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.