Galatians chapter 5, and we'll
be looking at verse 23 again this evening. Let's go ahead
and begin our reading in verse 22. And the title of the message
tonight, the grace of temperance. The grace of temperance. The Scripture says, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law."
Now, last week we saw the grace of meekness. We saw this grace
of meekness is none other than that which is the robe of faith. When someone comes to faith in
Jesus Christ, it is always, always going to be robed in meekness,
in humility. In other words, no one ever comes
to Christ in pride. No one. He always comes with
the grace of meekness, just like we saw in that publican who came
before God and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, that publican understood
something. He understood he was a sinner
and he needed a substitute. He needed someone to go in his
stead and suffer in his place. He knew he needed a substitute.
He said, Lord, be propitious to me. Be merciful to me. And
by God's grace, when a sinner comes to see Jesus Christ as
God's sacrifice for sin, and by faith come to Him, that faith
is always an humbling faith. It is never a faith of pride.
Never. Never has pride come with faith. Faith always comes in meekness,
and it comes in confidence, not in the flesh. True faith never
comes in the confidence of the flesh, but always in humility
and humbleness of soul before God. And this brings us to the
next grace in the graces of the Spirit, which is the grace of
temperance, or moderation, or self-control. Those are words
used for this word temperance. This word temperance. The condition of the lost man
is marked by this, that he has a lack of temperance, a lack
of self-control. All men by nature want what we
want and we don't care how we get it. That's how our flesh
is. When we were lost and in our sin, this is what we wanted
and we would go as far as we thought would be necessary to
get what we want. The only thing that would stop
us is if it hurt us too much. If it hurt too much, we wouldn't
go that far. But whatever it is, we wanted
it and we would do it and we had no control over it. No self-control. The natural man, Christ said
that the eye of the natural man is evil and full of darkness. Full of darkness. You see, the
natural man only longs to please himself. He doesn't care about
anybody else. He has a pretense of caring. The natural man says he cares. The natural man says he loves. But see, the only person a natural
man loves is himself. And he doesn't care about anybody
else or who else he hurts as long as he gets what he wants.
You see, our flesh is much like that demoniac of Gadara. Go to
Mark chapter 5. Hold your place here. I want
to read of this experience of the Lord in Mark chapter 5. Mark
chapter 5 and look at verses 2 through 5. Mark 5, verses 2, it says, And
when He was come out of the ship, when Jesus was come out of the
ship, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling place among the tombs, and no
man could bind him, no, not with chains. because that he had been
often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been
plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken into pieces, and
neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones." Now this man, this demoniac of Gadara reminds me
of my fleshly nature. This man didn't seem to be controlled,
could he? He couldn't control himself. When they tried to bind him with
chains, he would just rip the chains, and he was a man out
of control. He would be in the tombs running
among the dead. And that's what I was. I was
running among the dead. I was running among the tombs. We were dead to the things of
God. Natural man's dead to the things
of God. The things of God to the natural man have no interest. He has no interest in the things
of God nor fellowshipping with his saints. We were in this condition
and we tried to use every earthly means to restrain ourselves. And yet the more they tried to
restrain this demoniac, he just broke free. And I know this about
myself. When I was lost, the more men
tried to restrain me, the more I broke out. You ever notice
that about somebody, don't touch the wet paint? And what happens? You just got to touch it. You
just got to do it. Why? Because you have no temperance
by nature. We have no temperance. We have
no self-control when it comes to matters of sin and lust and
passions. You see, men use the chains of
religion, morality and government But there is nothing that men
or we could ever do to restrain ourselves. The more we tried
to reform ourselves, the worse we became. The worse we became. This is because man by nature
is in bondage to sin and self. Sin and self. Natural man wants
what he wants and he doesn't care. I got to have it. has no
temperance, no moderation. Natural man's in bondage, my
friend. He is enslaved to sin, and it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Therefore, the gospel says, if
the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. But my
friend, if the Son has not set you free, you are not free. No
matter how much you think you are, no matter how much religion
you get, That doesn't cause a person to be controlled. That doesn't
control anybody. The Son shall set you free, you
shall be free indeed. But the lost man says, like those
Jews in John chapter 8 that believed on Him. Remember those Jews that
said they believed on Him? And Jesus said, I'll set you
free. And what did they say? They didn't
say, oh, praise God, He's going to set me free from my sin. No,
they said, we'd be Abraham's seed. We're not in bondage to
any man. See, that's what the natural
man says. When you start talking about the bondage of the will
and the bondage of man to sin, they rebel against it and they
say, we're not in bondage. You must be crazy. You must be
crazy. We're not in bondage to you or
anything. We're Baptists. We're not in
bondage to any man. We're Calvinists. Oh no, we're
not in bondage to any man. We're Methodists or Catholics
and we're not in bondage. We have a free will, and we can
choose God or not. We're not in bondage. We can
reject God if we want to, or we can keep Him if we want to.
Surely, we are free to choose what we want to do. No. God says no. The lost man has
no temperance. He has no self-control. He is
only bound by his sin and he'll follow his sin all the way to
the grave. Natural man is enslaved to sin
and is a servant of his sin and cannot nor will not change who
he is. Scripture says, can the leopard
change his spots? Can the Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? No, and neither can man change
his nature. No man can change his own nature. In every man, the Scripture says,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I testify to that, don't you?
I identify with that. That's my flesh. You see, when
Christ saved me, my flesh didn't get any better, did it? It didn't
get any better. It's still the same vile piece
of flesh it was when God saved me. But when Christ comes, when Christ
comes and the sound of the gospel comes, when a man preaches the
Word of God and the Spirit of God comes by the gospel, the
enslaved sinner then sees his only hope of freedom, his only
deliverance is in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When God sends
His Spirit to a man to see that, And then that man comes to Christ
by faith in meekness and Christ sets him free. Those of us who
have been liberated by Christ now have the Spirit of God dwelling
in us. And we no longer are bound by
sin and under the reign of that old man. That old man who was
out of control, that old man who had no temperance, now the
Spirit of God has come to us. And we that have come to Christ
by faith, we are now given temperance. We are now given control of that
old vile man which is no longer in reign over us. We are no longer
under the penalty or power of the old man in sin. The old man
once ran among the tombs of sin and was bent on destruction,
has now been put down. He's now been put down. Oh, the
insanity of man. Isn't that just insanity? It's insane the way that men
think. They run to hell as though it's
heaven. And they run from heaven as though
it's hell. They run to the passions of the
flesh and say, I'll have this. I want this. And I don't want
anything to do with life. And I don't want anything to
do with Christ. And they run away from it. Isn't
that insanity? It's madness. That's a man by nature. That's
a man by nature. No self-control. No self-control. But when Christ came, that man
was put down and God created in us a new man. And this new
man, he is a man of temperance. He is a man of self-control.
And what controls him? The love of Christ constrains
him. The love of Christ constrains
him. A new man is created after God
and is free to the grace of moderation and self-control. And now, we like that demoniac that when
the devils were cast out, what happened? They came and found
him clothed and in his right mind. He was no longer insane. He was no longer running toward
the things of sin and shame. He ran and sat down at the feet
of Christ. And that's altogether a wonderful
thing. God has given us self-control. Self-control. He's put it clothed
and in His right mind. Whereas before, adultery, fornication,
drunkenness, reveling, both physical and spiritual. That's what we
used to do. We were engaged in these things
both physically and spiritually. Adultery and fornication are
not just physical, they're spiritual. You see, a religious man, if
he is lost, is just as lost as a drunkard. They're both lost. One is committing physical sin
of drunkenness, while the other is committing the sin of adultery
and fornication in spiritual matters. They're both just as
lost and just as in chain to their sins as the other. But
now, we that have been freed from these things, what are we
freed to? We know we're free from sin.
What are we free to? We're free to serve God. Because
that's what we want to do now. We want to serve Him. We want
to serve and honor Christ rather than the lusts of our flesh.
Believers, we know that once these things appealed to our
sinful nature, but now these sins of our flesh are loathsome
to us. Aren't they? These lists of the
works of the flesh, aren't they loathsome to you? They are to
me. I despise myself. I despise my
sin and my shame. They're loathsome to our souls. And when we were once used these
things of the world for our own selfish pleasure, we now hold
these things of the world in their proper place. When a believer comes to Christ,
does he immediately go to heaven? Were you immediately taken out?
Because I was. I'm still here. I'm still here. And so these
things, we still have to deal with all of these things in life,
don't we? We still have to deal with family,
and we still deal with friends, and we still deal with jobs,
and we deal with physical things. where once we ran to the excess
of things, now we hold these things in their proper place
in moderation and temperance. In moderation and temperance.
Let us therefore walk, believers, in temperance and moderation. This religious world is so focused
on touch not, taste not and handle not. Yet most of the time we find
these people the most gross violators, don't we? Don't we find these
religious folks who hold these laws and these traditions of
men? The more traditions people have,
you'll find that they are the most gross violators of the law. For example, take the so-called
priests of the Catholic Church. What do they do? They forbid
a man to marry. They say, oh, you can't marry if you want to
be a priest. You can't do that. You must give your whole self
and deny yourself of these certain things. You see, they don't know
how to hold the things in moderation. They go to the extreme. And they said, you can't marry.
Yet what does the Scripture say in 1 Timothy chapter 4? It says
that there'll be false teachers come forbidding to marry, abstaining
from meets. And what happens to these men?
Yet we find these men pedophiles. We find these men molesters of
children. And that's just so bad that they
don't even focus on the adultery and fornication anymore. They
let that go. Why? Because they try to restrain
a man from something that's natural to him, from something that is
not to be forbidden if it is to be done in God's way. They have no temperance or self-control. They are enslaved to sin. And
the more that they suppress a man and put him under laws and traditions,
touch not, taste not, handle not, the more a lost man will
kick against it. But we who have the Spirit of
God, we must know that God has given things such as meats, marriage,
and drinks. God has given these things for
us and enjoyment. These things are for our enjoyment
if they are done in God's way for God's glory. If they are
done in God's way for God's glory, they are good for us. They're
good for us. We must not use these things. These things that God has given
for us, Scripture says all things are given for our enjoyment.
But these things must be used in a way not like they once were. We used to set these things first
in our lives, didn't we? We used to set these enjoyments,
our pleasures in front, and God was way back there somewhere.
You see, we'd worship God if it didn't interfere with something.
Something would interfere with it, we'd say, oh, well, God be
put on the back burner, I've got to take care of this first. But
when we came to Christ, it changed. God now takes the first place,
and everything else takes a back seat. Everything else takes a
back seat. God must be first. And when God
gave us temperance, the grace of temperance, we first now glorify
God over our enjoyment of these things. Let me give you an illustration
of this. Marriage. Marriage is an absolutely
wonderful thing. I'll tell you, next to my salvation,
my marriage is the best thing that ever happened to me. Hands
down. Hands down. When God said it is not good
for man to be alone, He said that about a perfect man. How
much more me? It's not good. And so marriage is good. It's
honorable. There's nothing wrong with marriage.
In Hebrews 13, verse 4, it says marriage is what? Honorable. And the bed undefiled. There's nothing wrong with marriage
and there's nothing wrong with the bed in marriage. Why? Because
that's how God ordained it. God gave it as a joy, as a privilege. But whoremongers and adulterers
and fornicators God will judge. What is that saying? These men
took what God gave and they misused it. They used it to their excess
and to their enjoyment and they had no temperance or self-control
in it. Yet God says in the confines
of marriage it's good. Relations in the confines of
marriage is wonderful. It's what God gave us. And believers,
let us see that marriage is honorable and a blessing of God, that God
created the institution for the good of man and made a woman
for the man and the bed is undefiled and the enjoyment is there. Same
thing. You can go for any other thing, meats, drinks. People
get all bent out of shape about drinking. Drinking wine. There's nothing wrong with drinking
wine. Getting drunk is a sin. Everybody knows that. It must
be used in moderation. And if a man can't use it in
moderation, get rid of it. It's simple. God comes first
to the believer. Everything else goes second.
If my enjoyment, if it yields sin, it's not to be done. God
comes first. But these things are for moderation. Meats, I like to eat. But if
I become a glutton, that's excess. That's not temperance. That's
not self-control. But yet God has given meats to
enjoy, and I enjoy meats. I enjoy eating. Believer, let
us therefore understand and be content with whatever God gives
us. Be content with whatsoever you have. Let us walk in self-control,
which becomes the gospel of Jesus Christ. And when our flesh rises
up, and it will, if your flesh don't rise up, something's wrong.
Because mine does. It rises up in us. When your
flesh rises up within you and complains of discomforts and
discontents, when we see the things of this life that we want
and things we think we deserve, Let us then cast our eye back
on Christ. Let us then view the promises
of God to us that He will never leave us nor forsake us. Therefore, be content. Be content. And my friend, this contentment
brings self-control, brings temperance. It's a grace of God that He has
given us. God has said, I won't forsake
thee. Let us see he by his death have
borne our sins in his own body on the tree that he was crucified
and the old man and his lusts were crucified with him. And
now his spirit reigns and rules in our hearts. Therefore, be
content and hold on loosely to the things of this life. Do you hold on to things too
tightly? I have a tendency to do that,
my flesh does. If we hold on to something too
tightly, my friend, don't you lose control? Don't you go into the excess
of trying to keep it? My friends, hold on loosely to
the things of this life. And if God would have them, let
them go. Let them go. And cling close
to the cross of Jesus Christ. Hold on to the cross. See the
Lord crucified for you and risen for you, who has promised not
to leave you. If you have Him as Lord, as King,
as Redeemer, what more do you need? Do you need those things? No, I need Christ, and that's
all I need. I need Christ, and that's all.
Christ is all we need, my friends. Peter says this. Flip over to
2 Peter real fast. Flip over to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Look at verse 4. 2 Peter 1 and verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lusts. And besides this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue, knowledge
and to knowledge, temperance and to temperance, patience and
to patience, godliness and godliness, brotherly kindness and brotherly
kindness, charity. Friends, have we not been great,
given great and precious promises? Have you been given great and
precious promises by the Lord who cannot lie? Who promised
you eternal life before the world began? Did He not promise that
to you? Yes, He did. Have we not been
given the divine nature on the inside now that produces the
fruit of the Spirit? Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, all of these things that God produces in us. If you have
the Spirit of God, these things are in you and they're produced
by you. They come out from you. They're
manifest. We've been given these things.
And He says besides all this, in other words, this is not academic.
This is not just academic. We're not saying that, oh yes,
God's given us precious promises, we'll just check it off as some
fact. No, that's not it. He says, add
to your faith courage, virtue, valor. You ever seen a valorous
man, a man of valor? That's a man of courage. He says,
add to your faith courage. Stand fast, my friends. That's
what he's telling us. Stand fast in Christ. Hold fast
to Him. Don't be afraid. Be very courageous. And he says, add to valor knowledge.
Now, there are some who are courageous that are just plain ignorant.
Right. What good is a courageous man
if he's ignorant? Add to your courage knowledge. You must grow in the grace and
knowledge of Jesus Christ. And to knowledge, he says, add
what? Temperance. Self-control. Imagine if you had all knowledge. Do you not suppose if you didn't
have temperance, what pride we would have? Scripture says, knowledge
puffeth up, doesn't it? It sure does. Yet we need knowledge,
don't we? We need understanding. But we
must hold understanding in self-control. in moderation and temperance. Believer, we are free from sin, but you're not free from that
sinful nature. Although He is crucified, yet, my friend, He still drags
Himself around our necks. Let us therefore be careful to
walk in moderation and be content with whatever God gives us. Enjoy
what God gives you. Take what God gives you in enjoyment
and with thankfulness. But my friends, take it in moderation. Take it and use it for the glory
of God. And if you can't use it for the
glory of God, what use is it? What use is it? It's of no value. It's of no value. This grace
of temperance is very important for us. You know, I was reading
about the fruit of the Spirit again, and you know fruit is
something you can see. If I hold up my hand, it's empty,
and I say, here, look at this apple. Boy, this sure looks good,
doesn't it? You'd think I was crazy. And yet this is what people
do. They say, oh, I'm a Christian.
Look at my fruit. And there's nothing there. There's nothing
there. My friend, if there's no fruit,
there's no life. There's no fruit, there's no
life. But we who are believers, We
are to walk in these things. And Paul says there's no law
against these things. Why? Because these things are
good. Love, joy, gentleness, long-suffering,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. All of these things that we've
been studying, let us walk in these things. This is the evidence of someone
who knows Christ. Paul says that, know you not
that you are not your own, but you've been bought with a price? Therefore, glorify God in your
bodies. Isn't that something? God says,
glorify him in your body now. Don't try to wait to heaven to
glorify God. No, we glorify God now. How? Love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, gentleness, goodness, long suffering. All of these
things is how we glorify God. I pray that God would bless us
and give us these graces more every day. The stand will be
dismissed in prayer.