The Discipline of Grace

Good morning everyone, it's a great joy to be here once again with you and certainly really enjoyed our

Bible study hour this morning, being able to reflect on what God's doing around the world. And we're just a very small part, we don't claim to have a monopoly on missions, we're very thankful that God has allowed us to be a very, very tiny part in this global enterprise that we call the gospel going around the world.

So thank you for inviting us, Brother David, I appreciate it. And we continue to pray for your wife,

I know she's really battling some things physically, so be assured of our prayers, brother.

Well this morning if you would, your pastor has asked me if I would share a message that apparently he had looked up on YouTube and he must be pretty hard up to find a message from me, you know, and asked me to share it.

But anyway, I'm going to try to minister out of my weakness this morning, if you would take your Bibles and turn with me to Titus chapter 2.

Titus chapter 2. This morning if you would, follow with me as I begin reading in verse number 11, just a few verses of scripture here under the title of the

Discipline of Grace. For the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age.

Looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify himself his own special people, zealous for good works.

Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, let no one despise you.

Would you join me once again for a word of prayer? Father it is true that we can do nothing greater than pray until we've prayed, and we can do nothing greater than pray after we've prayed.

We aspire Lord to being like the psalmist, I am his prayer. Certainly this is the great call, the great need of the hour.

Pray Father that you might make us our very life epistles of prayer. Father please help us.

If prayer is the language of the impoverished, then we only know a fraction of our impoverishment.

We come asking you Lord to increase the depth of need that we might cast ourself upon you, that the excellency, the power may be of you and not of us.

Glorify your name, help us to understand the implications of this vast concept of grace.

We commit this service to you now, teach us I pray oh Father, by your spirit in Jesus name, amen.

Well as I normally do and have done in recent days in conferences and events,

I will kind of give you a heads up as to what we'll look at in these next few moments so you'll be able to recognize it as we begin to unpack these truths during the course of the message.

One of my purposes for this particular message is to refute the idea that godliness is the result of a believer's self -effort.

You see I want us to see how the best motivator for a life that is lived for the praise of its glory is grace and grace alone.

Now other purposes that I will include during the course of this message this morning will define the nature of that grace that disciplines toward godliness, seeing how it teaches us to deny it and also worldly lust.

So lastly in conclusion something else you may be looking for during the course of the message is how it disciplines us to live holy in what

I call a spiritually toxic world. So this morning consider a few thoughts with me in the way of introduction.

Grace is a beautiful thing. It is an attractive thing.

It has been defined as that desire that god gives us both the will and the do of his good pleasure.

So it's strange the practical outworkings of regeneration which to me is the greatest sign and wonder that god performs in this generation but it's not the only sign and wonder and that's an entirely different message.

But god by his regenerating work gives us the capacity to live in the realm of grace and therefore because of the propensity that this grace provides for us we desire to will and to do of what pleases him.

Believers are saved by grace. They are sanctified by grace and they are filled with the spirit by grace.

You listen to that and yet you find that much of our sanctification and much of this matter of being filled with the holy spirit we in our heart of hearts feel as if it is conditioned upon our performance.

Example, just in passing, you remember years ago they used to illustrate being filled with the holy spirit with a glass that was half full and perhaps it was polluted and so in order to prepare your heart to be filled with the holy spirit you needed to empty the glass.

You needed to rid your life of anything that had a nature of pollution so you could prepare yourself to be filled with the holy spirit.

Friend, you cannot prepare yourself to be filled with the holy spirit without the fullness of the holy spirit.

The fullness of the holy spirit is not conditioned upon your performance. On you emptying yourself, of you mortifying things in your life to provide for god an apt candidate to be controlled by the holy spirit.

I need the filling of the holy spirit to see things in my life that are displeasing to him.

So please don't misunderstand this morning. The fullness of the spirit is not conditioned upon your emptying or your performance.

You must be filled with the holy spirit to recognize things in your life that are impediments to your walk with god.

We are filled by grace. Most believers know only a performance driven christian life.

They have preferred a path, that path for spiritual growth. And because of an ignorance of grace, brothers and sisters, not a few have chosen a performance based christian life.

Now listen carefully. Much of my own christian life has been the result of a low view of god that gave me a nagging sense that I never measured up.

No matter how well I would perform in my relationship to Cindy, my vertical relationship before the lord,

I always felt like I lacked. There was something still, a looming deficiency.

And yet god accepts me because he's accepted me in the beloved.

And therefore, out of that acceptance, that approval, because I have been made the righteousness of god in jesus christ, that's why

I do righteousness. You don't do righteousness, you don't obey as a christian to become more righteous.

You do righteousness because you have already been made the righteousness of god in christ jesus.

That's grace. That's grace. That's not dependent upon the arm of the flesh.

And so understand, this is what is commonly referred to as a performance treadmill, which consists of a lot of activity and very little, if any, practice or performance or significant outcome.

I live with oppressive sense, to be quite frank with you, this oppressive sense that I had to measure up to a standard of perfection to meet god's approval.

Consequently, every attempt to please him fell far short of the grace of god in my life.

Now listen to this. One of the greatest gifts is a grace that teaches us to be godly.

A grace that teaches you to be godly. And that's exactly what Titus sets forth in this epistle.

You'll notice once again, for the grace of god, verses 11 and 12, that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

But it teaches us, the people of god, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age.

Now did you catch that? Don't miss it. Grace teaches a believer to be godly in this present age.

It is a grace principle that is permanently resident in our lives, that affords us the assurance of godliness, whether we exercise, listen now, exercise ourselves for godliness or not.

So listen, you can neglect this discipline. As Paul told

Timothy, discipline yourself unto godliness. You can neglect that and still experience, still be the beneficiary of the grace is teaching ability.

It is a grace principle that permanently resides in our lives that affords us this assurance of godliness.

So, the grace of god, brothers and sisters, instills within us a divine nature by which we are enabled to escape the corruption of the world's lust.

That's conversion. Oswald Chambers made the statement that the great miracle of conversion is not the changes that other people see in you, but the changes that you witness in yourself.

Once again, that's grace at work, changing, altering, replacing, mortifying sin in our life, even apart from our disciplining ourself unto godliness.

So understand, this is where we're going. This is what you'll look for in the message, the most significant, the most succinct things.

First of all, I want you to consider with me that phrase, disciplined by grace.

Secondly, and I'm not good at alliteration, you know, trying to come up with the same letter to begin every point, but sometimes it just naturally comes out of the text.

So perhaps this may encourage us to remember what we'll look at this morning. I want you to see, secondly, the denial of grace, the denial of grace, and then thirdly, the directive of grace.

Consider with me, first of all, what we're going to call this discipline of grace in verse number 12.

The grace of God, it teaches us. Now this is an expression, brethren, that is not to be taken lightly.

I've used this in my first point, and when I set it forth, it seems to almost communicate a contradiction.

How can discipline and grace be used in the same phrase?

How could these words appear together? The word grace implies a freedom from rules, while the word discipline suggests restraint and perhaps even legalism.

How can these two words coexist in the same concept? Well, a proper understanding of these terms is their biblical context will show that they are not in opposition to one another, but they complement each other.

Let me explain. You may wonder at this very moment where I found the word discipline in the text.

It is found in the phrase, the grace of God teaching us.

Now you see the word here, brothers and sisters, teaching, and you find that it entails far more than simply communicating knowledge.

It speaks more of an intuitive, listen now, an inherent conviction or a spiritual dynamic that enables us to discern good and evil.

Jerry Bridges, in my opinion, his greatest book was called the discipline of grace.

Of all the books, the pursuit of holiness, the practice of godliness, trust in God, transforming grace, respectable sins, and even more.

If you look at all of his writings, in my opinion, after reading them, I've concluded that that was probably the greatest book because it brought it all together.

The discipline of grace. Listen to what he said. The very same grace that brings salvation also trains us to live lives that are pleasing to God.

All of God's disciplinary processes are grounded in his grace.

We tend to equate discipline with rules and performance. But God equates it with firm but loving care for our souls.

This is the driving force of my Christian life. This is the impetus.

It is the love of God that grace embodies. God is for you.

God is the one that enables us. And what makes life, it gives life an incentive, is the grace of God that he has fixed upon our lives through the redemptive work of Christ.

Listen to this. The grace of God that brings salvation also trains or disciplines

God's children. It begins to discipline God's people at the moment of regeneration.

Although, now listen, the discipline required for godliness in 1

Timothy 4 verse 7 can be neglected by a believer, the principle is effectual.

It's ongoing. It continues to be working in our life on our behalf.

Listen, why is that? Because while there may be an absence of self -discipline, there is never an absence of the grace that disciplines.

You're not disciplining yourself, but you should be. And it works to your advantage when you do.

When I talk about discipline, I'm talking about secret prayer, systematic

Bible reading, the mortification of sin, the watching over your own heart, your own soul, the worship of your

God. These are spiritual disciplines that God requires us to discipline ourselves under godliness through.

But even when that's not occurring, friend, grace is still at work. Now, before I move on, there is something of vital importance that needs to be mentioned.

There are some in our day who, for some reason, seem to divorce salvation from sanctification.

Salvation, once again, from discipline. Discipline. They believe that grace has the power to save them, but not to disciple them.

Not to train them. This is becoming one of the greatest heresies in our hour in which we live, producing false converts by the thousands.

There was a large conference that was held at a church in Florida.

One of the speakers got up and talked about how he had been mentoring a

Christian friend for over 30 years. This man had an alcohol problem.

As a matter of fact, so much so, he was consistently drunk.

The conference speaker concluded his story talking about this man and his struggle by saying that although he died in a state of drunkenness, that he was convinced that one day he would see him in heaven.

I hope you don't believe that. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Be not deceived, neither drunkards shall inherit the kingdom of God.

So what are we to think of such a disturbing story? Did this man really go to heaven?

Was he truly a partaker of a saving grace that teaches to deny ungodliness and worldly lust?

Once again, if I could cite our good brother Jerry Bridges, listen to what he has on this subject.

The grace that brings salvation to us also disciplines us. It does not do the one without the other.

Now track with me. Listen to what he says. That is, God never saves people and leaves them alone to continue in their spiritual immaturity and sinful lifestyle.

Those whom he saves, he disciplines. The inseparability of God's grace and spiritual discipline is a sobering truth.

When God saves a man or a woman, friend, their lives change. There's a supernatural distinction.

But yet many people today will say, yes, grace of God justifies, but it doesn't always keep as far as personal walk with God is concerned.

Therefore, a person can practice sin and conform to the world and hold bitterness toward a man all of his life and still engage in online gambling and maintain a status for God of acceptance and go to heaven one day.

Do not believe it. Listen to me. God does a better job of saving people than that.

That's not censoring people. From my own heart, friend, the

Word of God is our lens. That's what thus saith this picture. This is the grace of our

God. We're not perfect. Listen, we're not perfect, but we persevere.

Does Don Kern struggle? Absolutely. Are there times

I'm at odds with Cindy? Absolutely. Is there a need for repentance? You better believe it.

Are there things that seemingly daily I'm battling with, struggling with that we might call besetting sins?

Yes. But I can't stay in a state of sinfulness and rebellion. God is a loving

Father, administers His care to me and drawing me back into His loving arms through the precious work of repentance.

It's true what one Puritan said, I will regret the day that Sister Repentance and I have parted company, speaking of the day of His death.

They love repentance. They love to repent. They believe that they were born to repent. This is what the grace of God does for us.

It is a discipline of grace. Secondly, this morning, consider with me the denial of grace.

That's what the text says. Look at verse number 12, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts.

This grace is training us to do something, to deny these things.

They're in opposition to our God. Now think with me for a moment. The biblical concept of the grace that teaches us has both a negative and a positive connotation.

On the one hand, it is a teaching, it is teaching us to deny ungodliness and lust.

But on the other hand, it is teaching us to live a holy life. The word denying here means to listen, to reject, refuse, or turn away from.

You see, divine grace enables a true believer to abhor that which is ungodly.

A true believer cannot freely indulge in sin. While he can sin, he cannot sin freely and habitually.

Why? Because if he is saved, grace is still exerting a sanctifying influence on him.

When we first moved to Muscle Shoals, Mother Paul and I met early one

Sunday morning. We went to a fast food restaurant. We walked up to the counter there and the girl behind the counter came to take our order.

And she put a tray down on the counter. And there was an advertisement of a female dance team that was very scantily clad, very immodestly dressed, doing some type of dance routine in the picture.

I see this at a glance. And I say at a glance because Paul immediately reached over, picked that thing up and turned it face down.

That's the grace of God, friend. It's teaching us to look away. It's teaching us to put off and to put on.

This is something that once again we must feel the weight of. Understand, the desire to pursue godliness is found in grace power to enable the true believer to shun evil.

But what enhances its influence in our life, this evil is to live not for righteousness, but to put on things that make provision for the flesh.

Now, let me illustrate once again. Grace may not be as evident to help us if we're not consistently applying spiritual disciplines.

Now, I've already alluded to this. Don't miss it. If you're not disciplining yourself under godliness, if you're not undertaking those disciplines to confess your sin, to repent, to worship, to behold

Jesus Christ in the scripture that you might be made into that same image. Listen, friend, you find yourself heightening the potential of being tempted and being drawn away of your own lust.

Whatever you want to call that. But if you feed this principle of grace more and more through discipline, what it does is it strengthens you with might by the spirit in the inner man.

And you're able to throw off, to cast off, to spurn those things that tend to bring your soul down.

We must not neglect grace, this sanctifying grace. For example, spiritual watchfulness is needed to enhance grace's influence in disciplining us.

Have you ever thought about this? Jesus commanded His disciples to do many things, but He only asked them to do one thing.

Will thou not watch with me one hour? Do we know anything of the dimension, the practice of watching against temptation?

If a believer deliberately makes himself more conscientious of his carnal tendency to yield to temptation by the discipline of watchfulness, he will be more consciously aware of grace's presence and enabling power to overcome sin.

You see, to be watchful, friend, is to guard against those circumstances that will to sin, that provide the will to sin.

Track with me now. When spiritual disciplines are applied, they enable the believer to quickly and more readily overcome temptation.

It is a good thing, brethren, as a Christian to enjoy grace's training dynamic when faced with evil.

But it is far better when a believer disciplines himself. What happens?

Well, if I can sound piperish for a moment, we begin to incur future grace.

God comes and there are greater supplies of grace because we've acted upon those that God has entrusted us with in the past.

And we've cultivated them accordingly by using them for godliness.

We should remember, brethren, that saving grace is supernatural in its ability to teach us to deny ungodliness.

This may sound repetitive to you, friend, but I'm all for repetition.

It helps me remember as I preach this to myself, I preach it to you.

I'm hitting it from different angles, but I don't want you to forget. This is monumental.

It is life changing. We need discipline to enhance the awareness of that grace that enables us to endure temptation and ungodliness.

But third of this morning, consider something else with me. And that is the directive of grace.

Once again, you see this in our text as well. Verse number 12, we should live soberly.

Notice the divine directive that we should live soberly. Grace teaches us not only to deny, but it directs us to live soberly, righteously, and godly.

Now, the third aspect of the grace that disciplines is what it leads to.

It's beautiful. Once again, you will notice here that this saving grace has a twofold effect in teaching.

It has a negative and a positive impact as it teaches to deny evil and to live in a godly manner.

Now, think about this. When you and I cultivate greater awarenesses of grace's teaching dynamic for godliness, we not only turn away more easily from evil, but at the same time, we incline ourself toward godly,

Christ -like living. It's an amazing thing for you. I find myself in my own religious desire striving less.

But being enabled more to walk with God.

This is important. You see, when you and I will cultivate greater awareness by disciplining ourself under godliness,

He says that our lives will be characterized by sobriety, righteousness, and godliness.

These virtues, brothers and sisters, comprise a regime of discipline.

So think about it for a moment. What do these three words mean? What are they? They're depregnated with reality.

What do they mean for you and I? Well, first of all, the word sobriety means to be self -controlled.

So I begin to guard over my life. I learn increasingly the beauty and the liberality of bringing my thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

It pictures a man under the influence of grace who keeps his fleshly appetites in check.

Whatever those fleshly appetites might consist of. He knows the grace -giving principle of self -restraint.

One of the benefits I have in traveling is I'm around these men and women that are very, very godly.

I was in Italy in the Milan, Italy area. And there's a fine missionary there that heart pride does not support.

But we were in his home, my wife and I. And during the course of our conversation one day,

I mentioned a certain man in a negative light. And I was outright critical of him.

My friend, loving me and caring for my soul and being very sensitive to the

Lord, said, well, brother, can we pray for him? He didn't ate and abet my criticism.

He didn't even give me time to listen to what I was saying. He simply said, can we pray for him?

I got the message. God rebuked me. We prayed.

Later on, I talked to him about it. He said, brother, Don, he used to have a real propensity toward criticizing people.

And I made this a priority. And God began to work in my heart. And out of that came a conviction.

Well, it wasn't but a few days later when I brought up somebody else's name in conversation in a very negative light.

And once again, I made a critical remark. He said, brother, if you prayed about it, no, can we pray for him?

Thank you, brother. As simple as that is, as elementary as that illustration was, it had a monumental implication in working in my heart and birthing a conviction in me.

And that's exactly even when you don't have a human agent to keep you accountable, friend. That's what this truth will do for you.

When you recognize the teaching influence of grace in your life. The second word you'll find that it leads us to characterizes a life governed by the discipline of grace is the word righteously.

It is defined as justly or full of integrity and conveys the idea, brothers and sisters, of dealing with others in an honest way.

There is no inconsistency. I might add this word. There is no duplicity.

The word means hypocrisy. In other words, not only do what

I say, but also the way I live. It has great consistency. So there is no inconsistency between saving grace and preferring others above yourself.

You see, dishonesty here is a contradiction to a professing

Christian. And so here's the grace of God leading, directing, guiding us once again in a lifestyle of righteousness.

In recent days, I'm doing a series of messages preparing right now that I'm preparing to do in Denmark.

And it's on the kingdom of God. That's my assignment. It's interesting.

The Lord Jesus said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. To seek the reign of God in the heart of man is characterized once God comes and plants his kingdom within the heart.

It's characterized by righteousness. And if you are disciplining yourself once again, following the directive ministry of the holy grace of God, God is going to produce within you a lifestyle, a character that is characterized by righteousness.

Then thirdly, thank you, brother David. I appreciate that. Look at another word if you would.

And that is the word godly. Then the word godly mentioned next portrays this grace dynamic.

And don't miss this, brethren. The term speaks of a relationship with God. It denotes something vertical.

It entails a comprehensive display of holiness as the believers perspective of life, speech, and behavior increasingly take on the very character of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's what you must not miss. The positive effect of the discipline of grace points a real

Christian to Christ likeness. This is what one should expect in the life of a true believer who is governed by grace and orients himself toward godliness.

So what's your point this morning, brother Don? Well, let me conclude with this.

This is the one single thing above these other things that I have ministered,

I've exposited this morning that I pray takes precedence. The foundation of life, a life that is not wasted consists of a work of saving grace and instills within the heart of every

Christian a principle of self -denying discipline. This principle is comprised of a dynamic conviction, a conviction that leads a believer to deny sin and delight in godliness.

Now listen, while this dynamic is very powerful in its capacity to enable a child of God to turn away from evil and live holy, it needs a collaboration of discipline.

Such disciplines, once again, that I mentioned a little while ago are so vital, friend, in making us more sensitive and complementing this work of divine dynamic that God calls grace.

So, two things in the way of implication. Grace teaches you and I to say no.

No. I had a friend of mine ask me to speak at his conference. He said, I want you to speak on sexual lust to the men, to the pastors, to the laymen.

And I've entitled the message, just say no. Well, that sounds good, but oftentimes it falls short of being affectionate because what he meant and what

God teaches from a vantage point of grace are two entirely different things.

A man can say no in his own strength and all it will do is intensify the lust.

But if a man says no from a vantage point of understanding the beauty of grace, the

Spirit of God can take that and work in such a mighty way as to make that a powerful impetus for him to overcome sexual lust.

Consider this with me. As servants of Christ, we can ill afford for our view of sin to be limited to a few unrighteous sins.

Can you believe this? Some men and some women, they have just a small understanding of what they would judge as sins in their life.

So there are two or three or maybe at the most four things as long as I don't violate those things,

I'm not in sin. Therefore, my life is pure and it's pleasing to God.

Well, someone made this statement. If one's view of sin were only shallow enough, sinless perfection would not be an impossible attainment.

So if you've got this small view of sin, brethren, and you never violate, but yet you never consider that they're not only sins of omission and commission, but sins of disposition, then you say, man,

I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm not ever grieving God. As missionaries for God, we often don't treasure grace as we should because we have a small idea of our own sins.

Our view of ungodliness is often limited to that which is immoral, dishonest, or corrupt.

But our perspective of sin, watch this, our perspective of sin needs to be broadened.

We need to have an expanded comprehension of our own acts of disobedience. And perhaps we need to begin with such self -righteous sins as professional jealousy, selfish ambition, spiritual pride, and sectarianism.

I have friends of mine that just gravitate to the apologetic arena. They love to see these reformed intellectuals spar with atheists and agnostics.

And they gloat over the fact how they bested their opponents. I got to a point

I couldn't watch it anymore. I couldn't stomach it. Because while they would best them as far as knowledge was concerned, they did not best them with humility and love.

And as our brother mentioned this morning, that's the determining factor. Jesus did not say, herein shall all men know that you are

My disciples if you're doctrinally sound, but rather that you have love one toward another.

So consider this with me in closing this morning. How can we say no to those ungodly sins in our lives when we are not consciously aware of them?

You see friend, the ability to say no is reserved for those who do not underestimate the deceitfulness of their own heart.

But are willing to stand on the abyss of their own heart and deplore the wickedness of the respectable sins that they've grown accustomed to.

Once again, one more final thought, a very brief statement from Jerry Bridges. What does it mean to say no to ungodliness and worldliness when grace helps you to see it?

Bridges says it means a decisive break with those attitudes and practices.

Here's what I'm convinced of. We can walk in victory. We don't like the term sinless perfection.

Sinless perfection implies that the very source of sin has been eradicated.

It will never be on this side eternity. But in a real sense, it's possible to walk over the power of sin.

For what does the Bible say? Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh, right?

How can I ever fulfill the propensities, the desires of my flesh if I'm walking under the governing influence of the

Holy Spirit? One more thing.

The grace that we've looked at, not only teaches us to say no, but it teaches us to say yes.

You say, well, what do you mean by that? Here's the implication. There is a beautiful balance in grace.

Often in the Scripture, you will find that a negative and a positive admonition are given.

And in this text that we're looking at, Paul offsets the negative command of denying ungodliness and worldly lust with the positive command to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil age.

Think about it. When grace is disciplining us, we experience self -restraint, honesty, and godliness.

These virtues, this and don't miss it, represent three distinct relationships.

The relationship to ourself, the relationship to others, and our vertical relationship with God Himself.

The discipline of grace, brethren, what I'm saying is not compartmentalized.

You can't say I'm walking with God, and yet you're out of sorts with others. You can't do it.

You can't say I'm walking with God, but yet I've got this little fox, this little darling sin that I'm nurturing in my life.

It's impossible. This grace is all -encompassing. In other words, we do not experience the capacity to live godly in our relationship with God and it not have a bearing on our relationship to others.

All three of these things are effective simultaneously. So don't miss it.

The discipline of grace should never be looked upon as oppressive or legalistic. This is not an encumbering thing.

It's a joy. Listen, we need to preach Calvary to ourselves.

And I don't care where you are spiritually today. Perhaps there's some guilt. Perhaps you're laden with some sorrow that is of this world.

Perhaps you just for some reason can't believe God, that God has cleansed thoroughly not only from sin, but sin's hangover guilt.

But listen, friend, remember that Calvary makes it a short way back. You don't have to beat yourself up and you don't have to listen to the allegations of the devil.

You come before God as an honest believer. Lord, I fail. And grace that quick restores.

Listen, without their presence, without these things in our life, these principles of discipline and the grace of God accompanying them, without their presence in our lives, we would literally self -destruct.

But you're not only saved by grace, you are sustained by it.

Let's pray together. Father, when we think about the powerful outworking of Your grace in our hearts,

I find from my own experience and more importantly from Your Word that the greatest source of enablement is beholding

Christ. But we all with open face beholding

Him as in a glass are changed into that same character, that same image from one degree of glory, even as by the

Lord the Spirit. Father, teach us to discipline ourself, particularly in this area of searching the

Scriptures, going on a treasure hunt to behold the

Son of God. And increasingly conform us to Your Son's image.

Teach us, O God, to love grace and to operate in our lives as believers, whether we're walking in progressive sanctification or this beautiful matter of being filled with the

Holy Spirit by grace. In Jesus' name,

Amen. Let me say this before Pastor comes. At times

I'm asked to do men's conferences and one of the practical things,

I'll leave them in, I said if you really want to become more like Christ and I can guarantee you that within a month your wife will see the difference, your children will see the difference, the people in your inner sphere of influence will notice the difference.

Take your Bible each day and go on a treasure hunt.

Begin in the Gospel of Matthew. In every reference, every snippet of truth that speaks of Christ, write down that phrase or that verse or verses.

Write down His character. Write down His worldview.

Write down the counsel that He gives others. Write it down, meditate upon it and take it with you during the course of the day.

Friend, there's a spiritual phenomenon that occurs. The Spirit of God will take that meditation as Christ is captured in your mind's eye and He will conform you to the character, the likeness of Jesus Christ.

And that's not just for the men, that's for the women as well. So we read our

Bible systematically. Praise God, I applaud that. We engage in secret prayer.

But there's something about the art of meditation, contemplating the person and the character of the

Son of God in Scripture. Watch the Spirit of God go to work in conforming you into that same image.

And that's grace. Thank you,