(Atlanta 2013) 4. Truth in the Inner Life — Zac Poonen

Grace and Truth in the New Covenant

We saw in the morning that grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. There was no grace available to man in old covenant times. Even the words translated as grace in the King James Version of the Old Testament are not really grace, it's favor.

Grace came only with Christ. And truth also, which is the life of reality where my outer life corresponds to my inner life. Nobody in the Old Testament could have that. People could keep the law on the outside, but they couldn't keep it inside.

It is impossible. And that's why you don't have any inner life commands in the Old Covenant. Everything in the Old Covenant was external. The temple was external. The Sabbath was external. The offerings were external.

The sacrifices were external. Whereas in the New Covenant, everything is inward. The sacrifices are inward. You see, in the Old Covenant, for example, if a man brought his tithe. And by the way, in the Old Testament, tithe was never money.

It was always grain and foodstuff which they brought for the Levites who were not permitted to have land. And so the other 11 tribes would produce, from their produce they'd bring 10%, the other 12 tribes.

Inward Righteousness and Secret Giving

So, everything in the law was designed to have a good external life. And Jesus came, and you know, in the Sermon on the Mount, He changed everything to inner, inward life. He said, it's not murder, but anger.

And that's serious. It's not adultery, but lusting with the eyes. It's not giving your offerings, it's keeping it secret. You see, in the Old Covenant, if a man brought his tithes and put it down there.

And everybody saw how much he'd bring. You know, somebody who had a big crop could bring a whole lot. His 10 was huge. And he could get a lot of honor for all that grain he brought. And he could also bring it with reluctance.

You know, he could come with a long face and say, OK, God, here's your 10%, you can have it. He had kept the law. But in the New Covenant, if a man brought even one cent to God, with reluctance. He's disobeyed God because it's the inner attitude that matters.

God loves a cheerful giver. And not only that, if I give something and I want other people to see it. Or I'm happy that other people noticed my sacrifice. It's worthless. It has to be secret. I mean, if people accidentally discover it, I can't do anything about it.

But I must make every effort to keep it hidden. I mean, the best, the person who's kept it most thoroughly would be one whom you'd think he never prays, he never fasts, he never gives anything. That man's really done a great job.

Except people in his home may know. But outside, they may never know. They may never know what he's doing for the Lord. That is New Covenant ministry. So, the inward life is what is important. Now, in Psalm 51, when David confesses his sin, if you turn with me for a moment.

You read there in Psalm 51. He confesses his sin to God. And he takes the blame and he says these words. In Psalm 51, verse 6. O God, behold, you desire truth in the innermost being. And I don't have it.

It's what God desired. David realized that it wasn't just external truth that God was interested in. You desire truth in the innermost being. That means you desire that my inner life is real. And that people who look at my inner life would see it's more spiritual than what his external life appears to be.

The Hidden Life Before God

That's a truly spiritual person. If you can say that your private walk with God. Your thought life. Your inner attitude to money and your motives with which you do things. And the private areas of your life which nobody knows.

Is more spiritual and more holy than the outer impression that people have of you. You've really understood the new covenant. But if that is not true. You have to, whether you like it or not. You've got to face the fact that you're an old covenant Christian.

That's what it is. I remember this reality hit me. About 16 years after I was born again. I wish somebody had told me this when I was converted at the age of 19. But I didn't have a spiritual father to tell me that.

And I never knew anybody who preached the new covenant in those days. And it took me years and years to discover what the new covenant was all about. That it was an inner life that mattered. A life before God which other people knew nothing about.

It's so different from the way a lot of preachers today talk about what they did here and there. All these television evangelists are always telling you what happened here and what happened there. Have you ever compared that with Jesus' ministry?

Never once in Jesus' ministry does he say, When I was over there, I did this. And when I was over there, I did that. Never. Why do they call the 30 years in Nazareth hidden years? See how perfectly hidden he kept it.

If you seek the Holy Spirit, He will show you some of the things that Jesus went through in those years in Nazareth. But He'll show you that if you're interested in a hidden life. I find there are two types of Christians.

There are Christians, like I said, Old Covenant Christians who are happy with an external life. They're happy that their testimony is good before everybody else. And that itself is a great thing because a lot of Christians don't even have a good external testimony.

And so these folks are happy because it's better than what most other Christians have. But they don't realize they come far short of that inner walk with God. They haven't understood the New Covenant.

And therefore they're missing out on a lot in the Christian life. And then such people, when they read the Gospels, because they are external Christians, they will only see the external life of Jesus.

And they will say, yeah, He healed the sick, we must heal the sick. And He did this, and He did that, and He cast out demons, we must cast out demons. And because they are external Christians, that's all they see.

Jesus said, we must reach the world, and it's all external. And they're impressed by the externals in a church. And that's why you find so many churches so interested in spending a lot of money on grand structures and impressive buildings and appearance and things which the Apostles wouldn't waste one second thinking about.

The Church as the Body of Christ

And when these externals mean more than the inner reality, we'll never come to a New Covenant life or build a New Covenant church. When we read of the first, the church is called the Body of Christ. And the reason the church is called the Body of Christ is because we're supposed to carry on the same ministry that the first Body of Christ did on earth.

And the first Body of Christ was Jesus Himself. And the way He lived on earth, the things He gave value and priority to, that's what the church is supposed to continue doing. And the first Body of Christ was born in a stable, in a cow shed, where cows were kept in a manger.

It was a place of ignominy. It was a shame to be born in a cow shed. I don't think in my whole life I have ever met any child, even in a poor family, that is born in a cow shed. And here the eternal God, who had all eternity to plan where exactly His Son would be born, made sure He was born in a cow shed.

God could have easily arranged one room in an inn to be free in Bethlehem. You think that would have been difficult for God when He's planning it from all eternity? It would have been the easiest thing in the world.

Have you ever thought why He allowed that Body of Christ to be born in such an ignominious place as a cow shed? To be underneath everyone else, to be below everyone else. This is Christian leadership.

He who was the head of the church, the greatest leader of all, could be a leader for others only by getting underneath all of them, being below all of them, so that no one could say that their condition was lower than His.

Following the Star Rather Than Human Reason

And that's the mistake that the wise men made when they came following the star. They followed the star because they didn't know where Jesus would be born, or where He was. And they followed all the way from, I don't know where they started from, somewhere in the east, and came all the way to Jerusalem.

And they were humble enough, even though they were wise men, they were humble enough to follow the star. But when they came to Jerusalem, they decided to lean on their own reason. That star is a picture of God's Word that always leads us to Jesus.

If you follow it, it will lead you to Jesus infallibly. But the moment I stopped following the star, and I said, Well, I mean, it's okay, it led me this far, I think that now I can use my reason a little bit.

They come to Jerusalem and they say, Well, where will the King be born? In a palace, naturally. So they don't need to follow the star anymore. They go to the palace and say, Well, we've reached here now, the King of the Jews, where is He?

In the palace, they don't have a clue where the King of the Jews is. And even those scribes who knew the scriptures and said, Yeah, it says in Micah that He's to be born in Bethlehem. And if they had studied Daniel chapter 9 carefully, they would have also known that they were pretty close to the time when the Messiah was to be born.

Well, they didn't have any interest in going to Bethlehem. They were just scholars who studied scripture academically, but had no interest in following through on what they read there. Just like a lot of Christians today, just academic knowledge of scripture.

And so the wise men blundered there because they stopped following the star, just like a lot of Christians today who think they can dispense with the Bible and follow the reason at a certain point. Finally, they had to humble themselves and follow the star again.

And the star led them to Jesus. But by the time he had left the cow shed and he was in the house, but if they had followed without listening to their reason, they may have found him in the cow shed. But the shepherds, they found him there.

They were not clever people. They just followed what the angels told them to do. They met and they saw the baby in a cow shed. So what I see there is the body of Christ was born not with great pomp and show, but in shame.

It was like that throughout his life. The body of Christ. Christ was born like that and he died a shameful death on the cross. And all through his earthly life, ridiculed as a false prophet, as Beelzebub, the devil.

All the names people called him, they called him a Samaritan, which means a low caste person and a demon possessed person. And Jesus said, if they have called the head of the house Beelzebub, how much more the members of his family.

So we need to understand that if we live this new covenant life, this inner walk with God, we're not going to get honor in the world. Where did the first body of Christ get honor in the world? How is it that the church is getting such a lot of honor?

How is it Christian leaders are hanging around with the president of the country and thinking that's a great thing? How is that? I mean, it's all right if the president or anybody asks you to go and pray for them.

But to think of that as a great honor, that's foolish. So I say the important thing is, have I seen that the way Jesus lived is an example for the church, the body of Christ, to be. Whereas inner life is all that mattered.

And whatever the world may have thought about him, God said, I'm well pleased. And it is because that life that God saw in Jesus for 30 years in Nazareth. There's a verse in Acts chapter 1 verse 1, which describes how Jesus lived and taught.

Jesus’ Hidden Preparation and the Ministry of the Church

The basis of Jesus' teaching was what he had done in private for 30 years. Acts 1 verse 1, Luke is writing this and he says, the first account that I composed, O Theophilus, which is referring to the Gospel of Luke, was the way he describes the Gospel of Luke.

The title that Theophilus, that Luke gives for the Gospel he wrote is, All that Jesus began to do and teach. What he taught, we know. We read about it in the Gospel of Luke and what he did. What do you think would be the title of the Acts of the Apostles then?

It's very simple. You can get it right from that verse. The two books that Luke wrote, he was the only non-Jew to write scripture. The first book was titled, All that Jesus began to do and teach. The second book he would title, All that Jesus continued to do and teach.

The first one in his physical body, the second one in his spiritual body. That's the meaning of that first verse of Acts of the Apostles. Because that's what the body of Christ is supposed to do. All that Jesus continued to do and to teach through the new body that he got on the day of Pentecost.

And that body is what we are a part of. And so the way Jesus lived is the pattern for us. Hidden for 30 years, prepared by God in secret. God's greatest men have always been prepared in secret. And the trials and problems he faced there, we do not know.

But there are many things that God took him through. And he was faithful and God said, I'm well pleased. And then he gave him a ministry. And in three and a half years, he did more than what people do in 3 ,000 years.

If it was only knowledge of the Bible that was needed, Jesus was ready for the ministry at the age of 12. That's what a lot of people think today. I just need to know the scriptures and have some ability to communicate.

And then I can preach and serve God. No, you can't. You have to have a period of, you know, a hidden life of walking with God where God himself approves of all that you've done. And then he'll send you forth to teach.

And that's where Christians have failed. They think you send a person to a Bible school and he studies there for three years and he comes and preaches. What can he do? He's just preaching knowledge. Or people study Greek and Hebrew and think that they can teach all that.

They can teach from there. What Jesus had was this inner life, a walk with God that is unhidden and in secret. I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 4. In the final day, when Christ comes back. What are the two things that he is going to judge?

The Judgment Seat and the Hidden Motives

It's good for us to know that because it's something like. If you already know if you're going to appear for a very important examination. For selection for a job or something like that. And you know in advance that there are only going to be two subjects that are going to be in that examination.

You would only study those two subjects. I mean, there are 100 subjects you could study. But you're told in advance this examination is only going to be in these two subjects. And if you qualify in these two subjects, you get the job.

Would you be foolish enough to study anything else other than those two? Now, here is the final examination of the judgment seat of Christ. We're all going to be examined. The Bible says that very clearly.

Each of us will give an account to God in that day concerning everything we've done in our body. What are the two things that he's going to examine? Here it is. It's told very clearly. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 5.

Don't go on passing judgment before the time. We all have a habit of passing judgment on people before the time. And what the Holy Spirit's saying, you guys are very itching to judge others. Just hang on.

I'll give you a chance to judge them. Just wait until the right time. You know, we all have an itch to pass judgment on people. And that's what he's saying. Just hang on. I'm not saying you don't pass judgment at all.

But just wait till the right time. And the right time is when the Lord comes. Because before that, you won't be able to know everything to be able to pass the right judgment. Your judgment will be completely wrong.

That's why Jesus said, judge not. Wait till the Lord comes. Then you'll be able to judge that brother and that other sister and the other person correctly. Of course, I'm not saying we can't discern that a person's got a wrong spirit.

I'm not saying that. But I don't think we can judge a person's life completely. Because these two things we know nothing about. What are the two things the Lord will judge in that day? Number one, the hidden things of darkness.

What are the hidden things of darkness in our life? Our thoughts. You know our thoughts, even the devil doesn't know. 1 Corinthians 2 says earlier, Which man knows, 1 Corinthians 2, 11, the thoughts of a man except the spirit of man within him?

Not even the devil knows our thoughts. But you know. You can be married for 50 years. And your wife doesn't have a clue what's going on in your mind. What type of thoughts you have. You can be married 50 years and your wife may never know whether you love money.

Externally you can fool her by many of your actions that you don't love money. But in your thoughts it may be very different. The hidden things. The parts of your life that other people in your church know nothing about.

The way you live at home. Which your wife may know, but 99 of people in your church don't have a clue. How you live at home. Your children know. If you have maids working at home, they know. But your fellow believers in India, in many homes, there are maids who work at home.

And there are non-Christian Hindus sometimes, maids working at home. And I tell believers, that maid's opinion about you is more important than what all the so-called spiritual people in the church think about you.

Because she sees you all the time at home. How you're behaving to her and to others in the home, etc. Every day of the week. The people in church only see you on Sunday. That's hidden in darkness. So those are the things the Lord is going to tell you.

That's number one subject that you've got to prepare for. The final examination. Just make sure you're okay there. Not all the external things like how well you sing and how regularly you went to church.

That's not what the Lord is going to bring to light. He's going to bring to light two things. Number one is the things hidden in darkness. And if you really believe that the Lord's judgment seat is like a final examination, and you're really serious about passing that examination, you would concentrate on this subject number one.

I say, Lord, I don't care what people think about whether I go to church regularly, whether I can preach well, whether I can sing well. I don't care one bit whether I can play some instrument well or do any such thing.

Or I'm a great organizer or I'm a great apostle or a prophet or whatever. Worthless. Fit for the trash can. All their opinions. But this, the things hidden in darkness in my life, which 99 of people don't know, and parts of my life which even my wife and children, nobody knows, my inner life, I'm going to concentrate on that because I want to pass in the final examination.

The second thing the Lord's going to expose is the motives with which I did things. You know, I was speaking about the iniquity of the holy things. There's sin in our prayer. There can be sin in preaching.

You can preach the finest sermon of all, and if in it I preach to seek the honor of men or like some people preach for money or, you know, not said something which God wanted me to say for fear that somebody there will be offended or somebody may leave the church if they hear me talk about that and I don't want him to leave.

So I'd rather displease God than displease that brother who's sitting there whose opinion I value so much. It's all going to come out, motives, motives with which I said things, motives with which I withheld, did not say things, etc.

The motives with which I did good that other people know about and my motive may have been my own honor. Well, then it has no value even though it looked like a very good service on the outside. It's a dead work.

Truth, the Holy Spirit, and Inner Reality

You know, when the Bible speaks about dead works, it's these works which are done with wrong motives which look very good on the outside. In the old covenant, it didn't matter at all. It didn't matter with what motive you did it so long as you did it.

If you brought the offerings according to the law, it didn't matter one bit if you did it for human honor or reward or any such thing. But it matters everything in the new covenant. When you give a testimony, you can give a testimony for the glory of God or you can give a testimony for the glory of yourself.

And you alone know that. You know why you speak about certain things to certain people. It's all going to be exposed. So, when we talk about what David is saying, Lord, you desire truth in the innermost being.

It was just not possible in the old covenant. But the wonderful thing is, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. He will lead me into all the truth, it says. Turn to John chapter 16. When the Spirit of Truth has come, verse 13.

This is one of the main functions of the Holy Spirit. I told you that in 2 Thessalonians 2 .10 .11 you have some of those scary verses that if I don't love the truth, God will allow me to be deceived.

And the Spirit of God has specifically come to lead us into all the truth. He's called the Spirit of Truth. The Spirit of Reality. If you look at truth as reality. The Holy Spirit has come to bring reality into me.

That reality that came through Jesus Christ. The possibility of living a life where my inner life corresponds with what people think about me. In other words, if my inner heart were to be torn open and exposed to everybody right now, that they could see all the things I think about when my mind is free from other things.

What do you think about when your mind is generally free from other things? And what are your motives? If they could tear open my heart right now, what they should see in their opinion of me should be exactly the same as what they see of me on the outside.

Or, they should have a higher opinion of me. Boy, I didn't realize he was that pure inside. I didn't realize he was seeking the glory of God that seriously. I knew he was, but not to that extent. Where our inner life is more than what other people see outwardly.

The Spirit of Truth seeks to bring inner reality. That which David could never experience. He knew that God wanted it. But he said, Lord, I just don't have it. If I had it, I wouldn't sin with Bathsheba.

I wouldn't even think about her. I wouldn't have eight wives. There are many things, not only external, but many inner things would have changed in his life. The Spirit of Truth will lead you into all the truth.

The Spirit of God will show me how I can have that reality in the areas of my life where there is no reality. Do you find that happening? Do you find that the Holy Spirit shows you areas in your life where he says, you're giving a different impression to people than you really are inside?

Do you know what the New Testament word for that is? Hypocrite. Hypocrite, by the way, is not an English word. It's unfortunate that, I don't know why the translators transliterated some Greek words instead of translating it.

For example, think of a word like baptism. Baptism is a very simple Greek word which means immersion. You know, if the translators had translated it, there would never have been child baptism in the history of Christianity.

If they had translated, Jesus said, go into all the world, make disciples and immerse them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, how in the world would you have child baptism then? Sprinkling.

Even the revered King James Version translators were scared to translate it as immersion because King James said, don't disturb church traditions in your translation. So they very cleverly invented this word which nobody knew what it meant.

The same way with hypocrite. Hypocrite is a Greek word which means an actor. What Jesus was saying is, don't act. Isn't that clearer to us than don't be a hypocrite? You know, if somebody says you're a hypocrite, you say, no, I'm not a hypocrite.

But if I say, do you ever pretend to be more spiritual than you are? Do you act when you go to church? Yeah, perhaps I do. Well, that's hypocrisy. So that's all it means. Hypocrisy. The leaven of the Pharisees is acting.

Eliminating Religious Pretense

And, you know, it's like these Hollywood actors, some guy acting like Moses or John the Baptist, holy man, for the two hours when he's on the sets being photographed. And once he's finished with it, he goes back to his normal life with his third wife or drinking or whatever it is that they do in private.

And then a couple of days later, he's got to come to act again. And then he's again John the Baptist. So don't you think a lot of Christians are like that on Sundays? It's just like a Hollywood set. You know, come and act very spiritual and sing the right songs and act very holy.

That's not New Covenant at all. There must be zero of that in our life. Zero acting. Are you passionate about eliminating all acting from your life? If you love the truth, you will never be deceived. If you love a life of inner reality, you will never be deceived.

God himself will make sure you're never deceived. Otherwise, you will be. I guarantee you will be. There's a lot of deception in the world. And the ones who are deceived are those who don't love the truth, who don't love a life of inner reality before God, who are happy with the life of pretense that they put before people.

Jesus had this life of inner reality. What God saw in Jesus was this inner life. And if you desire for this inner life, this New Covenant life, you will look for that in Jesus. Let me turn you to Hebrews in chapter 11, the great chapter of faith in the Old Covenant.

Faith in Jesus Rather Than External Miracles

Many people look at Hebrews 11 and take a lot of Bible studies on how to have faith from Hebrews 11. Now, I have nothing against it. I myself have taken Bible studies on the life of David and Elijah and seen what New Covenant truths we can learn from the lives of Moses and David and every one of them, the few things we can learn.

But our example in faith is not anybody in Hebrews 11. Did you know that? It's called the chapter of the great heroes of faith, but heroes of faith under the Old Covenant. Don't forget that. None of them are my examples in faith.

I'll tell you honestly, not Abel, not Moses, not Joseph, none of them. Because when I read Hebrews 11, I read in the last verse that God has provided something better for me. And if God has provided something better for me, then these guys are not my examples.

Something else is my example, not any of these people. And so I read Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 to 4, really as the last verses of Hebrews 11. That's how I read it. So, you know, Hebrews 11 for me is like this, by faith Abel, by faith Enoch, by faith Noah, by faith Abraham, and by faith Moses, and by faith all these others mentioned there, David and Samuel and many others who are nameless people mentioned there.

And I look at all of these people and then says, God has provided something better for us by faith Jesus. Ah, now I've come to my example in chapter 12. So do you see that as the last paragraph of Hebrews 11?

By faith Jesus, God has provided this better thing for us. And what is the big difference between what Jesus did in verses 1 to 4 of Hebrews 12 with all that you read in Hebrews 11? One big difference is this.

Every one of those people in Hebrews 11, their faith was for something external. But everything mentioned about Jesus in chapter 12, verses 1 to 4 is internal. I don't know whether you've seen it. I'm sure you've read these chapters so often.

Did you see this difference? That God has provided something better for us, something better than all that external type of manifestations of faith to something inward. Do you really believe that's better?

Do you really believe that taking up the cross and following Jesus is better than splitting the Red Sea? I mean, if you were given a choice, which would you do? If you are ignorant, you would choose splitting the Red Sea or raising the dead.

But if you've got revelation, you say, No, Lord, enduring the cross. Verse 2, chapter 12, despising the shame. That's what I want. That's the better thing. But how many Christians have seen that as the better thing today?

Quite honestly, most Christians would any day choose those miracles in Hebrews 11 over something that looks so ordinary like enduring the cross, despising the shame. What's so great about that? But that's what Jesus, by faith, did.

And you really need to have revelation to understand that. Flesh and blood cannot reveal it to us. You remember, when Jesus was on earth, everybody knew He was a man, but very few knew that He was God.

And when Peter said, You're the Son of the living God, Jesus was so delighted and said, Peter, it was not your human cleverness that revealed that to you. My Father in heaven revealed it to you, and you're so blessed to get such a revelation.

And I would say the same thing here. If you have seen the greatness of what Jesus did compared to all that's written in Hebrews 11, I would say you're blessed because your human cleverness could never have revealed that despising the shame and enduring the cross is greater than pulling down the walls of Jericho and shutting the mouths of lions and raising, like Elijah and Elisha did, children from the dead.

It's greater than all of that. How many Christians know that? The worldly people I can understand. You go to a worldly, unconverted person and say, What do you think is greater, man, splitting the Red Sea and raising people from the dead?

Or, you know, suffering shame and dying to yourself inwardly? Oh, it's any day. Sure. Raising the dead and shutting the mouths of lions, that's what I choose. And when a Christian chooses the same things and thinks that is greater, he is worldly in his thinking.

He may not be going to the movies, he may not be watching television, but he's worldly in his thinking. Sometimes we think worldliness is just the immodest way somebody dresses or the way women decorate their faces or their hair or the movies they watch.

No, worldliness is here. Where the external things mean a lot more to me than the inner life of Jesus. But that's where the devil deceives us. We don't even think we are worldly, we think we are spiritual.

Because we don't have television, we don't go to the movies. We're not worldly. You are, brother. Flesh and blood cannot reveal that to you. But the spirit of truth, if you open yourself to the spirit of truth, he'll show you.

If you desire truth in the innermost being, which old covenant people did not have. What did these people do? Abraham could have a son when he was 100 years old. It's an external thing. Enoch was taken up.

That's an external thing. And all those other things, you know. Many, many things written there. Then came Jesus, by faith Jesus, this is the better thing. He endured the cross. It was an inner thing.

It's not talking about that cross he bore for a few hours in the last 24 hours of his life. It's ridiculous to think that Jesus would ask us to take up the cross every day and follow him. If he did not take up the cross every day himself.

How could I follow him? If he's talking about an external cross, which I may never have. It was an inner cross that Jesus had for 33 years. And flesh and blood cannot reveal that to us. The glory of Jesus' life, which made the Father so pleased with him, was that the Father watched him in Nazareth for 33 years.

And there was a cross in his life every day. He had died. He despised the shame, right from childhood. Mocked, ridiculed, the Father allowed him to go through that. I can imagine Jesus walking as a little boy.

Maybe down the streets of Nazareth, going to school or something like that. And old men sitting there and saying, You see that little boy there in the middle? That's Mary's son. We don't know who the father is.

We think it's a Roman soldier. And Jesus hearing that as a child. Can you imagine if your child had to hear that when he went to school? That nobody knew who his father was. He was an illegitimate child.