Watch Your Inner Life by Zac Poonen

if there is one thing that you can be gripped by and that is that your inner life before God is the most important thing there is a great verse in the Old Testament which I want to read to you I hope you'll never forget it it's in 1 Samuel in chapter 16 and verse 7 it's a very it's one of the most important verses in the Old Testament I don't know whether every believer believes it says in 1 Samuel 16 verse 7 the last part man looks at the outward appearance and God looks at the heart I want to say to you that if you can be gripped by this one thing people look at you on the outside God looks at you on the inside what you appear on the outside doesn't matter to God at all because he's always looking on the inside a sad thing in the Old Covenant was that they could not do anything about the inside all the law was on the outside don't commit adultery don't murder don't hurt others and everything the entire law was on the outside and the blessings were also on the outside you know property and land and we can say that the Old Testament was an outward religion and the New Testament is inward so when people who call themselves Christians are taken up with the outward more than the inward we can say that such Christians have gone back to Old Testament living they have completely missed out on what Jesus came to give and teach if you turn to Matthew chapter 5 I'm sure you all know this verse Matthew five and verse 20 how shall we enter the kingdom of heaven I mean this is what we are supposed to be preaching the gospel is how to enter the kingdom of heaven and listen to the words of Jesus himself I say to you unless your righteousness surpasses that means goes beyond the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the kingdom of heaven the Pharisee when he prayed in the temple spoke of his righteousness I pray three times a day I fast twice a week I paid tithes everything was external I do this I do that I do the other thing you said that's not good enough your righteousness must be more than the righteousness of Pharisees and whenever you know as human beings when we hear the word more we always think of quantity they fasted three times a day we must fire the twice a week we must fast three times a week they pray three times a day we must pray five times a day no it's more in terms of quality the Pharisees righteousness was a quantity yours must be more than that in quality that's the meaning the Pharisees righteousness was outward yours must be inward otherwise you will not enter the kingdom of heaven I want to say to all of you who are here 1800 people I want to say to you in Jesus name I'm just reading the words of Jesus if your righteousness whatever you think is your righteousness remains like the righteousness of the Pharisees on the outside you read the Bible you go to church you give some money you sing songs you say you have accepted Christ it's all on the outside and the inside is dirty you will not enter the kingdom of heaven heaven and earth will pass away these words will not pass away and I want to say to you in Jesus name concentrate on the inside don't worry about the outside and after Jesus said these words your righteousness was read more than the righteous of the Pharisees he said okay I will now explain it to you that's what he said in the next verse Pharisees said don't commit murder I say don't get angry murder is on the outside anger is on the inside you see what he was saying the righteousness of the Pharisees was you don't commit murder your righteousness supposed to be more than that that you don't get angry so if you just avoid murder and you keep on getting angry I want to tell you the truth you will not enter the kingdom of heaven now it's because we teach things like this that people call us heretics and false teachers they can call us what they like but I say heaven and earth will not pass away but these words of Jesus will not pass away who said in Matthew 5:22 whoever is angry with his brother is guilty and if he speaks to his brother summer angry word he's guilty before the Supreme Court and if he goes further and says something even worse he is guilty enough to go to hell do you do you know how anger precedes anger starts in the heart Ecclesiastes says please yes tis 79 I think it is anger isn't dwells in the heart of a fool any of you got anger in your heart according to the Bible it's a fool who's got anger in his heart if wise man gets rid of it immediately The Fool keeps it any of you who kept anger in your heart proves you're a fool I don't get angry with me that's what the Holy Spirit says but when you that anger comes out of your mouth in words your wife husband neighbor brother somebody mean maybe an auto rickshaw driver you can get angry with all types of people comes out of your mouth and then comes out with even more words you are guilty enough to go to hell have you ever heard that preached in any church I know brothers will come to our church who said brother Zak I never even knew anger was a sin till I came to your church I say you had the Bible and you don't have to read far in the Bible to discover it you just got to get up to Matthew chapter 5 and you'll discover it and what is Jesus explaining your righteousness must be more than the righteousness of the Pharisees to enter the kingdom of heaven just like we heard a little while ago there are in word diseases which don't seem to have any outward symptom till you go for a blood test can you discover hey I've got cancer in my blood I've got some other disease in my blood I never knew that I felt perfectly okay that's how sin is so Jesus said watch the inside man looks on the outside God looks at the inside your righteousness or or than the righteousness of the Pharisees this is the whole purpose of God part of the whole purpose of God that we've been proclaiming for 41 years that man looks on the outside God looks on the inside that the inside is more important than the outside and then Jesus said I'll give you one more example the righteousness of the Pharisees is don't commit adultery on the outside verse 27 but I say to you if you inside you look at a woman and you don't touch her you don't go near her you don't talk to her you just look at her and say boy I wish I could get into bed with her you have already done it and all these people who click on the computer screen and watch pornography young people married people watching pornography do you know 60 70 % of born-again believers watch pornography yeah there are surveys that people have done you know in a survey you can be anonymous you don't give your name and they speak the truth and I get lots of emails from young people believers and because in an email you can be totally anonymous you don't even know which country there's writing from who they are whether they are 50 years old or 15 years old nobody knows they are very honest do you know the number of emails I get brother Zack I have accepted the Lord but I'm just a slave to pornography what I mean they're not not not getting any physical satisfaction it's not like having actual adultery where you actually get some sort of sexual pleasure this is you're not getting any satisfaction you're just watching something and it's going into your mind and you're getting excited about it what a fool the devil has made of people they're not even getting any pleasure out of it and they watch watch it and watch it in there is no fear of God before their eyes that's what God is watching when you are watching that computer screen do you know who all are your parents are not there the room is locked but there are demons there - ha ha there are angels there or sad the Holy Spirit is there sure a believer and the devil is going up to God he's called the accuser of the Brethren he says God see that fellow there he claims to be your child he goes to CFC here that you see what he's watching you see what he sings on Sunday morning God is that your child and now there are even women watching it believe it or not how perverse man has become but women are starting watching pornography crazy men have a natural sexual desire when a woman has a crazy sexual desire she is close to a prostitute something seriously wrong and it's because of the culture we live in is coming into our mind and polluting us brothers and sisters fight it God has raised up CFC to urge people to fight it we can't change people but we can warn people people say oh don't frighten us brother Zhang you think these Jesus was frightening you when he said if you get angry you can go to hell if you lust after a woman it says if you don't pull out your eye you can you can go to hell it's better to lose your eye then he said be thrown into hell verse 29 and sexual sin with your hand he spoke about sexual sin with the eyes and he talk about sexual sin with your right hand verse 30 Jesus doesn't use the embarrassing words but in you know what he means he says you can go to hell you believe that so jesus said why did he speak about the right hand in terms of sexual sin in verse 30 and since you can go to hell better to cut it off then go to hell with it how many people take sexual sin seriously people ask me sometimes brother Jack why do you speak so much against anger and sexually dirty thoughts and sexual sins in secret I said because in the entire Sermon on the Mount there are only two places where Jesus said you can go to hell only to sins there are many other sins listed in a Sermon on the Mount telling lies divorcing hating your neighbour that's a sin giving money to let other people see it praying in public to impress others that's a sin or fasting and letting everybody know about it loving money being anxious judging others so many things Matthew five six and seven but I doubt all these sins he picks out two and said they will send you to hell if you pray and let other people know about it you won't go to hell it's a sin if you fast and advertise your fasting is a sin but you won't go to hell if you don't love your enemy it's a sin but you won't go to hell if you're anxious that's the sin but you won't go to hell if you love money that's the sin but it may not take you to help but when it came to anger and dirty thoughts and lusting with your eyes and sinning with your hand he said that'll take you to hell you read Matthew five and six and seven the Sermon on the Mount the word hell comes only in these three places send with your tongue send with your eyes sing with your hands see Klee the other people don't know we use the same eyes to read the Bible read songs to sing it we use the same tongue to speak words of God words to God a praise and use the same tongue to get angry with people we use the right hand to hold the Bible and then hold what's the right hand to commit sexual sin I believe the words of Jesus and I'll tell you something you don't need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to overcome these sins there are lots of people who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues who commit all these sins believe me there are Pentecostals charismatics who get angry like anything who commit sexual sin with her eyes pornography and their hands and everything they're speaking in tongues has not solved that problem for them I'll tell you the example of a man was not even born again who did not know anything about Jesus Christ who did not have a Bible who was not filled with the Holy Spirit and who resisted at least adultery Joseph young 20 year old man far away from his parents in a house where somebody was tempting him every day and he ran away and I believe in those days if there was pornography and there was a computer in front of him Joseph would have run away from that - what is it that made him run away not fullness of the Spirit he feared God you know when that woman tempted him what he said you read in Genesis 39 how can I sin against God read that verse all of us must remember it Genesis chapter 39 when the woman came to Joseph with great desire were seven looked at him with desire Genesis 39 7 and said lie with me a woman coming to a young muscular man some of you are 20 years old far away from your parents just like Joseph what would you do if you're all in all in the house and a very attractive woman says come on come on nobody's here you're supposed to be a CFC believer what do you do he says he refused Mercedes he says in verse 9 how can I do the last part my worst night how can I do this great evil and sin against God who is here how do you say nobody's here he tells party person how do you say nobody said God is right here your husband is not here my parents are not here but God is right here how can i sin against God and it says verse 10 day after day after day she went after him come on come on come on every day he would say no God is here God is here God is here she thought he was crazy which man would keep refusing a woman like that I'll tell you not one who speaks in tongues but one who fears God speaking in tongues is not the beginning of wisdom I speak in tongues I'm not against it I spoken in tongues for 41 years and I thank God for it but that is not the beginning of wisdom the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and the Holy Spirit came and filled me he not only gave me the gift of tongues he gave me a fear of God his spirit dies I 11 he is called the spirit of the fear of the Lord you know him as the spirit of the fear of the Lord it says in Isaiah 11 and was to the spirit of the fear of the Lord rested upon Jesus and I say that's the spirit I want to rest upon me and that's the real Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Lord is called in verse Isaiah 11:2 the spirit of the fear of the Lord that means a spirit that makes me reverence God in the moment when I'm tempted to get angry in the moment when I'm tempted to commit some secret sin how can I do this when God is here God looks at the heart man looks on the outward appearance when Jesus comes again and we stand at his judgment seat we read in 1 Corinthians in chapter 4 what is it that God is going to judge not what you did in public but what you did in private 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5 don't pass judge on other judgment on others when the Lord comes he will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and the motives of people's hearts so when the Lord comes in the judgment seat he's going to reveal all the things I did in darkness and all the things inside my heart and he say alone what about all the outward things there's no need for them no need I will just judge whatever this person did when nobody was watching him I just judge the way he spoke to his wife and nobody else was in the house or the way she spoke to her husband when nobody else was there I will judge what he thought in his heart when he was lying alone in his bed when nobody knew what was going on when he was sitting alone in his house that's all I'm going to judge because I've written in my word says man looks on the outward appearance but God looks at the heart that's enough you see Lord what about the outside see what Jesus send it to the Pharisees in Matthew 23 Matthew 23 woe unto you scribes and Pharisees verse 25 Matthew 23 verse 25 you clean the outside of the cup but the inside is filthy inside is full of self-indulgence self-indulgence means whatever self wants you do it inside outwardly all looking very clean you blind Pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the dish and after that clean the outside no no need to clean the outside just clean the inside did you notice that we would think that Jesus should say first clean the inside and then clean the outside he says no clean the inside and that's it the outside will become automatically clean if you cleanse your inside from anger you'll never murder anybody if you cleanse your inside from lust you will never go and commit adultery you don't need to cleanse the outside that is why in the final day he's not going to judge the outside he's just gonna judge the inside since there the Lord will bring to light the things hidden in darkness and the motives of men's hearts this is the purpose of God that we proclaim this is the part of the circle that others are not colouring that we are coloring these are the colors of the rainbow that are not being proclaimed so we don't get pure white we get some orange or some green that's not white man you got some of the colors of white but some things are missing we want pure white and we want to put in the other colors of the rainbow that are missing that's what we proclaim we don't guarantee that everybody in this church or in all of our CFC churches is living like this but I'll tell you one thing I've said this to many people in the past years if you listen to what we preach here and take it seriously I guarantee you will get a hundred percent on the day of judgment sometimes I shut my eyes and I use my imagination we've all used our imagination for many filthy things in our unconverted days why not use our imagination for some good things now that were converted so I shut my eyes and I imagine that Christ has come and he set up his judgment seat and one by one different names are being called to go and stand before him and the Lord looks at the video record of the person's life of his inner life a video of his thoughts of what he did in private there's no video be outside yes this is enough and what goes on and judgment is fast and then I picture my name being called and I stand before him and I know that those early years of my born-again experience were really bad but the Lord blotted them out with his blood and all he blotted them out he says I won't remember it anymore but then the Lord looks at the rest of my life and he sees how I battled not to get a testimony before men how I baffled and fought and battled and fought in my thoughts to control my tongue and to control my attitudes and to control my motives and to see that I never seek man's honor that I never desire anybody's money all the inner motives and in my mind I picture the Lord saying to me you're clean and nothing against you you will not be judged you can go and I say Lord that's what I want I don't care every man on earth calls me a heretic and a false prophet Oh call me the devil himself if they like the only thing that matters is what you will say to me when I stand at your judgment seat and I will never live for the honor of men I will never preach a message to impress anybody or to please anyone and I want to gather people like that and build the body of Christ my dear brothers and sisters I hope you have the same desire there is no partiality with God it's the only thing worth building on earth the church consisting of people like this we proclaim the whole purpose of God and therefore I'm innocent to the blood of all men I can save it the Apostle Paul let's bow our heads in prayer please don't let this word go away from your heart don't let the devil rob you of that which is most important for your life don't just listen to it as another message think that God brought you here just to listen to perhaps this message and say lord have mercy on me please forgive my past and take me take it help me to take it seriously thank you Lord Heavenly Father I can never preach Lord like I should the way you hate sin I pray that people will see it I've mercy on us but that which crucified you on the cross it takes all likely teach us the fear of God pour out upon us the spirit of the fear of God we pray we'll ask for nothing else in Jesus name Amen

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

Id: AwifVZRrvBY

Length: 30min 8sec (1808 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 31 2016