How The Truth Can Set You Free, Part 2

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Christians are God's possession adopted by the Heavenly Father and children of the King. Keep these truths in mind as you listen to part two of How the Truth Can Set You Free. If you will listen to this series of messages on how the truth can set you free, my friend, your life will never be the same. There is a liberating power in this passage of Scripture that can make a decided difference in your life. And it may be that you are in bondage to areas that you're not even aware of. Maybe you've been a Christian a long time and can't figure out why you're not happy. Can't figure out why you're not enjoying your Christian life.

If you will listen carefully, I believe God will speak to your heart and show you the real problem. And if you will apply what you're going to hear, I can assure you your life is going to sense a freedom and liberty you've never known before. John chapter 8, let's begin reading, if you will, in verse 31, remembering that Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and He's talking about the truth. And He said, therefore, to those Jews who had believed Him, If you abide in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, We are Abraham's offspring, have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, You shall become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever.

The son does remain forever. If, therefore, the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, let me define what I mean by freedom.

I mean release from the bondage of those things, attitudes, habits in your life that are hindering you from becoming the person God wants you to be and from achieving the things that God would have you to achieve. Now, listen to me carefully. There are three aspects of this truth that are essential to be set free. One of those truths is the one I want to talk about today.

I'm going to tell you all three of them, but I'm only going to talk about one today. The first truth and the basic truth is I must know the truth about my position in Christ Jesus. And until I know that I will never feel the security God wants me to feel.

Now listen to me. What do we mean when we say our position in Christ? What is that position? What is my position in Christ Jesus? What do I mean by that? I want you to look at about five scriptures, if you will, beginning in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look there for just a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. Look at that. What do we mean by position?

What is that position? That the Holy Spirit is engineered in your life and mind. Verse 17.

Therefore, if any man beware in Christ, he's a what? A new creature. All things passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

Now watch this. The word reconciliation means to bring back, to reclaim. So what did God do in his grace and his mercy? He reached out through the Lord Jesus Christ, convicted you of your sin, showed you his grace, and he brought you back to himself, which means that now you have been reconciled. So you and I are in a position of having been reconciled. That is, we've been brought back. That is, we are now with God. We have been brought back into oneness with him.

Second thing I want you to see as a result of that. Look, if you will, in John chapter 1 and verse 12. But as many as received him to them gave he the power, the right to become what? Children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

Now watch this. So what did he do? Our position is we've been reconciled. He reached out, found us in our sin, reconciled us unto himself and made us what? He made us sons and daughters of God.

What is my position? My position is I am living in the state of being reconciled. My position is not only that, but he says, I have been made a son and you women have been made daughters of God.

All right, let's move one step further. If you'll look in the Colossians chapter 1 for a moment, and if you look in verse 13, and in verse 13, he says, for he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son. Now watch, we have become citizens of the kingdom of God, God's entire great sovereign kingdom that covers this whole universe over which he reigns every single split second of every moment of every day. He says, you and I have become not only a part of the family of God, we are part of the kingdom. You and I are part of the rule of God and the reign of God, reigning in righteousness with the Lord God Almighty himself.

Our position has changed. He says once before, we were in the domain of darkness, but now he transferred us by an act of our faith, responding to the atoning death of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit baptizes in the Christ Jesus, now once an Adam now in Christ. I want you to look at these verses. Here they are tucked away in this Ephesians chapter 2 passage, and everybody knows these verses. Verses 8 and 9 say, for the grace you saved through faith, man, we've quoted that for years. We know those verses, but I want you to go back to verse 4 and listen to me carefully and ponder the meaning of these verses. But God, listen, but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love, with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive with Christ, for by him received, and has raised us up with Jesus Christ, seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us who are in Christ Jesus.

Now I want you to watch this. Look at this. He has taken the real you, and when you were saved, he said he raised you to walk in newness of life on this earth, but he says he also took the real you, and he took you into the heaviness and seated you in the heaviness in Christ Jesus at the Father's right hand. What did he do? Took you out of Adam, put you into Christ Jesus. He says when Jesus died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he arose, we arose. When he ascended, we ascended. When he was seated at the Father's right hand, because we are in him, we were seated there also. He says you are seated in the heaviness in Christ Jesus now, not going to be now.

Past tense was, it has already happened. You say, how can I be down here and up there? Now listen to what he says.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love, which he loved us, this is the normal reason it happened. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, that was our spirit was dead, body was alive, soul was alive, still thinking, feeling. He says he made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now listen, what is it that he took up there? He took the real you up there.

He's taken the you that's going to last for eternity. He says you are seated in the heaviness in Christ Jesus. How in the world are you going to be lost when you're already there?

You say, but now I just don't feel that way. Almighty God says the day you were saved, he raised you out of your life of sin, placing you into Christ Jesus, and he has placed you in Christ Jesus seated in the heavenlies. That is the new redeemed you. Your spirit, he says, is in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. You are eternally secure. But listen, not only that, you are earthly secure. If you're in Christ, think about this, if you're in Christ and Christ is seated in the heavenlies in the Father's right hand, the only way in the world anything can touch you down here is for Christ up there to allow it to happen.

It's the only way. Now listen, when the Holy Spirit comes into your life and redeems you and baptizes you into Christ Jesus, making you a new creation and one with him, one with him, you are eternally secured. You have become a son in the family, in the kingdom, seated in the Father, with the Father at his right hand in Christ Jesus.

So that you are in the heavenlies in Christ, and the only way you can accept that is by faith, because you can't feel that. And the only people who are going to get liberated are those who are willing to say, Lord, I can't quite figure all that out, but you've said that you have seated me in the heavenlies at the Father's right hand in Christ Jesus. That that's where my security is. But because I've been secured up there, I am also secure down here because you see, where am I? I'm in Christ. He's in us, but more scriptures, we are in him.

That's where our security is. So that while in my mind and in my physical body and in my human spirit, I'm still down here. My spirit that lasts forever has already been seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. God Almighty said, that's where you and I are. Seated with him in Christ. Now, you see, that all deals with my relationship.

Know what? Listen, if you don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then there's no security. You're not in heaven.

You're down here in this mundane world trying to fight your way through and to make it. And you'll never make it, my friend, without Christ. He says that God Almighty has executed his divine miraculous power in us. He says, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love taught us, what has he done?

Saved us and raised us up, seated us with him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. So then, listen, if God the Father has seated the real you in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus and eternally you're going to be there, tell me something you have to be worried about. If Almighty God loves you and me enough and he has so worked in your life and my life to make us eternally secure here and now, not future, here and now, not later but now, to say to us that because of his great love and mercy taught us that he's seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Listen what he says in verse seven.

He says, here's the reason he did it. In order that in the ages to come, he, he may show the surpassing riches. Listen, that is the surpassing, indescribable riches of his grace.

There's no way in the world to fathom the grace and understand it all. He says the riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Friend, the first truth that sets me free is this, that I'm in him. That means I'm in a state of reconciliation. He's brought me back to him. He's made me a son, put me in the family, put me in the kingdom and seated me in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that I am walking in absolute security.

Now, what does that do to these bondage areas? This feeling of not belonging, of rejection. Listen, rejection is Satan's deceit. Listen, he says you belong, he reconciled you, brought you back. He's made your son, made your daughter, put you in the family, adopted you, made you a part of the kingdom. Now, he says he's put you in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, seated at the father's right hand.

Already that's where you are. The real you that's going to last for eternity is there. Now, tell me why you don't feel like you belong. There is no legitimate basis for feeling insecure and a sense, a lack of belonging when God says you belong to him. He reached out and grabbed you, brought you back, reconciled you, made your son, made you a family member. He says he put you into this kingdom and all of that. He says I'm going to settle that once and for all. I'm going to take you into the heavenlies and seat you in Christ Jesus at the father's right hand.

Now, tell me why you'd feel insecure. Only because Satan says you don't have it. You can't do it.

It won't work. Think about this one verse. The next time you think you don't deserve something, read this. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love wherewith he has loved you. And you mean to tell me you think he's going to let you go lacking in any area of your life? He has secured you in him. And that is the foundation, the basis of my liberty and my freedom, that it makes no difference what the world may do to me.

It's already a subtle issue. The issue is that my eternity not only is settled, but he says he has taken me into the heavenlies in Christ Jesus and seated me at the father's right hand with him where he is I am. Listen, where he is I am at the same time I am down here in this body, in this mind and the Holy Spirit, his work is now to live through me the life of Jesus Christ and to live that life through you. You think about what that means. What it means is the only purpose you and I have for living, my friend, is what? The glory of God, to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ, to magnify him, to honor him. So our selfish pursuits don't fit because our citizenship and our family heritage and our position speaks of holiness, righteousness, obedience, joy, peace, confidence, security in him.

You say, but I still don't feel like it. And I want to tell you, my friend, your feelings will keep you in bondage the rest of your life unless you are willing to give them up to the testimony of the Word of God. The Word of God says the truth will set you free. The first step in that truth is to know what your position is, who you are, where you are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now one last passage. Look in John chapter 15 for just a moment. John chapter 15 and listen to what he says. Jesus talking to his disciples right before he left them. He says, I'm the true vine, my Father is the husband. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit he prunes it that it may bear more fruit.

You're already clean because the word which I've spoken to you. Listen, abide where? In me.

And I where? In you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself excepted about in the vine, so neither can you accept you about where? I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides where? In me. And I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

You know what our position is? Our position in our daily life is just resting in him. Look if you will in Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2 and verse 6. Listen to what he says.

And here's sort of the key. As you therefore have received Christ Jesus. How did you receive him?

How? By faith. So walk in him. Alright, you received him by faith. He says, so we are to walk in him. That is we are in him.

He is in us. We are in him. Our position is by faith we are walking in him and therefore if we are walking in him we have all the security we need. All the sense of belonging is there. Because you see we belong to God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Sons and daughters of God in the family, in the kingdom and he says you who have been saved have been seated in him in Christ Jesus. If I'm in him and he's in the heavenlies then I must be there. And my friend don't let your feelings keep you in bondage because you say oh if I could just understand how I could be here and how I could be there.

You'll never understand that. You'll never fathom the miraculous resurrection of Jesus Christ. You'll never be able to explain in finite detail with all the details of the virgin birth or the new birth that you see he gives us enough knowledge to liberate us and free us but you'll never be able to fathom humanly and reason how you can be up there and down here at the same time but that is exactly what he says.

That's our position. Listen, you'll never be freed until you're willing to accept your position in Christ. That you're the sons and daughters of Almighty God and he has freed you to become everything he wants you to be in order to accomplish everything he wants you to accomplish. Thank you for listening to How the Truth Can Set You Free. We would also like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by InTouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.