0:00

Are you the kind of

0:02

person who is stubborn and

0:04

willful, always has to be

0:06

right? You know people

0:09

like that, who will argue

0:11

about anything, who just

0:13

simply have a compulsive need to

0:15

be right. And

0:17

this breeds divisions

0:20

and contentiousness and

0:22

broken relationships, because

0:25

we can't stand to

0:27

have our view not

0:30

be adopted. As

0:38

R.C. Sproul has walked us through the

0:40

biblical definition of love and

0:42

the kind of love that should be evident

0:44

in the life of a Christian, I suspect

0:47

we've all fallen short. I know I have.

0:50

As Paul considers what love is and

0:52

what love isn't, coming at love from

0:54

different angles, it reminds us how

0:56

much we need the work of the Spirit

0:58

in our lives to produce this kind of

1:01

love, this kind of fruit. And

1:03

today on Renewing Your Mind, Dr.

1:05

Sproul will return to Galatians 5

1:08

and consider self-control and

1:10

how this relates to love. Before

1:13

he concludes our study in this series,

1:15

Keeping in Step with the Spirit, don't

1:17

forget that today is the final day

1:19

to own this entire 20 message

1:22

series and receive a

1:24

copy of our new 90-day devotional,

1:26

How Great Salvation. Request

1:29

both while there's still time at

1:31

renewingyourmind.org. Well

1:34

here's Dr. Sproul on self-control. Dr. Sproul,

1:37

Jr.,

2:00

pride can be in the

2:02

human heart. Americans

2:05

pride themselves in

2:07

being something of an egalitarian

2:10

society. We say that we

2:13

are all created equal, at

2:15

least under the law, and

2:18

we have historically repudiated a

2:21

caste system by

2:24

which people are frozen

2:26

into particular socioeconomic

2:29

levels and whatever

2:31

level they're born in, they have to

2:33

stay in that level forever. I

2:36

remember when I first enrolled in

2:38

graduate school in the free university

2:41

in Amsterdam many, many years ago, and I

2:43

had to fill out the entrance

2:46

application, and I

2:48

was filling out the form, and I came to this

2:50

box on the form that said, state

2:52

your father's station in life.

2:57

And I said, my father's station in life? What

2:59

does that mean? The Pennsylvania

3:01

station or

3:05

a Union station in Chicago? And I had

3:07

to ask somebody, what are they talking

3:09

about? And they said, they want to know his class. And

3:12

I said, his class? You

3:15

know, what socioeconomic class is

3:17

your father in? And

3:19

I realized that I had stepped into a

3:21

different culture where all

3:23

kinds of things were ordered by

3:27

social class. And

3:29

I discovered that there was an unwritten law

3:31

on the highways in this part of Europe

3:34

that the right was supposed to have

3:36

the right-of-way. There weren't traffic signals on

3:38

every corner or stop signs, but they

3:40

had this crazy method

3:42

of controlling traffic that produced so

3:45

many accidents you couldn't count them. And

3:48

people continuously refused to

3:51

yield the right-of-way. And

3:53

there were unwritten rules, and I learned very

3:55

quickly that a Volkswagen had

3:57

to give way to a Mercedes. And

4:02

bicycles had to give way to automobiles

4:04

once I saw a man driving a

4:06

truck. He was driving it slowly, but

4:09

this bicyclist came out and

4:11

took the right of way, which was his, and

4:14

the truck driver didn't like it and just moved

4:17

up behind him with his truck and nudged him

4:19

until he hit the bike and knocked the bike

4:21

and the fellow over onto the roadway. I

4:24

watched it happen and the truck

4:26

driver was incensed that

4:28

this bicyclist would take

4:32

the right of way when he was

4:34

merely riding a bike. It

4:36

was incredible this sort of thing and I

4:38

remember when we enrolled at the university they

4:40

gave us a card that told

4:42

us all of the appropriate ways

4:44

of addressing a professor and

4:47

any correspondence that we sent to the professor

4:49

we had to address them with the proper

4:51

title. And

4:54

you began with D'Hare, you

4:56

know, Mr. And

4:58

if the professor was well-born you'd

5:00

say, Velchaboren, he's well-born

5:03

and he's a high class

5:05

or he's Hoheborn would be

5:07

high class and upper class

5:09

would be Zerhoheborn, very high-born,

5:12

and how much education he had was to

5:14

be put into these titles. If he was

5:17

college educated he was G'lerda, he was learned.

5:19

If he had a

5:21

graduate degree he was Hohelerda and

5:23

if he was a professor he

5:26

was Zerhohelerda, extremely highly learned.

5:28

And the same thing with other officials

5:30

of honor for professorships and so

5:32

on. There was the Chavardichte Mahn,

5:35

that's the worthy man, and then there's

5:37

the very worthy and then the

5:39

supremely worthy and you had to learn

5:41

all these titles. And if I wrote

5:44

a note to Professor Birkhauer who

5:46

was high-born and very highly educated and

5:48

very highly promoted, I had

5:50

to string all these adjectives together and

5:52

then finally get the professor,

5:55

Dr. G.C. Birkhauer.

5:58

I thought it was the craziest thing I ever heard of. And

6:00

I lived in that culture for a while, and one

6:02

day I walked into a little grocery store. And

6:06

there was an aisle there with some things

6:09

displayed, and I went over and picked

6:11

something off the shelf like I would in an American

6:13

store, and to take it up to the counter, well,

6:15

over there you weren't allowed to do that. You had

6:17

to wait for somebody to come and get the article

6:20

for you. And when I reached for it, the

6:23

lady that was working there got

6:25

incensed, and she

6:27

rebuked me, and

6:29

she looked at me and told me to put that

6:31

thing right down, and when she was done ripping me

6:33

up, she said to me, man,

6:38

that's little man. And

6:41

I had this feeling coming from my

6:43

socks all the way up through my

6:45

body, little man, don't

6:48

you know that I'm hoch

6:50

aboard, hoch and all the

6:52

rest? I

6:55

was just absolutely infuriated

6:57

that this woman would treat me

7:00

below my level of dignity.

7:03

And I realized that

7:06

those people weren't any different from

7:08

us, that we

7:11

still struggle with these tiny

7:13

little nuances of

7:15

honor and respect and

7:18

dignity that we demand.

7:21

And we consider people rude

7:24

who do not treat us with

7:26

the respect that we think that

7:29

we deserve. Now, when Paul

7:31

continues his discussion

7:34

here in 1 Corinthians,

7:38

he says, love is

7:40

not only not puffed up, it

7:42

does not behave rudely, does not

7:44

seek its own, is

7:47

not provoked, thinks

7:49

no evil, etc., does not rejoice

7:52

in iniquity, but rejoices in the

7:54

truth. I want

7:56

to jump again back to Galatians and

7:58

see the link. between

8:01

1 Corinthians and the list of the

8:03

fruits of the Spirit that Paul gives

8:05

us in the

8:07

Galatian correspondence. Again

8:10

he says in chapter 5 verse 22,

8:13

but the fruit of the Spirit is

8:15

love, joy, peace, long

8:18

suffering, kindness,

8:20

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

8:24

and self-control. Now

8:27

if you look above that and

8:29

it reminds you that Paul just prior

8:31

to giving his lists of the fruit

8:33

of the Spirit gives a

8:36

contrasting list of the works

8:38

of the flesh. And

8:41

the works of the flesh are enumerated

8:43

beginning in verse 19 of

8:45

chapter 5 of Galatians. Now

8:48

the works of the flesh are evident which

8:50

are adultery, fornication, uncleanness,

8:54

lewdness, idolatry, sorcery,

8:57

hatred, contentions, jealousies,

8:59

outbursts of wrath,

9:02

selfish ambitions, dissensions, and so

9:04

on. Notice

9:08

how contentiousness, conflict,

9:12

dissension, outbursts

9:14

of wrath are

9:17

included in this list. Whereas

9:21

in the list of the fruit of

9:23

the Spirit there

9:25

is the fruit of

9:27

self-control, self-control.

9:32

Now in our next series we're going

9:34

to be looking at one human emotion

9:38

that is extremely important that we

9:40

understand as Christians and that is

9:43

the emotion and the behavioral pattern

9:45

of anger. And

9:47

for now I want to talk about outbursts

9:50

of anger, dissensions,

9:54

tempestuous behavior,

9:57

contentiousness, and

9:59

argumentative behavior. spirits that are

10:01

considered here by Paul to be

10:03

part of the works of the

10:06

flesh as opposed to

10:09

self-control. Part

10:14

of the meaning of love, of

10:16

gentleness, of kindness

10:19

and long suffering is,

10:21

as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, we

10:24

do not seek our own.

10:29

Being our own all the time

10:31

is manifestation of pride and selfishness.

10:34

And how many times do we

10:36

get in conflict because

10:39

the pursuit of our own runs

10:42

counter to somebody else's pursuit?

10:46

We disagree with somebody else,

10:50

and that disagreement leads

10:52

to anger and upheaval

10:54

and conflict and dissension.

10:58

Now we are to prefer other

11:01

people over ourselves. What does that

11:03

mean with regard to other people's

11:06

opinions and

11:08

other people's thoughts? You're in a

11:10

meeting, you're in a group discussion,

11:12

you're trying to plan a strategy,

11:14

and you don't agree on what

11:16

is the wisest course of action.

11:20

How do you behave in that kind

11:22

of an environment? Are

11:26

you the kind of person who

11:28

is stubborn and willful,

11:31

always has to be right, always

11:34

pressing your own view

11:37

and your own preference? You know

11:39

people like that who

11:41

will argue about anything, who

11:44

just simply have a compulsive need

11:47

to be right. And

11:50

this breeds divisions

11:53

and contentiousness and

11:56

broken relationships because

11:58

we can't stand it. and to

12:02

have our view not be adopted.

12:07

Now we are to prefer

12:09

other people above ourselves. It's

12:13

not important when a group is

12:15

working together who gets the credit,

12:18

when you have a corporate task to

12:21

perform. The

12:24

mission is to achieve

12:26

the goal. What

12:28

difference does it make? Who gets the

12:30

credit if the goal is

12:32

achieved? We're

12:35

supposed to learn that in

12:37

the arena of sports, where

12:39

we're supposed to learn the

12:41

idea of team play for

12:43

the purpose of the mission.

12:47

I remember when I was just a

12:49

junior high student and was playing basketball

12:52

and we had a volatile coach.

12:54

He had an Irish tempera and

12:57

he used to climb our trees,

12:59

as it were, with his explosive

13:01

tirades, paroxisms of fury when things

13:04

were not going the way

13:06

he wanted them to go. One

13:09

of the things that he

13:11

absolutely despised was ball hogging.

13:13

If you threw the ball to certain people, it was

13:16

like throwing it into a bottomless pit. It never

13:18

came back to you. Once you

13:20

threw it, it was gone. That

13:22

person wouldn't release the ball until they had an

13:24

opportunity to shoot and try to make the score.

13:28

Early on, we had this drummed into

13:30

our heads that

13:33

we were not to

13:35

be glory hounds or

13:37

ball hogs, but that we

13:39

were to learn the art of teamwork and to

13:41

pass the ball off to the player who had

13:43

the better opportunity or the better shot. I

13:47

took that very seriously. I

13:50

kept passing the ball off and I remember

13:52

on one occasion, this actually happened,

13:54

we were in the locker room at halftime, we

13:56

were behind against the team that we should have

13:58

been beating hand-on. and I hadn't

14:00

shot the ball in the whole first half. And

14:05

at halftime, the coach came over and grabbed me

14:07

by the shirt and scrunched it up so he

14:09

was about to choke the life out of me.

14:12

And he said, R.C., he said,

14:14

in this half, he said,

14:16

when you get the ball, shoot it. And

14:19

he screamed at me. And

14:21

I was thinking, well, that's wonderful that he

14:24

wants me to shoot. But haven't

14:26

I been a good boy? I

14:28

have been absolutely, nobody can accuse me

14:31

of being a ball hog or a glory

14:33

hunt. Now, the reason

14:35

why I didn't shoot was

14:39

pride, not

14:42

humility. It

14:44

was a false humility. The

14:47

reason I didn't gun or shoot the ball

14:49

is not because I didn't want the glory

14:52

or because I just wanted to win the

14:54

game, but I didn't want anybody to

14:57

think of me badly. And

15:01

so I conform to the coach's

15:03

rule of not gunning to

15:05

a fault. I

15:08

still missed the point of teamwork.

15:11

I was also part of the team, and

15:13

it was my responsibility to shoot when my

15:15

shot was there and I should have been

15:18

taking it. But I wasn't taking it because

15:20

I didn't want to be accused of ball

15:22

hogging or being a glory

15:24

hunt. Do you see how insidious

15:26

this is and how this works

15:28

against us when we

15:30

allow our pride and

15:33

our selfishness to create

15:35

all kinds of false impressions.

15:38

But the person who has the

15:41

quality of self-control behaves

15:44

in a way that is

15:46

appropriate to this situation,

15:49

that is appropriate to the

15:51

circumstances in which they find

15:54

themselves. Now Paul says that

15:56

we ought not to be contentious and

15:58

that we ought to prefer great

18:00

adventures, and I said, look,

18:04

go out in the street and go up to

18:06

the first person you meet. I

18:10

don't care who that person is, and

18:13

just ask them about the

18:15

experience that they've had as

18:17

a human being in the last

18:19

week of their life, and

18:21

you have more than enough

18:23

material to write a best-selling novel,

18:27

because the drama contained

18:29

in every individual life

18:34

is worthy of our learning, of

18:36

our attention, and of our interest.

18:40

But if we're all caught up in ourselves

18:43

and miss the beauty

18:45

that God has put in

18:47

every other creature, we

18:50

won't be able to learn anything from

18:52

them. Jonathan Edwards in speaking

18:54

in this says that there are two places

18:56

where we are not to yield to other

18:58

people, and that is if

19:01

integrity is at stake and

19:04

if truth is at stake. But

19:08

even then, when we will not yield on

19:10

the point of the truth, that

19:13

refusal to compromise and the

19:15

refusal to compromise with respect

19:17

to personal integrity should

19:20

also be done from

19:22

a humble spirit and a humble heart, not

19:25

out of a position of not being

19:27

able to be taught or

19:29

just being fractious or

19:32

argumentative by nature.

19:36

I read a book several years

19:38

ago that is not on my

19:40

list of must-reads for systematic theology,

19:43

but is one of the all-time popular bestsellers

19:46

in America, and it's called How

19:48

to Win Friends and Influence People by

19:51

Dale Carnegie. And

19:54

I'd heard about that book for decades, and

19:56

I thought, well, who cares about some popular

19:59

homespun for the world? philosophy like this, and

20:01

I was too proud to learn from it,

20:03

but I decided to read it and see

20:05

what everybody else was looking. And I found

20:07

it fascinating, a fascinating

20:10

understanding of human behavior.

20:13

And one of the incidents that happened

20:15

in this particular book was

20:18

Carnegie tells the story of a man who

20:20

was giving a speech at a banquet, and

20:24

he made some mistake as

20:26

a matter of historical citation. He

20:28

said something was said by Chaucer

20:31

that was really said by Shakespeare

20:34

or something of that sort. And

20:37

after dinner, somebody went up there and was in

20:39

the speaker's face and right away corrected the error.

20:43

And the man thanked him and walked

20:45

away. The same man

20:49

then was seated around the table, and

20:51

somebody else made an error, which this

20:53

man knew was an error, and

20:56

he didn't mention it. And

21:01

Carnegie said, why didn't he mention this man's

21:03

error? He

21:06

said it wasn't that important. It wasn't

21:08

that significant, and why

21:10

would he embarrass this person for

21:12

his error when there was

21:14

no need to? There was no point of

21:16

truth that was at stake. Boy,

21:19

that hit me right between the eyes when I read

21:21

that. And

21:24

I've seen that happen time after fact. I'll let

21:26

you in on a little insight I had. I

21:28

was in a formal debate once with the theologian

21:30

over a significant point, and

21:33

I was using an illustration from

21:35

the Old Testament about Job and

21:38

the work of his enemies, and I

21:40

happened to mention in passing the Chaldeans

21:43

that were part of the narrative. And

21:46

this professor in front of all the people who were

21:48

there insisted to me

21:51

that Job never had anything

21:53

to do with the Chaldeans, it was somebody

21:55

else, and I knew it was the Chaldeans.

24:00

opportunity, but isn't it amazing how

24:03

much hatred, violence,

24:06

and strife, and

24:08

even warfare there is in the

24:10

world because we are

24:12

so bent on seeking

24:15

our own and

24:18

not demonstrating the love and

24:20

the care and the concern for

24:23

the other person. That

24:32

was R.C. Sproul on this Friday

24:34

edition of Renewing Your Mind. It's

24:37

great to have you with us. As

24:39

we live the Christian life,

24:41

pursuing growth and spiritual maturity,

24:44

one evidence of the Spirit's work in

24:46

our life is the fruit He produces.

24:49

R.C. Sproul recorded this series, Keeping

24:51

in Step with the Spirit, to

24:54

aid Christians in that pursuit of

24:56

Christian character and holiness. For

24:58

the final day, we'll give you lifetime

25:01

digital access to the series when you

25:03

give a gift of any amount at

25:05

renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at

25:07

800-435-4343. Work

25:12

through all 20 messages at your own

25:14

pace as you listen to them

25:17

in the free Ligonier app. We'll

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in a new devotional that we

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25:28

Only hours remain for this offer, so

25:31

give your gift at renewingyourmind.org or by

25:33

clicking the link in the podcast show

25:35

notes. Jesus

25:39

told Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom

25:42

of God, a person needs

25:44

to be born again. Next

25:46

week, Stephen Lawson will join us to

25:49

explore the work of the Spirit in

25:51

the new birth. That's beginning Monday, here

25:53

on Renewing Your Mind.