Welcome to the InTouch podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, June 9th. Christians are God's possession, called His children and heirs to the kingdom. Keep these truths close 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 scriptures.
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.
And they 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, old 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 is 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 of 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 a 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 look in Colossians chapter 1 for a moment, And if you look in verse 13. And in verse 13 he says, Four. 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 part of the family of God, we're 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 us into Christ Jesus, now once in Adam, now in Christ.
Now 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 by grace you're 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 we're saved, 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 heavenness and seated you in the heavenness 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 heavenlies in Christ Jesus now. Not going to be now. Past hence 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 only reason it happened. even when we were dead in our transgressions. That was their 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 heavenlies 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 heavens, 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 heavens at 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. She only 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, sitting the Father with the Father.
at His right hand in Christ Jesus.
so that you are in the heavenly 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'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're in him. That's where 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. No, 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 toward us, what has He done? Saved us and raised us up, seated us with Him in the heavenly Christ Jesus.
So that, listen. If God the Father has seated the real you in the heaven as 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 toward us, that he seat us in the heavenless in Christ Jesus. Listen what he says in verse 7. 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 or to 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.
Then 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 part of the kingdom of that. 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 puts 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 settled 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. Think about what that means. What it means is the only purpose you and I have for living, my friend.
It's 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. peace, confidence, security in him.
He said, but I still don't feel like it. And I will tell you, my friend. Your feelings. We'll 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 husbandman.
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 except it abide 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 It's 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. All right, 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. 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. 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. Yeah. Thank you for listening to part two of How the Truth Can Set You Free.
If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
