In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: The only way for anything or anybody to get to you is first of all, they've got to go through whom? They've got to go through the Lord. He says the angel of the Lord encampeth roundabout them that fear him and he delivers them. If one of the problems, one of the burdens, one of the things that has harassed you all of your life, is the feeling of insecurity. I just don't feel secure. Don't feel secure in my job, don't feel secure in my finances, don't feel secure in my family, don't feel secure in my relationships. Listen. Our security, my friend, is based on one thing. It is based on a relationship, on a position of being in Christ Jesus.

Guest (Male): You may or may not feel proud of your family history, but scripture states that if you're a believer, you're related to the Creator of the universe because you've been adopted by God.

Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll hear about your true identity, in part three of our series, how the truth can set you free.

Dr. Charles Stanley: If you turn to John chapter eight, we'll just read a couple of verses, remembering that the Lord's been talking to some people who have begun to believe in him. He said in verse 31, Jesus therefore was saying 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."

And what it is that makes us free is abiding in the Word of God. Now, let me just sort of catch you up with where we are. We're talking about God setting us free, that is, setting us free of the bondage that shackles us and imprisons us from becoming everything God wants us to be and accomplishing or achieving those things in life that God has set out for us.

So this is where we are headed, and we said, "Now, one of those truths that that sets us free," and I believe there are three essential truths that sets us free, that is, "having already been saved." One of those truths is our position in Christ Jesus. So what is that?

And you'll recall the Bible says in First Corinthians chapter 12, that God, through his Holy Spirit, the moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, that is, we accepted his death on the cross as sufficient, adequate payment for our sin. The moment we accepted him as our Savior, he baptized us where? Into Christ Jesus, sealed us as a child of God, and forever we're in him.

That is, our position is that we are living in union with him. He says, "Abide in me, and I in you." So that we're living in a relationship of abiding in Christ. That is the relationship to which we have been placed by the Holy Spirit. And you'll recall as we examined that position, what that position called for. The Bible says that we have become the sons of God, that we are in the family of God, we are in the kingdom of God.

And he says not only that, he says, "But when that began to happen, the Lord Jesus Christ, who has ascended to the Father," he said, "being in him that we are likewise seated in the heavenly in Christ Jesus." God says that he placed every single one of us in Christ Jesus. The only way for anything or anybody to get to you is first of all, they've got to go through whom? They've got to go through the Lord.

He says, "The angel of the Lord encampeth roundabout them that fear him, and he delivers them." If one of the problems, one of the burdens, one of the things that has harassed you all of your life, is the feeling of insecurity. I just don't feel secure. Don't feel secure in my job, don't feel secure in my finances, don't feel secure in my family, don't feel secure in my relationships. Listen, our security, my friend, is based on one thing, one thing only and nothing else.

It is based not on what I have, or who I am, or where I am. It is based on a relationship, on a position of being in Christ Jesus. That's where our security is. Our security is found in a relationship and not in our possessions or our position in life.

So my friend, the scripture says that your position today is that you are in Christ Jesus. And he says, "He put you there, he sealed you there, he's put you in the heavenly, and if God puts you there, brother, you are kept forever." Amen.

Now, what is the second truth that you and I need to get a hold of? And I may be on this truth a long time. And that is the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus. We know where we are, we're in him. But who are you in Christ Jesus?

If you recall, when you grew up and you were first saved, and somebody told you what it meant to give your life to Christ, and so you did just that, and then they probably told you, "Now, you know, you're going to sin after you're saved, and so you're probably going to sin every day, but remember that God saved you and you're eternally secure, and so one of these days you're going to die and go to heaven. But until that time, you're going to have a journey. It's going to be in the valleys and on the mountain peaks and on the roller coaster ride of the spiritual life.

And so what you want to do is you want to be sure to memorize First John 1:9, because you're going to need it every day. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So most of us grew up believing and seeing ourselves just like we were taught, and that is I'm a sinner who's been saved by the grace of God.

And as I trust the Lord all through my life, one of these days I'm going to be lucky enough to die and go to heaven. But I want to ask you a question. Is that the attitude that God intends for his people? Look if you will in Corinthians, First Corinthians chapter one. Let me ask you this question. What is the church that Paul had the most trouble with? Of all the churches, Philippi, Thessalonican churches, Rome, you name it, which was the church he had the most problems with?

The Corinthian churches. I mean, they just about broke his heart. But I want you to listen to what he said. Verse one, "Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Sosthenes our brother, to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, what? Saints by what? By calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." Now listen.

Where in all of his writings did he say to the sinners at Rome, to the sinners in Galatia, to the sinners at Philippi, to the sinners in Thessalonica, to the sinners in Corinth? He didn't say that. What did he call them? He called them saints. You say, "Oh, now, wait a minute. Hold it, hold it, hold it. If you're going to talk about sinless perfection, I'm not interested." That's not what I said.

I said that God addressed through the Apostle Paul the believers in that day, not as sinners, but what? Saints. Everybody in the church who has been saved is a saint, but there are folks who are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, and they are indeed sinners. Now listen, saints do commit acts of sin.

But because we commit acts of sin is no reason for us to see ourselves and our whole perspective in life is sinners. Now, watch what I'm going to show you here. The Bible says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, what is he? So is he." So that there is a principle and a law, and you can't change this because it is a principle.

You and I are going to act the way we see ourselves. You can't change that. You are where you are today because of the way you thought all these years. You act the way today as a result of the way you see yourself. And if you change the way you see yourself, your actions are going to change. This isn't a matter of mind over matter. We're talking about a principle here.

He says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." So, a man's actions are going to follow the pattern of the way he sees himself. If I walk up to someone else and I see myself as inferior, then I'm going to act inferior. If I see myself on my job as inadequate, I'm going to back off and be inadequate.

If I see myself as being rejected and unworthy and guilty because I don't deserve the good things that are coming to me, I'm going to you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to, in spite of everything I do, I'm going to blow it somewhere along the way and fail. Because you see, not not believing that I deserve to succeed, I'm going to make a mistake somewhere along the way.

We are the products of our thinking. "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." So if we're programmed to say, "I'm a sinner, saved by grace, and I'm going to sin, you know you're going to sin every day." And I ask some people every once in a while, "How many of you can live one hour without sin?" You'd be surprised at folks that don't raise their hand.

You know why? They think, "Oh, my goodness, if I raise my hand, that'll be pride and I've sinned." There's no way in the world, no way in the world to win against that kind of a game. Now listen to me. God wants us to be free to be everything he wants us to be, and I cannot be what God wants me to be if I see myself less than what God sees me, because if I do, I'm going to act less than what God wants me to do.

That is the Holy Spirit within us, who is our teacher and who must inform us and instruct us and empower us to be anything and to achieve anything God wants. But we have to deal with the person of who we are. He says, "Called to be saints." Now I want you to watch that word saint. That word saint, hagios, in the Greek, is the same word for sanctification or holy.

So when we talk about saints, sanctification, or holy, or holiness, it is the same original, same root Greek word. Now then notice what he's saying. He says that we are saints. That is, a saint is one who having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior, has been what? Sanctified, set apart unto God, for God.

Every single believer is a saint because they have been sanctified, that is, set apart unto God, and are in the process of being sanctified on a daily basis, that is, he is renewing us and conforming us to his likeness. All right, the second thing I want us to notice here about who we are in Christ Jesus is found in Second Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, 18 verses here.

In verse 17, he says, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us unto himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself." That's what he did to us.

Listen, watch this, "Not counting their what? Their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the word of reconciliation." Listen, what did he do? He put all of our trespasses upon whom? Upon Christ. Having nailed, he says, "He nailed all of that to the cross with him. And having nailed all that to the cross, our accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior, that freed us."

Now I want you to notice something in the 17th verse. He says, "Therefore, if any person, man or woman, is in Christ," that's our position, "he is a new creation." Let me show you something interesting here. When you were saved, what happened? The Bible says that you gained a new spirit. The Holy Spirit of God came into your life and brought to birth a newness of life within you.

But you didn't exchange bodies, same old body. Something else you didn't exchange. You didn't exchange your mind, your will, your emotion, your conscience, or your consciousness. You didn't change any of that. All of that was still there. Now I want you to watch me carefully here. We're talking about who we are in Christ Jesus.

We're talking about being free and liberated. Now think about this. He says, "The truth will set you free." The truth of your position is part of that truth. The truth of who you are, giving you a sense of security, no longer feeling inferior, but adequate and capable in the power of the Holy Spirit who is within you. Now listen.

The day you were saved, something dramatic, drastic, and eternally happened to you. You became a new creation in Christ Jesus. But still deposited in the same old physical house, this body, still the same mind, will and emotion, conscience and consciousness. So immediately God began to do something in your life.

He began the work in your life of doing what? A transformation. So something begins to happen. Listen, in order for me to enjoy, in order for me to be able to express, in order for me to be able to become and to achieve what God wants, something must begin to happen in my thought processes if I am going to enjoy everything that God's provided in my relationship to Christ.

And that's why he says, "The truth will set you free." Now you can be free from condemnation, that is, you can be free to go to heaven, but if you're not free from these other satanic harassments, then what we can do is live saved, but what? About half sorry, and two thirds miserable. And that's where a lot of Christians are. God doesn't want us living that way.

So what does he say? He says in Romans chapter 12, he says, "Be not conformed, shaped into the mold of this present world, but be you what? Transformed." That is, a transforming process goes on. You don't get transformed to be saved. Salvation is an act of God in the twinkling of an eye. The moment you receive him by faith, you're saved at that moment.

But he says he predestinated us, not to be saved, but what? To be conformed to the likeness of Christ. Now if he is in the process of conforming me to the likeness of Christ, what's being transformed? What is being conformed to the likeness of Christ? I have a spirit that is absolutely brand new, created, a new creation in Christ Jesus. But what's being transformed?

What is this what is this renewing? He says, "Don't be poured in the world's mold, but what? Be ye transformed by the renewing of your what? The renewing of your mind." All right, now, the renewing process, that's really what we're doing in this series. We're talking about the renewing process, and that is we need to begin to think about ourselves the way God sees us.

If we don't, though saved, we will go through life harassed, burdened down, shackled down, with attitudes about God. You see, listen, if I can't believe that that I am accepted in the beloved, that I am accepted in God, I don't have to feel rejected. I don't have to feel guilty. I don't have to feel like I've got to measure up.

I've got to follow with 15 principles in order to get God's grace today. If I can see myself accepted in the beloved, on the basis of my relationship to him, I'm going to be freed from some of that. But until I do, I'm going to live under Satan's satanic, very effective, satanic oppression.

And a lot of people who go into the doctor need to get on their knees, find out who they are, claim by faith God's position, God's possession, and God's person in them. And I want to tell you, my friend, that'll do something for you that no pill will ever do, because of your relationship to life. That is, the life, eternal life of Jesus Christ living within you. Now watch this.

He says in this passage back here, a new creation, but what is new? New on the inside, but I'm not new on the outside. I'm not even new in all my thinking, because how many of us have been saved and yet the next day or the next week, did something just like we used to do? Same old habits. The habit patterns have been riveted into my mind with 20, 30, 40, 50 years of living in sin.

So there's got to be a transforming experience. That's why he says, "Don't let the world shape you into its mold, but he says, 'Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.'" What did Jesus say? He says, "If you abide in my word, you shall be my disciples. And the you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

What is it that frees you? What frees a man from these things, frees a woman from these attitudes and these harassments, this bondage, is what? The word of God. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." This is the truth. Now, how am I transformed? How am I made free? He says, "By the renewing of your mind."

Now listen. The renewing process is the feasting, the absorption, the study, the intake, the perusing, the concentration, the meditation, the praying it back to God, upon the word of God. Listen, getting God's viewpoint about himself and about myself, seeing myself in my position in him, seeing who I am, seeing what I possess in him, and what happens?

Then I begin to think like God thinks. When I begin to think like God thinks, what does that do? That renews my mind. I've seen a lot of people who've been saved and back in the same old habits. They say, "Well, I know I'm saved, but I just can't break out. Can't break out? Can't get release, can't get liberty, can't get free? You mean God who's Almighty enough to save you and sovereignly rule this world, you mean he can't break you out of a habit?"

You know why they feel that way? The habit's so strong. Now they know they're saved, they're in Christ Jesus. But the mind's not been renewed. There's some things they need to learn. And he says that we are saints and that we are new creations. But listen, new creations in Christ Jesus, and some of you've said a long time, many times, "I know I'm saved, but I can't figure out what it is, why things aren't working." I'm going to tell you why they're not working, because your attitude about God and yourselves is not right.

When you see who you are and what you are in Christ Jesus, what else really makes a difference? Because your sense of insecurity is going to tumble. The feeling of inferiority is going to crumble. All those things are going to dissipate, and you're going to begin to walk, listen, walk in the truth. And here is the burden. The burden is that Satan is going to send you those same old feelings, unworthy, guilty, incapable, inadequate, insufficient, insecure, you're going to feel the you see, unless you say, "All right, it makes no difference what Satan says, here's what God says."

And it all boils down to one or two things, I'm going to have to make a choice. And my choice is, I'm going to have to believe the divine facts of this book and resist and reject my feelings, or I'm going to accept my feelings and settle for a life far less than God Almighty has allotted to me and to you.

And I simply want to ask you a question. On the basis, have I told you the truth? Say amen. Who you are, a saint in Christ, and I've only told you a little itty bitty part of it. A saint in Jesus Christ, a new creation in him. You're a brand new person in him. But you see, if you've not been living new, I want to tell you, he says, "The truth will set you free. If you abide in my word, continue in my word, absorb it, study it, keep on reading it."

You see, some people listen to a sermon one time and that's it. You can't do that. He says, "Continue in my word." You know what's happening? The renewing of the mind is going on, God is changing your attitude about the way he sees you and the things that are happening in your life. And your actions are going to be different because your attitude is going to be different, because you're going to begin to walk, listen, in faith on the basis of what God has said, not what Satan has made you feel.

And here's the simple choice. Had you rather be who God says you are, or are you willing to listen to Satan's lies and settle for less in becoming and achieving that almighty sovereign loving God has provided for you and me? That's the choice. And I pray, my friend, in Jesus' name, you'll make the choice of resisting your feelings and accepting the facts of God.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Believers obviously sin, but they're no longer citizens of the kingdom of darkness. They are God's workmanship, saints and ambassadors to those still in darkness. If you're a Christian, don't get mired in disobedience. Allow your position in Christ to change the way you think and live.

Find out more about becoming a Christian and growing in faith when you search our resources at intouch.org and go back over what you just heard by clicking the link to today on radio. If you'd like a copy of today's message, it's included in Dr. Stanley's set of 10 sermons, titled, How the Truth Can Set You Free. Again, that's intouch.org. To call or text, it's 1-800-INTOUCH. You can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

It's common for Christians to refer to themselves as sinners, saved by grace, and yet, scripture calls believers saints. Today's moment with Charles Stanley is coming up. In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: We're to have strong convictions based on the word of God.

Guest (Male): He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future. In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Now watch this.

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Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this, that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Female): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us,

Guest (Male): Get closer to Jesus as we all want to do. You can learn how at Charles Stanley Institute.org. From the Pastor's Heart is an in-depth teaching letter inspired by the teachings of Dr. Charles Stanley. To receive In Touches From the Pastor's Heart letter, call 1-800-INTOUCH or visit intouch.org/pastorsheart.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. How you think about yourself affects you every day. With encouragement for believers to think accurately, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Now, if I wake up on Monday morning, it's pouring down rain, the bottom's dropped out, I don't like my job anyway. If I wake up on Monday morning and I think, "Oh, my goodness, here I go again, old sinner, saved by grace. Going to struggle through it one more time." I'm going to start off negative. Amen.

Going to start off that way. But if I wake up on Monday morning and I praise God, hallelujah. Saint Charles, facing a brand new day. Facing a brand new day, what? Because the Spirit of God is alive within me and he has sanctified me and set me apart unto God. Listen, I may be a waiter in a restaurant, I may be a carpenter putting a roof on a house.

I may be a plumber under somebody's old nasty, dirty basement. It doesn't make any difference what I am. If I'm a saint, hallelujah, I'm in the same position that the highest person in the world is. Listen, presidents and plumbers are no different in God's eyes when it comes to their position or their sainthood if they know Jesus Christ as their Savior.

But you see, if I see myself less than what God sees me, I will back off from God's blessings. I'll back off from God's purpose. I'll back off from God's achievement, and I will spend my life what? In a settle for life less than what he wants me to mean. Now somebody says, "Well, but you know that's going to create egotism and pride." Wait a minute. If it creates egotism and pride, you've missed the whole meaning of saint.

Guest (Male): Learn more about God's grace and living as a saint at intouch.org. And if today's program has motivated you to get to know Jesus better, we'd love to hear from you. On the next edition of In Touch, is your behavior patterned after Christ's example, or is it more similar to the unsaved people around you? Be back to hear about the character we should reflect as saints who are secure in Jesus Christ on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.