1.     Every New Year’s Day, someone will say, “Where did the time go?!”

2.     Those of us who have been around for a while can testify that the time seems to move much more quickly the older we get.

3.     The Psalmist wrote, “So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

4.     Time is precious.  Benjamin Franklin said, “Dost thou love life?  Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

5.     I would like to draw your attention this morning to the latter part of I Timothy 4:8 – “the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

6.     “The life that now is” will soon be past.  Only what’s done for Christ will last. 

7.     The life “which is to come” refers specifically to heaven because the text says, “But godliness is profitable…” Godliness leads to eternal life.  On the other hand, ungodliness leads to eternal damnation.  

8.     The Greeks and Romans put much emphasis on “bodily exercise” (4:8a).   The Greeks gave the world the Olympic games.  The heathen were preoccupied with sports and gymnastics.

9.     And unfortunately it has become this way in America today, with the multitudes skipping church services on the Lord’s Day in order to attend their football games, baseball games, soccer games, hockey games, and so on.  The gyms are packed but the churches are empty.

10. Even many Christians know far more about sports than they do about the Bible.  The Bible says, “Bodily exercise profiteth little…” (4:8). 

11. By the way, while bodily exercise might profit a little, there is absolutely no profit in sitting around watching sporting events for hours at a time.  Some Christians spend far more time following sports than they do reading the Bible, praying, or soulwinning.

I. GODLINESS LEADS TO HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE (4:8).

1.     The promises from God’s Word on this important subject are abundant.

2.     Consider the most well known Psalm, Psalm 23: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake” (Psalm 23:1-3).  These are the promises of the life that now is.

3.     True happiness in this life comes when you follow the Good Shepherd.   Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27, 28).

4.     How about Psalm 46:1? “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  Is the Lord your refuge?

5.     Psalm 84:11 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”

6.     Our Lord said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

7.     “…having promise of the life that now is…” (I Tim. 4:8).  A few years ago some preacher friends and I were flying up to Maine for a pastors’ conference.  We were flying in a little six-seater.  We prayed before take-off and one of the pastors quoted Deuteronomy 33:27, “The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

8.     That made me feel a lot better!  This is a promise of the life that now is!

9.     All that is really necessary in this life is promised to those whose lives are marked by godliness and holiness.  Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

10.     In Matthew 28:20, our Lord said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

11.     Albert Barnes said, “There is nothing which man really needs in this life, which is not promised by religion.”  By “religion” he meant what they used to call “the old-time religion,” i.e., fundamental Christianity, which has the Bible as our authority.

12.     Before moving on, let me stress that the Bible does not teach the so-called “prosperity or health-and-wealth gospel.”  The “promise” given to us in I Timothy 4:8 refers to the blessedness of godliness, the joy of salvation, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the presence of God.

II. GODLINESS LEADS TO HAPPINESS IN THE LIFE TO COME (4:8).

1.     I have heard Christians say that even if there were no heaven and no hell, it would still be far better to live the Christian life because of all of the blessings God has promised for those who follow Him.

2.     And yet heaven and hell are real, and the Bible promises eternal life to those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.  Therefore, we have a double blessing – “the life that now is, and that which is to come” (I Tim. 4:8).

3.     Atheism makes no promise of future happiness.  In fact it their express purpose to deny that there is a life to come.  

4.     It’s been said that when the drunken comedian WC Fields was dying in a hospital, one of his worldly Hollywood friends went to visit him.  The friend was surprised to see Mr. Fields reading the Bible.  He said, “Bill, what are you doing reading the Bible?”

5.     WC Fields replied, “I’m looking for a loophole.”

6.     Thank God, we do not have to look for loopholes!  We have the promise of God (I Tim. 4:8).

7.     In 1973 they came out with the “Humanist Manifesto II (The HM I came out in 1933).  This manifesto states, “Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful.”  This is an attack on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Luke 16:19-31).

8.     Religious cults teach many strange and unusual things but their doctrine regarding the life to come is confusing and contrary to the Bible.

9.     What about the RCC?  They insist that no one can know for sure if he is going to heaven (cf. I John 5:13).  I remember the late Cardinal O’Connor giving an interview to the newspaper.  He said he hoped he would make it to heaven but wasn’t sure he’d make it.

10. An Irishman told Spurgeon he would rather be a so-called “Protestant heretic” and go straight to heaven, than be a devout Roman Catholic and go to purgatory. It would appear that this Irishman had started reading the Bible and had discovered that purgatory was a hoax.

11. Speaking of Spurgeon, the great preacher said, “The life that now is has become to the Christian a foretaste of the life to come.”

12. Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine!  Oh what a foretaste of glory divine…”

III. UNGODLINESS LEADS TO ETERNAL TORMENT

1.     Vice promises pleasures in this life, but it leads to nothing but eternal torment in the life which is to come.

2.     Hebrews 11:25 tells us that there are “pleasures of sin for a season.”  But they are only for a very short season.  Than comes eternity.

3.     “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). 

4.     People enjoy their drinking and carousing but the Bible says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise” (Pro. 20:1).

5.     First Corinthians 6:10 says drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

6.     Today we are being overwhelmed by a tidal wave of filth – pornography, adultery, fornication, homosexuality, and even bestiality.  Recently a Jewish lady from England went to Israel to marry a dolphin.  The world thinks this is humorous, but the Bible says it is an abomination.

7.     Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.”

CONCLUSION:

1.     This new year waits before us.  It contains both the promise of the life that now is, as well as “that which is to come.”

2.     Are you ready for that life which is to come?