Fundamental Christian Attitudes: SELF-DISCIPLINE

(Outlined from Grace to You, John Mac Arthur, on Selected Scriptures)

INTRODUCTION:
➢ Anatomy of the Church – Using the body metaphor, the NT talks about the Church as a
body connected to its Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.
o The skeleton, the rigid form, are the non-negotiable things that give the church its
structure and shape.
o The internal systems, like the internal organs carry its life, so the church has internal
attitudes that are true in the hearts of its people. These are spiritual attitudes or
motivations that carry the life of the church. When the church exhibits these
spiritual attitudes, it becomes strong and effective. When these are absent, it
becomes weak and ineffective.
➢ Spiritual attitudes that the Bible tells us are essential for healthy church life, coming down
to us as individuals, for we are the church. These attitudes need to exist in our own personal
lives: faith, love, humility, unity, contentment, thanks, joy, forgiveness, courage, boldness,
fortitude, strength and spiritual discipline or self-discipline.
➢ Self-discipline characterize people who have great ability to concentrate, focus, define and
stay consistently within their priorities, and they tend to be very successful in this world –
some in academics, music, athletics, business, arts, science, etc.
➢ Self-discipline is imbibed while growing up with parents, teachers, coaches, counselors,
pastors who set up clear lines for obedience.
o While we want to live outside those lines, we find it exceedingly painful to do so - we
are not rewarded by efforts to live outside those boundaries and learn that we are
much happier if we stayed inside. These godly patterns of life are established with
loving firmness and concern. (Cf: “circle of obedience,” blessings of obedience)
o Thus, loving discipline from parents (et al.) become part of us and contribute to the
kind of people we are today. It will be the same for our upbringing of children in the
next generation. Even from a worldly standpoint, self-discipline makes a great
contribution to success and effectiveness. (cf: curses for disobedience)
➢ Harnessing your life in self-discipline is important. How, in the human realm, can we pull
some practical things together in the area of self-discipline?

THE HUMAN SIDE OF SELF-DISCIPLINE:

1. BEGIN WITH SMALL THINGS.

➢ Learn to discipline yourself in the little things of life because it is the little things of life
that make for the big successes.
➢ Every little issue of life has to carry weight and importance, not because in itself it is
important, but your integrity, your credibility, and your word is important even in little
things.
➢ “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is
unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” (Lu. 16:10)
2. CLEAN YOUR ENVIRONMENT.
➢ Get rid of all that stuff. Clean your desk, room, garage, or what else is cluttered in your
vicinity. Notice that the things you keep unused are eaten my moth and rust. Do not
hoard!
➢ Just become discontent with mess in general. Get yourself to the place where
orderliness matters.
➢ Some people need a lot of help in this area. But learn how to get rid of excess, how to
trim down, how to keep your environment clean and clear so that you can function
without a myriad of distraction and so that you have made decisions and selections
about what matters, what doesn’t, what’s important, and what isn’t.
➢ “Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, that you may not have excess and
vomit it.” (Prov. 25:16)

3. MAKE A SCHEDULE.
➢ It is not that you write down every breath or put up some big calendar in your house.
➢ Make a schedule and learn to conform to it.
➢ Whether your schedule is absolutely hard and fast which appeals to the engineer or
accountant folks, or whether it’s a little more fluid. In any case, it should help you
anticipate things and you can establish time frames in which things need to be done.
➢ “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is time for every event under
heaven.” (Eccl. 3:1)

4. WEAN YOURSELF FROM BEING ENTERTAINED.

➢ Entertainment should become something arbitrary – you can take it or leave it.
➢ Get yourself to the place where, if you have excess time to do things, do those that are
productive rather than sit and be entertained. Alternatives may include reading a good
book, taking a walk with somebody, having a conversation, planting flowers, or the like.
➢ Entertainment makes a very, very small contribution to your well-being and success.
➢ “I said to myself, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.’ And behold,
it too was futility.” (Eccl. 2:1)

5. BE ON TIME.
➢ Order your little universe so you can get where you need to get when you are supposed
to be there, clothed and in your right mind.
➢ Learn to be on time even in small and insignificant things, because it says an awful lot
about how your life is ordered and how you have preplanned all the stops between here
and where you need to be at that moment.
➢ This is important for it says volumes to people you are supposed to meet, just how
important it is for you to be with them.
➢ “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the
time, because the days are evil.” (Eph. 5:15-16)
6. KEEP YOUR WORD.
➢ If you say you are going to do it, do it when you said you are going to do it, and do it the
way you said you would do it because your word is important.
➢ Do not make promises you cannot keep. Make commitments and see them through.
➢ This calls for discipline before you make a commitment because you have to look and
evaluate your time, your talent and the capability that you have to pull it off.
➢ Once you have made your commitment, keep your word in the littlest thing, and you
will begin to keep your word in big things.
➢ “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.” (Mt.
5:37)

7. DO THE HARDEST TASK FIRST.

➢ Begin with whatever is most difficult, and save the very easiest thing for last.
➢ Most people work on the reverse, and they run out of time and energy, and then have
an excuse not to do what they should have done first because it was most difficult and
probably most important.
➢ “But all things should be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40)

8. FINISH WHAT YOU START.

➢ Some people’s lives are just a long litany of unfinished stuff.
➢ If you start it, finish it.
➢ “So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by
your completing it out of what you have.” (2 Corinthians 8:11)

9. PRACTICE SELF-DENIAL.
➢ Just say NO so you can say NO to yourself – “Self, you can say NO when you want to.”
➢ There may be some things you would like to do, or things that are fine to do. But just say
NO so you can remind yourself you are still in charge and you are not completely at the
whim of your impulse.
➢ So, the next time you have the opportunity to eat a triple deck hamburger, a super-big
banana split topped with cream and chocolate and all that, you might just say NO, just
so you can say to your stomach, “See, I am still in charge.”
➢ “Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and
take up his cross and follow me’.” (Matt. 16:24)

10. VOLUNTEER FOR TASKS.

➢ You have to leave a little space in your life, and you have to have your life ordered well
enough to say, “Hey, I would like to try that; I would like to step into that; I want to help
over there.” In doing so, you practice being a servant to others as well.
➢ You subject yourself to something that really isn’t part of your agenda, but it is
necessary and it calls for some order in your life.
➢ “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more
significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to
the interests of others.” (Philippians 2:3-4)
 ❖ These are simple little principles you can work on in your personal life and with your
children, to help them develop self-discipline. This is purely the human side to it
because we are human.
❖ The compelling question is, Why do I want to be self-disciplined? The answers will take
us back to the Word of God, for biblical issues are at stake.

SERIES OF NEW TESTAMENT COMMANDS ON SELF-DISCIPLINE:

1. 1 Cor. 9:27 – I beat my body to bring it into subjection.
2. Heb. 12:1-2 – I always press toward the goal of Christlikeness, laying aside the weights and
running the race with eyes fixed on the author and finisher of our faith.
3. Eph. 6:14 – Gird up your loins with truth.
o A Roman soldier who goes into battle wears some kind of a loose-fitting tunic, so he
would put a sash and take the four corners of the tunic and tuck them up into the
sash (girdle). He would pull all the loose ends in and get everything tight and tied
down because he was going into battle.
o Similarly, this is where spiritual victory begins – with a commitment that says, “I am
going to get the loose ends of my life all pulled in here and I am going to go into this
battle ready.”
o In self-discipline, you gird up your mind, which means to pull in all the loose ends in
your thinking, and keep them in line with God’s Word.

4. 1 Pet. 1:13 – Therefore, gird your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit.
o To “keep sober” is literally “keeping sober” – this defines HOW you pull all the loose
ends in. This is not talking about alcoholism or being drunk. It is about being clear-
minded and understanding priorities. Prioritization, which is sober-mindedness in
the Bible, means “thinking about things you ought to think about.”
o A disciplined mind avoids the intoxicating elements and allurements of the world.
One whose mind is clear and has his priorities fixed has spiritual steadfastness, and
one who exercises self-control in thinking has balanced priorities.
o It is also called moral decisiveness, because there are fixed principles in the mind.
That is why sound doctrine is important, in having fixed principles to establish
priorities of behavior and keeping oneself mentally alert.
o This is the opposite of whimsically careening through life in reckless self-indulgence,
responding to emotions for every option.
o It is being able to clear out the clutter from life’s entanglements and sort out what
really matters in your mind.

5. Rom. 13:13 – Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness and
sexual promiscuity and sensuality and strife and jealousy.
o Here is a picture of the typical person careening through life by responding to every
lust, impulse and desire with no sense of what is going on and no prioritization, no
standards, and no clarity of thought.
o We are told to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, which means putting on the mind of
Christ, and to think like He thinks.
6. 1 Thes. 5:6 – Let us not sleep as others do , but let us be alert and sober.
o Do not just be going around in a stupor, in a fog, a victim of everything going on
around you.
o Be alert and understand your priorities, Since we are of the day (v. 8). We belong to
the Lord in the light, rather than in the darkness.

7. 1 Pet. 5:8 – Be of sober spirit, or sober mind; be on the alert.

o Because the devil is going about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, get
your priorities right, be of sober mind, be watchful – which simply means, pull in all
the loose ends in your thinking.
o This brings us once more to the skeleton, the foundations of sound doctrine, which
is the starting point for the establishment of your priorities.

INTERNAL PRIORITIES (MOTIVATIONS) TO MAKE US SELF-DISCIPLINED:

1. REMEMBER WHO OWNS YOU.

➢ Behavior is a result of how you THINK. How you think is a direct result of two things:
o Information that you have in your mind – what you BELIEVE.
o Level of commitment you have to that information – ACT on what you believe.
➢ You will behave in accord to what you KNOW and what you BELIEVE about what you
know.
o As Christians, the Word of God is the foundations for our BELIEF. And since we
are COMMITTED seriously to the Word of God, we believe the Word of God.
o Our actions then is a product of what we know to be true and what we believe.
o The first thing we need to know and believe in is this – YOU DON’T OWN YOU!
➢ This goes against the grain of everything in our self-centered modern-day culture and
society.
o Every message coming through all media possible is that every individual is the
king of his own little world, and you have a right to be whoever you are, and
don’t let anybody tell you who you are, who you have to be, and you set your
goal and determine your own levels of satisfaction and pursue your own dream
and don’t let anybody get in the way, and pick your own lifestyle, etc… Do not let
anybody crowd you. This is equal rights; this is personal freedom.
➢ The Bible contradicts this worldly mindset and says to us, ‘you are not in charge of you;
you are not free; you are a slave, a bondslave and a servant of God in Christ.’
o 1 Per. 1:14-18
▪ As obedient children… - Not only are we slaves and servants, but also
children. And what is required of children is obedience.
▪ Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your
ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in
all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM
HOLY.” If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according
to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your
stay on earth…”
 ▪ If you are God’s child and you do call God your Father, then you ought to
live in the fear of your holy Father, who has authority in your life.
▪ The price is pretty astonishing (1 Pet. 1:18) - Knowing that you were not
redeemed [bought] with perishable things like silver of gold, from your
futile way of life inherited from your fathers; but you were purchased with
precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
▪ There are two strong statements in the above passage about who is in
charge of us:
• We are children of a Father who has complete authority over us.
• We are slaves of a Master who bought us at immense cost, the
blood of Jesus Christ.

o 1 Cor. 6:19- 20 – Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirt
who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, you are bought
with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.
o Acts 20:28 - … shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own
blood.
o Gal. 3:13 – Christ ransomed [redeemed] us by becoming a curse for us. – The
price was His shed blood, becoming a curse and being alienated from God, when
He died on the cross.

➢ Until you understand that you don’t own you, that somebody else has complete
mastery and right over your life, you will not have the motivation to be a self-disciplined
person. You are only a steward of what was entrusted to you. And you will give account.
➢ Our obedience to His LORDSHIP, our submission to His FATHERHOOD is not grievous
because it brings about blessing in time and eternal reward in the life to come. We have
been purchased at such a high cost. And you will begin to seek a holy life when you
begin to understand the price that Jesus Christ paid for you.
➢ We are constantly reminded at the Lord’s table about the sacrifice of Christ. The more
we understand that, the more wondrous and marvelous it becomes, and the more
magnanimous we perceive the grace of God to be. The greater God’s grace toward us is
understood, the more likely it is to have an impact on how we view ourselves.
➢ The Apostle Paul teaches us how to view ourselves correctly – That he (and us) was
such a rotten and wretched chief of sinners, from God’s perspective. And when he was
saved by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus in an act of sovereign supernatural
power, it was so overwhelming to him that he never ever got over the fact of his
salvation. This very fact alone was at the root of his tremendous dedication - Such a
great price was paid for such a rotten, unworthy and wretched person.
➢ And when you begin to understand what God has gone through to purchase you to
make you His servant and adopt you as His son, and that He is in charge of you. When
you understand the fullness of the richness of this reality, this will impact the way you
order your life.
2. REMIND YOURSELF OF THE COVENANT OF SALVATION.
➢ Remember these things, for many who come to Christ do not fully understand the
implications of their confession of faith and the Christian life with all the obedience and
challenges it will entail. There is a transaction of saving faith - when you were saved, it
was not just a one-sided thing.
o A PROMISE OF OBEDIENCE: There was a covenant at salvation in which you
committed yourself to follow Jesus Christ.
▪ Saving faith recognizes sin and therefore encompasses repentance.
▪ Saving faith recognizes the Lordship of Christ and therefore encompasses
submission.
▪ You came to Christ and you were begging for forgiveness, for cleansing,
for salvation, to be delivered from hell into heaven, from darkness into
light, coming with desperation, in simple faith and said, ‘Yes God, I receive
the gift of salvation; I accept Jesus Christ into my life as Lord and Savior.
▪ Inherent in these confessions is that you were saying, I give you my life!
You came with a heart of submission. The question is, are you still
obedient?
o A PROMISE TO FORGIVE: There was a promise on God’s part to forgive you and
pour out grace upon grace and to bring you to glory. God has not changed in His
part of the covenant, for He is steadfast in keeping His promises.

➢ The TRANSACTION at our SALVATION:

o Foreknowledge of God the Father: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who
reside as aliens… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the
sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ… (1 Pet. 1:1-2a)
▪ Peter was writing to scattered believers throughout Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, Bythynia, and all around the Northeastern
Mediterranean. And he is writing to all of us believers, who are aliens in
this world, and scattered everywhere.
▪ Peter identifies them as those “Who are chosen”, mentioning their
ELECTION (v. 2). Based on God’s predetermined knowledge, He chose
certain people for salvation to be in a RELATIONSHIP with Him.
• This does not mean the God’s foreknowledge is something He
knows before it happens, though He has no influence on its
happening.
• This rather means that God has every influence on what happens,
and his foreknowledge means to predetermine a RELATIONSHIP.
▪ Knowledge in the Bible means an intimate relationship with someone.
• God said, Israel only have I known. (Amos 3:2)
• Cain knew his wife and she bore a child.
• Joseph was upset because May was pregnant, and he had never
known her.
• Jesus said, My sheep hear my voice and I know them.
 ▪ Salvation really starts in the purposes of God in election. He
predetermined [fore] an intimate relationship [knowledge, love] with
certain people on the basis of which He then chose them for salvation.

o Sanctifying Work of the Spirit: “…who are chosen according to the

foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey
Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:1b-2a)
▪ Most people think that sanctification has to do with what happens AFTER
salvation. NO, it has to do with what STARTS at salvation.
▪ Sanctification includes your salvation, for it mean “to be set apart”, and
you were set apart from sin at the moment of salvation with continuing
implications.
▪ Sanctification encompasses your justification, conversion, regeneration.
It began when you were set apart from sin to God. You were ELECT, in
eternity past, before the world began. In time, you were set apart from
sin by the sanctifying work of the Spirit which goes on then until
glorification.
▪ Salvation happens “that you may obey Jesus Christ.” When you were
CHOSEN, you were chosen to be SAVED. When you were saved, you were
chosen to be OBEDIENT. That is why both Paul and Peter refer to the
obedience to the truth, which purifies our souls (1 Pet. 1:22).
▪ Salvation is an act of obedience. The obedience of faith (Rom. 1:5) and
good works prepared to do (Eph. 2:10) affirm this truth. So once you are
saved, the good works flow, for “faith without works is dead” (James
2:17). If there is no true obedience, there is no true saving faith (Jn. 8:31
– If you continue in My Word, than you are My real disciple… The one who
really loves Me… keeps My commandments.”
▪ When you come, that is because you were chosen before the foundation
of the world, because you were sanctified and set apart from sin in the
saving work of the Holy Spirit. At that time you made a commitment and
pledge to obey the Lord and you were given the Holy Spirit and the
grace to fulfill that pledge.

o Sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus Christ: “… to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled
with His blood” (1 Peter 1:2b)
▪ You have election (God the Father), then salvation (God the Son), then
obedience (God the Spirit), and then “sprinkled with His blood”. This
order is not accidental.
▪ We normally mention the sprinkling of the blood after election before
sanctification, but here it is not so. That is because it is not talking about
the sprinkling of the blood with a direct focus on the saving aspect of the
death of Christ.
▪ Peter, being raised as a Jew, got this knowledge from the OT (Exodus 24).
He says, “to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood.” The
 question we ask is, what does this obedience have to do with blood
sprinkling?
• Exo. 24:3 – Moses came down from Mt. Sinai and recites to the
people all the Law of God (Decalogue), including all the other laws
and ordinances. He introduces them to the Mosaic Covenant and
promise from God. The people said, “All the words which the
LORD has said we will do.”
• Exo. 24:4 – Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, so we
would have them throughout human history in the Pentateuch.
Then he got up in the morning and built an altar to God for a
sacrifice to be made at the foot of the mountain, after putting up
12 pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
• Exo. 24:5 – Moses sent young men of the sons of Israel and they
offered their normal burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as
normal peace offering to the Lord.
• Exo. 24:6 – Moses then took half of the blood and put it in basins,
and the other half of the blood he splattered on the altar.
Covenants in ancient times were sealed with blood. So he
bloodied up the altar with half of the blood to represent the
sealing of God’s part of the covenant. As such, God was saying,
“I’ll keep My part of the covenant and I seal it in blood.”
• Exo. 24:7 – Moses took the book of the covenant he had written
and read it in the hearing of the people, for the second time. They
affirmed, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be
obedient.”
• Exo. 24:8 – Moses took the other half of the blood in basins and
splattered it on the people, to seal their part of the covenant
promise. He said, “Behold, the blood of the covenant which the
Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

▪ Peter borrows this picture in Exodus 24 and is saying in a sense to the

people (and us), “When you came to Christ as His chosen, and you were
saved and sanctified, set apart from sin by the Holy Spirt, and your sins
were forgiven and you became a child of God, you affirmed at that time
obedience to Christ and as it were symbolically you were splattered with
His blood to seal your part of the promise.”
▪ Let us not assume that the Mosaic Covenant was a one-sided covenant,
for it wasn’t. Likewise, the New Covenant of salvation is not a one-sided
covenant, where God promises everything and we promise nothing,
which is not the case.
▪ When you come to Christ, you are pledging something. You confess Jesus
as Lord, you are offering yourself as His servant, you confess God as
Father, asking Him to make you His child, and you become a subject to
 Him as sovereign Lord. You have committed yourself to the obedience of
faith - “Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls…” (1
Peter 1:22).

➢ The PLEDGE OF OBEDIENCE

o So, if you want to be a self-disciplined person, you must go back and remember
the pledge you made at the very beginning and be a person of integrity, a
person who keeps his word, a person who keeps the promise made when you
came to Christ.
o When we came to Christ, we were all so eager to receive - forgiveness, the
promise of going to heaven, we wanted to avoid hell, we longed for hope, grace,
mercy, love, joy, and blessing. And it seemed an easy thing to say, “Yes, I will
commit my life to Christ. Yes, I will obey gladly.”
o But as time goes on, we forget the pledge we made. We begin to forfeit our
integrity and we become enamored with sin and fail to keep our covenant with
the Lord, who never violates His covenant with us. Never! God will keep His
bargain perfectly!
o In the New Covenant operation, there is still the principle that, “if your obey Me,
I will bless you; and if you don’t, I will chasten you.”
▪ “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful
to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your
God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these
blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of
the LORD your God...” (Deut. 28:1-14)
▪ “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to
do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today,
then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you...” (Deut.
28:15-68)

3. RECOGNIZE THAT ALL SIN IS A VIOLATION OF A RELATIONSHIP.

➢ Sin is DIRECTED AGAINST A PERSON.
o When we sin, we’re not just breaking a creed, or breaking a code, or sinning
against the church, the leadership, an institution or a denomination.
o At the very heart of the Christian experience is being “joined to the Lord… [as]
one spirit with Him” (1 Cor. 6:17). Christ is inextricably linked to His own people
so that if we sin, we join Christ, as it were, to that sin. If you join yourself to the
harlot, you join Christ to the harlot, and you sin against Him in frightening ways
(1 Cor. 6: 15-16).
o Sin has implications in all kinds of directions but sin is primarily against God. It is
a violation of our relationship with Him!

➢ Sin DISDAINS OUR LOVING FATHER.

o “As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours
in ignorance” (1 Pet. 1:14).
 o “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s
work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth” (1 Pet.
1:17).
▪ If you address God as Father, you are God’s child, so act like it. Do not
violate that relationship.
▪ In raising your children, it is important that they understand when they
are young that you are the authority. If there is one they fear, revere,
love, honor and respect, it is you as a parent. They need to have a healthy
and wholesome fear of violating that relationship.
▪ To a rebellious and disobedient child, a father can say, “I loved you, cared
for, fed, clothed, taught, protected, supported, nurtured, and treated you
with kindness and affection. Is it too much to ask that you respect, honor
and obey me?”
▪ Our children need to be taught and learn how important their
relationship with their parents is. They need to come to the point of
fearing to disappoint or hurt them, so that they are restrained from going
with people they are not supposed to go with or doing things they are
not supposed to be doing. Eventually, this loving reverence will be
transferred to their relationship with God.
o What essentially shatters a father’s heart is not that his child broke a rule, but
that he has disdained a relationship. In sinning against his father, a child
minimized the relationship and counted it a small thing to have a meaningful
loving relationship with his beloved father.

➢ Sin DISHONORS CHRIST and GRIEVES THE HOLY SPIRIT.

o “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any
participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy…” (Phil. 2:1)
▪ Paul is saying, ‘Has Christ meant anything to you? Has Christ brought you
encouragement, consolation, comfort, help and counsel? Has He brought
you the comfort of His love, His tender care, His forgiveness, the grace
and mercy of His deep affection?’
▪ Paul adds, ‘Has the Holy Spirit meant anything to you? Does the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit which Christ has provided for you mean
anything? Does the partnership you enjoy with His Spirit in regeneration,
sanctification, security, prayer, spiritual gifts, teaching and enabling mean
anything? Does it mean anything that Christ has provided His Holy Spirit
to lavish you with His care and compassion? Or can you just turn your
back on all that with utter indifference?’
o “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full
accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in
humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not
only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:2-4)
 ▪ Paul was addressing a church to ‘stop grumbling, stop disputing’ (Phil.
2:14). They were arguing, proud, conceited, selfish, like a typical church,
and all the battles were there.
▪ But before he gets into all these commands, Paul points out that they
flow out of calling them to remember their relationship with Christ.
▪ It is right there at the heart of everything in terms of how we approach
sin to recognize it as a violation of a relationship, putting it in jeopardy as
to its joy and fulfillment.

➢ Sin DISDAINS THE GIFTS THAT COME WITH A RELATIONSHIP.

o God made David king over His people Israel. Yet David violated his relationship
with God in a downward spiral of sins that he could have prevented.
▪ “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your
sight…Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow… Create in me a clean heart, O god, and renew a right
spirit within me… Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me
with a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:4, 7, 10, 12)
▪ In his adultery, David sinned against Bathsheba, against her husband
Uriah, against his nation Israel, against his own children for setting a
pattern of living dissolute lives, and in lots of different directions. Yet, in
his perspective, the rest of his sins pale in comparison to sinning against
God.
▪ All sin must be viewed as a violation of our relationship with God, for that
is what it really is.
o God gave the gift of His Holy Spirit to reside in us. Yet we sometimes live in
unmitigated sin, as if He was not audience of it all.
▪ “For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore,
whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives His Holy
Spirit to you.” (1 Thes. 4:7-8)
▪ Paul is addressing immorality, sexual sin, lustful passion, and he says, ‘Do
not do it! Do not commit these sins! For if you reject this warning, you are
not rejecting man, but God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.”
▪ In effect, Paul was saying, ‘God who has been so good as to give you the
best possible gift which is the Holy Spirit. What more could He give you
than the Holy Spirit to take up residence in your life, to seal you for
eternal glory, to sanctify you? He regenerates us, makes us new, gives us
the promise of eternal life and maintains it, strengthens our continued
perseverance, grants us illumination and understanding of God’s Word,
and is the source of our hope. “
▪ If we reject His gift of the Holy Spirit and go on and commit sexual
immorality, we are basically saying, “God, I don’t care what You do for
me, I’ll do what I want.” This is violating a relationship with One who has
given the very best that heaven has to offer!
 ❖ There is the urgency of living disciplined lives. We do want to begin with little things and
start pulling the loose ends and nailing down the things that are flapping. And we want
to do these for the right reasons, namely that it honors and glorifies the Father!
❖ Let us start on a path of spiritual self-discipline. Let us prayerfully establish our
priorities, remembering who owns us, reminding ourselves of the promise of obedience
and recognizing that our sins violate our relationship with God, despite all the grace,
love, and mercies He has showered upon us as His sons and servants.

4. RESOLVE TO LEARN TO CONTROL YOUR IMAGINATION.

➢ “Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance” (1 Pet. 1:14).
o Before you were a believer, you really were subject to your own lusts. You had
no ability to control your heart, mind, desires, and imagination.
➢ Begin to understand our imagination. God diagnoses man as having an evil
imagination.
o “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen.
6:5, KJV).
o “I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the imagination of
man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21).
➢ The HEART, in the Bible, means the mind, particularly in the OT.
o “The heart (mind) is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can
understand it?” (Jer. 17:9)
o In the mind is a place – although not an actual location – a capacity for
imagination. And imagination is the place where sin is conceived, where sin is
fantasized, and where sin is energized.
o To control sin is to control the imagination. It is very difficult for us to eliminate
from our lives every thought about sin because sin is ubiquitous (ever present, or
everywhere) – you can see sinful things, you can hear sinful words which people
thrust into your face.
o Imagination is where lust is activated. It would be very difficult to remove the
fleeting, passing thought, awareness and sensitivity to sin that is initial. You can
really go to work in your imagination where that initial exposure to sin develops
and elicits your involvement and ultimately results in your iniquity.
➢ WE are the problem.
o “(13) Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God
cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. (14) But each
one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. (15) Then
when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it
brings forth death.” (James 1:13-15)
o The fact that you live in a fallen world and that you are exposed to sin around
you all the time through personal contacts and through the media and all other
things is not an excuse for your iniquity (1:13).
 o It’s not that initial exposure in a fallen world that is a problem. The problem is
not environment, or exposure to something in the world, but the problem is in
you and me (1:14).
o What produces sin is not something outside of us but something inside of us.
Something that takes that sinful image, circumstance, thought, word, concept,
action, or whatever it might be in the world around us, and begin to internalize
it. That is when the real problem develops (1:15).
➢ Sin works in the IMAGINATION.
o We are tempted when we are internally carried away by our lust, and lust
begins to conceive, and it brings forth the child, and the child is SIN.
o Our imagination is the place where lust is conceived. It is the place where the
sin is entertained, where the temptation is entertained, and the fantasies begin
to develop.
➢ Imagination is a WONDERFUL THING.
o It is a creative source inside of us – arts, music, cultivation of and bringing to
fruition a dream.
o It is a God-given tremendous faculty to dream, plan, invent and conceive things
that you can bring to pass with great benefit and great blessing.
o Sadly, it is in the same imagination or capability of the human mind where one
conceives and fantasizes and develops that which ultimately issues in iniquity.
➢ Imagination is more PROFOUND than thinking.
o “He has done mighty deeds with His arm and He has scattered those who were
proud in the imaginations of their heart.” (Lu. 1:51, Magnificat of Mary)
o It is what energizes the thought into fantasy, what activates the emotion and
the will to produce the action. The thought comes, it is energized in the
imagination, that moves the emotion, the emotion moves the will, the will
creates the action, and in the case of sin, the action creates death (Ja. 1:15).
➢ Imagination is the place where the FLESH comes to consciousness.
o It is in the imagination that the pictures outside become the pictures inside.
o It is in your imagination that you play out your sin before you ever commit it.
▪ For example, it is in your imagination that you feel the anger that could
issue in murder if you were not restrained. (E.g. Cain)
▪ Jesus said, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know
that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1 John 3:15)
➢ Imagination in a Christian functions to battle sin.
o Your imagination as a Christian functions to battle, because you know what is
right and you’re tempted with what is wrong.
o Two thoughts engage our imagination, and they both have an element of truth:
▪ Sin will bring satisfaction. It will bring me something I want. It will bring
some momentary pleasure, otherwise you will not be interested in it at
all.
▪ Sin will dishonor God. It displeases Him, violates our relationship with
Him, and brings chastening on the one who commits it.
 o Therein lies the battle – Which is going to triumph to control your imagination?
Which principle is going to move your emotion? Which is going to move your will
to do what is right?
➢ What you FEED or PUT into your imagination is important.
o You lay the weight in the battle on the side of righteousness because the WORD
of GOD keeps you from sin.
▪ “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, you shall
meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according
to all that is written in it.” (Joshua 1:8)
▪ “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be
acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” (Psalm
19:14)
o “Preserve this forever in the imaginations [intentions] of the heart” (1 Chron.
29:10-18).
▪ David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly at the time when
Solomon was being made king, and David was making collections for the
temple which was to be built by Solomon.
▪ This was a monumental moment in the history of Israel; a glorious high
point.
▪ David was praying, Lord, if this is to go on; if this marvelous love toward
you and expression of worship and this level of devotion is to continue in
the future, you are going to have to preserve the imagination, the place
where sin is conceived and where it brings forth is deadly child.
➢ When you are fighting sin in your imagination, your CONSCIENCE is battling alone.
o “For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in
holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we
have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you.” (2
Corinthians 1:12)
o No one outside knows the battle inside. So the most important battles you will
fight alone in your imagination, and your conscience will be there ringing its bell
and beating its drum and calling out to you in response to the choices you are
making. So the conscience will either be accusing or excusing you.
▪ “In that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their
conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else
defending them.” (Romans 2:15)
▪ If you win the battle there, you’ll win the battle on the outside. If you lose
the battle there, you’ll lose the battle on the outside.
▪ When someone falls into iniquity/sin, that is the product of a fantasizing
imagination that has conceived of sin and consequently brought it forth.
▪ Win the battle INSIDE. The issue is YOU. The issue is NOT THE WORLD you
live in.
➢ The battle has always been fought at the same point.
o OT – A debauched culture surrounded the nation Israel and which encroached
itself upon them until even the Jews began to commit the same kind of
 debauchery as the nations around them. This resulted in the Assyrian captivity
(722 B.C.) of the ten northern tribes, and the Babylonian captivity (586 B.C.) of
the southern kingdom of Judah and Benjamin. The wretchedness and
wickedness of the people of Israel (prostitution, greed, murder, child sacrifice)
brought this upon them.
o NT – The Pharisaism or external morality of the Jews and debased culture of the
Gentile world was of the same degree. The only difference with us today is that
we can put it on forms of media that the ancient world didn’t have.
o There has always been the external influences. You can’t run and hide from that;
that’s not the problem. The problem is the the internal lust that is generated in
an imagination that is not subject to truth.
➢ Self-discipline then begins with our THEOLOGY – Knowing who owns you, knowing the
price that was paid for us, remembering the covenant we made with the Lord when we
came to Him, the recognition of all sin as a violation of our relationship.
➢ Then self-discipline moves out of our theology into our own personal spirituality, and
self-discipline becomes a matter of controlling your imagination – To do this, you must
hide the Word of God in your heart so that it comes ringing loud and clear and activates
your conscience.

❖ THE CONSCIENCE:
1. It is not in itself a moral law. It is merely a device that reacts to the moral law. It is
like a skylight; not in itself a light, but merely lets the outside light in. The outside
light is the truth of God, the conscience is the skylight that lets it in. So keep that
clean so the light comes in.
2. It is like a ‘voice box.’ It says, “pull up, stop it, don’t do that”, and it is simply reacting
to information given to it, like the airplane voice box. What informs the voice box?
Radar sends out a beam that bounces back. Radar shows reality, informs the box,
and the box speaks.
3. It is informed by reality. Sound doctrine and biblical understanding are realities that
inform the conscience. If you have sound doctrine informing a clear conscience, you
are going to hear, “pull up, stop, don’t do that”, you definitely want that. (Cf: internal
policeman)
4. We live in a culture which assaults the conscience in two ways:
▪ Our society wants to change the moral code. They try to get rid of the Bible.
They do not want it for their moral law.
▪ Society then invents a new brand of morality. They let MTV, the sexual
revolution invent a new moral code. Now conscience has a problem, because
it is not a moral law. It is merely a device that reacts to what you believe.
5. When society invents an erroneous, deceptive, lying, hellish, damning moral
system, you get misinformation to the conscience. So the radar does not work; it is
non-functioning.
▪ False religions give the conscience wrong information. Muslims or Buddhists
have their conscience reacting to their belief system.
 ▪ Modern psychology train people to ignore their conscience. Your conscience
is making you feel guilty? That is wrong. You are not a bad person. You are
good. You lack self-esteem. In fact, you’re so much better than you think you
are. Most of your problems occur because you don’t know how good you
really are. So when your conscience says you are guilty, you silence it. (Cf:
positive thinking; good vibes)
▪ Culture developed a completely new moral system, and trains people to
ignore their conscience. So here we are in the midst of this as Christians who
have and know the Word of God, with a fully informed conscience, which is
told what is right, and we are told to listen to that conscience. The
conscience saying, “pull up, stop, don’t do this, do what is right,” is a God-
given gift.
6. The pang of pain inflicted by a conscience sinned against is a good thing.
▪ Pain is a good thing because is tells you your body has a problem. If you
don’t feel any pain, you’d eventually just die because you wouldn’t remedy
your condition. You will self-destruct.
▪ Leprosy does not eat you away at all, though we often think this is the case.
What it does is kill all your nerves so you can’t feel anything and you wear off
all your extremities. Lepers cannot feel how they’re rubbing and so literally
rub off their extremities - noses, ears, fingers, toes, making holes in their
faces.
▪ When you cannot feel the pain of something, you are on self-destructive
mode. When pain comes, it is God’s way of saying, “Stop that, you are
hurting yourself.” So when the conscience starts yelling at you, it is God’s gift
to you to stop hurting your soul.
7. It is at the level of the conscience that we have to do the battle of controlling our
imagination.
▪ So let us keep our conscience highly and correctly informed by God’s truth.
▪ Let us heed the voice of a conscience fully informed against the cultural and
psychological lies outside of us.
▪ It is very devastating to silence a God-given warning system in the souls of
men and women. But this has been a very effective campaign in the world.
8. As Christians, we have a fully informed conscience.
▪ It is fully sensitized, and tender to inroads of sin and sinning.
▪ Listen to a conscience built upon the Word of God, which is how we control
our imagination.

5. READILY FOCUS ON A NOBLE CAUSE OUTSIDE YOURSELF.

➢ People whose lives matter to God don’t matter to them. People who are lost in divine
purposes have little regard for their own success, comfort, or achievement.
➢ Paul’s example (Acts 20:22) – “And now, behold, bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to
Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there.”
 o He was compelled, driven to go. He knew that he was going right back into the
lion’s mouth. He knew that going could result in tragedy, imprisonment, or
certain death.
o Additionally, Paul says, “I know that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in
every city saying that bonds and afflictions await me” (v. 23).
o The Word of the Holy Spirit was coming to the leaders of the church, “Tell Paul
that when he gets to Jerusalem, it’s going to be chains and prison.” But Paul
resolved, “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I
may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to
testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God” (v. 24).
o There was something far beyond Paul that drove him – I do not consider my life
of any account as dear to myself. He was committed to a noble cause outside of
himself.
➢ In a simpler sense, people who desire to excel in some great endeavor make great
sacrifices.
o People with a desire to excel to write masterpieces, make a scientific discovery,
or make a mark in the academic field, have a transcendent commitment to that
process.
o A transcendent cause is made beyond them that make them sacrifice at a level
that is sometimes hard to understand, which should be true of us Christians.
o This causes them to be able to go on and on, sleeplessly, and deny themselves all
kinds of things, making immense sacrifices, for the greater good of achieving this
noble end or cause which is beyond them.
▪ Some of these noble causes resulted in inventions pioneered by people
who sacrificed everything, in some cases their lives.
▪ Some of these “noble” causes are dumb, like getting to the top of Mount
Everest. Who cares?
➢ For you Christian, to pursue a transcendent or noble cause, you will begin to pull the
loose ends of your life together, when you will not be living for yourself anymore.
o You will go way beyond ordinary, when you discipline yourself because it is the
only way you can get to the goal which is beyond you.
o Partial effort cannot get you there. You can only accomplish that with the whole
effort of everything you have.
o As the apostle Paul said, For me to live is not Paul; “to live is Christ and to die is
gain” (Phil. 1:21).
▪ He approached life with one great goal, the advancement of the glory of
Jesus Christ.
▪ This noble goal beyond himself catapulted him beyond personal thoughts
of comfort and created in him an immense capacity for self-discipline and
self-sacrifice to achieve it.
▪ He did everything for the glory of God, encouraging us, “whether we eat
or drink or whatever we do, do it all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31)
▪ His resolve was unconditional, “For not one of us lives for himself, and not
one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die
 for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom.
14:7-8).
▪ His devotion to Christ was unhampered – in labors, imprisonments,
beatings, danger of death, lashing, beating with rods, stoning, shipwreck,
spent in the deep, frequent journeys, danger from rivers, dangers from
robbers, dangers from his countrymen, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in
the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among
the brethren, labors and hardship, sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst,
often without food, in cold and exposure, the daily pressure of concern for
all the churches, in weakness (2 Cor. 11:23-29).
▪ Because there is something so great and so compelling, any sacrifice is
nothing, absolutely nothing, to the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the
advancement of the gospel, with the hope of someday hearing, “Well
done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will
put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master’”
(Matthew 25:21,23).
▪ So Paul could pray with full commitment to what consumed him – “Our
Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). It was
the advancement of God’s kingdom, the fulfillment of God’s will, the
glory of God’s name.
o It is a matter of living for the great cause, and getting beyond yourself. This is
not easy in our world when we are fast becoming a more and more selfish
society in the history of humanity.
▪ Our level of selfishness is beyond description. Where everything is
supposed to focus on you, it makes it difficult to lose your life for the
cause of Christ.
▪ Even in evangelicalism and evangelizing, the whole appeal to the
unconverted person is personal fulfillment, and that the Lord will
personally fulfill your life.
▪ Because personal fulfillment is the reason people come to Christ, then
they expect Christ to do something for them, and you set people up for
an utterly reverse process of sanctification – well, here I am Jesus, fulfill
me, satisfy me, plug up the holes in my life, give me perfect relationships,
bring me happiness and success, remove my struggles, take away these
feelings…
▪ The proper attitude that we should be endeavoring is this: Lord, save me
for Jesus’ sake. I am not worthy of anything, and somehow make my life
useful to you for the advance of your kingdom, even if its costs me
everything.
CONCLUSION:
❖ The matter of self-discipline is a matter of right thinking, a battle on the inside. It is:
1. Remembering who owns you. You are not your own. You were bought with the Pearl
of Great Price!
2. Remembering the covenant you made when you promised to be obedient and
maintaining the integrity of that promise. Keep your part of the covenant!
3. Recognizing sin as a violation of your relationship to the Lord. To sin is to disdain the
Father, Son, Holy Spirit and the gift of Gods redemption!
4. Learning to control your imagination, that part of your mind where lust conceives
and produces sin, and that is controlled by the profound knowledge of the Word of
God and being instantly responsive to a sensitive conscience. Take every thought
captive to the obedience of Christ! (2 Cor. 10:5)
5. Living your life for a noble cause that is far beyond you. Many things no longer
matter: criticism, personal failure, personal reputation, personal comfort. Only one
thing matters – the advancement of the glory of God and the honor of Christ in His
kingdom, and that is all there is to live for!
❖ When all these reasons compel us, then we are motivated for spiritual self-discipline. May
this be more and more evident in our lives, to the glory and honor of Christ our Lord!

PRAYER: Lord, our hearts are encouraged with your truth, so encouraged, because you have
shown us how to order our lives. But at the same time, we are discouraged because knowing
what we know, we seem to fail so often. So help us Lord, to be strong in the inner man; to have
spiritual self-discipline that causes us to win the battle on the inside, and therefore, to be
triumphant on the outside. Give us, Your church, Your people, this discipline. May we all see the
reality of these patterns in our hearts, and when we fail to see them, may we repent and ask
your Spirit to renew us because we want to be disciplined for it honors You, and it makes us
useful and fruitful. And what else is there in this life but that we should bear fruit for eternity?
So help us, Lord, to tie up all the loose ends, to nail down everything that is flapping in the
breeze, to establish our priorities on your Word and maintain them for Your glory until Jesus
comes. In His name we pray. Amen.