And the world is round again,
round again Every. Day. Raised up on our land by the
Son of God, He gave us His blood, all for us to drink. All right, turn back now to 1
John, chapter 2. 1 John, chapter 2. Let's read
one verse again. 1 John 2. Look at verse 28 again with me. And now, little children, abide
in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence and not
be ashamed before him that is coming. Abide in him. Abiding in him is the title of
this message, the subject of this message. One of the best ways to study
God's word is to take your concordance and look up words, to do a word
study from a verse or verses of scripture. I have always received
a blessing when I've done that, and this is one of those blessings,
one of those blessed word studies tonight. The Lord records this word through
the Apostle John 21 times in the gospel and in his epistle
here. Our Lord used it, as we read
there in John 15. He used it many times, several
times. It was a prevailing theme in
that John 15 there. Strong's concordance gives meanings
to the word It gives eight different meanings to this word abide,
yet they all go together perfectly. They all go to fit together beautifully
and differently, yet they all fit together in telling what
it means to abide in Christ. So I'm very briefly, very simply
going to give you these eight meanings of what it means to
abide in Christ. meanings has corresponding verses
of scripture. They're not, they're biblical
words, each word. Abide in him. Abide in him. Little children, John said, abide
in him. Christ said, abide in me. Didn't. John said, little children,
abide in him. Abide in Christ. What does it
mean? The word abide translates into the word dwell, dwell, or
as a dwelling place. The place you dwell in is your
home. It is not a place you just merely
visit for a while. It's a place where you live.
You live there. You don't just visit. That's
where you're alive. Yes, Christ is the believer's
dwelling place. Christ is not one we merely visit
with on occasion, but Christ is the one we live with, in,
whom we live and move and have our being. Christ is our life. We don't just visit with him.
He is our life. He is a man's life. He is our
dwelling place. shelter as we sang there in those
songs. He is our hiding place. The old
saying is a man's home is his castle. The Psalms say that many times. The Psalms says the Lord is our
fortress. That's another word for castle.
The Lord is our fortress. The Lord is our haven of rest. The Lord is our castle. A man's home is his castle because
he feels comfortable there. That's where a man truly feels
comfortable. You don't feel quite as comfortable
in someone else's home, but you feel right at home in your own
home, don't you? You feel very comfortable because
you have total freedom there, don't you? Well, in Christ there's
comfort because in Christ there's total freedom. There's total
freedom. In your own home you can go and
come as you please. You can go in and out. You can
open all the doors you want to. You can't do that in somebody
else's house, even though you might if you wander into their
bedroom or something. You're not supposed to. And you
wouldn't feel totally comfortable and free to do so. But in your
own home, you can come and go as you please. Well, that's what
the Scripture says. We can come and go, in and out,
and find pasture. Christ is our home. We have freedom
there, liberty in Christ. A man Home is where he keeps
all his treasures, isn't it? That's where all of his possessions
are kept, all of his worldly treasures, all of his possessions
are kept in his home. Well, the Scripture says that
it please the Lord that in Christ should all fullness dwell and
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are found in him. And all of the blessings of God,
all of our inheritance, all of our spiritual possessions are
found in Christ, our dwelling place. Psalm 90 says, Lord, thou
hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Psalm 91
says, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of
the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, or my castle. So to abide in Christ means to
dwell there, to dwell there. The next meaning of this word,
abide, is a place where you stay. It's to stay in a place. You
abide somewhere, you're staying there, you're not leaving. You're
not leaving, you're going to stay there, if you abide there. Some people put up houses only
to stay in them for three or four years, and then they move
on. Or temporary dwelling places, which are called mobile homes.
Only they don't intend to stay there, but the place you intend
to abide in is where you intend to stay. You don't intend to
leave it, that's where you intend to stay. And by God's grace, I intend
to stay with Christ. How about you? Eh? To stay with
this gospel. As Paul said in one place, he
said if a man come preaching another gospel, Another Jesus,
which we hadn't preached, and he's better than the one that
we've preached and you've heard, bear with him. Listen to it.
But if not, you'd do well to bear with me, to stay with me,
with this gospel and this Lord. Stay here. And by God's grace,
I intend to stay with this gospel. I haven't found a better one
yet, and I don't think I will. I know I want to stay with this
gospel and to stay with you people. Hadn't found any better of those
yet, so I intend to stay right here. This Christ is my Christ,
and I intend to stay here. This people are my people, like
Ruth said, and I intend to stay with them. This gospel is my
gospel, and I'll stay with it. And we need to make up our minds,
too. I believe everyone that's here
can say this, that we intend to stay. Thank you. Staying right
here. The Lord said to his disciples
one day, he said, Will you also go away? Peter said, No, we intend
to stay. Thank you. We intend to stay. Who's going and who's staying?
I'm staying. Isaiah 26, 3, we sang the song,
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed. upon Jehovah. Stay. I'm going
to stay right here. I'm going to stay with this gospel.
That's what it means to abide in Christ. It means stay there.
You're not going anywhere. You've found what you're looking
for. Another meaning for the word stay, and turn over to Hebrews
chapter 3 with me. Hebrews chapter 3. Another meaning
for the word stay is the word continue. To abide in Christ
is not only to dwell in him and to stay there with him, but it
means to continue. Continue. Now, this is a different
word than stay. Continue, or continue as in doing
what you've always been doing. When you continually do something,
it's you do what you have done from the beginning. You continue
to do what you've always been doing. Paul said this, listen
to this, he said in Colossians 1, he said, Christ will present
you holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight if you continue
in the faith, grounded and settled and be not moved away from the
hope, not a hope, but the hope of the gospel. Christ will present
you What is this? This is a gospel word. I'm looking
for a smile and I see it. Christ will present you holy.
Yes, sinner. Holy, unblameable, unapprovable
in God's sight if you continue in the faith. What's that? Just
trust in Christ. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled. In what? Christ, the solid rock. And don't be moved away. Don't
leave the gospel. The hope of the gospel. Hebrews
3, look at verse 14. It says, We are made partakers
of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. What was the beginning of your
confidence? What was it that gave you a good hope? a good hope. Wasn't it grace? Gospel of God's
free and sovereign mercy and grace in Christ. Wasn't it just
coming to Christ as an old guilty vow, hell-deserving sinner and
just, Lord, here I am. In my hands no price I bring,
simply to the Christ of the cross I cling. Just as I am, without
one plea, but that when Christ died, he died for me. Now you
came, and what did he say to you through the preaching of
the gospel? Thy sins and thy iniquities I will remember no
more. I receive you. You're mine. Now that's how you
came to Christ in the beginning, wasn't it? How do you come to
Christ now? The same way. You're going to
continue. You need to continue to come
to him the same way. You haven't cleaned yourself
up in it. You don't come and say, well, I've got this. I've
made an improvement on myself. Now here I'll present myself
to the Lord." Oh, you've come the same way. In my hand, no
price I bring. Same way. You continue believing
the same one. You continue believing the same
way. The beginning of your confidence is also the end of your confidence.
The beginning of your confidence is also the end of your confidence.
Christ said, I'm the beginning and I'm the end. I'm the alpha
and the omega. I'm the author and the finisher
of the faith. I'm the one that brought you, and I'm the one
that'll keep you. So you just stay right there, trusting me.
Nothing and no one else. Christ, his person and his work
alone. All your hope. Don't leave that.
He'll present you holy, unblameable, and unapprovable in God's sight,
if you stay right there at his feet as a guilty sinner. And
don't be moved to what? Don't get up off your knee. Stay
down right there. down in the dirt. And Christ
said, I'll present you holy, unblameable, and unapprovable,
because I've come to call sinners. Continue. Somebody asks you,
how long are you going to continue believing the way you do? You
say, as long as I'm a sinner, I'm going to continue believing
the way I do. I intend to continue trusting
Christ and Christ alone, dependent on him, to present me holy, unblameable,
and unapprovable. in God's eye. That's how long
I'm going to continue to believe how long I'm going to continue
to preach this gospel till everybody sees that Christ is all in salvation. Till everybody sees that. So
he says, abide, abide in him. Continue where you're at. Dwell
in him. Stay there. Continue doing what
you started out doing. Trust in Christ. How? How do you continue? Turn
over to John chapter 15 with me. John chapter 15. How do you
continue? How does one? You say, how do
you continue in Christ? It tells me to continue. How
do I continue there? Well, our Lord gave us a hint.
Our Lord gave us a hint here in John 15, and certainly it's
by his grace. It's all of grace. But our Lord
uses means, doesn't he? He uses means. means of grace,
what's called means of grace. Look at John, look at John 14,
verse 23. Christ answered and said unto
one of his disciples, asked him how he would manifest himself.
He said, if a man loved me, he will keep my words and my father
will love him. We'll come unto him, make our
abode with him. He that loveth me not doesn't
keep my sayings and the word. which you hear is not mine, but
the Father. Look at John 15, verse 7. Did
you catch this? Christ said, if you abide in
me and my words abide in you. It has something to do with Christ's
word. Abiding in Christ has something to do with his word. Dwelling in him. Now, our Lord
said in John 8 to some Pharisees, he said, my word has no place
in you. My word has no place in you."
He said in another place, he said, he that is of God, heareth
God's word. He said, you therefore hear them
not. And that can work several ways. That can be a person just absolutely
turning a deaf ear. That can be a person who is dull
of hearing. That can be a person who takes themselves out from
under the hearing of the word. Right? You hear them not because
you're not of God. But he that is of God heareth
and delights to hear and wants to hear God's word. If his word
has a place in them, does God's word have a place in you? Does God's word have a place?
Oh my! God's word is a believer's bread. That's what he lives by, not
just a place. That's where he dwells, John fifteen, that's
John seventeen, turn over here, John seventeen. Look what our
Lord said concerning his disciples. John seventeen, look at verse,
John seventeen six, verse six. He says, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, you gave them me. And they have kept by word verse
fourteen. I have given them by word verse
seventeen sanctified them through that truth by word is true. Verse nineteen for their sakes. I sanctify myself. They also
might be sanctified through the truth. Verse twenty. I pray for
the not only for these alone, but for them also. which shall
believe on me." How? How will they abide in him? How
will they believe in him? Through their word. So that has
something to do with the word, doesn't it? Something to do with
this word. This word. Look over at 1 John
2. Look back where we read there.
1 John 2 in our text. Look at verse 24, let that therefore abide in you
which you heard from the beginning. What's that? The word of the
gospel, Peter says. The word of the gospel. And verse
27 says, the anointing or the teaching which you received of
him, the Holy Spirit, abideth in you. So it has something to
do with the word. How does one abide in Christ? In him we live
and move and have our being. What's that? How is who is Christ
what's his name what's his very name. What's Christ's name. The word. You don't separate. This is how I speak in him we
live and move and have our being. In the word the word how much
how often does the. Psalm writer David speak of the
word. All of Psalm 119 every verse over speaking of the Thy
word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin." So that's
a key to how we are told to abide in Him. All right, here's another
word for abiding in Christ, another meaning for the word abiding
in Christ. It means to endure. It means to endure, or that is,
hold up under stress or strain or trial or trouble. How does
one endure under trials and trouble and stress and strain? How does
one endure? Paul said when that ship was
tossed to and fro on those seas over in Acts 21, he said, except
you abide in the ship, no man can be saved. And except
we abide in Christ, we will not endure. when trials come. When
those storms of life come, we will not endure except we abide
in Christ. But those who know Christ and
abide in him are able to endure trials and hardships without
breaking under them. It's the only way. It's the only
way. Abide in Christ and you shall
endure those Trials of rain from above, it's obvious. Floods,
trials from the earth. And winds, trials you don't know
where they came from. Abide in Christ. Here's another
word. To abide in Christ means to remain. To remain. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 66
with me. I know all of these sound similar,
but they have different meanings. Isaiah 66. To abide in Christ
means to remain there. Or to abide in Christ is as the
one in whom you will remain. By whom you will remain. Something
that remains is something that's been around a long time. Right? You come across a big rock someplace. And that rock is going to remain
when you're gone. It's going to remain. It's going
to stay there. Come across a big oak tree. That oak tree's been
there for hundreds of years and will be there when you're gone.
And people and things come and go, but Christ is called the
Rock of Ages who abides forever. And whosoever abideth in him
shall abide forever. He said, I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish. And those houses built on Christ
the solid rock shall always stand. They will remain. They will remain. Look at Isaiah 66 verse 22. He says, As the new heavens and
the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith
the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. God said he was going to burn
everything up, but everything that's in Christ
will remain. Everything in Christ will remain. And if you're abiding in Christ,
you will, too. You will remain in him. Here's
another word. To remain or to abide in Christ
means to stand. To stand. I just got all these
out of one word in Strong's metaphor. It means to stand. To stand as
in you've no place else to go. You've gone here. You've gone
there. You've gone north, south, east, west, east side. I'm just
going to stand right here. I've got no place else to go.
And when you quit walking, what do you do? You stand. When you
quit running, you stand in a place. If you've reached your destination,
that's where you're going to stand. You're going to stand
right there. Somebody says unto you, you going
to stand there all day? Maybe. What's to you? Maybe. Maybe forever. You going to stand
and cry something? I intend to. If he allows me to stand, I intend
to stay right here. It's a different word, but it
means to stand. It's a place that you, that's
where you, you're there. Now you've been everywhere else,
now that's where you're standing. That's where you stand. It also
means, to stand also means, after you've been through some uncertain
footing, or some shaky, sandy, shifting, sandy ground, or uncertain
footing, it's nice to find a solid place to stand. I know this from
experience. Recently we were down, when my
brother was here, we were camping, and we went for a little weighed
in the river, and that was right after some severe rain. And the
river was quite turbulent, quite fast, rough. And we were walking
through there, some sharp rocks and some shifting sand, some
deep mud and all that, and I wasn't enjoying it too much. The water
was ice cold. But I finally found a rock, and
there was a big rock underneath that water. And I got on that
rock, and that's where I stood. I stood there. Everybody else
was swimming around. I said, Come on and swim. I said,
No, I want to stand right here. I want to stand here a while.
I'm tired of fighting. Here I stand. The song says,
On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. They asked Martin Luther one
day, or they told Martin Luther one time, they said, You better
recant. You better recant or we'll excommunicate you. We'll
kick you out. We'll cause you trouble. You
better come down from this faith that you maintain. You better
quit believing like you do, preaching like you do." And Martin Luther's
great words, does anybody remember what he said? His great words
that rung out through history, and they still stand today, still
stand today. He said, Here I stand, I can
do no other. I'm not moving. I'm going to
stand here all day, throughout eternity. I'm going to stand
right here. So I've been here, I've been
there, and this is where I stand. I can do no other. And also,
the place you stand, if you stand around someplace very long, it's
the place you're tarrying. There's another meaning for the
word, tarrying. To abide in Christ means to tarry.
Now, when you tarry someplace, Not T-E-R-Y, T-A-R-Y. When you tarry in a place, that's
a place you like to linger, isn't it? Wherever you tarry is a place
you like to linger. It's a place you love to be.
You don't tarry in a place where you don't like to be, unless
it's at work and you're bound there. And when that whistle
blows, you're out of there. You're not going to tarry. You're
not going to stand around and talk to the guys. You're out of there. You're
not going to tarry a second longer than you have to. But if you're
someplace where you like to be, you're going to tarry there.
You're going to stay there. You're going to linger there. People who enjoy a particular
place or enjoy other people's company, they tarry long with
people who are in that place or with one another. And they're
loath to leave. They don't want to leave. You
people stand around tarrying out in the parking lot. after
the service is over. And because you're you don't
want to leave you don't leave each other and talk about the
message. And if I if you ever run out of here full speed and
get in your cars and zoom off I'll know I've preached a mighty
poor. But you carry you carry in a
place you like to be and you carry with people you like to
be abide in Christ. Very very. And let me tell you
this, don't ever get aggravated by those who tarry in your house
for a long time. Those who tarry around, those
who tarry in your house, say you have someone over and it
gets to be nine, ten o'clock, eleven o'clock and they're still
there, don't get aggravated. That's a compliment. You like
to stay. in a place where you like to
stay and be with people. Don't get angry. Don't get aggravated. You tarry where you want to be.
I intend to stay with Christ and tarry around this gospel
and the things of Christ and the things of his people. I intend
to tarry there. Christ said this. Christ said
to his disciples one day, he said, they came up to a garden. They all sat down in the garden,
and Christ said, "'Tarry ye here, and watch a while. I'm going
to go pray for you.'" And he said the same thing when he left
this planet. He said, "'Tarry ye here, and
watch unto prayer. I'm going to go intercede for
you. I'm going to come again and receive you unto myself. Tarry ye here.'" Where were they?
They were together. The disciples were together.
They were together listening to the Lord, dwelling with him
and his people. The disciples were together.
Terry, you hear and watch while I go pray. Terry, with the brethren
in worship and the sound of preaching where Christ is promised to be
and in fellowship. Spurgeon told a story one time
of a a man and his young son who went
into the town of London. And the man was a businessman.
He had an errand to run, and he took his young son with him,
and he told the young boy to get out of the buggy and stand
in a doorway of a business there, and he said, You stay there.
You carry here. And I'll run ten to my business,
and I'll come back and get you. You tarry right there, and I'll
be back to get you." And the man left, and he got so busy
with his business that he forgot all about that boy. And he got
through with his business, and he headed home. And it had been
all day long, and it started to get dark, and he was so engrossed
in business. And finally he remembered his
son. And he got back in that buggy and flew into town, worried
sick that he wouldn't see that boy again. Worried sick. All the trouble and the things
that happened to his son in the big city of London. And he thought,
where do I look? Where do I go? He said, well,
I'll just go where I told him to stay. And he drove back up
and there he was. There was that little boy standing. And the Lord says, Terry, you
hear and watch awhile unto prayer with my disciples, with one another,
in worship and fellowship I go, and I'll come again to receive
you myself. So to abide is to Terry. And lastly, another thing,
what it means to abide in Christ, it means to abide in him means
to be present, to be present. You abide when you're Is so-and-so
abiding there? Yes, they're there. They're present.
Is he in his abode? Is he abiding? He's there. That's
where he is, yes. Turn to Psalm 84, in closing. Psalm 84 is one of my favorites. Psalm 84 means to be present. And when the Lord comes to gather
his elect, and that's what I just told you in that illustration,
but when the Lord comes to gather his elect, they will be found
as the disciples were. When he arose from the grave
and gathered them together, they will be found gathering together.
That's the reason I believe that the Lord will probably come during
a worship service, during the time of worship, worship service. When they were all gathered together
in an upper room, then the Lord appeared unto them, And I believe
that's when he's going to come for his people. God's children
will be doing what they began doing. They will be doing what
they enjoy doing when he comes. Someone said, if you knew that
Christ was coming tomorrow, what would you do differently? We
really shouldn't do anything differently. We ought to be doing
now what he tells us, told us to do when he comes. Watch, wait,
watch, wait, under prayer and worship and so forth. God's children
who abide in Christ, they will be abiding in Christ. In him
they will be living and moving and having their being. They
will be dwelling in him. He is their dwelling place. They
will stay with him. They haven't gone away. They
haven't left the gospel. They stay there. They will continue,
they will be found continually doing what they did from the
beginning, worshiping, hearing the gospel, rejoicing over the
gospel, what they started doing, what the Lord started in them.
They will endure, they will be enduring under trials and tribulations,
but they'll get through it, they're going to endure. They will remain,
nothing's going to They will not fall. It's impossible. It's
impossible for one of his sheep to fall away. Though all else
fall, they will not fall. They will be standing. They will
be standing because they've come to Christ and they've got no
place else to go. They'll be standing right there. They'll
be tarrying because that's where they like to be. And they'll
be doing what they love best. They'll be worshiping Christ.
They'll be present when the people are gathered together. And we're
told to exhort one another and provoke one another and exhort
one another so much more as we see the day approaching, and
not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together, but to be
present, to be present with the body. Look at, all right, let's
read Psalm 84, verses 1 through 4, in closing. How amiable, how
lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. That's Christ, that's
Christ's church, that's Christ's people. My soul longeth. See,
David was in exile from worship, and he missed it desperately.
My soul longeth, yea, even fainted for the courts of the Lord. My
heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the
sparrow, there's a little bird who's in the top of the temple
there listening to the priest read from the word of God. She's
found a house, a dwelling place. a swallow, the swallow a nest
for herself, a resting place, where she may lay her young and
teach them and bring them up safely. Even thine altars, O
Lord of hosts, my King and my God. Blessed," here it is, "'O
happy are they that dwell in thy house.'" That's where they'll
be still. When you come, they will be still. Children, abide in him. Abide in him. Stay there. Dwell
there. Stand there. Sherry, let's sing
this closing hymn. Number 359. 359. Some good words
to this hymn. Three hundred fifty nine, let's
stand as we sing. Okay? My Savior's love to me I'll ever
offer now The. The. Third verse. While life's dark
ways I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my God. If
darkness turn to day, Life's sorrows tears away, Let me never
stray from Thee, O God. When in life's ancient dream,
In death's lost silent stream, Shall all need Thee be. Our Heavenly Father, keep us
through thy word. Thy word is thy power. He said, We are kept by the power
of God, and all things are upheld by thy word. And we are upheld
by thy word. We are kept by thy word. We are sanctified through thy
word, thy truth. Lord, this one little word with
such great meaning, such glorious truth, the truth shall set us
free. Lord, may we abide in Christ
in all that means. Give us an understanding of what
it means to abide in Christ. Give us the grace to do so. By
your grace we've met here tonight, and by your grace we will profit
from the Word. Plant the seed in Christ's name. Amen.