The Two Mysteries - the Mystery of Godliness — Zac Poonen

The Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven

I want to speak to you in these two sessions about two great mysteries. If you have read the New Testament carefully, you would have come across this word mystery occurring in a number of places in the New Testament.

It's not an Old Testament word. And just by the way, those of you who are interested in serious Bible study, one of the things you could do a little homework on is find out words that occur only in the New Testament and that do not occur in the Old Testament.

It's very easy if you go through a concordance. Any word that begins with Matthew does not occur in the Old Testament. There are a number of words like that or words that are much more mentioned in the New Testament than the Old Testament.

Words like grace, faith are hardly ever found in the Old Testament. Mystery is another one of those words. And I want to show you this verse in Matthew chapter 13, where Jesus told his disciples when they asked him a question in Matthew 13, 10, why do you speak to these people in parables?

Jesus answered and said to them, to you, that is to you, disciples who are following me, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. Jesus used that word mystery and the kingdom of heaven, which we claim to belong to or want to be a part of, has, according to this verse, certain mysteries.

And if we are disciples of Jesus Christ, we are entitled to know those mysteries, according to this verse. If you're not a disciple of Jesus Christ, you will not know those mysteries. You will sit in a church and imagine yourself to be a part of God's people, but there's one thing you won't know.

You won't know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Because the Pharisees and the disciples sat in the same meeting and when Jesus spoke, the disciples could know and the Pharisees couldn't. That's what he says in this verse.

He explained things to his disciples, which he did not explain to the Pharisees. I don't know whether you've noticed that difference in the way Jesus responded to questions. I've noticed that when the disciples of Jesus asked him even the stupidest question, he always explained it to them.

But when the Pharisees asked them, he always confused them by giving them some other answer or saying, I'll ask you another question and if you can't answer that, then I won't answer you. And I find there are two types of people I've met who come and ask me questions.

One is those who are sincerely looking for the truth and I'm willing to spend hours and days with such people. And then there are others who come only to argue. And as soon as I sense that, I have to follow Jesus' method of saying, well, I'll ask you another question or something like that and don't ever get anywhere.

Because such people are not interested in knowing the truth. They are only interested in intellectual argument. They are interested in winning an argument and I am not interested in winning an argument.

I'd rather lose an argument and keep a friend than win an argument and drive him away. In any case, we don't bring people to heaven by winning arguments. I've discovered that. It's by conviction of sin that people turn to God, not by being convinced intellectually.

If I win an argument with a person, the fellow only feels defeated. He certainly is not going to respond to God if he feels defeated. So Jesus revealed certain things. You know, one of the New Testament words, another New Testament word is revelation.

Revealed. In the world, we don't use that word much. I'm not talking about the book of Revelation. I'm talking about spiritual revelation. The spirit of revelation. We use words like understand, grasp, which are intellectual words.

Know. Do you understand physics? Do you understand mathematics? It's all got to do with the mind. Can you grasp the situation in the Middle East? It's got to do with the mind. But revelation, it's got nothing to do with the mind.

It uses the mind. But it doesn't stop there. It's something of the spirit. Passes through the mind but ends up in the spirit. Whereas if I'm studying mathematics or reading the newspapers, it stops in the mind.

That's it. Doesn't go beyond that. And when I hear a word of God and it stops in the mind, it just makes me a religious person. Not a spiritual person. Not at all. There's a world of difference between religious people and spiritual people.

If you want to know the difference, it's the difference between the Pharisees and Jesus. Do you think there's some difference between the Pharisees and Jesus? Well, that's the difference between religious people and spiritual people.

They sit in the same synagogue, sing the same hymns, pray the same prayers, read the same Bible, but the difference between them is the difference between hell and heaven. It's what the Bible calls, at the end of the Bible, Babylon and Jerusalem.

Tremendous difference. Religious people and spiritual people. It's the way in the beginning of the Bible you see the difference between Cain and Abel. Both religious people, both offering to God, both sitting in the same meeting, but one went to hell and the other went to heaven.

And that happens even today. There's no guarantee that all of us sitting here, are going to enter God's kingdom. No guarantee at all. That depends whether you want to be religious or spiritual. When you're religious, you put up a front to impress people, that you're a holy person, you're a good person, etc. etc.

God doesn't care one bit for that. A spiritual person is more concerned with his heart. What God thinks of his heart, not what other people think of his appearance. And so, revelation is something that goes beyond the mind to the heart.

If I understand the truth of what I'm saying and it sticks in your mind, it's going to help you know more than mathematics or chemistry that you understood in a classroom. It's just that your subject today is not mathematics, but the Bible.

But it doesn't change you. It's information in your mind. Information the devil has in his mind, it doesn't change him. It doesn't save him from hell. And he knows the Bible better than any one of us.

And he still doesn't go to heaven. So, revelation is something that goes beyond the mind. There are secrets that the Lord has. Do you tell your secrets to everybody? None of us do. There's information that's publicly available and there's information that is secret.

And you know who you tell your secrets to, to those who are very close to you. It's the same with the Lord. The closer we get to him, the more he reveals to us. And there's no other way of knowing it.

Reverence for God and Revelation of His Covenant

So, mysteries. Let me turn you to a verse in Psalm 25. Psalm 25 we read. Here's a word similar to mysteries. The secret, verse 14, of the Lord is for those who fear him. And to them he will make known his covenant.

There is an old covenant and there is a new covenant. And let me tell you something. I have moved among all types of denominations in many, many countries. And I've discovered one thing. That among believers, I'm not talking about nominal Christians.

I'm talking about born again believers. Ninety percent of them don't have the slightest clue about the difference between the new covenant and the old covenant. Not even the slightest clue. They don't even think there's a difference.

Because it's not revealed to everybody. It says, he makes known his covenant to those who fear him. And that proves to me that 90 percent of believers do not reverence God. If they reverenced God a little more, there would be far more victory over sin in their life.

There would be a far more hatred of sin. There would be far greater purity in their lives. There wouldn't be all these questions about divorce and remarriage among believers if there were a little more reverence in their lives.

All these questions come because there's no revelation in the spirit. It's all intellectual argument. What about this verse? What about that verse? What about this situation? What about that situation?

This is all like a school classroom. All these questions disappear when you get revelation. When you reverence God, you get the answer. You understand certain things. So the secret of the Lord, the mysteries of the Lord are revealed to those who fear him.

When you reverence God, God whispers certain things to your heart, which other people sitting around you don't hear. They get it in their mind. You get it in your heart. And what you get changes your life.

The other person just got a little more information. That's all. It doesn't change him at all. He becomes a religious person and you become a spiritual person. And that's why Jesus said further on in Matthew 13, I want you to see the rest of that section.

He said in Matthew 13, verse 14, in their case, verse 13, sorry. Therefore I speak to them in parables because while seeing, they do not see. And while hearing, they do not hear. Nor do they understand.

Now, why is it they don't understand? Is it because they are not intelligent? No. They are very intelligent. But they are not humble. They don't reverence God. It's to the humble that God gives wisdom.

That also is mentioned in Psalm 25. To the humble and to those who fear God. And so they hear, but they don't understand. And this prophecy is fulfilled, he says in Matthew 13, 14. You will keep on hearing, but you won't understand.

You'll keep on seeing, but you won't perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull. And what is the reason? The reason is that earlier on when God said certain things to them, they didn't obey.

You know, one of the easiest ways to become deaf to the voice of God, it's in fact, I would say this is a guaranteed way of becoming deaf to the voice of God is just disobey what God has told you. I guarantee you'll become deaf to his voice in a little while.

God's told you something and you disobey. Okay, you become a little deaf, but you can still hear a little bit. God tells you another thing and you disobey. You probably become totally deaf. After that, you can sit in 10 ,000 meetings.

Your mind will grasp everything. Your spirit will get nothing because you become deaf. Do you know there are lots of, I'm not talking about nominal Christians, believers. God's told them something. God's told them to set something right in their life.

They don't do it. Okay. What's the punishment? He doesn't send them to hell. He just makes them deaf. They can't hear a thing. Do not want to be deaf. Let me show you an example of some believers who reached that point.

Disobedience and Dullness of Hearing

Hebrews chapter five. Now in Hebrews, he's writing to believers and you know what type of believers? Hebrews three verse one says, therefore, holy brethren, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling.

These are born again believers who have partaken of a heavenly calling. They are not godless unbelievers. Hebrews three one is very clear. People who have received Jesus Christ as the apostle and high priest of their profession and to them he writes in Hebrews five 11 concerning Jesus.

We have much to say to you, but it is hard to explain because you have become dull of hearing. How did they become dull of hearing? There were things God spoke to them and they did not respond. They did not respond in the previous meeting.

They did not act on what God told them to do two meetings ago. They understood it. He absorbed it in their mind, but they did nothing about it. It's very dangerous to hear God's word and do nothing about it.

We have people who come to our church in Bangalore regularly who haven't become a part of our church, but who come as visitors and I tell them, I say, dear brothers and sisters, I want to tell you very frankly, it's very dangerous for you to come to this meeting if you're not interested in obedience.

Very dangerous because every meeting you come to now, if you were going to, I told, tell them if you're going to some dead church where there's no anointed message, where there's no word from God, just an intellectual word from the Bible, you'll be quite okay.

But if you go to a church where there's an anointed word from God that comes forth Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, boy, and you don't obey, you're in terrific danger because each word is going to harden you.

It's going to harden you and harden you and harden you and first of all your guilt before God is going to increase with every single meeting you attend and you're going to become deaf and after some time you lose all sensation to the voice of God.

That'll be a terrible state to come in because then gradually what will happen is you'll begin to sin and take it lightly. I believe this is what's happened to Christendom as it's gone down and that's why even divorce is taken so lightly today.

Pastors divorce. It's accepted as normal. How in the world did Christendom sink to this level? It was not like that a hundred years ago. It's because they kept on rejecting. They are taken up with signs and wonders and not with obedience to God's word.

Beware of that. Jesus kept on saying, he who has years to hear, let him hear. Was it because those people sitting in front of him had no ears? They all had ears. They had good hearing in their body but very bad hearing in their hearts.

Their heart could not hear what their mind was hearing because somewhere between the mind and the heart they'd become deaf by disobedience. So here the apostle says you become dull of hearing. By this time you should have been teaching others but you still are not able to understand the elementary things.

So it's a very dangerous thing. Let me now turn to 1 Timothy and chapter 3. There are many, many mysteries mentioned in scripture but among all the mysteries mentioned in scripture there are only two which are called great mysteries and I want to speak about both of them.

I just mentioned the others. Here is the first great mystery among all the mysteries in scripture as I said there are two which are called great by the Holy Spirit. That means more important, more important for our life on earth.

Truths that can be understood only by divine revelation and truths that will be revealed to those who have a hunger, who need it in their life. Not those who are trying to acquire information. You know there are so many subjects we can discuss which don't have any personal application in our life.

I get questions from sometimes from people asking me who was Cain's wife? I say even if you know who it is how will that help you to live a more godly life today? Tell me. I got another question recently who was Timothy's wife?

I don't know. I don't even know whether he was married. But even if I did it wouldn't help me to live a more godly life. To know the name of Timothy's wife. It will just satisfy my curiosity. And you know there are things in the Bible which are written I believe deliberately by God to satisfy people's curiosity.

And you say why has God written it? To sift out between the people who go to the Bible to satisfy curiosity and those who go to the Bible to live a godly life. And so there are lots of things written in the Bible to satisfy curiosity.

Biblical trivia. Little little things you know. Good for question and answer sessions and quizzes and all but no use for a godly life. I used to wonder why God has left it all there. I've discovered that God wants to sift out among people who are interested in a godly life and who are interested in Bible trivia.

Information. Don't go to the Bible for information. You'll never know as much as the devil. He knows much more than you in any case as far as the Bible is concerned. Go to the scripture for godliness.

The Bible says in 2nd Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture has been given to us for instruction in righteousness, for correction, for reproof that the man of God may be perfect. That is the purpose of scripture.

The Mystery of Godliness and the Definition of Sin

So when we come with that desire we understand here 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. By common confession, great and small is the mystery of godliness. So the first great mystery is the mystery of godliness.

That means how to live a godly life. Wouldn't you agree with me that's a great secret? It is. Why is it so many Christians after being Christians for 25 years are still defeated by anger and by the lust of the eyes and the love of money and an unforgiving spirit and bitterness and jealousy.

Why do they still have gossiping and slander in their life? They claim to be believers. They are not like the unbelievers because godliness is a mystery. Being religious is no mystery. Not at all. It's easy to be religious.

Speak the right language and live like any old unbeliever. Speak religious language and live like everybody else in the world. There was a French atheist who lived over 250 years ago called Voltaire. He was a philosopher.

He lived in France and he looked around at the Roman Catholic and many Protestant denominations in his time in the mid and late 1700s. He was a very sharp shrewd man. He was an atheist. He didn't believe in God.

But he looked at the hypocrisy of all the Christians around him in various denominations. And as a very shrewd observer he made this statement. He said these Christians around me differ in so many doctrines.

But when it comes to money they all have the same religion. They all love money. And when it comes to money he says it doesn't make a difference whether they are Catholic or any branch of Protestant. They are just the same.

They pursue after it. They love it. They are selfish. They are stingy. They are miserly. Their religion has made no difference to them at all in this area. And if it's like that in your life you can be pretty sure your Christianity is not worth any more than atheism or any heathen religion.

It's true. Jesus said things like that which hurt people like anything. They got so mad with him they wanted to kill him. And that's why preachers don't say such things today because they don't want to be killed.

But it's the truth. It's true. It's a mystery to live a godly life. It's a mystery to live a godly life. What is the definition of a godly life? That depends on our definition of sin. There are many different definitions of sin.

To a lot of people sin is disobedience to the Ten Commandments. But that is not the biblical definition of sin. That was a temporary standard. It's like kindergarten level education. Kindergarten level education is also education but that's not all there is in education.

If a person's got through kindergarten you wouldn't call him educated. Peter had got through kindergarten but the people still called him an axe for illiterate because he wasn't considered an educated man.

In the same way, what is sin? To people out in the world it's not even the Ten Commandments. For some people if they keep the Ten Commandments they are okay. Jesus went beyond that. He spoke about the heart, the thoughts, the inner attitudes.

He said that's what makes you holy or sinful. Now the best definition of sin I have found is Romans chapter 3 verse 23. Romans 3 verse 23 says, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. You know this game called darts where they have a number of circles with different marks and what the center of it is called the bullseye.

And you stand at a distance and throw these darts to see whether you can hit that mark, the bullseye. Absolute center, that is sin, to miss the center in a very simple way. And every time you try, you miss the center, you've sinned.

Some people are far away from the center, some people are pretty close to the center, but they've all missed the mark. They've all fallen short of the glory of God and the reward is only for the person who hits the center.

You've all missed the mark. Well you can say, well I'm not as bad as that fellow, he flung it and it went over there. Mine was at least a little closer. Okay, but you still missed the mark. You don't get any prize any more than that fellow gets a prize.

We've all missed the mark. The mark is the glory of God. And the glory of God, the Bible says in John 1 .14, was seen in Jesus Christ. It's not bright light and fire like on Mount Sinai. Those are all terrifying things.

Jesus didn't come in such a terrifying way. In him, the glory of God was seen in a human body. It looked just like ours. In fact, he was so like the other people that they needed some help in the Garden of Gethsemane to catch him, because he looked so much like other human beings.

Otherwise, why would they employ Julius Iscariot to betray Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, after they had seen him so many times in the temple? Because he looked so much like others in the dark that they would have caught the wrong man.

He was exactly like others in his appearance and everything, color of skin, everything, dress, length of hair, beard, everything. He looked just the same. He dressed the same as others. He didn't dress in a special way.

But in that body, God was manifest in human form. That is the glory of God, seen in Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth, full of tremendous kindness and compassion to fallen humanity, to wayward women who were living in adultery, prostitutes, to wayward men who had become murderers and thieves like the one who hung on the cross who was saved.

Tremendous compassion. He said, I have come for sinners. I have not come for all the people who think they are holy. But at the same time, a tremendous strictness towards religious hypocrites who pretended to be holy on the outside, but lived unholy lives in private.

A tremendous strictness towards those who exploited poor people, who turned widows out of their houses during the week because they couldn't pay the rent and would come on the Sabbath and pray long prayers.

Jesus exposed them. And when people made money in the temple in the name of religion, he took a whip and chased them out. That is the glory of God, full of grace and truth. Compassion towards a leper.

You know, those days lepers had to stay outside the camp of the city. Nobody would go anywhere near them. But Jesus would go and put his arms around them. God is like that. Tremendous compassion to the poor and the needy and the suffering and the weak and the despised.

Jesus lifted up women who were despised in Jewish society. Lifted them up to be co-workers with him in his ministry. Something no rabbi had ever thought of doing before him. And so the glory of God was seen in many, many aspects in Jesus' life.

He would travel a hundred miles sometimes to help one needy soul. At the same time, he would not tolerate any type of pride, arrogance, despising of others, religious hypocrisy, people who spoke fancy words in the meetings but who did not live godly lives in private.

He exposed them ruthlessly. And the Bible says he is the same yesterday, today and forever. If Jesus Christ were to come into our midst today, you know what he would do? He would expose religious hypocrisy.

He would strip all this veneer of religious language and religious appearance from our life and expose us as we really are. Are we willing for it? Or would we want to get rid of him? Just like those Jews wanted to get rid of him.

A lot of people who claim to worship Jesus Christ, if he actually came into their midst, they wouldn't want him. They would not want him. Today's world, I would say 90 of Christians would not want the real Jesus Christ.

That's why preachers present before them an imaginary Christ, another Jesus who is like a grandfather who just tolerates anything his grandchildren do. I'm sorry to say Jesus is not like that. He is not like that.

Far from it. So sin is anything which is unchristlike. Sin is not just disobedience to the 10 commandments. If I speak in an unchristlike way, that is sin. If I behave in an unchristlike way to another human being on the face of the earth, that is sin.

If I look at a person in an unchristlike way, that's sin. If I'm unchristlike in my attitude to money, that's sin. If I'm unchristlike in my attitude towards my enemies, if I don't love them, if I love 9 out of my 10 enemies, I'm a sinner.

If I forgive 9 out of the 10 people who have hurt me, I'm a sinner. That is Christ's standard. The secret of godliness, to live a Christlike life in a human body like ours. Throughout the ages it's been a tremendous mystery.

Christlikeness as God’s Standard for Believers

How in the world can we, in a body like ours, live like Jesus Christ lived on this earth? First of all, we need to ask ourselves, does God expect it? I mean, we should not put unreasonable, unattainable standards before Christians.

That's ridiculous. You would not ask your little child to carry a 5 ton weight on his head knowing very well you cannot carry that. And you can be sure that no father will ever make his son, demand that his son do something unreasonable, which is impossible.

And God who is a much better father than any of us will never, never ask us to do something which is impossible. Can you accept that point? If you as a father would never ask your child to do something impossible, can you believe that God is at least a little better than you are?

He's actually much better. That he'll never ask us to do something which is impossible. It's very important to arrive at that conclusion. Do you believe that God is a better father than you? I have no problem believing it.

I have no problem believing that God in the word, in his word, will never, never, never, never, never demand of me something that he knows is impossible. For example, there's no command in the word which says believers must fly.

Why? Because God knows we can't do it. I'm just giving you a ridiculous example. But let me give you a word which is in scripture. 1 John chapter 2, 1 John chapter 2 and verse 6. This is the word of God.

The one who says, he abides in Christ. Many of us say we abide in Christ, ought to walk in the same manner as he walked. My question is, is God demanding something impossible? What is he demanding? If you say you're a Christian, the Living Bible paraphrases like this, anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Christ lived.

Very simple language. Anyone who says he's a Christian should live as Christ lived. What is the voice you're hearing in your heart now? Impossible. Who is saying that? God or the devil? Well, you better decide that because this is God's word and the one who contradicts it must be the enemy of God's people.

You know, throughout the ages, throughout the ages from the beginning of the creation of man, the devil has told man, beginning with Eve, God's commands. He told you not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, such a good tree, such a tasty tree.

His command is unreasonable. It is impossible to obey when you have such a strong desire to eat of that tree and God forbids it. Unreasonable, impossible. For 6 ,000 years in man's history, the devil has kept on whispering into man's ears, impossible, impossible.

Keeping God's commands, impossible. Impossible. Just be satisfied with forgiveness. Just be satisfied with the righteousness of Christ clothing you and you're okay. That's all. And we have multitudes of Christians today who say, well, I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

But you know, the righteousness of Christ is not only meant to be imputed to us, but also imparted. He imputes it to us the moment we are saved. But from that moment, he begins to impart it to us little by little.

And if it has been imputed to you, as you imagine, and it's not being imparted to you day by day, then it was not imputed to you in the first place. You're deceiving yourself. That's what James says, faith without works is dead.

If you say you planted a seed and after 25 years, nothing came up from there, you better check up. It's probably a stone, not a seed. I mean, I realize a seed takes time to become a tree, but 25 years, I've never seen a tree that takes that long to come out of the ground.

It must have been a stone. You thought it was a seed. You were quite sincere. There are a lot of people who are sincere, but sincerely wrong. They thought it was a seed, but it was actually a stone. They thought that was the imputed righteousness of Christ, but it wasn't.

If it was, at least something, at least a little shoot should have come up. At least a little bit of that imparted righteousness should have come, even if it didn't grow into a full-grown tree. But for us to go around imagining that I'm going around with the imputed righteousness of Christ is a great deception.

The Emperor’s New Clothes and False Assurance

Have you heard that children's story of the emperor's new clothes? It's a very beautiful story. There was a very haughty emperor. I think it's Hans Christian Andersen's, one of his stories. There was this very haughty emperor, and there were two men who decided to teach him a lesson.

And these two men came to him and said, we are tailors, and the king's birthday is coming up next month, and we've decided to stitch a new dress for the king with the most wonderful material in the whole world.

So the king said, what's special about this material? He said, the wonderful thing about this material is only those who are worthy of their office will be able to see it. That means if you're holding a particular office and you're not worthy of it, you won't see it.

But if you're worthy of it, you'll see the dress beautifully, clearly. So these people said, the king said, let me see this dress. And these two people just held up their hands like this. There was nothing there.

And the king couldn't see a thing. Of course, there wasn't anything. And the king began to think, hey, does that mean I'm not worthy of my office because I can't see a thing? How can I admit that I can't see a thing?

How can I admit that I'm not worthy of my office? And they asked the king, what do you think of this? The king said, yes, it's beautiful. It's wonderful. Lovely. And then the king called the prime minister and told the prime minister, do you know there's this dress these people have brought, this cloth, which only those who are worthy of their office can see.

And what do you think of this? The prime minister couldn't see a thing either. And he began to think, am I not worthy of my office? I better not reveal it. And he said, oh, yes, this is lovely, beautiful dress.

Then the king knew that the prime minister could see it, but only he was the one who couldn't see it. And the prime minister thought that the king could see it, but I can't see it. And like that, two or three officials in the king's government looked at it and they all said it was beautiful.

And the tailor said, it's very expensive. We got to, it's not cheap, this dress, but we're willing to give it to you at a reduced price and all that type of stuff. And they were determined to loot the king.

And they said, we'll stitch it for you. And they took his measurement and went through all these motions of stitching, stitching, stitching through many days. And finally, they came for the day when they wanted to put it on the king to try it out.

And they fitted him and then on the king's birthday, he was to wear this dress. And so they dressed him up. He was stark naked, wearing this dress, this invisible dress. And it was announced throughout the empire that only those who are worthy of their office will be able to see this dress.

All the others won't be able to see it. And the king walked through the road, stark naked. Everybody was wondering, am I not worthy of my office? Because I can't see a thing. And the fellow next to the person was also wondering, am I not worthy?

But nobody would dare confess it to the other. And everybody said, yes, wonderful, wonderful dress. Tremendous, because they were all pretending to be worthy of their office. Until a child, little baby, cried out, hey, the king is naked.

Then everybody knew. Baby had no office to protect. You know, that's a picture of a lot of believers today who claim to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ. Nobody can see it. And these believers live the same rotten old life that any unbeliever lives.

They are impure in their minds. They fight as husbands and wives. They divorce one another. They love money. They run after the things of the world. But they've got this invisible righteousness of Christ.