This song certainly goes along
with what I want to attempt to speak on. I've entitled this
message, What is Precious to You? And by that I mean, what is it
that you cannot do without? That's what's precious to you.
cannot do without this. What is precious to you? Now,
precious can be a relative term. It depends on the person. Some
would count silver and gold as precious, the things that money
can buy, the security that money provides. They speak of precious
metals and precious stones and so on, the value of those things. Some count pleasure as precious. That's what's more important
to them than anything else. They live to gratify the senses. Some find relationships precious,
family and friends. But what is precious to the believer? What is it, who is it that the
believer cannot live without? Now I think of my family. I love
them. A few months ago, Lynn had a
mammogram and she had a spot on it that they wanted her to
go back and look at. And I absolutely flipped out. I thought, what will I do? What
will I do? What will I do without her? That was, I mean, it just absolutely,
well, let me out. But you know what? You die, I'll
be all right. She's fine. I don't think, she's
fine. But what I'm saying is, you lose
your spouse, you'll be okay. It'll be difficult, but you'll
be okay. But what is it that you can't
live without? Now, I know this for the believer, he counts as
precious that which will be valued on judgment day. That's what's
precious. Nothing else is really that which
will be valued upon judgment day. When you stand before the
great judge, what will be precious to you? You know, it certainly will not
be money and the things you can buy with money. Now, I dare say
every one of us would feel great if all of a sudden we found out
tonight that we had a million dollars given to us. Can you
imagine how great you'd feel? I mean, all debts would be paid. You could use it for so many
good things and you'd just feel good. But you know, the time
is coming. Where if you saw that in the street, it wouldn't be
worth your time to bend over and pick it up. Isn't that amazing? That's how little it would be
valued. These earthly relationships will
be dissolved. There will be no family relationships
in judgment. All that will be forgotten. I
know it's hard for us to understand that now, but all these relationships,
they'll all be forgotten. And we will stand before God
upon our own. Now what will be valued on Judgment
Day is what is truly valued by a believer. What is precious
to you? What is it that you can't do without? Now if you read 1
and 2 Peter, he uses this word precious a number of times. I've got four points to this
message. Here's what is precious to every believer. This is what
a believer can not do without. We read of precious promises. We read of precious blood. We read of precious faith. And that passage of scripture
I just read unto you, which believe He is precious. And that's where this preciousness
comes from. The preciousness of the promises
and the preciousness of the blood. And the preciousness of faith.
It's because He is precious. And I'd like us to consider these
things one at a time. And I know if you're a believer,
you'll enter into this being precious. That which you must
have. That which you can't do without. Now look in 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Verse 3. According as His divine power
hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Now, did you get that? He hath
given to us all things. That means I got them. All things
he hath, it's already been given. Every believer possesses this.
He hath given to us all things that pertain unto life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory
and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. That by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature. having escaped the corruption
which is in the world through lust. Precious promises. Now what is a promise? It's something
that somebody says they will do. I promise it'll be done. When a man and woman marry each
other, they promise to be faithful and true to one another. And
they promise to never depart from one another. They're going
to stick it out thick or thin. That's a promise. Now, all, many,
I would say all of the troubles that are in this world, and there's
a lot of them, they could be traced to broken promises. Every trouble, every sin in this
world can be traced to broken Promises, a broken promise is
a lie. Now have you ever broken a promise?
Sure you have. And it's a shameful, sinful thing
to do. It's evil. But there is one who
has never broken a promise. And his word can be utterly and
completely relied upon. And notice it says, whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises. Now, who's
the us? Is he talking about every man, all men without exception?
Well, you know he's not referring to all men without exception.
When he's speaking of the us, he's speaking of believers. He's
speaking of the elect. He's speaking of those that Christ
died for, those who have saving faith. There's given unto us
exceeding great and precious promise. Now, look how they're
identified in 2 Peter 3, verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise. If He says something, it's not
going to slide by. It's going to come to pass. The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness. You know, there's a lot of men
who they can say something and it doesn't even bother them that
their word is not kept. It just doesn't even matter.
But the Lord's not like that. If He says something, it's absolute. It is done. Now the Lord is not slack concerning
His promises, some mean to count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Those who believe, the elect.
This is not talking about all men. He's long-suffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now look, in His promise, He's
not willing for anybody that believes, any of His children,
He's not willing for them to perish. He's not willing for
any of them to fail to come to repentance. And that's why every
one of them will come to repentance. Because He's not slack concerning
His promise. Now, these promises that God
has made to every believer and all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, he's made to me, to you. If you're a believer,
you have everything. Now, these promises are exceedingly
great because of who made them? God made them. And they're exceedingly
great because of what they do. They guarantee we won't perish.
they guarantee will come to repentance? Why, they even guarantee, look
what it says back in 2 Peter 1, verse 4, once again. I think
this is one of the most amazing, mysterious, glorious verses in
the Word of God. Verse 4, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, these
precious promises, you might be partakers of the divine nature. having escaped the corruption
that's in the world through lust. Now, because of these precious
promises, every believer is given the very nature of God. It's
called the new birth. You get it because Christ died
for you. That's why you're born again.
You're not born again because you believe. You're born again
because Christ died for you. And that's why you believe, because
you've been born from above. And we're actually made, and
I don't, I don't pretend to grasp what all this means. I just believe
it. Every believer is partaker of
the divine nature. The righteousness, the perfection
of Jesus Christ is imputed to me. It's charged in my account.
Not only is the righteousness of Christ imputed to me, his
righteous nature is imparted to every believer in the new
birth. Isn't that amazing? Now by these
promises, we're actually, you've got the nature of God dwelling
in you. If you have the Holy Spirit,
Christ in you, is that the nature of God? Christ in you. The hope of glory. Now, all these things come to
us because of the promises of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
four. Romans chapter four. Talking
about Abraham. Verse 13. For the promise, God's promise. that he should be the heir of
the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law,
He didn't make this promise to Abraham if Abraham was able to
keep the law, no, but through the righteousness of faith, that
righteousness of Christ that faith apprehends, that faith
believes, the very righteousness of Christ imputed to them. For
if they which are of the law be heirs, if I'm an heir because
of my acts of personal obedience, faith is made void and meaningless,
and the promise made of none effected doesn't even count.
Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there's
no transgression. Therefore, it's a faith that it might be
by grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all
the seed. That's who the promise is sure
to, all the seed, all those that believe on Christ, all those
who have been given the nature of God, all those who trust Christ. Therefore, it's a faith that
it might be grace by grace to the end of the promise might
be sure to all the seed, not to that only, which is at the
law, but to that also, which is at the faith of Abraham, who
is the father of us all. Look in verse 19. Verse 18, who against hope believed
in hope that he might become the father of many nations according
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body, now dead when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised. He was able also
to perform. There we have faith. It's believing
God's promise. Galatians 3.18 says, for if the
inheritance be of the law, it's no more promise, but God gave
it to Abraham by promise. Now, a promise is a word from
God. And if he says it, it's a promise. And when God makes a promise,
It is so sure that when he says it, it's already done before
it takes place. And let me show you that in the
scriptures. You're there in Romans chapter four, verse 17, as it's
written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Now he said
that before Abraham had the child, he didn't say, I will make thee
a father of many nations. He said, I have made thee a father. of many nations. Now that's how
God's promise works. It's so sure, it's so supreme,
it's so absolute that when God promises it, it's already happened,
it's already past tense even before it takes place. That's
glorious. The promise of God and every
aspect of salvation is contained in the promise of God. Now let
me show you what I'm talking about here. My sins are forgiven. Boy, that's a wonderful thought,
isn't it? My sins are forgiven. They're blotted out. I don't
have them. They've been wiped out. And you know why? Well,
the scripture says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins. Now, notice the language. It
doesn't say, if we confess our sins, then He'll forgive us.
He says, if we confess our sins, He's faithful. Faithful to what
He promised. The reason He forgives my sins
is not because I confess them. The reason He forgives my sins
is because He promised He'd do it. That's why. No other reason
is needed. That's why He forgives my sins.
He's faithful and He's just to forgive me of my sins and to
cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Now, I have faith. And you know
why I have faith? Because He gave it to me. And
the reason He gave it to me is He promised He would. All these
promises were given me before the foundation of the world.
By grace He is saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. I have life before God. I have this eternal life. Why
do I have it? Because He promised I would have
it. I will persevere because He promised He would preserve
me. Believers, are saved by the exceeding great and precious
promises of God. The reason you're saved is because
of the promise. Can't you rejoice in it? Are
God's promises to you precious? Turn to 1 Peter 1. Precious promises. Here's the
next precious thing. Verse 18. For as much as you know, that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. That's what men call precious
metals, but God's Word calls them corruptible things. The
commerce of humanity. You were not redeemed with corruptible
things, such as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received
by tradition from your father's book, precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. The precious
blood of Christ. You know, when I say that, I
want to say that with fear and trembling. I never want to say
something like that flippantly or just saying it to be saying
it. No, I want to, I want to tremble
when I speak of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why is it precious? Well,
it's precious, first of all, because whose it is? It's the
blood of the Son of God. It's the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's why it's precious. Because of whose blood it is,
makes it precious. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ shed His
precious blood for every one of his people. The reason I'll
be saved is because he shed his precious blood. Now, if you committed
a crime worthy of death and I loved you so much, I said, I'll take
your place and I'll be put to death in your place. That I suppose
would be seen as a great act of love on my part. But let me
ask you this, would justice be served? No, because you're the one who
committed the crime. Justice won't be served if I
pay for the crime that you did. There's no justice in that. That's the first problem with
it. Justice wouldn't be served. And here's the second problem
with it. What good would my blood do you? My blood's as bad as
yours. I'm as sinful as you are. What, could God be satisfied
with my blood when I'm just as sinful as you are? No, that won't
do anybody any good. But oh, if Christ died for you,
that makes a difference, doesn't it? You see, His blood is such
that if He died for you because of who He is, because of the
preciousness of His blood, the preciousness of His person, you
must be saved. Oh, the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's precious because of whose
it is? And it's precious because of
what he did by his blood. Now, I want you to think about
what he did by the shedding of his blood, by his death on Calvary
Street. What did he do? What did he actually
accomplish? First, by his precious blood,
he actually glorified God. Every attribute of God was fully
glorified by his precious blood. He glorified God's justice. You
want to know how just God is? Look at the cross and you'll
find out. He'll never let sin go unpunished. He glorified God's
purpose. Remember, He's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world and if God purposed it, it's
going to come to pass. He glorified God's wisdom. He
made a way for God to be just and justify somebody like me
where He remains just. You know, that's a concept that
I repeat practically every time I preach, but it gets more glorious. It's not old stuff to me. This
is wonderful. He's made a way to be just and yet justify me. That's glorious. His blood glorifies
the power of God. His blood is so powerful that
it actually makes my sin to where it's not. I do not have any sin. When God looks upon me, He sees
somebody that's pure and holy and perfect and without fault.
That's what the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ does. So we
see it is precious blood because of what it does. Let me show
you a couple of scriptures regarding what it does. Look in Romans
chapter 5. You know the reason I preach this so much is because
it's what I need to hear. What His precious blood does.
I forget pretty quick. I say it, believe it when I say
it, rejoice in it, and forget it. And I need to hear it over
and over again. What His blood actually accomplished. Now look here in Romans chapter
5 verse 9. Let's begin in verse 8. But God
commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. That's a reference to his blood.
Much more than being now, what's that word? Justified. Right now. Right now, not tomorrow. Right now. I'm justified. How? By his blood. That means I don't have any guilt.
That means I don't have anything to feel guilty about. That means
I'm just before God. Now, that's a great way to be,
isn't it? Justified by His blood. Let's go on reading. Much more
than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from
wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Now, when
was I reconciled to God? Somebody says, when you believed.
Not according to this passage of Scripture. I was reconciled
to God by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more, being reconciled, He removed all reason for anger. I'm reconciled. Being reconciled,
we shall be saved. by his life. God is reconciled,
he has no reason for anger, and every believer is justified what
power there is in his precious blood. Now his blood is precious
to me. I can say that with such conviction. His blood is precious to me because
of whose blood it is. It's the blood of the Lamb of
God. It's the blood of the Son of God. It's God's blood. Feed
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. It's precious
because of whose blood it is, and it's precious because of
what that blood does for me. It does something for God. It
does. It does something for God. It
gives God a way to embrace me and love me, but it does something
for me. It makes me clean and holy and pure in God's sight,
and His blood is precious. It's precious to me. I tell you
what, I can't do without it. I can't do without His precious
promises. And I cannot do without His precious blood. Now look
in 2 Peter chapter 1. Third thing is precious faith. Verse 1. Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God our
Savior Jesus Christ. Like precious faith. Now every believer's faith is
alike. Did you know that? If we believe,
we believe the same thing. Not that one person has one faith,
another has another. No, we believe the same thing. It's like precious faith. Now, it's true that some believers
have stronger faith than other believers. And some believers
have very weak faith. Faith is a grain of mustard seed.
I mean, the Scripture teaches that. There are children, there
are young men, there are strong men in the faith. Scripture teaches
that. You know, one of the glorious
things about this is weak faith. doesn't make you any less saved
than strong faith does. And strong faith doesn't make
you any more saved than weak faith does. Because really, it's
not the faith that saves, it's the object of the faith that
saves. That's why weak faith saves just as surely and just
as much as strong faith does, because it's the object of the
faith. That's what's so glorious about faith, is the object of
the faith. It's not faith itself, but it's
the object of the faith, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Oh,
this like precious faith. It's precious because it's the
gift of God. It's precious because of who
the author is. Our Lord is called the author and the finisher of
our faith. It's precious because of what
it does. Now I want you to turn with me to Luke chapter 7. Luke chapter 7. I want you to
notice the language of the Lord Jesus here. Luke chapter 7. Verse 50, And he said to the woman, what
did he say? Thy faith hath saved thee. Go in peace. Now these are the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if he said it this way, It's
a good way to say it, because I was, I quoted this scripture
once and someone actually corrected me and said, you shouldn't say
your faith saved you, you should say Christ saved you. Well, it says
here, thy faith hath saved thee. And if the Lord said it that
way, it's a good way to say it, isn't it? I'm not going to argue
with the Lord's words. However, he says it is precisely
the way it should be said. But isn't it Christ who saves
us? Yes, it is. But if the Lord says
it this way, it's a good way for it to be said. Do you believe
that he is all you need for you to be saved? And do you believe
that? And beloved, your faith has saved
you. Don't miss this. The simplicity
of it. Do you really believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ is able to save you without your help? Do you believe that what He did
is enough to not the minimum entrance requirement but everything
in your salvation? Do you believe that? And my dear
friend, your faith has saved you. Go in peace. Don't look
for anything else. If you really believe that the
Lord Jesus Christ makes you perfect before God, that you don't need
anything else, that what He did is all you need, your faith has
saved you. Go in peace. Rejoice in that. Forget all that. If you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, your faith has saved you. It's precious
because of what it does. You see, without faith it is
impossible to please God, and with faith we actually please
Him. That's the language of Scripture.
Romans 11, I mean Hebrews 11, 6 says, without faith, and that's
a reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the gift of God,
It's actually trusting Him. Without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. But with faith, we actually please
the Lord God. When you trust Christ, when you
believe on Him, when you rely on His righteousness as your
righteousness before God, when you rely on His precious blood
as making you holy before God, when you rely on His precious
promises, you know what? That pleases the living God. It's accepted for Christ's sake.
Your faith, my faith, there's not much to it. It's accepted
for Christ's sake. But through the Lord Jesus Christ,
it actually pleases God. Now that's precious, isn't it? You know, if you've ever seen
that you're a sinner, and here's what you see when
you see you're a sinner. You see that you can't come up with
faith. You don't even know what it means to believe. You hear
believe and you can't even figure out how to do it. How do I go
about it? How do I make myself believe? You know, faith is beyond
your grasp. You can't come up with faith
and you don't decide to believe. You just found yourself one day
believing. You didn't decide to believe. You tried to before
and it didn't work. But one day you found yourself
believing. That's when you find out how precious faith is. It's
precious because it's a gift. It's not something you figured
out. It's not something you decided to do that you could just up
and decide, you know, like turn it on and off like a water faucet.
No, it's a gift of God when you found yourself believing. You
knew it's because God gave you that faith. You were sure of
that. You knew the only reason you believe is because God gave
you that faith. And that faith is precious, like
precious faith. And then in first Peter chapter
two, verse four, To whom? Coming. And that would
describe the life of the believer. To whom? Coming. Always coming. And I know the
reason I come. I come because I'm a sinner in
need of Him. I never get past that. To whom? Coming. As unto a living stone. disallowed indeed of men, but
chosen of God and precious. You also as lively stones or
living stones are built up and spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it's contained
in the scripture. Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief cornerstone,
elect and precious. And he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe. Now here's the description of
a believer. Unto you therefore which believe. He is precious. Now here is the one that you
cannot do without. Here is the only one that I cannot
do without. unto you which believe He is
precious." He's precious in His person. The Son of God. The Son of Mary. The Great I
Am. The Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Lamb of God. Higher than the highest and the
meek and lowly one. The King of kings and the Lord
of lords, yet the friend, the friend of sinners. The Word, the Word made flesh. The Savior, the Redeemer. The Beloved, oh how precious
He is in His person. And listen to me real carefully.
He was and is infinitely precious before you and I were ever around.
You see, He's precious whether anybody... His preciousness is
in no way dependent upon somebody's view of Him as to how precious
He is. No, He is precious in His person
and He's precious in His offices. This is how He's precious to
me. He's precious as a prophet. He's the Word of God. He is the
Word of God. He is the prophet of God. That
means He's the Word of God. He's precious as my priest. How precious it is to me that
He represents me. He who can't be turned down.
He who's always accepted by the Father. And if I'm in Him, I'm
always accepted by the Father. He's precious to me as my priest. He's precious to me as my King.
I am so thankful that He's the one ruling and reigning. I'm
so thankful that there isn't anything happening but His will
being done. That's it. Because He's Lord of Lords and
He's King of Kings. That's precious to me. He's precious in His work. He's precious as my surety. Oh,
isn't it amazing to think of Him standing for you before the
foundation of the world? Oh, how precious. I didn't know
it at the time, but He sure was precious to me then. And He's
precious to me in His incarnation when God became flesh. Oh, how
precious He is in His life when He kept the law for me. That's
my righteousness before God. That's my law keeping before
God. Oh, how precious He is in His death when by His death He
actually purged away my sin. How precious is He in His resurrection. I was justified when He was raised
from the dead. How precious is He in His ascension
when He ascended to God. I ascended too, right with Him. How precious He is in His intercession
representing me. How precious will He be in His
return. But you know what, I'm going to find out how precious
He is. I talk about it. but I'll enter into how precious
He is on judgment day when He stands and answers for me. I like what the songwriter said, When I stand before thy throne,
dressed in beauty not my own, when I see thee as thou art,
love thee with unsinning heart, then, Lord, shall I fully know,
not till then, how much I owe." The promises are precious because
they came from His blessed lips. His blood is precious because
it's His blood. and makes me perfect. Faith is
precious because he's the object of it. Faith is precious because
he's the giver of it. Faith is precious because he's
the author of it. That makes it special. All of
this is precious because he is precious. Now to you who believe, here's what can be said about
you. to you who believe. He is precious. Amen. Let's pray.