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Saved from What Titus 3:4–7, Part 2 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our second session on Titus three, four to seven,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: and we're going to focus on these very familiar, perhaps
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: too familiar, taken for granted words, He saved us when
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the kindness and benevolence of God, our Savior appeared. And
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: remember we argued last time that this kindness and benevolence
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: is the kind of God who was there before there
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  Speaker 1: was any appearing. And the appearing was the appearing of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: the appearing of grace, the appearing of life. And now
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  Speaker 1: the effect of that appearing, the effect of the incarnation
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and the work of Christ on behalf of his people,
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  Speaker 1: is that he saved us. Father, I pray that this
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  Speaker 1: very familiar term saved would cause us to tremble at
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  Speaker 1: what might have been had you not undertaken in great kindness,
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  Speaker 1: great benevolence, great grace to save us open the meaning
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  Speaker 1: of this. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen, You know
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: probably that this word sowed zo in Greek, used over
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  Speaker 1: a hundred times in the New Testament, is very important
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  Speaker 1: and very basic. Here's a basic statement from one Timothy.
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  Speaker 1: The saying is trustworthy and deserving a full acceptance that
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  Speaker 1: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: whom I am the foremost. If you wonder why does
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  Speaker 1: Christianity exist? Why does Christmas exist? Good Friday exist? Easter exist?
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  Speaker 1: The Church exists. It exists because sinners. That's everybody needs saving,
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  Speaker 1: and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the
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  Speaker 1: world to save. That's why it occurs a hundred times. Salvation.
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  Speaker 1: Saving is of the essence of Christianity. Everybody needs saving.
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  Speaker 1: My dad used to say as an evangelist, what's not
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  Speaker 1: hard is to get people saved, but what's hard is
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  Speaker 1: to get them lost. In other words, to help people
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  Speaker 1: believe they need saving. So let's talk about saved from. What.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have lots to say about saved for what The
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  Speaker 1: glories are belonging to Christ as a saved person are immeasurable.
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  Speaker 1: But what do we need to be saved from. Let's
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  Speaker 1: just read the rest of this and see if you
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  Speaker 1: can find some things that we need to be saved from,
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  Speaker 1: not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
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  Speaker 1: according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration.
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  Speaker 1: So there would be a pointer that we need to
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  Speaker 1: be saved from uncleanness, impurity, filth, moral defilement and renewal
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  Speaker 1: of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us
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  Speaker 1: richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified
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  Speaker 1: was the alternative to being justified in the court room
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  Speaker 1: of heaven with God is the judge. The alternative is guilt,
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  Speaker 1: real guilt, not guilt feelings, true guilt before God. Remember
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  Speaker 1: verse three. We were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to
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  Speaker 1: various passions, malice, envy, despicable, hating one another. We were guilty.
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  Speaker 1: Being saved means being declared righteous in spite of our guilt.
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  Speaker 1: By grace, we have become heirs according to the hope
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  Speaker 1: of eternal life, which means if we don't have this,
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  Speaker 1: what do we have? Non life? Non life? What's that
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  Speaker 1: in Paul's mind? If you don't have eternal life, what
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  Speaker 1: do you have? What's the alternative to being justified the
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  Speaker 1: mind of Paul not to have eternal life? What's it called?
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  Speaker 1: What does it look like? Here's one description Romans five nine.
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  Speaker 1: Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood,
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  Speaker 1: much more shall we be saved by Him from the
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  Speaker 1: wrath of God. That's the alternative. Wrath is coming The
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  Speaker 1: alternative to eternal life is eternal death. But eternal death
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  Speaker 1: is not unconsciousness. It's not being obliterated or annihilated. It's
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  Speaker 1: experiencing the wrath of God. Here it is again in
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  Speaker 1: Romans two. Do you presume upon the riches of his
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  Speaker 1: kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness
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  Speaker 1: is meant to lead you to repentance. But you, by
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  Speaker 1: your heart and impenitent heart, are storing up wrath for
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  Speaker 1: yourself on the day of wrath, when the righteous judgment
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: will be revealed. So judgment is coming upon all human beings,
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  Speaker 1: and God has extended kindness, forbearance, patience in Christ great
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  Speaker 1: grace in the Gospel to everyone. If it is spurned,
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  Speaker 1: presumed upon, treated as too hard, I'm too hard, I'm
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  Speaker 1: too impenitent to receive this, then what follows is judgment
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  Speaker 1: and wrath. That's what we're saved from. Here's the way Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: I mean Paul puts it in first Thessalonians one ten.
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  Speaker 1: We wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised
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  Speaker 1: from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath
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  Speaker 1: to come. That's what he does. This delivering. Here is
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  Speaker 1: the salvation. It's the consummation. He finished the payment of
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  Speaker 1: the salvation on the cross, and then he executes the
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  Speaker 1: deliverance and the salvation at the second coming, when he
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  Speaker 1: delivers us from final judgment and from wrath. There's a
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  Speaker 1: name for this, we'll see it in just a minute,
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  Speaker 1: from Jesus. It's called hell. And this wrath to come
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  Speaker 1: is eternal. We see that in a few places, for
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  Speaker 1: example Revelation fourteen. Another angel, a third followed them, saying
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  Speaker 1: with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and
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  Speaker 1: its image and receives a mark on his forehead or
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  Speaker 1: on his hand, he will drink the wine of God's
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  Speaker 1: wrath poured full strength into cup of his in the
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  Speaker 1: cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with
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  Speaker 1: fire sulfur in the presence of the Holy Angels and
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  Speaker 1: in the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of
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  Speaker 1: their torment goes up forever and ever. That's the strongest
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  Speaker 1: word possible, or the strongest phrase possible in Greek for everlasting.
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  Speaker 1: This torment, non annihilation, not obliteration, not asleep, but a
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  Speaker 1: conscious torment forever and ever. They have no rest day
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  Speaker 1: or night. These worshippers of the beast and its image,
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  Speaker 1: and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here's the
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  Speaker 1: way Jesus put it in Matthew twenty five. These he's
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  Speaker 1: talking about the people who confirmed their new life in
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  Speaker 1: Christ by the way they treated Christians. These will go
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  Speaker 1: away into eternal punishment. That is, the people who didn't
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  Speaker 1: confirm their calling and their election they're belonging to Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: These will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous
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  Speaker 1: into eternal life. So the alternative to the eternal life
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  Speaker 1: that Paul is talking about here in Titus three seven,
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  Speaker 1: the alternative to that is eternal punishment. The eternal punishment
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  Speaker 1: is picked up by Paul, for example in Second Thessalonians,
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  Speaker 1: they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, punishment, eternal
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  Speaker 1: destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from
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  Speaker 1: the glory of his might. And now comes the name
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  Speaker 1: that is so commonly put on this in church history.
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  Speaker 1: If your hand caused you to see in Jesus says
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  Speaker 1: in Mark nine forty three, cut it off. It is
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  Speaker 1: better for you to enter life, that's eternal life. To
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  Speaker 1: enter it. We're in physical life. Now we're going to
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  Speaker 1: enter into eternal life. It is better to enter into
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  Speaker 1: life crippled and then with two hands to go to Hell,
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  Speaker 1: to the unquenchable fire. Jesus is the only person in
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  Speaker 1: the New Testament uses the word hell, but the reality
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  Speaker 1: is everywhere assumed and referred to in other terms. So
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  Speaker 1: I returned to this glorious word. Please don't ever mock
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  Speaker 1: this word. I have heard people mock the word saved.
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  Speaker 1: If you ask someone are you saved, they may sneer
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  Speaker 1: at you. I don't need to be saved. I'm doing
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  Speaker 1: just fine, doing better than you are. We need to
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  Speaker 1: explain to people with all patience and kindness, correcting our
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  Speaker 1: opponents with gentleness. Remember from first two Timothy two twenty
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  Speaker 1: five what it means to be lost, what it means
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  Speaker 1: to be saved. It is a precious, precious work of
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  Speaker 1: God in Christ. It cost him his life to rescue
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  Speaker 1: us from Hell.