That is chapter 1. Let us begin
reading in verse 1 and read through verse 4 again. This is our fourth
study. And let's think tonight, just
for a few minutes, what Paul says here in verse 2, in hope
of eternal life. Let's think about that, in hope
of eternal life. But let me read these four verses
to you. Paul, a servant of God, and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect,
and the acknowledgment 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. to Titus, my own son, after the
common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior." We've been looking at Paul's
statement here in verse 1 where he said, according to the faith
or concerning the faith of God's elect. And we looked at that
and looked at some things concerning the faith of God's elect. And
we found out there that it was associated with the truth. Saving
faith is always associated with the truth. Sanctify them through
Thy Word, Thy truth. Thy Word is truth. And this belief
of the truth always leads to godliness. That is what he tells
us in verse 1. Always leads to godliness. The
grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And
what does it teach us? that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly and righteously and godly
in this present world. But there's something about Christianity,
and you'll only find it in Christianity. You'll only find it revealed
in the gospel, and that is hope in another world. The Bible tells
us how to live in this present world, but only the gospel. of the Lord Jesus gives us hope
in a world to come. You won't find that in other
religions, will you? You won't find that in these
cults and these violent religions of our day. Our Lord Jesus talked
about a world to come, didn't He? A world to come. He was preaching
to Peter and the disciples one day about those who followed
Him in the regeneration. And Peter said to the Lord, he
said, Lord, we've left everything and followed You. Now they hadn't
left everything. Peter had his wife, he had his
mother-in-law, he had his house, he still went fishing on occasion.
But I tell you, they had left everything the Lord required
them to leave. And the Lord said there's nobody that's left wife
or father or mother or sister or brother or houses or land
for My sake and the Gospels, but what he'll receive a hundredfold
in this life, sisters and brothers. Look at the brothers and sisters
we got. Scattered everywhere, aren't they? Got more houses
than you can sleep in, more tables than you can eat at. In this
life, He said, you'll have a hundredfold and in the world to come. Life
eternal. So the Lord Jesus told us about
this present world, but He told us also about the world that's
to come and life eternal. The world that you and I know
now, this present world, it's going to pass away. But there
is a world coming that will never pass away. This world that is
present is full of sin, it's full of devils, it's full of
disappointment, it's full of heartaches and sickness and death.
But you know that world to come, there's nothing that dwells in
it but righteousness. A vast difference between this
present world and the world that's to come. And this life that we
know now, it's mortal, it's uncertain, it's burdensome, and it's temporary. But that life that's to come
is immortal, and it's holy, and it's happy, and it's eternal. And only the Bible presents to
us a world to come and a hope in life eternal. Paul said, if
in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most
miserable. Well, we have hope in this life,
don't we? But we've got hope in a world to come, in a life
to come. He mentions these two graces
here in verse 1 and verse 2, faith and hope. And there's a
distinction that we have to make in these two. Faith makes the
benefits of Jesus Christ a reality right now. Everything that Christ
is and possesses, it's the believers right now. He that believeth
is not condemned right now. He that believeth is justified
from all things, and he that believeth in the Son of God hath
everlasting life. Right now he has that life. That
life has come from Christ to us and we have that life. This
is the record that God gave to His Son. He that hath the Son
hath life. That's what faith does, you see.
It makes everything a reality now. But what about hope? What does hope do? That concerns
the future, doesn't it? Faith makes it a reality now.
Hope concerns the future. The Apostle Paul said, We are
saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. There's two things
that we talk about when we talk about hope. Usually just these
two things when we talk about hope. We talk about the grace
of hope. That's something that's within
us, a grace that's within us. And then we talk about the object
of hope. What are we hoping for? And Paul
deals with both of these. This is amazing how the Holy
Scripture can make one little short statement And it just takes
in both of these principles of hope. He says here in verse 2,
in hope of eternal life. In hope, that's the grace of
hope. The grace of hope in the believer's heart. He lives in
expectation of something to come. Isn't hope a cheering thing?
Have you ever thought about, you ever think about how hope
cheers you? Even the natural things of this
life. Some people are so discouraged. This is one of the things that
you find in the nursing homes and the hospitals when you go
to a visit. Somebody is so down and discouraged and they have
nothing to hope for. Not even in this life. They can't
even hope for their family or their children coming for a visit.
Hope is a cheering thing, isn't it? I bet some of you are waiting
on a tax check. And that's making you feel good,
ain't it? You hope you get that in the mail pretty soon. Or you've
got a vacation planned. I know some of you have got a
vacation planned for the spring. And boy, that cheers you, doesn't
it? You've got a loved one, maybe some loved one's coming for a
visit, and you're hoping and expecting that visit. Hope is
a cheering thing. And when God calls His people
to faith, He puts in them an expectation of something to come,
a hope. If we hope for that, we see not. And this is the grace that's
within us. If God has given you a good hope,
then you're expecting something in the future. And what is that? What's the object of our hope?
He mentioned that, doesn't He? In hope of eternal life. That's the object of our hope.
The grace is in our hearts to hope. And what's the object?
What are we expecting in hope of eternal life? The world to
come. and eternal life. Now this entails
a lot of things when we think about the object of our hope
being eternal life. And one of the things that it
brings us to is this, a resurrection of the body. This is the object
of our hope. Now take your Bibles and turn
to two or three places with me. Look over in Acts 24. The resurrection of the body. That's the object of our hope. When the Lord Jesus died upon
the cross, we sometimes limit our thoughts to His redemption
of the soul. The redemption of the soul is
precious. But you know, He did more than just redeem our souls.
He redeemed the whole person. He has bought the body as well
as the soul. And that's important because
the body is a vital part of us. Right now the soul is the most
important part, the most vital part, but we don't want to be
separated from our bodies forever, do we? And our hope is this,
the resurrection of the body. And that's what this hope is
about, life eternal. Look what the Apostle Paul said
here in Acts chapter 24 and look in verse 13. Here is where Paul was standing
before Felix, the governor, defending himself against these charges
that the Jews had brought against him. And here is after this man
had finished accusing him, he stands before the governor and
says in verse 13, Neither can they prove the things whereof
they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee,
that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the
God, of my fathers believe in all things which are written
in the Law and in the Prophets, and have hope towards God, which
they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection
of the dead, both of the just and of the unjust." Here is the
hope. Here is the object of our hope.
There will be a resurrection of the just and of The Lord Jesus
mentioned this when He said, The hour is coming in which they
that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and come forth. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing! People talk about it's just too
hard to believe that God created the universe and the earth. But what about the Day of Resurrection? when the Son of God speaks, and
all the dead get up from the graves. And they shall come forth,
He said. When I speak, they shall come
forth. They that have done good by the grace of God through faith,
they shall come forth to the resurrection of life. And they
that have done evil, to the resurrection of damnation. Now here's why
this hope is vital, and here's why we think upon this hope,
the object of our hope. Because there is a resurrection,
but it's not only the resurrection of life, but it's also a resurrection
of damnation. And that's what concerns us and
why we thank God for the hope that we've had. There's people
debated for years now and decades whether these resurrections of
the just and the unjust are at the same time. They've got all
tangled up in that. Is it the same time the just
come forth as the unjust come forth? Well, that's another study,
isn't it? We'd have to use the whole night for that study. But
we can see why a good hope is essential. One's eternal happiness
depends upon it. For it is indeed a resurrection
of life or a resurrection of damnation. Let's look at this
resurrection. Let's look at some different
places in the Scriptures. Since it's so important, let's
look at it and see what the Scripture says about it. Look over in 1
Thessalonians chapter 4, in hope of a resurrection. And I tell
you, I live in a hope that I'll be raised in the resurrection
of the just, don't you? The resurrection of life. I don't
want anything to do with that other resurrection. That's an
awful resurrection. But the Scripture defines this
for us. It describes this for us in 1 Thessalonians chapter
4 and look in verse 13. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 and
verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. But if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent, we shall not go
ahead of them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these The Lord is coming, and He is
going to speak, He is going to shout, and all of the dead are
coming out. The just and the unjust are coming
out of the graves and going to be caught up together with the
Lord to meet Him in the air. But that begs another question,
doesn't it? What are we going to be like?
I mean, you've got bones. You've got nothing but dust.
In some instances, you don't have dust. There's nothing there
to indicate there was even a body there at one time. What's going
to happen when the Lord brings people from the dead? Well, let's
look at that. The Bible tells us. Look in 1
Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look in verse 49. Look in verse 49. 1 Corinthians chapter
15 verse 49. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we have borne Adam's image, his fallen image, we shall
also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, we shall not all die, but we shall all
be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised." Look at this, incorruptible. Why does he use that word incorruptible?
Because they have decayed. They have rotted in the ground.
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible, this person
who is dead, must put on incorruption, and this mortal who is still
a living must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
I put on incorruption, and this mortal shall I put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death
is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be unto God, which
giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul
says this in Romans 8. Listen to this in verse 21 and
following. The creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage
of corruption, unto the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation
groans and travails in pain together unto now, and not only they,
but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
that is to say, the redemption of the body." What are we waiting
for? The redemption of the body. When is that going to take place?
At the resurrection, when the Lord Jesus comes again, when
He speaks to the dead and they raise, and He changes them. He changes their body from a
corruptible dead body to a glorious body, incorruptible, and from
a mortal to an immortal. The resurrection is spoken of
so often in the Scriptures in the Old and New Testaments. Listen
to how Job mentioned this resurrection. I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and
though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I
shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. He is speaking there
of a resurrection of the body. This is the way David described
it. As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness, I
shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness. And John mentioned that in his
epistle, didn't he? Now are we the sons of God? It
doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him. But we shall see Him as
He is. And this is why the Scripture
says, We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That's what the
resurrection is going to be. It will be a glorious resurrection.
It will be a manifestation of the redeeming glory of God. And He that is in heaven when
He comes will change these vile bodies and fashion it like unto
His glorious body. His glorious body. We live in
hope of the glory of God. And Paul said in Titus 2, looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God, our Savior. And it is said of them in the
day of judgment, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world, a kingdom that
is incorruptible, that is undefiled, that fades not away. And they
will forever be with the Lord, and they shall forever be like
the Lord." That is the object of the believer's hope. You won't
find that in any place but the Word of God. That is the gospel
of hope. And you know we not only have
it for ourselves. If He's granted you this faith,
if He's granted you a new birth, you not only have this hope for
yourself, you've got it for all other believers. That's a wonderful
thing. Paul said, What is my hope? What
is my joy? What is my crown of rejoicing?
Are not even you in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ at His
coming? Man, we're not going to see Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob there and all the saints of old. We'll know
people. I'd hate to think that I'm the
only one in this congregation that's going. That would break
my heart. I mean, I'll be looking for you
guys there. And if God's given you a good hope through grace,
you'll be there. As amazing as it may sound, you'll
be there. And knowing all of this, Knowing
what we face in life and living and death and eternity, knowing
all these things, wouldn't our hearts break if we didn't have
any hope? I tell you, it would break my
heart tonight if I thought that I didn't have a good hope because
we know what's coming, don't we? There is coming a resurrection
of the just and of the unjust. in hope of eternal life. In hope
of eternal life. And look here what else Paul
adds to that now. He says three things quickly
about this. In verse 2, "...in hope of eternal
life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world
began." First thing he says about this hope this hope of eternal
life, it's according to God's promise. He promised eternal
life. And that's what John said. This
is the promise that He promised us, even life eternal. Wouldn't it have been enough
for God just to say, I'm going to give you life eternal? I've
reserved a place there in heaven for you. That would be enough,
wouldn't it? But what does He do? He promises us. Why does
He promise us? Because brothers and sisters,
It's the Lord's desire that all His children live their daily
lives in a full assurance of this hope of a resurrection,
because it will have a great effect upon you. It purifies
the heart just like faith does. Every man that had this hope
in him, he purified himself even as the Lord is pure. So he not
only says, I'm going to give you life eternal and that world
to come, he says, I promise, I promise. When I tell these
girls I'm going to do something for them, and I'm thinking about
whipping them if they don't wake up. They come here from school
and they're just wore out, I reckon. But I'll tell them I'm going
to do this for them, I'm going to do that for them. And Layla
especially, she'll look at me and she'll say, You promise?
You promise? Well, that's what the Lord is
doing, isn't it? It would be enough if our God
simply said, I'm going to give you life. But we're so weak,
aren't we? We're so weak in faith and we
look at Him and say, You promise? You promise? But He's not offended
by that because He tells us here that He promises. And what happens
when you promise? It removes all doubt, doesn't
it? It removes doubt with the children. I tell them, I promise.
And boy, all doubt. They know then, Papi's going
to do it. And when God promises, you know He's going to do it.
It relieves all doubts. It dispels all fear. When God
told Abraham that He said, Abraham, I'm going to make you the heir
of the world, Your seed is going to be like the stars of heaven
for multitude and like the sand by the sea coast, innumerable.
I'm going to make you a father of many nations." But because
that was such a great thing that he was going to do for Abraham,
he put it in the form of a promise. When God made promise to Abraham,
and because he said, I promise Abraham, Abraham, against hope,
believed in hope. Why did he say against hope?
When God made that promise that you're going to have more children
than the star, he didn't even have a son. And he was an old
man. So it was against hope. But against
hope, he believed in hope, and therefore the Bible says, because
God promised, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. but was strong in faith, giving
glory to God, being fully persuaded that what God had promised He
was able to perform." So it means something when God says, I promise. It means something to you and
me, don't it? I tell you, we go through the
resurrection, and I know we went through it quick and everything
that pertains to that, but I'm telling you what, Do you just
think of that and you think you've got an interest in that? That's
the most wonderful thing in this world or the world to come, that
you'll be raised and spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. You,
me, look at us. Look how low we are. Look how
despised we are in our own eyes that you could obtain that world
that's to come and live holy and happily ever after. I'm glad
He promised, aren't you? I'm glad He promised. But He
does more than that. He says this. He adds, as it
were, a foundation to this promise. In hope of eternal life which
God that cannot lie promised. That puts something more to it,
doesn't it? He cannot lie. Look over in Hebrews. On to your
right just a little bit. Hebrews chapter 6. He's going to talk about hope
here. He's going to mention this again. When He mentions God cannot
lie, every place He mentions that, it's related to hope. It's
related to hope. in hope of eternal life which
God that cannot lie promised. And this is where he is promising
to Abraham. Look in Hebrews chapter 6 and
look in verse 13. When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessed, I will bless thee, and multiply it,
I will multiply thee. And so after Abraham had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs a promise, the immutability, the unchangeableness
of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable
things, there are two immutable things here. One is God's counsel.
My counsel shall stand. That's what he said then. There's
many devices in a man's heart, but the counsel of the Lord,
that shall stand. I have purposed it. I'll also
do it. I've spoken it. I'll bring it
to pass. God's decrees, His purposes, His counsel is immutable. They're unchangeable. They're
fixed, aren't they? They're all fixed. That's something
immutable. And something else he said, there
are two immutable things, the second one is, in which it is
impossible for God to lie. Two immutable things. God cannot
lie. Now, if I told you I would do
something, and I've done this before, if I told you I'll meet
you down at Hole in the wall is what I call
the little rest of me. In the morning at ten o'clock
and you showed up and I wasn't there. And I'd forgot about it. Now you'd forgive me, wouldn't
you? You'd say, that's just Bruce. His mind is slipping. I told
you I'd do something. You'd excuse me, wouldn't you?
But really and honestly, what is that? It may be attributed
to my infirmity, my weakness, I just couldn't do it, but what
really and honestly did I just do? I lied, didn't I? If I tell
you I'll do something and I don't do it for any reason, it's a
lie. It's a lie. You know God cannot
lie. God cannot lie. You say, Bruce, we sometimes
fail on our part. Yes, but we're not talking about
our part of it. We're not talking about our part.
We're not talking about our faithfulness. We're talking about His faithfulness. We're not talking about what
we can't do. We're talking about what He can.
He can't do. Faithful is He that calleth you
who also will do it. And listen, if He promises and
He doesn't fulfill His promise for any reason, then he's lied. He's lied. He can't look and
blame Greg. He couldn't say, well, Greg,
I would have done it, but you. He was the one that made the
promise, didn't he? And if he doesn't fulfill that
promise, then he's lied. He's lied. And that's what he's
saying here. Don't look at this promise, brothers
and sisters, as though it depended upon you. Sure, we seek to be
faithful. We pray for grace to be faithful.
But this promise of life eternal is not dependent upon you. If
it did, it would fail. But it is dependent upon the
faithfulness and the immutability of God. He cannot lie. And He says, I promise you eternal
life. And I cannot lie for no reason.
Well, therefore, he goes on. Look what he goes on to say.
"...For this reason, that we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil, whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus." I've never been
on the ocean. I'd get sick if I got on that
with a boat. But they tell me, even today, that these large
ships don't go out on the ocean without anchors. Is that right,
Wayne? They have to have anchors. I don't know why it's necessary
to have anchors. I could imagine. But that anchor
is dropped and it goes down and gets a hold of the earth beneath
it and holds that ship steady. But this anchor that we have,
the anchor of our souls that keeps our souls steady, keeps
us from drifting, it doesn't attach to anything on this earth,
but it goes up and enters heaven. Our anchor latches on to our
forerunner who has already entered heaven on our behalf. We have a sure hope, don't we?
We have a good hope. Because our forerunner has already
entered there for us. And God says, I promise you that
where He is, there you'll be also. And God cannot lie. And He tells us that to give
us a strong consolation. It goes right back to what I
said Sunday. Can you imagine God doing this? To me, it would
almost be offensive if somebody would just keep requiring this
of me. I know, Bruce, this is what you told me. Will you promise?
Now tell me that you can't lie. Promise you ain't going to lie
and you just keep on. Your God is condescending not
only to tell us that He's given us hope, but He goes into this
in great detail. I promise you. And listen, I
can't lie, but He does all of that that you and I could live
in the full assurance of this hope that we have. I told you
the story about old John Jasper, the black slave, and his master
let him preach. He's a better preacher than most
of the white guys around him in that day, but boy, he was
just full of assurance, old John Jasper. He just went around all
the time. They said he was so happy, and
one of the reasons he's happy, he said he knew the Lord was
going to take him to heaven. He had a good hope in Jesus Christ.
And a fellow asked him one day, said, John, what's going to happen
if you get up to heaven and the Lord don't let you in? What are you going to do then?
And John said, well, after I put my hope in Him, after I put my
trust in His Word and what He said, if I get up there and He
turns me away, I'll be a loser. But I'll not be as great a loser
as He is. I'll lose my soul. He'll lose
who he is. He'll lose his character because
he's lied. That'll never happen, will it?
That'll never happen. God hath promised us eternal
life, and God cannot lie. And lastly, he says this, In
hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised And
he adds this, before the world began. Now why in the world does
he even say that? He's done said enough to fix
our hope and to make it sure and steadfast, but now he says
he promised it before we ever had a being. Now we don't have
time to get into that tonight, but this promise was really made
to Jesus Christ. And hopefully we'll get into
that next week or the week after that. And it was made to all
of those in Him. But why does He tell us this? Don't we make promises sometimes
in haste? We say things and we do things
out of the spur of the moment or out of emotions and we don't
really think about what we're saying and we get ourselves in
trouble. We promise things we really can't live up to. But it's not so with Him. This
wasn't made out of the spur of the moment. It wasn't something
thoughtless. This was made back in eternity,
before time. Thought was given to it, what
all the promise consisted of, what all would have to take place
to fulfill this promise. the wisdom of God, the power
of God, Christ and His cross, the coming of the Holy Spirit,
all of this was thought about and settled upon and entered
into before the world. Back yonder when nobody was there
to disturb God, when the triune God dwelt alone in eternity,
a solemn, the quietude of eternity, is when all of this was agreed
and settled and the promise was made, I'll give unto them eternal
life. Now, that's comforting, ain't
it? That's comforting. Maybe we'll get a little bit
more into that next week. May the Lord bless His Word.