Be turning with me in your Bibles
to 2 Peter. Almost everybody in this world
operates under the power of promise. It doesn't matter if they even
the carnal man, even the natural man who's yet dead in trespasses
and sins, operates in this life by the power of promise. That's
true of the student, that's true of the businessman, that's true
of the artist, that's true of the scientist. Men operate under
the power of promise. We are taught from the time we
start growing up, we're taught that if we follow steps A, B,
and C, if we work hard, we're determined, we can achieve what
it is we're pursuing. That's a promise. We're being
taught a promise. And we know that whatever We
do. Whatever a person does that involves
man's power, man's might, man's wisdom, whatever it does, has
so many variables included in it that there's thousands of
things that could prevent that from coming to pass, that can
prevent that promise, that hope we have of coming to pass. And
all the promises that we have in this world, at best, are uncertainty. They're uncertain. Every earthly
care every earthly promise we operate under is uncertain at
best, everyone, the history of the world's proven that so and
our own history has proven that so we know there's been many
times when we purpose to do a thing, and it didn't come to pass. And
yet, every generation, every new generation that comes along,
goes at it with the same zeal as the generation before to accomplish
those promises that this world thinks we can accomplish. And when we have that kind of
motivation, we give it everything we've got. We give it everything we've got. If a man will give all his diligence
for promises that are uncertain, What will a regenerated believer
do who's been given exceeding great and precious promises? Wouldn't we expect that if somebody
had the exceeding great and precious promises of God, that they would
give all diligence and be motivated with devotion that would be much
greater than men are just operating under the power of a natural
promise. Well, I want to talk to you about that. This is what
the scripture says in 2 Peter 1, 3. It says, according as His
divine power hath given unto us, that is, those been called
out of darkness by His grace, regenerated, given life, He's
given us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. not
just laid them out there in front of us, giving them to us in our
heart. He'd given them to us. He'd made
us anew. Through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to
glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great
and precious promises. They do something, these promises
do. When God gives these exceeding
great and precious promises, they do something. He says that
by these you might be partakers of the divine nature. They do
this. God's promises in the heart of
the believer makes us partaker of his divine nature. And they
do this. They cause us to have escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust. Now, if he
says that by these The believer becomes partaker of the divine
nature and escapes the corruption of the lusts of the flesh by
these, by these exceeding great and precious promises. If it's
by these that we're made to give all diligence and made to walk
after the spirit and not after the flesh, then wouldn't it be
smart for us to give ourselves to learn and to hear and to know
these exceeding great and precious promises? To know more of these
exceeding and great and precious promises? That's what I want
to talk about tonight. I want to show you three things.
I want to show you that these promises God gives to the believer
are exceeding great and precious because of the author because
God is the author of these promises. And I want to show you secondly
that these promises are exceeding great and precious promises because
Christ is the mediator of these promises. They are all in Christ
and fulfilled by Him and in Him and through Him. And then I want
thirdly to just remind you of what some of these promises are.
So here's the first thing. The promises of God are exceeding
great and precious because God, who is exceeding great and precious,
is the author of these promises. Look over at Hebrews 6 with me. God. Who is God? Who is God? We're talking about promises
God makes. Who is God? I want you to see
something that God did in Hebrews 6.13. It says, When God made
promise to Abraham, because God could swear by no greater. That's who God is. No greater. There is none greater than God. His promises have to be exceeding
great and precious, don't they? If this one of whom it's written
is none greater, that means there's no promises that are as great
or as precious as the promises he makes. When he made his promise
to Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. He swore by himself. And he said
this to him, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying
I will multiply thee. And so after Abraham had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. He obtained the promise. Whenever
it says here that God sware by Himself, He could sware by no
greater, so He sware by Himself. Do you remember where Abraham
was when God made this promise to him? When God sware by Himself? Abraham had gone up to the Mount
Moriah to offer up his only begotten son as the Lord commanded him. And when he was offering up his
son, he looked around, and there was a ram caught in a thicket,
caught in a thorn bush, who took the place of Isaac and died in
his room instead. And the angel of the Lord spoke,
and he swore to Abraham. He swore to Abraham. I want you
to look at Hebrews 6.17 there. wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath." That's a mouthful. First thing I want
you to see about that is the elect of God, all of which He
has and shall call by His grace are called here heirs of promise. Do you see that? Heirs of promise. This is the promise of God who
is the greatest. It says here, God willing, more
abundantly, more abundantly, to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel. God's counsel is his decree. It's what God decrees shall come
to pass. And God's decree is the salvation
that shall be accomplished for his people by Jesus Christ. We have a lot of promises given
to us in the scripture. All of the scripture is promises
of God to the believer. But there's really one promise
to the believer, one promise he makes, and it's this, salvation. Our salvation is of the Lord. He shall accomplish it. He shall
save us. That's the promise of God that
he makes in the heart of his people. But his decree, that
promise, that counsel that he has entered into, it is immutable. That's who God is. That word
means unchanging, unchangeable. That's what His decree is. It's
unchangeable. Because God who decreed it is
unchangeable. Because God is sovereign. Because
His wisdom is unsearchable. The best way for our salvation
to be accomplished is God's way because God is, His thoughts
are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than
our ways. So however God purposed, decreed to save, that's the best
way. That is the best way. We need
to throw our wisdom and our thought and our thought and all that
out the window and just hang on to what God said. He willing
abundantly to show the heirs of promise the immutability of
his counsel. Immutability means he's omnipotent. And it's immutable, it's unchanging
because there's no condition to be met by the believer. I've heard people, I read a lot
of commentaries recently when I'm studying through 2 Peter
to bring messages to you and people say that what Peter says
in 2 Peter 1.4 that he's given us these exceeding great and
precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the
divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. They say that that second part's a condition.
No, that's not a condition. That's not a condition. That's
a certainty. That's a certainty. of what God
has done in his people and is doing in his people. And it's
all because it's purposed in Christ, who is the unchangeable
Son of God. You see, it says he could swear
by no greater, so he swore by himself, willing to show the
immutability of his counsel, of his decree, that which he
purposed before to be done, willing to show how unchanging it is,
God swore by himself to Abraham. And I remind you there that he
had that lamb caught in that thicket. So when God is swearing
by himself, it means that God himself is decreeing, he's declaring
he'll do everything necessary to save all of his chosen children
by sending forth his lamb who is our great high priest. And
he brings us to God complete and perfect by his blood and
his righteousness. Now this is the promise God made
to Abraham. Verse 17, Hebrews 6-17, wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. He not
only decreed what He would do, but He confirmed His decree by
an oath. He lifted His hand. It means
God bound Himself by an oath. It means God laid himself under
obligation. It means God became surety to
fulfill his purpose and his promise. God himself did it. He swore
by himself unto Abraham when he said that in his seed Christ,
that lamb pictured there that was caught in that thicket, that
was God swearing by Himself, swearing by His Son, who is God
Himself, the Son of God. He swore that all the nations
of the earth would be blessed because He had a people scattered
in all the nations of the earth. And so He, with these exceeding
great and precious promises, He makes us to know The unchangeable
God makes us to know, confirms it by His own oath in His Son,
that His decree, what His purpose, what His promise is unchanging
and unchangeable. You know what we see? We see
three things in that, what He did with Abraham there. Three
things. This is, we see first of all the super abounding grace
of God. He was willing more abundantly. Willing more abundantly. for
the heirs of promise to know, to know. And then the second
thing we see in it is we see the absolute total inability
of God's elect to save ourselves. If God promised he's going to
do everything, that's because me and you can't do anything. We can't save ourselves. And
the third thing we see is that God's promise to the heirs is
sure. It's absolutely sure. It does
not get any more sure than this. God could swear by no greater
than Himself in His Son, Christ Jesus. That's who our God is. Verse 18. This is why He did
it. Hebrews 6, 18. That by two immutable things,
two unchanging things, His decree and His oath, Why are those unchanging things?
Here's who our God is. Here's who the God of promise
is, in which it was impossible for God to lie. It's impossible
for God to lie. What advantage does God have
of telling me and you, little ants, what does he have of telling
us a lie? What's that gonna benefit him,
the God of all truth? It's impossible for God to lie.
And He did this that we might have a strong consolation. That we might be moved by the
strongest power of promise whatsoever. Us who have fled for refuge to
lay hold upon the hope set before us. Now, look over at Titus with
me. A couple pages. Hold your place
in Hebrews 6. We're going to come back. Second,
look over in Titus. The Holy Spirit comes into the
elect of God. He comes into one of His children.
Titus chapter 1. When He comes in and He performs
that thing that He promised wherein He said, I'll sprinkle clean
water upon you and I'll give you a new heart and put My Spirit
within you. He shows us, He shows the heirs
of His promise the immutability of His counsel. that which He
decreed before the world was made. And He does it by making
His promise in our heart. He swears by an oath in our heart
so that He... What's faith? I don't know how
to really describe faith to you. It's evidence of things not seen.
It's... We know that, but... Faith is... It's created by God's presence
in the sinner. So that wherever God is, there's
light. And wherever God is, there's
promise. And wherever God is, there's assurance. And God, when
He comes in, and you have light, you believe Him. You believe
Him. You trust Him. And when He does that, He makes
us to see that what He's promised to us, the promise He's made
to us, is a promise that He decreed Himself in His Son before the
world ever began. Look at Titus 1. Paul says, Titus
1.1, Paul, 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, in hope of eternal life, which God,
that cannot lie, promised before the world began. but hath in
due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed
unto me according to the commandment of God and our Savior." You see,
the promises of God to us, the promises of God to you who've
been called by him, the promises of God are as great exceeding
great and as precious as eternally sure to us as God is eternally
glorious. God that cannot lie, God that
does not change, God that decreed it and purposed it and swore
by himself because he could swear by no greater. That's how exceeding
great and precious the promises of God are, as exceeding great
and precious as the eternal glory of God. That's great. Now, Peter's
telling us here in our text, he's telling us, we're gonna
see next week, or next time, he's telling us here, besides
this, or on the basis of this, for this reason, give all diligence. Give all diligence. Give all
diligence to walk after the Spirit. Give all diligence to walk after
the Spirit and not after the flesh. To be conformed to God
and not conformed to this world. Give all diligence. Now let me
ask you something. I'm saying to you tonight, this
is what I'm trying to show us, is that these exceeding great
and precious promises is what we need to look into. This is
what we need to give all diligence to. And let me ask you this,
when God came, you that have been called by His grace and
know Him, when God, when you think back, when God first came
into you and entered into your heart and gave you of His Spirit
and made you to know His exceeding great and precious promises,
when He did that, did God get a hold of you? Did He grab you? Did He snatch you out from the
lusts of your own flesh and make you fall at His feet and see
Him and rejoice in Him and want to know Him? Did He do that?
That's what He did when He revealed these exceeding great and precious
promises in me. That's exactly what God did. He's going to do it by showing
us more and more these exceeding great and precious promises.
That's how He's going to cause us to continue in Him, continuing
being a partaker of the divine nature, growing in fellowship
and communion with Him, everything that's included in the divine
nature. He's in His people and His people
in Him so that by His exceeding great and precious promises,
He's going to continue to make us walk in fellowship with Him
and keep us from the lusts of our own flesh and from the lusts
that's in the world, corruption that's in the world through lust.
So give all diligence to heed these exceeding great precious
promises. Well, this is the second thing.
The promises of God are exceeding great and precious because they
are given to the regenerated child of God by Christ. Look
back over there at Hebrews 7 now. Hebrews 7. We saw that God interposed Himself
by an oath to confirm His counsel. And I was trying to show you
there that God became surety to fulfill his promise himself. That's what God told Abraham.
I will fulfill my promise myself. God the Son, Christ Jesus, is
that surety. He is that surety. He entered
into covenant to fulfill all the promises of God for those
who are the heirs of promise. That's what Christ did, the Son
of God. Now in this seventh chapter of
Hebrews, Paul is showing us here how far preeminent Christ is
to any earthly priests under that old covenant. He's showing
us how preeminent Christ is. And in Hebrews 7.21, he says
this. I want you to see this. He says,
For those priests were made without an oath. But this, he's talking
about Christ, with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord
swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Now that word there, the Lord
swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek, that is quoting scripture that was delivered
through David. It was revealed through David.
But I want you to think about this. It says by two, the scripture
said by two immutable things in which it's impossible for
God to lie, by his decree and by his oath. It was that he made
an oath to Abraham. Now here He says, He sware with
an oath to Christ. He made Him a high priest and
sware with an oath to Him. And the Lord sware and will not
repent, saying, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. You know what that is that's
a description of? For lack of a better word, so that we might
be able to understand it, That's swearing in, being sworn in to
an office. Christ was sworn into an office
by God, the Father, when he swore to him this. Now let me ask you
something. The oath of office, if our president
takes the oath of office, does he take the oath of office after
he's finished his term or before he enters in to that office,
President. When does he take the oath of
office? He takes it before, doesn't he? Before he enters into that
office. The oath of God to his son preceded
Christ's entrance and his discharge of his priestly office. It preceded
him. This is how he was made a high
priest, by this oath of God. When was that? When did that
happen? It happened in eternity before the world was made. That's
when he swore to him and said, you're a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. It was revealed in time through
David. That's who delivered that decree
and said, delivered that word that the Lord swear unto him
and said, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
So that it was since the law of Moses. Do you understand what
I'm saying? It was that what David came after the priesthood. David came after God had given
that priesthood to Moses. So that it was revealed this
decree that God made in eternity when he made Christ the high
priest. It was revealed after God had given some high priest
in the earth and a tabernacle in the earth and a sanctuary
in the earth. It was revealed through David that God had sworn
to Christ that he's the high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
So it was decreed before and it was revealed later after the
law of Moses. So that when you look down at
verse 28 there, Hebrews 7, 28, it says, For the law maketh men
high priests which have infirmity, but the word of the oath which
was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore.
It doesn't mean God made him the high priest after he gave
the law of Moses. It means it was revealed after
the law of Moses. David was given that word that
we just quoted and he said this is the decree God made before
the world began. What's the point of all that?
The point of all that is this. Christ, God's own son, has been
by the decree of God, by the oath of God, And by Christ entering
into suretyship engagement with the Father, He has been the High
Priest even before Aaron the High Priest was ever given, so
that you and I ever before the law entered, so that you and
I have this assurance, this promise of God, that all the promises
of God to save us by Christ Jesus, our High Priest, by the work
of His Son, was all yes and amen in Christ before the law ever
entered in. Before you and I ever knew anything
about, before man ever knew anything about a High Priest, God had
already provided His High Priest. That's the whole thing that Paul's
telling us throughout the book of Hebrews. Back at verse 22
there, he says, By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better
testament. Look at Hebrews 8.1. Now the
things which we've spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high
priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched and not man. Look at verse 6. He hath obtained a more excellent
ministry by how much also he's the mediator of a better covenant
which was established upon better promises. You see, before God
ever made a promise, a conditional promise to man. If thou wilt
do this, then I will do such and such. Before God ever made
a promise like that with man. God already made His promise
with His Son and His Son His promise with the Father so that
the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
That's how sure these promises are. That's what makes them exceeding
great and precious because they're all yes and amen in Christ. They're
all yes and amen in Him. All of them. Aaron was a man. Christ is the Son of God. Aaron
belonged to the tribe of Levi. Christ, according to the flesh,
was from the royal tribe, which means he's a king and a priest. Aaron was made after the law
of a carnal commandment. Christ after the power of an
endless life. Aaron didn't make anything perfect,
and no priest ever has, and no man ever has, and no man ever
will by his doing, but Christ did. The bringing in of a better
hope did. Aaron was unable to bring a sinner
to God, but Christ has brought his people to God. Aaron was
inducted into this high priestly office not even by an oath. God reserving something better
to show us by His Son that His Son is the one He's sworn by,
that His Son is. Aaron had many successors. Christ
doesn't have any. Aaron died. Christ ever liveth. Aaron was a sinner. Christ was
separate from sinners. Aaron was only the priestly head
of an earthly people. Christ is the high priest of
His people in every corner of the earth throughout all time.
Aaron had to offer sacrifice daily. Christ perfected his people
by one offering when he offered himself. Aaron was filled with
infirmity. Christ is perfect forevermore. See how much better the everlasting
covenant is? It's new to us when God makes
it in our heart because we come into this world picking up, if
we pick this book up, We pick this book up and we start looking
in it for something we can do to make ourselves righteous before
God. And we think that's what this
book's teaching. That's what natural man thinks this book
is teaching. And so we start trying to figure out, what can
I do to make myself accepted of God? And this book is teaching
us what God has done and how God will accept His children
in the Beloved by what He's done. And when He makes that covenant
in our heart, He makes everything that we thought this book was
saying to be over. Just like that old Levitical
covenant is gone and done away with, He makes everything that
we thought was true and everything we thought would commend us to
God to start just dying away like an old carcass. That's what
He does. That's what He does. These promises
are exceeding great because God's the author of them, God the Father.
And they're exceeding great because all of them are made in Christ.
Let me give you an illustration. When you think about God's promises,
I'm speaking to the believers now, when you think about God's
promises to you, when you think about His promises to you, think
of this. By His promise, by what He's
done, you are a child of God. You're a child of God. But think of it like this. Everything
God has promised to you, is yours because His Son is His
child. Because His Son, He made those
promises to His Son. You think about that, think about
how exceeding great and precious God the Father's promises are
to God the Son. Those are great and exceeding
precious promises. Those are the promises God's
made with His child of grace, that He's saved by His grace.
They're exceeding great. All right, I want to show you
one more thing. One more thing. Now I want you to consider the
promises themselves. What some of these promises are.
Hebrews 10, 15. Hebrews 10, 15. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. For after that He said before,
this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I'll put my laws into their hearts and their minds
will I write them. This is the promise. This is
how we enter into these promises. He does this promise first. He
writes His law in our hearts and our minds. And He says, and
this is the promise He gives us, their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where permission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. We've got that promise.
No more offering for sin. We've got the promise that He's
reconciled us. Look at Ephesians 2.19. Ephesians
2.19. You and I are never going to
find any joy in our job, in our family, in the church, or anywhere
else if we think we're going to get any joy out of our job,
our family, or our church. We'll never do it. We'll go through
this life tired and worn out and without any joy whatsoever.
Tell you where the joy is going to come from. These exceeding
great and precious promises of our God. This is peace in the
heart. This is exceeding great in our
heart. He does this. We've been promised that we've
been reconciled by the body of His flesh through death. You
know what that means? Ephesians 2.19. Now therefore
ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. I'm under God's roof. We're under God's roof. We're
in His house. Reconcile to Him so that He's
a Father to us and we're a child before Him. We have this promise
of eternal life. The Lord said, Whoso eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. That's an exceeding great promise,
precious promise. We have eternal life. We have
this promise, look at Romans 8. Because of the spirit of adoption,
we have the promise of inheritance. Look at Romans 8, verse 17. Well, let's just read verse 15. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you receive the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we're the children of God. That's what
it is to be made a partaker of the divine nature. It's to have
the Spirit itself bear witness with our spirit, with that new
spirit that He's put within us, so that we know we're children
of God. And here's the promise. If children,
then heirs, heirs of God. Think about that, Robert. Heirs
of God. and joint heirs with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together. That means if He's
really created this in us, we're going to continue with Him. We're
going to suffer with Him. We're going to continue with
Him. And I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that should be revealed
in us. This is the promise He gave through John. Beloved, now
are we the sons of God. It doesn't yet appear what we
shall be, but we know when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him, for we'll see Him as He is. That's an exceeding great
and precious promise. Ain't it a glorious thing to
have a promise like this in our hearts so that we don't look
and sit and be motivated by the power of carnal promise, by the
power of deceitful riches that make wings and just fly away? I read somebody said this, they
said, don't ever look to riches, don't ever look to worldly riches
and worldly pleasure, because that's Delilah that is betraying
you to the Philistines. That's right, just like Delilah
did to Samson. But we got this promise so that
our true inheritance is with Christ, our true riches are with
Christ. We have this promise of resurrection. Look at 1 Corinthians
15. You see, God has sworn by Himself. God has sworn because He can
swear by no greater. And He has sworn by Himself,
by Christ Jesus. These promises are in Him. And
these are the promises we have. 1 Corinthians 15, 52. We won't all sleep, but in a
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 1 Corinthians 15, 52, at
the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
incorruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, He's given
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's put away our
sin. He's put away the sting of death. So that we have eternal life.
And He's promised us, I'm going to raise you incorruptible. Exceeding
great and precious promises. Why would God lie? Why would
God lie? exceeding great and precious
promises. And that's not where it ends.
That's not where the promise ends. Revelation 3.21. We have this promise. Revelation
3.21. To him that overcometh will I grant
to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and have
sat down with my Father in His throne." That means we're not going to
have any of this corruption that's in our flesh that causes us to
slumber and sleep and lose sight and be weary and falter. We're not going to have any.
We're going to reign with our king and his throne in glory. A kingdom full of kings. Isn't
that amazing? I want to give you a story about a dove and a hawk. The
dove and the hawk. There was a dove and she was
mourning. She was talking to all her fellow
doves. And she was asking, what can
I do to flee from the hawk? I'm so fearful of the hawk. I'm
so afraid of the hawk. And one dove said to her, well,
why don't you fly real low, fly down real low? And she said,
but the hawk can swoop down right to the ground, right to the very
ground. And another said, well, fly just
as high as you can possibly fly. And she said, but the hawk can
fly way higher than I can fly with my little wings. And another
said, well, fly into the forest. And she said, but the hawk can
fly and maneuver right through the forest and blend in with
the forest far better than I can. And another one said, well, why
don't you fly into the city? And she said, but if I fly into
the city, there's even more enemies there and more dangerous for
me there than the hawk. And finally, one said this. Why
don't you fly into a hole in a rock? The hawk can't penetrate
a rock. That's what I'm trying to tell
you. Give all diligence, all diligence to enter into Christ
Jesus, the rock of ages. Because no danger, no evil, nothing
can penetrate that rock. Nothing can come into that rock. I want you to, riches can't do
it, honor can't do it, the pleasures of this world can't do it. Nothing
but Christ our rock. He is the refuge for sinners.
Give all diligence. This is the application. Give
all diligence to believe the promises of God. There is absolutely,
I said this before, there's no reason God has to say anything
that's not true. Me and you are not going to profit
God at all. God cannot deceive, he cannot
do anything with that which is sure and certain, and he gives
to his people a sure and certain hope. Give diligence to believe
these promises. You and I who believe, founded
in this truth, established in this truth, if we could really
enter into just the power and the majesty and the wisdom of
these promises God's given to us, if we could really enter
into how exceeding great and precious they are, We wouldn't have near the troubles
we have, you know? We just wouldn't. We just wouldn't. If we really believe Him. Here's
the second thing. Esteem the promises of God. Look at Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11,
13. I just want you to see this.
Esteem the promises of God. What does that mean? That means
esteem these greater than everything else. We got that whole roll
call of witnesses in Hebrews 11. And look what it ends with
down here and it says Hebrews 11, 13. These all died in faith. not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly they seek a country." That's what it is to esteem these
promises of God. To see them, to see them afar
off and to esteem all the riches of Christ to be greater than
anything this world can give us. Anything it can. We're just
not here to, we're not here to heap up treasures for ourselves.
We're not here to try to make a name for ourselves here. You
think of the Best names, greatest names that have ever been in
this earth. Do you know anything about them?
Do you get up in the mornings really thinking about them or
really concerned about them? And unless you have to study
about them in a history book, you usually don't give two cents
about them. That's what will become of our
name that we establish in this earth. It'll vanish away just
like our bones will in the dust and vanish away. This promise
that God gives won't ever end. It won't ever vanish away. And
here's the last thing. Give all diligence so that you
know and you believe and you rest in these promises that you
might grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grow
in grace. We're going to look at that,
Lord willing, next time. But Hebrews 6.10. Let me go back
there. Hebrews 6.10. Sometimes I feel like, well, I feel like I'm giving myself
and I feel like I'm sacrificing, I feel like I'm doing these things. But we get discouraged sometimes,
don't we? But this is what Paul said, Hebrews 6.10, God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which you've
showed toward His name and that you have ministered to the saints
and do minister. That's what we're talking about.
That's what it's all for, minister to His people, His people. And we desire, this was his desire,
this is what Peter's saying, this is what this encouragement
is for us by these precious promises. We desire that every one of you
do show the same diligence, diligence, to the full assurance of hope
until the end. The full assurance of hope, they're
gonna be by these exceeding great precious promises. Full assurance
of hope, full assurance. until the end, that ye be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. through faith and patience. We're going to look at that a
little later. But this is why all the promises
of God are in Christ. Yes and amen. All of them. Let's
look at that. 2 Corinthians 1.20. And then
we'll close with this verse. 2 Corinthians 1.20. Verse 19. That's verse 18. But as God is
true, our word toward you was not yea and nay. It's not maybe. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ,
who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and
Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in Him it was yes. For all the promises of God in
Christ are yes, and in him, amen, unto the glory of God by us. Amen.