Hope in God, God, for he is a great God of grace, grace in election, grace in calling, grace in sanctification, grace in faith, grace in

glorification. You can't earn it, you can't merit it, you can't deserve it. Believe it. Rest in it.

It's true that our hope as Christians is built on grace.

But what does that mean and why does it matter?

Those are the questions that John Piper answers

from Second Thessalonians to 16 and 17 in this episode of Light and Truth.

This sermon was originally preached

at Bethlehem Baptist Church on April 13, 1986.

Look at 2th Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, for the key phrase that I hope is just drilled into your mind and heart this morning

so that you feed yourself with it all week and use it as a fan for the flames of your hope.

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who loved us and

gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace. There it is. Good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts and

establish them in every good work and word. What a wonderful phrase. Good hope through grace. It's a great and beautiful phrase, isn't it?

Good hope through grace.

It's sweet because all its foundation is of grace.

Let's go back and ask what is grace why is the hope good and answer those questions by

just watching grace in action in verses 13 and 14.

Grace is in action here.

I want to read these two verses and tell you to tabulate in your mind

the five steps of our salvation mentioned in these two verses. And then I'll tell you

what my five are and you see if your five match up and then we'll see how they are all of grace

Verse 13

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