Superior to the Law — Zac Poonen

Through the years, I've had the opportunity to observe Christians in many, many different denominations. You know that most of these denominations are divided on the basis of doctrine. You know, like some believe in water baptism, so they have a separate assembly.

Some believe in speaking in tongues, so they separate from those who don't believe. Some believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Some believe there shouldn't be pastors. Church differences in church government and various things like this.

But as I've observed Christians in all these different groups, I find there are people defeated by sin. In every single denomination. And there are people who love money in every single denomination. I'm just talking about the leaders.

I'm not talking about the people who sit in the church. We can never judge a church by the people who attend it. Because the devil can put all types of wolves and crooks in any church. A church must always be judged by its leadership.

You see that in Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3. The Lord judged each church by its leader, not by the type of people sitting there. Because the direction of a church is determined by its leadership.

And if the leadership is strong and united, then any number of people sitting there with different ideas can't make any difference to the way the direction the church goes. It's something like if there are two people taking turns to drive a bus, it doesn't matter what the passengers think about which direction the bus is going.

It's still going to go in the direction in which the drivers think it should go. The church is something like that with its elders. But it's so sad to see in the world in which we live, a decline in the quality of leadership and I try to think about what is the reason.

The New Covenant and Leadership That Overcomes Sin

And I have come to the conclusion that the devil has succeeded in blinding the vast majority of Christians to the truth of the new covenant. They know there's a covenant, testament, agreement, all mean the same thing.

We don't use the word covenant so much, we use the word agreement. Testament is also the same word. Everybody knows that the Bible has got an Old Testament and a New Testament. It really means in today's language, an old agreement and a new agreement.

And the old agreement God had made with Israel, the new agreement is what Jesus sealed with his blood. In Hebrews 13 .20, his blood is called the blood of the everlasting covenant. That means this new covenant is not going to be any change to it.

There's not going to be a third one. This is everlasting. So it's good for all of us to ask ourselves whether we have understood and experienced this in our own life. I think of the word of Jesus where at the end of the Sermon on the Mount he said, The way to life is narrow and few there be that find it.

And I think there'll be many who understand it, but few will find it. The place to find it is in the moment of temptation. In the moment of temptation, you discover whether you have found the narrow way or not.

A lot of people understand it on Sunday morning, who don't find that way in some time of trial or pressure or temptation. So when Jesus said, few there be that find it, he was not saying there'll be very few.

So when Jesus said, very few will find this way, he was not saying that very few will understand it. So each of us needs to ask ourselves, not whether we have understood it. I think if you have heard the message here through the years, you probably understand it so well that you could explain it to others.

But the question is whether you are among those few who have found it. And that is seen in the daily trials of life. When the evil that we face, we discover whether we have found this new covenant or not.

I really believe that this is the reason why Christians in every single denomination, and leaders in almost every denomination, know almost nothing of a life of victory over sin. They are not able to testify like the Apostle Paul.

Thanks be to God who always, always, always leads us in triumph in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2 .14 or what we read in Romans 8 .37. In everything we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. See these Old Testament people could not say that.

That's why Jesus said that if you enter the new covenant, you can come to a greater life than John the Baptist who was the greatest under the old covenant. So what I want to say dear brothers and sisters is, you must not be satisfied with anything less than God's best in your personal life.

Those of you who are married, you must not be satisfied with a home in which there is strife, or unrest, or quarreling, or murmuring, or complaining, or gossiping, or backbiting. You know, you'd be surprised to know how many homes in our churches accept all that as normal.

What a shock such people are going to get when they get into eternity and discover what a lot they lost which they could have gained. And the nearness to Jesus for all eternity is lost. You may be in heaven, but how close we are going to be to Jesus in eternity is going to be determined by how faithful we are on this earth.

I believe that with all my heart. That's why I want to be faithful on earth. I'll tell you honestly, I'm a selfish person. I want to be close to Jesus in eternity. I don't want any crown. I don't want any mansions.

You can have all of that. But the reward I seek for in eternity, all eternity, is to be close to Jesus Christ my Savior. That is the reward that the Lord is going to give. And it says that he will give to every man according as his work shall be.

You know, just like, why do I say that? Because he's my bridegroom and any bride who loves her bridegroom, go and ask people who are madly in love with each other. Don't they want to be close to each other?

It doesn't matter to them whether they're in a hut or don't have much money. They want to be close to each other. That's the same with me. I'm not bothered whether I live in a hut and in heaven or what sort of clothes or glory I'm going to have.

I want to be close to my bridegroom. And if the Lord says that that is going to be determined by how much I choose to be close to him now, when it's not popular to be close to him, when most people in the world don't want to be close to him, then I want to choose to be close to him.

That will determine whether he will make sure I'm close to him in eternity. Everybody will want to be close to him in heaven, isn't it? Sure. Everybody will go to heaven and say, oh Lord, I want to be close to you.

But the question the Lord will ask is, did you want that when you were on earth? Did you want to be close to me when everybody in your house was gossiping? Did you want to be close to me when everybody in your house was murmuring?

Did you want to be close to me in the moment of temptation? Or you just want to live in sin and live like everybody else in the world and get to heaven and say, I want to be close to me. See, I just want to say all these things plainly to you because otherwise you'll get a very big surprise when Christ comes again.

The Bible says that the world is going to pass away. And he who does the will of God will abide forever. Let me show you that verse. It's a very important verse. In 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 17.

Now I understand this verse like this. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 17. The world is passing away and all its lusts. And the message Bible says the world and all its lusts means wanting, wanting, wanting.

That's it. I want this and I want that and I want the other thing, I want the other thing, I want the other thing. It's on its way out. But the one who wants God's will, he's all set for eternity. So you see, here's the contrast in verse 17.

The world is full of lusts means I want this and I want this and I want this and I can't do without this and I can't do without this. Especially when I see somebody else have it, I want it, I want it, I want it.

And here's another person living in the same world and says, I want God's will. I want what will please my savior. I want to do what will please him. I want a sacrifice to please him. I'm not going this way.

And those who go this way will perish. That is the broad way. But here is the way that he who does the will of God lives forever. So, I don't think many Christians go to this verse to find out how to have eternal life.

He who does the will of God lives forever. And so I want to say to you, dear brothers and sisters, choose the will of God in every situation. The will of God is revealed to us in scripture. The reason I've studied scripture thoroughly is for one reason.

It's not to preach it. It is to know God's will so that I can do it. You must study the scriptures even if you never preach in your whole life. Because that's where you know the will of God that will enable you to live forever.

And that's what will give you light on yourself. You know, many of us who think we are pretty holy, it's because we don't have much light on ourselves. I think a lot of us have got a lot of religion. Words, religious attitudes, which is very different from being spiritual.

Spirituality is primarily found in extremely low thoughts about myself, in my own thinking. I don't think I'm an expert who can teach everybody else how to live. I'm not eager to give advice to other people.

If you are very eager to give advice to others who are younger to you, you are probably downright religious. That's one of the marks of a religious person. The Pharisees are always like that, eager to tell people how to live and what to do.

Whereas a godly man, he's not like that. He's very careful with his words. He's slow to speak. He's quick to hear. And people will go to such a man eager, or such a woman eager for advice, because they know that that person can set him on the path to life, and set him on a path that will bring tremendous profit in eternity.

The Contrast Between the Old Covenant and the New

So, we need to understand this new agreement that God has made with man. He's abolished the old agreement. That's what we need to understand. And I see you read all the literature there is out in the Christian world, listen to all the tapes, and you'll find almost zero on the New Covenant.

Because people don't understand it. And most Christians are living under the Old Covenant. You know, the other day I heard a message by a very well-known preacher, whom all of you respect very highly, not in this country.

And he was saying how he also got depressed for days on end, just like Elijah in the Old Testament. I listened to that and I said, boy, here is a man who is respected around the world. And what is he teaching people?

Around the world, he is teaching people that you can be a wholehearted servant of God, and live in depression for days like Elijah. Some people wrote to me and asked me what I thought about that, whether that was my experience.

And I said, certainly not my experience. It was my experience for many years, I agree. But when I saw the New Covenant, and what Jesus had done, what the Holy Spirit could do, when I knew the Father, it changed.

And I said to them, Elijah is not the author and finisher of my faith, I am sorry. If Elijah is the author and finisher of your faith, go and sit under the juniper tree and be depressed as long as you like.

But the Bible says, the author and finisher of my faith is Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. The author means what? If I take up a book and say, I am the author of this book, that means I wrote it.

So when you say Jesus is the author of my faith, that means the faith I have was written, not by me, by Jesus Christ. Jesus said, Paul said, I am crucified with Christ and nevertheless I live. But it is no longer I, but Christ lives in me.

The life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. The faith that he wrote in me, not the faith that Elijah wrote in me. There are many good things I can learn from Elijah. His boldness to face false prophets.

But there are certain things I can't learn from him, like sitting under a juniper tree and saying, Lord take away my life, I've had enough of it. Or there are things we can learn from David, but not going to sleep when people are going to battle and getting up and committing adultery.

No, I can't learn that from him. You must remember this, the people under the old covenant lived a very substandard life compared to the way God wants us to live. And if you don't understand the difference, you'll always find a comfort.

There are Christian preachers who find comfort in the fact that David fell into adultery. And they fall into adultery, television preachers, and they get up and say, oh well, David was a man up to God's own heart.

And he also fell into adultery and God forgave him and used him again. So, God's forgiven me. Like imagine Paul getting up one day in some church and saying, fellas, I'm sorry I slept with some of your sisters here, but David also did that and sort of, it's okay, God's forgiven me.

What respect would you have for Paul's letters after that? I'd throw them out. I wouldn't listen to a man who has been like that. I mean, in their unconverted days when they didn't have light, they could have done all types of evil things, okay, forget it.

But after they've got light and they become leaders. I can't imagine that. Look at what's happening in the world today. There are leaders who divorce their wives and get married to their secretaries and they continue to preach.

You just leave that church and go to another church. This is the terrible state in Christendom today. And so, it's all because they haven't understood the new covenant. In the new covenant, there is no such thing as divorce.

And there's no such thing as, if somebody did divorce you, there's no such thing as remarriage. It's not there in the new covenant. In the old covenant, it is there. In Deuteronomy 23, you read. So, we live in a terrible world today, in the Christian world.

Hebrews 8 and the Purpose of the Law

So, in Hebrews chapter 8, I want you to see this. The Lord says in verse 7, If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. The reason why God made a new agreement was because the first agreement was faulty.

Faulty in what sense? It's not like some car maker makes a car and discovers some fault in that and repairs it in the next model. No. God's not like that. God didn't make a mistake the first time. No.

It's faulty, not in the sense that God made a mistake, but faulty in the sense that it could not do what God wanted man to... You know, there are certain things it says in Romans 8 verse 3, The law could not do.

So, why did God give the law then? God gave the law to help man to see his sin, to help man to see God's standards, and to see that you can never come up to my standards. And no matter how hard you try, you'll never become as holy as me.

You can try and try and try and try and try and try and try for a million years, you will not become holy as me. That's what the law taught. Not even according to God's law in the Old Testament. For example, just take the tenth commandment.

You can keep all the nine commandments. They're all listed in Exodus 20. You know about don't worship idols. That's easy, external idols. And don't honor, I mean, honor your father and mother. Don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery, etc.

And don't bear false witness in court. You know, by the way, there's no commandment in the tenth commandment that says you shouldn't tell lies. Because God knew everybody tells lies. But what he said was, don't, you know, go to court and tell a lie against your...

That's about the limit. But in the New Covenant, of course, the command is that we shouldn't tell lies at all. Your yes must be yes and your no must be no. But when it came to the tenth, all those nine commandments you can keep.

But when it came to the tenth, the tenth was, you shall not lust in your heart after anything that doesn't belong to you. Your neighbor's wife, your neighbor's daughter, and everybody in the world is either your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's daughter.

Every woman in the world is your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's daughter. So, you should never lust with your eyes after... that's in the tenth commandment. When Jesus spoke about it, he just got it out of the tenth commandment.

But people in the Old Testament never meditated on the tenth commandment sufficiently to know what that meant. Jesus spent years meditating on it when he spoke. He said, you shouldn't lust with your eyes, that's sin.

That was in the tenth commandment. You shall not desire anything that belongs to your neighbor. If God has given you something, that's yours. But you should not desire something that somebody else has.

And yet, you know the number of Christians who are supposed to be in the New Covenant who are disobeying it every day. They look at things and people that God has not given to them and they lust for it.

They want what other people have. Do you want what other people have? Do you want someone who is not your wife? Many things like this. Paul was very honest in Romans 7 and he said, oh he said in Romans 7, when I came to the commandments, I kept all of them, but when I came to the tenth commandment which said you shall not covet, you shall not lust, I found all types of lusting in my heart.

You know that person, Paul, that fellow was really honest. That's why God led him into the New Covenant. Now I'll tell you one of the first requirements to come into the New Covenant is to be absolutely honest about the tenth commandment and to say I can't keep it.

Lord, I lusted after that girl who was somebody else's daughter and that other one who was somebody else's wife and Lord, I wanted that sari which that other sister was wearing. I liked it so much. Are you a New Covenant Christian?

I'm not saying you went and stole it. I'm saying you desired it and you wanted it. Do you know how people can sit in this church for 25 years and never get over these things? We heard it, but we haven't found the way.

Few there be that find it. It's really true. Because, number one, they are not honest like Paul was in Romans 7 about their own sin. Now I'll tell you how the devil keeps you from being honest about your own sin.

He will show you the faults in other people. You'll be so observant about the faults in other people. It says about the Pharisees, they observed even Jesus carefully. And they observed everybody else carefully.

Not to help anybody, but just to covet something which they had or to find fault. So I want to recommend to you, if you are serious about entering the New Covenant at least now, after some of you have been here 20, 30 years.

At least now, if you want to enter in before it's too late. My first step I would recommend to you is stop looking at the faults of other people. You heard me say that for 30 years. I'm just asking you to take it seriously from today.

Just stop it. Just like if you are a chain cigarette smoker and I say, Stop it from today! Or if you are a regular pickpocket to say, Please stop picking pockets from today. Is that a serious, is that a difficult command?

I'm just saying, take it seriously. That I am going to spend the rest of my life judging myself. Full stop. You believe me, to come and see me after 6 months and tell me if your whole life doesn't take a leap upwards that you have never experienced in all your life so far.

Just because you practiced one habit. I'll tell you something, even tomorrow the devil will tempt you to break that decision you made this evening. It's such a terrific lust. Few there be that find it.

It's there. We understand it. I'm sure what I'm saying right now, you understand right now, but you know it's like an addiction. You tell a drug addict, You know this drug addiction is bad for you. They say, Yeah, I know it.

You want to give it up? Yeah, I want to give it up. Will you decide now, I want to give it up? Yes, I decide right now. I want to give it up. Give him two, three days and he's back looking for drugs. It's an addiction.

It's like that. You know because he spent so many years injecting himself, taking it. It's like that. So many years you spent finding fault with others, looking at their faults, criticizing them, gossiping to your wife and your husband about it all the time.

It's an addiction. You can't live a day without this drug. It's a drug to find fault with others. And now you say today, I want to give up this. Just like that drug addict. I think you're quite sincere.

You want to give it up? Yes, I want to give it up. It'll last about two, three days and the craving for that drug will come back. You want to indulge in it again. I'll tell you something. The people who've been delivered from drugs and alcoholism, they really sought God's help.

They were honest. You know there's a group called Alcoholics Anonymous. It's a group which helps people to be free from alcoholism, from drinking alcohol. And I suppose there are similar things for narcotics, Anonymous and various things.

And the first thing, when they go to this meeting, each person has to get up and say, I am an alcoholic. And I want to be free. The drug addict has to get up and say, I am a drug addict. And I want to be free.

You know what you need to do? You need to get up and say, I am a gossiper. And I want to be free. I am a backbiter. We can have a Backbiter's Anonymous class. You know where people get up and say that.

But it's so difficult to say it. Because it's so shameful to say, I am a drug addict. It's so shameful to say, I am an alcoholic. It's so shameful to say, I am a sexual addict. Or I am an internet pornography addict.

Or I am a gossiper, or a backbiter. But I'll tell you this. We'll never be free, until we are honest. God loves honest people. I wrote a little tract for our website called 16 things that I have learned in life.

It's in one of my books. It's a chapter in one of my books. Some things I have learned in life. The first thing I mentioned there is God loves honest people. I am absolutely convinced about this. Dear brothers and sisters, if you are serious, really serious about finding this way to life, I urge you to be honest.

Absolutely, ruthlessly honest. And acknowledge that just like drug addiction, you cannot deliver yourself from some of these terrible habits. Murmuring or complaining or anger. Anger is an addiction. You can't deliver yourself from it.

You say my father was angry, my grandfather was angry. That's what some drug addicts say. My dad used to take drugs, my grandfather used to take drugs, and I am also taking it. We just grew up like that.

We thought drugs was normal. And in your home perhaps, you thought anger was normal. Okay. And you are continuing that tradition to the third generation. Fine. The drug addict does the same thing. When is it going to finish?

Is Jesus going to come and put an end to this or not? Or is this going to continue into the next generation, into your little children? And they are going to carry it on their generation too. It has to come to an end.

It can come to an end when you understand the new covenant. The new agreement. When you seek God earnestly. The Bible says, You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I think of all these people who look for jobs in Dubai.

They spend lakhs. They are cheated. Again they try and spend lakhs. Again they are cheated. Finally they reach the other end. They say they have achieved it. I tell you Christians who are 25 as interested in getting victory over sin, like these fellows are interested in going to Dubai.

Boy! You should have got it long ago. Like many other things in life that you pursue after. Earnestly. Sincerely. You try so hard. And you get it. It is like that. God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

He told Adam as soon as he sinned. He says from now on things are going to be different. The law is you will get your bread when you sweat. Without sweating you won't get your bread. You know you got to sweat.

That means work hard even to get spiritual bread from the Bible. You really got to work hard. If you really want to get something yourself you can be fed. You can be spoon fed like right now what I am doing is spoon feeding.

You know babies have to be spoon fed. That's fine. But if you want to get something yourself if you want to earn your own bread if you want to get your own bread from the Bible you really got to work hard.

I mean if somebody else is earning the bread in your home, bread winner that's okay. You just sit and eat it. That's how it is in the church very often. But you should be growing up to be a bread winner yourself.

Spiritually I mean. Well you got something to give. For that you got to really work hard. It's like that in everything. God is not a rewarder of lazy people. He rewards those who diligently work. Let me show you this verse in 2nd Timothy in chapter 2.

2nd Timothy chapter 2 it says It seems to be a law in everything in life. It's not just spiritually even in the secular world. You really got to work hard to get. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 it says in verse 6 The hard working farmer has to be the first to receive his share of the crops.

So the hard working farmer gets a crop before everybody else does. I mean everybody have the same type of ground the same rain the same seed. Why did this guy get it first? Because he worked hard. Everybody's got the same Bible same 24 hours a day.

Everybody's got to work. How is it that somebody some people know it and some people don't know it. They worked hard. How is it some people understood the new covenant and got into a life of victory because they were honest and they worked hard at it.

And then he's not talking about farmers. He says in the next verse verse 7 Think about what I say and the Lord will give you understanding in what I mean. And I want to say to that think about that verse.

The hard working farmer is going to be the first one to get his share of the crops. And Paul was saying that to Timothy who had already been with him for 25 years. This is his last letter. And he says Timothy I can't explain it to you.

I'm sorry. You're my closest friend but I just can't explain it to you. I'm not telling you to read my episodes 20 times and you'll understand it. No you won't. He says here the Lord has to give you understanding.

Do you know you can come to the best church in the world and listen to the best preacher for years and you won't get understanding. I mean if there was anybody who could have explained it it was Paul to Timothy.

And he says to him listen Timothy I can't explain it. The Lord has to give you understanding. So I've seen this. A lot of people understand it in their heads and they don't understand it in their hearts.

And faith is a matter of the heart. The difference between faith in the head and faith in the heart is the difference between hell and heaven. In hell they have faith in the head. The Bible says even the devils believe and tremble.

It says in James 2. Faith in the heart takes you to heaven. Trust in the Lord with all your heart not your head. So understanding in the heart is different from understanding in the head. You've got to seek God not with all your head but with all your heart.

If head was so important God would have made all people equally intelligent. If intelligence was necessary to know God God would have made all people intelligent. You know you'd think that the people who are more intelligent would know God better but it's not true.

I mean we've seen that in our own churches. Some of those poor brothers in Tamil Nadu seem to know God and get such revelation when they share something from the word which I don't get from a lot of very highly educated intelligent people.

PhDs and all don't seem to know the word like that. God is no respecter of intelligence. It's like color of skin. You know a lot of people in India think that a white skinned person must be more spiritual.

Not true. It's got nothing to do with color of skin. It's got nothing to do with intelligence. It's got to do with the hard working heart. So you can understand and enter into this life of the new covenant if you really work at it.

Go to the word and say Lord I really want to know this in my life. Even if it's late I'm late in life understanding it I want to know it now. Let's turn back to Hebrews chapter 8. What did we see there?

Perfection Through the Better Hope of Christ

In Hebrews in chapter 8 we read What is it the law could not do? First of all let me show you Hebrews 7 .19. The law made nothing perfect. God is interested in perfection. The law made nothing perfect.

And Jesus told us Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. It's the last verse of Matthew 5. Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. He didn't say be like Elijah or be like John the Baptist.

No he said be like your father. What a standard. He didn't give you some low example of Elijah. You think Elijah is a low example? If you're like Elijah we're pretty serious Christians. But he said that's not good enough.

Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. Matthew 5 .48. What a standard. But the law could not do that. But the bringing in of a better hope on the other hand Hebrews 7 .19 There's a bringing in of a better hope by which we draw near to God.

And perfect means not completely like Christ that will take time to come. But it's like perfect in my conscience right now. It's something like maybe you're in the first standard and in mathematics you got 100%.

Isn't that perfect? That's called a perfect score. You can't get 101. No matter how much you know you can't get 101. You can get only 100. That's a perfect score. But you're not perfect in your knowledge of mathematics in first standard even though you got 100%.

Next year you go to second standard and you start with 60%. Because a lot of new things you learn which you didn't know before. And then in the next exam you get 70. In the next exam you get 80. And finally you get 100 in second standard.

That's better than 100 in the first standard. So there's perfection to perfection and then you go to the third standard. Again you start with maybe 50%. First exam 60, 70. You get 100 in the third standard.

And it's all the way. I mean you go to BSc you're still struggling. So that is the Christian life is like that. Perfect at my present level. Next year I may not start with perfection but I'll be perfect at that level too.

It's exactly like a school. The Lord gives me revelation on something new in my life which I never knew before. And I can cleanse myself. Become a little more like Christ. But He doesn't want us to live in the first standard forever.

And ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. Studying first standard subjects. I mean you'd be terribly disappointed if your child lived in first standard even for two years. Leave alone ten years. Can you imagine how disappointed God is with many of His children?