Modernized by Cliff Collins

“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” (2 Pet. 1:4)

In speaking from these words I propose briefly to consider--

I. THE NATURE.

II. THE CONDITION, AND

III. THE USE OF THE PROMISES OF GOD.

I. THE NATURE OF GOD’S PROMISES.

(1.) Human nature declares that God is truthful. How remarkable is the fact, that those who dispute a divine revelation always question whether God has spoken at all, and never whether what He has spoken is true. I say that the question is whether God has spoken and what He has spoken; and when it is once settled that God has spoken and made promises to man, we affirm by a law within our nature that what He has promised must be true. The promises, however, cannot be considered as the foundation of our confidence in God, for this foundation lies further back in the revelation that He has made in the laws of our own mind. Our confidence in the promise of any being cannot be the result of that promise itself. Our confidence in the promise of any being is proportional to the confidence we have in his character. Now, we naturally affirm that God cannot lie, that He must be a God of truth. No one can honestly doubt this. One of the elements of our concept of God is His perfection, His complete truthfulness. Therefore, God’s promises should be regarded as a revelation of God’s will concerning certain things God desires to grant us. God might be good and yet He may not give us many things that He has promised to give us; for example, God might be good and yet not pardon our sin. Justice is as much an attribute of God’s goodness as it is of God’s mercy. We can’t know unless God reveals to us whether this perfect goodness will allow Him to forgive our sins or not, or give us many things that He has promised us. Therefore, His promises are designed to reveal His will to us, and make known to us the fact that His goodness allows Him to grant us certain favors, and that it is according to His goodness to give us those things that He has promised. As it turns out, His promises are given on condition of our faith and our prayer for forgiveness. These promises are not a ground of faith, but are given because of our faith.

(2.) Many of God’s promises are general promises, which, when you desire and believingly pray for, you shall receive. People may appropriate these promises to themselves under certain circumstances. General promises are usually made available to us as we need them; when we pray for them understanding what we pray, by the Holy Spirit of God leading us to receive and appropriate them to ourselves as promises meant for us.

(3.) Promises are also made to groups of people. It is remarkable to what extent this is true. There are special promises made to magistrates, ministers, fathers, mothers, widows, and orphans, to all kinds of people. There are also promises made to people in various states of mind, such as “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”. (Matt 11:28) Concerning these promises, I know that once we know what group we belong to, we may understand that God has promised these things to us by name. For example, “Come to me all you who are weary,” if we can say that we are weary, we may understand the promise, “I will give you rest,” as given to us as truly as if it had been revealed directly to us, or made for us alone. It is just the same as if God had called us by name and told us to come to Him. The same is true with widows and orphans who may appropriate the promises belonging to them without any hesitation, just as if those promises had been revealed to them by name. It is very important for everyone to understand this. I’ll have time later tonight to discuss this some more.

(4.) The promises are made in, through, and for Christ. They are made for a governmentally valuable consideration paid by Christ. Let me explain myself. God has, in an important sense, given the world to Christ, and Christ is represented as having all fullness in Him. Since Christ became the Redeemer of mankind, God has given Him “all power in heaven and in earth,” (Matt 28:18) to govern it by the use of those means and appliances that are essential to secure the great end He has in view: Christ having, as I said, paid for it a governmentally valuable consideration. Please don’t misunderstand me; what Christ has done has perfectly satisfied God’s government. God’s law has been violated; its justice, its equity, and its appropriateness has been publicly denied and trampled on by mankind. The majesty of this law must be vindicated; the government of God demands this. It is unsafe and unjust for man to be forgiven unless the majesty of the law is supported and maintained. Those who have broken the law cannot be forgiven consistently with the rest of the universe, because the law that has been broken is public property. Every moral agent in the universe is interested in the vindication of this law. Its strength and efficiency, its power and glory, should not be impaired because the safety of the universe depends on the preservation of the law. Christ came and publicly vindicated the honor of this law by paying over to the government of God an equivalent for the offences and sins that man has committed. He suffered the penalty in order that the guilty might be pardoned. Christ, I say, offered to the government of God an equivalent for executing the law on the offender. This is infinitely valuable to God’s government. Because of what Christ has done, God has promised to bless those who deserve cursing. Now observe that all the promises of God are represented as belonging to Christ, and as being in Him; yes, and in Him, amen, to the glory of God the Father. Christ magnified the law and made it honorable. What Christ did was consistent with the honor of this law and the justice of God, so now sinners, rebels against His government, can, through Christ, have their offences pardoned. Always remember, friends, that the spirit of these promises are made to Christ and to Christ’s people, to those who belong to Him, those for whom He came into the world, and those for whom He died.

(5.) The promises are, therefore, something like bank checks, completely filled out and signed by Him. It’s as if God had made the deposit for us, and allows us to present our checks, which are these promises, and to receive from Christ what God has promised to give, a valuable consideration. We may consider, then, these promises as checks that we take and present, and in return receive of the great blessings which God has promised by Him, and through Him, and on His account.

(6.) Many of these promises were made in Old Testament times. But they were not for their immediate use. The checks were not due, but to be believed and pleaded on some future date. They were post dated. Anyone who will take the trouble to examine the Bible in this respect will find this to be true, that many of the promises were not in the present tense, but referred to the coming of the Messiah, and would become due after His appearing. Turn, if you please, to the 31st chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, and read the 31st to the 34th verse. “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,’ says the Lord. ‘But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel: After those days, says the Lord, I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,’ says the Lord. ‘For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’.” This promise was made to the church, and of course to each individual member of the church: which was not to be pleaded at the time it was given, but which became due at a future period. The apostle who wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews, quotes this promise from Jeremiah, and says that the day had come for its fulfillment. (Heb 8:6-13) It was made to be believed in a future time, and the gospel age was the time that it was to be believed. All these promises should be regarded as due in this sense: their fulfillment can be expected in our own days.

I cannot take the time to quote the great many passages that illustrate my meaning, but must rely on your general knowledge of these promises that I am talking about.

(7.) These promises have their letter and their spirit. Many of the promises under the Old Testament dispensation seem to refer chiefly to temporal blessings, but only in the letter; because these promises, as applied in the New Testament, have a deep spiritual meaning. The promises of the Old Testament very commonly speak of worldly prosperity as the reward of the righteous. However, it appears from the way they are applied in the New Testament, that a lot more than mere worldly prosperity and advancement was really meant. Spiritual blessings, great and abundant, were really in the spirit of these promises, hidden under language that seems to promise temporal prosperity only.

(8.) Let me say again, that many of the Old Testament promises were made to the Jews, the children of Israel, as if God was only speaking to them: whereas the New Testament abundantly shows us that these promises had a much broader sense. They also apply to the Gentiles and the church under the Christian dispensation. For example, the promise I have just quoted from Jeremiah, “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah”. Now this promise was more extensive in its application than it was first supposed. It referred to both Jews and Gentiles, to all the spiritual Israel of God, in all the future ages from the time that it was first spoken.

(9.) Whenever promises are made to the church, people should not overlook the fact that they also apply to particular individual members of the church. Some time ago, while talking with a brother minister concerning the promises, he said that he did not know of any particular promises made to parents on behalf of their children. I quoted some of them, such as, “My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants,'' says the Lord, "from this time and forevermore”. (Isaiah 59:21) Again: “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.” (Isaiah 44:3)

“But”, said the minister, “these promises were made to the church and not to individuals”.

“Fine, but brother”, I replied, “of what worth are they to the church if they are not meant for individual members of the church”? If they are meant for the church in general, they must be meant for every member in particular. Did God intend to toy with men? Did He give promises to His church but won’t let any individual member of that church apply those same promises? This is wrong, brethren. God’s promises are made to all his children, and to each of them in particular. We must not lose ourselves looking at the big picture. The feeling is too common among Christians that God’s promises are for everybody in general, but nobody in particular. I have found a lot of this as I travel from place to place. Because the promises are made to masses and classes, they think that it’s not available to particular individuals. How would this be in any other case?

Suppose, for example, a great famine swept this city. The people had no provisions. Suppose that the government issued a proclamation to all who were hungry and needy, telling them that they might, by applying at a certain place, receive enough provisions to supply their needs. Now suppose the proclamation was general in its character, do you think that any individual who was starving would hesitate to go to the store, because the invitation was to everybody, and not addressed to them specifically? No, indeed! Every individual who was in need would say, “I can go, because I am in need”. Now if people fail to understand these promises, their Bibles may lie on the table and rot, and never be of any use to them. How many parents have unconverted children and unruly children, because they neglect to apply the promises of God.

(10.) The promises made to the Patriarchs, Abraham, for example, have a letter and a spirit; they were intended principally to apply to the children of Israel, but now they apply to everybody, whether Jews or Gentiles. I could make a great many other similar remarks, but must proceed to notice:

II. THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROMISES.

(1.) From the very nature of the promises, there must be certain conditions attached to all of them.

(2.) After a condition is expressed, it is always implied. For example, when God promised particular blessings to ‘His church,’ He concludes by saying only once, “I will also let the house of Israel inquire of Me to do this for them”. (Ez 36:37) Thus in cases like this, we have conditions annexed to His promises, and unless these conditions are met, we cannot obtain the promises. Although many of God’s promises seem to be given unconditionally, wherever a condition is not expressed it is implied. Let’s look at another example. When God sent the children of Israel captive into Babylon, He promised them that in seventy years they would be delivered. Now Daniel understood this! The promise by itself would seem to indicate that nothing was to be done by the people in the way of prayer and supplication to bring about their deliverance, or as a condition of this promise being fulfilled. But Daniel was led to examine the prophets and to read the promises, and he discovered that seventy years had passed but the people were still in bondage. He discovered that the reason for this was that the promise had not been fully understood. He learned that the promise was made on condition of prayer and supplication being offered to God; as a result, he set himself to confess his own sins and the sins of the people, and to pray, fast, and humble himself before God. (Daniel 9) This illustrates what I mean. Now once God has said that He will be asked to do these things for us to fulfill His promises, we must understand that an unalterable condition of His fulfilling the promises is that we will ask Him to do so.

(3.) Faith in His promises is a condition of their fulfillment. Nobody should expect to receive anything from the Lord unless he asks in faith. This is one of the principles of God’s government: we must ask for those things that we need, and we must ask for them in faith; because without this, prayer is almost worthless. God says that unless we pray in faith we shall not receive the blessing. In all the promises of God, this is implied as a condition by which we receive them. We are repeatedly told that without faith, it is foolish for us to expect the fulfillment of His promises.

(4.) There are many conditions that are naturally necessary. For example, suppose that God promises that you won’t starve. Of course, it implies that you should be willing to eat the food provided for you; and you would tempt God if you refused to eat, and still think that the promise that you won’t die from hunger will be fulfilled. So when He has promised spiritual blessings, the use of means towards accomplishing that end is always implied as a condition of our receiving them. We must appropriate the means, and thus put ourselves in a position to receive the promises, or we tempt God by expecting their fulfillment.

(5.) There are certain conditions that are not only naturally, but governmentally necessary: for example, we are required to offer our petitions in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a governmental need for God to require us to recognize Christ as the medium through which we receive these things. It is very easy to see that the same reason that requires an atonement to be made for sin, requires that we recognize that atonement: the same law that made it necessary that Christ should die for us, requires that we recognize His death as the condition of our receiving the blessings promised through this medium. It was governmentally necessary that Christ should die for the safety of God’s government; that Christ should die to establish God’s law as the condition of our receiving the blessing of pardon. Now it is just as governmentally necessary that in our prayers to God we should recognize our governmental relationship to Him; that we should remember the sacredness of God’s divine character, and that we should approach Him solely through Christ, making mention of His name. But, I can’t continue with this part of the subject. We must move on to consider and specify some things concerning

III. The use of the promises.

(1.) In using promises, we must always pay attention to the attributes of the promise-maker. His ability is infinite. His willingness is also infinite. These things should always be taken into account. Now if human beings promise us something, even in very strong language, we can doubt whether we will ever possess the thing promised, because we know the capabilities of the promise-maker. Thus you see that we must interpret promises made to us in the light of the attributes of the one who makes the promises. It is very common for men to promise things they cant perform and things we don’t expect them to perform. Suppose a physician says that he will restore you to perfect health: it would be unfair to understand him to literally mean what he says. If the physician heals you from the disease you are suffering under, and restores you to your normal health, that is all that you can expect from him. But, God is perfectly able to keep any promise He makes. We should always, therefore, take into consideration the attributes of the one who makes the promise.

(2.) We must take into consideration His relationship with us, and our relationship with Him. The promises of a father to a child should be taken more seriously than promises made to some stranger he has no interest in or relationship with.

(3.) We must take into consideration His interest in us. God has revealed His great interest in us in so many ways. For example, look at the things He has done for His children. The fact that He has given Christ to die for them is alone more than sufficient proof of His infinite interest in them. In addition to this, everywhere you look, this same fact is revealed, and the great things He has done for us clearly proves that He is able to fulfill all His promises. We are surrounded by innumerable evidences of the highest order revealing His great interest in us, His great love for us, and His great readiness to do for us more than we can ask or think. Consider what He has already done. When we were His enemies He did not withhold from us His only and well-beloved Son! Surely, He will not withhold anything else from us. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things.” (Romans 8:32) If God gave so great a blessing, shall He withhold anything less? No! Definitely not! Indulging in such a thought wrongs Him and does ourselves an injustice; we must not overlook these facts as the highest possible evidence that all of God’s promises are made in good faith; and God is infinitely ready to give us the things He has promised. It might have appeared incredible if God had told us beforehand that He would give Christ to die for us. It would have appeared inconceivable! We would have exclaimed, “Could it be possible”? Many sinners think that it is impossible. What! God give His co-equal Son to die for us? We can’t believe it! Now Christians understand it and believe it; and certainly since He has done this, we should look at this fact when we come to the promises. Never leave this fact out of view. All unbelief should vanish when we remember that “when we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”, and we will see in this fact, that He is willing, freely, largely, bountifully, to give us everything that we need. By this gift of his Son, God has confirmed to us the promises stronger than He could have done by any unsupported oath.

(4.) God not only confirmed His promise by an oath, that we might have a strong consolation, but by everything He has done, He has shown us His sincerity in making these promises, and His readiness to fulfill them.

(5.) We should not forget the purpose of the promises. They are intended to meet every demand of our being.

(6.) The language of His promises is just as important the language used in His commands. For example: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” (Deut 30:6) We should understand that this promise covers as much ground as a command. We should interpret the language used in the promises the same way as the language used in the commands. Don’t think that language found in commands should be stretched to the utmost; while we consider the promises to have little importance. Now it is common in the church, in writing, in printing, and in conversation, to interpret the language used in a command in its widest sense. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength”, is interpreted to mean all it can possibly imply. Now, I don’t find any fault with this for I believe that is how it should be translated. But when the same language is found in the promises it is often construed to mean much less than the language really implies. Take another example. When the apostle says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it”. (I Thess 5:23-24) We must interpret this language as liberally as if was used in a command. We must not trifle with these promises and think that they don’t mean very much, except in some vague and general manner. If we want to receive the blessings of the promises, we must understand what they promise us.

(7.) When we use the promises, we must remember to fulfill the conditions on which the promises are granted. If we plead the promises of God, and do not fulfill their conditions, we tempt God: for example, suppose you were to plead the promise that God would forgive sin on the condition of repentance, and you believe that you are forgiven but you didn’t repent, you tempt God. Suppose a cold-hearted professing Christian should plead that promise because he has backslid, and then he expects to be forgiven while he continues to go on in his worldly-mindedness. He would be tempting God. Fulfill the conditions first and then plead the promises.

(8.) Although conditions may not be expressed in connection with every promise, conditions are still implied.

(9.) The promises were given to be used. They were given to be used by God’s children, by all who will believe them and appropriate them. They were not made to lay concealed in an ignored Bible, but to be read, understood, and used. The fact is, the Bible is like a book of checks put into our needy hands, and we use them when we need something. God has given promises to every class and description of people; and these promises were given, not to be hoarded up, but to be used. We are to draw liberally and freely on the divine bounty for all the blessings that we need. I became acquainted with one of the most remarkable men that ever I knew in the city of New York: he was forty-five years old, a farmer, and an uneducated man. After his conversion, he had remarkable faith and confidence in God. He sold his farm, took his wife, (he had no children) and traveled through various parts of the country, preaching the gospel and laboring to promote religious revivals. He was a man of very humble talents, yet wherever he went there was always a revival of religion because of his labors. This man labored in New Jersey in a most remarkably successful manner. After many years, he called on me in New York City: After talking for a while, he said, “Let’s pray”. We knelt down together, and he prayed like a little child. “Our Father, you have given us great and precious promises, but what are they good for, unless they are to be believed;” and so he went on just like a little child, and really it was so perfectly clear that he believed all the promises, that I never forget the impression that his great faith made on my mind. I instantly understood the secret of all his great usefulness: he had such confidence in God’s promises. He realized to such an extent that God had made all His promises in good faith and on purpose to be used by his children, and he availed himself of them with all freedom and with all boldness. He came to God, like a child would come to its father, fully believing that God would fulfill all His promises. This was the secret of his usefulness.

If Christians will only understand and get the impression deeply imbedded in their own minds, that these promises are regarded by God as their inheritance given to them to be used by them under all the circumstances in which they find themselves placed, they would better understand the meaning of the apostle Peter when he says, “by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature”. (II Peter 1:4)

(9.) In using the promises, we should never forget that they are given to us in Christ, because He paid for them a governmental valuable consideration, and we therefore have a gracious title to them. Don't misunderstand me. We had no right to demand anything from God, because we had forfeited His favor by our sins: but it has pleased God to make certain gracious promises to us because of what Christ has done. Through Christ, God has given us a gracious title to His promises; therefore, we can claim them, not in our own name but in the name of Christ. I love to take this view of the promises of God, that if I am his child, they are all pledged to me in Christ Jesus.

(10.) Again: the promises are available to us, if we will only comply with the simple condition of believing, and if we will plead them in the name and for the sake of Christ.

(11.) Every command of God, when properly understood, is to be regarded as implying a promise. Anything God requires us to do implies the promise of sufficient grace to perform whatever is required. All the strength and grace that is needed is pledged to us in Christ Jesus.

(12.) Again: God’s promises were designed to secure our sanctification: and the will of God is that we should make full, free, and thorough use of them to secure this end.

Let me close with a few remarks.

(1.) It is very important to notice how Christ and his apostles quoted the promises of the Old Testament. Take your reference Bibles when you read the New Testament, and see how the inspired writers quoted the promises of the Old Testament. They will help you to judge more accurately the real intention and meaning of God’s promises; you will thus be able to see the promises in their fullness and spiritual application.

(2.) People value the promises of God in proportion to their knowledge of themselves; they ask in proportion to the sense of their needs.

(3.) Preaching that searches the heart leads people to apply the promises. When the wound is probed, then the antiseptic is applied.

(4.) A lot of preaching is wasted on people who are never aware of their sins. Suppose an individual should proclaim through the streets that he had found a cure for cholera; if nobody had cholera, people would not be very eager buy the remedy. They would say that they were glad there was a remedy, because other people might want it, but they don’t need it. The medicine might rot on the shelves before the people would buy it if they believed there was no danger. Present the gospel, and tell the people of the promises. They will not let the gospel take hold of them; they will not apply the promises, because they do not feel their need. You will hear people say, “yes, it is a gracious gospel, I will take advantage of it some day”. But sin has taken possession of them, and they never get a hold of this remedy, this great salvation.

(5.) If Christians would immediately believe, apply the promises, and meet God on the ground that He has promised to meet them, they would experience how much value there is in prayer, and how powerfully they can prevail with God. They would find that there was a cheerfulness and willingness on God’s part to meet them every time. Many individuals plead the promises without fulfilling their conditions, and then they lose their faith in the promises, because they do not experience their fulfillment. This is because they have not fulfilled the required conditions. I believe that people often pray themselves out of all confidence in prayer, because they fail to fulfill the conditions that God has promised them. We generally find that professing Christians have very little confidence in prayer; and why is this? Because they have come to regard prayer as a duty, rather than as something that can prevail with God. Brothers, if you want to enjoy communion with God and prevail with Him, you must see prayer as something more than a duty. You must take hold of prayer as a sure instrument by which you can move God’s hand, His arm, and His heart, and then you will do it. Amen.