Amen.  Hallelujah!  The Lord is good; amen?  And His mercies endure forever, hallelujah!  We’re going to deal with a subject that will be leading us into another topic that we’ve been wanting to get to.  we’ve talked about this so often.  It’s such a part of our lives.  I wanted to take just a few minutes and deal with this topic exclusively, and it’s the topic of temperance.  You’ll see why, as it pertains to the rest of the fruit of the Spirit manifesting itself effectively in our lives.  This temperance that the Scripture speaks of is not exclusively what we would think about in the English language.  We would think of moderation as we think of temperance, possibly an abstaining from different aspects of our life that can affect us negatively.

It does have that connotation, but it means more than that.  This word “temperance” in the Greek talks about a strength.  Its primary root is “strength” or “inner strength.”  We would refer to it many times as the maturing or the growing up of that new man that we are in Christ Jesus.  Another term would be sanctification.  It is a progressive thing that’s manifesting itself in our lives.

When we talk about temperance, as we go through some of these verses, let's make sure that we understand it in its full context.  Yes, it does mean “self-control.”  Temperance means “self-control.”  Does anybody here think that you could use a little bit more self-control?  Amen.

It’s because of that, that the Holy Spirit admonishes us, in a number of these passages, to make sure that this is something that we are truly seeking after.  Temperance is a virtue that we must pursue.  It’s not just going to happen in our lives.  It’s something that has to be pursued.  It’s something that we have to actively use our faith before we can realize the full benefit of it.  In other words, as the psalmist said, “Your word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” (Psalm 119:11).  Amen?

But two things have to happen: first of all, that Word has to be understood.  We need to really know the truth, the depth of that Scripture that is speaking to us and conveying to us the heart, the mind, the promises of God, and have a clean grasp of what God wants from us.  Then we have to choose to do what?  Do it.  Amen?  Do it. Temperance is the “doing” part.  As we said, it can be something that we choose to effect as we apply these Biblical disciplines to our life.  Self-control—it has to do with an absolutely building up or strengthening of that inner man.

Let’s look here for a moment in this Corinthians passage, in Chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians.  I’m not talking about works that are meritorious in themselves.  I'm talking about the fruit of righteous, obedient living, which requires doing; amen?  It requires pursuing.  These are different processes that we go through to draw closer to God such as study, prayer.  These are things that we have to do.  This is the fruit of obedience to the lordship of Jesus.  This is walking in the Spirit.  Walking in the Spirit is praying.  Walking in the Spirit is studying to show ourselves approved unto God; amen?  Walking in the Spirit is continuing in this mirror, this Word, so that we don’t forget what manner of man we are.  Walking in the Spirit is Romans, Chapter 6, that we’ve referred to so often recently, but that knowing (amen?),  and primarily, that yielding.  He goes on and says in that passage, “Don’t you know that to whom you yield yourselves instruments to obey, his servants you are?” (Romans 6:16).  Amen?