Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / If No One Seeks God, How Is Anyone Saved?

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If No One Seeks God, How Is Anyone Saved? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: A week ago in Abja twenty one, twenty nine, we
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  Speaker 1: heard from Bethany, an eighteen year old wrestling with how
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  Speaker 1: she could have been an enemy of God despite her
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  Speaker 1: lifelong Christian upbringing and lack of any conscious opposition to him.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, you related to her stories your story too,
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  Speaker 1: and you explained how enmity with God is both a
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  Speaker 1: human and divine issue, and that our true condition outside
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  Speaker 1: of Christ is revealed not merely through personal memory and experience,
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  Speaker 1: but through God's word, which exposes the depth of our
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  Speaker 1: sin in our separation from Him, even when we don't
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  Speaker 1: feel it personally. That episode last Monday connects to today's
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  Speaker 1: question on This Monday from Monica, a twenty year old
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  Speaker 1: woman from Albania, reflecting on our Bible readings from the
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  Speaker 1: first ten days of March. Hello, Pastor John, and thank
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  Speaker 1: you for leading us through the Bible on the podcast
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  Speaker 1: and through Roman in March. I am new to the
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  Speaker 1: faith and joined my first Bible reading with you last year,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm doing it again in twenty twenty five. That
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  Speaker 1: is wonderful to hear, Monica, Thank you for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: This discipline reminds me there's so much I don't understand.
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  Speaker 1: But one thing I do know is that sinners refuse
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  Speaker 1: to come to God. That became clear in last March's readings,
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  Speaker 1: including Psalm fifty three, Romans and Matthew twenty three. Of course,
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel is a wide open offer to all, as
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  Speaker 1: I read in Romans t one sixteen, But God looks
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  Speaker 1: down to find someone who seeks him, and none do,
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  Speaker 1: none do According to Psalm fifty three to two. The
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  Speaker 1: same point is repeated in Romans three eleven. No one
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  Speaker 1: seeks after God. Romans five 't ten even says that
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  Speaker 1: we were enemies of God. And in the Gospels we
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  Speaker 1: see Jesus weep over Jerusalem because they refuse to come
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  Speaker 1: to him. In Matthew twenty three, Verses thirty seven and
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  Speaker 1: thirty eight, to be a sinner seems utterly hopeless. If
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  Speaker 1: there's such a strong theme of sinners who cannot come
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  Speaker 1: to God, how does salvation even happen?
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  Speaker 2: Some of our listeners will think, Wow, that's a really
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  Speaker 2: basic question. Certainly is, and I think it is really
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  Speaker 2: good for us to regularly turn to very basic questions
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  Speaker 2: and see whether or not we have moved so far
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  Speaker 2: beyond the basics that we're not able to explain the
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  Speaker 2: basics anymore. Yes, that's a real good test. So Monica
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  Speaker 2: has read her Bible carefully enough to see that sin
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  Speaker 2: is really serious, not only because it offends God, but
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  Speaker 2: because it enslaves people. She sees that so much so
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  Speaker 2: that in Romans three eleven she points out, no one understands,
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  Speaker 2: no one seeks for God. And so she asks, well,
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  Speaker 2: if there's such a strong theme of sinners who cannot
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  Speaker 2: come to God, those are words, how does salvation happen?
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  Speaker 2: And it is a really good question, because Jesus says
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  Speaker 2: in John six thirty seven, whoever comes to me, I'll
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  Speaker 2: never cast out, in verse thirty five, whoever comes to
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  Speaker 2: me shall not hunger, who ever believes in me shall
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  Speaker 2: never thirst, and Revelation twenty two seventeen, whosoever will let
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  Speaker 2: him take of the water of life freely. So Monica
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  Speaker 2: sees accurately in the Bible that on the one hand,
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  Speaker 2: there is a free gospel offer, and we must exercise
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  Speaker 2: our will and come to Jesus in order to be
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  Speaker 2: saved and have eternal life. She sees that it's there,
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  Speaker 2: And on the other hand, she sees sin is so
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  Speaker 2: deep and so powerful, and our will is so anti God,
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  Speaker 2: so enslaved to sin that we cannot come. Our will
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  Speaker 2: not has become a cannot, it is so deep. Romans
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  Speaker 2: eighty seven says, the mind of the flesh is hostile
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  Speaker 2: to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed,
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  Speaker 2: it cannot. That's how deep the will not has gone
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  Speaker 2: to become a cannot, a moral cannot. So Monica is
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  Speaker 2: asking an absolutely basic and important question. Amen, thank you,
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  Speaker 2: good for me to think about this. And in the
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  Speaker 2: history of the Church, this question has been answered two
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  Speaker 2: different ways. One way is to say, well, it's just
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  Speaker 2: a mistake to believe that the Bible says humans are
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  Speaker 2: so enslaved to sin that they can't use their wills
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  Speaker 2: to believe that's a mistake. Or variation on this view
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  Speaker 2: is to say that, well, yes, the will is that enslaved,
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  Speaker 2: but God provides a kind of universal grace to everybody
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  Speaker 2: and overcomes that impossibility of believing for everybody and puts
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  Speaker 2: everybody in a position where they are now able to
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  Speaker 2: use their ultimately self determining will to believe or not
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  Speaker 2: to believe. So both of those versions of that view
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  Speaker 2: insists that human beings must have ultimate self determination, or
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  Speaker 2: another way to say it would be they must have
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  Speaker 2: humans must have decisive self determination in order to be
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  Speaker 2: responsible moral human agents. Now that's an assumption, it's a presupposition,
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  Speaker 2: and it governs the view. Or to put it in
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  Speaker 2: another way, the view says man must be finally decisive
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  Speaker 2: in the creation of his faith, not God. And decisive
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  Speaker 2: is the right word. Decisive is an important word here
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  Speaker 2: because I'm not saying that they deny divine influence, but
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  Speaker 2: at the moment of conversion, when a person passes from
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  Speaker 2: death to life, from unbelief to belief, whose influence is
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  Speaker 2: finally decisive, and they say the human person performs the
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  Speaker 2: decisive action, not God. Now, I think that view is
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  Speaker 2: not what the Bible teaches. I think that view is
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  Speaker 2: governed by a presupposition and assumption brought to the Bible
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  Speaker 2: not gotten from the Bible, namely, the assumption that human
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  Speaker 2: beings simply must have ultimate, decisive self determination, at least
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  Speaker 2: at the point of conversion, if they are going to
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  Speaker 2: be morally responsible. And I think when you bring that presupposition,
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  Speaker 2: that assumption to the Bible, it distorts what the Bible teaches.
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  Speaker 2: It forces the Bible to say things that it does
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  Speaker 2: not say, and it denies that the Bible says things
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  Speaker 2: it does say. The other view of how we are
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  Speaker 2: to get saved, How we get saved when our sin
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  Speaker 2: is so deep and so powerful that it makes coming
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  Speaker 2: to Christ humanly impossible is this would be what I
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  Speaker 2: believe the Bible teaches. God overcomes that impossibility and brings
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  Speaker 2: us decisively to faith and to union with Christ for salvation.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, start to finish eternity to eternity. Our
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  Speaker 2: salvation is a gift of God, a work of God.
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  Speaker 2: And by calling it a work of God, we don't
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  Speaker 2: mean there's nothing we do like believing and living a
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  Speaker 2: life of faithful obedience. Rather, what we mean is that
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  Speaker 2: our believing and our obedience are enabled worked in us
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  Speaker 2: by the spirit of God. Like Hebrews thirteen twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: He is working in us what is pleasing in his sight.
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  Speaker 2: We believe this because of text like these Jesus, all
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  Speaker 2: that the Father gives me will come to me, And
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  Speaker 2: whoever comes to me I will never cast out. No
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  Speaker 2: one can come to me unless the Father who sent
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  Speaker 2: me draws him. This is why I told you that
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  Speaker 2: no one can come to me unless it is granted
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  Speaker 2: to him by the Father. That's John six point thirty seven,
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  Speaker 2: forty four and sixty five, really important chapter. So we
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  Speaker 2: must come in order to be saved. And the reason
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  Speaker 2: anyone comes to Christ is because God, in his undeserved grace,
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  Speaker 2: overcomes our deadness and draws us to Christ. That's the
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  Speaker 2: miracle of the new birth, as the New Testament calls it.
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  Speaker 2: And that new birth makes faith happen. Here's first John
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  Speaker 2: five to one. Everyone who believes has faith. Everyone who
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  Speaker 2: has faith has been born of God. The new birth,
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  Speaker 2: which God performs by the spirit, precedes and brings about believing.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a work of the spirit. We were dead,
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  Speaker 2: we could not make ourselves alive, and He made us
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  Speaker 2: alive Ephesians two five. Even when we were dead in
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  Speaker 2: our trespasses did God made us alive together with Christ
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  Speaker 2: because of the great love with which He loved us.
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  Speaker 2: For by grace you have been saved through faith. This
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  Speaker 2: is not your own doing. It is the gift of God.
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  Speaker 2: We are God's workmanship, created by God in Christ Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: That's Ephesians two five through eight. We don't cause ourselves
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  Speaker 2: to be born. We don't cause ourselves to be created.
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  Speaker 2: We don't make ourselves alive. This is the work of
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  Speaker 2: God's saving grace. So, Monica, The way your salvation happened,
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  Speaker 2: the way all salvation happens, was that when you were
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  Speaker 2: dead in your trespasses, before you were born again, before
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  Speaker 2: you were in new creation, before you had been made alive,
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  Speaker 2: you were willfully resistant to God's truth, whatever age you were,
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  Speaker 2: and your inability to come to him was blameworthy and
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  Speaker 2: deserving of wrath. But God, that great phrase and Ephesians
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  Speaker 2: two four. But God, in his great love for you,
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  Speaker 2: you in particular, made you alive, caused you to be
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  Speaker 2: born again, made you a new creation, gave you the
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  Speaker 2: gift of repentance, as it says in said Timothy to
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  Speaker 2: twenty five, and the gift of faith, as it says
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  Speaker 2: in Ephesians two eight. And He did it this way
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  Speaker 2: so that you and all of us, all of his people,
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  Speaker 2: would not take any credit for our salvation, but would
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  Speaker 2: praise the glory of His grace forever, end.
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  Speaker 1: Ever, the gift of faith. Amen, so precious, Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: pastor John. And if you want more on what happens
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  Speaker 1: to us in the miracle of our new birth. Pastor
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  Speaker 1: John wrote a whole book to explain what's going on
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  Speaker 1: here in these spiritual dimensions, and it is a gem,
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  Speaker 1: a wonderful book. I highly recommend it to all of you.
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  Speaker 1: It's titled Finally Alive Finally Alive by John Piper, and
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  Speaker 1: you can find it at Desiring Good dot org, Forward
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  Speaker 1: slash Books, Desiring Good dot org, Forward slash Books. Thank you,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today. Have a
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  Speaker 1: question to ask Pastor John. Find a link to email
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  Speaker 1: us and find our complete episode archive at askpastor John
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  Speaker 1: dot com. Every single episode with audio and full transcripts
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  Speaker 1: of Veil there for you twenty four to seven. Several
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  Speaker 1: Bible passages suggest to us that while God reveals a
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  Speaker 1: lot to us, he doesn't reveal everything to us. The
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  Speaker 1: secret things belong to the Lord. But Paul celebrates the
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  Speaker 1: Gospel as a once hidden mystery now revealed to the nations.
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  Speaker 1: So Matt from Concord, New Hampshire wants to know how
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  Speaker 1: much of the Christian faith is revealed to us and
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  Speaker 1: how much of it remains a veiled mystery even to
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  Speaker 1: us right now? Interesting question up next. I'm Tony RANKI
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  Speaker 1: see on Thursday