Questions & Answers - Zac Poonen - May 23, 2015

hopefully what is commitment to a local fellowship or church how should we stay away from other fellowships and churches a church a local church that believes they are the only believers in the world is a cult let me say that in the beginning there are groups like that who think that anyone who doesn't belong to our group is not a believer I would stay away from such a group but it is not God's will that fifty thousand believers in one city all meet in one church the Lord never said all men will know you're my disciples when you meet in one building all men will know you're my disciples when you love one another and I can love people in another church even if I don't agree with them there are many believers in other churches I know there are believers in the Roman Catholic Church I would not be a part of a Roman Catholic Church because I disagree with their theology but if I meet a believer in a lone Roman Catholic Church I would be happy to fellowship with them on a personal basis but at the same time we must not treat churches in our town like restaurants one day I go to one restaurant I like the food there and go to another restaurant I have no commitment to a restaurant and a church must be like a family where even if the food is not as good as a restaurant I stay here because my family I mean nobody leaves their home because saying mom doesn't cook as good as that restaurant out there you can't go and live in a restaurant the church is a family and we must belong to one family because in a family there's a responsibility it's and you can't just get up eat your food and go away you can do that in a restaurant in a family you got to help with the washing up cleaning up responsibility for paying the rent so many things so that's what develops us I can say without any hesitation that people who are not committed to a local church their spiritual growth is definitely hindered without any doubt I'm saying this after 50 years of observing people in many many different churches but those who are committed to a local church even if it's not a great powerful wonderful preachers over there they grow spiritually because of commitment you know it's like the body learning to function together so it's very important because the Lord wants a local expression of his body to be in different places how can there be a local expression of a body if they don't see something working together and so even those are pursuing a holy life the devil may say well the only being a holy life that's good enough it doesn't matter where you go go wherever there's the best preacher so one day the visiting preachers over here I go to this church another week of visiting preachers over there and I go to that church I can tell you right now you'll never grow spiritually you live in a self-deception you'll be accumulating a lot of knowledge in your mind but you will not grow spiritually spiritual growth comes not only from good food spiritually but also from commitment to local church and nowadays in the days of the internet you can hear a lot of good messages just by going to the internet you don't have to go to listen to a visiting speaker over there but commitment to a local church and growth with the others in a fellowship you cannot have over the internet so however much you may listen to good messages you will not grow unless you're part of a local church is God's will that in every place there should be some local fellowship even if it's just a few people okay how should we understand the heart of God when we read the Old Covenant and see a relationship that is not there in the nuclear was there not hints or prophetic pictures even in the sort of life we see in Joseph certainly Hebrews chapter 11 gives us a list of many godly men who we considered Abel this morning an example from the Old Testament a good example and like that Joseph an outstanding example Daniel David in his early days and many other examples like that in the Old Testament John the Baptist a great example so we can learn from these examples but remember they did not have the resources we have they could have been more wholehearted I believe many Old Testament Christians were far more wholehearted than today's Christians but they didn't have the resources so we have greater potential for example Albert Einstein was perhaps the greatest mathematician of the last 100 years but I can do more with a computer today then he could do not because I'm cleverer than him he didn't have this resource that I have so we have the holy spirit today and somebody far more whole harder than us could not achieve as much as we can because of this the part of the Holy Spirit we have so that doesn't mean we don't learn anything from from those people we can learn a lot from many aspects of their life particularly Joseph's uprightness in the sexual area outstanding example for all young people man who was in a far country away from his parents no Bible no fellowship no meetings nothing he had the fear of God most important requirement how do you the Talz tell the difference between counterfeits of the Holy Spirit and a good trustworthy church if he can see that the ideal spirit-filled person was Jesus Christ you cannot go wrong there my example of a spiritual person is Jesus Christ always follow the spirit and I see the things he does and the things he did rather and the things he didn't do so when I see things like today people falling on the ground somebody touches them fall on the ground and they say that's the Holy Spirit I immediately compare it with Jesus you know I called Jesus my spiritual dictionary just like if I read an English word which I couldn't understand I'd pick up a dictionary find out what's its meaning in the same way when I see something my spiritual dictionary is Jesus so is this a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and I look at Jesus and I find him never pushing people down he always picked people up people who are lying down he made them get up and walk and here I see people doing the opposite of that putting people down I say there is a word in the Bible for the opposite of Christ you know what is called Antichrist that's right so and the other thing perhaps you folks in the West don't understand it as much as we do in India in India if you show your feet the bottom of your feet to somebody it's a way of insulting him it's one of its a great insult to show somebody the bottom of your feet or your shoes in the in the Bible everywhere you find people worshiping God by putting their head down but when they fell down they fell down headfirst bow down to God this is the opposite of that and I I can imagine the devil having a big laugh and saying God do you see what these fellows are doing you they're showing you their feet you think they were worshipping you far from it the tremendous amount of deception this house what so-called holy laughter people falling down and laughing can you imagine Jesus lying on the ground here and laughing and laughing I cannot by any stretch of my imagination so I say that's not the Holy Spirit if you want to do it you do it but I do not believe that the Holy Spirit it's making a deception of God of God's work if you look up the internet among the Hindus in India they have groups called laughing clubs in India they are there they feel laughing is good for health and they come together and laugh and laugh and laugh exactly like these so-called Christians doing the same thing it's not the Holy Spirit it may not be an evil spirit sometimes maybe just your human emotion at times I get a thought of jealousy and although I don't entertain it I feel it as sin how do I get rid of it one of the very important things that Christians who are seeking for victory over sin and a victorious life must recognize is the difference between temptation and sin a thought is a temptation if I reject it immediately I have not sinned how did the devil tempt Jesus turn the stones into bread it was a thought flashed into Jesus mind jesus said no jump up from the roof of the temple commit suicide thought rejected it says the devil took him to a high mountain Jesus was not in a high mountain he was in the wilderness right up at the end of the temptation it was in his mind that the devil took him the high mountain I'm sure in the glory of the world there is no high mountain the way in Israel where you can see the glory of the world many case in his mind he showed him and said I'll give this to you if you worship Me Jesus rejected it there was no sin so if you get a thought and you're rejected it's not a sin it's when you cherish it and accept it even in your mind that you sin and we have to battle it it says if by the spirit reminds 813 you put the deeds of the body to death you will live so God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit to put to death these thoughts of temptation how do we find out our ministry in the church that we are called to lead first of all make sure your motive is the glory of God and that the name of Christ will be honored it's very very important motive is the most important thing man looks on the outward appearance your service but God looks at the heart the motive so if our motive is right and say Lord I want to glory glorify you and make sure you're not in competition with anybody see what is the burden in your heart the burden in your heart is usually an indication of the ministry God has given to you and also that's one part of it the second part of it is I may want to do something and I'm not very clear in my mind if this is God's will there's a process of trial and error by which you try something and you don't seem didn't see any fruit in it and then you move into something else you discover how this is my ministry when I was converted I didn't know much about the Bible but I knew that Jesus was my Savior and I could tell people about the gospel so my earliest attempted ministry was evangelism I'd stand in the streets and preach the gospel in two years I covered every street in the town I was living in preaching in every nook and corner and giving out tracts in the buses and trains and but I found literally no results and I knew that God didn't bear witness to it I was not called to be an evangelist but this around the same time during the week I would teach the word and I found tremendous fruit in that and then I knew that that is my calling so it is a trial and error process how can I overcome being somewhat afraid to know God's will or hear from him in certain areas because I fear it may be very painful or difficult well this depends on your knee knowing the nature of God do you remember the story of the man who gave certain talents for people to use while he was away and he gave men one talent or one piece of money and that man buried it and didn't use it and when he came back he told the master I knew you were a hard demanding man that was his problem he there are people who think of God is a very hard demanding God who's a spoilsport who's out to mess up your life if you ask him to choose for you the girl you should marry he'll pick out the ugliest girl in the world and say you got to marry her and if he ask him to tell you what job you should take he'll pick out the most low lowest paid job that the most typical job and give you that you know where these thoughts come from the devil would you would your own loving father ever do that to you know well God is a million times better than the most loving father in the world he's not a spoilsport he he'll give us the best possible life if we submit to his will and we so it's our understanding of God's nature how much he loves me he wants the very best but he does want me to go through to work hard at it for example our children studying for examinations in India it's so employment is so difficult it's so difficult to get jobs that parents push their children to work hard in their examinations so they get a good complete a good course and get a good degree so they get a job and why do the parents urge the child who's probably not serious about it come on sit down and work and do your homework and study hard because in the long term that child is going to be thankful to the parents that thing we went through that hard way but if a parent said ah do what you like you don't want to study forget it and later on the child's I've seen cases like that and all their life they're struggling to find a job struggling struggling struggling they get married and lifelong struggle because in the early days they did not have a little discipline to work hard whatever job it is I mean if you're going to be a plumber or a carpenter or anything to learn a trade you've got to really work hard and so just because something is painful or difficult doesn't mean it's bad for us we understand it in many areas we take the matter of surgery if the doctor says you've got a cancer but I can cure you're 54 you let me cut your stomach open you ask is it gonna be painful well of course it will be it'll take a long time for you to recover from it why do you go through it because you know in the long term is for your benefit so we should not be afraid if we it all depends on whether you trust the doctor he's the loving man can't be trust our Heavenly Father okay if I desire to live in the most holy place and I seek to live hidden with God alone how do I know that I'm not deceiving myself I don't want to live in outer court live and think I'm in the Holy of Holies well I believe it'll you will come to know through a it's very difficult to describe them your relationship with God deepening I'm the only way I can picture it is a husband and wife how do you know whether your relationship with your partner the married person is deepening and encloses which is very difficult to describe it but you know by whether you want to spend time with your wife when you're not doing anything else then you know that you really love her you want to be with her or if you say I'm pretty bored with my wife spend time with my friends but then you know that you don't really love her at all so if you're eager to have the presence of God and you want it you wanted more than anything else you won't be deceiving yourself and you'll find also the result of it is in spiritual growth in your life you're able to overcome sins that you couldn't overcome before and revelation on God's Word when you come into God's presence he reveals things in the word I don't mean bright ideas a clever mind can give you bright ideas from Scripture and a lot of people preach bright ideas from Scripture the difference between a bright idea what you get from God's Word from a clever mind and revelation that comes from the Spirit is this that revelation changes your life bright ideas don't change your life they just give you points for another sermon that's all so if all you got is a point for another sermon that's just a bright idea but if it is revelation it would change your life in some area so these are different ways by which we know we're living in God's presence how can I die to myself when my pride and self is constantly standing out these two things that are mentioned here pride and selfishness they are the two sins that will appeal remain with us till we die but if you are working on your salvation and cleansing yourself it'll become less and less and less and less I compared pride to a massive onion selfishness another massive onion you peel a off a layer it becomes thinner you peel off another layer in some situation you get light on it and you cleanse yourself and little by little by little that pride and selfishness become less and less in in other words you're becoming more christ-like more humble more God centered more concerned for others and not occupied with yourself you will always find if you're honest you'll always discover some situation where you were a little proud or a little selfish but it will be layer number 23 not layer number one if you're always working at layer number one there's something wrong we'll be discovering more and more of hidden subtle areas of selfishness or pride in something you said or something you didn't say etcetera so as you see it you can only die to that which you see when I die - for example if the Lord shows me some time here that was a very selfish thing you did or said just now I say hello I go and apologize to that person that's one way I die to myself and to my pride as well and I get some light on that I'll be more careful next time what is the meaning of purifying ourselves see there's two type of cleansing mentioned in the scripture one the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin which is committed sin I can never cleanse myself wholly God has to do it through the blood but cleansing myself there are a number of verses second Corinthians 7:1 we cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh and spirit 2nd Timothy 2:4 man cleanses himself will be a vessel unto honor and 1 John 3:3 if he purify ourselves as he is pure that's the cleansing way we do ourselves that is not from committed sin which God cleanses me but from sins within my flesh habits which I need to cleanse myself from which I progressively get free from both these cleansing ZAR needed and for one we need mercy for the other we need grace to overcome those sins and God can help us through his spirit to die to ourselves as a leader how should we find out about personal life of the church members and help them in their broken relationships I don't think you should ever be curious about people's private lives or personal lives and even when people come to you and want to confess their sins to you I usually discourage them I said listen I'm not a Roman Catholic priest for you to come and confess your sins to me go and confessor to the Lord and if it's between you and the Lord confessor to him if you've sinned against me confess it to me but all your private sins I have no interest in listening to them go and got its content the Lord about it I've no interest in knowing about the private sins of anybody in my congregation my calling as a leader is to help them in their personal life to have some assessment of their spiritual condition and that can come through personal conversation and if you have a church where you have opportunity for people to share a testimony or you can find out when they'll share that testimony or if they keep quiet what their spiritual state and God gives you that discernment it's very difficult to define that but a leader God if you're walking with the Lord he'll give you a discernment and you may feel that somebody's slipping up and God Himself will expose certain things to you and so that you can help them and if it's broken relationships in a family if you love them enough God will you know if people sense that you love them enough they will come and share their problem with you and try say please help us in this situation I feel very often people in a church may feel that the leader points out certain sins but does not love them enough like you know as parents our children must know we love them immensely then they will believe that what we are telling them is for their good people in our church must feel the same way about us I've corrected so many people in our church very strongly my own children and even elders and they love me immensely for it because they know also that I'd sacrifice anything for them I'd do anything for them and I've even helped them with their in financial difficulty they know that I care for them and so if we they see love and compassion then you'll be able to correct them I've been reading the Bible for some time seeking to see the glory of Christ in it so as to follow him please advise it's only the Holy Spirit who can show you the beauty of Jesus and there's no technique for it but if you if you go to the Bible and say Lord I want to see the glory of Jesus here I want to be more christ-like and I want to become more like him I want to follow in his footsteps please show me those footsteps show me the hidden life of Jesus how he lived on this earth I want to live like that I believe the Holy Spirit can show you little by little not everyday necessarily in some fresh revelation but sometimes I mean long after you read the Bible suddenly something may flash into your mind in the Holy Spirit reminds you or in a particular situation where you are facing a temptation this is how Jesus would react then you're seeing the glory of Jesus based on what you read in the scriptures last week perhaps should we assume that every command Jesus gave to his disciples applies for everyone no I mean but you know you mean you got enough common sense to know where it was a personal command just for them for example he told the disciples don't go to the Gentiles just go to the nation of Israel and preach to them and he gave them a commission to raise the dead Roman I might say Matthew chapter 10 as you go raise the dead cleanse the lepers you know that was for them but when it comes to the general teaching like in the Sermon on the Mount we know that's for everybody and weren't there some specific to them that's it but are all disciples called to make disciples I believe so there's a verse which many Christians like to quote I see it hanging on the walls of some homes lo I am with you always you know where that is it's in the last verse of Matthew lo I am with you all we like to have that but do you know to whom Jesus said it it's like when you get a check you've got a first check is it in your name or not before you get excited about the amount of the check it may not be in your name so low I'm with you always a fantastic check but here's the full verse go into all the world make disciples baptize them teach them to do everything I commanded you and lo I am with you always so it's for everybody but going you know going into the olive oil world for you may just mean going next door or to your relatives or it doesn't mean the other side of the world but the world is all around you in your office anywhere can you define soul and spirit and more detail there's a little book of mine there called living as Jesus lived there's a whole chapter there on soul and spirit and three chapters following that on what soulish and spiritual service is why do we see so many demon-possessed people in the New Testament murad in the Old Testament they were in the Old Testament too but nobody could cast out a demon in the Old Testament not even John the Baptist no prophet because they were not given that authority by Christ and the devil was going to be defeated only after Christ came so Jesus is the first person in the Bible who casts out demons but there were demons in the synagogue's we read once when Jesus preached in a synagogue one guy with a demon it erupted and said something he was sitting comfortably there as long as the Pharisees were preaching but as soon as Jesus preached the demon got all worked out so in the Old Testament you never read of anybody confronting Satan no we're the first person who directly confronted Satan was Jesus Christ in the Gospels and after that the Apostles and who we are called to confront Satan a resist the devil and he will flee from us because they didn't have the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament so God does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability I mean if the devil was permitted to attack people like that in the Old Testament they wouldn't have known what to do with it so today what he was restrained but there wouldn't even possess people right from the beginning I think in the days of Noah when it says the sons of God referring to the Angelica beings saw the daughters of men and lusted after them and had sex with them angels can't have sex it's impossible they don't have a body what I believe that verse means in Genesis 6 is they possessed men and through men who yielded their bodies to them they satisfy their lust for pretty women ok what's the definition of the word grace and the best definition is what you read in Hebrews 4:16 let us come to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need beautiful it's a biblical definition help in time of need and if you look at the previous verse Hebrews 4:15 it's referring to temptation Jesus was tempted in all points as we are and did not sin therefore let us go and find grace to help us in our time of need which is temptation so that is the primary purpose of grace - more than a definition the purpose of grace is to help us in our temptation in the other word I would go to 2nd Corinthians 12:9 where it says my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weak people that means it is God's power to help us in our weakness and that makes us sufficient for every need that we can ever face in our life any trial any sickness anything I mean the sickness may not be healed like in Judge Paul's case the thorn was not taken away but he was given grace to live with it and overcome it so that it didn't hinder his life for ministry definitions are not as important as being availing of that grace it doesn't matter if we don't get an accurate definition but we must avail of grace how often should we sit with our children for teaching time there's no law on that it depends on how much time you have and it's different parents have different time time available sometimes it's only the mother who has time but we must sit with our children and teach them the Word of God preferably every single day in a little bit of time and even if it's around the dining table when we're sitting around the dining table we can share it doesn't have to be in a formal time of family prayer so whenever we get time and as much time as we get and then get them to read the Bible on their own as well I got a picture Bible for my children when they were small so that they could get read the facts of the Bible and then we could talk about it when we were on the dining table where you know when they were young they don't understand the deep truths in Scripture but we can encourage them to know Scripture by asking them facts of the Bible and if they are reading their you know ask them who is Moses mother do you all know so now those are type of questions you don't need to be a deep scholar to understand you just need to read Exodus and you know it so once they you challenge them on it what do you so happen what they would look try to look for something where they would catch me and find something which I didn't know the answer to and that way we both improved our knowledge of the scriptures like I remember one of my sons ones asking me dad Joe David's general in his army was Joab how was he related to David I said I'm sorry I don't know I know he was the son of zeruiah but what does that mean he said there I was David's sister oh then I looked up the scripture and I found it was right Joab was his nephew so little things like that you know it creates an interest and they study it more if they know that they got one up on their dad in some situation and then as an interest comes in Scripture they begin to read it and then you can lead them more and more to understand the deeper truths of Scripture the main thing is to create an interest in this book that was my aim I must get my children interested in this book because it's changed my life can you lose your salvation this is a big dispute in many Christian circles there is children okay yeah we're Scripture is silent you know my principle in teaching scriptures this where the New Testament emphasizes something strongly I emphasize it strongly where the New Testament speaks about something very little I speak about it very little where the New Testament is silent I'm silent but I give my opinion like 1 Corinthians 7 Paul says concerning this matter of marriage a virgin that all I give my opinion it's not the Lord's commandment so there are three levels and so this is an area of the questions you asked when should a child be taught to ask Jesus to come into his heart or baptized or take communion there's no scripture but I believe that children can receive Christ at a very young age I knew one missionary lady who came to India who said that she received Christ when she was three years old she was European and when at the age of five when she heard a missionary from China speaking our church she got a call to go to China but she went there 30 years later so I can see that God can speak to people at any time and from the earliest childhood from the time they begin to understand we must tell them primarily about their conscience listen to that conscience you've done things against your conscience that makes you a sinner and you can explain how you know when you do something wrong it has to be corrected if you steal some money you to return it use examples like that and therefore when we have done something wrong against God he has to punish us for it and Jesus took that punishment for us and helped them to see that and how Jesus rose from the dead it's amazing how we know we begin to think how can children believe all this and it's amazing to see how children do it's God puts into their heart that faith faith is a gift of God I believe that without any and so from the earliest age and ever they can understand you must ask them Lord Jesus asked Jesus to come into your heart and there'll be a time when they themselves realize and say hey I know Jesus has come in and then you know it's real now they'll make mistakes just like we make mistakes and you should not jump on them and it's a foolish parent whose will now tell the child hey you accepted Jesus in your heart yesterday and you can't behave like that today that's sure to drive them away from the Lord permanently never say that as if you never made a mistake in your life after you accepted Christ and some parents are very bad that way so we must encourage them and tell them hey we slip up but we're gonna get up you're like a child learning to walk and so when should they be baptized see we don't want children to take baptism because of peer pressure others are getting baptized I want to get baptized maybe they shouldn't think there's some virtue in that baptism other than obeying a commandment of the Lord you don't become more spiritual when you go into the water but it's an important step of obedience but it's good if they understand it before they do it the same way with communion it's good if they understand it before they did not understand all the depth of meaning in it but if they can say yes this means my old life was finished and I'm publicly saying to everyone into the devil I finished with you I'm finished with my old life and each parent must decide themselves for their child what is the right age when I can feel that they the child can be baptized so what I do in our church who the father is a believer I tell the father you get into the baptism tank and you baptize and because you take responsibility for that you know that child better than anybody else get into the water and baptize him and then they think the father also takes it more seriously than then if they put the responsibility on the pastor or the elder so I wouldn't specify a time I know my own children were baptized when they were 16 or 17 I wanted to be absolutely sure that they knew the Lord and they were choosing it themselves that later on in life they don't regret it saying hey my dad pushed me into the water too soon or you know sometimes parents can want that children to get baptized for their own testimony say oh my children are all baptized well I couldn't care less for that I wanted them to have a relationship with God which is more important but then I also in the some of our churches people get baptized when they are 11 I say fine if you're sure I will not make a rule on this for anybody each parent must decide for himself the same thing with communion you feel that in our church we do not encourage people to take communion before they are baptized I mean there's not long that a person can be born again without taking baptism I know that but if they are not baptized I say why aren't you baptized you should be baptized because there's an obedience to God and so I would encourage children to take part coming in after they're baptized how to deal with the way of the Cross in corporate situations which is very competitive see and you think of Jesus was also a businessman a carpenter he was not the only carpenter in Nazareth hmm he had to earn his living as a carpenter there must have been other carpenters in Nazareth and he had to compete for his business but he did it in a healthy way he wouldn't try to undercut somebody and he wouldn't tell any lies he wouldn't you know if a table was cracked you tell them it's cracked you gotta pay less for it so I see that in every area Jesus is an example that I can honor God in whatever job I'm doing even if it's in a competitive business world believing that God will bless me I know people in my own church who are doing business in different fields and God has blessed them immensely you know people didn't like the strong preaching that our church preached in many areas like you hear me speak and this is what we do we preach the same thing 40 years ago and a lot of Christians around us it's interesting the Hindus and Muslims didn't hate us as much as the other Christians because they were being exposed by the type of Christianity we preached but we had a brother in our church who made furniture but he was so upright in his business that all these people who call us heretics when they wanted a job done they'd come to him because they know that he do an honest job so the the testimony was so good that he earned his living very with very good living thereby so I believe God honors us you mentioned you'd be happy to be in hell if Jesus is there and the boiling oil wouldn't bother you what more on a lighter note was that more on a lighter note to explain how much you enjoy presence presence of Jesus because Jesus I think does not simply warning us not last years against hell sorry this is a dumb question no no dumb questions don't worry well it was I was only trying to say that physical discomfort if I were to put it that way would not hinder me from being in the presence of Jesus if Jesus was there physical discomfort wouldn't bother me because the presence of Jesus would more than make up for it that's what I really meant by that but you know Jesus also was used some strong expressions have you heard I'm talking about swallowing a camel is that in your Bible it's a pretty extreme expression if you went up to Jesus and say what do you mean by swallowing a camel who can ever do that or a log in your eye have you ever tried having a log in your eye Jesus was a master at using extreme statements like a log in your eye and swallowing a camel because that's the way he emphasized the point so I learned to emphasize points from Jesus by the way in strong expressions could you please okay this is about body soul and spirit and it's it's there in that book I mentioned you said Jesus said depart from me and go to hell why didn't you why didn't you say eternal punishment as the scripture says I don't see much of a difference between the two when the rich man died he went to a physical hell and he was there and finally we read in Revelation chapter 20 hell is thrown into the lake of fire the lake of fire is different from Hell hell was thrown into the lake of fire to me it is the same thing it's really the same thing well on being a compromiser and being gracious and tolerant how do you expound the difference I think Jesus was very gracious but he was never a compromiser the glory of God was seen in Jesus full of grace and truth and whenever we present truth it must be presented graciously but grace must not be so strong in as wrong understanding of grace so strong that we don't stand for truth grace and truth real grace will always include truth and if it's scriptural truth spiritual way it will be always presented with grace and the example I use is if truth can be compared to the bones in our body and grace to the flesh our physical flesh I mean it's because we have bones and flesh that we don't repel each other if a person was only truth it would be like a skeleton and you don't exactly be like embracing a skeleton if he walks up to you in a dark night and that's how the Pharisees were they were like skeletons moving towards people and people ran away from them Jesus had as many bones spiritually speaking as the Pharisees and more than them because he had all the truth but however people attracted to Jesus because he was not a skeleton the bones were covered over with grace or flesh which made them come close to him so grace and truth must go together the glory of God was seen in Jesus full of grace and truth and God will give us wisdom in each situation compromise means where you you know something is wrong and you still and don't stand up for it stand up for the truth you know something is truth you don't stand up for it it doesn't mean that we had to go around exposing all the errors that we see in other people Jesus didn't go around exposing errors there was a time and a place for him to speak against the Pharisees and Sadducees but he didn't walk into every synagogue and try to say you fellas are all wrong that's crazy so it's the Holy Spirit lead unit situation yeah yes the very very first act of humility is to acknowledge you're a sinner otherwise you can't be saved at all and that's very difficult for some people I mean Adam found it difficult when God asked him did you eat of the tree right from that day onwards it's always putting the blame on somebody else the difference between the two thieves on the cross one said get me down from this cross meaning okay I've come into some crimes but not bad enough to be crucified maybe a few years in prison well the other team he said no I deserve this I don't blame my parents I don't blame anybody else for bringing up bring me up badly I deserve this Jesus said you're ready for paradise because he was humble enough to acknowledge his needs so fried from the beginning his humanity that enabled us to acknowledge we're sinners we can't save ourselves that's also humility all my good works are like filthy rags that's humility and right on till the very end God gives us grace to the humble how do I know my place in the body of the church and you have already answered that how do I know if I missed God's will for my life see I want to tell you something we should never look back over a life and say oh boy I wish I had done this over there did I miss God's will over there that's holy that's a way of condemnation discouragement and so put the past behind you say Lord I can't do anything about those things so I can learn lessons from that you see we I made a rule in our church back in Bangalore in India saying in this church we'll never talk about the past mistakes anybody made because that only makes them feel miserable but we will learn lessons from the mistakes we made so that we don't repeat it in the future so we're not going to torment ourselves or anybody else with our past mistakes because that doesn't help us one bit but we want to learn from that did I act foolishly in some place fine let me learn from it that I don't repeat it again somewhere but not to condemn myself and say whoa did I miss God's will there you see even in marriage imagine if you a lot of people are converted were converted after their marriage what are they going to do about you know did I marry in God's will it's completely out of the question God overrules all that and ignore it and say I'm gonna start from the day I'm converted I want to learn some lesson that I'm not gonna look back over the past it's cleansed in the blood of Christ and it's amazing how I have seen in so many cases people who are unconverted and got married and then they got converted and so many hundreds of cases I've seen where the wife comes along it's almost as though God allowed you to marry the right person even when you were unconverted that you came along and they both became believers and they're following the Lord now so there's a sovereignty of God in all this which we cannot fully understand so you know we think mathematically this is if I made a mistake in step number three I can never get the right answer finally that's true in mathematics but it's not true in the Christian life because you see the example of Paul who messed up 30 years of his life going the wrong direction even killing Christians and you know what he says at the end of his life I finished my course do you how in the world can a man finish this course who messed up thirty years of his life because God made allowance for that God had made allowance for that but so many years this guy's going astray okay doesn't matter I'll start from here so it's amazing what God can do the sovereignty of God can do amazing things and so if you sit in regret over your past you'll mess up more of your life but if you say Lord okay I can learn lessons from the past but I'm not going to sit and regret there's a beautiful verse I always encourage such people with acts 17 verse 30 which says God overlooks the times of ignorance and our times of ignorance can be a huge area even after we are born again we never knew that there's a life of victory over sin possible that's a period of ignorance God overlooked sit but now that you got some light repent so let's look at our life from now into the future and never in the past can you lose your salvation as I said this is a big question I just want to read this verse in Revelation chapter 3 verse 5 he who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life is that an empty threat that Jesus gave or these the words of Jesus revelation 3:5 I believe Jesus gives no empty threats it's possible for a person's name to be raised from the book of life he's speaking in human language for us to understand but I understand that mean that person can lose his salvation or Hebrews 3:14 we become partakers of christ if there's a big eye we hold fast the beginning of arts assurance firm until the end what if we don't hold fast the beginning of our salvation assurance firm at the end when we don't become partakers of Christ so that's all I would say now some judges as you say argue that such people are never saved in the first place those are all because they're trying to preserve a theology it's better to take Scripture exactly as it is written what is the evidence that God is backing us personally and backing us as a church in fellowship it's very difficult to say but I think that for example if I'm defeated by sin in my life I would say that's because I didn't get grace because the Bible says Romans 6:14 when you're under grace sin cannot rule over you then I go one step further back and I say why didn't I get grace God gives us grace to the humble 1 Peter 5 verse 5 so then why did I get defeated by sin because somewhere back there I was not humble so I didn't get raised so I was defeated so if I go back and set that right and I say Lord where was I not humble was it Samaria or I just got puffed up and a lot of show me I repent I get one more light one more layer of that onion of pride is peeled off and I seek for grace and I say Lord I want to remain in humility all my life so that is personal life I believe the only way we can know God is backing us is that we overcome sin and as a church I would say that it's not by numbers not at all it's by the quality of fellowship in a church if that's improving that is the indication that God is with you if you go by numbers I think the Islamic fundamentalists will beat us outright they got a lot more followers than any Christian group now the Roman Catholic Church but it's not numbers it's the quality of life in a local church that indicates that God is really bearing witness to this church is a church a part of Babylon if it hurts bushes died thing heavily and operates in a pyramid structure with a one man leader when is a church simply in error versus part of Babylon see thankfully we don't have to judge which church is a part of Babylon except our own if you're in a church ask yourself whether your church is part of Babylon because I'm not here to say this church is Babylon that choice about one's none of my business God is the ultimate judge it's like asking people asking me this did he go to heaven did he go to heaven I see I don't know I'm not a judge of all those things I know there's only one way to be with the father jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the Father but by me I'm absolutely sure of that believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you can be saved the same so I don't you not here to judge different people I'm not here to judge different churches but I'm certainly keen on ensuring that the church I have a responsibility for I am a part of should not finally end up as a part of Babylon and Babylon has got two big factors in Revelation chapter 17 politics and Revelation chapter 18 money wherever a church is very involved in politics and money it's going in a dangerous direction churches with friendships and political circles invariably end up in Babylon and churches that have a heavy emphasis on money where money is a big thing in the church it usually ends up in Babylon they are going to be very careful but as I said not to judge others we have to warn everybody and what we had to judge only ourselves yes I'm sorry yeah yeah sure see I don't think you should base marriage on does a person understand every thing in scripture but is there a fervent love for Jesus but if a person is very strong on some issue which they hold like a fundamental truth like Jesus Christ is God and we must all be vegetarians or something like that I think he'll have difficulty living with such a person so but I it's just a view I want to be vegetarian myself I say go ahead you eat vegetables and I'll eat meat and the house no problem we can love one another and live together it's a question of how strongly they hold to a particular view that's the thing you need to see in marriage and when you say non-essentials each person has a different idea of what non-essentials are that's the problem so in in a church I would say if somebody comes to my church and is beginning to preach that we can never lose our salvation I would very gently ask him to sit down even in the middle of his message I'd say brother we don't or I would just say brother we don't even believe that here in this church I'm not saying you're not a believer it's not my business to judge that but please recognize we don't believe that and I would not hesitate to correct such a doctrine publicly because if I keep quiet on it people in the church younger believers can assume that I indeed agree with it so the leadership is gonna be careful but if someone believes that in his church I wouldn't drive him out of the church right away because they come to the church to be educated and over a period of time he may understand the truth so it's only a question of whether someone preaches that from the pulpit or if he's privately going around sharing that then I'd ask him to please be quiet on that don't circulate a doctrine in this church which we don't believe in the leadership if you feel very strongly on it there are other churches that believe that I think you should go and join one of those yeah okay there are many false apostles going about my supernatural power that really is is it from God or a demon you know I have already answered that falling down and jerking and shaking how can we tell if it's fighting I've answered that that Jesus is our example the one who's filled with the spirit James 4:11 says not to speak against neither does this mean slander or she shouldn't warn the flock about wolves how is this not slander if we mention names like that God is not the author of confusion so how can we know the difference between slander and making mocking the wolves and divided okay if you have heard my sermons and there are about a thousand of them on YouTube you'll never hear me mention anybody's name of any false teacher or preacher I've never done it people ask me why I said because jesus never did it Jesus is my example in preaching I never hear him mentioning Anna's or Caiaphas or any of the false teachers of his time and so I don't do it he always spoken in general terms Pharisees and Sadducees and hypocrites you have people who have make the outside of the cup so I speak in general terms of people who cheat people or enforce tithing or fake miracles and things like that without names the only place where I find names in the New Testament is when Paul writes to Timothy about hymenaeus and philetus and different ones like that Alexander the coppersmith and I say there you must remember that was not a letter written to a church it was written to a close co-worker so when I'm with my close co-workers my fellow elders then to them I will mention names be careful of this person that person the other person which I would never speak in public so that's what pattern that I have followed in this area we must expose false teachers but supposing you may I'll tell you the danger of mentioning two or three names only I mentioned two or three names there may be 20 other names which I haven't mentioned and they'll think oh then the others are okay Zack only mentioned these three so how do I know I don't even know the list of false teachers but if I proclaim in a general way these are the characteristics of these people and they can discern for themselves those who wanna hear what does it mean to be without spot or wrinkle it says in Ephesians 5 that Christ will present the church to himself without spot or wrinkle and that is the state of perfection just like Christ himself which is going to happen finally one day in the future we haven't yet got there and do you believe Titus 1:6 elders qualification it says in Titus chapter 1 verse 6 a man must be above reproach the husband or own wife having children who believe not accused of dissipation or rebellion in order for an elder to be qualified should his children be believers are all of your children believers by God's grace and mercy all my four sons are believers they are married believers and they're seeking to follow the Lord as well but that is I give glory to God for that it's God's mercy I wouldn't say that a person is disqualified from being an elder the reason is why compared to your Titus with 1 Timothy 3 I compare Scripture with Scripture and there it says he must be one who manages his household well keeping his children under control with all dignity so therefore I assume it's referring to children who are living in the home of the elder once a child has left the home and then if he doesn't believe I would not disqualify him from being an elder I wouldn't stretch that but I would say and I've done this all so I've removed elders from some of our churches where I find the children living in their home our got a bad testimony but if they are you know on their own they're earning their own living and grown up I wouldn't put them I wouldn't disqualify an elder on that count but I would still say that if you train up a child in the way he should go he will not depart from it when he's old they may go through a few ups and downs I remember I was in another place where they asked me this question at what age will they finally come back I said I said to let me be very merciful and let me read that verse like this again like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7 this is my opinion don't quote me train up a child in the way he should go and when he's 30 years old he will not depart from it give him time because they may in their teens and the early 20s they go through certain ups and downs and we have to make an allowance for that some children go smoothly through some go through ups and downs and sometimes the ones who go through ups and downs turn out to be far better believers than the ones who just have a smooth sailing and are pretty proud of their smooth sailing should separation of the church and state be in the light pursuing a holy God or will the Lord do the separating separation of church and state I don't know how it affects us I don't think we should personally is it again my personal conviction I have felt that in India where the choice is between one Hindu and another Hindu in time of election and who's to be the minister I can't choose between either of them so I say I'm gonna cast my vote in the Premier League pray to God and say Lord influence the election so that we have the right people in power so that's how I believe the church has got influence over society I remember once a 1977 I think you just give you one instance of how I was away from I was up in the north of India preaching somewhere and coming back from the one day I saw a vision of the one who was the second most important cabinet member and India's India doesn't have a president they have a prime minister so he's the second most important person in the government and he was a strong Hindu and I didn't know what it meant I saw a picture in before my eyes different Indian faces and I heard a voice saying the power to free these people is in the church and I saw this man's face and I didn't know what to do so I knew that God had given me this picture for some reason so I decided to pray I'm not a politician I'm not for this party or the other party I just prayed with that person in mine and most of the time I didn't know what to pray so when I don't know what to pray I pray in tongues I pray in tongues by there only in private never in public it's a help when I don't know what to pray for I didn't know what to pray for for this man against him for him so I prayed in tongues concerning him and I shared that with the others in our church and the next day after that he got a heart attack oh so then no I didn't give him the heart attack though and I didn't pray for that either I was praying in tongues and then after a while there was a it was a coalition government with two parties joined together to run the government and they came a division there between him and the prime minister and then I knew something was happening as a result of my prayer I was praying with the few believers in our church and I continued to pray and every time something came up in the newspapers that people were trying to bring these two factions in the government together again the burden would come on me to pray against it no I knew that I had to pray against this and so they never got United eight months later one of the members in Parliament got up and wanted to pass a law to ban the conversion of people to Christianity in India and they could not pass that law because the government was divided then I knew why God made me pray for that eight months earlier to bring that division there so that they would not pass this law banning conversions in India and that was 1977 till today they had never been able to pass that law that bans conversion to Christianity all over India a few states individual states three or four have passed it but it's never been passed all over India so that's just an example of how the church has a power to control when it says pray for those in authority is not just the pious Lord bless them but we can influence the government if we are failed okay can a godly man get a tattoo you know the answer is that's in the New Testament there's an answer to it 1 Corinthians in verse 31 whether you eat or drink or get a tattoo or whatever you do do all to the glory of God whatever you do it says whatever you do that includes every imaginable question do all to the glory of God I don't see by any stretch of my imagination how you can do that for the glory of God so I wouldn't get it I wouldn't reject a person who has it that's not my business to do that and judge him but if he asked me I'd say can you glorify God with that in some way ok in fact that 1 Corinthians 10:31 is an answer to many many questions see if you can do that for the glory of God this is a question about it's not a very clear question about miracles and baptism sorry I can't understand this question ok any other questions or shall we close I have baptized people a second time one where somebody came to me and said I was only 14 years old and my dad was very eager that we should all get baptized and I got baptized it was more pure pressure I asked him one question were you born again or not not whether you were a wholehearted Christian because our understanding of wholehearted Christian can become better and better as we go on as far as you know had you given your life to Christ not were you perfect and you come to the starting line of the race if you had then even if you're immature you don't have to be baptized again but if you feel that you were not at all converted you know just peer pressure then I have baptized them again the second example is where some people were baptized in the name of Jesus you know their groups of people who don't believe in the Trinity they baptized the name of Jesus they say the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit is Jesus I say then I would baptize you again because you have indirectly renounced the Trinity and John's episode says that's spirit the Antichrist to renounce the Trinity so I would baptize you again those are the only cases

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 6,041

Rating: 4.8947368 out of 5

Keywords: questions, answers, standing, true, god, day, compromise, zac, poonen, sermon, rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship, mens, conference, 2015

Id: aRDxTX0-A_8

Length: 66min 37sec (3997 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2015