In Touch Ministries

Guest (Male): The abundant life is life on the highest plane. The abundant life is the life that God intended for all of us to live and that's why he sent Jesus to make it possible, not in our own strength, but in the presence of Christ living within us. It is his abundance.

You say, "Well, look, I've been looking for some of God's abundance." My friend, here's what he said. He said that he's deposited to your account and mine every single solitary thing we will ever need. Now, I have to trust him, and as I trust him, then it's going to flow our way.

Guest (Male): The true wealth God gives to his followers is spiritual, but many believers insist on living like paupers instead of as the spiritually wealthy saints they are. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll hear how to draw on God's infinite resources to feed your soul in the conclusion to our series Grace for Today.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Do you make up rules for yourself in order to discipline yourself and find yourself breaking them? And do you sort of harshly criticize yourself when you don't live up to your own standards and your own expectations? Do you feel distant from God when you're not serving him or doing something that you would consider sort of spiritual? And do you feel close to God when you're doing something that you think is religious or spiritual?

And I wonder if often times you feel driven by such phrases as these in your thinking: I must, I should, I ought to. Well, there are many people today who are living under that same attitude, never quite sure whether they have pleased God or not. That is Old Testament living. That's old covenant living. Jesus said, "I have come to set you free. I'm establishing a new covenant. Things are about to change." And the next day, God established that covenant.

Now, I say all that as a backdrop to say the most important thing and that's this: The Bible says that you and I have been saved by the grace of God. For by grace, God's unmerited, undeserved favor, his kindness and goodness and graciousness toward us, not regarding our worth or merit, but in spite of what we deserve, God has acted toward us in grace.

Through the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, he's made it possible for God to remain just and holy and at the same time work among us as sinners in such a way that God looks upon us as absolutely and totally redeemed from all sin, past, present, and future. It is purely an act of grace. It has nothing to do with what we deserve. And so when we talk about grace, God's new lifestyle, we're talking about the way God deals with us today.

So I want to give you seven words that I really believe sort of summarize and sort of capsule this whole life that we call a life of grace. And the first one is acceptance. In the Old Testament, their acceptance by God was based on their performance. It was based on living up to rules and regulations. When they didn't live up to those rules and regulations as they should, then they felt unaccepted by God.

And so they lived under the bondage of law. Their offering of their sacrifice was absolutely essential to their getting God's acceptance. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, he settled once and for all the basis of our acceptance. Our acceptance in the eyes of God is based not on behavior, not on conduct, not on performance, but it is based on a condition.

And that condition is that Jesus Christ having died at Calvary and having taken all of my sin, and my receiving him as my personal savior by faith, settled once and for all and forever the very basis of my acceptance in the eyes of God. It has nothing to do with conduct, nothing to do with behavior, but a condition. You and I have become the children of the living God, not based on our goodness or righteousness or promises or hopes, but based on the work of Jesus Christ when he died at Calvary.

His death settled once and for all the basis of our acceptance. Now, what does that do? That means when you and I wake up in the morning and we go about our day, we don't have to be looking to think, "I hope I did enough. I hope I prayed enough. I hope I read the Bible enough. I hope I didn't say anything wrong. God, I don't want to have to get down beside my bed tonight and pray and hope God loves me." Friend, loved forever through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid your sin debt in full.

And you will never be free of the bondage of fear of wondering if you have done enough, wondering if you've lived up to it, wondering if you've reached his standard. What is the standard? Listen, God says it is grace, God's unmerited, undeserved favor, because listen, the truth is, we cannot deserve what God has done for us. You can't.

Now listen, if you can't and he's already provided for it, then you can relax. You can relax. You know what the problem with some Christians is? They can't relax. They've been in legalism so long that they can't. It's like they just formed that way. "Man, I've got to have rules. I mean, if you take away the rules, I'm going to feel very insecure." Well listen, what about the love of God? What about just enjoying God loving you based on nothing but the nature of God?

Now here's our problem. Our problem is pride. We think, "Well, I've got to do something to deserve it." No, you can't. Listen, that's the flesh. You will never be able to deserve the love of God. It is acceptance based on what Jesus did at the cross. The second word is assurance. Assurance. What is the basis of our assurance?

The basis of our assurance, he says, "For by grace, God's undeserved love, God's graciousness and kindness toward us, God's forgiveness toward us based on not what we deserve. For by grace you're saved through faith." That's not of yourselves. It is not of works, he says, lest any man should boast. And there are so many believers who are not sure of their salvation.

And I want to say to all of you dear folks, and I say it as lovingly as I know how, who have been taught that you can be saved today, sin tonight and go to hell tomorrow, my friend, there is no peace in that. There is no joy in that. And I want to ask a question. What ever happened to grace? That is, if grace is God's undeserved favor, undeserved, if it is something he does for me I cannot do for myself, then what ever happened to grace, the love of God poured out and poured out and poured out upon his children?

Listen, through his son Jesus, he paid the penalty for my disobedience. He paid the penalty for my doubts and my frustrations and anxieties in life. I don't have to pay the penalty for that. And you see we forget this. That's the most important thing Almighty God ever did was to give his son to you and to me. So the word is assurance. The third word is availability.

Think about this. Before in the Old Testament, only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies and be in the presence of the Ark of the Covenant. The very presence of God was symbolized there. And some priests could go into other areas. But just think about the people on the outside, all the hundreds and thousands and millions of them. They couldn't get anywhere close to that.

Jesus said, "I'm coming to establish a new covenant." And the next day when that veil was split from top to bottom, that was like God opening the door and saying, "Hey, a new relationship." Listen to this. A personal, warm, intimate relationship with Almighty God. Not just Jehovah God, the omnipotent one who thunders out of Sinai, who sends lightning and clouds and thunder and roar and power. But what? Loving, gentle, heavenly Father. Tender, loving, kind, forgiving, generous, sensitive. That's what the Father's like.

And you see, the life of grace is a whole different perspective about God. It is a life of acceptance on the basis of what Christ did, not what I did. It is a life of absolute assurance based on what Jesus did, not what you and I did. It is a life with availability to Almighty God because Jesus paved the way with his blood at Calvary. It is also a life of adequacy.

That means in the Old Testament, they struggled, they did in their own strength, but when Pentecost came, something fantastic happened. And you'll recall those disciples. They worked hard trying to do what they should have done, but they kept on blowing it over and over and over again. And Jesus said to them in that 14th, 15th, 16th chapters of John. He spent a lot of time talking to them about the Holy Spirit and he said, "Now when these things come to pass that I tell you about, don't you dare leave Jerusalem. Don't even think about it."

He said, "You stay right here because something's going to happen. In this new covenant relationship, something's going to happen. Here's what's going to happen: I'm going to send you the Holy Spirit, a person of the Trinity. He's not just going to be on the outside coming and going once in a while as in the Old Testament characters, but he's coming to abide and live on the inside of you. And he's going to live there forever. And everything you need he's going to supply. You'll never have to do anything in your own strength, anything in your own power. I will do it through the Holy Spirit within you."

It is the supernatural power of the living God. And so if you are living in the grace of God, you have the privilege and the right to claim the presence and the power and the enablement of the Holy Spirit to enable you to do every single thing God called you to do, whether it is changing the diapers on a baby or whether it is being the president of your corporation. There's no difference in the eyes of God.

The next word is abundance because you see, Jesus said, "I have come that you and I might have life and have it more abundantly." What is the abundant life? I'll tell you what it is. Listen, the abundant life is life on the highest plane. The abundant life is the life of Jesus being lived in and through me. The abundant life is the life that God intended for all of us to live and that's why he sent Jesus to make it possible, not in our own strength, but in the presence of Christ living within us.

It is his abundance. You say, "Well look, I've been looking for some of God's abundance." My friend, here's what he said. He said that he's deposited to your account and mine every single solitary thing we will ever need. Now, I have to trust him and as I trust him, then it's going to flow our way. And you see, some people say, "Well, you know, I want God to provide for me." Well listen, here's what grace has done.

By grace, God gives power to the weak, he gives purity to the dirty, he gives healing to the sick, he gives comfort to those who are sorrowing. In his abundance, he has provided everything. Now let me ask you a question. If you had to make a choice between these two, which would you choose? If God were to say to you, "You can have all the money you want, I mean millions upon millions, you can have all the money you want, or you can have my wisdom.

You can understand my ways. You can know me intimately and deeply. You can know me intricately how I work and how I operate. You can know me as the God that I am." Which of the two would you choose? Give me the wisdom of God. Give me the ways of God. Give me intimacy with God. You see, you'd be a fool to ask anything else.

And here's the reason. But think about it, when you have the wisdom of God and you know the ways of God, and when God is working in your life and there's a deep abiding contentment and intimacy with him, I'm here to tell you there's not any amount of money anywhere in the world to compare with that. And besides that, their money they're going to have to leave it here. What you and I have got, we're taking it with us. They're going to leave it all. We're taking it with us.

We're much richer than they are. And the Bible says that you and I are to be rich in the things of God, rich in the word of God, wealthy in him. When you start living in grace, here's what you're going to discover. No valley, no mountain peak, no difficulty, no hardship, no trouble, no trial, no tribulation, that's not going to get you down. You know why? Because you'll understand that these are part of the ways of God to mature us, conforming us to his likeness, shaping us up.

And you see, he says he came to liberate us, to set captives free. And you and I have the abundance of God. That's what grace is all about. You say, "Well, you know, I just don't think I would deserve that." Right! Listen, you will never deserve that. The Christian ought to just get that word out of their vocabulary. It isn't deserving, but what? Grace. Say it: Grace. It isn't deserving, it's grace.

The next word is abiding. Abiding. The most beautiful way Jesus could have ever described. I don't know of anything else he could have said that it could have been more perfect than this. He said, "I want to show you about my relationship to you." He said, "I'm the vine, you're the branch." And he says, "Now you are abiding in me and I am abiding in you. And the life in the vine is now the life of the branch.

And the big, luscious, juicy grapes hanging down here from the branch to refresh the spirit and the soul and the body." What is that? That's the life of the vine living in the life of the branch and producing the fruit. You see, the Christian life was never meant to be a struggle, fretting and fuming and trying and struggling. We've all been through that. But how does a branch live in the vine? It just rests in the vine and depends upon the vine for everything.

Jesus is our life. Listen, he is our life. We don't have any life apart from him. And this wonderful abiding relationship is the work of God's grace. The last word is accountability. You say, "Oh, I was afraid you were going to get to that." Well, would God be a God of grace if I were not accountable to him? Absolutely he would not.

Accountability. Listen, here's the difference. It's one thing to think in terms of accountability of this judgmental, condemning, score-keeping God. No. We're talking about a loving, gracious, kind heavenly Father to whom you and I give account every day. Wake up in the morning: "Father, what would you have me to do today? Who would you have me to speak to? Father, would you guide my schedule today because it's yours?

Would you just live your life through me today? And you know the things that I'm going to face that I don't have any idea I'm going to face, and so therefore I can't get prepared for them, but you can be prepared because you can prepare me because you already know what's going to happen." Accountability's not bad. Now, if you die lost without Christ, you've got a lot to be worried about.

But you see, when you and I stand at the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we stand before this loving, gracious Father, is he going to say, "I told you back yonder what I was going to do." No. Is God going to judge us by accusing us at the rewards judgment? No. That's not a time of accusing and condemning. You and I would only be there, could only be there by the grace of God.

Listen, is he going to treat us graciously and kindly all of our life and get to the judgment and say, "It's your turn"? No. In those split seconds, and nobody knows how long, we're going to see him as he is and know ourselves as he sees us and agree with his judgment. And it is all going to be praise. You see, here's what the Lord Jesus' attitude's going to be at the judgment. "One of my trophies. Another one of my trophies."

You see, he's not disappointed because he knew before you and I were ever born all the things you and I would do wrong in life, all the mistakes we'd make and all the failures we'd experience. He knew all about that. You know what he decided? Decided to save us anyway. Do you think he's going to be kind to us till we get to the judgment and let the boom fall on us? No.

He's a gracious loving Father, and according to Ephesians chapter two, verse six and seven there, he says you and I will shine forever in glory as trophies of his great grace. Because you see, angels can't experience it. No angel ever got forgiven of sins and now lives in heaven forgiven. But you and I do. We're trophies of his grace.

So you see, here's the choice you have: Making laws and setting rules, living by legalistic domination, fear, uncertainty. "I hope I'm close. I hope I'm accepted. I'm not sure." Or you and I can live in the wonderful acceptance that comes by the cross. We can live in the wonderful assurance that's purchased at the cross. We can live in the wonderful sense and awareness of the availability of my heavenly Father who's my friend.

In the abundance that he provides for his children. In the adequacy that is ours in him. And you and I can live in this wonderful, relaxing, abiding relationship that it's his work and not ours. And knowing that when it comes time to give an accountability for our life, that our loving Father is going to be just as gentle then as he is right now.

Let me ask you a question. Has there ever been a time in your life when you acknowledged your sinfulness and you realized that your sins had separated you between you and God and you realized that you really and truly needed him? Maybe you didn't know what to do. And so you just said, "God, I hope you'll be merciful to me." That's not sufficient.

You see, to be forgiven of sin means that you realize that you have sinned against him and that there's not anything that you can do for yourself. You see, a lot of folks say, "Well, look, when I clean up some things, I'm coming to God." You'll never get there. You know why? Because the cleaning process is his work. Listen to me. It was the blood of Jesus at Calvary that took care of all the cleaning. You can't clean up anything.

Listen, you may be able to stop a few things, but here's what you can't do. Now watch this. Your cleaning up yesterday's sins will never erase from your life, from your heart, from your spirit the guilt of years of disobedience. Cleaning up today's acts is one thing, but erasing years of guilt, only the blood of Jesus can do that.

And so that's why we say to be saved is to acknowledge that Jesus' death at Calvary paid your sin debt in full. And that when you receive him by faith as a person, as my personal savior, you're saying to God, "Father, I do believe that you sent your only begotten son and he paid my sin debt. I receive him as my personal savior and I therefore believe that my sins are now forgiven, not by what I've done but what he did. And I declare myself as a child of God based on his work, not mine."

It's an act of faith. And then step into this wonderful, exciting journey of hand in hand, listen, hand in hand with a heavenly Father not whom you're holding onto for the rest of your life, but in his absolute eternal grip holds you for all eternity. That's the life of grace. And it is available to all who will call upon him.

Guest (Male): Remember an important takeaway from today's edition of In Touch. All who accept Christ as savior experience the grace of God. It's not a matter of cleaning up your life, but acknowledging your inability to save yourself. Once you've received God's gift of forgiveness, joyfully live in his grace. At Intouch.org, you'll find resources that will help you know more about salvation from sin and how you can enjoy your lifelong journey with Christ.

And follow the link to Today on Radio to go back over today's message. Connect to our online bookstore to order a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, Grace: God's New Lifestyle, or order the teaching set titled Grace for Today. 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.

When you've done something you're ashamed of, does it feel like you need to regain God's acceptance? Insight is just ahead in today's moment with Charles Stanley.

Guest (Male): The peace of God is tranquility and quietness of the soul. It is the assurance that no matter what's going on around us, everything is secure. Peace is not determined by circumstances. Neither is it a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice. In a world filled with noise and uncertainty, you can discover peace that cannot be shaken. Get your new free booklet, Peaceful and Still: A Guide to Experiencing God's Rest in an Anxious Age. Visit Intouch.org/peaceful.

Guest (Female): In our spiritual journey, we often have questions. How do I know God's will for my life? Does God hear my prayers? Why do bad things happen? The answers are found in the Word of God. But how do we know where to start? The free In Touch Devotional can help point you in the right direction with biblically based content from Dr. Charles Stanley. You'll gain insight and wisdom through daily devotions, Bible studies and more. The In Touch Devotional, delivered monthly to your mailbox. Subscribe for free at Intouch.org/daily.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. Sorrow for sinning should lead a believer to repentance, but never to doubting God's acceptance. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Sometimes my conduct or my behavior may not be acceptable, but listen, you must understand you have to separate yourself from what you do. You say, "Well, shouldn't they be consistent?" Yes, but what I want you to see is this: Our conduct and our behavior sometimes isn't what it ought to be. But that doesn't mean that I'm not a child of God.

And you see, God accepts us. He doesn't accept all of our conduct. He doesn't accept all of our thinking, for example. When we think, "Oh, God, you're going to wipe me out today. Lord, I..." He doesn't accept that, but he accepts you. And you see, if you link it all up so tight that you think that God's acceptance of you is always based on conduct, performance and behavior, friend, you will be up and down like a roller coaster, never knowing when God's approved of you or not.

And there is no peace, no blessed assurance, no confidence, no anything that has to do with this wonderful new lifestyle that Jesus came to give us. It's acceptance based on him. And listen, there's nothing wrong with him. He is the perfect Lamb of God that died to take away the sin of the world, your sin and mine all on him. You're forever accepted by God once you receive Jesus Christ as your savior from the penalty of sin. Trust in him today and log on to Intouch.org to learn more.

And if you have a story about what you've learned through this program, please share it with us. Coming soon on In Touch, you may have heard people say they found Jesus, but that's not really the way it is. Be back Monday to learn about how Jesus is the one who seeks you. We hope you'll join us again for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

Guest (Male): 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.