Right, let's start our reading. So we're reading from Titus,
chapter 1. Paul, a servant of God and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in
hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began, but hath in due times manifested his word
through preaching which is committed unto me according to the commandment
of God our Saviour. To Titus, mine own son after
the common faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father
and our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. For this cause left
I thee in Crete, that thou should set in order the things that
are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed
thee. if any be blameless, the husband
of one wife, having faithful children, nor accused of riot
or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless,
as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to
wine, no striker, not given to filthy looker, but a lover of
hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate. holding fast the faithful word,
as he hath been taught, that he may be able to, by sound doctrine,
both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. For there are
many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they
of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert
whole houses, teaching things which they ought not for filthy
lookers' sake. One of themselves, even a prophet
of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts,
slow bellies. This witness is true. Wherefore
rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that
turn from the truth. Unto the pure all things are
pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing
pure. but even their mind and conscience
is defiled. They profess that they know God,
but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and
unto every good work reprobate. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. When we began last week, we opened
a little study in the book of Titus here with some thoughts
on verse one. And we spoke then about Paul
being a servant of God and a minister and a messenger of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we drew attention to that
delightful little phrase there in the opening verse, the faith
of God's elect. And we noted Paul was called
to preach the truth or the gospel because the gospel is often called
the truth or the word of truth. And that is what is effectually
implanted in the hearts of sinners that brings forth new life in
Christ and, Paul says, the fruit of godliness. So these were some
of the themes that we picked up on in this opening verse. And today I just want to spend
a few minutes thinking about verse two, because this verse
has three clauses which nicely suits my usual structure in these
little midweek reflections. Verse two says once again, in
hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began. So I want us to think just for
a few moments on this little phrase, in hope of eternal life. And what a hope this is that
we have as believers. This is a hope that the world
knows nothing about. This is a hope that we have in
the Lord Jesus Christ, a justifiable hope, a founded hope, a well-founded
hope. And I want us just to pause for
a moment or two and think about what Paul is saying here. This
gospel that he's been called to preach and of which he is
a messenger, this gospel which is the faith of God's elect,
it not only instills godliness in this life, but it gives us
hope of life everlasting with God and with our Lord Jesus Christ
in heaven. We who are the Lord's people,
we who have heard and believed and received this gospel, we
have the hope of everlasting life. And when this earthly life,
when this physical life that we have in these bodies, in this
world, in this time, comes to its natural end as it must do
for us all, some probably quite soon, for some perhaps a little
bit later, but when it comes to its end, for it is appointed
unto men once to die, when it comes to its end we will enter
into everlasting life. We have the hope of eternal life. And it's called eternal life
in this verse. In hope of eternal life. I don't
think that there's any significant difference between the word everlasting
and the word eternal. They both pretty much mean the
same thing. But I confess, in my mind, I
often think of everlasting in the sense of duration. While I think of eternal in the
sense of quality, and yet even the very word eternal dispenses
with all notion of duration. It is just an everlasting presence
in the company of our eternal God. But whatever the right way
of thinking about this, this is life as we have never yet
known it. A life of perfect bliss and happiness. with Christ forever. And it is a life that will last
forever and ever and ever and ever. And it is a life that we
will enter upon very soon. Life, the life, is one of the
names that our Lord Jesus Christ takes to himself. He says, I
am the life, and he graciously gives that life to whomsoever
he wills. John tells us in his first epistle,
he that hath the Son hath life, that is, hath everlasting life,
hath eternal life. has spiritual life. So we learn
as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ that we already have eternal
life. Though the Apostle Paul here
is speaking of the hope of eternal life, he's not talking about
that as being something that we will get in the future. It
is something that we already have but it is something that
we do not yet fully grasp and understand. so that eternal life
is put into our soul by the Holy Spirit in regeneration. That's
what Paul is talking about when he speaks in Ephesians chapter
two, verse one of, you hath he quickened, you hath he made alive,
who were dead in trespasses and sins. So we have this quickening
life, we have this Holy Spirit regeneration. And eternal life
is the possession of believers from the moment that that quickening
takes place. Nor is eternal life something
that comes with believing. Rather, eternal life is what
enables us to believe because that eternal life is at the very
beginning of that quickening experience. It is the new life
within us that enables us to hear with hearing ears and to
see with seeing eyes and to believe with faith. So that hearing and
believing, we learn what that life means that has been implanted
within us. And the Apostle Paul is here
telling Titus that his preaching the gospel opens our understanding
and our awareness to this hope of eternal life and it creates
an anticipation within us as to what that life in its fullness
will be. The Gospel tells us about God's
love and about the giving of his Son that we, by his death,
might have life. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And believing the gospel
means not only having faith in what Christ has done on the cross,
but it is believing the consequences of that work of mercy in the
promises that come to us consequential upon Christ's accomplishments. the Holy Spirit implants everlasting
life and then we hear and believe the Gospel and the hope and expectation
of that life which we possess becomes fuller and deeper. It is fostered and encouraged
and increased in the hearts and minds of the Lord's people, the
Lord's elect, for our comfort and encouragement as we daily
go through this life and the challenges that we face in it. So the eternal life is a life
of perfect bliss and happiness that we are looking forward to
entering into in all of its fullness with Christ to all eternity. It's a hope that is laid up in
heaven for us. It is an inheritance reserved
in heaven for us. having been secured for God's
elect by the death and sacrifice of Christ our substitute. For while, says Paul, the wages
of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. But what a hope this is. Once
again, let us often pause and think about eternal life. Let us go to it. Let us make
a note to self. Think about eternal life more
often. What a hope this is, brothers
and sisters in Christ. It's not a dubious hope. It's
not uncertain. It is well grounded, a well grounded
expectation of glory and happiness. in the presence of Christ yet
to be entered upon. It's fixed upon the promises
of God. So Paul goes on to say, which
God that cannot lie has promised. So here we have this hope of
eternal life which God that cannot lie has promised. And we should always be keen
to pick out and note God's promises. Every promise comes to us by
the Lord Jesus Christ because of his death and his sacrifice
and as a free inheritance because we are in Christ. and the glory
that Christ receives, we shall receive with him in heaven. Because all the promises of God
are in him, yea, and in him, amen. So that just as Christ,
having once died, shall die no more, Romans 6 verse 9 says,
knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more,
death hath no more dominion over him, neither will death have
any dominion over us. Our everlasting life will just
be a continuity out of this life into the more immediate presence
of our Saviour. We won't even know it's happening. And let us also note that this
eternal life is a promise. It's a promise. Now not only
is it a promise that we've been given, but a promise in scripture
is unconditional. At least it's unconditional to
us because it's not founded upon anything that we have to do or
that we have done, nor indeed anything that we can do. The
promises of God are gifts, and they're gifts of free grace. Sometimes we hear it said that
God being omnipotent can do anything. Well, God is omnipotent, but
God can't do everything. God can't lie. God cannot lie
because to do so would be inconsistent with his holiness and purity
and perfection. So when the Apostle Paul says
here that God which cannot lie has promised, He's not denying
the omnipotence of God, but he is reinforcing the holiness of
God and the purity of God. God has promised, and he cannot
lie, to freely give everlasting life unconditionally to all those
for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died, and all to whom the gospel
is effectually sent. and all who are given faith to
trust by the quickening work of God the Holy Spirit, so that
all three persons of the Godhead are involved in the promise and
provision and free gift of eternal life to the elect. We trust in the sure and certain
promises of God We don't have this eternal life by our good
works. We don't have eternal life by
the works of the law. We don't have it by what we've
earned or anything that is conditional upon something that we do. That
would be inconsistent with the nature of a promise. Rather,
everlasting life or eternal life is the promise of God who is
faithful to his word and cannot lie. So just thinking again about
that promise. I think we shall see it much
more beautifully framed if we think of it not as having been
made to us who believe in the first instance, but consider
it rather as a promise made to our great representative, a promise
made to Christ as the mediator in the covenant of grace and
peace. And Paul tells us then, and this
is our third little phrase or clause in this verse, Paul tells
us this promise was made before the world began. This is a promise
of eternal life that was made to our mediator before the world
began, before the earth was created, before the world existed. God promised eternal life to
his elect that he committed into the hand of Christ. Indeed, as
early as election, existed, as early as the gift of grace to
them was given in Christ, as early as the covenant was made
with Christ and Christ was set up as the mediator of it, he
had possession of this promise as our head and representative. so that this promise of eternal
life was made to Christ for us who believe and was secured for
us by all that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross. And I think we ought to highlight
all the verses that speak of these blessings being made and
promised before time. Not because one part of scripture
is more important than another, but because this is the point
at which false gospel strikes. This is the point, this is the
place where false teaching attacks the true gospel and where God's
sovereign purpose is demoted and man's free choice and man's
works righteousness is elevated in the hearing of gospel preaching
today so-called. Paul's gospel The gospel that
Paul was sent to preach and the gospel that he faithfully ministered
and the gospel that he committed to faithful men like Titus is
the gospel of free sovereign grace in Christ. Do you see what
that phrase means in the context of these covenant blessings? Blessings such as eternal life,
promised unconditionally to the elect and freely bestowed upon
them when God's justice was satisfied by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ in that
particular redemption of the elect has secured for us this
eternal life as a promise from God. And that's the power in
the phrase, which God that cannot lie promised before the world
began. Paul's Gospel is, I trust, our
Gospel. It is the Gospel that he preached. It is the power of God unto salvation. It was the Gospel that Titus
heard and learned at the lips of Paul, and that Titus in turn
preached. It's the gospel that Abraham
and David believed, the gospel that Paul and Titus believed,
and I trust that it's the gospel that we believe to the saving
of our souls and the promise of eternal life. Amen.