In Titus chapter 1, let's read again. I intend to
read these verses until you probably have them memorized. Titus chapter 1, and let's read
these verses. 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." Now next week we're going to take
up verse 3, but I want you to notice what he says in verse
3. "...but hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching,
which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our
Savior." He's been talking here about faith, the faith of God's
elect, in hope of eternal life which God cannot lie promised? And he said, before the world
was. And then he makes this interesting
statement, but hath in due times manifested His Word through preaching. Now, there's different ways the
Lord manifests His Word. Sometimes through reading it.
Do you ever be sitting and reading the Word and you just have light
to shine upon it? And you just thank the Lord for
it, that you understood it. He manifests it to you. He showed
it to you. And one of the main ways that
He did it back in the early church, and one of the ways He does now,
He manifests His Word through preaching. Don't you imagine
the preaching of these apostles were wonderful? Because they
didn't have the New Testament Scriptures that you and I have.
And when those apostles and early preachers preached, they had
to go back over to the Old Testament. And there was so much in there,
they just didn't understand. And as those apostles got up
to preach, my, they said, we had no idea that much was in
that chapter. And it meant that. And so Paul
is saying, that's why God has called me. I'm not only an apostle,
but I'm a preacher. And through me and through my
preaching, He manifests His Word. So what a blessing that is. And
I know sometimes we preachers, when we go through a book like
this, sometimes we get bogged down if we're not careful. And
I'll admit, I'm bad for that. But that's what preaching is.
It's me studying the Lord's Word and comparing Scripture with
Scripture. and asking the Lord to give me
light on it, then I come here and I preach it to you. And then
you see things that if you've seen them before, it refreshes
you. Or maybe you've never seen it
before and you say, my, what a blessing that is. So preaching
is profitable, isn't it? It's very profitable. But tonight
I want us to look one more time, and this will be the last night
on this, but this hope of eternal life. I want to say a few more
things this afternoon about this because this hope is glorious. What a glorious hope! And you
and I, as children of God, can never know enough about the hope. And we looked last week, something
about what the hope was. We're talking about a resurrection,
aren't we? Resurrection of the body. The
world that's to come. When the Lord Jesus comes again
and the saints are resurrected and made in His glorious likeness. Now that's the hope. He calls
it here the hope of eternal life. In another place, we'll look
at in a minute, He calls it the hope of glory. Oh, we rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. What a way to describe the future
of the Lord's people. Glory. Glory. That's a good way
to describe heaven. It's the Father's house, but
it's glory. What a glorious time and place
and future awaits the Lord's children. I was reading someone
on this verse here, in hope of eternal life, and he was commenting
on it, and he was comparing it to 1 John chapter 3, where John
said, It doth not yet appear what we shall be. We know that
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. But he said, does
not yet appear what we shall be. But he was comparing these
two verses, and here's what he said about it. I thought this
was very interesting. This commentator said, this at least we know. Whatever we don't know, we do
know this, that the eternal life shall have in it, or include,
the expansion to the full of all the faculties and affections
of the renewed nature. The expansion to the full of
all the faculties and affections of the renewed nature. Now you
think about that for a minute. The perfect harmony of those
faculties and affections, both among themselves and with the
will of the adorable God. Boy, now there's such a conflict
in us, isn't there? Sometimes our will conflicts
with our understanding. Sometimes our understanding conflicts
with our affections. But there, all the faculties
of the soul will be in perfect harmony with themselves and with
the full will of the adorable God. And He said it will include
this, the end of the last remnants of sin. Man, think of that! That's what that hope will include,
the last remnants of sin. Sin and sin from the lesson of
the Lord. All tears forever dried up, body and soul reunited in
a holy, deathless companionship, and made perfectly blessed in
the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. That's the hope
of glory, the hope of eternal life. That's just a portion of
it. And when we read about eternal life, the hope of eternal life,
the hope of everlasting life, we read it as a promise. Sometimes
it plainly says it's a promise. 1 John 2, this is the promise
that He has promised us, even eternal life. But wherever the
word promise is used in it or not, When you read this word,
everlasting life and eternal life, as it's applied to the
believer, you can always put it in the form of a promise.
Let me read several portions to you. This is what he said,
I give unto my sheep, I give unto them eternal life and they
shall never perish. Now that's a promise, isn't it?
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish.
John 3.16, all of us probably have memorized this verse. For
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. That's a promise. John 6.44,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath
everlasting life. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. All of these are promises. In
John chapter 6, Whosoever eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood,
hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. This is the record
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His
Son. These things have I written unto
you that believe on the Son of God, that you may know that you
have eternal life. But whosoever drinketh of this
water that I will give him shall never thirst, but the water that
I give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life." And one more. Aren't these precious scriptures?
And you can just get your concordance out and you can just get page
after page of these scriptures concerning eternal life that
is in the form of a promise. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up again at the last
day." Now this is the hope, the righteous have. They live in
hope of the glory of God, and the glory of life eternal. And
you know, that's the hope they have when they die. It don't seem when you're young
and you're healthy that hope means nothing to you. It means
nothing. You don't care anything about it, do you? When you're
young and you're healthy, or when you're unsaved, when you're
not awakened to eternity and you don't live in the light of
eternity, and you're not concerned about death, hope means very
little or nothing. But boy, when you're awakened,
When the Lord awakens our minds that we're facing eternity and
that we're facing death, hope means something then, doesn't
it? To have a good hope means something then. Those who were
in Noah's day, they didn't care anything about hope. They didn't
think about the judgment to come or death. They never thought
about it until the flood came and took them all away. And then
who had a good hope then? Those in that ark, didn't they?
Those in that ark. The Bible says the wicked is
driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope even
in his death. Boy, that's when hope will appear
great and wonderful in that day. The hope of the hypocrite shall
perish, but the hope of the righteous shall be gladness. The hope of
the hypocrite, though he hath gain, What hope has he when God
takes away his soul? But what said of the poor and
the broken? The Lord saveth the poor, and
the poor hath hope, and iniquity shall stop her now." You know
it's better to live in this world. If you had to live a poor person,
if you had to live your life broken in heart, and without
many necessities of this world, live looking to the Lord and
utterly dependent upon Him and have a good hope than it is to
live in this world with all the things of this world and walking
according to the courses of this world and dying without hope.
I tell you, I'd rather live a saint than you. I'd rather live one
of God's little children and have a good hope than to have
the world itself and die without hope in hope of eternal Life. This is just a passing, fleeting
life here. We're here for a few moments.
Our hope has to do with eternal things and eternal life. I want
you to turn to a passage of Scripture with me. I want to look at four
things quickly concerning hope. I want you to look over Colossians.
Four things real quickly concerning hope. And then I'll let you go. Colossians chapter 1. And look
here in verse 25. Colossians chapter 1, verse 25.
Paul was talking about the Gospel, and in verse 25 of Colossians
1, he said, Whereof I have made a minister, a minister of Christ,
a minister of the Gospel, according to the dispensation of God which
was given to me for you to fulfill the Word of God. even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now
is manifest to His saints, to whom God would make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Now here are two wonderful
mysteries, great mysteries, glorious rich mysteries. And the first
one he said, Christ in you. What a mystery that is. Christ
in you. Christ in your heart. Ain't that
a mystery? The living Christ comes into
our hearts. As soon and immediately when
a person believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ comes to
that heart and dwells there. God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts crying, Father, Father. And here's what
Charles Spurgeon had to say about Christ coming into our hearts
by faith. As far as we know, that's the
only way, that's the channel that He has coming to our hearts
is by faith. When we believe on Him, there's
a new birth and Christ comes into the heart. Here's what Charles
Spurgeon said about Christ coming to our hearts by faith. He said,
it's a wonderful thing that Christ should enter a man, but still
more wonderful that he should enter by so narrow an opening
as our little faith. There is the Son, yet it can
come through the narrowest of cracks. But we should pull up
the blinds and let Him shine in, in all His glory, that is,
grow in faith, take in Christ more fully." That's amazing,
though, how he gets into our hearts, isn't it? By faith, the
little channel of faith. And he said something else. I
like this also. He talked about not only Christ
coming into our hearts by faith, but he said, Christ in you means
you possess Him. You possess Jesus Christ. And he said this about this,
nothing is so much a man's own as that which is within him. He says you may question and
others may question whether or not your house is yours, or your
property is yours, or your buggy is yours, But no one, nor you
yourself, can doubt whether the breakfast you eat this morning
is yours, because it is in you. Whatever is in you, he says,
is yours. You possess it. And therefore,
if Christ is in you, He is yours. You possess Him. That is a wonderful
thought, isn't it? And he went on to say this, I
think sometime when I am reading this, Mr. Spurgeon, I just want
to Print it all out and come here and read it. It's all so
good, but you can't do that. But sometimes you want to. He
said this about that Christ coming in us through this channel of
faith, and because He's in us, He's ours. We possess Him. And
he said also, Christ in you is experienced. You experienced
what is within you. He said there may be valuable
medicine, But it has no healing virtue to a man until it's taken
within." And then he said, when it's within, you can feel the
medicine, the healing virtues of the medicine. Nobody has to
tell you that you have taken the medicine. you know it yourself
because you have felt the healing virtue. And he said, when Christ
is in you, healing you of your sin, and strengthening your poor
broken spirit, upholding your weakness, filling your soul with
love to Himself and to holiness, then you can know by experience
that Christ is in you. Now that's in itself glorious
riches, ain't it? Christ in you. You poor Gentiles. You poor dead dog Gentiles. It
would have been wonderful enough for Christ to be in a Jew. But
Paul said, here's the mystery that the Jews and other Gentiles
knew anything about. Christ in you Gentiles. And here's
another mystery. The hope of glory. Christ in
you. The hope of glory. No man has
any hope of glory but those in whom Christ dwells. but if Christ
dwells in you, that's your hope of glory. Jesus Christ is in
two essential places. He's in heaven bodily, physically,
at the right hand of the Father, and He's in you. He's in you. And in both places, He is safe
and sound. He can never be taken from the
presence of the Father, He can never be dragged from heaven
and suffer and die again? That's impossible. Knowing that
Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
Him. He can never suffer again. He
can never die again. He's reigning in heaven at the
right hand of God. And Christ in you means that
when you die, death will not have dominion over you in the
end because Christ is in you. You know something? If death
could have dominion over you and hold you and never let you
go, then Christ would die with you because He's in you. If the devils in some way or
another could drag you down into hell, you know what Jesus would
say? I'll go there with you. I'll
never forsake you because I'm in you." And that's impossible,
isn't it? Christ in you is a sure hope of glory because He can't
perish on God's right hand and He can't perish within you. So
that's the hope of glory that you have. And someday everyone
who possesses Jesus Christ here will someday get up from the
grave in a glorious body and look back and say, O death, where
is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?
That's the hope of glory. And it's a wonderful thing. Remember
that. Second thing about hope is this,
hope in His Word. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
And the second thing is this, hope in His Word. How many times have we had to
turn to the Word of God to get comfort for our hope. I love
to feel good, don't you? I love to feel like I'm saved,
but sometimes I don't feel like I'm saved. And I love for things
to go well, but you know the hope that He's given us is not
determined upon how we feel or our circumstances. David said
this, He let us know that our hope is in the Lord. David said,
I will hope continually, and I will yet praise Him more and
more. The reason we lack the Word of
God is because it tells us everything we need to know about this hope. And in there we learn it's not
determined by our feelings or our circumstances. That's why
it's a sure hope. We have a friend, Joe and I have
a lady friend, her and her husband live out in Utah on the mountains
out there. They clean cabins out on one
of the big slopes out there. Sometimes she'll call and she's
so afflicted in her soul. She's such an emotional girl
anyway. She's Italian and she's such
an emotional person anyway. She heard some preachers say
that young converts should never read the book of Psalms. Just
stay in the New Testament. And she told me, she said, I'm
going to start reading the Psalms. I said, you should read the Psalms. We preachers make statements
sometimes and we don't realize people are going to take us serious.
But he had told her that. And anyway, she started reading
the Psalms. And she called me back one day and she was so happy.
She was so joyful. because she was reading the Psalms.
And one of the reasons that made her so joyful, she saw David,
this king, go through all of this conflict. Conflict within
his soul and trouble without. And then she saw him come through
that trouble. And one of the things that he
often talks about is hoping in thy Word. Listen to what he said. Remember the Word unto Thy servant,
upon which Thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort in
my afflictions, for Thy Word has comforted me." And listen,
he goes right on to say in Psalm 119, you can read the whole Psalm,
when he said, Thy Word has comforted me. The proud have had me greatly
in derision, Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked
that forsake thy law." We think that today, don't we? The wicked
have waited for me to destroy me, but I hope in thy Word. Remember the Word unto your servant,
upon which you have caused me to hope. And where did David
turn to for comfort and reason for hope but the Word of God?
Listen to him again in Psalms 135. I wait for the Lord, my
soul doeth wait, and in His Word do I hope. Because the Word of God tells
us everything about our hope. And he said, Let Israel hope
in the Lord. For with the Lord there is mercy,
and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all her iniquity. For I know the thoughts, saith
the Lord, that I have towards you, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an unexpected end." You know when that last
verse was written? Jeremiah 29, 11. Israel was going
into captivity. And the Lord said, in 70 years,
remember that? I'm going to bring you back to
your homeland. I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Thoughts
of peace and not of evil to give you an unexpected end. So what
did they do? They took a hold of that promise
and they waited patiently for 70 years until He returned them
back. We read the Word of God and it
comforts us concerning So hope in His Word. Hope in His Word. That's what pleases the Lord
when we don't live upon our feelings, but we live upon the comfort
from His Word. The third thing about hope is
this, and this is so important, hope to the end. Hope to the
end. We've not come to the end yet,
have we? We come to the end of one trouble,
then another trouble comes. Hope to the end of your life. That's what Peter said, wasn't
it? He said, "...gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you
at the revelation of Jesus Christ." And Paul said this, "...continue
in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel." Don't leave the gospel. Don't leave the public
worship where the gospel is preached. Don't leave the gospel in your
heart. Cleave to the gospel. Why? That's what reveals our
hope. We have no other hope but in
the gospel. And Hebrews 6.11 says this, We desire that every
one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
to the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. Hope to the end. And when we come to the end of
our life and we arise to go up to be with the Lord Jesus Christ,
part of our hope is realized. But this old body that we leave
here and put back in the ground, we'll let him rest in hope, won't
we? He'll have to stay here. He'll
have to wait. But we'll leave him to rest in
hope. And he'll hope to the end. Just
like the Lord Jesus Christ said, my flesh shall rest in hope.
So when you lay those old bodies down, you lay it down in hope,
don't you? Of a resurrection to come in
which body and soul will be reunited in fashion like unto the Lord
Jesus Christ. So hope to the end. Hope to the
end. Don't let anything deter you
from hoping in the Lord. And fourthly and lastly is this.
And it's something about this promise that was made before
the foundation of the world. Every believer has the promise
of eternal life. Every believer has that promise.
This is the promise that is given to us, even life eternal. The promise, though, was first
and foremost made to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, before the world
began. Christ stood as the representative
and the surety and mediator of a chosen race of poor fallen
sinners that He was going to redeem. They fell in Adam, the
representative, and they were redeemed through another representative,
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's chapter 5 of Romans that
Wayne has talked to us about when he dealt with that. Such
an important chapter. Paul was speaking of the physical
resurrection when he made this statement in 1 Corinthians 15.
In Adam all die, even so in Christ shall every man be made alive. But every man in his own order
Christ the firstfruits, and afterwards they that are Christ at His coming.
Jesus Christ was the first man. The first person that ever raised
from the dead to die no more. He's called the firstborn from
the dead. There was all kinds of people being raised from the
dead. There was a few of the Old Testament and several in
the New Testament. But you know something? They
all died again. But when Jesus Christ raised
from the dead, He was the first one raised to die no more. I am He that was dead, and behold,
I am alive forevermore." And the everlasting covenant is everywhere
in the Scriptures. And one of the blessed things,
if you ever begin to read and see it, see the covenant of grace,
you find little snippets here and a little portion of it here
and a little portion over there of this covenant of grace. It
doesn't always tell you it's a covenant of grace, but when
you start seeing it, It's everywhere. In Psalms chapter 89, for example,
you can see it there. There was a covenant made amongst
the Godhead. The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. And it goes something like this.
You can see this all through the Scripture. What the Father
promised the Son. Remember He promised Him a body. A body hast Thou given Me. He
promised Him a people. He promised him all power in
heaven and earth. He promised him a name that is
above every name. He promised him all authority,
set him up as the judge and mediator between him and every man. God
the Father has promised him all of these things, and this promise
here, before the world was, was the promise that, My son, I will
raise you from the dead. I'll accept your blood as an
atonement for the sins of your people, and then I'll raise you
from the dead and set you on My right hand." And here was
the son's part, the son had a part. He agreed to come. Lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. He agreed to do his Father's
will in everything, and here's what he said. Listen to this
in John chapter 17. Now, O Father, Glorify Thou me
with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before
the world began." Here's what he said. I left out this part.
He said, Father, I have finished the work which Thou hast gave
me to do. I finished it. I finished it. Now, Father, glorify Thou me. That's what You've promised.
That You'd raise me up and glorify me when I finish the work. And He said this, Father, I will
that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am,
that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for
Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the world." He loved Him. Well, of course He would love
Him. What did He mean by that? Of course He loved His Son, but
He means He loved Him as a mediator. He loved Him as the representative
of His people that He would come and lay down His life. He loved
Him for what He would do, redeeming His people, glorifying His law. And then the Father said, I'll
raise you up. I want to show you this in closing.
Look over in Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2 right quickly. Acts chapter 2 and look in verse
22. Sometimes we look at these promises
and these prophecies in the Old Testament, and if we just had
the Old Testament to go by, we would never know sometimes who
these prophecies and promises are concerning. But we come over
to the New Testament and it interprets the Old Testament, and then we
learn who this prophecy is about. In verse 22 of Acts chapter 2,
you men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man
approved of God among you, by miracles and wonders and signs
which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also
know. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom God hath raised up having
loose the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. For David speaks concerning him,
I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right
hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad, moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope."
because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thy Holy One to seek corruption." Now if you go back to Psalms
16 and you read that, you would think that was talking about
David. But you come here and it is not talking about David
at all. Now read on, look in verse 28. Thou hast made known
unto me the way of life, thou shalt make me full of joy with
thy countenance. Men and brethren, Let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. He is
still dead. Therefore being a prophet, and
knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit
of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ
to sit on his throne. He seen this before spake of
the resurrection of Christ. not his own resurrection, but
the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell,
the place of the dead, neither did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up,
wherefore we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right
hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and
hear. For David is not ascended into heaven, but he saith himself,
The Lord said unto my Lord, Set on my right hand till I make
your foals your footstool. Therefore let all the house of
Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom
ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." So the Father promised
the Son, When? Before the world was. Before
the world was. My son, this is my promise. When you die for your people's
sins, I'll raise you from the dead. And Paul said he was the
firstfruits. The firstfruits. And then afterwards,
those who are Christ's at His coming. Now His resurrection
assures all God's people of theirs. Because the promise was not only
to Christ, but to all His people in Him. All the promises of God
in Christ are yea and amen. So what a sure and steadfast
hope all the children of God have. The promise of hope of
life everlasting. May the Lord bless His Word.
And we'll go on from there. next week.