Okay. Thank you, Sharon. 1 Peter, Chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1, we're going to deal with verse 5 tonight. 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 5 is a favorite, is truly
a favorite verse of God's people. We seem to quote it all the time,
don't we? Because it is truly the confession
of every believer who knows and feels their weakness and inability
and proneness to wander, and we're kept by the power of God. It's fitting that Peter wrote
that in. Peter said, I'm going fishing.
Yeah, but you're not going to go catch the type of fish you
think you can catch. He failed at catching real fish,
and the Lord made him a fisher of men. Kept by the power of God. We
need to constantly quote this. We need to quote this verse constantly
for our own comfort, and this is for God's glory, too. All right, I want us to look
at each part of this verse, every part of each line of this verse
is significant. All right? Verse five, let's
read it. It says, Who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time? Who are kept? by the power of God. Who? Who are kept by the power of
God? Well, we saw it. Verse 2 says,
elect. That's right. Some of you mouthed
that. The elect. It says, elect according to the
foreknowledge of God. Those who have been foreknown
or foreloved or foreordained and elected and chosen by God
will be kept. by the power of God. Those who
have been sanctified, says the elect, according to foreknowledge
of God, through sanctification of the Spirit under obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Christ, those who have been sanctified
and those who have had the blood applied, sanctified and the blood
applied, and those who believe, those who believe according to
his power. Turn over to John 17 with me.
This word kept is used three times by our Lord in John 17. John 17, another favorite passage
of Scripture of God's people. Who are kept? Well, the elect,
the poor loved, the poor ordained, the sanctified, the blood-blood,
the believers. Look here at John 17, verse 12. He says, While I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I have kept. and none of them is lost. Who
is kept? The elect of God who were given
to Christ. They were given to Christ for
safekeeping or saving. That's another word for safekeeping
and saving. You hold on to John 17 and turn
back to John 6. Our Lord constantly declares
this glorious truth for our comfort and to his glory. Hold on to
John 17 and look back at John 6. Our Lord constantly declares
this. Look at verse 39. He says, This
is the Father's will. John 6, 39. This is the Father's
will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing. I'm not going to lose one of
them. Not one. John 10. Turn over there. I know
you can quote these verses. It's good to look at him again.
John 10. Verse 28, he says, I give unto
them eternal life and they shall never perish. So who are kept? The elect, sanctified, blood
applied, believers, those given to Christ to keep. God's chosen, given to Christ,
all whom Christ lived for, died for, all whom the Holy Spirit
calls, grants repentance and faith. All right, how are they
kept? Our text says they're kept by the power of God through faith. Now hold on to John 17. I told
you we'll be back later. I'm not sure when, but we'll
be there eventually. All right? So I have it written
down somewhere. All right. Our text says we're
kept by the power of God through faith. It doesn't say, it doesn't say who keep on keeping on, does it? It doesn't say who keep themselves,
but it says who are kept. There's a big difference in who
are kept. That means somebody else is doing
the keeping. 1 Corinthians 1. Turn over there.
1 Corinthians 1. I know why I had you keep John
17. Remember Christ said, I have
kept them. I have kept them. Those that
thou gavest me, I have kept them. and none of them is law. All
right, it says we're kept by the power of God. Well, what
is the power of God? Well, look at 1 Corinthians 1,
verse 23 and 24. We preach Christ crucified unto
the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
the power of God and the wisdom of God. Now, the word kept is only found
a few times, only found a few times in the scriptures, and
it speaks of the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
I looked up the word kept in strong concordance. Now, listen
to this. This is good. And I strongly
urge you to do word study. Take your concordance and do
word study. Barnard used to say, there's
only two books that you need. That's a Bible and a concordance. And I looked, or a dictionary
would start there. But I looked up this word kept.
As you know, the scriptures was written in Hebrew and Greek,
all right? The Old Testament in Hebrew and
the New Testament in Greek. Well, the English language is
far inferior to those old languages. All right? I mean, it's good
enough. God had it translated in our language, all we need
to know. But if you dig and search into these old Hebrew words and
these Greek words, there's just numerous meanings and depth to
every word. All right? The word kept. Listen
to this. The word kept in 1 Peter 1.5 means this. One who watches in advance, a
watcher in advance, or one who goes before to keep watch, to
keep from falling in harm's way. It also means it goes on and
on. It means a guard or a sentinel. It means to hem in, to protect,
to keep as with a garrison. And all of that is a description
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his person and his work, who went
before us, says we're kept, or that is by a watcher in advance. The one who went before us, he
went before God's holy law and he kept the law for us, to keep
us from the law. You know that kinsman redeemer? Remember the story of Ruth and
the kinsman and the redeemer? Well, there was one person who
was a nearer kinsman that the redeemer had to face on behalf
of Ruth to see whether or not he was going to let her be redeemed. You remember the story, don't
you? And the redeemer faced that nearer kinsman and took his shoe
off. And that's a picture of Christ
who faced the law for us. He went to the law and faced
the law for us and kept the law. And we've kept it, haven't we?
And Christ went to the grave before us. There's a scripture
that actually says that Jesus went before them. Everywhere
they went. Everywhere they walked. They
didn't know where they were going. He called them to follow him.
He never followed them. He always led. He was always
out in front, just like a good captain. And he went before them,
set his face steadfastly. And he went toward Jerusalem,
to Calvary's tree, and to the grave. He went to the grave first,
four of them. And then he went to the Father,
four of them, didn't he, in advance, to prepare a place for us. All
right, and then he's one who guards us, says one who is a
keeper or kept, is a guard or a sentinel. Christ is our guardian
against the enemy. Do you remember in the garden
when they came to apprehend Christ? And remember what Christ said
to them? He said, if you seek me, let them go their way. You can't have them. You can
have me, but you can't have them. I'm keeping them from harm's
way. He's our guardian. And that's
the saying, and in the next verse there after that, that the saying
might be fulfilled, which he said, Of all which thou hast
given me, I have lost none. Scripture says the Lord is my
shepherd. It says, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I'll fear no evil. Why? Why? Thou art with me. Though it's
perilous times that we heard about, though men are fierce,
things are troubled. Psalm 91, that's what we read
in Psalm 91. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, ten thousand at thy right hand, but it will not come by
day. Why? Because you've made the Lord your refuge. The Lord
is my refuge. And also, being kept means to
be hemmed in. I want you to turn to this. 2
Kings. 2 Kings. You can let go of John
17. I already quoted it. 2 Kings 6. You'll want to mark this in your
Bible if you... I did because I forgot where
it was and I had to look it up. The word kept means to hem us
in, as with a garrison. You remember what Satan said
to the Lord concerning Job? Huh? Remember that? Satan wanted to
get at Job, but he said, I can't touch him. You put a hedge about
him. You hemmed him in. Hedged him
about. That's exactly right. He does
that with all of us. That's Psalm 91 again. That's
the reason we read that. Because it says he'll give his
angels charge over thee to keep thy Well he himself and he protects
us he keeps us as with a garrison of a legion garrison look at
John second Kings six this is the story of Elijah and his servant
who were surrounded by the enemy the Syrians and verse fifteen
says when the servant of the man of God is evidently a young
man rose up early and gone forth he went outside behold a host
or a large band or army compass the city both with horses and
chariots and the servant said unto Elisha oh my what we going
to do. Alas my master how shall we do
we're gone and we're it's hopeless now. And Elisha said verse sixteen
fear not They that be with us are more than they that be with
them." Read on, "...and Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray
thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened
the eyes of the young man, and he saw, behold, the mountain
was full of horses and chariots." Well, what's the difference in
these horses and chariots? Chariots. Spiritual horses and chariots.
Look at this, horses and chariots round about Elisha. round about where they surrounded
a lot and everybody with a lot of them will be set. If you're
in him, you were saying everything is around a lot. You want to
hear a little sermon within a sermon. If our Lord said Elijah was John
the Baptist, who had the spirit of God, who's that make a lot? Who had a double portion of the
spirit? Yeah. If you're with Christ,
then there's a garrison around you. Those that will be with
us are more than they can be against us. Christ is the power
of God, the right arm of salvation, who saves us and keeps us. Romans 1. Romans chapter 1. We're kept by the power of God. Christ is the power of God. What
else is the power of God? What else does the scripture
say is the power of God? Three or four things, that's
right. Romans chapter one, verse sixteen, he says, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone who believes. The gospel is the power of God. Now, there's an inseparable connection
between Christ and the gospel. Christ is the gospel and the
gospel is Christ. And. Our text says that where in you
rejoin first Peter one it says where in you're kept by the power
of God through faith on the salvation ready to be revealed the last
time where in. You greatly rejoice. Verse six
where in. You mean who in don't you Peter
well yes and and where in the gospel we rejoice in the gospel
the power of God the gospel is just a declaration of Christ
and we were OK. Declaration of crap it's the
voice of crap the gospel is the shepherd for which we hear. And
so we're kept by Christ were kept by the gospel and these
these two were and there's another one that. We have several but. Hebrews one three says he upholds
all things by the. Word of his power. And Peter
said the last verse of chapter one, this is the word which by
the gospel is preached. So it's all one in the same.
These three are one. Christ, gospel, word, they're
all one. They're all one. They're the
power of God. All right, this is a point I wanted to make.
1 Corinthians 1. Now, 1 Corinthians 1, we already
looked there, but I want you to look at the verse before that. 1 Corinthians 1. All right, it says, the gospel
is the power of God, and we're kept, we're kept by constantly
hearing the gospel were kept by the power of God were kept
by constantly hearing the gospel. Faith cometh by hearing. All right. Lord I believe help
thou my unbelief. All right. How does he help our
unbelief. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word. And
this is the word which by the gospel is preached. And the gospel
is just there in Christ. All right. It's not just preaching
the Bible. Not just, you know, reading the Bible. It's Christ. It's Christ, seeing Christ. All right? All right, so the
gospel is Christ. Faith cometh by hearing the word
or the gospel. All right, look at 1 Corinthians
1, verse 21. It says, In the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom
knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Preaching what will up there
in verse eight eighteen he said the preaching of the cross which
is the power of God. Preach the gospel verse seventeen
he said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel.
The cross of Christ. All right so he says it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. All right. Faith cometh by hearing
the word And it pleases God by the foolishness of preaching
to save us, to reveal Christ to us, and also to keep us safe. To keep us safe. Now listen to
this very carefully. I quoted this to you a few weeks
back. Jonah 2 verse 8, right before
verse 9, which you all know well. But Jonah 2 verse 8 says this.
They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. They
that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. And that surely
must be speaking of all who leave the gospel for whatever reason. Isn't any reason vanity? Vanity
of vanity. All is vanity. There's only one
thing needful. There's only one of substance. The rest is vanity. The rest
is stuff. It's like the man said, asked
the fellow, what do you do for a living? He said, well, Christ
is my life. I'm a plumber to meet expenses. I've heard people say, you know,
that leave the gospel. Well, I've got to make a living,
you know, no, you've got to die. You've got to live, all right,
you've got to live in Christ. Without him, you don't have life.
He's the son that has life. He's the hat, the son. So whatever pursuit it is, other
than Christ, it's vanity. Right? So they that observe lying,
vanity, Observe means to pursue or behold or look at or, you
know, to have on your mind, forsake their own mercy. If someone truly
seeks Christ, the pearl of great pride, if someone truly seeks
Christ who is the pearl of great pride, they'll sell everything
to buy the truth. And they'll sell it not. If they
really seek Christ, the Pearl of Great Pride, and they obtain
Him, they'll sell everything they have, and they find Him,
then they'll sell it not. Really. They won't depart from
the truth, Christ and the Gospel, if offered to the world. They
won't do it. And doesn't all of this make
the last part of our verse in first Peter five doesn't all
this make the last part of this verse even more solemn look at
first Peter one verse five. We're kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. ready to be revealed in the last
time. Ready to be revealed. It's about
to be revealed. What is it? Everything. We are. He is. It is. It's all. There's nothing hidden,
Christ said, shall not be revealed. And that right shortly. In light
of that message we heard Sunday morning, it's ready. Ready to
be revealed. Listen to this, Romans 8, 18
says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed
in us. The glory that shall be revealed
in us. I mean, in us. I hadn't seen,
you hadn't heard, but you remember the story in Christiana's Progress
where her and her companion made it over the river and they were
in the Celestial City and they were looking at one another.
You remember that? If any of you have read it, it
said they stood there just gazing at one another and one said,
Oh, you're so beautiful. And she said, Oh, but you're
beautiful. The glory that shall be revealed in us. And we shall be glorified because
we're going to appear with him in glory. And we're going to
be revealed. We're going to be revealed to
all the angels. When he says, here they are,
my children from the parade of sin, you know, the king, you
know, Psalm 8 or 24, I mean, where the king comes in. Who
is it that's king of glory? Who's that behind him? That's
his train, that's his people, that's his children. Here they
are, all my children, not one of them is lost, because I kept
them. They're all here. And I want you to turn in closing,
well, almost closing, to 1 John 1. This is important though,
very, this is very important. 1 John, I'm sorry, 1 John 2. This is ready to be revealed
in the last time. And the last time it shall be
revealed who are his people. And Peter said, it's begun. First John 1 verse 17 or 18 and
19, little children, it is the last time. And as you have heard
that Antichrist shall come, well, even now there are many, many
Antichrists. whereby we know that it is the
last time well they went out from us who's that well whoever
goes out whoever leaves the gospel. But they were not of us for if
they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with
us but they went out that it might be made. As revealed. that everybody's not us. And
everybody's not, everybody says, Lord, Lord, it's not the belief. Doesn't that make it so much
more solemn, huh? And in 1 Peter chapter 4, 1 Peter
4, you know, we've seen many come and
go in our midst here, haven't we? We will have been together ten
years this coming March, and it's hard telling how many people
have come and gone. I've seen many come and go in
just this little congregation. Many in a few short years who
profess to come to Christ, and yet go after other things.
It's always things, isn't it? That's what he said about Demas.
He said, Demas has forsaken me, have him love this present world. You remember when he said to
Peter and the disciples, when he said, will you also go away?
Do you remember Peter's answer? Peter didn't say, well, to what? Shall we go? It's like that's
unthinkable that somebody leave Christ for something. Whatever it may be. That's not
even worth bringing up is to what shall we go? A bigger this
or bigger that or better or more of this. That's unthinkable. But he said to whom? And Peter
said what Peter said was your life. your life. Are we going to go back to death?
We've passed from death unto life. You've called us from darkness
into your marvelous light. John said we've beheld Him, life. And so where are we going to
go? It's all death. It's all none. It's all vanity. We've
seen it all as it is. It's vanity of vanity. Why, you're
the only real one Your life and life more abundant. So to whom? Not what, that's not even thinkable.
But to whom? Is there some woman, some man,
some anybody that could draw me away from Him? Huh? No. Not if you love Him. Not
if He's your first love. And Peter said here in 1 Peter
4, he said, verse 17 and 18, the time has come that judgment
must begin at the house of God. If it first began at us, what
shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? He's winning. The fan's in his
hand, Joe. He's winning with the threshing
floor. That's what happens in the last days. That's what the
prophecies are in the last days. Perilous time, not only all those
things that describe the world out there, but he's got his hand
in his hand. He's winnowing the threshing
floor, the chaff from the wheat, and the chaff will blow away,
will go away. And so, to whom shall we go?
And verse 18, if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and the sinner appear? In chapter 5 there, verse 10,
it says, But, but, the God of all grace. If you need grace, give it more.
All right? Keeping grace, you need keeping
grace. You need kept, you've got lots of grace. You'll keep
the advised grace. The God of all grace, who hath
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you suffered
a while, make you perfect, establish strength and. You know what it
means to be settled? You settle in. That's what some
of you did here tonight, didn't you? You got your blankets and
pillows. And I've only been just a little while. Y'all are comfortable.
I ought to go another hour. You're settled, aren't you? Well,
he's grounded and settled us in the truth and the gospel.
And to whom shall we go? Let me read this in closing.
I have to. I have to read this in closing. Now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling. Out of what? The Lord saved me when I perished. The scripture says that if a
righteous man falls seven times, the Lord will raise him up. Peter fell constantly, didn't
he? What did he do? He cried out. It sounds like
Psalm 107. He cried again, but the Lord
answered him. Huh? Keep calling because He's
able to keep you from falling. And to present you, reveal you,
faultless before the presence of His glory. Now, He says it's
going to be happy with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our
Savior. Who's that? That's Christ, our
God and our Savior. Be glory. and majesty and dominion
and power both now and forever. Amen? Amen. You're dismissed.