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Transcript

Chosen for Glory (2 Thessalonians 213–14) John MacArthur GTYtv · THE BELIEVER'S CHURCH | Let’s Build Our Faith Together

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  Speaker 1: Today on Grace To You.
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  Speaker 2: Paul is saying to them, you shouldn't be disturbed. You
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't be anxious. You're not anti-Christ's crowd. You're not the
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  Speaker 2: devil's people. You're not the perishing. You're the ones who
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  Speaker 2: believe the truth and you love the truth and you
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  Speaker 2: have been promised to be rescued from the wrath to come.
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  Speaker 2: What in the world makes us so embarrassed about the gospel?
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  Speaker 2: For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus
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  Speaker 2: Christ and Him crucified. Let's open the Word of God
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  Speaker 2: to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, and I confess to you
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  Speaker 2: this is a bit of a challenge for me to
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  Speaker 2: bring you the message this morning because it is full
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  Speaker 2: of so many truths, and I'm always having a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of battle with myself because I have to kind
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  Speaker 2: of edit as I go. So much here is so very,
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  Speaker 2: very important. On the face of it, we're talking about
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  Speaker 2: the coming man of sin. We're talking about the Apostle
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  Speaker 2: Paul who is writing concerning a man to come in
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  Speaker 2: the future. He is identified in verse 3 of this
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  Speaker 2: chapter as the man of lawlessness who will be revealed.
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  Speaker 2: He is identified as the son of destruction. End of
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  Speaker 2: verse 3, and then in verse 4 it says, describing
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  Speaker 2: him who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god
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  Speaker 2: or object of worship, so that he takes his seat
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  Speaker 2: in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
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  Speaker 2: This man of lawlessness, this man of sin, this son
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  Speaker 2: of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every other
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  Speaker 2: god and every object of worship and takes his seat
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  Speaker 2: in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
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  Speaker 2: is identified elsewhere in the Scripture as the Antichrist, the Antichrist.
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  Speaker 2: If you drop down to verse 8, again it refers
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  Speaker 2: to His revelation, that lawless one will be revealed. And
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  Speaker 2: He has a very short career whom the Lord will
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  Speaker 2: slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to
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  Speaker 2: an end by the appearance of His coming. So this
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  Speaker 2: man of lawlessness, man of sin, son of destruction, lawless one,
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  Speaker 2: is going to have a career that will be ended
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  Speaker 2: at the second coming of Jesus Christ when He returns
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  Speaker 2: from heaven with His saints and angels to destroy the
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  Speaker 2: wicked and set up His earthly millennial kingdom, and then
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  Speaker 2: following that, His eternal kingdom. These are grand realities that
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  Speaker 2: tell us the future of the universe. After His kingdom,
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  Speaker 2: the universe goes out of existence and He creates a
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  Speaker 2: new heaven and a new earth, as we have been saying.
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  Speaker 2: Paul had taught them all of this. He had taught
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  Speaker 2: them this. He had taught them, according to verse 1,
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  Speaker 2: about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had
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  Speaker 2: taught them about our gathering together to Him, the rapture
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  Speaker 2: when we are all gathered to meet the Lord in
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  Speaker 2: the air. But something had happened since he taught them that.
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  Speaker 2: They had become, verse 2, quickly shaken from your composure
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  Speaker 2: and disturbed. And what was disturbing them? They thought, the
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  Speaker 2: end of verse 2, that the day of the Lord
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  Speaker 2: has come. They thought they were in that day of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, and they were shaken from their composure, and
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  Speaker 2: they were disturbed. Some false teachers, no doubt, came and
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  Speaker 2: claimed to have a spiritual message and even a letter
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  Speaker 2: from Paul. And it was all deception, it was all lies.
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  Speaker 2: But already the church at Thessalonica 2,000 years ago was
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  Speaker 2: having to face the lies of Satan. Somebody had come
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  Speaker 2: and said that they had some spirit, some message from
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  Speaker 2: the other world, and that even they had a letter
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  Speaker 2: from Paul to say that the people were in the
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  Speaker 2: day of the Lord, which would put them in the judgment,
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  Speaker 2: which would mean that they didn't get raptured out. Either
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  Speaker 2: there wasn't a rapture or they missed it. And they
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  Speaker 2: were disturbed by that. They feared that they were now
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  Speaker 2: in the day of the Lord. Maybe the persecution they
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  Speaker 2: were going through made them think that. So Paul writes
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  Speaker 2: to them to just encourage them that they are not
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  Speaker 2: in the day of the Lord. And he reminds them
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  Speaker 2: of a few things. He says, let no one in
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  Speaker 2: any way deceive you. Don't be deceived. You can't be
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  Speaker 2: in the Day of the Lord because the Day of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, mentioned at the end of verse 2, will
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  Speaker 2: not come, verse 3, until the apostasy comes first, the apostasy.
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  Speaker 2: I told you what that was last week. That is
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  Speaker 2: the Antichrist setting himself up as God in the temple
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  Speaker 2: during the time of the Day of the Lord, during
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  Speaker 2: the time of Tribulation. That's what he says in verse 3.
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  Speaker 2: The apostasy comes first. Even the man of lawlessness is revealed,
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  Speaker 2: the son of destruction. Jesus calls this event the abomination
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  Speaker 2: of desolations when the Antichrist sets himself up in the
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  Speaker 2: temple as if he were God and demands the whole
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  Speaker 2: world worship Him. That is the abomination of desolation Jesus
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  Speaker 2: talked about in Matthew 24. Here it's called the apostasy,
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  Speaker 2: the defection. It's connected to the man of lawlessness, the
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  Speaker 2: son of destruction, further defined in verse 4. as He
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  Speaker 2: opposes and exalts Himself above God, above every object of worship,
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  Speaker 2: takes His seat in the temple, displaying Himself as being God.
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  Speaker 2: So as I said, in that seven-year period, as the
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  Speaker 2: day of the Lord begins to unfold, the Antichrist acts
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  Speaker 2: like a friend to Israel. In the middle, he turns
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  Speaker 2: on them and turns on the saints who have been
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  Speaker 2: redeemed during that period of time, and all hell breaks
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  Speaker 2: loose on the world. Paul says in verse 5, do
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  Speaker 2: you not remember while I was still with you, I
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  Speaker 2: was telling you this, I told you this. Chapter 4
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  Speaker 2: of 1 Thessalonians, the first letter he wrote, he said,
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  Speaker 2: you're going to be snatched up, you're going to be
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  Speaker 2: caught into the air, you're going to meet the Lord
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  Speaker 2: in the air, and you're going to go to heaven
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  Speaker 2: and be with the Lord. And then comes the day
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  Speaker 2: of the Lord, 1 Thessalonians 5. In 4, you're taken out.
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  Speaker 2: Chapter 5, the day of the Lord comes. And Paul
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  Speaker 2: even says to them, This is a day of darkness,
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  Speaker 2: but you are not of the darkness, you are not
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  Speaker 2: the people of the darkness, you are the people of
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  Speaker 2: the light. This day is not going to come on
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  Speaker 2: you because you don't belong to that category of people.
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  Speaker 2: That category of people, that judgment is for those who are,
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  Speaker 2: verse 10, called the perishing, the perishing, those who are
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  Speaker 2: on the way to eternal destruction, those who didn't receive
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  Speaker 2: the love of the truth so as to be saved.
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  Speaker 2: The coming day of the Lord is for non-believers, not believers.
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  Speaker 2: So one thing is patently obvious, and this is what
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  Speaker 2: I've said to you each week that we've looked at this.
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  Speaker 2: Paul was saying to them, you're not going to be
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  Speaker 2: a part of the day of the Lord. You don't
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  Speaker 2: belong there. You're light and that is darkness. You are
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  Speaker 2: bound for glory. You have been rescued from the wrath
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  Speaker 2: to come. That's the sequence, snatching of the church, go
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  Speaker 2: to glory to be with the Lord. We are literally
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  Speaker 2: saved for glory, not for wrath. So Paul is saying,
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  Speaker 2: first the rapture, then the judgments. And so he has
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  Speaker 2: to remind them, look, I told you this, verse 5,
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  Speaker 2: do you not remember while I was still with you?
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  Speaker 2: I was telling you these things. And I even told
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  Speaker 2: you that there's a restrainer who is restraining antichrist. Yes, lawlessness,
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  Speaker 2: rebellion against God is always in operation. Yes, there are
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  Speaker 2: many antichrists, but not the final man of lawlessness and
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  Speaker 2: not the final antichrist until God's time for him to
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  Speaker 2: be revealed. He will be revealed. Look at verse 8.
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  Speaker 2: He will be revealed, and in a very short time,
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  Speaker 2: three and a half years from the revelation of this
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  Speaker 2: man as the antichrist, The Lord will slay him with
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  Speaker 2: the breath of His mouth and bring to an end
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  Speaker 2: His reign by the appearance of His coming. So he's
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  Speaker 2: at the end of this period called the Day of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, the end of this tribulation when Christ comes
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  Speaker 2: back to set up His kingdom. So Paul's message is this, look,
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  Speaker 2: don't be upset, don't be disturbed, don't be anxious. You're
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  Speaker 2: not in the Day of the Lord. You're not headed
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  Speaker 2: for the Day of the Lord. That's not something God
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  Speaker 2: has planned for you. You will be delivered just like
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  Speaker 2: I told you. You will be caught up in the
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  Speaker 2: air to meet the Lord and you'll forever be with
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. But Satan has come along with all the
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  Speaker 2: deception of wickedness, verse 10, as he always does to
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  Speaker 2: make you believe something that is a lie. Look, we
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  Speaker 2: are saved to be delivered from the coming sin. Paul
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  Speaker 2: is saying to them, you shouldn't be disturbed, you shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: be anxious. You're not antichrist's crowd. You're not the devil's people.
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  Speaker 2: You're not the perishing. You're the ones who believe the truth.
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  Speaker 2: and you love the truth, and you have been promised
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  Speaker 2: to be rescued from the wrath to come. You need
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  Speaker 2: to be looking eagerly for the coming of Christ. You
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  Speaker 2: need to be joyful about that. And look at the
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  Speaker 2: bottom of this chapter, the last couple of verses. He
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  Speaker 2: writes all of this so that we will be able
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  Speaker 2: to understand that God our Father has loved us and
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  Speaker 2: given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, and
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  Speaker 2: so our hearts should be comforted and strengthened. You need
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  Speaker 2: to be comforted because the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and
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  Speaker 2: God our Father has given you eternal comfort and good
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  Speaker 2: hope by grace, good hope by grace. Don't be anxious.
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  Speaker 2: This is strong, strong, practical pastoral encouragement. Now, I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to just start this a little bit, and I'll get
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  Speaker 2: into it more next time. But there's one other thing
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  Speaker 2: he wants to say, and that is, for today anyway,
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  Speaker 2: don't be uncertain. Here's the real key to freedom from anxiety,
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  Speaker 2: freedom from the fear of what's coming down the future.
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  Speaker 2: Look at verse 13, we should always give thanks to
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  Speaker 2: God for you. Brethren, beloved by the Lord, because God
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  Speaker 2: has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification
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  Speaker 2: by the Spirit and faith in the truth, it was
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  Speaker 2: for this He called you through our gospel that you
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  Speaker 2: may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That
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  Speaker 2: is a staggering two verses. This is a staggering two verses,
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  Speaker 2: tied into the end of verse 10 that the love
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  Speaker 2: of the truth is what saves, tied into verse 16
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  Speaker 2: that God and Christ loved us and have given us
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  Speaker 2: eternal comfort and good hope by grace. We have here
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  Speaker 2: one of the most magnificent pictures of salvation in the
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  Speaker 2: New Testament. Why should you be worrying? Why should you
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  Speaker 2: be anxious? Why should you be fearful? Rather, you should
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  Speaker 2: be thankful, thankful to God that you will not experience
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  Speaker 2: that because you are beloved by the Lord, you are
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  Speaker 2: chosen by the Lord, you are saved by the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: you are sanctified by the Lord, you are called by
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, and you will be glorified by the Lord.
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  Speaker 2: You're not part of the perishing. You're among the saved,
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  Speaker 2: the rescued. The word saved means to be rescued, delivered
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  Speaker 2: from the wrath to come. So the final thing that
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  Speaker 2: He wants to say to them, not only don't be
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  Speaker 2: deceived and don't be ignorant and don't be unbelieving and
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  Speaker 2: all those things, but don't be uncertain because of the
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  Speaker 2: realities of your eternal life. The comprehensive sweep of salvation theology,
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  Speaker 2: and it starts where it always should start, verse 13,
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  Speaker 2: we should always give thanks to God for you. Whatever
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  Speaker 2: you think about your salvation, the first thing you need
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  Speaker 2: to think about is that it is a gift of God.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't because you were smarter than somebody else that
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  Speaker 2: you came to Christ. It wasn't because it seemed more
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  Speaker 2: attractive than your other options in life. It wasn't that
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  Speaker 2: you decided that you were smart enough that you didn't
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  Speaker 2: want to go to hell forever. If you are saved,
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  Speaker 2: if you are not among the perishing, if you're among
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  Speaker 2: the saved, then you need to give thanks to God.
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  Speaker 2: Because as we read in Ephesians chapter 1, the reason
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  Speaker 2: you are saved is because of the intention of His will.
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  Speaker 2: That is the front end of it. The back end
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  Speaker 2: of it is to the praise of the glory of
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  Speaker 2: His grace. You're saved because He intended to save you,
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  Speaker 2: and He intended to save you so that He would
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  Speaker 2: receive all the glory. And this, to be all honest
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  Speaker 2: with you, is the most securing reality of any doctrine
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  Speaker 2: related to salvation, that God made the decision before the
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  Speaker 2: world began. That is massive comfort because the decision was
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  Speaker 2: not just to forgive me, but to glorify me. Whom
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  Speaker 2: He chose, He glorifies. What He chose to do was
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  Speaker 2: bring you to heaven. And if you have come to
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  Speaker 2: Him in faith, and you have been enlightened by the
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  Speaker 2: Spirit of God and given new life and believed the gospel,
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  Speaker 2: then the Lord loved you before the foundation of the world,
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  Speaker 2: and He who began a good work in you will
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  Speaker 2: perform until the day of Jesus Christ, which is the
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  Speaker 2: time Christ comes. He'll get you all the way to
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  Speaker 2: glory because it was a plan for your glory. Now
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  Speaker 2: let's just break it down for a couple of minutes.
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  Speaker 2: We give thanks to God for you, brethren. First of all,
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  Speaker 2: you are loved by the Lord. Now we're not talking
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  Speaker 2: about this kind of generic thing people talk about, that
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  Speaker 2: God loves everybody and God loves you and He loves
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  Speaker 2: you the way you are. We're not talking about that.
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  Speaker 2: We're not talking about some kind of generic, temporal, sort
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  Speaker 2: of common grace love that God has a kind of
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  Speaker 2: love for the world and that He lets the rain
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  Speaker 2: fall on the just and the unjust. and the sun
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  Speaker 2: shines on all of us, and we all enjoy certain
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  Speaker 2: common graces in life. Like we talked about earlier, music
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  Speaker 2: is a common grace, and there's a certain love of
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  Speaker 2: God that's manifest to everyone at that level. That's not
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  Speaker 2: what's going on here. We're thanking God that He loved
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  Speaker 2: you in the way that is defined here as the
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  Speaker 2: way that caused Him to choose you. for eternal glory
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  Speaker 2: and comfort. This is for believers, and God makes choices.
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  Speaker 2: Listen to Malachi chapter 1. It's pretty startling to read.
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  Speaker 2: The oracle of the word of the Lord to Israel
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  Speaker 2: comes to the prophet Malachi, the last Old Testament book.
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  Speaker 2: And listen to what the Lord says,' I have loved you,'
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  Speaker 2: says the Lord. I've loved you, Israel. I've loved you.
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  Speaker 2: But you say, how have you loved us? Was not
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  Speaker 2: Esau Jacob's brother? Why did you limit it to us?
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  Speaker 2: Why didn't you also love Esau? Jacob is the father
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  Speaker 2: of Israel, Esau the father of Edom and Arabs. Why
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  Speaker 2: did you love us and not Esau? The Lord says,
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  Speaker 2: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau. And
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  Speaker 2: I made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance
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  Speaker 2: for the jackals of the wilderness. Though Edom says, we
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  Speaker 2: have been beaten down, but we will return and build
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  Speaker 2: up the ruins. Thus says the Lord of hosts, they
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  Speaker 2: may rebuild, but I will tear down, and men will
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  Speaker 2: call them the wicked territory and the people toward whom
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  Speaker 2: the Lord is indignant forever. Wow, you can try to
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  Speaker 2: do something on your own, but if I haven't set
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  Speaker 2: my love on you, it's useless. And the response in
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  Speaker 2: verse 5, your eyes will see this and you will say,
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  Speaker 2: The Lord be magnified. The Lord be magnified beyond the
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  Speaker 2: borders of Israel. When you look at God's election, it
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  Speaker 2: is selective. That's what Scripture says. And when you consider this,
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  Speaker 2: you say, the Lord be magnified. He did it all.
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  Speaker 2: Just as He chose Israel, He chooses those who will
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  Speaker 2: be adopted as His children. In John 10, He says,
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  Speaker 2: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and
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  Speaker 2: they follow Me. And He also says,' And I laid
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  Speaker 2: down My life for the sheep.' He chose the sheep
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  Speaker 2: and He died for the sheep. You were chosen from
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  Speaker 2: the beginning. Your names were written down in the Book
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  Speaker 2: of Life from before the foundation of the world. Revelation 13,
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  Speaker 2: 8 says that, and then again in Revelation 17, 8
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  Speaker 2: says it again. The salvation that you have received is
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  Speaker 2: not an afterthought. It's not something that you decided. It's
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  Speaker 2: something God decided before anything even existed. That's comforting. That's comforting.
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  Speaker 2: The Lord chose Jacob for Himself, Psalm 135 verse 4 says,
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  Speaker 2: that's why in the New Testament We're called the elect,
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  Speaker 2: God's elect, Romans 8, chosen of God, Colossians 3. Acts 13,
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  Speaker 2: appointed to eternal life, many other Scriptures. So we have
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  Speaker 2: been eternally loved. Back before there was even time, it
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  Speaker 2: was eternal love. We have been eternally loved, eternally chosen.
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  Speaker 2: And thirdly, not only loved by the Lord, saved by
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  Speaker 2: the Lord, but go back to verse 13 again, saved
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  Speaker 2: by the Lord. loved by the Lord, chosen by the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: saved by the Lord. For salvation, that's rescue from wrath,
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  Speaker 2: rescue from judgment. And that happened, that occurred through sanctification
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  Speaker 2: by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Those are
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  Speaker 2: the two things that always go together at the point
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  Speaker 2: of real salvation. You have to have faith in the truth,
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  Speaker 2: and you have to have the powerful transforming work of
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  Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit. And sanctification here is used not in
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  Speaker 2: the progressive sense of a believer's life, but in the
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  Speaker 2: initial sense in which at salvation the Spirit of God
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  Speaker 2: separates you from sin, creates a new nature. This is
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  Speaker 2: the new birth. This is being born again. This is
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  Speaker 2: being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom
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  Speaker 2: of God's dear Son. This is being transferred from being
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  Speaker 2: a slave of sin to a slave of righteousness, Romans
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  Speaker 2: This is the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, which
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  Speaker 2: is the washing of regeneration, Titus 3.5. What an incredible reality.
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  Speaker 2: This is loved by God, chosen by God, and saved
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  Speaker 2: by God through the power of the Holy Spirit who
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  Speaker 2: comes on you to give you life in your death,
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  Speaker 2: light in your darkness, truth in your lies. This is
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  Speaker 2: a separation and a detachment from sin, the flesh, the world.
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  Speaker 2: that connects you to God, and you become a possessor
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  Speaker 2: of His life, and the Holy Spirit who has just
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  Speaker 2: transformed you takes up residence in you, and you become
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  Speaker 2: the temple of the Spirit of God. This is salvation
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  Speaker 2: in its incredible, glorious fullness. And along with what the
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  Speaker 2: Spirit does, you see so beautifully tied to it faith
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  Speaker 2: in the truth. It's not apart from faith in the truth,
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  Speaker 2: you have to hear the truth, faith comes by hearing
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  Speaker 2: The gospel, or the good news concerning Christ, it comes
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  Speaker 2: with believing whoever believes. John 1, 12, to as many
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  Speaker 2: as believe or receive, He gave the power to become
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  Speaker 2: the sons of God to those who believe on His name.
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  Speaker 2: It's not apart from faith, but even the Spirit works
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  Speaker 2: that faith. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, faith is a
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  Speaker 2: gift of God, not of works. Why are you worried
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  Speaker 2: about your future? When you have been loved from all
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  Speaker 2: eternity past, you have been chosen from all eternity past,
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  Speaker 2: and in the purposes of God, the plan was to
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  Speaker 2: regenerate you, give you new birth, make you a new creation,
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  Speaker 2: tear you apart from the old and connect you to
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  Speaker 2: the new so that you are no longer in Adam,
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  Speaker 2: but you are in Christ, your new inner being regenerated
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  Speaker 2: loves the truth. Now you're part of those who love
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  Speaker 2: the truth so as to be saved, end of verse 10.
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  Speaker 2: You now can say that I confess Jesus as Lord
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  Speaker 2: and I believe in my heart God raised Him from
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  Speaker 2: the dead and I am saved. So Paul says God
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  Speaker 2: has eternally chosen you. He's chosen you on the basis
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  Speaker 2: of that eternal love alone. He has saved you in time.
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  Speaker 2: by the powerful work of His Holy Spirit that came
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  Speaker 2: upon you and gave you new life and even faith.
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  Speaker 2: He regenerated you into a new creation with holy desires
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: and longings and produces a faith in you that will
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  Speaker 2: never die. That faith will be there no matter what
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  Speaker 2: you go through. The hardest test will only be a
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  Speaker 2: test of your faith that will prove its validity. And
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: all that happened, go down to verse 14. Because it
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  Speaker 2: was for this He called you through our gospel. This
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  Speaker 2: is what theologians called irresistible grace, so that in the
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: New Testament we are the called. We are identified as
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  Speaker 2: the elect, the beloved, the saved, and the called. God
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  Speaker 2: has called us. He called us with an irresistible call.
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  Speaker 2: He came into our darkness and brought light, He came
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  Speaker 2: into our ignorance and brought light. truth. He came into
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  Speaker 2: our blindness and brought sight. He came into our death
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  Speaker 2: and brought life, and it was all heavenly. So Paul
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  Speaker 2: is saying, you're fussing around, you're anxious about this, you're
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  Speaker 2: worried about where you are, are you in the day
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: of the Lord or whatever? You're worried about the future,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: you're caught up with all of that, fearful that perhaps
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: You've been somehow overlooked for the rapture, and you're now
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: in the judgment. You don't get it, do you? You
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  Speaker 2: have been chosen from before time began for eternal glory.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: And that's the capstone at the end of verse 14,
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  Speaker 2: that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 2: You were chosen for glory, not wrath. You were chosen
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: for eternal blessing, not punishment. You were chosen for everlasting kindness.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: not wrath. Splendor, honor, exaltation, reward, perfection, holiness, blessing, all
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  Speaker 2: the glories of heaven, that's why God chose you in
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: eternity past for glory in eternity future. You don't need
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  Speaker 2: to worry about the future. Your future was settled before
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  Speaker 2: anything was ever created. You were not destined for judgment,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: you were destined for glory. We're not looking for antichrist,
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: we're looking for Christ. And nothing can change that, nothing.
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Because whatever God purposes to do, He does. And Romans
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: 8 says, nothing will separate us from the love of
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  Speaker 2: God which is in Christ Jesus. So with those words,
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  Speaker 2: the Apostle Paul in a very simple way, almost like
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  Speaker 2: a final thought introduces the massive, massive subject of eternal
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  Speaker 2: sovereign salvation, and just sums it up and ties it
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  Speaker 2: together in a little package and says, if you get that,
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  Speaker 2: you know you have nothing to fear. You know you
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  Speaker 2: have nothing to fear. So, the end of the chapter,
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  Speaker 2: he says in verse 15, and we'll look at this
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  Speaker 2: next time, just stand firm, hold to the tradition or
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: doctrines which you were taught, whether word of mouth or
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: a letter from me. Hang on to what you know
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  Speaker 2: to be true. And then a little benediction, may our
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father who has
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  Speaker 2: loved us with that eternal love and given us eternal comfort.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: And good hope, we live in good hope. By grace,
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  Speaker 2: may He comfort, strengthen your hearts in every good work
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: and word. We ought to be the happiest people on
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: the planet. We ought to be the most hopeful, the
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: most joyful. We ought to have no anxieties, no fears.
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  Speaker 2: We have been chosen in eternity past for eternal future glory.
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  Speaker 1: All true Christians rest in the knowledge that they have
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: been chosen in eternity past for eternal glory. This is,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: in its simplest form, the doctrine of election. We're very
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: excited to announce that John MacArthur's newest book, The Doctrines
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: of Grace, is now available through Grace To You. Taken
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: from Pastor John's classic series, Doctrines of Grace, makes the
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: hard truths of Scripture simple and the complex clear. Order
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: a copy of this beautiful hardcover classic edition for yourself
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: or for a friend as a gift. Operators are standing
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: by to assist you at 888-57-GRACE or visit our website gty.org
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and click the shop button to search for a copy
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: of this new resource. On behalf of John MacArthur and
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: all of us at Grace To You, thank you for
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: joining us and unleashing God's truth one verse at a time.