Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Hope for Eternal Life Is the Basis of Godliness Titus 1:1–4, Part 6

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Hope for Eternal Life Is the Basis of Godliness Titus 1:1–4, Part 6 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: This is session number six on Titus one one four Paul,
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  Speaker 1: a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: for the sake of the faith of God's elect and
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  Speaker 1: knowledge of the truth which accords with his knowledge. Here
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  Speaker 1: of the truth accords with brings about is in harmony
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  Speaker 1: with godliness, a rightly directed reverence of the heart, a
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  Speaker 1: seriousness of life under God, overflowing in a piety of life,
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  Speaker 1: certain religious practices that are appropriate, and certain good work,
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  Speaker 1: all of that flowing from faith that yields greater knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of the truth which sets you free from ungodliness. Now,
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  Speaker 1: in this session we focus on upon the hope, sometimes
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  Speaker 1: translated in hope, which is a little more ambiguous. This
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  Speaker 1: phrase here will argue is a basis. Hope is the
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  Speaker 1: basis of what's gone before, upon the hope of eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: which God, who never lies, promised before the times of
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  Speaker 1: the ages, and at the proper time manifested his word
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  Speaker 1: through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by
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  Speaker 1: the command of God our Savior, to Titus, my true child,
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  Speaker 1: in a common faith. Gray and peace from God the
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  Speaker 1: Father and Christ Jesus our Savior Father. As we try
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  Speaker 1: to understand the relationship between hope and faith and hope
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  Speaker 1: and the knowledge of the truth and hope and godliness,
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  Speaker 1: and what that little word right there means, and how
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  Speaker 1: the hope is eternal life from a God who cannot
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  Speaker 1: and never does lie. Grant O Lord, that we would
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  Speaker 1: find ourselves rock solid confident in such hope of eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: And may it have all the difference in our lives
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  Speaker 1: in producing this kind of godliness. And pray this in
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  Speaker 1: Jesus name. Amen. First, just a thought about the term
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  Speaker 1: hope of eternal life. You know, hope you can think
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  Speaker 1: of separately from its object and know it as an
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  Speaker 1: experience of the heart. I sure hope, I hope meaning
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  Speaker 1: you feel expectant confidence. That's a feeling. Hope is a
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  Speaker 1: feeling of the heart, confidence in the heart. And eternal
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  Speaker 1: life is an objective reality that we've begun to taste
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  Speaker 1: and will last forever and ever in the presence of God.
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  Speaker 1: And when you put the two together, you get the
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  Speaker 1: hope of eternal life. So it's not just saying upon
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  Speaker 1: eternal life or upon hope, not just upon an experience,
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  Speaker 1: not just upon and reality that's out there that we
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  Speaker 1: may not ever attain, but rather upon that reality confidently
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  Speaker 1: hoped for. That's the totality of the basis. Now basis
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  Speaker 1: in what way? How are we to understand the relationship
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  Speaker 1: between this hope for eternal life and what goes before.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps it's just grounding. Godliness accords with godliness upon the hope,
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  Speaker 1: So godliness is built on hope. That would be true.
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  Speaker 1: Or it might be that both are included. Knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the truth is on the basis of our hope, or
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  Speaker 1: it might be all of them faith on the basis
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  Speaker 1: of hope. That might seem strange. But let me just
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  Speaker 1: think out loud with you for a moment about the
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  Speaker 1: function of hope in relation to things like faith, knowledge
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  Speaker 1: of truth, godliness. For example, here's Colossians one. We heard
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  Speaker 1: of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love,
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  Speaker 1: faith and love that you have for all the saints,
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  Speaker 1: because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.
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  Speaker 1: So in some sense, hope here, for what's laid up
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  Speaker 1: in heaven is the ground of love, or you could
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  Speaker 1: say godliness, and in some sense perhaps even the basis
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  Speaker 1: of faith. Now that that strangeness is picked up here
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  Speaker 1: in Romans four, here's Abraham being promised by God when
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  Speaker 1: he's one hundred years old and his wife is barren,
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  Speaker 1: that he's going to have a child. Will he believe him?
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  Speaker 1: Will we hope in that God gives life to the
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  Speaker 1: dead and calls into existence things that are not things
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  Speaker 1: that do not exist. So take heart the promise of God. God,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to come true, Abraham in hope. Now that's
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  Speaker 1: exactly the same phrase as we have here in Titus
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  Speaker 1: one on hope, translated here in you say, on the
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  Speaker 1: basis of hope, Abraham believed against hope. Now I think
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  Speaker 1: against hope there means considering his age and his wife's barrenness.
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  Speaker 1: There's a real problem in having hope, But he had
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  Speaker 1: it anyway. There's a real problem believing this promise. So
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  Speaker 1: shall your offspring be when you can't have any offspring
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  Speaker 1: in any natural way, and you've got to believe in
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  Speaker 1: this absolute promise of God. So on the basis of hope,
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  Speaker 1: Abraham believed. So it's not so strange that believing is
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  Speaker 1: in some sense grounded on hope. Now, how in the
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  Speaker 1: world are we to think about that? So here's Hebrews
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  Speaker 1: eleven one. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for.
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  Speaker 1: Now there is the direct connection spelled out for us
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  Speaker 1: by the author to the Hebrews, faith is the sometimes
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  Speaker 1: translated assurance substance. My interpretation of this is that when
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  Speaker 1: your hope is fixed firmly on something futures, like it
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  Speaker 1: says in chapter twelve, verse two of Hebrews that for
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  Speaker 1: the joy that was set before him, Jesus endured the cross.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus hoped firmly in the joy that was set before him,
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  Speaker 1: And that hope is in substance taste now by faith,
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  Speaker 1: faith lays hold on and experiences the reality that is
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  Speaker 1: hoped for. So there's a shall we say, an interpenetration
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  Speaker 1: of faith and hope. You really can't separate the two,
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  Speaker 1: or even thoroughly. I don't think distinguish the two. They're
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  Speaker 1: not identical because faith, you can put believe something that's
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  Speaker 1: in the past, like I trust that Jesus died for
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  Speaker 1: my sins is not a nonsense statement and refers to
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  Speaker 1: the past. But hope is always future oriented. So faith
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  Speaker 1: in its future dimension, when it looks to the future,
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  Speaker 1: is experienced as hope. So I don't think it's nonsense
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  Speaker 1: to apply hope here to the entire unit. Here Paul
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  Speaker 1: exists as an apostle to bring about faith leading to
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  Speaker 1: a fuller knowledge of the truth, leading to Godliness, And
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  Speaker 1: all of it is rooted in the firm, confident hope
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  Speaker 1: that we will live forever with God, and there is
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  Speaker 1: joy at his right hand and pleasures forever more. And
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  Speaker 1: faith tastes that hope. Faith is the substance and the
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  Speaker 1: assurance of that hope. This knowledge is resting on that hope.
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  Speaker 1: This godliness is flowing from that hope, as we saw
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  Speaker 1: here in calutions, where love is because of hope. When
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  Speaker 1: you have a strong hope, you're freed from anxiety and greed,
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  Speaker 1: and you're able to be free to love other people
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  Speaker 1: or be a godly, God centered people loving person. One
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  Speaker 1: more thing before we stop upon hope of eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: which God who never lies promised. I'm going to look
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  Speaker 1: at this next time before the ages, but let's just
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  Speaker 1: pause and end on this thought here, God who never lies.
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  Speaker 1: Why did Paul say that we who are Christians or
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  Speaker 1: have been Christians for a long time and know our
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  Speaker 1: Bibles say, well, of course God never lies. That's that's
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  Speaker 1: not even up for grabs. Or quite why would you
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  Speaker 1: say that, Paul? Here's a suggestion. A little bit later,
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  Speaker 1: chapter one, verse twelve, Paul's going to say this. Now
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  Speaker 1: he's writing to Titus on the island of Crete, and
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  Speaker 1: he says one of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said,
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  Speaker 1: Cretans are always liars. So let's just stop there and
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  Speaker 1: ponder why would why would Paul draw attention to that?
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  Speaker 1: And one reason is because it is so prevalent. Lying
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  Speaker 1: is so prevalent in the culture on Crete. Their gods
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  Speaker 1: lied and the people lied, and so it is not
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  Speaker 1: to be taken for granted at that point that God
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  Speaker 1: is not one of those kinds of gods or one
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  Speaker 1: of those kinds of liars. So he draws attention to
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  Speaker 1: how different God is from the habits of the Cretans. Now,
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  Speaker 1: next time, he promised this before the times of the ages?
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  Speaker 1: Why would Paul say that? What does it even mean
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  Speaker 1: when you promise something before there's anybody there to promise
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  Speaker 1: it to