Alba 7-21-2024
CONSTANTLY ABIDING
I John 2:24-29
Frank Laubach, was born in the United States. At the age of 45, while working as a missionary in the Philippines, Frank Laubach dedicated himself to the practice of abiding constantly in the presence of Christ.
On January 20, 1930 he wrote this: “Submission is the first and last duty of man. That is exactly what I have been needing in my Christian life. Two years ago a profound dissatisfaction led me to begin trying to line up my actions with the will of God about every fifteen minutes or every half hour. Other people to whom I confessed this intention said it was impossible. I judge from what I have said that few people are trying even that. But this year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, “What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?”
During the remaining 40 years of his life, his close, continual communion with God, caused some to label him a Modern Christian Mystic. That term, Mystic, sounds kind of … mystical … doesn’t it? It presents a picture someone sitting on top of a hill, chanting and meditating. Well, don’t let that term fool you. Here are just a few of the things Frank Laubach accomplished.
As a missionary, he became concerned about literacy. He developed the “Each one teach one” literacy program. And he founded the first world-wide literacy program. He wrote more than 50 books, many of them best-sellers. He traveled so much of the globe that he was called the most traveled man of his times.
When presented with a Man of the Year award, he responded, “The Lord will not wish to count my trophies, but my scars.” He is the only American missionary to be honored on a U.S. postage stamp. And that just scratches the surface. The point is that we don’t have to disconnect from the world in order to live in the presence of Christ.
So what is the way that we can constantly abide in the things of the Lord that makes sense in the world where we live? I think that the apostle John gives us the answers in I John 2:24-29. Here is what he writes: “24 Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that He has promised us—eternal life.
“26 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
“28 And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. 29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.”
In these verses John is urging us to abide in Christ because not only will it give us confidence in our faith in Him, but also that we might not be ashamed when He comes. John again is addressing his readers as little children. This is an affectionate address for his audience, and not a description of them spiritually. John dearly loved his readers, just as we should love each other in the body of Christ.
With earnest tenderness, we’re urged to “abide”. This is one of the apostle John’s favorite terms. He used it some 24 times in this book. “Abide” is an old English word which means, “to remain” or “stay.” Some translations use the word “continue.” Abiding in Jesus is not meant to be passive, but to be an active purifying of our lives as we pursue holiness. It’s the idea of constantly remaining in a deep and intimate relationship with God. Or as one commentator says, “to be permanently at home with the Lord, and for the Lord to be at home with you.”
This letter of the apostle John teaches us that as we abide, we will be obeying, believing the truth, living like Jesus, and loving like Jesus.
Still, it may be hard for many to stay faithful as a Christian. We live in a post Christian world; an almost pagan society. And the world displays all its glitzy attractions and idols of sport, and social media and gaming, and entertainment and technology and temptations. Christians can get caught up in many mazes, and wander down the many byways and fruitless paths.
For those who have been with Jesus a long time, it does us well to remember the things we must hold on to. When times get tough, upon what do we anchor our hopes? Strength comes from constantly abiding in the care of our Lord. John tells us how to do that. He tells us to abide in the message we have heard from the beginning. So...
1. First We Need to Abide in the Word
To abide in the Word is more than just hearing it. It must be given a vital place in our lives. It has to have an affect on us It should make us different. It is a fact that a Christian will never function successfully unless the Word of God is directing and building him or her into a worthwhile man and woman of God.
When there is a problem with a Christian's spirituality, it can nearly always be traced back to a neglect of, or carelessness, with the Word of God.
The psalmist in Psalm 119 asked God to open his eyes so that he may behold wonderful things from God’s law (His written Word). And he said,“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” When the application of the Word is reduced, so is the light, which causes a lack of discernment and growth in the Christian.
In order to abide in the Word, and to allow the Word to abide in you, you must read, listen to, and study the Bible. Others can not do that for you. We all need to ask the Lord to keep us humble and teachable so that we never grow too old, too educated or too experienced to learn from God. Because we are never too old, too smart, or too experienced to learn more from God and His Word.
We do best when we read God’s Word daily allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us. When we read the Scriptures daily, that is how we can learn God’s character and ways, which in turn give us His answers to our concerns.
When we are serious about abiding in His Word, God will aid us in understanding of the Bible in various ways, such as sharpening our mental processes, clearing our preoccupied minds, preventing distractions, helping us to concentrate, and helping us to recall ideas and to put them together, as we remember what He has taught us.
It is time for us to abide in God’s Word, and allow His Word to abide in us.
To constantly abide in the care of our Lord, John also tells us that the message of scripture is true and not a lie. So...
2. Next We Need to Abide in the Truth
It is not enough for believers to walk in love; we must also walk in the truth. Does it make any difference what we believe? Yes, of course it does. It makes all the difference in the world! In the previous verses it says that we are living in the last hour and that the spirit of antichrist is working in the world. It is important that we know and believe the truth, and to be able to detect the lies when they come our way.
It comes back to letting God's Word abide in us. Otherwise we could be led astray by the spirit of antichrist. No matter what false teachers may promise, in God's Word we have the sure promise of eternal life. We need nothing more!
A religious leader who comes along with “something new”, something that contradicts what Christians have “heard from the beginning”, is not to be trusted. Have you noticed that antichristian groups rarely try to lead lost sinners to their false faith. Instead, they spend much of their time trying to convert professing Christians to their own doctrines. They are out to lead the faithful astray. But John reminds us that those who are in Christ have an anointing of the Holy Spirit. John isn’t writing to the church because they didn’t know they had a special anointing. He is writing to remind them of the anointing they have so they will stay in the truth.
Jesus said in John 16:13, “But when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.” Most people who are deceived into following cults or false teachings are people who do not have the work of God’s Spirit within them. Without God’s Spirit in you, you can be prime target for religious con men and cults. Your mind and emotions can be manipulated.
Jesus told the parable about the wicked man who planted weeds in the farmer's garden. Satan’s chief plan is to plant the counterfeit wherever Jesus plants the truth. It is important that we be able to detect the counterfeit and separate the teachings of Christ from the false teachings of antichrist.
If we don’t know what the Bible says, we hinder the work of God’s Spirit. Then when cults or religious con men come our way, we have nothing by which to judge their teaching. So we need to read and study the Bible to find the truths which are the work of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit can put truths into our minds by reminding us of what we have read or heard from God's Word, the Bible.
So how do we receive the Holy Spirit? You cannot be a Christian without receiving the Holy Spirit. When we face our sins, change from that life, confess and make Jesus Lord and upon that belief are buried with Him in baptism, we rise up in the power of the Holy Spirit who comes to abide in us and aids us. So it is when we place our lives in Christ and die with Him on the Cross, that He raises us up and breathes the new life of the Holy Spirit into our spirit.
Then the same Spirit that inspired the writing of scripture, can use that scripture to keep us in the truth. Jesus had said in John 15:26, “But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.”
The truth is in Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life.
So to be constantly abiding in the care of our Lord, John tells that...
3. We Must Abide in Jesus
If we abide in the Word, we will abide in the truth. And the truth will lead us to Jesus. Verses 27 and 28 call for us to “abide in Him”. Think about this: there is a difference between abiding “in” Him, and abiding “near” Him. Think about Noah. He was safe and secure IN the ark. Others may have been near but not in. For us, the Ark is Jesus Christ.
He is the One who withstood the storm of the wrath of God for us. He is the One who became sin for us, and died a substitutionary death for us on that cross in order that the justice and righteousness of God might be satisfied. And so we could have everlasting peace. We are to abide in Him.
When John says, “we do not need anyone to teach us”, it is because nothing new needs to be added on top of what Jesus did or taught in regard to having a right relationship with God and receiving eternal life. God's Word has revealed the truth, and it is in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. There is nothing we can add to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for us. When you hear someone come and say that we’ve been getting it completely wrong about Jesus for the past 2,000 years, you have to be skeptical.
It is not that God will not show us new things, or that we may get a deeper understanding of the implications of the Gospel. But the basic truth of the Gospel will not change. Jesus came to earth as the divine Son of God, fully God, fully Human. He lived among us and taught us the way to real life.
Then He died on that cross to pay the penalty for our sins so that we might step into the eternal life that He made possible for us. And then, praise God, He rose from the dead to demonstrate the new life that He is able to give us.
This is the good news that we have heard from the beginning. Hold tightly to it. Read the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament so that if someone comes and attacks this original message, you can keep the true message remaining in you.
We need to abide the Word, and abide in the truth, and abide in Jesus so that “we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming” as it says in verse 28. What John is begging of his readers, and of us, is that our relationship with God through His Word, His truth, and His only begotten Son is so strong a connection, that we will not shrink back or be ashamed when we enter into the presence of the Lord.
We can not abide with Him if we have sin which is a blockage to trust, and openness with God. That may cause us to think, “I hope the Lord does not come back just now, for this in my life is not right.” That is exactly what John is saying when he speaks of shrinking back and shame.
To avoid this, we must be constantly abiding with the Lord. The commentator Barclay said this, “By far the best way to be ready for the coming of Christ is to live with Him every day. If we do that, His coming will be no shock to us but simply the entry into the nearer presence of One with whom we have lived for that long.”
If we do that, we will have no regrets when He appears. We will run to Him with rejoicing, and be able to abide with Him forever.
CLOSE:
The first song we sang this morning is called, “Constantly Abiding”. It was written by Anne Murphy (1878 – 1942). We know her husband, Will, ran a pottery business in Ohio.
Not much else appears to be known about her life except that she was widowed around 1929. And without her husband, having lost her wealth, she moved to California to live with her sister.
The hymn was written in 1908 when she was thirty years of age. There is no information what her music background was. This hymn is apparently the only hymn she wrote. It must have been her personal testimony of her trust in Jesus.
To have written this song, she must have experienced the peace that believers can have when abiding in Jesus. And the words of the song tell us she knew that some glorious day her Savior would take her to her heavenly home.
Her personal testimony was “Constantly abiding, Jesus is Mine”. The question is: Is He ours? Is He yours?
