“Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises”
—(II Pet. i. 4).
WHEN the Lord announced to Peter that Satan had desired to have him that he might sift him as wheat his gracious Master told him that he had prayed for him that his faith might not fail and He exhorted him to strengthen his brethren after his conversion. In passing through this unforgettable experience Peter learned with tears the danger of self-confidence and self-sufficiency and when he wrote the two epistles which go under his name it will be found that there is much in them to strengthen the household of faith not only among the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia but among God’s people scattered throughout the world down through all the ages. In the words of the text the Apostle is directing attention to the promises of God and describes them as exceeding great and precious. Precious is a favourite word with Peter. He speaks of the precious blood, the precious Saviour, precious faith and in this verse precious promises. All these, however valueless to the world, were precious to the Apostle. In dealing with this portion of God’s Word let us consider I. The Promiser. II. The Promises. III. The description of the Promises—exceeding great and precious. IV. Those for whom the Promises are given.
I. The Promiser.
The value of a promise depends to a great extent on the character of the person promising and on the resources that he has at his command to make his promise or promises good. If past experience prove that the man cannot be relied on or that, however willing, he was to fulfil his promises yet that, owing to want of resources, he utterly failed, one’s confidence in the fulfilment of the promise if not completely undermined would at least be shaken. No such misgiving need disturb the minds of those to whom God’s exceeding great and precious promises have been given. His character and His resources alike are pledges for the fulfilment of His promises. (1) He is the God that cannot lie. The truth of God is a pledge to His people that all His promises will be fulfilled. Joined with His truth is the immutability of His character—He changes not. We may change but he abides faithful. This union of truth and immutability are brought out in the words which the Lord put into the mouth of Balaam: “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Nums. xxiii. 19). (2) His resources are inexhaustible; so no failure of the promise need be anticipated from this quarter. The greatness of the promise or the seeming impossibility of its fulfilment need not stagger the believer. For if faith is in lively exercise it will be said of him as it was said of the Father of the Faithful—”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” (Roms. iv. 20, 21). The fulfilment of the promise seemed an utter impossibility but faith in living exercise sees no impossibility when God is the Promiser and Worker. (3) But not only are the illimitable resources of God to be taken into account but also His omnipotent power. Obstacles great and formidable may stand blocking the way and the believer is too ready Zerubbabel-like to look at the mighty mountain and to think of his own power only. He sees in the removal of the mountain something that is far too great a task for human power. But it is not by human might nor power, such as Zerubbabel possessed, but by the Spirit of the Lord the obstacle is to be removed. (4) Not only have we God’s truth pledged for the fulfilment of His promises but He has given His oath that His promises will be fulfilled as is clearly brought out by the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews—”Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us” (Hebs. vi. 17, 18). (5) God has also given the assurance of the fulfilment of His promises in Christ, promises which looked like they would never be fulfilled and the fact they were fulfilled in the most unexpected and extraordinary ways is an earnest that all His, as yet unfulfilled, promises will be fulfilled in His own appointed time. All His promises are yea and amen in Christ. (6) As the omniscient God He knows all things, the strength of the opposition that bars the way to the fulfilment of His promises, all the obstacles standing in the way and He has His plans all ready. He is not like men who may find it necessary to review or revise their plans owing to the emergencies of circumstances unanticipated and which completely upset their plans.
It will thus be seen that those for whom the promises are intended need have no feeling of fear that God will not fulfil what He has promised. As the God of truth He cannot lie and His faithfulness is pledged that His promises will not remain unfulfilled. Happy are the people who have such a God as this.
II. The Promises.
The divine promises may be divided into two great classes: 1. Those made to the Church and 2. those made to the individual believer. The promises made to the Church are exceeding great and precious but for the present we intend to confine attention to the promises made to the individual believer. These promises are scattered throughout God’s Word like the stars in the firmament of heaven and as the stars the darker the night the brighter they shine. The believer has his dark nights—doubts as to his state, fears as to the future, and perplexities in the mysterious unfoldings of God’s providence—but, if by faith, the promises of God shine out how different do all things then appear. In regard to the Promises there are certain things connected with them which may be noticed in passing. (1) Their number. How many are the promises scattered up and down the Word of God! From the primeval promise until the last written in the Bible surely there are sufficient to meet the needs of God’s great family scattered throughout the wide world. It would be an encouragement to faith, if in reading the Bible, these promises were carefully noted and meditated upon. If God’s people were what they should be they would search for these precious gems with an earnestness that would excel that of those who search for the precious stones of the earth but alas! how negligent we are and, if for a season, we begin the search we are so ready to give it up as if we were searching for only some common thing. (2) Their variety. The people who are being prepared for Heaven by the Holy Ghost are a people who are passing through a varied experience. Some are beset with fears; doubts track the footsteps of others; some meet with trying temptations; others are overwhelmed with trials. The infinitely wise God knows what is best suited to prepare His people for the inheritance of the saints in light. What would suit one may not suit another. Hence the Lord’s promises are of a very varied nature so that whatever may be the plight of His people they may find when the Holy Spirit applies the promise that which they stand in need of. God’s children are beset with many fears and how many are the promises to meet their case! “Fear not” meets us time and again in His Word. Then they are a people called upon to pass through troubles and tribulations and to meet this how many precious promises there are to meet their case! “Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me” (Ps. l. 15). We have the words of one who called upon his God in the day of trouble and enshrined his experience forever in the beautiful acknowledgment—”I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice; hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewst near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not” (Lamentations, iii. 55-57). Time would fail to speak of the varied experiences for which there are promises in God’s Word and when these are applied by the Holy Spirit they are “exceeding great and precious.” (3) Their suitability. God knew from all eternity the plights in which His people would be. Some are sorely tempted; others are not called upon to pass through such trying temptations. To the former the words : “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (I Cor. x. 13) are precious. It is when Need and the Promise meet that the preciousness of the promise is realised and appreciated.
III. The description of the Promises—exceeding great and precious.
In this description the exceeding greatness of the promises is first mentioned and secondly their preciousness. It is in keeping with the character of the Promiser that His promises should be exceeding great. Perhaps the best way of setting forth this truth is to turn our attention to some of the promises that were made to Abraham and David. (1) Promise to Abraham. When Abraham received the call from God to leave his own country and kindred, God promised that He would make of him a great nation and bless him and make his name great and that he would be a blessing. He further said: “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. xii. 2, 3). This promise was renewed after Lot separated from him—“Lift up now thine eyes and look from the place where thou art, northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered” (Gen. xiii. 14-16). These were wonderful words yet all that Abraham possessed of the land of Canaan was a grave. But the most wonderful thing in the promise is more clearly brought out in the renewal of the promise after Abraham’s trial of faith—“By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing thee I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in thy seed shall the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. xxii. 16-18). Is the promise limited to Abraham’s natural seed? No doubt the promise takes them in so far as they were to possess the land but the promise is much more far-reaching than that. It is not to “seeds” as of many but to “seed” as of one that the promise has its highest fulfilment. The natural seed of Abraham can be numbered but who shall number the seed of Him in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. They are a multitude which no man can number. So this promise is an exceeding great promise. (2) So in like manner is the promise made to David—”I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever, and build up thy throne to all generations” (Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4). Was the promise limited to David’s natural seed? Surely not; the promise pointed to Him who, while David’s seed according to the flesh, was David’s Lord. This, again, was surely an exceeding great promise. Other illustrations might be called from God’s Word as illustrative of the exceeding greatness of God’s promises.
- But they are not only exceeding great they are also precious. Anything precious is something we set value upon—something that can never be replaced—something that money cannot buy. Now there is nothing in this world that can take the place of the promises of God for those for whom they are intended. They bring comfort which the world cannot give and cheer the drooping spirits of those that are ready to faint. All the world’s wealth cannot buy this comfort and so God’s promises are precious. They are precious also because they have respect to the exceeding riches of God’s grace and to the goodly inheritance that is awaiting God’s redeemed. How precious is the promise! : “For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Is. liv. 10).
IV. Those for whom the Promises are given.
These are described by Peter as those who “have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Pet. i. 1). The exceeding great and precious promises then are not for all and sundry; in other words they are intended for the household of faith. And while it is true that the Father hath blessed them with all spiritual blessings—which include the promises—in heavenly places in Christ yet this does not say that they are always in need of all the promises at all times. Some of the exceeding great and precious promises may be nothing to them but words until they are in need. It is when the Holy Spirit directs the needy to some special promise that it becomes instinct with life and becomes very precious. It is also to be borne in mind that while the promises are so precious and so abundant God’s people cannot take them and receive the encouragement from them whenever they please. It is the Holy Spirit that directs them to the promise and applies it. However, they have this encouragement that God has richly provided for their needs in this world and in the world to come. There are promises that have respect to their happy state in eternity such as “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephes. ii. 7). We close with the words of the Beloved Disciple: “This is the promise that He hath promised us, even eternal life” (I John, ii. 25). God’s people, therefore, can look forward to the full enjoyment of life that shall never end which precious gift God bestowed upon them in the day of their effectual calling.