Knowing The Father And Jesus (Video) — Zac Poonen

Foundational Repentance, Faith, and Sanctification

In the last few weeks, we've been trying to emphasize for the benefit of newcomers to this church, and for the benefit of children who have grown up in this church, some of the things that we taught in the early days when this church started, 39 years ago.

There's a great need to reemphasize that because there's a generation that's grown up that has not heard those things, and we dealt with some foundational truths in the first session of repentance and faith and water baptism and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

And then we spoke about justification by faith, the imputed righteousness of Christ, which is what we need till the last day of our life on earth. You can never get to heaven with your own righteousness.

It has to be the righteousness of Christ put to us, to our account, which is called justification. And then we spoke about the imparted righteousness of Christ, which is a progressive thing which the Bible calls sanctification, that we purify ourselves as Christ is pure.

We partake more and more of God's nature. So I want to share a little more along that line. There are words found in the New Testament that are never found in the Old Testament. We spoke about grace, new covenant, these are all New Testament words.

Another word like that is eternal life. I find a lot of these words are misunderstood. A lot of people don't know what grace is. A lot of people don't know what new covenant is, what the kingdom of God is, the kingdom of heaven compared to the kingdom of earth.

Repentance as Turning Toward the Kingdom of Heaven

The Old Testament was a kingdom of earth and John the Baptist came saying, repent, turn around from seeking the kingdom of earth and seek the kingdom of heaven. That is repentance, but a lot of Christians have not repented like that.

They've just given up their smoking and their gambling and their drinking and their dancing, but they're still seeking the kingdom of earth. They haven't repented. They haven't turned around to look for the things of heaven and there the foundation is wrong and they have problems all through their life.

Eternal Life and the Necessity of Studying Scripture

So I want to speak a little bit about eternal life. Now, when I was a young Christian, the people showed me only one verse about eternal life and that's what many people know. And that's the only verse I knew for a long time as well and it's probably the one which is most familiar to most of you.

Romans 6 .23, the gift of God is eternal life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. In fact, people were taught to go that way. Go to Romans 3 .23, tell everybody you've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Then go to Romans 6 .23 and tell them the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. You receive it and you're saved and the fellow thinks he's saved and goes away and later on when he goes into sin, he thinks he's a backslider.

He's not a backslider. He never had a forward slide in his whole life. How can he backslide when you haven't gone forward at all? They are never converted properly because whoever led them to what they call Christ, led them to some verses.

So I want to show you what we studied earlier, how when the devil told Jesus it is written, Jesus said yes, but it is also written. So we must see, and it's very easy nowadays, if you know English, you've got an English Bible and you have a little thing called a concordance, you can find all the verses on eternal life in the New Testament.

It will take you five minutes to read through them. Have you ever done it? Do you stake your hope for eternity on the words of a man or do you read the Bible for yourself to find out where does it speak about eternal life?

I'll tell you something. Remember this all your life. God never rewards a lazy man or woman. If you're lazy and you go astray, you deserve it because God gave you a Bible. You never took the pains to read what it said.

You took pains to study history and geography and chemistry and mathematics in school and your parents urged you to do your homework, but they never urged you to study the Bible. They wanted you to get 100 in mathematics, but it doesn't matter if you got 20 in the Bible.

Don't be like that. It's better to just pass in mathematics and get 100 in the Bible. So I want to encourage you, my brothers, study the scriptures. There's only one book God gave this world and that's not a mathematics book, it's the Bible.

Remember that, study it, and it's very easy. I mean, if you're illiterate, you have an excuse, say, Lord, I can't read or write. But even that, we have an elder brother in one of our churches who can't read or write.

He still reads the Bible every day. You know how? Somebody's loaded it to him on his cell phone and he has a quiet time with his cell phone listening to the Bible, audio Bible, every day. And he's an elder brother who preaches every Sunday from what he hears.

I wonder how many of us would do that. How eager such a person is to study the word and he can't read or write. Yeah? In the day of judgment, God will bring up such people before you and say, you knew how to read and write.

Here's a person who did not know how to read and write. Did you do even 10 of what he did? Dear brothers and sisters, let me tell you, the reason why we don't understand God's ways is because we don't read his book.

Eternal Life According to Romans 2 and Romans 6

So let me share with you something about eternal life. How many of you know this verse? Supposing somebody were to ask you, how can I get eternal life? Would you quote this verse? New Testament verse, not an Old Testament verse.

Romans chapter 2. I don't think any of you would ever quote this verse to a person because it's not a very popular verse. Romans chapter 2, verse 6. God will render to every person according to his deeds.

Okay? God will render to every person according to his deeds. To those people who by perseverance, that means continuously working hard and doing good. And they are doing good not to get honor from men but seeking for glory and honor in immortality.

God will give eternal life. Have you ever read that verse? How to get eternal life? By patiently, continually doing good. That means what gets God's approval. And doing it not to get any honor from men but to seek for eternal glory and honor from God and an immortal, indestructible life.

God gives eternal life to them. I wonder if any of you have ever heard any preacher show you that verse. And just by the way, Romans 2 comes before Romans chapter 6. How is it you missed it? Okay, I'll show you one more verse.

Romans 6. And this is so close to verse 23, you could not have missed it. The previous verse, verse 22. Now, there are certain steps here. You're freed from sin, Romans 6, 22. You become a slave to God and from that you're experiencing your benefit or fruit which is sanctification and the final end, eternal life.

How about that verse? And then it says, but even that eternal life is a gift from God, you can't take credit for it. So if you take verse 23 all by itself, you got it all wrong. And that's why most Christians have got it all wrong and that's why their lives are so shallow and so defeated.

Because they don't read the whole scriptures. It is written, I say it is also written. It is written the gift of God is eternal life, but it is also written in the previous verse that it is being freed from sin and becoming a slave to God and you get your benefit resulting in sanctification and the final end, eternal life.

Which agrees with what we read in Romans 2, 7. To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor, immortality, eternal life. But you see, I thought salvation is free. Sure, I am not talking about salvation, I am talking about eternal life.

Those of you who think blue is green and yellow is red, I can't help you, but these are all different colors. They all together comprise white. The rainbow has got seven colors that make white, but there are different colors in it.

So, now that I have confused you sufficiently, you can pay a little more attention to God's word. These are words from scripture. God's word is simple, I will tell you that. But we have to take it exactly like it says.

Knowing the Father as the Meaning of Eternal Life

Okay, then what is eternal life? Now we have seen here how to get it. Now let's ask ourselves, what is eternal life? John chapter 17 and verse 3. I mean, you couldn't get a better definition than this.

It is given by Jesus himself. This is eternal life. That you live forever? No. People who go to hell live forever. Yes, they are there where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies. Living forever is not eternal life.

Jesus said, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God. And if you see the context of it, as a father. Because he says in verse 6, I have manifested your name to these men whom you gave me.

He is talking about his 12 disciples, one of whom fell away. To these 11 people I have manifested your name. You know what that name is? It's not Jehovah. That was in the Old Testament. They already knew that.

It's father. They never knew that. You know, when God told Moses to go to Egypt, Moses said, if they ask, who sent you? He says, tell them, I am that I am. In Exodus 3. And later on he revealed himself as Jehovah or Yahweh.

We don't know which is the right pronunciation. It doesn't matter. I don't need to find out the pronunciation. Because I don't know him as Jehovah. I don't know him as I am that I am. Because I am not a Jew.

I don't sing songs to Jehovah like a lot of Christians do. Guide me O thou great Jehovah. That's good for a Jew to sing. I sing, guide me O my heavenly father. Because I am not a Jew. You know how many songs we sing without even thinking?

Because we are not talking to God. We are just enjoying singing. Just like all the young people enjoy rock music. That's how a lot of Christians sing. They never think about what they are singing, to whom they are singing.

Heavenly father, I revealed your name. That's why Jesus said to his disciples, when you pray, don't pray like those, like in the Old Testament, pray our father, who art in heaven. For many years after I was born again, I did not pray to the father, like Jesus commanded me to do.

Because all the people around me never prayed to the father in the church. So you know when you are little children, you just imitate the older ones. And my life was so insecure. I was so discouraged.

Frequently depressed. Constantly defeated by sin. Inwardly backsliding, even though I knew the scriptures. Till a day came in my life, after God filled me with the Holy Spirit, nearly 16 years after I was born again, that I came to know God as my father.

He had become my father earlier, but I never knew him personally. As I said, if you have a father who lives in Russia, or the Gulf country, you never see him for 16 years. You just get occasional letters from him.

That's how I knew God. But then he came. It's like that father finally after 16 years comes home and says, hey son, that's what happened to me. Have you experienced that? Your father in heaven hugging you and saying, son, you are mine and I am yours.

It made all the difference in my life. It changed me from an insecure, discouraged, frequently depressed person, to one who is secure. Still imperfect, but now the Christian life was not a drudgery and a struggle.

I had experienced a little bit of what the Bible says about rest. Because like it says here, Jesus said, I manifested your name to these men you gave me. A day came in my life when Jesus manifested the father to me.

I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, I know you've got a father in heaven. It's not enough. John 17 3, this is eternal life, that they may know not about you, but know you, the only true God, and know you as a father.

That is the eternal life you need to have. It's not living forever. It's knowing the father. Jesus is defining eternal life. Do you love the truth? To love the truth means when you see something in scripture, Jesus said later on in John 17 17, thy word is truth.

And if you love the truth, which is God's word, and you discover today for the first time in your life that your whole understanding of eternal life was wrong till today, are you willing to love the truth and say I was wrong?

It's very difficult to say I was wrong. Especially if you've been a believer for many years. To say I was wrong all these years. I thought eternal life means I live forever in heaven. That's nowhere in scripture.

You heard that from some preacher, and unfortunately you did not check up scripture, you just believed that preacher, whatever he said. And there are a lot of lying preachers going around. They're not lying.

They just don't know. I mean, when a math teacher teaches you something wrong, it's because he doesn't know. He's not telling you a lie. That poor guy didn't study math properly, and he's teaching you the wrong thing that he studied.

Same way, many preachers, they don't know. They tell you something, and you don't check the scriptures. Like I said, if you know, if you've got a bible in your language, and you don't check everything you hear in a church, you deserve to be deceived.

Be like the barians, who searched the scriptures, even when Paul preached, to see if it's right. That's what I did, as a young Christian. That's why I discovered so many things, which other preachers couldn't tell me.

Most of the things that changed my life, I'll tell you honestly, no preacher taught me. A few things other preachers taught me, I'm thankful for that, and books, but most of the things I discovered from my need.

I didn't discover because I wanted to study something to preach. I had a need in my life. When you go to God with a need in your life, you'll discover things in the scripture. When you go to God just to prepare a sermon to preach in a church, you will have a sermon that won't change your life.

Or you'll have some information and knowledge. A lot of people are pursuing knowledge, information, what shall I preach the next time I get to the church service. I couldn't care less what I have to preach.

I want to know God. And I wish somebody had told me that the day I was born again. I'm sorry that it took me 16 years, but it doesn't have to take you that long. Brother, I'll tell you something. Make it the passion of your life to know God.

To know God is eternal life. To know him as a father. And it's not something that you finish with early. Not only to know God as a father, but it says in verse 3, John 17, 3, to know Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as your elder brother, as your forerunner, as your example.

If you know God as your father and Jesus as your earthly example to follow, you've got it. But both those things I understood only 16 years after I was born again. And I didn't understand it by study.

I understood it because God filled me with the Holy Spirit. That's why I say that is the most important requirement. We're not Pentecostals. We're not charismatics. Not in this church. I disagree with both those groups.

I love them. There are good brothers there. I love believers in the Methodist church. And to tell you honestly, I love some believers in the Roman Catholic church as well. I'm pretty broad-minded that way.

But in most of these groups, I don't agree with a lot of their doctrines. That's what I'm saying. I don't believe that the most important thing about being filled with the Spirit is speaking in tongues.

I speak in tongues. I've done that for 40 years, but that's not the most important thing. It's knowing God as Father. Knowing Jesus as my forerunner. That's what changed my life. Speaking in tongues didn't change my life.

It was knowing God as my Father and Jesus as my forerunner. Let the Holy Spirit show that to you. That's eternal life. Let me show you 1 Timothy chapter 6. 1 Timothy chapter 6. Paul says to Timothy, now remember, this is Paul writing towards the end of his life when Paul is, Timothy's already been working with him for 25 years.

Timothy's joined Paul probably when he was around 20. Now he's 45. And he had spent those 25 years with Paul. Wholehearted, so wholehearted that Paul says, when I look at all my co-workers, there's no one like Timothy.

He's the best of the lot. He says in Philippians 2 .19, what does Paul write to the best of his co-workers? Look what he says. 1 Timothy 6. There are a number of things he says there concerning, you know, flee from the love of money for example in verse 10 and 11.

And remember the Lord, verse 15 is like one paraphrase says, the blessed controller of all things. He says in verse 19, instruct those who are rich in the world, sorry, yeah, in 18 and 19, to do good.

To be generous, ready to share. Storing up for themselves treasure of a good foundation that they may take hold of that which is truly life. And earlier on he tells him what is truly life in verse 12.

Fight the good fight and take hold of eternal life. That's the main thing. After he tells him to run away from the love of money in verse 11, you run away from something, what should I run towards? Eternal life.

You know you can't run towards eternal life if you don't run away from the love of money. If you don't believe me, let's read it together. Or let's read with me in your Bible. Verse 10, love of money is a root of all sorts of evil.

You man of God, verse 11, run away from it. Flee. And fight the good fight of faith against the love of money and take hold of eternal life instead of taking hold of more money. I am absolutely convinced that it's the love of money that prevents many believers from taking hold of eternal life.

Their hands are already full. How can they take hold of that? Because their hands are full of the riches and pleasures and comforts of this world. I'm not saying you should live in the slums. I don't think Jesus lived in the slums.

I'm saying don't run after it. Everything you have in your life should be, you should be able to say, I can say this, honestly I stand before God right now and I say I have never run after money from the time I was born again.

Not even as a full-time worker. I never went where I could get more money. I spent my life seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness first. God added a lot of things to me. That should be your testimony at the end of your life.

I got what I didn't pursue. I pursued eternal life. The kingdom of God and His righteousness and God gave me what I needed. As my needs increased, He gave me more. He'll take care of you. Don't worry.

But make eternal life your goal. Then you're a wholehearted disciple of Jesus. You keep one eye on eternal life and one eye on making more money. That's why you are where you are today. Imagine your life could have blessed thousands by now, but you're sitting in your little well thinking that the whole world is in your well.

It's like a frog in a well thinking the whole world is this well. There are oceans out there, you frog. You don't know. Imagine if one day my brother, sister, when you stand before the Lord and the Lord tells you, you heard so much in CFC.

If only you had responded to that. If only you had trusted me fully and sought my kingdom and my righteousness first. Do you know how much I could have done with your life? But you allowed the prince of the world to fool you that he could offer you more than I could offer you.

Ah, you're in heaven, but you wasted your earthly life. The one life I gave you where you could show your gratitude to me for dying on the cross for you, you wasted. Don't let that be said about you, my brother, sister, when you stand before Jesus.

I told the Lord many times, I said, Lord, I'll never be satisfied going to heaven. That's what other Christians are interested in. I'm interested in showing my gratitude to Jesus for dying for me on the cross before I go to heaven.

And I never forget 21 years ago when I had an accident down that railway crossing and I was driving my moped and I got knocked out by the level crossing. Those guys put it down before I crossed and I got knocked out and I was unconscious lying on the railway line and I almost died.

But somehow God saved my life. I just had a crack in my skull and a shoulder dislocated. I got up and I said, Lord, I have not finished saying thank you to you for dying for me. Give me a few more years.

He's given me 21 years more. Keep saying that to Jesus. Lord Jesus, I have not finished saying thank you to you for dying for me. I want to live for the things that are eternal. I want to lay hold of eternal life.

Fighting for Eternal Life and Resisting the World

And if it were easy, why would he tell Timothy to fight a good fight? He'll take hold of it. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, Jesus said. And violent men take it by force. What does that mean? You know that verse.

We are not people of violence on the outside. We are men of peace. We refuse to fight with people. We pursue peace with all men. But inwardly, we are people of violence against the lusts in our flesh, against the devil and the spirit of the world that seeks to enter our heart.

We are men of violence. And we take hold of the kingdom of heaven inwardly. A true disciple of Jesus is a man of peace on the outside. You can never get him into a quarrel. You can never get him into an argument.

You can never get him into a fight. But inwardly, he's fighting the devil and his lusts every day and the world till the devil is scared of him. Be a man and a woman like that. From a young age, you young people, this is the only life worth living.

I'm telling you exactly what I told my own children. And which I've told them for many years. This is the only life worth living. Fight the good fight and take hold of eternal life. And if you've been a lazy, sluggish Christian till today, start the fight today.

Say, Lord, I want to lay hold of eternal life. I want to know you more and more as my father. You know, for so many years, I used to think of a God who was always frowning at me. Can you imagine if you have a picture of a God who's, oh, you wretch.

And next time you pray to him, he's saying, oh, you wretch. You won't want to go to him anymore. Or a God who says, yeah, that was good, but it's not good enough. That even when you struggle to do something, he says, not good enough.

You won't want to go to such a God. And that's why most of you don't like to pray to him. Who would want to talk to such a God? But that's a lie. He's not like that. He's a father who rejoices over you.

He says in the Old Testament even, there's no mother who rejoices over her child as much as I rejoice over you. God is a father and a mother. Have you seen mothers? Supposing a woman didn't have babies for a long time.

She finally has a baby. How she looks up to that child and the glow. She may be a poor beggar of a mother, but the glow in her face as she looks at that baby and says all types of things the baby can't understand, but she's so excited.

Have you ever thought of God looking at you like that? You say, oh, but I'm so weak and I do so many things. Yeah, that baby messes up so many things, but it doesn't make a difference to that mother. It took many years for me to believe that God looked at me like that.

I always thought, I'm such a wretched sinner. How can God look at me like that? It's because I didn't know the heart of God. It's not like the heart of man. Think of a mother. See Isaiah 49. If you want to know what God is like, to know God is eternal life.

Isaiah 49 and verse 15. For those of you who don't know this verse, know it today. The Lord says, verse 14, Zion says, the Lord has forsaken me. The Lord has forgotten me. Is that what you're saying? And the Lord replies, can a woman, that's a mother, forget her nursing child?

She may forget her three-year-old child for a few moments, but not her nursing child. A child that is just born, that needs milk so many times a day. He won't forget that. He says, even they may forget, but I will not forget you.

I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. The wounds on his hands remind Jesus of you and me. I have learned to talk to this God, and that is why it's so enjoyable to talk to him. This is the Jesus who is my friend in my bridegroom whom I talk to.

And it's not boring to talk to him. Dear brothers and sisters, many of you say you're Christians. I want to introduce you to this God who's a father and a mother, to this Jesus who's got you on the palms of his hands.

This is eternal life, to know God as your Father, who cares for you and loves you. To know this Jesus, who is your forerunner. You know, the book of Hebrews is the only book in the New Testament where you read that title of Jesus called forerunner.

Jesus as Forerunner and the Christian's Pursuit of Holiness

So, eternal life is to know Jesus, and one way in which we need to know him is forerunner. Many Christians know him as the good shepherd, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I am the light of the world.

I am the door. I am the resurrection and the life. There are, I think, seven I am's in the gospel of John. But forerunner, he couldn't say that to his disciples when they were on earth. He told them in John 16, I've got many more things to say to you, but you can't understand them now because you don't have the Holy Spirit.

When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, you'll begin to understand I can honestly say that. When God filled me with the Holy Spirit, I began to see things in Scripture I'd never seen before.

I want to urge you, my brothers and sisters, seek with all your heart to be filled with the Holy Spirit and you will receive power. Your eyes will be opened and you'll receive power to follow Jesus as a forerunner, to fight the good fight.

In Hebrews chapter 6, it says about Jesus, our forerunner in verse 20. Jesus, our forerunner has entered, verse 19, inside the veil. You know, in the Old Testament, there was a veil. Behind that, God lived.

It says, Jesus, our forerunner, verse 19 and 20, has entered inside the veil. Not just entered, entered as our forerunner. That means, we can also go behind him inside the veil to get to know God. And that's why it says in Hebrews 12, let us run this race looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Where is he running? Inside the veil. That's where he has taken me. Nobody in the Old Covenant could go there. When you're in the outer court, you mingle with all the believers who believe in forgiveness of sins and water baptism.

When you go into the most holy place, into the holy place which is the second compartment of the tabernacle, you meet with those who are serving God. And they talk about what I'm doing for the Lord here and what I'm doing for the Lord there.

I meet a lot of people like that. I'm doing this for the Lord there, I'm doing this for the Lord there, and I'm doing this for the Lord there. This is a holy place. It's good. And we don't despise it.

We should be doing a lot of things for the Lord. But when you go into the most holy place, there you are not with people whose sins are forgiven, who have gone beyond that. There you are not just with people who are serving God, who have gone beyond that.

There you are with people who are worshipping God. That's the greatest thing. To be a worshipper. Where you'd be very happy to just be with God for the rest of your life. I love that song, Father of Jesus in Eternity Loves Reward.

What rapture it will be prostrate before your throne to lie and gaze and gaze on thee. You think that's boring, right? To lie for thousands of years there before God's throne and just look at him. You see what I mean?

That's what we're going to do for all eternity, just gaze at him. Boring, right? You don't know God. To me, that's precious. When you get into the most holy place, you'll know that. Then you become a worshipper.

When you realize this is the most wonderful thing of all. I'll tell you something. Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. If you're not interested in purity of heart, you'll never get there.

The pure in heart will see God. The rest will see their fellow believers all the time. The rest will be serving God and doing this and doing that but the pure in heart will see God. That's what I want.

Because when I come out from the most holy place to serve people, there'll be a glow in my life. Just like in Moses' face there was a glow. If you've come out from the most holy place, there'll be a radiance and a glory in your life.

There'll be a radiance and a glory in your words which you cannot produce by Bible study. I encourage young people to share the word. You need to study the word. You need to get into the most holy place.

You need to rend the veil. Die to yourself. Take up the cross. Get into the most holy place. Follow Jesus there. And say, Lord, I want to live before you. And then there'll be a glow and a radiance in the words you speak even if you speak for two minutes.

This is what I long that all of us will have. Think of the blessing you could be to your relatives and your neighbors and in this church and wherever you go. He is a forerunner. He has gone inside the veil.

The Mystery of Christ's Deity and Humanity

This is another ministry of Jesus. And the book of Hebrews speaks more about this human Jesus. And just so that you don't think that he doesn't believe in the deity, he spends one full chapter in chapter 1 in Hebrews to say he's God.

Many, many things. He says he's God. He created the world. The angels worship him. Even the father calls him God and Lord. Jesus is God. That's settled in one chapter. Now he says, let me go on to chapter 2 till the end of the book.

He was also a man. And that is what changed my life. All my Christian life I knew he was God even before I was born again. But a day came in my life when I was gripped by the fact that Jesus became a man like me.

That he was tempted exactly like me. And there I saw the secret of godliness. 1 Timothy 3 We need to know Jesus in this way. This is a mystery, my brothers sisters. A mystery means something that you cannot understand by study.

You can only understand it by the revelation of the Holy Spirit. That's what the New Testament calls a mystery. If you could understand it by study, then only the intellectual people could grasp it. And a lot of Christians think that the more you study, and if you're clever, you'll understand the Bible.

No, sir. You will not understand the Bible because you're clever. You'll understand the Bible by revelation of the Holy Spirit. Paul tells the Ephesians, I pray that the eyes of your heart will be opened.

That God will give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. He doesn't say, read my epistle ten times and study it and look at the Greek words and the root meanings and all that.

He says, no, no, no, no, no, you need revelation. That's one of the things I prayed when God filled me with the Holy Spirit. I said, Lord, if this is really a genuine experience, the New Testament should be a new book from today onwards.

I should be able to see things that I've never seen in 16 years of my study. And I did. This is a mystery. 1 Timothy 3 .16. Great is the mystery of godliness. There are two great mysteries in the New Testament.