You can turn back in your Bibles to the book of Titus. You'll remember since it was not too long ago, just this morning, that we looked at Titus chapter 1, verse 1. The scope of focus was Titus 1, 1 to 3. We spent some time in just verse 1 this morning, so we'll look at verses 2 and 3 this evening.

I'll just open by reading Titus 1, 1 to 4, and then we'll pray and have a look at verses 2 and 3 in this epistle of Paul to Titus. So this is Titus chapter 1 beginning in verse 1, the word of the living and true God. Paul a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior. To Titus, a true son in our common faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

Amen. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Heavenly Father, We rejoice in now this act of worship, the preaching of your word. We would ask again that you would help the preacher in the pulpit to preach accurately the things of your word. We know that he requires not his own strength or his own intelligence, but rather that which you afford to him by that measure of the spirit given. And we pray that you would strengthen the preacher in the pulpit, Lord.

We pray that all would be done to the praise of your glorious name and that this word preached, God, would by your spirit be joined so that the gathered assembly here this evening might rejoice in your word. We pray that the saints would know in a greater way the things of your word in this book of Titus. We do pray, Lord God, that by your grace and for your glory's sake that Any sinners gathered here tonight outside of Christ would leave this place in Christ, singing the praises of His name, having been visited by power from on high by Your amazing and victorious grace. And it's in Christ's name that we pray.

Amen.

Introduction

Well, you'll remember this morning we looked at the Apostle and the Apostolic Task from verse 1. We noted that far from being the stuff confined to antiquity, This has most certainly application to our present state of affairs as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We avail much of the fact that we have ministers of the gospel bringing to the elect belief, bringing to the elect faith and joined by the power of the spirit. The proclamation of the word is efficacious. for the bringing forth of sinners from deadness and sin to life in Christ.

We avail much of the acknowledgement of the truth. The Apostle Paul, so many years ago, was unto the end that the elect might know the gospel, might own it as theirs, and that gospel is such that it accords with godly conduct. We looked at the apostle and the apostolic task seen there in verse one this evening. We want to look at verses two and three, and we'll do so under three headings, and those are these.

First, the believer's certain expectation. Secondly, the foundation for the believer's certain expectation. And then thirdly, the means of making known the blessings of salvation. So first off, the believer's certain expectation.

Notice what we have at verse two, though, if you'll bear with me, let's read the beginning of the epistle again. Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness in hope of eternal life. We may read this in this sense that Paul's apostolic task was unto the faith of God's elect and their acknowledgement of the truth, which accords with godliness. And they were to be in the character of having hope in eternal life.

So we could continue with what we looked at this morning and saying, firstly, under the believer's certain expectation, that

Hope as the Goal of Gospel Ministry

it is an end of gospel ministry to bring God's elect to the hope of everlasting life. It was the Apostle's end so many years ago, 2,000 years ago. It was the Apostle Paul's end, the end of his apostolic task, to bring believers to the certain hope of everlasting life through Jesus Christ the Lord. And every faithful gospel minister from the Apostle Paul to 2015 in Chilliwack, British Columbia, every one of those gospel ministers, it is the end of their task to bring to the elect, to bring before the elect the certain expectation of everlasting life through Jesus Christ the Lord.

It was God's design that by the apostolic ministry, his elect would have present faith in the past and perfect accomplished work of the Savior and that those self same elect would have a present hope in the future anticipation of redemption unto that great and blissful eternity. with Christ Jesus in Emmanuel's land. This hope is something, we're going to get it in a moment to a clear definition of what this hope is, but this hope of everlasting life is the content of doxology. Remember, kids, we know what doxology is. Hopefully, it simply means the doctrine of praise or when we read doxology in the Bible, like Jude 24 and 25, A praise unto God.

We'll turn to 1 Peter with me because there we have some doxology, praise unto God given. And much of the content of that doxology is hope. It is the hope of the Christian. Notice what we have in 1 Peter 1, beginning in verse 3.

You could probably hear echoes of Ephesians 1, though this is a different author. We have the same superintending ultimate author, God Himself. Nevertheless, we hear echoes here of the Apostle Paul in Peter's writings, or the stuff of Ephesians 1, 3 and following. Notice 1 Peter 1, 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

This stuff that the apostle would bring before the elect of God is the stuff of an abiding, eternal, and lasting hope. You see the clear declaration of this living hope by Peter. God has begotten us again. to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The hope of the Christian is immediately tied to, is incorruptibly tied to, and intimately tied to, The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, as sure as it is the case that Jesus was risen from the dead by the power of God, so sure is the case that the believer has hope that on that great day they will enter into the eternity, that blissful eternity with Christ Jesus the Lord.

The content of doxology was this hope that Paul writes to Titus concerning. This was also the content of of thanksgiving and prayer on the part of the Apostle Paul. Turn to Colossians with me. This Christian hope that will define in a moment, but no doubt we've already alluded to it and no doubt you know what that is.

It's attached to the saving work of Christ, the hope of everlasting life. Colossians chapter one. Notice what we have in just some of these opening words of the Apostle Paul. Hope was the content of thanksgiving and prayer.

Verse 3 of Colossians 1. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints, because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. You see, part and parcel of the apostolic proclamation of the gospel was certain emphasis on the hope of the saints, which is laid up in heaven for them, that great and enduring and abiding hope that they have, that they will live forevermore with Christ Jesus, worshiping along with the angels and all the other saints, the God of heaven and earth. So it is an end of gospel ministry to bring before God's elect the hope of everlasting life.

Secondly, under the believer's certain expectation is this simple fact.

Hope Is Sure and Certain

This hope is sure and certain. And this is the stuff of heavenly hope. But before we get there, this hope that is spoken of by the Apostle Paul is, of course, no earthly hope. An earthly hope is something that maybe we would reword and say that earthly hope is just maybe a strong wish.

It's wishful thinking in this lower world to hope for certain things that have no eternal virtue, no eternal value. They are fleeting and fleeting things that fly away. They are not the stuff of eternal and heavenly things. There is an earthly hope that is wicked.

There is an earthly hope that is wicked. And you can turn to the book of Proverbs to see this with me. The book of Proverbs, in more than one place we have this, but we're just going to look at two of them. In Proverbs 11, we find one of these.

There is an earthly hope that is wicked. Notice in Proverbs 11 at verse seven. When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes. You see what happens if we have hope only in this world, in earthly things.

Specifically here, the earthly things of wickedness, if we put our confidence, if we hope in things, if we hope that certain things will take place or that we will get certain things that are unlawful, it is most certainly the case that those expectations will perish. The hope of the unjust perishes. We are not to put our hope in earthly things, we are not to put our hope in certainly wicked things. Proverbs 23, we have similar language.

Notice in Proverbs 23 at verse 17. There we see the folly and the madness of hoping, of course, in wicked things. Proverbs 23 in verse 17, do not let your heart envy sinners. but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day. We are not to hope after and seek after and wish for those things that mark sinners.

We are rather to be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day. Our hope is not to be an earthly hope after wicked things. We know that our hope is, of course, only to be found in Christ Jesus the Lord. There is an earthly hope, though, that is lawful.

It is okay to have a desire for certain events to take place, even though those certain events may not take place. It's okay in this lower world to hope for certain things, even though we may not get those certain things. In fact, I think we have examples of that in the Bible. You can turn to Daniel for a moment.

A lot of Bible turning, I know, But hopefully this is a good exercise in landing upon addresses of scripture that show these certain things. Daniel 3. And when we read this example, we're not necessarily talking about earthly things, but we are talking after hope that is in things that might not take place. And notice Daniel 3.

We'll pick up reading at verse 14. Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to them, Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? Now, if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery in symphony with all kinds of music and you fall down and worship the image that I have made, good. But if you do not worship, you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.

And who is the God who will deliver you from my hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

You see here, Daniel was not necessarily to have faith that God would most certainly deliver them from the fire. He was to have faith, and he did have faith in the fact that God is able to deliver them from the fire. So no doubt he had a hope in something that may not occur. He had a hope that God would deliver them from the fire, but notice what he says, But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.

If God deems it well to have us burn in the fiery furnace, all the more glory to the Lord God of heaven and earth. And we do not bow to your gods of gold and silver and wood and whatever else you fabricated your gods out of. We bow down solely and alone to the high king of heaven. But you see, there is a hope that we can have in things that might not possibly come to pass.

Christ Himself, the sinless Lamb of God, the sinless Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane, O Lord, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done. And so we come back to the point, we come back to the idea here in Titus, this hope that is brought before Titus, that is brought before the believers, that no doubt Titus would have shared this epistle with, this hope is a heavenly hope. And as such, it is sure and certain.

There is no possibility for the promise of God to fail. There is no possibility for this hope to fail. But rather, in having hope of eternal life, we have hope in sure and certain things. So I'm going to offer up a couple definitions of what Christian hope is.

You see, because Hope, generally speaking... can just be wishful thinking, a strong desire, maybe even a weak desire, a weak to strong desire that something might take place, and I really wish that it does take place, knowing, though, that the possibility is that it might not take place. This heavenly hope, though, as such being heavenly, is sure as certain.

Defining Christian Hope

Two definitions. One definition of Christian hope would be the certain expectation that God most certainly will make good on his gospel promises. Emphasize, or I reiterated certainly there twice, because of the surety of Christian hope. The certain expectation that God most certainly will make good on his gospel promises.

This is Christian hope. Another definition could be the recognition of the impossibility for God's promises to fail with emphasis on the anticipation of the fulfillment of those promises. And so, Hopefully with that in the fore of our minds, when we come to this text and we read that Christians are to be marked by hope of eternal life, we understand that this is a hope that does not fail. It does not and should not ebb and flow.

The promises upon which this hope is built is sure and steadfast, are sure and steadfast, and God will not fail. in bringing about his purposes. Now, hopefully this is a boon to your souls, the Christian hope. You see, because no other hope brings any sort of comfort to our souls, it shouldn't, because every other hope is fleeting. Every other sort of hope flies away save for the hope of everlasting life comes by way of the perfect work of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another reason, another foundation for the certainty of our hope is because it is founded upon the perfect blood and the perfect righteousness of Christ Jesus the Savior. What a hope of absolute loss it would be if we are resting upon anything else. What a hope marked by loss if we were hoping in our own good deeds to bring us into the presence of God on that great and final day. You know what it is?

To add even the most minuscule work or deed to the finished work of Christ, to rest at all salvificly upon any deed wrought in the holiness of our hearts. It's like this. It's like sewing a patchwork of fecal-stained rags upon the perfect white robes of Christ's righteousness when we seek to add anything to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're clothed in the white robes of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and those white robes are washed in the crimson of His perfect blood.

And so to seek to add anything to the finished work of Christ, to seek to have hope in ourselves, to have hope in others, to have any sort of eternal hope in anything, save for the promises of God perfectly executed by Christ Jesus the Lord, is to have a hope characterized by absolute loss, which is no hope at all. We have this heavenly hope. And notice the contrast to earthly hope. If you turn back to that Proverbs passage with me, Proverbs 23, In Proverbs 23, in verse 17, notice if we were to continue to read, and we'll pick up again in 17, Proverbs 23, 17.

Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day. For surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off. You see the blessed contrast. Hope in heavenly things contrasted with hope. in earthly things.

Do not let your heart envy sinners. Don't put your hope after the things of a material world, things that will fade away. Dead Romans couldn't bring Caesar's coins into the afterlife with them. They would rest coins upon their eyes so that they could pay the ferryman to cross the River Styx.

They would enter into an afterlife. There would be no coin. There would be no passage. There would only be everlasting torment.

But you see, for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off. If you find your hope in everlasting life, if you find your hope in Christ Jesus the Lord, if your hope is solely and alone in the blood and righteousness of the Savior, then there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off. And notice the link to the perfect work of Christ. As we find our way back to the book of Titus, Notice the link to the perfect work of Christ with regards to this hope that we are discussing.

Titus chapter three. And we're going to begin reading in verse three. Titus three, verse three. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy. hateful and hating one another.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope, of eternal life. You see the perfect and pure and pristine foundation for the hope of eternal life for the Christian, it is in Christ Jesus our Savior. That is the ground of our hope, the sure and steady foundation of our certain expectation. The promises of God will be made true.

Notice as well the clarity that is an abiding hope or notice the clarity, that it is an abiding hope that cannot be snatched away. You see, it is an abiding hope that cannot be stolen, cannot be snatched away from anyone. There's a passage that speaks to this any more gloriously. There's probably no passage that we have that is any more glorious than Hebrews 6 that connects hope and the promises of God, and the fact that they are abiding, that they are strong, and that they can never be taken away.

Turn to Hebrews 6 with me, and hopefully this is a passage of Scripture that is near and dear to your hearts. When we consider the hope of the Christian, when we consider that lasting, sure, and eternal hope, when we talk about certain expectations, coming from God to man. Notice in Hebrews 6 beginning in verse 13, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying, surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

Hope as an Anchor of the Soul

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. You can't You can't, in any sort of theological system that seeks to steal away the sure promise of hope for the believer, you can't wiggle out of these glorious binds of sure and certain hope. There is no way to escape the clarity of God's sure promises to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

There's this duplication of words throughout the passage to enforce the reality of the certainty of this hope. For the believer, it is sure and steadfast on the part of God. He makes a promise and swears with an oath that by two immutable things it would be known. that God is a God in whom it is impossible to lie has given us strong consolation in this refuge that we are to lay hold of and we are we have before us by the Apostle Paul the clarity set forth in the abiding hope that we have in Christ Jesus the Lord and in the promises of the gospel as we work through the book of Hebrews or were we to continue reading we would land at passages such as verse 19 of Hebrews 7, where we read the following, for the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

In Hebrews 10, 23, notice this language of hope as it's affixed beautifully to the Lord Christ. Hebrews 10, verse 23, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. In the context, it's linked to the perfect high priestly work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can we have an enduring hope that is sure and steadfast?

Well, we can because the high priest of our confession, the Lord Jesus Christ, has rendered the perfect sacrifice for sins, has been raised again, and has ascended to the right hand of the majesty on high, living ever to make intercession for his people. So we have the believer's certain expectation.

Foundation for the Believer's Hope

Secondly, we have the foundation for the believer's certain expectation. As we find our way back to the book of Titus, it's not too far back to the left. If you navigate back there, notice what the text says here. In hope, verse 2, Titus 1, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

The foundation for the believer's certain expectation.

Grounded in God's Immutability

First, our hope is grounded in the immutability of God. The text clearly says, in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised. Our hope is grounded in the immutability of God. Kids, hopefully you know what immutability means by now.

That means impossible of undergoing change. Immutability cannot change. Mutability can change. Immutability cannot change.

Our hope is grounded on the unchanging nature of God. And that is what's behind this proclamation of the Apostle Paul, in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised. This idea, this cannot of God, this cannot ascribe to God that he cannot lie, isn't to somehow speak to a weakness in God as if it rails against his omnipotence, but is clearly to show the perfection of his nature. Gill writes, this does not contradict his omnipotence, but argues the perfection of his nature, which cannot admit of anything that implies weakness and mutation.

The fact that we can have hope in eternal life is grounded in the fact that the God who promises it cannot change. Our hope is grounded in the immutability of God. We'll get to the immutability of His promise in a moment, but we need to understand that the reason God's promises do not change is because He Himself can never and does never change. The promise of God being immutable is grounded in the fact that He Himself is immutable in His nature, in His being.

This is John Owen on the passage in Hebrews 6, which is much of the same language. And I would argue that Titus 1, 1 to 4, is the stuff that serves an argument for Pauline authorship for the book of Hebrews. But that's another thing altogether. This is John Owen on the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 6, the passage that we read, speaking about the purposes of God, and their immutability, the purposes of God, and their immutability is a necessary consequent of the immutability of the nature of God, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1.17, the strength of Israel is not a man that he should repent. 1st Samuel 15 29 and in opposition unto all change and mutability it is said of God thou art he always in all respects one in the same you see we have the surest of comforts in this the words of the Lord our God I am the Lord I do not change You see, there are modern spinsters that would want to steal away from God's immutability and say that it only lands in the province of God's ethical immutability and what we may call the immutability of his counsel. His promises never change and he and his holiness never changes, but that doesn't mean that he cannot somehow change in his being. He can have perfect ebb and flow to emotions. and He can live our lives with us in the vicissitudes of our earthly existence, moving from grief to blessedness, to grief to blessedness, etc., etc.

The Lord our God is immutable. He does not change. He is always, in all respects, one and the same. He is always most loving.

He is always most merciful. He is always most gracious. And the fact that we can have hope of eternal life is grounded in the fact that we have a God who is immutable in his nature, who cannot admit of anything that implies weakness and mutation. That hymn, in fact, that we sang this evening, Henry Francis Light, I think he knew this well.

When he can write those stanzas, when other helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh abide with me. And it's punctuated more and it grows in greater theological strength when he writes, change and decay in all around I see, O thou who changest not, abide with me. We want one perfect in his immutability to abide with us, because any other helper is no helper at all. We may gain help in this lower world to a weak and a much more estimable degree by people, family, and friends.

But those helpers will fail, and their comforts will flee. But we have the stuff of eternal and abiding, sure and certain comfort in a God who does not change, who is always in all respects one and the same, who will love you today, who will love you tomorrow, who will not ebb and flow in his love, who will have no vicissitudinal fluctuations in his love towards his people because he is perfectly unchangeable. You see, there is no ebb in the essential glory. There is no flow in the triune majesty.

There is only this God who cannot lie. who has promised before time began that he would save a people perfectly by the shed blood of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And in that God, we have comfort of comforts. In that unchanging God, we have the stuff of Henry Francis Light's vision of abiding in the help of the one who helps the helpless.

Grounded in God's Eternal Promises

Our hope, secondly, is grounded in the eternal unchanging promises of God. We've already noted, and perhaps this sounds like some reduplication, but we're moving now from the immutability of God's nature. His essential nature is such that it admits of no change, no mutation. And the consequent of that is that our hope is to be grounded in the eternal unchanging promises of God.

God's promises are unchanging because His nature is. We can turn to passages such as Isaiah 46. to see this. So do that with me. Isaiah 46.

Notice what we'll see here is the unchanging purpose, the unchanging, the unchangeableness of God and his counsel. Isaiah 46, beginning in verse 10. Notice what we read. Isaiah 46, 10, declaring that this is just before that I am God and there is none like me.

Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning. and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it.

I will also do it. You see, it's verses like these that the Calvinist takes in his hand. And it is a hammer to dash to pieces the madness of erroneous thoughts of a God who changes. The erroneous thoughts of a God who is not sovereign in his purposes, who is not sovereign in his counsels and in his wisdom.

We don't take the hammer to dash to pieces those who in their ignorance perhaps are found within a certain system of theology. But we do take that hammer and we dash to pieces the arguments of anyone. who would seek to prop up a God and conceive of a God who is mutable, who is changeable, who cannot bring about those things that He has promised. God has promised. God has certainly purposed to save a multitude of sinners by the perfect bloodshedding of the Savior, and He brought that about.

He brought that to perfection. He brought that about in time and in history. God's promise that He would give those people covered by the blood of Jesus, the blessed gift of everlasting life in His presence, in the presence of all the angels, and before the glory of Christ, that promise will most certainly come true. Now, you know, this is a future... this is a... hope is, by its very nature, a future-oriented thing.

As Paul would write in Romans 8, 24, what is hope if it is hope in things seen? Hope by its very nature is hope in things unseen. In other words, we don't currently now enjoy the blessedness of everlasting life as far as being in the presence of God, being in Emmanuel's land, singing with dead saints made alive and the angels in heaven, the glories of the triune God. We don't currently enjoy that reality.

We currently can now know that we own that fact, that we will one day enter into the glory of God in heaven. In fact, John 3.36, those who believe the Son have life. Those who do not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abide on him. But it is a future thing.

But hopefully, as Christians, You get foretastes of this in this lower world, in perhaps more than one sense, but in this sense, when you have a loved one who died in Christ and is passed on to glory. Hopefully, in a sense, you can latch on in the smallest savoring the bliss of everlasting life. You see, because as Rutherford said, he is not lost to us who is found in Christ. They have not gone away, but they have gone before.

They do not fade out of view like a star passing into another hemisphere, but rather they go before us to the King of Kings and to the Lord of Lords, to Emmanuel's land, wherever more they will sing, Hallelujah, what a Savior. And that hope, that savor of hope before you get the full consummation of your hope in Emmanuel's land. That savor of that hope that you get to enjoy, it is rooted, it is grounded in a God who doesn't change, whether in his being or in his purposes and his counsels. We worship a God, not of Greco-Roman construction who ebbs and flows, but rather a God who is perfect in his being, perfect in the execution of his perfect promises.

The Means of Making Known Salvation

Thirdly, and lastly, the means of making known the blessings of salvation. As we turn back to the book of Titus, the means of making known the blessings of salvation. Notice what Titus, the book of Titus, Paul in the book of Titus, brings before us as the means of making known the blessings of salvation. He goes on, a God who cannot lie, promised before time began, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching.

The means of making known the blessings of salvation simply seen in verse three, that God has in due time manifested His word through preaching. The historical opening up of the promises of God in Christ are first in view in the words, but has in due time manifested. Hopefully this language echoes in your mind or the language of passages such as Galatians 4.4 are echoing in your mind. When the fullness of the times had come in due time, When the fullness of the times had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law.

Hopefully passages such as Ephesians 1.10 come to your mind, where we see the same language. There we read that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ. this language of due time has to do with the fact that God before that time promised that something would come to pass and then at a time in history that promise comes to fruition. You see it just speaks again to the fact that God really does follow through on his promises. He's not a God who follows after the human devising of promises and the human character of promising.

We make so many promises, the majority of which we probably never keep. God makes multitudinous promises in everyone he keeps to its fullest degree. Before time began, God promised that he would bring his son into this world to die for sinners and rise again. And we see this happening most surely and most certainly in time and in history.

And first, Peter, we get this same language and this same idea. And hopefully it isn't a vain exercise or hopefully it isn't a boring exercise, brethren, to rehearse the fact that God makes promises, that God preaches those promises to his people. and that in due time God brings to perfection those promises. Notice in 1 Peter 1, the language that we have beginning in verse 17. And if you call on the Father who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, he indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who through him believe in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith, and here it is again, hope, are in God.

You see the same truth that Paul brings forth in Titus. Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world. God who cannot lie promised before time began, but was manifest in these last times for you, but in due time made that word known, manifested that word through preaching. The historical opening up of the promises of God in Christ Jesus.

And this is the point of the author in the book of Hebrews. God, who in various portions and in many ways spoke to the fathers in time past by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. Jesus comes in time and in history in due time. Christ was manifested and that Christ who was manifested was made known through preaching, but He has in due time manifested His Word through preaching.

Preaching as God's Ordained Means

God's way of making known the riches of His grace is through preaching. You know, hopefully none of you do, but someone could get the idea that the preacher who always repeats the importance of preaching is engaging in some sort of self-serving exercise. Hopefully you never think that. Hopefully you realize that the emphasis put on preaching is that we are just echoing the words of Holy Scripture.

Preach the word in season. and out of season. Convince, exhort, rebuke with all long-suffering and teaching. The preaching of the Word is central in the Christian life. Has indeed, or has in due time manifested His Word through preaching, which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior.

Never reject the day of preaching. Never count preaching a small thing. Yes, the The exercise of preaching is done by cracked pots, 2 Corinthians 4, 4-7, but that was deemed well and pleasing by God so that the glories of God in his gospel would be made all the more glorious and all the more worthy of belief and adoration. God's way of making known the riches of His grace is through preaching.

This is clear in First Corinthians 121. It's clear from Romans 10, 17. It's said this morning that, you know, there's, I didn't say it this way, but I said it a similar way. There's that saying, there's that saying out there, a picture is worth a thousand words.

And I gotta tell you, I disagree with that. I'm not a big art fan, maybe there's art fans out there. Art's okay, as long as you're not violating the second commandment, which is nothing to take lightly. But you see, words, words are worth a thousand pictures.

Christ comes to us through preaching. Faith comes to us through preaching. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. Words are worth a multitude of pictures.

I love what Calvin says, you see back in the day Back in Calvin's day there were churches adorned with crosses, whether wood or stone or gold, whatever else, pictures, images, all of these sorts of things. And Calvin in his wholesomely polemical way says this with regards to those sorts of things, and it cuts back to the point that God in due time has manifested his word through preaching. Paul testifies that by the true preaching of the gospel, Christ is depicted before our eyes as crucified. What purpose did it serve then for so many crosses of wood, stone, silver and gold to be erected here and there in churches?

If this fact had been duly and faithfully taught, that Christ died on the cross to bear our curse, Galatians 3.13. to expiate our sins by the sacrifice of His body, Hebrews 10.10, to wash them by His blood, Revelation 1.5. In short, to reconcile us to God the Father, Romans 5.10. From this one fact, they could have learned more than from a thousand crosses of wood or stone. For perhaps the covetous fix their minds and eyes more tenaciously upon gold and silver than upon any word of God.

You see why this church might be, in a sense, boring? We don't adorn it with bespeckled and bejeweled crosses, and we don't have the stations of the cross adorning the windows of the church. It's a beautiful church, though. I mean, we have nice wooden ceiling and nice beams, whatever you call them, and it protects us from the rain.

We've got pews. We've got a pulpit in the center of the church. And we've got preachers who come up here to proclaim the riches and the excellencies of Christ Jesus, asking you not to find any splendor in themselves, but asking you to find splendor of splendors in the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We need no bespeckled crosses, because they don't.

What purpose did it serve for so many crosses of wood, stone, silver, and gold, if churches would proclaim Christ is crucified? And when He is, it is as if He is before the eyes of faith, crucified before us. Words are worth a multitude of pictures, and Paul knew that well and writes, but has in due time manifested His word through preaching. which was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior." A brief 30 second excursus. What a glorious argument for the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.

See what he says here, which was committed to me, this purpose of preaching, the means by which to bring life to dead sinners, was committed to me according to the commandment of God our Savior. What did we read? What did we read this morning? Christ comes and commands Paul to proclaim the riches of the gospel to the Gentiles.

You heretics who deny Christ and His deity. You sharp dressed foxes and snakes who wrap upon our doors and seek to propagate a created Jesus. come to the touchstone of Holy Scripture and are dashed to pieces by such verses. Commandment of God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Because only a few verses later, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.

Application

Well what do we learn in closing brethren? Hopefully we learn a number of things. Hopefully we've gained some things by an examination of only three verses of Paul's epistle to Titus. First off believer rejoice in the hope of everlasting life.

Rejoice in the hope of everlasting life. Perhaps You know, perhaps it is the case that we bumble about on Sundays and we don't smile a whole lot. Maybe that's just our dispositions, but hopefully out there with mouths that are going fully east to west and not arcing up to the north, hopefully inwardly you're rejoicing in the hope of everlasting life, brethren, because it is the hope of hopes. There is really no true hope for anything else.

You might hope after a a wonderful relationship, a wholesome relationship as you go according out there in the world. You may hope after, have a lawful and a wholesome seeking after a faithful employment and God might bless you with riches. You might hope that your sons and daughters are doing whatever lawfully and gloriously before their God in order that they might seek His face. But you see the only true and lasting hope that will warm your soul, that will be a boon to your heart day in and day out, is the hope in the everlasting life promised by God, afforded through Christ, that is sure and certain.

It's laid up for us in heaven. You will never be disappointed latching, latching the caboose of your hope to the train of God alone, His sure promises. Any other train and any other track ends in loss, goes off into the ravine. Hope in God.

Believer rejoice in the hope of everlasting life. That's what we read from Psalm 146, 5 this evening. Happy is the one whose hope is the Lord. Blessed is the one whose hope is the Lord God Almighty.

Believer find the greatest of comforts in the immutability of God. Change and decay in all around we see, don't we? Change and decay, ebb and flow, the vicissitudes of a sinful world, yet in light unapproachable dwells one who is immutable in all things, who is always in all respects one in the same. We have comfort of comforts in one who is always most loving, not one who ebbs and flows in anything ascribed to him, but rather we have comfort of comforts in one who is fully always in all things one in the same, the God of perfect immutability, holy loving, holy wise, holy, all those things that are His blessed being.

And believer do not count the act of preaching a small or less significant thing. Hopefully it isn't the case that you come into worship on a Sunday and say, okay, you know, I'm really looking forward. I'm really looking forward to when he opens up the Bible and has our call to worship, the reading of the scriptures. I'm really looking forward to, you know, the singing of hymns.

But man, I really hope he hurries up with the preaching because it's really not my favorite part of worship. Let it never be, hopefully, that the preacher in the pulpit is one who fosters an attitude where you just really want the preaching to end. Hopefully that's never the case. But you see, don't count preaching a small thing.

But because God has deemed it well and pleasing, purposed it such that through the act of preaching, He by His amazing and victorious grace brings dead sinners to light and life in Christ Jesus. It is never a small thing to be found before the preaching of the word. It should be a high and heavy honor, not because the preacher is glorious, but because the God and the Christ of the preacher is worth all honor and praise. And unbeliever, you need to fear the fact that you have no hope in this lower world, if you do not have your hope found solely and alone in Christ.

You might have the hope that those atheists are right. They're not. But you might have this hope that those atheists are right. Yeah, you know what?

I don't know if this God really is there. I'd really like it to be true. You know, the most dangerous fairy tale in the history of the world is that man has come from goo billions of years ago. Evolutionary science, the madness of atheistic philosophy, the most dangerous fairy tale.

But you see it comes to the unbeliever, and it's this fleeting bomb of suppressing the truth and unrighteousness. You cannot suppress the truth of the one who has made himself known in the Scriptures, of the one who has spread out the galaxies and the stars in their orbit, so that they proclaim his righteousness. You come to the bar of God's general revelation, and you come to the heavier and much more weighty bar of the scriptures, and you find that there is a God, that He is holy, that He is just, that He does punish sin, and that you in your sin will be cast into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels lest you're found to have hope of hopes in Christ Jesus the Lord. You flee to Him, because only in Christ Jesus is there hope.

Only in Christ Jesus is there that blessed reality that we will enjoy Him forever. The praises of the saints in Emmanuel's land. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and believer go into this upcoming week with that hope of hopes. Resting your pillow at night, raising it up off that pillow in the morning, resting solely and alone in the blood and in the righteousness of Christ Jesus the Lord.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in your Word. We thank you that we can rejoice in the Savior, that we can sing his praises, that we can gather together for worship, that we can engage in this act of worship, the preaching of the Word. We pray, Lord God, that you would help us to daily rejoice in the hope that is set before us in Christ Jesus the Lord knowing that it is not a fleeting hope that will fly away but a sure and certain expectation that your promises will come true we thank you for this and we pray that you'd go with each and every one of us into this upcoming week help us to daily rejoice in Christ Jesus the Lord to seek to live in light of such a glorious salvation We pray that for any here Lord God that presently now as we pray are outside of saving faith are found to be in unbelief outside of Christ that you would even now and by the words preached by your spirit and for your glory cause them to believe in the King of Kings and in the Lord of Lords, that you would remove that heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh, that it might beat for the Savior, and that those Lord God who entered in outside of Christ would leave in Him, singing the praises of His glorious name.

And it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.

Scripture References

• Psalms 146:5
• Proverbs 11:7; 23:17-18
• Isaiah 46:10-11
• Daniel 3:14-18
• Jude 24-25
• John 3:36
• Romans 5:10; 8:24; 10:17
• 1 Corinthians 1:21
• 2 Corinthians 4:4-7
• Galatians 3:13; 4:4
• Ephesians 1:10
• Colossians 1:3-5
• Titus 1:2; 3:3-7
• Hebrews 6:13-20; 7:19; 10:10; 10:23
• James 1:17
• 1 Peter 1:3-5; 1:17-21
• 1 Samuel 15:29
• Revelation 1:5