An Axe That Sets Us Free (The Truth Will Set You Free) — Zac Poonen

Continue to worship God in our spirit. For the Father seeks for those who will worship him in spirit and truth this morning. Be still and bow our heads and close our eyes and be still for a moment in the Lord's presence as we fix our minds and our thoughts on him and cast all the thoughts and anxieties and worries of our earthly life, and there may be many of them, aside for a moment and say, Lord, all those things will be solved much better if I can hear you clearly this morning.

Many of our problems are not solved because we try to do it on our own. Let's give God first place this morning and I want you to pray that God will give you a word for your own heart, not a word that you think is good for somebody else.

We are here only for three or four days and we don't want to miss what God wants to give us. Call upon the Lord when he is near, seek him when he can be found. We worship you, our Father. You are God Almighty, ruler of this universe.

You have given us Jesus Christ, conqueror. Your son is our head and we want to live with the dignity and the humility that is becoming of those who are your sons and daughters. Give us grace to be that.

Your mighty power come upon us this morning. Your Holy Spirit move in our midst. We seek you, we wait upon you. Those who wait on you will never be ashamed. Break every fetter, every chain, everything that binds and set us free, Lord.

We seek you with all of our heart. Oh God, give us a word according to our need. We seek for prophetic utterance. We seek that the Holy Spirit will be upon us this morning. Every good and perfect thing comes only from you.

Lord, give us revelation, fresh revelation from heaven. Show us that which we have not seen before. We seek you with all of our heart. In Jesus' name, Amen. There is a word found in Matthew chapter 3, with John the Baptist preached as the forerunner of our Lord Jesus and the one who came to prepare the way for the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ Ministry of Setting Captives Free

We know that the ministry of Jesus was a ministry of setting people free. He said that in his first sermon in Luke chapter 4. He made it very clear the Spirit of God had anointed him, he said in Luke 4 18 onwards, quoting Isaiah 61 verse 1, to set the captives free.

Please remember that. And I want to say to all of you, especially who share God's word with others, if you want to be a true representative of Christ when you stand up to preach God's word, remember your responsibility.

If the Spirit of God is really anointing you, it will be with the same anointing that came upon Jesus to set the captives free. Do you know what is happening in many pulpits today? There are people who are already captives and the elder brothers get up and preach and put some more chains around them and make them bigger captives.

They were in one prison and the elders built another prison around them and they are in two prisons now at the end of the message. What a fantastic work the devil has done. I tell you, when I look at the way the devil fools and deceives so many believers who have heard the truths we have preached for 20 years, I tell you, I am amazed at the cleverness of the devil that he makes preachers build prisons for God's people instead of setting them free.

They're already in a prison. Imagine preaching a sermon which will build another prison around them or put one more chain on their leg. That is exactly what is happening in numerous places all over the world.

So that's why Jesus cannot say of all these people, these are my co-workers. How can you be a co-worker when you're binding people and Jesus is setting people free? You go and put a chain on somebody and Jesus comes and breaks that chain one day through some other ministry and then you come back and put another chain there.

You're not cooperating with Jesus. You are fighting against Jesus and the Bible has a word for those who fight against Jesus. It is called the Antichrist. Okay, let us understand what Christ is and the Antichrist.

The word Christ means anointed. Okay, so maybe we should look, before we look at Matthew 3, I want you to look at Luke 4. The word Christ means anointed. So Christian comes from the word Christ. It means a junior anointed one.

That's what all of us should be. Okay, why was Jesus anointed? Why was he called the anointed one, Christ? Luke 4 and verse 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me and he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

The Gospel for Those Who Know Their Need

That means good news to those who are needy. It's not just poor financially because if I am to preach the gospel to those who are poor financially, all of you should get out of this room. We must get all the beggars and all the people who live in the shacks here for the conference because all of them are poorer than all of you.

The poorest person here is richer than those people. So it cannot mean poor financially. Do you have to become poor financially to get into God's kingdom? The Bible doesn't teach that, but it means what it says everywhere else.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. So the gospel is preached to those who have a sense of need. So I don't waste my time going trying to push the gospel down the throat of fellow who has no sense of need.

It's a waste of time. And when we preach in a congregation, there are a few people with a sense of need and there are a lot of people sitting there who have no sense of need. You've got to ignore them.

Listen to me. You've got to ignore the people in your congregation who have no sense of need. Let them go to hell. I couldn't care less. God himself allows them to go there. Speak the good news to those in your congregation who have a sense of need.

Whatever their salary is, is unimportant. Do they have a tremendous sense of need? God, I am the needy one. Speak to them. Jesus spoke to such people. A person who does not speak to such people and is always pampering the rich and the clever who are self-sufficient, he's an antichrist because Jesus Christ was anointed to preach the gospel to those who have a sense of need.

And I say, I'm only interested in gathering those who have a sense of need in our churches. I'm not excited when our churches grow in size. Not at all excited. I want to say, are these fellows who've got a sense of need in their life?

Then I'm excited. But if people come to us, oh my brother comes to this church and he said it's a good church, we'd like to join here. Or I heard the preaching here is good, I'd like to come here. Oh brother, I'm not interested in you.

Because God's not interested in you. You know why? Because you're not poor in spirit. God is reaching out to those who have a sense of need. He told the Pharisees who were rich in spirit, I have no time for you fellows.

You think you're quite healthy and okay? The doctors are needed by sick people. The sick need a physician, not the healthy. He was being sarcastic. Jesus was a master of sarcasm. He used to look at the Pharisees and say, oh you guys are healthy, right?

What do you mean healthy? They were the sickest people in the world. But they thought they were healthy. They had no sense of need and Jesus bypassed them completely. You know that song we sing, pass me not, oh gentle savior, hear my humble cry.

While on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. If you don't have a sense of need, he will pass you by. You can sing that song for a hundred years. If you don't have a sense of need, he'll always pass you by.

He's not going to stop by you just because you sing that song. But even if you don't sing that song, if you have a sense of need, he'll stop by you. This is the most important requirement. Jesus was anointed to preach the gospel to those who feel a sense of need, who are poor.

And I tell you in every conference, the people who are going to be blessed the most are those who have a sense of personal need. If some of you were excited because I gave some corrections to the elders last night, boy, God will pass you by.

Because you said thank God those elders listening to that and you are the wretch whom God will ignore. Because you come there thinking that's a good word for the elders. It's not for the elders, it's for you.

You are more miserable than them. How many of you felt excited when you heard last night some of the corrections to the elders? Do you know what a wretched condition you are in? I hope God will open your blind eyes to see that.

Dear brother, sister, wake up before you miss what God has for you completely. Don't rejoice thinking this word is for somebody else. You have no sense of need. The gospel is not for you. The good news is not for you.

It is for those who are poor in spirit, who are not thinking, thank God those guys got that message. But who sit with a sense of need and say, Lord, that's for me. It's very difficult to come there. Because husbands sit and think, boy, that's good my wife is listening that she should submit to her husband.

You think such husbands have a sense of need? Not at all. God will pass them by every time. No matter how much they pray, they can come for a hundred conferences, they'll get zero from God. Because they have no sense of need.

Because Jesus was anointed to preach the gospel to only to those who are poor in spirit. The entire kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. And I want to encourage you, if you want to possess the kingdom of heaven, remain poor in spirit from day one till the end of your life.

Self-Examination and Improving the Preacher’s Ministry

I'm not preaching what I don't practice. I go before God and judge myself every single day of the year, because I see need in my life every single day of the year. I never preach a sermon without going home and judging myself whether I did it right.

Lord, can I do it better? Did I do something wrong? Did I say something unnecessary? Did I speak too long? Did I waste people's time? Did I bore people? Please, go and ask yourself these questions after you've got up in the meeting and preached.

And I tell you, next time your sermon will be a little better. And the next time it'll be still better. And you'll get better and better. And people will long to listen to you. But we don't judge ourselves.

Why? Because we have no sense of need. We think, oh, I'm all right. The problem is with other people. It's not with other people. It's with us. I mean, if you cook a bad meal and nobody appreciates it, and you say, yeah, that's because they don't have a good sense of taste.

It's not because they don't have a good sense of taste. It's because you're a rotten cook. Why not admit that? What a tremendous pride there is in us, even though we have heard the message of humility for so long.

So please remember this. The anointed Christ preaches the gospel, the good news only to the poor. And if I am a co-worker of Jesus Christ and not an anti-Christ, I will not go after the rich and the self-sufficient and the people who think that they know everything.

I'll go to those who have a sense of need, whoever they are. Whether they are financially rich or poor makes no difference to me. But do they have a spiritual sense of need? The second thing it says is, he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives.

Breaking Chains Rather Than Adding Bondage

Christ was anointed to release captives. The world is full of captives. Our churches are full of captives. And every message we preach must be breaking one more chain. Breaking a chain, setting them free, not putting one more chain on them.

Anyone who puts chains on God's people is an anti-Christ. Anti-disanointing, that's what I mean. An anti-Christ is one who is against that which Jesus was anointed to do. He came to set the captives free.

I've heard believers, I've heard preachers tell believers, I think you got a demon. What a horrible thing to say. I have rebuked people who have said that. I said, first of all, I don't believe any believer can have a demon.

How can Jesus Christ and a demon sort of live comfortably in the same room? You got to be off your head to believe that. But these poor people don't know the Bible, they accept it because some preacher says, oh, you're not, don't have a demon, you're demonized.

Some crazy thing which some American preachers have started publishing in their books, which blind stupid Indians just receive blindly like most Indians do, because they think every white man has got the truth.

And they get around and preach it and bring a whole lot of people in India into bondage. Well, I'm determined to set them free. I don't care what people think. That's absolutely wrong. There's not a single case in the Bible.

The Bible says very clearly what fellowship is light with darkness. What fellowship is Christ with Delial, a demon. And in spite of all these scriptures, they say a believer is demonized. And what happens, that poor believer who's already probably suffering depression, discouragement, this guy has gone and put one massive chain around him or her.

And they get, you know, they can never get it out of their head. 50 years later, they will remember some preacher told them that they had a demon. This wretched, miserable servant of the devil went and told somebody that he had a demon.

Do you know that Jesus never, never, never, never, never told anybody you have a demon? Show it to me in scripture, where Jesus said that to people. People said that to Jesus. Yeah, they said that to Jesus.

Oh, you are a Samaritan, you got a demon. Those are the Pharisees and you're following the Pharisees when you tell people you got a demon. Do you know what Jesus did when he saw people who had a demon?

He never told him he had a demon. He just cast it out. I have never in my life told a single person, you have a demon. If I sense he has a demon, I cast it out in Jesus name. And every single time they go, because they are afraid of the authority of Jesus Christ.

So please don't do these stupid things that you read in American books, charismatic books, especially that believers can have demons. It's one of the biggest lies propagated by the devil. If a person who calls himself a Christian has got a demon, I would say that guy is not even born again.

He was never converted. There are lots of people like that who call themselves Christians. 90 of Christians are not born again. But please don't swallow everything that you read in these books that come from the West and all that you watch on Christian television.

Get your knowledge from scripture, get your understanding from scripture. See if there's any case like that in the Bible. Please, please, because I'm concerned that the number of people who are being put into bondage with all these false teachings.

If you feel somebody's got a demon, cast it out like Jesus did. Otherwise, just keep quiet and say, I don't have the ability to cast out, at least keep your mouth shut. So important. He came to set the captives free, not to put more bondage on people.

If you can't set a person free from sin, my dear brother, sister, if you don't have the ability to lead a person to be free from sin because you're not free from sin yourself, at least do one thing. Don't put them under the law and bind more chains on them.

Just say, dear brother, I'm also defeated by sin. Please pray for me. I'll pray for you. That's the best thing you can say. And that's the best thing you can get up and preach Sunday morning instead of preaching all the rules and regulations to bring people into bondage and shouting at them and yelling at them and making them feel condemned and discouraged.

And you imagining that you're some type of prophet. You're not a prophet. You're an antichrist. If you're getting people into bondage, please remember that if you've got the ministry of setting people free because Jesus has set you free, go ahead and do it.

Christendom needs that message. Of people being set free. I don't mean people being comforted in their sin. You see, people can go swing to the other extreme. We've got this pendulomitis disease. You swing from one extreme to the other extreme and then you do this psychology method of make people feel nice.

Ah, God loves you, brother. Yeah, sin, it's okay. It's not serious. That's another lie. Who said sin is not serious? They're in captivity to sin. They need to be set free. You can't comfort them in their sin.

You got to deliver them. You can't deliver them, send them to some other doctor. Don't let them die in your hospital. Just humble yourself and say, I can't treat this disease. Brother, find somebody else who can help you.

It's good if you are humble, God will give us grace. Set the captives free. That is our ministry from now on. If you haven't done it till now, let's begin now. First of all, set me free from all the wretched traditions and things that hang ups in my life and then let me set people free wherever I go.

Let me not bring people more into bondage by anything I say. You have to be so careful. All who open their mouths in the name of Jesus Christ must ask themselves what I'm saying. Is it setting people free or is it bringing them more into bondage?

Is it them making them comfortable in their sin or is it encouraging them to fight the battle against sin and be an overcomer? Jesus came to set the captives free. Further, Luke chapter 4, he came to give recovery of sight to the blind.

Opening Eyes to God’s Love and Freedom

He came to open people's eyes to see what God was like. The true God, a loving father, a compassionate father who cared for them, who would provide for them. We got to open people's eyes to see that. To open people's eyes to see the wonderful truths hidden in scripture.

To set free those who are oppressed. Oppressed means people weighed down with weights and rules to set them free. Come on, take off all those weights off your back and walk in freedom, fly like the eagle.

You know, this is what it means to be Christ and Christian anointed to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. That means this is the year till Jesus comes again. This is the year of God's favor. This is not the year of God's judgment.

You've heard me say this before. Let me repeat it for those who don't know. And I, this passage come from Isaiah 61. And in Isaiah 61, where Jesus was reading this passage in the synagogue in Nazareth, he turned to Isaiah 61 and he read this.

And in Isaiah 61, it reads like this. It's a little more expanded there. He, the Lord has anointed me, verse one, to bring good news to the afflicted. And that's clearer, those who have a sense of need.

It's not talking about financial poverty at all. To bind up the broken hearted, people who are broken in their heart because of their sinful life and who are weeping and mourning to encourage them to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners and to proclaim the favorable year with the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.

But Jesus stopped before saying and he stopped in the middle of the sentence and said to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And you read in Luke chapter four, he did not say the rest of that sentence and the day of vengeance of our God.

Why didn't he say that? Because the day of vengeance has not yet come. Don't proclaim a day of vengeance today. It has not yet come. This is the favorable year of the Lord. And notice another thing. It's a year, 365 days of favor and one day of vengeance.

That is the proportion God's love with his judgment. He's 365 times more compassionate than he is desiring to judge. If you are more desirous to judge people than to have compassion towards them, that is the spirit of the Antichrist.

A lot of Christians are 365 times more interested in judging others than in having compassion to them. They are 100 Antichrist. Because God is 365 times more interested in showing compassion to them than in judging them.

Let's ask ourselves, dear brothers, I'm speaking to those who are poor in spirit. I'm speaking to those who have a sense of their own needs. Do you feel that you are 365 times more desirous to judge people than to have compassion on them?

You husbands, are you more compassionate towards your wife or quick to find fault with her? You wives, are you quick to find fault with your husbands? That's the spirit of the Antichrist, anti the anointing.

Because the anointing proclaims one year, 365 days of favor, one day of vengeance. That should be the attitude of our heart towards other people. I want to, yeah, there are things wrong in you. If my son is wrong, my child is wrong, I want to be strict with him.

But I want to be 365 times more compassionate to him as well. That's Christianity. That's the anointing. And that's how we should proclaim the message. And Jesus stopped in the middle because the day of vengeance, the day of judgment has not come yet.

So we must not threaten people that today is the day of judgment. It's appointed unto men, what's the rest of the verse? Once to die and after this, Hebrews 9 .27, the judgment. Listen to it again, Hebrews 9 .27.

It's appointed unto men once to die and after this, the judgment. Now question, when does God judge people? Before they die or after they die? When? After they die. When do you judge people? Before they die or after they die?

So are you anti-God or pro-God? You tell me yourself. That's what I mean by anti-Christ. God waits till a person dies because he's compassionate. But you are so holy that you say, I can't wait till the fellow dies.

He's got to be right, right now. God says, give him a few more days. He may change. Think of that fellow who hung on the cross. I think everybody would have given up hope for him. I thought at least before he is condemned to death, that guy will be saved.

Now there's no hope for him. From childhood, I've been telling his mother and father, don't bring him up like that. And I saw how he became a wretched thief, a murderer. Now he's on his way to hell. But Jesus didn't give up hope and saved him at the last minute before he went to hell.

That's how God is. Praise the Lord. I thank God. This is my father. He's got hope for a person right up till the last minute when everybody else has given up hope for him. They see that thief carrying the cross and they say, I told you, this is the final end of such people.

It was not the final end as far as God is concerned. Don't give up hope. I give up hope for a person when he dies. And that also, sometimes you're not sure they're dead. Sometimes they're only in a coma or something.

When the coffin is nailed, buried underground, then I think he's really dead now. I give up hope. But till then I don't. I don't care how deep he has fallen. I don't care how many stupid mistakes he's made in his life.

God has got hope for you, my brother, sister. Even when men give up all hope for you, when your elder brothers have given up hope for you, God's got hope for you. Because he's compassionate. That is the message of the anointing.

The Axe at the Root of the Self-Centered Life

That's how we are to set people free. Now we turn to Matthew chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3. John the Baptist, when he was preparing people for the ministry of Christ, he said, somebody is coming after me.

I'm only baptizing you with water, verse 11, Matthew 3, 11. But there's someone coming after me. I'm not even fit to remove his sandals. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit. And then he said this. I want to tell you something, what this new person who's coming after me is going to do.

And he said that in verse 10. The ax is already laid to the root of the trees. And every tree that doesn't bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. If we want to live this life of freedom, this anointed life, we must allow Jesus to lay the ax to the root of another life that we have got from Adam.

If we don't allow him, when he comes with the ax, you say, no, no, no, just hang on, Lord, don't, don't expect this wonderful, free, resurrected, anointed life to come into you. Open your being and say, Lord, that's what I need, the ax to the root.

You know, many a time, God brings circumstances into your life. He wants to lay an ax to the root of that self-centered life that you and I got from Adam. And he says, the reason I've got to pull this out completely from the roots is because if I don't do it, and in the same place, I plant the seed of this new life, you know what will happen?

That old tree will compete with this new tree and crush out this new life. So I've got to first dig out the other one from the roots. Will you let me do it? That's what the Lord is asking you. It's wonderful to hear about this message of freedom and like the bird flying in the air and all is great.

But there is a John the Baptist who was preparing the way for the ministry of the Messiah, Christ. He said, the ax is to be laid to the tree first. And there is already a tree bringing forth bad fruit.

And that is this self-centered life. Jesus lived a God-centered life. And let me tell you in simple words, the self-centered life is a life of bondage. The God-centered life is a life of total freedom.

The life like the eagle flies in the air is a life centered in God. And the life inside a cage is the life wrapped up in yourself. When all your thoughts revolve around I, me and my family, me and my family, that's the thickest cage you can ever build around yourself.

And you sit inside this cage where all your thoughts revolve around me and my family. How can I make it good for my children? And you're partial towards your children. That also happens. There are people who are partial towards their children and very hard on other people's children.

That's the biggest cage you can put yourself and your family in. I saw that years ago. And I said, I'd never do it. I'll never be partial towards my children in any area. I will never let my thoughts revolve around me and my family the whole time.

I'm not going to build a cage for me and my family. I'm going to set them free in Christ. But the whole world says, no, no, no, no, don't do that. You take care of yourself and your family like they say, take care of number one.

Number one means myself. If you don't take care of yourself, nobody else is going to take care of you. Everybody's interested in themselves. I remember once where I was preaching this message somewhere, where Paul said about Timothy, he said, everybody seeks their own except Timothy.

And there was this sister who was a believer for ages, the wife of the elder there. It's not one of our churches, another place. She said to me, Brother Zach, very older than me, sister, said, Brother Zach, who is there who doesn't seek their own?

Everybody seeks their own. In other words, this message is impossible to fulfill. Okay, brother, I'm not speaking to you. You believe this is impossible? Go ahead, live like that and live in bondage, live in your cage.

I tell you, that's why you're defeated by anger still. That's why you're so often discouraged. That's why you still love money. That's why you're bitter. That's why you can't overcome so many sins because the devil has convinced you it is impossible to escape this self-centered life.

The day you start believing God's word that it is possible to break free, something will happen. But if the devil can convince you, you'll never get out of this cage. The devil had convinced that sister, and that was years ago, and that sister is still inside that cage today.

Oh, we can never get out of this. You convince that eagle, you can never get out of this cage. I'll tell you what will happen. Even if Jesus opens the door, the eagle will sit inside because the devil's fooled him.

You can't get out of this. Do you believe that God can deliver you from this self-centered life? You know that all your life, your mind is only revolved around, how will this affect me? How will this affect my family?

How will this help me? How will this help my children? How will this help my family? And you revolve around that. That's how every human being in the world lives. Not only that, that's how every animal lives.

That's how every animal lives. They're interested in themselves. The dogs and the pigs, you think they're interested in the others? No, they're interested in themselves. It's only one person who walked on this earth who was not at all interested in himself, that was Jesus.

And then after him came a few people, not many, a few like Paul and Timothy, who didn't seek their own. And through the centuries, there have been a few who did not seek their own. My brothers and sisters, that is the type of church we must build.

I'd rather have a church of 10 people like that than 200 people who are all seeking their own, who are saying, hallelujah, praise the Lord and all that. Because God can accomplish much more with 10 people who don't seek their own, but seek his kingdom and his glory.

So this axe has to be laid to the root, and that's painful. Imagine if somebody were chopping off your leg with an axe, that's not comfortable. That's how a tree feels when you chop, it bleeds. You see the bleeding of that tree when you chop it down, and not just the branches.

I think many of us are cutting off the branches. Some of us are only cutting off the fruits. Some are going a little more and cutting off the branches, and you're better than the people who cut off the fruits.

But it still doesn't solve the problem, because have you seen what happens in a tree when you cut off the branch? I've seen it. The branch grows again. Have you seen what happens in a tree when you cut off the fruit?

The fruit grows again. The only way to stop it, cut it out from their root. It'll never grow again. And I believe that's the reason why many many people are never experiencing this wonderful resurrection life.

They are trying to have a resurrection without a death. Even Jesus didn't have a resurrection without a death, you know that. How can I have a resurrection without a death? How can I have a being raised from the dead if I'm not willing to die first?

That's why Jesus said, take up the cross every day. Now what will happen if I die every day? Like Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, I die daily. What'll happen if I die daily? You know what'll happen? Here's the best part of the news.

I'll have a resurrection every day. Isn't that great? How many of you would like to have a resurrection every day? I'm sure you'll all raise your hands. Okay, next question. How many of you would like to die every day for yourself?

That's the only way. That's the only way to the resurrection. You want to bypass the cross and come to the resurrection? It's not possible. I must allow God to lay the axe to the root of my self-life every day if I want to.

That's what will set me free, because when the axe is laid to the root of this chain, boy, I'm liberated. What does that mean in practical terms? It means I have to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Following the Holy Spirit’s Voice

You know, the Holy Spirit, you couldn't live this life in the Old Testament, and I'll tell you why. I mean, even Hinduism teaches self-denial, and they were preaching it 1 ,000 years before Christ was born.

You know that Hinduism was preaching self-denial 1 ,000 years before Christ was born? A lot of great philosophers have preached self-denial. That's an old religion. It's not a new religion. But Jesus was the only one who said, it's something more than self-denial.

You'll have My Spirit, the Holy Spirit, within you. Otherwise, you can deny yourself for ages. You'll never become spiritual. You'll just become proud that you're better than everybody else. But the Holy Spirit, when He comes in, He will prompt you.

That's why they couldn't do this in the Old Testament, because they didn't have the Holy Spirit within. The Holy Spirit will tell you what to do in each moment. You know that verse in Isaiah 30, 21, which says, your ears will hear a word behind you saying, no, not this way, this way.

Not to the right, but to the left. And I'm not talking about driving your scooter and the Holy Spirit telling you where to turn. For that, you better have a map. But I'm talking about something more important than finding your way in a town.