2 Peter

[0:00] Seeking the Lord's help, I direct your attention this evening to the second epistle general of Peter, the first chapter, reading the fourth verse.

[0:14] The second epistle general of Peter, the first chapter, reading the fourth verse. The second epistle general of Peter, the first chapter, reading the fourth verse.

[0:52] The second great and precious promises. By these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through love.

[1:08] And the question is this. Are they given unto us?

[1:22] Have they been given unto us? Have they been spoken into our heart? Are we the possessors of these exceeding great and precious promises?

[1:38] When were they spoken? Where were they spoken? In what circumstances were they spoken? What was the purpose of them in the Lord speaking to us?

[1:52] Where were we? In what was our need? What was our circumstances? What was our cry? There's something very blessed about these promises.

[2:04] Here is a child of God in great need. Here is a child of God in great temptation. Here is a child of God with a great cross. A great sorrow.

[2:16] The Lord knows. And in that he stoops and speaks into their hearts.

[2:31] They have a burden. What has happened? He has laid them in it. He has brought that burden. He has planted that in their path.

[2:45] That's not by chance. Here is a thorn in the flesh. That is not by chance. Scripture reveals it quite clearly.

[2:58] These great and precious promises are peculiarly associated with great and precious sorrows and sufferings with dear people and therefore they're good.

[3:10] The Lord has done it. It's his word to his dear church. Mark this.

[3:23] They're given. They're given. They're given. And do not think that I think there's an age limit on that.

[3:42] I don't. To the very youngest the Lord can speak. Joseph in his youth was shown by promise that his brethren would bow down to him.

[4:04] Thereafter the dear man of God boy that he was seventeen walked it out for twenty years until they did. and when they did he went aside and went.

[4:22] Why? The sight of the glory of his God in fulfilling that precious promise that he'd given him. because you see everything depended on that did it not?

[4:37] Was it real? Or how it was tried? You know beautifully in the psalm and some of the scriptures have a beautiful commentary on other scriptures.

[4:53] in the psalm we read of Joseph until the time that his word came that is the fulfillment until the time that promise was fulfilled where the Lord tried him.

[5:09] The Lord gave you a promise and he'll try it. But I say this to you equally tonight they're given for a lifetime. God's word is not like ours.

[5:27] What poor creatures we are. How many times you make a promise and forget to fulfill it? How many times you make a promise with the best intention of the world and are not able to do it?

[5:45] I'll tell you this God in giving a promise intends to fulfill it and will fulfill it and it's given for a purpose.

[6:02] It is to God's dear church a promise is an arm of strength. It is a sacred bond between God and his dear people.

[6:16] It's peculiarly personal. And Mark is given by him. It's a monstrous error you know to say that all the promises of God are ours.

[6:37] They're not. They're in God's holy word and some would tell you all you've got to do is believe them. Ah if you're taught of God's spirit you'll know that's not so.

[6:58] You'll know you can't believe them. And even when they're given to you you forget them often. But you know we spoke of Jacob at Peniel at Jabbok how he went to his name.

[7:20] But you see there's more than meets the eye there. He had one promise at Bethel. I'll not leave thee.

[7:33] I'll be with thee. And oh there is something that is very powerful here. It's there. that you can go to your God with your promise and say to him Lord thou said I'll surely do thee good is one of the promises.

[7:57] Lord thou said and you know I preached a lot from it over the last few years. Paul's thorn in the flesh and the circumstances and one of those is this and he said unto me.

[8:16] I wonder in this congregation here this evening who's got a promise. One will be enough dear friend one will be enough.

[8:32] But all God's dear people often have several promises that he's spoken to them in life's pathway. But you know I ask you here tonight if you've got a promise how'd you get in?

[8:53] What were the circumstances? What was the cry that came up from your heart to him? Where were you?

[9:04] in what solemn cloud of darkness were you? Why were you brought into it? Why did the Lord put it into the mind of Satan as they considered my servant Joe and then throw him into all that trouble?

[9:27] Why? Why? I tell you this in the deep wisdom of God which is good that he might bring him crushed not broken crushed and humbled that he is the irredeemer's feet vile and worthless broken or marking yet he brought him to his feet that he might bless him scripture speaks so beautifully and he blessed him there but where was there?

[10:06] It was at Peniel before Jacob and he blessed him there and it was in a crisis eternity lay before him and the Lord had commanded him to go back but he didn't foresee what was going to happen when the Lord led his dear children by the cloudy pillow to the Red Sea what a mystery led them to an impasse ah it was so that they should see the glory of God in salvation that they would witness the waters part and their God appear on their behalf I tell you this tonight promises are given for a purpose they're exceeding great why is that?

[11:08] I tell you this because they come from a great God and the apostle Peter knew that these dear men of God I've said it many times Paul Peter John James writers of these scriptures Matthew Mark Luke they spoke out of knowledge revelation in their own hearts they spoke of nothing they didn't know that they hadn't walked in they spoke from knowledge can you they could speak of those things that the Lord had done for them as the apostle Peter speaks here we know he had exceeding great and precious promises himself promise of his

[12:21] God to him was this I have prayed for thee I prayed for thee and we know here as he speaks of them as precious I thought with that word upon my mind it's been upon my mind all day precious there are those things which are precious to us in this world I thought in thinking of this our dear parents are gone before and many of you here whom that is true their memory is precious something we value you you know when we come to look at the things that are precious they may be as we said this morning in and of themselves valuable like gold and silver other things that to many are worthless precious to us are precious

[13:48] I tell you this these exceeding great and precious promises combine both those views of what is precious they're in and of themselves divine and exceedingly valuable and to the poor sinner in his circumstances his own peculiar path his own peculiar cross his own peculiar need when the Lord speaks a promise into their hearts that is peculiarly valuable to them it's theirs and the scripture in its prophecy here is fulfilled given to us not taken but there are peculiar promises given to

[14:52] God's dear church in peculiar circumstances and you know they're very precious to the dear people of God to receive them and never to be forgotten the sweetness of the time when they were given the strength that they gave the unbearable cross that had to be carried that was the everlasting arms underneath the promise that was the word of God personally to that soul and the poor sinner knows when receiving a precious promise how precious it is and the Lord said to the man of Bethesda Paul rise gave him strength to do it and the Lord says to his dear church fear not he takes all fear away when he gives a precious promise in the hearts of his dear people they walk in the sweetness of it strangely the trouble remains strangely as with the dear apostle Paul the thorn remained and the promise remained as well forever always could the dear man look to that sacred word of God my grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness and then there was a walking of that air the sorrow didn't go away the suffering didn't go away but he was able to walk with it with the word of his God and you know the dear man of

[16:59] God under the blessed nature of that promise said this resignation to the will of his God he said most gladly therefore like glory in my infirmity my trouble why because it's the avenue to God the power of Christ may rest upon me oh I believe this you know so solemn are the dealings of God with his dear children in this life so deep are the waters they must walk in that they may be taught of him so terribly the afflictions they must come into that he may bring them to listen to his voice hear the rod and he was appointed him he does make them hear so and solemn are these paths why ah think of it they're the very ground of the giving of these great exceeding great and precious promises they're not likely given when most we need his helping hand this friend is always dear with heaven and earth at his command he waits to answer prayer and you know the lord will bring us to value these promises because we're going to have to plead them all the days of our journey many years ago back about 40 years ago ago now in a time of great darkness and temptation and trial that i was walking in i hardly knew how to get up off my knees to the day that was ahead of me under such temptation and suddenly the lord spoke i will never leave me nor forsake me dear friends i rose that morning and oh the strength that i felt the peace and i tell you this that promise was given for the preaching of the gospel i proved it i needed it as i bang my head in prayer i can tell you this every time i've stood up to preach over 30 years now i've had to plead that promise and i see and feel the need of it the longer i go on in the ministry of his word that through the preaching of the gospel his dear servants need upholding and they need and you know there's another aspect of this we can go to the lord with our promise and say lord don't say but ah he'll come to you again and again with your promise and repeat it in your heart has he done it has to me what a channel between a poor sinner and his god you see our text says in the most mysterious manner by giving unto us exceeding great and precious promises that thereby we might be

[20:59] partakers of the divine nature i would tell you what it doesn't mean it doesn't mean we're partakers of god's holy nature when god works in the hearts of his dear people he says to them this you should be my sons and daughters says lord god almighty you read in his prayer which he concluded the last supper with the 17th of john i've given them my glory reread this i in them and thou in me and they be one in us the glory which thou gavest me i've given them you know it's not to partake of the inherent nature of god for that is divine but you know oh it's to partake of his mercy of his love of his pardoning blood of his teaching of his care oh to be brought into this sacred union with him here is a promise spoken by the spirit into the soul of a sinner i in them oh it is so his word spoken in to your heart how precious that is and i believe that it grows in preciousness as we journey on and never will it be more precious than in a dying hour to have one of these exceeding great and precious promises and to be able to lean on it and to say to him lord day of say i do ask you here i've spoken of one promise how many more promises have you had what has the lord said to you in what stages of the pathway i'm encouraged to see a following generation among you the way is no different for you than it was for me i can look back over many years now since the lord began with me and i can trace the giving of these promises i know in my own sight and my own heart how exceeding great and precious they are and the longer you journey onward the more you're valiant they're given in your youth they're spoken into your soul they're yours forever but there are others given the lord speaks again and again i thought as we were in prayer of dear abraham on mariah he had a promise regarding isa in thee and in thy seed and the apostle in the galatians says this that seed was christ in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and yet in the face of that promise in the trial of his faith the trial of your faith says the apostle peter being much more precious than gold that perishes so it be tried with

[24:59] fire i tell you this that faith may be but a grain of mustard yet it's going to be tried with fire may be found not destroyed and to honor and unto pray may be found and you know the lord gives a promise but it's tried and it was with abraham but what happened the dear man of god as he went to mount moriah first he rose early in the morning faith he didn't linger hoping the lord would remove that word he went knowing the promise he carried and when isaac asked where is the sacrifice in faith he looked to his guard and he said the lord will provide that mount has ever been named jehovah jarrah he took the promise and the apostle in expounding that said accounting that god was able to raise him that is isaac from the dead whereof he feared what a sight we have of the trial of a precious promise and so he raised the knife and there was the promise and you know it's this you see here the dear man of god in the trial of his faith watched this precious promise under trial and he went the whole way with it to raise the knife the knife was raised over the promise i tell you this it was raised over all his religion everything depended on that if that was wrong everything was wrong what a trial and yet in the very final second the lord spoke stay thy hand and he saw what he'd said the ram provided and caught in the thicket and it was crying what teaching lay in that solemn path oh when we think of the lord in gethsemane it would be possible you may be saying that tonight let this cat pass from me never there not my will but thine be done and you see

[28:12] Abraham might well have said let this cat pass from me but there was a blessing in it hidden and when he left Mount Moriah it was the hour for a promise and a beautiful promise it is in blessing blessing Mount Moriah blessing raising the knife over Isaac blessing blessing couldn't see it could he in blessing he could see it afterwards I will bless thee oh the promise the lord had given him other blessed promises one of which was this I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward what a promise that was Christ his shield beautiful figure of

[29:19] Christ standing between his dear people described in scripture he is the propitiation for our sins one who has removed the wrath of God from his dear people the shield I'm thy shield one who stands between his father and his church in garments dyed in blood as the hymn writer says is he instead of me is seen when I approach to God and there is now therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus sin shall not have dominion over you one stands between in garments dyed in blood that great intercessor all do you know in blessing I will bless thee and

[30:20] I am thy shield and exceeding great reward that was heaven what a promise I think tonight seizing great and precious promises the dying thief was in the last moments of his life when he was given and you see the circumstances and the hour and the solemnity of it and his sins in the midst of it all he who would mock the Lord as he was nailed to the cross and said thou that savest others save thys up then to be brought to ask and how beautifully it is true of him ask he did ask and the promise he shall receive what did he get he got this and say this he needed no more but it was a promise to die thou shall be with me in paradise oh what a blessed promise he did and you see you can see can you not how exceeding great and precious that was to him and he was brought into that lovely hymn united to

[32:00] Jesus the vine I live health and righteousness to I in them and thou in me they may be one in us there is here a holy union a bond a sacred contact never to be broken I use the figure like a lifeline between a mother and her child never to be broken it is a union between Christ and his dear church exceeding great and precious promises given unto us whereby we may be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through life for a solemn word that is the whole world lies in wickedness utter corruption it binds the hearts of men and women never have I seen such generation age as

[33:14] I've seen now I know that sin is terrible in every generation I know that Satan's work is no different in any generation he is a monstrous foe I spent six weeks of my life living beside the concentration camp at Belson and saw the hideous nature of man's hatred of man and all these solemn and awful consequences of let his blood be upon us and upon our children it is no different but you know there are some parts of the centuries and it is in our own century now when Satan is let loose and now sin awful sin is accepted as normality in our nation monstrous wickedness like the murder of millions of infants in the world like the awful sins of Sodom and Gomorrah which are about our nation and you know there is a book called

[34:24] The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and it's very striking part of that fall was utter moral degradation it happened in Greece as well empires were destroyed by and this country will be destroyed by it is a most solemn and awful manifestation of Satan and the Lord has promised that nations that behave like this and turn from him in our statute book it's full of acts that are contrary to his word old Mr.

[35:00] Short used to say to me quite often there will be no blessing in this land until our statute book is put in order according to God's holy word sin which is condemned by his word is licensed in our land it is most the world's corruption through life the solemn sins of evil we live in the most lustful and monstrous age and we know in our own hearts we know in our own hearts the evil of it it is there and we have to say there but for the grace of God go I we live in an age now where it is becoming a crime to condemn it I spoke yesterday at the national prayer meeting for the nation at St.

[35:57] Hampton there was a man at Bournemouth who condemned sodomy in the street caused a riot was arrested and charged and fined and then died and still there's no admission there was a man defending the Lord's holy law and our nation is willing to turn on him all the solemn monstrous evils that lie here but you know there's one blessed truth that lies here and this is this having escaped having escaped oh I ask you have you escaped have you been brought out have you been separated can you see how that's been done can you see what you've been delivered from can you see what precipices you've been saved from there are great precipices in our they're not only physical there are solemn moral precipices how many go over and yet the Lord saved a woman at the well with her five husbands from an awful moral precipice she ran over he stooped as it were to the very bottom to raise her up humbled himself and became obedient under death never more give me this water to drink she said to him we know that Messiah is coming ah he said

[37:40] I that speak unto thee am he I tell you this the Lord Jesus Christ did not reveal himself to everybody he did to that woman with five husbands we know the Messiah I that spit revelation all what a blessed truth then lies here I hope you can come in with it give none to us and join the little us that lies in our text tonight whereby give none to us I hope you can come in with dear John in his epistle when he said the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanseth us from all sin can you join there for as much whereby I give none to us exceeding great and precious promises thereby we might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped through having escaped the corruption that is in the world through life

[39:00] Amen good Schilling For Easter for sake