So I'm going to take you back in time to a time when truth reigned supreme upon the earth. There was no error, no contradiction, no lies, no sin. And then Satan, the father of lies, invaded the earth, convinced Eve of a lie, convinced her that the lie was true, and convinced her that God was a liar. The gates of the hearts of our first parents were open, and lies rushed in and found a ready home. With that, the whole world was thrust into error, lies, and sin, something we still haven't been freed from yet today. So today lies still masquerade as truth. And nowhere is that more true than when it comes to the subject of eternal life. Whether priests, bishops, elders, sheikhs, monks, gurus, or preachers, most of the people talking about eternal life, listen, will not experience it. They're like the blind leading the blind, Jesus said, and both will fall into the pit. And that's because they trap people in error. They chain people to superstition. They bind people to the idea that through your good works, you can make yourself acceptable to God or maybe even reach Godhood. All of which is a lie when it comes to eternal life. Because of this, confusion about eternal life now reigns upon our earth. That's because lies about it have multiplied exponentially, leaving us to cry out, is there anywhere where the truth about eternal life can be found? Is there anywhere where we can find a message, even a statement that says, here is the truth about eternal life? Well, there is, and it is in our passage this morning. So turn to Titus chapter one. Titus chapter 1. In verses 2 and 3, we're going to witness God's truth that establishes the certainty of eternal life. I'm going to see God's truth establish the certainty of eternal life. As you look at the text, notice verse 1, Paul is a servant, he's a slave, and he's an apostle. An apostle is a ministry. He's ministering to people, one, to see them saved, and two, so that they will grow doctrinally and grow devotionally. That's what we saw last week. This ministry, this message, is something, verse 3, that was entrusted to him. That word conveys the concept of, like, leaving your children with someone. You're entrusting them. This refers to something valuable that was placed in his care. And the thing that was valuable that was placed in his care was the ministry of preaching the gospel. That ministry is valuable and worthy of protection. Notice his call to preach, verse 3, was given to him by a command of God. This was given to him. This wasn't something he sought after. This is something that God, by command, put on his life. The Bible only uses the language of calling when it comes to a task for this task, the ministry of preaching the gospel. It was a calling that Paul never got over. He never got to the point where he was like, okay, I got it. Where you trace his life from the early chapters of Acts, or the middle chapters of Acts, all the way through 2 Timothy, and he is still, at the end of his life, 30 years a Christian, still amazed. that God would use him for ministry. This ministry came with a deep sense of divine authority that God would take this arch enemy and make him an apostle and a preacher and a teacher of the truth. But listen, God made him that. He says, woe to me if I don't preach the gospel, because this came by a command from God. He received, verse 3, a personal command to preach, notice, from God, our Savior, for the one whose salvation belongs to, like we saw in Genesis and Jonah 2, 9. God planned salvation. He executed it, and he applies it to people. He's God, our Savior, because he is a God who is not reluctant to save. We might think of God as, yeah, yeah, whatever with you, all that stuff you do, arms crossed, I'm willing to save, you know, this or that. I'm really not interested. No, He is eager to save, happy to save, ready, willing, and able to save. And when He does save a person, that person has, verse 2, the hope of eternal life. This is what faith, knowledge, truth, godliness, in verses 1, in verse 1, This is what they're all built on, the hope of eternal life. This is what Christian ministry is based on, the hope of eternal life. Without the hope of eternal life, there's no need for faith, no need for knowledge, no need for truth, no need for godliness, and certainly no need for the Christian ministry. That word hope is not what people feel when they buy a lottery ticket. It's not what people feel just before their team plays in a big game. Hope has nothing to do with wishing in the Bible. Biblical hope goes beyond wishing, to confidence, to expectation, and even beyond expectation, to certainty. Hope is the certainty that something good is going to happen. Not because of us, not because the focus is on us, because we've done good, and so God owes us good. No, it's not that at all. Hope is the expectation of something good because God is good. And because God promises good to His children. And the good being spoken of here in this text, the good that is hoped for, notice, the good that is certain is eternal life. That is the life of God in the soul of a person. That is life that lasts forever. That is life that is indestructible. That is life that goes on forever. It is life that is unlike any life that you and I experience in this life. And what our passage does is it gives us three reasons that establish the certainty of eternal life. Eternal life is a certain reality. No lies, no confusion, no error. And because it is certain, it is a certainty you can have when you take the truth of this text and you seek to appropriate them into your own heart and think about yourself and about salvation in light of what this text says. Now, we're going to do that. But I need to warn you, the truths in these two verses are going to stretch you. For some of you, these truths will blow your mind. Some weeks, the truths are just right there on the top of the text, but other times, they're not on the surface, and we need to roll up our sleeves. So I'm ready, you know. Are you? We need to dig in for a bit on this, because this week, we're going to go a little deep, but we can handle this, right? We can do that, right? It's OK to be stretched at church, isn't it? It's okay to hear things that are hard to grasp, that we may not have ever heard before, as long as those things are in God's Word, right? That's okay? Okay, so let's jump into this. Let's take a look at this. The first reason God gives through Paul as to why eternal life is certain is found there in verse two. In the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began? I want you to focus in on those two words, God never lies. The word translated never lies is only used here in the New Testament. God never lies. Let that sink in when it comes to what it is that we hear from our culture, our media, our entertainment, that there is a source outside of all of those things where there is no spin, there is no obfuscation, there is just bare truth. And that source is God. What God says and does is reliable because the foundation of all of his promises are built on the fact that he is an unlying, undeceiving, unperjuring himself God. With him, there's no double life. He doesn't have two faces. He's not hiding anything. He is who he is and does what he says because he never lies. And so Paul's point here is that the certainty of eternal life is based on God's character. So point number one, we should realize falsehood is impossible for God. Realize falsehood is impossible for God. Eternal life is established on the fact that falsehood is impossible for God. And it will be established for you personally when you take that truth into your mind and you let it impact the way you think about salvation. Falsehood, whether intended or unintended, is impossible for God. He doesn't make mistakes, lie, mislead, or contradict himself. What he says, what he promises, will never, ever prove to be false. Psalm 116-11 may say that all mankind are liars, but Numbers 23-19 says God is not human, that he should lie. And 1 Samuel 15-29 says God, quote, will not lie. It's because he's the God of truth. Remember, Jesus is called the truth. The Spirit is called the Spirit of truth. And God's word is called the word of truth. This is why we trust the Bible. Our presupposition is that God can't lie, this word is the word of God, and because it is the word of God, it comes from a God who cannot lie, therefore we can trust it because it's true and has no error. Now having said all this, this is our first stretchy part, okay? There are a couple tricky passages that seem to contradict what I just said to you. And the reason I want to bring them up today is because you might run into a skeptic who brings them up to you. Or, if you're reading through the Bible in a year, you're gonna come to these passages and you're gonna go, wait a minute, what's going on here? It's impossible for God to lie, what's going on? Okay? So, the first truth that you need to know about this is a hard truth. 1 Kings 22, Ezekiel 14, 2 Thessalonians 2 all speak to this idea that when people refuse to love the truth, when people abandon God, God will send them lies so that they further reject Him. This is the way that God judges people before they die, is He gives them ideas that keep them in their refusal of Him as an act of judgment. He can abandon people when they abandon Him. Second, when someone lies, God can use it to accomplish His goals. like he did with Jacob's lie to his father Isaac in Genesis 27. But just because he uses someone's lie to further his ends doesn't mean that his law is suddenly now okay with lying. It's not. And third, there are a handful of places in the Bible where God approves of a lie, though he himself doesn't lie. And there are two places I'm going to highlight for you where a lie is said to save a human life. And the first is Rahab. Rahab is applauded for her faith in Hebrews 13, 31. But the only thing we know about her is that when her king asks her, where are those spies? She said, oh, they ran away. Maybe go catch them. When she knew exactly where they were hiding in her house. She is commended for her faith, and the only thing that we know that shows that she had faith was that she lied about those spies. Second, you have the Hebrew midwives in Exodus chapter 1. Do you remember that story, Exodus 1? Pharaoh wants all the male children of the Hebrews killed, and so he says to the Hebrew midwives, hey, when they give birth, if they're male, I want you to kill it. But it says in Exodus 117, 121, that they feared God. And as a result of fearing God, they disobeyed Pharaoh and lied to him. Lied to him about the, oh, they give birth too quickly and we can't get there in time. They lied. And it says they lied because they feared God. Now in all of this, humans lied. God took what was evil and used it for good. But in all of this, God never lied. He can't lie. He is the truth. He's the source of truth. Everything he says and does is true. And because he's truthful, you can trust him. You can trust him about eternal life, and you can trust him about everything else that's going on in your life. Because he can't lie. Some here will be uncomfortable with his idea that God can't do something. So this is the second part of our message that's a little stretchy part. Listen, there are things that God cannot do. It's not because he doesn't have the power to do it. He's almighty. He has all power. There are things he cannot do because God is limited by one and only one thing. You know what that is? limited by himself. What do I mean by that? God, it says, 2 Timothy 2.13, cannot deny himself, which means that he cannot act in ways that are contrary to his nature. So, for instance, God cannot change because he's unchanging, as we saw in Jonah. He cannot sin because he's holy. He cannot do evil because he is good. God cannot die or cease to exist because he's eternal. God can't cough or trip and fall because he doesn't have a body, right? He is spirit. God cannot learn because he knows everything, right? So there are all kinds of ways that God is limited, that God can't do things, but all of those things are not limitations on God. Those are all expressions of his perfections. Paul's point, though, in verse two is this. The hope of eternal life is not wishful thinking. It is certain, guaranteed, assured. Eternal life is unquestionable, definite, indisputable. Why? Because eternal life is not based on the words of a con man or on promises of a liar trying to trick you with no intention of giving what he promised. Eternal life is certain because God is absolutely trustworthy. His character is unchanging and utterly truthful, so that assures us that salvation is certain. That's Paul's argument. Now, point number one simply restates Hebrews 6.18, which says, quote, it is impossible for God to lie, end quote. So let me ask you, because you are going to face moments if you're not facing them now. When you're going to know information that's true about God, but in that moment, is the fact that your feelings or your experience may be telling you something different, do you hold on to the truth that God cannot change in those moments? Or do you let those experiences and let those feelings run you? Like, I can't, I got a doubt, what's going on, God? Like, where'd you go? God never changes. And that truth, according to Hebrews 6, is a strong encouragement, can be when it comes to our salvation. See, saints for centuries have done this. They've read their Bibles, and they've highlighted, they've circled, they've done whatever, to promises in the Bible. And what happens when their life is out of control or their thoughts are out of control, what they do is they go back to those promises, and they hold on to those promises, even white-knuckling those promises if they have to. But they do that and they can trust what they have here as promises from God. Why? Because even though their circumstances change and their feelings change, God never, ever changes. Because of that, we have hope. We have what Hebrews calls an anchor for our souls. Now, I'm not talking about false assurance. You know, are there promises that you hold on to when that inner lawyer inside is like, you're not saved, you can't trust God, God can't be trusted. I'm not talking about false assurance like people who claim Christ but live like the devil or deny some central core biblical truths like the deity of Jesus or salvation by grace and faith and not apart from works. I'm not talking about that. No one should have assurance of eternal life who's like that. See 1 John. What I'm saying is there isn't even a hint of a shadow of a corner of a lie in anything that God has ever thought, done or said. So do you trust his promise of eternal life? For some, I'm asking you that knowing that you haven't given your life to him yet. Yes, God is completely trustworthy in his word. He promises eternal life, but I just haven't done that yet. Well, do it now. Do it today. There's no reason for you not to. You trust what he's saying. So give your life to him. And Christian, if you confess your sins, does he not say that he will forgive you of all of your sins, cleanse you of all unrighteousness? Christian, do you live like that promise can be trusted? If God's promises are not kept, listen, God is a liar, but he is not a liar. And so we can have hope. We can have certainty. In moments, we may need to hold fast, like I said, white knuckling on these promises, but we can do that and know, have assurance that eternal life is certain when we do because God cannot, does not ever lie. I'll turn back to Titus chapter one. Well, we're already there. The hope of eternal life has a second reason, it is certain. Look back at verse two. hope of eternal life which God who never lies promised before the ages began." Notice, God promised eternal life when? Before the ages began. What does that mean? That phrase means this, before time began. In a time before time. In eternity past. Well, time began at creation, but again, look at the text. What happened before creation? God promised eternal life, but there were no people before creation, right? So who did God make this promise of eternal life to? Who received that promise of eternal life? No one was before creation who didn't already have eternal life, right? Who is he making this promise to? Two passages I want you to look at in order to answer these questions. We want to let the Bible interpret the Bible. So we've got this question, right? Who is God making this promise to before the ages began? First place I want you to look is 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. You're like, where's 2 Timothy? It's one book to the left. 2 Timothy 1, page 1097 in those blue Bibles. 2nd Timothy chapter 1, Paul's writing to Timothy. Timothy is scared because persecution is hitting Christians and he's being tempted to kind of run from the persecution rather than face it and be faithful in preaching the gospel. And so 2nd Timothy chapter 1, look at verse 8. Paul says to him, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord. Don't be ashamed of the gospel and don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner. But here's how you're not ashamed of the gospel, you share in the suffering, sharing suffering for the gospel by the power of God. Now Paul's gonna build off that last word in verse eight, look at verse nine. Before we do that though, this is our third stretchy part, okay? You may have come to church your whole life and never heard what I'm about to tell you. So please, if that's you, please be patient and let's let the Bible speak for itself, okay? Notice verse 9 God who saved us and Called us so God saved us and God called us to a holy calling Not because of our works, but because of his own purpose in grace Which he gave us in Christ Jesus when we believed is that was your Bible says What does it say? gave us to Christ Jesus and before the ages began." Same phrase as Titus 1-2. So let's take a step back for a minute. Before time began, Christians are the object notice of God's saving, God's calling, God's purpose, and God's grace. Titus 1-2 tells us what that purpose and grace was. It was eternal life. We still haven't answered the question yet, who is it that God is promising? We just answered the question when, we just got some support for when, before the ages began, but now we need to see who he made the promise to, and to do that, turn to John 17. John 17, page 1001 in those blue Bibles. John 17, as you may know, John 17 is Jesus' prayer right before the cross. He is about to die, and so the things that are most important are bubbling up to the surface, and he's praying about these things. John 17, starting in verse one. I want you to see not just what is on his mind, but I want you to see who is on his mind just hours before his trial, his torture, and his execution. Chapter 17, verse 1. When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Since you've given him, notice first, authority over all flesh, and you've done that, notice, to give eternal life to all. And the period stops right there after that word, right? Period to all what? All whom you have given him. So there's this group of people Jesus is concerned about having eternal life. And who are they? All whom you've given him. Notice verse three, and this is eternal life. That they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That's blasphemous statement unless Jesus is God. Now, drop down to verse six. I've manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were those people belong to you and you gave them to me and they've kept your word There they are again this this people group this this group of people that the father it says their own that he owned these people but that he gave this these people to the son and In fact, Jesus prays for them exclusively. Look at verse nine. I am praying for them. I'm not praying for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. They're yours, you gave them to me. One more passage. What is Jesus' ultimate desire for this group of people? Look at verse 24. He tells us plainly. Father, I desire that they also, Who? Whom you have given me may be with me where I am. They're not there now, but I want them to be with me, and I want them to be with me, notice, so that they will see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Verse 6, God gave. Verses 2, 9, and 24, God has given. Both of those words are past tense. So when in the past did God, the Father, give a group of people to Jesus? I think 2 Timothy 1, 9 and Titus 1, 2 tells us when. Before the ages began. So back to Titus chapter 1. So the promise that Paul is talking about in verse 2 wasn't made to people because there were no people before the ages began. But the Father made the promise of eternal life to the Son about people because he would give him These people that the Father would give the Son who would have eternal life. So before creation, God promised the Son of people who have eternal life, who would know, love, and serve Jesus both now and into eternity. So the certainty of eternal life, here's Paul's point, it's established because God made a promise to the Son. So as a result, we should all, point number two, marvel that eternal life was guaranteed before creation. If you are saved, your eternal life was guaranteed before creation. The Father made a promise about eternal life to the Son in eternity past. It was a promise made about people having eternal life, listen, before any of those people existed. Since the promise was made about people before they existed, since the promise was made by the Father who cannot lie, since it was made to the Son who is the truth, that can only mean one thing. Eternal life is guaranteed. Think about it, the eternal life we enjoy as a promise made from the Father to the Son that we get to benefit from, 2 Timothy 1.9, not because of our works, but because of His purpose and His grace, because He wanted eternal life for those who didn't deserve it. So picture it this way, God includes you in a gift of love that He gives His Son. Jesus then reciprocates that love by dying to secure your salvation. I'm thinking, is there any way to fathom the grace of this text that this text ushers us into the throne room of God before creation, where there is an inner Trinitarian conversation, where God the Father promises to God the Son this eternal life for those that he's going to give him? I mean, this is something that is so incredibly wonderful that really, if we think about it and try to appropriate it for ourselves, we just stand in utter, just reverent silence and just amazement, awe that in eternity past, God would promise the Son of people, and we're a part of that. See, if your great-great-grandfather gave a massive fortune to his son and all of his descendants after him, and when you're born, you get to benefit from that massive inheritance, the one thing you know is that you did not contribute to that. You just get to sit and enjoy it. And that's what you have here. We can't alter this. We can't impact it. We can just marvel at a promise of eternal life that is guaranteed because it was made by the father to the son. which means this eternal life is about a promise God made to his son before creation, which means it's not about your health, it's not about your wealth, it's not about your happiness, it's not about your comfort. Really, eternal life is not about you at all. Think about it. Eternal life is given to us indirectly. It's promised to Christ, who then dies so that we can have what was already promised to him. So you have eternal life as an expression of the Father's love for the Son. See, we think I have eternal life because of the Father's love for me. This text says, well, indirectly, you have eternal life because of the Father's love for the Son. And he gives you as a gift of love to the Son. When did he do that? Before the ages began. Eternal life is a promise made in eternity and kept on the cross. And the father's love for the son is seen in the eternal life he gave, he gives to those who know, love and serve Jesus. And when we love Jesus, we are simply doing what the father has been doing for all of eternity. Our love for Christ is really a result of the father's love for the son. The promise, this promise that we are reading about in Titus 1-2 guarantees eternal life is an assured future for all who believe in Jesus. The one eternal life was promised to. Now, if that's not stretching you, I've got one more chance. Okay, look at verse three. Here God gives a third reason why eternal life is certain. Where he says, quote, and at the proper time, manifested in his word through the preaching which I've been entrusted by the command of God our Savior. So following the flow of this very long sentence, starts in verse one, ends in verse four, we see this. Eternal life was manifested in God's word through Paul's preaching. And the key word is that word manifest, okay? That word manifest means something that was hidden that has now been made known or revealed. And what is being made known or revealed, what's being made manifest is eternal life. So it's like eternal life was hidden behind a bush and he jumps out and says, surprise, here I am. And you think about that, well, let's think about that. When does the text say that happened? When did the manifestation of eternal life happen? The text says, verse three, at the proper time, when God thought the time was right. So some point, some will say, oh, it's the Roman peace, or it's the Roman roads, or it's the fact everybody spoke Greek. Whatever it was, the time was right because God thought it was the right time for this manifestation. Now again, what does the text say was hidden, but is now made known? Answer, the hope of eternal life, which means before the manifestation, eternal life was what? It was hidden. It was hidden in an eternal conversation between the father and the son. But it was this eternal life was made known, manifested in notice, God's word through the preaching of the apostles, which one of them was Paul. So the certainty of eternal life, Paul is saying, is established by the fact that this message of salvation didn't stay hidden. This promise of salvation didn't stay hidden in eternity past, but the promise was fulfilled. And that promise, that fulfillment, was revealed to the apostles. They then proclaim the message. This message is called the gospel, the message about eternal life. And we have that message perfectly preserved for us in the New Testament. And if all that's true, and I think it is, then point number three, you should admit eternal life is hidden without the gospel. Eternal life is hidden without the gospel. It is hidden until it is manifested in the word, the gospel. God makes eternal life known to people, and they experience it through the preaching of the gospel. Without the gospel, eternal life remains veiled, hidden. the promise he made to the son, the son fulfills, and then that word about that fulfillment, Jesus' death and resurrection, is given to the apostles, the apostles preach that message, people hear it, believe it, and receive eternal life. Romans 10 and 17 says, faith comes from hearing and hearing the word about Christ. So that's why we do what we do here. We simply preach the word because one, people receive faith. They are saved through the preaching of God's word. And if you're a Christian, you need more faith to trust God in your daily life. So we grow in faith through the preaching of God's word. But this text right here, with that word manifest, means that eternal life is pictured as a vast, Inestimable treasure. And the gospel is the only map that takes you to it. Now, here's the fourth and final stretchy part of the message today. Apart from the gospel, nobody is saved. Now, you don't think that if eternal life could be had some other way that Paul would have been entrusted to preach it by the command of God? Like, why is God commanding him to preach this gospel through which comes the hope of eternal life if the hope of eternal life can be found outside of the gospel? How can people who've never heard the gospel already be saved if it is hidden and only, as we see in the text, made manifest through the preaching of the gospel? How can people believe in eternal life that's hidden without the gospel? If people have eternal life without the gospel, the gospel being the good news about Jesus' death and resurrection, then why did Jesus go through all of that? People are saved already. Wouldn't missionaries be the most evil people in all of history? If all those people who've never heard the gospel are already saved, but we send missionaries to those people and they hear the gospel and reject it and now they're lost. No, missionaries are to be honored and adored because they're going to people who are lost and they're going to them with the only message that brings salvation with it, the gospel. But I use that word admit on purpose because it is hard to admit this, isn't it? It's hard to admit it because all of us suffer from a disease called caring about what other people think about us. Right? We don't want people to think like, oh, yeah, I mean, we think Jesus is the only way to heaven. Oh, they're going to hate us. They're going to they're going to look down on us with their self-righteous noses. They're going to reject us. But at the end of the day, like who are we here to please? Whose approval are we looking for here? or God our Savior. And also seems that it's hard for us to admit this truth because we think it makes God less than fair, less than good if every person who's ever lived doesn't get a shot at eternal life because eternal life is hidden from them unless they hear the gospel. But again, if people are saved apart from the gospel, what is this whole Jesus coming and dying on the cross for all about? Why did he do that if people are saved already? People are lost not because they reject Jesus, but Romans 1 says they're lost because they reject God the Father. They see in creation a clarity about who he is and what he wants. Instead of worshiping him, they worship the creation 100% of the time. And really, when they worship the creation, they're worshiping themselves. They're placing themselves on the throne and treating themselves as if they were God. See, we're all idolaters twisting the truth, worshiping ourselves rather than the creator. And Jesus came and died because that includes every single one of us. We are lost without him. The promise of eternal life could only be made manifest if Jesus accomplished everything we needed for salvation. And guess what? He did. He did it all. By coming here, dying on the cross for our sins and being raised from the dead, he shows the promise the father made to him in eternity past was fulfilled. Now, if we're going to admit that, you know, we're safe in here, right? If we're going to admit that in here, okay, eternal life is hidden apart from the gospel. then the challenge is to admit it out there. And it is to live like it is true out there. It is to take this grid and it is to look at the people that we, in our families, and it's to look at the people at our jobs and our schools with this grid and go, God, they're lost. Give them the gospel. My prayer list has a group of people that are lost and I pray for them on a regular basis. And for years, praying for them, God saved them. God brings someone into their lives who can give them the gospel and be saved. It was just a few months ago. Then my prayer there switched and was like, wait a minute, what are you talking? You know the gospel, like you better. My prayer switched from God, send them something, someone to preach the gospel to God. Could you use me? Use me to preach the gospel to them. What incredible joy for you to use me to save them. Give me those opportunities, please. See, Paul can't do anything better than tell people about the eternal life that is guaranteed, certain, because of God's never-lying character, because of a promise that God made to the Son in eternity past, a promise that the Son kept when He died for our sins. And it's no wonder at the end of this paragraph that Paul calls Him, quote, God, our Savior. not some title, God the Savior, but a personal statement about who God is to his people, God our Savior. So in those moments when eternal life is uncertain, where is it that you turn? Do you turn to your feelings for certainty? Do you distract yourself from that thought, I'm not gonna think about this, I'm not, no. Do you turn to your own good works and just cross your fingers, I hope I've done enough. That's not certainty, that's wishing. Do you turn to some experience you had back in grade school? Or do you turn to a God who is your Savior? Is your eternal life established on a God who cannot lie? Is your eternal life established on a promise made before creation between the Father and the Son about people who are guaranteed eternal life because of that promise? And do you turn to a message of good news that your sins are forgiven and you have eternal life, both in this life, you have it now and will have it at death or when Jesus returns, because you are trusting in Jesus to save you. See, we may not live in a world now where the truth reigns, but that is only for a moment. There will be a day when these truths are the truth that reigns over the whole of eternity, the whole of existence. And we are simply trying to get our minds in line with that truth now, because that day is coming. So let's seek and pray for God to take the truths, Titus 1, 2, and 3, and appropriate them for ourselves and our own hearts. Let's pray.