Join us as we embark on a spiritual journey that answers fundamental questions about faith and salvation. Through discussion of Hebrews and Romans, we gain understanding into how God not only saves us but also keeps us grounded amidst life’s trials. This episode reassures listeners of God’s unwavering power to save, establish, and keep us from straying, while offering insights into standing firm in faith, even when faced with life’s most challenging situations.
Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, December 19th. What are your needs today? Whatever they are, today’s podcast reminds us that God is able.
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The Bible is filled with many, many precious promises to us that are very, very clear in their meaning and likewise very encouraging in what they offer. And yet somehow we read those promises and then we struggle over whether to believe that it can absolutely possibly be true or not. Now, what is the reason we struggle? Why is it we struggle so much when it’s crystal clear? Very simple. For example, the Bible says, My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. That’s rather clear. The Bible says that Paul said it this way. He said, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That’s rather clear, that trusting the Lord God, that He could do anything God called Him to do. We love that verse in the 37th Psalm that says, If I delight myself in the Lord, He’ll give me the desires of my heart. Now, we take all of those promises. We say that we believe them with all of our heart, and yet we struggle. And what is it that we struggle about? And I think what we struggle about is this. We struggle with the fact that we take the promise of God. And then we look at our circumstances that relate to that promise. And instead of putting the promise of God in front of the circumstance, we put the circumstance in front of the promise of God. And we look at the promises of God through our circumstance. God wants us looking at our circumstances through his wonderful promise. And whenever we get these two mixed and confused, we have a problem. And so then we have to ask the question, well, God, how can you do this? I know this is what you say, but here’s my circumstance. How can you do it? When the promise of God is first, anything we see through the promises of God becomes a living possibility and a reality. And that’s what I want to talk about in this message. And I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter three. And the title of this message is God is able. In Ephesians chapter 3, Paul is praying this wonderful prayer for the Ephesian Christians. He says, beginning in the 14th verse, and I want you to notice what he’s praying, the awesome request that Paul is making for his readers. He says, For this reason… I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. And here’s what he says he’s praying, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, in the inner man who indwells us. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now, that is a tremendous request that Paul is making. If you’ll go back, he says he’s praying for them to be strengthened with power by the Holy Spirit in the that Christ dwell in their hearts, they be rooted and grounded in love, be able to comprehend that, know the love of Christ, surpassing knowledge, and be filled up with all the fullness of God. Then he says, now to him that is the God who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forevermore. and ever. Amen. To him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask a thing. He says, the prayer that I’m making is to one who is able to do exceeding abundantly above everything that I’m asking him to do in your behalf. Now. When we think about that, I want you to think about what Paul said. He said, whatever we request, our God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask. And it’s like Paul is reaching out for more words to describe how awesome our God is, how capable and able and powerful he is to do anything we ask of him more than we ask of him. And he says, exceeding abundantly. above all that we ask or think. God is so powerful, He is able to do more than we ask for, more than we expect, and far more than we deserve. And the reason we have such little is because we can’t believe somehow that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. And oftentimes we come to Him with limitations on our request as if God is limited in His power. If I believe that God has any limitation on Him whatsoever, my requests are going to be minimum. You know, for example, today what circumstance you would change if you could, or what circumstance you want God to bring you through, or whatever the situation, what needs you may have. So what I’d like to do is to take you through the Scriptures and give you some examples of very specific promises where the Bible says, God is able, God is able, God is able, God is able. And somewhere along this, you’re going to find yourself in maybe something that you are dealing with. So I want us to begin with the basic one, and that is that God is able to save. And I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 7 for a moment. You say, well, as a Christian, I don’t have any problem with that. Well, you don’t, but you know what? There are a lot of people who do. There are many people who do not believe that God could save them for some very specific reasons. But Hebrews chapter 7, verse 25, look at that. He says in verse 25, hence also… he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Now, there are people who will tell you, well, I don’t believe I can be saved because, because of sins in their past or because of some particular sin that they’ve done or because they see themselves so unworthy, which all of us are, or they do not believe that somehow God could love someone like them. So they have all kinds of reasons for believing that God cannot save them. My friend, listen. You cannot commit any type of sin so evil, so wicked, so vile that almighty, sovereign, loving God cannot reach down and take you, forgive you of your sins, save you, make a brand new person out of you, which he calls the experience of the new birth, and make you a new creation in Christ Jesus. You couldn’t possibly do anything so wicked, so evil, so vile that God cannot save you. And not only that, Notice what he says. He says, save you forever. That is, God is able not only to save us, but to keep us saved. And this is why I come again and again and again to say, if a person believes that they can be saved by the grace of God and then lost, then let me ask you the question. Does that mean that God is powerful enough to change your life, absolutely change your eternal destiny, but lose you because of something you do? If God is able to save us, he says in this passage, he is able to save us for how long? He’s able to save us forever. Not for a season of time, not for a period of time, not for some particular experience, but to save us forever. God and God alone is the only one who can forgive sin. God and God alone is the only one who can save us. And he says, save us forever. A second thing I want you to notice is this. The Bible says that God is able to establish those whom He saves in the truth. Turn, if you will, to Romans chapter 16. The 16th chapter of Romans, and listen to what he says. Paul here writing to the Roman Christians, believers, and he says in the 25th verse, He says now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel, talking about the gospel that God had revealed to him. God is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which has been kept secret for long ages past, which refers to the fact that God’s gospel would be offered to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. He says that God is able to establish you. Now, when he uses the idea of establish here, he simply is talking about making firm and strong. That is, God is able to make you so secure to stand every single trial, every difficulty, every hardship in life. God is not satisfied with just simply saving a person from their sin. He wants us established. Now, how does he establish us? He establishes us in truth. And he establishes us in truth by the Word of God. That is… When you and I open the Word and we begin to read, we begin to see things the way God sees them. We begin to understand the way God thinks. When you and I begin to see and understand the way God thinks, we become strong in what we believe. We become strong in our faith. We become strong in our relationship to God so that the difficulties and hardships that would have thrown us off course years ago no longer shakes us. The winds that blow against us today… Do not blow the way they used to blow. They may blow stronger, but the effects are not the same because we have been established in the faith. Now, if you’ll notice, we have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us so that every single one of us has the teacher on the inside of us. And while you may listen to a pastor or a preacher or an evangelist or whatever it might be, it is the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us who does the instructing. He’s the one who makes the words clear. He’s the one who makes the truth clear. He’s the one who gives us understanding. And he’s the one who shows us how to apply this truth to ourselves. God is not only able to save us, but He is able to establish us. And every single believer in this day and time needs to be established in the truth. There are so many ideas and philosophies and theologies and errors abounding today everywhere. Someone’s always trying to pull someone away from the truth. They’ve got some new idea, some new truth. Listen, this truth has been here ever since the very beginning. This is the truth of God. There is not anything new. Now, my understanding may be clearer, but you can’t add anything to this. And most of the stuff that runs around is some excuse or some way to avoid facing the truth that Jesus Christ only is our life. He is our life. It isn’t what we do. It’s what he does. And most of the things that people are drawn away from usually require of some form of conduct or some change in them, something that they need to do. When the truth of the scripture is, it is Christ Jesus living on the inside of us. And so this is why week after week, we have one purpose. What does the Bible say about this truth and this truth and this truth? And as you listen, as you do, and you begin to take notes and you begin to look at the word of God and you begin to apply these things to your life, what happens? You’re being built up in your faith. You’re becoming stronger. You’re being established. You’re becoming firm in what you believe. Your conviction is growing stronger and you are becoming a more valuable vessel to God in his work because you are being established in the truth. God is working in your life. He is preparing you, preparing you to share your faith, preparing you to defend your faith. And if you live a Christian life in this world, you will have to learn how to defend it because there’s always going to be people there who are willing to take pot shots at what you believe. You mean you believe this? Where in the world did you get that idea? I can’t believe that you believe such a thing as this. Well, if you say nothing, then it may imply that you’re not sure whether you believe it or not. But when you say, let me tell you why I believe this. Let me tell you why I believe the Word of God. Let me tell you what God has done in my life. Let me show you what the Bible says. Then what happens? Every time you tell someone else what you believe about the Word of God or what you believe the Bible teaches about a subject, you become stronger yourself. Because remember this, when you begin to speak it and you speak it with conviction, your ears hear your own voice. Your mind hears your voice speaking the truth. Listen, not only is the other person affected, but you are affected likewise when you speak the truth with deep, solid conviction from the Word of God. God is not only able to save us, but He is also able to establish us, which all of us need. A third thing I want you to notice He’s able to do, that is He is able to help us when we are tempted. If you’ll turn back again to Hebrews, and look if you will in the second chapter of Hebrews. Every single one of us will go through difficulty, hardships, trials, and temptations in our life. And listen to what he says about God being able at this point. In this second chapter and the, look in the 18th verse. He says, for since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able, look at this, God is able to come to the aid of those who attempted. He is able to come to the aid of those who attempted and tried no matter what. Now, that word aid there means help. He’s able to come to our help. And that was a military term that was used to simply say, run for call for help. That is, get someone to help in this particular situation. Well, when you and I face any kind of difficulty, trial, or temptation, we have the privilege of calling on Almighty God to help us in that situation. He is always ready. How far does God have to run to get to us? Not one single step. Why not? The Spirit of God is living on the inside of us to enable us. Now, the Father is in heaven, yes. Jesus is at His right hand. But it’s the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us who is giving us direction and divine guidance. And so what is He doing? He is always there. Remember what Jesus said? He said, I’m not going to leave you comfortless. You’ll never make it if I do. He said, I’m going away, but I’m going to send the comforter. He’ll be in you, with you, and upon you. And He said, He will guide you into all truth. He will teach you the things that you ought to say. God sent the Holy Spirit as our guide because He knew that every step of the way, you and I would be facing difficulty and hardships in our lives. And He knew that we would need to be lifted and encouraged in those times. He says he’s willing to come to the aid of those who need help. You and I have never walked into a temptation or trial or hardship or a battle in our life that he’s not already there because it’s all in his presence. We have never walked into anything that surprised God. We’ve never walked into anything that checked or challenged the power of God to deal with it. He says we are to call upon him. God is able to to help us in every trial and temptation, difficulty of life. Listen, He wants to help us. He desires to help us. And that’s why He said, I’m going to send your comfort to the Holy Spirit. He’ll be in you, with you, and upon you because He knew how often we would need to call upon Him. Now. No matter what’s going on, my omniscient God knows all about it. No matter what we are facing, He has the power to deal with it. He is there. He is always there. You never have to ask God, Lord, please come into our presence. That prayer is absolutely incorrect. Now, I know that people say that. They said out of habit. And you know what happens? We don’t realize this, but most of us grow up praying what we heard our parents pray. Or we grow up praying what we hear other people pray. Oh, Father, come into our presence. Well, thank God I don’t ever have to go anywhere and have to ask Him to catch up with me. Because God is already there. We are living in the presence of Almighty God. He is always there. So He is able to help us in every difficulty, every trial, every storm. He knows all the details about it. Well, He’s also able to help us do something else. He’s able to help us to keep us from stumbling in our life. Go all the way over to Jude, next to the last book of the Bible. Jude, one chapter. Listen to what he says in verse 24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy. That word stumbling is the only time it’s used in the Bible. Only time it’s used in the New Testament. And the writer is saying now to God who is able to keep us from stumbling, from falling. Now, from falling over what? Falling over all different kinds of things. What I’m saying here is he says God is able to guide our steps daily so that he knows we’re walking through a landmine every day. When you and I get up every morning, we can make our plans and what we’re going to do and how we’re going to operate. We never know what we’re going to face in a given day. We never know what’s out there. Anybody who gets up confident apart from God is headed for disaster. And so we get up knowing that God is able to guide my steps. Because you see, in the landmines, when they plant landmines in a field, they cover them up so they can’t be seen. When you and I get up in the morning, God has already spotted every single landmine that’s in our path that day. He knows where every single one of them is. He hasn’t missed a one. He is omniscient. He knows them all. He is omnipotent. He has them all under control. All of them are in his presence. So he says, God is able to keep us from falling. But how does he keep us from falling? How does he keep us from stumbling? Will we stumble? Yes, we’ll stumble. Why do we stumble? Because we don’t listen. Because we don’t believe him. Because we think we’re smart enough to do it our way. We can’t live this Christian life. We have to have a guide on the inside. And so God is always there. Ready to enable us, ready to guide us and direct us to keep us from stumbling and falling in life. And to keep us from making wrong decisions. If we’re willing to submit to him, if we’re willing to yield to him, if we’re willing to believe him. And he says, not only is he able to keep us from stumbling, but one of these days when we stand before him, he says, we will stand before him blameless. Now, that’s hard for the human mind to comprehend. Let’s say you live to be 85 years of age. And let’s say that you’re saved, whether you’re saved at 75 or 12. It doesn’t make any difference. But you look back and you say, how could God present me blameless after all these years of disobedience? And even though we’ve been saved a long time, we still disobey God. And over a period of 75 or 80 or 90 years or 60 or whatever it may be, you think about all the times we disobey Him. He says, present us blameless. How can a holy God present people like us blameless before himself when we look at ourselves and we think, well, I’m certainly not blameless, God, because that is the power of the blood of Jesus. That is the power of the grace of God. It will never be comprehended by man that you and I can explain how a loving, gracious, holy God could so forgive us and so cleanse us and so justify us that when we stand before him, he says, blameless, That’s why it is eternal security, not temporary security. It is based on the blood of Jesus Christ, not upon our conduct.
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And 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.
