Galatians 5:16-26
Ann and I visited the island of Malta in January and read the books of the siege of Malta in 1565 and then again in WWII. Malta is an important island in the Mediterranean because of itâs location. In 1565 and again in WWII, it was able to disrupt shipping and controlling the island enabled the occupier to control that part of the Mediterranean Sea.
In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, sent 40,000 troops to lay siege and conquer the island that was controlled by the Knights of St. John, later known as the Knights of Malta. 40,000 men were sent to conquer an island with only 8,000 men to defend it. It was expected that the siege would take three to four weeks to conquer Malta, yet the Knights of Malta and the Maltese resisted for months and finally the remnants of Suleimanâs defeated army retreated.
There are a number of reasons why Suleiman the Magnificent failed, but the walls of the forts were a critical factor. After the siege failed, a grateful Europe (who had failed to help fortify and defend the island when an attack was imminent) sent money and gifts and Malta became the most heavily fortified place in the world. Suleiman the Magnificent contemplated another attack, but by then the walls were too well fortified and he never attempted the siege again.
In the Old Testament there are repeated references to the walls of Jerusalem. When Israel returned from captivity in Babylon, the first priority was for them to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Visit the cities of France and Spain and England and Scotland and Ireland and the castles all have huge walls and sometimes moats surrounding them. One of the amazing things to see if you visit China is the Great Wall of China upon which a horse and chariot can travel.
Why all this emphasis on walls? Itâs obvious to us. Walls are meant to protect us. When invaders came to conquer a town, the inhabitants all retreated to the castle and defended themselves from behind walls.
It is in this light that we read Proverbs 25:28
Like a city whose walls are broken down
is a man who lacks self-control.
A city whose walls are broken down has no defense. Any invader force can march in and take possession of the city. It is like leaving your gate and front door open here in Rabat and putting up a sign in French and Arabic, âWelcome. Help yourself to whatever you see.â
This proverb makes the point that this is the equivalent of a person without self-control.
Self-control is the ninth and last of the fruit of the Spirt listed by Paul in Galatians 5. It is unique in that it is the only one of the fruit not found in Scripture as a reference to the character of God. In these sermons on the fruit of the Spirit, the point has been made repeatedly that these fruit are the character of God and when we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, we become more like God. We become Christ-like.
Just because self-control is not listed in the Scriptures as part of the character of God does not mean that this is an exception to that truth. I could make the case that Jesus exhibited self-control and Jesus, as God in the flesh, models self-control for us, but I donât think I have to work so hard to make that point.
Letâs take a look at what self-control is.
The Greek word for self-control means literally âself-mastery.â When I practice self-mastery in my life, it is like having walls that surround my house. Self-control protects me. But protects me from whom? Who are the invaders who would seek to take over my life?
Letâs go back to Galatians 5 where the fruit of the Spirit is listed. Paul begins his discussion of life in the Spirit by writing in verses 16&17
16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
Paul writes about living by the Spirit and points out that there is a tension in which we live. On the one side we are pulled and influenced by our sinful nature and on the other we are pulled and influenced by the Spirit. The acts of our sinful nature are the invaders from which we need to be protected and self-control is the key to our resistance. Who are these invaders?
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
In this tension in which we live, we have a choice. Either God will be our master or the acts of our sinful nature will be our master.
I played this morning the Bob Dylan song, âGotta Serve Somebody.â I would love to sing it this morning, I would love for us to sing it this morning. But here are some of the lyrics.
You might be Ambassador to England or France
You might like to gamble, you might like to dance
You might be heavyweight champion of the world
You might be a socialite with a long string of pearls
But youâre gonna have to serve somebody
Youâre gonna have to serve somebody.
It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but youâre gonna have to serve somebody.
Itâs a great song and Dylan has it right. We have no other choice. If you decide you donât want God to be your master, the acts of the sinful nature will become your master. Someone may look at this list and disagree with me because these sinful acts are not part of their life. But, as you notice, this is not a complete list and I can add some more acts of the sinful nature like pride, viewing people as objects rather than persons, indifference and lust for food. These more subtle acts of the sinful nature pull in those who view themselves as good people so that it is true: we either make God our master or the acts of our sinful nature become our master.
God will not force himself on you. God will not make you his slave. You have to decide to make God your master. You have to choose to submit to God. Submission to God is voluntary.
The acts of the sinful nature, on the other hand, donât offer you a choice. They pull you in and trap you. What starts off innocently enough winds up controlling you and you wake up to discover that you are a slave to your master. These are the invaders from whom we need protection and for which self-control is a strong wall.
Letâs look at invader #1, sexual immorality. The addictive nature of sexual immorality is obvious to anyone who studies it. One of the reasons AIDS spread through the homosexual community so rapidly was the fact that the lifestyle of the majority of homosexuals involves multiple sexual experiences every day. Heterosexuals who seek multiple sexual partners and homosexuals who seek multiple daily sexual experiences are trapped in a deviancy. Sex is no longer a gift of God given for their pleasure but has become their master.
Frederick Buechner defines lust as âthe craving for salt of a man who is dying of thirst.â Lust doesnât satisfy, it increases dissatisfaction. Sexual immorality seeks the pleasure that comes from Godâs gift exercised within the committed relationship of marriage but cannot be found in a promiscuous sexual lifestyle. The more promiscuous I am, the greater is the hunger within me. The more I practice a lifestyle of sexual deviancy, the greater my lust becomes.
So sexual immorality becomes my master. It controls me. It controls my schedule. It occupies my thoughts. It consumes my resources.
Without self-control I am a city whose walls are broken. Sexual immorality comes in and takes over. But all I have to do is say no to a sexual temptation and Iâve put a brick in the wall. Each time I say no and choose not to succumb to the desire I have, another brick goes in the wall and soon I am being protected by a strong wall and sexual immorality is no longer my master. Self-control has set me free and allowed me to live.
A second invader is witchcraft. The Greek word for witchcraft is the word from which we get pharmacy so the connection between witchcraft and drugs is obvious. A person who begins trying heroin or cocain gets drawn into an ever increasing addiction. The desire to have a high as great as the one when the drug was first taken becomes so intense that larger and larger quantities of the drug are taken and a person slowly destroys his or her body by feeding on this drug. In the same way a person plays with a Ouija board or goes to a fortune teller or palm reader and gets in deeper and deeper until one day it becomes clear that he or she is no longer just seeking help but serving a master. Witchcraft may be entered into out of curiosity or mischievousness, but it takes me in and becomes my master.
A third invader is hatred. Someone does something or says something to me that irritates me. I go home and reflect on that irritation. I talk about it. I express my irritation and it festers and grows into resentment. âWho does Joe think he is?â I live with that resentment and chew on it. I see that person again and my feeling of resentment against that person puts everything he or she does in a negative light. âYou know it just bugs the heck out of me to see the way Joe manipulates people around him.â Soon resentment has moved to anger and then anger to hatred. What started out as irritation has taken on a life of its own and it now controls me. I see that person or hear of that person and I canât control myself. A surge of negative emotion comes upon me whenever I see or hear of that person.
Another invader is jealousy. I see someone who seems to have life so easy and it bothers me that in comparison, my life is so difficult. I begin to wish I had what that other person had. I allow this to grow and I move to being jealous of that person, how easily he or she attracts other people, how easily he or she is able to cope with life, whatever. Jealousy grows and soon it is my master and I am no longer able to view that person with Godâs eyes as Godâs child. I see only a competitor, an enemy.
In each of these cases, all that is needed to break the power of that sin over me is to say no. All that is needed is to choose Godâs way. When I am irritated, I can brood on my irritation or I can, for example, pray for that person and begin to see that person in a new light. When I choose Godâs way, irritation never has a chance to grow into hatred. Another brick is put in the wall and I am protected from the acts of my sinful nature.
When I find myself envying someone, why not pray for that person. Perhaps you will discover that the person you have been envying has needs you never guessed at. Praying and seeing another person with Godâs eyes is a powerful way of putting bricks in the wall that protect you.
Sinful acts seek to enslave us. They take over and make us their slaves. We become prisoners and so we are not free to live.
The power of sin over us is well illustrated by the story of Raynald III.
Raynald III was a fourteenth century duke in what is now Belgium. He was enormously overweight and was given the nickname Crassus (which is Latin for fat). After a quarrel, his younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against Crassus and Crassus was captured, but not injured. Edward put him into a room in Nieuwkirk Castle. In this room there were several windows and a near-normal door; none were locked. He was promised that he would regain his title as soon as he left the room and came to the court. However, he was unable to do so because of his size. All he had to do was lose some weight and he could come out and claim the throne. But then Edward, every day, sent a servant with delicious treats, grossly caloric treats, that kept him fat. He was literally a prisoner of his own appetite. For ten years Crassus sat in his room, eating the treats that were sent into him. For ten years, Crassus was not free to live outside of the room that was his prison cell. There was no lock on the door. There was only Crassusâ slavery to his appetite.
After ten years of imprisonment, Edward died in battle. Crassus was released, but his health was ruined and he died within a year.
Crassus was a prisoner of his own flesh. The sinful acts of his nature were his master.
The acts of the sinful nature are destructive. They seek to control me, to take me prisoner and in each case, self-control is what allows me to break the cycle of destructiveness. Self-control is the key that unlocks the power of sin over me. Self-control is what allows me to go out of my prison cell and live in the world.
I fast on a periodic basis. I donât do this for any intensely spiritual reason, but simply to prove to my flesh that it is not master of me. I find that after I have fasted, it is much easier for me to not drink so much coke or eat an extra helping at a meal. When I find myself unable to say no, I know it is time to fast to prove to my flesh who is master.
Self-control, as a fruit of the Spirit, allows me to always, always, always have a choice. Self-control, as a fruit of the Spirit, allows me to say no.
One further thought about self-control. Self-control is not simply denial of what I want and abstinence.
It is possible to exercise self-control and not be overweight, not drink to excess, never express anger by yelling and screaming. It is possible to exercise self-control and be celibate outside of marriage. It is possible to exercise self-mastery in all these ways and have a cold, indifferent, self-centered heart. There is what I call a cult of immortality in the United States. People exercise self-control to stay ever youthful, ever beautiful. They eat healthily and exercise regularly in an attempt to avoid the inevitable stages in life of aging and death.
But denial for self-improvement is not the fruit of the Spirit. The goal of God is not to make us trim and fit. The fruit of the Spirit exercises self-control toward a purpose and that purpose is to experience more of God, to be used by God for his purposes.
Self-control is choosing to make God my master and saying yes to those things God wants for me and saying no to those things God knows are harmful and destructive. Self-control is choosing to be obedient to God.
There are not only nine fruit of the Spirit. The acts of the sinful nature are not a complete list. Paul says at the end of that list, âand the like,â indicating that the list could have continued on. In the same way, the fruit of the Spirit are not a complete description of the nature of God. They are only some of the qualities Paul pointed out in this letter.
We donât grow in the fruit of the Spirit by focusing on one or the other of the fruit. We donât work on being loving this week and then patient the next. The fruit are not separate and distinct qualities. As we have discovered in this sermon series, the nine fruit are interconnected and interrelated. When I exhibit the fruit of the Spirit as love, peace and joy and kindness and good ness and self-control are present, also at work in me.
The reason for this is that we do not grow in the fruit of the Spirit by focusing on the fruit. We grow in the fruit of the Spirit by focusing on God. We grow in Christ, we abide in Christ and then the fruit of the Spirit grow in us. We become transformed, not on one or the other of the fruit, but in all of them. We grow in the fruit of the Spirit, not simply one of the fruits.
The central and repeated message of this series of sermons has been that we need to draw near to God. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus. If we remember anything from this series of sermons, remember this: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Seek the Lord. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Abide in Christ.
I have enjoyed this series of sermons and services. These worship services have been an experience of joy and an experience of being loved by God.
In sharing how these sermons and services have affected me, two experiences stand out. I have shared in various sermons about difficulty I had with my sisters. I have talked about feelings of betrayal and hurt. On the Sunday when we were focusing on love, Mike asked us to pray for someone and I found myself praying for my youngest sister. For the first time in a long time, I was able to pray for her from my heart.
Then a few weeks later on the Sunday when we were focusing on goodness, Kelly asked us to pray and I prayed for two of my other sisters, again from the heart.
This is truly amazing to me, to see how an experience of Godâs love can bring healing. The love of God I have experienced in these services has had a transforming effect on me. I have prayed for my sisters with my head but was unable to put my heart into my prayers. And then the overwhelming love of God came and changed me. This is why we focus on God. This is why we fix our eyes on Jesus. God alone is able to set us free to live and to live abundantly.
I am grateful for the opportunity Iâve had to preach these sermons.
May God bless us and cause us to grow in the fruit of the Spirit as we continue to seek him.
