Theological term
Self-Control
10 sermons · All terms
The Qualifications for Elders, Part 2
Paul's qualifications for elders in 1 Timothy 3:2–3 are not suggestions but binding divine requirements: a bishop 'must be' these things. This exposition works through eleven marks of personal holiness demanded of elder candidates, treating sexual fidelity, temperance, sober-mindedness, good behavior, hospitality, moderation in alcohol, avoidance of violence, financial contentment, gentleness, freedom from quarrelsomeness, and freedom from covetousness. The unifying thread running beneath every qualification is self-control — the disciplined governance of appetite, temper, and desire — which Solomon illustrates across Proverbs and which Paul sets before the whole congregation, not elders alone, as the mark of a genuine Christian.
The Servant and Master Relationship
Ephesians 6:5–9 concludes Paul's household code by addressing the obligations of both bondservants and masters in first-century Greco-Roman society. The passage insists that redemption in Christ does not dissolve temporal social obligations: the slave must obey with a heartfelt, Christ-centered, and eschatologically grounded sincerity, while the master must forsake threatening and govern with the knowledge that he too stands under an impartial heavenly Master. The sermon applies this to the modern employer-employee relationship through four principles drawn from Proverbs and the parallel passage in Colossians 3: the condemnation of laziness, the commendation of diligence, the consideration of Christ in all things, and the cultivation of self-control as the Spirit-wrought fruit that undergirds every godly social relation.
The Warning Against Adultery
Proverbs 6:20–35 presents a father's urgent warning against adultery, grounding it in the necessity and blessing of God's law as a constant guide and protector. The passage moves from the internal heart lust prohibited by the Tenth Commandment, through vivid analogies of fire and hot coals, to the devastating consequences adultery brings upon the adulterer, the violated party, and society. Solomon's contrast between the pitied thief who steals from hunger and the despised adulterer who steals from pure wickedness sharpens the moral weight of the Seventh Commandment. The sermon closes with three practical means of protection — remove, rejoice, remember — and with the gospel assurance that the blood of Christ cleanses even these sins upon repentance and faith.
The Importance of Keeping the Heart
Proverbs 4:23–27 commands God's people to keep their hearts with all diligence, because the heart is the source from which all conduct flows — mouth, eyes, and feet are merely its outlets. Drawing on the warnings of Jeremiah 17:9, the illustrations of Proverbs 7, and Christ's own teaching in Matthew 15, this exposition argues that total depravity makes diligent heart-keeping not optional but urgent. The sermon closes by pressing that this command can only be obeyed through constant dependence on God's Word and Spirit, and that apart from Christ we can do nothing.
The Bridled Tongue
James 1:26 confronts professing Christians with a concrete test of genuine faith: the bridling of the tongue. The sermon expounds the passage within its context of James's call to be doers of the Word, arguing that an unbridled tongue is not a minor failing but a symptom of self-deception — a religion James pronounces useless. Drawing on the Decalogue, the Proverbs, Romans 1, and James 3–4, the preacher demonstrates that Scripture condemns sins of speech — gossip, slander, backbiting, hypocrisy — with the same severity as the grosser immoralities the church is quick to discipline. The sermon closes by grounding the believer's hope not in perfected speech but in Christ, who alone fulfilled the law of the tongue in his sinless life, and calls hearers to pursue tongue-discipline as a fruit of sovereign grace and dependence on God.
Free Grace Baptist Church - October 23, 2016 PM
What does it look like for a justified sinner to walk in the Spirit? Working through Galatians 5:22-26, this exposition of the fruit of the Spirit demonstrates that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are not optional extras but the necessary outflow of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The sermon argues that because those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires at regeneration, the absence of these fruits is not an excuse but a call to repentance, and the presence of the Spirit provides the very power by which they are cultivated.
The Covenant between David and Jonathan
The covenant between David and Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20 is examined as both a historical narrative of loyalty under mortal pressure and a typological pointer to the new covenant secured by Christ. The chapter is organized around three movements: David's urgent meeting with Jonathan, Saul's explosive response at the new moon feast, and the final covert signal and farewell. Four features of the Davidic-Jonathanite covenant — help in trouble, uncommon commitment, costly commitment, and peace in the midst of confusion — are shown to find their fullest expression in the Lord Jesus, whose blood, righteousness, and resurrection constitute the only ground of covenant peace. The sermon calls hearers to covenantal faithfulness in marriage and family, to kill pride after the pattern of Saul's ruin, and to enter the new covenant through faith in Christ alone.
Modesty and Good Works
Paul's instructions to women in 1 Timothy 2:9–10 are grounded in one controlling concern: corporate worship is about God, not the worshipper. This sermon works through the passage under three headings — the general principles of adornment, the specific applications Paul names (braided hair, gold, pearls, costly clothing), and the reorientation Paul commands toward good works. A biblical theology of jewelry demonstrates that Scripture nowhere condemns adornment as such; the prohibition targets ostentatiousness — the deliberate drawing of attention to oneself, whether through sexuality or the display of wealth — that distracts men from worship and provokes covetousness in sisters. The sermon closes by calling the Christian woman to pursue modesty, self-control, and good works as the true adornment of a gospel profession.
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
Meekness, as Jesus pronounces it in Matthew 5:5, is not weakness or passivity but power under control — strength governed by the Holy Spirit and expressed in humble, others-centered living. Drawing on the Beatitudes' presupposition of saving grace, the sermon defines meekness through Scripture, Puritan writers, and biblical exemplars including Moses, Christ, Timothy, Epaphroditus, and the apostle Paul. Philippians 2:1–11 serves as the extended doctrinal and practical illustration, showing that esteeming others as better than oneself flows from the gospel logic of Christ's own self-humiliation. The sermon closes with six concrete marks of meekness and a call to unbelievers to seek justification by faith in Christ, from which true meekness flows.
Biblical Womanhood in the Book of Proverbs
Proverbs 31:10–31 presents the portrait of a virtuous wife, and this sermon works through that portrait to define biblical womanhood against the competing claims of secular feminism and mere cultural Christianity. The preacher identifies five characteristics of the godly wife — that she behaves like a gift, is trustworthy, does her husband good, is submissive, and is respectful — grounding each in the broader witness of Proverbs and the New Testament household codes. Submission and respect are shown to be neither degrading nor negotiable, but ordered on the pattern of Christ's own submission to the Father. The sermon closes by anchoring the entire ethical call in justification by imputed righteousness: the believer will stand before God on the basis of what Christ did, not what she performed as a wife.