Free at Last

Guest (Male): I have been accepted in the beloved, I am made acceptable in the eyes of God through His son Jesus Christ, and nothing that anybody on the face of this earth will ever be able to do will ever alter my true, total, genuine acceptance by God on the basis of who I am in Him. Period. I don't have to perform. That frees me. Even though all Christians have been freed from sin through faith in Jesus, many still live captive to old attitudes—attitudes that limit their ability to experience the freedom that God intended. Today's message on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, points us to a singular truth that can open the doors to help anyone who wants to live free at last.
Dr. Charles Stanley: Let me tell you what I believe most people could put on their tombstones when they die, that would be extremely accurate: Free at last. Because most people, even after they're saved, live in bondage most of their lives. They live in a bondage that they do not even understand. They live in a bondage they can't even identify. They just know that all of their life, most of their life, something wasn't ever quite right. There was something out there they never got a hold of, and so probably the most accurate thing they could put on their stone is free at last. I want you to turn to the eighth chapter of John, beginning in verse 28 and going through verse 36. Jesus therefore said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Isn't that a tremendous thought? Always do the things that are pleasing to Him. As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him. 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." They answered Him, "We're Abraham's offspring and have never yet 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 if I were to ask you tonight, how many of you are in bondage? Some form of bondage. I wonder how many people to be honest would have to lift their hand and say, "Well, I am." Now I'm talking primarily to believers, because more than likely most of you here tonight are saved. That is, you have already trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior. You know that you're saved. But you've never felt a real, genuine, true sense of freedom. It's like every time you want to have a lift-off, there's something that has a hold on you that's weighing you down. You've never truly been freed to become, to be, to enjoy, to do. There's just something there. Jesus said, "If you know the truth, the truth will set you free." Now here's the danger about living in bondage. You can get so comfortable living in bondage that after a while, if somebody offers you a way out, you don't want it. You know why? Because you're not quite sure you can deal with that much freedom. Many people when they're saved, here's what they do: they just leave one form of bondage and slip over into another form of bondage. That is, they leave the bondage of the world—the habits that they had, their attitudes, their fears. They had one form of bondage there, they leave that and they become a Christian, and you know what they do? They take upon themselves another form of bondage. Now I've got to live by the Ten Commandments. Now I've got to live by the Sermon on the Mount. Now I've got to pray so much, I've got to read the Bible so much, I've got to tithe my income, now I've got to share my faith, now I've got to do the following things. And so what they do is they move from one form of bondage into another. Friend, that's not freedom. Jesus said when you know the truth, the truth will set you free. Now the problem is, if you can't identify the bondage, how will you ever be set free? And there are multitudes of people, in fact probably most Christians sitting in churches week after week, who are living in bondage and don't even know it—living what they call a normal Christian life that is totally sub-normal Christian living. Because nobody's ever told them that you can be free from all of that. So number one, here's one form of bondage. One of the most subtle forms of bondage that Satan injects upon many people is a false sense of guilt. That is the feeling of being guilty. I notice how I said the feeling of being guilty. Did you know that many people live all of their lives feeling guilty? If you should ask them, "Why do you feel guilty?" they would struggle to come up with a legitimate reason for feeling guilty. Now first of all, if they've been saved by the grace of God, the word justification means that they have been declared by Almighty God not guilty. Pardoned means not guilty—that is, set free. But when Satan tries to cloud your mind with a false sense of guilt, he says, "Well, look at you now." And so what does he do? He just wants to cloud your whole life with a feeling of guilt. Now let me ask you, when a person feels guilty, what else do they automatically feel? If you feel guilty about something, what else are you—even if you can't identify it. If you feel guilty, how are you going to feel in your relationship to God? Condemned, that's right, very insecure. Because if I feel guilty, then I'm not too sure what God may do next. So I've got to walk very carefully. And this is the way some people walk all the way through life: very carefully, because they feel guilty. Guilty about what? It's a false sense. There's a cloud they cannot grab, they cannot hold. It's just there. It is a terrible way to live your life. A second form of bondage is a poor self-image. Oh, I don't measure up. A poor self-image in essence is this: that is the way I see myself. Now it doesn't make any difference the way other people may see me, it's the way I see myself. So the Bible says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." That is, he's going to act out what he believes about himself. Listen, you can't change this. You are going to act out in life the way you see yourself. So if you have been pre-programmed to think little of yourself, to think that you can't, you won't, God doesn't, other folks don't—and you live your life with a poor self-image, with a sense of rejection—and that's exactly what part of that's involved in that. If you live your life that way, then think about this: you'll always live your life in the negative case: inadequate, insufficient, don't belong, unworthy. Jesus says, "I've come to set you free, not to put you in another form of bondage." Poor self-image. Oh, you don't know about me. Listen, I don't know about you, but God does, and I know who God says you are. There's a third form of bondage that I think we have to deal with, and that is an unforgiving spirit. Friend, this has more people in bondage than you could ever imagine. An unforgiving spirit. Oh, but you don't know what he did to me. You don't know how she's treated me. You don't know the kind of raw deal they tried to give. Oh, if somebody treated you that way. You see, no matter who wrongs you and what the purpose is, you're the one who chooses to be in bondage or not. Listen to me carefully: nobody can put you in bondage unless you consent to be there. When somebody has wronged you and you hold it against them, you choose to put yourself in prison. You lock the door yourself. You put yourself in bondage. You're there out of your own making. It is a subtle form of bondage that Satan has more people in than you could ever dream of. Unforgiving spirit. It's terribly damaging to the emotions, damaging to the spirit, damaging to the body. A fourth form of bondage is sensuality. Sensuality isn't just a sin, it is a form of bondage. It may have begun in many, many ways, but it is a terrible form of bondage. Pornography is a key element, whether it's on the screen or whether it's on a piece of paper, it is a key element in putting people in bondage to sensuality. And you and I are living in a sensual age, and we have to work at keeping from falling into the traps of sensuality. And that's why I've said to you: put on the whole armor of God every morning when you get up. Put it on. How many of you are putting it on? Say amen. Alright, some of you are, some of you aren't—you're headed for trouble. But you see, it's a form of bondage. And listen, that form of bondage isn't just limited to young people. Adults are just as open to those forms of bondage as young people—in fact, sometimes more so. Now think about this, what Jesus said. He said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." Now here's the question: what truth is this that sets me free? Well, I know the Ten Commandments. Does that set you free? No. Well, I know the Sermon on the Mount. You can quote that every day. Will that set you free? Not necessarily. Well, I can quote John 3:16. Does that set you free? No. There are many, many truths in the word of God. There is one truth that sets men and women free. The truth is understanding and applying the truth of who I am in Christ, who He is in me, and responding to life out of the truth of who I am. Now what do you mean by all of that? Now let me tell you, you see, God didn't mean this to be complicated. He meant it to be very simple. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. What truth? The truth of who you are in your relationship to Jesus Christ, who He is in you in all of His power, who you are in Him with all of your security in Him. The truth that sets you free is knowing who you are in Him and who He is in you. Now who are you in Him? You are saved, you're a saint, you're a child of God, you have been redeemed, bought from your sinful life. Justified—declared righteous and no longer guilty. Pardoned from your sin. Sanctified—set apart unto Him. You are owned by Him, you're the possession of Almighty God. Your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You're on your way to heaven. You have been forgiven of your sin. You have an inheritance waiting for you. We could go on and on and on. You are accepted in the beloved, not by performance. Who am I? Who are you? I have been accepted in the beloved, I am made acceptable in the eyes of God through His son Jesus Christ, and nothing that anybody on the face of this earth will ever be able to do will ever alter my true, total, genuine acceptance by God on the basis of who I am in Him. Period. I don't have to perform. That frees me. You see, God didn't give you 25 things you had to do in order to be set free. He just gave you one thing. When you recognize a form of bondage, begin to respond out of life to who you know you are in Him: accepted in the beloved. You say, "But now what about that sensuality part?" What is the truth about you? The truth about you is—now listen—you see, it isn't that you can't be free. The question is, do you want to be free? The truth about you is this: you are indwelt by the sovereign God of this universe through the Holy Spirit. All power, Jesus says, is given unto me and I give it unto you. You're indwelt by God. Who are you in Christ Jesus? You are totally secured in Him. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about you. You have everything in you that you will ever need to meet all of your needs in life, whatever they are. So Satan fires one of those fiery missiles and here it comes. I mean you see it coming—flaming temptation coming your way. You say, "Oh, I'm in bondage." Listen, if you want to be set free of any form of sensuality, you must choose to respond to that temptation out of the truth of who you are. You are a child of the living God. Christ Jesus is your life. You can reject any form of temptation by simply resisting it in the name of Jesus Christ, and you do not have to yield. If you have to yield, I'm going to close the Bible and quit, because we don't have a message to a world in bondage if you have to yield. We fall into the bondage of sensuality out of choice and oftentimes out of ignorance. Who am I in Christ Jesus? Child of the living God, my very life is the life of Christ. When I respond to bondage out of the truth of who I am, I am immediately set free. Now that's how simple Jesus made it. He said if you know the truth, the truth will set you free. That is in essence the application by faith, in a very practical real way, of who I am in Him and who He is in me. If that won't set you free, we are in bondage forever. And I'll tell you something else: there isn't anything else in the world that will set you free but that. You can read the Bible for 100 years, 24 hours a day, and that won't necessarily set you free. You can pray 10 hours a day, you can get in bondage even to that. You can give until you give millions and you'll still be in bondage. You can win a thousand people to Jesus Christ a year and still live in bondage. But when you begin to choose to walk into life on the basis of who you are in Christ Jesus, you're going to leave your bondage behind and you will be set free. Free. You know what Jesus is saying? Here's what He's saying. He says, "Look, I've already opened the doors of your prison. Man, walk out. Get out." We say, "But—" we don't say this literally but subconsciously here's what we say: "I've been here for years. This is all I know." And I'm going to tell you, I've been there. But I'm telling you my friend, when you understand who you are in your relationship to Jesus Christ, you can step out of any and every form of bondage. It makes no difference. And if you sit there tonight and tell me, "Yeah, but you don't know my bondage," I want to tell you: you just confess you like it. Did you know you can get cozy and comfortable in your bondage? You've been there, it's warm, cuddly, you like it. But I want to tell you my friend, you'll never be what God wants you to be until you break out of it. Did you know that you don't even have to walk the aisle to get free? In essence the only thing you have to do tonight to be free is to choose in the name of Jesus Christ to start responding from this moment out of the truth of who you are in Him. And you're free. Now this is not to say tomorrow morning Satan isn't going to absolutely avalanche you with bondage. But all you have to do is say, "I want to thank you Lord for who I am in Christ Jesus. I'm accepted. I know who I am. Nobody in the world may like me but God—hallelujah—you do. I'm accepted in the beloved. Hallelujah. Freed." Listen, you don't have to wait until you die to have somebody say about you, "Free at last." I'd rather write it on my heart and live a few years, brother, than to have somebody put it on my stone and I missed the whole freedom of life. Now I wonder, are you free tonight? Or if somebody had to draw you a picture of you, they'd have to draw it like that. Wonderful person, but in bondage. Responding to circumstances out of the truth of who you are in Christ will free you. I'll say one last thing. The next time Satan hits you or the next time you become aware of bondage, you remember this: to stay in it is your choice. Not your problem, your choice. What I'm doing is offering you Jesus' invitation friend, to get out and to get out tonight.
Guest (Male): Thanks for listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. Freedom from bondage to sin can be the experience of any believer who chooses to believe the reality of who they are in Christ. You may have to battle repeated temptation and form some new habits, but you can be liberated as you daily replace your old thinking with scriptural truth. You'll find help for learning how to embrace the freedom that comes with being a believer in Jesus at intouch.org. While you're there, you can find a replay of this lesson. Look for the link to "Today on Radio". And if you'd like to have a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order at the store. The title is "Free at Last". Again, that's intouch.org. You can also call or text 1-800-INTOUCH. If you prefer to write, our address is In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Thinking poorly of yourself actually isn't humility. Some eye-opening thoughts are just ahead in today's Moment with Charles Stanley. There is an inexplicable joy that comes from understanding scripture and learning how to apply it in our own lives. The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible includes 30 foundational truths that Dr. Stanley has learned from over 60 years of ministry. It's available in the New King James Version, New International Version, King James Version, and New American Standard Bible version. To order, call 1-800-INTOUCH or go to intouch.org/store. In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: We want to have strong convictions based on the word of God. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future.
Guest (Male): In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now. You're listening to In Touch. How you view yourself is more important than you might think. With insight for believers, here's a moment with Charles Stanley.
Dr. Charles Stanley: What is your opinion of yourself? I have seen people who had all kinds of ability, so full of negativism about themselves, so gifted by God, tremendous potential, but down on themselves. Do you see that's a subtle form of satanic bondage? Satan doesn't care about what else you do. If he can get you thinking badly enough about yourself, he knows you're not about to get involved in doing anything to the glory of God. And see all these excuses, "Well, but you don't know my background." Listen, it's your foreground we're concerned about, what you're going to do, not where you've been. It makes no difference how bad the past has been. If you will listen to me tell you the truth, and you see, the truth is this: Jesus says, "I've come to set you free, not to put you in another form of bondage." Poor self-image. Oh, you don't know about me. Listen, I don't know about you, but God does, and I know who God says you are. Some of you are down in the darkness of a poor self-image, and I want to tell you, Jesus died to get you out of that. And you can get so comfortable in bondage, you don't want to even see the light. Jesus said when you know the truth, dear brother, you're going to get set free.
Guest (Male): Learn more about how to live in the truth of who you are in Christ at intouch.org. And if today's program encouraged you to invest more deeply in your relationship with Christ, we'd love to hear from you. Upcoming on In Touch, all believers in Jesus are equipped and empowered to serve God. Learn about living in the power of the Holy Spirit when we return for more 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.