(The Church and Satans Wiles) 3 - No Condemnation — Zac Poonen

Satan’s Schemes and the Church

We've been thinking about, Matthew 16, 18 basically, how to build, how to allow the Lord to build the church against which the gates of hell will not prevail. And it's important for us to know something of Satan's schemes.

I said yesterday that the Bible is a description of the numerous ways in which Satan tried to trip up God's people. He appears in the Bible in Genesis 3, and we are finished with him only in Revelation 20.

There are only four chapters in the Bible without the devil. It's all the way through. It's one way or the other. And if you read God's word, you will not be ignorant of Satan's schemes. Because basically, he tries the same old tricks on people through the years.

He studied humanity, and he knows what works. And one of the first and most important ways in which he seeks to get power over even believers is through the spirit of accusation. In Revelation chapter 12, we read of him being called the accuser of the brethren.

The world, he's called the deceiver of the world, but the accuser of the brethren. He's a deceiver and an accuser. And his accusations are especially directed at God's people. Of course, he seeks to deceive everyone, the whole world, believers and unbelievers.

He's called in Revelation 12, 9, the one who deceives the whole world. And everyone who's living in the world, he seeks to deceive. In scripture, Satan appears as a lion, a roaring lion, Peter says, seeking whom he can devour, or a dragon here in chapter 12, verse 9.

And as a serpent. It's a picture of two ways in which he has sought to oppress believers. One is by persecution. That's the dragon-lion picture. You know, frighten, put fear, persecute. And the other is the more wily, clever, crafty way, and that's as a serpent.

And if you read church history, and you see what's happening in the world today, there's both persecution and deception going on in Christendom today. Throughout the world. And if you read about what's happening in Christendom throughout the world, and in church history, you will discover, and Satan already knows that, that he succeeds more when he comes with deception than with persecution.

Persecution somehow has never succeeded in killing the church. It reduces the numbers, but it purifies the church. It's been true throughout history. Wherever there's persecution, numbers may be reduced, but the church gets purified.

And that's why people say some of the finest Christians in the world today are in China, where there's a maximum persecution. Because it costs them to be a Christian. They don't have much money. They have to fear even when they come to meet together in a house.

They have to come one by one and sing softly, et cetera, et cetera. And so following Jesus means a lot more to them. And then in other places where there's no persecution, he succeeds more with deception, with a lot of counterfeit.

Counterfeit Signs, Wonders, and Miracles

Jesus spoke about a tremendous amount of counterfeit that would be prevalent all over the world in the last days, particularly in the realm of signs and wonders and miracles. Jesus said that, that people would come and do signs, wonders, and miracles and deceive people.

The Apostle Paul says in relation to the Antichrist that his deception would be accompanied with false signs, wonders, and miracles. Now we live in a Christendom where many, many born-again Christians are gullible.

Gullible means they just seem to swallow anything. They feel that anything supernatural is from God. And that's the easiest way to be deceived, if you think that anything supernatural is from God. And some people are a little better.

And they say, well, everything supernatural is not from God. Because the devil has power. And heathen religions also have some supernatural things in it. But if it is supernatural in the name of Jesus, then it is from God.

Well, these are also people who haven't read the Bible. Because Jesus said, in the last days, he said in Matthew 7, verse 20 onwards, there would be many, not one or two, many will come to me and say to me, Lord, we prophesied in your name.

We did miracles in your name. We cast out demons in your name. You're familiar with that passage. Matthew 7, 22 and 23. And Jesus said, I will say to them, I never knew you. Have you ever thought about that?

When you come to a verse like that, you must stop and meditate on it. Is it possible that people to whom Jesus says, I never knew you. That means you and I didn't have a personal relationship. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.

There's sin in your life. It's not only that Jesus didn't know them. There was sin in their life. They were called workers of iniquity. Those are not just people who just slip up into sin once or twice.

Workers of iniquity. And yet, they could do miracles in Jesus' name. They could prophesy in Jesus' name. Prophesy means preach God's word in a way that would bless people. They could cast out demons in Jesus' name.

I wondered how many believers today would look at a person who preaches powerfully in Jesus' name, does miracles in Jesus' name, casts out demons in Jesus' name, and sit there and say, well, that still doesn't prove to me that he's a man of God.

I think there are very few believers who have that discernment. Who would say, well, I'd like to know how he lives. We have many preachers coming from rich countries into a country like India. And the main reason is because it's very easy to get a crowd to listen to you in India.

Particularly, you go into the villages, and a lot of people come together to listen. And some of these preachers from western countries, who probably only 20, 30 people listen to them in their hometown, they're delighted to come here and imagine that they've suddenly become men of God because a thousand people come to listen to them.

Well, that's because that's what happens in poor countries. And if you have money and you come there, you can round up people and you've got an agent there who organizes these things and you come on his brief visits.

I see a lot of this. And I'm speaking from the other end, and I'm not fooled by all these people who come. Because I know what happens after all these meetings are over. This is back to the same old, everybody's back to square one.

But these folks who come think they've started up a great revival. They'll go back home with all their photographs and their videotapes to show those 30 people back home, you people didn't think I was a man of God, but here I am.

And I'll show you that, how they appreciated me in India. It's all a deception that goes on. They can think there are signs and wonders and all that happening, but the test is this, what is their attitude to iniquity?

So whenever people seek to want to speak in any of our churches, I tell our elders, don't just be impressed by the fact that he can preach or he's animated in his preaching running up and down with a microphone in his hand or does something like a magic show, which he calls miracles in Jesus' name.

Don't be fooled by all that. Find out whether he's interested in holiness. What is his attitude to money? He may not want to collect money from you, but is his power, is his influence over you because of money?

Because he has a lot of money. Jesus, who made Abraham rich, made Job one of the richest people in the East, godly man, made David a very rich man, made Solomon a very rich man. The same Jesus sent out Peter and Paul with no silver and gold.

Why is that? Don't you need money to do God's work? Jesus didn't think so. He sent out his apostles as the poorest people of all, and what a work they did. And I've seen the wisdom of that. I worked for years, 30 years now, in the villages of India with poor people and we offered them no money.

And we've seen God work. And I have proved it's no longer theory for me. I say money is one of the greatest hindrances to God's work in many countries because people depend on that. You know why Jonah could travel to Tarshish on a ship?

Because he had money to buy a ticket. He'd have been blessed if he didn't have money when he went to Joppa. A lot of people in Western countries, they've got money to buy a ticket to come to India or Africa or South America.

They're not being led by God. But the trouble is 95 of Christians don't have that discernment. But I've sought to give that discernment to the elders in our church and I say see whether the man's interested in holiness.

See what is his attitude to money. Then you'll see whether he's Christ-like. And then find out what his family is like. Is he living with his first wife or divorced three, four times or even once? Is he married?

Has he got a proper marriage? Then if his children are grown up, see whether his children are walking with the Lord. I want to know that because a man can fool the whole world, but he can't fool his children.

They've seen how he lives at home. And your children are the testimony of the way you've lived at home. And I say that's important for me. And then third, first is life, then is home. And third, I say I'd like to find out what type of church he's built back home.

Is it a church which is a body? What type of co-workers does he have? I'd like to see some of his co-workers because they're also a pretty good indication of what a man is like. And I never allow anyone to come and minister in our churches without having checked up these three things.

Because we're not fooled by signs and wonders and money to have television programs and all that. And that's how we have protected our churches from deception all these 30 years. And I would recommend that to you.

We are living in a day of tremendous deception. People are impressed by film star-like personalities and all that type of stuff. The devil is a master of deception. But that's just in passing. I want to speak about the other thing mentioned here.

Satan as the Accuser

And that is accusation. He deceives the whole world, verse 9. He deceived Eve and he deceives the whole world. But when it comes to God's people, in addition to deception, he's an accuser, verse 10. He accuses the brethren.

His title is Accuser of the Brethren. And he accuses them to God day and night. And if he is bold enough to accuse us to God, you can be pretty sure that he'll accuse you to yourself. And this is a very powerful way in which the devil saps our spiritual energy, drains us, and makes us discouraged.

And when we are discouraged, it's very easy for him to knock us down. Now, I never knew that in my early Christian life. If I slipped up somewhere, I'd be so discouraged. Because I didn't want to slip up.

I wanted to live a holy life. And I slipped up. It could be in thoughts, it could be in some action, it could be in a word or something. You slipped up and you feel so bad. And as long as you remain discouraged, you're weak.

And that's exactly the condition the devil wants you in. Then he can knock you down. And I found when I look back now that he would first discourage me in order to make me sin again. And that's why we have to recognize discouragement is a weapon of Satan.

A Christian should never be discouraged. He should never be depressed. And the other thing the devil seeks to bring is condemnation. Condemnation. Condemnation. Make you condemn yourself. This has become so clear to me that I keep telling people that discouragement and self-condemnation are like no entry roads.

There's a big sign there saying no entry. God has put no entry. You can come out of there, but you can't go in. Discouragement and self-condemnation. So if you find yourself at any time discouraged or tempted to be discouraged or tempted to condemn yourself, remember God's traffic rule says no entry.

God doesn't want you to go into that. If you go into that, it's the devil inviting you in. And then you've got yourself to blame if you have a lot of problems thereafter. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Very often we expect from ourselves a perfection that even Almighty God does not expect. Let me say that again. You can expect from yourself a perfection that even Almighty God doesn't expect from you.

You may be in the first grade and the devil will show you some 10th grade stuff and say you're not able to do that. Well, obviously you're not able to do that because you're not in the 10th grade. Now a child in the first grade doesn't get discouraged because it can't do 10th grade stuff.

But believers are. They don't realize that the Christian life is a growth. And we're only expected to live according to the light we have, not according to the light somebody else has. This is one of the big mistakes that Christians make that we think that we're all in the same grade.

We're not. The Christian life is an education. When you're born again, you've just joined school. That's a kindergarten. And we progress from there and it doesn't happen overnight. Little by little by little by little.

And so when you look at another man who has gone far ahead of you, he's a good example to follow. But don't look at his life and expect to reach that overnight. I mean, that would be like you're looking at somebody who is doing a Ph .D. in science or something and you're discouraged when you're six years old that you still haven't got your Ph .D.

I mean, that's crazy. You don't find six-year-olds. The six-year-olds, I tell you, have got a lot more sense than many believers when it comes to that. They realize it'll take a few years to get their Ph .D. or even to be a graduate or even finish high school.

But very often, believers look at someone else and say, Boy, look at the way that guy lives. I can't live like that. Well, he took a few years to get there. Don't forget that. He didn't get there overnight either.

So we must never allow ourselves to be condemned by the devil, by the devil showing you somebody else and saying you're not like him. And also, we must not be fooled by the devil to judge other people by our standard.

This has been one of the greatest helps to me in my life, to discover that not all of us have equal light on sin. It's quite an amazing thing that two people can do the same thing. Now, do you believe that?

Do you understand the Scripture that two people can do the same thing, and it is sin for one person and it's not sin for the other person? Scripture says that. I mean, if a 1-year-old child needs diapers or dirties the floor when it doesn't have diapers, it's not a serious thing.

But if a 10-year-old needs diapers and dirties the floor without diapers, that's pretty serious. Well, both are doing the same thing. Both are dirtying the floor, but why is it serious in one, not serious in the other?

Why is it if a 5-year-old does not know his multiplication table, it's not serious? But if a 15-year-old doesn't know the same multiplication table, it is serious. Why is that? You need to understand this, that some things are not sin for one but are sin for another.

I'll show you a Scripture to prove that. In Romans chapter 14, Romans chapter 14 is one of the great chapters that teaches us to accept other believers who are not as strong as we are. Now, if you ask me, one of the greatest problems in Christian churches is that strong believers do not know how to accept weaker believers who don't have the same convictions on non-essential peripheral subjects.

You know, there are certain central things in the Christian life, and there are certain other things which are not central but peripheral. There are certain things which are so central that if you don't believe them, you'll never get into God's kingdom.

You'll never have a relationship with Jesus Christ or with the Father. But there are certain other things, even if you are totally wrong, you can still have a glorious entrance into God's kingdom. Do you know that?

Do we all have to have the same view on the Iraq war to decide whether to go to heaven or not? No. It's not important. There are Democrats and Republicans in heaven, whatever your conviction is. Whether you like it or not, you'll see them there.

Because it's got nothing to do with your political views. And you may think you're right, and the other guy thinks he's right. I say, it doesn't bother me. There are people who celebrate Christmas and Easter who will be in heaven.

There will be people who think the whole thing is heathenism to celebrate Christmas and Easter who will also be in heaven. There are certain things that are central. But if a person doesn't repent of his sin, he's never going to be in God's kingdom, no matter which church he belongs to and whatever he believes.

Repentance and faith are fundamental. I'm just trying to say there are certain things that are central to the Christian life, and certain other things that are not so central. You know, like there are sicknesses that can kill us, and there are other things which are not so serious.

Cancer is serious. But if you lose your hair like me, that's not serious. You can live a long life without hair. So we need to distinguish between what is something in a believer which is like cancer, and what is something in a believer which is not serious.

There are some people with six fingers. I have no hesitation in shaking hands with them. I don't check up a person's fingers before I shake hands with them. Even if he's got four fingers, I shake hands with him.

Because it's not essential to life. We need to understand that in the Christian life too. And very often we can close our heart to somebody who doesn't agree with me on some silly little thing. It's like telling a person, I won't shake hands with you because you've got only four fingers.

One finger was chopped off in some accident. Sorry, I shake hands only with people who've got five fingers. That's crazy, but that's exactly how many Christians behave. And you know who's the loser? Not the other person, you.

The Bible says in Ephesians 3, towards the end of that chapter, listen to this, it's only along with all the saints that you can know the love of God fully. Now I realize that I cannot work with all the saints.

Because first of all, there are so many millions of them. It's obvious I can't work with all of them. And secondly, working together involves a lot more agreement in many, many areas. But I can fellowship with a lot of people with whom I cannot work.

I can open my heart to them and receive from them something of Christ from them. Now in Romans 14 it says, verse 1, accept someone who's weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions.

Because he goes on to say, if God has accepted him, I mean, who are you to reject him? It says here in verse 4, to his own, verse 3, sorry, God, the last part, God has accepted him. Verse 3. I'll never forget, I'll give you a practical example.

Accepting Believers with Different Convictions

My wife and I have never worn any jewelry at any time, not even a wedding ring. We have a conviction on that, and we feel it's unnecessary, and we don't... I realize in certain places it may be necessary for someone to wear a wedding ring to show that they're married so that they don't have people chasing after them.

I mean, we don't have that serious a problem in India. I suppose nowadays things are so bad that even if you have a wedding ring, they'll still chase after you. Things have got so bad, anyway. But we have a conviction on that, from us Christians.

And so for many, many years, I would never baptize a person in our church if they wore any type of jewelry. But I remember some years ago, one sister who was really born again came to me and asked for baptism.

And she was wearing jewelry. And I said, Sister, I'm a servant of the Lord. I have to be faithful to you, and I have to tell you to read 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3 yourself. Go home and read 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Peter 3 and see what God says to you.

And we're going to have baptism next week. Come back, and we'll baptize you. So she came back a week later, and she still had the jewelry. So I said, Did you read those chapters? She said, Yes. I said, What did God say to you?

She said, I still need some more time. I said, Fine. And the Lord asked me a question as she was standing there before me. Have I accepted her? I said, Lord, as far as I know, she's repented of her sin, believed in Christ, and you've accepted her.

And there's only one question after that. How can you reject someone whom I've accepted? Are you holier than me? I was floored. I baptized her. I didn't change my conviction, but I recognized that not all of us are in the same grade.

And if I'm in the 10th grade, I must not look at someone in the 1st grade and look down on them. No. I must allow a person to grow at his own pace. Some people can grasp something very quickly. Some people take a little more time.

And very often, you know, we have sometimes Christian leaders who expect people in a church to understand everything immediately. That's the difference between a father and a teacher. I work with about 70 elders, wonderful brothers, who are in leadership in our 40 or so churches in India.

And we have frequent meetings for elders. And I keep telling them, I say, we don't want any teachers. We want fathers. We want people who are gifted as teachers, but not with the spirit of a teacher, but the spirit of a father.

Fathers Rather Than Teachers in the Church

There's a difference between a father teaching and a teacher teaching. And the difference is this. To take an example, supposing there's a boy who's not very good at math. And he sits in the class and he never seems to grasp what all the other students in the class are getting very quickly.

And he always seems to get it wrong, whether it's multiplication or division or whatever it is. And the teacher finally gets fed up with him. And says, listen, you're a big nuisance to me in the class.

Get out of this school. Go and join some other school. I don't want to see you again. I've tried to teach you that 25 times and you still haven't got it. And the poor boy is only about 7 or 8 years old and he goes home crying.

And he goes home and his dad asks him, what happened, son? He says, Dad, I just can't understand this multiplication. I try so hard, but I always seem to get it wrong. And I don't blame the teacher. He's tried a lot with me, but I've just failed.

And the dad says, never mind, son, I'll teach you. And he sits with him and tries to explain to him how to multiply, how to multiply so many numbers with so many numbers. And he gets it wrong. He tries many times.

He says, Dad, I'll never make it. No, son, you'll make it, he says. Let's go to bed. Tomorrow's another day. We'll try again. And he tries again the next day. He still hasn't got it. Dad, I told you, I'm not going to learn this.

He says, no, son, I'm not going to give up on you. You'll learn it. And one day, he learns. Because the father is one who never gives up. A teacher gives up. We have very... Paul said once in 1 Corinthians 4, for every 10 ,000 teachers, you probably find one father.

That's about the proportion. And I've seen that, and I've said to our elders, we don't want any teachers in our churches. People with the gift of teaching, but with the spirit of a father. And if you don't have a spirit of a father, I said, you're not fit to be an elder.

No, we'd rather close down a church than have people with the spirit of a teacher producing a legalistic church with a whole lot of condemnation. And I'll tell you this. There are churches in India that I have closed down.

I say, I have nothing more to do with this. I'm sorry, I'm not going to take responsibility for this. I encourage all of you to go to some other... I know that other churches are all pretty dead. But I'm not going to produce one more dead church here.

Forget it. Why? Because I haven't found any one of you who's got the spirit of a father. I'm sorry. I will not take responsibility. We're not building educational institutions. We're building families.

The church is a family. It's not a school. It's not a classroom. It's not an organization. It's a family. And teachers cannot build families. Only fathers can build families. So I say, I've sought to be a father in the church I'm in, and I only want to work with those who want to be fathers.

And I'll tell you this. Fathers can't make money out of their children. That's one mark of a father. Teachers can make a lot of money. But fathers, no. They spend and spend. And the other thing is, fathers will have to go through a tremendous amount of inconvenience for the sake of their children.

So, one who is strong in the faith, what's the mark of a person who is strong in the faith? He can accept someone who is weak. He can work with someone who takes time to understand something. Doesn't just reject him outright.

So, this has also an application in husband-wife relationships. Very often, a husband can think, well, I see that as sin. Why doesn't my wife see it as sin? That's crazy. It's because you've got different understandings.

You've got different levels of understanding. I mean, an older boy who is studying in the 8th grade won't go to his younger brother who is in the 3rd grade and say, hey, I understand geometry. Why in the world can't you understand it?

I tell you, those 8th grade students have got more wisdom than many husbands and wives who are much older. They recognize that someone in another grade may not have studied all that I've studied, may not understand all that I understand.

So, if we recognize this, there are certain things that are sin to me which may not be sin to the other person. So, when my wife does it, it is not sin. But if I do it, it's sin. Romans chapter 14. Let me show you what scripture says.

Conscience, Conviction, and Christian Liberty

Verse 22. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. That means you have a certain level of faith. Great. Keep it as your conviction before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

He says, such a person is blessed. He does something and his conscience does not condemn him in what he's doing. It's not sin. But, he who doubts, he's doing something and his conscience bothers him. And he eats.

He's eating. He's talking about eating food offered to idols. It's not from faith. And whatever is not from faith is sin. So, if you understand that, you know the subject there, he's talking about food offered to idols.

Some people say, what's an idol? An idol is just a block of wood. They put that meat in front of that block of wood. It doesn't mean a thing to me. I pray over it in the name of Jesus, I can eat it. But another fellow whose faith is weaker, he says, ooh, that's an idol.

There may be something dangerous there. There may be demons behind it and all that. I better not eat that meat. I'll be a vegetarian all my life. Because all the meat offered in those days was first offered to the idols.

And these two people were both believers and one was judging the other. But, here the point is, if your conscience convicts you, it's sin. If your conscience doesn't convict you, it's not sin. There are many, many applications of this.

There are certain people who feel that you've got to keep your house absolutely clean and tidy. I remember hearing the story of a brother who visited a sister's home and a single sister, and she kept her home absolutely spick and span and said, you know, brother, I like to keep my home absolutely tidy.

These are usually people with no children, by the way. And everything is spick and span. He said, I just wiped everything in the morning and in the afternoon I decided to wipe it all again. People have got nothing to do.

They've got plenty of time to keep the house clean. This brother said, you're absolutely right, sister. We've got to keep our house clean. Then, a little later, he visited another home where a mother struggling with her children in the house was a mess.

And she said, you know, to me, the main thing is that we live in love in the home. It's not that everything must be in the proper place. That's all very often just to seek honor from visitors who come to the home.

And this brother said, sister, you're absolutely right. It doesn't matter the condition of your home. He said two opposite things to these two people. He didn't judge this one for her conviction. He didn't judge that one for her conviction.

And yet, both were completely opposite. And he said in that article, he said, I tell you, both these sisters and I will have a glorious entry into God's kingdom. But all the people who sit and judge one or the others, they won't be anywhere there.

And I've never forgotten that. You know, these things are not the things that are going to determine whether we go into God's kingdom or not. Don't let the devil condemn you about something that somebody else can do, but you're not able to do.

I've discovered that some sisters have a tremendous ability, even if they have a number of children, they're so organized and so capable that they can keep their house tidy and some can't. Both can be equally spiritual.

It's like some women can cook first-class meals and some are not too good at cooking. You think that God's bothered about all that when coming into God's kingdom? And yet, people can feel condemned. I'll tell you this.

I've seen this in India. Some brothers and sisters have got a tremendous ability to be hospitable. They can just be hospitable to innumerable people. Anybody lands up in their home anytime, they can take care of them.

And it's amazing. I myself am amazed. And then there are others who find it so difficult even to have one or two extra people come to the home. And that person can feel condemned looking at that other family and say, boy, how hospitable they are.

And I can't manage it. And if this poor sister has got a stupid husband who condemns her even more by saying, hey, look at that family. Why can't you be like her? Boy, that makes it even worse. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.

Freedom from Condemnation and the Fatherhood of God

I want to set all of you people free before you go away home from this conference. Are you disobeying the Lord deliberately? Then you need to feel convicted and condemned. But if there's something you're not capable of doing because you're not, you don't have that gift.

Don't let the devil condemn you. He's the accuser of the brethren. He always keeps telling you, you're not good enough. I'll tell you this, even if you improve and become ten times better than what you are now, you will still hear the devil say, you're not good enough yet.

And I'll tell you about a little dream I had many years ago which delivered me many, many years ago when I used to live under this hearing this voice which I thought God was saying to me all the time, you're not good enough.

You're not good enough. You're not holy enough. And I thought it was always the Holy Spirit. And in this dream I saw myself coming back from a tent meeting somewhere and I was walking home to the place walking to the room in which I was staying and I had poured out my heart in that meeting and done the best I could as I always seek to do when I preach.

And I heard a voice behind me saying, that wasn't good enough. You could have done better. And in the dream, I was discouraged. And I said, Lord, why is it that so often when it's almost as though you're speaking face to face with me, I'm encouraged.

But whenever you speak from behind my behind me, it's always not good enough. And in the dream the Lord said to me, turn around and see who's speaking to you. And I turned around and there was a dark face that suddenly ran away.

It was the devil himself. I learned something that day I've never forgotten. That when you hear a voice which says you're not good enough, you think it is the Holy Spirit. Because you say, the devil can't possibly be telling me you're not good enough.

He can't be interested in that I should improve. He's not interested in your improving at all. He's interested in condemning you. He'll say that to you no matter how much you improve. And it's not only the devil, his agents as well.