The Power of True Grace — Zac Poonen

The Gospel of John and the New Age of Grace

Let's turn John's gospel in chapter 1. It's a completely new age That began when Christ came and Prepared for the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit and what we read in this verse Really fulfilled From the day of Pentecost onwards, but like I've been saying the last couple of days Most Christians, I feel have not laid full hold of their in Christ.

So I want you to look at John chapter 1 and verse 17 the law was given through Moses. But grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. Yesterday we looked at the meaning of truth is the opposite of lie.

Which means my life is true. There is no lie in my life. I'm not Pretending to be what I'm not. I'm not talking about things which are not true most. And unfortunately most Christians live a lie as well.

Because there's such a tremendous desire To get the approval of men. Now we don't realize that. Seeking the approval of men is a form of idolatry. Once we see that We'll see that idols are not just You know images of wood and stone.

They can be real human beings. And if I'm concerned about let me take my own example if when I speak If I'm concerned about your opinion of me or my sermon More than the opinion of the Lord Jesus who is right here in our midst.

I believe he's here and I Am more concerned about your opinion than his. I'm an idolater. I'm actually bowing down before you and saying dear brothers and sisters. I hope you think well of me. I hope you think well of what I said.

I'm bowing down to you. It's a very serious sin To seek the approval of men. That's why the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1 10 If I were to seek the approval of men, I cannot be the servant of Christ.

I cannot. And I believe this is the reason why Mentors are not servants of Christ. They get disqualified by one verse Galatians chapter 1. Verse 10 if I seek to please men, I Cannot under any circumstances Be the servant of Christ because I will be the servant of men.

So we need to be true. We need to know. I want to look now at the other word here. That was realized through Jesus Christ. What I said yesterday was the no person under the Old Covenant Could live that life where his inner life corresponded to the outer life.

And that's why nobody in the Old Covenant could say follow me as I follow Christ. Because their private life in their hidden life their inner life their home life was a bit of a mess they could only Say listen to what God has told me that was accurate, but their life was not.

The other word here is grace. Another word that we have heard and heard and heard and heard and heard and I believe not understood fully because most Christians When they think of grace it means that They they only think of forgiveness.

But that's only one part a very important part of grace. But only a very small part of grace it's very important for us to understand that if some if you were witnessing to some non-christian and He asked you what does it mean when the Bible speaks about the grace of God?

Would you be able to? Answer. It's important to know it says Be always ready to give an answer to him who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you says that in one Peter and we must all to give an answer and one of the Fully listening to God's Word when the word is expounded is that we have an answer then to be able to give to those who ask us so first of all, I want to say three things about grace, which Covers all the areas of our life and I hope they will stay with you in your mind.

Please turn with me first of all to Ephesians in chapter 1. Ephesians 1 and verse 7 in Christ. We have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

So that is the first thing we receive. Forgiveness of sins it has to begin there. Because when we come before God, we're so full of guilt. We are guilty. We deserve the wrath of God. Because sin is a terrible thing.

It's not something that can be ignored. When a person doesn't understand the seriousness of sin I Know non-christians would ask me. Why can't God just Forgive us if I say I'm sorry, and I explained to them.

Listen if I mean if you broke a plate or a saucer. Or a cup at home and you told your mom and dad all I'm sorry I broke it your parents would say forget it. We can always get another one because breaking a plate or a saucer.

There's nothing but I said if you had murdered somebody or murdered a few people and You stand before your father who is a judge in the court and you say dad, I'm sorry. I just happened to murder ten people.

You can't say that's okay son forget it it's not in the same category as breaking a plate or a cup it's far more serious and When we think very lightly of God when we have a low opinion of God We think of sin like oh, well, it was just like breaking a plate or a cup.

I mean even Christians can think When you treat sin lightly in your life. You're treating sin like that. Oh, well, it's just like breaking a cup or a saucer not so serious. How many of us would see every sin we commit as as serious as murder the more?

We see of the holiness of God the immense Holiness of God, which is so great that even sinless angels cover their faces like Isaiah saw this seraph saying holy holy holy. They cover their feet and cover their faces.

Those have never sinned. When we see the holiness of God like that, we say hey sin is far more serious than we thought. Explain it to a non-christian if your view of God is a pure God is a holy God as the God of the Bible is.

Sin is a very serious thing that cannot easily be forgiven. It's like murder and no matter how much your father loves you He cannot forgive you. He cannot let you go you have to take the punishment and in human terms if it was a punishment like a fine of a million dollars or something if the father was rich enough he could take off his robes and Come down and write a check of his entire life savings and say here son Pay the fine and he would have done his job as a judge.

Giving him the punishment and He's done his job as a father. Paying that punishment himself, but this the son still has to do one thing. He has to receive that check. If he's too proud to receive it He cannot be forgiven.

That's how it is he doesn't have to do anything. Forgiveness is free it's free for man. But it's tremendously expensive for the father to have paid that His life savings in one single check to set let his son go free.

This is a picture of forgiveness. We need to see it. But in Jesus case what he did for us is more than just paying money. It was I was due to be hanged and he was crucified in my place. So we must never see.

It's forgiveness is something cheap. The Bible speaks about treating the blood of Christ like something cheap in Hebrews 10 and verse 29 speaks about those who Trample under the foot the Son of God, you know those who disobey the commandments it says in Hebrews 10 28 26 re if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth.

There no longer remains a sacrifice for sin if a man understands the price Christ paid for forgiveness of sins. He cannot go on sinning willfully impossible. He may trip and fall but he cannot go on sinning willfully.

If a person goes on sinning willfully it would indicate that he hasn't seen the price Christ has paid. He's taken it cheaply and he goes on to say in the middle of verse 29. He's Regarded as Common, that's the real meaning of that word the blood of the covenant.

That means he's treated to paraphrase it. He's treated the blood of Christ like tap water like something cheap. Something common. Why is it we don't get too disturbed if our hands get dirty our hands can get dirty 10 -15 times a day.

We are not disturbed because tap water is cheap. Soap is cheap. We can wash it 20 times a day. It's cheap. So if I can sin like that and say oh, well, it doesn't matter if I slipped up. The blood of Christ is there and I slip up 20 times a day and say This cleanses me.

I've treated the blood of Christ like tap water. Especially if I know this is wrong and I still do it. But Peter says you're being redeemed by the blood of Christ, which is far more precious than gold and silver so the only person who's really understood The seriousness, I mean who's appreciated forgiveness of sins is the one who's understood the seriousness of sin many years ago.

Meditated on scripture. I asked the Lord to explain one thing to me. I Hope you know the Lord well enough if you've known Jesus as your Savior. We become more and more familiar. I don't mean familiar in a wrong sense.

We respect him immensely. We can become more and more friendly with him that we can talk to him and ask him questions. And he answers us and one of the questions I asked the Lord was What was this cup?

That you hesitated to drink in the garden of Gethsemane. Lord you who came to earth to do the Father's will. I See a struggle going on in Gethsemane where you said father Please take away this cup. There was a conflict there between your will don't want to drink this cup.

It was clear. The Father's will was drink this cup. What was it that he had to struggle for one hour? I? Knew it was not the physical suffering on the cross because I've seen I mean I've heard of martyrs.

Christian martyrs who went singing To be burnt at the stake or to be killed or crucified upside down like Peter. Beheaded like Paul. They never said Oh Lord. Don't let me suffer for your sake. Christian martyrs have been in prison for many years so Jesus wasn't shrinking from physical suffering.

No. He would have gone through Physical sufferings on Calvary for my sake and your sake it wasn't that it wasn't physical suffering. What was it he was praying? I don't want to partake of this. As I thought about it I Came to see it was a break of fellowship With his father that would happen on the cross for three hours when Jesus died on the cross.

The forgiveness of our sins was not purchased Merely by his physical death, I mean we explained to little children saying Jesus died on the cross and We see pictures of Jesus being whipped and beaten and suffering and we weep.

But the physical death was not the price for our sin. It was part of it, but it was not all. Because the punishment for sin just think of the logic of this. If the punishment for our sin was physical death Then every time we die physically we have paid the punishment.

Then every human being when he dies has paid the punishment for a sin and everybody should go to heaven. If that's all that Jesus died. That Jesus did that he died on the cross physically for my sin. Was that the punishment for sin?

What would you tell an unbeliever is the punishment for his sin? It's not physical death. I Don't tell him you will die physically if you're sinner. No, I'll say you go to hell. If you live in sin, if your sins not forgiven you go to hell that is the punishment for sin.

So if Jesus did not experience that punishment, which I'm supposed to experience which is eternal hell He has not paid the punishment for my sin and that's the thing the Lord opened my eyes to to see That when he hung on the cross the last three hours He cried my God my God.

Why has thou forsaken me do you know what it means to be forsaken by God that is hell. Hell is the only God forsaken place in the universe. This world is not forsaken by God. There are many evidences of God's blessing.

Unbelievers atheists Get food clothing shelter air to breathe water to drink and physical health lit to live up to long To a long life and God's mercy and goodness upon them. So But eternal punishment for sin is eternal hell and That is to be forsaken by God completely.

The people who go to hell are forsaken by God and that is the greatest sin is pictured by Jesus in many human terms so that we see the seriousness of it like being Burnt in the fire forever and the worm never dies and the fire is never quenched.

But what is the real thing? It's not just the physical fire and the worms is the fact that God is not there God's forsaken you. That's eternal hell and that is what Jesus experienced on the cross for three hours the punishment for our sin and We can say well the punishment for my sin is Eternal hell not just for three hours.

That's right. That's why a human being Could not die for my sin because if a human being was forsaken by God It would be only for three hours. But because Christ was God himself the second person of the Trinity.

He was an infinite being. He was not a finite being and an infinite being could experience in three hours the agonies of eternity. So what Jesus experienced in three hours on the cross? Was the agonies of an eternal hell it's so easy to say that but if you meditate on it I'll tell you what happened to me when I first understood it.

I Thought a little more about that and Jesus struggling there and I imagined I thought of an imaginary conversation going on between him and his father because remember he was on his knees for one hour and the father saying Well, you don't have to drink the cup you don't have to be forsaken by me.

You're never sinned. You can come straight up from Gethsemane up to heaven but Zack will go to hell. I made it personal and Jesus says Zack can go to hell. Okay, then I'll go to the cross. When I understood that It brought me to tears That what he went through and Gethsemane he made a choice there for me to save me from eternal hell and When I understood that it gripped my heart so much.

I said Lord I'll never in my life Hold anything back from you in my life. Anything all my life my energy my time my money. Till the end of my life if I live to be a hundred years old, I will serve you till the last day.

Because I've seen how much you loved me to Suffer that which you valued the most, you know, we we don't understand the value of fellowship with the father. Every time we sin. Whether you realize it or not fellowship with the father is broken.

Why is it then we sin? Because we don't value it so much. We don't realize a spiritual connection with God is broken at that moment. But we carry along in our life because we still have physical life and everything seems to be okay around us.

But our connection is gone. But for Jesus, this was the most precious thing in the world. Because for all eternity he had this he would be willing to suffer a thousand calories If he could avoid the break of fellowship with the father.

Words are very poor vehicles with which to communicate this amazing truth. It's God is to give you a revelation. I remember when God gave me a revelation on this amazing truth that it broke me and I Said Lord, I never again want to sing lightly about the blood of Christ as If it is something cheap.

Because I discovered that so often we sing these familiar songs About the death of Christ and the blood of Christ and we become so familiar with it That we sing it without realizing what it cost Jesus on the cross.

You know, it says in heaven. They sing a new song. Saying that was slain. Oh lamb. By thy blood that was purchased us and I asked the Lord. How can that be a new song? I mean we've heard it for thousands of years.

Those people have heard it how is it a new song and The word the way it came to me was it's it's new in the sense that it is fresh that means it's as if They're hearing it for the first time. That Christ shed his blood to save me and I said Lord make that real in my life.

Make my life on earth a little heavenly by this one thing that every time I sing about the blood of Christ. Or about the death of Christ. I wanted to be as if I'm hearing it for the first time in my life.

That somebody died for me. Somebody took my punishment. Somebody took my hell. To save me from eternal damnation. Lord every time I sing it. I want to sing it like they sing it in heaven as if it's fresh.

For it and many times it's happened to me. Where I'm singing a song I've sung a hundred times or five hundred times. And I begin to weep and I think that Jesus died for me. It's very precious it makes it makes our whole whole attitude to sin completely different.

Grace that forgives our sin becomes very precious. There's a thing called cheap grace. Cheap grace is where we treat the blood of Christ as something cheap like tap water. May none of us ever treat the blood of Christ like tap water.

It'll bring a seriousness in our life towards sin towards sin in words thoughts attitudes to people motives. Actions in every area and it doesn't matter whether other people see it or not. And I've come to see that my sin I begin to see is what nailed Jesus to the cross.

It was my anger that drove the nails. I was the one who drove those nails into his hands. With my bitterness or my lust or my anger or my jealousy. It's driving those nails in and I see it like that. I say Lord I want to hate sin.

I Want to hate sin with all of my heart. I want to hate sin more than hating any disease that I have in my body. And I would try to picture what is sin like supposing. I had This terrible disease called Ebola or AIDS or something like that.

How I would hate it. How careful we I mean when those patients with To this country from Africa how careful people were not to? Touch him or to wear special dresses and those nurses treating him so that they wouldn't touch any part of his clothes or his Body.

Lord give me a hatred for sin like that. That I want to hate sin more than the worst possible disease. Then I have understood a little patience one seven we have forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

I hope This will sink into our hearts. So that we have a fresh understanding of grace today as we have never known it before. That when Jesus hung on the cross, you know, that was the only time. The only time in his entire thirty three and a half years on earth when he looked at his father and called him God.

He never called him God in eternity. He never called him God in all those years on earth father father my father my father Etc etc till finally when he stood on hung on the cross during those last three hours.

He was hanging there as a criminal. For sins he had never committed. For my sins. Hanging there before the judge of the universe. He could not call him father. It's like my my son murdered somebody. He'd called it.

Call me your honor. I'm a judge there. And he can't call me dad in the court. There Jesus was hanging and saying my god. My god, I can't understand. You know when a man's experiencing hell Jesus is experiencing in those moments the mind becomes blank and He really couldn't understand at that moment why he was.

It was a real question. Why? Have you forsaken me the depth of that? I? Still haven't plumbed. I must say I haven't plumbed the depth of that one day when I see my Savior face to face and I see the depth of his love I will understand a little more.

It's only a few drops of that. I understand now. I hope We shall appreciate more What Calvary means in our lives and it's not only that He says when he forgives us in Hebrews 8 and verse 12. Forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace.

Hebrews 8 12 it says I Will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. See, it's not just forgiveness. He says I won't remember your sin anymore. You forget it. God doesn't forget our sin.

That's not what the Bible says. I Can remember the sins I did 60 years ago. How can God not remember it? His memory is not worse than mine. Don't you remember some of the terrible things you did 30 40 years ago?

You think God doesn't know it? He never says I've forgotten it. But he says I will not remember. I will not remember means I choose Not to remember. So when I come before the Lord, he looks at me as if I've never sinned at all.

Isn't that wonderful? Think if I had lived a life 75 and a half years never sinned once in my life. Boy with what boldness I'd come before the Lord that is justification. Many people know forgiveness through the blood.

By grace, but we are justified also by his grace through the blood justified by his blood and that is more than forgiveness. Forgiveness means I'm forgiven. Justified means it's as if I've never sinned.

I God looks at me as if I've never sinned in my life. Not only never sin clothed in Christ righteousness as Accepted as Christ himself. Do you have that confidence? You can have it right now if you believe justified by faith.

Do you believe are as if you've really turned from your sin and Hated it and asked Christ to come into your life as Lord. You are have Acceptance before God your father as Jesus Christ himself. This is what gives us tremendous boldness.

We have boldness to approach the throne of grace. Not only forgiven us. He says I will not remember your past. Isn't it a good thing that God doesn't expose our past to other people here. How many of us would love would be able to sit here comfortably.

If God revealed on a screen here all the sins we committed in the past. I think every last one of us would run out of this hall. We wouldn't want to be seen by others again. How good God is that he not only forgives us?

But he says my son my daughter. Nobody will ever know What you did in your past life? So what is our responsibility? I'll tell you treat other people like that. Treat other people the way God treated you.

And the way God forgave you. He's not asking you to forget the crime somebody did against you. If somebody did something against me I can't forget it because my memory is not in my power forgiveness is in my power.

But I cannot remove things from my memory and God doesn't ask me torture me. You know some preachers tell people if you forgive somebody you got to forget them. No, sir, you don't have to. You cannot.

Because there are Christians who torture themselves. Oh, I can't forget that man whom I've forgiven. Well, you won't forget but you can forgive him. You can say like God says I do not remember. I choose Not to remember when I see that person.

I Treat him as if he did not do that against me. That is to forgive people as God forgive. Forgave you don't torture yourself that you can't forget the memory of the evil. Somebody did that is impossible.

Even God doesn't remove it from his memory. And I want to say one more thing. It's just a serious word of warning. There is only one type of person whom God will not forgive. Shall I tell you who that is?

Forgiveness and the Obligation to Forgive Others

Matthew chapter 6 verse 15. Matthew chapter 6 verse 15 forgiveness. According to the riches of his grace is not available to this man. Matthew 6 verse 15. Jesus said if you do not forgive men. Your father will not forgive your transgressions.

Notice he didn't say God will not forgive. God is a word referring to God's dealings with all men when he says your father. This is part of the Sermon on the Mount which we read in Matthew 5 verse 1. He spoke to his disciples.

He's telling his disciple picture this in your mind. His disciples are sitting in front of him saying your father. You my disciples. Your father will not forgive you. Your sins if you don't forgive somebody else is sins.

So I want to ask all of you here. As far as you know. Have you forgiven? Every single person. Who's done something wrong against you in your entire life? All of us have had people who've done some wrong to us some harm to us.

By the time a child is five years old. He's had people done some wrong to him and think of us who are so old look at the number of people who probably cheated us or harmed us or About us stories about us harmed our family members told stories about our children and hurt us in many ways maybe cheated us financially or Robbed us of the family inheritance or whatever it is.

The sin may be great which he did against us, but not and our sins against God. If he were to evaluate all the sins we've committed against God. Anything that anybody may do against you. It's like a drop in the bucket.

Compared to that and that's why the Lord says forgive. Do you have to forget? No, do you have to forgive? Yes. Do you have to go and meet him and fellowship with him? No. Don't think that forgiveness means you got to go up to him and seek fellowship with him.

Forgiveness and fellowship are two different things. When Jesus forgave the people who crucified him on the cross He didn't go down to. He couldn't fellowship with them because they had rejected God. But he forgave everyone so forgiveness doesn't mean you have to have fellowship with that person.

You may never meet that person in your life. You don't even had to visit him. In fact, if somebody is a troublesome time or not to visit him when the Bible says pursue peace with all men. With some people the best way to pursue peace is by never visiting them because Into problems because they're troublesome people.

That doesn't mean you unforgiven. You haven't forgiven them. Forgiveness is an act of the will. I Choose to forgive him. You never have to meet him. Never you may want to avoid him. I remember one sister came up to me at the end of a service in another place where he said Brothers act my brother-in-law raped me.

I Forgiven him, but do I have to go and meet him? I said, please don't don't avoid him completely by all means. Don't ever go anywhere near him. But forgive him. That's a terrible thing with he did evil, but you have to forgive and I'm glad you're forgiven, but don't ever go near him.

So forgiveness doesn't mean you have to meet that person some people you have to avoid. But the forgiveness must be complete and I remember how the Lord Taught me to find out whether my forgiveness is from the heart.

You know, the Lord said about forgiving people from the heart. In the last verse of Matthew chapter 18 forgive your brother from your heart. And I remember someone who had done some harm to me and I said Lord I forgive him and Sometime later I heard that something really bad happened to him and I was happy.

And the Lord said you haven't forgiven him. The fact that you were happy that something bad happened to him. Proved you hadn't really forgiven him. Then I understood how to forgive from the heart. If so that if anyone hurts me now, and I forgive him from the heart.

I asked myself this question. I Use my imagination if I hear that something terrible happened to that person would I grieve? Oh Lord, I'm really sorry that happened to him. Then I've forgiven him from the heart.

If I hear that something really good happened to him he inherited a fortune. Would I really rejoice? That something good happened to him. Then I have forgiven him from the heart. That is the test. That's the way it's helped me.

You know, it's good for us to be absolutely sure That we have forgiven people from the heart and I want to encourage all of you sitting here, right? One Whom you have not forgiven. Before we go further In a simple act of your will In your mind in your thoughts say Lord Jesus.

I forgive that person and You know who the one who's the one you have to forgive and I forgive. And this other person it takes only a second. I really mean it Lord. I don't want any evil to happen to them.

I wish them the best. I Forgive them. It's a wonderful way to live you get good sleep at night. When you have forgiven others. There's a verse in the book of Lamentations in the Old Testament the Lamentations of Jeremiah the book that comes after Jeremiah.

It says here Lamentations 3 22 and 23. His mercies never fail. They are new every morning. And I meditated on that. What does it mean that the Lord's mercies are new? Every morning I understand that to mean that God looks at me every morning as if He's never shown mercy to me ever before.

That if I slip up this morning It's his mercies are new. See son, that's the first time I'm forgiving you. That is how complete his forgiveness for us is in the past these pictures Really help us to understand what tremendous?

Wealth there is of meaning there is in forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. I Hope you've experienced it. And as I said treat other people like that. When you see that man who's done harm to you or that woman?

Who's done evil to you? May your mercies be new every morning. To look at that person as if you're really never forgiven him before. It's a wonderful way to live. You will live your life on a far higher plane of the Christian life than you've ever lived so far.

Grace as Deliverance From Sin's Dominion

That's number one second of grace is in Romans 6 and verse 14. We are talking about the real meaning of that grace that came through Jesus Christ Which is not available in Old Testament times and we saw all that I mentioned so far of the forgiveness of sins and Cleansing from sin by the blood of Jesus Was never available in the Old Testament.

Do you know the difference between being covered by the blood of Jesus and cleansed by the blood of Jesus? Many Christians even in their songs sometimes use expressions That are never found in the New Testament.

I've become very exact in quoting scripture exactly like it's written because. Sometimes I may be saying something which is not true. For example There is no Has been covered by the blood of Jesus. You'll never find it in the New Testament.

The blood of bulls and goats covered the sins of people in The Old Testament blessed is the man whose sin is covered. It was not cleansed. You know what the difference between covered and cleansed is.

If I were to put it if all my sins were written down on this board and I put a sheet over it. It's covered. But if I lift up the sheet is there Cleansed as if I get a wet sponge and wipe it all out. It's gone.

It's gone. That's the difference between covered and cleansed. Nowhere, does it say the blood of Christ covers us? It says the blood of Jesus cleanses us. It's gone completely praise the Lord. Another Expression that people use about the blood is I'm under the blood.

I'm not under the blood. Those are the Egyptians I mean the Israelites in Egypt who were under the blood of the Passover lamb. So the angel of death Didn't go over. There's so many expressions Christians use and they don't enjoy The full benefit of the New Covenant because he used expressions which are never found in the New Testament.

No apostle ever spoke about being under the blood. They're cleansed by the blood. We become wealthy when we use scripture and understand scripture exactly as it is written. Don't misquote the Word of God.

It's a serious crime even to misquote a human being. How much more to misquote God's Word. So I'm not under the blood people talk about sprinkling the blood over Amazing over a building and all that rubbish.

That's all the blood of bulls and goats over the tabernacle. The blood of Christ doesn't cleanse buildings or any such thing. It only cleanses the human heart. So just some clarification on that Romans 6 14 and second meaning of grace.

Grace is not only that which brings forgiveness of sins. Grace is that which? Keeps me from falling into sin. Not be master over you shall not have dominion over you. Because you're not under law, but under grace.

This is one step higher now. This is not speaking about Forgiveness of sins. This is deliverance from the power of sin. Sin has ruled every man since the day of Adam has ruled us from the day of our birth.

It's been our ruler. It's been our master and think of this wonderful word, which says Once you really come under the riches of God's grace sin will Be your master. Isn't that a deliverance the tremendous deliverance?

Why is it so many Christians don't experience it? They don't know the truth. Jesus once said in John 8 32 you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And when the They said what do you mean set us free?

We have not slaves to anybody. They were actually slaves to the Romans they did pretended that they were not. But it was not a human slavery that Jesus was speaking about. He was talking about slavery to sin and he went on in that Further down in that chapter to say whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.