Feb. 15, 2004
Kim Huffman
Goshen Christian Church
Series: Timeless Treasures #3
“PRECIOUS PROMISES”
2 Peter 1:4
“For by these God has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”
INTRO.
A promise from God is a statement we can depend on with absolute confidence. How many promises do you think there are in the Bible? 3,000? 30,000? 379? 1,311? It might surprise you to know that according to Dr. Reg Dunlap there are approximately 30,000 promises in the Bible!
Peter calls these “PRECIOUS” promises. Peter liked that word. He uses it at least 5 times in his two books: Precious Faith- (1 Peter 1:7, 2 Peter 1:1), Precious blood- (1 Peter 1:19), Precious stone- (1 Peter 2:4-6), Precious Lord- (1 Peter 2:7) and Precious promises- (2 Peter 1:4).
These are certainly timeless treasures. They are great and precious because they come from a great God who can do the impossible and they lead to a great successful life.
I. THEY ARE PRECIOUS PROMISES BECAUSE OF THEIR SOURCE
1. Numbers 23:19- “God is no mere human! He doesn’t tell lies or change His mind. God always keeps His promises.” (CEV)
2, I Kings 8:56- “Praise the Lord! God has kept His promise and given us peace. Every good thing He promised to His servant Moses has happened.” (CEV)
3. 2 Peter 3:9- “The Lord isn’t slow about keeping His promises, as some people think He is. In fact, God is patient, because He wants everyone to turn from sin and no one to be lost.”
4. 2 Peter 3:13- “But God has promised us a new heaven and a new earth, where justice will rule. We are really looking forward to that.”
ILL> You can’t break God’s promises by leaning on them!
II. THEY ARE PRECIOUS PROMISES BECAUSE OF THEIR SIZE
1. Magnificent is also translated “very great” (NIV) and “exceedingly great” (KJV)
2. Isa. 55:8,9- The Lord says: “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours.”
3. Eph. 3:20,21- “Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.”
4. Phil. 4:19- “And my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory is Christ Jesus.”
5. Mt. 19:26- Jesus looked straight at them and said, “There are some things that people cannot do, but God can do anything.”
III. THEY ARE PRECIOUS PROMISES BECAUSE OF THEIR SUCCESS
1. Claiming these precious promises makes us “partakers” with Christ. “Partaker” means partner, associate or sharer.
2. We claim these precious promises as our own when we become a Christian. This allows us to share in the “Divine nature”
3. When we partner with Christ we become like Him (“godliness” is the desire to be like God)
4. This new nature is not automatic. We must flee, “escape” the corruption that is in the world by lust.
5. We can have much success when our divine nature develops an APPETITE for spiritual things, a BEHAVIOR that is Christ-like, an ENVIRONMENT that is Christian and ASSOCIATIONS with others of like precious faith.
CONCLUSION
“I am a promise”
We miss out on so much because we don’t claim what God has promised us. He has promised us strength, security, the Holy Spirit and salvation.
Would you claim God’s promises as your own? He has promised never to leave or forsake you even to the end of the world (Mt. 28:20).
“Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter, every verse every line!”
IIL>Booker T. Washington describes meeting an ex-slave from Virginia in his book UP FROM SLAVERY: “I found that this man had made a contract with his master, two or three years previous to The Emancipation Proclamation, to the effect that the slave was to be permitted to buy himself, by paying so much per year for his body; and while he was paying for himself, he was to be permitted to labor where and for whom he pleased.
“Finding that he could secure better wages in Ohio, he went there. When freedom came, he was still in debt to his master some three hundred dollars. Notwithstanding that the Emancipation Proclamation freed him from any obligation to his master, this black man walked the greater portion of the distance back to where his old master lived in Virginia, and placed the last dollar, with interest, in his hands.
In talking to me about this, the man told me that he knew that he did not have to pay his debt, but that he had given his word to his master, and his word he had never broken. He felt that he could not enjoy his freedom till he had fulfilled his promise.” (Douglas E. Moore)
