Love Is the Greatest — Zac Poonen

Christ’s Purchased Inheritance and the Danger of Spiritual Loss

I have been thinking of God's people missing their birthright, missing their inheritance, losing a large portion of what Christ purchased for us on the cross. Forgiveness of sins is only like cleaning the cup or cleaning the pipe, the channel.

I mean, we clean a cup at home for a purpose, to fill it with something useful. We clear out a channel or a pipe so that the water can flow. So any Christian who is satisfied with, in fact, my sins have been forgiven, that's great, and that's all there is, we can say the devil has robbed him of his inheritance in Christ.

And some of them, not some of them, but many of them, many Christians will discover it only when they stand before Christ. The whole purpose of prophetic preaching in the church is to throw light on the schemes of Satan, on the ways in which he seeks to deceive God's people, rob God's people.

Jesus said the thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy. He wants to rob us of our inheritance because when we are robbed of our inheritance, we don't have the power that God wants us to have, then he can kill us easily.

He can take away our weapons, take away our power, he can destroy our lives. When I see the very low standard and state of affairs among so many Christians and even in our churches, so many families have not come into the glory of a new covenant life of peace and love, joy.

I'll tell you, it makes me angry at the devil and say, Lord, I want to serve you more wholeheartedly. I hope it makes you angry too, at the devil. Don't waste your time getting angry at human beings. That will accomplish nothing except serve the devil's purposes.

If you want to get angry and all of us got a lot of anger pent up in our hearts, turn it all against the devil, let loose at him with all the bullets you have of anger. I don't want to waste any bullet on a human being of anger.

I'm angry at the devil because he's robbed God's people. He's robbed my brothers and sisters. He's made their lives miserable. He's made this world which God created such a terrible place. He's fooled people with false religions.

He's fooled Christians with a false Jesus. He's deceived Christians into thinking something is the Holy Spirit, which is not the Holy Spirit at all, which doesn't make anybody holy. I'm amazed that so many people swallow all this.

Sharing Truth with Love Rather Than Condemnation

And so, I'm concerned that we should, not only me, but if you hear the truth, you should lovingly share this with others who are blinded. If you can't share it in love, don't share it. If you're going to share the truth of God in a critical, judgmental way, or in a way to make people condemned saying, Why aren't you doing this?

Or, Why aren't you? That's not the way. Then it's better to keep quiet. God never scolds anyone. God never tells anybody, Why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? Preachers say that. God never.

That's because so many preachers don't know God that they speak like that. I know in the days when I knew God so little, I spoke like that too. I'm not here to throw stones at any preacher. I have sinned in that area myself.

I'm not qualified. Jesus said only one without sin can throw a stone, and I can't. But I've learned a lesson, and I can share with other people. Don't do that. You don't have to do the stupid things I did in my younger days.

God never scolds anyone. As a father, we must correct our children, but not scold them. There's so much of deception in the world today. So much of missing out on what God has offered for us in Christ.

From the Old Covenant to Justification and Inner Transformation

So much of living under the old covenant. The old covenant was given by God only temporarily to show man that you can't make it. To show you your sin, and to show man that no matter how hard you try, you can't make it.

I hope all of us have learned that lesson. No matter how hard you try, you can't come up to God's standard. You cannot. You may think, on the outside you may do a lot of things that appear spiritual, but God is interested in the inside.

David said in Psalm 51, Lord, you desire truth in the innermost being. That's where he wants truth. And he couldn't get it from anybody in the old covenant. And he never expected it. Because he gave the law only to show man.

And 1 ,500 years he kept Israel under the law. You know the sad thing is, even today, 2 ,000 years later, Christians have still not learned that lesson. You can't make it. You'll never come up to God's standard, no matter how hard you try.

And that's why you need to, first of all, find deliverance and freedom from the guilt of the past by perceiving Christ as your savior and accepting his righteousness. A lot of Christians know about forgiveness.

They don't know about justification. They don't know that the only way I can stand before God, even if I'm forgiven, I'm still not good enough. So what if my past is forgiven? What about all the corruption in your nature and mine today?

How can I stand before God with all that corruption, even if every sin I committed in the past is forgiven? That's why I need to be justified. Justified means Christ clothes me in his righteousness. Puts his righteousness to my account.

And God looks at me. He doesn't see all the filth. Aren't you happy? Aren't you happy that he doesn't see all the corruption? He sees me in Christ. I rejoice in that, and I want you to rejoice in it. But more than that, I don't have to live with this righteousness clothing me and inwardly forever be corrupt.

The other part of the good news is that God sends his Holy Spirit within to, while clothed in the righteousness of Christ, while accepted by God, inwardly, a tremendous transformation is taking place or should take place with the Holy Spirit.

And this is where Satan has robbed so many of God's people. Let me turn in Romans chapter 8. It says, Romans chapter 8. It says here in verse 3, what the law could not do. That is what the whole old covenant could not do.

That means what nobody before Jesus came could experience. We could put it like that. What Moses could not experience. What John the Baptist could not experience. Who was the greatest person bound up to Jesus?

What nobody in the entire human race up to the time of Jesus could experience. What the law could not do, God did. That's what he did when he sent Jesus in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin and condemned sin in the flesh.

Why? Why did he do all that? Why did God condemn sin in the flesh of Jesus when he hung on the cross? All sin was condemned there in the flesh of Jesus. He says, 2 Corinthians 5 .21 God made him to be sin on the cross who knew no sin.

So that, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Not some rotten righteousness that I have accomplished by discipline and yoga and controlling myself. Paul says, I don't want the righteousness of the law.

I don't want it. It's rags. I throw it away. I want this glorious garment of the righteousness of Christ. And so that, verse 4 the requirement of the law might be fulfilled inside us now. What is God's ultimate purpose?

Listen, here is God's ultimate purpose for you. That that holy requirement he had, even in old covenant times for man, which could not be fulfilled through the law, what the law could not do can now be fulfilled not on the outside.

No. Not that which gives you a good testimony before men. But that it can be fulfilled inside you. Inside who? Inside us who no longer walk according to the flesh. It doesn't work inside everybody. We know that.

But it will be accomplished in every Christian who chooses who makes a choice to walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh. In other words, who has decided I'm going to walk, I'm going to live my life according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and not according to the promptings of my fleshly nature.

All of us know we hear those promptings pretty regularly in our life. The promptings of the Holy Spirit and the promptings of the fleshly nature. And if there is a cry in your heart and say, Lord, I want to live all my life according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

You know what will happen? Romans 8 .4. Never forget this verse. You live according to the promptings of the Holy Spirit not according to the promptings of the flesh. God's holy requirement will be fulfilled inside you.

The Holy Spirit will work it in you. He will write. He will put His law into your mind and write it into your heart. That's wonderful. What is that holy requirement of the law? Let me turn. Now, we are going step by step like doing an arithmetic problem.

We understood what God's goal is. This righteous requirement of the law must be fulfilled inside me if I live by the promptings of the Holy Spirit. You know the Bible is really very simple. So many preachers have made it a very complicated thing.

One of the charges God has given me in my ministry is to remove the veil from the scriptures. That's over so many people. The devil has put a veil on people. And on top of the veil the devil has put so many preachers that put another veil on top of it making it even more difficult for people to understand.

As Jesus said that the Bible can be understood by babes. He spoke in a way that little children can understand if we read it simply. And if we meditate on it. If we take a little time to think about it.

Loving God with the Whole Heart

Matthew chapter 22. You know Jesus was asked once the same question. Verse 36. Matthew 22 verse 36. Somebody came to him and said teacher which is the great commandment of the law? And different people have different understandings.

Even today there are some people who call themselves Christians who say the great commandment is the fourth commandment. That is you must keep the sabbath. And that lady who is the leader of that group said that I think she had a vision or something where she saw the ten commandments and the light shining on the fourth one.

And I think the Jews expected some answer like that. You know that Jesus just said sabbath or something like that. But he didn't say that. In fact he didn't mention any of the ten commandments. But he said two things which summed up the whole ten commandments.

He said I'll tell you the great commandment in the law is not one but two. Two sides of a coin. And I have to show you both sides. First you shall love the Lord your God. Listen carefully. This is the righteous requirement of the law which God wants to fulfill inside us.

If it's not fulfilled inside you, the devil has robbed you. He has deceived you. The Holy Spirit is not working in you as he wants to if this is not being accomplished more and more. It's not a question of evangelism.

It's not a question of preaching or even attending meetings. Lots of people who attend meetings are just religious people. Here is the righteous requirement of the law which God longs to be fulfilled inside every one of us.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart. If I love God with all my heart how much place is there in my heart to love my wife, my children, my house, my job, my bank account, my money, my property, my reputation, anything.

There is no place left in my heart for these other things. How is it then you love those other things? I'll tell you because though you have given some place to God in your heart, the righteous requirement of the law to love God with all your heart has not been fulfilled.

You know that is the meaning of being pure in heart. The only man who is pure in heart is the man who loves God with all his heart. Pure in heart is different from having a clean conscience. A clean conscience means you confess every sin that you know and you cleanse, you say Lord I'm sorry, you confess to God, you confess to man.

But there are a lot of people who have a clean conscience who don't have a pure heart. You know that. You can confess every sin and yet you may love something other than God. Well, you say, Brother Zach, aren't you supposed to love your wife?

Sure. And I'll tell you something I've learned through 38 years of marriage, that I can love my wife far better and far more if I love God with all my heart. If I tried to love my wife the way all these cinemas teach and the way romantic novels teach, I'd have been having problems with her even today.

I'd have been fighting and quarreling even today, occasionally, like all these people who follow the cinemas do. But when you love God with all your heart and He fills your heart with love, you'll love your wife in such a way that you'll never raise your voice against her.

You'll never have a bitterness or a grudge or a complaint against her any day, 365 days of the year. That's the righteous requirement of the law. It comes through not loving your wife but by loving God with all your heart.

Love for Others Through Devotion to Christ

You see this, I'll give you an example. Let me take an example. If I'm the right hand and my wife is the left hand, how does my right hand love the left hand? It's not by always hanging on together. I don't have time to always be with my wife.

I have to serve the Lord and I have to go many places and she's not with me. This right hand loves my left hand through the head. That's how it loves. This right hand knows this left hand is part of the same body and it gets hurt even if a mosquito bites.

This one does something about it. Why? Because it's connected to the head and through the head loves. So if this right hand is completely submissive to the head, it doesn't have to love the left hand.

It'll automatically love the left hand much better than if you just connect these two hands together by some type of wire or... I tell you, you'll love your wife much better if you love Jesus with all your heart.

If you don't believe it, try it. Try it from today and tell me a year later if it doesn't work. It will. You'll love your children better. You won't scold them so much but you'll correct them. You'll help them.

You'll encourage them because you love God with all your heart. You'll love the brothers and sisters in the church. Some of them who are difficult. Does God love His difficult children? Oh yes, He does.

Otherwise where would we be? Who are you thinking of? Somebody else? I'm thinking of myself. I hope you're thinking of yourself and not thinking of somebody else. I know that brother over there or that sister over there.

You see how our mind is. God loves His difficult children. He loves us and when we love Him with all our hearts, we love everyone. I'll tell you that. I've discovered that more and more and more. The older I get, the more I see.

Not because it's written in 1 Corinthians 13 because I've experienced it. Love is the greatest. Not even faith. Today we have a preaching that tells you faith is the greatest. Almost every Christian television preacher is telling you about faith, faith.

Yeah? Faith is there. Hope is there. One day Christ will come and love. But love is the greatest. I have no doubt in my mind about it. You can have faith for many things and go to hell. You know that?

You can receive many things from God. No Christian ever received as much as those Israelites received for 40 years in the wilderness. Have you ever received bread dropping from heaven into your house even one day of your life?

Boy, imagine if that happened one day. It went out and Jesus sent bread for you. It'll stink in heaven one day, by the way, if you keep it for yourself. You've got to share it with others. But the point is that the Israelites received that for 40 years.

God was not happy with them. They went to hell. They had supernatural healing, miracles, water coming out of a rock, all types of things. They went to hell. You can have faith and you can have miracles and go to hell.

But there'll never be a person in hell who loved God with all his heart and who loved others as himself. That'll be impossible. So Jesus said, the greatest commandment is love God with all your heart and with all your soul.

My mind is a part of my soul and my personality. And if my mind also, I want to love God. That's why when I see something on television which my mind says, the Lord won't love that. I want to turn it off.

I want to turn away. And if I'm sitting in somebody's house and they're watching it, well, I'll want to go to the bathroom or something like that and excuse myself and say, sorry, it's time for me to leave.

That's the best thing. I'm not interested because I've got a mind which for so many years in my foolishness, I corrupted with sin. At least the years that are left to me, I want to give it to God. I want to use this mind to understand the scriptures.

And I've tried to use my mind to understand the scriptures for 45 years so that I could use my mind to bless other people, to clear out the cobwebs in people's minds about what God is like, about the new covenant, about Jesus, about the glory of Jesus.

Why don't you use your mind for that? Instead of watching filthy movies, instead of corrupting it with useless stuff that you read. I'll tell you honestly, my testimony, I'm not trying to be humble. I have studied this book, Bible, for 45 years.

I still feel I know so little. One of the things I recently got, I don't usually buy things for myself, but I got something recently which has helped me. Somebody gave it to me. Something which I could, where I can put a headphone on and keep on listening to the Bible wherever I go.

So, sometimes I have to make long journeys. Couple of days I had to make a long two and a half hour road journey from where I was to the airport. And I finished the Gospel of Matthew. And boy, did I get revelation.

For the first time.

For the first time. I got revelation on certain things. This is after reading it for 45 years. You're missing something. Love God with all your mind. Okay, I'll give.

Joseph’s Righteousness and Refusing to Disgrace Others

You one of those revelations I got. Right in the first chapter of Matthew. You know, it's something that blessed my heart and I say, Lord, I want to try and practice this more and more. You know, in Matthew chapter 1, it says about Joseph discovering that Mary had a child, but he didn't know it was by the Holy Spirit.

He thought she had been unfaithful and become pregnant. And so Joseph, it says in verse 19, was a righteous man and didn't want to disgrace her. I want to tell you what I've said many times before. The mark of a righteous man.

The first mark of a righteous man mentioned in the New Testament is that he does not want to disgrace other people. He does not want to expose the sins of other people. He wants to cover the sins of other people.

If you're like that, you're a righteous man. If you want to go around exposing the sins of your wife, your husband, other people in the church, you are a thoroughly unrighteous person. He was a righteous person.

He was under the Old Covenant, but he still had grace. Or he still had an understanding of God to not disgrace her, but to send her away secretly. So let me just hide the whole thing. Let her get married to somebody else.

I won't tell anything about the stories I know about her. How happy Joseph must have been that he did that. Because later on when he discovered the truth, how terrible he would have felt if he had gone around telling stories about Mary before that.

Have you ever felt terrible about telling some story about somebody and later on discovering it was not at all true? How much better it would have been if you had just kept quiet? At least learn a lesson for the future.

But, you know, I mean I had already seen that before, but what struck me was this other part. In the New Living Translation it says while he was thinking about this, he went to sleep and God spoke to him in a dream.

And I thought, Lord, before I go to sleep, let me also be thinking about how to do good to somebody. What a way to go to sleep. God may speak to you in a dream if you go to sleep like that. So many people before they go to bed they're thinking about how they're going to fight with someone, how they're going to answer someone who's going to argue with them and how they're going to teach that other fellow a lesson and how they're going to make a little more money here.

Listen, okay, even if you spend your whole day doing that, just before you go to sleep, think about, how can I do some good to someone? While he was thinking about these things, he went to sleep and God spoke to him.

That I discovered after 45 years of reading the Bible. Just to show you a taste, to encourage you to study the scriptures. There's a lot in here. You don't need great knowledge of anything. You just need to read carefully and stop and think.

Loving the Neighbor and Practicing the Golden Rule

But there's so much in it. To love God with all our heart, with all our mind is what God wants to accomplish in us. And it also says in Matthew 22, in that passage, that Jesus, you should love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.

This is the first commandment. And the second is like that. You must love your neighbor as yourself. Whatever you don't want other people to do to you, don't do to other people. Whatever you want other people to do to you, do to other people.

That's what Jesus said. It's the golden rule in Luke chapter 7. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Whenever you're thinking of treating someone in a certain way, think to yourself, would you like to be treated like that?

When you attempted to yell at the maid servant in your home, before doing that, just stop a moment. At least from now onwards. And ask yourself, would you want your boss to yell at you like that? Correct you, yes.

I certainly want, if I'm working in an office, I'd like my boss to correct me if I'm doing something wrong, but I don't want him to yell at me as if I'm a good for nothing, useless person. Treat other people the way you want God to treat you.

See, these are laws in Scripture. Honor your father and mother, and it'll go well with you. And we should be a testimony to that at the end of our life. My father and mother lived to a ripe old age. One was 80, and one was 90 before they passed away.

But I can honestly say before God, I honored them. I didn't always agree with them. After I left their home, I did, as the Lord led me, but I honored them until the end of their lives. And I want to say today to you, it's gone well with me.

It has. We had a young maid servant who worked in our home for many years, and God's my witness, and I always try to treat her the way I wanted God to treat me. Sure. Did good as far as possible, even after she got married.

Because that's the way I wanted God to treat me, and I want to testify today. God's been very good to me. I've treated God's children, tried my best to help them. In many ways, God's dealt very well with my own children.

It's a law. Treat others the way you want to be treated by God. The way you want to be treated. It's a simple law. Do you know how much you miss in life? Do you know why there are so many problems in your life?

Because you treat other people so badly.

I mean, it's the most foolish thing to do. Don't you want it to go well in your life? I want it to go well in my life. I want it to go well with my children.

There's so many wonderful promises in the New Testament that we can claim. If you love your neighbor as yourself, I tell you it's the best thing for you. It's the best thing for your children and grandchildren.

The seed of the righteous person is blessed. If you want it to go well with your children and their children, be a righteous person. God's given me so many promises. Let me just show you some of the promises God's given me concerning my own children, which I've just claimed, you know.

I mean, you can claim it too. It's in Scripture. This Bible is not written just for me. It's for you. But we don't, we miss something when we don't claim it. Here's a verse that God gave my wife and me before we even, I mean, right before we had any children.

It says here in Isaiah Isaiah 54 and verse 13 All your sons will be taught of the Lord, or as the meaning in the margin says, will be disciples of the Lord. And the well-being of your sons will be great.

I mean, years before we had any sons. Long before we had any sons, days before that, the Lord gave that to my wife separately and to me. And I said, Lord, we just claim it. In the Message Bible, it says All your children will have God for their teacher.

What a mentor for your children. Then, there was another one, and that's in Isaiah 59. Now, I'm just saying this so that these checks are in your name as well. Take it to the bank of heaven and cash it.

Isaiah 59 and verse 21. As for me, this is my covenant with them. My spirit that I have placed upon you and the words that I've given you to speak they are not going to leave your mouth nor the mouth of your children nor the mouth of your grandchildren.

You will keep repeating these words and it will never stop. It will go on from generation to generation. Boy, I tell you with all my heart, I don't mind if all my children are poor. God is my witness.

The Spirit of God will be upon them and they will speak God's word. They will be the richest people in the world. That's what I wish for my children, grandchildren. I don't desire anything else because I've known from my own life that money is not everything.

Sure, it makes no difference to me whether I have much or little. I'm just as happy when I had little as I am today. Another verse Isaiah 61 and verse 9. I'm reading in the message translation. Isaiah 61 and verse 9 in the middle of that verse it says Your descendants will become well known all over.

Your children in foreign countries will be recognized at once as the people whom I have blessed. It's amazing how specific God's promises can be. You can go to God and say Lord. I just go to the Lord and say Lord I don't want just my life to be blessed.

I want rivers of living water to flow out from me first of all in my own home to my children, grandchildren, to my people in my home church and then to other churches. I can't do it. God told Abraham I will bless you I will make you a blessing.

Then you'll be a blessing to others. No matter how hard I try I can't be a blessing to anybody. I can't even be a blessing to my children. But if I open myself up to God and say Lord I give you my word I want to treat other people the way I want you to treat me.

Will you make a covenant with God today? If not for any other reason at least for the selfish reason that you want your children and grandchildren to be blessed. I mean that's not the best reason. The best reason is that you want to glorify God but if you can't do it for any other reason do it because you want it to go well with you and you want it to go well with your family.

Treat other people at least from today the way you want God to treat you. Let God write that law into your heart that every time you speak to people and every time you have to deal with people you're going to say I want to in your heart I want to treat you the way God treats you.

God's been tremendously good to you. I want to be exceptionally good to you. I don't want to be miserly and tight-fisted towards you. I want to be large-hearted because God's been large-hearted towards me.

Freely Receiving and Freely Giving

Jesus told his disciples once why should you freely give to others? Because you have freely received. Freely you have received, he said in Matthew chapter 10. Freely give. The tragedy with so many Christians is they will acknowledge they have received freely what they don't deserve but they don't give.

They become tight-fisted to keep things to themselves and it stagnates. Have you seen a lake where the water comes in, rain falls, falls, falls, falls, falls, falls and there's no outlet for that lake and you can't drink the water of that lake.

It's weeds and rubbish because it's just receiving, receiving, receiving, receiving, receiving and next year it'll be receiving and receiving and receiving and it'll be filthy and filthy. You won't even want to go swim in that lake.

There's some Christians like that. They receive, receive, receive, receive. They never give anything to anyone. They stink. And then there are others. Have you seen a river? How is it people can even drink from a river?

Because when you stand in front of a flowing river, every second, every second, the water in front of you is fresh. It's new. It wasn't the water that was there five seconds ago. That's gone. It's gone.

It got something and it passed it on. It got something from the snow in the mountains and said, well I got so much, let me pass it on to others and think of the millions of people who get blessed through a river.

Love your neighbor as yourself. Simple devotion to Christ is what leads us into this type of love. We read in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 11. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. What is Paul's concern for his flock in Corinth?

He says, I'm jealous for you, 2nd Corinthians 11 verse 2 because I promised your hand in marriage to Christ. I betrothed you to Christ and I want to present you one day as a pure virgin to her husband.

Paul was a man who took his ministry seriously. He knew that he had to present every one of those people as a pure virgin to Christ and he was so concerned that they were not pure. They were fooling around with the world and he says, I'm afraid that like the serpent deceived Eve by his cleverness your mind will be led astray.

You'll be lured away from simple pure devotion to Christ. When do you go astray? When you have lost your simple pure devotion to Christ. Oh, you don't have to do serious things. When you have lost that fervent love for Jesus you've already gone astray, my brother.

You didn't know that? You didn't know you had fallen? The Lord told the leader, the elder of the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 .4 You've left your first love. You had it once but you just left it.

And remember from where you have fallen. Is that a fall? That's what he says there in Revelation 2 .5 Remember from where you have fallen to lose your first love, to leave your first love for Christ is the greatest fall you can have so bad that the Lord says, I'll take over the anointing from you if you don't repent.

Many of us may repent when we lost our temper lost it with our eyes hurt somebody with words did something but when was the last time you repented because you said, Lord Jesus, I've lost my love for you.

Have you ever wept on your pillow at night and said, Lord I've stopped loving you like I did before I've done it. I do it often. I said to me that's the most important thing. I don't care for preaching.

I'll tell you honestly, God's my witness. I don't care for preaching. That's just an overflow of my love for Christ. It's love for Jesus that burns in my heart. That's how I was when the Lord saved me 47 years ago and that's where I want to be till today.

I want to evaluate my life not by ministry, not by books or tapes or CDs or outreach. The Lord told me years ago, don't ever evaluate your life by the success in your ministry. Evaluate your life by your love for me.

And I've kept that before me. You know, it's possible to have a very successful ministry and to have a great outreach and to lose your love for Jesus. You read that in Revelation chapter 2, that leader in Ephesus, the church in Ephesus had a wide ministry.