Grace Strengthening the Heart — Zac Poonen

I mentioned this before once. In most churches, the preacher stands up to speak. You wonder why people are sitting down here. It doesn't make a difference where you stand or sit. But as I studied the scriptures, I found one thing.

The Old Testament prophets always stood when they spoke. And if you read the Gospels carefully, you'll find more than 90 of the time Jesus sat when he spoke. That's one reason. And why this difference?

Because the prophets were speaking to a crowd and Jesus was speaking to a family. The prophets were like teachers. A teacher doesn't sit in a chair in a school. He stands up and speaks. But when a father speaks to his children around the dining table, he's not standing up.

He's speaking. Now the reason I mentioned that is when we come together as a church, we must recognize that we are like a family. And whoever speaks is speaking as either an elder brother or a spiritual father of the family.

And it's in that atmosphere that we must receive the Word. If there is correction, it's the correction of a father. There's encouragement. In fact, every father should seek to encourage his children. I want to turn to a verse in Proverbs.

Grace, Mercy, and Help for the Future

As I've studied the Old Testament, I found Proverbs is the one that is the closest to the teaching of the New Testament. Closest to the teaching of the New Testament. In fact, we know the word grace is a new covenant word.

It's almost never found in the Old Testament. The word found in the Old Testament is mercy. And there's a lot of difference between mercy and grace. And I want to say it in such a way that even the little children can understand.

Mercy refers to forgiveness of our sins and deals with the past. Grace, the Bible says when you're under grace, sin will not be able to rule you. So it's referring to the future. So in a very simple way, mercy refers to our past life and grace refers to help in the future.

My grace is sufficient for you. Paul told, the Lord told Paul, for whatever you face in the future. It's helpful to understand these distinctions because just like mercy covers every sin of the past because the blood of Christ shed for us.

Grace takes care of every situation in the future. So we can ask the Lord to give us grace for any situation, for every situation, exactly like we can ask the Lord for mercy and forgiveness for every sin.

These simple things, if we understand in our mind, our life becomes much more confident in our fellowship with the Lord. So for example, the word grace is found in the book of Proverbs, by the way. It's one of the rare instances in the Old Testament where you find grace and it says here, he gives grace to the humble.

For many years I thought that was only mentioned in James and in Peter till one day I discovered it in Proverbs. That's why I say it's one of the closest books to the New Testament. Proverbs chapter 3 verse 34, the last part.

He gives grace to the afflicted or grace to the humble. That's a great truth that we know from the New Testament that God does not give grace to everybody. It's very important to understand that. God does not give grace to everyone.

So this verse is quoted twice in the New Testament. Turn with me to James in chapter 4. It's good for you to get familiar with your Bibles, dear brothers and sisters. It's helped me tremendously in my life, getting familiar with the Bible, knowing where the verses are, being able to turn there in the time of need.

And in the first Bible I had, I used to underline the important verses so that I could quickly locate them when skimming through the pages. And if you're a serious Bible student, I would encourage you to underline important verses.

James 4 verse 6. God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So he does not give grace to everybody. And when you think of that, grace is capable of meeting any need in our life. But he doesn't give grace to everyone.

He gives grace to the humble. You see, at every time in our life, we are either proud or humble. If you are proud, it's not just that God doesn't give you grace. It says he'll push you down, push you back.

That's the meaning of resist you. You want to go forward and God's pushing you back. I mean, the devil's already pushing you back. Your sins are pushing you back. On top of that, if God himself pushes you back, there's no hope for any of us.

God resists the proud. Please remember this all your life. It's helped me tremendously in my life to know that Almighty God resists every proud person, whether he calls himself a believer or unbeliever.

But he'll always give grace to the humble. So it means he supports the humble. Lift him up if he's falling down, pushes him forward if he's slipping back. That's what grace does. Now I need it all the time.

If I'm slipping, I want to be lifted up. If I'm sliding back, I want God to push me forward. That's called grace. And if you turn the page to 1 Peter 5, this is repeated again. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5, the last part.

God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. There are very few verses that are repeated twice in the New Testament. This is one of them. And I thank God for it. Somebody read through the letter of James carelessly and missed out this verse.

God says, I'll give it to you again in the next book, Peter. Why is that? God is so eager for us to know. He wants to give grace to every humble person. And I want to connect that with 2 Corinthians in chapter 12.

Paul’s Thorn in the Flesh and Sufficient Grace

When the Apostle Paul had a sickness, he says it was such a bad sickness, he says in 2 Corinthians 12 7, he called it a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan. Imagine calling a sickness a messenger of Satan and a thorn in the flesh.

It must have been really bad. Now I won't go into what I feel that sickness was because that'll take time. But it was something that, you know, a thorn in the flesh is something that constantly irritates you.

If you got a thorn in your foot and you don't take it out, it'll constantly irritate you. That's what a thorn in your foot is like. And so here was a sickness that was constantly irritating Paul. And from other passages of scripture, I believe it was a problem with his eyes, constantly irritated him, even when he's getting up to speak.

And therefore he called it a messenger from Satan, designed to hinder him in his work and in his ministry and his life. A constant irritant. Now some of us have sicknesses now and then, but a few people have sicknesses that are constantly troubling them.

Something that they just can't seem to be able to get over. Paul had one like that. Now we wonder why does God allow his greatest servant on earth, I believe Paul was God's greatest servant on earth at that time.

No doubt he was the one most used by God. He's written about half the New Testament's books and miracles, planting churches, name it. He did it all. And this was God's greatest servant. God allows him to have a irritating sickness.

And when he tried to find out the reason, there's nothing wrong in asking God, Lord why have you given me this? God is a loving father. He'll never get upset with you if you ask him the reason. Your earthly father will not get upset if you ask him why he's punishing you or why he's sending you on a trip somewhere.

And your heavenly father will not be upset if you ask him why are you allowing this? And he answers. God is not a silent God. He answers. Paul got an answer. He didn't get an answer immediately. It says here that he prayed three times, verse 8.

So even the Apostle Paul did not ask the God and get an answer like that. He prayed a second time. He still didn't get an answer. Do you get disturbed when you don't get an answer after you pray to God once or twice?

The Apostle Paul was like that. And we wonder why doesn't God, you see, we can think God is a father. If I ask my father for something, he'll answer immediately. Well, our relationship with God is a little different in the sense that we live by faith.

We trust in a God whom we cannot see. And that strengthens our faith. And that's why God tests us by not answering the first time he asked for something. But he loves us. And if he can endure and say, Lord, I believe you got an answer for this.

I don't know the answer. But I'm gonna keep asking. In fact, even Jesus, we read in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, Father, why are you allowing me to face this terrible thing? He was thinking of the cross.

The worst part of the cross was this fellowship with the Father was going to be broken for three hours. That's the worst thing any human being can ever experience, to be forsaken by God. That's actually hell.

Hell is a place forsaken by God. And Jesus experienced that for three hours, which for him was eternity because he's an infinite God. That's why we believe that Jesus took our complete punishment on the cross for our sins.

Christ’s Forsakenness, the Cross, and the Seriousness of Sin

Now, when we are small children, all we hear is that Christ died for our sins. The punishment for our sin was his death. But as we grow up and become more mature and understand God better, we realize that physical death cannot be the punishment for sin.

So if Jesus only physically died on the cross, he did not take the punishment for my sin. As little children, we don't understand that. But as grown-up adults, we should understand that. Because if the punishment, think of this logically, if the punishment for my sin is physical death, I can take it myself.

I die physically and I say, Lord, I took the punishment for my sin and I go to heaven. Every man who dies has taken the punishment for his sin and goes to heaven. Nobody can go to hell. But physical death is not the punishment for sin.

Because as I said, then every man who dies will go to heaven. He's taken the punishment for his sins. Then what was it that Jesus suffered, which was the punishment for us? And we know from other passages in the New Testament, the punishment for our sin is eternal hell, which is eternally being forsaken by God.

And if Jesus did not take that punishment, then he's not taken the punishment for my sin. Because that is the punishment for sin. And so when God sent his son to earth, he had to make him suffer eternal hell if he's to save us.

And hell is to be forsaken by God. It's not just a physical place. I mean, God uses it. Jesus used the example of fire and worms and all that. That's just to illustrate. But basically, it is being forsaken by God.

It's the worst possible punishment anybody can ever have. Worse than worms and worse than fire and worse than anything else to be forsaken by God. No human beings ever experienced it on this earth. People talk about God-forsaken places.

The only God-forsaken place is hell. There's no such place on earth. And so he had to experience hell. And that's what happened for three hours on the cross. He said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Not my father, my father. All his life, he looked up and said, father. Only once Jesus called him God. Only once. And that's because for those three hours, he was not standing there before his father.

He was standing there before the judge of the universe, taking your punishment and my punishment. When you think of it and meditate on it, I'm just telling it to you then in a few seconds, but you meditate on it, it will really deepen your love for Christ.

It did deepen mine. When I thought of what he went through in order to save me, it brought in me a tremendous hatred for sin. If Jesus had to pay that price to save me from this sin, sin must be a terribly evil thing and I don't realize how evil it is.

Say, Lord, help me to realize how evil sin is. See, why do little children put mud in their mouth? They don't know how bad it is. Why do little children take a knife? They don't know how harmful it is.

And spiritually, we're like that. We're like children who pick up sin just like putting mud in the mouth because we don't know how bad it is. We hurt ourselves with sin just like a bad it is. Grown-ups know, you don't put mud in your mouth, you don't take a knife and hurt yourself.

So the seriousness of sin, I found with many, many believers who've been believers for years, it's never come home to them how serious and terrible a thing it is. I would encourage you, my brothers and sisters, I mean here I finish saying this in a few minutes, I would encourage you to spend some time meditating on Jesus being forsaken on the cross for three hours.

I mean, you don't have to take three hours for that, but think about it. It changed my life when I meditated on that. What does it mean for my Savior to be separated from his Father for all eternity? This is what he struggled with in Gethsemane.

Lord, what is the cup? He prayed, Father, take this cup away from me. He never ever disobeyed the Father, except that one time he said, take it away. But even then he said, but not my will. That cup was being forsaken.

And when you see the agony in Gethsemane, you see how much he loved you, my brother, sister, that he was willing even to face that to save you from an eternal hell. Not only to save you from hell, but to save you from, listen to this, to save you from committing sin ever again.

Have you taken it like that? Why is it believers sin so lightly? Oh, they say the blood of Jesus cleanses me. I sin and then I ask the Lord to forgive me and he forgives me. Then he's not your Savior.

I've asked people this question. Believers, you're born again, you've accepted Christ as your Lord. Okay. What's your experience? Yeah, I sin, ask the Lord to forgive me. Then I sin again, ask him to forgive me.

Then I say, be honest and say Christ has not saved me from sin. I still tell lies. I still get angry and I still get upset and I still have dirty thoughts and I still lust in my mind and I, maybe other things, but I get forgiveness.

Then in honesty, you must say, Jesus is my forgiver, not my Savior because he hasn't saved me. It's like a temporary medicine to relieve you of the pain of cancer, but the cancer is still there. You can't say you're healed, but you've got a medicine to relieve you from the pain the cancer is giving.

That's forgiveness. Saving is different. First promise in the New Testament is he will save his people from their sins. So these are elementary things, but then think of it carefully. You realize that if I don't trust the Lord, I cannot experience anything he offers.

How did you get forgiveness? Suppose you came to the Lord and said, Lord, I'm not too sure whether you took the punishment for my sins on the cross. So I'm not sure though, forgive me, but I'm not too sure whether you can do it.

You won't be forgiven because without faith, it is impossible to please God. It says when you come to God, you must believe. So I believe that he paid the price for all my sins on the cross. Anytime I sin, I can go to him and ask him to forgive me.

He forgives immediately, but salvation from sin is one step further. You shall call his name Jesus, Matthew 121, because he will save, not he will forgive, he will save his people from their sins. It took me 16 years of reading the Bible.

I'm not exaggerating. It took me 16 years after I was born again to read that verse properly. Matthew 121. You shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. The first promise in the New Testament.

Whenever I read it for 16 years, I always read it as he'll forgive me. Always. I mean, I don't know why. It's a mental block or whatever it is. I say what that means is he forgives me. But what's written there is not he'll forgive me.

That isn't even in the Old Testament. David said in Psalm 103, bless the Lord who forgives all my sins. He will save me. This is a new covenant message and I never understood it. But once I understood it, then I began to have faith that Jesus could save me from this sin and this sin and this sin and this sin and this sin and this sin.

Gradually I began to have victory over sins. Now I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, there are sins in your life that are defeating you repeatedly. Believe Matthew 121. The first promise in the New Testament.

He can save you. He will save you from that sin which you're falling into all the time. You don't have to ever get angry with your wife again or with your husband. Jesus can save you from it, from yelling at each other.

He can save you from it. He can save you from bitterness in your heart against somebody who did something terribly evil to you or your family. He can save you from it so thoroughly that you can love that person even though he did so much evil to you.

This is a tremendous thing. Salvation. That's the meaning of saying Jesus is my savior. So in future when we talk about saving and salvation and savior, let's remember it's different from being forgiven.

Faith That Perseveres Through Delayed Answers

So here coming back to 2nd Corinthians 12. Three times he prayed, take away the sickness, and then he got an answer. And I read from that that if he didn't get an answer after three times, he'd have prayed 30 times or 300 times.

There's nothing wrong in praying 300 times. Why God delays in answering? Like many other questions in the Bible, I can answer in three words. I don't know. There are many things in the Bible I answer with three words.

I don't know. But I think it must be to strengthen my faith that he doesn't answer immediately. That's what I found in my own life. There are things I asked for and I never got an answer sometimes for years, but it strengthened my faith.

I saw how he did it. I remember when when I was 24 years old and I was working in the Navy in India, the Lord very clearly called me to leave my job. From scripture one morning, it was very clear, just like the Lord called the disciples, quit your job, quit your fishing.

It was just as clear to me. So I put in my resignation letter. And I said, Lord, now I can be free to go out to serve you. My resignation letter went up to Naval Headquarters and they said, no, you cannot be released.

To tell you honestly, I was absolutely surprised because I said, Lord, you run this universe. You taught us to pray our Father who art in heaven. How can these people say no? I really was surprised because the reason I gave in my resignation letter was Jesus Christ has called me to serve him.

They said, we don't recognize that. So it shook my faith. Does God have almighty power to control Naval Headquarters in India? And I applied a second time for the same reasons, rejected. This went on for two years.

And I applied a third time and I got accepted. Why God delayed? There could be reasons. Maybe I was not mature enough to go out. Maybe God's time hadn't come. But it certainly strengthened my faith in one thing, that Jesus Christ runs this universe.

He's got control. He said, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. That's the word that came to me at that time. In Matthew 28, it says, all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Therefore, go and preach.

Today, the way it is spoken is, there are needy people out there who haven't heard the gospel. Go and preach. Isn't that how missionary calls are given? There are needy people in Africa and India and other countries.

Go and preach. Jesus never said that. He said, all authority is given to me. Therefore, go and preach. There's a lot of difference between me going out somewhere because there's a needy person there or somewhere else.

And I can get frustrated with that type of ministry, particularly in a country like India with one billion, more than one billion people and 98 of them having other religions. You can get really discouraged.

But when I go on the basis of Jesus is all authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Therefore, you go. It made a world of difference in my life. I'm just trying to point out some scriptures that you've heard many times, but we take so lightly and carelessly and we miss out something.

And when I went out on the basis of his having all authority, I found the Lord blessed my work. People were converted. Churches were planted because I did not go out on the basis of, oh, there are needy people there.

Let me go and help them. No. All authority belongs to my Lord and he has told me to go. That's all. It's his business to convert. His business to plant a church. That's not mine. It's not my business to save people from hell.

My business is only to do what he says. All authority is given to me. You do what I say. Go and preach. I did that. And he did the business of converting them and planting the church. I mean, people give me the credit.

That's because they don't know who did the job. It's like if I come, if I pass a cake around here and you say, Brozac, that is a wonderful cake you made. No, I didn't make it. I'm only distributing it.

Somebody else made it. All preachers who take credit for something, they're not honest. I can't even take credit for this message I'm preaching right now. The Lord gives me the words and I speak and I cannot take credit for it.

I cannot take credit for anything I have done for the Lord. I only did what the Lord said. All authority is given to me. Go and do this. And I seek to be sensitive to the Lord's voice when he tells me to do something or when he tells me to stop doing something or to go somewhere or not to go somewhere.

And the rest I leave in the Lord's hand. Then you won't get proud when you accomplish something for the Lord. And you won't get discouraged if something you hoped would happen didn't happen. You go on the basis of all authority is given to the Lord.

Matthew 28 verse 18 to 20. But coming back here, Paul prayed and he didn't get an answer for three times. But he kept on praying till he got the answer. And what was the answer? Verse 9, 2 Corinthians 12 9.

My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfected in your weakness. So what I learned from that is, you know, the Bible says, blessed is the man who meditates on the law of the Lord. I fear that many believers when they read the scripture, they don't spend time meditating on it.

They rush to the next verse. There are many times when I've read the scripture, my morning meditation, I read one verse. And it's like the stoplight is in front of me. The Lord says, no, you can't leave this and go to the next verse.

There's a red light there. OK, then I can't go to the next verse. I have to keep meditating on one verse. And I finish my meditation after some minutes, and then I get up. And the next day, the Lord says, same verse.

And again, I find a stoplight. I can't go any further. I meditate and meditate and meditate on that. And the Lord is teaching me more and more. But I'm not in a rush to rush through the chapter. I want to hear what God is saying.

Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. These words in the Bible proceeded from the mouth of God hundreds of years ago. People heard it and wrote it down.

Today, when I read it, it has to once again proceed from the mouth of God to my heart. Then only I can live, not by reading and meditating, just without hearing what God is saying. Man shall not live by bread alone, Jesus said, but by every word that proceeds, present tense, present continuous, proceeds from the mouth of God, not that proceeded from the mouth of God 2 ,000 years ago.

Man shall live by every word that proceeds now from the mouth of God. That is Matthew 4 .4. And if you have not experienced that life, it's because you've not sought to hear the word that proceeds now from the mouth of God to your heart.

So that's why I say when you read a scripture, meditate on it. And if after 15 minutes God doesn't let you go to the next verse, don't go to the next verse, just like you won't go through a traffic light if it's still red.

And if the next day it's the same word, stick there. I've done that so many times. That's how I got to know the scriptures. I don't want to have the record of the one who's read through the Bible maximum number of times now.

I want to have the record of the Bible going through me many times, not me going through the Bible, but the Bible going through me. There's a lot of difference between the two. And so when I read the scriptures, I want this word to go through me.

And if it takes time, it's like a surgery. Sometimes you sit four hours, people are on the operating theater for four hours for a surgery. And I say, Lord, I want this word to go through me. Okay. My grace, the Lord says, is sufficient for you.

What do I get from that? I'll tell you what I've got from it. There is not a single situation in your life for which God's grace is not sufficient. I don't care what the problem is. I don't care how serious it is.

I don't care how longstanding it is. God's grace is sufficient. I don't care how difficult your children are. God's grace is sufficient to help you to bring them up in a godly way. So many parents say, oh, brother, you don't know how stubborn my child is.

I don't care. God's grace is sufficient. If you can understand the meaning of that word, sufficient. Is there a problem on earth for which God's grace is not sufficient? The problem in your life, I mean.

I'm not talking about earthly problems like wars and famines and earthquakes. Your life, my grace is sufficient for you. So I take that seriously and I say, Lord, I don't believe I can ever face anything in my life if I live another 20 years.

I don't believe I'll ever face anything in my life for which your grace is not sufficient. Can you say that as you go away from here today? With just one thing, among other things God may have spoken to you today, Lord, I believe that your grace is sufficient for me for anything I will face from now on till the end of my life.

I don't care how serious it is. Confess it to God. We'll come back to this verse. Let's turn for a moment to Romans chapter 10. Compare scripture with scripture. Romans chapter 10 and verse 8. What does God's word say?

The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart. God's word must not only be in your heart, in your mouth. So what does that mean? Verse 9, with the mouth, I confess Jesus as Lord. And with the heart, I believe God raised him from the dead.

You know, electricity flows through two wires in and out. Every switch, electric switch, is a place where the two wires come. And all that you do when you put on a switch is the two wires join. That's all that happens when you put on a switch.

The two wires are kept apart and the switch is off. When the switch is put on, the two wires touch and the light comes on. This is the thing here. You believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth.

When they touch, results come. You only confess with your mouth without believing in your heart, there's no electricity, no power. You only believe in your heart, don't confess with your mouth, or confess with your mouth, don't believe in your heart, doesn't work.

But where the two connect, it's like putting on the switch. So you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. And that's why it says here, verse 9, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart, you'll be saved.

Many people believe in their heart, but they never, ever tell another person in their whole life that I've accepted Christ as my savior. Their salvation is limited. That's why it's good to tell others, Christ is my savior.

It makes a difference, not enough to believe in the heart. The more I've said that with my mouth, whenever I get an opportunity, it strengthened my faith. Further, you'll be saved. In verse 10, with the heart, man believes, resulting in righteousness.

With the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation. I may receive the righteousness of Christ in my heart because I believed, but I'll experience salvation from my sin when I confess with my mouth. So remember these two wires that touch at the switch.

Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. And that is why I encourage people, whenever you have read the scriptures and you got something from it, share it with somebody. You believed in your heart, good.

Share it with your wife, share it with your husband. Say, darling, this is what I got today. Interesting. I'm not saying you can do it every day, but it's good. Tell it to your children. You get a chance somewhere else.

Share it with someone. Maybe you write it in an email. I'm doing that all the time, telling people something I got from scripture. I believe in my heart and I confess it either with a written email or with my mouth.

It makes a tremendous difference, I tell you. If you don't believe it, try it from today and see if it's not true. What you believe in your heart, express it some way in speaking or in writing to someone.

Grace as God’s Power Strengthening the Heart

To say that, coming back to 2 Corinthians 12, the Lord says, my grace is sufficient for you. And I say, I believe that. God's power is perfected in my weakness. And from that verse, I learned another thing.

This is the advantage of reading the Bible slowly. Verse 9, 2 Corinthians 12, 9. My grace is sufficient for you because the word F-O-R means because. My grace is sufficient for you because my power is perfected in your weakness.

And that teaches me one thing, that God's grace is his power. The power of God is the same as the grace of God in my life. And that grace can strengthen my weakness. Compare scripture with scripture. Let's turn to Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 13 and verse 8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Well-known verse. Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Never changes. We just heard it today. But here's the next verse.

Don't be carried away by strange teachings. And listen to this. It is good for your heart to be strengthened. By what? By grace. That's what he read just now in 2 Corinthians. Grace is God's power. And grace can strengthen your heart to overcome unbelief, to overcome discouragement, to overcome a depressed feeling, to overcome a complaining attitude, to overcome unbelief.

Name it. Whatever is coming into your heart, grace can strengthen you to overcome it. So I believe we have not made full use of the grace of God that is offered to us. It's not just forgiveness of sins.

For every situation in life, the grace of God is sufficient. Okay, I'll turn to one more verse to apply this. Turn with me to Proverbs in chapter 3. We know that grace is something that strengthens our heart to deal with any situation.