Based on Relationship

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Anything worthwhile a believer does must be based on relationship, or it just doesn't last. Here's part three of The Life That Wins. Turn, if you will, to John chapter 15 now. Let's read beginning in verse one through the fifth verses, because here he describes the relationship of a vine and a branch, and he says, I am the true vine, which is an implication that there are vines that are not true. I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. He's the one who oversees the vineyard. Every branch in me that bears not fruit he takes away.

Every branch that bears fruit he purges or prunes it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you acclaim through the word which I have spoken to you. Watch this relationship. Abide where? In me and I where? In you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide where? In the vine. No more can you except you abide where? In me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abided where?

In me. And I in him, the same bringing forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Now one of the reasons that many people who receive Jesus Christ as their Savior never enjoy their Christian experience is because they never grasp in a personal experience what it means to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Well, in a person's relationship to Jesus Christ, as long as he's up there and you're down here, you're doing this and not doing that, adding these and subtracting these and he's up there watching on and he's up there helping you, you'll never understand what it means to live a life that wins. Because you see, the life that wins, as we said, is a life of Christ living his life within us. We have a friend within us who is the Holy Spirit who came to seal us as a child of God.

Now when he did that, he severed us from a former relationship. And that's what I want us to see first of all this morning, that is the relationship that you and I had before we became children of God. In Ephesians chapter 2, if you look there for a moment, verse 1 and 2, he says, And you have he quickened, that is made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein times past you walked according to the course of this world. So he says, Before you were in Christ, where were you? He says you were in Adam, in all that man could do.

Then he says you were living where? In sin, that is, your relationship to sin was that you yielded to sin, sin was a part of your life, you are enjoying sin as far as the old Adamic nature can enjoy it. He says not only were we in Adam, not only were we in sin, but he says we also were in death. He that hath the Son hath light, he that hath not the Son of God hath not light. So beforehand, he says you were in Adam, you were in sin, you were in death. But then he says in 1 John, if you'll move on over to chapter 4 for a second, chapter 4 of 1 John is what he says. He says you are of God, chapter 4 verse 4, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that's in the world, which is speaking of the Holy Spirit.

They, he says, are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. Now watch this, he says the unbelievers were, he's in Adam, the old Adamic nature, he's in sin, he's in death, and he's in the world. He says in the 15th chapter of John, he says you're not of the world, you're in the world but not of the world.

Because you see, the unbeliever is in the world and of the world, the nature of the world is his nature. Then he says if you'll move back to Romans chapter 7 I believe, Romans 7 and look if you will in verse 5, he says something else about where we were before Christ came in. He says for when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the Lord did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. He says when we were in the flesh, that is our old defiled temperament, that sin was working its works in our life. So the person who is without the Holy Spirit is where?

He's in Adam, he's in sin, he's in death, he's in the world, he's in the flesh. But he says there's something else if you'll turn to Romans chapter 6 there for a moment, and look if you will what he says in verse 18. He says being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness and unto holiness.

Now watch. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. So here is the condition of a person who is without Christ. Where is he? First of all he's in whom? He's in Adam, he's in sin, he's in death, he's in the world, he's in the flesh.

What? He's enslavement to sin. So that the person who says no I'm not a Christian, but I like it like it is, what he doesn't understand is where he is. My friend if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, Satan has blinded your eyes to your true condition and right now you think that everything is going on alright. But the real truth is that from God's point of view, you are living the root of your life, the core of your life, the nature of your life is in only what man could do and that is the Adamic nature. You are living, you are cloaked with, filled with, permeated by sin, sin's nature's controlling your life, dominated by it, you're a dead man who's walking around in the physical life, but because God made us spiritual beings as well as physical beings, when a man is spiritually dead from God's point of view, he's dead. When you're enslaved by sin, dominated by the lust of the flesh, the old carnal nature, your old defiled, unregenerate temperament is dominating and controlling your life.

Now let me show you something interesting. Even when you become a Christian and the Spirit of God comes into your life, now watch this, the Spirit of God comes into your life, once the Spirit of God seals you, you can't go back into your old Adamic nature. Neither can you be in sin the way you were in sin before. Nor can you be in death because you said, he says, we have his life. And he says if we have his life, we have it, brother, and nothing can pluck us out of the Father's hand. So once you're saved, you're in Christ, you're in life, and you're in righteousness.

You may not act like it, but that's where you are. You say, well, what about those other three, about in the world, in the flesh, and in enslavement? Once you become a Christian, you still have the power to do what? To drift or to take definite steps back into what? Well, back into the world. You begin to mess around with the world, play with the world. And you see, that's the reason many people are saved, but they don't have any victory in their life. They say, you know, you talk about the life that wins, man, I'm back over here, I'm having to fight the same old battles, I'm having to fight the same old temptations.

In fact, I'm back over here hung up on the same things I used to. When you talk about a life that wins, what I want to know is how do I stay out of this mess I keep drifting back into? What is the central theme of the whole life that wins? Now, here's what he's saying in this particular passage. He says that before we were in Christ, you and I were in Adam, in sin, in the world, in death, in slavery, in the flesh, all of this. But once you and I become a child of God, the Bible says, what does he do? Jesus said, I in you and you and me, so that when you and I become a Christian, what does God the Father do? He puts us into Christ Jesus. Now, you remember the 17th chapter of John, as Jesus was praying, he said, Father, as I am in you and you and me, so I'm praying that they will be in me so that they will be one with us as you and I are one together. So that before Jesus left this world, his prayer and his purpose was that you and I would be in Christ, and to be in Christ is to be in the Father. So that when a person becomes a believer, what do they do?

They are placed into Christ Jesus, and we begin to live in him. He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now, Jesus said, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Here's a righteous Holy Father, and here's sinful man. The man says, listen, I'm going to subtract all these things and add a few things in my life, and I believe if I do that, I'll be able to get together and God and I will be one together. You see, his sin has got to be taken care of, and what he's saying apart from Jesus Christ, that he's going to take care of it.

How in the world is that going to be covered? The only way in the world that's going to be covered is this, that he is the Father, and only as that man sinks his life into Jesus Christ and he's covered with the blood of Jesus Christ, only then will the Father receive him. And you see, the only way in the world you and I will ever be able to be received by God the Father is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The cross does what?

Makes it possible for us to become the children of God. Now, you say, well, that's where I am. I know that God the Father and Jesus Christ are the ones because the Bible teaches it. Secondly, I know that I'm in Christ because I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. But in spite of that, I'm still over here drifting, fighting the same old battles, fighting the same old sins, and every once in a while I get hung up over here and I get trapped by the same old things.

How is it that a man can be in Christ Jesus who's in the Father and all the supernatural power of the Father is released within you and me? Why is it we're still not living the life that wins? Why is it we're not having the victory? Why is it we're not having contentment? Why is it we're not having peace? Where is there joy? Because you see, the very best that God has to offer is available to every single one of his children. But I know some folks who are rightly related to these three areas who are down. And they're defeated. And they can't figure out why they could be in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus in them and why things are not right.

Well, there's a reason for that. And you see, if you'll turn back to John chapter 14. And if you recall what he said, in the 16th verse of John chapter 14, I don't mind repeating this because some folks will have heard it for the first time. And some of us need to hear it over and over and over until the relationship and the concept becomes a part of our thinking. All right, you see, everybody who's saved, that's why they are in Christ Jesus in the Father.

Now listen to what he said. He said, I will pray to the Father, and he shall give you another alos in the Greek just like me another comforter, that he may abide with you for how long? Forever. Even the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him but you know him for he shall he dwelleth with you and shall be where?

Where? In you. I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you. All right, now listen. Jesus said in the 16th chapter of John, it is expedient, that is absolutely essential for you that I go away. But he says, if I go, I will send the comforter, he will be in you with you and upon you.

All right, now. He says, now he's with you. I'm going away, and I'm going to send him in a new relationship. And what is that relationship? He has been with you, he will be where?

In you. And he says, when he comes, he will seal you. Now the question is, is that all he intended to do is to seal me? The Bible says he wants to teach me, comfort me, but the Bible says that he wants to rule in your life and my life.

He wants not co-rule but single rule. He wants to govern our life. He wants to fill us. Because we're in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus is in us through the Holy Spirit, his idea is that the life of Christ would just bubble out in our life. The joy of the Lord, the peace of the Lord, the forgiveness of the Lord, all of that is a relationship, the abundant life. You see, me in Christ and the Spirit of God within me, that's not all of it.

That's not the abundant life. That's being saved and being sealed, but that's not abundant. Listen, when you're saved by the grace of God, you get how much of the Holy Spirit? You get all of it. Now the question is, how much of you has he got? He can only have as much as you give him. You'll never get any more of him than when you're saved.

The question is, how much of you does he have? To be filled with the Spirit means that I've got to be emptied. I've got to come to a place that I've got to be emptied of old self, dead to self. I've got to be willing for God to do a work in my life whereby the Spirit of God isn't just in me, but the Spirit of God is filling me. Now listen, God never intended for you to stop it being saved.

He didn't even intend for you to stop it being sealed. He never intends for you to stop in your relationship with him until you are willing to turn your life upside down and let God empty you of all that you are and then let the Holy Spirit who's indwelling you fill you up. And you see, until you and I are surrendered to the Spirit's leadership and guidance and domination and control of our life, we're going to keep on losing, friend.

It's going to be winning today, losing tomorrow. God never intended for us to live a rollercoaster life. And you see, somebody says, well, I'll tell you what, now I went to a revival meeting and I heard a sermon and I mean, listen, before I went, this is the way I was living. You know, I knew the Spirit of God is in my life, but I went to some revival meeting and God got a hold of me. And I mean to tell you, brother, he really worked me over. God really did something in my life. And man, things are really better now. Well, they are better, but they're not right, right?

They're better, but they're not right. It doesn't mean you've got any more of the Spirit. The Spirit of God's got more of you. You got rid of some things in your life that weren't right. Well, you go back the next Sunday and God works you over again. You say, boy, I'll tell you right now.

That's it. God really got me today. And you see, you may be better off, but you're not where God wants you to be. And let me tell you something, there's some folks sitting out there, man, you've subtracted this and subtracted that and subtracted the other.

And you say, listen, there isn't anything else to subtract. That is, from your point of view or my point of view, there may not be, but God isn't satisfied until you and I are willing to say, Lord, let's get rid of all of it. I want you, listen, not only do I want to be in the Father in Christ, not only do I want to be filled and sealed by the Holy Spirit, I want him to have all of my life, my attitudes, my actions, my habits.

I want him to have all of me and nothing of old self. You say, now, wait a minute, you don't mean to tell me sinless perfection? No, I'm not talking about sinless perfection, because you see, anytime, any day or night, I choose to just add a little bit of this junk back in there, I can do it.

In fact, I can add just enough that you can hardly feel the difference. But you're still not filled until as God searches your heart, and you're willing to come under the scrutiny of God Almighty himself, and you want to say, Lord, you name it, and as God names it, you're willing to get rid of it. When he puts his finger on something, there'll never be any filling, never be any filling as long as God's got his finger on something in your life that's not right.

Now, he wants to fill us in order to do what? In order that his life within us, the life of the Spirit overflowing, overflowing with what? Overflowing with love, overflowing with joy, overflowing with peace, overflowing with goodness, overflowing with kindness, overflowing with gentleness, overflowing with patience, overflowing with temperance, overflowing with faithfulness. That is the life of the Spirit-filled believer. But you see, it'll never overflow as long as I short-circuit it by putting something of old self, having my will, absolutely going to have my way in something.

It cannot be an overflow. Now listen, this is the heart of the whole Christian life. All of the Spirit of God you'll ever have, you've got right now. The question is, am I willing for him to have absolute authority? Am I willing to say, Lord Jesus, whatever you want? Am I willing to say, Lord, whatever the Spirit of God leads me to do, that's what I'm going to do?

I'm committed to him. I'm willing for you to empty me in order that you might have all of me, seeking ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all the things that I need. Most of what I desire in life, everything I desire that's in the will of the Father is going to be mine. And the reason for continuous defeat is my insistence on keeping something over here that God cannot have. God doesn't want any dirty rags hanging out of our life. He wants us clean and pure.

Doesn't mean that you'll stay that way 24 hours a day. But all I've got to do, if something slips into my life, all I've got to do is to confess it to him, ask him to remove it, and repent of it right then and there. God takes it away and I'm filled with the Spirit.

But you see, unless you realize that the Christian life is a relationship, how do we get there? We simply said by faith, we receive the Lord Jesus Christ who's in the Father, we're in him, we're in the Father, the Spirit of God seals us, the Spirit of God fills us. And when he fills us, he seals us and does what? Being in Christ fits me to go to heaven, the Spirit of God sealing me and living within me the life of Jesus Christ fits me to live in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, or anywhere else in the world.

That's why he said, don't be drunk with wine where is an excess. He said, but be filled with the Holy Spirit of the living God. And only as the Spirit of God fills us and walks within us day by day, can you and I live the life that wins. It is not our life, it is Christ's life. Through the Holy Spirit living within us of life, we are absolutely and totally incapable of living.

That is a picture of the life that wins. Thank you for listening to Based on Relationship. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.