Romans 12 — Zac Poonen

Romans 12 and Old Testament Pictures of New Testament Fulfillment

We want to turn today to Romans in chapter 12. Everything in the Old Testament was a picture of something fulfilled in the New Testament. The most well-known examples are the blood of the Lamb put outside the door of the Israelites in Egypt.

So the angel of death never entered that house. That's a picture of how the blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, protects us from God's judgment. That's a well-known one. Not so well-known is that the Israelites going through the Red Sea is a picture of water baptism.

Baptism, the Old Man, and the Red Sea

And the Bible says in Romans 6 that baptism is a picture of our old man crucified with Christ. We didn't kill the old man. God killed it on the cross. And the Egyptians buried in the Red Sea is a picture of our old man crucified.

Because the Egyptians are the ones who made the Israelis slaves for 430 years. And the old man is what made us slaves to sin all our life. So when we threw the waters of baptism, the Egyptians being buried totally is a picture of the end of our old man.

And it's not the Israelites who killed the Egyptians. It's not we who killed the old man. It's God who killed the Egyptians. And it's God who's crucified our old man. The picture in the Old Testament is so exact.

The Holy Spirit and Victory Over the Giants

And then the cloud coming down from heaven is a picture. It's called in 1 Corinthians 10, a baptism in the cloud. A picture of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Cloud and fire. The baptism in the Holy Spirit and fire.

And many people have not understood the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You can learn it from the Old Testament. Is there something beyond Pentecost? Yes, there is. What is the purpose of that pillar of cloud and fire?

Only one thing. Well, more than one, but primarily to lead them to the promised land. Where the giants would be defeated and they would possess the land for God. So what is the purpose of the baptism in the Holy Spirit?

How many Pentecostals have understood that? To lead us into a life of victory, day by day by day, right into the land of Canaan. And what is the land of Canaan a picture of? The land of Canaan is a picture of our human body.

That has been ruled by many giants for many years. And yet God gave Canaan to Abraham and his seed. And what the Lord said was to the Israelites, you got to possess that land for me because it belongs to me.

The Canaanites are not supposed to rule there. And that's what the Lord says about our body. That giant of anger is not supposed to rule in your body. That giant of jealousy is not supposed to rule in your body.

That giant of gossip is not supposed to rule in your body. This land, this body belongs to me, God says. The giant of sexual sin is not supposed to rule in your body. The giant of the pursuit and the love of money is not supposed to rule in your body.

And we can go through all the list of sins. The giants that have ruled this body for years, just like the giants ruled the land of Canaan for years. And the pillar of cloud was to lead them into that land to help them to kill the giants.

So when it came to the giants, the giants are a picture of the lusts of the flesh. Which is different from the old man. Most Christians don't understand the difference between the old man and the flesh.

The old man was killed by Jesus, by God on the cross, along with Christ. The lusts of the flesh have to be crucified by us. That's pictured in the Old Testament by the Egyptians are killed by God under the Red Sea.

But the giants of Canaan had to be killed by the Israelites. The picture is so exact. God is very exact. There's no confusion there. Just like we study the tabernacle, the spirit, soul and body. Very exact.

If you study the Bible, you find there's things we can learn from the Old Testament. And many other things like that we know. For example, conscious sin and unconscious sin. The giants you can see are the only ones you can kill.

That's conscious sin. And the giants in the northern part of Canaan whom you haven't yet seen, that's unconscious sin. God doesn't hold you responsible for not killing the giants up there whom you have not seen.

And God doesn't hold you responsible for these unconscious sins in your body. That's cleansed in the blood of Christ. And you cannot conquer those giants till you conquer the ones you can see. So, the picture is so exact in everything.

But they didn't kill the giants in their own ability. You know, when they looked at those giants, exactly like we say when we look at some massive sins in our life. The spies said, we feel like we are like grasshoppers before these giants.

How can we ever conquer them? And that's exactly how many Christians say, I've been a slave to some of these terrible sins in my life. How can I ever conquer them? And you know, God was so angry with those spies who said that.

I don't know whether you realize. And God is angry when you say that some sin in your life is such a massive giant that even Almighty God cannot conquer it. That's what those ten spies said. But God said there in Numbers 13 and 14, But My servant Caleb and Joshua, they had another spirit.

They said, what are these giants? You know what they said? They are like bread that we can eat up if God is on our side. And that's the spirit of Joshua and Caleb that we need to have in our midst as we go forth against the giants of the land.

Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures

And I could go through the whole Old Testament like that. Jesus once took a 2 -3 hour Bible study for the disciples on the way to Emmaus after His resurrection. And it says, He took the entire scripture and showed them Himself in all the scriptures.

It's a wonderful thing to study the scriptures, to see this little book of mine. Well, it's not a little book. Through the Bible, this commentary. This is what I have sought to present in all those Old Testament things.

You know, a lot of people think the Old Testament is a boring book. It's not. And that's why I want to encourage you to study it so that you see that every book in the Bible in the Old Testament is interesting.

I remember a brother who listened to my series on Leviticus. And he said, I never read Leviticus in my life. I thought it was a boring book. Till I heard what you had to say in it. And I found there's so much life in that.

So much that the Holy Spirit had to speak to me. So, the Sabbath, for example, that is a very important commandment in the Old Testament. In fact, if a man didn't keep the Sabbath, he was cut off from God's people.

There was a man who went picking sticks on the Sabbath day, we read, in the wilderness. And God said, kill him. That's how serious keeping the Sabbath was. That is also a picture of the rest God gives us.

You read about it in Hebrews chapter 4. There remains a Sabbath rest for God's people. That is the Sabbath where Jesus spoke about saying, Come unto me, all you who are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I will lead you into the Sabbath. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest unto your souls. You'll find a Sabbath in your soul. Do you know that it is God's will that in our life there must be an eternal Sabbath?

A continuous Sabbath in my heart where I'm never in unrest in any situation. That is God's will. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden. I paraphrase it like this. Come unto me all you who are sick and tired of your defeated life.

Come to me. I will lead you into the Sabbath. So the Sabbath means that it's a life of rest. Because the enemy has been defeated. A life of inward peace which God wants us always to have. That's the Sabbath and there's a lot more we could say on that.

Circumcision and Dependence on the Holy Spirit

And another thing in the Old Testament is circumcision. Anyone who is not circumcised was cut off from God's people. What does that mean? In Philippians 3 .3 we read that we are the true circumcision who have no confidence in the flesh.

Our confidence is only in the Holy Spirit of God. See circumcision was a cutting off of the flesh and casting it off. A physical cutting off surgically of the flesh and throwing it off. And Philippians 3 .3 the Holy Spirit interprets that as not depending on the flesh in our life.

That is a circumcision. And a person who depends on the flesh is like an uncircumcised person cut off from God's people. We're not supposed to depend on ourselves but depend on the Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah 17 it says, Cursed is the man who leans upon the arm of flesh.

He'll be like a barren tree. Many Christians are like barren trees because they depend on themselves. But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord who depends upon the Holy Spirit. And now I want to come to something which is preached.

Tithing and the New Covenant

Now people don't preach the Sabbath today. People don't preach about Canaan and all that. That's all finished. But there's one thing in the Old Testament. I mean no church preaches keeping the Sabbath.

True Christian churches don't preach keeping the Sabbath or circumcision. But there's one thing in the Old Testament which many Christian churches are still preaching. They've abolished the entire Old Testament except one thing.

Do you know what that is? Tithing. Tithing is as much Old Testament as putting the blood outside the door. So if you believe and practice tithing you might as well put some blood, kill a lamb and put the blood of the lamb outside the door of your house as well.

That's also part of the Old Testament. And you better keep the feasts. The different feasts there are. And you better get circumcised. And you better keep Saturday as a Sabbath. I mean how can you pick out one thing and say this one thing in the Old Covenant is for us.

This is a teaching that has come from covetous pastors and preachers. As a good way of swindling. I call it swindling. People of the money. It's the same, exactly the same as the money changers in the temple.

Not a single word is taught in the New Testament about tithing. Ah but people say, it says in Hebrews 7 that Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek. He gave 10 of what? Do you know that Melchizedek came to him with food?

You must read the scriptures to understand. Otherwise all these pastors will fool you. You read in Genesis 14. Abraham had 318 servants. And they had fought a battle. They were exhausted. They were tired.

They were hungry. And Melchizedek came with food for 320 people. What do you do if somebody comes and brings food for you for 320 people? Any decent person will pay him. For bringing all that food. And that's all that Abraham did.

It happened to be 10 of all the, it wasn't his money by the way. Which he gave also. If you read carefully. He had defeated the enemy. And in those days the rule was if you defeat the enemy, all the spoils of the enemy are yours.

You can take all that money. And Abraham took part of that money and gave it to Melchizedek. It was a payment for all that food he brought. It happened to be 10 of what it was there. That's what he did.

And they say Jacob paid a tithe. Well, Jacob said Lord if you take care of me I'll give you 10%. He could have said I'll give you 20%. Some people say I'll give 90 to God. All these things. If you look.

There was never a law. No law. Nobody gave a law to Abraham to pay a tithe. Nobody gave a law to Jacob to pay a tithe. How have people taken these things and fooled believers today? There must be. Just like I said.

The blood of the Lamb. The baptism. The going through the Red Sea. The pillar of cloud. The Canaanites. The Sabbath. The circumcision. All had a meaning. Tithing also has got an equivalent in the New Testament.

That's what I want to share with you this evening. What do we offer to God? In those days they offered the 10 of what they had earned in their fields. It was never money by the way. It was always grain or flock from their flock.

10 of their flock and 10 of the grain. It was exactly equivalent to what we call today income tax. Israel was a government. Governed by God. They had government servants. They were called the Levites.

Do you know where your income tax goes? Why do you pay income tax to the government? Because the government has got so many officers doing different jobs. Running different departments which keeps the country going.

Where do they get their money from? They get their money from your income tax. And you got to give them income tax because they are serving you. They are keeping this country going. The electricity. The roads.

The water supply. Somebody has to pay them for all that and you pay income tax to take care of them. In the same way in the Old Testament the government servants were the Levites. They had to be supported by income tax which is called tithing.

They had to pay 10%. Just like your income tax is a percentage. It is a percentage that God told the Israelites to give. And they gave it to the Levites. And the one law that God gave to the Levites was you must never own property.

You cannot till the land. You cannot keep shepherds. You cannot keep sheep or a flock. The people in Israel will support you. So whenever a pastor says we are the Levites of today you just got to ask him do you own any property by the way?

Well then you are not a Levite. Because Christians don't know the scriptures they have been deceived. So what then is what God is asking us to give today? I'll tell you. Romans 12 and verse 1. I urge you brethren.

In view of the tremendous mercies of God. In the Old Testament it was dear Israelites. In view of God's tremendous blessing upon your fields. Upon your cattle that is multiplied and prospered. Give 10 of that to God.

Here God is saying the Holy Spirit. In view of the tremendous mercies of God present your body. This is the equivalent of the Old Testament tithe. And don't let anyone ever deceive you anymore for the rest of your life.

Now I am not saying you don't have to give 10 to God. You can give 20 to God but don't call it a tithe. Don't call it income tax. We are not in a relationship with God as a master. God today is my father.

How many of you pay income tax to your father? Anybody? The government is a master. We pay income tax. In the Old Testament God was like a ruler of the Israelites. He was not their father. Nobody could call him father.

But today God is our father. I don't pay income tax to my father. No. I may give him a gift out of gratitude. Sure. Many of you give gifts to your parents. Out of gratitude for all that they do for you.

That's okay. But that's not income tax. And so we give to God cheerfully. But not as a rule. There is no rule that says you must give your father so much. No such thing. So if you want to come into this New Covenant and not just bring part of that Old Covenant into your New Covenant life.

Understand what the New Covenant is. Present your body, a living sacrifice, acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship. I said the other day how people have misunderstood what worship is.

I could paraphrase this. This is your worship in the spirit. What the Lord told the woman of Samaria. The true worshippers will worship God in the spirit. So he says here in Romans 12 .1 This is your real worship in the spirit.

Presenting the Body as Worship

How do you worship God in your spirit? Just like Abraham laid Isaac on the altar. And he called that worship. By the way that's the first time the word worship comes in the Bible. In Genesis 22. The very first time the word worship comes is when Abraham offers Isaac on the altar.

That was his worship. He was offering that which was most precious. He wasn't paying a tithe. He was offering that which was most precious. When people talk about Abraham paying a tithe. I say hang on.

He gave Isaac that which was most precious to him. Which was worth to him more than all his property and money. The equivalent of that today. When we worship God according to this verse. Is I give my body.

Another picture of it in the Old Testament is in Leviticus chapter 1. It's called the burnt offering. A man would bring a bullock as a burnt offering. Not a sin offering. The sin offering was different.

You read that in Leviticus chapter 5 and 6. But in Leviticus 1 it's a burnt offering. Which is an offering of gratitude to God. For all that he's done for me. In view of the mercies of God. Like it says here.

I offer a burnt offering to God. Sin offering is separate. And if I brought a bullock as an Old Testament Israelite. I could not put the bullock on that altar. I had to cut it into pieces. And small. Part by part by part.

Now you wonder why God did that. Because in any case that bullock is going to be finally burnt. As a sacrifice to God. Why in the world take the trouble of cutting it up? Because everything in the Old Testament had a meaning.

And it was symbolic of what was fulfilled in the New Testament. That when I give this offering of my body to God. Is the equivalent of that Old Testament burnt offering. Jesus offered his body to the father as a burnt offering.

Throughout his life. His body was on the altar for the father. And later on he gave his body as a sin offering. And it was not as a full bullock as I said. It had to be part by part. Teaching us that when we give our body to God.

It must be part by part. Then only it becomes meaningful. It is very easy to say. God I give you my body. Hang on. Let's go part by part. Cut it up. Lord I give you my eyes. My eyes have looked at many things.

That have dishonored you. My eyes have lusted. My eyes have greedily looked at other people's property. And wished I had it. My eyes have greedily looked at a car somebody else has. And said wish I had a car like that.

Or a house like that. My eyes have made me sin for years. My eyes have read things I should never have read. My eyes have looked at pictures and billboards and magazine pictures. I should never have looked at.

Lord today I am taking those eyes and putting them on the altar. This is my offering in view of the mercies of God. Okay. Let's go to some other part of our body. Lord I give you my hands. God only you and I and the devil know.

The number of sins I have committed with my hands. You, me and the devil. Knows the number of sins I have committed with my hands. But no more Lord. I keep my hands on the altar. I am not giving you 10 of my money.

I am giving you something more valuable than that. My hands. In view of your mercies. Let these hands never ever do anything that will dishonor you. Let me never commit a sin again with my hands. That will dishonor you.

There are Christians who slap their wives with these hands. I am amazed that people do such things. Lord and many other sins. Sexual sins. And letters that are written to hurt people. Lord I have done all that with these hands but no more.

I offer my hands to you. And then Lord my tongue. Oh what a lot of sins I have committed with my tongue. I have acted as if my tongue is my own. But in view of the mercies of God today I am laying it on the altar.

I give my tongue to you. By the mercies of God present your bodies a living sacrifice. Sacrifice means there is something painful about it. There is something I have to deny. There are many things I like to talk with my tongue Lord.

But I am going to control it a little more now. By the power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says no man can tame the tongue. The Bible says in James chapter 3 that men have tamed lions and snakes. And all types of wild animals that nobody can tame the tongue.

But the Holy Spirit can. So Lord I give you my tongue. I never want to say words that will hurt others from now on. And not just negatively but I want to use my tongue. For the glory of God from now on.

Here is my tongue Lord and here are my ears. Oh the eagerness these years have had to listen to gossip. To listen to juicy stories, evil stories about other people. How I have delighted in hearing them.

No more Lord these years are on the altar. I don't want to use these years anymore for sinful things. I want to keep them for you. And when somebody does come and say something bad I want to be like a deaf person.

That I don't even hear it. And that it goes out of my mind immediately. My ears and Lord there are passions in my body. I love food. My stomach has been my God for many years. Now Lord I lay that stomach on the altar.

I am not going to worship food anymore. I am not going to worship my stomach. I lay my stomach on the altar for the glory of God. I want to eat to live not live to eat. I want to give my stomach to you.

I want to give my other passions in my body to you. I lay them on the altar. It's all yours Lord. This body is for you. If I had to just say Lord take my body. I would fool myself that I have given it to you.

But when I go part by part. That's why God said the bullock must be cut part by part. It was a picture of how we are supposed to give our body part by part to God. Then we know we don't fool ourselves.

Then we know whether we have really given our body to God or not. And that's why God asked us to do it like that. So that every part of our body which is supposed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit is given to God.

And that's why we should not have habits that ruin this body in any way. That's why we shouldn't be smoking cigarettes that destroy our lungs and we die early. That's why we shouldn't be drinking alcohol that destroys our liver.

And that can kill you early. I mean even if you die 6 months earlier than you are supposed to die because you drank alcohol. You'd say well I lived 75 years and I died 6 months earlier. Does it matter?

Sure it matters. Because God may have had a plan for you to do in those last 6 months of your life. Which got nullified because you killed your liver with alcohol. And I don't want to do that. I don't want to have a habit that destroys me.

Disciplineing the Body for God's Service

In 1 Corinthians in chapter 9, Paul said, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, he says, I buffet my body, verse 27, and make it my slave. Otherwise I can preach to others and be disqualified myself. Paul recognized he had to give his body to God.

And the Living Bible paraphrase of that is beautiful. 1 Corinthians 9 .27. Listen, I make my body do what it should do and not what it wants to do. Got it? That's a paraphrase and it's an actual meaning of that verse.

I buffet my body means I make my body do what it should do. Not what it wants to do. My body wants to do a lot of things. You're like your children want to do a lot of things. Do you allow your little children to do whatever they want?

No, you say, I make my children do what they should do, not what they want to do. Well, it says we got to deal with our body in exactly the same way. And this is our goal. If you can say with Paul, I make my body by the power of the Holy Spirit to do what it should do, not what it wants to do.

My eyes, my ears, my tongue, my hands, my bodily passions, my desire for food, everything. I make it do what it should do. Desire for sleep. We all need sleep. But if I'm lazy and sleep much longer than I should be sleeping, I could miss God's will.

I've said to people, you know, we have four Bible studies on our website. They're all free for downloading and listening to. One is called basic Christian teachings. 72 studies of about 12 minutes each on the basic principles of the early part of the Christian life.

And then we have another study which is called 70 hours through the Bible, which gives you an overview of the whole Bible, which is in this book. And the other is all that Jesus taught. 80 studies of about 25 to 27 minutes each.

And then we have another study which is about 300 or 400 hours of verse by verse through the New Testament from Genesis 1 to the last verse of Revelation. And I've said if you can spend a half an hour every day, that's all, just 30 minutes.

If you think it's worth spending 30 minutes to study the Bible, I said in three years you can complete all of this and you'll know more of the Bible than people who go to Bible college and Bible schools.

Is it worth getting up half an hour earlier? Or going to bed a half an hour later? It doesn't matter if you miss one or two days or a few days here and there, you can still complete it in three years.

Are you willing to make your body do what it should do and not what it wants to do? Think of how effective your life can be for God in three years from now if you do it. Especially you young people, when you're single, this is the time to do it.

Your life can be of such tremendous usefulness to God or it can be wasted just because you wanted that extra half an hour of sleep every day. You're not going to die if you wake up 30 minutes earlier.

You're not going to die if you sleep 30 minutes later. Think of how useful you could be to God. Present your body, a living sacrifice. This is the New Testament equivalent of tithing. Why is it people prefer to tithe?

I'll tell you. Supposing I were to give you a choice. Supposing God were to give you a choice. Okay, here are two options. One, give me your eyes, never to read, never to look at, never to lust after anything which is contrary to God's will.

Give me your tongue that you'll never speak one word that will dishonor God or that will hurt anybody or one angry word or any such thing. Give me your ears that you'll never listen to gossip and never listen to things that hurt other people.

Give me your desire for food that you'll keep it under control. Give me your desire for sleep that you'll keep it under control. Either all that or alternatively, give me 10 of your income. Say, Lord, here's 10 of my income.

Don't trouble me with all these other things. Isn't it much easier to give 10 of your income? Much easier. The devil says, give 10%. We choose the easy route and pastors know that. That's not what God's asking for.

He's asking for your body. In view of the mercies of God, present your... This is your worship in the spirit. And Jesus said to the devil, he quoted the scripture where he said, Thou shalt worship and then thou shalt serve.

If you serve without worshipping, your service is worthless. The reason why many, many people, their service for God is not anointed is because they haven't worshipped first. They sing praise and thanksgiving.

Praise and thanksgiving is good. I so much appreciate what we have today now. Praise and thanksgiving. I'm really excited when I... when before I speak, the singing of praise and thanksgiving is so inspired by the Holy Spirit that it lifts me up.

It's to me like it's the first stage of the rocket. You know when the rockets go to the moon, it goes through two stages. The first stage is where it goes through the 150 miles of where gravity pulls it down and it shoots past that or whatever number of miles it is.

Because there it has to struggle against gravity while it's going up that rocket. But once it goes out of the pull of gravity, it just shoots off towards the moon or Mars or anywhere. And a wonderful spirit of praise and thanksgiving before the speaker has to speak, if it is really inspired of the Holy Spirit, for me anyway, it's like being thrown out of the pull of gravity and can take off full speed.

And this evening it was like that. And I've been sometimes in praise and thanksgiving meetings like that. I've also been in some dead praise and thanksgiving meetings where it's like they dig a hole in the ground and it gets deeper and deeper and I have to work my way all the way up from there before I start reaching.

I've been in dead singing times like that as well. And I struggle to come to ground level, leave alone take off beyond the pull of gravity. So I believe in a spirit of praise and thanksgiving that should liberate us.

I'm all for that. But worship is something different. Present your body as a living sacrifice to God. That is your worship in the spirit. And when you worship in the spirit, you can serve. Thou shalt worship and thou shalt serve.

You shall not serve without worshipping. And worshipping is to present our whole body and everything to God saying, Lord, I have no right on this body. I have no right to do anything. This body has been purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross.

The Body as the Temple of the Holy Spirit

Very many people ask for healing. Good. God wants to heal us. I'm not saying that we'll be healed of all sicknesses like and be forgiven of all sins. There's no promise. There are many, many promises about forgiveness of sins.

But there is no promise saying that all your sicknesses can be healed. I wish there were. But in God's great wisdom it is not there in the New Testament. Even in the Old Covenant Elisha was sick. The greatest prophet Elisha was sick of a sickness with which he died.

You read in 2 Kings 13. So even some of those godly men died of sicknesses. So even though in the Old Testament the Lord said I am the Lord your healer. So we shouldn't be mechanical in our understanding of healing.

But when you present your body to the Lord it's amazing how the Lord will keep you. You know there's something better than healing? It's called health. Prevention is better than cure. Health is better than healing.

And if God can keep you in health that's a wonderful thing. I don't pray for healing. I pray for health. And in God's great goodness He's given me health for 76 years. I never had to go to hospital for a sickness.

Don't I have to be thankful for that? That's God's goodness. It's not anything I can take credit in. Because I say Lord I want my body to be fit to serve you. I don't want my body to make money. I'm not here to live to make money or to get honor or any such thing.

My body is for God. Give your body to God. Completely. There are many many advantages and blessings that come from that. Which means also I would add to this that if you give your body to God you've got to control your appetite.

Because the Bible speaks about certain people whose God is their stomach. Turn with me to Philippians in chapter 3. Here it's speaking about pressing on to God's highest purpose. There's some wonderful passages in Philippians 3.

You know Paul says, follow my example. We saw that. What is his example? I make my body do what it should do and not what it wants to do. He says follow my example in Philippians 3 .17. He also says, I've not yet attained, verse 12, or become perfect, but I press toward the mark.

There's one thing I do in my life. Philippians 3 and verse 13 and 14. I press toward the mark for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I want to become like Christ completely. Now follow my example verse 17, Philippians 3 .17.

And look at other people who are also walking like me. Follow their example. Because I want to tell you there are some other people who are enemies who walk in a different way. They are enemies of the cross of Christ.

And what is one mark of these enemies of the cross of Christ? You would think they are blaspheming against Christ. They are the enemies of the cross of Christ. No, no, no. It's not something as terrible as that.