All right, turn with me back
to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2, and let's read
verse 28 again. It says, and now little children
abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence
and not be ashamed before him at his coming." Who is John speaking
to? He's speaking to God's people. who he calls all throughout this
epistle, you'll see him refer to God's people over and over
again as little children. Verse one of this chapter tells
us that it's every soul that has an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous. It says in verse one, my little
children, these things write I unto you that you sin not,
and if any man sin, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ, the righteous. So God's particular people are
who he's writing to, and the Lord Jesus Christ is who he's
writing of. When he says in verse 28, and
now little children abide in him, Christ is the him. The Lord Jesus Christ, abide
in him. Abide means stay. That's what it means. It means remain, tarry, do not
depart from, continue, endure in him. That's a very clear statement,
isn't it? That's a very clear warning.
Do not be found out of. Don't be found outside of the
Lord Jesus Christ. That has been the warning to
mankind from the beginning of the world. God told Noah and
he told his family, he said, I'm gonna put you in my ark. Everybody calls that Noah's ark.
That was God's ark that he put Noah in. And he told Noah, I'm
gonna put you and I'm gonna put your family in my ark. And as
long as you remain in that ark, you'll be safe. As long as you
stay in that ark. Noah's message to the entire
world, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And his message
to the entire world that heard him was, You must be in this
ark. That was His message. You must
be in this ark. You must abide in this ark. That ark represents Him. That ark represents Christ. When
God passed through the land of Egypt to destroy the firstborn
of every household, He said, He told Moses, he said, you tell
everybody, this is the message. Take a lamb, shed its blood,
and put that blood on the doorpost of your house, all over the doorpost
so it can be clearly seen. And then get in your house and
don't come back out. Isn't that what he said? Do not be found, when I come
through, do not be found outside of this house. He said, when I see the blood,
whoever's in that house, I'm going to pass over them. As long
as you're inside the house, that house with the blood of the substitute
on it represents Him, Christ. The message has always been abide
in Him. You must be found in Him or there's
no hope. There's none. He is the place
of safety. He is the place of salvation. We talk about salvation. He is
our salvation. I heard a wonderful illustration
on this. When I heard this, I thought,
now that's clear. That is clear. This is something
we can really understand. If the statement was made, if
this was sent out, declared, and this was found to be true,
that all safety and all security and all salvation was in this
room. All of it. Outside of this room, the moment
you walk outside of this room, certain death is coming. Nothing but wrath, judgment,
torment, eternal damnation. Your only hope is to stay in
this room. If that was the truth of the
matter, what would you do? What would you want to do? You
would want to stay in this room. you would want to abide in this
room. Well, that is the truth of the
matter. Except it's not a room that we
must abide in, it's a person. It's a person. Our only hope
is that we abide in Him. We abide in Him. We stay in Him. Look with me at verse 19 right
here in 1 John 2. It says, they went out from us. They did not abide. They went
out. They went out from us. but they
were not of us. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." If
you look at verse 22, he said, who is a liar? He's exposing
liars. who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ." The Messiah, the God-man, the only
mediator between God and man, the only one who could do it,
the only way. Well, no, there's another way. Who is a liar, but he that denieth
that Jesus is the Christ, he's anti-Christ, that denieth the
Father and the Son. Verse 23 says, whosoever denieth
the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also. Our only hope is that we abide
in the Son. Christ our Lord, we must abide
in Him. Now, how do we do that? That sounds pretty important,
doesn't it? How do we do that? What does that even mean? The
natural man hears that. The natural flesh of a man. If
someone walked in right now and heard this for the first time
and heard a man stand here saying, this is your only hope. You must abide in him. Or it's certain death. The natural man hears that and
this will be his first response. What do you mean abide in him?
What does that even mean? Just like when the Lord said
to Nicodemus, he said, you must be born again. And Nicodemus
said, what do you mean born again? Can a man enter his mother's
womb the second time? No, no. He's not talking about
a physical thing. He's talking about a spiritual
thing. That which is the flesh is flesh, but that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. To abide in Christ is a spiritual
thing. It's a spiritual abiding. So how does a person spiritually
get in Christ? That's one of the things as I
preach, I think of all the things that I struggled with. And I
want to make them as plain as I possibly can. I remember growing
up and I would hear people say that. And that's the number one
question I had when I was a child. How does a person get in Christ?
That's an important question. How we must be in him. We must stay there, abide in
him, be in him and stay in him. Well, how does a person get in
him? Hold your place right here and
look with me at 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 30, it says, but of him are you in Christ
Jesus? Of him are you in Christ? A sinner cannot put himself in
Christ. Cannot. God has to put him there. God has to put him there. What
that means is, this is what it means. If a sinner cannot put
himself in Christ and God has to put him there, this is what
it means. Abiding in Christ is the evidence
of that safety and that salvation, not the cause. It's not the cause,
it's the evidence. Saying we must abide in Him,
that's the absolute truth. That is the truth. But we are
totally at His mercy to put us there. Completely. That's the
good news and that's the comfort to a sinner who knows he must
abide in Christ. who knows he can't put himself
there. What terrible news it would be
if the message was, you better get yourself in Christ, and you
knew I can't. I can't. I don't have any confidence
in myself. You know, we read our text says
that you may have confidence when he comes back. I don't have
any confidence in myself. You know that saying, home is
where the heart is? If a sinner has a heart to abide
in Christ, if a sinner is just desiring nothing else in life
than for Him to be my home, I just want to live in Him. I want to
abide in Him. I just want to stay in Him. That's all I want. If a sinner
has that, God is the one who put that heart there. That new
heart. God is the one who gave that
to a center and that heart to be there. I believe we're all
here right now because we want to be. I believe we are. And if God has put that heart
to be there, I want to be in him. then that's the evidence
that the sinner already is there. If that heart is there, that's
the evidence that the sinner already is there. That worry,
those who are not in Him and do not abide in Him and go out
from us, have no heart to be, they're not worried about that.
Oh, what if I'm not in Him? They're not worried about that.
But all those who just desperately must be in Him are in Him. It's the evidence. All right,
go with me back to 1 John 2. Verse 19, we just read it, it
says, they went out, they did not abide because they were not
of us. It does not say, They are not
of us because they did not abide. It doesn't say that. It says
they went out that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us. But verse 20 says, you have an
unction from the Holy One. Unction means, the word translates
anointing. It means you've been laid hold
of by the Holy Spirit of God. They went out that they might
be made manifest. But you have been set apart unto
God by His Spirit. How do you know? How do you know?
How can you say that? How do you know? You abide in
Him. That's how you know. You stay
right there in Christ. Yeah, but I just don't think
I can keep myself all the way to the end. We haven't kept ourself
there so far one day. We haven't kept ourselves in
Him at all. We're kept by the power of God. We're kept by the Holy Spirit. We have an unction from the Holy
One. That's what it's saying. You're kept there by the Holy
Spirit of God. Verse 20 says, you have an unction
from the Holy One and you know all things. Does he literally
mean we know all things? Paul said, we see through a glass
darkly. Our Lord thanked His Father for
hiding these things from the wise and prudent and revealing
them unto babes. But He said, we know all things. And what He means by that is,
we know Christ. And if we know Christ, we know
all we need to know. You have an unction from the
Holy One. You have this anointing. Christ has given you the knowledge,
the Spirit of God has given you the knowledge of who Jesus Christ
really is. All things have been revealed
to us in Him. It has been revealed to us that
He is the sum and the substance of all things. Verse 21, He said,
I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because
you know it, and you know that no lie is of the truth. Verse
24 says, let that therefore abide in you which you have heard from
the beginning, if that which you have heard from the beginning
shall remain in you. You also shall continue in the
Son and in the Father. Do we understand what that's
saying? If what you've heard abides in you, if the Holy Spirit
of God keeps the knowledge of Christ and that love of Christ
in you, you shall continue in the Son. You'll abide. If his word abides in you, then
you'll abide in him. God put you in Him and He'll
keep you in Him. Now, you are welcome to just
listen to this, but I enjoyed turning. I like to turn. Some
do and some don't. You can turn with me. I'm going
to turn quickly, very quickly, and we're going to go through
some scriptures that tell us what we are abiding in if we
abide in Him. You can just listen to this,
but if you want to go with me, The text says, and now, little
children, abide in Him. If we are abiding in Him, what
are we abiding in? If we do, God put us there, He'll
keep us there, and what are we abiding in if we are in Him?
What is it? Well, look with me at Romans
8. Romans 8 verse 1 says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. If we abide in him, we are abiding
in no condemnation. I love that verse. Every time
I read that verse, I think that is good news. That is good news. No condemnation. Christ put it
all away. Look right here at Romans 8 verse 38, it says, For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If we are abiding
in Him, We abide, we live in the love of God. The love of
God, all of the love of God. Look with me at 1 Corinthians
1. Again, verse 30, it says, But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. If we abide in Him, we abide
in the wisdom of God. We abide in the righteousness
of God. That's where we live. Where do
you live? in the righteousness of God,
and we don't go out. We abide in the sanctification
of God. We abide in the washing, the
purity, the holiness of God, and we don't go out. If we're in Christ, we don't
go out. We don't go out from it. That's amazing. And we abide in the redemption
that God has provided for our sin. We abide, we live in the
blood. That's where we live. We live
in the blood of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1 says, 2 Corinthians
1 verse 20 says, For all the promises of God in
him are yea, and in him amen unto the glory of God by us. If we abide in him, we abide
in every promise that God has ever made. Every promise. All the promises of God and in
him All of them are yea and amen. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 17. It says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. If we abide in Christ, we abide
in a new creation. We're always saying, I'm so ready
to be done with this flesh. Paul said, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Well, in Christ, we are delivered. We abide in a brand new creation. A brand new man. Who is the new
man? Christ himself. We abide in him. Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 3 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, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of His grace. If we abide in Him, we abide
in all spiritual blessings. We abide in election. God chose a people. That's another
thing I used to wonder and worry about. I know God chose somebody,
but did he choose me? Did he choose me? Well, if Christ
is my home, yes he did. If I just need to be in Him,
if that's my only concern leaving this life is that I'm in Him,
then yes, we abide in His election. We abide in His acceptance. We abide in His forgiveness.
Look at Colossians 2. Colossians 2 verse 9 says, for
in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in Him which is the head of all principality
and power. If we abide in Him, we abide
in all the fullness of the Godhead, and we abide in absolute completeness.
Think about that statement. In Him, all the fullness of the
Godhead is, And we are too. That's where God and man meet,
come together, in Him, in total completeness. Alright, these
are the last ones, not the last one, the last ones. 1 John, go back to 1 John, chapter
3. See if you can enter into this
one. 1 John 3 verse 5 says, and you
know that he was manifest to take away our sins and in him
is no sin. If we abide in him, we abide
in no sin. That's all we can do is believe. It's all we can do. Just read
it and believe it. If we abide in Him, we abide,
we won't walk out. We stay, we stay put in no sin. Verse six says, whosoever abideth
in Him sinneth not. And first John five says, verse
John five, verse 11, It says, this is the record that God hath
given to us eternal life. And this life is in his son. If we abide in him, we abide
in eternal life. We are already in eternal life. When the moment comes for this
body of sin to lay down, nothing different will happen. We're
already alive in Him. We'll just keep on living. We
abide already in eternal life. All right, now go back to our
text, 1 John 2. Verse 25 says, and this is the
promise that He has promised us, even eternal life. These things have I written unto
you concerning them that seduce you, but the anointing which
you have received of him abideth in you. And you need not that
any man teach you." He's not saying that a man shouldn't teach.
He's saying they shall all be taught of God. God will convince
you of this. You need not that any man teach
you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, you
shall abide in him. And now, little children, abide
in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not
be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is
righteous, You know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born
of him. What is it to do righteousness?
The scripture says, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him
for righteousness. May God give us a heart to believe
his word. Believe his word and abide in
him. All right, let's all stand together.