In His Keeping

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, January 4th. As a believer in Jesus, you are secure in the keeping power of God. Today's podcast can help you rest in His sovereign care, no matter what comes your way. When you pick up the Bible and turn to the Psalms, you do not have to read very long until you discover that the man who's writing these Psalms, usually David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is speaking to a God whom he knows personally. He said, the Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my strength. The Lord is my son and my shield and my buckler. The Lord is my shepherd. And then in the 121st Psalm, he says, the Lord is thy keeper.

He neither slumbers nor does he sleep. That is, he is constantly actively keeping his children. Now the word keep here is a military term that was used to describe a garrison of soldiers that surrounded a city, surrounded that city in order to protect it. And there were many small cities that had no walls for protection.

And so their army, their army acted as a garrison, as a wall, as a preservation, as a keeper of the city. Now here is the picture of God as our keeper, that is our protector. But in 1st Peter, as he describes this, I believe in 1st Peter, the first chapter, he gives us the areas and the aspects in which God does keep our life.

So I want you to turn to 1st Peter again for a moment and notice what he says in verse five. He says, who are kept by the power of God through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Every single believer is living in within the realm of the keeping power of God.

There is not a one of us who is capable of defeating Satan within our own strength. There is not a one of us who is capable of living the Christian life and overcoming the flesh apart from the keeping security of the Holy Spirit who is within us. There is not one of us who is able to withstand the pressurized container that is society in which we live apart from the keeping power of God. So that it is very important that we understand that God, the Lord who is our keeper, first of all, is extremely and personally interested in keeping you from some things.

And there is not one verse of scripture in the Bible that says we have to keep ourselves. God, the Father, God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit, these three in one, along with the ministering angels whom he has sent into this world to help us, these are in the business of keeping us. And so he wants to keep us from all evil, the pressure from within ourselves, our old sinful, wicked carnal nature, and Satan himself.

But now watch this. All of us would agree because the Bible states so clearly that God wants to keep us from evil. He wants to keep us from wrecking and ruining our lives. He wants to keep us from making decisions that he knows will ultimately bring destruction and disintegration within our life.

But here is where we oftentimes get tripped up. Not only does God want to keep us from evil, there are some other things God wants to keep us from. Oftentimes, because the Lord has planned your life, because he has a will for your life, because he has already etched out what he desires to do with your life, there are some things God wants to keep us from for which there is no human explanation or reason. There are some good things that you and I would choose for ourselves that God would not choose. There are some good ways that we would choose for ourselves that God would not choose. And so it is incumbent upon us that we be sensitive to the mind of God, sensitive to the will of God, that not only is he keeping us from evil, but we do not want anything in our life that God wants to keep us from.

What may seem to be at first very good, a man or woman always has to be looking down the road to say, not only is this good, but is it good for me? Is it what God has chosen for me? If it has, God will honor the taking of it. If it is not, God will dishonor even that which seems to be good, so that he intends us to be sharpened in our mind, sharpened in our conscience, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, that we partake of that which God allows in our life only if it is within his will. So he keeps us from evil, but there's some things that seem to be good that God will keep us from.

The second thing I want you to notice about the good thing is this. Sometimes God will keep us from what he wants us to have and his will for our life. But at the moment, that's not what his will is. So he keeps us from it today in order to give it to us tomorrow.

He keeps us separated from it today in order to place us in the middle of it a month from now. So we cannot say that God keeps us from this and to that. It isn't that simple.

Life is not simple. Walking in the Spirit is not simple. Obeying God is not simple.

It demands a sensitive spirit sensitive to the ever constant, listen, the constant monitoring of the Holy Spirit of our daily walk. That which is evil, God would separate us from. That which is good, he must be careful that it is in God's timing that he's keeping us for that. So when he says that God the Lord is our keeper, he's keeping us for himself.

Now watch this. God ultimately always has this behind all of his keeping. He says in the 34th Psalm verse seven, the angel of the Lord in camp it round about us in order to deliver us from what deliver us from evil and deliver us from even that which is good until God's good timing is there.

Now remember this. He's always in the process of keeping us for himself. Therefore, when God says this is evil, remember this. This is not God legalistically depriving you of something that is good. If God says a thing is bad, his omniscience knows that in your life it is bad. If God looks at something that the whole world may agree is good but he says for you it is bad, you and I must decide.

Shall I agree with what God thinks about my life or shall I agree with what the world thinks about my life? And you see, in the pressurized container in which you and I live and we cannot escape except by death, Jesus Christ did not save us to give us an escape route from the pressures of society. He placed us here as salt and light to change the society in which we live.

If he put us in this pressurized container, he did not put us here in order to be shaped and molded and fashioned and compressed like unto the world. But he intends for us to so live our lives that we burst out of this container, not physically in death, but that is sharing and spreading the truth of the gospel so that men who walk in darkness might like us walk in light. All his keeping is ultimately for himself and for us. He is keeping us unto him and for him.

Now the second thing I want you to notice here is this. Not only is he in the process of keeping us from, but he keeps us through some things. For example, he keeps us through sickness.

Some of you this morning lying at home in your bed or in the hospital. You're saying if God is keeping me, why is he allowing me here? He's keeping you there and he's keeping you through that process. He kept Joseph through a period of temptation.

He kept Daniel through a period in the lion's den. He kept Paul as he gave of himself constantly as he says oftentimes in weariness of soul as he ministered to the churches. God keeps us in circumstances. He keeps us through situations and difficulties in life. God is the keeper of our soul, the keeper of our body, the keeper of our life.

He's keeping us unto himself. But I want you to notice in verse Peter what he says. In this third verse he says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a living hope, that is the living hope of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you.

Now watch this. God is keeping us here and now, but he's also keeping something somewhere else for us. He says that we have an inheritance. He is keeping that inheritance incorruptible, undefiled and reserved for eternity. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he died for your sins and my sins.

The Bible says in John chapter 14 that he has gone to prepare a place for you and me. When we obey him and as we serve him with the right motive and in the right spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit, he says we are laying up treasures in heaven. Those treasures cannot be touched by moth or rust or thieves. He says those treasures are incorruptible. They know nothing of disintegration. He says they're undefiled.

They know nothing of impurity. He says they are reserved in heaven for us. That is, our Heavenly Father is not only keeping us here, but he's keeping something that belongs to us up there. So when we get up there, he who kept us down here will provide for us what he's keeping for us up there. He says, if you'll notice, an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now when you gave your heart to Jesus Christ as a young person or an adult, God did not say to you, you trust me as your Savior. Live good, read the Bible often, pray diligently, give much, share your testimony day by day, and you will be kept by your activities. You will be kept within my will.

He didn't say that. When you gave your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, you took upon yourself a brand new relationship, a relationship with a person. And you see, there's a lot of difference between being religious, listen, a lot of difference in being religious, and having a personal relationship, a warm, intimate personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. Many people are religious, man, they've been sprinkled, poured on and immersed.

They go to church week after week, they give their money, they make attendance here, they read their Bible and pray once in a while, they are religious people. Religion will never get you to heaven. And God did not say that he would keep us religious. He said he would keep our relationship with him. When you gave your heart and your life to Jesus Christ, what did you do? You entrusted, you deposited, you laid down before an omniscient all knowing, omnipresent ever present, omnipotent ever powerful God. Your soul, your spirit, you laid it before him and what did you do? You placed in his eternal keeping your everlasting future destiny. That was the greatest act of faith you will ever manifest toward God. That's one thing for trust to trust God for tomorrow's needs.

And if for some reason they don't show up, maybe you work a little harder. But it is something else to get on your knees before God and tell a God whom you cannot see, a God whom you cannot touch, a God whom you cannot feel with the tip of your fingers, Lord God almighty, I deposit, I give, I surrender, I yield, I lay before you, I am betting for all eternity, you are able to keep my spirit and my soul and even this body to resurrected unto a new body fashion like under the body of Christ. That is an act of absolutely incomparable and matchless faith. Now, when you did that, God took it from there. He forgave your sins, wrote your name in the Lamb's book of life and he sealed you. Listen, you didn't take the seal from the angel of the Lord and stamp your forehead with it. He deposited in your heart the Holy Spirit whom he says is like a contract with God. He sealed you as one of his children and God committed himself to keep you, garrison round about you, protect you, provide for you. He committed himself to be your keeper for all eternity. Every once in a while, I meet somebody who says, so I believe you can be saved, but you can be lost. Listen, this is the difference.

Watch this. If you can be saved and you can be lost, then when you got saved, you caught hold of the hand of God. God reached down to save you and you got hold of God's hand. But if God is the keeper, when he saved you, he reached down and he caught hold of your hand, brother, and it doesn't make any difference whether you let go or not. He is the keeper, not you. God is the keeper.

If I caught hold by faith and I said I'm hanging on for dear life, there'll be times when I'll be tempted to let go. But if an omnipotent God with a hand he says that is never shortened, an omnipresent God who's always in my presence, an omniscient God who knows everything about me, when holy God almighty grasped my wrist, he never intended to let go and he said everything in hell and nothing in earth can ever separate you from the love of God. Brother, we are kept, kept under salvation, he says here and now, unto an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, awaiting in heaven for every believer.

Now the third thing I want you to notice here is this. He says in verse five, we are kept what? By the power of God through faith. Turn to Romans chapter eight, one of the most familiar passages in all of Romans. Does this not describe a man who's confident in the keeping power of God?

Romans chapter eight beginning in verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? No. Distress? No.

Persecution? No. Famine? No.

Nakedness? No. Peril? No. Sword? No.

The answer to every one of those is an absolute no. None of those can separate us from the keeping power of God because what? He says the angel of the Lord garrisons round about us. He has totally committed himself to keeping us over us, under us, all about us, who or what can penetrate the omnipotence of God.

Listen, you and I, we give our heart and life to Jesus Christ and step in the center of his will. We are held and kept and protected by an omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent God who neither dozes nor sleeps. He is ever present, ever constantly, actively keeping that which we have committed to him. But now the question comes, what about that which I have not committed to him?

It is subject to moth, rust, corruption, defilement and removal. What you are holding that you've never given to God does not fall under the protection of the keeping power of God. He says that which we've committed to him, he will take. He that keepeth us neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is our keeper and I love the way he says it back in Psalm 121.

He says he is the shade upon my right hand. He keeps us when the sun is too hot. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night.

You know what he's saying? That the omnipotent power of God to keep us works day and night. It works when we were asleep.

It works when we're awake. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. He shall preserve thee from all evil. And I submit to you this morning that God is thy keeper, my friend. And what he's waiting for this morning is for you to commit your life to him and your future for his eternal keeping. Thank you for listening to In His Keeping. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.