The New Covenant Life - Part 2 — Sandeep Poonen

The New Covenant Goal: Transformation into Christlikeness

I spoke last week about the New Covenant life, the life that we live according to the New Covenant. The Old Covenant has been broken, it's been torn apart and we talked, we can quickly go through the slides that we spoke from last week that the New Covenant, the goal is to be transformed to be just like Jesus.

That's our goal, I hope we remind ourselves of that often. That is our goal today, to be just like Jesus. And in what do we be just like Jesus? The next slide. In His purity. We are to be pure as He is pure.

Faith in God’s Power to Accomplish the Impossible

And how will this ever be that we will go 12 ,000, 10 ,000 days, 290 ,000 hours without sinning even once? How can it ever be that a virgin can have a baby? How can Christ be born in the first place? How can Christ be born in us?

Is the next slide. God will do it. God will do it. God is the one who brings a child to a 90-year-old Sarah after her womb is dead. God is the one who will bring the life of Christ into the womb of Mary even though she's a virgin.

God is the one who will birth this impossible life in us. He will do it. What do we need to do? We need to have faith, faith that God can do the impossible. Not that God can get us out of the jams in life that we put ourselves into.

That's trivial compared to the exchange God says, I can give you the life of Christ. He will make a roadway in the wilderness. He will not take you out of the wilderness. He will make a roadway in the wilderness.

He won't take you out of the desert. He'll give you rivers in the desert. The other word that is also extremely critical for us is this word called grace. That's the next one. It's a word that is used so commonly in Christendom but we know so little about it and we live with so little about it.

Grace as the Life Given Through Jesus Christ

The first thing about grace is that it is the life of Jesus. Let's start with John chapter 1 verse 17. I just want to whet your appetite for this word grace. There's a lot of meditation you can do on this word grace.

John chapter 1 verse 17, the law was given through Moses, grace and truth comes through Jesus Christ. The life of Jesus gives grace. And so you can have a very subtle difference between one who seeks to observe all the law but he'll always be part of the heritage of Moses and you can have a person who's a very good Christian, outwardly looking, seems to follow all the letter of the law but he's just of the tree of Moses.

The only way to get the life of Jesus is by God's grace to be on us. The separation is not between sin and grace, it is between the law and grace. So it is not by trying and trying and trying and trying, even though trying to strive to love the Lord with all our heart is important but it is not through doing that that we can have the life of Christ.

Even after trying all we can, we cannot have the life of Christ if God doesn't pour his grace upon us. It says, the other verse that I have in there, Luke chapter 2 verse 40, that Jesus grew in wisdom, Luke chapter 2 verse 40, and the grace of God was upon him.

What a beautiful compliment to give to somebody is the grace of God is upon such a person. This is a label we must covet. This is a reflection from God that God should be able to state about our lives, the grace of God is upon him.

The grace of God is upon him at work, the grace of God is upon him at home, the grace of God is upon him in the church. There's a grace upon him. No amount of Bible study, no amount of human zeal, no amount of hours in prayer can be a substitute for the grace of God being upon us.

But we have to recognize that this is what we need. It is not through the law, it is not through years and years of submitting to the law or any kind of rules that we can find in this Bible which is the law of God is what we're talking about.

We need to desire for grace most deeply. The next thing about grace is it is our identity, that's the next one. In Romans chapter 5, we talked about faith, but it says in Romans chapter 5 verse 1, having being justified by faith.

We come to a right standing before God because of faith, and because we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God. There's no more enmity between God and us. We have peace. And because of this, through whom, also verse 2, we have obtained our introduction by faith into this new identity, into this new world, into this new atmosphere, into this new environment called grace.

And it is in this grace that we stand. This is this grace that must define us. This must be the definition of who we are. We are people under grace. The grace of God is over us. The grace of God is something we long for, we seek for, Lord Jesus, I need your grace.

You see almost all the books of Paul. He almost always starts with, grace be to you. I want to give you this one thing, grace and peace, those are the two words he kept giving. Grace, grace, grace. And very little we think about how important it is for us to have grace.

Everything we are is because of grace. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10, one of my most special verses that I often try to put in front of me, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10. It is such a beautiful to me synopsis of the Christian life, 1 Corinthians 15, verse 10.

But by the grace of God I am. Not I think, therefore I am, that's what the world will tell you, or I am rich, therefore I am, but by the grace of God I am what I am. That's my identity, that's what defines me, is the grace of God.

Not my job status, not my financial status, not the status of my children. The grace of God that is over my life defines who I am. And His grace towards me did not prove in vain because I laboured, here's the part I do.

It's not that we just sit around and say, Lord I'm under your grace, I just sit around and be happy. No, I laboured even more than all of them, there's such a deep intensity in Paul's life, yet he ends it with, yet not I, but the grace of God.

There's that balance of, Lord my identity is grace, I'm going to labour with all of my heart, but after all my labouring I realise it's not me, but it's the grace of God. And we get lost in many different sub-versions or counterfeits of that grace, where we think grace is something where we don't have to do anything, we just have to relax and do nothing.

1 Corinthians 15 .10 tells me he laboured more than everybody else. Where's that? In this grace that I embrace, it must be there. But my grace is who defines me, who I am, and after all the work that I do, it is still the grace of God that makes me who I am.

This grace must be something that overshadows all of us. This is what it means to have the life of Jesus, who laboured more than all of us, but the grace of God was upon him. That is why he could say, I do nothing on my own, I just need to be under his grace.

I laboured really hard, sometimes I'll spend all night in prayer as he did on one occasion. Dear brothers and sisters, this is the tree we must come into. Romans chapter 5, which I talked about, which says he brings us into this grace.

Leaving Adam’s Tree for the Tree of Christ

The picture that Paul uses is a picture of a tree, and he says there are two trees you can be part of. There's the tree of Adam, and through the tree of Adam is the tree of Moses, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and then there's the tree of Christ.

Those are your only two options, and God wants to pull you out of the tree of Adam, following the law, and he wants to pull you and plant you into the tree of Christ. That is why we must reject any preacher.

You can tell a preacher is a false prophet if he in any way tries to tell you that there is a generational curse. There are many, many charismatics especially, who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit, who will talk about generational curses.

If they say that, they are making a huge error, and we must run far away from them. We can't tolerate them because they say a lot of good things, even if they claim all kinds of healings or great evangelism and all things, I run away from such people, because they're making a very serious error of dismantling grace.

And God wants to take us out of the tree of Adam and put us in the tree of Jesus Christ. We must grab a hold of this grace that says, God, because I am in this grace, I'm no longer in the tree of Adam.

My identity is very different. I'm not going to be defined by what my father did, or what my mother did, or what my personality is, or what my financial status is, or anything. I'm in you. And it is through this that we can understand the definition of grace, the favorite definition of grace that I like, God's riches at Christ's expense.

It spells out the word grace, but it's my favorite definition of grace because it tells me how I got it, but it tells me my status. It's that I have access to all of God's riches. And I also like the fact that when I typed the word riches in my phone, it auto-corrected to God's richest.

It was trying to tell me, not riches, you want me to say richest, and once in a while it auto-correct gets it right. Because I was thinking of that and I was thinking, Lord, can I get to the point where as I live this life, I walk around as if I am the richest man on this earth?

Does anybody here walk around this life saying, knowing, I am the richest man on this earth? Yes, I think Jesus did. He didn't look at his bank account, and that's what the world will tell you to look.

He didn't look at his pedigree, he didn't look at his degrees. He looked at grace. This is the, what a wonderful life we can live in. Imagine, dear brothers and sisters, imagine if we can live life knowing that we are the most richest of all people.

The Riches of Grace and the Believer’s Identity

What is the limit of God's riches? What is the limit to when God says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3, He has blessed you with every spiritual blessing. What is the number I associate with the spiritual blessings God has blessed me with in Christ?

Is it a million? Is it a billion? If I can bring that into me, if I can really meditate of this word grace and say, God, I am your richest, who's God's richest son? Who's God's richest daughter? Is it Jesus, and then Paul, and then Peter, and 250 millionth in the line is me?

Why, what a sordid distortion of grace. That's why I say you should run away, far away from all these people who put in all kinds of distortions of grace. We must recognize that grace is saying, God, I am the richest person in the universe.

I'm the happiest person in the universe because I have you, the most joyful person in the universe. And this is not supposed to come there overnight, but the grace of God must be upon us. We must long for it.

I think of it like a cloud with water, like a waterfall, a cloud of water just coming over. Everywhere God went, wherever Jesus went, the grace led him. So the shower went to the right, he went to the right, and the shower stopped and he stayed right there, but he always stayed under the grace of God.

And he walked around believing that he was the richest person in the whole universe. Even when he was being slapped, even when the crown of thorns was being put on his head, even when he had no place to sleep, he was the richest person in the universe.

This is not something that we can get to overnight, but we must be gripped with it, that this is how precious grace is, that because we have justification by faith, he has brought us, because through faith he has brought us into this grace in which we stand.

We stand under the waterfall, under the shower of grace. It is also the difference maker against sin. This is the difference maker against sin. Because you're not under law anymore, because you're under grace, because you really recognize that God has placed you into Christ and you're the richest person in the universe because of Christ, it's a completely different ball game when you're fighting against sin.

It is fighting against sin from a position of privilege. God has given us such a wonderful thing, such a wonderful thing to be seated in the heavenlies that we say no to sin. The smile of the Father's face, the pleasure and the joy of the Father is what gives us such great joy.

In your presence is fullness of joy. Lord, I get joy out of watching lustful things or letting my tongue go loose to give it to somebody else, but that is nothing compared to the joy of being with you.

This is grace and it's a completely difference maker, different maker. It'll make a difference in the way we overcome sin. It's not the gritting of the teeth, it's not the squeezing of a rag to get a few drops of water.

It is a joyful obedience out of faith because we see ourselves as the richest people. This is grace. And the last one is that grace is power, but it is made perfect in weakness. Grace is true power. If you want power in your life to overcome sin, you need grace.

Grace Perfected Through Humility and Weakness

And grace is given to weak people. Many times in the Old Testament that word humility is translated as weak, afflicted. God gives us grace, a greater grace it says in James chapter 4 verse 6, a greater grace is available to those who will become more and more humble, more and more of a nothing.

When Paul, 2 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 9 talks about this grace, he was being afflicted by a thorn in his flesh and Paul went to God and said, please take it away. And God said, no, all you need is grace.

And this is why this thorn is so important to you, because this powerful grace is perfected through weakness. That's why this thorn is so essential for you, because the grace over you is going to get perfected.

But I need to give you, I need to allow this weakness in your life so that grace, this power can be perfected. It can get greater and greater and greater. And it was, Paul said then that to prevent me from puffing myself up, to prevent me from becoming proud, this thorn was given to me to keep me humble because God says, now I can perfect this grace that I have in you.

Dear brothers and sisters, grace is so critical. Grace is one of these key words, faith is that word. Grace is so important, it's so essential. It is the atmosphere in which you must live in. It is the identity that we must have.

Lord Jesus, I want the grace that you had. Grace was upon your life and it made all the difference in your life. You always lived under grace. And so Lord, I want to cherish humility. Humility is thinking much of God, thinking that God is so amazing, so that we don't have time to think about ourselves.

You must think very highly of God and God's riches that he's given to me. When I think and remind myself and I'm surrounded myself with people who tell me about what God has given for me, not what I have, not what I do, not what I'm able to enjoy, but what God has given to me, then I have a better chance of maintaining and protecting this grace.

That is why it is so important, as we also heard, to surround ourselves with the right kind of influences, not the good influences, not the fine influences, but the influences of people who are gripped, that they are people under grace and they are people who have received such great grace from God.

Because of the grace of God, I am what I am. I labor hard more than all the rest of the apostles, Paul said, yet not me, but the grace of God. The law came through Moses, but grace came through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, if you have been tripped up or dominated by any sin, there is only one reason. It is because we don't have grace. And God gives his grace only to the humble, to those who see themselves as nothing without Christ, but because of Christ, that they are the richest people on the earth.

May God draw us towards this life. May God captivate our hearts with this life of grace, that we will desire the humility of Jesus more than anything else, that we will see it as some of those prime virtues that we need to have.

This great confidence that we have in God and this great nothingness that we see in ourselves. May God help us. As Sandeep was sharing, I was reminded of that precious verse we memorized a while ago, if you want to turn there, 2 Corinthians 9.

That picture of Jesus always being under the waterfall from the cloud, following the cloud and going wherever it was and being immersed in the grace of God reminded me of this verse in 2 Corinthians 9.

God’s Abundant Grace for Every Good Work

We should, if God did it for Jesus, he will do it for us too. That same exact picture could be ours, that the grace of God is upon us. It says in verse 8, God is able to make all grace abound to you. That cloud, picture that cloud with the waterfall coming down, all grace, all the time, so that always having all sufficiency in every circumstance, in every moment of your life, you might be overflowingly prepared, have an abundance for every single good deed.

This is our hope in the new covenant, that God is able and willing to make all grace, every single bit of it to the uttermost, abound to us so that we will always have enough for every circumstance we may have.

Not only enough, we may have an abundance, more than enough. The law of our faith is, according to your faith, be it unto you. If this is not our honest testimony, it's because we have not believed God for it.

We have to grow in the expectation of what Cindy just shared, that God has a desire to put his grace and anointing and power upon our lives every bit as fully as he did the life of Jesus. We can expect nothing less.

We should be satisfied with nothing less. I was just thinking, we want to spend some time praying together. I was thinking, I hope we cry out from that sense of the lack, that we cry out from the place of where we aren't experiencing all grace, where it's not abounding quite yet, where we're lacking some sufficiency.

Is there some circumstance where we're lacking some sufficiency? Is there some moment in which we don't have an abundance for the good, which we know we ought to do? We need to come back to the throne of grace.

Crying Out to the Throne of Grace

We can come with confidence. We can come with absolute confidence that he is willing to give us grace in our time of need, but we need to cry out for it. We need to confess our low expectations. We need to confess how little we've believed it's actually possible.

We can cry out full of confidence that he will do it. Eye has not seen, mind has not conceived of all that God has prepared for those who love him. This is what he's prepared for us. We don't want to stop short of it, so let's cry out together.

We'll take a few moments. We can pray. We want to cry out, even as we close our eyes right now, we want to cry out from a place of need, from a place of burden. We want to get rid of all ritualistic prayer, all rote, memorized prayers, all meaningless repetition.

We want to cry out in honesty and sincerity. If you feel the Lord, as you came into his presence today, going back to the first verse that we read and recited, seek the Lord while he may be found. Have you sought him today?

Have you found him in some way? If you have not, you came rich. It says that he sent the hungry filled, but he sent away the rich empty-handed. And we can judge ourselves. Even if we feel we receive nothing, we can say, Lord, I must have been rich.

Lord, help us be poor in spirit. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for speaking to us today, Lord, for showing us the wonder of the life of Jesus, this life that he lived, always under your grace, Lord.

I want it. I want to come into that life, Lord. I want to be under your grace, Lord. I want it to be a true reality that you are making all grace abound to me, Lord. I confess my unbelief, Lord. I confess how little I expected.

I pray that you would increase my faith, Lord, help my unbelief, that I might walk in the fullness of what you purchased for me on Calvary. Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful plan that you have. I pray that you would help us grasp the heights of your plan, Lord, that we would know the hope of your calling, and we would truly grab a hold of the surpassing greatness of your power to accomplish it in our lives, Lord.