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Why Was Eternal Life Promised Before Time Titus 1:1–4, Part 7 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: This is session number seven of Titus one one four,
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  Speaker 1: And what we're going to focus on is one of
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  Speaker 1: the most interesting and amazing parts of this text. I
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  Speaker 1: think named me that God promised eternal life before the
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  Speaker 1: times of the ages. Paul, a slave of God and
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  Speaker 1: an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the
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  Speaker 1: faith of God's elect and knowledge of the truth which
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  Speaker 1: accords with Godliness, upon the hope of eternal life. So
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  Speaker 1: eternal life which God, who never lies, promised. So this
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  Speaker 1: eternal life and our hope for it was promised before
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  Speaker 1: the times of the a and at the proper time
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  Speaker 1: was manifested. Father, would you illumine our minds to feel
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  Speaker 1: the force of your promise before there was a universe,
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  Speaker 1: before there was time, that you were going to give
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  Speaker 1: eternal life to your people. Let the implication of that,
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  Speaker 1: as Paul intended it take root in our lives very deeply,
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  Speaker 1: upright in Jesus' name. Amen. So let me draw this
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  Speaker 1: for you. Here's eternity, past, eternity future. Here's eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: and here's the promise of eternal life. And what Paul
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  Speaker 1: is saying here is that. And here here's creation. Here's
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  Speaker 1: where the times of the ages is the way of saying,
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  Speaker 1: before creation, before time, before any ages at all had begun,
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  Speaker 1: and all the times that make up those ages, before
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  Speaker 1: any of that, God promised eternal life. And so from
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  Speaker 1: eternity to eternity, the existence of eternal life and God's
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  Speaker 1: plan to grant it is certain. That's one implication, isn't it.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if he planned it here to here is certain,
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  Speaker 1: it is sure, or let's spell that out it is not.
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  Speaker 1: Or it did not originate from any historical circumstances. So
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  Speaker 1: God didn't create a world and then a little way
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  Speaker 1: into the world things developed in such a way he said,
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  Speaker 1: I got to make a plan for eternal life because
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  Speaker 1: they've lost their life in the Garden of Eden and
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  Speaker 1: nothing like that. It didn't originate from any historical circumstances.
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  Speaker 1: Or say it another way, it does not does not
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  Speaker 1: depend The plan for eternal life does not depend finally
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  Speaker 1: or decisively on before there was any man, or any creation,
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  Speaker 1: or any universe, any galaxies, any sin. God says there
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  Speaker 1: will be eternal life for my people. Surely the reason
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  Speaker 1: for saying something so strange, At least one of the
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  Speaker 1: reasons is to say to us. With all the circumstantial
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  Speaker 1: upheavals of life, and all the exigencies of history, and
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  Speaker 1: all the changes and all the ebb and flow of reality,
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  Speaker 1: it's all the irrelevant to where eternal life and God's
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  Speaker 1: plan for it came from. Now, let's bring some more
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  Speaker 1: clarity to this by looking at some similar texts. Here's
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  Speaker 1: Siwo Timothy one nine. God saved us and called us
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  Speaker 1: to a holy calling, not because of works done, but
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  Speaker 1: because not because our works, but because of his own
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  Speaker 1: purpose and grace. Now, what is grace Grace's undeserved favor
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  Speaker 1: ill deserved favor, God doing good when we don't deserve it,
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  Speaker 1: when we're sinful, because of His own purpose and grace,
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  Speaker 1: which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.
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  Speaker 1: So there's the exact same idea. Grace including now the
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  Speaker 1: grace of eternal life was given before the ages began.
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  Speaker 1: Only now it's clear that it's given to people who
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  Speaker 1: don't deserve it. So God planned a salvation from guilt
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  Speaker 1: and ill desert called grace including now eternal life. Here's
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  Speaker 1: a description of that in Ephesians one. God chose us
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  Speaker 1: in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we
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  Speaker 1: should be wholly and blameless before him, in before him
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  Speaker 1: in love. He predestined us for adoption to himself as
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  Speaker 1: sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
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  Speaker 1: to the praise of his glorious grace. Grace meaning all
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  Speaker 1: this planned out was planned for sinners. We needed to
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  Speaker 1: be in Christ in order to be saved. He was
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  Speaker 1: going to make sinners holy and blameless. He was going
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  Speaker 1: to adopt into Im for himself, into his family as
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  Speaker 1: sons through Jesus Christ and his atoning work sinners. This
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  Speaker 1: was his purpose us before the foundation of the world.
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  Speaker 1: It gets even clearer here in Revelation thirteen eight, All
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  Speaker 1: who dwell on the earth will worship the Beast, describing
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  Speaker 1: the end times. Everyone whose name has not been written
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  Speaker 1: before the foundation of the world. Written where before the
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  Speaker 1: foundation of the world? In the book what book? The
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  Speaker 1: book of life of the lamb who was slain, that's
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  Speaker 1: crucifixion of Christ. In other words, a lamb was going
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  Speaker 1: to need to be slaughtered for sinners so that they
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  Speaker 1: could be preserved from worshiping the beast and could inherit
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. All of that planned as he promises eternal
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  Speaker 1: life before the times of the ages. Now, just to
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  Speaker 1: be really clear, when he promised eternal life before the
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  Speaker 1: times of the ages, that means he promised everything that
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  Speaker 1: it took to bring about eternal life for sinners. And
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  Speaker 1: we see that in one Timothy one sixteen. Well, let's
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  Speaker 1: go to Titus three. First Titus three five to seven.
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  Speaker 1: God saved us not because of works done by us
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  Speaker 1: in righteousness, but according to his own mercy or grace,
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  Speaker 1: by the washing of regeneration, renewal of the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 1: whom we poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: our savior, so that being justified by his grace, we
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  Speaker 1: might become heirs in the hope of eternal life. In
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  Speaker 1: other words, we become heirs of eternal life. By all
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  Speaker 1: of this happening. There is no eternal life apart from regeneration.
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  Speaker 1: There's no eternal life apart from renewal of the Holy Spirit.
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  Speaker 1: There's no eternal life except Jesus Christ becoming a savior.
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  Speaker 1: There's no eternal life apart from justification by grace. We
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  Speaker 1: become heirs because of all of that. Therefore, when he
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  Speaker 1: says he promised eternal life before the times of the ages.
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  Speaker 1: He promised there would be regeneration for God's people, there
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  Speaker 1: would be renewal in the Holy Spirit, there would be
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  Speaker 1: a Jesus Christ crucified who would become a savior. There
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  Speaker 1: would be justification by his grace through faith. As it
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  Speaker 1: makes clear here in one Timothy one sixteen, I received
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  Speaker 1: mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example
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  Speaker 1: to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: That's the way we receive and become heirs of eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: We believe in Christ, who accomplished all of this for us.
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  Speaker 1: So here's the amazing thing, this eternal life, which is
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  Speaker 1: the hoped for foundation of the faith of God's elect
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  Speaker 1: and knowledge of the truth, a life of Godliness. That
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  Speaker 1: eternal life is absolutely sure, absolutely certain, because it was
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  Speaker 1: promised before there were any historical circumstances that could bring
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  Speaker 1: it about, and therefore no historical circumstances can undo it.
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  Speaker 1: This is a promise from eternity to eternity, and therefore,
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  Speaker 1: when we believe in Jesus Christ, we are being grafted
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  Speaker 1: into an absolutely sure plan. This is a plan and
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  Speaker 1: the plan began before the times of the Ages. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: nothing that happens in the Ages surprises God. He saw
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  Speaker 1: it all, and he planned it all. He means for
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  Speaker 1: us to feel the force of the certainty and the
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  Speaker 1: surety of God's eternal purposes and our part in them.