Gazing At God： His Love In His Unity — Sandeep Poonen

That song we just sang, Father of Jesus loves reward, what rapture it will be. Prostrate at thy throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. Can you picture that for a second? Prostrate at the feet in heaven, imagine that you're there and gazing and gazing.

But let me ask you this, what will you see? You look at God, but what's gonna be the rapture of it? That's one of the thoughts that I wanted to share, which was it depends on what you are raptured by.

I think it depends on what really catches your fancy. What is it about God that really grabs a hold of you? If you sang that song, you know, what rapture it'll be to gaze? What is it gonna be? When you see God, you'll be like, I just can't stop gazing and gazing on thee.

And there's many parts to that, for sure. One of the things that helped me in this journey of understanding the church, I spoke at the end of the previous message about the church, on how, I'll just recap it, maybe there's some folks who were teaching the children.

The Church as the Offensive Power Against Hell

I was saying that the enemy that we have to be worried about in our personal life is the flesh. That is the enemy that hates God. But the moment we start thinking about how do we attack the forces that's beyond my flesh, I have no ability to do that.

I've been given no weapon to do that, except one, which is the church. The church has been equipped in a unique way to fight against the gates of hell. Now, the gate doesn't move. The gate is a stationary thing that guards the fortress.

That's how it was, the gates of a castle. That was entry into the castle. The gates of a city was the front entrance into the city. So when Jesus said the church will attack the gates of hell, it showed the church as an offensive power going and taking and capturing the gates of hell where the devil sits.

That's an offensive capability of the Christian and the only offensive capability of the Christian is in the church. If you look at the armor of God, it's all very defensive. It's always all very protective.

It's protecting you, the helmet, the breastplate, the loins of truth, the shoes on your feet. The sword and the shield of faith, the sword of God is to ward off when somebody comes at you. Again, that's the only offensive weapon in a sense, but you can't attack the gates of hell with that.

There's no verse that gives me that authority. The only way I can attack the gates of hell, the only way I can attack against the devil is if I go with the church. So the local church is so critically important, but here's the tricky thing about the local church.

I can't do anything about it. God must build it. That's a lesson I learned. Anybody who seeks to build the church learns that lesson is that you can't do anything you want, you can do about it. You at best can position yourself to be ready to be a part of it.

That's the best you can do. But it is God's timing, not only God's will. It is God's will to build the church. It's God's will for me to be a part of the church. But it's God's timing and wisdom to decide how and when he does it.

I discovered that at NCCS. I wanted to build a church years before anything ever happened and it happened in God's way and in God's timing in a way that it just happened. So this is the mystery about it.

But we should also know that that's the only way you're going to beat the devil. And in my journey of understanding the church, I want to show you a couple of verses. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. Acts chapter 20 verse 28.

Be on guard. Acts chapter 20 verse 28. He says that be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd, here's the point I wanted to underline, this line here, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

The blood of Jesus is something that is so foundational into so much of what allows us to be Christians. He shed his blood to his very last drop or shed on the cross. But the blood of Jesus is what in whom we have redemption.

That's written in God's Word. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. The blood of Jesus justifies us as Romans 3 24 and here it is the blood of Jesus is what purchased for God the church. So if you're going to believe in the blood of Jesus to forgive you of your sins, you should remember the blood of Jesus is not just forgiving you of your sins.

It's justifying you and it is also saying I have a church and what we Christians are good at is we're good at claiming part of the truth and not all of the truth and we have to be very careful about that.

We have to be realized that God's Word expands much more than we may think it is. We may think of God as forgiving us of our sins and God says no, I have so much more. We can limit God in his love towards us.

Similarly, if you believe that Jesus' blood forgives you of sins and you feel you have the faith to grab a hold of the blood of Jesus, to ask God to forgive you of your sins, wonderful. You're believing God at his Word.

But I will say that if you believe that you must also believe Acts 20 verse 28, which says the same blood of Jesus has purchased the church. So what that means to me is I must value the church. I must value the church so tremendously that I put a very high valuation on it.

I must think of it with very high regard, the church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because the same blood of Jesus purchased it. That same blood of Jesus that's allowing you to get forgiveness from sins that you, let's say the sins you've committed.

If you don't get forgiveness of sins, you're not going to heaven. We know that. If your sins are not forgiven, you're not going to heaven. It should be clear to every one of us. If your sins are not forgiven, you're not going to heaven.

And the only way to get your sins forgiven is if the blood of Jesus will cleanse us of all our sins. So that's how precious the blood of Jesus is. But what I think a lot of us have missed is the same blood of Jesus has also purchased the church.

And we are extremely selfish or we may have been ignorant. In my case, it was ignorant plus selfishness. Maybe other different reasons, but now that it is written in God's Word and we see it. We must not value the blood of Jesus for our forgiveness, but not value the blood of Jesus also for the church.

You can't separate it. It's the same blood. It's the exact same blood of Jesus. So you show me a Christian who values the blood of Jesus for their forgiveness of sins, but doesn't value the church. I'll tell you they're either ignorant or they're badly misusing the blood of Jesus.

They're not valuing the blood of Jesus for what it is. They're just using the blood of Jesus for their convenient purposes. And the Lord took me through this journey to where because of the preaching at CFC and because of my own failures, I thought that to be holy was what was the best thing that could happen to me.

That if I could one day be free from all sin, that all of the sins that were raging inside of my flesh, that would be perfect. That would be awesome. And that would be it. That I thought that if that flesh with all my lusts could be killed all the time, that would be it.

Loving God Rather Than Merely Hating Sin

But the mistake I made in that was I was always anti-something. I was never for something. That's a dangerous end for many Christians. Because we know that Christianity ought to have a fundamental hatred for sin, the mistake we can make is that our whole objective is to be anti-sin, but not for God.

You know what Jesus, it says in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9, maybe I quoted it earlier today, but maybe good for you to remember this for a couple of different reasons. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9, it talks about Jesus and it talks about how Jesus was able to be filled with the oil of gladness or rejoicing because he did two things.

He loved righteousness and he hated lawlessness or sin. So you see there's those two contrasts in there. He was not just anti-sin. Jesus was anti-sin and pro-God, the Father. And what I realized was that the mistake I was making was I was only anti-sin and there was this vacuum of negative, negative, negative, negative that got me into discouragement and many other things.

I didn't realize that a deficiency, almost like a vitamin deficiency or something like that, was that I was not for God. I was fighting sin, but I was not growing in my loyalty towards God. I was fighting and fighting and fighting and fighting sin, but I was not growing in my loyalty to God.

And when I was getting victory over sin, I was becoming more legalistic. I realized that, Lord, having the vitamin of hating sin is not good enough. I should take both the vitamins, hating sin and loving righteousness or loving God.

And if I'm missing the other one, I'm deficient. Some people claim to love God and don't hate sin. We know better than that. But our danger is to hate sin, but not love God. And I like the fact that Hebrews chapter 1 verse 9 puts loving God first.

This is the greatest commandment, not to hate sin, but to love God, to love, to love. And so I realized that the top of the mountain was not victory over sin. Remember what I said? What is the top of the mountain?

It's not victory over sin. It was the love of God. Love. And I want to explain what that looks like. I want to describe that. Because if holiness was the top of the mountain, I would stop short. But I asked this question in the beginning, right?

What will I look at when I prostrate myself before the throne of God and I gaze and gaze at God? What am I going to see? Here's what I'm going to see. I'm going to see three persons. Yes? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Godhead as a Unity of Infinite Love

I'm not going to see they are one. Three is one. But if you can allow this imagery, I'm going to see three persons who are what? Who are one. That is love. Love is just not this one being pushing this thing called love, love, love.

That's not love. That's just bogus theory. I'll see love in action. I'll see infinite love between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit back to the Father, Son, Holy Spirit in this triangle of all three going at each other in love.

That is what I'll see when I gaze about God much more than His holiness. When I mean holiness, I don't know because I'm using English words. Holiness, when I think of holiness, I tend to think no sin.

That's how we tend to think about it. Holiness means no sin. But the proper understanding of the holiness of God is really love. So when I say holiness is not at the top of the mountain, I don't mean that God is something more than holy.

It's just that our holiness has to be redefined in the context of God who is love and it is that unity of love. The unity of love that is the top of the mountain. So that's how I really should describe holiness of God.

The way I should describe am I becoming holy is not, well, I'm not sinning in those sins like I used to sin before. Good, that's part of it. That's definitely part of the holiness journey. It's the highway of holiness as we talked about it, but it's not the final destination.

The final destination is the unity of love. That is what we will gaze and gaze and gaze at, is infinite love, throbbing from God the Father to God the Son to God the Holy Spirit. Another word for that is called fellowship and you can maybe now understand what 1 John chapter 1 verse says.

We can turn to 1 John chapter 1. We call ourselves New Covenant Christian Fellowship, NCCF. I think London Christian Fellowship Church, is that what it's called? Christian Fellowship, that word fellowship.

It's a massive word because remember we're talking about what the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have. You know what they have? It's the unity of love which is called fellowship. That's what that word fellowship means.

So you read this 1 John chapter 1. What was from the beginning? What we have heard, what we have seen, what we have beheld in our hands and our hands handled concerning the word of life, that life was manifested.

When we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has been manifested now to us, what we have seen and heard we proclaim also that you may have fellowship with us and that indeed our fellowship is with the Father.

This is what we're proclaiming. This life that was manifested, this life that was with the Father. That's what we're trying to proclaim to you. Not a life that is just free from sin because that could happen in a vacuum.

This is a life with somebody else that we are proclaiming and so you need somebody else in order to have this life with. And I talked about it a little bit yesterday in the wedding as well. It was so, it was not good.

It was not good for man to be alone because unity cannot be portrayed when there's only one person. Cannot be demonstrated. God cannot be demonstrated if there's only one person. Well, what if he preaches the most amazing sermons that I've ever listened to?

Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Because what we're trying to demonstrate is God and God is three with love pulsing in between them. That's why, that is the revelation of the church that God needs to open our eyes to see.

That is the revelation of love in the context of marriage that we have to see that this is God's entrusting the top of the mountain, the highest ideal and God wants, in a very limited way, God wants the world to be able to marvel at this thing called the church.

Not because of its glamour, but because of its unity. That is the glory we ought to have. And you know, angels long to look into this. This reflection of the church in its unity. That many other churches have gotten lost with all kinds of other things, but this is the foundational value of who was then God.

Let us make man in our own image. And he created two to be one. And he said, I'm just going to make you two as partners because you know, left brain versus right brain or whatever it is, balance. But that's not the point of it at all.

That was not the point of it all. It wasn't to complete one because other ones. No, it is to demonstrate love. I am complete in Christ and my wife is complete in Christ and we have to demonstrate love, love, love between two people who are complete in Christ.

I don't need somebody else to complete me. I'm complete in Christ. My wife doesn't need me to complete her. She's complete in Christ. Whom have I in heaven but besides you I desire nothing on this earth except my husband.

No. I'm complete in Christ. My wife is complete in Christ and these are two complete in Christ beings throwing love at each other. Love. That is what our dying world needs to see. That is the authority of the church that we were asked to have.

Not for my wife or my children or my husband to complete me. No. No, no, no, no such thing. I'm complete in Christ. I don't need to get married to be complete in Christ. I don't need to have children to be complete in Christ.

I don't need a job to be complete in Christ. I don't need a grandchildren to be complete in Christ. I am complete in Christ period. And my wife is complete in Christ, but it is not good for me to be alone.

He goes, how am I going to demonstrate love if I don't have somebody to love? So then I stop looking to any spouse or anybody else to complete me. I remove that thought. I say no, no, I don't need anybody to do anything for me to complete me.

Christ is enough. But what I do want to have other people for is to show love, to show how God loves. And if we're married, the temple can be at home. But even if we're not married, that's what God says, this is the church.

The New Commandment to Love One Another

And when Jesus was preparing for the church in the upper room, He first broke the bread in the cup and He gave it to them and He said, this is my blood. And then right after that in John chapter 13, He says, I'm going to give you a new commandment.

Not love the Lord your God, not love your neighbor, love one another. And how should you love one another? As I have loved you. And He was basically saying, you know, this love that was between the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, now the Son now loved you.

You know, this infinite love, infinite love, infinite love that God has, Jesus had infinite love towards the Father and the Son, this infinite love, that same pulsing infinite love came down with that same ferocity, with that same velocity and loved all of us.

Fullness of love that was willing to die for us, all of that, that throbbing love, imagine how much love, the force of that love, rivers cannot quench it, that love, pulsing all directed at you and He said, love one another.

With that same pulsing love, love one another as I have loved you. That's what John is saying too. This fellowship, we want you to have fellowship with us. The same fellowship that we have with the Father and the Son.

And God is inviting us into this ever increasing rivers of living water, love, between Him and us first, out of which we can now say, Lord, I want to love other people. And that's where self comes in the way.

Self saying, I want to be somebody. Self saying, I want to be somebody important. Self that says, it's my way rather than her way. Self comes in in so many ways and we have to see that self is the enemy of love.

I've thought about this more and more and the Lord keeps reminding me of this, that the opposite of love is not hate. That's how the world thinks about it. But to me, I've seen more and more that the opposite of love is lust and I'm not talking about sexual lust.

That's one demonstration of lust. But lust just means to desire, to selfishly desire. That's what lust is. A woman can lust after another woman's hair and it's got nothing to do with sexual lust. But you eagerly desire it and out of that comes jealousy, comes comparison, comes pride, comes all kinds of things.

And we have this lust for something, for that car, your neighbor's car, your neighbor's this. Another word for that is covet. And out of this comes all of this stuff and I have to see that the opposite of love is this coveting and this lust for something that somebody else has.

Somehow not happy with something in my life, something that somebody else has or something else I feel I should have. And that is what is preventing me from love. Preventing me from the love of God coming towards me.

Preventing me from giving other people the love of God. And Jesus, when He was about to die, He gave that new commandment on the upper room. He said, love one another as I have loved you. And then when He went to pray in John chapter 17, is where I really saw, you can turn there.

Christ's Glory Is the Glory of Being Loved

In John chapter 17, it's an interesting expression.

I do not know if you have noticed it, but if you have, I want you to read this carefully. In John chapter 17, I think if you have listened to Zach Woonen long enough, you know John chapter 17 verse 23, because if you have heard Zach Woonen, he has said that John chapter 17 verse 23 is the greatest truth, he would say, that is there in the Bible.

John chapter 17 verse 23, the last part of it where he says that the Father loves you and me, just as the Father loves Jesus. That God loves us just as much as He loves Jesus. My dad has spoken sermons on that, and that's John 17 verse 23, that's where he gets that truth from.

But I actually want to use that, John 17 verse 23, by having us look at verse 22 and 24. Let's read verse 22 first. It says in verse 22, the glory which you have given me, listen to this, think about this carefully as you are reading this, and see if you can understand this.

The glory, remember, in case you don't know, this is Jesus talking to the Father. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one. Okay, let's kind of think about this.

What is he saying here? The glory, Father, which you gave me, I have given to them. Who has he given it to? The disciples. Right? Those 11 disciples. The glory that the Father had given Jesus, he's saying, I have given it to them already.

What glory is that? Is it the Holy Spirit? No. The Holy Spirit hadn't been given to them. What is the glory that God had given Jesus, that Jesus says, I've already given it to them? I don't know if you've ever thought about that.

I don't know if your scripture says something different, but that's what it says to me here. Very clearly. The glory, Father, which you have given me, I gave to them. Now the reason I gave that glory is so that they could be one.

So unity is not the glory, because that's the end result of that glory. Are you following with me? All right, the English is not that complicated. This is Britain afterwards. So this is where English started.

So you guys should be right along with this. No problem. The glory which you have given me, I've given to them, so that they may be one. So I know because God gave me, gave Jesus that glory, and because Jesus gave that glory to the disciples, now the disciples can now, as a result of that, be one.

I still don't know what that glory is. Okay, we'll keep reading. I in them and you in me, so this is the kind of unity, that they may be perfected in unity. See, again, he's saying, look, all of this glory that you gave me, all that glory I gave to them, and the whole point of this glory is not that they may be holy, but that they may be one.

See, that's kind of where the Lord opened my eyes to these people, like, hey, unity is a big deal, that Jesus is going to die in four hours, he's going to be killed in five hours, and this is what he's praying for, that they may be one, I in them and you in me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that evangelism might happen.

Did you read that? How is evangelism going to happen? By the people being one, it's not what you hear in most of the YouTube videos in evangelism, so that the world may know that you sent me, that's evangelism 101.

How will they know? Well, if these guys will just be one, then it'll happen apparently, that the world may know that you sent me, that the world will know that you love them, even as you have loved me, that same love, this will all happen if they are one.

So then verse 24, the Lord told me what is the glory that God had given Jesus and that Jesus had given to them already. Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me, these 11 disciples, may be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory which you have given me.

And here it is, this is the glory that you've given me Lord, that you loved me before the foundation of the world, that was the glory of Jesus. The glory of Jesus on this earth was not him shining, sparkling, he was despised of man.

The glory of Jesus wasn't that he walked on water. The glory of Jesus wasn't that he turned water into wine. The glory of Jesus was that he was loved. And that was the glory he gave to his disciples too.

He said, you know this glory of being loved, I gave that glory to them too, so that they know that they are loved. By whom? By Jesus. And Jesus says, because remember the new commandment, love one another as I have loved you.

Trust me, I have loved you. If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He said that in the same context. He's saying it just a different way. Whatever glory I had, I gave it to him. Because you know Lord, what is my glory?

Father, you know what the glory you've given me, is that you love me. And he's saying I gave that to all the disciples too. But what that showed me was the glory of Jesus on this earth, that we beheld, full of grace and truth was this, that Jesus walked around, that he was loved, eternally loved.

Nobody can stop you from living that way. Nobody, not your spouse, not your nearest one can stop you from having the glory of Jesus in you. The love of God has been shed abroad through the Holy Spirit.

And when you're born again, the blood of the Holy Spirit's love, the Holy Spirit pours out the love of God, and that's what it's supposed to be over our hearts, is the infinite love of God over us. Not that we love one another, that's secondary, that comes second.

Step number one is first, that I have the glory of God upon me. Can you have the glory of God upon you today? Yes you can. What is it? That you are loved before the foundation of the earth. That God loved you before the foundation of the earth, and I said nobody can stop you from it.

Nobody can stop you from receiving that right now. You don't need your father to be saved, your mother to be saved, you don't need your wife to be saved, your husband to be saved, you don't need your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your wife to even come with you in that journey.

God is no respecter of persons, God is saying you can have that. You can have the glory of Jesus. This is my glory, that I was loved. I gave that glory to these eleven disciples, I gave it to them, all of it.

I love them too, just like you love me, I love them. And we are imperfect versions of that, but that's what God is asking us to do. Walk around as if you are loved. How much insecurity was there in Jesus' eyes?

Zero, why? Because he had the power of positive thinking? No, because he was loved. He was infinitely loved. That is the basis of all our actions that we do. And this is the glory of Jesus. Lord show me your glory.

We sing songs like that, Lord reveal me your glory, Lord may your glory be on this place. What does that mean? You want a cloud? That's what the charismatics are looking for. Charismatics are looking for cloud and smoke and dust and gold dust.

What are you looking for? When you say Lord show me your glory, Lord I want your glory to be present. What are you looking for? A feeling? I'll tell you what I want when I ask for the glory of Jesus. It's right here, John 17, 24.

Let's be Bible people. I'm not saying this is the only thing. It may be other things too, but in the purpose of what I'm speaking, let it at least be this. There could be other things too, but let it at least be this, which is that you are loved.

Let us be increasingly secure people, because we are loved infinitely. No matter what circumstance happens in my life, no matter what situation happens to me, no matter what happens in my job, no matter what email my coworker sends me, none of that's going to change whether I am loved.

I have to start there. That's my glory. I hope that we will be able to come into the meetings more and more, bringing the glory of Jesus into the meeting. That is the precursor, that is the requirement, as it says, John 17, 22, right?

Lord, the glory which you gave me, I gave to them so that they can be one. So, who are the kind of people who can be one and demonstrate to the world that God sent Jesus? There's not any two people who believe the right doctrinal faith.

That's not the requirement here. John 17, 22 is very clear. Lord, the glory that you gave me, I gave them. Such people can show the world that God sent Jesus. Because such people can be one. That's the requirement for unity.

And so, is listening to Zak Poonen the requirement? Absolutely not. Is believing the theology the requirement? Absolutely not. It's a much higher requirement than that. Much more tougher requirement. That you live as if you have been loved.

Easy to get people to listen to Zak Poonen, especially now because he's well known. Get two people to live as if they are loved independently, loved by God. Try it out. Try it out for a week. Much easier to listen to Zak Poonen, I tell you that.

Try to live a week saying, I'm loved infinitely. It'll be so beautiful if you'll give it six months to a year. You'll never go back on any other kind of life. And it's such a freeing place to be. And the wonderful news about the gospel is it's really good news.

I'm not saying it's easy news. The gospel is not called easy news. But it's good news. And it requires death to self. It requires killing this person inside of you called your flesh, that wants to do its own will.

But it's amazing news. It's the happiest life we can live. And it starts by this good news being, I am loved. This is the starting place on which we have unity. This is the starting place on how we are able to build a church.

A Local Church That Threatens the Devil

So, I hope that as I, and one other thing that I want to say, which I said in the previous message as well. We, in our local churches, so I'll give this as a message for LCFC too. The purpose of the church existing is to attack the gates of hell.

Which means the devil should always be afraid of London Christian Fellowship Church. I do not know if that's a truth about LCFC or NCCF. The church that I'm really, I'm responsible for. I have no responsibility here.

So, it's more a question for you guys, but it's also a question for me as it relates to NCCF. So, let me share that with you that that's the question that I'm engaging with, that I'd encourage you also to engage with, which is, is my local church a threat to the devil?

Let me pose some questions to you for this, and I'll tell you this as an elder of NCCF. Can those brothers who are sitting at NCCF call me and say, Sandeep, will you please pray with me on this issue which I'm dealing with?

And they have the confidence that this is a guy I can go to battle with. Because he doesn't love the world, that I know. I know that he wants nothing to do with his flesh. I know that he is passionate about God's kingdom and God's name.

Not that he's an elder, that means nothing. But I know that that man is militant towards seeking the will of God. Such a person, you want him on your side when you got cancer, or when you got trouble in your life, or when the devil is attacking your children.

Who are you going to call up? Some guy who knows verses? No. You want somebody who can bind and loose spiritual authorities in the heavenly places. Please don't go over the eloquent ones. Don't go over the ones who can preach good sermons.

Don't go over the people who's got a last name similar to some famous man. That's not requirements to have the same last name as Zach Oonan or Wesley or whatever it is. It means nothing. You know that.

You want somebody who has the authority to bind. It's much more important than anybody. Being the son of somebody or being an elder or anything like that. At the end of the day, when you're going to battle, you're not looking at last names.

You're looking at, does this person have authority to bind the devil? Who are you going to call? Don't go after the religious idea. Oh, I'm going to call my elders. Don't think about it that way, even though that's the right answer.

But I hope it'll be people who you know, they have authority. I have confidence that they have authority. That they wield an authority. If you don't have that confidence in me at NCCF, I would encourage you at NCCF, you should probably find another church.

If not me, if me and Bobby and Jeremy, those three elders. If you don't have confidence in that war, please find another church. Because that's what this church is existing for. And I'm not saying we're supposed to be that, we're trying to be it.

But if you don't think that we're doing a good job at it, please find another church that you can call in your moment of need to go to battle against the devil. When your young children or your young people are getting affected and being torn across by all the temptations that are in the world.

Who are you going to call on your side to bind and loose? This is not some small game you're playing now anymore. These are your children's souls, eternal souls. Who are you going to call? I hope you'll call somebody who has authority.

If Jesus was here, you'll go to him for sure. If Peter or Paul was there, you'll go to them for sure. And can I be somebody like that at NCCF? Definitely don't want to be the only one, but can I be one person who you can count on?

I'll be an ally in that battle. If I find you interested in just having a nicer life, sorry, you got the wrong guy for that. I'm not binding anything for that. But if you are singular focused to seeking the will of God, I'm your man.