Purifying Ourselves to Meet Christ at His Return by Zac Poonen

i want to share a few thoughts from a few passages of scripture first of all 1 john chapter 2 and verse 28. you probably heard me say that when christ comes again many people think of the two groups of believers and unbelievers being separated in that day but this verse tells us they're going to be two groups among the believers that means two groups among those of us who are listening to this message right now not us and the other group is all those people who are unconverted no that's not what speaking about here little children when john writes like that he's writing to believers because in chapter 2 in the beginning also he says little children and here he says little children abide in christ so that when he appears now listen to it personally god the lord john is speaking to you through the holy spirit little children abide in christ so that when he appears you'll belong to group one and not group two group one is those who have confidence when he comes we're excited lord we're ready we've been waiting for this all along and another crew who shrinks away in shame these are not unbelievers lord we're not ready the things we didn't settle we kept postponing it postponing it postponing it and all of a sudden you came it's very dangerous to postpone something [Music] which the lord tells you to do don't ever delay it don't say there's plenty of time it goes on there in chapter 3 to say if we have this hope of the second coming verse 3 we will purify ourselves and keep on purifying ourselves until we reach jesus standard of purity is the one who is doing that we don't reach it till he comes it says in verse 2 that chapter 3 verse 2 that we'll be liking only when he comes but the only ones are going to be like him when he comes is those who are purifying themselves because it says here those who have this hope which is the hope chapter 3 verse 2 is the hope is that we will be like him many people that only hope is he will come again i'll see jesus no here it's very clear the hope is his coming is we are seeing him as mentioned second we will be like him because we see him and that is the hope mentioned here the hope that not that i will see him because every eye will see him unbelievers will see him but they don't have a hope i have a hope because i will be like him and i hope that is your hope not that christ is coming back and deliver me from all my problems here on this earth will deliver me from the wretchedness of my own flesh not from the things around me we can be so taken up at this time with the pandemic and on top of that the smoke in the air and so many other things it's all external what we need to pursue is to cleanse ourselves and if we have the soap we'll purify ourselves and in a sense we will be careful about things outside but that will not be our primary concern you need to ask yourself what is the thing you are pursuing now let's look at the apostle paul's own testimony he also speaks about the hope he has in acts 24. same hope uh acts 24 but he's comparing himself to the jews who had taken him as a prisoner before this governor felix and he's standing before the governor felician saying these men acts 24 15. i have a hope in me which these men that is these jews who are old covenant people also cherish that there will be two resurrections they also believe there'll be two resurrections i also believe there'll be two resurrections a resurrection of the righteous and the resurrection of the wicked but the difference between me and them is this for them it is just a fact you know like the fact christ will come again and the dead will be raised and people for them it's a fact but he says the difference with me is because there are going to be two resurrections and i want to be in the resurrection of the righteous there's something i do i don't sit back and say well i accepted the lord on the damascus road 30 years ago i'm safe i'm going to be taken up when he comes he doesn't say that because i want to be in the resurrection of the righteous that is the meaning of in view of this in view of this means because i want to be in the resurrection of the righteous and not in the second resurrection of the wicked i do my best i don't sit back and say i accepted the lord many years ago i do my best i don't just keep my conscience clear i do my very best it's like you know people who are preparing for an examination that they really want to pass or prepare for a test which will give them a prestigious job or prepare for an interview for a visa think of many of you who are immigrants how you went for an interview for a visa how you prepared yourself for everything because you wanted to get something i do my best to maintain a blameless conscience before god and before men not only before god if there's a single person i have hurt i'm going to set it right if there's a single person in the earth who hurt me or my family i'm going to ensure i have forgiven him 100 from my heart and if i ever meet him i'll tell him that i do my best to do it i'm passionate about it and the other important word here is 24 7 verse 16 always that means i don't wait even a moment to set my conscience right because i want to be in the resurrection of the righteous i want to be those like we read in one john 2 who have confidence when he comes not shrink away in shame oh lord i didn't settle that with that person or i didn't go and ask forgiveness from that person i didn't repay that person's debt i didn't settle this matter there's no such question because he was doing this 24 7. like that illustration i've used if a thorn gets into your foot you immediately remove it your attitude towards thorns is 24 7 remove it not even one second if a speck of dust goes into your eye you remove it jesus spoke about the eye is our conscience immediately remove it and this is something we must pursue in romans chapter 6 14 i just want to just quickly go through this romans 6 14 is a verse we have often seen in the church sin shall not rule over you because you're under grace and i think all of us have understood the theory of it and i believe many of us are experiencing a little bit of the reality of little by little experiencing grace to overcome habits that enslaved us for long you know many habits that are dirty that hurt others and we're experiencing grace to overcome and praise the lord but having gone past romans 6 14 this is the next stage paul says in romans 7 oh wretched man that i am verse 24 who will set me free from this body of death because he says even though i've overcome conscious sin and with my mind verse 25 i'm serving the law of god i don't serve anything else with my conscious mind and life but 100 the will of god but i have a flesh he says which is unconsciously serving the law of sin we must always remember this brothers sisters that no matter how wholehearted you are and how spiritual you think you are you have a flesh which is serving the law of sin you must ask god to give you light on it all the time and like kamal just said that flesh can be dirty like clay or beautiful like gold the entire statue of nebuchadnezzar he told us if you listen to come on was it the whole thing is the flesh the things that look attractive and the things that look dirty the whole thing has to be destroyed and smashed to pieces because in my flesh dwells nothing good i know that in my flesh romans 7 18 there is nothing good there's nothing good in my flesh and so i'm determined to get rid of it and so do i have to condemn myself because of this no romans 7 25 and romans 8 1 must be read together it's unfortunate there's a chapter division there here i am sincerely to the best of my knowledge keeping my conscience clear 24 7. serving the law of god the law of god is the law of love which also we heard about today that is it's the well love is the motive that is the law of god and i'm not aware of anything in my conscience but yet i acknowledge constantly lord there is another law in my members which i'm not aware of which probably other people see very clearly if they're more mature than me they'll see it they are less mature than me that i don't see it so if i always move around with people who are less mature than me i'll never see it but if there are people who are more mature than me they are kind enough they'll tell me the with my flesh i serve the law of sin but i i'm not condemned i'm not condemned because i'm carrying around with me all the time this wretched flesh in which there's nothing good and which probably is doing things that i'm not even aware of and probably unconsciously hurting others but not consciously i think a lot of husbands and wives hurt each other unconsciously i don't think they they love each other they don't want to hurt one another but they do because of this law of the flesh and that's what we need to cleanse ourselves from we have this hope we purify ourselves until we reach jesus standard of purity that's one john chapter 3. you know of late i've been reading my old bible the bible i started using 60 years ago pages and pieces are covered with my own notes and i decided to read that every morning and in that bible i'd written a verse i cut out this verse and stuck it in there it was from second chronicles in chapter 26 and i was reminded about it it's speaking about uziah the king josiah the king second chronicles 26 verse 5. in the last part it says second chronicles 26 5 as long as he sought the lord god prospered him i kept it there i stuck it in that a little cut out and i stuck it in my bible that verse to remind myself whenever i opened it he was a man as long as he sought the lord god prospered him this is 60 years ago and i said lord i want to go that way i want to be seeking the lord i never want to stop seeking the lord because i know that as long as i seek you you will prosper me spiritually and then the sad thing about uzziah it says further down in verse 16 that's a scary verse for every one of us but when he became strong that means god had supported him and blessed him in so many ways like he has done with us his heart became proud and he was not aware of it and he acted corruptly and he was unfaithful what did he do he entered into a ministry which god had not called into he was a king and he thought because i'm a king i can do everything and he went into the temple to burn incense only the priests were supposed to do it no king in the old testament was permitted to be a priest because the king priest was reserved for jesus christ he was going to be the first king and priest after the order of melchizedek but this guy entered in and thank god for those valiant priests who opposed this king and said you got no right to burn incense you may be the king but you can't do this this is outside your boundary josiah was angry but as he became angry the leprosy came up on his forehead and it says here he was a leper until he died and he was cut off from the house of the lord and you read that further down up to verse 21. god has blessed you and nccf in many ways your life is better than what it was some years ago better than the lives of many other christians nccf was a good church to belong to as long as not the lord god prospers them but if you read the history of christianity many great movements started so well many good brothers started out so well but they did not endure till the end they did not endure to the end loving god jesus said he who endures to the end will be saved i want to encourage you brothers and sisters don't be ever satisfied with how far the lord has led you how much you have progressed how much you think you have become like christ yes i use the word think how much you think you have become christ like keep your face in the dust before god always that's my advice which i give in india to all my fellow elders every time i meet them i tell them brothers keep your face in the dust like john on the deer in the island of patmos and the lord will lay his hand upon you like he laid upon john and it'll go well with you amen

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Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen

Id: ACgj3nxwxEQ

Length: 17min 31sec (1051 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 27 2020