The Secret of Godliness - Zac Poonen - May 24, 2015

we find that the Apostles particularly the Apostle Paul speaks a lot about his personal life and when we link that with his statement follow me as I follow Christ you know there are many people who find it difficult to believe that we can walk as Jesus walked even though the Bible commands that in 1 John 2:6 that he who says he abides in him must walk as he walked and that's why the Lord has given us another example Paul because when it comes to Christ you know we can say well he was different and he had certain advantages that we don't have which is not really true he was made look just like us and he was tempted like us and he only had their same resources that we have of the Holy Spirit the secret of living a godly life the Bible says is a great mystery and mystery is not an Old Testament word it's a New Testament word mystery means a secret that can only be understood by divine revelation and in 1 Timothy 3 verse 16 it says by common confession great is the mystery of godliness or as the Living Bible says it's quite true that it's a secret to know how to live a godly life but the answer lies in Christ who was reeled in the flesh you know whenever the word flesh is used in the New Testament we need to understand this it could have said Christ was revealed as a man but Adam was a man but Adam was not in the flesh says Christ came in the flesh and it's a word used consistently in the New Testament it's so important that 1 John says if someone does not confess that Christ came in the flesh as a spirit of the Antichrist what we have is sinful flesh Christ did not have sinful flesh the Bible says in Romans 8:3 he came in the likeness of sinful flesh but he did not have sinful flesh because there was no sin in him from birth the Holy Spirit said that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God he was holy from birth means set apart but as I have studied the word flesh I find that in some cases is just used to refer to meat but in relation to our life I see flesh basically means self we'll having a will of our own and it says about Jesus when he came to earth when it says he was tempted in all points as we are it means he was tempted to exercise his own will to do his own will so when it says he was revealed in the flesh he came with a will of his own but he was declared righteous in the spirit beheld by angels in spite of having a will of his own he never sinned he was declared righteous in the spirit and Hebrews 4 in verse 15 says we have a high priest who cannot we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize or putting it positively we have a high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses what does that mean he's not talking about our having cancer or being lame because he didn't have cancer he was never lame he wasn't blind he's talking about this particular weakness that we attempted he can sympathize with our weakness because he was tempted in all points exactly as we are and yet he did not sin and in Hebrews 2:17 sorry Hebrews 2:8 17 it says he had to be made like his brothers in all things he was not made like Adam he was made like us his brothers and because he was tempted verse 18 through what he suffered therefore he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted my own testimony is that one of the things that God revealed to me after he filled me with the Holy Spirit about 40 years ago was the fact that Jesus was my example in every area he was tempted exactly like me and never sinned and the way that helped me was that whenever I was tempted I could say Lord Jesus you were tempted like this to when you were a teenager in Nazareth you were tempted just like me the Bible says but you never sinned you were tempted when you worked as a carpenter with the same type of temptations that people who work and earn money today are tempted but you never sinned helped me to know how you reacted to that temptation when you were in Nazareth and I want to have the same reaction right now because I'm being tempted I can't tell you how much that helped me this is what really led me into a life of victory a secret of godliness Jesus came in the flesh and was tempted like us in every point but did not sin why is it so many people don't see it the Bible says in Psalm 23 that the secret of the Lord is with those who fear him why should God reveal the secret of godliness to anyone who doesn't have a passion to live a godly life I mean if a godly life is the sort of a thing yeah I'd like to have it it's what if it doesn't matter too much if I don't get it I don't think it God will ever reveal the secret to that person there are many people who desire a godly life who live a holy life but they're not that desperately keen on it they're not thirsting for it it's a good thing to have it's like some luxury if you have it well and good but if you don't have it that's okay but if someone comes to the place where lord I can't live without it I need it desperately it's amazing what God reveals to such people you know and the Bible says that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him one of the Saints whose biography I read as a young Christian was an indian saint called seduced under singh he he lived in the early 1900's and he was converted somewhere in 1900 and - or something like that and he was a young 14 year old Sikh boy that means these folks who wear a turban it's a particular religion in India called Sikhism and his mother took him as a little boy to different different Hindu and Sikh priests and he never found any piece and as a 14 15 year-old boy he was seeking for God it's amazing I'm always challenged and I see so many 14 15 or old boys today absolutely no interest in God at all he was an amazing young lad to have a desire for passion for God which I've hardly seen in many grown-up people and he was from non-christian religion but he wanted to know the true God and he hated Christianity he hated Christianity so much that because there were Christians in those days and he despised them he tore a Bible in two to show his this despising of Christianity but he became so desperate his mother died and he was alone and he was seeking God as a young 14 15 year old boy one day got up early in the morning somewhere before 5 o'clock most of these people in India seek God like that they get up very early in the morning to seek God and he didn't know whom to pray to he thought oh God whoever you are he thought it was krishna or rama or someone like that but i want you to reveal yourself to me and then he said I've sought you so long and I have not found you and I can't live without knowing you imagine to come to the place where I can't live anymore without knowing you God and if you don't reveal yourself to me by five o'clock or something this morning there's a train that goes by here a railway train I'll go and put my head on the railway track and commit suicide because I cannot live without you what do you think God in heaven does when he sees a young sincere kid desperately seeking Him like that so desperate that he doesn't want to live any more on earth if he doesn't find him well God revealed himself to me he got a vision in his room just like Paul he said I expected to see some Hindu God I saw Jesus and he revealed himself to me it was Jesus himself and he surrendered his life to Christ and of course he was immediately very bold and he told his father I found Christ I become a Christian his father thought he's gone mad or something like that and when he found that he was really converted that was such a shame on his religion that he gave him poison to kill him that's how much the father hated his son becoming a Christian he poisoned him and soon they're saying this he realized as a young lad he had to run away from home and I think he got into a train to go somewhere where he knew there was a missionary and he was vomiting and he didn't realize he'd been poisoned and somehow he reached that missionaries home and they nursed him back to life and he didn't die and he became I I consider him the more finest Christian India's ever produced the man who lived before God's face I remember someone who when I was young I met him much older man who had actually seen him in the 1920s and he said I remember seeing South East and they're saying when he was about 35 or 40 years old he died when he was 42 and he said the thing that struck me that still remains with me is the absolute purity in his eyes I mentioned how the eyes are a great traveller of our inner character the total purity in his eyes yet looked into the face of Jesus for so long through many many years through 20 years that the purity of heaven was in his eyes and his great passion was to preach the gospel I was challenged by that and I learned that God is no respecter of persons he's no respecter of religions if anywhere someone seeks him with all his heart he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and I said lord I don't have the same passion that saw this when their sing had but to the measure I have I want to know you I want to know the type of Christian life that people in the Bible had how is it that the Apostle Paul could for example give a testimony like this let me read to you in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 some of these verses that I've quoted to you this weekend our verses that I'm sorry to say I never heard a preacher preach in all my life there's certain verses in scripture the canoe Testament are completely left out for example 2nd Corinthians 2:14 thanks be to God this is not Paul quoting a verse he's giving a testimony thanks be to God who always always means 24/7 24/7 leads us so let's make it personal leads me in triumph in Christ and as a result of my being led in triumph in Christ 24/7 there's an aroma that comes forth from my life a sweet aroma of the knowledge of Christ wherever I go just think of that one verse and I said lord I want this at any cost my life if Paul could have it why can't I have it when you say that brothers sister do you have a passion that the aroma of Christ will be people will sense it in you when they get close to you and the people in your home will see the aroma of Christ the patience the gentleness the freedom from sin and sinful attitudes and sinful words but always being led in triumph in Christ we don't attain that overnight and Paul did not attain that overnight either but inspired by the Holy Spirit when he writes that we know it must have been true in his life and if you can come to verses like this in Scripture and say Lord I don't care if millions of Christians around me don't have this life I know at least one man Paul had it and if he had it why can't I have it come to God like that you know you need to have a personal passion to see for God and say to him I am willing to pay any price to get this life I don't want a cheap counterfeit I want the real thing or nothing I don't want to have something which I can testify to it in the church I'm not interested in testimony I'm not trying to impress people I want this aroma primarily to go to God that God can get the aroma of Christ from my life that the you know there's an expression that the 18th century Moravian Christians in that was now today's the Czech Republic in that area of Germany had a motto when they sent out their missionaries it was called to win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of his sufferings it's quite a challenging expression to win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of his sufferings and they applied it to missionary work and they that God wants us to reach people out there and the different outlying places of the world to win from them people for the reward of Christ's sufferings on the cross that's one aspect of it the other aspect of it is that the Lord must win and get the reward of his sufferings from my life from an aroma that comes which is free from sin and free from wrong attitudes and wrong thoughts and wrong words is an aroma of crisis it's a beautiful word the aroma of Christ like a perfume and I said Lord that's amazing that he could live this life and I suppose I can live it to think another think of another place where he uses the word always 2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 10 he says always carrying about in my body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body this is Christianity Christianity is not a life of following certain rules and regulations and improving our external life many people go to church and hear messages and they it's like a self-improvement program they improve the quality of their life and they think that is Christianity no there are management teachers who teach how to get people to work and in corporations and all how to improve your behavior etc but Christianity is not that Christianity is not following certain principles and laws it's an inner change of nature it's something from within and it says this life of Jesus being manifested in our body John 1:4 says in him was life and the life was the light of men it was not a technique or a principle or certain laws it was a life and that life it says in this verse can be manifested in us and you see that word in the beginning always but it comes as we bear in our body the dying of Jesus that's an interesting expression have you ever thought about it what does it mean to always bear in our body the dying of Jesus it's not his death on the cross which was for the sins of the world we have no part in that he died alone for the sins of the world and we have zero part in that but there's another dying that was in Jesus that most Christians are ignorant of and I believe the whole secret of the Christian life is here the dying of Jesus and we can understand it from his expression to his disciples a very well known expression If any man will come after me Luke 9:23 let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me he must daily everyday not take up Jesus cross but his own cross any man will come after me let him take up his cross not my cross let him take up his cross and follow me so if a man has to take up his own cross daily and follow Jesus it must mean that Jesus took a cross daily and walked that way only otherwise he can't ask somebody to follow his example every day there was a cross that Jesus took and died till he finally died on the wooden cross that is called the dying of Jesus there was something he died to every single day of his life and if you want to follow him really and if you want to enter into this life that the Apostles lived this wonderful triumphant life that brings forth the aroma of Christ you have to understand this dying of Jesus and that's the thing which made Moore's life what it was he experienced and lived he chose to live in this way and this is what is called the new and living way that Jesus inaugurated for us it's mentioned in other places in Scripture - let me show you Hebrews in chapter 10 I'm showing you these passages to show you and how many places in Scripture it is mentioned and yet we have missed it completely hebrews chapter 10 talking about we were speaking about entering into the most holy place the place where God dwells and here it refers to that brethren verse 19 we have confidence to enter the holy place which is the most holy place by the blood of Jesus and listen to this by a new and living way and the word living means ever fresh a new and ever fresh way that he inaugurated it's like a way that he walked in first and is not only for him he inaugurated it for us and this is through the veil and he refers there to the veil which blocked off the most holy place and that veil nobody knew what it referred to we know the Passover lamb referred to Jesus the Lamb of God and we know that the Sabbath referred to the rest of God that we can come into what is this veil symbolize this is the only place in scripture where we are told what that veil symbolized the veil was a picture of Jesus flesh and when the veil was torn on Calvary's on the day Jesus died on the cross the moment he died the veil was torn from top to bottom the way into the most holy place was opened and he says that is a way that's been inaugurated for us so I need to understand what this way is what is this significant so that the flesh of Jesus being torn we know his body was not torn on the cross it cannot be referring to his body because it was his body that have been written it was his body it's not his body and his body was not torn his body had just five wounds in it that's all but there was something in Jesus life that was torn and it says that's his flesh and if you can understand that you will know what the new and living way was and I must say for 15 years as a believer I never understood it but I thank God when I did understand it not just intellectually but in practical terms in daily life I want you to turn to John chapter 6 and you'll try and explain to you what this means John chapter 6 and verse 37 sorry verse 38 you know what a autobiography is the four Gospels are the biography of Jesus the biography means what somebody else wrote about Jesus but autobiography is what a person writes about himself about his own life and I called John 6:38 the one-line autobiography of Jesus life which describes his whole life from birth to death this is how he describes his whole life I have come down from heaven not to die on the cross not to explain the father not to show man how he is to live not to shed my blood all of that is true but it's all summed up in this sentence I've come not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me this is the one-line description of Jesus entire life from birth to death he died on the cross because he didn't do his own will the father wanted him to die on the cross he said not my will but thine you know the sentence in his prayer and gets Emily not my will but time but that was not just in Gethsemane according to this verse it was throughout his entire life so there was something in Jesus called my will which you and I have as well and it was not in line with the Father's will that's what I want you to see from this verse if it was in line with his father's will he could have said I do my room because it's the same as my father's will that's what he could say in heaven for eternal ages he was with the father and he could say I do my own will because it's the same as my father's will the will of the Holy Spirit the will of the father and son are the same but the moment he came to earth in the flesh he had a will he said I will not do my own will but I will do the will of him who sent me and his entire earthly life was not my will but dying not my will but dying any temptation when he was tempted he will me as a teenager he must have been tempted to lust after women as a carpenter he must been tempted in money matters when he did miracles he must have been tempted to take the honor for himself I don't know whether you noticed that when Jesus did miracles I'll give you one evidence of how he was tempted like I started to Luke chapter 5 Luke's Gospel chapter 5 and verse 15 these are little little things we must notice in the Gospels Luke 5 verse 15 the news about him was spreading further and great multitudes were gathering to hear him and to be healed of their sickness put yourself in that place supposing it was written about you the news about you was going all over the country and great multitudes were coming to hear you speak and to feel your touch to be healed of their sickness and they were being healed how would you be tempted you'd be tempted to pry it he was tempted exactly like us so what does he do he would slip away into the wilderness to pray he needed to do that he's his father I will not touch that glory it's yours many people pray before they have a ministry because they need the anointing very few people pray after the ministry is over to get before God and say father I give you all the glory for that hey I won't touch it Jesus needed to pray he was tempted like us and he denied his own will and he did his father's well throughout his life and that is the veil that was torn every time he was tempted think of the thousands of temptations we can be tempted with and he was tempted with all of them he was tempted in an area and basically every sin is to do your own will I don't know whether you know that when Adam and Eve was tempted in the Garden of Eden what were they attempted to do do your own will don't do the will of God the will of God is don't eat from this tree but the devil says to your own will eat it that was the origin of sin I will not do God's will I'll do my own will that's how sin continued and you see that in little children they want to do their own will what is the conflict between husbands and wives each wants to do his own will that that's the origin about sin we can control something externally but that will inside a child it's how do you break it like that little three-year-old child when the father said sit down and he wouldn't sit down father said sit down I'm gonna get a stick he sat down and the child said but inside I'm still standing up how do you make that child sit down the one inside that's what I mean by my will it's so strong in a child and even in many Christians is not broken they have not seen the new and living way so then don't enter the most holy place and that's why there are so many problems in their life that's why it so many problems in their home and that's why the mighty anointing of God and the presence of God the aroma of Christ cannot be seen in them because the self will has never been put to death or occasionally put to death Jesus consistently put it to death and that's what Paul calls the dying of Jesus this is always carrying in my body so when Jesus was tempted as a child to disobey you know children are tempted to disobey their parents and that's why Jesus had to come as a baby and be tempted to disobey his parents and never disobeyed his parents he always denied his own will I've often thought sometimes when Jesus was playing games in those days with other twelve-year-old children and in the midst of an exciting moment in the game if his mother called him Jesus come here I want to do something here to do something I want you to go to the well and bring some water and in that exciting moment of the game where most children would say wait mommy I'll come five minutes and five minutes usually means 45 minutes or something like that Jesus would drop if it was a bat he was about to bat he dropped the bat and say folks I'm going and they would be teasing all your mama's boy come on and stay here he'd say no mommy's calling me I gotta go you think that was easy for him is anything is easy for a child in the midst of an exciting moment in a game to drop it and all and go he was tempted but he said no he went and did what his mother did and when he came back with a bucket of water it wasn't a half bucket it's always a full bucket every job he did it was a finished job what he cried out on the cross it is finished as a principal that was true all through his life he never had did a half-finished job know how finished table know how finished chair and the furniture shop everything was a finished job if his mother told him to do something he'd be a finished job he denied his own will his own will is to just do a slipshod lazy work but he denied it and did his father's will so think of all the little temptations you know even little children can see the footsteps of Jesus there are five-year-old footsteps of Jesus in which they can walk and we want when they went to school I used to tell my children when they go to school I said what type of friends do you think Jesus who do you think Jesus became friendly with in his class do you think he made friends with all the rich children like other people do all the clever ones I see I think Jesus made friends with the weaker ones maybe somebody who started or stammered or was a bit lame or it was from a very poor family whose clothes were not all that fancy I think Jesus would have gone for such people and you can follow Jesus in school I said to my children make friends with such children or someone is not good at math or something sit down and help him that's what Jesus would do so we can teach our children from a very young age to follow Jesus you don't have to be a grown-up five-year-olds can follow Jesus 10 year olds and 15 year olds and when you begin to experience sexual temptation in your teenage years remember Jesus was tempted to and he didn't sin not once not once in his thoughts what an example to follow and at every point you're working and Jesus was a working man earned his living he was upright every temptation that comes to working people Jesus faced it and I mentioned earlier temptations from younger brothers and sisters in the house irritating him tempting him so many ways and not sinning and loving them even when they troubled him so much and then as a full-time Christian worker in ministry all the temptations that come to people who are in the ministry he was tempted that's why he was he was he I call it an education that he got in the whole range of temptations that man could ever face he faced them all and overcame at every point so that when he finally died on the cross and said it is finished it's not only that our sins were finished the entire range of temptations that any human being could face he had faced and it was finished he had overcome and at that moment the veil was torn proving that he had consistently denied his own will all through life it was a testimony from the father I watched his life for thirty three and a half years he's always denied his will this flesh is torn this thing that blocked the presence of God from man Jesus has come and opened away now for us to go in we think of the death of the crown the cross as the way we are reconciled to God that's right he paid the price but the veil is the rending of the whale is called a way not a door a new and living way that he has inaugurated for us in which we are to walk the same way he walked of self-denial that'll enable us to live in the father's presence all the time this is the new and living way it's called ever fresh because every day we have a fresh opportunity to bear the dying of Jesus that's why it's called a fresh way ever fresh way and it's a new way because nobody had ever walked that way in olden days and if you want to see how earnestly Jesus how he had to battle in order to walk this way let me read to you in other words in Hebrews chapter five and verse seven Hebrews 5 in verse seven in the days of Jesus flesh which is thirty three and a half years it's not peak speaking about the last day in Gethsemane in the days of his flesh thirty three and a half years he offered up prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears now we know he prayed with loud cries in Gethsemane but here it's speaking about during his entire thirty-three now here as he prayed with tears I don't know if there were tears and gets Emily I know there was sweat in Gethsemane that was like blood and I don't know where he shed any tears but during his life he was praying with tears and loud crying and what was he praying for he's told us here what he was praying for he was praying to the one who was able to save him from death now we got to read this slowly there are two types of death mentioned in the New Testament one is physical death and the other is spiritual death spiritual death is a result of sin physical death is the death of our body which death was he trying praying to be saved from father's save me from death which one you know the answer from the rest of that verse he was heard his prayer was answered so obviously that was not physical death because he was not saved from physical death at all so that must be referring to spiritual death and I cannot imagine Jesus coming all the way to get cemani and saying old father don't let me die on the cross is a terrible thing died on the cross no the thing is he prayed for and Gethsemane was that he shouldn't be forsaken by his father that's what he was afraid of that was the cup he wanted to avoid he had been ready to die a million deaths for us he loved us so much but the depth he prayed to be saved from was throughout the days of his flesh to be saved from the spiritual death which is a result of sin and we know it was a battle because he prayed with loud crying and tears and he was heard and although he was a son verse 8 he learned the word learn is a word of Education I can paraphrase it by saying he got an education in obedience now he could not get that in heaven because in heaven he gave orders for the angels to obey he didn't have to obey anything he had to become a man to learn obedience because of the things he suffered and thus he became perfect means he completed his education so his education was in temptation each temptation was like a subject he had to score full marks in and he passed it and he went to another subject another subject another subject and like that he completed his education and he became perfect means he became complete and now he has become the to those who obey Him the source or the author of eternal salvation so to those who obey Him so but the way I read that is he himself was tempted in all points and he prayed with loud crying in tears that he might never displease the father that he might never do his own will and God helped him by the Holy Spirit and he were obeyed at every point when he says he learned obedience means he did not do his own will and again he did not do his own will he did the Father's will he did the Father's will we could paraphrase verse 9 as he did the Father's will at every point he did not do his own will but did the Father's will at every point and thus he completed his education verse 9 and having completed his education let me paraphrase it further he became the professor in the same College to those who want to complete the same course of obedience and thus come to an eternal salvation from all sin in their life and he says the Holy Spirit says this is a tough subject right verse 11 concerning Jesus this Jesus like this we have much to say but it's very hard to explain because you people are not spiritual enough to understand you'll become dull of hearing because you got so used to sin in your life your attitude to sin is so casual that you can't hear God revealing Jesus in this way concerning Jesus in this way we have much to say but it's very hard to explain I mean even the little that you heard so far you find it hard it was hard for me in all the days I was dull of hearing I wasn't passionate to be completely free from sin that's what I mean by dull of hearing I say okay doesn't matter I sleep off now the blood of Jesus is always there blood of Jesus blood of Jesus grace became a license to sin like Jude says they've turned the grace of God into licentiousness now I'll tell you the vast majority of Christians that I have met I'd say more than 95% they don't have a passionate desire to be completely free from sin you ask yourselves do you have a passionate desire to live every day free from sin in thought word deed attitude to people motive is there a passionate desire that means more to you than everything in this world never to speak one rude word to anybody never to speak angry in anger never to murmur or complain or grumble always to give thanks these are scriptures scripture says to be completely free from anxiety because anxiety is an indication that I don't trust my heavenly father it's like saying dad I think you let me down I'm not too sure whether you'll take care of me in this tough situation or I don't know whether you have the ability to handle this tough situation I'm facing right now all anxiety is saying one of two things to God I'm not too sure whether you love me enough to take care of me right now or saying I'm not too sure if you have the ability to handle this tough situation this is really tough that's anxiety it's a sin sin because it's an act of complete distrust in a father who runs this universe who has a who's got a passionate desire to be completely free from anxiety to completely free from grumbling and complaining into never dishonor God by in any way not for a testimony before men I'll tell you this the first book written in the Bible is the book of Joe that was written long before Genesis Moses wrote Genesis and Moses lived at least 500 years after Joe so Jobe was the first book of the Bible and when God wrote the first book of the Bible what he says is there's a conflict in the heavenlies there's a discussion in the heavenlies Satan is trying to accuse one of God's servants on earth and God's trying to stand up and say no he is true to me and that's conflicts going on even today Satan's saying look at all these people who talk about being born again some talk about being filled with the spirit and some talk about speaking in tongues and they all say their whole hearted they go for conferences but because their attitude to sin in their daily life are these people also serious about their speech for example Satan says to God even though Jesus said words like this in Matthew chapter 12 Matthew 12 verse 36 these are the words of Jesus every careless word not sentence word every careless word that men shall speak they shall render account for it in the day of judgment I longing one day to compile a little book compare it comparing I mean which consists only of Bible verses the title will be verses that Christians don't believe and this is going to be one of them that every single word which is a careless idle word I will have to give an account in the day of judgment every word I've spoken to my wife or to others mostly in private and public we are very careful with our words the careless words are usually in private when and every one of those words words not sentences words I have to give an account in the day of judgment you tell me your brother sister do you really believe it do you believe God's kept a record of those words do you live as though you believe it that's what the devil says God you've written all these verses in the Bible and show me some child of yours anywhere on the earth who believes it they all live just like anybody yeah that's now it doesn't really mean that what is God saying will you be one of those who rises up to this challenge and say Lord I want to be one whose name you can mention to the devil and like Joe okay there are many who don't Satan I agree there are many Christians who say they are born-again spirit will speak in tongues and all that who don't care for these word but there's a man there's a woman there's Joe and there's this other person do you feel that challenge from the heavenlies that God should point out you and that's just one verse think of many other verses like that Jesus was tempted God could point out Jesus to Satan and say at the end of thirty years this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased what did Jesus done in thirty years to please the father people call it that hidden years in Nazareth they were hidden years for me because I didn't know what he did I know he never preached I know you never did any miracle all the things that people think will make God happy witnessing giving out tracts giving money for God's work Jesus did nothing of that in 30 years never cast out a demon never he'll is a person the only thing I know he did one was his subject to his parents we read that in Luke chapter 2 which itself must have been extremely tough and the other is he was tempted in all points as we are from childhood and never sinned that's about all that I know so in it's no longer hidden for me you know Jesus said when the Holy Spirit come he will take of the things of mine and show it to you and the Holy Spirit's taken of the things of Jesus and shown it to me how he was tempted and he didn't sin so they're no longer hidden years for me they're very revealing years for me because I see how he prayed with loud crying in tears and pray that he never do his own will never slip up even once you know you and I can afford to slip up once or twice or more than that because we have the blood of Jesus to cleanse us but think of Jesus he couldn't afford to slip up even once because if he had slipped up even once in a thought a single thought or a single wrong attitude to another person he'd no longer be a sinless sacrifice for us on the cross that have been the end and that's why a lot of Christians believe in a theology that Jesus could not have sinned but if Jesus could not have seen there's no virtue in his overcoming temptation then the whole temptation in the will in the wilderness was a farce Jesus was just acting acting as though he's being tempted don't accuse Jesus of such things he wasn't acting and you mean God the Father was party to this farce which is going on in the wilderness he was actually tempted and he did not sin I thank God for the day my eyes were open to it I was gripped by it there are many who understand this intellectually but they are not gripped in their heart it's one thing to know something in your head it can take a long time for it to descend these 12 inches down into the heart can take years sometimes that depends on how passionate you are to really seek to live a life pleasing to God and where you don't want to walk as Jesus walked on this earth because it's only then that you can do a work that pleases him remember that Jesus was trained in that way for thirty years before he was given a ministry I see today tremendous passion in the lives of many Christians for the fruit gifts to the Holy Spirit they want this gift that give Lord give me the gift of preaching give me the gift of tongues give me the gift of healing but Jesus exercised the gifts of the Spirit only during ten percent of his life three and a half years out of thirty three and a half years he exercised the gifts of the Spirit but the fruit of the spirit of holiness thirty three and a half years that teaches us the fruit of the Spirit is ten times as important as the gifts of the Spirit I believe in the gifts of spirit I've earnestly sought for them and God has given me different ones at different times including the gift of preaching prophesying but that's not as important to me as a life Jesus had a life that backed up his gifts and that's the thing that's lacking today and most preachers Jesus had a life that was 100% free from the love of money that backed up his preaching find a preacher like that today it's almost impossible in today's world to find a preacher like that who's got a life that's 100 percent free from the love of money backing up his preaching or a life a godly life in his home and in his private areas of his life that backs up what he speaks it's that life that the father said I am well pleased this is the life God calls us to live this is the life that we must have a passion for and that is where Jesus as we read in Hebrews five has become a professor in the college to those who obey Him he's become the source of eternal salvation when we hear a Salvation mean most most of us never think of understanding salvation from Hebrews chapter five verse nine he became the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him most Christians don't like the word obey they only believe in faith when a faith without obedience is a counterfeit true faith always brings obedience and it's concerning this that it says in Hebrews that we have much to say but it's hard to explain but I thought of this matter of praying with loud crying in tears and Lord has shown me that it's not just a question of making a lot of noise we can have a crying out heart where we don't make a noise but it's a loud cry in our heart that God here is Oh God don't let me ever sin don't let me ever displease you now right now I'm being provoked by somebody in the office was really provoking me I don't want to sin I don't want to displease you I don't care if he takes advantage of me or does something hurts me in some way but I don't want to sin imagine being so desperate in every situation throughout the day lord I'm getting really upset with all the traffic on the road but I don't want to sin lord I don't want to sin I don't want to be upset and agitated no I want to be at rest in you I don't want to sin throughout the day he'll say boy this must be a life of terrific strain always tens I don't want to sin it's not like that he's the one who sins was who has a strain and when we come out of that type of life where we love to sin and want to come into a life where we want to be completely free from sin in the beginning there could be a little bit of a struggle it's like a person who's you know laying in bed and not used his legs for a few years and then he begins to learn to walk there's a bit of a struggle when he learns to walk because he's been sick for so long but gradually he can pick up and he can run in in a little while so in the beginning there's a bit of a struggle I know because we are so used to just living in sin that to come to a life where I never want to speak a careless word now I never want to hurt anyone I never want to have a wrong attitude towards anyone I never want to be bitter I want to bless those who curse me I never want to do something which I want other people to know what I did for the Lord I want to keep it all hidden it's a wonderful life it's a if you come into his life it's a life completely free from strain in fact the Bible calls it a life of rest there remains a Sabbath rest for God's people Jesus life was a life of tremendous interest all unrest my brothers and sisters comes in our light because of sin all the unrest a life of rest where we're completely free from sin it'll help you to sleep better at night I believe Jesus slept perfectly at night he was never disturbed in his sleep because the best pillow to have is a good conscience you live with a good conscience the best pillow I don't believe God wants us to have restless nights and sleepless nights and he doesn't want us to live on pills to get sleep he wants us to have a good conscience a rest in God we must have therefore this passionate desire to be free from sin this is what it means to walk the new and living way and it only comes through being accepting the way of the Cross and I believe with all my heart that the greatest necessity in every denomination as Christendom is to understand the way of the Cross we talk about living by faith we are saved by faith the Apostle Paul said I live by faith and I want to show you that verse in Galatians in chapter 2 in Galatians chapter 2 I don't know whether you've noticed this I myself read this for a long time many times quoted this verse 2 but I never noticed this till more recently what it says here in Galatians 2 and the latter part of that verse he says I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Paul was saved by faith but he says you're I live by faith the righteous shall live by faith all of us are to live by faith but who is the one who can really live by faith Paul says I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live this is similar to the words of Jesus I do not do my own will similar I do not live that means my will is no longer alive but Christ lives in me that means I want to do his on his will this is very similar to John 6:38 I came from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me he says this I this I that wants to do something has been put to death my will has been put to death and now Christ lives and means his will that I want then I live by faith so what I saw from there is that you cannot live by faith really if you are not crucified with Christ the only person who can honestly say I live by faith like here is the one who can say the first part of that sentence I am crucified with Christ I've accepted my place of death with Christ on the cross in every situation this is what Jesus really meant when he said pluck out the eye be like a dead man if you're trying to the sin with your hand cut it off even be like a dead man reckon yourself to be dead to sin turn with me to Romans chapter 6 you gotta press through it's hard to explain but if you understand it it'll change your life completely as it did mine Romans chapter 6 verse 6 says our old self was crucified with him our old man was crucified with him we know of the thieves who died on the either side of the cross we know Jesus died in the middle cross but there was someone else who died on the middle cross as well and that's what many Christians don't know that's you I was crucified with Christ my old man was crucified there with him think of people who in the world who've never heard that Jesus died for their sins they can't be forgiven because they don't know Christ died for their sins and if you don't know that your old man was crucified with Christ also then the result mentioned in verse 6 will not be true in your life your old man was crucified with them reasons so that you know you may never be a slave to sin anymore that's the purpose verse 6 that you might never be a slave to sin anymore Christ died on the cross that your sin might be forgiven you were crucified with Christ so that you might never be a slave to sin in your life so if you know the first if you don't know the first truth that Christ died for your sins and your sins are not forgiven and if you don't know the second truth that you were crucified with Christ you'll always be a slave to sin just like that other man who doesn't know that Christ died for our sins lives continuously with the guilt of Unforgiven sin how is it the guilt of sin has gone away from your life only because of one reason you didn't see Jesus died on the cross but you believed it and isn't it really true that the guilt of sin is gone from your life is gone from my life 100% there's not even a smell of it in my life I hope it's true like that in your life that you're so convinced the blood of Jesus cleanses you Christ died for you that the guilt of sin is gone completely and if we understand this truth there our old man was crucified with him in exactly the same if you believe it he will no longer be a slave to sin and it's in this connection it says in the death that he died he died to sin verse 11 therefore consider yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus now I have to believe that and act on it just like I believed that Christ died for my sins and I acted on it I say I'm not gonna feel guilty anymore and over a period of time I'm completely free from guilt it's a wonderful life to be free from guilt there are many people in the world who are weighed down with guilt and who don't know how to be free in the same way here if I can accept this if I can say Lord I consider myself from now on I've seen the truth now that I was crucified with Christ the vain was rent for me to go this way I am gonna consider myself dead to sin in a situation when somebody provokes me I'm gonna consider myself dead to sin but alive to God so I will not respond the way my will says I should respond to this man I reckon myself dead but I will allow Christ in me the Holy Spirit to respond the way he would want me to respond which is not necessarily keeping quiet when someone yells at me it's easy to keep quiet but what's more difficult is to give a gentle reply the Bible says a gentle answer turns away wrath proverbs to keep quiet the second best the best is to give a gentle answer to show that I'm not hurt by what you said when you keep quiet it may be that you are hurt and he thinks so but if you can give a gentle answer your self has died and the life of Christ comes forth in you that is how we respond reckon yourself dead to sin and alive unto God and I want to tell you something the Holy Spirit is 100% behind you to back you up in this life otherwise it's impossible it's not just determination it's not as gritting my teeth how is it you know that your sins are forgiven isn't it the Holy Spirit o bears witness with you my child your sins are gone otherwise we wouldn't be trip we can't be sure of it just because somebody preaches it's gone how do I know the Holy Spirit's assured us you're a child of God your sins are finished the same Holy Spirit is ready to help us they look at Jesus okay let me conclude with Hebrews again Hebrews we read of a title of Jesus which is very little known by Christians the title which is not used anywhere else in scripture forerunner Hebrews chapter 6 in verse 19 Hebrews 6:19 it says we have a hope sure and stedfast which enters within the veil remember the veil the flesh of Jesus go inside the whale where a forerunner Jesus has entered for us this is the title of Jesus never found anywhere else in Scripture you have heard him of heard of him as Savior Shepherd I'm the door I am The Good Shepherd and the resurrection of the life do you know him as forerunner that means one who ran the same race in front of you into the whale into the most holy place rending that whale denying himself now he says we can go in there too and when we go in there we come into fellowship with God he entered into the veil opening away for us to go now turn to Hebrews chapter 12 now we understand Hebrews 12 a little better Hebrews 12 verse 1 having such a great cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which entangles and let us run the race looking unto Jesus our forerunner we run the race looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith the one who's gone in front of us who endured the cross for thirty-three and a half years every day this is the one we look at running the race we're not looking at him as one who hung for six hours on Calvary but one who ran a race enduring a cross every single day of his life and is now set down at the right hand of the throne of God and this is a race which begins at the time we are born again and ends at the throne of God and we've got a forerunner who's gone in front of us in the Old Testament they only had exhortations in the New Testament we have an example and it's always better to have an example than exhortations I think of swimming if somebody were to explain swimming on a blackboard on a board here saying move your hand like this and move your legs like this and breathe like this and put your head in the water like this and take it out okay folks go and jump in the river now and do what I showed you on the blackboard everyone will drown but if you say hey come with me come to the river and do what I do do you see watch me how I put my head into the water how I move my hands and legs that's an example in the Old Testament they only had exhortation in the New Testament we have an example Jesus does not tell us to go any way in which he did not go ahead of he'd be a very poor captain of our salvation if he asks his soldiers to go away that he did not go himself every military leader is taught to go ahead of his troops not send his troops where he's scared to go himself Jesus went ahead of us as our captain and he says this is the way I walked I want you to walk this way dear brothers and sisters seek to go this way with all your heart this is one of the missing messages in today's Christianity and I'm not surprised that the devil is hidden it from people because it's a great threat to his kingdom I'll tell you something if you walk this way you'll be a tremendous threat to the kingdom of the devil I know in my own life I got completely free from the fear of the devil as I began to walk this way what the Lord said to me was as the you were afraid of the devil once and it was true the devil will be afraid of you as Jesus is so are we in this world it says in 1 John 4 17 and 18 that means we're supposed to walk this way just like Jesus was whenever Jesus came anywhere the devil was scared do you believe that if you go somewhere the devil should be scared of you he won't be scared of you if you're living a compromising sinful life and we've got a lot of sin in your life you know what the devil will say Jesus I know and Paul I know but who are you you don't have any power over me I know how you live in private I know the things you do in secret this is the thing with most Christians the devil is not scared of them at all and yet Jesus wants an army on earth people are wholehearted young people young men and women who are a threat to Satan and you'll never be a threat to Satan if you don't seek to go this way that's why even if you couldn't understand it's a very difficult subject for me to speak on exactly like the writer to Hebrews says we have much to say it's very hard to explain but if you have a year to hear you will understand it you know I can understand why Jesus sometimes used to say he who has ears to hear let him hear what does that mean we all have these years to hear but in a year - here comes only if you have a passionate longing to walk as Jesus walked and to live as Jesus lived if you don't have that you don't have that inner ear and I pray that many of you will have it because that is the secret of effective Christian ministry that is the only way you can build a church and if you can share this with other people and lead other people in your locality into this life you will have a local church let's pray how many father has we bow before you we pray that these things that are so hard to explain your Holy Spirit will explain to those here who have a year to hear who have to have a passionate desire like Paul to live always in triumph to have their speech always with grace to live an overcoming life not to get honor for themselves but so that you can shut the mouth of the devil that he can no longer accuse us - you give we pray there'll be many here like that Lord to whom you can revelation by your spirit on this mystery of godliness so that they can build a church in their locality you pray in Jesus name Amen

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 28,536

Rating: 4.7900877 out of 5

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

Id: 1I2rDYiWPEE

Length: 69min 25sec (4165 seconds)

Published: Mon May 25 2015