Secrets of New Testament Victorious Life — Zac Poonen

Longing for the Victorious Life of the Early Christians

I'm happy to be here again. I was born again 55 years ago, when I was 19 years old. And although I studied the scriptures, I was baptized when I was 21. And then I started studying the scriptures. As I read the scriptures and studied it carefully, I found that the early Christians and the apostles, as we read in the New Testament, seemed to have a quality of life which I did not have as a born-again Christian.

And when I looked around in the assembly that I was attending, which was claiming to be a New Testament pattern assembly, you know, they respected God's word, they broke bread every Sunday, etc. I found that the people around me didn't have that life either.

At least I didn't see it in their life and they didn't preach about it. But I read the scriptures and I said, there's something here which I seem to be missing. You know, I read words like this. I'll show you some verses.

1 Peter chapter 1. He's talking to believers and he says in verse 8, Though you have not seen Him, means you've not seen Jesus, you love Him though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible or unspeakable and full of glory.

You feel that expression, a joy which is so great that it cannot even be expressed and filled with glory. And to tell you honestly, I looked at my Christian life and I said, Lord, that's not true, my life.

I mean, I have a certain amount of joy that my sins are forgiven and I know I'm going to heaven. I don't have any doubt about that. But I can't say that I am joy inexpressible and full of glory all the time.

It's just occasional, sometimes and then most of the time, very often I speak discouragingly, defeated. Then I just want to show you a few verses in the New Testament that showed me the type of life that these early apostles had, which was a challenge to me.

Paul's Clear Conscience and the Call to Do One's Best

It says in Acts chapter 24, Paul is giving, I'm sorry, 23 and verse 1, Acts 23 verse 1, Paul says, looking at his counsel, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.

Imagine being able to say that. He was converted on the road to Damascus and this is probably 20 years later. But he stands before the high priest and he says, I've lived with a perfectly good conscience till this day.

And how was that? Was it because Paul's conscience was less sensitive than mine? Because I didn't seem to be able to live like that. I'm sure his conscience was more sensitive than mine. So there I see a quality of life in chapter 24.

And you know, he's speaking the truth. Obviously, he's not telling a lie. Acts 24 verse 16, he says, I do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience before God and before men. So it was not something that happened easily, what he said in chapter 23 verse 1, when he said, I've lived with a perfectly good conscience.

It came because he says in verse 16, I do my best. You know, just like we encourage our children to do their best in the examination. And if some child got a very good score, it's certainly not because he was lazy.

He did his best and he got a good score. And we tell our children, listen, you didn't get a good score because you didn't do your best. You can do much better than that. You were just lazy, playing the fool, and so you just passed.

I don't want you to just pass. I mean, how many of you are happy with your children going to school and just sort of passing? Just sort of made the grade to go to the next class. I never wanted that for my children, I'll tell you honestly.

I wanted them to do the best. Even if they didn't top the class, at least they did very well in each subject. And for that, they had to do their best. And so Paul says in the spiritual life, I always do my best.

So I realized that there was a reason why these people came to this life. That I didn't have that same passion to always do my best, to keep my conscience clear. Just like I was teaching my children to always do their best in school.

Or like businessmen are always doing their best to prosper in their business. All of you know in your own professions, how you seek to do your best so that you can retain your job or get a better job.

And if I really believe, if I really believe that the things of eternity are more important than the things of time. And if I really believe with all my heart that my life before God is more important than my life on earth.

Then I felt, why am I doing my best on the things of earth but not in the things of heaven. I joined the National Defense Academy in India when I was 15 years old, 1955. And I joined the Navy. And from the very beginning, I did my best.

I did my best to really be a top class naval officer. And later on when I was converted, I said well, if I really love Jesus and I believe what I say. See I would witness to people all around. I would witness people in the Navy, I would witness people in the train, the bus, everywhere.

I'd give out tracks. And if I really believe what I'm telling these people, that eternity is more important than this world, and heaven is more important than earth, and the things unseen are more important than the things that are visible.

If I'm not a hypocrite, if I really believe that deep down in my heart, then I should be doing my very best for the things of eternity as well, not just for the things of time. And I saw that if I did that, I could come to the same life as the apostles.

And when a person was not doing that, whatever he may say with his lips, in his life deep down he believed that the things of this earth are more important than the things of heaven. I would encourage you to ask yourself whether you believe what you proclaim, what you sing.

See Paul said another thing in 1 Corinthians 4. He was talking about his conscience and the way he lived. He says in verse 4, I'm conscious of nothing against myself. You know our life is divided into conscious and unconscious.

There are many parts of our life that are unconscious, we don't know. There could be hidden selfishness in your life, in my life, which we don't see. So God doesn't hold us responsible for that. But the areas where we can see, that's the conscious area of our life.

In that area we should be able to say, like Paul, I have done my best to keep a clear conscience. I'm conscious of no area in my life where I'm displeasing the Lord. See most Christians I found when I was young and I used to go to this New Testament pattern assembly, that though they were New Testament in pattern, you know for example they had elders and breaking bread and would sing all these songs and they'd preach the new birth.

They were New Testament in pattern, but not New Testament in life. There are two things, pattern and life. Like Jesus said, a new wine and the new wine skin. Oh, you know those days they didn't put wine in bottles, they put it in skin.

And he says new wine must be put into new wine skins. So I saw that many people were talking about the new wine skin. It's easy to have the new wine skin, a pattern. Having a pattern in a church doesn't cost us much.

You know the Roman Catholics have a particular pattern for their service. The CSI churches have another pattern for their service. The New Testament assemblies have another pattern for their service. The Pentecostal assemblies have their pattern.

The brethren have their pattern. There are different patterns. And to change a pattern is very easy. You know you just modify certain things in the way you conduct a service and the pattern is different.

And so we move from, I grew up, I was born in the Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox Church. That pattern was very different. So you could change a pattern. That's very easy. But more than the pattern was the life.

Life was important. Pattern was like, you know, all the parts of our body. Ten fingers, two eyes, two ears, etc. But the important thing in the body is not the fingers and toes and all, but it's the life.

I mean, what's the use of having ten fingers and ten toes in a very sickly life where I'm always in bed, sick, can hardly get up and go to work. You wouldn't want that life. I mean, if someone were to offer you all the parts of your body, but a very sickly physical condition, where you've got tuberculosis and asthma, but the parts of your body are all there.

And they say, would you prefer that? Or would you prefer a few fingers missing, but healthy? I'm sure all of us would say, give me health, man. I don't mind if you have ten fingers missing. What am I trying to say?

In our physical body, life is more important than the parts of the body. Of course, the best is to have both. But if it's a choice, we definitely prefer life. I mean, I don't mind losing a little finger if I'm perfectly healthy.

But I don't want to keep all my fingers and be sick all the time and lying in bed. It's like that. That's a picture of how, if we major in our life on pattern more than life, there's something wrong. Because we don't do that in physical life.

In physical life, we value life and health more than the parts of our body. You know, we lose vision a little bit, start wearing glasses, we lose our hair, and we become weak. But if you're healthy, you're okay.

We're not worried about parts of our body becoming weaker if there's life. So that's the thing that's important even in the Christian life. Paul said, I've got nothing, I'm conscious of nothing against myself.

Triumph in Christ and the Aroma of Christ

And he spoke words like this. He challenged the Christians. Think of the type of things he told the Christians to live by. Let me show you one or two verses. He was giving about his own testimony. 2 Corinthians 2.

I'm just quoting Paul again. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 14. Thanks be to God. Of course, he gives the glory to God for this. He doesn't take the credit for himself. He doesn't say, with my determination and gritting my teeth, I accomplished this life.

No. Thanks be to God. 2 Corinthians 2 .14. Who always, what is that word always? Remember that? We saw it earlier. I keep my conscience always clear before God and before men. I'm conscious of nothing against myself.

And thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. That means a life of victory in Christ was what Paul experienced. He's not telling people you should be like this. He's just giving his own testimony.

And he doesn't take the credit for himself. He says, God has done such a work in me that God leads me in triumph in Christ all the time. And the result is when I'm living in victory in Christ all the time, not defeated.

Defeated by sin. Defeated by anger. Defeated by dirty sexual thoughts. Defeated by bitterness. Defeated by an unforgiving spirit. Defeated by the love of money. Defeated by anxiety. And constantly confessing and forgiveness.

Confessing and forgiveness. And most Christians live in that merry-go-round. You've seen a merry-go-round in these parks and fairs. You sit on that horse and you just go round and round and round.

You don't make any progress. There's a lot of movement and activity, but you're always in the same place. And a lot of Christians are like that. There's a lot of activity and meetings and witnessing and reading the Bible and praying.

But spiritually, they're in the same place. They never seem to overcome the sins that plague them. It's like a child sitting in the kindergarten forever. Going to school every day for year after year after year, but no progress in the kindergarten.

Still struggling with learning how to add and subtract. Still struggling how to read the letters and the words. You would never want a child like that. Maximum one year in kindergarten. That's all. You don't want to move your child out of the kindergarten in one year.

Something's wrong. So, I wonder if we have the same passion in Christian life. So, Paul says, as a result of this God leading us in triumph, He's manifesting through us a sweet aroma. Now, aroma is the opposite of stink.

Aroma means like a perfume. A perfume coming forth from our life. The opposite of which is a stink coming forth from our life. And if we are honest, we have to acknowledge that very often the testimony of Christians is stinky.

If people could go into Christian homes and see how the husband and wife live with each other. How they speak to one another. I mean, you don't go there because you only see them in the meeting. See, actually we know only about 5 about each other.

You may think you know somebody very well, but really you know only 5%. You've never lived in their house. And it may be another story inside the house. And I'll tell you who know us best. Our marriage partners and our children.

And if you're living in India, your servants who live in your home. They know you better than all the believers in the church. Because they see you seven days a week. Believers just a few hours a week.

So, here we're speaking about always there's an aroma, there's no stink coming forth. Paul says in our life. And when I looked at my life, I said, Lord, I'm born again, but that's not true. I seem to have missed something in my life.

This is how I was seeking God in the 1960s and early 1970s. I was really defeated frequently and I was thinking, Lord, there's something wrong here. I can't say in verse 15, I'm a fragrance of Christ to God.

There was something about these apostles. There was an aroma of Christ and a fragrance of Christ, not just to people. I can fool people, you know, if I see them only occasionally in church. I can pretend to be very nice and kind, but a fragrance of Christ to God.

That means, it's not that people are smelling me, but God. It's a fragrance of Christ to God. That means God is watching me all the time. The way I live at home, the way I handle my money, the way I file my tax return, the way I speak to my wife, the way I bring up my children, my goals in life, the thoughts that I allow to go through my mind, the things that I watch on the computer.

That in all those things, God, who is watching me 24 hours, is getting a fragrance and not a stink. The first requirement is to be honest. You know, if you go to a doctor and you don't tell him your problem honestly, he's never going to cure you.

You go there and pretend that everything is okay. He says, go home, why did you come to me? We go to a doctor to tell him honestly, this is my problem. I'm having this terrific problem with my body. He says, let me take a scan.

He says, there's something seriously wrong with you, and you acknowledge it. And then he says, okay, it can be treated. So, it's the same thing with God, you know. To walk in the light, the Bible says, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from sin, only if we walk in the light.

Many people say, the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all sin. Hang on, that's not what the Bible says. If you read it carefully, 1 John 1, we must read the Bible carefully, 1 John 1, 7. It says, if we walk in the light, as God is in the light, then, then only, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

But that's not how we often hear it. You say, hey, the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. I say, read it exactly. If we walk in the light, means I'm, the first thing about walking in the light, means I'm absolutely honest.

The blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. I say, Lord, I just want to be honest with you, just like to go to a doctor. I think most of us may be more honest when we go to a doctor, than when we go to God, and acknowledge our need.

You go to God and say, Lord, my thought life is pretty filthy. I want you to do something about it. The way I speak to my husband or wife is not at all good. It's a sickness, Lord. It's a spiritual sickness.

I want you to do something about it. I can't say, thanks be to God, who always leads me in victory, and the sweet aroma of Christ is coming forth from my life 24 hours a day. No, something is wrong. Just like go to a doctor and say, can you treat me?

Now, there are sicknesses the doctor cannot treat, but the Lord says, I can handle you if you come in honestly and tell me. I can cleanse you and change you and lead you into this type of life. Let me show you another verse, Romans chapter 8.

Conquering Persecution Through the Love of Christ

See, those early Christians like Paul, they had a lot of persecution, which we don't have. Our lives as Christians is fairly comfortable. I mean, it's rare that a person can say that he has even been beaten or that anybody has called him a bad name because he followed Jesus.

Persecution is almost absent. The type of persecution people complain about in America is they don't allow you to pray in the school. Is that persecution? Or they allow abortion. Is that persecution? That's not the type of persecution mentioned in the Bible.

Persecution mentioned in the Bible is beating and whipping and imprisonment and death and beheading and all that type of stuff. So, they faced it. Now, there are countries in the world today where they face even today, like in China and some communist lands.

And they faced it in the first century. And in the midst of all that trial, to be a conqueror is more difficult than when everything is smooth and easy and comfortable. See, the average Christian chooses a comfortable life.

But Paul said in Romans 8, I want you to read verse in Romans chapter 8 and verse 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? He was gripped by the fact that Jesus loves me. God loves me intensely and he never allows anything to happen in my life which is not for my good.

Everything that God loves in my life is for my good. Okay, now who shall separate me from the love of Christ? And look at the things he mentions. Tribulation, distress, these are things he experienced.

Persecution, famine. You know, there are times when Paul didn't have enough to eat. Because he didn't have enough money. Nakedness means that, not physically naked, but that he would shiver in the cold.

We read in one time where he was in a Roman prison. And he writes to Timothy, please bring my blanket when you come. Why? Because he's shivering there in the cold. 2 Timothy 4, please bring my cloak. I say, hey Paul, can't you get another one?

He says, no, I don't have the money to buy another cloak. So Timothy, please bring the cloak with you. It says in 2 Timothy 4. Bring it when you come. They really suffered a lot for Christ's sake. Persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sore.

Finally, Paul even faced the sword. His head was chopped off by Nero, the emperor. And he says his Christian life was such that, verse 36, for the Lord's sake, all day long we are considered like sheep to be slaughtered.

Wherever he went to preach the gospel, he was beaten, hammered, and sometimes shipwrecked. I'm not saying that we should go looking for beating and hammering in prison. That's not my point. Not at all.

Paul didn't go looking for these things. And we don't go looking for these things either. But they happened to him. But the point I want to say is, verse 37. Not these verse 35 and 36. In all these things, we are all the conquerors.

That's the point I want to stress that when he faced situations which were much worse than any of us have ever faced in our life, he was triumphant. He had that joy inexpressible, full of glory, in the midst of the most difficult circumstances that Christians face in those days.

And he says, I'm convinced that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. Verse 39. Angels, principalities, that means demons, and whatever, any powers, height, depth, any non-created thing can separate me from the love of God in Christ.

He wasn't thinking of making more money and getting more honor and becoming famous or none such thing. He says, I've got one life to live and I want to let the fragrance of Christ be seen in my life by everybody who comes and even examines my life closely.

If somebody lives in my home 24 hours, he should be able to see the fragrance of Christ. If somebody could examine all my financial affairs, he would see the fragrance of Christ, the uprightness and righteousness.

Which I'm sorry to say, cannot even be found with many Christian workers today. It's a very sad state of affairs. So, there are many other things, you know. And because he lived this type of life, he challenged other people also to live like this.

Rejoicing Always and Giving Thanks in Everything

He told them, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, he says, my brothers and sisters, he's writing to the believers in Thessalonica, you must give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you.

Verse 16. You must rejoice always. Think of words like this. They're not suggestions. There's a difference between a suggestion and a command. If you work in an office, and your boss gives you a suggestion and a command, there's a lot of difference.

A suggestion is optional. If you want to do it, do it. If you don't want to do it, do it. It's just a helpful suggestion. But a command is, I want you to do this. I want you to finish this work by today.

Or by the end of the week. That's different from a suggestion. In the New Testament, there are no suggestions. God doesn't give suggestions. Even in the Old Testament, He didn't give Israel ten suggestions, He gave ten commandments.

And in the New Testament too, there are no suggestions. It's not 1 Thessalonians 5 .16 doesn't say, well, if you can, try and rejoice all the time. No. Just rejoice always. Verse 18, in everything give thanks.

This is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Now, you never find verses like this in the Old Testament. You research through all the 39 books of the Old Testament, you'll never find anybody saying, thanks be to God who always leads us in victory.

Or no matter what happens, I will rejoice in the Lord. No. You read the Psalms, for example. Read through the Psalms, and see the great man of God, David, the man after God's own heart. You know what he says?

Many times in the Psalms, if you've read it, you know that. Lord, why are you allowing these enemies to triumph over me? Why are you allowing them to persecute me? Smite them, Lord, and smash their children on the rocks, and break their heads.

It's amazing how he writes. But not Paul. Paul says, I love them, I forgive them, I'm triumphant. It's an altogether different life in the New Testament. He's not praying that his enemies will be killed.

No. Jesus taught us to forgive and love our enemies. That's the fragrance of Christ. Because of one reason, that these early Christians really believed deep down in their heart that everything seen was temporal, and things that aren't seen are eternal.

That the inner life was much more important than the external life. See 2 Corinthians in chapter 4. 2 Corinthians 4, in verse... You know, all the affliction that Paul went through, he calls it, only for a short time, and very light.

You know, he was beaten and hammered in one place. He says, I got 39 stripes on my back, five times. Stoned three times, and shipwrecked, and imprisoned, and all that. But what does he call all that? In 2 Corinthians 4, 17, momentary means only for a short time.

Only for a short time means, okay, maximum 30 -40 years. 30 -40 years, momentary, compared to eternity. You enjoy yourself for 30 -40 years, momentary, compared to eternity. It's a great thing when we realize comparatively the value of time compared to eternity.

Even if you live 70 -80 years, or 100 years on this earth, when you compare it to eternity, it's like a couple of seconds. That's all. If you suffer, it's for 2 seconds. If you enjoy life, it's for 2 seconds.

If you make a lot of money, it's for 2 seconds. And if you are poor, it's for 2 seconds. It's really a couple of seconds, compared to eternity. So he says, okay, I had all this suffering, but it was only for a couple of seconds, momentary.

And the other thing is, he calls it all light affliction. It wasn't very serious. No, because it wasn't serious because God gave me grace to handle it. God says, my grace is sufficient for you. And he says, the best thing is, all this God is using to produce from me a tremendous weight of glory beyond all comparison in future.

That means God uses these trials and testings that come into our life to make us really godly men and women. I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, God wants men and women of the same caliber as those early Christians.

And you've got to take that charge. And he says, because, there's a reason why I'm like this, because, verse 18, we do not look at the visible things. If you look at the visible things, you will not call it momentary, you will not call it a light affliction.

You say, oh boy, I've been suffering for so long, and it's pretty heavy, and I can't bear it. That's because you're not looking at the eternal things. We do not look at the things which are seen, but we look at the things which are unseen.

Because all the things we see are temporary, and all the things we cannot see are eternal. So there's a contrast between what we can see visible with the eternally invisible things. I mean, theoretically, we all believe it.

If I were to pass a paper around here and say, how many of you believe the unseen things are eternal? You'd all say yes. How many of you believe that all the visible things are temporal? You'd all say yes.

But it's one thing to know that in our head, it's another thing to live according to that principle every day. And the other thing he says is, in relation to the inner man and outer man, verse 16, our outer man is not so important.

It can decay. But the inner man must be renewed day by day. He says this is testament. My inner man is being renewed day by day. That means I'm becoming more and more like Jesus. Day by day. Started off, I was not like Christ.

None of us are. When we are born again, there are still so many sinful habits in our life. We're not like Christ. Our sins are forgiven. But our nature doesn't change overnight. You know that. We all know it.

I certainly saw it in my own life when I was born again. My nature didn't change overnight. I was still defeated by a lot of sins. I was defeated even before I was born again. But my attitude to sin changed.

Sure. I knew my sins are forgiven. I knew Christ would become Lord of my life. But I still lost my temper. I still had dirty thoughts. I still told an occasional lie if I was in a tight spot. Of course, I would confess it.

All these things I would confess and say, Lord, I'm sorry. Cleanse me. But it wasn't victory. I couldn't testify like, Well, thanks be to God who always leads us in victory. So, when I read all these things as a young Christian, I said, Lord, there's a life these people had, which I have to say I just don't have.

The New Testament Life Compared With the Old Testament

That's the first step. Confess your sickness to the doctor. And then when I compared these verses, these verses I quoted just now to you, a number of verses, and I read the Old Testament, I never found these verses in the Old Testament.

Not even once. There's no command there in the Old Testament that says, you must rejoice always, and you must always count it all joy, and you must not look at the things that are seen, you must look at the things that are unseen.

No, Israel was always told to look at the things that are seen. I'll give you prosperity, I'll give you health, and I'll give you a land. Because all earthly things they were occupied with. It's a completely different world into which the apostles lived.

And I saw Christianity was so different from that Old Testament. That's why a true Christian doesn't pray the type of prayer that David prayed against his enemies and their children and all that in the Psalms.

No. He prays like Jesus, Father forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. You don't hear that type of prayer in the Old Testament. No. Even the great prophet Elisha, you read in 2 Kings 2, when somebody just made fun of his bald head.

You know what he did? He cursed them, and some bears came and ate up those young people. When Miriam criticized Moses saying, why did you marry that non-Jewish woman? You know what she got? Leprosy. Just for questioning why a servant of God married an unbeliever wife.

It's pretty severe, but when they called Jesus Beelzebul, Prince of Devils, you know what they got? Not leprosy. They got forgiveness. Jesus said, if you spoke against a man, you're forgiven. The New Testament life is completely different from the Old Testament.

Completely. That's what I discovered. And I said, what is the secret? That's what I wanted to find out. And I discovered the secret was the Day of Pentecost. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. That was the thing.

They got a power within them, which those Old Testament people just didn't have. You know, the Old Testament people, the Spirit came upon them. That means anointed them to serve. Samson could kill a lion with his bare hands, kill 300 Philistines all by himself, and Joshua could stop the sun, and Moses could split the Red Sea.

The Spirit upon them was a mighty thing. They would do so many wonderful things. Elijah would put his shawl on the river, and the Jordan would split open, and Elisha would do the same thing. You know, Elisha fed the multitude before Jesus ever fed, with five loaves and two fish.

There was a time in 2 Kings, where there wasn't enough food, and Elisha said, fine, let's pray. And they prayed, and everybody was fed, just that little bit of food. They were real miracles, because the Spirit of God was upon them.

But there's a lot of difference in the Day of Pentecost, because the Spirit of God came within. That's what made them live triumphant lives. And that's why in the Old Testament, even though the Spirit was upon Samson, his inside was dirty.

He was going after prostitutes. Even David, the Spirit of God was upon him. But when he saw a pretty woman, he committed adultery with her, murdered her husband, and married her. He's the man who was anointed.

So when I look to these Old Testament examples, even John the Baptist, the greatest of all, the Spirit of God was upon him, and he was a mighty prophet, who led so many people to repentance. But when he got locked up in prison, he lost his faith.

You know, it says in Matthew 11, that he sent disciples to Jesus and said, Hey, are you really the Messiah? I mean, he had seen the Spirit of God come upon Jesus. He had the voice from heaven. This is my beloved.

After all that, just because Jesus did not open the prison door and set him free, he lost his faith. He said, are you really the Messiah? Do we wait for another one to come? Paul never said that when he was in prison.

He said, it doesn't matter. Even when they led him to beheading, he didn't give up his faith, like the early Christians. So I saw there was something different in the New Testament. There's a difference between Spirit upon, and Spirit within.

Thirst and Faith for the Holy Spirit

Turn to John chapter 7, and you see something there. You know, it says here that Jesus said, in verse 37, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. So the first requirement is thirsty. Thirsty means you long for something which you don't have.

It's not just water. A man can have a thirst for power in the world, a thirst for money, a thirst for dominion. Countries can have a thirst to rule other countries. Thirst is a broad expression used in the English language for many things that you want desperately.