Speaking the Truth By Our Life — Zac Poonen

Grace and Truth Through Jesus Christ

I want to turn first of all to John chapter one, verse 14. We are told here that the glory of God was seen in Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. We've spoken a lot about grace in CFC, in New Covenant churches, but we need to think a little more about this word truth.

In John 1, 17, three verses down, it says the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. So does it mean there was no truth in the time of Moses? There was no truth among people in the Old Covenant or that the Old Testament did not contain truth?

The Old Testament is full of truth. There's no light in all those pages of the Old Testament, which is three quarters of our Bible. So what does it mean that truth came through Jesus Christ? It's very important to understand.

Whenever you come across a verse in the Bible that you don't understand, you must dig in there and say, I'm not gonna give up till I understand that. Otherwise, you'll be like a farmer who's plowing his field, and whenever he comes across a rock, he says, well, I won't dislodge that, let it be there.

After a while, his whole farm will be full of rocks. But a good farmer will just dislodge every single rock and get it out of the way and plow every part of the field so that he can get a good crop. So if you wanna get a good crop, whenever you come across a difficult verse in the New Testament or something that you don't understand, see, if you just read the New Testament, you won't discover this.

But if you do what the Psalm 1 says, blessed is the man who meditates on God's word day and night. We can't read day and night, we're not supposed to. We've got plenty of other things to do. But it's a wonderful thing that we read just once in a day, perhaps, and we can meditate the whole day.

At night too, in the middle of the night, if you wake up. So that's the wonderful thing about God's word that we can acquire truth even when we are not actually having a Bible in front of us. In fact, for 1 ,400 years, nobody had a Bible after the day of Pentecost.

So when we come across a word like this truth, we need to ask ourselves, why is it say that truth came only through Jesus Christ? Obviously, it means much more than what we understand as yes and no. But the New Testament speaks a lot about truth, and it's very important for us to understand that word.

The Devil as the Father of Lies

The opposite of truth is lie. And let's look a little bit at that. John chapter eight. Here Jesus says in John chapter eight and verse 44, in the middle of that verse, it says about the devil. In fact, the whole verse is about the devil.

The devil, he says to those Pharisees, your father, John 8, 44, he was a murderer. And there is no truth in him. The devil's got no truth in him. Jesus is full of truth, and the devil's got no truth in him.

So these are two opposites. And whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he's a liar and the father of lies. So remember that the devil is the father of all lies, not the father of all liars, the father of all lies.

We're not liars, we're children of God. But do children of God tell lies? Do you ever tell a lie? That doesn't make you a child of the devil there. But whenever you, if you look back over your life, and whenever you told a lie, and your motive was to deceive, the devil was the father of that.

You may have been the mother. The devil cannot produce a child without a mother. He's the father. So he's always looking for mothers through whom he can tell a lie. So please remember that anytime you tell a falsehood, you are being the mother, and the devil's being the father of a lie.

Now, there are times when we may not want to tell somebody the truth. And many times when we conceal something, then we prefer not to say anything. But it's a very serious thing to lie. And if we allow any of that to come into our system, there are gonna be serious consequences.

Hypocrisy as the Sin Jesus Most Rebuked

And I'll tell you what they are. In the teaching of Jesus, and what we read in the gospels, do you remember what is the sin that he rebuked and exposed the most? In the Old Testament, they had 10 commandments, and nine of them were all external.

That is, you don't worship idols, you don't take the Lord's name in vain, don't commit adultery, honor your father and mother, et cetera, et cetera. So, which is the number one sin that Jesus condemned?

He did say, out of the heart comes forth murders, adulteries, and all that. But when you think of what is it he spoke against the most, I would say it was hypocrisy. Because we got a whole chapter on that in Matthew 23.

He denounced the Pharisees, not for murder, not for adultery. He denounced them in that whole chapter for various forms of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is another form of lying, because it is basically giving people a wrong impression of my life.

That's a lie. It's presenting a lie, even though I don't open my mouth, you can tell a lie without opening your mouth. That is hypocrisy. And Jesus denounced that more than any other sin. There are two sins which I would say Jesus condemned the most.

One is lying, and the other is pride. And by lying, I mean hypocrisy and pride. The opposite of hypocrisy is reality. So truth means reality. And when it says grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, it's not speaking the truth.

All those Old Testament prophets spoke the truth, but reality, the reality of true spirituality could be possible only through the new covenant. And that was revealed only in the life of Christ. Even the Old Testament prophets did not have a total freedom from hypocrisy.

Jesus was the first person who walked on earth who was 100 free from hypocrisy. That's the meaning of truth was revealed by Jesus Christ. And in a number of places in the New Testament, we are told we have to love the truth.

Ananias and Sapphira: The First Church Sin

Let me show you the first sin that was committed, that's described anyway, in the early church after the day of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and there was tremendous power manifesting.

And the first sin described after that is in Acts chapter five. You know the story where Ananias and Sapphira, they didn't murder anybody, they didn't commit adultery, yet both of them died as a punishment.

God punished them with death, right in the midst of the church meeting, teaching the early church a very serious lesson. What was that lesson? Not that murder is serious or adultery is serious, because Ananias and Sapphira never did that.

And we need to understand what is it that the Lord emphasized to the early church right at the beginning. So Ananias just stood in line with all the others. It says in those days, people were selling their property and let's read Acts four and verse 34.

In the middle of that verse, those who owned lands and houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay it at the apostles' feet. And there was a man called Joseph, who later was called Barnabas, verse 36, who also brought all that he got from the sale of his land and laid it at the apostles' feet.

You know, people sold their land and whatever the money, they brought all of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. There was no command which said, you must sell your land or your house. They did it jointly.

There was no command that said, when you do sell your house, you must bring all of it and give it to the Lord. No, there was no such command either. Then, but it was a voluntary action. So Ananias and Sapphira stood in line with all the others and laid part of the money.

Let's assume they brought 50%. Now, if you sold a property for $100 ,000, your own property, and you brought $50 ,000 of that and gave it to God, I would say you're a wholehearted Christian. And where in the world do you find people giving 50 of their house sale money to the Lord?

I hardly ever heard of anybody like that. So if Ananias gave 50%, $50 ,000, we'd say he's a wholehearted Christian. Why in the world did he die then? It's not a question of how much you give. It's something we have emphasized constantly in our churches.

God is not looking to see how much you give. Is it 10 or was it only 9 or exactly 10 Was it before tax was deducted or after tax was deducted? A lot of people have these arguments. 10 before tax is deducted or after income tax is deducted.

All these things are covetous people. I put them all at rest by saying God wants zero. He doesn't want anything. He doesn't even want 1%. That's what we've taught all through the years because God loves a cheerful giver.

And if you can't give cheerfully, he doesn't want anything. So Ananias and Sapphira gave cheerfully. They're not reluctant. Nobody asked them to stand in line and give. And they gave 50%, let's assume.

And they brought a portion of it and laid it at the apostle's feet. And they never said a word. They laid it there and walked away. And as they walked away, Peter calls him back. Hey, Ananias, come back.

All the others were leaving their gifts and going away, but the Lord gave Peter discernment. And he said, Ananias, come back. Why have you told a lie? Did you hear that? Satan is the father of liars. I told you, but he always wants a mother.

And he found a mother in Ananias. And so it says in Acts 5 .3, Satan has filled your heart to produce a lie. Satan united with you to produce a child called a lie. But Ananias could have said, hey, I didn't even open my mouth.

What do you mean I told a lie? That's where we learned something. You can tell a lie without opening your mouth. You can come into the church and tell a lie without opening your mouth, without saying a word.

And if you understand that, it would be a great deliverance for you. And I'll tell you why in a little while, because that is the secret of being free from sin. Because later, you know, Jesus said in John 8, 32, you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

What is it that will set us free from sin? Truth. Which truth? Not two plus two is four, those elementary truths. No. It's the truth which eliminates hypocrisy from our life completely. That'll set you free.

And the reason I'll tell you this, honestly, I've seen it through many, many years, in all the years I've seen CFC churches for 46 years, that many, many brothers and sisters are not really free from sin because they have not battled lying.

They have not hated the lying of hypocrisy, the lying of pretense, the lying of coming into the church pretending that we are more spiritual than we really are. Pretending that we're wholehearted when we are not.

Pretending that we are giving everything when we're given only 50%. Maybe you and your wife know that, like Ananias and Sapphira know that. And if Peter were here, he would say this. Why has Satan filled your heart to tell a lie?

And like I said, Ananias could say, I never opened my mouth. All he did was stand in line with a bunch of wholehearted people who were giving everything and just giving an impression. Because I'm in this line, everybody will think I'm giving 100%.

And I can always say, well, I never opened my mouth. And I believe there are many, many brothers and sisters sitting in CFC churches where we emphasize wholeheartedness, emphasize victory. And they assume that because I'm a part of this church, because I'm associated with CFC, thank God, everybody will assume that I'm also wholehearted, but maybe you're not.

Why has Satan filled your heart to lie? And look what he told him. While the land remained unsold in Acts 5, 4, it was yours. Nobody asked you to sell your house. Nobody asked you to sell your land. And I would add to that saying, nobody's asked you to give 10%.

Nobody's asked you to give even 1 in the offering box. Where do we teach in CFC that you should give even 1 For 46 years, I have taught, you don't have to give anything. You must be detached from everything, possessing nothing.

But you don't have give, actually give anything to God, except what you voluntarily choose. But if you do give, don't pretend that you've given more. Don't pretend, especially in your life, that you're wholehearted when you're not.

And if you keep something for yourself, I wanna say to you, I wanna set you free, all of you. You are not sinning. Let me comfort you by saying, you're not sinning even if you give nothing to God in all your whole life.

Are you happy? And the second thing that Peter told Ananias was, after you sold it and you had, before you sold it, the house was yours. You didn't have to give it. It was entirely yours. After you sold the house and you had the cash, it was still yours, verse four.

Nobody asked you to give it all. And you could have given half or you can give it one fourth if you like. The one thing he gave instead of half, he said, oh, we'll just give you 25%. And he put 25 at Peter's feet.

And all he had to add was one sentence. Brother Peter, my wife and I did not feel that we should give 100 like the others. We feel we should give only 25%. You know what Peter said? Praise the Lord Ananias for your honesty that you did not pretend that you were giving all.

God will bless you mightily. He would have gone away alive, not only alive, but blessed by God because of what? Because he was truthful. Learn a very important lesson from the very first sin that is mentioned in the early church.

And he fell down and died immediately. And the people buried him immediately. They got rid of such people immediately in the early church. And after a while, his wife came along three hours later, verse seven, and Peter gave her a chance again to be truthful and asked her, did you sell the land for this price?

This time she spoke a lie. Yes, that was the price. It's amazing how many wives will stand by their husbands through thick and thin, go to hell with them, be a hypocrite with them, die with them. God created Eve to be a helper to Adam.

And I wanna say to all of you wives, you were created to be a helper to your husband. And if your husband is in some situation planning to tell a lie, I hope you will be the helper that God created you to be and tell him, darling, please don't do that.

Speak the truth. It doesn't matter if we have less money. It doesn't matter if we don't get that job, but I don't want you to tell a lie and get that job. I don't want you to get a lie and get that certificate.

I don't want you to tell a lie and get that job. I don't want you to get that visa. I don't want us to tell a lie and get a child in admission in some college. No, then you're a real helper to your husband.

Otherwise like Sapphira, you're just another agent of the devil along with your husband who's telling a lie. I'm convinced through many years of observing Christians, even in our CFC churches, that there is not that intense hatred or hypocrisy and lying that there should be.

So many people, they want to always pretend that they are more spiritual than they really are. Even those who preach, you know, you can preach in such a way that you give the impression that you have attained to something.

It's a lie because you haven't attained to it. If you're honest and say, well, brothers, I just want to say I haven't got there yet, but I'm telling you honestly, I'm pressing on there. Yeah, that would be honesty.

It's very, very important because I tell you, these are very, very small things, but you can say, how much smaller can it be than this, that Anand just did not say one sentence, that's all. All he missed saying was, Peter, I sold the land for more and I only bought a part of it here.

That would have saved his life. You see how the same sin that Jesus denounced intensely in Matthew 23 is the thing that crops up as the very first sin in the early church. Now turn to John 8 and verse 32, verse 31 first.

Freedom From Hypocrisy Through the Truth

Jesus said to his Jews who believed in him, this is not to unbelievers, this is to the believers. You may be a believer and I believe most of you are. Here's Jesus' word to you. If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine.

Not because you made a decision some years ago. If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples. And then if you continue in my word, one thing will happen in your life. You will know the truth.

And I can say, you will know the truth more and more. You will know the truth in increasing measure. And that truth will make you free. God's will, my dear brothers and sisters, I wish we'd be gripped by this.

God's will for every one of us is 100 freedom. Please remember that. 100%, there's not a single area in my life where I must be bound by any habit. Lusting, anger, bitterness, murmuring, complaining, fear, anxiety, love of money, nothing must bind me.

God's will for me is 100 freedom in every area. But that'll come only if I know the truth. And if I love the truth, if I'm completely free from that spirit that was in Ananias and Sapphira, we gotta hate it.

That is the truth that came through Jesus Christ. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. People who are under the law could not experience grace. They could not experience reality, the truth. I believe my own conviction is that even the greatest man in the Old Testament, John the Baptist, had hypocrisy in him.

He was not free from hypocrisy. The first person completely free from it was Jesus Christ. It says truth came by Jesus Christ. But they were not expected to be free in the old covenant because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within.

The Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth

What is the Holy Spirit called? Turn with me to John's gospel in chapter 16. First of all, John 15, 26, he's called a helper. And earlier on in John 14, 16 also, Jesus always referred to the Holy Spirit as a helper.

I will ask the father, John 14, 16, he'll send you a helper. And verse 15, verse 26, when the helper has come, isn't it great to know that the Holy Spirit is a helper? Just like Eve was made a helper for Adam, your wives should really appreciate that, that you have the same title as given to the Holy Spirit.

Can you imagine that? What a wonderful thing it is to be a wife, a good wife. You have the same title as the Holy Spirit. God said about Eve, I must make a helper for Adam. And Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as a helper.

What does the helper do in our life? The Holy Spirit, he never shows himself, but from behind the scenes in a hidden way, he supports us in such a way that we can do what God wants us to do without anybody seeing it.

We get the credit, but the Holy Spirit has done the work. I'm absolutely convinced about that when I preach God's word. People give me the credit, but they don't know that the Holy Spirit is helping me all the time.

Before I speak, while I prepare to speak, and while I'm speaking, it's the helper. So I will never dare to take the credit to myself, impossible, it's like that. That's how a good wife is, not very visible, behind the scenes, that's why she covers her head.

Because he says, she says, I don't want the glory of man to be seen, I wanna cover myself. But she's not that she's doing nothing, she's doing a tremendous work behind the scenes to support her husband, not just cooking for him and keeping the house, but helping him to be true, truthful.

Like Sapphira should have helped Ananias when he suggested, let's keep back the money, some of the money, Sapphira should have said, that's fine, we need some money for ourselves, we'll keep that in the bank.

But Ananias, please, when you go before Peter, be honest and tell him, we are not giving all the money, but giving only a part of it. That's what Sapphira should have told Ananias, then she would have been a true helper, but she was not.

And both of them died and I wonder through the centuries, how many husbands have suffered because their wives never helped them to speak the truth and lost out spiritually. So the Holy Spirit is called a helper.

And he says, in verse John 15, 26, the Holy Spirit, that is the spirit of truth. That means the spirit who makes me free from hypocrisy. What type of helper is he? As children of Adam, let me tell you, brothers and sisters, I know from my own life, what is true in your life.

I often tell people, I know everything about you, even though I don't know you, because of one reason, you've got the same flesh as me. So I know every single thing you're tempted by. I don't have to be a prophet, I just have to be honest.

You have the same flesh as me, you were born of Adam. And so I know every single dirty lust you are tempted by, because I'm tempted by the same things. And so if I seek to be free from that, I can help you.

And the Holy Spirit helps me, the Bible says, the spirit fights against the flesh, and the flesh fights against the spirit. So if the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, my flesh is constantly fighting, you know, Galatians 5, 17, the spirit fights against the flesh, the flesh fights against the spirit.

So if the Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth, the flesh is constantly trying to make me a hypocrite, give people a better impression about myself than is really true. Get people to admire me more than I deserve to.

Get people to think of me as something wonderful, which is not absolutely true. Or get people to think that I produced all that myself without the help of the Holy Spirit. Deception, be quick to give the glory to God, because there's one thing God will never give us, you know that.

Giving God the Glory Instead of Taking Credit

Let me mention that, if you don't know that verse, I wanna show it to you. I remember God showed it to me very clearly many years ago, it's in the book of Isaiah. And it says there, Isaiah 42 and verse eight.

There are many things God gives us. He provides all our need, financial need, earthly need. Don't worry about food and clothing, the Lord said. He clothes the flowers and He feeds the birds, He'll take care of us.

He gives us His power, He gives us His love, He gives us His Holy Spirit. But there's one thing God will never give us, His glory. My glory, Isaiah 42, I will never give to another. Do you know that? Do you know that when you try to take credit to yourself for anything, you're touching the glory of God.

He doesn't give it to anybody. I have no right to claim glory for myself. I have no right to take credit for myself for anything. Because Jesus said in John 15, and it says here, without me, you can do, John 15, five, apart from me, you can do zero.

Are you gripped by that? And if some of you say, but a lot of things I can do without Christ, I agree. But nothing of eternal value, no. What we can do without Christ is all of earthly value. Maybe you can preach sermons, and maybe you can do a lot of jobs.

Maybe you're good in your profession, in your factory work, or your office work, or your computer work, or you're very clever, you can do all that. But things of eternal value, zero. Without Christ, zero.

With Christ, Philippians 4, 13, I can do everything of eternal value. Without Christ, John 15, five, I can do nothing. These are the two sides of the coin. Apart from Christ, I can do nothing. Philippians 4, 13 is the other side of the coin.

With Christ, I can do everything. So anything of eternal value that has been accomplished through me must have been through Christ. Simple logic. If you preached a sermon or shared a truth with somebody which blessed him tremendously, it must have been from the Lord.

Even if your sister said something to somebody on the phone which he said, oh, sister, that blessed me so much. Ah, that must have been from the Lord. So be quick to give credit to God inwardly. Very, very important.

Very, very important that we don't touch the glory of God. I mean, it's been my experience many times after a meeting, people would come to me and say, oh, Brother Zach, that was so blessed to hear you.

It's such a blessing. It helped me so much, that message. And I don't tell all of them, hey, hang on, hang on. It was God. That's just trying to get more credit for my humility. I don't want that. And so I say, thank you very much.

Then secretly, I go before God and say, Lord, I don't touch that. That's you. I don't want to get any credit from anybody for humility. So I accept what they offer and I say, thank you. The Lord knows that I don't take it to myself.

Give the glory to God. Give the glory to God. If your children are doing well, praise God. Because a lot of believers, their children are not doing well. But dear brother, sister, beware of touching the glory of God.

You think it was your ability that brought those children well? If my children are following the Lord, I fall before God and say, Lord, it's got nothing to do with me or Annie. It was all your work. It was all of God.

All of God. Everything in my life, if I've been able to survive till today without depending on people for money or being a full-time worker without sending any news reports about my work or expecting people to give me money, it's all of God, 100%.

Please, dear brothers and sisters, be very careful not to touch the glory of God. So the Holy Spirit is called the spirit of truth. And he's the one who will make me completely free from hypocrisy. I cannot otherwise.

I can try my best. I will not be free from hypocrisy unless the spirit of truth makes me truthful. And I know the truth. The truth will set me free. What will I be free from? I'll be free from the opinions of men, which is a very important freedom.

Really, I tell you, I have battled it and battled it. And you have to battle anything. The Holy Spirit gives us power. We don't sit back and, we're not robots. God does not make his children into robots as the Holy Spirit just programs them and they act.

No. He gives us a free will and he tells us every day to choose the way of the cross. That's also not once for all. We receive Christ, but then after that, every day, Jesus said, you must deny yourself.

The Holy Spirit prompts me to go down and die in each situation. And then some resurrection life comes out of that and we give him the glory. The truth will set you free. So if you find, Jesus said in John 8, 32, you should know the truth and the truth should set you free.

And we've seen today, the truth is total freedom from hypocrisy, total freedom from pretense, total freedom from giving people an opinion about myself, which is not true or hating any joy that comes out of the fact that somebody got a better impression about me.

Paul’s Thorn, Humility, and Truthfulness

Now, you know, there's a verse in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, where Paul says something like this. I don't know if you noticed this verse, 2 Corinthians 12 and verse six. Don't miss these little, little verses that come in between.

I do not wish to boast. If I do wish to boast, I will not be foolish, but I'll be speaking the truth. But I do not do it. I refrain from this. Why? So that no one will credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.

Meditate on that. No one will credit me from being more spiritual than what he really sees and hears from me. He's saying that I want my inner life to be exactly equal to my outer life. That's what he's saying.

That's a great truth. Lord, I want that in my life too. And I mean, that's the reason why Paul accomplished so much. And it was not easy for Paul to remain like that. You read the next verse in this context.

You see, don't separate verse seven from verse six. Paul had a longing that others should not have a better impression of him than was really true. And so it wasn't easy. So God had to help him because there was a temptation in him just like it is in us to give people a better impression about ourselves than is really the case.

So God had to help him by giving him a thorn in the flesh. I believe it was an eye problem as we read in Galatians four, which is, I don't know whether some, his eyes were constantly leaking some type of pus coming out of there all the time.

But he had to wipe it every time when he was speaking. And that's why he says to the Galatians that you would have pulled out your eyes and given them to me. Anyway, he said, Lord, get rid of this because it's a hindrance for me when I speak.

It was tormenting him, like it says in verse seven, a tormenting him. And I prayed three times, that's all. The Lord said three times, no. It's wonderful if we can hear the Lord three times saying no and we accept his will.

Okay, Lord. Very often we hear it 25 times and we still may not accept it. Three times was enough for him. Lord said, no, no, Paul, no, Paul, no, Paul. Okay, Lord. And the Lord said, my grace is enough for you.

You will always have these eyes leaking. It'll humble you before people, but thereby it'll protect you from pride. It says there in verse seven, last part, to keep me from exalting myself. Such a great man like Paul, 25 years after his conversion, he writes to the Corinthians, to keep me from exalting myself.

We also need help to keep us from exalting ourselves because God's grace is only given to the humble. And that's why he says in verse nine, my grace is enough for you, but I can't give that grace to you.

You're not humble, Paul. And you're such a mighty servant of God that there's a great danger of people getting a higher impression about you than is really true. So I have to give you something to humble yourself.

And I've seen that in my life and I believe in all of our lives. If you're really wholehearted and you want to follow Jesus, sometimes he may give you a thorn in the flesh. And remember when he gives it to you, it'll be to keep you humble before God so that you can love the truth and be inwardly free, even though you have a physical infirmity.

And so he says in verse nine, I'll boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Let me show you another verse. It says in Ephesians chapter four, a phrase which is very important.

Speaking the Truth in Love

Again, he speaks here about deceitfulness in verse 14. The last part of verse 14. We must not be children, he says in Ephesians 4, 14, tossed about by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.

But see the word truth comes here again. Speaking the truth in love, we grow up to him who is the head. So our spiritual growth is hindered. If there's any element of hypocrisy in us. And when we say speaking the truth, it means by our life.

Ananias, remember, told a lie without opening his mouth. And we can speak the truth without opening our mouth. If Ananias could tell a lie without opening his mouth, I can speak the truth without opening my mouth.

By the way I present myself before people, presenting myself in uprightness and honesty in love. And if I live like this, let's say instead of speaking the truth in love, I read it like this, living the truth in love.

And that's how it is in the margin, holding to the truth in love, holding to reality in love. We grow up to him who is the head. Because grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And if I am to grow up to him who is the head in truth, in 100 freedom from hypocrisy, so the truth characterizes my whole being 24 hours a day, I have to love this.

And then if I do this, it says here, I will be a very effective member of the body of Christ and help the body to build itself up in love. So all of us seek to be effective members in the body of Christ.