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GALATIANS 5:23b
(Reading: Luk.22:63-23:12: 1 Cor.9:19-27)
The Fruit of the Spirit is ... Self-Control
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Well, nearly there! The divine painter comes to completing this most perfect of pictures. And what a wonderful hue of colours, and what a wonderful and intricate design, is interwoven in this marvellous beauty! It is the ultimate reflection of God’s grace in man. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
We couldn’t find more attractive words if we tried. In any language! The radiance and the magnificence is absolutely stunning!
Couldn’t we imagine a young man whispering these exquisite words into the ears of his dearly loved? “Oh, you are my love, joy and peace. For you I will show the utmost patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and … self-control!”
Suddenly – as quick as a click of the fingers - the brilliant imagery’s gone. What – self-control? It just doesn’t seem to gel!
After such an incredible list of virtues that give why one which actually holds back? That’s what self-control is! It’s not me giving you anything. Rather, it’s me holding something back! So, how could this help bring the picture of the Spirit’s fruit to completion?
To understand this we will consider this aspect of the fruit of the Spirit in three parts. And to illustrate these three parts we’ll use the example of a painting.
The first of these is that ... IT IS SELF-CONTROL THAT ROUNDS IT OFF. You see, a painting needs to be finished.
Well, that’s straight-forward we think. But, hold on, finishing off something can be just as difficult as beginning something. Ask any author. They will tell you that they could have had up to a dozen different endings written for their novel before they chose one particular one.
It is the same with giving a talk. A speaker in making his conclusion has to be careful to round it all off, and do it strongly. There’s no room for loose strings! It all has to come together!
This is not easy. So, how would God tie it altogether here?
This is where self-control is the best possible last virtue. For as with a painting there has to be a filling of the last gap, so there must be that with our showing Christ’s work, by the power of the Holy Spirit. There has to be a drawing it all in – a pattern for all this.
Congregation, each of those previous eight virtues of the Spirit’s fruit need to be rounded off. They are each vitally important aspects of living the Christian life, so they cannot afford to be negated now.
I’m sure many of us can relate to the struggle of having to finish a special job. Up until that point things had gone very well for you. But, ever so suddenly, it all falls to pieces! What you’d spent so much time on has gone.
Perhaps it was all that work you went into preparing an extensive quote or job specifications. Your computer went down at that last moment. You lost the lot! It’s now worthless!
It would be the same for that painting if we didn’t finish it. “Oh, I’ll get round to it some other time!” But you never do. And you leave it for so long, soon you don’t know what you were meant to do. The vision you had for it disappears. There are lots of those paintings lying round in painters’ studios.
What about the projects that you have left unfinished? You know what went wrong, don’t you? You were not disciplined enough. And then no amount of good work before will help! That vitally important last quality simply was not there!
Why do people smoke when they know they should stop? They have tried hard enough! And why do people over-eat? Haven’t they tried so many diets already? This is what self-control is about. But it goes deeper than only what you and I can set our mind on doing. It is more than self-discipline. For this self-control is a Spirit-fruit.
Congregation, to not discipline ourselves under the help we have from the Lord makes the end result far worse. We are not building temporary, material structures. This is tied to all eternity. Where we are going, and the eternal destination of those around us, is at stake! We don’t dare to fail! And, indeed, we have no reason to fail.
Didn’t Jesus show us the way also in this? Consider his self-control. Luke chapters 22 and 23 described it vividly. There we see how badly he was beaten, and mocked, and interrogated.
And each time pain was inflicted, our Lord could have lost his self-control. Yet he didn’t weaken. Not for single, short, or solitary moment. He was busy holding his sinful humanity in check. For if he failed where would we be now?
Then there would have been definitely no salvation. Our meeting together here in worship would be so futile. Because then the basis for our being able to speak to God – that perfect sacrifice he demands – would be gone.
But, brothers and sisters, young people, here it is! This God-man, Jesus Christ, is the sacrifice upon which we can be living sacrifices. In the words of Hebrews 4 verse 15, “For we don’t have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weakness, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin.”
It is this divine power which, through the Spirit, we can draw on for our own living. All those godly qualities that Paul describes in 1st Timothy 3, the verses 1 till 13, and Titus 1, verse 8, as the criteria for eldership, are meant to be in all of our lives. This is what we are told in 2nd Peter 1 verse 6. The life of Christ must be lived in his Body. The example he set is the way we are.
And so we’re led into the second aspect. Now we note ... IT IS SELF-CONTROL THAT DOES IT THE RIGHT WAY.
We have seen that the painting needs to be finished. But especially how much shouldn’t we be concerned that the painting be finished in the right way?
Jesus so clearly showed us this way. But to actually bring it into your life now!
I began the sermon with that picture of the young man whispering these beautiful words of the Spirit’s fruit into the ears of his dearly beloved. And self-control just didn’t seem to gel! It seems so foreign to being free in their relationship. I mean, that you have to discipline yourself to make it all happen?
Parents, if we hesitate to punish our children, imagine how much softer we are on ourselves! But it has to be done, and in the right way. This is the picture of the athlete from 1st Corinthians 9. Paul began there, in verse 19, “Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.” For here we see that we must master ourselves. We have in mind exactly what we need to do, and then we harness all our resources and training to do exactly that! As Paul goes on to say in verse 26, “I don’t run like a man running aimlessly; I don’t fight like a man beating the air.”
How often though, congregation, doesn’t it seem that our work for the Lord is meaningless? Oh, we’re involved alright! Sometimes we can just about be up to our neck in church things! And yet there is this continued dissatisfaction!
Maybe you haven’t seen what it exactly is. Or perhaps you know but you don’t quite see why it’s having the effect it is. Because it appears so small.
Really, our problem is only the occasional impulse that grabs us, and then just as quickly leaves us. It could be a short temper, that fleeting sexual temptation, or that instant greed. The thought is sudden. But it does affect how we are with others.
This means we use them. We ignore their needs. We don’t relate to them with consideration, sympathy, sensitivity, and love.
So, why does it affect us this way? How come that brief moment can so ruin all the positive building blocks of the rest of the Spirit’s fruit?
Dear Christian, it’s because you let go. Instead of controlling that situation in the power of Jesus, you allow those acts of the sinful nature a place in your life.
Now, it might only seem a small thing. Otherwise, you feel pleased about how you growing in the Lord. Even other believers have said that to you.
Yet the control is not complete. When you don’t submit to the Lord’s will in one part of your life, there’s a hole in the wall of all your life. Fighting an enemy that’s already within makes fighting the enemy without so much harder. In fact, isn’t it then that the besieged city is going under? As Proverbs 25 verse 28 says, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”
The painting has to be finished the right way. We can’t just throw on it any old colour. The last detail has to match precisely with the rest of what is a beautiful masterpiece!
How do you do it? Well, how about taking all those other virtues of the Spirit’s fruit and bringing their shades and design to this last piece? A helpful way to fight the weak areas in our lives is to focus on the good and positive things we’re involved in.
This is like the teacher, who, rather than negatively criticise a child because of a difficulty in a particular area of their learning, praises him for the good talent they have. Then the child is encouraged to lift his performance in what they’re not so good with.
So, dear Christian, in prayer thank the Lord for the blessings you have. Pretty soon, your problems will be put in perspective. You’ll be able to handle things better in the Lord’s strength.
There was a believer going through a difficult time in his marriage. He found himself wallowing in self-despair. Then he began praying for all the other members of his congregation. He put himself in their shoes. He laid before the Lord what trials and temptations each of them was going through. And, you know, he was quite blessed after all!
Congregation, let’s not take it out of the Lord’s hands. In fact, that’s the best place to put whatever is holding us back. Put your hand in his hand. Hold tight!
And leave it there! As you have prayed for guidance, so live out of that guidance that the Lord graciously gives us in His Word. For, in the third place ... IT IS SELF-CONTROL THAT BRINGS IN GOD’S CONTROL.
Once that painting is finished it is complete. No more to be done!
Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it? This is why Paul says after this list of the Spirit’s fruit, “against such things there is no law.”
I mean, if you have this tremendous cluster of nine virtues, what more do you need? To show all this in your life is to live totally within the most beautiful framework of God’s grace in Christ. He died on the cursed cross so that those believing in him can be made new through the Spirit.
Friend, have you got that sense of God’s wonderful working in us through each of these marvellous qualities? So we must reflect and meditate on these things, time and again!
But let’s not think that we need to add to this painting. I mean, what is it that we do, if we start painting over a painting that’s finished? How would you like it that, after you spent so much time on a painting, some self-proclaimed expert came along, and started adding his own work on top?
You’d be furious! That’s your painting! And you don’t care if it’s not up to their so-called standards for artistic excellence! It’s precious and beautiful to you.
So, do you think God could feel this way if you started adding things to his completed painting? What about if you said you had to have a certain experience to properly show the Spirit’s working in our lives? And how about if you insisted you had to have a certain knowledge, on top of this fruit of the Spirit?
All those things are man’s way. And however spiritual it’s made to sound by the many who preach and teach these things, they are not what ripens. It is faith the Spirit blesses. And the Spirit’s fruit is what comes out of living by that faith. As the verses 24 till 26 say after our text, “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one other.”
Dear believer, then it is what the Lord is bringing out in us. Then self-control is God’s control.
Many years ago, a young heavy-weight fighter held the world boxing title. But his reign was short-lived.
He was a power-hitter - strong as a bull. But he hadn’t learned how to avoid getting hit. He also had a problem exercising self-discipline in his social life. As a result, he soon lost his title.
This boxer’s experience is what many Christians go through. They make a fast start in the Lord’s service but because they aren’t working out of God’s will for their lives they’re soon defeated.
This is what the fruit of self-control is. It puts your management in the best hands - God’s hands!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Lord God, may we learn to do exactly that - to put our management in your hands. May we so humble ourselves before you that you are able to work your will in us and through us.
And where we have those areas where we aren’t under your control, do change us. Convict us by your Word and Spirit so that we repent and become turned around. Then the fruit of your Spirit will ripen in us.
This we pray in the Name of the One who perfectly showed us how, our Lord Jesus Christ. Because he is the first-fruit each one of his own must bear fruit also. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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