Safe Keeping Part 2

which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Peter describes the heart of salvation–what makes us tick and shows it's not just in the mind. Strangers>>>>Scattered>>>>> Yet the ELECT. God chose us as the ELECT. Through the foreknowledge of God the Father, he knew I would be. So he prepared salvation for me. Election is three-fold. Sanctification. Obedience. Sprinkling. Sanctification is the separating work of my sins from me. God moved in my direction through the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I responded. It was the obedience of Jesus the Son in all things–specifically his willingness to go all the way to the death and sprinkling of his blood. The blood did me no good until I accepted it. The ELECTion begins and ends with God. The Father deals with us. The Holy Spirit delivers up Jesus' blood. The Father receives us–begins and ends with God.

Peter describes this as begotten again–his way to say born again. I saw a bumper sticker that said I was born ok the first time. This is the attitude of the world and why we feel like strangers. We know better. We were born in sin the first time. Now through the obedience of the Son and through our acceptance of his blood, we belong to the Father–born again. Begotten tells us we have a Father. We are not orphans; we know our Father.

We are begotten again. There is a purpose which is to a lively hope. Hope is the confident expectation of a future good. Hope is alive i.e. a lively hope. It is not a fleeting hope or a possible hope–IT IS AS GOOD AS NOW. Faith now WILL BE hope. How can we be sure? By the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Hope is there because Jesus is alive. Because HE IS ALIVE everything has hope.
Home in heaven–because HE's alive
Know family is with Jesus–because HE'S alive
Know our status in the kingdom of God–because HE'S alive
Not because of us, but because of his abundant mercy. Every morning we have mercy and a lively hope. If we live until we're 90 we will still have a lively hope. We have the same fresh Savior as was the day we were born.

There is a goal. We have an inheritance–we are on the highway north to an inheritance because of the lively hope– because we are begotten again. Remember hope is a confident expectation. A living Savior is giving us an inheritance. What is an inheritance? It's simply a portion of a parent's wealth to his/her children. One day at a time he is walking us home, walking with us everyday–he's alive to hug us, catch us, feed and strengthen us. HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE and will take us to that portion. The portion is incorruptible or "un-mess-up-able." We mess up. One day we will be "un-mess-up-able" as well. I won't mess up and I won't feel messed up. The portion is undefiled–it is unstained. It's so easy to get stained here. A bad thought. A wrong word. We're stained. Satan loves to stain us. Our inheritance is "un-stain-able." It fadeth not away. It's not going anywhere. Flowers in the spring and leaves in the fall fade. This inheritance will not dry up and die. It will not change. It will not fluctuate. It is reserved in heaven. Jesus is getting us there. Reserved means it is yours now even though we don't have it. If you reserve a hotel room, it's yours until you get there. Until we get to heaven, heaven is here in our hearts. Heaven is ours through a lively hope. We are taken care of right now–it's not a religion or a simple belief; it is a lively hope because Jesus is alive.

A lively hope to all those strangers, all those who feel scattered. Feel by yourself sometimes? Remember what you have is a by yourself Savior! What you have is just for you. It's just for me. Feel alone? Everything in heaven is just for you. It's just for me. He is just for you. He is just for me. He won't leave you. He won't leave me. The inheritance is just for you. It is just for me.

What about tomorrow? Hold on. Verse 5 is the continuance of verse 4. That is a comma, not a period. It says reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God. In this usage kept is a military term. Peter chose this word carefully. The previous use of reserved is almost the same as kept. It means taken care of. Soldiers fight to the death to take care of something precious that is under their guard. The inheritance is kept for us through Jesus. Just as he cares for our inheritance, he has reserved it for us.

Does the devil make you think you just can't make it? Why? He doesn't want you to get your inheritance. The Savior takes as much care of us as he does the inheritance! It is by the very power of God. We know the devil is strong, but we know the Savior is much stronger. Jesus will keep us by the power of God. Can the devil knock down the power of God? No! He can try to knock us down until the inheritance. Through faith we'll see it. That's our part–faith. Faith is trusting Jesus and the world? Trusting Jesus and Bob Surber? NO! FAITH IS TRUSTING JESUS AND NOTHING–Jesus and nothing else!!!

When we trust Jesus with our all, everything is taken care of. The power of God keeps us unto salvation. What does this mean? The salvation of our souls is now. Jesus didn't save us and say good luck, you're on your own. He intends to complete salvation in its totality–body, soul and spirit. Everything that makes a complete salvation is ready. Do you hate to wait? Heaven is waiting on us–waiting for the Father to give the signal. Verse 9 speaks of the end of salvation. Heaven is not reward; it is award. Reward is hell. Award is a term used of an inheritance a parent  bequeaths to his/her child; therefore our Inheritance is an award in heaven with Jesus and the kingdom of God Himself.