of the leaders of the group, James and John, get very mean spirited and very authoritarian. And yet they probably thought that what they were doing was proved. Because in the Old Testament you remember the story of Elijah, and in 2 Kings 1, Elijah had these children who came out and they were ridiculing him and so forth, and he calls for bears to come out and destroy them. Wow. So they probably thought, hey, we're just in the spirit of the Old Testament prophets and they want to use their power for miracles as they understood it anyway, to call down fire from heaven. They were going to show these Samaritans what was wrong. Of course, Elijah was judging apostasy. And I think God was using the example of Elijah's judgment on the children, ridiculing him as a symbol of the impending judgment that was coming on the nation as a whole. But here we have to understand that the apostles were not bringing a message of judgment. They were on the verge of a great evangelistic outburst which you'll see in chapter 10 of Luke begins, so this is not God is coming to judge. This is God has sent his son to save. They've just not understood the situation and so their self centeredness turned out to obscure the gospel and to obscure it with a very bitter spirit. They were not gentle because they were self seeking people. So it would be, I think, less than enough for us tonight if we could just go home and remember that when we're not gentle, it's because we're not seeking the good of others but our own. Every time I think about this, so many illustrations in my own life, you know, when I get maybe impatient with the clerk in a store or some problem with billing, I've talked to somebody on the telephone. These things just rattle me sometimes. But then every time I have one of those things where I end up not being very gentle, I have to admit it's because I was thinking of me. So if we could get rid of self seeking, we could learn to be more gentle people. Now in the process, though, we have to remember there's an artificial fruit of gentleness that we have to not settle for. Satan would be glad if we took the artificial fruit, which Sanderson identifies as false modesty, self depreciation and a refusal to stand for anything that is being an unprincipled person. False modesty. Have you known people that seem gentle to others? But it's just like this little game they play, this false modesty. They always put themselves down and they won't stand up for anything. They don't want to be troublemakers and all. I'm really glad Sanderson put that in there because that drives me nuts when people do that, you know, and they're considered gentle by comparison because they refuse to say anything. And they're always, you know, it appears outwardly anyway, being modest. Sanderson says that even in our depravity and our guilt, we are still creatures of God and we have value as people that are made in his image. When we're always putting ourselves down and saying, oh no, no, I can't do anything good, no, don't draw any attention to me. It says that kind of false modesty dehumanizes us as children of God and it's unrealistic. And you get somebody who just cannot take a compliment that's always saying, oh no, no, no, don't draw any attention to me. He says, they're really refusing to see that they're a human being. Yes, they are sinful and yes, they've got their prophets, but on the other hand, they've been made by God and they are made in the image of God and realistically they have value. Then many times people overreact in Fear of being charged with pride. You know, it's like if you accept a compliment, then people say, oh, you're proud. You're conceited. But what happens when we overreact with that kind of fear is that we end up denying God's work in our lives. God does grant us gifts. God does grant us accomplishments. And it's supremely ungrateful not to say so. But you see, if you can't admit that he's gifted you or graced you or given you some accomplishment, then you can't say, thank you, God, for doing this, because then it doesn't exist. But if it does exist, it exists in your life. So you have to admit, yes, I've done some things that are good and so forth, but then immediately you say, it's God who works in me that does these. That's not false modesty. That's genuine modesty. The false modesty says, oh, no, no, I've not done anything. Oh, it's no big deal. Things like that. The work of the Spirit in our lives allows us to accept ourselves for what God has made of us. Who is the most gentle of men? In the Bible, you remember Moses and who said that Moses was the most gentle of men? Moses. Okay, so let's not get into this false modesty that Moses was a gentle man and he was able to say, by God's grace, of course, that he was the most gentle. The higher a man rises in authority or achievement above his fellow men, if he is an unregenerate person, the harder it is to bear challenges with gentleness. You think about that. When you have an unregenerate person who rises in authority and achievement, it is hard for this person. The higher he gets, higher she gets to bear challenges with a gentle spirit. When Moses describes himself as the most gentle of men, it was at a time when his older siblings were rebelling against him. Ain't there's a connection. The fact is that Moses had been gifted by God. God's grace had put him in this leadership position, and Aaron and Miriam didn't like that. And they're coming on strong against them about this. And Moses, gentleness is seen in that. Since he knows it's God who's doing this work, he doesn't have to respond in a harsh way, in a defensive way with them. How do we cultivate gentleness? By realizing who we are before God and having an understanding of how others only hurt themselves with the bad attitudes that they use to oppose us. Remember that when people show bad attitudes dealing with you, whether it's a clerk at the store or somebody you're fighting with in church or a member of your family. Whenever they're doing that, you have to remember they're hurting themselves and you have to realize who you are before God. Look at 2 Timothy 2:24 following 2 Timothy 2:24 and the Lord's servant must not quarrel. Instead, he must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful, those who oppose him. He must gently instruct and hope that God will grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth. They will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will. Another translation says they oppose themselves, and the Lord's servant can be gentle, knowing these people are only hurting themselves. He instructs them patiently, realizing their bad attitudes are not something that he has to worry about, because those bad attitudes, again, are only being destructive to the person displaying them. It's usually the case that the degree of our overbearingness with people, the degree of our violence or anger in response to conflict, is in direct proportion to our own instability and insecurity. A person who feels confident of who he is before God, what the situation is, and so forth, doesn't have to fight back with violence or anger or be overbearing. Jesus is described for us in Matthew 12:15. I think be good for us to remember this characteristic of the Savior. Matthew 12:15, a quotation from Isaiah 40:2, the first four verses. The text begins in the 15th verse, but the description that I want you to notice is verse 20. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not stuff out. Jesus, though he is mistreated. You notice verse 19 says he doesn't quarrel and he doesn't cry out. And verse 20 shows his gentleness. He doesn't take even a bruised reed and break it. Jesus did not seek his own, and because he wasn't seeking his own, he was seeking to be the Savior and the servant of others. He didn't show fear, or he wasn't afraid to be gentle in meeting the needs of others. And in the same text I think verse 12 will indicate that this spirit of not breaking a bruised reed is tied to an understanding, a tender understanding of the value of people. Jesus has healed a man on the Sabbath, and he's being now railed upon for that, criticized. And he tells the story about taking the sheep out of the pit on the sabbath. And verse 12 how much more valuable is a man than A sheep. Jesus sees the value of people and the need to serve them. That tender understanding of the need of others is a key to his ability to be gentle, not to cry out against injustice. Here are some things we should realize. If we want to grow in gentleness, then we'll move on to self control. We should realize that we're creatures with obligations to our Creator. Say, well, that's obvious, Dr. Bonson. Well, it is theologically, but I'm not sure emotionally that we always take that into account. It's always good to remind yourself before you go off in the morning. I'm a creature and I have obligations to God. I'm not God. I'm not a big shot of any sword. I'm a creature. I have obligations. And more than that, I'm not just a creature. I'm a sinner. And as a sinner I've lost all my rights before God. We have no complaints. So if it turns out that you get a ticket, you didn't think you deserved it. You didn't have any rights anyway. It's not as though God has to provide everything just the way you want it to be today. Remember you're a creature. Remember that you're a sinner. Remember that you're incapable of good apart from God, that you depend on him for everything. And then remember that he saved you. He didn't save you simply so that you could be plucked out of hell on the final day and go to heaven, but he saved you for a purpose in this world and he's empowered you to fulfill that purpose. If you remember those things about yourself and you ask God to get rid of the self seeking in your life, you'll find that you'll become more gentle dealing with people. All right. There's one other fruit that is mentioned by Paul. Although there are many other fruits of the Spirit that might have been brought up. Paul ends his list by speaking of self control. If we are really controlled by the Spirit, then we're going to have self control. Seem like a paradox? We don't do it in our own strength, we do it in the spirit strength. But the point is we are able to show self control because the Spirit is guiding us. We'll be loving people, joyful people. We'll be peacemakers who are patient and show kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness toward other people. Isn't it obvious that all the things that we've mentioned at this point are all tied into self control? It's when we aren't self controlled that we aren't Patient, we aren't kind, we aren't gentle, we are, we aren't faithful. So self control is a very important fruit of the Spirit. In fact, let's look at verses 19 to 21 in Galatians 5 and just notice how many of the works of the flesh illustrate a lack of self control. Let me read these again. The acts of the sinful nature of the flesh are obvious. Sexual immorality. Sexual immorality, a lack of self control, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft. Listen to this. Hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies. I mean, virtually every one in the list is an illustration of not being able to control your emotions or your sexual drives or whatever it may be. The Bible tells us that an undisciplined spirit is like a city with broken down walls. You remember that from Proverbs, When I preached through Proverbs, that's how crucial it is that we gain self control. You know, a city that has broken down walls is set up for destruction. If you have no way to keep the enemy out to defend yourself, then you're just going to get overrun. Proverbs 16:32. Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper, than one who takes a city. If you had a choice between being able to be a great warrior, some macho guy in our day, maybe we should talk about taking a city. But maybe being the super bowl quarterback or Michael Jordan on the basketball court, or Norman Schwarzkopf, you know, out there winning wars and so forth. If you had a choice between somebody being somebody with that ability or somebody who could keep back his temper, which would you choose? Proverbs tells us which it should be, but I don't think it's the one we would think of. We'd say, well, everybody loses their temper. But not everybody can win a battle or take a city or be a great athlete. I'll take this other we're wrong. Our priorities are wrong when we think that way. Notice Proverbs 25:28. Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self control. A man who can't control himself is ready to be destroyed, to be overrun by outward opposition. What is the lack of self control, the weed that we need to get rid of in our lives? It is repeatedly choosing something bad instead of something good, not controlling yourself, and over and over and over again choosing what is bad rather than what is good. Paul has a remarkable description of the uncontrolled body in Philippians 3, 18 and 19. Philippians 3, 18, 19. For as I have often told you before and now say again, even with tears, many live as enemies at the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction. Their God is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things, but our citizenship is in heaven. Pretty strong language. Their God is their belly. We've been going through Philippians and my reckless devotions before Mike goes to school, and we recently went to this passage. Kind of hard to talk about your God being your belly when you're eating. We have to understand it's not wrong to eat. And although I'd be the first to put up his hand mentioning guilt here, people who are overweight have a problem with self control. Paul's focus here is not just on those who need to go to Weight Watchers. He's using this broadly as a principle. Those who live for self gratification, their God is their belly. Now, what is the end or the destiny for somebody that's like that? Destruction, he says. As Proverbs said, you're like a city without walls. You have no defense. If you can't control yourself, then it's hopeless. Your end will be destruction. And the amazing thing is, Paul says, people who live this way for their own gratification, they're enemies of the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ doesn't represent self gratification. Does it represent self sacrifice? And so if you live for self gratification, you can't really care about the cross of Christ and understand what that was all about. It says, you're an enemy of the cross of Christ. In Ephesians 5, Paul draws a parallel between two kinds of filling. It's really a contrast, he says. You can be filled with the Spirit or you can be filled with spirits, that is to say, with wine. And what he directs is, you should not be filled with wine, wherein is excess debauchery, a lack of self control, but rather be filled with the Spirit. So we can see there in Ephesians 5 that the fruit of the Spirit walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, is set over against the lack of self control that comes when you're filled with wine. And in First Corinthians 6, Paul reminds us that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We've heard enough about that in our circles that I probably don't need to elaborate. But because the Holy Spirit dwells in our bodies, we are the temple of the Spirit, then we have to act accordingly. Sometimes ask people to smoke or smoke too much? I mean, are you taking care of your body or people who overeat or don't exercise or whatever it may be? Are you taking care of this temple in which the spirit dwells? Okay, so a lack of self control is shown in our bodies. Our God is our belly and so forth. But even worse than an uncontrolled body is an uncontrolled spirit. The reason for that is offenses in the area of an uncontrolled spirit open the door wide to further sins. When you can't control your temper, when you can't control your jealousy, what that leads to is violence, lies all sorts of other terrible kinds of behavior and conduct. So we've got to control our spirit so that we aren't led into deeper and deeper levels of sin and rebellion against God. Before we talk about self control itself once again, what is the artificial fruit? How is it we can be sidetracked from getting true self control? Sanderson suggests that the artificial fruit is choosing lesser goods. It may appear to us that we have self control because we're choosing something good, but because it's really the lesser good than what God wants us really to have, we've been sidetracked from true self control. I can think of many illustrations in my own life. I kind of like the one Sanderson gave. Sanderson speaks of a woman who was a reformed alcoholic. And the way in which she would keep herself away from the bottle was by making fun of herself, making herself the butt of jokes, as he indicates. After a while, however, the way in which she would ridicule her alcoholic habits turned out not really to be very funny. May have been at first, but in the end it was really kind of pitiful. What she was doing was kind of making herself less than human. She was putting herself down. And the point that he makes here is that though she was staying away from alcohol, she was not doing it according to the fruit of the Spirit. Not by showing true self control and relying on the saving power of Christ, but rather she was demeaning herself and using humor and so forth. And he says this is choosing a lesser good in the place of the greater good, of relying upon Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. You may all remember the story in Luke 11:24, 26. Jesus speaks of a man who had demons in his life and they are expelled and he sweeps the house clean, as it were. But then even worse, demons come back to haunt him and to control him. Neutrality is not satisfactory when it comes to self control. We need something positive in the place of the negative habits that we had. And that's why all these halfway measures, using humor or self help methods or whatever it may be, only hold out the threat of even worse demons controlling a person's life because they have not ended up with a positive attitude toward Christ and living under the control of God's Spirit, but attempted to be neutral. The self control which refuses a particular act of sin that says, no, I'm not going to have this drink, or I'm not going to engage in that lustful thought or whatever it may be. The self control that refuses a particular sinful act, but doesn't do so by relying upon Jesus is really just trading one kind of sin for another kind of sin. The sin of self esteem and self reliance and whatever else, maybe even idolatry, having some higher authority than God and not looking to the work of Christ. It's not enough that we are negative toward our bad habits. We need to reform our lives in the power of God's savings spirit. And that's why negative preaching, or solely negative preaching is never satisfactory or adequate within the church. When a preacher just puts things down and says this is bad, that is bad, and so forth, and doesn't have a positive program of replacement, a positive program of sanctification, guidance for a new life, new goals, and so forth, that kind of preaching will never empower the church. It can't just be negative. It must also have a positive direction, looking for the new life in Christ. Sanderson has a quotation that I think is very helpful. I've actually written this down in my notes. He says we exercise control over ourselves when we have some clear ambition or aim. Once again, we exercise control over ourselves when we have some clear ambition or aim. We can't simply say no, no, no to things. We need a goal at the end of the line that we're striving toward that pulls us away from these bad habits and keeps us focused on something positive. We can exercise self control when we are moving toward a positive goal, a clear ambition or an aim. Otherwise what we have is just the constant fight with our desires, which are either wicked or lesser goods that God doesn't want us to get involved in. Sanderson gives an interesting example of self control from Acts 23, verses 1 to 5. I've been teaching this book for some time, a number of years, at different audiences, and I have to admit when I first came to this chapter and looked at this illustration, it didn't initially strike me as an example of self control. I would have thought this is an illustration of some other point. It's the story of when Paul was on trial before the Sanhedrin. In response to something Paul has said, the high priest orders that he be struck upon the mouth. And then Paul responds, do you whitewashed wall, may God strike you? And then people rebuke Paul and say, don't you know you're not to speak evil of the ruler of God's people? Citation from the book of Exodus. And Paul immediately responds by restraining himself and indicating that he should not. He said, I did not know that it was the high priest that had done that. Now like I say, that didn't immediately jump out at me as an example of self control. But I think Sanderson's right. It's really a very good one because in the first place, Paul was in the right. From a legal standpoint, the high priest had violated God's law and judicial proceedings by having a penalty imposed on Paul, smacking him on the face even before he had been found guilty of anything. I mean, we're in the discovery part of the trial here, in an examination of the facts and so forth. And before any judgment has even been rendered, the high priest has Paul being disciplined. And that's not right, that's not correct according to the law of God. And yet Paul knew that there was another law involved here and that was the need for him to show respect toward the ruler of God's people. Now this does not mean that we may not call out for political reform or judicial reform when we see people violating the law of God. Paul is not saying, I should not have said anything in my defense or I should not have called down the wickedness of this ruler. But his point is this language of whitewashed wall and the kind of cynical cursing approach to the high priest was not appropriate. And the reason why it shows us Paul's self control is because the minute that he saw that he was out of step with the law of God, Paul pulled himself back into the right line of conduct and verbal behavior. Paul didn't sit there rationalizing that well, after all, it was the high priest who created the problem and he was in violation of the law. Paul knew that he himself needed to be in submission to the law. Sadly, many people today, when they have it brought to their attention that their attitudes or their beliefs or their conduct don't fit in with the law of God, they, they have all these excuses. They immediately start thinking about why they don't have to worry about obeying the law of God. You know, it's not valid today, or that only applied to Israel, or I really didn't do it so bad, or other people are worse, or on and on and on and on. But not Paul. His self control was evident in that he immediately instantly submitted to what the law required, even though he could have made a case for himself. Paul gives us as a model for self control and discipline, the example of an athlete in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and following. Let's read that real quickly here before we get done this evening. First Corinthians 9. Beginning at the 24th verse, Paul says, know ye not that they that run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Even so run that you may attain it. And every man who strives in the games exercises self control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible crown. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly so fight I as not beating the air, but I buffet my body, and I bring it into bondage, lest by any means after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected. Paul looks at an athlete who gains self control and disciplines himself and makes that a model for the Christian life. And there are three things he brings out about the athlete. First of all, athletes have got to have an aim. They've got to be shooting for something. Verse 24 Know ye not that they that run in a race all run, but only one receives a prize. Even so run that you may attain. You've got to have that prize at the end of the race that you're striving after. Obviously, for Christians we're striving for the prize of pleasing Christ Jesus and hearing from him. Well done. We want that badly. Like an athlete who wants to win the Olympic race, we have that aim that we're striving for. Now if we have an aim, we look at the athlete. The athlete who has an aim because he wants to achieve that puts himself under strict training rules, as verse 25 says. And every man that strives in the games exercises self control in all things, or self discipline. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible because they want to win the race and win that crown, even the corruptible crown. They go through days and weeks, months, maybe even years of training, eating the right foods and working out and working on particular muscles and particular moves and coordination. The athlete has a training regiment that he puts him into. And Christians should be in a training regiment as well. We should be striving for the incorruptible crown that Christ will grant. And for that reason we train ourselves. We put ourselves under strict discipline. We show self control. And the third thing is, notice the use of present tense verbs by Paul here. He's talking here about constant and sustained effort. And every man who strives in the games exercises self control in all things. Verse 26 I therefore so run, but not uncertainly so fight eye as not beating the air. This is an ongoing discipline and practice. For Paul, the sustained effort must be kept up if he would finally win the prize. A passing remark here. The Greek word that is used for an athlete's self discipline or training regiment is as, and that comes over into English. The Greek word ascesis comes over into English as the word asceticism. It's kind of interesting because the Greek concept of ascesis is really different from the English notion of asceticism, though the words are related. In Greek, ascesis means not refusing to engage in something, but rather training yourself, having bodily discipline in order to engage in the right way. Whereas asceticism, the English concept of being ascetic is not to train yourself so that you have self control and moderation, but rather to avoid altogether the ascetic says, don't drink at all, rather than learning moderation, don't marry at all, rather than having to deal with sexual temptation and gaining control over yourself that way. The Bible does not teach us that we should avoid the world or pull back, don't drink, don't chew, don't go with the girls that do sort of thing. The biblical approach is not negativity and denial, but rather self control in the athletic training sense. And one last piece of advice that will help us to gain self control. In 1 Corinthians 6:19 20 we have a truth that we should constantly be drawing to mind about ourselves. And if we could bring it to our awareness over and over again every day, it would help us to resist the temptations about things we shouldn't get involved in, as well as to keep our mind on the goal of pleasing Christ. First Corinthians 6:19 or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own. But you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body. You are not your own you have been bought with a price. You have been purchased by the price of Christ's blood. And I think if we would tell ourselves that over and over and over Again, I am not my own. I belong to a faithful Savior. I have been bought with the price of his own life. If we just said that mentally and prayed through that a number of times every day, I am not my own. I've been bought with a price, we'd find it much easier to practice the Fruit of the Spirit of Self Control. Well, I hope that tonight's lesson has had the same effect on you as it's had on me. I know that when I look at the need for gentleness and for self control, I find that I fall very short as a Christian. We can have a lot of good theological head knowledge, I guess, and not put it into practice. It's so easy to be upset with clerks that don't do things right, or when the agenda that I have for the day or for my life or whatever is not working out, to kind of get angry and grumpy and so forth. It's easy to lose patience, to not show self control in terms of our attitudes and our bodies as well. And this is true of all the Fruit of the Spirit as we've studied them. I hope you can see individually every one of those character traits. Love and joy and peace and patience and kindness. All these things that God wants to see in our lives are things that we need to pray for more and more. And I hope that our series, our emphasis on the Fruit of the Spirit as we've been studying through Galatians, will be a sanctifying thing for you, that you'll call to mind the various pitfalls and artificial fruit that we settle for, that you remember how we can cultivate these individual character traits and that above all that we remember, we can only bring these about if we are resting in the power of God's Spirit and following his direction rather than trying to do so in our own strength and our own personal ability. We do not, in our natural state, in our flesh, have the ability to show the loving and patient and kind and gentle Spirit that the Fruit of the Spirit is all about. We need to all the more rely upon God's work in us, give him the glory for the changes we see in our lives, and rely upon his grace and its power. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute. Duplication, sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.