In Hope of Eternal Life | Bill Moseley | 3.8.26

Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Transcript

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Would that you continue to pray that the Lord will help us this morning to look into the Word of God for a few moments and to bring before you some thoughts that would be of benefit to you as we continue our journey and more importantly that it would magnify the Lord, not make him bigger, but magnify him in our hearts, as we might get a stronger look and a stronger uh view of him and latch on to the things that are of God, uh, both to his glory and to our comfort and strengthening of us as his people. This week I have done an exercise in the scriptures uh on a subject, uh the subject of hope. Wanted to find some descriptions of hope. I've heard people say, Well, I have a great hope. And then others would say to them, Well, if that's all I had, I wouldn't have much. Well, after looking at it in the scriptures, I've I find that that hope is everything. It is the very substance that we live by and that we can operate in this low ground of sin and sorrow, much sorrow, that we find things that uh tread us down as if being underfoot, as it tramples on our uh our very comfort to the point where we uh are even maybe afraid to look up. But I'm here this morning to tell you you have much to look up to and to look up for. I've I've done this exercise and you probably have seen it done in other other ways and other people doing things. They would take a list of statements and they would brainstorm out different thoughts about it, and then they would take and draw out of all of those things key words or key phrases that would describe what they were trying to get a better handle on. We did it back at singing school. We you remember we everybody kind of brainstormed and said what they thought about a particular thing. Uh we gathered up all that and then we took that, those keywords and phrases, and made statements about. Uh we expanded it out and made summary statements about the issue. And that's what I've worked on this week to come up with. Uh, and I've got them here, my uh three statements that I've came up with. I found uh at least twelve scriptures that point to hope, and that hope being a firm expectation. A firm expectation, not a wish, not a not just even a thought, but an expectation of something that is true. Something that is real, something that is relevant to us and to God. That's what's important, is if it's relevant to God and relevant to us, there's a connection. And there's something I want to get to. I want to find out more about this. And I've tried to do that with the subject of hope, and found at least 12, but I've thought of several more even after I did this. Let me give you my uh my three statements that I've came up with concerning hope, and then maybe we'll try to flesh it out a little more to think about the application, because it's it's one thing to have these three statements, and I I certainly beg that the Lord will give us direction today. Uh I don't want this just to be a lecture, I don't want it to be a lesson, I want it to be a feeding to our soul of why hope is so important and so beneficial. For you is God's child. That's a great principle to grasp upon is that you are a child of God. You're not a stranger to it. You never have been a stranger to him. He knew you before the world began. He knew you even before you were you. Even before you were, even before this world was created. So God knew you always. But God chose you and gave himself for you and has become our great hope. So the first statement, our hope is forward looking, expecting to eternal life. All the way to eternal life. It's not a here for a moment and there, and it's not spotty, it's not conditional. It is an expectation. Hope is forward-looking expectation to eternal life as heirs of God. See if you can pick out some of the key words from Scripture. It's an expectation to eternal life as heirs of God, rejoicing and not ashamed. That not ashamed is a big part of it. Because, friends, we came from a place of great shame. We came from a shameful position of no strength, sinners and offenders and enemies of God. Our father Adam and Eve tried to hide themselves because they were ashamed. But our hope is that we'll not be ashamed. We will stand before God unashamed because of his righteousness. Second statement is our hope is not in this life only. You remember scripture about like that? If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we're of all men most miserable. This is not something that we're just we're just going through the motions talking about it because it's a good thing to have in this life. And that if at the end of our life there's nothing, then at least we had this hope. No, friends, it's not for this life only. Our hope is to eternal life, it's unto that great inheritance that we have. Our hope is not of in this life only, but waiting for Jesus Christ to come again and receive us. That where he is, we shall be with him. That's a great hope. That's a great hope that it's not for just while we live here, yet hope will not be hope in heaven, but it will become, it will be the reality of our hope. Our hope will no longer be unseen, it will be seen and made into reality. It'll be more real than what we even live today. What we have today is, we think, well, this is reality. Friends, I'm gonna tell you, heaven will be greater than this thought of this reality. It will be real and it will be as God is. That's a great hope that we travel with in this world that we have within us. And then last, I say, our hope instructs us to lay hold upon a better and a lively hope in God. A lively and a and a better hope. So those those three statements, they uh they came from some scripture, those words that are describing that great hope. And the first I want us to start with in Hebrews, in uh Titus, first chapter, second verse, the one of the first thing Paul tells Titus after he issues his salutation. He starts out Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. Second verse, in hope of eternal life. In hope of eternal life. That hope, friends, is uh it is of eternal life. We we look forward with an expectation of eternal life that we will inhabit not only for eternity in duration, but also eternal life that is in the quality of the life of God who will be heir, who we are heirs of and joint heir with Christ. Our hope is in that type of life, that type of life that is holy and righteous, that life which is endearing within us and abiding within us, that life, friends, that he gives unto his children upon the very act of speaking that eternal life into the very soul, the soul of his child, when he says, live in that entity of person, it passes from death unto life. That is life eternal which Christ gives to his children through the miracle of new birth, of the miracle of regeneration, of bringing forth that new creature, that new creature which has the very faculties of God within us. Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is that hope dwells within you. So I want you to see this as we move from being a word, hope, meaning expectation, to being hope, the person. The very substance of that hope is Jesus Christ Himself, that hope of glory that dwells in you when he begotten you until a lively hope. That lively hope which is born within that child of God and dwells within it, and never does pass away from and cannot be separated. We talked about last week about what shall separate us from the love of God. There's nothing, friends, that will ever separate the child of God from the love of God which was before the world began, but in it also when he speaks of within the soul of that person, and it becomes a lively hope of living a new creature. Yes, the new creature is subject to vanity, but made with, but made. Let me get that. But the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected the same and hope. That hope, friends, is greater than the vanity that it has to dwell within. As bad as that vanity is, much greater is that new creature, that new, that hope that dwells within the child of God, that is life eternal in hope of eternal life. Now listen to the strength of it, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie. How strong is your hope? How great is your hope? It is a hope given by God that cannot lie. Well, Jimmy, that's a lot different from a will not lie. He cannot lie. God made covenant before the world began, and he cannot go back upon his promises. And he tells you about it. He lets you know that he made promise and he will keep that promise until the very coming of the fulfillment of that promise. In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised. Listen to me, folks, before the world began. I'm going to tell you, friends, if you don't like the doctrine of election, you just might as well tear that one out of your book. Because that speaks it very plainly. God promised us eternal life before the world began. Meaning your conditional issues are not part of it. Never was part of it, and never will be part of it. That hope of eternal life, which God, that kind of life promised before the world began. There's, my friend, the strength of that expectation. I have a right, I have a license to tell you, to trust that hope. That hope is real, that hope abides within you. Christ, the hope of glory, the scripture that speaks of him. Christ in you, the hope of glory. All my friends, we're his by inheritance. God hath given us this airship that we were taken from that old family, that dead family of Adam, that death that held us in the grips of separation against God, which was completely opposite of our hope. In that family, there is no hope. There is no avenue of redemption. There is no coming back from that transgression that would plunge Adam to death in trespasses and sins. But all friends, our great hope is anchored within the very text of truth that according as he had chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Then the second chapter begins, and you hath he quickened who were what were dead. Not our dead, but were dead. We passed from the death and trespasses and sin. And he has brought us into life eternal with him, with a hope, dear friends, of great expectation, because God hath done a work within your soul. He has touched you with his voice, and it took you from that death in trespasses and sin and made you alive in Christ. In Christ, unto a better hope. The law had a good message concerning the coming of the Messiah. It pointed to one that would come and be the Lamb, like the Lamb of the Passover. He would be the Lamb of our souls and the sacrifice to bring redemption, to bring a reconciliation from death unto life. That new, that, that real lamb, not the lamb of the Old Testament, which was a good hope. It was a good message and good school teacher, schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. But you know what? The old law does not bring us any further. It never could take away not one sin. It had a good message about sin. There's going to need to be a sacrifice. There's going to be required a sacrifice. But the law couldn't do it. But the bringing in of a better hope, a better hope than the old law, was the fulfillment of what the law said was right. What was righteousness? It took one that could be the fulfillment of that righteousness, which was Christ Jesus Himself, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. There's your hope. It's not in your mind, it's in Christ. It's not in the words of books and ideas of men. It's in Christ Himself. That is our hope. We'll get to Him hopefully in a moment. As we see this better hope that's been given. This better hope that came the fulfillment of the law. For what the law could not do, God sent forth his son, made him a woman, to redeem them, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. And friends, that was the law of sin and death. Not the old law of Moses. There were people before the law of Moses. Christ's work went further than that. It didn't just go back to Abraham, it went all the way. Way back. How did I know that? Because Enoch was taken to heaven and was not. He was translated into heaven. I know there's a man called Enoch in heaven, body, soul, and spirit. I know there's an Elijah, body, soul, and spirit, being taken upon into heaven through a fiery chariot, and men saw him go away. I know there were men before Abraham that were saved by the blood of Christ. I know there's a lot more, but I know those two. I know that about them. So my friends, he came to redeem them that were under the law, and that being the law of sin and death, which is what he did when he hung upon a cross. That old cross, our hope, hanged upon that cross. Our hope, dear friends, came into this world, and he lived and abided in flesh, made flesh like unto us, yet without sin, without any uh any iniquity whatsoever, for the purpose, dear friends, to be the sin-bearer, to be the promised son, to be the Emmanuel, to be God's son that was sinned, when the fullness of the time was come. That's God's time when God purposed that it was time that his son would come. God delivered his son, him being delivered by the determined counsel of God. Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain him. Our sins, dear friends, is why he went upon that cross. That's what was hanging upon that cross, dear friends. Our hope bore our sins. Our hope took to transaction. Our hope took the cup of our dreads, of our iniquity, and drank it to himself. He consumed it upon a cross, and he bore our sins in his body on the tree. Our great hope. Our great hope. You know, sometimes the word hope is used as one that is considered a great hero. Was in that person. In other words, they they considered him as one that could get it done. I'm going to tell you, my friends, men will fail you. Men will fail altogether. But there was one man, dear friends, our hope. Our hope, dear friends, came with the express purpose to save his people from their sins. Our hope lived and moved about this old world that he created. Our hope would not stop until it was completely finished. He would not give up. He would not stand down. He would not look away. He would look it straight into the eyes of iniquity, and he bore every sin of every child of God that he foreknew before the world began. Every one that God chose in Christ. No more, no less. Hear me when I tell you, friends, he did not die for every man. He takes to death for every man of his children. Otherwise, friends, he would lose one that is not that he died for. And he said, All that the Father hath given me, I should lose nothing but raise it up again the last day. There is the strength of your hope. That's something, my friends, that you can positively look forward to with expectation. You see, my friends, the message of Jesus Christ and his redemption and his reconciliation work is a forward-looking, positive message for the child of God. It's yay, yay with Christ. It is the matter, my friends, that he will not lose not a single one. Now, let's go back and talk about this. Let's unpack this idea of Christ in you, the hope of glory. In see where I want to be. Now faith, Hebrews 11, 1. Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. It's the underlying, faith is that underlying substance. It's what all the hope is built on. That faith that God has given you in regeneration. That is one of the things when God says live, Brother Mike, it's not just an empty gesture. There's things that are implanted in the child of God that was not there before he says live. Not all men have faith. Scripture tells us that. So then I can deduct. Not all men have hope. Those that God did not deliver to himself through the work of Christ have not faith, and they have not hope. They don't have hope because they don't have the Spirit of God that's given to them in regeneration. He does not try to regenerate one that he didn't foreknow. Just like he didn't die for one that he didn't foreknow. He doesn't try to regenerate one and say, Well, I would like to have you born again. It's just not going to happen. No. My friends, everyone that he did foreknow, he also called. That's one of the things in the list. It's a direct correlation. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Who he predestined, he also called. So it's a direct link. It doesn't break anywhere between foreknowing and glorification. Those things are linked like an unbreakable chain. And everyone that he did foreknow, he did not justify. But I'm gonna tell you, everyone that he foreknew, he justified. And whom he justified, he glorified. Unbroken chain. So here, my friends, faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence. Now I began to think that, and here's some of the things uh I'm gonna say it. It's kind of a new thought for me, and you say, oh, wait a minute, hold on, watch out. It's a new thought. Well, it's a new thought for me. I'm definitely not saying it's not a thought others have had. But I've always thought that as faith is the subject of things hoped for, faith is the evidence of things not seen. But then I got I got to thinking, well, yeah, faith is the substance hope for is built upon that faith. We hope by faith. And that faith is also evidence, not just faith, but that hope is also an evidence of things not seen. I begin to think, yeah, that's what Paul said. For why doth a man hope for that which he sees? If you see it, there's no need to hope for it any longer. If you've seen the reality of it, then you don't need to hope for it any longer. Which is why we we've always thought uh faith, hope, and charity. Faith won't be needed in heaven. Hope won't be needed in heaven, but but uh uh charity will go on because it's love in action, it's love manifested. But then I get to thinking about faith and hope. When it comes to heaven, when we get to that paradise of God, faith will no longer be faith as we have faith of things not seen yet. We have faith because we trust and we look forward by an eye of faith, and we see it through an eye of faith. We don't see it through an eye of flesh, but we see it through an eye of faith. So we believe it based on the evidence inside and not outside. It's not an external thing, it's an internal thing that we believe by the faith, which is a substance of things hoped for the evidence. So, my friend, the thought that I have is that's not only faith that's evidence, that hope becomes evidence. It becomes something that you believe on is that hope that you feel within your soul. There's a hope, dear friends, that you don't see it through an eye of flesh, but you see it through an eye of hope. That fun, that, that positive expectation, that hope of eternal life. I haven't seen eternal life yet manifested, but I have felt eternal life manifested, and you have too. If you have ever felt the presence of God, if you've ever felt the embracing of the Spirit of God around you and holding you and lifting you up, it may be under the sound of the gospel, it may be in the time of prayer, it may be in the time of a great trial, it may be in a dungeon, it may be in a prison, it may be under the afflictions of this world, it may be under such pressure of the things of the flesh that it brings about that feeling of the hope, similar, I think, to what Stephen must have felt, that great hope, I believe, that he had as they took off their coats, and Paul was holding them over there, and he said, Sick them, sink him, go get him, hit him with the rocks. The hope of Stephen was he felt the very presence of God enshrouding him with the love of a Savior that was so in tune to what Stephen was going through that he comforted him even at that time to see him standing at the right hand of God and he caused Stephen just to fall asleep underneath the pressure of the stones. I'm gonna tell you, friends, hope, hope is the strongest, one of the strongest things that we'll feel in this world. It is an evidence of things not seen. It will carry us in the lowest moments, and it will enlighten us in the most the most beautiful view of God's grace. When we feel him so near as we are so low in our sins, he is so high in his righteousness, and he shows us that he is our anchor. Let's move back to Hebrews chapter six. Remember that that evidence, that evidence of hope. In chapter six of Hebrews, wherein, in the seventeenth verse, wherein God more willing, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. And oh, by the way, that's an oath to himself. That's why so immutable is God made the promise and God will keep the promise. And God will deliver us in the promise. Wherein God, God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible. Wait a minute, that's kind of what Paul said over in Titus. God that cannot lie. Here's a second place that you'll find it's speaking about God not able or cannot lie. That by two immutable things in which in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Lay hold upon that hope. Seek that hope. Lay hold upon it. Grasp it, embrace it, swallow it, if you will. As if you would food, you partake of it, and the food becomes part of you. You see, that's what happens with food. It feeds our body, it becomes part of our body. The word of God, we feast upon it, we eat upon. Jesus said, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life. My friends, for the child of God, his flesh and his blood are meat and drink indeed. They are the very substance of our hope. It's something that we partake of. And it is truly soul food. It's truly soul food. It is what the soul, that in that new creature, that new creature has an appetite. And that appetite is satisfied by only one thing, and that is satisfied by the things of Christ Himself. Why? Because it is born of God. It has to, it craves the things of God. Laying hold upon this hope set before us. Now listen, this is how connected He is to you. We talk about your hope, we talk about the hope, which is not a mental thing, it is a spiritual connection between you and your Emmanuel. Your Savior, that man God, that took your place, and in the process of taking your sin, he gave you his righteousness. Or he made you, let me get the wording right. He was made to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There is a connection between Christ and you, and that is you were made the righteousness of God in Christ. Now listen to how it connects. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. You know that your soul is anchored in heaven. It doesn't anchor downward like we see ships with the anchor going to the bottom of the sea. Your anchor goes up into heaven and it anchors into one called Jesus Christ. I'm going to tell you, my friends, I'm telling you about a hope that you can trust, that you can lay hold upon and hold with all your grip of everything about you because it's anchored. Listen to what it says here again, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. This is not a hope that's going to go away. You may lose sight of your hope. For a little moment, your flesh may look away. Your flesh may get a feeling of despondency. It may get a time of feeling destitute and all alone and left alone and gone. What about you, my friends? Because you were made the ration of God, your hope is anchored within the veil, both sure and steadfast. It's not an on and an off. It's an on. It's always connected with you. You're never left dangling away from him. He's always got a grip upon you. You know, he showed that with Job. As bad as things got, God's anchor was Satan, you cannot touch his life. You cannot touch his life. I reserved that to me. That's my life you're talking about now. Because it's the life he gave Job and it's the life he holds. That anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast. Which entereth into that. Did you see that? I just now saw that. I just now saw that that. Entered not just into the veil, but in in entered into that within the veil. Whatever's in the veil, it's latched onto that. You know what it I believe what it is, Brother Jim. I believe it's that cornerstone. That cornerstone, which is the head of the house, which is the very rock that it's built upon. I'm not just talking about the church, but I'm talking about those in the church. Every single one of them. We're not just all on the rock, we're all in the rock. We're all connected to the rock. And it's an anchor of the soul, most sure is for the and enters into that within the veil. Entered into whatever's in that veil, it's anchored into that. Our anchor, our hope is latched as an anchor, both sure and steadfast. I'm gonna tell you, my friends, there's no greater thing for a ship than to have us anchored solidly latched on and not swaying. But held close. My friends, that is what we are to lay hold upon. That is what we can trust, our great hope. Now let's give one more. Still in that sixth chapter up above, and I'll end with this. But beloved, we are persuaded the better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed towards his name, in that we have ministered to the saints and do minister, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance. This is uh Hebrews 6, 11, 6, 11, and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. The point I want us to get right here is that this this great hope that we have that is a forward expectation of life eternal in Christ, in God, this hope we have which is not just for this life, but it's unto eternal life. And this great hope and which has been made in us and to us that we can lay hold on, that we can latch on to because it's latched on to us. Here, Paul is telling them that it is to the full assurance of hope. You want some assurance? Not insurance, not insurance, it is assurance. Assurance is I can trust in good or bad, in high or low, and in all circumstances that we see or we don't see, we have a full assurance of this hope. I can get up every day with this understanding that the Lord holds me in the palm of his hand. I can get up in the morning knowing that the Lord can hold my loved ones in the palm of his hand. He is one that is not just a good friend in the good times, but he's there in our most devastating moments. He's there not only to give a sympathizing sound of assurance, but an assurance that he has overcome and that we do in fact live, move, and have our being. That's what your hope is in. The hope which is as Peter would say. Let me go get Peter's word. In 1 Peter 1.21. I'll stop with that. Peter 12 1.21. Let me get the 19th verse. But with the we're not redeemed with corruptible things of silver and gold, but by the precious, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. Who by him do believe, this is the 21st verse, who by him do believe in God that raised him from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. All of this was done that your faith and hope might be in God. I've got none better to commit you to than to know that your very hope is in Christ and in God. That's hope, the person. Hope the person, the person of God Himself is where our hope lies. So when somebody tells you that, well, if I had hope, if that's all I had, I wouldn't have very much. I'm gonna tell you you've got the very person of the Creator God that is your hope.