The Glory of God Is His Goodness — Zac Poonen

The Foundation of the Christian Life

I want to turn to a verse in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 4. You know, I believe that what you've often heard me say that the reason why a crack comes on the fourth floor of a building is because the foundation is faulty.

There's nothing wrong with the wall on the fourth floor. The fourth floor wall is okay. The foundation is sinking. And that's why you get a crack in the fourth floor. And you become a believer for 4 years or 10 years and a crack comes in your life.

Fault is in the foundation that when you started your Christian life, there was something not properly established. I am absolutely convinced about that. Many of you young people, before you end this day, you must get a very good foundation concerning the gospel.

There's so many wrong understandings of the gospel. You know, Paul says, maybe I should show you that verse first in chapter 11, 2nd Corinthians 11. It says here, in the middle of that verse, let's read the whole verse.

11 verse 4, 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 4. If someone comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached. In other words, they talk about Jesus, but it is not the Jesus revealed in the Bible. It's some other Jesus.

You know, supposing somebody says, Jesus said, I have come to call the righteous and not sinners. Doesn't that sound pretty good? But it is another Jesus. Right or wrong? Did you get what I said? Or do you get fooled?

Jesus said, I have come to call the righteous and not sinners. Boy, that's the church I want to go to, you say. Because they believe in righteousness. It's another Jesus. He came to call sinners, not the righteous.

Not the self-righteous, that's what I mean. So, there are many ways in which another Jesus, another Jesus talks to you always about material prosperity. How you can make money and how you can get a better car.

And how you can get a better house. Where do you read all that in the Gospels? Jesus tells you, the real Jesus tells you how you can be holy. Not how you can make more money. Not how you can be a millionaire on earth, but how you can have treasure in heaven.

Discerning the Holy Spirit and the True Gospel

Another Jesus. Or another spirit, a different spirit. You know, I've heard people say this. I've actually read it. Oh brother, the Holy Spirit came upon me and threw me on to the other end of the room and I couldn't speak in my mother tongue for three days.

I said, that's definitely not the Holy Spirit. Sure. I don't know what spirit it is, but it's not the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit doesn't do that. The Holy Spirit leaves you in complete control of yourself.

Where He doesn't pick me up and throw me to the other end of the room if I don't want to. I walk there, to the other end of the room if I want to. But the evil spirits do things like that. I've seen people possessed with evil spirits.

They have no control over what they are saying. And when a person doesn't have control over what he is saying, even if he is speaking in tongues, that's an evil spirit. 100 Without a doubt. The mark of the Holy Spirit is, you have complete control over yourself.

It's just like, if the Holy Spirit gifts me to teach the Word, I don't get up here and say, I don't have any control over myself. I have complete control over myself. I know when to stop, what to say.

But it's a gift of the Holy Spirit still. So, another spirit is a spirit that takes away control from you. Don't think everything miraculous is from God. The devil can do a lot of miraculous things. I've encountered people who've faced those type of things in their homes.

Miraculous things. But it's always hurtful. And then, the third thing it says is, you receive a different gospel which you have not accepted. That's the third thing. A different gospel, which sounds like good news.

But it's not good news. For example, supposing you You know that verse in Revelation 23, which says The strictness of God leads you to repentance. Do you find it? Revelation 23 verse 1. The strictness of God leads you to repentance.

Do you find it? Did you all find it? Revelation 23 verse 1. Romans 2 verse 4 The kindness of God leads you to repentance. That's the real verse. Revelation 23 is the longest chapter in the Bible. Longer than Psalm 119.

So many verses in 2000 years. People have made so many verses. Revelation 23 is what produces legalists. What produces people into bondage. It is another gospel. Stop with Revelation 22 verse 21 Don't go beyond that.

There is no verse 22 also. And you will get the real gospel. There are so many things. So I want to show you a verse in 2 Corinthians 4. That's why I tell you young people, you must study the Bible. One of the greatest griefs of my heart is young people who don't study the Bible.

And it's people who don't study the Bible who don't know what the real Jesus is like. What are the manifestations of the Holy Spirit? And what is the real gospel? If you knew the Bible, you could not be deceived by another Jesus.

Or another spirit or a different gospel. Impossible. The devil fools people who don't know the scriptures. God has given us His word. 2 Corinthians 4, it says here, we are talking about light. That's our theme today.

The Light of the Knowledge of Christ

Verse 6. For God who said, light shall shine out of darkness. Or let there be light. Where did God say that? Do you remember? Genesis chapter 1. One of the first things written in the Bible is God said, let there be light.

It is the first spoken word of God mentioned in the Bible. Remember this. The first spoken word mentioned in the Bible is, let there be light. So what is God saying to you? The same God who said, let light shine out of darkness.

Is the one who has shone in our hearts where there was darkness to give this light. God said to you one day, let there be light. And light came into your heart. Which light? The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

That is the light. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. So if you want to see light and you look somewhere other than the face of Jesus Christ you will not get it. It was there in your Bible for so long but sometimes we have people say, I read this verse and I got light.

Did you? You mean you got a clever idea in your head? That is not light. A lot of people read some verse and they get a clever idea in their head and they say, I got some light from this verse. No, you did not.

You got a theory. You got a doctrine. You got a clever thought and you can get up in the meeting and say that clever thought and bring people into bondage. The light can only be seen. Please remember this all your life.

I am telling you from years of failure. I have learned some lessons from the stupid things I did and preached. There are tapes of mine in previous years that I do not permit anybody to distribute. Did you know that?

Not because there is any wrong doctrine in it. There is no wrong doctrine. But it was truth presented, absolute truth presented not in a Christ like way. And that is why I do not want it circulated. It is truth.

If people only listen to the intellectual part of it, it is all correct doctrine. I believe we have always preached right doctrine but the way we have presented it in the early years even in CFC I acknowledge was not right.

That is what brought a lot of people into bondage. We are not preaching any different truth today. We are not lowering God's standards one bit but we are proclaiming the same thing in a different spirit.

Spirit of Christ. We were trying to anyway. So when you read a verse and you say you got light. You know in the Old Testament they did not see the face of Christ. I hope you know that. Jesus came to earth at the end of the old covenant period.

The only light they could have was God's word. Psalm 119 verse 105 says Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. And 130 verse says the entrance of your word gives light. That is right. So if you get light only through the word you are in the Old Testament.

And you will end up like those Old Testament Pharisees who are always getting light. And I have seen lots of New Testament Pharisees who are always getting light on some verse. And they are some of the biggest Pharisees I have met on the face of the earth.

I will tell you what you should do. When you read a scripture and you think Ah! I got some light. Just hang on. Look into the face of Christ with that verse. And then you will see what the light really is.

Because we are supposed to see the glory of Jesus in the scripture. See chapter 3 verse 18. We see in a mirror that is the word of God. James chapter 1 says the mirror is God's word. I look into the mirror and I don't get the clever thought.

If you get a clever thought from scripture that is not what scripture is given for. You look in the mirror and you see the glory of Jesus there. That is what it says in verse 18. You look in the scripture and you see the glory of Jesus then you are changed into that same image.

But if you don't see the glory of Jesus in that verse you will just become a clever legalistic preacher. Preaching a lot of things saying I got light, I got light, I got light and you will be pretty proud of all that light you got which itself shows that you never saw the face of Christ.

No man can see the face of Christ and be proud. It is impossible. Whenever I see a proud believer I know he has not seen the face of Christ. I don't care if he has got light on every doctrine in scripture.

Whenever I see a legalistic Christian I know he has not seen the face of Christ. He studied the Bible but he hasn't seen the face of Jesus. And nowadays I find there is a lot of preaching which is actually psychology.

People have studied psychology and they know what people need and they take scripture and mix it up with that psychology and they present it and people are attracted to it and they will pay a lot of money for it.

It is not the face of Christ. The proof of it is people are not becoming more holy. People are not becoming more Christ like. They are not overcoming sin in their life. The glory of God, the light is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said learn from me. Jesus said learn from me, not from the Bible. In the Old Testament it said look into the law. People looked into the law. Now we look into the face of Jesus. See what it says here.

Chapter 3 verse 13 We are not like Moses. Isn't that good to say that? Moses was such a great man of God. But he said we are not like Moses who had to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel might not look at the end of that which was fading away.

That is the old covenant was fading away. Moses symbolized the old covenant. For their minds were hardened until this very day. Listen to this. Till today. That is written 30 years after Pentecost and we can say 2 ,000 years after Pentecost till this very day.

2 ,000 years later. Paul, you wrote that in 60 AD. I tell you Paul, 2080, till this day also the reading of the old covenant that same veil is not there. It's there and you can't understand it. You know if you put a handkerchief over the Bible and try to read the Bible, what can you see?

Nothing. Maybe you can faintly see a few letters there. But when you remove the handkerchief, say hey! And it says here when it's turned to Christ, that's taken away. It's removed in Christ. But to this day, again he says, to this day, verse 15 in 60 AD, and I say Paul, not only 60 AD, 2080, whenever people read the scriptures we can say not only Moses, even the Bible, New Testament a veil lies over their heart.

A veil lies over their heart. Why? Because they are not using their heart, they are using their head. They study the scriptures with their head. You may never go to a Bible school, but you study with your head.

And you say, I got light. You didn't get light. You just got a clever thought. You thought it was light. It's not light. You got some clever ideas there. You got a new illustration. No. But when a man turns to the Lord, to Jesus from, you read that, you saw something and you turn to the face of Jesus, then the veil is taken away, you get light.

And you see that Jesus is so different. You know what should be the greatest longing of your life? To see the face of Jesus in scripture. Because then you'll be transformed into that likeness. Wherever you turn, you say, Lord, this is your glory.

The Glory of God as His Goodness

So that is the glory of God that we have to see. The glory of God is not something terrifying. You know, in the Old Testament, let me show you this verse in Exodus. It says in chapter 33, Moses prayed in verse 18, O God, show me your glory.

What a prayer to pray. What a prayer to pray, O God. When it says about Moses in Exodus, I mean 2 Corinthians 3, it starts symbolizing the old covenant. But the real man Moses was, I believe, a new covenant man living in Old Testament times.

There are few people like that. Like Proverbs is a new covenant book in the Old Testament. Moses was a new covenant man living in Old Testament times. Enoch walked with God. He was a new covenant man living in Old Testament times.

Just like there are hundreds of old covenant people living today in New Testament times. There were a few new covenant people who lived in Old Testament times. Imagine this passion. He has already seen God writing scripture and things like that.

But he says, Lord, that is not what I want to see. I want to see your glory. And God said, OK. You want to see my glory? Verse 19. I will make my goodness pass before you. And I will be gracious to whom I'll be gracious and I'll show compassion to whom I'll have compassion.

So the glory of God is his goodness. Please don't forget that. Exodus 33, verse 18 and 19. When Moses prayed, Lord, show me your glory. The Lord said, OK. I'll show you my goodness because that is my glory.

So when you tell people, Brother, have you seen the glory of God? Paraphrase it. Have you seen the goodness of God? But that's not what people mean when they say that. And that's not what people expect others to see.

The church must be a place where the glory of God is seen. That means the goodness of God must be seen in the church. And when it says, we are changed. Now come back to 2nd Corinthians 3, verse 18. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory.

You are changed into the same image of Christ. Can you paraphrase it for me? From goodness to higher degree of goodness. How should it be tomorrow? Still more? That is the path of the righteous. How many of you know Acts 10, 38?

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with power and he went about doing good. OK, we can't follow Jesus in 101 areas. Can we follow him in doing good to other people? Sure. But we have to be gripped with it in our hearts first.

God is a good God. And that's why we sing that song. Something good is gonna happen to me. Something good is in store for you today. God has got pleasant surprises waiting for you around the corner. Have you seen this sometimes when you I have seen this sometimes on Davis Road some places where there is a blind corner where you can't see any traffic coming from the other side and where the police know that people tend to cut corners as you turn the corner there is a surprise waiting for you.

You know what the surprise is? You see a police motorbike and a sub-inspector and a policeman who says come here please because you cut the corner. God also waits around the corner not to catch us but to bless us.

He has got pleasant surprises for us which we didn't expect. There is that lovely verse in Zephaniah 3 .17. You know Zephaniah where it is? Psalms, Proverbs, Zephaniah. Got it? Where is Zephaniah? Towards the end of the Old Testament just before Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.

It is the fourth book from the end. Zephaniah chapter 3. How many of you believe you are going to meet Zephaniah in heaven? Yes? He will ask you, did you read my book? What will you say? You write a book?

He says, man I wrote only three pages and you didn't read it. Please read it. You are going to meet a lot of other people. Zephaniah 3 .17. In the middle of that it says, the Lord will exalt over you with joy and he will be quiet in his love.

And some translations read it like this. He is silently, quiet means silent. He is silently planning for you in love. That's the meaning of that verse. It's a lovely paraphrase. God is silently planning for you in love.

He's got pleasant surprises for you around the corner. He doesn't talk about it, suddenly you get a surprise. I tell you, when I look back over the 45 years of my being a Christian Oh, the number of surprises God has had for me.

Things I didn't expect. Didn't deserve. Look at the surprise he had for many of you. Brought you into a church. Good brothers and sisters. Some of us who have grown up in the church and your parents were in the church before you were born you just don't know what you got.

You just don't know what it is like in a lot of Christendom today. We're not claiming to be better, I'm just saying you're very fortunate to hear the things you hear to have the opportunity I'm not saying you'll be more spiritual than others, but you have the opportunity to grow quite a lot if you appreciate what you receive.

Pleasant surprises God has for us. Pleasant surprises. He's silently planning for you in love. So the glory of God is His goodness and it is in His goodness because of His tremendous goodness for you that glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

He says, let there be light in this darkness we don't have to be afraid of that light. Light in the scripture is the best possible thing for us to have. I mean, here in Bangalore when suddenly the power goes off without a warning we really learn to appreciate light.

You immediately go for a torch. Where's the torch? Why are you so eager to get light? Isn't light a good thing? It's the darkness we don't want. We come into an empty house at night and the first thing you do is put on the light.

Well that's the first thing God did in Genesis 1 too and that's the first thing God wants to do in our heart when He comes and then He puts on more lights. You go into another room and you put on the light there and you go to another room and you put on the light there.

That's exactly what God wants to do in our heart. He's doing exactly the same thing which you were doing in your life and if there's a snake crawling over there, it's a good thing you saw it and if there's a cockroach or a lizard on your bed well you'll be thankful for the light, I'll tell you that or a frog perhaps.

Light is a very good thing. Don't ever be afraid of the light. It has the same good purpose that physical light does. Into every corner of my heart I want to get rid of all the frogs and the snakes and I don't want them in my heart.

You know little children they're not afraid of snakes. Did you know that? A one year old child if it sees a cobra it'll leave its toy and go after this crawling toy catch it till it dies and when we play around with sin, any sin it doesn't show us we're evil, perhaps it doesn't show you're evil you may not be like Hitler, your flesh is like Hitler's but you may be born again but you're a baby you're a baby.

You think that that sin is a little toy to play around with. I'm not saying you're dead. I don't believe you're dead, I believe most of you here are born again but when you play around with snakes you're like a one year old.

What does the father do when he sees that one year old playing with snakes? He kills the snake and the baby begins to cry, you killed my toy and the father also hopes that that child will grow up to itself avoid the snakes.

That's exactly what our heavenly father wishes for us that we grow up to realize that some of these things you're playing around with are not good for you my son, my daughter. I want you to grow up. Is it possible for a twenty year old person to also think that these snakes are toys?

What do you say? Tell me. There's no catch in this, it's a very simple question. Yes or no? Have you seen some unfortunate people who are retarded mentally retarded. You can't use the word retarded in places like western countries you have to say challenged, it's a big dignified word but challenged or retarded, they're still retarded.

Whatever you may say they're not able to understand. We feel sorry for them. They use that word challenged because they want to treat that human being with dignity. It's a good thing to treat blind people with dignity and retarded people with dignity and not make them feel inferior.

So there's a very good reason why they use such words like blind person is visually challenged. I'm a poor man. So when we look at a person who is spiritually challenged that's not a compliment by the way I said brother you are a spiritually challenged brother.

That means you should be moving on. I mean with the mentally and the visually and the optically and the audibly challenged people we feel sorry for them. But spiritually there's no need for any of you any of us to remain challenged or retarded.

We have to say Lord this is not where I should be after 20 years. I should know that cobras are dangerous. I'm not a one year old to think that a cobra is a toy. I want to ask you my brothers and sisters won't you feel terribly sad if one of your children was not recognizing a cobra is a bad thing.

Boy any father will be delighted when his children realize that cobras are bad. What about mud? Mud is not as bad as a cobra. But children will put stones and all types of things in their mouth. They are not evil nuts and bolts and all types of things they eat and they drink anything they find.

Do you want children to always be like that? No, they are not evil. And I don't believe many of you are evil. No, I don't believe that. I believe you are very sincere. Think of a healthy, robust, 5 kg child born and he eats mud.

Healthy, robust, no sickness. But he'll get sick if he keeps on eating mud. There's no doubt about that. You know you can be thoroughly born again. And you don't realize that mud is not good for your system.

But you are a baby, ok? It happens when we are small but we should be growing up from there to see that certain things are not good for me. And that's why all of you don't eat mud, I hope not. And you avoid snakes because you know they are harmful.

You grew up in the same way spiritually, when God says avoid sin, it's not because he hates us. He wants to save you from things that can destroy you things that can give you spiritual stomach aches. You know if you eat a lot of mud, that's what happens.

Nuts and bolts you eat, they don't get digested. And a lot of things in the world. You can spend your time swallowing them. It's gonna give you a lot of problems in your Christian life. Is that because God is light?

Yes, because he is love. He is so intensely full of love for you. He wants you to recognize, my son, my daughter that is a cobra. Internet pornography is a cobra. When will you learn it? All those filthy pornographic books.

They are cobras. Nice toy, nice pictures. The cobras look pretty attractive. What can a father do if his child is stubborn? See, God doesn't treat us like little children. It says in Galatians 4 that in the Old Testament, God treated them like little children.

In the New Testament, he treats us like grown up sons. Do you know that that's one difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? The Old Covenant is you are treated like little children. Don't do this, don't do that.

Do this, do this, do this. The Old Covenant is like that little children are like that. We have to tell them so many things. God treats them like little children. Now you come to the New Covenant, he treats us like adults.

And he says, son, my daughter I'm not going to control you by saying, don't do this, don't do that. Don't go here, don't go there. I mean, legalistic preachers will say all that there are things which are not good for you, my son, my daughter avoid it.

There are videotapes that are cobras. There are television programs that are cobras. Who will know it? Those who are grown up those who are like babies say, ah, dad there is nothing wrong with that. And the father in heaven says, ok, try it out.

Get stung, stung, stung, stung. God's mercy we still don't die one day you can die vipers, cobras, rattlesnakes all types of things nowadays on videotapes and television. I tell you, if you are not careful, I'm not saying all of it.

No, there are some cats and dogs too. You know, you can have as pets harmless but don't forget to separate between the cats and the cobras. You got to be careful, it's out of love. God is light, there is no darkness in him.

He loves you so much, he wants you to grow up healthy and strong the way you were born, good healthy 5 pound baby born again, 5 kilo baby born again. Now God says, I want you to grow up strong. I want you to grow up my son to be to share in my business, I want you to be a business partner with me.

Think of that, you young brothers and sisters. You know, you sisters, you would have been hopeless if you lived under the old covenant. No, no ministry, nothing. You know, when they make the genealogies, they don't even mention your name.

Do you know that? Have you noticed that? There are two genealogies of Jesus, one is Matthew chapter 1 which is the genealogy of Joseph and Luke chapter 3, which is the genealogy of Mary. You know that because in one case it comes through David's son Solomon in Matthew chapter 1.

In the other case it comes through David's son, another son of David's, Nathan. So through Solomon came Joseph and through this Nathan came Mary. But Mary's name is not even mentioned. You know how it's mentioned there it comes all the way down and says, ah the one who belonged to Joseph.

That's how it ends. It's the genealogy of Mary and her name is not mentioned. Think if you got married and somebody said, ah that one who belongs to so and so you'd feel pretty insulted, right? That's how old covenant was.

You sisters should be thankful you're not living in 100 B .C that you're living in A .D. after the day of Pentecost Jesus raised woman to her proper place. He says, when I pour out my spirit, I'm not going to pour it out only on the brothers.

I'm going to pour it out only on the sisters. Do you know where that is found? Acts chapter 2 and the 120 who waited on the Lord on the day of Pentecost. Do you know there were some women there? Yes or no?

Mary the mother of Jesus was there and other women it says and the spirit was poured out on all of them. And Peter said, this is what Joel said on your sons and daughters. I'll pour out my spirit. You can be baptized in the Holy Spirit.

Sisters you could never be that in the Old Testament. It's one of the most important things to receive from God one of the gifts of God. One of the things he's silently planning for you in love. It's like a man who's built a new house and lived in darkness for ages and says, at last the electricity board has decided to give me a power connection.

Isn't that good? Especially if it's free. You don't have to give any bribe to anybody. It's all free, paid for electric connection. Whenever a person doesn't have an electric connection and he just accumulates knowledge in the Bible it's like a man who's got a washing machine computer refrigerator, deep freeze tape recorder, sound system television DVD player, only thing missing is electricity.

A lot of Christians are like that, they've got this doctrine, that doctrine. And you see one group saying, we believe in water baptism. It's like one fellow telling another fellow, I've got a refrigerator in my house.

You don't have one, of course both don't have electricity but this fellow is boasting I've got a deep freeze, you've only got a refrigerator. Both don't have electricity, what is the difference? What's the difference between one fellow who's baptized as a child and another person who's baptized as an adult if both don't have the power of the Holy Spirit it's the same thing.

I'd rather have a little tape recorder and electricity in my house than have all these gadgets and no electricity. I'd rather have one bulb in my house with electricity than have all these gadgets and no electricity.

Do you know what you need more than anything else? Electricity, God's electricity the mighty power of the Holy Spirit. Value it, there's only one you don't have to pay for it, it's already paid for but God gives it only to those who value that's what brings light.

Power connection has come, lights are burning. Then you see the face of Jesus more clearly. Yeah. I began to understand the Bible much better when I was filled with the Holy Spirit and value that, not something.

Just once you know how in India the power connection can go. The power goes, happened yesterday. It can happen. You can't say, well I'll have power the whole of today I hope so, but you can lose it now.

You're saying I got it one day, I got the power connection long ago, but there's no power right now there's a break in the wire. The fuse is blown, something happened. You blew your fuse when you were talking to your wife and so the fuse connection with God was also broken.

Same thing happened blowing your fuse when you speak to your wife it was all pleasant and loving. And suddenly something happened when that light goes we're really aware of it. The sad thing in the Christian life is you're not aware.

Sometimes light is gone and you continue on polishing the refrigerator and filling the stuff with food. It's all going to get spoiled. My brother all the knowledge that you're getting, you're putting in the fridge, stacking it away it's all going to get spoiled.

If you don't have electricity you accumulate, oh we bought some chicken in CFC today and got this and that and the other but make sure your refrigerator is working. It'll all get spoiled. Otherwise, all this knowledge that you accumulate the face of Jesus Christ, make that your passion Lord Jesus.

I want to see your face. I want to behold your beauty. I know the glory of God is there and whenever I see something in scripture I can't understand. I go to the face of Jesus and say there. I see what it really means.

Humility, Wealth, and Seeing Christ in Scripture

Take humility for example I believe humility is one of the most misunderstood things in the New Testament, not the only one. One of the most misunderstood things. Can a humble man let me ask it like this, supposing a humble man walked into the temple of God and saw people selling doves and making money in the name of God and exploiting the poor people.

How will a proud man deal with that situation. And how will a humble man deal with that situation. Supposing you have never read the Bible. Assume you have never read the Bible. You know the answer because you have read the Bible.

I tell you all of us including me would I say a humble man will go up to these fellows making money and say gentlemen this is not a good thing to do in God's house, it's not good. We should have some fear of God.