The Grace of God

This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. You can open with me to Titus chapter 2.

! Titus chapter 2. Well, I knew I was preaching this morning, was planning to preach this morning.

And so when Jeremy said our executive pastor was preaching this morning, I didn't know if I'd had a title change while Michael was gone. I'm the captain now. But grateful to be here with you guys.

It's a joy for me and a delight for me to be able to stand here and preach to you when Michael's out. It's just such a joy for me to preach to people who are eager to hear God's word.

I don't want to hear anything else, but just want to be fed God's word. And so it's a joy for me to be with you this morning. And in addition to that, it's a joy for me to be talking about a topic that's at the center of our Christian life.

The grace of God. Grace is often talked about in the New Testament. Paul mentions it at least twice in each of his letters, sometimes many more than that.

We sing songs about grace. Amazing grace is one of the most popular hymns of all time. We listen to sermons about grace, Sunday school lessons about grace.

We talk about God's grace with each other. Our message to the outside world is one of grace. Grace is often talked about. And if you're a girl born in the 90s or early 2000s, your middle name is probably grace.

Grace. We talk about grace very often. But unfortunately, grace is also very often misunderstood.

There are several ways that God's grace is misunderstood. It can be taken as a sign of God's laxity towards sin. A picture of God not really caring about sin all that much.

He just kind of turns a grandfatherly blind eye toward the sins of his people because he really doesn't care. And if grace is viewed this way, it can very easily be distorted into a license to sin.

We can think that we don't need grace like we used to. That's another way to misunderstand it. Now that we're saved, we don't need grace like we once desperately did when we were outside of Christ.

Grace is the starting point of the Christian life. And so it's very easy for us to view us as graduating onto something more deeper. Moving on to something that's deeper and more relevant and more theological than God's grace.

When our daughter Amelia was three or four, Lacey and I were talking to her. And we were talking to her about sin. And I asked Millie, are you a sinner? And she said, I used to be a sinner, but now I'm a Gentile.

And somehow in her mind, that was a promotion or a step up. But if we're not careful, we can view grace as something we move on from. I used to need that, but now I'd really just need God's grace to kind of top off my good works.

I need God's grace just to sort of fill in the little bit that's lacking from my good deeds now. We can also misunderstand grace in thinking that it's something we can lose.

Once we've received it, we can fall into thinking that we need to keep up a good appearance or keep up our good deeds just to hold on to God's grace. We don't view it as a free gift to sinners, but as a reward for those who aren't so bad.

As a reward for those who do good things to stay in God's favor. Well, what is grace? What is grace according to the Bible? It's not a laxity on God's part.

It's not just a compensation for a few of our mistakes. And it's also not something we can lose. You'll read many definitions of God's grace about being God's unmerited favor towards his people, being God's love towards his people.

And those are completely true. For our purposes this morning, I want to think about grace this way. God's grace is God's free gift of Christ's power over sin.

It's God's free gift of Christ's power over sin. Grace is Christ's power over sin.

It's his power to defeat sin and death on the cross. He is defeated both in his death and his resurrection. But it's also his ongoing power to continue to defeat sin in our daily lives as Christians.

Grace isn't something that saves us and leaves us alone. Grace is something that continues to dominate sin in our life as we follow Christ. Grace is a one-word summary of all of God's salvation for us in Christ.

Beginning, middle, and end. Grace is not God's passivity towards sin. It's his power over sin. It's his power to save us, to sanctify us, and one day to bring us home, to glorify us.

Paul's writing this letter to Titus. Titus was one of his disciples. He was a young man, probably about my age, around 30. Inexperienced, young, needing help.

And Paul left him here on the island of Crete to set this church in order. This was a young church. It was a new church. It needed pastors to lead it. And that was Titus' job. His job was to preach the word and to find qualified men who could also teach others to follow Christ, as Titus himself had learned from Paul.

And so Paul is writing this letter to Titus to urge him on in that task, to continue to encourage him in establishing this church and in building it up. He's writing encouraging things.

He's writing practical things. He's writing theological things. And we find ourselves this morning in Titus 2, verses 11 through 14. I'll read it for us. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

In this passage, we'll see three things that grace accomplishes in our lives. Three things that grace accomplishes in our lives. Grace saves us, grace trains us, and grace gives us hope.

So number one, grace saves us. We see this in verse 11. And as is the case many times with Paul, verses 11 through 14 are one long sentence.

He never saw a comma he didn't like. And so this is all one consistent thought. And he says, for the grace of God has appeared.

And this is the main idea for the whole passage. Everything else in this passage flows from this one idea that God has manifested his grace.

God has caused his grace to appear. And this word appeared is where we get our word for epiphany, which in the days of the Greco-Roman world, this was used to describe in Greek literature as an appearance of the gods.

Or they used it to explain the appearance of an emperor as well. So if an emperor came to town, that was his epiphany in that place. But it was also used to describe an appearance of the gods.

And so what Paul is saying here is the grace of God has had an epiphany. The grace of God has manifested itself. And based on what he says next, it's very clear that what he means by this phrase, the grace of God, is in reference to Jesus Christ and his incarnation because he says this grace is bringing salvation for all people.

This manifestation of his grace, this epiphany has brought salvation. This appearance of grace is the incarnation of Christ.

Christ. And this phrase encompasses all of Christ's earthly life, his birth, his righteous and perfect life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension.

But it's interesting that Paul doesn't refer to him by name yet in the passage. He simply calls him the grace of God. And this reveals a lot to us about what grace is and what grace does.

Grace isn't merely an attribute of God. Grace isn't just an attitude within God. Grace is a person within the Godhead.

Jesus Christ is grace incarnate. And the apostle John says this in John chapter one, the word became flesh, verse 14, and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory, glories of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace.

Why do we need this grace? Why was it necessary for this grace to appear? He says bringing salvation for all people. Salvation is deliverance from sin and death.

Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. We need saving from that death. We needed this salvation because God is angry with sinners in the world.

God's wrath is upon sinful people in this world. What can deliver us? What can set us free from this situation of death and wrath from God?

Only the grace of God. Only Jesus Christ. His life, death, and resurrection are the only thing that can bring salvation to us.

And it's important to notice here that the New Testament is completely consistent in how it talks about salvation. It is God's idea. It's not a man-made idea.

The gospel is not a made-up story to appease our guilty consciences. It is God's idea. It is God's idea. It is God's idea. It is God's favor. This is God's idea.

And this isn't something we can attain on our own. This isn't something we can work for. So this isn't just God's idea. This is God's doing. God accomplishes this. And so we should not boast in our salvation.

We should not brag about how we follow Jesus. This wasn't our doing. This wasn't our idea. This was the grace of God that he sent to us.

We need to think and speak about our salvation in that way. The salvation didn't originate with us, wasn't accomplished by us, can't be perfected by us, and we also can't look down on unbelievers as if we were the smart ones and just figured out what the truth was.

No, God's grace manifested itself. And mine and Lacey's nightly prayer for each of our kids is, Lord, make them a Christian.

This is something that you do. We pray that you would do it. And it says this salvation has been brought for all people. Now, Paul's not teaching universalism.

He had a doctrine of hell and judgment. So this isn't all people without exception, but all kinds of people, all people without distinction. And so there is one God, and there is one way to be made right with that God, and it's through the gospel that he has announced to us.

But this one gospel will save anyone, anywhere who believes in Christ. Jew or Greek, male or female, slave or free, rich or poor, young or old, there is one gospel, but anyone who believes that gospel will be saved.

And I hope that's not shocking to us. We know that. That wouldn't have been shocking to Titus either, or the people that were there in that church. But this was contrary to everything that the people living on Crete believed.

They believed in a multitude of gods, and these gods would appear from time to time and bring salvation for a city or for a specific people group. But there was no universal message of salvation from a divine appearing.

And according to Greek mythology, the island of Crete was the birthplace of Zeus. And so there was an epiphany of Zeus on this island, according to Greek mythology.

But Paul is saying, there is one appearing that brings salvation. And that one appearing brings salvation, if you're living on Crete, or if you're living in modern day America, because he is Lord of all.

He is the grace of God made flesh. And this salvation is accessible to anyone who hears this message. God has shown his grace to the whole world.

And we are actually part of the evidence of that fact. I think about this often, but it's kind of weird when you just strip it down to the facts that we, living in the United States in the 21st century, worship a man who lived in Israel in the first century.

That's peculiar. That's strange in the eyes of the world. And yet it's evidence that this grace of God did appear. That this grace of God did bring salvation for all people who would believe this message.

So grace brings salvation. Grace saves us. But what else does it do? What does this grace look like in someone's life? Can you tell if someone has received this grace?

And we see secondly that grace trains us. Verse 12. Grace trains us. A common misconception about God's grace is that it only forgives our sins, but it doesn't change our lives.

What Paul teaches here is that grace doesn't just pardon our sin, it empowers us to please God. It says, God's grace is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

This word training was used of parents disciplining their children, of raising their children in the fear of the Lord. And so when Paul says that God's grace is training us, it's God's fatherly discipline in our lives.

God has no more wrath against us for our sins. Christ has paid it all, but there is still an ongoing discipline process that we are subject to until we're made perfect. God is continuing to raise us up, continuing to mature us through his grace and through his word.

And a life that has received God's grace is a life that's changed by God's grace. And so if your life has not been changed, you don't have a claim on saying you've been saved.

A life that has received the grace of God is a life that's changed by the grace of God. A transformed life always accompanies salvation. Paul says elsewhere, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. And this doesn't mean you'll be perfect. There's an ongoing battle against sin. We will sin every day on our journey home to be with the Lord, but there will be a transforming effect that grace has in our lives as it continues to train us.

And so at salvation, there's a radical transformation that takes place as the nature of a sinner is changed into a saint. But there's also an ongoing step-by-step transformation process that we would call sanctification, or Paul says here is training.

And it sort of pulls the remaining weeds of sin out of our hearts as we go along this journey. It exposes sin in our hearts and gives us power to renounce the sin that's in our hearts.

So grace reveals who the Lord is and how to serve him. We won't be passive in this process. This requires work on our part, but God is the one who initiates it and leads it.

And this training has both negative and positive aspects, as you'll see in verse 12. It requires us to say no to certain things and yes to others. And so Paul starts with the negative.

It trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. This will require effort and watchfulness on our part. This will not be easy, even though it's simple to comprehend.

And you might think that this list is a little vague. Paul just, it's barely even a list. He only gives two things, ungodliness and worldly passions. But even though this list is short, it does encompass every aspect of our lives.

It covers the totality of our lives here on earth. The first thing we're to renounce is ungodliness. In simple terms, this is a lifestyle that lacks an awareness of who God is and what he requires.

Your life is just defined by without God. You don't have reference to who God is or what he requires. And the world can be described as a world of ungodliness, a lack of respect or concern for God and what he demands.

The second thing he calls us to renounce is worldly passions. This word passions can be translated, depending on the context, as lust or desire.

Desire. These worldly passions are desires to do ungodly things, whether they're acted upon or not. And so this is how this list encompasses all of our life.

Sin isn't just the things that we do. It goes down even to the level of the things we want to do, the things we think about doing, whether we end up acting on them or not.

Sin can be something you do or want to do. And this is actually hotly contested in Christian circles today. There are Christians who will want to say things like, it's okay for you to have ungodly desires as long as you don't act on them, as long as they don't harm anyone, as long as no one finds out about them.

What Paul and Jesus say in the New Testament is that sin isn't just what you do, it's even what you think about doing. And we're to renounce sin at every level we find it in our hearts.

If we find an immoral action within us, a sinful action within us, we repent of that. If we have a desire within us that's immoral or sinful, we repent of that as well. We're to renounce all of these things.

And during Titus' day on the island of Crete, these things would have looked like worshiping pagan gods, worshiping idols, committing sexual immorality, drug abuse, drunkenness, anything you can name the people of Crete, we're doing it.

And our culture and our time may be a little bit more refined, a little bit more advanced, a little bit more dressed up, a little less crass, or a little less rudimentary.

But we are tempted with the same kinds of sins every day. We're tempted with ungodliness and worldly passions every day. Do we say no to these things?

Do we renounce them? Or do we feed them? Those are the two options. Do we renounce them? Or do we feed them?

And we have to be so careful because it's easy for us to be far too lenient with ourselves. Far too lenient with what we allow ourselves to think about and desire or watch or participate in.

And we have to be careful because we live in a world that doesn't say no to anything. We live in a world that doesn't say no to any indulgence of the flesh. And so if we're not careful, if we're not watchful in this, we will be swept downstream by this culture's current of ungodliness and worldly passions.

We see that grace leads to godliness and what does this godliness look like in positive terms? Paul then goes to describing positively what this grace looks like, this training of grace looks like.

Trains us to renounce those two things and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. And in the Greek text, these three positive descriptions are actually all adverbs, so they end in L-Y, they're describing certain actions.

So if we were to kind of make these adverbs, it would be self-controlledly, which isn't a word, uprightly, and godly is how we're to live. What is self-control?

Well, if you think about people walking a dog, they've got control of the dog if it's on a leash. And self-control is really keeping your inner flesh on a leash. It's renouncing the desires and the passions you have as a sinner.

It's making sure your flesh doesn't control you. So the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, I discipline my body, I discipline my flesh, keeping it under control, lest I should be disqualified after preaching to others.

It's keeping yourself on the right path. It's keeping your flesh muted and tamped down and destroyed at every chance it has to rear its head.

It causes us to live uprightly. This is above reproach, above the level of being able to be accused of something with evidence.

And the final description he gives is godly. And this would obviously be the opposite of the ungodliness he called us to renounce at the beginning of verse 12. And so if ungodliness is a lack of awareness of God and what he desires, then godliness is a life that's fully aware and oriented toward who God is and what he demands.

We're to live godly lives in the present age. And if you look at these three positive descriptions, it also addresses, they also address every facet of our lives.

Self-control, that's our inner man, our inner being. Uprightness, that's in terms of our relationship toward outsiders, that's external. And then godly is toward God.

So every area of our lives is contained in these lists of what we're to renounce and what we're to live in. And again, grace doesn't just save us, it trains us how to live.

And it trains us how to live in the present age, in this evil time, in this time that is full of ungodliness, just like it was in the first century.

We're swimming upstream as we're trying to be obedient to the Lord. And so if we're not careful, if we're not disciplined, if we're not watchful, we'll be swept down with the current. But I think Paul's reference to this present age is both a reminder of what this present age is like, it's bent against the things that God requires, but it's also a reminder that this is just the present age, there's another age coming, this age is temporary, it won't be here forever, there's a time coming when we won't have to renounce anything because there won't be sin within us or sin around us.

And so it's in this present age that we fight this battle, that we renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. This is how we live in this present age. But what's our motivation for keeping going in this pattern?

Grace is what saves us, grace is what trains us, how do we stay internally motivated to renounce these things and live this kind of godly life?

Number three, we see that grace gives us hope. Grace gives us hope. We see this in verses 13 and 14. Verse 13 says, waiting.

This is a word describing how our life is to be characterized. What's the attitude we're to have? Waiting for our blessed hope. the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paul is pointing us to the return of Christ. And if you notice, there's a double appearing in this passage. The grace of God has appeared. Christ appeared in his first coming.

He will appear again in his second coming. And it's in between these two appearings that we live the Christian life. And every time we take the Lord's Supper, it reminds us of this.

We proclaim his death, what? Until he comes. We're to be reminded and be looking toward the appearing of Christ coming for his people.

Paul calls us to be waiting. And we might think that waiting is incredibly passive. And that's usually what we mean. We're waiting in line or waiting for the bus or waiting on the mail. We're waiting on something.

And while we're waiting, we're not really doing much. But what Paul means in this word is an eager expectation, a longing of the soul for this event.

And so it's less like waiting on the bus and more like waiting on Christmas. You're excited. There are things you're doing in preparation for it. There's an eagerness associated with this waiting.

And if you'll hold your spot there, but go back with me to Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two. The same word is actually used to describe those who are waiting for the first appearing of the Messiah.

Luke two, starting in verse 25, describes Simeon. It says, now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.

And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him.

And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so Simeon had divine revelation that he would see the Messiah before he died.

And he was waiting for this moment. He was expecting this moment and it comes to pass and he says in verse 29, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word for my eyes have seen your salvation.

The grace of God had appeared bringing salvation for all people. Simeon was waiting for this. Anna was waiting for this in verse 38. the end of verse 38.

She spoke of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem. You can go back with me to Titus chapter 2. This word is used to describe those who are waiting for the arrival of their Messiah and we find ourselves in the same situation.

We're waiting not for his first appearing but for his second. Does this waiting, does this eager expectation describe us? When was the last time you meaningfully thought about the return of Christ?

Could we be described as longing for his return? And it calls him the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

It calls Jesus both God and Savior. It's a very clear description of the divinity of Jesus calling him God outrightly.

But when was the last time you meaningfully thought through the return of Christ? We're to be people who have hope in this. This is our blessed hope. This is the hope above all hopes.

Are you waiting? Are you longing for this event? And maybe you think the return of Christ is kind of a sidebar issue in the Christian life. Maybe you think that eschatology doesn't really have an impact on how you live every day.

Maybe you had a weird uncle who was way too into eschatology. Maybe you are the weird uncle. I don't know. But this is profoundly practical for our daily lives.

Paul is using this as motivation for us to live out our lives in Christ. How do you know your suffering in this life will be worth it?

How do you know that your faithfulness will be rewarded? Because Christ is coming back. He's appearing again. Death is not the end.

We will rise when we see him. We will rise when he appears again. There will be a reward. This is worth it. And the return of Christ could happen at any moment.

This could be the last time we are able to meet together. Not making a prediction but just hypothetically it could be. He could return at any moment. And that's when this present evil age will end and the new age will begin and maybe we struggle with sin as much as we do because we fail to contemplate this reality.

this is meant to be the motivation for living the godly life that the Bible calls us to is waiting and looking for our blessed hope.

And Paul's remarkably balanced here in thinking about morals and hope. We're not to be hopeful for Christ's return to the neglect of our earthly responsibilities.

We're also not to be so consumed with our duties and daily responsibilities that we fail to hope. Both of these things work together as we live the Christian life. We have obligations we need to be faithful in and the motivation for being faithful in the midst of those is through looking and waiting for the appearing of our Lord on the clouds.

1 John 3 says that whoever thus hopes in Christ purifies himself as he is pure. the path to purity is in part through thinking about the return of Christ.

And when Paul mentions the name of Christ in any of his letters he can't help but explain who he's talking about or what he's done and the same is true here in verse 14. Who is this Christ? Who is the glory of our great God and Savior who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.

Christ gave himself for us. He voluntarily and sacrificially laid his life down for his sheep and it says for us.

He died in our place. He died as our substitute. He experienced the wrath of God. He experienced death under the wrath of God so that we his people would never have to.

And I want you to think about this incredibly personally in verse 14. Paul says he died for us.

And you might be tempted to sort of unpersonalize the gospel when we think about it. You might be tempted to think yeah he died for his church I happen to be part of his church and so he died for me.

But this is biblical warrant to think about the death of Christ in incredibly individual terms. He died for you if you're a Christian. He paid for your sins.

And this is how Paul thought about it in Galatians 2.20 he says that Christ loved me and gave himself for me. If you're a believer Christ died for you specifically.

He didn't write a blank check for an amorphous group of people that you happen to now be a part of. He died for his people. Why?

He did this to redeem and to purify a people. He redeemed us from all lawlessness. Lawlessness just as it appears means to live without reference to the law live contrary to the law.

He paid for our sin. He redeemed us from our sin. He liberated us set us free from our sin and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

He's washed us clean in his blood. He has presented us spotless before the throne on the merits of his death. He's redeemed us and he is continuing to purify us as he trains us in his grace.

He has once for all purified us. We stand before the throne of God as Christ does. Spotless, pure, perfect. But in our daily lives grace is continuing to train us, continuing to purify us, continuing to work this salvation out in our lives.

And so our godliness does not originate with us. Our good works are not something even we can take credit for. This is what God designed us for. This is what he empowers us to do.

This is his work in us. It's his character working out through our lives. Christ died for your salvation but Christ also died for your holiness of life.

Christ died for your holiness. And our lives, whether we recognize it or not, are communicating what God is like. It's telling the world who our God is and what he's like.

Because as the Bible teaches, we as human beings become like what we worship. And what is our God like?

We sang about it this morning. He's holy. And so that's what he's saved his people to be. That's what he's called us to be. And one negative example of that, if you think back to the Israelites coming out of Egypt and Moses going before the Lord and the people rebelling against the Lord, what does God say to Moses?

How does he describe the Israelites? This is a stiff-necked people. That language is used to describe oxen and cattle. And what was it they were worshiping?

A golden calf. They had become like what they worshiped. And in a positive sense, we become like what we worship too. So if we are focused on the Lord, following him, worshiping him, we should be holy.

This is why Christ died, was to make us holy. We should be a reflection of what he's like. He calls us to be zealous for good works.

Christ created us to be zealous for good works. This means to be eager, boiling over, and good works. This is the true goal of theology. Theology is meant to be lived out.

It's meant to run in this life. Last year, I was trying to buy a riding lawnmower on Facebook Marketplace, which is where all commerce takes place these days. And my dad's an expert in things like this, and so he found one for me.

We went and saw it. It looked great, reputable brand. My question was, does it run? Does it work? And our good works are evidence that the gospel works.

The gospel has effect. The gospel is the grace of God bringing salvation, and Christ died to make us zealous for good works, and so when we are zealous for good works, when we are obedient, it gives demonstration of who our God is and what the gospel message is.

So don't separate your learning from your living. Living a life for Christ is the true goal of all learning. Jesus is referred to as the grace of God in verse 11 of this passage.

Jesus is the grace of God. He is grace incarnate. And when we sin, we feel guilty. And that's right.

We should feel guilt for our sin. But if we're not careful, that guilt will turn into a deep-seated fear that no longer runs to God for forgiveness and restoration, but runs away from him to hide from him and try to cover up what we've done.

And I think this fear, if we're honest, is a fear that God's grace will run out for us. It's a fear that God will be done with us this time.

It's a fear that he's tired of giving us grace, that he's tired of forgiving us and continuing to purify us. But Jesus is the grace of God.

And so what this means is that God's grace will last as long as Christ does. And he lives forevermore. Is Jesus alive today?

Then God's grace will continue to cover you, Christian. What about when we sin? Is Jesus alive and is he coming again? Then his grace is still abounding for us.

What about when we doubt? What about when we struggle with our faith? Is Jesus alive? Is he coming again? Then his grace continues to abound for you.

If you belong to Christ, you will not be sent to hell. You will not be kept out of heaven because God's grace lasts as long as his son does and he lives forevermore.

And so God's grace will continue to train us until we see Christ. Christ has appeared once to take away our sin. He will appear again to take us to himself. God's grace will get us home.

God's grace will take us home. grace won't abandon us because Jesus has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He's promised to be with us to the end of the age and so his grace will continue to abound for us and train us up until we see Christ face to face.

And so we'll end where the letter of Titus began. Paul says in chapter 1 verse 4 grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

May that grace and peace be with you until Christ appears or we go to be with him. Let me pray for us. Our Father, we thank you for the immeasurable grace you've shown to us in Christ.

You've held nothing back from us. I pray that your grace would rule in our lives. That was Paul's desire for his people. I pray that's our desire as well that your grace would conquer our sin.

It has conquered our sin and salvation. I pray it would continue to triumph over our sin and sanctification. And Lord, we want to be like Christ. We want to be with Christ.

So keep us to the end. Sustain us with this hope that Christ hasn't just appeared once and only once but he will appear again.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen. I invite you to come back for evening service tonight. We'll have another worship service and sermon tonight. And all choirs are meeting back tonight.

So be here tonight. Love you guys. You're dismissed. On behalf of First Baptist Church of Mustang, we want to thank you for joining us this morning for our live stream broadcast.

We are so thankful for the gift of technology and that we are able to reach so many people not only across the state and in our nation but around the world. And what a truly indescribable gift that is.

I do want to encourage you if at all possible if you are able to be here in person there is no substitute for gathering with the people of God in person.

So we encourage you to be here in person at any one of our services. But once again if we can help you in any way please feel free to contact us and we would love to serve you in any way possible.

Have a great day. I will cast my life for Calvary Jesus my God for Calvary