I invite you again to turn with
me to Titus chapter 1. My subject this morning is a
hope. We were singing about hopes in
the call to worship this morning, but we don't have hopes, we have
a hope. And that's my subject, a hope
promised by God. Now Titus along with 1st and
2nd Timothy are the three epistles that men who are theologians
call pastoral epistles. They call them pastoral epistles
and categorize them as such because they contain certain information
concerning pastors sometimes called elders. And they contain such things
as their qualifications and their behavior and their
duties. And we go, like I did, up to
Missouri the other day and we preach an ordination service
of a new pastor. One speaker talks about those
things that do him from the church to the pastor and the other one
preaches a message on what this pastor is to do for his church. But these epistles are not just
to be set aside and not read except when we're having ordination
services. They're rich in the gospel as
well. Let me read for you the first
three verses of Titus chapter 1, and this will serve as my
text this morning. Titus chapter 1, beginning with
verse 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 Savior. Now there's two words mentioned here in verse two that
I found over the years that unbelieving rebels don't like. They don't like. The first is
the word hope. They want something more than
hope. They want somebody to say, you're
saved. You're saved. I had a preacher tell me that
one time. I did everything he told me to do. I said, now what?
He said, now you're saved. You reckon that carried any authority
in heaven? Religion wants physical evidence. It wants an experience. It wants a miracle. It wants
some kind of tangible evidence, something they can see or feel
or touch. That's what they seek out. But
the scripture calls for something different. In Romans chapter
8 and verse 24, Paul tells us we're saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For if a man seeth it, why does
he yet hope for it? I can see that glass of water.
I don't need to hope for it. It's there. It's tangible. It's
in front of me. If we hope for that we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it. And salvation in its
purest form is hope. You read through the Psalms,
you constantly hear David praising God, for his hope. So in its purest form, it is
hope. Christ in you, the scripture
said, the hope of glory. So when everything is said and
done, the very best I can do is set before you a good hope
by grace. That's the most that can be expected
from me. I can't go past that. I can't
do a work in you. I can only tell you of the one
who can. I can set before you a hope. And this hope is salvation. The second word in verse two
of my text is equally ignored by religion and it is the word
promise. Paul said religion seeks after
a sign. We used to call it laying out
a fleece. We thought that was so godly.
You remember old Gideon, he just couldn't believe that the Lord
was gonna deliver Israel through him And he needed something besides
God's word. So he said, I'm going to lay
this fleece out here on the ground. And if the dew is all around
it, but it ain't on the fleece, this means one thing. And if
the dew's on the fleece, not on the ground, it means something
else. And we used to talk about that. By God's will, we'd lay
out the fleece. Just so much religious jargon,
that's all it was. Paul said the Jews require a
sign and the Greeks, the Gentiles, the Greeks, we know all about
the Greeks, they seek after wisdom. The intellectual seeks to justify
the word of God by earthly wisdom and philosophy. He takes the
thing, some of you may be sitting in here this morning listening
to me and you've only heard me once or twice and you're sitting
there and you're trying to evaluate what I'm saying and you're doing
it by worldly philosophy and intellect. That's the Greeks. They seek
after wisdom. They want to justify what you're
saying. Those men at Mars Hill sit and
listen to Paul preach in Athens, Greece. They listen to him preach.
And they evaluated what he said by their own philosophy and by
their own wisdom. He wants to justify The Word of God by earthly wisdom
and philosophy. He wants to take the law of physics
and explain creation. Creation has to be millions of
years old because, and he comes out with his theories. No, creation don't have to be
anything. It's whatever God makes it. That's what it is. He wants to take what he calls
the laws of nature and explain the parting of the Red Sea. I
read a book one time and this guy was going through the horrible
rigmarole of wind and storms and all of these things and split
that sea and held it open until they got on the other side. It wants to explain, it wants
to take these what men call laws of nature and explain the sun
standing still. and the iron that floated, and
how the flood of Noah came about. But the truth, according to the
word of God, is that the hope of eternal life is based 100%
on the promise of God. And it's totally contrary to
any philosophy and any earthly wisdom. God said it. And that's the end
of it. Huh? That's all you got, ain't
it? I don't have anything else. I've
never seen any angels. I've never heard any voices. I have the Word of God, the promise
of God. That's all I have. There's a lot of ingredients
that go into the salvation of the soul, but if you boil them
all down to the basics, you discover that salvation rests on the promise
of God. We say, I believe on Christ.
Who's he? He's the promised redeemer, isn't
that right? And that's the basis of everything
that I had to say to you this morning. It's a hope promised
by God. Now let's spend a little while
and take a close look at these two words, this word hope. And the first thing I want us
to consider about this word hope is that the natural man doesn't
have any. He doesn't have any. Paul reminded
the Ephesians who they were and where God found them. He said,
now you remember you were Gentiles. You weren't theologians, you
didn't know anything about the Bible. You were Gentiles. You being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh who are called uncircumcision, that is the heathen, by them
which are called the circumcision. Even the false religion of the
Jews didn't give the Gentiles any hope. Verse 12, Ephesians 2, that at
that time you were without Christ. That is, and most people are
today. They don't know who Christ is.
They don't even know that, they think Christ is his name. Christ
is his office. Jesus, who is called Christ,
that's his office. At that time you were without
Christ, no promise of his coming, no understanding of his purpose,
no knowledge of his person, no wisdom whatsoever about his
work. You were without Christ. Now
what's this? Being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel, that is they had no connection between themselves
and God's elect. This whole world, then and now,
believed that the Jews were God's elect. And that's what he's telling
them here. At that time, you were aliens from the Commonwealth
of Israel. You had no way to connect yourselves
to the promises of God to Israel. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise. I'd wager to say, I wouldn't
embarrass you for anything, but I would wager to say, if I started
here and went person by person this morning and asked you to
tell me something about the covenants of God, how many people in here
you think would be able to do that? Five, is that a? Maybe six. Some of you could. Some of you could. But most of
you couldn't. And Paul said, you were strangers
from the covenants. My soul, our hope is based on
the everlasting covenant of grace. It's based on Christ being the
surety of that covenant. Everything God demanded in that
covenant and everything God promised in that covenant is up to our
guarantor, the surety of that everlasting covenant. It's ordered
in all things insured because of the surety that he appointed
over it. And then there's a covenant of
the law. What thing soever the law saith,
it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and the whole world may become guilty before God.
There was a covenant made at Sinai. He said, you keep this
law, all of its statutes, you keep this law, and I'll do this,
and I'll do that. But they couldn't keep the law.
They broke the law before the law made its way down from the
mountain. Natural men don't have it. They
don't have this hope. Strangers from the covenants
of promise, the covenant that God made with Noah and Abraham
and Moses and David and on and on. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise. In these covenants, God promised
life everlasting. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise. Having no hope. Ain't that what
that says? And that brings me back to my
statement. Natural man doesn't have hope. And he can't get one. I watched a movie one time. I
hope nobody in here saw it and would know that I watched it.
It's a little off color. But in this movie, there was
a boy in there and they called him Can't Get Right. That's what
they called him, Can't Get Right. You saw it too, didn't you? That's natural man, he can't
get right. He can't get a hope. He can get religion. He can get
feelings. He can get an experience. He
can get all kinds of things. You play music long enough, hard
enough, and loud enough, and people will think the Spirit
of God was there. They go home and talk about it. You get a
man who can sing or a woman who can sing like an angel, and I'm
telling you, people go home and say, boy, the Spirit of God was
there tonight. Huh? I've been there and done that.
I know that's so. You can get all kinds of things, but you
can't create a hope before God. You have no hope. What are you
going to do? Public schools to protect our
children have instituted what they call lockdown. My wife used
to work for a school. And she'd be ready to go home,
and all of a sudden, they'd have a drill and have a lockdown.
You couldn't get out of the building. Nobody come in, nobody go out.
This whole world, after the fall of Adam, is in lockdown. Oh, preacher, I don't see any
doors. Nobody's standing over me. Oh, I beg your pardon. I beg
your pardon. You're in prison right now. That's right. All mankind being under the judgment
of God is confined by chains of darkness. He can't go past
the chain of his darkness. That's as far as he can go. They
have a fallen nature, one that loves darkness rather than light.
They're all held captive but can't see the bars. That's just
so. He came during the days of Noah. The Spirit of God came and he
preached to the captives. And he saved some. Saved some. Saved Noah. Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. They can move about, but they
can't go beyond the chains of their nature. You take a bird and take it out
there at the pond, stick it down underwater, see if it can change
its nature. Won't take very long, that bird's
dead in the door now. Take a fish, throw him up in
the air, he don't fly, he just comes back down and splats on
the ground. He can't change his nature. Spirit of God said to his prophet,
he said, can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can he
sit there and clench his fist and set his jaw and all of a
sudden he's white? No, he can't change the color
of his skin. Can a leopard change his spots?
Can you that are accustomed to do evil do good? That's what
he asked him. If you could, that leopard could
change his spots. and that Ethiopian, you can't
change your nature. You can do all kinds of things,
but you're restricted to the bounds of your nature. You must
be born again, our Lord said, to see, to perceive the kingdom
of God. It doesn't arise out of man's
nature. God has to give him a new nature.
There's no possibility apart from an intervention of God that
any man can have any hope. You say, I know a lot of people
that profess to be saved, but they don't agree with you about
anything you preach. I've had a lot of people tell
me that. I know a lot of people saved, never heard what you preach.
And don't believe and confess what you preach. Well, Paul talks
about them too. He said they walk in the vanity
of their minds. Huh? Man at his best state, he's
altogether vanity. He walks in the vanity of his
mind. He believes he does have the
power to regenerate himself. He does have the power to do
good. My brother told me that one time.
He said, if I wanted to, I could be just as good as I am bad.
I said, well, why don't you? I don't want to. I said, exactly.
And you never will. God has to give you the want
to. You don't have any want to. My people shall be willing, he
said, in the day of my power. They walk in the vanities of
their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them. There's no possibility. And I
tell you, this is the way things really are. And when a man comes
to see things the way they really are, he discovers that he don't
have a hope. Is that right? Boy, that was
my experience. Don't have any hope. What would
he hope in? Huh? His will? You ever tried a will to get
rid of a toothache? Can't do it, can you? Only thing you can do is pull
it out. It ain't will to get rid of a
common cold. What would you hope in? Your
will? Your decisions? Your intellect? Who art thou,
old man, that replies against God? Here's the potter on the
wheel, and he spins it, and he's making whatever he deems according
to his purpose that he wants to make. And he's spinning it
on the potter's wheel, and he's shaping it, and all of a sudden
that pot comes up and says, why have you made me thus? Who art
thou, old man? Shall the thing formed say unto
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? God's not
going to answer to you. None can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? He does as he pleases. Decisions, intellect, if God
don't see fit to give us a hope, we'll all die in our sins. We'll continue to walk in the
vanity of our mind. We'll continue to walk in our
rebellion. We'll just say, he can't tell
me what to do. He will if God's in it, and you'll
do it. You'll do it. You see, preaching,
when I talk about the necessity of preaching, I'm not talking
about any power in the preacher, I'm talking about the purpose
of God. There wasn't any power in the Jordan River to remove
leprosy, but if Naaman didn't go down and dip in that river,
he'd have went home a leper. Why? Because that's what God
purposed to do. And it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Hope comes from God. It's not
something that arises from our nature or arises from our will,
but something given to us by God. And this hope that God gives
is a new hope. It's a new hope. This hope that God gives to men
is a hope based on the eternal promise of God. And that brings
us to the next word, promise. In hope of eternal life, Paul
said, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. Now there's something significant
here that I want you to see, something probably you've never
thought about. But there's a lot of places in the scripture where
he uses the phrase, before the world began, before the foundation
of the world. What's he saying in that? Well,
there's no word to describe what was before. What was before is
eternity. And I know men wax eloquent and
they use words like the council halls of eternity. There's no word to explain eternity. It's endless. It's endless. There's nothing before creation
but eternity, and anything God says happened before the world
began happened in eternity. Well, what happened in eternity?
Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1. What happened in eternity? God
made promise of eternal life in his son, Jesus Christ. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. Is that right? Would everybody
here agree they're eternal? How long they've been holding
that record? From eternity. Is that right? Listen to this. Ephesians 1 verse 3. I'm trying
to set before you this morning a hope. I'm not trying to make
a name for myself. I'm not trying to wow you with
something. I'm trying to set before you the only hope there
is. Now listen to this carefully.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. Now this tells us the who and
the where. God did the blessing and he did
it in heavenly places. Now here's the how. In heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. Here's the why. That we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, that is before him
being loved. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the blood, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace. God promised all
of this and more before the foundation of the world, that is, from all
eternity. And of these promises, He hath
abounded toward us, Paul goes on, in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, his eternal
redemptive will, his immutable and sovereign will, and he did
this according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself.
And now here's God's redemptive will as it's revealed to chosen
sinners, verse 10. Ephesians 1. Verse 10, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ. That is, all things that were
given to him, all things that were promised
by him, and all things that were promised in him. He's gonna gather
all these things up. both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, now listen to this, in whom also
we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. I'm talking about God trusting
in Christ from all eternity. Turned everything over to His
hand. Verse 13. In whom you also trusted after
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Here's what I want you to see. In whom also after that you believed
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of what? Promise. Promise. Now some say the Holy
Spirit of promise is talking about the promise of the Holy
Ghost. His coming promised when the
Savior ascended into glory, and we know that that is so. He was
promised by the Savior. If I don't go away, the Comforter
will not come. He had to go away. And he said
to the Spirit, the Spirit was promised. But that's not what
Paul's talking about here. Absolutely, his presence and
power was purposed and promised by God, but I just don't believe
that that's what's being referred to here. What he's talking about
here are those great and precious promises of Christ revealed to
chosen sinners by the Spirit of God. You're sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, and you'll never let it go. Of course, spirit
won't let you. Huh? Is that? That's not too
hard, is it? You can't see any, you can't
have this hope unless God gives it to you. And if God gives it
to you, he gives it to you by his spirit, by the promise of
God in Christ. That's what he does. He preaches
Christ to you, he gives you this promise, and the spirit abides
and will not let that promise go. We're not of them who draw back
under perdition. Oh, we draw back, but we don't
draw back under perdition. Spirit of God won't let us. He
just won't. Does that make sense? He's talking about these great
and precious promises of Christ revealed to chosen sinners by
the Holy Ghost, which cannot be believed without Him. but
is such a strong evidence with him of salvation that he calls
it the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession under the praise of his glory. I'm simply saying
that the revelation of God's promise in Christ is the earnest
of our inheritance. That's what we cherish. We cherish
him. Christ in you, not physically
in you, but in you by the promise of the Spirit of God. Huh, does
that make sense? Being sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise, we have hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began. All right, here's the third thing,
and I'll hurry. Titus chapter one, verse three. He promised
all these things before the world began. He preserved them, inspired
men to write them and put them in a book. And he calls men to
exhort these chosen sinners, to preach to chosen sinners.
He calls men to do this. Now listen to this. Hath in due
times manifested his word through preaching. He could have manifested his
word through dreams. He did to Joseph. He could have spoke to men out
of a cloud like he did to Moses. But it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. God said,
I'm going to do it this way. And I'm telling you, this doesn't
magnify the office of a man, if you understand it correctly.
This magnifies the sovereignty of God. God said, you're going
to do it this way. This way. He hath in due times manifested
his word through preaching which is committed unto me according
to the commandment of God our Savior. Who commanded this gospel to
be preached throughout the world? Christ did. The purpose in the preaching
of the gospel is to set the eternal promises of God in Christ before
this fallen world. That's what it's for. It's to
tell them who He is and why He came and what He did and where
He's at. To tell them something about
His eternality. To tell them something about
His value and His power and His glory and His seated authority
at the right hand of God and His soon return. It's to sit
before men Christ who is the hope of glory. Now you go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and
he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth
not shall be damned. Preaching is a declaration of
the promises of God in Christ and that's why we preach Christ
and him crucified. All of God's promises in Christ,
Paul said, are yea and amen. They can't fail. All he chose
in Christ have been predestinated to the adoption of children.
All those chosen in Christ have been represented by him and his
person and work. All those represented by Christ
shall be called with an irresistible calling. Paul said, God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. And you become followers of us
in the Lord. You become examples of all them
that believe. You say, boy, I wish old so-and-so
could have heard that. Why don't you invite old so-and-so
down here to hear it? Huh? Instead of wishing, why don't
you just invite him to come here? Well, I just don't know what
he'd do. That's what they said about you
when you first come. That's what they said about me.
He ain't gonna have that. Oh, he will if God opens his
heart and his mind. He'll have it. He'll long for
it. He'll desire it more than his
necessary meat. Maybe God will give him ears
to hear. One thing for sure, you can't call upon him in whom
you have not believed and you can't believe in him of whom
you've not heard and you can't hear without a preacher. He can't
preach unless God sends him. I wouldn't know where to go. God hath in due time such times
that suited him Due times, due to God's purpose of grace and
His appointments of the Savior, in due times He manifested His
Word. He made His Word to be so. Somebody said, how do you know,
how was you finally convinced that God called you to preach?
I said, I found these words in the scripture, and they rang
true to my heart. It came to pass. Isn't that what he's talking
about here? In due times, he manifested his word through preaching. Oh, God hath in due time. manifested
his word, the promises contained in his word, the nature of the
promises, the reason for it, the way of it, the glory of it,
the means of it, he's manifested his word. I've got no use for
a preacher who will not limit his remarks to the word of God.
I'm done with him, I'll just walk away. Because you can sit
there and tell him what you think, and he can sit there and tell
you what he thinks, and you can go on and on forever. But what I think ain't the basis
of it. The basis of it is what God said. What God said. This, our Lord said, is my Father's
will, which hath sent me, that every one which seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. So what about you? What about you? Well, I'm just
here because Dad brought me. What about you? Do you have a hope? Do you have a hope given by God? A hope based on the promises
of God in Christ? A hope set before you by God's
ambassador? If you do, you have an eternal
hope. One which God, who cannot lie,
promised from all eternity. And then when he comes down and
He makes his covenant with you and he does this work within
you like he did old Abraham, it said, because he could swear
by no greater, he just swore by himself. You didn't know that, did you?
All these promises of God are held secure by his own name.
He swore by himself, Winston. And there's none greater than
that. None greater than that. Lord Himself make it so in us
for Christ's sake.