(Manitoba 2001) Counting the Cost to Follow Christ — Zac Poonen

Philippians and the Inner Life Behind Ministry

I'd like to turn this morning to Philippians, chapter 3. In the Gospels, God has given us, in great detail, the life of Jesus. In the Acts of the Apostles, God has given us, in great detail, many things about the life of the Apostle Paul, particularly his ministry.

We don't read much about his life, but his ministry. And then most of the episodes were written by the Apostle Paul, and in a number of those episodes we get a picture of his inner life. It was from that inner life that his ministry came.

See, this is one big difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Everything in the Old Testament was external, and everything in the New Testament is internal and then goes to the external.

When Jesus said to the Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup, but first clean the inside of the dish and the cup, and the outside will automatically be clean. It's very important to see this distinction between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Or to use another illustration, supposing we have a sickness that brought a lot of sores in our skin, and somebody gave us an ointment that you could rub on those sores and it would go away. That would be a great blessing.

The law was like that. You could remove it on the outside, prevent it from coming out, you could prevent people from committing murder, prevent people from committing adultery. The laws of the governments in the world are based on the Ten Commandments.

That's why we have law and order in society, that stealing is controlled, theft and adultery and murder is under control. It's like the sores are not allowed to come out because of this ointment. But then you get rid of it here, it will come in your leg, and you rub the ointment there, it comes somewhere in your back, and you're always having to deal with it.

But then one day somebody invents an antibiotic, and the antibiotic you don't rub on your sore, you take it inside, and that deals with the root of the problem, and then you don't get the sores anywhere.

That's grace. That's the New Covenant. The New Covenant always deals with the inside first. And when it deals with the inside, like Jesus said, the outside will automatically be cleaned. You don't need the ointment anymore.

And that's what it says, if you are led by the Spirit, you don't need the law. You don't need the cube of ointment if you have taken the antibiotic. But the trouble with a lot of people today is they haven't taken the antibiotic and they've thrown away the cube of ointment, and they are worse than people in the Old Testament.

That's the tragedy. How do you know whether God has done a work inside you or not? It will become manifest on the outside. But not only on the outside, it will be inside first. That's why Jesus said, the Old Testament said, don't commit adultery, I say don't do it inside.

The Old Testament said, don't commit murder, I say don't get angry inside. That's where murder starts. And the Old Testament, the law, we could say, was like a pair of scissors. The bad fruit comes, you cut it off.

Another bad fruit comes, you cut it off. You've got to go around with the scissors all the time. But John the Baptist said, Jesus came with an axe, and he laid the axe to the root of the tree and pulled out the tree.

Why do you need the scissors then? Why are you going around with scissors? It's because you haven't laid the axe to the root of the tree. So you need to ask the Holy Spirit to lay the axe to the root of the tree inside, and when that is done, you can throw away the scissors.

But if you don't lay the axe to the root of the tree, you'll have to just go around with your scissors every day to make sure that you don't have a bad testimony before other people. And then some people do something more than that.

They buy some good fruit from the market and hang it up on the branches to give the impression that I've got a very fruitful tree. That's Phariseeism, you know, pretending that we are very fruitful when the tree is absolutely barren and rotten.

And that's the thing that Jesus denounced. And those Pharisees were furious when Jesus came with his axe, and they killed him. And they'll try to kill you if you go with that message today as well. It's the same.

Man has never changed. So everything in the Old Testament was external. The temple was external. Now the temple is internal. The sacrifices were external. You'd see the lamb being killed, the ox being killed.

Now it says your body has got to be a living sacrifice. It's internal. Everything is inward. It's not external. They had external festivals those days. Now we have it inside. And if it doesn't begin inside, I want to say you're still under the old covenant.

If you've got a righteousness, which is only on the outside, which is just what people can see when you stand before them, you're back under the law. The righteousness of God begins inside. The purpose why Jesus died was so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled.

Romans 8 .4 says, inside us. It's a very important word, Romans 8 .4, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled inside us first. It could not be fulfilled inside in the olden days, only on the outside.

And Jesus spoke about when the Holy Spirit is poured out. You see, when we see a lot of things being in a lot of groups today, they speak about the Holy Spirit, and particularly in the charismatic movement, where a lot of external things happening, people falling down and laughing and so many things.

I'm not impressed by all this. Because I say, Jesus said, when the Spirit of God falls upon a person, when it fills a person, rivers from his innermost being, John 7 .38 and 39. From his inner... That's the most important part.

You leave out that part and you can be deceived. From his innermost being, rivers of living water will flow out. You see, that's new covenant. New covenant deals with the innermost being. God changes you inside.

It's not a superficial outside change, where you have a lot of external excitement and shaking and all that. It's from the innermost being. And when the Holy Spirit fills a person, what is the primary mark?

It's not noise. I've often told people, why do you think Almighty God called the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and not the noisy spirit or something like that? If the Holy Spirit fills you, what should be the first thing in your life?

Holiness. That's why it's called the Holy Spirit. And if He doesn't bring, at least if He doesn't start a spark of... It will grow naturally. But if He doesn't start a spark of holiness inside you, I say, you've got some other spirit, whatever it is.

Now, the tragedy today, I have seen in many cases of people who were a little upright and good, and then they go and join some group and they say they've had an experience of the Holy Spirit, and they end up being more unholy and worldly.

And I say, what's wrong here? Something's wrong. Some other spirits have taken over, and there are many spirits operating in the world today because they sought for something external first. Whereas the Holy Spirit comes to work within first, and from inside, the outside will become more manifest.

It will become manifest on the outside. So that's very important for us to see. And in the New Testament, for example, you see that contrast in Paul and a lot of the Old Testament great men of God. What do you know about the inner life of Moses?

Nothing. What do you know about the inner life of Abraham? Almost nothing. What do you know about the inner life of Elijah or Malachi or Isaiah? We know about their ministry. We know tremendous things they did in ministry.

We know what Joshua pulled down the walls of Jericho. But what do you know about Joshua's inner life? Nothing. The Old Testament was all external. But when you come to the New Testament, we read so much is written about the inner life of the Apostle Paul.

It's from that inner life that his ministry came. And so Paul could say, follow me as I follow Christ. Jesus lived for 30 years without any external ministry. That was an inner life that he lived there before his father, a good life for 30 years.

And from that life came three and a half years of ministry. That is how it must be in our life also. You can't have an effective ministry by just something external. It has to come out of your life. Somebody once asked me, Brother Zach, how long did you take to prepare that sermon?

I said, 40 years. It has to come out of your life. If it doesn't come out of your life, it's superficial. It's just head knowledge where you put facts together. If it doesn't come out of your life, it's not New Covenant.

In the Old Covenant, it is all external. And if your righteousness is only external, for example, you look nice on the outside, very holy and well-behaved, and you're not, there's no change on the inside.

There's something suspicious. And a lot of people like that today. They look nice on the outside. They look very holy. Go and see how they live at home. Go and see how they talk to one another when other believers are not watching them.

Have a look inside their thought life, their attitudes to others. And it's quite another story. There's no holiness there. So please remember this. And Paul tells us a lot about his inner life in the Epistles, inspired by the Holy Spirit to help us to know.

Because, you know, when we look at Jesus, people can say, well, he was the son of God. We could never be like him. And that's why God has given us another example in the Bible, and that's Paul. Nobody can say, well, he was different from us.

Actually, Jesus was also like us. But some people don't believe that. So God's given us another example. Well, you can't say Paul wasn't like you. How did he live an overcoming life? You know, once Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4, he says, I know nothing that convicts me.

I know nothing in my life that's wrong. But that doesn't mean I'm completely holy, because God sees a lot of things in me which I don't see myself. But in the areas where I can see, my conscience is clear.

And so I find there are a number of things that we can learn from Paul's attitude, which which the Holy Spirit has put down in Scripture for us to see, so that we can come into a glorious life, too, and follow Christ as he as he followed Christ and come into that glory that he came into.

And that's what we read here in Philippians chapter 3. See, many people would like to get what Paul got without paying the price. He paid a price here, as you see in verse 7. Now, first of all, he says he was, you know, he had an external righteousness, verse 6, which is blameless, but he was still a persecutor of the church.

His external life was so good, but he persecuted the church of God. And that's what confuses a lot of people today. We say, oh, this person is such a good man. But then why does he fight against the work of God being done somewhere?

You know, we can have meetings here, and some good people can oppose it, and you wonder why. Why is that good person? He's a good person, and a person can be a good person, but he's persecuting because he does not know, he cannot understand the working of the Holy Spirit.

And a lot of people like that. Externally good, here was Paul, great example, outwardly good, but persecuting the work of God. Till God opened his eyes and he saw that he was fighting against God. But how did he come into this life?

How did that change take place? When God, when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus, and he sat down for three days without meeting anybody, he didn't drink water, he didn't eat. For three days he was fasting and praying, and those three days he evaluated what he was going to lose by following Jesus.

You know, Jesus said to his, when he spoke about discipleship, he said, first sit down and count the cost. He never asked people to follow him without counting the cost. And Paul spent three days counting the cost.

Is it worth it? Is it worth it losing everything that I've had all my life? Everything that I've valued and treasured for 30 years of my life, whatever age he was, to get this? I think of an Old Testament example where God told Abraham once in Genesis 22, take your only son, Isaac, to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice for me.

And it says next morning, Abraham got up and he also walked for three days. Just like Paul was fasting for three days. Mount Moriah was three days journey, the Bible says. And as Abraham walked that long journey, why did God tell Abraham to offer him on Mount Moriah and not just around the corner, in the next block?

Because he wanted him to count the cost and decide. He doesn't want you to decide in a hurry and afterwards regret it. Count the cost. And as he walked, trudged that dirt road to Mount Moriah, he was thinking, my only son, the thing I value most in my life, everything I own, all my hopes and ambitions are centered in this son.

And I have to kill him now. Is it worth it? Is it worth it? And by the end of three days, he was clear. It's worth it. God is worth everything. And he was willing to sacrifice his son. And he called it worship.

We read in Genesis 22. Paul, at the end of three days, said it's worth it. Worth sacrificing everything, giving up everything in order to get Christ. Have you said the same thing? You know, a lot of people haven't counted the cost in the beginning.

And later on, when they begin to face the consequences of following Jesus, they back out. A lot of backsliding takes place among Christians because right at the beginning, they don't sit down and count the cost.

They are half-hearted. But Paul sat down and he said, in verse 7, Whatever things were gained to me, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. He said, if I had stayed in the Jewish system, well, I could have been a member of the Sanhedrin.

I could have been a big shot, one of the rulers. I could have had position, prestige, lived in a grand palace and enjoyed myself earned the respect of many, many people. But I lost all that. When I followed Jesus, the world began to treat me like garbage.

They beat me. They hammered me. They locked me up in prison. They called me all types of names. And he said, it was worth it all. Because I found something in Christ. And he says in verse 8, I count all things, everything, to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord.

There are so many things that Paul valued before he met Jesus Christ. And there are many things that you have valued in your life up until now. Things that are valuable. For some people, it's money. For some people, it's a religious system.

Like Paul, which is very valuable, because they grew up in that from childhood. Their forefathers grew up in it. Paul grew up in a certain religious system, which he dumped completely once he came to Christ.

He threw the whole thing away. Now, a lot of people today, and you know that parable which Jesus said of, when he compared the old covenant and the new covenant. He said, you know, some people try to take a patch of a new cloth and attach it to an old garment.

And in India, where, because it's hot, a lot of us wear cotton clothes all the time. Cotton shirts, cotton shorts and pants and trousers. Cotton is something which if you buy in the market and you stitch your dress without first soaking that cloth in water, you'll find after the dress is stitched, it doesn't fit you.

Your clothes don't fit you. Your shirt doesn't fit you. Your trousers don't fit you, because the cloth shrinks when it's soaked in water. And that's why whenever we stitch clothes in India, cotton material, we first soak it in water, dry it and then gave it to the tailor to stitch our clothes.

That's what Jesus is speaking about. Now, imagine a cloth that's already shrunk like that and trousers or dresses being made from that. And then there's a hole in it and you want to patch it up. And you take a new piece of same color and everything, another piece of cotton cloth and without soaking it in water, without shrinking it, you attach it to this old garment.

And then you wash it. Nothing happens till you wash it. The moment you wash it, the rest of the garment is already shrunk. But this new patch is now shrinking. And what happens when it shrinks? It tears the garment.

So that's what Jesus was saying, that you take a new patch, because you hear something good in a meeting, say, oh, that's a good thing we heard, that this new covenant stuff. And you try to take this patch and attach it to your old system to which you belong.

It's going to tear the whole thing. It does not work. Jesus spoke about new wine in new wineskins. In those days, they didn't put wine in bottles. They never had glass in those days. They used to put it in animal skin, stitched so well that nothing would leak.

They'd pour the wine in. And animal skin also has the same property. It has got an ability to stretch. And you know, when the wine ferments inside the animal skin, it stretches. And the animal skin can stretch.

That's why they used animal skin. They could put the wine inside. But after it is stretched to a certain extent, that's the limit. It cannot stretch indefinitely. Okay, now you've got the stretched old wineskin.

And now you get this new life that Jesus speaks about, this new covenant life. And somebody pours it into this old wineskin and ties it up. And what happens? Now the new wine begins to ferment and it begins to stretch.

And what's going to happen to this wineskin? It's going to burst and all the wine is lost. So the Lord was saying, you can't take this new life and put it into the old system. The whole thing will burst.

You'll lose even what you've got now. So you need to take this new wine and you've got to get a fresh animal skin. You can't take a patch and put it in the old garment. You've got to throw away the whole old garment and make a new garment.

Now, I think some of you are thinking, well, I've got something wonderful here, Jesus' life. Now let me see how I can fit it into this old system. It never works. I'll tell you right now, don't waste your time.

There are some people sitting here who have tried it for years and they've never got anywhere. I speak to them and I know that they haven't progressed at all spiritually. And you won't progress in another 20 years.

If you try to put that new wine into old wineskins, if you try to put a patch into the old garment, I'll tell you that I don't have to be a prophet. I'll prophesy right now that old wineskin will burst.

I can prophesy right now that garment will tear. Don't waste your time. Don't think you're wiser than Jesus. Jesus said it. Listen to it. Paul sat down and counted the cost. In three days, he decided.

Some of us haven't decided even after three years. You know why Paul's life was so useful? Because he took only three days to decide. Abraham decided in three days, by the time he went to Mount Moriah, it's worth it giving my son.

God's worth everything. There are certain things in the Christian life that are free. Forgiveness of sins. What do you have to pay for that? Nothing. Eternal life, it's a gift. If I give you a... This is a gift and you pay me one cent for it, it's no longer a gift.

A gift is absolutely free. You don't have to fast. You don't have to pray. You don't have to type to get forgiveness of sin. The gift of the Holy Spirit. The Bible speaks of the gift of the Holy Spirit.

You don't have to fast or pray or anything to get the Holy Spirit. You have to receive. Ask. Prayer is asking. You can receive if you have faith. If you have thirst, you receive. But there are certain other things in the Christian life, which the New Testament says, which are not free.

I told you, forgiveness of sins, eternal life, the gift of the Holy Spirit, they're all free. You don't have to pay anything for it. But the Bible speaks, Jesus said about in Luke 14, about counting the cost.

Counting the cost of discipleship. Sit down, he said, and count the cost. How much is it going to cost, he said. In Revelation chapter 3, he told the church in Laodicea, verse 14 onwards, and the elder in Laodicea, I counsel you to buy from me.

Gold fried in the fire. That's not free. I counsel you to buy from me. I shall anoint your eyes so that you can see. White raiment that you can be clothed. That is not justification. That is practical righteousness.

There is a garment that Christ gives you free. There's another one you've got to pay a price for. It's the New Testament. You read in Revelation 3, I counsel you to buy from me. White garment that you may be clothed.

There are a lot of people who have accepted Christ, and they say, I'm clothed to the righteousness of Christ. But nobody seems to be able to see it. Where is it? There are lots of people like that today, roaming around the world saying, I'm justified.

Everything is covered by the righteousness of Christ. And it's true. Have you heard the story, the children's story of the king's invisible clothes? Well, I'll tell you if you haven't heard it. It's a very interesting story.

There was a king who was pretty conceited, and there were two clever men who wanted to make a fool of him. And they pretended to be tailors. And they said, well, king, your birthday is coming up, and we'd like to make a special dress for your birthday.

But there's something peculiar about this garment, this material that we've got for this dress. This material can only be seen by those who are worthy of the office they hold. That means if you're good enough to hold your particular office of king or prime minister or anything, you'll see it.

Otherwise, you won't be able to see it. And these two men held up their hands like this with nothing in between. And they said, well, how do you like this garment? And the king could see nothing. And the king thought, boy, does that mean that I'm not worthy to hold the office of being a king?

And he was scared. So he had to pretend. He said, yeah, that's a nice dress. That's a wonderful garment. And they said, would you like us to make a dress for you with this? Yes, yes, he said, make a dress.

And he called the prime minister. And he told the prime minister, you know, this dress, this garment can only be seen by those who are fit to hold their office. And the prime minister looked at this, these two people holding up their hands.

He could see nothing. There was nothing there. And he thought, boy, does it mean I'm not fit to be the prime minister? The king seems to be able to see it. He couldn't see it either, actually. And the prime minister said, yes, king, yes, your majesty.

That's a wonderful garment. So the king was convinced the prime minister could see it. But it's only I who can't see it. They were all pretending that they could see this. These clever fellows fooled the whole government of the king.

And then they stitched this garment. They made a lot of actions. And they were stitching, stitching, stitching, moving their hands up and down. Finally, the dress was ready. And they told the king to take off his clothes.

And they put this garment on him. And there he was standing absolutely naked. And they said, boy, this is fantastic. And they called the prime minister and the ministers. And the minister looked and said, this is wonderful, beautiful.

They couldn't see a thing. But and then they said, well, we've got to go on a parade through the town with the king wearing this new dress. And they announced in the town, this dress can only be seen by those who are fit to hold their office.

These were two really smart fellows. They collected a large fee for making this dress. And as the king paraded through the town absolutely naked, everybody, nobody could see a thing. And they all began to wonder, does it mean that I'm not fit to hold the office I'm holding?

They all said, boy, that's lovely clothes, lovely clothes the king is wearing. All pretending till a little child said, hey, the king is naked. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings comes forth the truth.

What is the application of it for us today? The lot of people going around saying, I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ. And the little children in their home can see when they yell and scream at each other.

These, my dad and mom are just naked. There, there's no righteousness. There's no nothing there. What a lot of deception is going on today in this business of being clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

It's true that in my sin and my shame, I come to Christ with nothing. And Jesus clothes me with his righteousness. And I stand before God. It is a reality. But what I say is that the Holy Spirit then begins to work inside me to begin to produce that righteousness.

That which is imputed, imputed means put to my account, becomes imparted over a period of time. And if it's never imparted, then I'd say it was never imputed. Then you're fooling yourself. If the righteousness of Christ is put to your account and you're clothed with the righteousness of Christ over a period of time, I know it'll take time, but over a period of time, something begins to grow inside you.

Righteousness from within. A desire for purity. And if that's not happened, you need to go and seek God again. There is a price to be paid for that. The Lord says, I counsel you to buy from me white garments.

Jesus also spoke about that. He said about a man who went around seeking expensive pearls. And finally, he found a pearl of such fantastic value that he discovered he had to sell all the pearls he had accumulated in his life in order to get this pearl.

Now, my question is this. That's a parable Jesus spoke. Was that pearl free? Or did he have to pay a price for it? He had to pay a price. And he sold not half his collection of pearls, but all his collection of pearls to buy this one.

He felt it was worth it. And Jesus repeated that parable. That's the only parable that's repeated in another form in Matthew 13. He said a man went looking for treasure and he found a treasure hidden in a field and he had to sell his entire life savings to buy that treasure, to buy that field.

He had to buy it. It wasn't free. What I'm trying to say is there are certain things in the Christian life that are absolutely free. But there are certain other things you have to pay a price for. And that's what Paul is speaking of here.

He says in verse 8, Philippians 3, 8, I have suffered the loss of all things, all my pearls that I accumulated in my life, my entire religious system, lock, stock and barrel, every bit of it, I took it and threw it away.

And you ask Paul at the end of it, well, wasn't that a terrific price you paid? He says, no. When I compare that with what I got, Jesus Christ, he says here this wonderful word in the last part, he says, it's all rubbish.

Is it a price you have to pay to throw out your trash can from your kitchen? To put it all into a garbage bag and throw it out on the street? For somebody to take it away and take it to the garbage dump?

Do you weep over it? When you throw away your trash and garbage? Rubbish is one of my favorite words. Garbage, rubbish, a lot of things Christians value are garbage, rubbish, compared to Christ, compared to His anointing, compared to revelation on God's Word.

Once you begin to see that a lot of things this world values, honor, acceptance, money, comfort, luxury, is garbage. You'll never think twice before saying, I don't want it, I want Christ. Why is it that we find temptation so attractive?

Because you got a value on that. You place a value on it. Why is it when the devil tempted Jesus with all the glory of this world, Jesus could immediately say, no, because he saw all that glory of the world as garbage.

And if somebody comes and offers you garbage, how many of you are going to accept it? Thank you very much. No, throw it away. I don't want it. That's exactly what Jesus said. But how is it that some of us, when we are, many of us perhaps, when we are tempted with something, we find ourselves attracted.

Do you find yourself attracted to that trash can? Attracted to the garbage dump? It's because the devil has blinded our eyes. He's fooled us that there's something valuable in that garbage dump, something valuable in that trash can.

Go searching inside, see if you can get something. Paul saw the whole thing was garbage. What is the honor of men? You tell me. You just sit down for a moment and count the cost and you'll see there's no cost at all, in a sense.

For example, all men appreciate you. You say, that's a great thing, I'm accepted. But God says, disapproved. I don't approve of you. On the other hand, you have all men rejecting you. And God says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Which is better? Which do you want? Do you want God to say, well done? Or you want all your friends and everybody else whom you've grown up with to say, well done? That's the question. And I've seen very clearly, if all six billion people in the world say, whatever their opinion, well done or not well done.

I say, it's garbage compared to God Almighty, my creator saying to me, well done, good and faithful servant. That's what Paul chose in those three days. He said, I choose God's approval, not man's approval.

I don't want to please any man in the world anymore from this day. I want to please my God. He said in Galatians 1 .10, if I seek to please one single human being, I can never be the servant of Christ.

And the reason why many people today cannot be the servant of Christ is because they are seeking to please men. Do you know that you cannot please God if you seek to please men? You've got to make a choice.

And I believe some of you got to make a choice before you get up from that seat this morning. Whom are you going to please? God or men? Like Elijah stood in the Mount Carmel and told the Israelites, if Baal is God's servant, if Jehovah is God's servant.

And I say to you, if those people you've grown up with in your system are the ones you want to please, go right ahead and serve them. Please them for the rest of your life. If Jesus Christ is Lord, follow Him and serve Him.

Make your choice. And don't be a wishy-washy compromiser sitting this side, sitting that side, putting your foot in two boats, trying to go here and there. A man-pleaser, a compromiser. God has no time for such people anymore.

He's doing a quick work and He's going to throw all these people into the river. Decide once and for all whether you want to follow Jesus or you want to please men. You cannot do both anymore. God brings you to the moment of decision.

He allows you many, many, many times. But once He brings you to the moment of decision, and then you have to decide. And you decide forever which way you want to go. And Paul had those three days and you had three days here.

And in these three days, God brought you to the place of decision. Just like He took Abraham through those three days, He took Paul through those three days. You don't need more than three days. You don't need six months to make a decision.

It's only the compromisers who need that. You got three days. God's given you enough time and you have to make a decision today whether you're going to follow Jesus or you're going to follow men. Whether you're going to please God or whether you're going to please men.

Whether you're going to live for the things that are eternal or the empty things of this world. You got to make a decision right now. Paul made that decision. And he says, I counted all rubbish. What did I give up?

I gave up rubbish. What did I get? I got the wealth of heaven. I got Christ. He says, it's all garbage. And now he says, verse 9, I want to be found for the rest of my life in Christ. Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law.

That means two things. Not having a righteousness of my own which is derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. There is a righteousness of the law and there's a righteousness of God.