We Can Overcome as Jesus Did (Tamil) — Zac Poonen

We have been trying to understand the wonderful good news that Jesus Christ has brought for us. On the first evening, we considered what the bad news was, which is the result of Adam's sin and why he sinned.

Adam's Three Wrong Choices

So, let me mention what I said then. Adam made three wrong choices and most human beings, including most Christians, are making the same wrong choices. The first wrong choice was that he chose what was created more than his Creator.

And most human beings and most Christians value created things more than God. And the second thing we saw was that Adam and Eve believed what the devil said more than what God said. They believed what the devil said more than what God said.

This is the second wrong choice they made. I would say that most human beings and most Christians also believe what the devil says more than what God says. That's why they don't experience all the promises of God.

Because the devil keeps telling them, it won't work in your life. And the third wrong choice was that Adam tried to please his wife, pleasing human beings more than pleasing God. And they also find that most human beings and most Christians do things to please men, even if it displeases God.

And they also find that most human beings and most Christians do things to please men, even if it displeases God. So, if you want to experience the Gospel, you have to repent. Repent means make the opposite of these three choices that Adam made.

Repentance and the Danger of Backsliding

So, if you want to experience the Gospel, you have to repent. Repent means make the opposite of these three choices that Adam made. We can repent in a moment. Let's say Adam was facing this direction with those three wrong choices.

And we are all born facing that way. Repent means I turn around and face the opposite direction. Now, it's possible to repent and then after sometime turn back again. That's why you read in the book of Revelation, when the Lord spoke to five of the seven churches, they were born again people who had become children of God.

But after sometime they had turned back into a sinful way. And the Lord had to tell them, repent again. It's not because they hadn't repented before. They had repented and then turned back to the old way.

That's what's called backsliding. Backsliding means once upon a time you give up all those wrong ways. And then after sometime you turn back to it. And then you come to some meeting like this and you get all stirred up and turn again.

And then after a while you turn back again. This is the way, unfortunately, that many Christians live. There is not a steadfastness in their life. It's like a student who goes to school. With great zeal he joins the kindergarten.

And after second standard he says, no, I'm not interested in school. Then after one or two years of playing the fool, he says, okay, I think I'll go back to school again. Then he studies for two more years and again he drops out.

And then again he plays the fool for three or four years and then says, okay, I think I'm going to go back to school again. He can go on like that when he's twenty years old and he's studying in the sixth standard.

Now how many of you would like to have a child like that? None of you would be happy. This is what God faces with most of his children. They suddenly become zealous for the Lord and then they go back.

And they hear a message and they turn again. I want to encourage all of you to develop the same steadfastness that you see your own children have in school when they go from one standard to the next. You must not even be happy staying in the same class.

That means every year like your children go to a higher and higher class, you must seek to have more and more victory over sin in your life every year. There was no such thing as overcoming sin in the Old Testament.

I told you only forgiveness of sin. But I said yesterday, the glorious gospel is that when you come under grace, sin cannot rule over you. Let me turn you to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 16. Now to understand verse 16 properly, because in verse 16 it begins with, therefore let us do this.

Jesus' Victory Over Every Temptation

When it says, therefore let us do this, that means you must go to the previous verse. And the previous verse says that Jesus Christ our leader was tempted exactly like us in every single point and did not sin.

This is one of the major parts of the good news. Not only that at the end of his life he hung on the cross and died for our sins, and he cried out it is finished. What was finished? Many things were finished.

First of all the punishment for our sin was taken, that was finished. Something else was also finished. For thirty three and a half years before he hung on the cross, he had gone through every single temptation that you and I can ever face in our whole life.

He did not face the same circumstances. For example he did not drive a scooter on the road and face the anger of other people on the road. But the same temptation to anger came to him in other circumstances.

He did not have children to irritate him like you and I have. But he was tempted to be irritated in other circumstances. This verse says he was tempted in every single point that any human being is tempted in.

That is why he had to live for thirty three and a half years so that he could cover the whole range of temptations, the full circle of temptations that every human being faces. There is nobody in the world, in the history of the world since Adam till today who can say that he has faced a temptation which Jesus did not face.

Every temptation you have faced in your life and that you are going to face, temptations to fear, anxiety, hatred, jealousy, lust, covetousness, love of money, selfishness, pride, temptation to be a hypocrite and act and to fight with people and strife and everything.

Everything he faced. But he never sinned even once. Temptation is like a pressure. You know like I said yesterday, your heart is like a house into which temptation tries to get in and make you commit sin.

And there are various temptations. They are like pressures, pressures, pressures. When we yield to them, we sin. And the sin is born in the heart. That is what the Bible says. Pressure, pressure, pressure.

But you cannot sin until you yield to that pressure in your heart. Now what this verse is saying is that Jesus also faced that pressure. But he never allowed it to get into his heart. That is why he says, I overcame.

He says in John 16 .33, he says be of good courage, I have overcome the world. What does it mean by saying he overcame the world? Did he overcome the Roman Empire? Did he overcome the nation of Israel?

That is not the world he was talking about. What did he overcome? Because this is the good news that we can also overcome. What is this world that Jesus overcame? See 1 John chapter 2 verse 16. Everything that is in the world and he describes it with three things.

The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. All of this belongs to the world, is not from God. What is it? The lust of the flesh, Jesus faced it, overcame it. The lust of the eyes, Jesus faced it, overcame it.

The temptation to be proud, the pride of life, Jesus faced it and overcame it. For 33 and a half years, completely. And so when he hung on the cross and said it is finished, it also means all the temptations that man can face, I have overcome.

It is finished. Did you learn something new today? The meaning of it is finished. That has an application for you. When you know that Jesus died on the cross and the judgment and punishment for your sin is finished.

When you believe that, it has an application for you. The guilt and burden of your sin is gone because he took it. In that story, Pilgrim's progress. Pilgrim comes to the cross and his burden falls away.

That is the first thing that is finished. The burden and guilt of sin can go immediately because Jesus died and said it is finished. Now see the second part. He was tempted like us in every single point and he said it is finished.

That means I have overcome all of them. There is not a single temptation I did not overcome. What is the practical application? Now let us go to Hebrews 4. Verse 15. He was tempted like us in all points and did not sin.

He said it is finished. Therefore, let us also now go to that throne of grace. When we come to the throne of grace, we get two things there. First of all, we get mercy. It says here, we first get mercy and then we find grace.

Mercy, Grace, and Freedom from Sin

Do you know the difference between mercy and grace? Mercy is an old testament word. You read in the Psalms, his mercy endures forever. They prayed, Lord be merciful to me. Grace is something different.

The devil does not want you to know the difference because he does not want you to know the truth that will set you free. There was no grace in the old testament, only mercy. Mercy is for the forgiveness of our sins.

Grace is the help and power to overcome sin. So, we can say mercy refers to our past life to blot out our sins. Grace refers to the future to give us power to overcome sin. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

When you know the truth about God's mercy, the guilt of your sin goes away. When you know the truth of God's grace, those sinful habits that you are enslaved to will also go away. Then you will overcome your lust and your anger and your bad thoughts and your uncontrolled tongue and your pride and your selfishness and every unchristlike thing in your life.

That is not with mercy, that is with grace. When we come to the throne of grace, we first of all get mercy. Jesus did not need any mercy because he never sinned. But he needed grace because without grace he could not overcome.

Luke chapter 2, you will learn some surprising things this evening which are all in your bible but you may not have noticed it because you don't read the bible slowly and carefully. Here it says about the beginning of Jesus' earthly life.

It is talking about Luke chapter 2 verse 39. He came back to the city of Nazareth and he, the child continued to grow and become strong and he increased in wisdom. And it says the grace of God was upon him.

Do you remember what we read yesterday? When grace is over you, sin shall not be your master. Romans 6 verse 14. Sin shall not be your master when you are under grace. Do you know who was the first human being that walked on this earth under grace?

Jesus Christ. From childhood. See this, the grace of God was upon him like an umbrella. He was under grace. You know when you are under an umbrella, the rain cannot fall on you. You don't get wet. And when you are under grace, sin cannot overcome you.

You don't get wet with sin. You keep yourself dry. When you are under this big umbrella of grace, This is the shadow of the almighty we read in Psalm 91. It is grace. Jesus was under grace. So he never sinned.

And if you live under grace, you won't sin either. It is because you move away from that umbrella that you get wet. But Jesus remained under that. How to remain under this umbrella of grace? 1 Peter chapter 5.

It says here in the last part of verse 5. God is opposed to the proud but he gives grace to the humble. Everybody cannot get grace. Grace is a gift God gives. It says he gives grace but he doesn't give it to everybody.

He looks around and sees those who are humble, he gives them grace. If you are humble, you will get grace. You don't even have to ask for it. It will come. So how did Jesus remain under grace the whole time?

Humility as the Way to Receive Grace

He humbled himself all the time. See it says in verse 6. Because God gives grace to the humble, therefore you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you over sin. The sin that is pulling you down, God will exalt you over that.

When you read exaltation, don't think he is going to make you king or president or something. He is not interested in making you that. He is not interested in making you an elder or a bishop or something like that.

The main thing he wants to exalt you is over the sin that is destroying you. He will do that if you humble yourself. That's why Jesus said in Matthew 11 .29. He said learn humility from me. He never told us to learn how to preach from him.

He didn't say come to me and learn how to make money. He didn't say come to me and learn how to sing. He didn't say come to me and learn how to play guitar. He didn't say come to me and learn how to be humble.

Learn from me for I am humble in my heart. This is a school. Learn means a word of education. In the school of Christ, every standard, I am learning one lesson. Humility. This is one subject. Second standard, humility.

Third standard, more humility. Tenth standard, more humility. Ph .D., tremendous humility. And as I learn more and more humility, I get more and more grace. Grace is God's power. Grace is God's help. He gives it to humble people.

That is why I tell believers, please don't compare yourself with other people. Because we tend to become proud when we compare ourselves with others. Oh, see what I have done. See, he cannot do like that.

Or see how clever my children are. And you compare yourself with that poor fellow's children. If you want to lose the grace of God, do that. If you want to get the grace of God, don't do it. Believers are constantly comparing themselves with others and becoming proud.

That is the reason why you don't get grace. And when you don't get grace, you are defeated by sin. The full gospel is that I can keep on getting grace and keep on overcoming all sin in my life. And not only overcome all sin, I can overcome everything the devil seeks to do in my life.

Jesus not only overcame the world, he overcame the devil. He overcame sin. He overcame Satan. He overcame everything that would hinder him from fulfilling the will of God. And you can do that also. So let's turn to Hebrews 4, 15 and 16.

What does it say here? Let us come to the throne of grace because Jesus has overcome all sin and get mercy for our past life. And now, the next thing it says is that we can find grace to help us in our time of need.

Do you know what our time of need is? When the pressure of temptation becomes so great that it's going to penetrate my heart now. You know like somebody irritates you, irritates you, irritates you and now you are just about to explode in anger.

You tried to control it for some time, but now is your time of need. You cannot control your anger anymore. That's the time you must come to the throne of grace. God please help me. I am going to fall now.

Help me. Grace to help me in the time of my need. Or maybe you are being tempted with sexual lust. You are all alone in your room and doing nothing and thoughts are coming. Or maybe you are all alone with a computer and you are tempted to go to something that will provoke your lust.

You know it's wrong, so you are resisting it. But like the waves on the beach, it comes again and again and again, temptation. And it's coming, it's coming. And you are about to fall. Do what Peter did when he was sinking in the sea.

He said, Lord save me. The Lord will make you stand so that you don't sink. If you don't believe me, you try it out. Do some homework and try it out. Grace, what is the meaning of grace? Hebrews 4 .16.

God's help in the time of my need. But you got to come there and ask for it. The Bible says, you don't have because you don't ask. God doesn't force anything on us if we don't ask Him for it. It's a law in the kingdom of God that you have to ask in order to get.

Jesus said, ask and you will receive. He didn't say, even if you don't ask, you will receive. No, He never said that. He said, ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. If you don't seek, you won't find.

Grace and Christ's Suffering on the Cross

Now, how did Jesus end His life? We saw how He began His life with grace upon Him. When He died on the cross, it was a terrific agony to be forsaken by God and to face for three hours the punishment of hell hanging on the cross.

Do you know what Jesus suffered during the last three of the six hours on the cross? In one word, hell. Hell, being forsaken by God. Why? Because death is not the punishment for your sin. Hell is the punishment for your sin.

Death, everybody gets, physical death. If Jesus only physically died, He did not take the punishment of my sin. Because physical punishment is not the punishment for sin. Physical death. Hell is the punishment for sin.

And if Jesus did not suffer hell, then He did not take the punishment for my sin. And do you know what hell is? Hell is to be completely forsaken by God. All the people who go to hell are completely forsaken by God.

And when Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? When Jesus cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? He was standing before the God who was the judge of the universe. He never called His Father God even once.

Never, never, in all eternity, all His days on earth, He would always say, Father, Father, Father. Once, He said, God. Why was that? Because when He was hanging on the cross, He was hanging before the judge of the universe.

And there you see how much He loved you. He was facing God, the judge of the universe, as a man. And He was cut off. I don't know all that He suffered there. When I see Him face to face one day, I will understand.

But today, God has given me a little glimpse of what He went on the cross. And as I have seen it, it has deepened my love for Him. I love Him because He first loved me. And not only that, as I have seen it, I have developed a tremendous hatred for sin.

Because I see what sin did to my Savior on the cross. Why do so many of you take sin so lightly? Why do so many of you never bother about overcoming your anger? Or your dirty thoughts? Or your internet pornography?

Or this terrible sin of gossiping, gossiping, backbiting against other people behind their back in your house? I am not talking about non-Christians. I am talking about people who say, we are born again Christians, we are spirit filled, we speak in tongues.

But they also speak with the tongues of gossip and backbiting at home. And they never seem to want to give it up. Because they have not seen what Jesus suffered on the cross. I have seen a little bit of it.

And it has made me love Jesus with all my heart and hate sin with all my heart. But it was not easy for Him to go through that. He struggled in Gethsemane to avoid it. Father take it away from me, take this away.

But He knew that if He avoided it, we would all go to hell. And because He loved you, He said, okay, I will go to the cross. How did He have the strength to face this tremendous suffering? Shall I tell you?

By grace being upon Him. See that in Hebrews chapter 2. Everything I say, I will show you in scripture. You may not have noticed it, but it is there in your Bible. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 9. In the last part, it says, It was by the grace of God that He tasted death for everyone.

How did He taste this terrible death, spiritual death of hell on the cross? That is not easy. But with grace He could do it. We saw in Luke 2 .40, He started His life with grace. See Hebrews 2 .9, He ended His earthly life with grace.

And now the Bible says, in John chapter 1 verse 16. From His fullness, we can receive grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. What a wonderful verse. I can get grace in the kindergarten. More grace in the first standard.

More grace in the second standard. Little by little, I can overcome getting offended. I can overcome the love of money. I can overcome anger. I can overcome jealousy. I can overcome the lust of the eyes.

I can overcome gossiping. I am just getting promoted. From His fullness, I can get grace upon grace upon grace all the way to glory. This is the full gospel. That I can be an overcomer. You can be an overcomer.

Overcoming as Jesus Overcame

See Revelation chapter 3. Jesus says in verse 21. Everybody knows verse 20. He said, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice, I will open the door. I will come in and supper with him and he with me.

That's the beginning of your life. Jesus is knocking and you say, Lord come right in. And we have fellowship. What do we do after that? Verse 21. That's the verse the devil doesn't remind people of. That's the next step.

He who overcomes. What do we have to overcome? What did he overcome? What did he say? Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. I have overcome the lust of the flesh. I have overcome the lust of the eyes.

I have overcome the pride of life. Be bold. He who overcomes this, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne. Exactly like I also overcame and I sat down with my father on his throne. So what is he saying?

Overcome exactly as I overcame. That's the message in verse 21. Overcome as I also overcame. That is the message of God to the Christian church. You can overcome as Jesus overcame. If you receive the same grace.

And you can receive the same grace if you humble yourself. Do you remember the story Jesus said about the Pharisee who went to pray? He was going to pray. Such a holy activity. We pray to get grace. But he didn't get any grace.

Why? Because his prayer was like this. Lord, I thank you that I am such a good man. I pray. I fast. I give money. I am not like that fellow over there. He is a sinner. I am a holy man. I am a board member in my church.

My pastor thinks so highly of me. I even go around preaching. And all these thoughts in your mind, no wonder you don't get any grace in your life. And no wonder that you are defeated by every possible sin.

No wonder you cannot control your dirty thoughts or your dirty tongue. Because your thoughts are thoughts of pride. And the Bible says that God resists the proud. Even if you are a believer. If you are proud, God will be your enemy.

We read that in 1 Peter 5 verse 5. God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble. So the picture I have in my mind is this. If I am proud, God will get in front of me and keep pushing me back.

But if I humble myself, God will get behind me and push me forward. Now there are already many things pushing me back. First of all, I inherited a filthy sinful nature from Adam which is always pushing me back into sin.

First of all, I inherited a filthy sinful nature from Adam which is always pushing me back into sin. The same filthy sinful nature you got. Always pushing us back into sin even when we try to go forward to a holy life.

How many times you have made a decision in a meeting, now I am going to live for the Lord. In one week your nature has pushed you right back. On the 1st of January you make a resolution, I am going to live a new life from now on.

It lasts till about the 7th of January. That's all. Then you are going back. That's it. Your experience, my experience. And the devil, he is also pushing me back. And all my worldly friends, they are also pushing me back.

And if you have a gossiping gossiping wife or husband, they are also pushing you back. Criticizing this person, criticizing that person. And all the people who are fighting and quarreling around you, they are all pushing you back.

And even the believers and lot of the preaching that condemns you and discourages you, that's also pushing you back. How to go forward? Only if God gets behind you and pushes you forward, then none of these people can push you back.

If God pushes me forward, even if all the 7 billion people in the world try to push me back, I will overcome all of them. Even if every filthy lust in the world tries to push me back, I will still go forward.

Even if all the millions of demons in hell try to push me back, I will go forward. If God is pushing me forward. And that's very simple. God will push forward everybody who humbles himself. There is no partiality.

He doesn't care whether you are rich or poor. You don't even have to know the Bible. Maybe you were converted only yesterday. Maybe you never read the Bible in your life. If you humble yourself, God will give His grace and push you forward.

And if you keep on humbling yourself, that means don't despise other people. Don't compare yourself with other people. Don't criticize other people. Say, Lord, I don't want to judge anybody. I am not a judge.

You are the judge. I just want to humble myself. When somebody insults you, humble yourself. You know, they called Jesus, Beelzebul, prince of devils. What did Jesus do? Humble himself. He said, if you have spoken a word against me, it is forgiven.

He said, learn humility from me. You remember that last supper when they were having dinner together? You know, in those days, people didn't wear shoes. They wore chappals like we wear, sandals. And the roads were all dusty.

When they came into a house, their feet were covered with dust. So, all the rich people had a slave, a servant who would wash the people's feet when they came to the house. So, when people came for dinner, their feet would be washed first.

But here was a dinner that Jesus arranged. The man who kept the house ready with the food, table, also kept the water and the bucket there and the towel. But there was no servant because the room had to be empty.

But now, who was going to wash the feet? Matthew says, I am a chartered accountant. How can I go and wash the feet of these people? Peter says, I am the leader of the apostles. I am not going to wash anybody's feet.

John says, I am a leader, I am a relative of the high priest. How can I go and wash people's feet? Everybody has got some excuse. All are big people. Jesus says, I am the only small person here. Okay, I will wash your feet.

And one by one by one, He washed his feet. It really touches my heart that He washed even Judas Iscariot's feet. He knew, this chap has already collected money to betray me. He is going to betray me in a few hours.

Let me do some good to him before he does that. That is humility, where you can wash the feet of your enemy and have no bitterness against him. When he comes to betray you, to say, friend, have you come to betray me?

If you were willing to humble yourself like that, grace would just come upon you like anything. If you were willing to humble yourself like that, grace would just come upon you like anything. You would be an overcomer.

There would be no depression or discouragement in your life. You can walk like Jesus on this earth. The good news is this. Let me read it to you in one sentence. 1 John 2 verse 6. Here is the good news of the gospel, which was impossible in the old testament.

It was impossible before the Holy Spirit was poured on the day of Pentecost, which is impossible without the grace of God, but which is easily possible for the weakest believer by the grace of God. What is that?

1 John 2 verse 6. We can walk on this earth as Jesus walked. Did you hear it? We can walk on this earth as Jesus walked. Forgiving people, overcoming sin, never being discouraged, never being in a bad mood.

That word is confirmed again in 1 John 4 verse 17. 1 John 4 verse 17, the last part. Here is the good news. As Jesus is, so are we in this world. I am not following Elijah. If I followed Elijah, sometimes I would get depressed like Elijah and say, Oh God, please take away my life.

But I am following Jesus who never said that. I am following Jesus who could control his anger. When they spat on his face, he could forgive them. I will tell you when Jesus got angry. When he saw people making money from the poor people in the name of religion in the temple selling those sheep and doves.

When he saw people making money in the name of God, getting it from poor people, he got angry. To be Christ like is to be angry when you see people making money in the name of God. When you hear one of these television preachers, rich man, telling poor people to give him their tights so that he can buy a new car or a new aeroplane.

If you are Christ like, you will get angry. If you don't get angry, say, Oh brother, what to do? You are not Christ like, you are like the devil himself. Jesus would be angry. Jesus would take a whip and chase those people out.

He would chase out every preacher who is trying to become rich by collecting people's tights. Jesus never went around collecting tights. Jesus healed thousands of people, but he never put an offering bag in front of them.

That's the difference between today's fake healers and Jesus Christ. So to be Christ like means that. Never angry when people hurt you, call you the devil, spit on you, do anything. Or steal your money.

Repentance, Humility, and a Life of Overcoming

But angry when God's name is dishonored. Dear brothers and sisters, here is the good news. You can walk like Jesus. Let's pray. While our heads are bowed in prayer, there are many things that you have heard in these three days.

I want you to think about the cause of sin, the wrong choices that led Adam to sin and that lead you to sin. Say, Lord, I don't want to make those choices. I don't want to make the sinful choices that Adam made.

I want to choose you always. I want grace, Lord. First of all, I want your mercy. And I want your grace. Help me to be an overcomer that my life might glorify you. Pray in Jesus' name. Amen.