How The Truth Can Set You Free, Part 8

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. A believer's security with God through Jesus Christ should be powerful motivation to live a wholly obedient life. The series How the Truth Can Set You Free continues. All of us who've been saved realize that there have been times in our life where we began to wonder what is it that's keeping us from being able to enjoy the Christian life to the maximum? What is it that sort of cheats us out of that cutting edge of real peace and joy in our Christian life and as we begin to examine what God says in this ninth, eighth chapter of John, for example, when He said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. That is, make you free of the bondage and the shackles of those things that keep us from reaching the maximum of our potential of what God wants us to be. And we came to mention three areas that oftentimes are overlooked and unseen by many people who read the Bible and that is the feelings of insecurity, inferiority and inadequacy that Satan just keeps sending in just beneath the surface of our Christian life.

And so we discussed the fact of how we've been programmed since children to think certain ways that are not scriptural, but that's the way we were taught. And as we begin to understand God's truth and comprehend three specific truths, then Satan is defeated in these areas and we begin to reach out and to enjoy and to reach the maximum of our potential. And so we said those three truths are, first of all, what is one of them? Our position in Christ. Secondly, who we are that is our personage.

And thirdly, our possessions. When you begin to understand what your position is that you were baptized by the Spirit into Christ Jesus and became an everlasting part of him and who you are, you've become a saint. You've been positioned as that you're an ambassador, a child of God and forever that. And when you begin to understand what you have in him, then these feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and insecurity, all of these things begin to fade away and something happens.

And here's what happens. There's a greatest sense of confidence, a greatest sense of security, a greatest sense of worthiness, a more secure feeling of belonging, a sense of being able to face and meet and match any situation in life victoriously, triumphantly and not in the sense of defeat. So today we are in the possessions. That is what we have in Christ Jesus. And we've discussed the fact that we have He said everything in him, access to that everything we have. He says we have an inheritance in him and many, many areas in which we have.

But today I want to talk about three of them. And two of these, you may not think in terms of there being something we possess, but they are very, very vital to the fact of who we are, what our position is, what we possess in the light of overcoming these feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and insecurity. Now, before we begin the first one, let's think about this for a moment. Everybody desires to feel like or to sense acceptance, approval and appreciation.

But now watch this. When we don't get that, when we somehow not able to feel that and sense that from other people, then we do exactly what the world does, fall into their pattern of trying to be able to feel this, this acceptance and this approval and this appreciation. So one of the things oftentimes that slips by us, what you and I possess that we're not aware of is that one of the most priceless possessions we have, having been placed into Jesus Christ and having become and in the process of becoming the person that we are, one of the things we fail to recognize is that one of the most priceless, precious possessions we have is our acceptance by God just the way we are.

Now think about this for a moment. When he says that we are accepted, when you think about the power of the awareness and the realization that Almighty God your Creator, Almighty God your Savior has accepted you, that is when you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you first of all accepted Christ's death on the cross as payment for your sins and you accepted God's method of forgiving you. When you accepted God's method in His way and accepted Him through Jesus Christ on the cross, God the Father accepted you at that moment just the way you are. He didn't say when you clean up your life, when you straighten up this, when you get rid of your habits, when you add these ten laws, when you follow the Ten Commandments, when you stop committing the following sins, then I will accept you. God the Father in His righteousness, in His love, in His mercy said in that moment when you were a jewel in the rough, and I mean some of us were really in the rough, God says I'll take you just the way you are. He accepted you just the way you are. When a person genuinely understands the meaning of acceptance by God, that He takes me just the way I am, that is He knows all about you so you can't disappoint Him.

He knows past, present and future. Knowing ahead of time, thousands of years ahead of time that you were going to blow it over and over and over again, He says I'll still take you. He accepted you just the way you are. That will not be motivation to go out and sin against God, that's motivation for holy obedient living. That God knowing all of your weaknesses, all of your failures, how many times you were going to blow it, He says I accept you just the way you are.

So we're not talking about license to sin, we're talking about liberty to live freely in Christ Jesus. Now listen, if God the Father has accepted you just the way you are and you don't have to keep living up to measure up to something, you and I can rest in Him with absolute security about our future. Adequacy that He lives within us is able to provide everything we need for every single moment.

We certainly don't have to be inferior to anybody because we have Christ living within us. We've been accepted, we have been accepted by the Holy of Holies, God Almighty Himself. And my friend, that is a freeing, liberating thought that He's given us. Second thing I want you to notice as far as our possessions here in this particular time is in John chapter 5, look there if you will for a moment. And in this fifth chapter in the 24th verse, He says not only do you and I have the possession of His acceptance, every single second of our life for eternity now, but He says you and I have eternal life.

And I want to say just a couple of brief things about it. Chapter 5 verse 24, you see for the believer eternal life is not something that begins at death, it begins, it began the moment you receive Christ. Listen, verily, verily I say to you, he who hears my word and believes on Him who sent me has, listen, present tense now, has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has, aris tense, once involved in the past, has passed out of death into life. Now, every single believer is the present day now possessor of eternal life.

Now, usually we have a short sightedness oftentimes. We think of eternal life, we think of something that God gives us from heaven that gets us to heaven, but that's not it. The Bible says, he that hath the Son hath what? Life.

He that hath not the Son of God hath not what? Life, but the wrath of God divides upon Him. So what is our life? What is our eternal life? Our eternal life is Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit living within our spirit. He has given to us Himself that is my life. He that hath not the Son hath not life.

Do you know what that means, my friend? It means as good as you are, as smart as you are, as intellectual as you are, as wealthy as you are, as prominent as you are, if you do not have Jesus Christ living within your life, my friend, you are a walking dead man. I didn't say that, God said it. God has a standard that He provided at the cross, and when Jesus Christ died, He opened the door for you to be saved. And if you're unwilling to come to Jesus Christ and you die without Him, you won't have anybody to blame, nobody to blame but you and your stubborn, rebellious pride and self-will.

Now, that may be a little difficult capsule for you to take, but I want to ask you this. Would you ask God if I've told you the truth? Would you look into your life for just a moment and see if I've told you the truth? That within you there is that self-will that you're going to do it your way. And God says there is only one way, and that's His way, and that's the cross. The quality of eternal life is divine life. You and I have God Almighty living within us. That's what eternal life is.

It is a quality of life that brings fulfillment and contentment and security and a sense of worthiness. You see, eternal life is all that I need. Everything that I need in this life is wrapped up in the gift of eternal life which is in the person of Jesus Christ. So when we quote John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, what we usually think about is either hell or heaven.

That's not it at all. Heaven is the prophetic place where we're going to be. It is a literal place, no doubt about that, but eternal life begins now. When you have Christ in your life now, you have eternal life now.

You have a whole different quality and character of life that's more than in length but it's quality in depth and contentment and fulfillment. You have God Almighty. You have divine supernatural life within you. That's why you can't ever be lost because you become a child of God and within you within your spirit is the living life. He says I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish and He didn't, Jesus didn't say they shall never perish unless they fail in their performance. And I want to say again without Jesus Christ, the only thing you've got to go on, brother, is performance. If it isn't by grace, it's performance.

You will never know how well you've performed. If it were performance, all of us would be lost, but because it's grace, all of us can be saved. There's a third gift that we have and one that we probably don't think too much about is a gift and that is in 1 John chapter 1, look if you will, and here John is talking about his relationship and their relationship to Christ and to each other and so he says in verse 2, the life which was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you that is the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. You know what he says in that verse? He is identifying eternal life with Jesus. He says when you have Jesus, you have life.

Notice what he says. And the life which was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you that is the eternal life which was with the Father, he's speaking of Christ, and was manifested to us in human flesh. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also that you also may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now think about this for a moment. One of the most priceless possessions you and I have is the personal possession of being able to fellowship on a one to one basis intimately with the God who created this world.

Now think about this for a moment. Every other religion in the world, regardless of what the religion may be, every other religion in the world, they can worship their gods, they can revere their gods, they can honor their gods, they can praise their gods, they can make sacrifices and offerings to their gods, but there's one thing they can't do with their God, they can't fellowship with Him. Because you see, for two people to fellowship, you've got to have two living objects. And all these other gods are dead. My friend, the Christian is the only person in the world who has the powerful potential of fellowshiping with His God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

Look at that word, if you will. The word fellowship comes from the Greek word konos, which speaks in terms here of relationship, something having something in common. So when He says we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, it is a sharing relationship.

The word fellowship is a giving and receiving, it's a sharing. And you see, when you and I think about the fact that we can have fellowship with God, you see, let me tell you why you and I neglect the most powerful, precious possession we have on this earth as believers. The privilege of talking to the God who created this world, the privilege of talking to the God who's, He says He has it all in His hand. He can speak, whisper or think and put galaxies into space, create multitudes of world, fling them from His omnipotent fingers. And He says that you and I have the privilege of talking to Him, just telling Him how we feel. Why do you suppose that having access to be able to carry on a conversation with Almighty God, I mean, and besides that, we have all these love letters.

It's just one big love book that He wrote us. Having access to all of this, why do you suppose we don't talk to God more than we do? I'll tell you why.

It's real simple. You say it's sin, that's the reason. No, that's not the reason. The primary reason we don't talk to this great, wonderful, heavenly Father who's just poured out everything in heaven upon us. The reason we don't talk to Him any more than we do is because we don't know Him very well.

That's the reason. The reason we feel insecure, inadequate, and inferior is because we don't know Him. You see, the more I understand who He is, the more I want to talk to Him, the more I want to listen to Him, the more I want to seek His wisdom and guidance and direction, and the more confident I am that when I come to Him, I'm going to get exactly what I'm looking for.

My friend, listen to me. I don't know of many tragedies in life any more than living a Christian life and never discovering what God is really like. Did you know so many of God's people are stumbling and fumbling and floundering through life? And here's the heavenly Father saying, here I am. Come unto Me, all you that live under heaven, I'll give you rest.

And we just sort of moving our way through life, trying to figure it out and trying to get through and trying to make it somehow. And here is a precious, loving Father who's available, willing, if we would just take time to talk to Him. He says, rest in the Lord. Listen, you can't rest in the Lord while you're fighting life's battles.

Stress, strains, insecurity, inadequacy, inferior, worried, fretting, doomed with life. He says, one of the most priceless possessions you and I have is the second by second, moment by moment, access into fellowship, conversation with the God who created us. I want to tell you, my friend, you ought to make one of the priorities in your life to discover who God is, what He's like, what He can do in your life and what He's willing to do.

Listen, we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now one last thing, listen, sometimes we won't go out of our way and initiate a new relationship because we're afraid of being rejected. I want to tell you something, if that's the reason you've not moved toward God, I can tell you this for sure, you don't ever have to feel or worry about being rejected. Not only will He accept you, but He'll move into the most intimate intimacy of your life to listen, to share, to give, to receive. And my friends, you can build relationship and a fellowship with Him that will sustain you through every trial and heartache of life.

That's yours because of your relationship to Him. And when you take those three possessions, acceptance, His eternal life, and the capacity for fellowship, then inadequacy, inferiority, and insecurity drain by the wayside, and we just get stronger and deeper and richer in our relationship to Him. And that's my desire for you. If you'll discover what God's like, you will rush to that fellowship. Let's pray together. Father, how beautiful You've made the Christian life, how accessible You've made Yourself to us, how accepting You are of all types of folks.

You are never a rejecter of anyone who comes to You. I pray, Father, that many might kneel right where they are, where they're sitting, driving, whatever it might be to say, Lord, I want to ask You to forgive me of my sin. I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Savior, and here and now, no longer performance, but I want to live by grace through faith in Christ. Thank you, Father, for all that You're going to do and for all the richness of this book and all the richness within our lives because the presence of Jesus Christ, we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to How the Truth Can Set You Free. 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.