Here’s an
interesting story for you: A man named Russell Edward Herman left trillions of
dollars to thousands of people he’d never met. What was the catch? Russell
Edward Herman didn’t have trillions of dollars, he was just a simple, poor
carpenter. While the wild, wild will of the late Russell Herman never paid off
for his “beneficiaries,” it certainly enlivened conversations. Take the tiny
Ohio River town of Cave-In-Rock, for example, Herman bequeathed $2.41 billion
to them. Cave-In-Rock’s mayor, Albert Kaegi had this to say, “It’s an odd thing
to happen, isn’t it?”
While the will
would never pay off, the mayor had no trouble imagining uses for the willed
imaginary monies. Russell Edward Herman had great intentions, but he lacked the
resources needed to make them a reality. The greatness of God, however, stands
in sharp contrast. God not only has made great and precious promises, He has
the ability to follow through on every single one of them, AND HE WILL!!!
If you were here
last week, then you will remember that we have begun a new sermon series
titled: “God’s Faithfulness and Ours.” Last week we spent our time celebrating
just how faithful our God is. We discussed the fact that the Bible not only
declares that God is faithful, it reveals the history of His faithfulness.
Today, I want us to be reminded of the fact that God is faithful to his
promises.
I really like what
Peter wrote about the promises of God “His divine power has given us everything
we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by
his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and
precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine
nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Peter
1:3-4).
Just how many of
these great and precious promises do you think are in the Bible? 100? 1,000?
10,000? It might surprise you to know that according to a man named Dr.
Reginald Dunlap there are approximately 30,000 promises in the Bible! Peter
calls these “PRECIOUS” promises and it seemed that he liked that word. He used
it at least 5 times in his two books: Precious Faith (1 Peter 1:7, 2 Peter
1:1), Precious blood (1 Peter 1:19), Precious stone (1 Peter 2:4-6), Precious
Lord (1 Peter 2:7) and Precious promises (2 Peter 1:4).
What is it that
makes them so great and precious? Because, they come from a great God who can
do the impossible and because they lead to an abundant life. Listen to some
verses that declare that God is faithful to His promises. Numbers 23:19, “God
is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his
mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” 1 Kings
8:56, “Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as
he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through
his servant Moses.” Joshua 21:45, “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to
the house of Israel failed; everyone was fulfilled.”
God wants us to
lean on his promises. He wants us to stand on them. And count on them. Here’s a
wonderful thought and reality: Peter declares that claiming these precious
promises makes us “partakers” with Christ. A “partaker” is a participant,
partner, or sharer. Thus, we claim these precious promises as our own when we
become a Christian. But this new nature is not automatic. We must flee,
“escape” the corruption that is in the world by evil desires. But when we do,
we can know that God’s is Faithful to His Promises.
No comments:
Post a Comment