All right, well, everybody will find their seats here. I'll open this up in a word of prayer and then introduce Taylor here, and I'll let him introduce himself more, but let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you in Christ's name by the power of your spirit. We thank you for gathering us here. We thank you just for another day. We do thank you for the beautiful days you've given us here, but we thank you even more for sending your Son, and opening our eyes to the glory of Christ, the glory of your Son. So Father, I pray tonight we would be encouraged. I pray that Taylor would be encouraged and refreshed here among us. So Father, be with us in a special way, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So tonight we have the privilege to hear from Taylor Walls. We met Taylor September last year when we went to Ecuador, when Barry and I went with Joe Owen, and we went and we spent time with Jorge, that's who Taylor pastors alongside, and we got to meet Taylor. Taylor's from Arkansas. He's been down there how many years now? So he's been there four years, but before that he was going on trips to Ecuador. He has interpreted for me on a couple of occasions. I forget that I need to stop sometimes when we've done some recordings. and let him interpret, that happened a couple times. I don't know, have you preached in English lately, recently? Okay. He's been preaching in Spanish, so this is new for him to preach in English again. We're glad that he is here with us. I'll let him introduce himself a little bit more. His family was not able to make it there in Louisiana. So yeah, so we've got some connections there. So he understands our Southern lifestyle, our Southern talk down here, being from Arkansas and having family in Louisiana as well. So Taylor, if you will. Good evening. Can you all hear me okay? This mic is on. Yes, it is a wonderful privilege for me to be here to visit with Pastor Corey again. It was a very special blessing. Thank you for sending him and Pastor Barry to Ecuador to visit us and to get to know our ministry and share with our church as well as many other churches across Ecuador. It's a great privilege for me to be with you now. And I have the privilege of serving as pastor of Iglesia Bautista Gracia Soberana in the city of Santo Domingo, Ecuador. And as Pastor Corey mentioned, I've been there for four years. We began going to Ecuador back in 2015. And at the seven o'clock hour, I will tell more information about that. And hopefully if you have any questions, have an opportunity to answer those. But it's a great honor for me to be here. And again, as he said, I have definitely preached and taught more in Spanish in my life than I have in English. In our ministry program there in Ecuador, I teach almost 20 hours a week in Spanish every week. So definitely goes beyond what I have been able to do in English. And so if a few random Spanish words come out, please excuse me and I'll try to translate and we'll keep on going. And maybe some of you will understand that part better than the English part. I want to invite you in this afternoon to study with me the book of Titus, chapter two, verses 11 to 14. It's sometimes easy for us to think of the salvation that we have received in Christ. as something small, as the forgiveness of our sins alone. And truly, the forgiveness of our sins is an incredible and glorious gift that Christ has given us. But truly, we could consider our salvation as a hall of all of the monuments of the victory of our Lord. And he has given us a glorious package full of prizes, full of gifts for his people. So I want to give you in this afternoon a big picture of our salvation, a comprehensive view of the glory of the gospel and the way that the gospel affects every part of our life. It affects who we are, It affects where we live and the various spheres in which we live and operate. It affects us and our view of the past, present, and future. It changes everything about who we are and why we are here. And I want to give you this hope, this encouragement, and this grace. And all of this will come from this text, Titus 2, 11 to 14, in what I've titled Lessons from the School of Grace. Lessons from the School of Grace. So I invite you to read the text with me here in Titus 2, 11 to 14. 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. I invite you to pray with me now. Oh Lord, we give you praise and glory and honor for the grace of the gospel. and the privilege of studying your word in texts such as this that has so much truth packed into so few words. Help us, Lord, to unpack the glories of the salvation here presented in this text and illuminate by your spirit our minds and our hearts so that we might conform our thoughts to your word, that our hearts might be stirred with affection for Christ and our lives might be transformed by this very grace. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. In this text, it's a famous text where the Apostle Paul is teaching his ministry student, his ministerial candidate Titus, sending him out to plant churches, to ordain pastors in Crete. And here in this chapter, he shows us an important part of the pastoral ministry. that of equipping the saints for the work of the ministry, equipping the saints for their life and their various roles to which God calls them. So here he talks to old men and young men. He talks to older women and younger women. He talks to masters and he talks to slaves, to poor and rich. He talks to various spheres and spheres and areas of life and tells each of them and each of these spheres to live in a way that is worthy of the gospel. To live in a way that reflects the glory of the gospel that we have received. Like he tells the servants in verse 10. So that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Or in another text, so that the gospel would, that God would not be blasphemed. But we have this idea of in whatever sphere you find yourself, you are to live in such a way so that the gospel of God might be adorned. That it might appear glorious and beautiful. And so with that context he then says, for the grace of God has appeared. And this is in a way his small summary of the gospel. so that you might have that fresh in your mind as you go out to live as an old man or as a young man, as a young woman or as an old woman. This is the glory of the gospel that you are to adorn at your work, in your home, with your children, with your wife, with your husband, here in the church with other members, in whatever sphere in which you live. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. We see in Christ the grace of God incarnate. His grace has appeared to us. It has visited us in our need. It has come to us in the midst of our sins and our spiritual death. Whenever there was nothing in us to allure Him, to attract Him to us, He sent grace. He sent His unmerited favor. to bring salvation to all people. And here in this context, we see all people, what a glorious concept, especially here talking about all types of people. No matter who you are, what sphere, not just for the rich, not just, not only for the poor, but no matter who you are, there is grace from God. There's grace from God through Christ our Savior. And then the key word for the title of this sermon, The Lessons from the School of Grace, is found there in the beginning of verse 12, where it says, training us. Training us. I know your church has a big emphasis on the training of children, and that's actually the interviews that we've had with Pastor Corey are precisely on that, the instruction of children through the use of catechisms and other tools that the history of the church has provided us. But that word of training children is the word used here of what God's grace does to us. That training is that of education, of schooling, of instruction, of discipleship. In a way, the picture of what Christ did with his disciples. living with them, not just some information for them to process and to put in their minds, but rather a life of discipleship, instruction, living with them, teaching them as they walk about the way, as they lay down, as they rise up, as they're sitting down to eat. Grace teaches us and trains us. And so what a wonderful picture of grace being a patient teacher, training us and teaching us daily these various lessons that we will see here. And truly, each of these lessons could be a sermon in their own, and they're a lesson that we are constantly learning all of our lives. But let's see how Paul summarizes such glorious truths in few words. First of all, the grace of God, the first lesson that we learn in the school is the lesson of repentance. It's a lesson of how we are to live in this world, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. So in this text we see how grace teaches us how we are to live in this present world. And there are two parts to this. Renouncing the things of this world and pursuing godliness. And that's often the picture and the way that the Bible describes the process of sanctification. There is a putting off and a putting on, right? You can probably think of a multitude of texts that come to mind here. Put off the what? The old man with his lust and his sin. And what? Put on the new man. Or another way that the Bible paints this picture is it says, flee these things and pursue righteousness, truth, love. And so this is oftentimes the picture, and it's really repentance. That's what repentance looks like. You're putting off this, you're turning from this sin, and you're going towards God. You're abandoning a certain sin that has revealed itself in your life, you're repenting of that sin, and you're turning towards righteousness. The Puritans used the very commonly known words of mortification and vivification. We are to mortify sin, that is to put it to death. And that's the picture here, renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions. And we are to vivify, to give life to righteousness in the place of that sin and ungodliness that was there before. That's the picture of Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six talks about our bodies. That once before, we were dead in sins. And we used the instruments, the members of our body, for unrighteousness. We used them to sin, to go against God. But whenever we then died with Christ and rose again with him to walk in newness of life, as testified by our baptisms, we now do what? We present these members as instruments for righteousness, so that God might be honored and glorified by these very members that we once used for sin. Whereby our eyes once lusted, now we use our eyes to behold the glory of God. As our hands once did harm and endangered others, we now use them to care and tend. While our tongues once cursed and lied, now it speaks blessing and truth. And so there's a great change that grace teaches us. Other texts that do this is Colossians chapter 3. There's another very beautiful passage telling us to put our eyes on Christ, on the heavenly things, where Christ is seated, because we will one day be like Him whenever He comes. But then in verse five it says, put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, Scythians, slave-free, but Christ is all and in all." So that's the first part of our text, renouncing worldliness, carnal passions, and ungodliness. And here it says in verse 12, the positive part, put on therefore, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony." What a wonderful text and it's parallel there in Ephesians chapter 4 that talks about this, putting off the old man and putting on the new man that is being renewed into the image of Christ. The image of its creator. So the grace of God teaches us to put off and to put on. That is how we are to live. And of course, as Christians, we have repented of our sins, right? We have believed and we have repented so that we might be saved. But the life of the Christian is a life of repentance. As in October, we celebrate the Reformation, right? And on October 31st, we specifically celebrate what? That event whenever Martin Luther hammered his nail and clavó, a nail, that's right, that's the word, nailed the 95 Theses on the door of the castle church there in Wittenberg. But the very first of those theses is this, that whenever the Lord Jesus commanded that we are to repent, what he meant was that the Christian life should be one of continual repentance. That is the Christian life. That is the process of putting on, putting off, and putting on. And that is something that grace teaches us. The grace of God teaches us to imitate our Lord Jesus, to renounce these things and to pursue godliness. And so let's see a little bit more in depth these three things that he says about the life that we are to live. Renouncing the things of this world, but living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Paul so perfectly chose his words here, and obviously under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, these words are so precise in how they teach us to live. Self-controlled, upright, or righteous, and godly. This is a beautiful thing because these three things describe all of our relationships. Whenever it says self-controlled, it describes how grace teaches us to live with respect to ourselves. Then it says righteous, which is what grace teaches us and how we are to live with respect to others, our neighbor. And then it says piety or godly, where it teaches us how to live towards God. So the grace of God teaches us in every sphere in which we can live, with respect to myself, with respect to my neighbor, and with respect to God. With respect to myself, I'm to be self-controlled. I'm to put a watch over my tongue. I'm to put a guard over my heart. I need to walk in soberness and humility and watch my steps. With righteousness, I need to seek to do good to my neighbor, to love, to not defraud or to deceive or lie against my neighbor, but to love him, promote his good, and to do good to those who are in need. And towards my God, I need to worship him and have him first in all things. And how interesting that these is exactly the greatest commandments. What is the first and greatest commandment? To love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, soul, and strength. And the second one is like it. to love your neighbor as yourself. There in those two commandments we have love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self in a secondary way. But those three spheres, how we love ourselves, how we love our neighbor, and how we love God, is exactly what Paul is showing us here. Grace teaches us in these three areas. To be sober and self-controlled with respect to ourselves, that's how we love ourselves. To show righteousness towards our neighbor, that's how we love our neighbor. We'll fulfill God's law towards our neighbor. And we have God as first in all things, in our hearts, mind, soul, and strength, and we love him with all of them. This idea of soberness, let's consider that. What an important concept. And the Bible oftentimes connects this with the idea of drunkenness, uses the opposite picture. For example, in Romans chapter 13, uses the same idea of sanctification, of that putting off and putting on, and teaches us thus to walk as children of light. Besides this, you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, for salvation is nearer to you now than when we first believed. The night is far gone, the day is at hand, so then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. So he says, those who are of the darkness, they walk in these things in drunkenness. They do not control their passions. They do not control the desires of their flesh. But they just give in to all these things. But we are those of light. Put on, therefore, Christ. Put on Christ. Walk in Christ. And in the light of his salvation. And no longer in the darkness. Christians are not those who are groping around in the darkness for lack of light. But the grace of God teaches us, and teaches us soberness, and to live self-controlled. This is the spirit that we have received, right? He's not given us a spirit of fear, but of self-control. This is one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit, to be self-controlled. 1 Peter also emphasizes this need for self-control. And he does so in two ways. In the first way, we need to think of self-control because we need to remember the parables of our Lord Jesus. You remember many parables. You can think of many that apply this same principle. Think of the stewards who were given certain control over the vineyard of their master, over the house of their master. And so they were tending well because they expected that maybe he would come soon. And so they wanted to do their duty. But then whenever he delayed or appeared to have delayed his return, what do they think? He's not coming back. This is our place now. Now we're going to do what we want to do. We're going to beat the servants. We're going to drink the best wine. We're going to take advantage of what is our master's. And then in an hour when they did not expect, Who shows up? The master calling to account these wicked servants. And so we should think in ways that are similar. Or another parable, we should be like the virgins, like the five who had oil, who were ready, who had what they needed, who counted the cost. and waited until the last moment to make sure that they were there for whenever their bridegroom came. And that's what 1 Peter says in chapter 4, verse 7. The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. How different is this message from many ways in which people think of the end times? It's the end. The end is coming, so let's just take advantage of the world as we have it. Let's live in these orgies and sexual immorality and do all these things. Let's give up work. Why go to work if Christ is going to come back? Maybe he comes back before my next paycheck, so why work? That's what they thought in the time of the book of First Thessalonians. Some people got that wrong message from this, but completely the opposite. The end is coming, Christ is soon to return, so let's be faithful to the end. Let's be faithful unto the end, fulfilling the duties that Christ has given us, remembering that we're stewards, right? We're stewards of something that he has given us, so let's be found faithful whenever he returns. and faithful in the first place of our own bodies, of our own lives. We're stewards, as parents, we're stewards of our children. As pastors, we're stewards of our churches. As Christians, we're stewards of God's word and this doctrine that we should adorn. But in the very first place, even our own lives and bodies and time has been given by the Lord. So let's use it for his glory. We should know our limits and we should We should fulfill the responsibilities that God has given us. And so we should live soberly. And this idea of righteous, that he says upright or righteous lives, is that of the righteousness of the law, of fulfilling the law of God towards our neighbor. of not seeking anything that would harm or damage our neighbor in his body, his life, his goods, his marriage, his children, or anything that might belong to him, but rather promoting the blessing of our neighbor. And not only our neighbor in a general sense, but specifically the Bible uses this language to talk of those who are in need, of the orphans and widows, of those who are vulnerable. who maybe don't have someone else to stand up for them, to stand up for those who do not have a voice. That is righteous. That is a righteous thing for God's people to do. And that is something that grace teaches us. And where do we see that most perfectly exemplified? in the life of our Lord Jesus himself. Because remember, this is the grace that has appeared. This is the grace that has been incarnate. And all of these lessons that we learn, we learn from Christ himself. And to live godly lives. To live with God as our chief end, right? We are here for his glory and to enjoy him forever. So this is the first lesson from the school of grace, that we might live in this present age. And however much or however little time is remaining in this present age, that we might live in a way that adorns the gospel. By renouncing the things of sin and of this world and of the flesh, and pursuing that which is of the Spirit and is of Christ. Putting off, fleeing sin, and pursuing righteousness. That is something that grace teaches us. But in the second place, grace teaches us also not only how to live in the present life, but how to prepare for the life to come. That we see in verse 13. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Waiting for our blessed hope. This is something, in a way, it's the manner in which we live in this present world. We live in this present world renouncing and pursuing a godly life while we wait, as we wait expectantly for the blessed hope of Christ himself. That is one of the things that reminds us of that image of the administrators and the servants put over the vineyard. They love their Lord. The true ones, they love, we should love our Lord. And know that we are His stewards and soon He's coming back and we can't wait for Him to come back. We can't wait for Him to come back and to enjoy and to hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. And to be able to be with Him again. This time of parting, though He is with us by His Spirit, we are waiting for a fuller presence, right? That is our hope, that we will be with Christ, we will be with Him, we will see His glory. That is His hope as well, and His prayer to His Father, that we would be with Him, and we would see His glory. We are waiting for a greater hope, a greater presence of our Lord. And as good stewards, instead of saying, oh, he's away finally. Now we get to do what we want to do. We say, oh, I can't wait for him to come back. And I want to have something to prepare for him. I want to have something to present him. I want to show him the faithfulness with which I have managed his goods. Waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The gospel of God brings us great hope. The Christian life, the gospel is not a list of do's and don'ts. Maybe someone might get that wrong idea from the first point, but it is not merely that. Don't do this, do this, and you can be a good Christian. No, this shows more the heart of the true Christian. The true heart of a Christian is this, expectantly waiting the blessed appearing of the glory of Christ. That is what the Christian longs for, and that is what motivates the Christian to obey and to flee unrighteousness. That is what motivates. Simply doing and don'ting in order to check off certain religious boxes or to have a good reputation in the church is not the true Christian, but rather someone who loves Christ, wants to be a faithful steward of Christ, and wants to be with Christ in that new creation wherein righteousness dwells. We have a blessed hope, and truly, the Bible itself is written for hope. Did you know that? The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is so that you might have hope, Christian. Paul says in Romans chapter 15, verse four, that everything that was written before was for our instruction, so that through the comfort and patience of the scriptures, we might have hope. What an incredible thing. We see all throughout scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, a unified story of the glory of Christ, of the salvation of the triune God and his son. What a wonderful reality revealed on every page of Scripture. All of it pointing and centering around Christ to bring glory to God. We see in Scripture from Genesis through Revelation, God giving promises, right? God saying, speaking, showing his plans. But yet at the same time we see him faithfully carrying them out time and time again. And as we think of the promises that he's given to us, We have hope. We have hope that as He fulfilled them time and time again, even whenever it appeared that nothing could make that possible, even whenever it seemed completely impossible, we see that God does the impossible to make sure that His promises are fulfilled. Even whenever Abraham was pretty much dead, whenever the womb of his wife was dead, God brought life to fulfill his promises. Even whenever there was a famine in the land, all of the family was ready to kill one of the children. They were all wicked. God saved his people. God faithfully carries out his word, and sin, the devil, natural disasters, Sickness, sterility, old age, none of these things were a hindrance to God fulfilling his promises. What hope? Because maybe many of you suffer similar things and go through similar tragedies. Because we all live in a fallen world full of tragedy and sickness and pain and suffering. But yet we serve a God who is faithful. And these things cannot stop him from fulfilling his promises. And he's promised you great glory, life, and blessing. Though in this world we suffer long, we have hope in Christ that this is not our home. We have a heavenly citizenship and we are waiting to receive the inheritance that Christ himself has secured for us. So dear Christian, have hope, encouragement from this word, from this lesson of grace, that it teaches us and sometimes teaches us in the moments when we need it most. Teaches it in moments of pain and sorrow and grief. It teaches us that there is hope for the future. There is hope in Christ. That there is a new Adam who does not bring curse, but rather undoes the curse and even brings blessing out of the curse. and only He can do so. We see in this another just little tidbit here, a glorious tidbit of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is one of those key texts that affirms the deity of Christ, the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The special construction in Greek where it's one article and two nouns, the God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And both referring to the same person, Christ, God and Savior. One of many texts, but here a key one that affirms the deity of our Lord Jesus. And so we see the first two lessons from the school of grace. First, it teaches us how to live in this present world and principally that is of repentance, of putting off and putting on. Then it teaches us how to prepare for the future by hoping in Christ. And now it says where to put our confidence. That's the third lesson in verse 14. And you might think, How can that hope be mine? How can that hope of the blessed appearing of Christ be mine? How could I overcome these sins that have so ensnared me for so long? How could I renounce it and put away these things and live in a sober way whenever I live my whole life in sin? And you don't know how terrible my sins have been. How could this be my reality? This is something way too glorious, too far beyond what I could possibly obtain. But it reminds us here. where to put our confidence. The confidence is not in ourselves. It's not we're going to obtain this hope because we're something or we're going to do this and put off these sins and put on righteousness because we're going to pull up ourselves by our bootstraps and we're going to do it on our own strength and we're capable of all these things. but it teaches us to put our confidence completely on Christ. This Christ who we're waiting for is the one who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify us for himself. What an incredible truth. This is, in a way, the essence of the gospel, the work of Christ, how he came, lived a righteous life on behalf of his people, died the death of his people, suffered for the sins of his people, was considered and counted sin so that we might be the righteousness of God in him. and that is the truth here taught by the school of grace. The salvation that we are seeking to adorn, the glory of the gospel that we are hoping for in the future is not something that is from or in us, but it is all through the work of Christ himself. It is he who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify us. This is what it says in the next chapter as well. Now, in chapter three, it talks about the same appearing, but now it's the goodness and loving-kindness of God, while in our text it's the grace of God. In verse four it says, but when the goodness and loving-kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. That's exactly what we're seeing in our text. That we have hope of eternal life, of an inheritance in glory, that we are now being transformed and renouncing sin and putting on righteousness, but all of this is the fruit of what Christ himself has done and grace from God. Not something that comes from us or is on some merit because of something we have done, but according to his own mercy. He has done this work. He has taken hearts of stone and has given hearts of flesh. He has taken dry bones and he has made them men. He has taken dead sinners and he has resurrected them to life again. He has done this work. He has taken sinners who deserve God's wrath and he has declared them righteous on the basis of Christ and his righteousness. He has done the work necessary so that in Christ we might be righteous. In Christ we might be redeemed from the curse of the law. In Christ we might be redeemed from the wrath of God. In Christ we might receive an inheritance of life. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness. From all lawlessness. Remember how I started this with the excuse at the beginning, right? You don't know all the sin that I've done. You don't know what terrible things I've done. How could this be my hope? Do you not see what it said? To redeem us from all lawlessness. Christ is a sufficient Savior. He is a perfect Savior. There's nothing that needs to be added There is no sin too great for his blood to cover. Look to Christ. Look to Christ and find in him the hope for sinners, the only hope for sinners, the only life from death. So that is where we put our confidence, in Him. Not in ourselves, not in some religious activity, not in a preacher, not in anybody else, but only in Christ. And it is Him, and in Him we find all that we need to live the other two lessons. We find in Him the pattern, the perfect pattern for the life of renouncing the things of this world and living soberly, righteously, and godly. Christ, of course, did not have to renounce sins in the same way that we do, seeing sin in himself and then repenting of it. But he truly lived in a way that was renouncing the things of this world. He was never attached to the things of this world. He had his eyes fixed on his father and his father's will. His food, his very food was to do the will of his father. And that is the lesson that he teaches us. He's a perfect pattern for our way of life. He's also the pardon, as we see here, the pardon for our many failures to do such. He is the forgiveness of our sins. That is a glorious reality, the redemption from all lawlessness. But he is also the source of the power of this transformation, the source of the power of this renouncing and putting on godliness, it is through His strength, His power, that we're able to do so. Because it is of His Spirit that we now live and walk. So this is the third lesson that we learn from grace. First, how we are to live in this present world. Two, what we can hope for in the life to come. Three, where we are to put our confidence so that all these things might be the reality. And fourth, it teaches us who we are. It teaches us who we are. It is true that there are a lot of things that define us. There are a lot of things that define our identities. I live in a different culture than where I am from. I look different from everyone else on my block and everyone else who lives in my city. And some of you might experience something similar to that, where you look different from other people. And so that's something that identifies you. It's regardless of how long I live in Ecuador, how well I speak Spanish, how accustomed I am to the culture, to the food, to the way of life there in Ecuador, still someone who walks down the road and they say, hola, gringo. And it's inevitable. It's going to continue to happen forever because I don't look like an Ecuadorian. I look like an American. I look like a gringo. My children, even though they are actually, two of them are Ecuadorian citizens. They look like gringos. They look like, I'm sorry if, in Ecuador, gringo's not bad. So if you're from a place where gringo is bad, I hope I didn't offend you by saying that. But because of that, it's easy to fixate on those things that define us externally. That I am from Arkansas, I'm an Arkansan. or I'm an American, or I'm these certain things. I speak English, or I speak Spanish, or I like this certain football team, or this certain baseball team, or whatever it is, these external things. And this is the group that I identify with, politics and many other things that might define us. But here in the school of grace, we see where our true identity lies. And it says, he gave himself for us to redeem us and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. Above all those other things that might define us, there's something more glorious. And even beyond all those things that might make us differ one from another now. We have male and female. We have old and young. We have maybe some Latinos and maybe some gringos. We have those who speak English as their native language. Maybe some who speak Spanish as their native language. We have people from various spectrum of the socioeconomic order as well. Lots of things that make us different. But we who believe in Christ have something that unites us in a way that is even far more glorious. And that is we are his. We are his. We are his own people. And though you might look completely different from me, speak a different language than me, we can lock arms together as brothers, as sisters, and say he is ours and we are his. My beloved is mine and I am his. That is the language of covenant because glory be to Christ that the new covenant does what the old covenant could not. Exodus chapter 19 verses 5 to 6, God gave glorious promises of exactly this to the people of Israel. He said, now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you will be my special treasure among all peoples. For all the earth is mine, and you will be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." And that language of, I will be your God and you will be my people, is constantly repeated throughout the Old Testament, both with respect to the Old Covenant, as well as in the promises of the coming New Covenant, that you will be my people and I will be your God. But the Old Covenant, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and many other passages, wrote the law of God where? on tables of stone, alone, only on tables of stone. For the vast majority, well, the Old Covenant only wrote on tables of stone, period, though God in His grace did change the heart of certain believers under the Old Covenant, the Old Covenant itself could not do that. The Spirit could, that's a covenant theology discussion, maybe for a different time, but the Old Covenant only wrote the law of God in tables of stone, external to the individual. And so, God himself says in Deuteronomy chapter 5, after listing, again, the Ten Commandments and the chief commandment of them to love God, he then says, Oh, that they had a heart. Oh, that they had a heart to love me. So that it might go well with them. Oh, that they had a heart to love me. But the old covenant could not give that heart. The Old Covenant only commanded externally, and therefore all those who lived under it, the best that they could obtain was certain physical, temporal blessings, but never the true life and blessing of being God's true eternal people. They could not obtain such blessing because they could not obey the law perfectly. They did not have that heart. And consistently all throughout the Old Testament, we see Example after example of how the sin of the people under this covenant kept them from the true blessing of it. Think about the book of Judges. How it seemed that the problem was these external nations, right? Maybe one would think that. And in the time of Christ, they thought that. The problem is Rome. But the problem was always the heart. The problem was always that they did not have a heart to love God. And because they were not faithful to God, they were thus treated this way by other nations. It was whenever they were faithful to God that no matter how big the other army was and how small their army was, God was gonna win, period. But because of sin, they frequently suffered from these other nations. But throughout the Old Testament, not only did we witness the failure of the Old Covenant, but that failure is documented in a way that points us forward to the coming of a new covenant. Deuteronomy did not end with that cry of, oh, that they would have a heart, and I don't know where it's gonna come from. But God himself concludes the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 30, saying exactly what his plans are. Though they're going to receive the curses of this covenant, it says at the beginning of the chapter, God is going to restore his people and he's going to do what? He's going to circumcise their hearts. What at this point was only external, God is going to make internal in a new covenant in the future through that prophet like Moses. And we see all throughout the Old Testament this very hope of one day the king who has been promised, the new prophet who has been promised will come and will bring this new covenant in which the true blessing of the creation restored will be experienced. For example, in Ezekiel 36 and 37, it talks about exactly this. It talks about how the creation was destroyed by sin. And because of sin, the creation itself suffered. And how that happened because of the people and how their hearts were far from the Lord. But that the Lord would send His Spirit and would purify His people and would give them a new heart. And then in chapter 37 it says, This is the language used in chapter 31 of Jeremiah as well, where it promises a new covenant. in which they all will know the Lord, in which everyone will know the Lord, and the law will be written where? Not any longer just on tables of stone, but now written on the heart. And that's what the new covenant does. Whenever the old covenant was only, because of its tables of stone, only an administration of death, the new covenant comes with power, with life, with justification, because it comes with a better mediator, better promises, and the spirit to change the heart. And because of that reality, we can now lay claim to those glorious promises of God. He is our Father and we are His children. He is our God and we are His people. He is ours and we are His. What a precious reality. And whenever God spoke this way, it's not just us saying to God, you are our Father, you are our God, but God says to us, I am your father and you are my children. What a precious thing. It's easy to think of it positively whenever we think about us to God, because of course we want God to be our father, but to think that because of this covenant relationship in which we now stand justified through Christ, he with joy says to us, child, as in Hebrews chapter 12, whenever God, the author of Hebrews speaks of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And it says that God had prepared a city for them. Something beyond just the limits of Canaan, they were looking for a heavenly kingdom, a heavenly city whose builder and maker was God. And because God had prepared a city for them, what does it say? He was not ashamed to call himself the God of them. He was not ashamed to call himself the God of them. And of course, referring to that glorious covenant name that God took upon himself after their death, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. God called himself this. Because He had prepared a place for them and because He was not ashamed to call Himself the God of them. And in a similar way, God is not ashamed to call Himself the God of those who are in the New Covenant. God does not shy away from identifying himself with his people who are redeemed in Christ because he has done all that is necessary for them to be his rightful children, to be his chosen nation, his treasured people. Whenever the book of Zechariah talks about this new covenant reality, he says that God is going to gather his people as a king gathers the jewels to make his crown. What a precious thing. And this is the identity. This is who you are if you have believed in Christ. If you have thus been taught of grace, this is who you are. Beyond being an American, beyond being an immigrant, beyond being a Republican, you are Christ's. What a wonderful title. You are his and he is yours. The fairest of 10,000 is yours. And he rejoices to call himself yours. And he prays as he does in John chapter 17 that we would be with him and we would see his glory. That is the love thus poured out upon us in the new covenant. And that is the love thus taught to us by grace. But now we go to the final part, the final lesson, which actually is not a lesson like the others, but something that shows us something that undergirds all the others. It says there at the end, to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Note that last phrase, zealous for good works. Whenever Christ found you, saved you, called you, how zealous for good works were you? Maybe, Some of you, maybe you were in that where you were trying, maybe an external hypocritical righteousness, you were trying to do the right things, but you just realized finally that it wasn't about your own works, but rather trusting in Christ. But for many of us, far from being zealous for good works, we had been devoted to sin. We had been devoted to the lust of the flesh, the pride of the eyes. the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. We've been given to sin, devoted to sin, worshipers of sin. Taken captive by the enemy to fulfill his every bidding. Dancing to the beat of his drum. But now we are a people zealous for good works. And that teaches us something wonderful about this school of grace. Y'all have an institute here. Y'all see I'm still Southern. Y'all have an institute here of training men and training, I'm not sure exactly who's all involved in that, but training Christians who want to understand theology, who want to understand the Bible better. We have, that's one of our main ministries, which I'm gonna talk here in a few minutes, our pastor school where we're training men who want to be ministers. And maybe some of you are teachers in a public or private school or homeschool situation where you're training and teaching others. But one of the most frustrating things about teaching is that we are so limited as human teachers. We can give the best information. We can use the best illustrations. We can do little activities to try to make the things understood better. We can take tests. We can give quizzes. We can give assigned papers. We can do all sorts of things to try to make sure that the people get it, and that the students understand, and that it has changed them, and that they now apply it properly, and that they're producing the fruit that we want. We can do everything within our power, but we can't actually change anybody. We can give the information, we can test and evaluate, but we can't transform hearts. We can fulfill minds, but we are limited to give power for real change. And if you are in a teaching situation, or maybe as a student, you felt that frustration. You're like, I had good professors, good teachers, but I just didn't get it. It was just frustrating. I just couldn't get it. No matter how many times they explained it to me, I just couldn't get it. And that's because we are limited. We're limited. But grace is not limited. Grace comes with power. Grace is not a school merely that teaches you certain things for your mind. to stimulate your mind, to try to motivate you externally. But grace comes from the inside, changes you completely, washes you through the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, the renewal of the Holy Spirit, and makes you a new creature. The school of grace is a school of transformation, where there is true power to make sinners whole, to make dead alive, to make sick Well, to make sinners righteous. The school of grace transforms us. Where we were once devoted to sin, it makes us now zealous for good works. Whenever we once devoted ourselves to the things of this world and unleashing our passions on the goods of this world, we now seek to do good for the glory of God. And that's something only grace can do. That's something only grace can accomplish. The best pastor, the best seminary professor, the best Sunday school teacher can't change a child or a congregant or anybody. but the gospel of grace has that power. The gospel has that power, and it has done that in our lives, and it also can do that in the lives of others. So as a teacher, think about that. Try to be an instrument of that grace, an instrument so that God might show his power through you, and don't depend solely upon yourself. Depend upon his grace, and not just being the best teacher. Of course, seek to be the best teacher, but realize that the true power comes from God. So we see here this wonderful lesson that teaches us to depend upon grace for everything. We do not learn these lessons and then we leave from the school of grace and we say, okay, now I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna apply those things I learned in the grace school and now I'm gonna be a good Christian, I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna do these things. But yet the school of grace teaches us to go constantly in dependence upon grace. It is grace that strengthens us. It is grace that changes us. It is grace that opens our eyes to see sin in our hearts. It is grace that gives us strength to put it to death. And it is grace that gives us the strength to give life to righteousness in its place. It's grace that gives us comfort and hope in the midst of sin and suffering. It's grace that paints Christ as a picture before us and conforms us to his image. It's grace that works in us so that others too might know of that grace and might too flow and be zealous for good works. And being zealous for good works leads us to one another. As the book of Hebrews says, to stimulate, motivate one another unto good works. Or as chapter three says, the saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. We've believed in grace, we believe the gospel, but that faith produces fruit. That faith comes accompanied by fruit. And that fruit is produced by grace. And that fruit shows Christ. It comes from Christ, it's patterned on Christ, and is strengthened by Christ. So as we learn from the school of grace, let us put all of our eyes upon Christ. Let us depend upon his grace for everything. And let us see the glory of the gospel that has saved us. That gives us the forgiveness of sin. that gives us strength and power for every day to fight the sins of every day. It gives us hope to endure the sufferings of every day. And it gives us a new name, a new identity by which we identify ourselves with Christ. And we rejoice to be called His and to call Him ours, to be called His. And we expectantly hope for the day whenever we will be reunited with Him whom we love. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your grace and this instruction from the School of Grace. May you, in your grace, apply it to our hearts. Even this sermon must be worked and put into our hearts by grace, transforming our hearts and our minds and our lives by your strength. Please help us to see more and more the glory of Christ and hold him ever before our eyes so that we might put our eyes there, think upon him where he is seated, and where one day, too, we will be with him. And we will be with him. And as he is, we will be also. May you be glorified in this teaching and in the lives of my brothers and sisters here. In Christ's name.