KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD

1 PETER 1:5

A. OUR TEXT IS A CHALLENGE TO THE UNBELIEVING WORLD; AND A JOYOUS BOAST OF THE BELIEVERS
  1. Many think that they are their own keepers:
    1. Napoleon thought he was, but he learned a lesson in Russia.
    2. The prosperous farmer thought that he had it made, but he, too, found out that without God, all is lost - Luke 12:20
  2. The believers, however, make their boast in God:
    1. The Psalmist does - Ps. 23:1-6; 46:1; 121:1-8
    2. And Paul boasts in his God - 2 Tim. 1:12; 4:16-18
    3. Says David, "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad." - Ps. 34:2
B. KEPT BY THE POWER OF GOD
  1. Negatively:
    1. Not from trials and temptation.
    2. So long as there is a conflict between truth and error, between light and darkness, between Christ and Satan, there will be trials and temptations - Heb. 12:6; 1 Pet. 1:7; 4:12
  2. Positively:
    1. From falling - Jude 24
    2. And if the righteous stumble, they will stand up again - Prov. 25:26
    3. From evil - 2 Thess. 3:3
    4. Our prayer must be, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil" - Matt. 6:13
    5. The Lord has promised to keep His own as the apple of His eye - Deut. 32:10
    6. "Keep me as the apple of the eye" - Ps. 17:8
    7. "For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye" - Zech 2:8
  3. Kept for what?
    1. For translation into the kingdom of glory according to God's promise - 1 Cor. 15:51; Jude 24. What a wonderful future awaits the children of God! 1 Cor. 2:9-11
    2. Kept unto eternal salvation - 1 Tim. 2:4
    3. Unto an eternal inheritance - Col. 1:5; Heb. 11:14- 40
C. MEDIUM OF GOD'S KEEPING POWER
  1. It is not in ourselves: John 15:5; Jer. 10:23
  2. The secret of being kept unto salvation is found in simple faith in Jesus Christ:
    1. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" - Phil. 4:13
    2. "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure" - Phil. 2:13
    3. "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord" - Ps. 34:2
  3. In the power of God's love: 2 Cor. 5:14 Here is the great secret of the enabling grace of the children of God. EXAMPLES -
    1. That was the secret in Paul's willingness to suffer and die - Acts 21:13
    2. That was, also, the reason for Joseph's steadfastness in resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife - Gen. 39:8, 9
  4. The word of truth in the heart is a fortress which the enemy of our soul cannot break through:
    1. That was the defense of the Son of God in the hour of temptation - Matt. 4:1-9
    2. That was the source of David's strength - Ps. 119:9, 11
  5. Paul gives the reason for the confidence of God's people in the word of God: Heb. 4:12, 13; 2 Tim. 3:15-17
  6. Prayer is still another source of power against Satan and sin:
    1. Think of the days of the apostles and what prayer did for them and the churches - Acts 4:24-31; 8:14, 15; 16:25-31
    2. What it did for Daniel - Dan. 6:10


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