A Firm Grip on the Christian Life： The Word of God — Zac Poonen

Revelation Through the Holy Spirit and Humility

Understand what the blood of Jesus does for us. That's really foundational. There are things which are revealed in the New Testament which the Bible says people in the Old Testament long to understand.

Even the prophets in the Old Testament couldn't understand some of the wonderful things revealed in the New Covenant. When Simon Peter said to Jesus, you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God, Jesus used a word when he replied to him.

He said, you're blessed, Simon, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. The word he used there is revelation. That's not found much in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament it was more meditation and studying the law, which is good, but in the New Testament there comes this word revelation.

Revelation is by the Holy Spirit and he shows us things which we can't understand with our natural mind, no matter how much we study, no matter how much we meditate. In fact, Jesus once said in Matthew 11 25, I thank you, Father, that you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent and you have revealed them.

There again the same word. You reveal them to babes. So, you know, when we come to Scripture, if we try to understand it with our cleverness, we'll invariably go wrong. The scribes were people who studied the Scriptures, but they were completely wrong concerning Jesus.

Have you ever thought of this? On the road to Emmaus, Jesus walked with two disciples and it says he opened up the Scriptures all the way from Genesis to Malachi and showed them how all those Scriptures spoke about him.

It's a very interesting study to see in the Old Testament, how in every book of the Old Testament there's some revelation of Jesus Christ, and yet the Pharisees and scribes studied those books. They studied them so many years, and when Jesus actually came into their midst, they said he's the Prince of Devils.

He was Beelzebul. That teaches us how blind we can be, even if we study the Scriptures without the revelation of the Holy Spirit. Why does God hide these things from the clever and intelligent? Is it a handicap to be clever and intelligent?

It says he revealed them to babes, and Jesus himself said that the one quality that babes have is humility. So what I learned from that is that the fundamental requirement to understand Scripture is humility.

The humbler you are, the more you'll understand Scripture. It's got nothing to do with how many hours you read the Bible, or how many times you've gone through the Bible, or how clever you are, or any of these things.

It's all got to do with how humble you are, and a humble man will understand the Scriptures, and it'll change his life. And you know the things that we can be proud of? The Pharisees were proud of their Bible knowledge.

They were proud of their traditions. There are a lot of things we are very unconsciously proud of. If there is a human being on earth that you look down upon for some reason, that indicates pride. And in the measure in which you have pride, you will not understand the Scriptures.

You'll think you understand, but you'll be wrong. And this book, it's so important to understand this book, that if you don't understand it, you're going to waste your life. God's given us one book, only one, written by him, and if we don't understand this, we'll never understand how God wants us to live.

And so my dear young people, make it up the passion of your life to study the Word with humility and with reverence. God's promised to look upon us with favor if we tremble at his Word. If you're not familiar with that verse, it's in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 1 and 2.

The Lord is saying there, are you going to build a temple for me? In the Old Testament, it was the temple. Today, many people want to do work for the Lord. They want to build a church. They want to do something for the Lord.

And the Lord says, are you going to do something for me? What are you going to do for me on the earth? The heaven is my throne and the whole earth is just a, Isaiah 66 verse 1, a place where I keep my feet.

What are you going to build for me? But he says, but to this person I will look, the person who is humble, contrite of spirit, and who trembles at my Word. Never forget that verse. If you want God to look at you with favor all the time, just learn to be humble, broken in your spirit, and to tremble at every word of God, especially if you find some word that you have not obeyed.

I was mentioning yesterday the tremendous power of tradition to keep us away from Scripture. When we tremble at God's Word, we'll be willing to give up some very precious things that we have held on to for many years, because we find Scripture teaches differently.

The Blood of Jesus and Walking in the Light

So if we don't understand what Scripture teaches clearly, we can miss out on the Christian life. For example, take this matter of the blood of Jesus Christ. It says here in 1 John 1 .7, it's a very well-known and often quoted verse, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

Christians have a habit of quoting half a verse or a promise without the condition. Do you know that it's wrong to say the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin? Because that's half a verse. There's a condition attached to it.

There are many verses like that that Christians quote. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish. No one shall pluck them out of my hand. That's half a verse. It's like jumping into the middle of a sentence and reading the promise without reading the condition before.

And I believe the main reason why a lot of Christians live a very frustrated, unsatisfying Christian life is because they've tried to claim promises in the Bible without seeing the condition to fulfill that promise.

Every promise in Scripture is guaranteed by God to be fulfilled. And if it's not fulfilled in your life, it's because you haven't seen the condition. Jesus didn't promise eternal life to everybody. He said in John 10, 27 onwards, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish and no one shall pluck them out of my hand.

But most Christians don't read it like that. They just jump in the middle of that verse. The same thing here. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Wrong. What it says in 1 John 1, 7 is if we walk in the light as God himself is in the light, then we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

So does that mean that any Tom, Dick and Harry can have his sins cleansed in the blood of Christ? No. He's got to walk in the light. Now I'll tell you, it doesn't matter which version you use. Every single version teaches the same thing.

That you've got to walk in the light to have the blood of Jesus cleanse you from all sin. Now if you believe that it's very, very important that the blood of Christ cleanses you from all sin, which it is, I know what I'd do if I believe that.

I try to find out, Lord, I really want to know what it is to walk in the light. Because if I don't walk in the light, the blood doesn't cleanse me. It will not cleanse me. And a lot of people imagine that the blood of Jesus cleansed them.

It hasn't cleansed them at all because they're not walking in the light. And it says here, if we say, verse 6, that we have fellowship with them and we walk in darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth.

It's possible for a Christian to walk in the darkness. So let's try to understand what it means to walk in the light for the blood of Jesus to cleanse us. This is fundamental. The blood of Christ cleansing us, what the blood of Christ has done for us, is absolutely fundamental.

It's the foundation to begin our Christian life properly. And especially you young people, you need to get your foundation right. What has the blood of Jesus Christ done for you? The first thing is, it cleanses you if you walk in the light.

Honesty, Repentance, and the Example of the Cross

So the most elementary meaning of walking in the light is, you know, not to hide anything. Who is the man who walks in darkness? The one who's going to hide something. The one who comes in the light is the one who is open.

You remember when Adam sinned. It says he hid among the trees. It's amazing how stupid sin makes you, as if you can go behind a tree and hide from God. It's one of the first examples of the stupidity that sin brings into a clever man's mind.

Adam was so clever that he could give a name to every single animal and bird on earth. I mean, that's pretty tough. But as soon as sin came, he was so stupid. He thought he could hide behind a tree and hide from God.

But this desire to hide and to cover up is the first result of sin. And then when he's caught, to put the blame on his wife. That's not walking in the light. The moment you begin to blame somebody else for your sin, or try to get out of it by putting part of the blame on somebody else, you're not walking in the light.

The big difference between Adam, who got kicked out of paradise, and the thief on the cross, who went to paradise. If you think of the crime that Adam committed, and the crime that the thief on the cross committed, is there a comparison?

Adam ate one fruit. Look what that thief did. Think of the number of people he murdered, and the number of widows he made, and the number of fatherless children he made with his wicked life of murder.

And he goes to paradise, and Adam is out of paradise. It looks a bit unjust. Why is it? It depends on who walked in the light. Adam put the blame on his wife, and indirectly put the blame on God. God, this wife gave me the fruit, and you gave me this wife.

That's how I hate it. I hate it, but there are some causes to it, and ultimately you and my wife are the cause of it. See, when you come like that to God, you get thrown out. But the thief, this was the difference between the two thieves.

The one thief said, I don't deserve to be crucified. Maybe a few years in prison, but not crucifixion. I'm not that bad. Get us down. Get me down from the cross. But the other thief, he said, I deserve this.

I'm really bad. I don't deserve just a few years in prison. I deserve to be killed, hanged, crucified. And it's as if Jesus said, really? Paradise is made for folks like you. Come with me there today.

What qualification did he have? He didn't even have time to go and set right things that he did with others, but he had one quality, which all those Pharisees who were standing at the foot of the cross didn't have.

Honesty. He was absolutely honest. He didn't blame his parents for bringing him up badly. He didn't blame bad company for leading him into wrong paths. He didn't blame the judge for being unjust in punishing him.

Nobody. He said, I'm to blame. I deserve this. I'm a criminal who deserves death. Lord, please remember me. It's one lesson you all need to learn right in the beginning of your Christian life. This is one of the most important things of walking in the light.

Don't put the blame on somebody else. Say, Lord, I see my fault. I see where I've gone wrong. I'll tell you, it's very difficult for Christians to acknowledge that they're wrong, particularly after they have built up a reputation for being holy.

Husbands and wives have problems, mainly because it's very difficult for one person to admit that I was wrong. I'm sorry. That was my mistake. I tell you, a husband and wife will have a glorious relationship.

If they can learn this lesson. This is a very important part of what it means to walk in the light. When I come into God's light. See, one mark of coming into God's light is, even though there are things wrong with other people around me, I don't see that.

Isaiah's Vision and Seeing Our Own Sin

I see my own fault. Let me show you an example from the Old Testament. In Isaiah chapter 5, Isaiah was a prophet and he was probably the holiest man in Israel at that time. There were a lot of things wrong in Israel at that time.

A lot of things wrong with all the people around him. He was a prophet who exposed their evils. He says, woe to those who add house to house and join field to field. You know, people are buying real estate all the time and raising the value of property so that poor people have no place to live in.

He's condemning them. And then he says, further down in verse 11, woe to those who get drunk and spend their life listening to music and getting drunk. Verse 18, woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood.

Verse 21, woe to those who are wise and clever in their own eyes. He's condemning people for various things and he was absolutely right. All these things were true of what he said about these different people.

But then in chapter 6, he comes into the light. He comes into the presence of God. God Almighty gave him a vision. It's one of those few instances, one of the only instances in the Old Testament where a man sees the glory of God and describes what he saw.

He says, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne. Isaiah 6, verse 1. And he saw the angels who never sinned, covering their faces, covering their feet, worshipping and saying, holy, holy, holy. And they never got tired of saying it.

They were calling out to one another. And in that light, Isaiah completely forgot what all the sinners around him, all the woe is so and so, and woe is that group, and woe is that fellow, and woe is the other fellow.

He suddenly saw himself. And he said in verse 5, woe is me, for I am ruined. I am a man of unclean lips. I've not kept my tongue under control. It's true that I live in the midst of people of unclean lips also, but I am a man of unclean lips.

Mine eyes have seen the King. And that's always the result of anyone who's come into the light of the Lord. You read in Romans chapter 7, that when Paul came into God's light, he said, O wretched man that I am.

If your mindset is, O wretched man that that fellow is, or the other person is, etc. We haven't really seen God's light. When we come into God's light, we see our own need. And if we walk in this light, we have fellowship with God.

And the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. It's very easy for such a man to be broken. He trembles at God's word. He sees that there are things in God's word that he has not obeyed. Never mind if other people have not obeyed it.

That's not what he's occupied with when he sees the glory of God. And it says immediately, the fire from the altar. An angel came with the fire from the altar and touched his lips and said, your sin is forgiven.

Immediately, verse 7. It's like we read in 1 John 1, 7. The blood of Jesus immediately cleanses us. And not only cleansed, he was touched with the fire from heaven upon his mouth and the Lord said, okay, now you can go and preach for me.

I believe it's only such a person who's really qualified to preach. If you want the fire of God to touch your lips, ask God to show you what it is to come into his light, to tremble at his word. And not to say, woe is me, because you read it in scripture, but because you've seen God shows you suddenly.

I believe that if you really walk in the light, you'll have moments like that. I don't think we can endure it all the time, but we'll have moments of revelation where we really feel like Paul, Lord, I am indeed the chief of all the sinners in the world.

If you've never felt like that even once, that you are the greatest sinner in the whole world, if you've never felt like that even once, I would seriously question whether you're even born again. I would seriously question that.

Anyone who has really come into God's presence sees the horribleness of sin and he really says like Paul, I am the chief of all the sinners. Woe is me. What a wretched man I am. Who shall deliver me from this body of death that I carry around?

And I believe it's that type of revelation that keeps us humble and broken at the Lord's feet where we can constantly have fellowship with him and the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us from all sin.

Sins of Commission and Omission

There's a lot of sin in us we're not aware of, particularly sins of omission. You see, normally the sins we confess, which we ask the Lord to cleanse us from, are sins of commission. That means sins that we actually commit, not the sins we omit.

Omit means the things we should have done, which we didn't do. There are two types of sins defined in the New Testament. One is 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4. Sin is transgression of the law. You know, God told Adam, don't eat from that tree.

He transgressed it. He disobeyed it. That's doing something God told you not to do. That's sin. That's what we mean by sin of commission. And those are the sins we usually confess. Lord, I got angry. Lord, I lusted with my eyes.

I watched internet pornography. I did something you didn't want me to do. Transgression of the law means the law drew a line around me and I transgressed it. I went beyond it. But there are other sins, which are sins of omission.

Omission means things that you should have done, but you didn't do. Now those are not sins we normally confess. I mean, if you were to ask yourself, when was the last time you confessed to the Lord saying, Lord, I'm sorry, I didn't do that, which I should have done.

You may have to scratch your head and try and think, when was the last time I confessed a sin like that? But that's mentioned in James chapter 4. James 4, it says, here's another definition of sin. It's the opposite of what we just read in 1 John 3.

James 4 .17, the one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, that's a sin. This is not referring to something you did. It's referring to something you didn't do, which is a sin. Lord, I didn't do that.

Forgive me. Think of the story of the Good Samaritan. You know that story where there was a man bashed up by robbers who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho. And you know the story how the priest came by and the Levite came by.

What was the sin of that priest? What was the sin of that Levite? Did they go and kick that fellow? No. Did they spit on him? Did they criticize him? Did they accuse him? Nothing. Their sin was what? They did nothing.

Can you commit a sin by doing nothing? That's what Jesus said. This Good Samaritan went and picked him up. And Jesus said, which of those three obeyed the command which says love your neighbor as yourself?

That's a command in the Old Testament. Love your neighbor as yourself. And the Levite and the priest disobeyed that command, sinned by doing nothing. Now there are very few Christians who confess the sin of not having done something.

That's what I mean. But there's a lot of sin in us which only the light of God can reveal. And you'll never get that revelation if you're proud. If you think better more of yourself than you ought to think.

If you look down on other believers, or look down on other human beings, or look down on people thinking that they're not as holy as you are. You know Jesus said, Jesus spoke a particular parable to those type of people who think they're holier than others.

Pride, Self-Righteousness, and the Pharisee's Prayer

And it's very easy sometimes when we are brought up in certain church traditions where our external life and appearance appear to be holier than others who appear to be dressed very worldly and look very worldly.

It's very easy for those of us who have grown up in those type of church traditions to be proud of what we think is our holiness and we don't realize that we're stinking in God's nostrils. And Jesus spoke a parable particularly for such people.

And he spoke about a Pharisee who prayed like this and he said, Oh God I thank you that I'm not like other people, especially like those worldly fellows over there. And Jesus said, God never accepted it.

And that worldly person over there, he didn't even lift up his head. He said, Oh God I'm just a rotten sinner. Have mercy on me. And Jesus said, that guy got accepted. This is why Jesus said, many who are first will be last and many who are last will be first.

I don't want to fool myself. The greatest deception is self-deception where I imagine myself to be holier than others and I'm fooling myself. So it's the light of God that shows us sin. And it's so important to come into the light of God.

Let me show you a verse in Isaiah. If you want to see what God thinks of such people. Isaiah 65 and verse 5. God uses a very expressive way in which he shows what he thinks of such people. Isaiah 65 verse 5.

He speaks about certain people who say to others, think of yourself now. I mean if you look down on certain believers or certain other people and say, keep to yourself. Don't come near me for I am holier than you.

Now we don't actually say that with our lips because that would look pretty haughty and arrogant and proud and we'd lose our reputation for humility if we said that. So we don't say it. It's something we think you know.

I'm holier than you. And see how God describes it. Such people are a smoke in my nostrils, a fire that burns all the day. Imagine if you're in a room where it's full of smoke getting into your nose. You just feel like getting away from there.

The smoke all the time coming into your nose and the Lord says, that's exactly how I feel about such people. Who imagine that they're holier than others because of certain external differences. We've got to be very careful.

Holiness, Selfishness, and Remaining Among Sinners

I know the times in my life where externally I sought to live a life free from all sin and the Lord showed me, would show me every now and then, areas of selfishness in my life. Where the Lord would show me that thing that you did was utterly selfish.

Or the way you reacted to that or the reason why you did that was just selfishness. And the reason you didn't care about that person's need was just you were utterly selfish. You just thought about yourself.

Your whole life revolves around I, me and my family. So long as we're okay, we're alright. It's selfish. When a person, for example, runs away from the midst of sinful people because he wants to live a holy life along with a bunch of holy people or apparently holy people, that's selfishness.

You know when Peter said on the Mount of Transfiguration, Lord it's good for us to be here. I like Moses, I like Elijah, I like you. James and John I can sort of tolerate. But we can live together over here.

This is great. Let's stay here. The Lord said no. You've got to go down to the valley. Sinners are there. The sinners are there. You know I found a certain philosophy among certain believers in this country where you say you can't be a Christian in the city.

You've got to get away from the city and go and live in some village to be a Christian. But all the sinners in the city, what do you do about them? It's like Jesus saying, I've got to be holy in the world.

I've got to live in heaven all the time. He would have never come down here at all. And Christians are retreating from the place where sinners are. You know what you're saying thereby? You're saying thereby that Satan is more powerful than the Christ who lives in me.

The Christ who lives in me cannot keep me pure if I am in the surroundings of people controlled by the devil. Who is more powerful? Jesus Christ or Satan? I live in a city. There are a lot of reasons why I wouldn't like to live there.

But the sinners are there. And Jesus came as a friend of sinners. Now if you live a selfish life, you'll retreat from all the sinners and just gather around a bunch of holy people and say that's it. That's all I want to be with these people.

You don't see that as a sin. In fact, on the contrary, you'll think you're becoming more holy. You're not. You're just becoming more selfish. But do you get light on that? I mean if Jesus is here right now, he's trying to give you some light.

And if you will be honest like that thief on the cross, say Lord I'm seeing something about myself that I never saw in all my life. I'm just such a downright selfish person. I'm telling you from the light God gave me at different times.

Selfishness and pride are the two things which are very difficult to see unless we come into God's light. I know the times in my life where God shown me. That thing you said was just because you were proud.

The way you reacted to that person, the way you acted towards that person, the way you thought about that person is just your stinking pride. I said Lord that's right. I'm sorry. I thank God for the times when God's given me light on myself.

I've come to the place where I believe that the mark of God's blessing on my life is that he gives me light on the un-Christ like areas in my life day by day. And as a result of it my daily life is a life of repentance.

It's not a life of heaviness. I believe my life is full of the joy of the Lord but it's the joy that comes out of sin confessed and sin cleansed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Walking in the light, fellowship with God, in his presence there is fullness of joy.

Tremendous joy in God's presence but that comes through cleansing in the blood. Not the sins that we got light on 20 years ago but God's continuously showing us new and new areas. I find that selfishness is like a massive onion and you peel off skin after skin after skin after skin and the onion gets thinner and thinner and thinner and thinner as God gives us light.

Pride is like another massive onion and God gives us light and as he gives us light we peel off, peel off, peel off. Love of money. That's another massive onion. You may think you're free from it. Maybe you're free from one or two layers of that onion.

It's a huge onion brother. Pride, selfishness, love of money. These are not things that most people talk about. But these are the areas where God gives us light on. You knew the right thing to do and you didn't do it.

I know the times when I've had to confess the sin saying Lord I should have encouraged that brother and I didn't do it. Forgive me. Have you ever confessed that sin? Lord I should have encouraged my husband or I should have encouraged my wife I didn't do it.

I mean if you yelled at your wife or husband that you'd confess. Yes, I hope you do. But what about I didn't do this? I didn't encourage my brother? You knew the right thing to do and you didn't do it.

What I'm trying to say is there's a lot of sin in us and we think we're very holy. We're deceiving ourselves. If we walk in the light we'll find that we need the blood of Christ till the last day of our life on earth.

And the only one who doesn't need the blood of Christ is the one who's become like Christ totally himself. And if you're getting revelation on yourself all the time on selfishness and pride and the love of money and impurity and all that.

It won't be a problem remaining humble I'll tell you that. This is what it really means to look unto Jesus. This is what it means to walk in the light. And this is the mark of God's blessing upon your life.

If you want to know what the God's blessing on you, you are not ask yourself how much light did you get on your un-Christ likeness in the last one week? Did you see anything at all? Did you see anything that brought you down on your face in the dust and said Lord have mercy on me cleanse me in the blood?

This is how we progress in godliness. So the blood of Jesus is a wonderful thing. If we walk in the light it cleanses us and we feel like just as if we had a shower, you know, cleansed. The reason I mention this is because a lot of people are living in a deception that the blood of Jesus has cleansed them.

And they keep falling back into sin, a lot of young people. So let me mention this. I want to go on from there, from the blood of Christ to something else. The second thing that's very important to get a solid grip on the Christian life.

The Power of God's Word and Daily Spiritual Nourishment

And that is the power of the word of God. Jesus said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. You know that verse. It's the first spoken word of Jesus earthly ministry.

After his baptism and he was anointed with the Holy Spirit, the very first words of his that are recorded in scripture are these words. Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of God's mouth.

If God has spoken 10 ,000 words, I want to listen to all those 10 ,000 words because Jesus said the only way I can really live is by every word that proceeds from God's mouth. Not just a few favorite words.

The reason for shallowness and defeat in the lives of many Christians is because they have not sought with all their heart to hear every word that proceeds from God's mouth. To understand everything that God has spoken in his word.

One of the things I'm encouraging people everywhere now to do is to read the Bible more slowly. We miss such a lot when we read the Bible too fast. We shouldn't be more interested in going through the Bible so many times in our lifetime as much as in the Bible going through us.

If the Bible goes through me once in my life, that's enough. If the whole Bible can go through me once, if the word can become flesh, if every word in scripture can become flesh in me and if we take every word seriously.

I know times when I read the scriptures and I've not been able to move away from one verse for a whole day. I turn to the scriptures again the next day and the Lord keeps me back at that verse, the same verse for the next day and the next day, sometimes a whole week.

The Lord's trying to get a verse through me. Read the scriptures like that. Man shall live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. If you value God's word, it's precious. In fact, that is the very first message in the first chapter of the Bible.

I remember in India a Hindu man who was converted saying this in his testimony. I mean, it never struck me because we are Christians. We read the Bible from childhood. There are a lot of things that don't strike us like it would strike a non-Christian who comes to the word of God for the first time.

He said something which I never saw even though I had read Genesis 1 a lot more times than he had. He says when he read Genesis 1 and he saw it said so many times there in that chapter, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, and God said, he said, boy, the God of the Christians is a God who speaks.

The gods I have worshipped so far, they don't speak to me at all. And from that moment, he had a passion to hear the God of the Christians speak to him. And it changed his life. The God of the Bible is a God who speaks.

And what we see in Genesis 1 is that every day he spoke. There is a message God is trying to tell us from that first chapter. God could have changed the whole world in one day. He doesn't need six days.

He doesn't even need one second. He could have done everything. He could have repaired everything in a second. Why did he do it day by day by day by day? To teach us a lesson in the very first chapter of the Bible.

If you want your life changed from, you know, in the beginning it says the earth was dark, empty, shapeless, just like our lives are dark, empty, shapeless. And by the time you come to the end of that chapter, the earth has become so beautiful that Almighty God looks at it all and says, it's very good.