Ephesians 4:2 Part 2

We can follow along in your Bible, or you can

follow along on the screen.

It seems like a month since we've been here,

since we were at the other place last week.

Return now, and if you remember, we started

this fourth chapter.

We did two sermons to cover the first verse,

and now we are on our second sermon in the

second verse.

Now, it doesn't always take this long, it's

not always this slow,

but some texts require us to go through each

part,

and each word in a manner in which we can

really soak in this very important passage.

And we're actually looking, if you remember,

in verses 1 to 3,

in the context of one outline that we're

working our way through.

And this whole text comes to us under the

heading of what we've already seen,

walking worthy of the calling with which you

have been called.

So let's start today just by reading all three

verses.

Also, Paul writes, "Therefore, I, the prisoner

of the Lord, implore you,"

remember that's "beg you to walk in a manner

worthy of the calling with which you have been

called."

Okay, what is that? Well, with all humility

and gentleness,

with patience, showing tolerance for one

another in love,

being diligent to preserve the unity of the

Spirit in the bond of peace.

Now, I want you to consider this thought as we

get going.

The Christian life is not so much a matter of

what you do.

In the very first place, before you get to

that, it's a matter of who you are.

And remember, to walk worthy, and specifically

that word "walk" that we see here in our text,

is simply the idea of daily conduct, daily

behavior, daily living, walking in the Spirit,

you remember.

How do you live your life out as a professing

Christian?

And as we have learned, the how to do that, in

particular here in this text, is what we find

some examples of in verses 2 and 3.

And please notice in those two verses that we

just read, Paul never discusses an action that

we do.

Just scan those verses. He never discusses in

those verses 2 and 3 a work.

All he ever discusses in these two verses is

an attitude,

because the worthy walk again in the first

place is not so much a matter of what you do,

I'll say it again, as it is a matter of who

you are.

And what do I mean by that?

Well, there are plenty of people who can do

the deeds of Christianity, we'll call them

outwardly,

and not be the person inwardly.

That's the main hypocrisy that the Bible

speaks of.

It is possible, watch this, for a person to

produce what we could call action fruit.

Outwardly, only outward praise to God, like we

just did, we praised God in here as we sung.

Outward good works, good deeds, outward even

witnessing.

You can have, as a professing Christian, that

kind of outward action fruit,

without actually having the attitude fruit on

the inside.

So what is the attitude fruit?

Well, at the very top of the list is the fruit

of the Spirit.

Show these love, joy, peace, gentleness,

goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

Those are examples of attitude fruit.

Those are at the high bar of attitude fruit,

the fruit of the Holy Spirit coming out in

your life.

Now, if you have action fruit without attitude

fruit, that is called legalism.

You are legalistically doing the outward deeds

without the inward reality.

But if you first have attitude fruit in check,

love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith,

meekness, self-control,

and others, as we're going to see, that then

will produce the right kind of action fruit.

That is genuine spirituality when you have

both things working at the same time.

So let's apply that and those thoughts to

walking worthy of the calling with which you

have been called in this text.

That doesn't start with the action. You see

that? You look at those verses.

The action is going to come later. We're going

to get to the action in this chapter at some

point.

And it all starts with the attitude.

The Christian life works this way. Really,

where it all starts, of course, is with the

Holy Spirit

that invoels the Christian believer. He, and

yes, the Holy Spirit is a he, the Holy Spirit

is a person of the Trinity.

He works through your attitude.

And then, as he works through your attitude

fruit, that produces the right action.

You with me? You getting this?

So what are the attitudes that Paul gives us

under the heading of the worthy walk here in

verses two and three?

What are the attitudes? Well, you remember we

started on the one in the previous two sermons

, humility, right?

That was right out of the gate.

And then gentleness also translated meekness,

patience, showing tolerance for one another

and love being diligent to preserve the unity

of the spirit and the bond of peace.

All of those are attitude fruit.

Now, there are a lot of professing Christians

who don't get this.

For many Christians, walking the Christian

walk, living the Christian life means simply

this.

The actions of going to church, the actions of

putting money in the money in the plate,

reading the Bible even occasionally.

Of course, the good old, I don't cuss, smoke,

drink or chew or go with girls who do, right?

You got that in line.

So for many professing Christians, those kind

of external only outward definitions behavior,

that is Christianity, that in and of itself.

In reality, when the attitude is right, what

those things are simply outward manifestations

of true saving faith on the inside.

When the attitude is right, then you have

attitude fruit.

Again, the biblical issue is not what we do

apart from who we are in Christ.

It's what we are that results in what we do.

And that's why when Paul calls for us to walk

worthy of the calling with which we have been

called, he then immediately in verses two and

three goes straight to these sets of attitudes

.

Now, the first of those attitudes, again, that

we looked at in the first two summits was

found in verse two, humility.

And if you remember, that is a very strong

Greek word there, the emphasis of total

humility, that the word is strong.

It's the complete absence of self.

It is the total absence of selfishness.

And that is the bottom line of Christian

living.

And we talked all about many of the different

ways in which we are tempted to be proud in

those last two messages.

If you didn't hear them, you can go back

online and listen.

I won't cover all that again.

But remember, humility in this text is the

umbrella over all the rest of these attitudes

that we're going to look at.

And one produces another.

Next, look in verse two, we see the word gent

leness.

Now, that word is better translated, meekness,

and it is in some other translations, meekness

.

And you cannot have meekness without humility.

There is no such combination as pride and meek

ness.

Meekness does not go along with pride.

They are mutually exclusive.

Meekness is a byproduct of humility that we've

already looked at.

Where there is humility, there will inevitably

be meekness.

And you can keep going, and we will in this

text.

Where there is meekness, there will be

patience.

That's next on Paul's List.

And where there is patience, there will be

showing tolerance for one another in love.

And where those things occur, there will be

the diligence of preserving the unity of the

spirit and the bond of peace.

So you see, it's a progression that Paul is

giving us in these two verses.

But today, we're only going to focus on meek

ness.

Again, gentleness here in the New American

Standard that I'm preaching out of translation

.

Same Greek word for both.

Gentleness, meekness. Same Greek word.

What is meekness?

Well, the world outside of the Christian faith

doesn't really understand the depth of the

meaning of this word.

The world defines meekness as a deficiency in

courage.

It really overall defines meekness as weakness

.

But the Bible in Galatians 5 defines meekness

as one of the fruits of the spirit.

I just told you that a little minute ago.

For the Christian, meekness is a very valuable

and critical virtue that we all must possess.

But the attitude of meekness, apart from the

energy of the Holy Spirit, is seen by the

world as cowardice, or timidity, or a lack of

strength.

So again, that's very different from the

biblical definition.

And that's what we are most concerned with,

right?

We want the biblical definition.

Because just like you can't walk worthy

without humility, again, you can't walk worthy

without meekness.

So we need to know what meekness is.

Now, in general, the Greek word means

something that is mild and gentle.

That's why the New American Standard uses the

word gentleness in here.

It's the opposite of a person who is a venge

ful person when they are wronged.

It's the opposite of somebody who seeks

revenge, or retaliation, or is vindictive, or

a person who harbors resentment and bitterness

all the time.

Always bitter about things that are happening

to them.

It's the opposite of a vengeful, violent

reaction, too.

One of the shades of the biblical definition,

and there are several shades of this

definition, would be, listen to this one,

a quiet, willing submission to God and to

others without the rebellion and revenge and

retaliation that characterizes the natural man

.

That's one shade of the definition of meekness

.

Now, the secular Greeks used the word to speak

of a person who was friendly or tender-hearted

or mild or gentle as opposed to somebody who

was rough, hard and violent.

But the word in its totality is characteristic

, most of all, more than any human being who

ever lived, of Jesus.

If you look there in 2 Corinthians, 10-1, Paul

says,

"Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness

and gentleness of Christ."

Different word for gentleness there.

Matthew 11-29, Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon

you and learn for me, for I am gentle."

Same Greek word for meek, some translations

say meek and humble in heart.

Jesus is describing himself there.

This term is used 12 times in the New

Testament, and like I said, it's one of the

fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5.

Paul said in 1 Timothy 6-11,

"But flee from these things, you man of God,

and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,

love, perseverance, and gentleness."

That's meekness.

It's also very important for you to understand

and for me to point out that being meek does

not mean that you are a coward,

and that you just lay down and let people walk

all over you.

Because the very next verse in 1 Timothy 6 and

verse 12, what's the first word there?

Fight!

Fight the good fight of faith.

Understand this.

A meek person is anything but a coward.

If you look at that list of the

characteristics of people going into the lake

of fire, number one is coward.

That's the first on the list.

A meek person will fight at the drop of a hat.

Listen carefully for the right cause, for the

right issue.

That's the key.

A meek person does get anger.

Yes, they do.

A meek person gets indignant over the right

issue.

Meekness is, is a mild, quiet, peaceable,

gentle spirit.

Meekness is not vengeful, not retaliating, not

bitter, except when the need arises to be

righteously angry.

Look at James 3 and verse 13.

James asked the question, who among you is

wise and understanding?

Is it the man with the PhD behind his name?

Is it the man who has read all the bright

books?

No, look next for the answer in this verse.

Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in

the gentleness that's meekness of wisdom.

Verse 17, same chapter says, but the wisdom

from above is first pure, then peaceable,

gentle.

That's same word for meek.

Reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, un

wavering, without hypocrisy.

So, so meekness is given to us as a Christian

virtue over and over and over again in the New

Testament.

But to round out the fullest definition, here

is the main ingredient of biblical meekness.

It's the idea that meekness is this strength

under control, power under control.

Now, again, meekness is the byproduct of true

humility.

And a person who has truly come to Christ on

his terms of repentance and faith and

believing the gospel knows all about having a

broken self-will.

If you've come to Christ his way, you have

experienced a brokenness before God.

You can't come to Christ his way, which is the

only way to come without having a true sense

of your spiritual bankruptcy before God.

You have come to him in repentance and faith,

nothing in my hand might bring only to your

cross I clean with that attitude if you've

come to Christ correctly.

So humility and meekness go hand in hand with

that kind of spiritual brokenness.

But when it comes to meekness, John MacArthur

gives an illustration that I found extremely

helpful.

He says this, meekness is not the destruction

of the lion, it is the taming of the lion.

All of the lion's strength is still there.

All of his power is still there.

All of his energy is still there.

But it's all under the control of the master

of the lion tamer with the whip and think

about it.

It's quite a different thing to see a lion, a

wild lion running free in Africa than to see a

lion under the control of the lion tamer at

the circus, isn't it?

That's two very different pictures right there

.

But think about this, the lion in the circus,

he has all the same ferocity and energy and

power and strength.

But all of that is always under the control of

the tamer.

And it's the same with meekness for us.

No longer, once we become a Christian, does

the lion in us seek to be in control of

everything in our life with our own self-will.

You got me?

We don't run free like the wild lion to

accomplish our own ends, however we think is

best.

Because we now are submissive to the control

of our master, King Jesus, and his way for us

to live our life.

It's not losing its power, it's harnessing the

power.

It's like a wild horse, you ever seen wild

horses running just, they're wild and free and

the power that they have is running as fast as

they can, it's just out of control.

But it's only when the power of the horse is

brought under control that it can be used in a

way that has purpose.

And it's the same with us.

When the power that we have is under control,

it's very useful.

In the heart of every believer is a lion.

And that lion has every right to roar.

That lion has every right to react.

That lion has every right to pounce, but not

on those things at its own self-willed

discretion.

Not on those things, but only under the

direction of the one who rules our will, our

King.

So don't think for two seconds that meekness

is indifference, or cowardice, or weakness, or

fearfulness.

It's not.

It's not impotent or cowardly at all.

Jesus was not cowardly, but Jesus was meek.

Do you know, Christian, that you have every

right to get mad.

You have every right to be angry.

Because we're going to see coming up in this

fourth chapter in the 26th verse, it starts

out.

Be angry.

Be angry, but you better watch that comma.

And yet, do not sin.

So be angry, but you can't be sinfully angry.

What we're talking about here is the right

kind of anger.

It's being angry for the right reasons.

You can be angry for the right reason or the

wrong reason.

In one case, it's power under control.

In another case, it's power out of control.

And the Bible knows about both of these two

options.

Look at Proverbs 25 and verse 28.

It says this, like a city that is broken into

and without walls is a man who has no control

over his spirit.

A totally out of control spirit is

consequently vulnerable and falls into every

snare and every pit and every temptation and

every failure and every weakness.

That person has no self control.

That person has no rule over his own spirit.

That anger out of control power out of control

is never a weakness.

But on the other hand, look at Proverbs 16 32.

It says he who is slow to anger is better than

the mighty.

And he who look at this rules his spirit.

And he who captures a city.

So that is a person who rules his own spirit.

The power is there.

The lion is there.

The energy is there.

It's all under control.

It's never out of control.

People with the same power and strength and

energy out of control.

You know what they do?

They create nothing but chaos.

They create nothing but sinfulness with their

anger.

Meet people control those things.

They control the lion within them so that it

only roars and it only pounces when it's

supposed to.

Make this does not make you cease to condemn

evil either.

Again, righteous anger under control because

it's now under the control of God.

Meekness is when we take the lion that is in

us and we submit it to God so that it only

gets angry about that which offends God.

And not me.

The lion, this is the hardest part.

The lion roars in defense of God.

Not in defense of me.

If somebody offends me, that's not a problem.

Go ahead, I mean I expect it.

I mean we're living in a fallen world with a

lot of fallen people.

Vengeance is mine says the Lord I will repay

is the verse I have probably quoted in my

prayers more than any other verse.

I have to say it to myself again and I have to

remind myself about it again and again and

again and again and I probably will to the day

that I die.

That's what we have to keep in mind at all

times.

No retaliation.

No revenge.

Revenge is the Lord's.

He will repay.

No self-seeking when it's against us.

But the lion roars when it's against God.

When God is offended.

That's the idea.

A righteous indignation when God is dishonored

.

Exercise that power rightly and even when we

do it's all under control and it's under the

control of God.

It reacts when it ought to react.

At the right time.

For the right reasons.

For the right length of time.

In the human realm.

Excuse me.

In the human realm.

Examples would be like.

When babies are being murdered.

In the womb.

You can have a righteous indignation in the

human realm.

When children are being manipulated.

Excuse me.

What's happening something flying around up

here.

When children are being manipulated.

And to supposedly choosing to be another

gender.

And to the point of having their bodies mut

ilated.

That's when you can have a righteous anger and

speak out against that evil.

That's when the lion roars and takes a stand

against evil.

When people made in the image of God.

Have that kind of evil thrust upon him.

That's the right time.

Those are right reasons for righteous indign

ation.

And then when it comes to God himself.

An example would be.

When Christ is mocked in the media.

You ever seen that?

When Christ is made fun of in television and

art and film.

You should be angry about that when you see

that.

When somebody speaks of King Jesus in a stupid

way or a flip it way.

You should be angry about that and point that

out.

Jesus was this way.

The same Jesus who I quoted earlier and said.

I am meek and lowly of heart.

The same Jesus who avoided conflicts so very

often during his earthly ministry.

The same Jesus who Peter said when he was rev

iled.

Reviled not again.

The same Jesus was spit on and punched in the

face and had his beard plucked out.

Without retaliating or seeking revenge.

The same Jesus with the quiet and meek spirit

when God the Father was dishonored.

He walked into that temple and himself made a

whip of cords.

And drove people out of the temple and turned

over the tables of the money changers.

Whipping with the whip he ran them all out and

he was yelling at them get out.

You have turned my father's house into a dine

of thieves.

This is to be a house of prayer.

He was righteously angry and he took action.

The same Jesus who is the model and the

standard of meekness.

When he was confronted with the hypocrisy of

the Pharisees that so offended God.

He just blistered them with his words.

White washed sepulchres on the outside but on

the inside you are full of dead men's bones.

He said to them to their face.

And you can read every word of the gospels.

And you will never find Jesus speaking a venge

ful word or a word of condemnation against

anybody.

For something that they had done to him

personally.

He only spoke in reference to how they treated

God.

And he set the ultimate example for us.

We see him with that whip in the temple and he

's cleaning that temple out.

Because the father's house was being defiled.

But when his own temple was defiled his body.

And he was whipped, beaten and nailed to a

cross.

And they were mocking him as he hung there

naked and bleeding.

All that he had to say about those who

participated was Father forgive them.

For they don't know what they're doing.

That's meekness.

That's the supreme ultimate sovereign power

under control.

His total selflessness is what it is.

Jesus never reacted to that which came against

him personally.

He only reacted to that which came against his

father.

Think about what Jesus could have been.

Think about what he could have done when they

were surrounding him and telling him.

He didn't know what he was talking about.

Think about what he could have done that night

in the Garden of Gethsemane when they came to

arrest him.

He even said in Matthew chapter 26 verse 53

"Do you think that I cannot appeal to my

father and he will at once put at my disposal

more than 12 legions of angels."

And when you count what made up for a legion

in the Roman army that's more than 72,000

angels.

He could have called them at once.

And don't forget in the Old Testament one

angel wiped out 185,000 Syrians.

But he didn't do it, did he?

Not in defense of himself personally.

And he knew once they arrested him where he

was heading.

He knew it perfectly.

That's meekness.

Supreme power.

Power we can't conceive of under control.

Because look what he says next in verse 54 of

that chapter.

"How then will the scriptures be fulfilled

which say that it must happen this way?"

This is the will of God.

I'm not calling the angels down.

I have set my face as a flint toward Golgotha.

So meekness will take out a whip and defend

God when he is dishonored.

It will be angry, but meekness will never take

revenge against what happens to itself.

Would you just think for a minute how many of

our movies that we've been watching all our

lives

are all about somebody getting revenge on the

other person in the group?

I mean we have many traditions at my house.

One of them is every Thanksgiving for many

years on AMC, the Godfather Marathon.

And we watch it every year.

What's the main theme of the Godfather movies?

It's the revenge, you know, Sonny.

Hit us, we got to hit them back, remember?

So that's ingrained in our culture.

And that's because getting revenge when we are

wronged, guess what?

That's what comes most natural to all of us.

It's ingrained in the culture here in America

that when we are wronged in any way,

be it slight or heavy, man, we got to strike

back.

That's in the small things and in the big

things.

Conversations at work.

How about the politics of the office at work?

Every office got office politics.

If you don't think they do, you're not paying

attention, you know?

So-and-so made this stuff up about me and now

I'm not getting that promotion.

Watch what's fixing to happen next.

I'll get him, right?

Now, as usual, I'm not saying this is easy,

folks.

But if we are displaying true meekness, the

lion only roars when God is the offended party

.

Let me close today with a few questions to get

you thinking more deeply about this in a

practical way.

How do you know if you're meek?

Well, you can start by asking yourself, do you

ever exercise self-control?

Is your anger and power under control ever?

Is your anger and power and energy always

under control?

Do you rule your spirit, as we saw in the Pro

verbs earlier?

Or do you find yourself always flying off the

handle at other people when they wrong you or

say something sideways that you don't like?

I show them, right?

You can't do that to me.

What does that dude think he hits?

Those kinds of responses.

Now, let me tell you something.

Sometimes I win at this.

Sometimes I lose.

Big time.

Big time loser, okay?

Alright?

And we got to be honest, right?

And so we don't float no silly superficial,

you know, whenever I'm floating on top of a

hair right around in here like some kind of

saint.

Be honest, you know?

There's no point in not being honest about

your weaknesses and your frailty.

Paul is addressing the issue of lawsuits

between believers.

Have you ever seen this in 1 Corinthians 6 in

verse 7?

Look what he says.

Actually, then it's already a defeat for you

that you have lawsuits with one another.

Look at this.

Why not rather be wronged?

Why not rather be defrauded?

You know what he's saying?

Take the wrong done against you.

Take it.

Man, it's tough, right?

Take the wrong.

Sometimes I can do this.

Other times, especially depending on the issue

, I'm in the front seat of the struggle bus.

For real.

You know?

Take the wrong.

That's just not what naturally comes to us.

That's what Paul's talking about here.

Here's another question.

Do you get angry when God is dishonored?

Hmm?

You can ask my kids and my wife, my grandkids

and my kids, and they say, "Oh, my God."

I say, "Whoa, don't use his name like that."

Say, "Oh, my goodness."

Don't say, "Oh, it seems trite, but it's not."

You don't use his name that way in any way

that's out of line.

The things that people do to dishonor God make

for a long list, along with what we've already

mentioned.

How about false doctrine, dishonors God?

How about false teachers dishonor God,

especially the ones that make lots of money

doing it?

And that one really gets me riled up.

I mean, cut me loose in there and let me

preach.

I don't want to name it and claim it deals.

It should make you angry when you see men flee

cing people in the name of Jesus for their

money.

How about any harm done to children or the

elderly who are defenseless image bearers of

God?

Do you think that brings up God's wrath from

him?

It should for us.

I mean, the things that we can be righteously

angry about are wrong.

It's a long list.

Here's another one.

Do you respond to the word of God humbly, no

matter what it says?

Like what I just read to you about, "Take the

wrong."

How do you respond to that, right?

How's another one?

How do you always make peace in contentious

situations in the family, in the workplace?

Meek people always make peace.

That's the exhortation here in verse three.

Look at it.

This is what we're heading to.

This is the conclusion of the progression of

these attitudes.

Being diligent to preserve the unity of the

spirit in the bond of peace.

Or do you just keep fighting about whatever it

is, whatever problem somebody gave you?

How about when somebody falls and fails?

Do you gossip and talk about them?

Or do you follow Galatians chapter six in

verse number one?

Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any

trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a

one in a spirit of gentleness.

That's meekness.

Each one looking to yourself so that you too

will not be tempted.

Are you a peacemaker?

Or do you constantly fight and argue with

other people?

Instead of ending the fight and finishing the

argument in a way that makes for peace.

These are all introspective questions.

How about this one?

Do you receive criticism without retaliation,

whether it's right or wrong?

That's a tough one.

You're trying to help somebody and you really

are in power.

How about our attitude towards the lost?

Peter says we are to give an answer to every

man that asks us the reason for the hope that

is within us with meekness and fear.

I heard one preacher say, I can't remember his

name.

We looked at him on Wednesday night one time.

The blue haired, snout rose, nose ring left

this are not our enemies.

They are the mission people.

Now, you can call them out for the evil that

they do absolutely you can with righteous ind

ignation.

But you also should preach the gospel to them

at the same time while you call that out.

What's our attitude toward them?

There before the grace of God go I that weren

't for God's grace.

That's the first reaction of a meek person.

Martin Lloyd Jones said to be meek means you

have finished with yourself altogether.

That's tough.

It's really quite contrary to how the regular,

especially American person lives.

Quite contrary, this biblical meekness.

To think of yourself as not really important

at all is what this is calling for.

That's a trait of true biblical meekness.

The worst thing people can say about me is

probably true.

That's the attitude.

Believe me, nobody here today is more

convicted by these questions that I have asked

than I am.

But when we come to the Word of God church in

the area of Christian living,

we're in right now what Paul is giving to us

right here is the gold standard of Christian

living.

The attitudes, the behaviors.

So if you are a Christian and you are

convicted by what the Word of God in this area

is saying to you,

then what do you do Christian?

If you say to yourself, "I'm failing in this

area," you ask God to forgive you.

You look to Christ.

You preach the gospel to yourself.

You remember whose righteousness it is that

makes you right with God.

You get back up on the horse and you ride to

the glory of God striving to live to that gold

standard.

That's why these verses are in here.

Really striving for the gold standard is how

we spiritually grow.

You can't grow any other way.

And we need regular, consistent reminders,

right?

That's why verse by verse preaching that makes

the text of Scripture the subject matter of

the sermon

rather than a topic is what's best for us

because we don't skip these hard things.

The Christian life is easy said nobody ever

who truly lives it.

Lastly, consider our primary example.

The one who made the world.

The one who spoke literally billions of

galaxies into existence with the Word of his

power.

The one who the Bible says has named every one

of those billions and trillions of stars

who keeps planets and even galaxies spinning

in a perfect orbit.

The one who has encoded every human being in

human history with a different complex code of

DNA

and no two fingerprints or ever the same said,

"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I

am meek."

And humble in heart.

Jesus gave us the highest example in all of

the Bible and the way that he lived his life.

So, we have seen now starting in verse 2,

humility, true humility.

And that true biblical humility leads to true

biblical meekness.

And meekness leads to what we will study next

time but you have to come back to hear it.

That's correct.

By the way, thank you.

It's a hard word this morning for us.

We can pretend like we do pretty good in this

area but when we really think about it,

we know what a struggle it is for us.

Our flesh fights against our spirit.

And our spirit wars with our flesh so that we

may not do the things that we wish in our

inner redeemed spirits.

That's what Paul teaches us.

Struggle is real.

The struggle is necessary.

And it is ordained by you to conform us to the

image of Christ.

That is what Romans 8 is telling us.

You are predestined to be conformed to the

image of Christ.

And that's hard work for sinners like us.

So Lord, on the one hand we see that salvation

is monogistic, it's all of grace, it's all of

your sovereign grace, no amount of works put

in it.

But the works, the meekness, the attitude

fruit is the byproduct of one who has been

saved.

Help us to hold both of those realities in our

hands at the same time that we might live in

such a way as to bring you glory.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.