(The Missing Messages in Today's Christianity) the Cross and Our Self-Will — Zac Poonen

Legalistic Repentance and the Devil’s Counterfeit

Think about the missing messages in Christendom. Yesterday we spoke about repentance. There are some groups in Christendom that emphasize repentance. I want to mention that also. But it is emphasized in such a legalistic way that it leads people into bondage and condemnation.

Repentance, as I said yesterday, if it's really done in the proper way, is like having a shower or a bath. You shouldn't feel condemned or discouraged or gloomy at the end of it. You should feel thrilled.

It's like got rid of some dirt. It's like throwing out the stinking garbage from your kitchen. Do you feel happy about that or not? That's repentance. So a repentance that leads to gloom and self-condemnation and long face, that is the devil's counterfeit.

So everything that there is in scripture, you can be pretty sure the devil has got a counterfeit if it is a valuable thing. If it's not a valuable thing, he doesn't make a counterfeit of it. There's plenty of counterfeit tongues, speaking in tongues, and that's why I believe that tongues is useful.

I mean, that to me is the clearest proof. Anything that the devil counterfeits, there must be something genuine which is valuable. So you can be pretty sure that counterfeit repentance is also there. Do you know that the Bible says Judas repented?

It says that. But he didn't go to heaven. It's possible for you to have a repentance like Judas and go to hell. So we must be careful. Anything that is done in obedience to God will always bring joy. If it doesn't bring joy, it's a counterfeit.

Take that as a guideline. Because the Bible says in Hebrews 1 .9, God, because Jesus loved righteousness and hated iniquity, God anointed him with the oil of gladness. So if you love righteousness and obey God, you'll have more gladness than anybody else.

The true Christian who is filled with the Holy Spirit should be the happiest person in the whole world. Not just in the meetings. Meeting happiness can be a deception. It's a working up of the emotions very often.

But true joy is something that's lasting. 24 hours of the day, 365 days of the year. If you don't have that, seek for it. That's what the Bible says. Rejoice in the Lord always. It's not possible in the Old Testament times.

The Cross as the Missing Message of Christianity

So there are many things like that. We could spend a whole month talking about the messages that are missing in Christianity. But here's another thing I want to share this morning. And that is concerning the cross.

The way of the cross. You know, I believe this is one of the major things missing in Christendom today. And even a lot of people who talk about taking up the cross don't really know what it means. So I want to explain.

I don't believe I can explain every aspect of it in one session. But I want to try and explain something of what Jesus meant. When he said in Luke 9, 23, that if anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.

Every day. He never told us to read the Bible every day. He told us to pray always. But something he told us to do every day was taking up the cross. And when I was a young Christian, I went to an assembly where I never heard one message on the cross in the six years I was there.

And then I went to another group of assemblies where they used to speak about the cross, but nobody took it up. Nobody knew what it was. It was just a nice expression, taking up the cross. It's like some difficult English word which you don't know the meaning of.

And you hear it and you just don't look up the dictionary. And you think that is the meaning. That's not really the meaning. I find for many Christians, taking up the cross is like that. I want to show you a verse in John's Gospel, chapter 12.

John's Gospel, chapter 12, verse 25. Jesus said, you'll hardly ever hear a sermon on this verse, I'll tell you that. He who loves his life loses it. And he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

I challenge you to find a message on that on the Internet or in television. Very rare, almost impossible to find someone who will preach on that verse. Because people don't like to hear what Jesus said.

And I want to tell you something. Of all the statements that Jesus made, the statement that is repeated the most number of times in the four Gospels, seven times, is this statement. Are you surprised that the devil has made a lot of people ignore it completely?

Naturally. If that is the statement that Jesus made, that is repeated by the Holy Spirit seven times in the four Gospels, more than any other statement that Jesus made, you can be pretty sure the devil is going to make people ignore it.

You must be born again. Jesus never said that. It's not repeated as often. He said it, but it's not repeated as often as this verse. Haven't you heard lots of sermons on you must be born again? It's very important.

But it's only found in one chapter, in John chapter three. But this statement is found in every Gospel, in one form or the other. What does it mean to hate my life? Now, in the original Greek language in which the New Testament is written, there are different words for our physical life and our soul life.

You know, we have a physical life and we have a soul life. And I'll explain the difference between the two. Physical life is this which we understand, our physical body. It dies physically. We are buried and put in the grave.

And he's not talking about our hating our physical life. That means you don't feed your body. You don't take a bath and you don't, you neglect this physical body. He's not talking about that at all. We're not supposed to hate our physical body.

We're supposed to care for it. It's the temple of the Holy Spirit. How can he tell you to destroy the temple of the Holy Spirit? How can he tell you to hate the temple of the Holy Spirit? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

I don't have to hate my physical life. In fact, in Ephesians five, it says there's no man who has hated his own flesh, his physical flesh, nobody. It says you must love your wife like you love your own body.

Everybody loves his body. So this is not the word used here. He's talking about our soul life. And once you understand that, you understand what to take up the cross is to put that soul life to death.

To hate that soul life. And it's because I love this soul life that I get offended when somebody corrects me. I've seen numerous believers in our churches who have sat here for 20 -30 years who still get offended.

Brothers and sisters. They get offended. Why? Because they have never understood in 30 years what it means to hate their soul life. You hear about the cross. You hear about the cross. As I said, it's like hearing some English word.

You don't know the meaning of it and you assume you know it. You don't know it. And I tell you, this is the reason for the lack of spiritual progress because it's through the way of the cross that our capacity expands.

You know how a child's body grows and his mind begins to expand? In the same way, our spiritual capacity from the time we are born again must expand. It's like a little cup in the beginning where we can have a little bit of water.

And even if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, it's only a cup that's filled. God wants it to become the size of a bucket, the size of a tub, the size of a lake, the size of a river, and finally the size of many rivers that are filled.

So the fullness of the Spirit is something we got to keep on experiencing in greater and greater measure. But this capacity will increase only if you know what it is to take up the cross every day. If you know what it is to hate your soul life.

Dying to Offense, Praise, and Discouragement

If I hate my soul life, I will never get offended. No matter who says what to me or who doesn't say what. There are people who get offended if you don't shake their hands. I wonder if such people are even born again.

There are some people who get offended if you don't smile at them on a Sunday morning. You think such people are born again? They don't have a clue about Christianity. They are unconverted people with a whitewash of religion and sit in the church.

Getting, overcoming, getting offended is the kindergarten lesson. And I want to tell every one of you in the name of Jesus, if you get offended, you are still in the kindergarten. And many of you have not got out of the kindergarten, I have to say that.

I have personally seen people who get offended who have been in the church 20 -30 years. They are in the kindergarten. You know, there is a gloom about their face when you correct them or they hear something bad said about them.

They are so happy whenever somebody says something good about them. They are in the kindergarten. They love their soul life. They love to hear people praise them. You know, you love to hear people praise you.

You are in the kindergarten. You don't hate your soul life. A man who has put his soul life to death, he couldn't care less for the praise of people. And he is not offended when people criticize him. And I will tell you something.

I have been corrected in my younger days much more than any of you have been corrected in your entire life. And I decided I would die. People have called me worse names than any of you have been called.

You put all the bad names all of you got together and people have called me worse names than that. It doesn't disturb me. People have praised me more than any of you have been praised. It doesn't make a difference to me because I know their opinion is fit for the garbage bin.

I know it's only God's opinion about me that matters. So I appreciate their words of appreciation. I don't despise them. I don't try to have an artificial humility when somebody comes and thanks me or appreciates me.

I accept it fine. But I know in my heart of hearts it's God's opinion that matters. You have to give an opportunity to people, you know, to express their appreciation or give you a gift. Take it. But don't set your heart on it and begin to think you're a wonderful man because of that.

Oh no. It's because our soul life has not been hated and put to death that we have so many problems in our Christian life. And I tell you that's the reason why you so often get discouraged. That's why you get depressed.

I was like that. You know, 35 years ago I used to be so depressed, so frequently, more than most of you anyway. And I'll tell you the honest truth before God today. I am never depressed or discouraged.

Never. No matter what happens or what doesn't happen. I didn't even get discouraged when I got into court and stood there. Because I hate my soul life. I decided long ago that I can never follow Jesus if I don't hate my soul life.

It's not enough to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I have to, if I seek to, if I don't hate my soul life, it says here that I will, if you love your life, you will lose it. If I love my reputation. Why are you disturbed when your reputation has been taken away because somebody said something bad about you?

It's because you love your soul life. If it completely does not affect you that somebody is spoiling your reputation, then you hate your soul life. And God, God allows many things to happen in our life to help us to hate our soul life.

But we fight against it and we don't realize we are fighting against God. We are not humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. And so He is not able to exalt us. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you.

I want to be exalted. I don't want to be exalted to become some king or president or even be exalted in the church to get some title as some reverend or even recognized by others as some prophet. It means nothing to me.

It means absolutely zero. But I do want to be exalted by God over sin, over my self life, over Satan, over depression, gloom, discouragement, jealousy, all of that. I want to be exalted above all that.

That's what I want to be exalted over. And the Bible says God will exalt you if you humble yourself under His mighty hand. And His mighty hand is those circumstances by which He takes away my reputation.

He makes people do harm to me and speak evil to me. And I humble myself and say, God, that's not that man. That's not Judas Iscariot. That is the cup which my father has sent me. Shall I not drink it?

You say that. Follow Jesus. Don't look at people and say, He did this to me and He did that to me and He promised to do this and He didn't do this. No! Hate your soul life and say that was the cup which my father gave me to drink and I will drink it.

If you see Judas Iscariot, you'll be like Peter to take out the sword and swipe at that fellow. And you know when you put a long face at somebody who has spoken evil of you, that's like taking a sword and swiping at him.

That's the equivalent of swiping at his ear with a sword. Can you smile at the one who has spoken evil of you? I can. I honestly say I can. Because I hate my soul life. That's not a great thing. In fact, Jesus said, you've got to do it every day if you want to follow me.

The Cross in Daily Discipleship

I want to follow Jesus. Many of us sing about following Jesus, but we don't really want to follow Him. And I want to say to you, those of you, I don't believe all of you have ears to hear. I hope you have, but I don't think so because I preached in CFC for 30 years and I've discovered many people just sit there.

They remain the same, which proves to me they don't have ears to hear. But I believe some of you have ears to hear and I want to say to you who have ears to hear, if you really want to follow Jesus, you're a young person, please take this seriously.

Decide, Lord, I want to follow you and it won't be just in choruses and songs. It will be actually and I cannot follow you unless I hate my soul life every day. Every day I have an opportunity. Somebody will do something to me today or not do something which I expect him to do for me.

And I have an opportunity to either die to myself or feel sorry for myself. Oh, he didn't take care of me. Oh, he didn't speak nicely to me. I'll also have an opportunity to get puffed up when somebody says something nice to me.

Ah, I feel nice there. Those are the opportunities you'll get today and every day of your life to die. If you die, you will find eternal life, it says. I want to get eternal life. I want to keep it for life eternal.

I want to keep the soul for life eternal, not for this temporary life on this earth. Do you hear much of that preached today? Seven times in the four Gospels. I don't have time to show it to all of you.

You read about it in Matthew chapter 10, Luke chapter 9. There are a number of places where this same expression is brought in different ways. He who loses his life, that is his soul life, gives it up.

The Two Trees and Dependence on God

Now I want to go back to Genesis chapter 2 and see, you know that story of the two trees. What do those two trees symbolize? One is a life of dependence on yourself and the other is a life of dependence on God.

That's basically what those two trees symbolize. The knowledge of good and evil. Knowledge. When it comes into me, you can say what's wrong with the knowledge of good and evil. Essentially nothing wrong with the knowledge of good and evil.

Don't we want our children to know what is good and evil? That it's not good to put stones and mud into your mouth? And it's good to eat good food? Don't we know as we grow up that we need to take some exercise that's good for us?

And a little bit of education is good for us? I mean these things, what is wrong in knowing good and evil? The danger there is when I don't seek God for my knowledge of good and evil, but I seek to know myself what is good and evil.

If I want to know what television program is good and what is evil, you can either depend on your own cleverness or you can depend on God. I depend on God. Because I don't know. And I say, Lord, I want you to give me a witness in my spirit when I'm seeing something or reading a book whether you feel this is good for me.

And if I feel a witness in my spirit that that's not good, I reject it. It may look very good to another Christian. Let him do it. Let him destroy himself if he wants to. That's fine. But I'm not going to choose it.

You see, there are two levels at which you can live the Christian life. You read that in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12. Let me show that to you. In 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12, it says, All things are lawful for me, but all things are not profitable.

Here's another message. It's all related. That's missing in today's Christendom. Are you going to just choose what is lawful? Or among the hundred lawful things, are you going to choose the ten things that are profitable?

That's going to be the spiritual Christian. Let me say that again. There may be a hundred things that are righteous and proper and good to do. Out of that, only ten things may be profitable. And if all your life you choose what is profitable and not just everything lawful, you'll become a spiritual person.

But if you keep on asking this question, What is lawful? What is unlawful? In fact, a lot of young people's question-answer time, the question is, what's wrong with this? In other words, they are trying to find the borderline between what is right and wrong.

What is the borderline? It's like children who stand on a railway platform and have a competition. Who can stand closest to the edge of the platform when the train is coming by? I'm not in that competition.

I say, you can win that competition. I'm going to stay a little far away. I'm not in that competition like little children. Or little children go to the edge of a cliff. And who can stand nearest to the edge of the cliff?

Or some young people have competition in western countries where they drive cars faster than each other and say, who will turn away first? It's a game called chicken. Of course, in India we play it all the time on the roads.

But the amazing thing is we don't have as many accidents as those people who play chicken in the west. Who can turn away first? I'm not in that game. You know, what is the maximum you can do without going into sin?

I'm not interested. I want to try and find out how far away can I stay from sin? How far away can I stay from the edge of the cliff? Lawful and profitable. And all of us are living life at one of these two levels if you're born again.

Of course, if you're not born again then you go into unlawful which is another level altogether. But if you're born again and you decide that certain things are wrong, I'm never going to do it. There are a lot of things that are good.

Do you know that you can spend 24 hours a day without sin, without committing sin, in a lot of good things and never become spiritual? Because among all the hundred good things you did not choose the ten profitable things.

And the difference between you and another Christian who grew much more than you in five years is because in those five years he chose the profitable things. Consistently. He chose to spend his time and his money and his energy and his knowledge and his wisdom for that which is profitable.

Whereas you didn't do evil. You spent your time doing a whole lot of lawful things and you say, what did I do wrong? No, you never did anything wrong. But you didn't grow spiritually either. Because you didn't take up the cross.

Your soul life has got so many interests. My soul life has got so many interests. And if I don't put some of them to death, I'll never become a disciple of Jesus Christ. There are a lot of things we'd like to talk about, but I don't have time for it.

A lot of things I could spend my time with. I don't have time for it. This is how the Bible gets neglected by a lot of people. So it's not enough to just cleanse ourselves from filthiness of the flesh.

We also need to cleanse ourselves from the pollution of the spirit. You know, in the Old Testament, they could not do this. There was no question of lawful and profitable in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is cut and dry, right and wrong.

Something was right, something was wrong. But in the New Testament, after the Holy Spirit has come, he teaches us to live like Jesus. Where not only I do what is right, but like I repeat, let me repeat, out of the hundred right things, I choose to do only the ten things that are profitable, because I don't have time for everything else.

Choosing the Profitable Things

See this prayer of Moses in Psalm 90. Psalm 90, Moses said, Psalm 90 and verse 12. Beautiful prayer. It's the only psalm that Moses wrote in the book of Psalms. It says here in verse 12, teach us Lord to number our days, so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.

Or as some translations say, so that we may apply our hearts to wisdom. That means to do those things that are wisest. That is to choose the tree of life. See, the tree of knowledge of good and evil just tells me two categories.

Good, evil, that's it. The tree of knowledge of evil will not tell me among all the good things, which are the profitable things. So when you live by the tree of knowledge of good and evil, your mind only says, is this right, is it wrong?

It's right. My conscience doesn't disturb me about it, I do it. You can live like that and be a good Christian, but you'll never grow spiritually. Because you're living by the principle of right and wrong.

Good and evil. Whereas the tree of life is altogether different. There, you wait for the prompting of the Holy Spirit. And out of a hundred right things, the Holy Spirit may tell you to knock out ninety of them from your life.

Because the Holy Spirit says, listen, you've got only one life. You don't have time to do all those ninety other things. If you do it, you'll miss the will of God. I mean, you take the life of Jesus. Don't you think he could have taken a holiday to go and see Rome?

Capital city of the world. There were people giving him enough money, he could have bought a ticket and gone to Rome. What would have been wrong with it? He never asked anybody for money, people gave him money.

Why didn't he go to Rome? He wouldn't have sinned in Rome, Jesus wouldn't have sinned anywhere in the world. He said, no, I don't have time for it, because God's given me only three and a half years to complete my ministry.

And if I divert my time during those three and a half years to other things, I'll never do the will of God. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying you shouldn't have a holiday. We've got more than three and a half years.

Many of us have got 30, 40, 50 years to do God's work, and sometimes we need a holiday. In fact, Jesus once told his disciples, come apart and rest a while. We need that. What I'm saying is, in everything, the spiritual man seeks the will of God.

If he takes a holiday and he takes a vacation, it's not for fun. It's because he needs rest in his body. He needs time off. If he has some form of recreation, it's because he wants to unwind his mind so that his mind can be more alert to serve the Lord.

I do that. I don't read the Bible the whole time and pray the whole time. I need to unwind sometimes my mind so that I'm fresh and fit, just like we need to sleep. We don't have to keep awake the whole time.

So don't misunderstand me. But the point is that in everything, we seek the glory of God. It may be profitable sometimes to go and play games. I tell you, playing games together with other believers builds a lot of fellowship between people.

Sometimes better than sitting in a meeting. I've seen that. A lot of fellowship between people is built by playing games. We saw that in our recent youth camp. It's playing together that brings greater fellowship than sometimes sitting in a meeting.

So is that playing together profitable? Of course it is. So don't think profitable means that is this right-wrong understanding. Reading the Bible, that's profitable. Playing games is unprofitable. This is legalism.

That's not being led by the Holy Spirit. Do you know what they do in the New Jerusalem? Let me tell you. In the book of Zechariah, chapter 8, one of my favorite verses. In Zechariah chapter 8, it says, it's talking about the New Jerusalem in verse 4.

It says, the Lord will sit in the streets of Jerusalem and the Lord of hosts came saying, I'm jealous for Zion and I will return, verse 3, to Zion and dwell. When the Lord dwells in the midst of Jerusalem, that is when He establishes His kingdom on the earth, what are the young boys and girls going to do?

You say, fast and pray? No. Verse 5, it says, they're going to be playing. They're probably going to play cricket. And the American children will play baseball. And somebody else will play something else.

And I think Jesus will join in. Can you believe that? Or do you think He's going to call everybody to fast and pray? We've got wrong ideas about what Jesus is like. It's the Bible that says that. They're going to be playing in the streets.

So, when I say profitable, don't think always this legalistic idea that meetings, prayer, fasting, Bible reading, some of the people who emphasize that are some of the most carnal Christians I've ever met.

The Christian life is a balanced life. He created our spirit, soul and body. But there was one part of this that people could not enter into in the Old Testament. Let me show you Hebrews chapter 4. In Hebrews chapter 4, we read in verse 12.

The Division of Soul and Spirit

I want to ask you, how many of you have understood this verse? The word of God is living and sharper than a two-edged sword. That part we know. It's very sharp. But it says it pierces as far as the division of soul and spirit.

Do you know that there are some Christians who don't believe there is a division between soul and spirit? That's how blind people can be. In 1 Thessalonians 5 .23, it says man is spirit, soul and body.

There are three parts of man, just like there are three persons in God. God is a trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And man was made in God's image. And there is a trinity in man. Spirit, soul and body.

The body is this part we see. The soul is our personality, which is our mind, our feelings and our will. And the spirit is deeper than that. It's in our spirit that we have a conscience. A person can have a very alert soul and a dead spirit.

That means his conscience is dead, even though he is very brilliant in his mind. Spirit is the deepest part of man and it is dead. Most of it is dead in an unconverted person. He's got a little bit of conscience that stirs up there, a little bit of the image of God there.

But most of it is dead. And when we are born again, it is the spirit that comes alive. And the conscience becomes sensitive to sin. And God's purpose is that the spirit will become more and more alive and rule the whole body.

We're not supposed to destroy our soul. I don't believe in destroying my mind. I use my mind a lot for my regular work in the world and for studying the Bible. But my soul and my feelings don't run my life.

The trouble with people in the world is their mind runs their life. Or the trouble with many Christians is their feelings run their life. I was like that in the early days of my life when I was a Christian.

I felt nice one day, depressed another day, and my feelings ran my life. And my feelings made life miserable for other people who came in touch with me. A lot of Christians are like that. They're gloomy one day and happy another day.

Because they haven't learned to divide between soul and spirit. They haven't learned to live in the spirit. They're living in the soul. Living in the soul means living in your intellect or living by your feelings.

When you live by your feelings, you can be depressed yourself and you can depress other people. To divide, when the word of God divides between soul and spirit and I learn to live by my spirit, my spirit determines my soul, how it's going to function.

And the wonderful thing is, it even begins to control my body, that my body becomes healthier. God's will is that the spirit should rule our soul and body. A picture in the Old Testament tabernacle. If you have seen a picture of the Old Testament tabernacle, that tent, the tabernacle was a big compound, an open compound, surrounded by a white sheet.

That is a picture which everybody could see. It's a picture of the body, which everybody can see. Inside that compound was a tent, cover. And that tent had two parts, which is a picture of soul and spirit.

And the first part is a picture of the soul and the second part, called the most holy place, was a picture of the spirit. And that was the tabernacle of God, a God's dwelling place, symbolized body, soul and spirit.

And that spirit was the most holy place, in front of which there was a thick curtain. And that thick curtain is a picture of your will, your strong will, which refuses to be torn. You see that in a little child, how stubborn it can be.

It's a strong will. And that's why one of the most important things we need to do with little children is to break their stubborn will. If you want them to grow to be spiritual, when they are young. Have you heard the story of that little two-year-old boy, who his father told him, sit down.

He said, no, I'm not going to sit down. Father said, sit down. Nope. So father took the stick and said, sit down. He sat down and he said, daddy, but I'm still standing up inside. Now the question is, how do you make the child inside to sit down?

That's difficult. You can use a stick and make the outside child sit down, but the inside one is still standing up, defiant. And one day when he's 18, 19 years old, he won't even sit down on the outside.

He'll just defy you to your face and say, mind your own business. That will is like that thick curtain. And nobody understood it in the Old Testament. Beyond that lay the most holy place where God dwells, teaching us that if this will is not broken, you will never get into fellowship with God.

And I want to say to all of you who've got a strong, stubborn will, whether your husband or wife or anybody, if you don't let God break that will, you will never enter the most holy place. You will never have fellowship with God.

You'll have religion, like a lot of Christians have. But fellowship with God, which is the most wonderful experience that any human being can have. Do you know what is the result of fellowship with God?

Fellowship with God Through Surrendered Will

The Bible says in Psalm 16, 11, in His presence there is fullness of joy. You know where fullness of joy is? It is not in sex. It's not in money. It's not even in praise and worship meetings. It is in His presence.

And you can have that joy even if you can't sing for nuts. If you can't sing two lines properly. Makes no difference. If this veil is rent, you know what happened when Jesus died? The veil was rent from top to bottom, symbolizing what?

Symbolizing that for 33 years He allowed the Father to break His will as a man. And to say, never my will, Father. Never my will. Only Your will. The veil was rent. And the way into the Father. That's why Jesus enjoyed fellowship with the Father all the time.

You think that you can have fellowship with the Father just by a nice time of praise and worship. And you know it doesn't last. You go out of that meeting and in the afternoon you're back to your old self.