Well, I appreciate Art and Melinda
on that last song. Nothing like a persistent pastor.
I really wanted that song to be sung though because it goes
so well with our message. 1 John 2 verse 28, And now, little children, abide
in Him. Abide in Christ, that when He
shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him
at His coming. And when John begins here with
the word little children, that tells us that this is addressed
to believers. those that the Holy Spirit has
sanctified, given a new heart, He makes teachable, teachable
like a little child. Our Lord said that unless you
be converted and become as little children, teachable, trustworthy,
dependent like a little child, You shall not enter the kingdom
of heaven. So, before we can obey verse 28, before we can
enter into what this means and obey what it says, we have to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't abide in Christ until
we're in Christ. So, I press upon you to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ now. If you're not in Christ, It's
because you don't believe in Christ. If you don't believe
on Christ, you're getting your sins. This is the day of grace. This is the day of salvation.
Our Lord said, Look unto Me and be ye saved wherever you are
in the earth for I'm God and there's none else. He said, Come
unto Me and seek Me while I may be found
and you'll find mercy. You'll find mercy. Believe on
the Lord now. But now for you who believe on
Him, you who trust the Lord by His grace and by His power, the
Apostle John declares three things here. First, he declares a blessed
truth that we should think about very often. Our Lord Jesus Christ
shall come again. He shall return in like manner
saw Him depart. He's going to return. And two,
He tells us, He gives us an exhortation and He says, now little children
abide in Him. And we must heed this. This is
so very important. This is more important than anything
else. Abide in Christ. And then thirdly, He gives us
the reason. And it's this, that when He shall
appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him
at His coming. So our subject is abiding in
Him. And here's what we see. By abiding
in Christ, we shall have confidence and we shall not be ashamed when
Christ returns. By abiding in Christ, we'll not
be ashamed will have confidence even when Christ returns. Now, first of all, the truth,
this blessed truth, our Redeemer shall come again. Our Redeemer
is going to come again to this earth like He came the first
time. Except for this time He's coming
as the glorified God-man, the victorious Redeemer, having already
finished all the work. Turn with me to John 14. We have this promise of His coming
again from Christ Himself. He told us this. This is the
night before he was betrayed or before he was crucified. He
was comforting his apostles and John was there. John heard all
this. And I want you to see what he
said. Look here in John 14.1. He comforts us with the same
promise. He says, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Well, didn't they believe in
Christ? What he's saying is, you believe in God who you can't
see. You don't see the Father, yet
you trust that He's present. You trust He's protecting you
and guiding you and keeping you. And he says, as you believe in
the Father who you don't see, believe also in me, now that
I'm going to depart and you'll see me no more. He didn't believe
in me the same way. He said He would still be with
us. He said, Lo, I'll be with you
always to guide you and protect you and keep you. And that's
how our hearts are not troubled. Whom having not seen your love
and whom though now you see Him not yet believing, you rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. By faith we see Him
and we know and we believe the things that are said concerning
Him. Look at verse 2. In my Father's house are many
mansions. That's permanent dwelling places. Permanent dwelling places. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, I go to prepare a place for you. In God the Father's
house, There are many permanent dwelling places. How many? The exact number that God chose
and gave to Christ before the foundation of the world. No more,
no less than the exact number of elect that He chose in Christ
before the world was made. And there won't be any vacancies
when our Lord gets done. He won't lose one of them. They'll
all be there. Every one of them. Christ said,
I go to prepare a place for you. Christ was going to the cross.
And He went to the cross and by His death and by His resurrection,
He prepared a place for His people. By His blood, He justified us,
He put away our sins, He brought in an everlasting righteousness
for His people. He prepared a place just for
you who believe on Him. He entered into the Holy of Holies
as the High Priest, our great High Priest, with the names of
His people on His breastplate. He entered in just like pictured
in the High Priest in the Old Testament. And He prepared a
place for us. He prepared a place for us. And
he says here in verse 3, ìAnd if I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I
am, there you may be also.î Heís not going to sin for you. He
said, ìI will come again.î He Himself is coming again. The
Lord Himself shall descend. That's what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians
4. The Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Those
that have died in Christ, they're going to rise first. And then
you and I who remain, if we're alive when He comes, we'll be
caught up into the air with Him. But He's coming Himself. And
he said, I'm coming to receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you may
be also. Remember what he said to that
dying thief? He said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. He said, If any man serve me,
let him follow me. And where I am, where I am, there
shall my servant be. He prayed the Father for this.
Father, I will. You and I can't pray that way.
But he said, Father, I will that those whom Thou has given me
be with me where I am. And I'll tell you, he's going
to have what he prayed for. Christ's Word is our assurance.
It's our assurance. His returning again is our hope. We have the assurance that He
promised us He's coming again. And we have this as our blessed
hope. He's coming. He's coming. We're looking for
that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. This is our consolation when
we're groaning under this body of sin and when we're groaning
in this world of sin. This is our comfort. This is
our consolation. There's another song a couple
of pages over from the one that we sang. It says, He's coming
again, He's coming again. The very same Jesus rejected
of men with power and great glory, He is coming again. Now here's
the exhortation. Go back with me to 1 John chapter
2. Verse 28, Now little children
abide in Him. Now there's no doubt that John
is addressing them as little children because of his great
love for those begotten through his preaching. A pastor has a
love for those that the Holy Spirit makes to be born again
through his ministry. He has a love for them just like
a father has a love for his children. And I'm sure that's what he meant
by this, and a pastor can give no more loving exhortation than
to exhort you to abide in Christ. Abide in Christ. But, I believe
from this context, we've seen this about how he said he's given
the unction of the Spirit, and this is from the Holy One, the
Spirit came from Christ. He said, I will pray the Father,
and He will send the Comforter in my name. So this anointing
we have of Him, He's the one that gets the glory here according
to John for teaching us. It's Christ Himself. That's who
He's talking about. And as He teaches you, you'll
abide in Him. And go with me over to John 13. I believe here the reason He
says little children is because this is what Christ said that
night when He was comforting them. I want to show you something
here. John 13, 33. He says, ìLittle children,î see
there, ìlittle children,î this is Christ speaking to John, this
is Christ speaking to His apostles, this is Christ speaking to you
and me who believe. ìLittle children, yet a little while Iím with you. You shall seek Me,î He said,
but He says, ìwhether I go, you cannot come.î Now drop down to
chapter 14 and look at verse 18. He says there about how He's
going to give the Spirit and He's going to abide with us and
He'll be with us and He'll teach us, just like John says in 1
John 2. But look here now, verse 18,
John 14, 18. Christ said, I will not leave
you comfortless, I will come to you. Now look in the margin. You see what the word is there
for comfortless? In the margin, it's orphans.
I won't leave you as orphans. He's saying, I will not leave
you orphans, but my little children, I will come to you. By the anointing
of the Spirit, I will come to you. That's what Christ is saying
there. I'm not going to leave you orphans,
because you're my little children. He's our everlasting Father,
and all you who believe are His little children. And He says,
I'm not going to leave you as orphans. He's just not going
to do it. And so if you read John 13 through
15 here, you'll see that what he heard Christ declare that
night is what John's declaring in 1 John 2. And that's why he
uses this word little children. See his intent here when you
get over there and you look back at chapter 2. What he's been
doing is he's been showing believers how deeply indebted we are to
Christ. He says in verse 1, Christ is
our advocate and He is the propitiation for our sins. He is our righteousness. He said in verse 2, that He is
our righteousness, the propitiation for our sins. He said in verse
6, He is our example that we are to walk after and we are
to follow. He said in verses 12 through 14, He is the reason
we have these blessings, forgiveness of sins and we have overcome
the wicked one and we know the Father. This is because of Christ. And then in verses 20 through
27, he says it's from Christ that we have the unction. It's
from the Holy One that we have the unction. It's from Christ. He prayed the Father and the
Father sent the Spirit in His name. And so in verse 28, it's
from this relationship of Christ as our everlasting Father and
you and I who believe as His little children. that John exhorts
us and says, ìNow, little children, abide in Him.î You see what heís
saying? Heís your advocate. Heís your
propitiation. Heís your righteousness. Heís
your example. Heís your blessing. Heís why
you have all these blessings. Heís the Holy One whoís given
you this unction, whoís teaching you and teaching you to follow
Him and to abide in Him. He says, ìNow, little children,
Abide in Him. Abide in Him. Now this word to
abide is translated in other places, continue. It's translated
dwell. It's translated remain. Abide
in Christ. Continue in Christ. Dwell in
Christ. Remain in Christ. That's what
He's exhorting us to do. It means as a permanent dwelling
place, abide in Him. Now, Lord willing, in the morning
I'm going to fly down to Arkansas and after the meetings Friday
night, I'm going to stay at a hotel in Magnolia, Arkansas. I'm not
going to be abiding in that hotel. I'm just going to lodge there.
When I come home to my house where my bed is and my chair
is and my wife and my children, then I'm going to abide. But
I'm just going to lodge in that motel. And he's telling us here,
don't lodge in Christ. Abide in Christ as a permanent
dwelling place that you can't go out of. Stay in Christ. Now, to abide in Christ, first
of all is to abide in the truth of the gospel of Christ. He says
there in 1 John 2.24, He said, ìLet that therefore abide in
you which you heard from the beginning. If that which youíve
heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son and in the Father.î Remember when I read
to you from John 14, Christ said, ìIf a man keep My words, if he
keeps My saying, My Father and I will come to him and weíll
make our abode with him.î Thatís exactly what He said there. If
you let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning,
Christ's gospel, His words. Remember the apostle Peter said,
to whom shall we go? You have the words. You have
the words. Christ said, if a man keeps My
words, if he believes on Me and abides in Me, He says, My Father
and I will come to him and make our abode. And John says, if
that remains in us which we heard from the beginning, you'll continue
in the Son and in the Father. Because they'll come and they'll
continue in you and you'll continue in them. You remember when you
read an if-then statement in the Scripture, don't read it
as a condition, read it as a promise. Because whatever the Lord commands
you, the Lord's going to do it for His people. So when He says
here, if that which you've heard from the beginning shall remain
in you, He tells us there the Lord's going to see to it it
remains in His people. They're not going to fall away.
But this is the point. Abide in the truth you heard
from the beginning. Go back to 1 John 1. 1 John chapter
1. This is what he started with.
Verse 1. That which was from the beginning
which we've heard of the word of life. Verse 2. The life was manifested. He said
this is that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested
unto us. Verse 3. He says and that which
we've heard we declare unto you that your that you also may have
fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ. Christ is in us and the Father
is in us and we're in Him. That's what He's saying. Look
here at verse 5. This then is the message. This is the message
which we've heard of Him in declaring to you that God is light. He's truth. He's truth. And in Him is no darkness at
all, no lie at all. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth.
We abide not in the truth we heard from the beginning. If
we walk in a lie, if we go after a lie, we go after darkness. You remember when Paul talked
about light and darkness, how they can't dwell together? He
was talking about False preachers and a false gospel can't dwell
together with the truth and with Christ and people in Christ. They can't dwell together. And
that's what he's talking about here with darkness and light.
He's talking about truth and lies. And he says, if we don't
abide in the truth and continue in the truth of Christ that we
heard from the beginning, then we're abiding in a lie. We're
walking in darkness. We saw last time, no lies of
the truth. And this is what He is saying
here, but if we walk in the light as He is in the light, that is
if we continually abide in the truth of Christ that saved us,
that Word whereby you were begotten again, He says then we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from
all sin. And we ought to grow in knowledge,
we ought to know more today than we knew the first hour we believed, but we continue in the same truth
that we heard from the first hour. We don't change from that
truth. So that's first of all, to abide
in Christ, to abide in the truth of the gospel that you heard
from the beginning. And then to abide in Christ is
to continue in Christ as all our salvation alone. Remember when in John 14 when
he was comforting them and he said, he said, you know the way,
And Philip said, we don't know the way. And he said, I'm the
way. I'm the way. We need a reconciliation
with the Father. Christ said, I'm the way. We
need illumination. We need light. Christ said, I
am the truth. I'm the truth. We need regeneration. Christ said, I am the life. And Christ said, no man comes
to the Father but by me. That means only by Christ. Abiding in Christ is to abide
in Him and Him alone. It's to trust Him and Him alone
for everything you need. We need an advocate with the
Father. It's Christ alone. We need a mercy seat for our
sins. It's Christ alone. We need righteousness
and holiness. It's Christ alone. Christ is
everything that we need. John said, your sins are forgiven
you for His namesake. Not for any other reason. For
His namesake. We need Christ. Christ is all
and you're complete in Him. Complete in Him. Listen to this
statement. For you that believe, I got this
from Spurgeon. I try to put it in my own words.
But listen to this. Abide in Christ as the only thing
you have like the first hour you believed when Christ was
the only thing you had. Remember when you first believed,
you didn't have any experiences, you didn't have any works, you
didn't have any graces yet. All you had was Christ. That's
what it is to abide in Christ. Continue putting your confidence
nowhere but Christ alone. Just like you did in that first
hour. Isn't it something how we think we get smart, and we
think we get some understanding of things, and God grows you
in grace, increases your graces a little bit, and then all of
a sudden all these other things start competing for Christ. And
when we first started, All we had was Christ. I tell you where
we're going to end up. All we're going to have is Christ.
So that's what he said, now continue in Christ alone. He's all our
salvation. And then here's thirdly, to abide
in Christ is to live upon Christ in utter dependence for everything. Little children, that also reminds
us of our utter weakness. Go back over there to John 15,
look what Christ said. John 15, verse 4, He said, Abide
in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except
ye abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Now brethren, it don't get any
weaker than that. It just, it does not get weaker
than that. The Lord says without me you
can do nothing. You go home and chop a branch
off of a tree in your yard and see what that branch can do without
that tree. Nothing. It's going to die. And Christ
said, that's you without me. Without me, Christ said, you
can do nothing. There's a word in the scriptures
over in Proverbs. The word is coney. The coneys. And from everything I can tell
when I read that, it's a little mouse that lives in the mountains. He's talking about ants, he talks
about the locusts, and all these little bitty things. And he talks
about a coney, and that's a mouse that abides in the mountains.
And he says this, the coneys are but a feeble folk, yet make
they their houses, they make their abiding places in the rocks. And that's what He's telling
you and me. We're like the little mouse. We're feeble. So utterly feeble, we're totally
helpless. But He's saying, make your permanent
dwelling place in Christ the Rock. Just like that little mountain
mouse. Abide in Christ. Remember how
we saw that vanity means vapor? We need Christ for all. vanity. If we don't have Christ for all,
then all about us and all about our life in this world is vapor. And we sing that. I need Thee
every hour in joy or in pain. Come quickly and abide or life
is vain. If I don't have Christ abiding
in me and me abiding in Christ, then All I am and all my life
is, is a vapor. That's it. That's what Christ
means when He says, without me, you can do nothing. That's how
helpless we are. We are really that helpless without
Christ. So abiding in Him is to depend
upon Him for all our strength. To abide in Christ is to obey
Christ. It's to live for Christ. It's
to live for His gospel. It's to live for His people.
That's what He's talking about when He says, if you keep His
commandments. You keep His sayings. Keep His
words. That's what He's talking about.
And He goes on down there a little bit. He's telling you all along,
believe in Me. Abide in Me. And he gets down
there and he says, ìAnd love your brethren.î Love your brethren. Weíre fixing to go from chapter
2 and weíre going to get into chapter 3 a little while later
and weíre going to see how much John starts talking about loving
your brethren. This is what it is to live for
Christ, to obey Christ and to live for Him. Itís to live for
His Gospelís sake, to spread His Gospel forth and for His
people. It's for His people. That's what
it is to keep His words. He says to us, love not the world,
but He says, love your brethren. The devil and our own flesh would
love for us to be enticed by the world so that we want to
spend ourselves for the world because we want something. And
so we go and we spend for the world. That's not abiding in
Christ. That's not living for Christ
and for His people. To do without personal wants
in life so that we can provide for the needs of our brethren.
That's what we're talking about. To set aside hurt feelings and
to bear shortcomings of brethren so they can have the gospel in
truth. And so we can send the gospel
forth together in truth. That's loving brethren. And that's living for Christ.
Who did He live for? He lived for His brethren. He
lived for His people. And you know what He's telling
us when He tells you to obey Him? He's telling us to live
for His people. And that's living for Him. That's
living for Him. Spurgeon said this, he said,
when you get too old and feeble so that all you can do is lay
in your sickbed, he said, cough for Christ. Cough for Him. Live for Him. Live for Him. Whatever
you do, do it for Him. And then, fifthly, to abide in
Christ is to persevere until the end doing all these things,
abiding in Him. Persevere to the end, ignoring
those who would seduce you into error. and leads you astray so
that you don't fall away like all the many antichrists that
have fallen away. That's John's main purpose in
declaring this. He told us there's many antichrists
that were with us and left and they're in the world. And he
says, I want you to abide in Christ. I don't want you to follow
and be led away with the error of the wicked. And it's so subtle,
brethren. I've seen it. I was sitting with
some fellows one time and they were asking me a bunch of questions
on a particular doctrine. And it dawned on me these fellows
are going to use this doctrine to try to divide the brethren. But the problem was they couldn't
agree on the doctrine themselves. But then another doctrine came
along that they thought would be better. And they jumped on
that and they used that to start dividing brethren. You know what
that showed me? They didn't care about the doctrine.
All they cared about was causing a division. That's all. That's
those he's talking about here that if they had been of us,
they would have continued with us. But they went out. that they might be manifest,
they were not all of us. And He's saying, I don't want
you to be led away with that. I want you to persevere until
the end in Christ. Of that day and hour knoweth
no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only, Christ
said. But as the days of Noah were,
so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the
days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking
and marrying and giving in marriage until the day that Noah entered
the ark. And they knew not until the flood
came and took them all away, so shall also the coming of the
Son of Man be. So He's saying, watch therefore,
be diligent, Don't slumber. Don't sleep. This is not all
there is. I enjoy going to a conference
and getting to hear the gospel preached and seeing brethren
I haven't seen in a while. I enjoy coming here and preaching
the gospel to you and us fellowshipping with one another. But this is
not all there is. Don't slumber. Don't sleep. Watch. Watch. And persevere to the end. Abide in Christ like Noah and
his family abode in that ark. And for the same reason. For
the same reason. Now here's the reason. Back to
1 John 2.28. Here's the reason. That when
He shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed
before Him at His coming. John included himself here. He's
talking to those He ministered to, and He's an aged old believer
right here, and He included Himself so that we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before Him in His coming. We all need Christ
alone. I need Christ alone just like
you need Christ alone. I need to abide in Christ just
like you need to abide in Christ. And another reason John said
this is because John had to give account to Christ for those to
whom he ministered. The pastor has to give account
to those for whom he ministered. That's one reason John said,
I have no greater joy than that my children walk in truth. Paul
said that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I've not run
in vain, neither labored in vain. The pastor is going to have to
give account to Christ. Whether or not he was lazy and
didn't preach the truth and didn't preach Christ alone, or whether
or not he was faithful. You have to give account. That's
why the Scripture says to you who believe, obey them that have
the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for
your souls as they that must give account. As they that must
give account. That they may do it with joy
and not with grief. And then it says to the preacher,
Paul said, I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing in
His kingdom. Preach the Word. Preach Christ. Be instant, in season, out of
season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
Preach the Gospel. Just as he's telling us to abide
in Christ, he tells his preacher, you preach Christ. Don't preach
anything else. I love it here how he speaks
of Christ appearing. He says Christ is going to appear.
Christ is present. He said, I'm with you always.
He's present with his people. We simply can't see him. That's
the only thing. But he's present. Sometimes,
you know what I'm talking about here, but you've done this, I'm
sure. Linda and I will be talking on the cell phone. She'll be
somewhere and I'll be somewhere and I'll be giving her directions
where I'm at, you know, whatever. And so she's driving there and
I'm on the phone, she's on the phone and we're talking to one
another. Just like you talk to Christ, you speak to Christ,
you commune with Christ right now. But I can't see her and
she can't see me. And then all of a sudden she
rounds the corner and she appears. And you know that little feeling
when you see one another and you're talking to one another
on the telephone and you kind of laugh, you know? That's going
to be it. He's just going to appear. If
we knew what a believer experiences the moment they close their eyes
in death and Christ appears, if we knew the joy they experience,
we would never shed another tear for any of our departing brethren
at all. They close their eyes and Christ
appears. Just in an instant. To be absent
from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Nothing to weep
about. We ought to rejoice and be happy. And boy, that's the greatest
thing that can happen to a believer. But if you're in Him, if you're
in Christ, And He's your only righteousness. He's your all. He's everything you need for
acceptance with God. He's your all. You will not be
ashamed when He comes. You'll have confidence when He
comes. There's going to be some scriptures
that are going to run and hide and try to beg for the rocks
to fall on them. But if you are in Christ, you
just think that Christ is coming back one day. What do you think
your reaction is going to be when you see Christ? If He is your only hope, this
Word says you will not be ashamed. And not only will you not be
ashamed, you will be confident. You will be confident. Paul said,
I want to be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which is after the law. But I want to have that righteousness
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God. That's where I want to be found.
That's what John is telling us. Abide in Him, in His righteousness
only. There'll be no confidence for
those that aren't ready. They'll be like those foolish
virgins. Go to Matthew 25. We'll close with this. Remember
those foolish virgins? They weren't ready. Are you ready? They weren't ready. Matthew 25.
And they didn't have oil in their lamps. And so, I'm just going
to cut it, read half of it here. Verse 10. And while they went
to buy, the bridegroom came. And they that were ready went
in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. They weren't
ashamed. They had confidence. They went
in. They were ready. Afterward came also the other
virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and
said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore,
for you know neither the day nor the hour when the Son of
Man come. What's he saying? Let your loins
be girded about and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like
unto men that wait for their Lord when He'll return from the
wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
Him immediately. What does He say about them?
Blessed are they. They are happy. They are going
to have joy. Why? Because He is going to come
in and gird Himself and sit you down at His table and He is going
to serve you. You won't be ashamed at all.
You won't be ashamed at all. So here is the question. Are
you ready? Are you ready? Abide in Christ and Him alone. And you will be ready. You will
be ready. And what a day that will be.
That song says, O blessed hope, O blissful promise, filling our
hearts with rapture divine, O day of days, hail thy appearing,
thy transcendent glory forever shall shine. Are you ready? If you have Christ and He is
all you have, then you are ready. You'll not be ashamed. Amen. Brother Art.