Judge What God Exposes In Your Flesh - Zac Poonen

so in practical terms what does it mean to dwell with the burning fire all the time that is an amazing verse that we just heard who among us can dwell with the continuous burning with the consuming fire in Isaiah 33 and verse 14 to live with the continual burning and a consuming fire many people pray Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit and fire I pray that too but do you know what that actually means to dwell with this continuous burning fire many people don't understand what it what they are praying for they think it's something exciting and they want a great ministry or something like that yeah God will give him a mystery sure like where the person I'm saying was saying earlier how churches were being planted so frequently around there how many of us see that church is being planted we think that we had to be very gifted I'm here to be preached profound sermons to plant churches God takes very ordinary people and plants churches and all the clever people who preach so many great sermons they don't see it as a lot of entertainment and Christendom today a lot of Christians are just wanting to listen with itching years what is the result of our labor by their fruit you shall know them not by how well they can preach what it mean to live with a consuming fire in New Testament terms I want to explain that simply and clearly you turn with me to 1 Peter in chapter 4 we must relate everything practically to our daily life and not just live in nice pictures of being on fire for the Lord or something like that in practical terms it means this the fire is always a picture of judgment the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire burns up things in us that needs to be burnt up and in 1 Peter 4:17 it's it says it is time for this judgment or this fire of judgment to begin in the house of God and it must begin with us first so what does that mean in the house of God judgment must begin in practical terms it means that if God's fire is burning within me I will discover things in myself that's what he ba brother were saying when all Licht a fire that Viper jumped out couldn't stand the fire and if the fire is burning in my heart the wiper will jump out and I will be able to then kill it and what does that mean to judge myself Lord this was there all along I thought I was clean but I wasn't there was this terrible evil thing lying inside of the fire of God drove it out and I thank God I got a light on it I can kill it and if we live in this continual burning we will live in a continual cleansing of the things that are unlike Christ in our life every wiper something unlike Christ a white fur is a picture of the devil and there's something that we've all inherited from childhood called the flesh and the Bible says there's nothing good that dwells in that flesh it's full of vipers the fire of God will drive it all out and so it's one of the things that we have taught in the church that we must live in a daily judgment of ourselves a daily repentance and that's also linked with 1 John chapter 3 we have the hope of the second coming of Christ we read in 1 John 3 verse 2 and if you really have this hole we will purify ourselves there again is referring to fire as far as that purifies we will purify ourselves just as he is pure people fire water paraphrase it means until I reach his standard of purity I will keep on purifying myself we can stop purifying ourselves when we have reached the perfection of Christ's nature but he says that will happen worse truly when he comes again so if you have a passion and a I don't believe everybody has this if you have a passion in your life but I want to be christ-like the purpose with which God saved me was to make me like Jesus Christ the purpose with which God created Adam was that he might reflect the image of God but he didn't he fell Christ came to restore that image in us say Lord I want to reflect the image of God on earth and all these wretched things I've inherited from my forefathers that are in my / I want them all to be exposed and burnt up and if you are serious about it he will allow you to see it in some situation you're dealing with some brother and you'll certainly find a viper coming out it could be at home some provocative situation at home where something goes wrong in the home something goes wrong which you didn't expect and a wiper comes out of your heart you think the problem is out there no God allowed it to expose a wiper in your heart now what are you gonna do with it you can look at it and say oh that's no that's not a wiper ok then it'll remain there call it what it is and judge yourself and put it to death and purify yourself he'll be a little more christ-like that is the will of God then every year you become a little more like Christ until he comes again he who has this hope purifies himself until he reaches standard of the purity of Christ so what I want to say to you in practical terms my brothers and sisters is that if we are not doing that it proves that you are not really serious of wanting to be like Christ you may sing whatever you like and take in the songs and say many things but you're not serious about following Jesus the only person who can honestly say I'm serious about following Jesus is one who's judging himself about something or the other every day every day I don't want to lose a single day in my life without discovering something unlike Christ in me do you find that in your life you find many days going by in your life with nothing to judge uh-uh have you already become like Christ or what nothing to judge there's nothing for you to judge in yourself yesterday or today don't deceive yourself you are imagining that you have already become like Christ I am NOT I am the first person to say I have not yet become like Christ and therefore and God is my witness I judge myself every single day and I find something sometimes there's something very small sometimes the little slip-up here something to repent off every day I'm determined to get rid of every wretched Viper that is in my flesh and that's that is how our ministry also becomes more pure if the channel becomes pure the Word of God comes forth with power we can study a lot and prepare a lot of sermons but if the channel is not pure comes out and it doesn't bring the result that it should and that's why I say the church must be a place where judgment begins here with us first the other words in this connection is 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 1 it's a wonderful promise when God says in 1 Corinthians 2nd Corinthians 6:18 I will be a father to you and you will be my sons and daughters is the Lord Almighty you know we've got so accustomed to thinking of God as our Father that we don't realize what a tremendous privilege it is if you were to go to any Old Testament st. Moses Elijah or John the Baptist and say you can call God your father he says all know call God is father impossible he's God to be dreaded fear Almighty God that's how they were in the Old Testament till Jesus came and the Holy Spirit came and comes into us and cause god father the tremendous privilege and it says I'll be a father to you you'll be my sons and daughters is a Lord Almighty so what should we do okay where's next verse because we have these wonderful promises that we can be sons and daughters of God Almighty let us sit back and relax no many people sit back and say God is my father I'm okay no if you really believe that let us cleanse ourselves there is a cleansing that Jesus does which I cannot do that is from all the sins I've committed in my life and if I sin today you're gonna slip up in one world I cannot cleanse it without the blood of Jesus if you speak one rude word one rude word or have one bitter thought against someone or what is very common among believers you join the accuser of the Brethren in saying things about somebody without knowing all the facts you heard something and you say something to that person you did this really what evidence you have you heard it Christians are so used to us passing judgment on the basis of gossip I've done it I finished with it I say Lord I will not judge on the basis of gossip because then I'm holding hands with the accuser of the Brethren I will not accuse God's people it's not my business I'm not their judge God is their judge it's the pastime like some people watch cricket other people their pastimes who sit and speak evil about others and they are believers and they'll talk about the new and living way and they will talk about Christ's coming in the flesh and they will talk about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and they will speak in tongues and they will also hold hands with the accuser of the Brethren it's evil let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God how many of you are interested in perfectly holy knees in the fear of God and that is as God shows me something I say Lord it's me I'm to blame I judge myself I'm not here to judge others what will happen little by little we'll become christ-like and the water of life that flows out from us will bless people and lead them to the Lord that should be the experience of every single one of us can you imagine if all of us sitting here what are we a thousand thousand two hundred people every single one of us decides from today my goal in life is to be christ-like I do other things I I work in a job I earn my living I've got to bring up my family all that but my ultimate goal is to become more like Jesus Christ every day imagine if all of us decide that today and say Lord as you give me light every day I will judge every Viper that comes out of my heart in some way through my eyes or in my thoughts or in my Lang language I'm going to kill it and finish with it there many more for the ones I see I will kill I believe we will experience revival in our churches if we decide that I'm going to stop all this accusing of the brothers all this speaking evil and gossiping when we don't know all the facts why do I have to do it God is not appointed as to be a High Court judge determining what is wrong with all the believers is none of my business the Bible says mind your own business don't be a busybody in other people's matters that's a very important excitation in 1 Peter chapter 4 and I feel it's one of the most important exhortations that many of us need to hear 1 Peter 4 it says it's in the same connection of judging ourselves what shall we judge ourselves in we were reading 1 Peter 4:17 we must judge ourselves first what is the context verse 15 just two verses earlier don't suffer as a murderer I don't think anybody here is in danger of becoming a murderer a thief I hope nobody here is going to be a thief or an evildoer I don't think you'll be evildoers or fourth one a busybody in other people's matters there are four evil people mentioned the earth all in the same category all in the same boat murderer thief evildoer and a busybody in Affairs that don't concern you it doesn't concern you one bit but you want to poke your head into it and speak about it and speak about that person and the other person you are in the same according to the Word of God you are in the same category as murderer thief evildoer don't glory that you're not a murderer TV will do it if you are a busybody in other people's matters you are in the same category then it says let us judge ourselves verse 17 and cleanse ourselves was challenged when I read the Apostle Paul's experience when he said in 1 P 1 2nd Corinthians 4:16 we'd read this verse in closing 2nd Corinthians 4 in verse 16 our inner man the last part is being renewed every single day did you get it let me paraphrase it I am becoming Paul is saying I am becoming a little more like Jesus Christ every day I mean if we become a little more like Christ in one year that itself will be a great thing if you if your wife can say to you darling you're looking more christ-like since you in the last one year Wow or if your husband could say that but every single day what a radical man he was my inner man is being renewed into the likeness of Christ every single day the only way that's possible if he see judges himself every single day whenever he gets light on something instead of blaming somebody else or instead of making an excuse for it Lord that was me it's my fault I'm sorry I spoke about things which I did not know anything about I got involved in matters that don't concern me at all and the thing that concerns me the wipers in my own heart I'm not dealing with my beloved brothers and sisters please take my exhortation you will thank me when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ I believe you will thank me if you take this seriously today that from now on you're not going to be a busybody in anybody's matters except your own you're not going to give opinions about things you don't know anything about even the core high court judges sit six months sometimes to pass the judgment on a small thing but we pass a judgement so quickly in 10 minutes we have expressed an opinion what amazing arrogance and pride and conceit let's finish with it it says about Jesus in Isaiah 11 he will not judge by what his eyes see or his ears hear but he just could be wrong you know that verse let me read it to you Isaiah in chapter 11 it says about Jesus that he would never judge by what his eyes saw or his ears heard his eye 11 was 3 the middle he will not judge by what he sees or what he hears but he will look for righteousness to see what is the righteous thing here we all have a tendency to judge by what we think we have seen or we have heard I believe God allows the Sun to rise in the east every day and set in the West to teach us one thing don't believe your eyes the Sun is not moving the Sun is absolutely stationary you think it is moving don't believe your eyes it's like that don't judge by what your eyes see or your ears here but there's one thing we can see clearly what dwells in our own flesh that we see crystal clear judge that and we can progress into the likeness of Christ this is the mark of the fear of the Lord says about Jesus in verse 3 he delights in the fear of the Lord he's so much of the respect for his father that he would not judge by what his eyes saw he would see something they say well I'm not sure he would hear something and say well I don't know somebody says that how do I know that's the whole truth and first of all why do I need to find out the whole truth is it my affair at all is none of my business leave it I believe if we had followed this principle in the last one year just this 2019 all of us would be much more spiritual than we are today we can start today to make sure at least in the next 365 days we made some progress and gradually we come to the place where this is my longing that every single day a renewal takes place in my life then I want to be a little more christ-like inwardly that is my goal I'll honestly confess it the inner man is renewed every single day if Paul can have that why can I have it brothers and sisters many of us talk about new covenant and new and living way and Christ's coming in the flesh and victory over sin and we live at such a pathetic standard just like so many other nominal Christians once he is looking down upon them let us cleanse ourselves and stop boasting about things which are not true just doctrines and theology and instead of a life that manifests the glory of Christ let's pursue that with all of our heart and say Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit and fire up consuming fire in which I live every day that I can be pure as you are pure let's pray Heavenly Father please help us I believe many of us are needy and are crying out to you and we don't want to just make a decision right now that we forget tomorrow but something that we will live in every single day and remind us by your Holy Spirit as to what we should do the next time we see a viper coming out of the fire through our mouth or our eyes or in our thoughts or anywhere to know what we should do and if we are not seeing them Lord then baptize us in fire till we begin to see them till we are cleansed thoroughly we pray in Jesus name Amen

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Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 18 2020