Lesson 43: Kept by the Power of God, part 1

The words from which I speak, you will find in 1 Peter 1:5. The third and fourth verses are “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who...hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible...reserved in heaven for you" (and then the fifth verse), "who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. The words of my text are “Kept by the power of God through faith."

There we have two wonderful, blessed truths about the keeping by which a believer is kept unto salvation. One truth is, Kept by the power of God; and the other truth is, Kept through faith. We should look at the two sides—at God's side and His almighty power; offered to us to be our Keeper every moment of the day; and at the human side, we having nothing to do but in faith to let God do His keeping work. We are begotten again to an inheritance kept in heaven for us; and we are kept here on earth by the power of God. We see there is a double keeping—the inheritance kept for me in heaven, and I on earth kept for the inheritance there.

As to the first part of this keeping, there is no doubt and no question. God keeps the inheritance in heaven very wonderfully and perfectly, and it is waiting there most safely. The same God keeps me for the inheritance. That is what I want to understand.


You know it is very foolish of a father to take great trouble to have an inheritance for his children, and to keep it for them, if he does not keep them for it. What would you think of a man spending his whole time and making every sacrifice to amass money, and as he gets his tens of thousands, you ask him why it is that he sacrifices himself so, and his answer is, “I want to leave my children a large inheritance, and I am keeping it for them" — if you were then to hear that that man takes no trouble to educate his children, that he allows them to run wild on the street, and to go on in paths of sin and ignorance and folly, what would you think of him? Would not you say: "Poor man! he is keeping an inheritance for his children, but he is not keeping or preparing his children for the inheritance"! There are so many Christians who think: "My God is keeping the inheritance for me"; but they cannot believe: "My God is keeping me for that inheritance." The same power, the same love, the same God doing the double work.

I want to speak about a work God does upon us—keeping us for the inheritance. I have already said that we have two very simple truths: the one the divine side—we are kept by the power of God; the other, the human side—we are kept through faith.