Great and Precious Promises

Q: What does the Bible say about God's promises?

The Bible declares that all of God's promises are affirmed in Christ, providing certainty and hope to believers. According to Scripture, particularly in 2 Peter 1:4, God has given us exceeding great and precious promises. These promises are fulfilled in Christ, who is our assurance and foundation. In Micah 7:19-20, we see that God expresses His commitment to turn back to His people, showing compassion and forgiving their iniquities by casting their sins into the depths of the sea. This underscores the certainty of the promises of God which depend upon His faithfulness and unchanging nature, ensuring that believers can trust fully in His Word.

Q: How do we know God's faithfulness is true?

God's faithfulness is guaranteed by His character and His declarations in Scripture. We know God's faithfulness is true because He is immutable and cannot contradict Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). The Bible testifies repeatedly to God's unwavering commitment to fulfill His promises. In Micah 7:19-20, God declares He will turn again to His people and show compassion. The entire narrative of Scripture reveals God's relentless pursuit of His people, displaying His fidelity and willingness to forgive, as seen throughout redemptive history. Thus, our assurance rests in His ability to perform what He has promised.

Q: Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

God's mercy offers redemption and restoration, vital for a believer's relationship with Him. God's mercy is essential for Christians because it is through His mercy that we are redeemed from sin and reconciled to Him. Micah 7:19 illustrates God's promise to have compassion and forgive our iniquities. Without His mercy, we would stand condemned due to our sins. Ephesians 2:4-5 highlights how God, rich in mercy, made us alive together with Christ. This mercy not only allows for forgiveness but empowers believers to live in communion with God, strengthening faith and assurance as we navigate life’s trials in a fallen world.

Q: How can we trust God to turn again to us?

We can trust God to turn again to us because His promises are grounded in His unchanging nature. Trusting that God will turn again to us is rooted in understanding His character, which is faithful and loving. Micah 7:19 assures us that God will turn back and have compassion on His people. This promise is not contingent upon our actions but stems from God’s grace and covenant faithfulness. When we find ourselves in spiritual wilderness, we must remember that His desire is to restore us. The narrative through Scripture affirms that when God's people call out to Him, He responds, illustrating His readiness to forgive and renew. Therefore, our trust is anchored not in our merit but in His steadfastness.

Q: What does it mean to experience the divine nature?

Experiencing the divine nature means partaking in the life and character of God through Christ. Partaking of the divine nature is a profound truth found in 2 Peter 1:4, where believers are invited to share in God's essence and attributes, such as His holiness, love, and mercy. This experience is realized through our union with Christ, allowing us to reflect His character in our lives. In Micah 7, when God promises to subdue our iniquities and cast our sins into the depths of the sea, we see how this transformative work enables us to embody His divine nature by living righteously in a fallen world. Thus, our relationship with Christ fundamentally alters our nature, aligning it with God's will and purposes.

All of the promises of God are yea and amen in Christ, in Christ. The promises of God are yes, and the promises of God are certain because of the Lord Jesus and what he did to fulfill all that was required for those promises to come true. I've titled this message, precious promises.

Last two verses of Micah. Lord willing, next Wednesday night we'll start in Nahum and just give you a little something to think about. Perhaps you can have the time this week to read the little book of Nahum. It's not very long. Nahum's name translated means comfort. Comfort. The Lord told Isaiah, Comfort ye, comfort you, my people. Speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem. I hope that as always, when we open God's word, that he will comfort our hearts and enable us to rest in Christ, in whom all of these precious and great promises are true. Verse 19, Micah chapter 7. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. And thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob. and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."

Peter said, God has given us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we may be partakers of the divine nature. By these exceeding great and precious promises, and they don't get any better than the ones we just read, the Lord said, by these, you will find the hope in Christ of being partakers of the divine nature. I understand that as having Christ in me. and me, more importantly, being found in him, partakers of the divine nature, union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our boldness in the day of judgment, that as he is, so are we. Being found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness which comes by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, his faithfulness.

Micah has been prophesying of what will happen to the children of Israel when they're sent to Babylon. He is before the Babylonian exile. but he's telling them what's going to happen. And all the troubles that they're going to have in Babylon and what a comfort it has been to us to be able to identify our lives in this world. in this world of confusion, and that's what Babylon means. It means confusing speech. It started with the Tower of Babel and goes all the way through the Bible to the great whore of Babylon, the false gospel, who is destroyed in the Book of Revelation. We live in Babylon. Our Lord was born in Babylon.

He said, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. The world did not conquer me, I conquered it. And because of these great and precious promises that I have made to my people, by virtue of your union with Christ, your faith in Christ, your trust in Christ, your rest in Christ, You will overcome this world.

That's what the Lord tells us in the book of Revelation, that these blessings are for overcomers. They're for overcomers, those who get out of this world alive. And that's how we're going to escape. But he concludes, you remember verse 18, what a glorious, passage of scripture that is, we sing that hymn, who is a God like unto thee. That's the beginning of what Micah has just said here in 19 and 20.

But he's concluding this whole prophecy with a glorious expression of praise and worship to God. And I mention this in our prayer, and I think it's important for us to be reminded of this, that When the Lord blesses us with a revelation of himself, and he blesses us with the faith to believe what he has revealed, and we are able to come before him and worship him and offer praise to him, let us not think for a moment that he is in need of any of that.

God cannot be added to. He is perfectly complete within himself. He is eternal. Before the heavens were made, in the beginning God created, before he created the heavens and the earth, there was God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, perfectly content, perfectly sufficient in themselves.

We weren't created to praise God because God needed to be glorified. We were created to worship God because God was pleased to share his glory with us. The glory of God is our greatest need. The glory of God is our greatest blessing. The glory of God is what We're the ones who gained from that. We don't add anything to Him. He can't be added to. He cannot be added to.

What a glorious, loving God we serve that would be pleased to share His glory with us. so that we could gain and we could be blessed with that revelation. And that's how Micah's finishing. Who is a god like unto thee? A god that pardons iniquity, a god that passes by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage, A God who retains his anger no more, a God who delights, who delights in showing mercy. Our God is not reluctant to show his glory. He's not reluctant to show his mercy. He's not reluctant to love us. No, he delights in it. That's what he said. Look at verse eight. He delighteth because he delighteth in mercy.

If there's any hesitancy, if there's any reason why the glory of God is not enjoyed, all of that's on our part. We're the ones that are hesitant. We're the ones who are prone to wander. We're the ones that are prone to hide from God and to become caught up in the things of this world.

He delights in showing mercy. There's no hesitancy on his part. And now Micah is reminding the children of Israel who would be reading this letter in Babylon. They heard it when Micah prophesied it. But the words that Micah concludes this book with, I'm certain, encouraged Daniel and encouraged Nehemiah and Ezra and all the other saints of God that were waiting for the time when the Lord would return and bring them back to that place of worship. And so Micah says, he will turn again. He's not gonna leave us in Babylon. And he's not going to allow us to get overwhelmed with Babylon. He's not going to allow us to drown in Babylon. He's not going to allow us to die in Babylon. He will return again and take us home.

And what a blessing it is when we experience that numerous times in our walk of faith. I pray that the Lord does that again for us right now in our hearts, that he will turn us again. Psalm 80 was penned by a man by the name of Asaph. And three times in that Psalm, Asaph says, turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. He says it again, turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. And now Micah is saying the same thing.

He shall turn again, and again, and again, and again. And in all the times he causes his face to shine upon us, and in all the times he encourages us and strengthens us in faith, in our salvation, Our ultimate hope in that is that one day he will come again and bring us out of Babylon once and for all. And we'll see him as he is, and we'll be made like him. And sin will be no more, and time will be no more, and tears will be no more, and death will be no more, and all the struggles that we have here in Babylon will be no more.

This is not a prayer that Micah is expressing. This is a declaration. This is a promise. He will. He will. When God says, I will do something, faith just believes that God will do it. We have lots of things that we will to do and promises that we make.

And the unforeseen circumstances or the unfaithfulness on our part inhibit us from being able to fulfill those promises. That's never been the case with God. There are no unforeseen circumstances with God, and he is always faithful, so that when we believe not, he remaineth faithful, for he cannot deny himself. We have a God who is faithful. We have a God who delights in showing mercy and in all the struggles, not just the struggles of the flesh and the struggles of sin, but the struggles in prayer. It's a struggle to pray, a spiritual struggle to truly pray.

Twice in the book of Daniel, once in Daniel chapter 9, again in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel goes before the Lord and he pours out his heart and he confesses his sins and the sins of his people. Now Daniel's in Babylon and he's waiting for the fulfillment of this promise. For God to send them back and to reestablish worship with Jehovah and Jerusalem and the temple and all the sacrifices which they've done without in Babylon. And in Daniel chapter 9, Daniel's pouring out his soul. And when the Lord answers Daniel, the Lord says to Daniel, Daniel, I heard you when you started praying. And then in chapter 10, he does the same thing. And he prays in chapter 10. For three full weeks, three full weeks, Daniel is wrestling in prayer. And the Lord says to Daniel, after three weeks, from the first day that thou set thy heart to pray, I heard thee.

The Lord, you know, our prayers don't change God. They don't change God. They sure don't have, they change us, don't they? And the Lord will allow us to wrestle with the flesh and with the thoughts and with Satan and with all the things that would that would stand between us and God, He will allow that to happen, causing us to persevere and causing us to have to believe that He will turn again. God will turn to me.

He's gone to as difficult as this is. The Lord dealt with that in Luke chapter 11 when the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. And the Lord gave us that model prayer. When you pray, pray like this. And then he illustrated it this way. The disciples are wanting to be able to pray like the Lord was praying. The Lord prayed, sweating great drops of blood. The Lord prayed, he got alone by himself before anyone was up in the early hours of the day and prayed to his father. And the disciples watched him and they knew that the power that he had spiritually was from his father, and that it came as a direct result of his communion with God. And they wanted, Lord, teach us to pray. And then the Lord gave them that model prayer. And then the Lord illustrates it by saying this.

Which of you, having a friend who comes and knocks on your door and asks you for, says to you, I've just received company, And can you give me some bread so that I can host my company that came in unexpectedly? I'm just giving you the story. And the man in the house says, no, my children are already in bed, and I put off my shoes, and I can't come to the door. But because of the importunity, that's the word that the Lord uses, because of the importunity of his friend, In other words, the friend won't go away. He keeps knocking. He keeps knocking until his friend finally gets up and opens the door and gives him what he's asking for.

And because of the importunity of his friend, he will get up and he will provide. And then he says this, if you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, He also goes on to say, how many of you having a son who asks for an egg would give him a scorpion, or asks for bread would give him a serpent? No, no. If you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more?

The Lord's not saying that he's reluctant to answer prayer. I believe what the Lord's telling us in that is he is proving to us the importunity of what we're praying for. This is where prayer changes us. The root word to importunity is clear, isn't it? How important is it? How important is this thing that you're praying for? How many times we've just thrown out haphazard prayer, half-hearted prayer?

The Lord said, Knock. And when you knock, keep knocking. I heard you from the first knock. Just like with Daniel, from the first day that you set your heart to prayer, I heard you. But I'm allowing you and I'm proving you to learn the importunity of what it is you're asking for. And so keep asking and keep knocking and keep searching. That's the verb tense of those words. It doesn't just knock one time.

And then later on in Luke chapter 18, the Lord tells a story about an unjust judge and a woman who comes before an unjust judge. And she asked for the judge to intercede for her and he shows her no mind. But because she continues to persist and plead with him, and because of her, because of her importunity, he gives her what she's asking for. Again, the Lord is not lacking in himself to that unjust judge. He's contrasting himself to that unjust judge. But he's saying to us, We see this in our Lord's dealing with people, with the Saraphenician woman, when she was pleading with the Lord for mercy for her and her daughter.

And the Lord ignored her. He just completely ignored her. And most people being ignored when pleading for help would just throw up their nose and go the other way. Not only did the Lord ignore her, but the disciples shamed her by saying, Lord, send her away. And then the Lord added insult to injury when he said, it is not right for me to give the bread of the children to dogs.

What is the Lord doing? He heard her when she first started crying. He knew what she needed. She was his and he purposed to provide for her, but she needed to experience the importunity. of her need so that when the answer to that need came, oh, she would understand the source of it and be able for her benefit to worship him as she needed to worship him. Truth, Lord, the dogs take the crumbs that fall from the master's table.

He will turn again, brethren. I have to remember this in preparing messages for you. You know, I can spend hours looking over a text, and it's just like the heavens are brass, and there's nothing, and I'm not feeling anything. I'm not understanding anything. There's no warmth to the Word of God. And yet, in time, as we, you know, press through, these things. But if I gave up, there would be nothing. There'd be nothing. He will turn again.

When you're seeking wisdom, understanding, direction in your life, keep asking Him. And in His providence, and in the circumstances of your life, and in the comfort that He speaks to your heart, and in the words that He gives you from Scripture, He will show you. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him. Acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path. He will. But that's the struggle, isn't it? He will turn again, again. Lord, I need you to turn again.

He left the disciples. How fearful were they? 10 days after the Lord ascended back into glory from the Mount of Olives, he told them to go back into Jerusalem and wait. And ten days they huddled in that upper room, not knowing what was going to happen. And finally the day of Pentecost came, and the Spirit of God came, and Peter went immediately out into the town square and stood up on a pedestal, and he preached boldly the gospel. From one extreme to the other. Why? They waited. They waited.

They that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Be still, be still and know that I am God. I will turn again. It's not a prophecy. It's a promise. Is our God faithful to his word? Amen, he is. He is. God's not on our timetable. He's not. His timetable's perfect. Sometimes we just have to wait. Just have to wait. Look at the next phrase. He will have compassion upon us.

The God of glory. The holy, immutable sovereign of the universe. The God that we sin against. The God that if he gave us justly what we deserve, apart from the work of Christ, we would experience the full wrath of God's justice for all eternity in a devil's hell.

And there is such a sense, isn't there, brethren, brothers and sisters, there is such a sense in which our sin against God is worse than the unbeliever, the blasphemer, the man that may be engaged in doing things that the Lord wouldn't allow you to do.

You wouldn't have any interest in doing them. And yet they're just doing what's natural to them. When we sin in our hearts, when we sin in our thoughts, and in our deeds, we sin against love. We sin against light. We sin against the truth. And to whom much is given, much is required. I believe that's why every child of God can say with the Apostle Paul, I'm the chief of all sinners. No one's been given more light and love and compassion and grace and remain as unbelieving as I am. Lord, turn me again and shine thy face upon me and I shall be saved. He will have compassion on us. He heard the cry of his children in Egypt, and he had compassion upon them.

They were under the harsh rule of the taskmasters. When we flee like Elijah back to Mount Horeb and try to find a cave to hide in, the law, the Lord says to us, what are you doing here? What are you doing here? This isn't where you belong. You belong with me. He has compassion upon us. Psalm 86. Let's turn back there for just a moment. Psalm 86. Look at verse 14.

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before them. But thou, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, plenteous in mercy and truth. That the God who is, would have compassion upon us. Lord, why? Why would you do that? And someone might think, well, for the praise of the glory of his grace. Ephesians chapter one. But who is the praise of the glory of his grace for? It's not for him. He doesn't need the praise or the glory of his grace to go back to him. He doesn't need nothing. We need everything from him.

No, the rest of that passage in Ephesians chapter one says that he does it according to the good pleasure of his will. That's why he does it. He does it according to the good pleasure of his will, that he might share the glory of his grace with sinners who are able to praise him for his compassion and for his goodness. It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance. It is the love of Christ that constraineth us. This is why he does it. He will turn again and he will have compassion upon us.

Can a woman forget her son? The son of her womb? Can she not have compassion on him? Isaiah 49 verse 15. Can a mother lose compassion for their child? Now, I've never seen it happen. But then the Lord says, if she did, I would not forget to have compassion on you. As unnatural as that is in the human world, again, we see the contrast. of our God showing us as much as a mother loves a child, his love for us is infinitely greater. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you.

When the Lord Jesus saw the multitude, he was moved with compassion on them because they were faint and they were as sheep without a shepherd. He was moved with compassion and he healed their sick. And when the two blind men came and they asked the Lord to heal them, the scripture says that the Lord was moved with compassion and he touched their eyes and immediately they were able to see. Those of us who are as sheep without a shepherd, those of us who are sick with sin, those of us who are blind, we come before the Lord and we seek his face and he's moved with compassion.

Precious, precious promises. He will turn again. Go back with me to our text in Micah. Chapter seven, verse 19. He will turn again. He will have compassion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities. It's been said that it is not a man's sin that keeps him from Christ, but it is his righteousness. And there's so much truth to that.

Because the worst sin of all is self-righteousness. And all unbelievers, all unbelievers are unable, they are unable to believe the gospel because they do not see themselves in need of a righteousness outside of that which they are able to provide for themselves. Either by their own free will or by their works, Every single unbeliever in this world believes that they have something to merit the favor of God. They have something that they can present to God that would move his hand to save them.

And that iniquity, that's iniquity. That iniquity keeps us from God. That self-righteousness keeps us from being able to believe the gospel. Because only in believing the gospel does the Lord strip us of our righteousness. He must subdue our iniquity in order for us to have faith. He must strip us naked. He must take the fig leaves off. He must kill us in order to make us alive.

He must show us that we have nothing to present to God that would obligate Him in any way to save us. That's called faith. Faith is the empty hand that receives the gift of eternal life. an empty hand, got nothing to offer God. And until the Lord empties our hand, until he empties the vessel, the vessel cannot be filled with oil until it's empty. He must subdue our iniquity if we're to be saved. He must overcome our self-righteousness. We see the pattern of that over and over again.

Paul, who called himself a pattern of every believer's conversion, was breathing out threatenings, believing that he was serving God on the road to Damascus. And the Lord subdued his iniquity when he knocked him off his high horse. And he caused that proud Saul of Tarsus to say, the things that I thought were gain, I now can't count but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. God subdued his iniquity. Daniel chapter four, we can't go there now, but you know the story of Nebuchadnezzar.

Nebuchadnezzar was lifted up in his heart and he said, look at this great kingdom which I have built. And as the words were coming out of his mouth, as the words were coming out of his mouth, God smote him and he turned into a beast. And then when his days were fulfilled, when his days were fulfilled, God put him in his right mind. And what did he say?

All the nations of the world are reputed as nothing. Lord, I'm nothing. God said, I'm gonna humble you. Whatever agreement or disagreement we might have with any of our politicians, I need to tell you that it causes me great fear of God. when I hear them unrestrained in their boasting, whoever it is. Yeah, I might agree with what they're doing, but when they start promoting themselves and boasting about their accomplishments, I pray for them. I say, Lord, Lord, don't strike us as a nation for what that man's doing. Don't do it.

We ought to fear God when we boast or when we hear boasting. Because the Lord knows how to humble his children. Nebuchadnezzar was humbled. His kingdom was taken from him. He said, the Lord hath done whatsoever he wills with the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth. No man can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?

And I so hope, and I know it's true, that the Lord will not stop subduing my iniquity just for the ability to believe him the first time. All unbelief, all unbelief is sin. Whatever is not of faith is sin. And I'm in constant need of having my iniquity subdued. Lord, subdue me. Lord, restrain me. Lord, don't let me be a reproach to Christ. Lord, don't let me be a stumbling block to my brethren. Lord, there's so much unbelief that's still in my heart. I know it's there. I don't know how bad it is. I'm sure it's worse than I think. But I see enough of it to know that if you don't subdue my iniquity, Lord, there's nothing I'm not capable of. And we're constantly crying out that the Lord will continue to subdue our iniquity. Cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Oh, Lord, increase our faith, the disciples said. Increase our faith. And the Lord said this, this is very, very interesting.

He said, if you had faith of a mustard seed, that was the smallest seed that could be imagined. I guess we know of seeds that are smaller now, because we can see things in microscopes they couldn't see, but that was the smallest seed they could imagine. If you had faith of a seed of a mustard seed, you could say unto this mountain, be thou cast into the sea, and it would be removed. The Lord said, you don't need more faith.

It doesn't matter the degree, the amount of faith that you have. The faith, it's the object of the faith. If you had true faith, if you believed God. I'll close with this. Turn just a couple of pages to your right to Zachariah chapter four. Zachariah chapter four. Look at verse 7. Talking about this faith of a mustard seed. Verse 7, Zechariah chapter 4.

Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Zerubbabel's name, Zerubbabel is the one that led children, brought the children of Israel out of Babylon back to Jerusalem. And his name means born in Babylon. And in this text, he's a picture of Christ. He's bringing us home. And he was born in Babylon, and he overcame Babylon.

Who art thou, O great mountain, before Zerubbabel? Thou shalt become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands also shall finish it, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. He has cast all our sin into the depths of the sea. He did that by his death on Calvary's cross. He covered them with his blood. He separated them from us as far as the east is from the west. He says, I remember them no more. So what is the Lord saying?

What is our sin to Zerubbabel? What is the mountain? God, Zerubbabel's gonna make this mountain a plain. And then he's gonna set up a headstone and the headstone's gonna say, grace, grace unto it. For the hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this building and his hands will finish it. And that's what the last verse that we didn't get to that, we've run out of time. The last verse is about the finished work of Zerubbabel. We look to the Lord Jesus Christ and his accomplished work.

Thou wilt perform the truth of Jacob and the mercy of Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. He will turn again. He will have compassion. He will subdue our iniquities. And he will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. He's going to perform it. He said he would do it. He promised to do it from the very beginning. The Lord Jesus accomplished it. When he bowed his head, he said, it is finished in faith. Believes Christ. Believes God. Believes on Christ. Rest in Him. Tom? Number 12 in the Spiral Hymnal. Let's stand together. Upon my great and small.

Great and Precious Promises

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's promises?

How do we know God's faithfulness is true?

Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

How can we trust God to turn again to us?

What does it mean to experience the divine nature?

Sermon Transcript

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Great and Precious Promises

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about God's promises?

How do we know God's faithfulness is true?

Why is God's mercy important for Christians?

How can we trust God to turn again to us?

What does it mean to experience the divine nature?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

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