First John chapter three, we
have been very slowly going through the book of First John. We have
been in it and out of it a little bit. But I was looking at the
next verse in line for us, which is verse six. And it says, whosoever
abideth in him sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now there is an obvious point
of interest in that verse. It ought to greatly grab our
attention to want to know what it is and what it means to sin
not. That's an eye-opening verse. Lord willing, we will get to
that. Lord willing, we will look at
that. But what caught my attention
first and what I want us to see this morning is what is it really
to abide in him? Let's start right there. Verse six says, whosoever abideth
in him, what does that mean? How can a man or a woman abide
in Him? That's an important thing to
know. That's an important question
to ask. Is that figurative? Is that only referring to a spiritual
state? What does that mean? What is
it to abide in Him? Well, look at 1 John 5, verse
20. It says, and we know that the
Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true. Even
in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God and everlasting
life. The scripture cannot lie. And
it says the people of God are in Christ. They are. And that's not just a figurative
thing. That does mean spiritually. He is referring to a spiritual
state, but it also means literally. Literally. If you look with me
at Hebrews chapter four, Hebrews 4 verse 15, it says, for we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. The literal, actual feeling. Do you have feelings? That's something to really ponder.
He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Turn with
me to 1 Peter 2. First Peter 2 verse 24, it says, who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree. that we being dead to sins should
live unto righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. He did
not figuratively bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
That's important to know. He did not figuratively bear
our sins. He physically, literally bore
our sins in his own body. He did not figuratively die on
the cross. He did not figuratively lay in
a grave. He literally, He physically died
on the cross and laid in the grave. How did all that come
to Him? Why did all that come to Him?
It's because we were in Him. That's the reason why, we were
in Him. Our sin and our sins were actually
physically in His body on the tree. So that ought to tell us,
and that ought to prove to us, that the people of God truly
are in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the thing. The sin
that was in Him, all of that sin that the Father transferred
to Him, gave to Him, put in Him, that sin is gone. That's gone. That sin was in him, but it's
not anymore. He put it all away. It does not
still abide in him. So here's our question this morning.
What does? What does? How do God's people
abide in Christ? In what way? What does it mean? How does it happen? It's a reality for God's people,
and this is where we're going to start. We're going to start
with how it happens. Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Corinthians 1. And I'm going to go ahead and
warn you that we are going to turn a lot. I turn a lot anyway,
but we're going to turn a lot this morning. We're going to
see it with our own two eyes. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, it says, but of him are you in Christ
Jesus. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. If a person is going to be in
Christ Jesus, and if a person is going to stay in Christ Jesus,
God is the one who must put the person there. God is the one who must keep
the person there. The word abide means stay, remain. That's what it means. Stay there. Be put there and stay there.
Our text says whoever is in Christ and whoever stays in Christ sins
not. Well, if we don't know how a
person gets in Christ and how a person stays in Christ, we'll
worry ourselves sick over how to get there and stay there.
And I'm going to repeat that because men and women do. They
hear this and they do. This is the first real worry
that comes to someone when their ears are pricked to the truth.
If we don't know how a sinner gets in Christ and stays in Christ,
we will worry ourselves sick over how to get in there and
how to stay in there. This ought to immediately bring
relief to every person who has a concern and a desire to be
in Christ. We are not responsible for putting
ourselves in Christ. and we are not responsible for
keeping ourselves in Christ. Of God are we in Christ Jesus. And if we're in Christ Jesus,
Peter said, we are being kept by the power of God. Now that
is relaxing. I heard that young man, he said
to me, we were talking about that very verse. Of him are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness. He's our wisdom, he's our righteousness.
That young man said, oh, isn't that so relaxing? And that is. That is relaxing. If we abide
in him, the whole thing is of God. The whole thing. All right, so that's how we abide
in him. Now, what is it to abide in Him? If we right now abide in Him,
what does that mean? What are we abiding in? Well,
we're gonna search the scriptures. I found some places that tell
us what it means to abide in Him, and this has really blessed
my heart. I hope the Lord will make this
a blessing to you. Go with me first to 1 Samuel
13. 1 Samuel 13. This is the Lord removing the
kingdom from Saul. And it says in 1 Samuel 13, verse
13, Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly, thou hast
not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded
thee, For now with the Lord have established thy kingdom upon
Israel forever. But now thy kingdom shall not
continue. The Lord hath sought him a man
after his own heart. The Lord has sought him a man
after his own heart. The Lord has a man in his heart,
in his own heart. A man that he desires, a man
that he's purposed to make king. David, God said he's a man after
my own heart. He is in my own heart. All of God's people are in his
heart. Just think about that, just think
about that. Usually we think of being in
Him from our own perspective. We get this body in our mind
and we think, how can we get this body in Him? Think about
it from His perspective. Think about it from His body. To abide in Him is to abide in
His heart. That's where we abide. That's
where we reside. We are there right now. We're there right now. Do you
have anybody in your heart? Is anybody in your heart? That's where God's people live.
That's where they reside and abide, in his heart. All right, now look with me at
Jeremiah 29. Jeremiah 29 verse 10, it says, for thus saith the Lord that
after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you
and perform my good word toward you in causing you to return
to this place. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you and expect it in. To abide in him is to
abide in his thoughts. I don't know which one is more
amazing to me, to think that we abide in his heart or to think
that we abide in his thoughts. That is so amazing to me that
He would take the time, not that He deals in time, God does not
deal in time, but I don't know any other way to say it, humanly
speaking, that He would take the time to think on us. Look at Psalm 139. It says in Psalm 139, verse 17, how precious also are thy thoughts
unto me, O God, how great is the sum of them. If I should
count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I
awake, I am still with thee. That means he's been thinking
about us from eternity past. and He will think about us throughout
eternity and future, now and forever. He said in verse 18,
if I should count your thoughts, they're more in number than the
sand. To abide in Him is to abide in
His thoughts. It's to actually be there right
now. We are right now thinking on
Him. He is right now thinking on us. And that's amazing. That's an
amazing thing to think about. Turn with me to John 15. John 15, verse 15, it says, henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth, but I have called
you friends. For all that I have heard of
my Father I've made known unto you. You have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you. and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you. He said, you have not chosen
me, but I've chosen you. I chose you. I chose you. I'm gonna let you
slide on this one. Just listen, I'm gonna read,
you know this. This is Ephesians one, verse four, it says, Verse 3, it says, Blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. We were in His choice. If we were in His mind and if
we were in His heart, we were in His choice before the foundation
of the world. He set His choice on us and that
will never go away. We will always be in His choice. The scripture says all souls
are His. All souls are His. All of them. He gives them to bodies, to human
beings. And the thought is just so wonderful
to me that when he sends a soul to a body in the womb, as he is uniting the soul and body together,
he knows this is one that I chose as he sends it out. We are in
his choice. We will always be in his choice. To abide in Him is to stay, it's
to stay in His choice. Do you ever feel like, you know,
I've ruined everything? Maybe I was in His choice, but
not anymore. We will always be in Christ,
in His choice. All right, now here in John 15,
if you look with me at verse nine, it says, as the Father hath loved me,
So have I loved you, continue ye in my love. Continue in my
love. To abide in him is to abide and
it's to remain in his love. That's where God's people are
right now. In his love. Verse 12 right here,
it says, this is my commandment that you love one another as
I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Romans
5 says, God commended his love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Ephesians 2 says, but God
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace your sake. First John 4 says we love Him
because He first loved us. To abide in Him is to abide in
His heart, it's to abide in His thoughts, it's to abide in His
choice, it's to abide in His love. Now turn with me to Romans
6. Romans 6 verse 3, it says, know
ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into His death? Therefore, we are buried with
Him by baptism into death. To abide in Him is to abide in
His death. If we do not abide in His death,
then our own death is still to come. If we're not abiding in
His, then we have our own to face. But if God loved us and
if He chose us, then He sovereignly put us in His death. It's appointed unto man once
to die. And we abide in his death. And God's people can truly say
with the Apostle Paul, I am crucified with Christ. I am. They can also say, nevertheless,
I live. Verse four right here says, therefore
we are buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as Christ
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also
in the likeness of His resurrection. To abide in Him is to abide in
His resurrection and in His life. We abide in His life. In Him we live and move and have
our being. And that's where we're going
to stay. That's where God will keep us. Alive in Him. He is our life. He is our life. And He's always going to be.
So to abide in Him is to abide in His heart. It's to abide in
His thoughts. It's to abide in His choice.
It's to abide in His love. It's to abide in His death. It's
to abide in His resurrection. And all of that can be summed
up in this last one. All of that can be proven by
this last one. Turn with me to Revelation 1. Revelation 1, verse 4. John to
the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and
peace from him which is and which was and which is to come and
from the seven spirits which are before his throne and from
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness and the first begotten
of the dead and the prince of the kings of the earth unto Him
that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." To
abide in Him is to abide in His blood. Everything that we have
in Him was proven and it was purchased in the blood, in His
blood. If God the Father put us in Christ,
We right now and we will forever abide under the blood. Forever. If God put us under
that blood, he's gonna keep us under that blood. That'll be
our cry and our plea forever, unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. I love that little song, it says,
under the blood of Jesus, safe in the shepherd's fold, under
the blood of Jesus, safe while the ages roll, safe though the
worlds may crumble, and they will, safe though the stars grow
dim, Under the blood of Jesus, I am secure in Him. I'm secure in Him. And I think
I'll close with John 15. Go one more time to John 15.
This is our Lord's exhortation to us on abiding in Him. We're gonna
read the first 11 verses here of John 15. He said, I am the true vine,
and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. And
that fruit is faith in him, believing on him. Verse three, now you
are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 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
you 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 you
can do nothing. If a man abideth not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them
and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide
in me and my words abide in you, You shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified
that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. As
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye
in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. And it is absolute joy knowing
we abide in Him, isn't it? All right, you're dismissed.