Strengthening the Inner Man

Transcript

GR 148
9/07/1975
Strengthening the Inner Man
Ephesians 3:14-21
Gil Rugh

Ephesians Chapter 3 in your bibles. Those of you who have been with us in our study on Sunday morning are aware that in Chapter 3 verse 1 Paul began for this reason, I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed and he break off immediately after verse 1 and from verses 2 to 13 that is a digression from what he started to say in verse 1, but it’s not a digression from what has been talking about because it fits an integral part of Chapter 2 verses 11 to 22. The same basic area is under consideration in Chapter 2 verses 11 to 22 he has been talking about the work that God is doing in grace of making one body out of both Jew and gentile which is a new work accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Chapter 3 verses 2 to 13 he has been talking about the revelation of this truth regarding what God is doing in making Jews and Gentiles into one body as coming through himself that he has been the steward of God’s grace in this area. So it’s not as though verses 2 to 13 are out of order just as though when he starts verse 1 he remembers that he ought to really elaborate a little bit on his position. And in fact he is the prisoner of the lord Jesus Christ for their sake, the gentile sake and is possible that some of the Gentiles didn’t understand why he was a prisoner for their sake so that further elaboration which ties closely to the end of Chapter 2.

But in verse 14 then he resumes what he was beginning to talk about in verse 1 when he uses the same expression, for this reason, for this reason. The reason being the grace of God that was manifested in making Jews and Gentiles one body in Jesus Christ, for the tremendous grace of God that has been revealed in his work, in his son. This causes me to pray for you in recognition of the place that I have in the plans that God is accomplishing. This is Paul’s second prayer in the book of the Ephesians.

In Chapter 1 verses 15 to 23 Paul has made the mention of the prayer that he offered on behalf the Ephesians you’ll not he begins in verse 15 of Chapter 1 the same way for this reason and he has just talked about the grace of God in salvation, in providing an inheritance for those who are his children, in working in order that his glory might receive all the praise and as Paul has done talking about this heavy doctrinal section it moves him into prayer for the Ephesians. The same thing happens in Chapter 3, he’s just been talking about what we would doctrine, teaching regarding the church and what God is doing in the church and that moves him to pray on behalf of the Ephesians and that ought to through of us and it will be through of us if we are in the word. Sometimes we get the idea the doctrine is cold and flat and too much doctrine will make you cold. You need more of a devotional life.

But the greatest asset and motivation to your devotional life as a believer is strong heavy bible study, because the more you study about the person and work of Jesus Christ, the more you understand of what God has done in you for you and through you, the person of his son, the more you’ll be moved to bow down before him, to enjoy the relationship and communion that you have with him. That the study of the word ought to be a motivation to your prayer life and if there is something wrong in your prayer life you ought to analyze a little bit your study of the word. Are you really studying the word as the study of the person and Jesus Christ? Are you really open to what the spirit is revealing concerning Jesus Christ as you study his word?

And if you are you’ll find your prayer life developing and growing as Paul illustrates in his own practice. Perhaps the most beautiful prayer that we have recorded by the apostle Paul in his writing, his prayers always been theologically correct of course. But the expression brings us to here very clear, very powerful and very beautiful I believe it’s correct to say, prayers can be beautiful in the way they are expressed and Paul’s prayer here is beautiful and truth that’s conveyed it’s not just a wishy-washy general type of prayer. It is a prayer that is inseparably related to the work that God is accomplishing in the lives of believers. That’s why you can have a more effective prayer life if you know the word better. You have a basis to talk to God from and not just from the generalities in order to bless everybody, amen. Little more content to that when Paul prays.

Verses 14 and 15 he brings the person that he is addressing to our attention. For this reason I bow my knees before the father. One of the postures of prayer we deal in the scripture is kneeling. Here Paul talked about bowing his knee which will give the idea of kneeling. Standing is a very common posture of prayer in the bible. But I don’t think that Paul is stressing the posture so much here as the attitude. When you knee down before someone you are submitting yourself to them or in effect honoring them and worshipping. And as Paul addresses the father he bows down before him, this attitude is submission of honoring the father and worshiping the father. And it’s true of all the prayers in the bible and Paul drives the point home I think as well as other portions of the word that it the father who is consistently addressed in prayer. We nerve find prayer in the New Testament addressed to Jesus Christ. Paul never prays to Jesus Christ. He always prays to the father through Jesus Christ. Now it’s not to say that Christ is inferior or less God but in the order of the God heads the father is the one who is addressed through the work that the son has done. Jesus touched on this in John Chapter 16 where he noted that he would ask the father in his name. And if you’ll ask him anything in my name he will give it you. You’ll ask me nothing. The day is coming when you shall ask me nothing, but whatever you ask the father in my name he will give you. And so in our prayers we address the father through the son. We’ll be talking about spirits ministry in connection in a moment.

I bow my knees before the father and I note verse 15, the elaboration on the Father, the one from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Every family in heaven and on earth derives its name from the Father. And there may be a play of words here in Greek that we miss in English, the father as the family. So a very similar sounding in words and it may be limited here to believers, because has been talking about the family of God and the household of God and so on, in Chapters 2 and 3 and he may be carrying over the idea of God’s family and their relationship with him and it’s true that we as believes have that special unique relationship to God as our father that no one else has.

But it seems perhaps in the context here that Paul is stressing not the believer’s relationship but the sovereignty of God. He is all encompassing sovereignty that I am addressing the Father in prayer and the Father that I am addressing is the one that every family whether it’s on earth or in heaven has its origin. It derives its name from him. He is the ultimate source and stresses something of the person that Paul is talking to. When I bow in prayer I am bowed down before the one who is the sovereign of heaven and earth, who is the creator and sustainer of the universe. In connection of course with the work of the son and work of the spirit that the father is the one who is addressed and is viewed as the ultimate source and from whom everything originated. So this is the one that I am speaking to and this is going to become important because what he is going ask is going to be something that’s going go beyond and outside any human ability to work or give.

Verse 16, why is he praying or for what is he praying. That he would grant you that he would give to you, now he is writing to believers remember, you’ve been with us through the study of these first three chapters it becomes clear that Paul’s remarks are addressed to those who have come to personally trust Jesus Christ the savior and he would grant to you believers at Ephesus. Now it’s important to keep in mind because I am going to touch on that in the next verse at the moment but note that he would grant to your, this isn’t a personal request that Paul wants something for himself but that he would give to you according to the riches of his glory.

Now before we get to what has asked again Paul says not ask the one who is the sovereign of everything, the source of everything that he may give to you according to the riches of his glory. Now you note, he doesn’t say to give you out of the riches of his glory that would be different. The person who is a multimillionaire could give you $50. He would have given you out of his riches but he certainly wouldn’t have given to you in accord with his riches. Use the illustration that if He would give you his check book with all the check signed and tell you just to fill in what you need then he would be giving in accord with his riches. And that’s what Paul prays here, that God would give the Ephesians not out of his riches but according to his riches, the abundance of the provision that the apostle Paul is asking for. No beggarly prayer from the apostle Paul.

The reason that you and ask for so little and are so timid in prayer is we have such a small concept of the God that we serve. Paul doesn’t come asking for something little and timidly, could you do this for me. He comes with a boldness and I want it according to your riches, the riches of your glory. Of course the riches of God’s glory connects to all that he is and all that he has, a very manifestation of his person and presence, everything that would approve to God or to be involved in the riches of his glory, the riches of the person of the father himself.

Now what does he request. I will grant so that he would give to you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man. Paul’s desire is that the Ephesians receive the supernatural strength that God can give. And again he is going to use multiple words here for power or strength. Note he says strengthened with power, or with might in the inner man and a little bit later on he will talk about being strengthened to understand.

Over in Chapter 1 verses 18 and 19, when he was talking about power in connection with God he was in the same kind of bind for words, how do I express it and convey the idea so in verse 19 he talks about the surpassing greatness of his power in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. He keeps using these words on top of one another to give the idea of the strength and sufficiency of God. And here now he asks that God would give to the believers according to his riches of glory to be strengthened with power, divine ennoblement is what Paul sees the Ephesians as needed. To be strengthened with power, the power of God now being operative to strengthen the Ephesian Christians. And this idea of strengthening is going to flow through the entire prayer of Paul, because he wants them to be strengthened in order that God’s purposes can be accomplished in their lives, because without God’s strength being provided man will be unable to receive the blessings that God has for him.

There is no way that the God of glory can pour out from the riches of his glory upon man and man to contain it unless God provides the strengthening and ennoblement for man to do so. So here he says to be strengthened with power note through is spirit, it’s the spirit whose work is being accomplished in our lives, in other words when you come to the father in prayer though the son and you thank the spirit and he also motivating us in prayer he is answering the prayer as the father directs. In verse 22 of Chapter 2 we saw the spirit at work.

Chapter 2 verse 22 in whom talking about the lord you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the spirit. So by virtue by being in the spirit we are being molded and formed into a building for God’s dwelling place and this is the same context we’re in when we get to Chapter 3 verse 16, the strengthening work of the spirit, he is the one who dwells within us and Paul prays that God would prove the strength by the work of the spirit in the inner man, in the inner man in my heart, in the very basis of what I am as a person. Not strengthening bodily here where we have often our attention focused. You can be a weakened body but strong in the inner man. Remember Paul wrote in second Corinthians Chapter 4 verse 16, tough the outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being made new day by day, being made new in the inner man day by day. Even though the outer man this physical body is decaying yet within I am being strengthened being made new day by day, by the work of the indwelling spirit in my life.

Now verse 17 tells us why this strengthening is to occur. Why should I be strengthened in the inner man, verse 17, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that Christ my dwell in your hearts through faith. Now you remember we mentioned at the beginning of verse 16 that Paul is praying for them as believers that he would grant something to believers. So we cannot be talking in verse 17 the initial response of faith to Jesus Christ when he comes and takes up residence in our life for the first time because Paul is already talking about them as believers.

So when he says that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith he is not talking about believing Christ so that he can come and take up residence in your left. What he is talking about the work of the spirit and making our life and making us as persons the fit dwelling place for the son of God, the same idea as verse 22 of Chapter 2, the same idea that Paul wrote to the Corinthians you remember when he says, what know you are not that your are the temple of the holy ghost. This is the place where the Holy Spirit of God resides. God himself has taken up residence in my life. Jesus Christ promised in their last discourse with his disciples that if they would believe in him then he would come and his father would come and take up residence in their life.

Now it’s the work of the spirit to prepare my life and to mold it in shape and to make into the fit dwelling place for the son of God. This is equivalent to what we call the filling of the spirit. We’ll talk about it in detail little later in the book of Ephesians. The work of the spirit in controlling the believer and molding and shaping and conforming him to the character of God in order that the believer might be a fit dwelling place for the son of God, so that Christ may dwell. And the emphasis of the word here is to settle down and reside. That’s the idea of a settled resident because you remember that Jesus Christ is not a guest in our lives or in our life, but he is the owner now. You are no longer your own, you have been bought with a price, therefore you are obligated to glorify God in your body.

You can no longer talk about what you would do with your life because it’s no longer yours, it’s his. What you would do with your body because it’s no longer yours it’s his. And so what the work of the spirit is to do is to arrange my life according to the good pleasure of the new owner who is Jesus Christ. No, it’s not enough that I think I’ll get my life together and today I am going to church, and I want everything organized and I want to be chop-chop on the inside and the outside and everything, this is a special day.

You know that’s how we do when you’re getting a guest. Just going through the summer many of you had guests, what do you do. You spend all the time getting everything ready, everything organized and I know you want to be yourself and they come, and they leave and you go back kayos. Good to get back normal isn’t it. Well Christ isn’t coming on that basis. He isn’t coming as a visitor because you are in Indian Hills Auditorium this morning. As a believer he resides in your life, and since that is his home he wants his home arranged according to his desire and that’s the work of the spirit to strengthen us which involves the organizing and arranging of our lives into conformity with the character of God, a work that only God himself could perform and accomplish in our lives.

You know he dwells in your hearts though faith that has to do with my willing submission to the spirit so that he is able to strengthen me as a believer and thus make my life a fit dwelling place for the son of God that God intends where to be. Provide the strengthening power that is necessary and that happens as I submit myself to the spirit and allow him to control me and mold me into conformity with the word of God. That you being rooted and grounded in love ties to what he has just said really, being rooted and grounded in love has to do with the foundation that is put down. The word translated ground that is the word for our foundation.

Paul uses two ideas here the rooting and the founding, two ideas a tree would be rooted a building would be founded. And what the spirit does is he strengthens me has produced that firm stability in my life as a believer. It is to characterize every believer is going be developed in Chapter 4 where the gifts were given to the church for what purpose, to produce stability among believers, not talked about and that’s the strengthening work of the spirit to establish us and settle us as the residence of Jesus Christ, not driven about here and there but that consistency and firmness that the spirit produces as he founds us in the love which is one of the fruits that he produces as well.

Verse 18, developing the idea of strengthen; strengthen first according to the riches of his glory to be the fit dwelling place for his son. In verses 18 and 19 know that you maybe to comprehend with all the saints what the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. Literally verse 18 beings in order that you maybe strengthened to comprehend. Here we have the idea again of strength, the strengthening work of the spirit to make us the fit dwelling place for the son of God, the strengthening work of the spirit and to enable us to comprehend and to know.

You note there is no object given in verse 18, know that you will be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what the breadth, length and height and depth and the object of that is in verse 19 the love of Christ that is what the goal is. You know we comprehend, it has the idea of a grasp with all the saints and there is that emphasis throughout the book of Ephesians on that unity among believers and seeing believers together even though we are individuals we’re always seen together, so we comprehend with all the saints. Now it becomes clear as we move through the book of Ephesians it’s God’s purse in bringing believers together into a body.

That’s why a Christian cannot grow to maturity when he isolates himself from the fellowship of other Christians because that is contrary to the purposes and plans of God as revealed in his word. He has established us in a body with Christ as the head in order that we might grow. When a believer isolates himself from the fellowship of other believer then he cuts his growth short and his progress to maturity is tiny because it’s in conflict with what God says. We hear can I pray, can I study the bible at home in my room alone, yes you can do that but you cannot grow to maturity as God intends for you to do if that’s all you do. Because the fellowship of believers is part of God’s intended purpose and we’ll be talking about that more particularly in Chapter 4. Maybe able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, height and depth. In other words some comprehension of the dimension of God’s love, of its fullness, of its spread so it gives these different dimensions, its height, its depth, its length, its breadth, the dimension of the love of God, some comprehension of God’s love.

You know, if the spirit doesn’t give you strength you’ll never comprehend the love of Christ. Not only that you’ll never know it in verse 19, to comprehend and to know talking about an experiential knowledge the word that’s used here to know the love of Christ. Now he is writing to believers remember. He wants them to be strengthened by the spirit so that they can comprehend and know in their own experience something of the love of Christ and it’s a paradox because he wants them to know something that is unknowable as he makes clear in verse 19. To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge which goes beyond knowing.

I want you to know something which is impossible to know. It goes beyond the ability to know. Now how can you know something which is unknowable? Well you can’t know something which is unknowable. It’s impossible and its impossible here expect here for one ingredient, the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of the person. Without the ministry of the Holy Spirit to strengthen you, to enable you to comprehend and know then you will never comprehend and know the love of Christ because it’s beyond knowing apart from the ministry of the spirit.

This is why Paul prays that they strengthened by the spirit because without the work of the spirit in their life they will never come to a full appreciation and understanding of the love of Christ and I take that the love of Christ here connects to the work that he has accomplished on our behalf, the full scope of his work is compassed in when we talk about the love of Christ because the love of Christ is demonstrated in the work of Christ on our behalf. And if you as a believer are to comprehend and know anything of God’s love it’s going to as you submit to the spirit, as I submit to the spirit and he strengthens us and thus enables us to know.

Now we know on the surface and that’s all the further some of us go as believers. We can talk about how God loved us and he died for us. And that’s great but the full comprehension and the grasp of that, the beautiful details as presented in his word elude us if we are not submitting our lives to the spirit in allowing him to open up the fullness the love of God to us in our daily experience. It goes beyond knowing so there is no hope of knowing it apart from the ministry of the spirit to strengthen us.

Without supernatural strengthening you cannot have supernatural knowledge is of course tied as well to what Paul writes in second Corinthians Chapter 2 that the ministry of the spirit, the spirit is the one who plumps the depths of God, the deep thins of God are known to the spirit and he makes them knows to us as we submit to him, to know the love of Christ which goes beyond knowing, and thirdly that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. This strengthening takes place so that we might be the residence for the son of God the God intends us to be for that we might comprehend and know something of his love in order that we might be filled up to all the fullness of God.

As Paul talks in his prayer beautifully as its presented it almost is impossible to grasp what he is saying. To be filled up to the fullness of God, you know it doesn’t say to be filled us as full as the Christian sitting next to you is. To be filled up as full as the brilliant Christians are. To be filled as full as the Baptist are. It has nothing to do with that, does it. What’s the standard of being filled? Filled up to the fullness of who? God.

Now how can you be filled up to the fullness of God apart from a divine supernatural work in your life? The answer is very simple, you cannot. You must function on a mundane level, unless God does a supernatural work in your life and that’s what Paul is praying about that believers now would go on in their Christian life to growth and maturity in order they might come to the fullness of God, and obviously if you are at all familiar with the bible we’re not becoming God, we’re not going to be deity.

But the standard by which we are measured and toward which we are moving is deity and obviously you are all familiar with the bible we are not become God, we are not going to be deity. But the standard by which we are measured and toward which we are moving is deity. This is the same idea as Paul develops in writing to the Colossians where in Christ was all fullness of the God in a bodily form and in him you are made full. The fullness of God would refer to his character, his perfection, his quality and his character is being produced in my life. His perfections are being produced in my life as I am strengthened by the spirit and thus I am being filled up to the fullness of God. I am becoming more like him, I am not becoming him but I am becoming more like him. This is the standard that’s consistently presented in the New Testament.

Now look over in second Corinthians. Second Corinthians in the third chapter Paul is talking about the ability to know and understand the word of God and in verse 18 of Chapter 3 of second Corinthians, but we all with unveiled faiths, that would refer to believers who can now understand the word of God as the immediate context to them, the unbeliever has a veil over his face. When he reads the words it’s just like he didn’t see it but we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord. When we’re reading the word when reading of his glory for beholding as in a mirror the glory of the lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the lord the spirit.

Now you note your reading in the word about the glory of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is none other than the image of the invisible God and we are being transformed into his image by the work of the spirit, the same thing that Paul is writing about in Ephesians Chapter 3, being filled up to the fullness of God as the spirit strengthens us. I am being conformed to his image, to his character, to his quality, to his perfection in the inner man. I am being made a new person. That new person is being made in conformity with his image.

So it sounds impossible as you are reading but that’s what Paul prays for the Ephesians that they might be realizing God’s intended purpose in their salvation, to mold people into conformity with the image of himself, filled up to all fullness of God, that’s growing to maturity and none of us reach the point in maturity where we can say well I am more mature than anyone else I can stop because you note the standard is not someone else, you are not filled up to all the fullness of the preacher or the Sunday school teacher or anyone else. You are filled up to all the fullness of God and I take it that for all eternity you’ll be growing and maturing and developing because there always be things for us to know and learn, understanding grasp about the infinite God that we worship and serve.

Now it sounds impossible but as Paul closes in verses 20 and 21 in describing glory to God as the one who is efficient to duty is just ask. Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, you note, now to him who is able talking about God the father as the one who is of sufficient power and ability to do excitedly abundantly beyond. Now Paul does is what has done previously in piling words upon words and here he takes three words and puts them together and makes one word to give the idea of that super abundance and so how can I express it strongly enough that his ability goes so far beyond anything that we could ask or think.

Now you note, you read what Paul said in the preceding verses and we think my goodness can that be that all the spirit would strengthen me and make me a fit dwelling place for the son of God to strengthen me, to enable me, to comprehend and know the love of Christ in order that I might be filled up with all the fullness of God that’s what Paul has expressed in his prayer.

Is God able? Notice what Paul said. I am ascribing glory to the one who is able to do beyond anything I could ask or think. Do you think this is something, well of course God can do it because with my finite mind I cannot even grasp or think of what God would do and is able to do because as great as it is as wonderful it is that falls far short of what God is able to do. Now you note, according to the power that works within us, according to the power that works within us it’s not just that we have this all powerful God now what can you do with blob of dust. Well, a lot in life. The connection is the spirit of God dwells within us and the spirit of God is able as God directs to do things beyond anything you and I could grasp or imagine.

So we get afraid in our prayer to be too bold or too confident. We don’t want to ask too much. How do you ask too much of a God who is able to beyond anything you could even think of asking. He is so powerful and able through the spirit that dwells within us, he is the power that works within us, the spirit himself so God’s power is operative within my life and he is able to do beyond what I could ask or think. That puts to rest finally forever, for good, for eternity those # little, neat Christians who couldn’t do anything, what could I do. Look how insignificant I am, look how incapable I am and on and on and on.

Who are we to call a God a liar, or to say his power is insufficient. So when I start saying how incapable I am what I cannot do, and on and on. What am I saying? Usually I am afraid I am saying that God couldn’t even do it through me. Not even God himself is able to do that in my life. I need to be careful as a believer when I begin to question what God has said in his words. Now I realize I myself can do nothing, and that’s clear and settled in the word, but also I think Christ as Paul wrote can do all things, and that’s what Paul is writing here.

So the question does not come what am I able to do, the question is what would God have done and then all I have to do as I submit my life to the spirit to allow him to do it through me. There is a world of difference between the idea of what I can do and what can God do with me and through me. There is no limit on what God can do and the spirit of God dwells within me so there is no limit on the ways God can and will use me and I need to be careful by taking residence of his and talking about how incapable and insufficient and on and on it is. If that’s true then I need to submit to the spirit and allow him to strengthen me and make me what God intends me to be.

And just how important this is, is in verse 21. To him the one who is able to do this to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus all generation forever and ever. Let him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. In other words all the glory for what God is doing in the church and what God has done in Jesus Christ goes to God the father himself. So the work that he is doing in the church in for his glory, the work that he is doing through his son is for his glory not for our glory. So I need to be careful again. What God is going in my life is for His glory. I don’t want to be guilty of hindering what God is doing. I want simply to submit to the Spirit and allow Him to do it the fullest to strengthen me to the fullest. I might be filled all the fullness of God and note this is not just for a short duration. This is part of God’s plan for eternity.

So what he is doing in the church, what he has done through His Son will be for His glory 10 billion years from now. And note how Paul expresses that again, bringing words together to try to give the idea of what he is trying to express to all generations and as you have it in the margins, to all generations of the ages of the ages. Not just for a short period of time this will bring glory to God then he’ll be done with us. But what God is doing in my life, what God is doing in the lives of the members of this church will bring glory to him for all the eons of eternity and I am insignificant, it makes me very important.

The power of God operative in my life is for the purpose of brining glory to himself not just on September 7, 1975 but for all the billions and trillion years of eternity. That puts me in a whole different perspective, not just an insignificant # that makes me part of the eternal plan and purpose of God. And you know it becomes very, very important then that my life is living submission to the spirit, in order that the eternal purpose and plan of God is being accomplished in my life. In order that the spirit is enabled to strengthen me, to mould me and to shape me into conformity with the character, perfection, and quality of God the father. In order that I might be a fit dwelling place for his son, in order that I comprehend to know something of the love of Christ, so that I might be filled up all the fullness of God. And he is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that I would ask or think.

So you look at your life I look at mines and think God do that do that with me. A defeated Christian dragging his feet plodding along just hoping that the word will come today so I don’t have to endure tomorrow, that’s not living what Paul was talking about. I hope the word comes today so I don’t have to endure tomorrow but I don’t face tomorrow like that in light of the eternal God who is at work of my life to empower me and mold me and full me into the person he intends for me to be. I think there is nothing in your life that God doesn’t want there that he hasn’t provided the power to remove.

Some of us are unwilling to submit to the Spirit and have Him arrange our life according the character of God but the ability and the power is there it’s simply if we are willing to trust him to submit our self to the spirit and allow the spirit to do its strengthening ministry. You are here and you are not a believer this doesn’t pertain to you. We’re talking about strengthening the inner man, not about cleaning up the dirty old shelf. The outer man, what have you got when you cleaned up the outer shell, a cleaned up sinners.

But God starts with the inner man. He strengthens the inner man. He makes you a new person in the inner man. So when you’re being filled up to the fullness of God in the inner man you can be sure that will show in what you do with your body and your life, but you must get the order arranged properly. You must allow God to do the work in the inner man. That begins when you see yourself as a sinner Jesus Christ is the savior. Now on the basis of those facts you are willing to place your faith in Christ alone as your savior. That moment God makes you a new person, a new creation. That moment the spirit of God takes up residence in your life, and from that point on God begins his work of strengthening, of molding and conforming you into the image of his own glory.

Let’s pray together. Father we do thank you for your love for us, for the overwhelming greatness of the love of Jesus Christ and demonstrated in his death in our behalf # for the great supernatural work that you are accomplishing in the lives of your people even now, for the ministry of the spirit in our lives as believers, or to strengthen us, to transform us, to mold us into this conformity of the image of your glory. I pray father that each of us as your children might be willing to submit ourselves to the spirit, to be willing to have him control our lives so that he might arrange it as a fit dwelling place for your son who resides in our body as your temple. I pray for those who are here this morning who have not yet trusted Jesus Christ as personal savior, who don’t know what it is to have that strengthening in the inner man, I pray that even now they might place their faith in him, be cleansed of their sins who made new creations so that enjoy for the first time a personal relationship with the God who loves him. We pray in the name of your son, Amen.