Greetings Redeemer family,

This week we come to the end of our series in the book of Proverbs with a look at the important spiritual fruit of self-control. At first, this may seem like a strange way to end a series, with such a specific emphasis. Yet it is also essential that a study on self-control would come at the end of our study.

Studying wisdom and self-control in particular has a tendency to be reduced to outward forms of obedience, as though it is up to us to make evident proof of our salvation. It’s dominated by an unspoken expectation that, if you’re really a Christian, your life will look a certain way.

It starts with the best of intentions. God presents us with high virtues and we try our best to apply them to our everyday life. The Bible says to do this with our money, time, relationships; and so we attempt to do those things. As circumstances shift and failures add up, we look for simple steps to make these virtues more manageable and accessible. Books like Proverbs turn into a cheat-sheet of sorts: an assembly of pithy tips to make the system work better. The Christian life eventually gets defined as the disciplines one must master, rules one follow, and sacrifices one leave behind. The task of applying Biblical wisdom becomes an exercise in willful self-control.

And so we work. And work. And work.

And it’s exhausting.

I love these words from our opening song this week, “Come Ye Sinners”:

Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.

Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.

The point of wisdom is not to self-improvement. That would be no good news at all, because eventually our attempts to make ourselves better will end in futility. True wisdom is found when we stop looking to perfect ourselves and look to the One who is perfect. He offers His righteousness to cover our disgrace.

I will arise and go to Jesus,
He will embrace me in His arms;
In the arms of my dear Savior,
O there are ten thousand charms.

Our Call to Worship this week is taken from Colossians 1, and develops this theme of looking to the perfections of Christ. It is His Name and His glorious kingdom that we gather to proclaim.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the
dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present
everyone perfect in Christ.

The majority of our songs this week focus on the rule and reign of Christ as King. “Jesus Shall Reign” expresses the supremacy of Christ, written by Isaac Watts based off of Psalm 72.

Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.

Blessings abound wherever He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blessed.

Let every creature rise and bring
Peculiar honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud amen!

This focus on Christ as King is appropriate as self-control can be understood as submitting to Christ as the ruler of all things, including our daily actions. The last verse of “In Christ Alone” points to this, as our lives are lived in response to His solid promises made secure by His work on the cross.

No guilt in life no fear in death
This is the pow’r of Christ in me
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No pow’r of hell no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
‘Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand

The song that follows the sermon may be a surprise to many. “Joy to the World” is usually associated with the Christmas season, but the implications of the text go far beyond just celebrating Christ’s birth. This is another psalm adaptation by Isaac Watts, this time written from Psalm 98. The text is all about the joyful response of the people of God to the coming of Christ’s Kingdom. It began with His incarnation, and it continues in the world today. The third verse has particular relevance to our focus this week on self-control:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

Here is the beautiful key to self-control: our self-control against sins and sorrows of this world is all about embracing His promise. He promises nothing less than the blessings of His Kingdom, which will overwhelm every place that the curse of the fall has marred. Every broken thing will be made whole. To borrow a line from JRR Tolkien, every sad thing will become untrue.

Joy to the world: the Lord is come!

Tim Sharpe