Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / How Spectacular and Satisfying Is Eternal Life Titus 3:4–7, Part 8

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How Spectacular and Satisfying Is Eternal Life Titus 3:4–7, Part 8 · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: This is our eighth session on Titus three four to seven.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to use green ink because we're going to
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  Speaker 1: talk about eternal life for a few minutes, and I
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  Speaker 1: so long for the greenness, the life giving reality of
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  Speaker 1: this eternal life to have a bearing on your present life. Now,
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  Speaker 1: if we could just taste more fully, more deeply, what
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  Speaker 1: this implies, both eternally and presently, because we already have it. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: how differently we would face our troubles when the goodness,
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  Speaker 1: when the kindness and benevolence of God, our Savior, appeared.
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  Speaker 1: He saved us not because of works done by us
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  Speaker 1: in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the
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  Speaker 1: washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom
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  Speaker 1: he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ. And
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  Speaker 1: it's this outpouring that enables us to know that we
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  Speaker 1: have this. He bears witness with our spirit that we
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  Speaker 1: are the children of God and of children and heirs
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  Speaker 1: heirs of God, of eternal life poured out on us
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  Speaker 1: richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that having been
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  Speaker 1: made right with God, put right with God, declared right
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  Speaker 1: and just and righteous in the presence of God, all
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  Speaker 1: sins forgiven, all guilt removed, all right standing. Provided by
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  Speaker 1: His grace, we might become heirs in the hope of this,
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  Speaker 1: Oh God. Now I pray that in the few minutes
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  Speaker 1: we have to linger over the glories of what is
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  Speaker 1: coming and what we have tasted. Now opened the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of our heart to see the grandeur, the beauty, the majesty,
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  Speaker 1: the all satisfying joy of this reality, so that it
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  Speaker 1: has a bearing on our lives, morning, noon and night.
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  Speaker 1: I asked this in Jesus' name. Amen, let's just move
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  Speaker 1: through text real quickly, and then you can go back
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  Speaker 1: and linger over them and pray and ask God to
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  Speaker 1: open your eyes. First, this life is Christ, this eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: First John, this is the testimony that God gave us
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. This life is in his son now verse twenty.
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  Speaker 1: And we are in Him who is true, in his son,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: He is eternal Life. To God is life. Right before
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  Speaker 1: there was anything, there was God, and if there was life,
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  Speaker 1: life was in God. God didn't create life. He is life,
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  Speaker 1: and thus He creates life to participate in his life.
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  Speaker 1: This life is the Son of God, and we are
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  Speaker 1: in him, in his son, and being in his son,
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  Speaker 1: we are in his life. John seventeen three, this is
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. That we know you, that they know you.
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  Speaker 1: So this is Jesus praying to his Father that they
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  Speaker 1: the disciples know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: whom you have sin. So knowing God is eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: Knowing Jesus his eternal life. I think that means being
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  Speaker 1: united to him in the most intimate kind of participation
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  Speaker 1: and knowledge. He says in another way in John five
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  Speaker 1: twenty four, Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears
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  Speaker 1: my word and believes in Him who sent me, has
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has
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  Speaker 1: passed from death to life. So back in seven seventeen three,
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  Speaker 1: it is knowing God and Christ that is eternal life.
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  Speaker 1: And in John five twenty four, it is in believing
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  Speaker 1: that we have eternal life. These are different ways of
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  Speaker 1: describing how we are united to the one who, according
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  Speaker 1: to first John five, is eternal life. He is eternal life,
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  Speaker 1: and we have that eternal life by knowing him and
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  Speaker 1: being united in that way, and by believing in him
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  Speaker 1: and being united that way. And now notice we have
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  Speaker 1: it already. Eternal life is a hope because we don't
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  Speaker 1: have the fullest experience of all that it will I mean,
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  Speaker 1: but we have it now. In measure, believe in Him
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  Speaker 1: who has sent me. He does not come into judgment.
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  Speaker 1: The Christian, the disciple of Jesus, the believer, does not
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  Speaker 1: come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
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  Speaker 1: It is done, the actual transition from this world, and
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  Speaker 1: this mortal nature has already passed. We are in now
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom of his beloved son. We are in life.
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  Speaker 1: We will die and yet not die. You get that
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  Speaker 1: we will physically die, but our souls will not die.
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  Speaker 1: We are We will never be separated from life. John
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  Speaker 1: ten twenty eight. I give them eternal life. I give
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  Speaker 1: it to them. They will never perish. So you have
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  Speaker 1: it now, and you will never perish. No one will
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  Speaker 1: netch them out of my hand. When this thing called
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  Speaker 1: death happens to you, you will not die. You will
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  Speaker 1: pass in an instant as a conscious believer in Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: a disciple of Jesus, a child of God. You will
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  Speaker 1: pass into life, and there will be no death for
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  Speaker 1: you in death. Here's John eleven twenty five, Jesus said,
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  Speaker 1: I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am life.
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  Speaker 1: Whoever believes in me, though he die, yes, yet shall
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  Speaker 1: he live? And then he says it differently, only more radically.
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  Speaker 1: And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.
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  Speaker 1: That's the same as John ten twenty eight. Never perish.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody will pluck you out of my hand. You will
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  Speaker 1: never perish, You will never die. You believe this, Martha,
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  Speaker 1: You believe this, reader, listener to look at the book
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  Speaker 1: John seventeen twenty four. What will that life be like
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  Speaker 1: when we have it in full? Father? Jesus praying now,
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  Speaker 1: I desire that they also, whom you have given me, baby,
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  Speaker 1: may be with me, Oh precious hope with me where
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  Speaker 1: I am to see my glory that you have given
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  Speaker 1: me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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  Speaker 1: So Jesus prays that we would see his glory. Amen,
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  Speaker 1: hasten to day verse twenty six. And if you fear
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  Speaker 1: that the capacities you have right now as you look
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  Speaker 1: at this, I don't have capacities to enjoy this the
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  Speaker 1: way I should know. Neither do I. Nobody do yet,
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  Speaker 1: So he prays, I may known to them your name,
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  Speaker 1: and I will continue to make it known that the
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  Speaker 1: love with which you have loved me, Father, the love
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  Speaker 1: with which the Father loves the Son, may be in
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  Speaker 1: them and I in them. So if you fear as
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  Speaker 1: I do, that in myself, I would not have the
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  Speaker 1: capacities to love this beautiful Glory and this beautiful Savior
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  Speaker 1: the way I ought to love, both to honor him
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  Speaker 1: and to satisfy my soul. You are right that you
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  Speaker 1: will not be left to yourself, because Jesus praised that
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  Speaker 1: the very love that the Father has for the Son
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  Speaker 1: would be in us. And I take that to mean
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  Speaker 1: we will be enabled by the very spirit of God
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  Speaker 1: in us to love God the way God God loves God.
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  Speaker 1: It will not be left to your meager resources. Emotionally,
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  Speaker 1: none of us is adequate to love God as we ought,
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  Speaker 1: delight in God, be satisfied in God. See God, honor
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  Speaker 1: God as we ought. That's why he haste to pray this,
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  Speaker 1: and he does pray it, and it will come true.
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  Speaker 1: Now what will it be like Revelation twenty two. No
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  Speaker 1: longer will there be anything accursed but the throne of
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  Speaker 1: God and the lamb will be in it that is
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  Speaker 1: in this new City of God. This new world is
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  Speaker 1: eternal life, and his servants will worship him, Yes we will.
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  Speaker 1: They will see his face, Yes we will. His name
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  Speaker 1: will be on our foreheads, Yes it will, and we
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  Speaker 1: will be identified as his forever and ever. Night will
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  Speaker 1: be no more. They will need no light or lamp
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  Speaker 1: or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.
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  Speaker 1: And they will reign forever and ever. Part of eternal
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  Speaker 1: life is eternal reigning. What does that signify? We come
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  Speaker 1: finally into our created purpose to share dominion with God
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  Speaker 1: over the universe, bringing it into subjection, to serve us
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  Speaker 1: for His glory and for our joy forever. Revelation twenty one.
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  Speaker 1: I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, behold,
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  Speaker 1: the dwelling place of God is with man. Yes it
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  Speaker 1: will be. Oh, Come Lord Jesus, and establish this presence
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  Speaker 1: of God with us as never before. He will dwell
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  Speaker 1: with them, dwell God himself dwelling with us, unimaginably great, glorious, precious,
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  Speaker 1: And they will be His people, and God himself will
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  Speaker 1: be with them as their God. He will wipe away
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  Speaker 1: every tear from their eyes. Deaths shall be no more.
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  Speaker 1: There will be normal mourning, no more crying, no more
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  Speaker 1: pain anymore, for the former things have passed away, all
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  Speaker 1: sadness gone, and the whole creation will be sharing. The
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  Speaker 1: wolf shall lie down with the lamb, the leopards shall
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  Speaker 1: lie down with the young goat the calf, and the
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  Speaker 1: lion and the fatted calf together, and the little child
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  Speaker 1: shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze.
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  Speaker 1: Their youngs shall lie down together, and the lion shall
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  Speaker 1: eat straw like an ox. The nursing child shall play
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  Speaker 1: over the whole of the cobra, and the wean child
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  Speaker 1: shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall
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  Speaker 1: not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for
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  Speaker 1: the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: as the waters cover the sea. Is unimaginable. I know
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  Speaker 1: it is. You try to conceive of it, you can't
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  Speaker 1: quite grasp it. But it seems as if he wants
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  Speaker 1: to say, all that is good and beautiful in this
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  Speaker 1: material creation will be bumped up a level into something
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  Speaker 1: we cannot imagine, and the good in it will be preserved.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the summary statement of it in Romans eight. The
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  Speaker 1: creation itself will be set free from its bondage to
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  Speaker 1: corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the
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  Speaker 1: children of God. In other words, when we are glorified
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  Speaker 1: with Christ and are able to enjoy Him as our
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  Speaker 1: supreme treasure forever, then creation itself as our appropriate what
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  Speaker 1: dominion playground will conform to the glory of the children
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  Speaker 1: of God. The creation is made for man, not man
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  Speaker 1: for creation. So creation comes into its own when man
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  Speaker 1: has come into his own in Christ. And finally, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: the simplest way to sum it up is God, you
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  Speaker 1: make known to me the path of life in your
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  Speaker 1: presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are
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  Speaker 1: pleasures forevermore, what can we say, being justified by His grace,
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  Speaker 1: we become heirs in the hope of all of this
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  Speaker 1: glorious reality called eternal life. Oh,