Finishing the Course - 09 the Holy Spirit Frees Us From Legalism — Zac Poonen

I want to read a verse in Galatians in chapter 5. I tell you quite frankly that one of the things that has burdened me through many years and even even after the conference is over and seeing and observing many things and many people not only in CFC, but in our other churches and meeting and hearing and talking to them.

Legalism and the Failure to Overcome Sin

I am surprised that after so many years of hearing about legalism and living under the law there are so many, many, many believers even in our midst who are still legalistic, living under the law. Some of the most common marks of that is that they are not able to overcome sin in their life.

There is no peace in their home. And they are very hard on other people, very judgmental. These are some of the common characteristics of being legalistic and under law and I was seeking God about what is the reason for this.

I have come to the conclusion, it says here in Galatians 5, that the only way to be free from the law is like it says here in Galatians 5 18. If you're led by the Spirit then you're not under the law.

So if I try to be free from the law, I won't be free from the law. I can hear a message on legalism and not being hard on others or overcoming sin and I'll never be free. You know, I, if you look at the law as something I've got to get rid of.

I try to get rid of it. I don't get rid of it. It's like the man who cast out a demon and cleansed his heart. He ends up with eight demons, worse condition than before and this is one of the things I have observed in many people around the world in different groups who pursue holiness.

They are in the pursuit of holiness, they become so hard and so bitter and so judgmental of other people and self-righteous and sour and hard to get along with and it seems as though the more religion they have the harder they become.

Religious Zeal and the Lust for Self-Righteousness

Now, that's because man is a religious creature by nature. The world, the maximum number of people in the world are not atheists. The maximum number of people in the world, more than 90 percent, I think in the world of maybe less than 5 percent atheists, more 95 percent have got some religion.

Where did they get that religion from? The first man who went to hell, Cain, was a very religious man. He was not an atheist and you find in all religions, you take all the main religions in the world, I mean Hinduism has got 1 billion and people and Muslims have got 1 billion people and Christians have got 1 billion people.

And you find in all these religions, there are fundamentalist forces who pursue their religion according to their understanding with great zeal and very often that religion hurts and harms other people and that is the clearest proof that that's false and now Christians may not hurt and harm other people with bombs and grenades and things like that, but boy, the amount of hurt and harm, a lot of Christians you know, impose and give to other people through their words, their attitudes and their judgments is pretty bad.

And I can only say that how did so many 95 percent of the world become religious? It's just because, you know, in our flesh there are certain lusts that are common to all people in the world. Sexual lust, that's universal.

Love of money, it's universal. To seek our own, that's universal. To be selfish, it's universal. To judge other people, that's universal. Every religion, these are certain universal characteristics and to be religious, to go to some place of worship, to deny myself something, to sacrifice something in order to please some God, I imagine is very happy with my sacrifice.

That's a universal feeling and if you're born in a Christian family, you'll do that in a Christian way. You're born in some other family, you do that in that heathen way. That's all. Man's a religious creature.

Now, I want to say this, my brothers and sisters, that if we don't, just like we hate those other lusts, you know, lust for immorality and greed and covetousness, there is a religious lust also we have to crucify.

If you don't crucify it, you'll just become a religious person. It'll be very legalistic. The thing is, we don't think of this religious lust as something to be crucified. Those other things are dirty.

We know, oh, we got to get rid of that. But this looks very similar to Christianity and it is. That's why Jesus said to his disciples, you know, the time will come when people will kill you and think that they are serving God thereby.

Imagine that people can be so zealous and to kill another person and it actually happened. Some of the great names in history like Martin Luther, John Calvin, are names which are highly respected by a lot of Christians.

But history tells us that they sanctioned the death of other believers. These great men. How is that? How is people who could understand so much truth about being justified by faith, all that, and who stood against the Roman Catholic Church, yet sanctioned the death of other poor people who would not take infant baptism, but said I want to be baptized as a believer and who stood against state power, things like that, you know.

We can say, oh, well, that's those people were like that. But I want to say this, my brothers and sisters, that the Bible says the whole law, it says here right here in verse 14, the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you don't love your neighbor as yourself, you'll bite and devour one another and then one day you'll be consumed by one another. Now the only way to be saved from this is like it says in the next verse, walk in the Spirit.

Be led by the Spirit, verse 18, and then you won't be under the law. It's a wonderful thing to be led by the Holy Spirit, to live, to walk in the Holy Spirit means to walk in health. Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, freedom from all condemnation, all sense of guilt.

It's wonderful, the Holy Spirit. What the Holy Spirit brings, He brings to us the peace of God. The Bible says the Holy Spirit brings to us righteousness, peace, and joy. It brings the kingdom of God into our hearts.

You know when Jesus once was, He told some people, He says there are some people standing here who won't die till they see the kingdom of God come in power. He said that thing is Mark 9 verse 1 and that happened on the day of Pentecost.

Some of them died, but there were some people standing there who saw the kingdom of God come in power, 120 of them, on the day of Pentecost and see the kingdom of God is most perfectly found in heaven.

And that kingdom of God came into the hearts of 120 people through the Holy Spirit. And I see that that is what the Holy Spirit came to bring, that righteousness and peace and joy that is found in heaven, not the righteousness that is found on the earth.

Very important to see that. A righteousness which is totally coupled with peace and joy. That's the mark of walking in the Spirit. Otherwise we can have a righteousness which is of the law and Paul says in Philippians in chapter 3, for many years he had the righteousness of the law and it made him a murderer.

It made him hate people who didn't agree with him. And there were usually, I mean people like Stephen who Paul agreed to be stoned to death. Imagine stoning a young 25 year old man who is stoned and you stand there and support that whole thing.

How can you do it as a Christian? You know what all Christians have done through the years to other Christians? Hurt them. The Bible says in Romans 13, love never does any harm to its neighbor. Let's not think of people who have stoned other people.

Love, the Holy Spirit, and Genuine Repentance

I want to say to you husbands and wives, when you speak a rude word to your wife or husband, you are under the law. You can say whatever you like. I don't care what tongues you speak in, you're under the law.

You are not baptized in the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest deceptions in the world today is people who speak in tongues and think they are baptized in the Holy Spirit. It's one of the masterpieces of Satan that he's worked in charismatic Pentecostal circles.

Speak in tongues, you're baptized in the Holy Spirit. No, you walk in love, you're baptized in the Holy Spirit and you also speak in tongues. That's okay. But if you don't walk in love, it is some other spirit without a doubt.

You're like these people who you know, they can hurt one another and harm one another and still think they are new covenant Christians and they don't judge them. So the sad part, as I've often said through 25 years, the sad part is not that you fall into sin.

The sad part is not that you fall into anger. The sad part is that after you fall, you don't weep. That's the sad part. That after you speak that rude word, you don't weep, you don't apologize. That is the sad part.

The falling, okay, you fell. You can slip on a banana peel and fall. That's okay. But do you get up? Do you repent? Do you weep? Do you ask forgiveness immediately from the person you harmed? Do you want a diagnosis?

You are under the law. You never knew that, right? You are. And as long as you remain like that, you'll never know this wonderful life in the Holy Spirit. I never knew. Even after we started as a church, I must say that for so many years we were under it.

We had some influence input from some brothers from Europe and it brought such a legalistic heavy spirit of guilt and condemnation. It was a righteousness of the law, but I thank God I'm free from it now.

I'm free. My life has become so liberated and I don't spend my time judging other people now. I have enough to do judging myself. I've really tasted something of what it means when it says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

You can't get me to have a grudge in my heart against you. It's impossible. You can't get me to the place where I won't look at you or I won't talk to you. No. Those are all fellas under the law. I had enough of that.

I've spent years with that miserable type of existence of being depressed, gloomy, judging others, being hard on others. I did it. I'm free from it. I want to encourage you to walk in the Spirit and allow the Spirit of God to fill your heart with love.

Righteousness by Faith Rather Than Human Merit

Love, you know, the way God loves us. It says here in Philippians 3. He says, I don't, I want to be found in Christ, verse 9, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law. He says, I don't want to stand before God one day and have any bit of that righteousness which is of my own.

You know, when Adam covered himself with fig leaves, God didn't put the coat of skin on top of the fig leaves. No, I hope you know that. He said, Adam, throw away those fig leaves. I'll give you something better.

It was not the fig leaves plus the coat of skin like some of us have. We want the righteousness of Christ plus something of our own righteousness. We've got to throw it away. Paul says, I don't want it.

I don't want any of that righteousness, which is from the law. I want that which has come. I don't want any fig leaves, he says in verse 9. I want 100 that coat of skin through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

And I'll tell you something, wherever I meet someone like that, it's very easy to fellowship with that person. It's very easy to fellowship with a person who has no righteousness of his own. It's very difficult to fellowship with a person who has some righteousness of their own.

Paul said, I don't want an atom of my own righteousness. A man for 30 years, he had only his own righteousness, and it was a very, very good righteousness. And he says, no, I don't want a scrap of it.

I believe that I could have easily fellowshiped with Paul. Though he was very, very radical, I think I'd have had wonderful fellowship with him because the man had no righteousness of his own. And through the years I found in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and even in CFC Bangalore, there are some people with whom it's very easy to fellowship because they have no righteousness of their own.

And there are some people, they come here, they come here for 25 years, but it's so difficult for me to fellowship with them because they have some righteousness of their own. They've got the righteousness of Christ, but they also want their little fig leaves.

I say, well, what can I do? And these are the people who don't come to victory over sin. These are the people who, husbands and wives who yell at each other at home and then come to the church and judge other people.

They are the number one people to judge the young people. Why are they like this? And why are they like that? Go and see what is the condition of their homes. Pathetic. But they don't judge themselves.

They are ready to judge other people. They've got a righteousness of their own. Very difficult fellowship. They're so religious. They pray so much and they let everybody know how much they pray and read the Bible and they speak such holy things.

It's very difficult to fellowship with them. The devil has done a tremendous work in deceiving such people that they are spiritual. I want to say to all of you, ask God to show you whether you're really led by the Holy Spirit or you have a righteousness of your own.

How do we know whether we have a righteousness of our own? We judge people by our standards. That's one of the clear ways. A man who's got no righteousness of his own has nothing to judge other people by.

And if you got zero out of a hundred, whom can you judge in your class? If you got ten, you can judge the fellow who got five or three or two or one. But if you got zero, you're at the bottom. That's what it means.

To have no righteousness of our own means that I got zero. You know the story of the people who worked for 12 hours in the day? They got a hundred and they looked at these other fellows who came and worked at the last one hour who got only eight.

They say, you're not equal to us. We got a hundred, you got eight. And those fellows who got eight, that means they worked only for one hour out of twelve. That's what I mean, eight percent. And the other fellows worked for 12 hours.

Those fellows got the reward first. They didn't judge anybody. Have you noticed that? The fellows who worked for one hour in that story in Matthew 20? They looked at this chap here. He's better than me.

He's worked for three hours. They look at another fellow that side. He's better than me. He's worked for six hours. They look at somebody over there. He's better than me. He's worked for nine hours. They look at somebody else here.

He's worked for 12 hours. Oh, where am I? I'm lost. Blessed are such people who can look at other people in the church and say they're better than me. But thank God I've got the righteousness of Christ.

So I have no condemnation. I'm not here to show I'm better than you. I'm not here to be disturbed if God makes you equal to me or superior to me. Because I have no righteousness of my own to boast about.

You examine yourselves and be honest my brothers and sisters and be honest and you will see that you have a righteousness of your own to boast about and that's why the Holy Spirit passes you by. And you can sing as much as you like, pass me not, oh gentle Savior, hear my humble cry.

But he will pass you by because he always passes by those who have a righteousness of their own and usually proud of it. It's the way you look at other people that you know whether you have a righteousness of your own.

When you judge other people by your standards. Let me show you another example of that in Romans chapter 14. In Romans chapter 14 we read of one of the most wonderful chapters in Romans. Romans is a letter that's explaining the gospel.

Romans: From Sin and Justification to Life in the Spirit

It starts with people in sin, worldly people in chapter 1, religious people in chapter 2, and then it says in chapter 3 both are sinners. It says salvation is by grace. And it goes on from there how we are justified by faith in chapter 5.

We get victory over sin in chapter 6. We break free from the law in chapter 7. We live in the Holy Spirit chapter 8. We see God's sovereignty in chapter 9 and God's righteousness in chapter 10 and God's faithfulness in chapter 11.

And then in chapter 12 it says present your body and you can become one body with the others and the gifts of the Holy Spirit in chapter 12. He's talking about there's all the gospel. How we finally get built as a body exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit in chapter 12.

And then he says how the Christian must live in society submitting to authority in chapter 13 and then it comes to this. We are reaching the pinnacle. We are reaching the absolute pinnacle of the temple of God and that is how we treat one another.

That's what it comes to in chapter 14 and the conclusion of chapter 14 in is in chapter 15 verse 7. Accept one another just as Christ has accepted us to the glory of God. You see a man who's got some righteousness of his own.

He cannot accept another person like Christ accepted him. The man who's worked for 12 hours cannot accept that person who's worked for one hour as his equal. Can you accept a newborn brother, a burned person who was born again, a sister, a brother who was born again just last week.

Can you treat that person as an equal? Where can you do it? Some of us who got a few gray hairs here. You can't even treat a young brother as your equal. You got this crazy stupid Indian idea that old age means I am to be respected.

Garbage! Garbage! A lot of people with gray hair who got no humility. No fear of God, but they got a conceited opinion about themselves. That's about all. They want all the other young people to respect them and that's why they have no ministry.

I want to be at the level of the young people all my life. I want to be the level of the children. I don't want to have any righteousness of mine. I don't want to have any seniority of my own. I don't want to think I'm 63 and the other fellow is 16.

No! I am at his level. I wish a day will come when everybody in CFC will feel like that. We're not like that right now. We're all some of us feel little senior, superior because of age or seniority or some righteousness or some way in which we are better than others and the end result is we don't feel the others are equal to us.

We worked for 12 hours. We have lived on earth for 60 years. That's like working for 12 hours. How can this fellow who's six years old be equal to me? He is brother, sister. I'm sorry to surprise you.

The kingdom of God's got different rules from the kingdom of earth and you better get used to it. Otherwise, you won't get into God's kingdom in heaven. The kingdom of God is going to bring the values of heaven down down to earth.

When we get to heaven, supposing Jesus were to come right now and take us into his kingdom, do you really believe that I'll be senior to you? You may think I'm senior to you now because I'm older, I've been a believer a longer time or I've got a ministry.

But the moment God's kingdom comes, you know, I'll be equal to you. Well, I'm already in God's kingdom. I've already reached there. And so I consider you equal to me right now. And if you cannot consider another brother equal to you, you cannot consider another sister equal to you, you are under the law.

And that is one of the fundamental reasons why you don't get victory over your anger. And that's one of the fundamental reasons why you can't get overcome the lust of your eyes. Take the diagnosis if you like.

The Servant Spirit and the Rejection of Spiritual Superiority

It's so difficult. I'll tell you it is so difficult to consider other people equal to us. And yet that's how salvation came. He who was above everybody came beneath everybody. To become the servant of everyone.

That is the first and fundamental law of salvation. God so loved the world that he, that Jesus so loved the world that he humbled himself and became the servant of all. I've seen people who get a little bit of the knowledge of the scriptures, expert, make everybody feel small because of their tremendous knowledge of the scriptures.

They can quote this verse, they can quote that verse and they can talk on any subject under the sun and they make everybody sit there feel small and the next meeting they make them even feel smaller. You think these people are servants of Jesus Christ?

Rubbish! They may know the Bible thoroughly just like the devil and they are servants of the devil. Any brother who makes another person feel small, let me tell you, is a servant of the devil. I don't care what he's preaching.

He may be preaching new covenant truth. You can preach new covenant truth in a way that you make other people feel small, you're a servant of the devil. Where do we know how to hide? Jesus said when you fast, anoint your face.

Don't let people know that you fasted. If you know the Bible, don't let people know that you know it. Anoint your face, hide it. True Christian life is a hidden life. Where you don't let people know your spirituality.

You don't let people know how much God has used you. You don't let people know how much you pray, how much you fast. You don't let people know how many demons you cast out. You don't let people know how much more of the Bible you know than them.

You are, you encourage them to share something that they know with you. Now you can hear a message like this and say okay, I'm gonna practice that. You know, this is the legalistic man. He's gonna practice making other people feel important.

His whole life is law. He's heard one more law on Sunday morning in CFC, make other feel, he's already got about 2 ,000 laws, this is 2001, make other people feel important. So he says yes brother, I'd like to hear from you.

And you can see by his attitude, he's a snob. He's a benefactor. He's not a servant. He's just following law number 2001, which says make the other fellow feel important. Please tell me I'd like to hear from you.

I'll tell you something. You cannot put on an act in the life in the Holy Spirit. You can hear one more truth and make it law 2002 and think you're spiritual. Any spiritual fellow can see through you.

You have to be filled with the Holy Spirit. There's no other way. There is no other way. Any number of fig leaves will not cover your nakedness. Dumb blind people may be able to be fooled by you, but not a spiritual man.

You'll see through you. To be under the law, Romans 14 says, accept the one who is weak. That means give a warm welcome to this brother who's got a completely different opinion from you and don't pass judgment on his opinions.

Can you accept a person who is born again whom Christ has accepted without passing judgment on his opinions? Don't pass judgment on his opinions. His faith is weak. He doesn't do certain things that you do.

Don't judge. You know, it says even concerning one man regards one day above another, verse 5. First of all, it speaks about vegetables. Some people are vegetarians. Verse 2, another person eats meat.

Don't despise a person because he eats something different from you. He talks only about two things here, eating different things and celebrating different days. He said, these are not important. You don't have to be vegetarian like him.

No, that's not the message of this. The message is not because he's vegetarian, you become vegetarian. No. You eat meat as much as you like, but don't judge that man and the man who is a vegetarian, don't judge the fellow who's eating meat.

The kingdom of God is not eating and drinking. In the same way, it says here, one man regards one day above another, verse 5. Another man regards every day alike. You know, I have never had a problem with people who celebrate Christmas, never.

So long as they don't force me to do it. But I know some people who are against Christmas, who have a tremendous problem with other people who celebrate it. You know why? Because these fellows who don't celebrate Christmas are under the law.

What is their law? Their law is thou shalt, law number 1006, thou shalt not celebrate Christmas. I don't have a law like that. I don't have any law. I'm living in the spirit. Life is wonderful. If somebody wants to celebrate Christmas, go ahead and do it.

And if he says to me, Merry Christmas, I don't turn my face away. I say, God bless you, brother. I can't say Merry Christmas because I don't believe in it, but I'm not against him. That's his way of showing his expression of gratitude to me.

Somebody called me up on Christmas Day and said, Mr. Poonen, Merry Christmas to you. He was a Hindu man. I said, yeah, God bless you. Doesn't disturb me one bit. Can you accept a person? Are you such a religious snob who thinks you've got it all right yourself?

You don't realize your stinking pride is worse than celebrating 10 ,000 Christmases. It's worse than celebrating Diwali and Ganesh Puja and everything put together. Your stinking pride. But you don't see it.

You don't see it because your laws don't talk about pride. Your laws talk only about Christmas. I haven't changed my view on it. My view has always been the same the last more than 30 years. But the point is, I have learned to accept people who have a different view.

One man celebrates a day. Okay. I don't celebrate it. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. It could be in so many things. It could be in celebrating birthdays. It could be celebrating Christmas Day.

It could be celebrating Easter or anything. One man celebrates, another man doesn't. I say, let each follow his own conviction. Let every man be fully convinced in his own mind and don't judge the other.

Who are you worse for? To judge the servant of another. Think of that. Do you ever go to somebody else's home? Supposing you're visiting a home. And you see the servant in that home has not cleaned the floor properly.

You're visiting somebody else's home, remember. And you're sitting talking to that person in the home, and then you call and say, call the servant here. I want to ask why he has not cleaned this floor properly.

Anybody so stupid sitting here? I don't think anybody's so stupid. But that's exactly what we do when you judge someone who belongs to the Lord. He's not your servant. And when you judge him, you're going into the Lord's house and calling one of the servants say, hey, why are you like this?

Why do you eat this? Why do you celebrate this day? Why do you dress like this? Whose house are you? Is this your house? Sorry, brother, sister. This is not your house. It's not my house. It's the Lord's house.

Please leave his servants alone. He knows how to take care of his servants without you putting your dirty hands in his work. I believe we can be tremendously saved if we can just learn the simple lesson to mind our own business.

God can judge that person. It says here, to his own master he stands or falls. And if one master says, that's okay. I mean, I'm not bothered if this servant hasn't swept the floor properly. He's such a wonderful servant in 10 ,000 other areas.

So, I'll say to you, please leave my servant alone. Can you please leave my servant alone? I can handle him. That's what God will say to you. When you judge another brother for something or another sister, he'll say, you holy person.

And you know, the Lord's being sarcastic when he calls you a holy person. Can you leave my servant alone? Can you please leave my servant alone and mind your own business? And you say, no. I've got something more to tell him.

You better be careful. The Lord will throw you out of his house. There are some manners in God's house and very simple manners. Just leave his servants alone. You go home and deal with your servants. When you come to the Lord's house, leave the Lord's servants alone.

Legalism, Humility, and the Burden of Religious Performance

Do you know? This is the way I believe many, many Christians are still under the law. They haven't come to this wonderful life in the spirit. Why is it, for example, that it's so difficult for God to bless a person and keep him humble?

If he was living in the spirit, no matter how much God blessed him, he would be more and more humble. That's all. But I have found through the years, when God blesses a person, it goes to their head. I know people who, when they first came to the church, you know, they knew nothing.

They were so humbled and God blessed them. Traveled in ministry here and there. God used them, his service. Different churches were blessed and it went to their heads and then God has to push them down.

And now they're sitting quietly in some churches. People who were once elders of churches, because it was too much for them. I know people who came to CFC who are poor, so little. They were in debt. They were humble.

Then God blessed them. It went to their heads. And I found usually it goes more to the head of the wife than to the head of the man. The man somehow can handle it, but it's very difficult for a woman to handle God blessing her.

Particularly financially. It really goes to their head and they they become a stink in the house of God, but they don't realize it. There are a lot of people whose body odor stinks like anything, but they don't themselves don't realize it.

It's exactly like that spiritually. There are people who stink spiritually and they don't realize it themselves. A spiritual man can spell it at a distance. Just the way they look. The way they walk. There's something about legalism that makes a person so obnoxious, you know.

It's difficult to be to fellowship with such a person. And that's why worldly people say, I don't want to be a saint. Some of them are so hard to get along with. I want to have some friends at the end of my life.

I don't want to be a saint. Isn't that sad? The impression people have of saintly people. You'll never have any friends then. You'll just turn everybody away with your legalism. You know, let me tell you something I've read about in the 1960s.

There was a movement among the hippies in America called the Jesus people movement. These were people who were hippies, who had come out of rich homes and were on drugs and all types of immorality. And they had long hair and all kinds of funny dresses.

They never wore any shoes. They walked barefoot and with torn jeans and and then some of them got converted. Really converted. But when they got converted, they never got rid of their torn jeans. And they never got rid of their long hair and they never started wearing shoes.

They just loved Jesus. And I tell you they loved Jesus a lot more than some of these other prim proper people who went to all the dead churches in the United States. And I remember hearing this story in one of David Wilkerson's tapes.

He says how this is way back in the 60s. He was invited once to speak to one group of these hippie converts. They invited him. They heard of his work among the drug addicts and invited him to speak to them.

He was a young man and he got there and spoke to them and told them. He said, see next time when you're coming, by the time you come to the next meeting, get a haircut and put some proper clothes and wear some shoes and come.

That was his understanding of Christianity. You can't follow Jesus unless you get a haircut. I mean they can accept Jesus with the long hair, but not his followers. Jesus probably walked with sandals, but you got to wear shoes.

Anyway, David Wilkerson said that. This is his own testimony. And he says after the meeting was over, some of the elders of this movement came to him. They didn't criticize him. They loved Jesus so much.