In the book of Titus, first chapter, first
two verses, Paul, an apostle, or a servant
of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
according to the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after
godliness, hope of eternal life, which God that
cannot lie promised before the world began.
I'm going to pick out five words in
the hope of eternal life.
Talk about that.
In the hope of eternal life.
Now, eternal life, I don't think there would
be anybody, anywhere, who would deny or even
attempt to argue that eternal life is not
a supreme treasure, for it is that, eternal
life, eternal life.
If you don't appreciate those wonderful words, eternal
life, think what they would mean if they
were uttered in hell.
Think if it should be by some strange
and unknown act of God, that down there
where is the rich man and all other
men who forget God, it should suddenly be
announced, God has declared eternal life.
There would be joy that would amount to
hysteria there.
Eternal life.
May we not overlook how valuable, how precious
it is, and what a supreme treasure lies
in those words, eternal life.
And this is the life that was lost
in the disobedience of the fall, and brought
again to us by the coming of Christ.
I am come, said Jesus, that you might
have life, and that you might have it
more abundantly.
And everybody knows John 3, 16, that God
loved so the world that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him
should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So this supreme treasure lost once to us
is now brought back to us by Jesus
Christ and given to faith.
Now the question that arises here where Paul
says, in hope of eternal life, for you
see, hope is a future thing.
Paul said, what a man hath, why does
he yet hope for it?
You hope for that which you don't have.
You cannot hope for that which you have.
I think that's so plain that it need
not be labored, that we hope for that
which we don't have, and if we have
it, we cease to hope for it.
Hope is lost in realization.
So in hope of eternal life says that
eternal life is future to the Church.
Paul, now hear it, Paul, a servant and
apostle, according to the faith of God's elect,
in hope of eternal life, there we have
it.
Now is eternal life present or future?
Do we have it now or are we
looking for it?
The fact that it says in hope of
eternal life indicates that we're looking and hoping
for it, for if we had it, why
would we yet hope for it?
Now in this, the Bible seems to contradict
itself, but I think I'd better put a
take notice sign here and say that the
word eternal and the word everlasting, when it
modifies the word life, the two words are
identical.
I look this up very carefully and I
find that where the Bible says, hath everlasting
life or hath eternal life, it's exactly the
same word in the lips of Jesus or
from the pen of Paul or John.
So I don't know why our translators in
one verse said eternal life and in another
verse said everlasting life, unless it's for euphony.
There is such a thing, you know, as
language that's musical, and there would be places
where the word eternal life wouldn't fit in
musically.
So they changed it to everlasting, since everlasting
and eternal mean the same thing in English
and the original means the same thing in
Greek.
So that if we say eternal or everlasting
life, well, I don't think that there is
any difference.
Bible teachers gain reputations for making distinctions where
there are none and laboring those distinctions for
45 minutes, but there's no distinction here.
So let's accept this as the fact, and
any Greek scholar or any lexicon will show
you that eternal and everlasting is the same
in the original.
And of course, they are synonymous in English.
Well, I started to say that the Bible
appears to contradict itself here.
And in this, it does appear, I say,
to contradict itself.
This has been charged against your humble servant
a few times, dating way back to my
early ministry.
I remember I was very badly hurt because
a member of my church, a rather important
man, told me that I contradicted myself in
my preaching.
And that bothered me at the time, but
it doesn't bother me anymore.
In fact, it could, in a way, sort
of puff you up a little to say
that.
Because, you know, a man said that a
foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,
adored by little politicians, philosophers, and divines.
And this idea that always you ought to
keep saying the same thing and get in
bondage to one line of thought, it isn't
scriptural because, you see, the truth is so
vast and so many faceted that it can
rarely be stated in one proposition.
That was why when the devil said, It
is written, Jesus said, Again, it is written.
If he had listened to it is written,
if Jesus had been a textualist, he'd have
turned those stones into bread.
If he had been the textualist, he'd have
jumped off that tower.
If he had been in bondage to words
of some of my brethren now, he would
certainly have played straight into the hands of
the devil for fear of contradicting himself.
But the fact is, truth is so vast
that it can rarely be stated in a
single proposition.
And a single proposition usually is false in
that it overstates the thing.
Let's remember this, that truth is a declaration
plus what seems like a contrary declaration and
then getting together of the two.
In philosophy, they call it thesis, antithesis, and
synthesis.
Those are hard words when you lisp.
But a thesis is something that you state.
The antithesis or the antithesis is a contrary
of that.
Then the synthesis is the getting of the
two together, and there's where the truth lies.
Now, that's all we saw within the Bible.
But you know, people, our minds are like
rings.
We get a hold of the truth and
we get a childish desire to close the
ring and weld it.
And as soon as we close it and
weld it, we never get any larger, never
get any larger.
Baptist preacher one time stood white-faced with
anger when he heard a man talking.
And he said to me, why he said
that man claims he changed his mind about
something, opinion he had about the Bible.
Why he said, I haven't changed my mind
about a single thing in 10 years.
Now, a man actually said that to me,
brother.
He had welded his little mind shut.
And it was so small, you couldn't have
got it on your finger, I'm sure.
Take a baby finger to get that little
mind on there if it was a ring.
We insist upon closing our minds and welding
them shut and they never grow after that.
You see, we can have a mind like
a ring or like a horseshoe.
A horseshoe stays open.
And as long as it stays open, it
can expand.
But as soon as it's welded shut, it
can't get any larger.
There we have it.
Now, the problem with us is that we
get a hold of the truth.
And then we consider that truth to be
all there is to it.
Close our minds and weld it.
And then turn our backs on anybody that
says anything different.
Where the fact is that there always ought
to be another passage somewhere found that seems
to contradict it if we're going to get
at the facts.
Now, it's like this.
God's sovereignty, for instance.
One man says, I believe in God's sovereignty.
So he closes his mind and welds it
shut.
And he believes in God's sovereignty.
Another man stands up boldly and says, I
believe in man's free will.
And he closes the ring and welds it
shut.
And the two men turn their backs on
each other and walk away and build two
churches.
One dedicated to the little ring, I believe
in God's sovereignty.
The other dedicated to the little ring, I
believe in man's free will.
But the wise Christian takes thesis, antithesis, and
synthesis.
And the wise Christian says, now, just a
minute.
Isn't it possible that we can take both
of those and rise above them and look
down on them and see that they're both
right and get a third truth that's bigger
than both of them?
But you can't get people to do that.
We'd rather build churches and be known as
founders of something.
So one fellow has, he's the God's sovereignty
man.
I was talking rather fun to a brother
night and up here in the study, we
were looking at a certain hymnal of a
certain church.
And it happened to be a hymn that
I love very much, the hymn that the
trio sang last Sunday night.
And I said, look here.
Actually, this particular hymn book is a strongly
Calvinistic hymn book, being of a strongly Calvinistic
organization, which does not believe, or at least
not supposed to believe.
I think some of them are better than
their doctrine, but they're not supposed to believe
that Christ died for everybody, only for the
elect.
And one of the verses, one of the
stanzas that Zinzendorf wrote and Wesley translated says
this, Lord, I believe we're sinners more than
sands upon the ocean shore.
Thou hast for all a ransom paid.
Thou hast a full salvation or full atonement
made.
You know, they skipped that one.
They actually skipped it.
They didn't put that one in.
Now it could have been they didn't have
room for it, but knowing humanity, knowing humanity,
I think I know why they skipped it.
Because they say Jesus died only for the
elect, not for everybody.
And Wesley said, Lord, I believe we're sinners
more than sand upon the ocean shore.
Thou hast for all a ransom paid.
Thou hast for all atonement made.
He couldn't take that.
So they closed their ring and shut that
verse out.
But I believe that verse.
I believe that.
Leave that stanza with all my heart.
Well, you see, now I want to present
two propositions from the scripture that seem to
contradict each other.
John 5, 24, he that heareth my words
and believeth on him that sent me hath
everlasting life.
Now that's there, isn't it?
Hath everlasting life in the present tense.
John 6, 47 says, verily, verily, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life.
John 5, 12 says he that hath the
son hath life.
Now there I have three verses of scripture.
And these three verses of scripture establish the
thesis.
Eternal life is the present possession of all
true Christians.
Now there we have the proposition with the
proof text.
The true Christian has eternal life.
He that hath my words, heareth my words
and believeth on me hath eternal life.
He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
Now there we have it.
We don't have to explain those verses.
They're there and they establish the proposition that
eternal life is the present possession of Christians.
But you know, there are some church people
that teach that eternal life is future and
that you do not have it now.
You have it then.
We'll get it then.
Well, shall we close the ring and reject
everybody that teaches anything else but this?
We have one thesis.
Eternal life is the present possession of Christians.
Now I want to read you some more
passages.
Matthew 25, 46.
Then shall the righteous go away into eternal
life.
That's future.
Then this passage, where do I find it
here?
Luke 20, 35 and 36.
Listen to this.
But they which shall be accounted worthy to
obtain that world and the resurrection from the
dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage.
Neither can they die anymore, for they are
equal unto the angels.
For they are the children of God, being
the children of the resurrection.
There is a life which is future.
It is something that we are to attain
or attain unto in the day ahead.
Luke 18, 29 and 30.
There is no man that hath left house.
Oh, and then he says property and husband,
wife, children, anything.
He names everything we can leave.
For the kingdom of God's sake, who shall
not receive manifold more in this present time
and in the world to come life everlasting.
Then Romans 2, 7.
He says to them who, by patient continuance
in well-doing, seek for glory and immortality,
they shall have eternal life.
Galatians 6, 8 says, he that seeth to
the spirit shall of the spirit reap life
everlasting.
Now that establishes the proposition that eternal life
is the future possession of the Christian.
So there we have thesis and antithesis.
Now, what do we do?
Throw up by our hands and say, the
Bible contradicts itself.
I don't know what to believe.
I don't know what church to join.
Then go get drunk.
Shall we just give it all up and
say a religion, such a confusion that I
know nothing to do, only go out and
live, eat, drink, and be married for tomorrow
we die.
Well, that's the way foolish people do.
So we close our minds on one ring
or the other, but there is a second
thing we can do.
We can rise above both of these and
look down on them and see them in
their perspective and see that instead of their
contradicting each other, they compliment each other, supplement
each other and explain each other.
Now let's look at the, at the synthesis.
The thesis is the Christian has eternal life.
Now the contradictory thesis is that the Christian
lives in hope of eternal life.
The synthesis that is the truth is that
eternal life is the experience is to experience
God in the soul.
John 17 three, this is eternal life that
they might know that is experienced.
The, the only true God in Jesus Christ
whom now has sent.
And it is therefore a present possession.
And we possess this eternal life now in
this world, in a state and world of
death.
Eternal life grows here in the bosom of
redeemed men surrounded by death everywhere.
For the world is asleep says John in
the lap of wickedness and all is death
around about us.
And the Bible tells us that men are
dead in trespasses and sins, and that they
lie in the depth of iniquity and wickedness
and in bondage.
Now in the midst of all this mortality
and death and bondage and wickedness, there are
some who have eternal life now as a
possession.
For it is to know God and to
know his son, Jesus Christ.
But further eternal life is also a future
state.
It is the kingdom of the blessed.
It is where death is banished forever.
It is where the trying God is visibly
present.
It is where men shall look on the
face of God.
And with no death present and without the
graveyards and the bones and the mortuaries and
the undertakers and the hospitals and the ambulances
and the doctors and pain and woe and
old age and death, we are to look
upon the face of God the first time
in human history.
Look upon the face of God for it's
written now, he dwelleth in light unapproachable, to
which no man can come or ever is
able to come and nor can see him.
But then they are going to see him,
says the book of Revelation, and look on
his face.
That is an expansion of eternal life.
Now we have eternal life in our bosoms.
Then we will dwell in eternal life.
Now we have, as it were, the little
diamond of eternal light set in our heart.
Then we shall dwell in a mansion of
diamonds.
Now we have a little bit of the
blue sky of eternal life to gaze upon,
like a prisoner looking at the blue sky
through a narrow window.
Then there will be so much of it
and we'll be surrounded in it and we'll
swim in it and fly in it and
live in it, eternal life.
We live in hope of eternal life, says
Paul.
So you see, my friends, the Bible doesn't
really contradict itself.
It simply states a proposition.
Then it states another proposition.
And it gives us credit for having too
much sense to get out on either end
of the log and say, I believe this
and I believe this.
The most pitiful thing I know is to
see two saints sitting on the same log
with their back to each other who won't
speak.
One of them out on the end that
says eternal life now.
The other one out on the end that
says hope of eternal life.
If they would just get off that log
and get a little perspective, they would see
that both of those facts are true.
A Christian has eternal life now, but he
doesn't have all the eternal life there is
now.
He has the life of God in his
soul, for Peter says that we have the
very nature of God in our souls.
That a Christian has now.
So when you hear a man in the
mission tell the poor fellows from Skid Row,
believe in Jesus Christ and you'll have eternal
life, they're telling the truth.
But when you hear the serious Bible expositor
saying, we're living in hope of eternal life
to come, he's telling the truth too.
Only what they mean is that the believer
gets eternal life now as a, what does
Paul call it?
Foretaste and earnest.
That's it.
Thank you.
An earnest and that earnest which we have
now is the beginning.
It's like this.
Suppose that I were a rich man.
That's a supposition that'll really sprain your brain
pan.
But suppose that I were a rich man
and suppose that I had a couple of
million dollars salted away down here in the
Continental Bank and I'd say to a son,
I only had one.
That's another supposition.
And I'd say, I'd say, son, I want,
you're going to have this.
I'm not going to be around long.
I already begin to feel the tug of
mother nature and I'll be leaving it and
I can't use it.
And I want you to have it.
Here's $10,000 to start.
See if he can invest that well.
See what you can do with it.
I'd like to have the pleasure seeing what
you can do with it while I'm around.
So I give him $10,000.
But there's still 2 million salted away and
it's his in the will.
And he talks to his friend and he
says, my dad has just made me rich.
I have money.
Then the next breath, he says, I'm in
my father's will.
And when he dies, I'll have money.
And they say, well, now just a minute,
you're contradicting yourself.
Now you say you have money.
Now you say you're going to have it.
Now you say your father's already given it
to you.
And the next breath, you say you're waiting
on it.
Which is true.
Both are true.
And why should, why should they start two
churches over that?
But if they get together on that and
understand what they mean.
Now I say I have eternal life, thank
God.
And then the next breath, I say the
gospel, which is in hope of eternal life.
And people say, oh, there he goes again.
Can't understand the man.
He contradicts himself.
No contradiction there, my brethren.
It is simply that you got to know
what you mean.
He has given us now a little earnest
of what we're to have.
But the great glorious inheritance waits for us
there.
So that's why the Bible often talks about
looking for eternal life and hoping unto eternal
life.
The righteous shall go away into eternal life,
but eternal life is in the righteous now.
But the righteous has eternal life in him,
but he's living in a world of death.
Then he'll not only have eternal life in
him, but he'll move into eternal life.
Well, I hope that that's clear and that
we'll ask God to help us not to
rule each other out and not to close
our minds.
Keep your mind open.
I know all the cracks that have been
made about the open mind.
They say that always flies get in open
vessels and they have all sorts of things.
That's to excuse the fellow who hasn't got
moral courage enough to say, I don't know.
But when the Lord lays down a fact,
believe that fact.
When the Lord lays down another fact that
seems to contradict it, believe that fact for
they're both true.
And in a short time, you'll see a
third truth that'll show how they both fit
into each other.
So we Christians have eternal life.
Now that's the thesis.
We look forward to eternal life and that's
the contradictory thesis.
But the synthesis is that that eternal life
has two meanings.
It has the meaning of what we have
now.
It has the meaning of what we're going
to have.
If any of you Christians think that what
you have now is all God can do
for you, you're gonna have to rethink this
whole deal because that happiest Christian and the
most holy Christian that ever lived is only
a beginner.
He's just in the kindergarten.
He's just playing on the shore with a
sand bucket.
There's yet an ocean lying before him, an
ocean of glorious truth and an ocean of
riches which Christ has ready for him yonder.
So that eternal life, which Paul talks about,
says in hope of eternal life.
So Paul didn't contradict John after all.
It is that toward which we look and
the hope of the church.
I had the pleasure last night indeed, pleasure
last night of giving a talk to a
Methodist church.
Methodists they were, old Methodists.
Some of those old Methodists and I started
to speak.
They all sat there and they said, who's
this whippersnapper?
And I wondered if I was gonna get
past their guard and then slowly one at
a time, I saw them melt up and
their faces begin to lighten up and pretty
soon I was preaching to those old Methodists.
Because I can quote about as much Methodism
as any man who isn't a Methodist, there
is.
And we Methodists got along beautifully well.
And I told them that we were sharers
in a common hope.
And they weren't going to make any charts
about it nor fit Mussolini in.
And I don't know what to do with
Khrushchev.
He'd probably drink himself to death one of
these days, but I don't know what to
do with all of this, all of this
chirography and all that.
Is that what you call making map making?
I don't even try to remember where any
country is anymore.
I quit 10 years ago because about the
time I get it memorized, somebody comes in,
takes it over and changes his name.
You don't know what anything is doing anymore
much, but there is a God who has
appointed the nations and who rules in the
affairs of men.
And you know what I believe?
I believe that just as one time, God
looked down and saw some men busy building
a tower.
They were building a tower.
God said, I've had enough of that.
And he just went down and just made
up the whole affair, leveled their tower and
confused their languages and said, I've had enough.
You know what I think?
I may be wrong, but I think one
of these days, God's going to look down
and see all this hardware circulating around up
there, reflecting the light and beep, beep, beep,
beeping.
And God's going to say, I've had enough
of that.
And he's just going to wipe the whole
mess out.
I hope so.
For when he does it, that will be
what we're looking for.
The coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life, not the eternal life we
have now, but that vaster, deeper, grander eternal
life, which we'll have when we arrive there.
Oh, sweet and blessed country.
The hope of God's elect.
Oh, sweet and blessed country that eager hearts
expect.
Jesus in mercy, bring us to that dear
land of rest to art with God, the
father and spirit ever blessed.
Oh, sweet and blessed country.
Shall I ever see thy face?
Oh, sweet and blessed country.
Shall I ever win thy grace?
I have the hope within me to comfort
and to bless.
Shall I ever win the place itself?
Oh, tell me, tell me, yes.
And then the old brother closes his hymn
with a shout.
Exalt, oh, dust and ashes.
The Lord shall be thy part.
His only, his forever, thou shalt be and
art.
That was the answer.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
An everlasting, eternal, yes.
That sweet and blessed country, which under which
we look the eternal life, which is to
come, which is one with the eternal life
we have dwelling in our bosoms.
As when the little lagoon suddenly fleshes over
and joins the ocean.
So all the little lagoons we call eternal
life in men down here, deepest calling unto
deep at the noise of God's water spouts.
And one of these times, all the little
lagoons that we call Christians, little puddles of
eternal life, so to speak, shall suddenly burst
over their dykes and rush out to meet
that great, vast ocean of eternal life, which
we call God.
That's what we hope for.
And so Paul says, unto the hope of
eternal life.
And he wasn't contradicting John.
He was just explaining John.
Amen.
Thank the Lord.