Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Eagerly Awaiting Our Gladsome Hope Titus 2:11–15, Part 4

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Eagerly Awaiting Our Gladsome Hope Titus 2:11–15, Part 4 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is part four on Titus two eleven to fifteen,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: For the Grace of God has appeared. That's going to
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: be relevant because while this is a verb here, the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: noun form occurs here. This is what happens in the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: incarnation when Jesus shows up as a baby and becomes human,
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  Speaker 1: entering the world, and this is what happened when he appears,
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  Speaker 1: what happens when he appears as second time at the
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: end of this age, the present age, for the Grace
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training
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  Speaker 1: us to renounce, or training us in order that, having
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: renounced on godliness and worldly desires, we may live self controlled,
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: upright and godly lives in the present age. Then we
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: look at this in this session eagerly waiting for our
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  Speaker 1: blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our
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  Speaker 1: great God and Savior, Jesus Christ Father. Grant us to
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  Speaker 1: feel the blessedness of this hope and to eagerly wait
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  Speaker 1: for it the way Grace is training us to do.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Grant that we would have eyes of the heart that
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: can see the glory already on the horizon of the
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  Speaker 1: appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Grant
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  Speaker 1: that these stupendous realities captured in these simple words would
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  Speaker 1: not leave us without any response of affection and logging desire.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I asked this in Jesus' name. Amen, grace appeared that
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  Speaker 1: as Jesus Christ came into the world and manifested that
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  Speaker 1: God is gracious toward all people who will receive his salvation.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: He's gracious, and that grace experienced by faith in Jesus
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  Speaker 1: is a trainer. It goes to work on us. And
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  Speaker 1: in this session, what it is training us to do
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: is wait, training us to live this way waiting. And
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the word waiting is not just a neutral word, but
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  Speaker 1: an eager word. It is expectant. It is a friendly
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  Speaker 1: acceptance and reception. It is a looking forward. Two. So
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: we are people who, having tasted the grace of God
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  Speaker 1: in the first appearing that we see so beautifully portrayed
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  Speaker 1: in the Gospels in the New Testament, as we meet
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  Speaker 1: Jesus there we long for him, our great God and Savior.
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  Speaker 1: And I do believe that that's one person, Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus is our savior. Jesus is our God. It is
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  Speaker 1: possible grammatically to separate those and say, God, the Father
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  Speaker 1: is appearing and the Savior Jesus is appearing. That it's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: highly unlikely because disappearing here what occurs. I think six
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  Speaker 1: times in the New Testament that that word in the
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  Speaker 1: noun form, it never refers to the Father's appearing. It's
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: always the Lord Jesus who is appearing in the use
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  Speaker 1: of this word, And therefore to insert the Father here
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  Speaker 1: would be out of character. He is Jesus who's appearing
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: here as the grace of God, and is Jesus who's
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: appearing here as the Glory of God, eagerly waiting for
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: our blessed hope. Now the word blessed here. There's several
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: words for blessed in the Bible. You logitoss means blessed
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: in the sense of we bless him, we praise him,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: we thank him. Or This word is used as we
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: saw it in chapter one, verse eleven of Fir Timothy
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: of the Gospel of the Blessed God. This word means happy.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: One translator uses the word gladsome here. It's an old word.
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  Speaker 1: We don't use it anymore, but it's a good it's
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: a good idea. The gladsome hope. It doesn't mean that
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: the hope is glad or the hope is happy. It
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: means the hope makes happy, makes glad, makes blessed. That's
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  Speaker 1: why it's an eager waiting. There's a text that defines
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  Speaker 1: the nature of this waiting that I love. Wrote a
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  Speaker 1: whole book about it, in fact, called Come Lord Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: look at this. I love this text. I have fought
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  Speaker 1: the good fight, Paul says at the end of his life.
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  Speaker 1: I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
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  Speaker 1: Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness,
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  Speaker 1: which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will award to me
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  Speaker 1: on that day, and not only to me, but also
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  Speaker 1: to all who have loved his appearing. That's this eager
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  Speaker 1: expectation that's very serious. You should measure yourself. Ask yourself,
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  Speaker 1: do you love the appearing of the Lord Jesus loving? Meaning?
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  Speaker 1: Do you want him to come? Would you be thrilled
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  Speaker 1: if he interrupted your life, even if you're about to
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  Speaker 1: get married, about to have a baby, thrilled because you
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  Speaker 1: love Jesus so much more than you love anything in
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  Speaker 1: this world. So you love his appearing, which is going
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  Speaker 1: to change, of course everything It is a happy hope
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  Speaker 1: producing an eager waiting, which is a love for his appearing.
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  Speaker 1: What makes it a happy hope, what makes it a
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  Speaker 1: happy hope is it's going to be glory. We love glory.
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  Speaker 1: We only see a little glory in this world, and
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  Speaker 1: it's amazing. The Grand Canyon is glorious. The stars in
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  Speaker 1: the sky are glorious. The photographs coming back from the
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  Speaker 1: James Webb telescope flying through the space are glorious. Sunrises
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  Speaker 1: and sunsets are glorious. Beautiful acts of sacrificial love are glorious.
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  Speaker 1: We love to see glory, and we will see it,
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  Speaker 1: and therefore we eagerly wait for and rejoice in this
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  Speaker 1: gladsome hope. But there are reasons, if we go farther
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  Speaker 1: outside this text, for why the showing up of this
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  Speaker 1: glory is going to be a blessed hope. Let's look
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  Speaker 1: at a couple of them. Here's Philippians. Our citizenship is
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  Speaker 1: in heaven, and from it we await a savior. We're
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  Speaker 1: eagerly waiting for a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
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  Speaker 1: will transform our lowly bodies. Oh how lowly and dying
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  Speaker 1: and corrupting they are. We all die, transform our lowly
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  Speaker 1: body to be like his glorious body, the body of
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  Speaker 1: his glory, by the power that enables him even to
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  Speaker 1: subject all things to himself. So when it says that
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  Speaker 1: his glory is going to show up, one of the
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  Speaker 1: reasons that is a glad some hope is because our
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  Speaker 1: bodies are going to share in that glory. They'll be
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  Speaker 1: raised from the dead, and if we're alive when he comes,
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  Speaker 1: they will be changed in the twinkling of an eye.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the way John puts it, Beloved, we are God's
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  Speaker 1: children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared,
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  Speaker 1: but we know that when he appears, we will be
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  Speaker 1: like him. That's the same thing Paul was saying. His
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  Speaker 1: glorious body will make our bodies glorious because we shall
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  Speaker 1: see him as he is. Everyone who thus hopes in
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  Speaker 1: himself purifies himself as he is pure. That's coming in
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  Speaker 1: this text. In Titus, he redeemed us from all lawlessness
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  Speaker 1: to purify for himself. We purify ourselves if we have
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  Speaker 1: this blessed hope. Colautians, Similarly, when Christ, who is your life, appears,
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  Speaker 1: then you also will appear with him in glory. You
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  Speaker 1: won't appear with him in the weakness and corruption of
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  Speaker 1: your present lowly state. You will, as a follower of Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: appear with him, so glorious that Jesus says you will
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  Speaker 1: shine like the sun in the kingdom of your father.
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  Speaker 1: Here's another example of the glory that is going to
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  Speaker 1: be shown when he comes. And then the lawless one
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  Speaker 1: at the end of the age, the Antichrist, will be revealed,
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  Speaker 1: whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of
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  Speaker 1: his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of
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  Speaker 1: his coming. In other words, when he comes. When he comes,
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  Speaker 1: all his adversaries perish. The glory of Jesus will be
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  Speaker 1: either magnificently transforming or it will be devastatingly destructive. One
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  Speaker 1: least comment, it is grace that is training us to
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  Speaker 1: wait with gladsome hope. Grace. We have met Grace in
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  Speaker 1: the appearing of Jesus the first time, and we have
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  Speaker 1: watched him give himself for us and redeem us. We've
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  Speaker 1: tasted his grace in the past, and now we are
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: being trained by grace to await glory in the future.
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  Speaker 1: But it will still be a glory of grace, as
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  Speaker 1: it says at first Feeder. Therefore, prepare preparing your minds
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  Speaker 1: for action, and being sober minded, set your hopefully on
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  Speaker 1: the grace that will be brought to you at the
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  Speaker 1: revelation of Jesus Christ. It could have said, appearing at
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  Speaker 1: the appearing of the Lord Jesus, grace is coming to you.
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  Speaker 1: So grace has come, and grace it appeared in all
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  Speaker 1: humility and lowliness in giving himself to die. And now
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  Speaker 1: grace is going to appear or going to first Timothy one,
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  Speaker 1: I mean one Peter one thirteen is going to appear
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  Speaker 1: as glowey, and a gracious glory is worth eagerly waiting for.
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  Speaker 1: It is a gladsome hope. We are to love his
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  Speaker 1: appearing as our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even
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  Speaker 1: so I say, come, Lord Jesus, Come Lord Jesus,