The Seven Cardinal Virtues: Temperance

Text: Proverbs 25:28

Theme: One of the attributes of the Spirit-filled life is temperance. Christians need to learn self-control.

At the beginning of December we began looking at the Seven Cardinal Virtues, which are the opposite of the Seven Deadly Sins. Ancient Christians looked at the Seven Deadly Sin and thought, “OK, so what would be the opposite of each of these? We have some sins that believers really, really ought to avoid for the good of their spiritual lives, but what are the opposite virtues that we need to cultivate in our lives?” Here is the list that our Christian forefathers came up with ...

1. Chastity ... it’s opposite it lust

2. Charity ... its opposite is greed

3. Diligence ... its opposite is sloth

4. Patience ... its opposite is wrath

5. Kindness ... its opposite is envy, and

6. Humility ... it’s opposite is pride.

And last of all there is Temperance, or Self-control which is the opposite is gluttony.

All of us would agree that the three great enemies of the Christian life are the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. All three attack us through the time-honored method of whispering in our ear, “You deserve a break today ... from self-control.” Indeed, all advertising is carefully designed to create in us a sense of “moral permission” to gratify ourselves in fleshly self-indulgence. And let’s be honest: Fleshly self-indulgence describes the culture of our day. A lifestyle where one denies him or her self nothing in the way of worldly pleasures is a lifestyle of self-destruction. Which is why the Psalmist wrote, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28, NIV84).

The World, the Flesh and the Devil all encourage indulgence. At the same time, for the Christian, the Spirit of God whispers in our ear the virtue of temperance. The result is a spiritual tug-of-war that goes on in the believer’s life. It’s a battle that the Apostle Paul sympathizes with. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in his letter to the Galatians: "For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please." (Galatians 5:17, NASB95)

In his own personal life, the Apostle admits to this struggle: Romans 7:14-25.

The Apostle Paul understands that the tug of the flesh is a powerful pull. But God does not leave us without help. He has given us His Spirit and that Spirit has endowed us with certain spiritual abilities that the Bible calls the Fruit of the Spirit. One of them is temperance.

Now then ... how do we actually go about implementing this particular fruit of the Spirit? Let me say a few things about indulgence and then quickly segue into temperance.

I. INDULGENCE FOCUSES OUR ATTENTION ON THE THING RATHER THAN ON THE PROVISION OF THE LORD

1. the people of Israel have been wandering in the desert for only a few months if not just weeks

a. every day, God miraculously provided a substance called manna, to sustain them during their march to the Promised Land

b. but very quickly they became tired of manna

1) I’m sure there are just so many ways you can fix manna

2) I can just hear some Jewish husband complaining, “Manna casserole again!?”

2. the blandness of the manna compared with the spicy food of Egypt prompted a wholesale rebellion against Moses and the Lord

3. God was angered, but He is also longsuffering

a. the Scriptures tell us that God caused a wind to blow which brought flocks of migrating quail right through the camp of the Israelites

b. all the Hebrews had to do was knock the birds down and pick them up

c. and they did it by the bushel basket full

1) Numbers 11:32 tells us that every person who caught quail collected no less than 10 homers of quail each

2) if you have a good study Bible it probably has a footnote that tells you that 10 homers is equal to 60 of our bushel baskets!

3) now, Exodus 12:37 tells us that 600,000 men took part in the exodus from Egypt along with women and children

4) do the math: lets assume that just the men caught quail: AND if each man caught 60 bushels worth of quail, that equals 36,000,000 bushels of quail, AND if one bushel basket will hold 50 quail THEN that equals 1,800,000,000 birds!

5) that’s a lot of hot-wings ... this was the biggest tailgate party in the history of the world

4. talk about a pig-out party!

a. and that is exactly what the Israelites did—they pigged out

5. instead of giving God the glory for the miracle of providing the people such a bounty, they began a binge of lustful indulgence that focused on the meat instead of the Master

a. they failed to give thanks

1) they neglected to recognize the God of the provision

b. God became angry

1) the bible says that while the meat was still between their teeth, the Lord unleashed His wrath against them and sent a severe plague that killed many of them

2) the place where this happened was named Kibroth-Hattaavah which means graves of craving because there they buried the people who had craved food more than they craved the God who had given them the food

c. American culture has become a culture of indulgence and over indulgence

1) we are a nation consumed by consumption

6. our early spiritual fore-fathers considered over-indulgence a sin because it focuses our attention on the stuff rather than on the provider of the stuff

II. INDULGENCE IS A DISTORTED EMPHASIS ON STUFF THAT VALUES FEEDING THE BODY MORE THAN THE SOUL

1. the early Christian theologians understood over-indulgence in different ways than we do

a. the sin most of us think of when it comes to over-indulgence is the obvious—simply eating too much

b. but indulgence concerns not only the quantity of food we eat, it also concerns our attitude about food: Our preoccupation with it, our impatience when we do not get it fast enough, and our resentment when we are deprived of it

c. for example, the over-indulgence of gluttony can simply be giving eating too much attention

ILLUS. Most of you are familiar with the stories that revolve around a bear named Pooh. Pooh Bear's favorite thing in the world to do is eat—especially honey. In one conversation, Rabbit asks Winnie the Pooh, "When you get up in the morning what is the first thing you think of?" Pooh Bear ponders the question for a moment and answers, "The first thing I think of in the morning when I get up is, What am I going to have for breakfast!'"

2. American’s indulgence in consumption is illustrated in the amount of stuff we move when we move

ILLUS. Our stuff has taken over. In Europe, when people move from one home to another, the average weight of the stuff they move is approximately 2,500 lb.—that’s one ton of stuff. The average weight of a move in the U.S. is 8,000 lb.—the weight of a fully grown hippo. An entire industry has emerged to house our extra belongings–self-storage, a $24 billion business. There are so many self-storage units in American that every single American can have a self-storage unit for themself.

III. OVER-INDULGENCE IS TEMPERED BY TEMPERANCE

“Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. 14 As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. 15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”” (1 Peter 1:13–16, NIV84)

1. temperance is a virtue that moderates the attraction and desire for pleasure and provides balance in the use of created goods

a. you’ve probably heard people say, “It’s all about moderation”

b. well, it really is—more accurately, it’s all about temperance

2. Christian self-control is multifaceted

a. it involves both “control over one’s behavior and the impulses and emotions beneath it”

b. it includes our minds and our emotions — not just our outward actions, but our internal state

A. PREPARE YOUR MINDS

1. temperance is a battle in the mind ... if you don't believe you can change, you won’t change

2. what you believe about yourself controls your behavior

a. if you believe you are stupid, no good, and that you are a failure, then that is how you are going to live your life

1) your behavior will follow your beliefs

b. but if you believe that God loves and cares for you, and that He is on your side, you can change anything

“I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me." (Philippians 4; 13, KJV)

3. if we are going to see change in our lives, we need to change the way we think, because the way we think affects the way we live

a. the way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act

b. many times we set ourselves up for failure when we think in our minds ...

1) "I can't do this"

2) "I tried it before and I failed. I'll probably fail again."

3) "I just don't think I can change."

4. if we are going to change, we need to replace the way we think with God's Word

a. what does God say about me?

b. what does God say about this situation, of this event, or these people in my life?

c. God gave us the power to change our habits when he gave us the power to choose our thoughts

1) you've have heard me use this verse many times:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:1-2, KJV)

5. it is wonderful when people come to the house of the Lord, and they experience a warm feeling that God is here and God loves them

a. that is important and that is good

6. it is wonderful to have an emotional release with God—to come to the altar and cry and release your heart to God.

7. but if you leave this place without changing the way you think, you will still live the life you have always lived

a. just having an emotional experience in worship does not create change in your life

b. it begins by changing the way you think

c. it begins when you begin to develop the mind of Christ

d. that will change your behavior

B. SET YOUR HOPE FULLY ON GRACE

1. temperance is a grace-gift of the Holy Spirit

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” (Titus 2:11–12, ESV)

C. DO NOT CONFORM TO EVIL DESIRE

"but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." (James 1:14, NIV)

1. let’s just be honest ... a lot of our over-indulgence is do to temptation and sin

2. notice, according to the Apostle James, where the source of temptation comes from

a. he does not say:

1) "The devil made me do it!"

2) "My lack of self-control comes from my dysfunctional parents or my dysfunctional family background."

3) "Because of my past experience or abuse, or a painful experience in my past, I can't control my behavior today."

3. God is telling us that the source of our lack of self-control is because we have an evil desire

a. therefore, we need to take responsibility for our lack of self-control

b. we do bad things because we like to do bad things

c. there is something within us, that we are born with, urging us to do bad things

1) the Bible calls it the sinful nature

d. we need to learn to take responsibility for our behavior, or our lack of self- control

4. instead of admitting there is a problem, we seek to shift the blame to somebody or something else

a. instead of admitting our problems, we want to deny we have a difficulty

b. we say things like . . .

1) "What problem? There is no problem."

2) "It is not that big of a deal."

3) "I just can't get control over this thing."

4) "If I want to, I can stop."

5) "I don't have a problem."

6) "Well, this is just the way I am."

7) "It was the way I was raised."

8) "I have always been this way."

9) "Everyone else is doing it so what is the big deal?"

10) "I am only human."

5. we rationalize our sin rather than taking responsibility for our sin

a. much of the popular secular psychology of today tells you to go back into your past and find some reason for why you are behaving the way you are

b. God says, very clearly, the problem is right here—inside of us

1) it is in our own sinful desire

2) if we are going to cultivate temperance, we must admit that there is a problem within us

3) it is not somebody else's problem or somebody else's fault

4) it is my sin-problem and I need to take responsibility for it

6. where are you lacking self-control in your life?

a. do you have a problem with;

1) alcohol? ... time management? ... drugs? ... your words? ... temper? ... gossip? ... the way you spend your money? ... lust? ... unforgiveness? ... impatience? ... greed? ... laziness? ... and so the list goes on

D. BE HOLY IN ALL YOU DO