Free From Legalism (Dutch) — Zac Poonen

Grace and Truth Came Through Jesus Christ

Do you know that there was no grace in the world until Jesus Christ came? Do you know that there was no grace in the world until Jesus Christ came? It's very important to understand that. It's very important to understand that.

I want you to turn with me to John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 17. I want you to turn with me to John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 17. We read here that the law was given through Moses. We read here that the law was given through Moses.

But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The grace that the New Testament speaks about. The grace that the New Testament speaks about was never known until Jesus came.

And nobody on earth experienced it until the day of Pentecost. What people had in the Old Testament was favor, God's goodness. In the days of Noah, it says, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. It was, nobody got New Testament grace.

So we need to understand what it means to live under law and what it means to live under grace. Because there are a lot of Christians who are living under law. And as I said yesterday, Romans 6, 14 is a very important verse.

True Grace Versus False Grace

Let's look at it again. Why does sin rule over some believers? Because without knowing it, they are under law. As long as you live under the law, you can never overcome sin. In very simple language, it is like this.

Law is man struggling to keep God's commandments. Grace is God enabling us through His Spirit to keep His commandments. There is a false grace. There is a cheap grace. And there is the true grace of God.

This is not something which has come up only recently. In the first century, before the apostles died, there were people preaching false grace. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter writes a long letter.

And at the end of that letter, see what he says. He gives a title to his letter. What is that title? What is the whole subject of his letter? In the last part of verse 12, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God.

Stand firm in it. Why doesn't he say, this is the grace of God? Why does he say this is the true grace of God? You need to speak of something true only when there is a counterfeit, a false. So, even in Peter's time, he says you need to distinguish between what is the true grace of God and the false grace of God.

You turn to the book of Jude. Let's take a look at the book of Jude. Jude is the last letter in the Bible. Then you have the book of Revelation. But here is the last of the letters. And he says here, I wanted to, verse 3, I wanted to write to you about our common salvation.

He says, I wanted to write to you about something like Romans, the steps of salvation. But while I felt like writing that, the Holy Spirit sort of compelled me to write about something else. You know, that often happens.

I mean, I've experienced that sometimes when I'm trying to preach. I wait on the Lord and say, Lord, what do you want me to speak in a meeting? And I think something is appropriate. And then as I get up to speak, the Holy Spirit says no.

There's something else. That's happened to me many times. So Jude also felt like that. He was wanting to write a letter and the Holy Spirit said, write about contending, verse 3, earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Write again what is the true faith which has been given to the saints. Because, he says, certain persons, verse 4, have crept in unnoticed into the church. Ungodly persons, it says here. What was their crime?

They did not murder anybody or commit adultery. Look at their crime. They turned the grace of God into licentiousness. Or to paraphrase it, it means they took the message of the grace of God and turned it into a license to commit sin.

Think of a driving license. You can't drive a car until you get a license. Once you get a license, now I can drive a car. So the meaning here is some people are preaching grace as now, it doesn't matter if you sin.

You got grace now. That is a license to sin. Do you know that there are many, many believers who understand grace like that? The law came through Moses. The true grace came through Jesus Christ. But there are people who have twisted it into a license for sin.

It's not preached as a license to sin. It's in a very subtle way, where many believers think, well, God is not so strict now like He was in the days of the law. In the law, He was very strict. If you did this, you were punished.

If you did that, you were punished. But now God has become very merciful. He has changed from that Old Testament God that He was after Jesus died. Now is the age of grace. It doesn't matter if you slip up now and then.

God will forgive you. And if you slip up again, and you fall and fall and fall and fall, God will forgive you and forgive you and forgive you. This is the preaching of false grace. But you are chosen.

So you will go to heaven. And this is the way the devil deceives people so that finally they all land up in his lap in hell. And people who have been brainwashed to believing this, it's very difficult for them to hear the true grace of God.

You know, in the early days of communism, there were people brainwashed into believing that communism is the thing that's going to save the world. And the same way in the days of Hitler, where so many young people joined Hitler's crusade, they thought, we're going to rule the world.

Young people were brainwashed. And Christians have been brainwashed today with the false grace of God. And it's possible today that the world is going to fall apart. And it's possible that some of you have been like that.

And what you hear may be completely contrary to what you have heard. It's very important to listen with an open mind. It's very difficult to have an open mind when we have been brainwashed into something else.

I'm asking you to have an open mind to come to scripture. So, you know, Peter says, this is the true grace of God. So let me show you a few things from 1 Peter, which we just saw, he called it the true grace of God.

Election According to God's Foreknowledge

He speaks about election or being chosen. See, being elected by God is a big subject of dispute among Christians. Does God just pick out certain names and say, okay, you're going to heaven? And say, all the others are going to hell.

But the people who go to hell can't blame, they can tell God, you can't blame us, you never chose us. That is a lie. That is a false picture that the devil paints of us. That is a false picture that the devil paints of a loving God.

So Peter speaks about that subject first. The false grace of God that teaches a wrong teaching on election. The very first verse, the first subject he takes. This is the true grace of God. 1 Peter 1, verse 1.

He says, I'm writing to you who are all these places, the different names he mentions, who are elected or chosen. But how were they chosen? That's the important thing. Did God just shut his eyes and pick some names and say, oh, you're chosen?

No. It says they are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. God does elect, he chooses. But he chooses not randomly, but according to his foreknowledge. Now it's very difficult for us to understand foreknowledge.

Because we don't have foreknowledge. We don't even know what's going to happen this evening. Much less what's going to happen next year. But when you think of God, infinite, eternal God, who had no beginning, no end, he can look forward into time and see everything that's happening right up to the end of time.

Long before he created Adam, long before he created the angels, he knew what would happen. When the head of the angels, Lucifer, fell and became the devil, that God was not surprised. He knew that before he created him.

When Adam fell, God didn't get a surprise. Then God was not surprised. Oh, what should I do now? No, no, no. He knew about it before he created Adam. That is foreknowledge. He knew everything. And he knows everything that's going to happen next year and ten years from now and right up into eternity.

But he doesn't influence and force us to choose something. If God were to force us to do something, if the grace of God was something like some people say, you cannot resist it, it will just overpower you, then we are being forced.

Then God has made us into robots. There's a big conflict in the mind of many people between God's sovereignty and the freedom of God. And there's a big conflict in our minds often between God's sovereignty and the free will of man.

It's not easy for us to understand that. It's like two parallel lines. And in general, people think that two parallel lines are two lines that never meet. But that is not the correct mathematical definition of two parallel lines.

The correct mathematical definition of two parallel lines is that they meet each other in eternity. Any mathematician can tell you that. So here are two parallel lines. God's sovereignty and the free will of man.

It looks as if they never meet. They cannot meet. If God is sovereign, man cannot have a free will. And if man has free will, then God cannot be sovereign. But they do meet at infinity. In the infinite mind of God, there is a place for free will of man and the sovereignty of God to meet.

Now we can't understand that fully. Because God's wisdom is like an ocean. And the cleverest man sitting here, your mind is like a cup. And a cup cannot contain the ocean. And we have to humble ourselves and say, Lord, my cup cannot contain your ocean.

You know, to use an illustration, the difference between a dog and a man, let's say it's about six inches. Oh yeah, maybe 15 centimeters. The difference between man and God on that scale is millions and millions of kilometers.

So think of that again. The difference between a dog and a man is, say, 15 centimeters. And between man and God is millions of kilometers. So if a dog cannot understand a man, how can we understand God?

A dog can understand a few things about man. My master loves me. My master cares for me. If I'm injured, my master will take care of me. My master will give me food to eat. He'll protect me. In the cold, he may even wrap me up in a blanket.

My master is very good to me. All that a dog can understand. And there are certain things about God we can understand too. God loves me. He cares for the birds. He has numbered the hairs on my head. But there are many other things about a man that a dog cannot understand.

For example, a dog thinks, Why do these human beings wear clothes? We never wear clothes. Why do they go to school? We dogs never go to school. Why do these human beings have bank accounts? We dogs don't have bank accounts.

Why do these human beings fight about money and property? We dogs never fight about some currency note lying on the ground. Many things a dog cannot understand because it's a dog. But if it's a child, a human child, in four, five, six years, it understands many things.

So humility is to acknowledge there are many things about God I cannot understand. But the things that are written in scripture we can understand. God has revealed to us the things we need to know. So foreknowledge is something like this.

See, we can watch a video of what has taken place in the past. If you see someone has taken a video of something, two people fighting with each other, you're not influencing that, you're just watching it.

Or one person doing some kind act for somebody else. You're not influencing it, you're watching it. Now God can watch a video of what's going to happen a thousand years from now. He sees somebody doing something one thousand years from now, he can see it.

I mean, before he created Adam, he could look into the future and see your life. And foreknowledge means he could see what you would do when you heard the gospel. And he could see what somebody else could do when he heard the gospel.

He could see in his foreknowledge that you would accept Christ. And he could see in his foreknowledge that the other person would not accept Christ. He does not influence that. Just like you don't influence something you see in a video.

You're only watching the video. God is watching the video. So-and-so accepts Christ. So-and-so accepts Christ. And this person does not accept Christ. He knows it. That's called foreknowledge. On the basis of that foreknowledge, those who accept Christ, he elects them.

That's what Peter says. This is the true grace of God. It's very difficult for those who are brainwashed to change their mind about this. But it is so clear. Elected according to the foreknowledge of God.

Not according to God's sovereign choice that he does what he likes. It's very important to understand that. There's something else I want to show you about the grace of God. Chapter 1, verse 16. You shall be holy because I am holy.

And he tells him, therefore, verse 14, don't be conformed to the former lusts in your ignorance. But like the holy one who called you to be holy, you also must be holy in all your behavior. He's not saying you'll automatically be holy.

You have to choose to be holy. You know, free will is the one thing that God will never take away from a man. Do you know what will happen if God takes away your free will? You will be like a robot. That means you cannot do anything on your own.

You know what a robot is. It's programmed with a computer to do whatever the master has programmed it to do. And some people have an idea that God has made man like that. Then we'd be like the planets.

They have obeyed God for thousands of years. Never disobeyed God. But even though they are obedient, they cannot be children of God. Because they don't have free will. If you don't have free will, you cannot be a sinner.

You cannot be a child of God. A tree, an apple tree, it has no choice. It has to produce apples. It cannot produce mangoes or oranges. It's programmed by God to produce apples. So there's nothing great about that tree, it produces apples.

It is programmed to produce this. And if God had made Adam like that, like a robot, and he'll walk up to the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the program inside says, you should not eat this. So like a robot, he turns around and goes to the tree of life.

And the program says, you can eat this. And he eats it. What is so wonderful about that? There's no free choice. God is a father. He wants children. Not robots. I mean, you and I are fathers, many of you, you know what we like.

Would you like a small robot, the size of a three-year-old child? Supposing you don't have any children. And somebody makes a little robot for you. And when you come home from your office, this little robot walks up and says, hello daddy, I'm so happy to meet you.

And can I bring you your slippers to wear? Now there are robots even that make coffee. You don't need a wife, your robot will make the coffee and bring it to you. Would you like a robot? One advantage of robots, they'll never disobey you.

Your wife may disobey you. Dangerous. Children may disobey you. Dangerous. Robots will never disobey you. So fathers and mothers, would you like an obedient robot or a naughty three-year-old child? I say, give me a naughty three-year-old child any day.

Because when that three-year-old child hugs me and says, daddy, I love you. You cannot equal that with a hundred thousand robots. God is a father. He doesn't want robots. He wants children who love him.

Some will be naughty, some will be disobedient, okay. But one child that loves him makes God so happy. That is why he has given you a free will. That's why he tells you, if you want to love me, you love me.

If you don't want to love me, you don't love me. But I'm not going to force you. There's a second thing that God has given man, and that's called a conscience. See, dogs also have free will. They may obey you, they may not obey you.

But there's something a dog doesn't have, is a conscience. That's what elevates man above trees and planets, and dogs as well. Men and dogs have free will, but the man has got a conscience. A conscience that tells him what is right and what is wrong.

And God has put that conscience in man to see how he will exercise his free will. When Adam and Eve went to that tree of knowledge of good and evil, their conscience told them, you must not eat this. God has forbidden it.

How do we know that? Because as soon as they ate it, they felt guilty. And do you know what Adam did? It says he went and hid behind a tree. Sin makes a man stupid. You think you can hide behind a tree and hide from God?

That is the first stupid thing that Adam did. He thought if I hide behind a tree, God won't see me. It's like some hide and seek game. Foolish! But he also felt guilty because he had to cover himself from his wife.

He never felt like that before. That was conscience. God has given us a conscience to choose. And Peter says, in 2nd Peter, in chapter 3, why is the Lord waiting so long to return? He says, there will be mockers in the last days.

2nd Peter, chapter 3, verse 3. He will say, where is the promise of his coming? Why is the Lord delaying? See what it says. Verse 9. This is a very important verse. This is the true grace of God. The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness.

But he is patient towards you. Now listen to this. God does not want a single person to perish. He wants everyone to come to repentance. If there are 7 billion people in the world today, how many does God choose to come to repentance?

According to this verse, everyone. Every single person on the world today, God wants them to repent. How can we say then that God has chosen some people to go to hell and some people to go to heaven? Peter says, this is the true grace of God.

He wants everyone to come to repentance. Paul says the same thing. See 1 Timothy, in chapter 2. 1 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 3 and 4. He talks about what God, our Savior, wants. 1 Timothy 2, verse 4. God wants all human beings to be saved.

He wants all 7 billion people in the world to be saved. So if he was just choosing people according to election, he would choose all 7 billion. Because he wants all of them to come to repentance. He wants all of them to be saved.

And not only that, verse 4. He wants all of them to come to the knowledge of the truth. That's the theme of our conference. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free completely from sinning.

How many people does God want to be free from sinning? Everyone. And it says here, God wants everyone to be saved. He wants everyone to repent. He wants everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Why aren't they repenting then? Why aren't they saved then? Why aren't they come to the knowledge of the truth that will set them free from sin? Because God will not make a man into a robot. He has given him freedom of choice.

God doesn't want robots moving around in heaven in eternity. He wants people with a free will, who have chosen to love him. This is the true grace of God. And Peter goes on to say something else. In 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 2.

Following Christ's Sinless Example

He tells us why we have been called. Why have we been elected by God? Why have we been chosen? Why did God choose us in his foreknowledge? He tells us in 1 Peter 2 verse 21. You have been called for this purpose.

Christ also suffered for us. Leaving you an example. These are very important words. This is the true grace of God. The true grace of God is not something where you just live as you like and expect God to keep on forgiving you.

The true grace of God is where you look at Jesus as your example. Listen to this. You have to read this very carefully. An example you are to follow in his steps, who committed no sin. Let me repeat that.

You are to follow the example of Jesus Christ in his steps, who committed no sin. So the true grace of God is that which will enable me to walk in Jesus' footsteps, who overcame sin and did not sin. It is the opposite of the false grace which says, it doesn't matter now if you sin, because God will forgive you.

It is the opposite of the false grace which says, it doesn't matter now if you sin, because God will forgive you. And not only is there he who did no sin, but in whose mouth there was no deceit or lie.

That means there was no hypocrisy in his life. He did not appear to be one person in public and another in private. He did not act differently when he was among the people than when he was alone. Do you know what the sin was that Jesus condemned the most?

Jesus' Mercy Toward the Woman Caught in Adultery

If you read through the gospels, do you ever see him condemning a woman caught in adultery? He hated adultery. From heaven he gave one of the commandments to Moses, thou shalt not commit adultery. That's Jesus who gave that commandment to Moses from heaven.

But when he came to earth, and there was the woman caught in adultery, disobeying the commandment he gave from heaven, and the Pharisees said, kill her. Moses said, you must take stones and kill a woman caught in adultery.

And Jesus couldn't say, no, no, no, that law has changed now. No, he said, I will not change the law. He who is without sin among you, throw the first stone. And they all went away. And you know who went away first?

You read in John 8, the eldest. Why didn't one of them pretend that I've got no sin? I'll throw the stone. They were scared. Jesus would have publicly announced all his sins for everybody to hear. They knew that Jesus can see through their hearts.

So they quietly went away. Until only one person was left who had not sinned. There was one man who was qualified to pick up stones and throw and kill the woman. Jesus himself. And he had said that, the one without sin can pick up a stone and kill her.

Why didn't he do it? He said that. A man without sin first can throw the first stone. Why didn't he do it? Because God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. Jesus did not come to heaven, come to earth with stones in his pocket.

He came to save people. Today we have many Christians who've got stones in their pockets. Many preachers who've got stones in their pockets. They stand in the pulpit. And they take a verse and fling it at that man over there.

And they take another verse and fling it at that poor sister over there. Oh, I've heard so many preachers like that. They're throwing stones from the pulpit, condemning, condemning, condemning. And the one without sin can pick up a stone and kill her.

The one who could condemn, never condemned. Because he came to save. He did not come under the law. He did not come with the law, he came with a higher law, the law of love. That did not mean that he'd say, okay, adultery is not serious, go ahead, keep doing it.

He preached the full gospel to that woman. Today people talk the full gospel in some other way. I've heard people say, the full gospel is this. Jesus saves you from hell. Baptizes you in the Holy Spirit.

Heals you of your sicknesses. And he's the coming king. Four things. Savior, baptizer, healer, coming king. But a lot of those people live in sin. They're not saved from sin, they're saved from hell. That's not the full gospel.

Let me show you the full gospel, the way Jesus preached it. He told the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8. There are not four things, just two things. John 8, 11. Woman, concerning your whole past life.

Verse 11. I do not condemn you. That is the first message of the true gospel. To everyone who will acknowledge their sin. If you don't acknowledge your sin, then you cannot be forgiven. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us.

If this woman had pretended saying, no, no, no, I didn't commit adultery. These people are accusing me falsely. No, no, no, these people have it all at the wrong end. Then she would not have been forgiven.

Confession, Forgiveness, and the Cross

Do you remember the two thieves on the cross? Either side of Jesus. Both were equally bad. Maybe both of them killed 10, 15 people, murdered them. They were thieves and murderers. And you know the Romans did not crucify everybody.

Some people like Barabbas and all, they just put them in the prison. But these people were so bad, that life in prison was not good enough. Just like in many countries today, they hang them, because they are so bad.

So the worst punishment in Roman times was crucifixion. The worst punishment in Roman times was crucifixion. So these were terrible criminals. Why did one go to heaven and the other go to hell? Was it because one was chosen and one was not chosen?

No! It's because the one man said, if you're the son of God, bring me down from the cross. What is he saying? Yeah, I've done a few bad things. Maybe I deserve 10 years in prison. That's okay. But not crucifixion.

No, I'm not so bad. Bring me down from the cross. I'm not so bad that I should be crucified. He went to hell. The other man, you read that in Luke 23, he said, I'm guilty. I deserve to die. I don't blame my parents for bringing me up badly.

I don't blame the bad company who led me astray into bad habits. I don't blame the judge who condemned me to death. I deserve this punishment. I deserve to die. And if I were to paraphrase Jesus' words, he was saying, really?

You mean you deserve to die? You acknowledge your guilt? Paradise is made for people like you. I'm dying for people like you. Come with me to paradise. Not 2 ,000 years later. Today! And the angels watch and wonder.

And soon after, Jesus dies. Jesus died at about 3 o 'clock in the afternoon. The soldiers came a little later and broke the legs of the thief, and he also died. The same afternoon, 5 or 6 o 'clock in the evening, the angels watch and wonder.

As Jesus, and that murderer, walk hand in hand in paradise. That is the grace of God that can save a person at the last minute. Not because he was elected, but because he acknowledged, I'm a sinner. What is the difference between him and Adam?

When God came to Adam, and said, did you eat from this tree? There are only two answers to that. Yes, or no. But he doesn't say that. He gives a third answer. Lord, this wife of mine, the whole problem is with her.

If she had not plucked that fruit, I would not have sinned. But you can ask Adam, did you open your mouth? Putting the blame on others. Do you know where you see the first example of a husband pointing his finger at his wife?

Adam. And all the children of Adam have acquired that habit. Blame somebody else. Your fault. Yeah, I did it, but you made me do it. Even when people apologize. You know, I've discovered very few people know exactly how to ask forgiveness and apologize for something wrong they did.

You know, I've heard people apologize like this. I've heard people apologize like this. If I have hurt you, please forgive me. If I have hurt you, please forgive me. You know what that means? I don't really believe I've hurt you, but if you are stupid enough to think I hurt you, okay, forgive me.

Is that asking forgiveness? That is accusing that other person. The real way to ask forgiveness is not if I have hurt you. Many husbands and wives may talk like that. Okay, darling, if I have hurt you, forgive me.

I don't believe I have, but if you are stupid enough to believe that, okay. That's not the way to ask forgiveness. That's like Adam. The right way to ask is that was completely my fault. I'm really sorry.

How can I set it right? Please forgive me. I don't want to do it again. There is no if. The thief on the cross never said if. I'm guilty. Forgiven. The woman caught in adultery. Forgiven. I don't condemn you.

I want to ask forgiveness. I want to ask all of you here, my brothers and sisters. When you confess your sin to God or man, do you confess it like that? Do you go to God and say, Lord, I am 100 guilty of that?

If you do that, you will start walking with Jesus in paradise right that moment. Your home will become like a paradise. If you take the blame yourself. Like the thief on the cross. So that's the first part of the full gospel.

Woman, I do not condemn you. And I hope all of you who believe you are saved have heard that word from the Lord. There is no condemnation. It doesn't matter how much you have sinned in the past. The promise of the gospel is Hebrews 8, 12 I will not remember your past sins anymore.

I will look at you as if you have never sinned in your life. Many of us know 1 John 1, 7 The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. Not covers us, but cleanses us. We know that in the Old Testament there was no cleansing from sin.

Psalm 32, 1 says, Blessed is the man whose sin is covered. Sin was covered in the Old Testament by the blood of bulls and goats. So, there is a big table here with all my sins written down on it. The blood of bulls and goats put a sheet over it.

You can't see it. Covered. When you lift the sheet, you can see it. It's all there. But the blood of Jesus cleansed it. It's gone. It's nowhere here now. I will not remember your sins anymore. Romans 5, 9 Justified by His blood.

What is the difference between being cleansed by the blood and justified by the blood? Justified means just as if I had never sinned. How many of you know that? There is no condemnation. God looks at you as if you never sinned in your whole life.

You don't have to live under the condemnation of the law. Oh, I did this, I did this and God may be remembering it. Haven't some of you, many of us, have the habit of confessing some serious sins that we committed in the past again and again and again?

Some terrible sin you did in the past maybe in your unconverted days or even after you were converted which was really bad really, really bad and you confessed it more than once and again and the devil reminds you remember 20 years ago you did that you think you're such a holy man and you say oh Lord, yes I did it please forgive me and you're saying that for the 100th time because you don't believe when God says your sins I will not remember anymore Hebrews 8 verse 12 I will not remember their sin anymore.

Then why do you confess it for the 100th time what you did 20 years ago I'll tell you why. Because you have not come to the place of no condemnation. You need to hear the Lord saying to you I do not condemn you.

I do not remember your sin anymore. This is to be free from the law. Under the law there is always condemnation. There is always. Hebrews says a constant reminder of sins committed in the past. Who is the one who keeps on reminding you of sins you committed in the past.

Revelation 12 verse 10 says the accuser of the brethren. Revelation 12 verse 10 says the accuser of the brethren someone who keeps on reminding you of your past and your sins in the past that is the devil.

If you have not confessed it then it could be that the Holy Spirit is reminding you. That is called conviction not condemnation. That is called conviction of sins by the Holy Spirit not condemnation. But the devil is the accuser.