I'll add to what Claire was saying
there. I'll say this about myself. I love people who are like me.
God has the capacity to love people who are not like him and
to love us enough to make us just like him, just like his
son. Let's chew on that for a while.
All right, well, open your Bibles with me, if you would, to the
book of 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Let me tell you what
a delight that it is to be here and how thankful that I am. You're not going to have to have
visiting preachers come. Aaron having to fill in all the time.
Todd's going to be back. I know you're so delighted. And
I thank God right along with you. I've titled the message
this evening, The Promise of Life. The Promise of Life. My suspicion is that you have
some interest in spiritual eternal life. I assume that you have
some interest in that because you're here tonight. Or maybe
you're the child of parents who are interested in this subject
of eternal life. And that's what Paul writes to
us here in the very first verse of the second epistle to Timothy.
an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to
the promise of life." The promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. Now some people think that this
is the very last epistle that the Apostle Paul wrote. We know
it is certainly close to the end of his life if you care to
look over in chapter 4 verse 6. He says, "'For I am not ready
to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought
a good fight and I finished my course. I've kept the faith."
Those are the words of a man who knows his time in this life
is drawing near. The time's short. And when a
person knows that, they just don't waste their time talking
about things that don't matter. They don't have time for it anymore. Time is short. And the things
that Paul deals with in this epistle are things that he under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, felt like it was very important
for us to hear and to remember after his departure. And he begins
talking about this promise of life, and that's what I want
us to look at tonight, the promise of life. The life that Paul is
talking about here is eternal life, it's spiritual life. He's
talking about the life that we lost when Adam sinned in the
garden. When Adam disobeyed God, in open
rebellion against God, took that fruit and ate it. The Lord had
told him, dying thou shalt die. When Adam ate that fruit, he
immediately died spiritually. And you and I died in him. And
he began dying, dying physically because of his sin at that time.
We lost that life in Adam. And the life that Paul's talking
about here is the life that we must have. if we would not be
condemned when we die. It's a very important subject.
And human beings are just inherently interested in this subject of
life. How can I have eternal life?
Our problem is, is by nature, we don't know. We don't even
know what spiritual life really is, and we certainly don't know
how to obtain it. And many religions come up with a bunch of different
ways, haven't they, to try to lay hold on this matter of eternal
life, and they've got it wrong. all of it is wrong. And what
I want us to see this evening is what does God's Word say about
this matter of spiritual life? What is it and how can we have
it? Well, number one, this is, it's
so obvious because Paul says it here, it talks about this
promise. Spiritual life is given by the promise of God. Paul said
it's according to the promise of life, which is in Christ Jesus. God has promised to give life
to His people and it's a free promise. And what we mean by
a free promise is that it's not conditioned on anything that
we do. We don't have to do something
in order to have this life, in order to get this life. God promised
to give spiritual life to His people just because it pleased
Him to do it. just because it pleased Him.
And He promised this life, it's by His will. Paul says it's by
the will of God. Now, spiritual life is not ours
because of our will. It's not because we decided to
let Jesus into our hearts. A dead creature cannot make a
decision about life. We're dead. Does that make sense?
A dead creature can't make a decision about life. God makes that decision. Salvation is by God's will, not
our will. And I'm telling you what, we
ought to be thankful for that. The salvation is by God's will,
not our will. Because what's our will? Our
will by nature. We got it from our father, Adam.
What did Adam do? That's our will. That's what
you and I would do. Our will is to run away from
God. Our will is to disobey God, to
live in rebellion against God, to try to take God off the throne.
When Adam ate that fruit, tell you what he was trying to do.
He was trying to be God. He wanted to be the one to make the rules.
That's our will. That's what we would try to do.
We want to establish our own righteousness as much as we fail
at it. Our will is to still attempt
to establish our own righteousness and fail and then be damned.
That's our will. That's the only thing our dead
will can try to do. That's the only thing it can
decide to do. The only thing we can decide to do is sin because
our nature is a sin nature. So salvation is by the will of
God. I'm thankful for it, aren't you? If salvation was not by
the will of God, nobody would be saved. Nobody would. It's
all by God's will. Everything that happens, everything
that ever has happened, that ever will happen, is all happened
by the will of God. Everything, everything. We can't always explain how God
brings good out of evil, but he does. Even when it's evil,
God did it. That happened by the will of
God. And God has a will. He has a will concerning the
redemption of his people. That's his will. And everything
that happens in human time, everything that God has ever ordained to
happen is all working together to accomplish this preeminent
purpose of God, the redemption of his people. the glory of His
Son, and the redemption of those people, to save those people,
not by their will, but by His will. Not by their obedience,
but by the obedience of His Son. Not by them cleaning up their
act, but by the sacrifice of His Son, that by that blood,
He might cleanse them from all their sin. That's God's will,
and nothing can stop it. Nothing can stop it. Now just
take a deep breath and relax. Can't we just relax and rest
in God's sovereign will? And everything that happens in
human time is simply God's will being carried out. And you can't
take that too far. Why are you here tonight? Why
are you here tonight? Want me to tell you why? It's
because Almighty God willed in eternity that you be here. Todd's Road Grace Church, November
the 3rd, 2021. God willed that. Pretty serious matter, isn't
it? Pretty serious. I mean, you're here because God
willed you to be here. Why do you have to live in a place where
the gospel is preached and not live in a dry, barren wilderness
where there's nothing? Why do you live here? Huh? Because
God willed for it. You live in this town, why do
you attend here? Not the hundred other goat farms I passed from
Savannah's house to here. Why did you come here and not
all those other places? God willed it. God willed it.
It's not that you're smarter than somebody else, it's because
God willed it. Why are you tall? Why are you short? Why are you
athletic, huh? Why are you unathletic? Why you
got to kind of a broken back, can't hardly do nothing no more?
Why are you tall? Why are you short? Why are you blonde? Why
are you brunette? Why are you gray headed? God willed it. God willed it, that's why. Everything
that happens is God's will. And that's just, I won't say
especially true, but that's so true in this matter of spiritual
life. The same thing is true. Why do you have spiritual life?
If you're here tonight, you believe Christ. You love him. You love
his gospel. You love his words. You believe
him. You have spiritual life. Why do you have spiritual life
and somebody else doesn't? It's because God willed it. God
willed it. Why does a person not have spiritual
life? It's because God willed to leave them alone. It's all
of God's will. Spiritual life is by God's will
and it's promised to God's people, promised to them. They don't
have it because they deserved it. They don't have it because
they've earned it. Life is given to the undeserving
by God's grace and God's mercy. He tells Timothy, he says, he's
writing here in verse two to Timothy, my dearly beloved son,
grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus
our Lord. All of this spiritual life, this
promise of God is based upon the grace, mercy, and peace from
God. It's based upon the work of God,
the promise of God, the accomplishment of God, the sacrifice of God's
Son. It's all the work of God, and
it has absolutely nothing to do with the will or the works
of man. It's all the work of God. That's what mercy and grace
means. It means we didn't earn it. God
gave it to us even though we didn't deserve it. He gave it
to his people because that's what Christ deserves. That's
why he gave it to him. That's salvation. And the proof
that this salvation is by the will of God and not by the will
of man is when God made this promise of life to his people.
When did he make this promise? It was before time began, before
man was ever on the scene. Look over a few pages of the
book of Titus. Titus chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of God
and 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
when? 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." See, if spiritual
life is the promise of God that he made before we were even here,
then it ought to be obvious to us. The promise is based completely
on the will and the purpose and the grace of God, and not on
us in any way. And God's elect Do not earn salvation. They have it because God gave
it to them. They're heirs. God calls his
children, believers, he calls them heirs. He never calls them
earners. Look at Titus chapter 3, verse
5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done. but according to His mercy He
saved us. By the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly,
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs," not earners, heirs, according to
the hope of eternal life. Now, Paul here talks about the
hope of eternal life. You're an heir of God. Join heir
with the Lord Jesus Christ and you have a hope. And that hope
means expectation. Expectation. It doesn't mean
that you hope Kentucky wins the football game on Saturday. You
hope. You don't know. You hope. That's
not this word hope. This hope means expectation. God's elect can expect to have
eternal life. They can expect it. That's not
presumption, not presumption at all, because God promised
to give it to him. You know, expecting God to give
you what he promised to give you, that's faith. That's not
presumption. There's nothing wrong with that.
That's faith. We ought to believe. We ought to expect God's gonna
keep his word. We ought to expect God's gonna keep his promise,
shouldn't we? That's faith. Christ has died. The testator
has died. His death put the last will and
testament of His Father into full force. Salvation and eternal
life is going to be received by those heirs because it comes
by the will of God and the promise of God to them and He cannot
lie. He must give it to them. Now
here's my second question. We know this life comes by the
will of God, the promise of God. Where did God put this life that
He promised to give His people? Where did He put it? He promised
it before He created anything. Where did He put it? He put it
in His Son. The Father made life, spiritual
life, and every other spiritual blessing, He made it easy to
find. It's all in one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look, 1 John 5. 1 John 5. Verse 11, and this is the record, this
is the testimony that God has given, that He has given to us. He has given eternal life, and
this life is in His Son. And he that hath the Son hath
life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now it really is that simple. Life is in Christ and it's yours
if you believe Him. It's that simple. You see, spiritual
life was earned by what the Lord Jesus Christ did as a man. He
came in our flesh, bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, yet
without sin, and He did what you and I could never do. He
obeyed God's law perfectly. He exalted it. Not only did He
just obey it, I hate to even say it that way, but in obeying
it, He magnified it. He magnified the law, showed
God's glory in it. and worked out a perfect righteousness
for his people and gave it to them freely. And those people
can never die because Christ made them perfect. He made them
perfect by his obedience to the law for them as their representative.
But now spiritual life, eternal life is a whole lot deeper and
more full and richer than just a thing. that Christ gives His
people. It's not a thing. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the life of His people. Yes, the Father put that life
in His Son, but Christ is the life of His people. And I'll
show you that in John chapter 11. I think this is very beautiful. It throws me every time I read
it. John chapter 11. This is when our Lord's friend,
Lazarus, has died. He waited to arrive until after
Lazarus was dead and buried. He comes and finds Lazarus' sister,
Martha. John 11, verse 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. She's
right about that. If he'd been there, he wouldn't
have died. But I know that even now whatsoever thou will ask
of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Now, poor old Martha. You know, she had the doctrine
down cold, didn't she? She's got the doctrine of the
resurrection down cold. She's absolutely right. But this
is what Martha was missing, and what you and I miss, and what
we got to be taught, the resurrection is a whole lot more than an event.
I mean, it's gonna be some event, I would imagine, wouldn't you?
But it's more than an event. The resurrection is more than
a doctrine. Resurrection is a person. Look at what our Lord says, verse
25. Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection. I am the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith
unto him, Yea, Lord. I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God. We should come into the world.
That's the only thing a believer can do when presented with the
truth of Christ our Savior. We say, yeah, I believe. Believe
I can't Under I can't understand all that I can't I can't explain
all that to the nth degree, but I believe Christ is our life
He is our resurrection. You see that life is a person
Look over a few pages of John 14 John 14 Verse 1. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go, you know, and
the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way? Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the
life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. See, there our Lord said it again,
I am the life. Spiritual, eternal life is a
person. It is in Christ, yes, but it
also is Christ. He is our life. That's why the Apostle Paul said
in Colossians 3 verse 4, when Christ who is our life shall
appear. He's going to appear and He is
our life. Then shall you also appear with
Him in glory. See, every spiritual blessing
is all in one place. It's all in one person. It all
is one person. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's
the will of the Father. It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell. Now if you want to have spiritual
life, look where it's found. Look where it's at. It's found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritual life is not what you
do or what you don't do. It's all in Christ. Now would
you have it? But do you need forgiveness of
your sin? Do you need cleansing? Do you
need righteousness? Do you need life? It's all in
Christ. Now go to Him. Quit your doing. Quit trying to earn it by what
you do, what you don't do, and go to Christ. Believe Him. Trust
Him. And rest in Him. That's where
it's at. It's all in Him. All right, here's
the third thing. I see that. I see that from God's
Word. Spiritual life is in Christ. All right, I see that. It's by
the will of God, the promise of God. I see that it's in Christ.
I see that plainly stated in the word of God. Now, here's
my question. How does this directly affect
me? How do I get it? How can I have this life? I want
to know that, don't you? Well, thankfully, the scripture
tells us. First, we receive the spiritual life by the gift of
God. God promised to give a gift,
the gift of spiritual life to his people, and he's going to
give it to them freely. Here's the thing about a gift.
A gift is received freely. This tells you about the deadness
of human nature. We all want free stuff. I mean,
we want free everything. Politicians try to run, I'll
give you everything free. Accept salvation. Accept righteousness,
accept forgiveness. I want a free lunch, but oh now,
I'm going to earn this, you know, I'm going to earn this from God.
Brother, you can't pay for a gift. If you're going to have a gift,
you're going to have to receive it freely. My wife has begun
her annual, I don't even know what you call it, the odyssey
of buying Christmas presents for our whole family. And every
year, she says, I'm cutting back. I'm cutting back. I'm not doing
this anymore. And every year, there's a pile
of presents. She buys them all. She wraps
them all. It's just, I mean, it's something.
She's already begun. Savannah, you've got those gifts.
How many years? There's never one time been a bill attached
to it, has there? Not one time. It's free. Now why do I think
the Christmas present I want to give to my family is free
and God's gift is not? That's the deadness of our nature,
isn't it? Oh, salvation's a free gift. And I tell you, we ought to be
mighty glad because you want to earn something? You know,
the only thing that we can earn from God by our actions, death,
the wages of sin, the just desserts, what you earn from sin is death. And everything we do is sin.
So if we're going to have salvation, it's got to be a gift that God
gives to His people freely. And He gives it to them in His
Son, freely. Look back a few pages if you're
still in John, John chapter 10. He gives it to them freely. John
10 verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. If God Almighty gives you this
gift, free gift of life, you can never perish, never. See, the Father promised this
life to his people. Look at John chapter 17. He promised
it, he put it in Christ, and he sent his son here to earn
it, that he could give it to his people. You know, this is our Lord's
great high priestly prayer. Right before he goes to the cross,
he's praying and talking to his father. John 17, verse 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. He's going to give it to them.
Then they're all going to have it. They're all going to have
it because that's His will. Now, can't we just rest in that?
Can't we just rest in that? God's going to give spiritual
life to His people freely. Now, do you want it? Do you want
that life? Tell you what to do. Go beg God
to give it to you, because if you're going to receive it, that's
how you're going to get it, as a beggar at his feet, him giving
it to you freely. Second, we get this life by believing
on Christ, through faith in Christ. Look back at John chapter 5. I know it's a Wednesday night,
you're probably tired, but I want you to turn to these verses,
because I told you at the start of the message, I want you to
see from God's Word now, this is not just, you know, our Calvinistic
doctrine, this is what God's Word says about this. We receive
this life through faith in Christ. John 5, verse 24, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Now, everybody
who has faith in Christ, who believes on Him, has eternal
life. And this thing is tied very closely
to our last point. Faith and life go hand in hand. Where you have one, you have
to have the other. Where there's faith, there's
life. Where there's life, there's faith. They're both gifts from
God that He gives at the same time. And notice what the Savior
said here. We don't have life because we
believe. That would be works, wouldn't
it? You have to believe and then you get life. He says we believe
because God's already given us life. That's why we believe. The Lord didn't say whoever believes
on me will have eternal life. He said whoever believes on me
has already passed from death unto life. They already have
life because God gave it to them. He gave it to them at the very
same time He gave them faith. Now I want to ask you. I want
you to answer this question in your heart. Do you believe Christ? Do you trust Him? If you trust
Him, you trust that He's all it takes to save you. His obedience
is all it takes to make you righteous. His sacrifice is all it takes
to cleanse you from your sin. His person is all it takes to
make you accepted by the Father. Do you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is all it takes to save you without you adding
anything to it? If you do, that's saving faith. And that's the evidence God's
given you life. Because whoever has life believes
on Christ. And that is the whole reason
that Christ came to earth as a man in the first place. Look
back at John chapter three. here our Lord is talking to Nicodemus
in John 3, verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Now this is why Christ came to
the earth. So when his people would see him lifted up as a
sacrifice for our sin, and you're not going to see him lifted up
on an actual piece of wood. That happened 2,000 years ago.
We're not going to see that. But when you see him lifted up
in the preaching of the gospel, when one of God's servants lifts
Christ up in preaching and you see him as a sacrifice for your
sin, that's when you'll believe. You look and live because God's
going to send a man to hold up Christ and say, now look, Here
he is, to magnify him preaching and saying, look, when you see
Christ, oh, if God ever gives you the eyes of faith to see
him, see his sacrifice, you're gonna say, that's it. That's all I need. That's eternal
life. That's eternal life. It's had
by believing Christ. Back in 1 Timothy, Paul told
Timothy to lay hold on eternal life, lay hold on it. Well, how
do we lay hold on eternal life? It's by begging God to give it
to me and by refusing to quit begging. Just refusing to quit
begging. To lay hold on eternal life is
to be where Christ is preached and refuse to leave that place. I grew up, told you this, you
all know this, I grew up, as long as I could ever understand
language, I heard the gospel. Taught it at home, heard it when
we went to the service. And buddy, I could quote it all
back to you. Somebody wanted to argue religion,
boy, you got your hands full with me. And there came a day I realized
I knew all the facts and not the Savior. And it really frightened me to
think, God's not gonna be gracious to
somebody like me, that for years and years and years refused to
believe what I heard. But I knew this, faith cometh
by hearing. And I made it my determination
when the doors are open and there's gonna be a man preaching Christ,
I'm gonna be there. Because if God's gonna reveal
himself to me, that's where it's gonna be. That's laying hold
on eternal life and refusing to let go. Laying hold on eternal
life is this, determining if I'm gonna perish, and God would
be just in allowing me to perish, he'd be just in condemning me,
but if he's gonna condemn me, he's gonna condemn me at the
feet of Christ begging for mercy. That's laying hold on eternal
life. Then, lastly, we get this life through union with Christ.
John chapter 6. Union with Christ. John chapter
6, verse 53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, and hath eternal life, I'll raise
him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is the bread which came
down from heaven. Now as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever."
Now the Savior is not telling us here we have to be cannibals
and to literally eat His flesh and drink His blood in order
to have eternal life. He's not even telling us we have
eternal life by symbolically eating His flesh and drinking
His blood in the Lord's table. What He's talking about here
is union. Union with Christ, Christ in you and you in him.
When we eat something, he uses the example of eating. When we
eat something, it becomes part of our body. It actually becomes
our flesh, the cells and all the things that make up our body.
That food is converted, actually becomes our body. Well, the believer
has spiritual life through union with Christ. See, he's our life
and we have that through union with him. And you can't understand
how God saves sinners until you understand this doctrine of union,
representation. See, we all died in Adam because
we were in Adam. He was our representative. We
were in Adam. So we did what he did. I mean, it's not like God said,
well, Adam did this and I'm just going to charge it to you and
pretend like that you sin. No, when Adam sinned, we sinned
too. Because we were in Adam, he's our representative. We did
what he did. Romans 5 verse 12 says, in whom
all sinned. We sinned in Adam. That's how
we became spiritually dead. But we're made spiritually alive
the same way, through representation, through a second Adam, the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's people are in Christ, so
we did what he did. Christ obeyed the law, his people
did too. They obeyed it. They're righteous
and they can never die. When Christ died for our sin
to satisfy God's justice, we died too. We died in Christ. Justice is satisfied because
you already died in Christ. My brothers and sisters, God's
justice isn't looking for you. Don't think, oh, God's going
to get me now because, you know, His justice is going to come
get me because I did this sin. You know, God's, wait a minute.
You already died. You already died in Christ. God's
justice is not looking for you. Yeah, He'll chase you and His
children. He's going to teach us, but He's not going to punish
you. His justice is not looking for you. You died in Christ. God will never put somebody to
death a second time for the same sin. That would be unjust and
unholy. So we have eternal life by union
with Christ, who is our life. He's the head, we're the body.
We're alive because the head's alive, because the head is our
life. And notice this now in closing. Every reason for spiritual
life is found in God. Life was promised by God the
Father. All that life is in God the Son. He earned it for his people.
He is the life of His people. He's the one that gives that
life to His people. It's all in His Son. And it's the Holy
Spirit who moves and gives life through the preaching of the
Word, the seed of the Word of God, to give life to God's elect
in the new birth. It's all of God. I tell you one
more time, if you'd have life, go to Christ. Go to Him and beg
Him to give it to you. And it is my earnest prayer that
all of us, you both, would do that tonight. Let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this time to read and open and study your word and hear
your son preached. Father, I beg of you that you
take your word and you bless it to your glory, to the hearts
of your people. that you would overpower the
stumblings and bumblings of the preacher and the hearer both.
And Father, bless your word to your glory. You promised that
your word would not return into you void. And Father, I pray
you'd send it forth tonight at a purpose of mercy and grace
and give life to the hearts of your people. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray and give thanks.