You may know that God is merciful. You may know that God has caused you to be born again. You may know that God raised Jesus from the dead. You may know that God promised to keep your inheritance imperishable in heaven. In other words, you know what God has done in the past to give you life, and you know what God is going to do in the future to give you your inheritance.

But what about now? What about the time between new birth and final salvation? What about the temptations, pressures, stresses, weariness, persecution, frustrations, suffering, confusion, perplexity, fears and traps that we face now? Does God do anything about that? Does he send his Son to die for our sins, raise him from the dead to open eternal life, cause us to be born again, and then stand back to see if we will make it to heaven? Peter is not about to leave that question unanswered, or even implicit. He makes the answer explicit, clear and powerful in verse 5.

Those who are born again "are protected (i.e. now are being protected) by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." There's Peter's answer: NO. God does not just stand back after he has caused us to be born again. He uses his divine power to protect us all through life for the salvation ready to be revealed.

What Peter wants us to see here is that God means for his people to be profoundly secure in him. He wants us to feel that God himself is doing everything that must be done to guarantee our final, eternal salvation.

By John Piper. ©Desiring God. Website: www.desiringGod.org. Email: mail@desiringGod.org. Toll Free: 888.346.4700.

To read the entire sermon:  http://www.desiringgod.org/library/sermons/93/101793.html .