A Firm Grip on the Christian Life： The Way of the Cross — Zac Poonen

Human Choice and God's Call to Repentance

So we've been considering getting a firm grip on the Christian life. God will do his part if we do our part. God could never make Adam holy unless Adam chose to be holy. God wants everybody on earth to repent.

It says in 2nd Peter 3, everyone. There are nearly 7 billion people in the world. God wants every one of them to repent, but the fact of the matter is perhaps less than 1 have actually repented. Why is that?

Isn't God Almighty? It says in 1 Timothy 2, 5, 4 and 5 that God wants everybody on earth to be saved and to come to the knowledge of all the truth there is in Scripture. Not just saved. He wants all 7 billion people to know everything about the New Covenant and everything about the truth of Scripture, but the fact of the matter is it's not even 1 who are born again who know the whole truth.

What does that show? That God does not force a person even for the most important thing in life to go to heaven. He won't force a person to go to heaven. If a person chooses to live in sin, go to hell, God allows them to go.

I mean, just think of yesterday the number of people who died on this earth. There must have been a hundred thousands of people who died on this earth yesterday, and they've all gone to hell and God didn't stop any of them.

They want to go, they want to go, they can go. So God doesn't force people to repent or to be saved, which is the most important thing of all, and he's not going to force you and me to be filled with the Holy Spirit if you don't want to be, and he's not going to force you to remain filled with the Holy Spirit once you are filled and you can lose that fullness.

He's not going to force you to come back. He's not going to force you to seek for the mighty anointing of God upon your life in ministry. No. He gives you complete freedom, and that's the reason why so many believers are so shallow.

That's the reason why so many born-again believers are half-hearted and carnal, because God doesn't force anybody to be spiritual. He waits for man to seek him. Jeremiah, I mean, he's, he really, the Holy Spirit's pleading with everybody all over the earth.

He pleads with believers. I mean, he's been pleading with all of you throughout these last three, four days of this conference, but he won't force you, because once he forces you, you become a robot, and God is not going to have one robot in heaven.

Adam, Freedom, and the Choice to Be Holy

God could have programmed Adam in such a way that he looked just like a human being with flesh and blood and bones, but programmed inwardly to be like the planets, automatically obeying God. We would have obeyed God automatically like the planets that have obeyed God for thousands of years without even a split-second disobedience, but the planets, you know that the planets can never become sinners, and the planets can never be holy, even though they've obeyed God.

Imagine obeying God for 10 ,000 years and not being holy. The planets are an example of that. God wants people who choose to be holy, and that's why he didn't send Adam into the garden saying, you can eat anything you like, do anything you like.

No. He said, I've got to test you at least with one thing. There are 10 ,000 trees there. You can eat all of them, but just don't eat of this tree. That wasn't a very difficult command, but it was a test of choice, and without that choice, Adam could never be holy.

It's very important to understand that God could not make Adam holy. God could have programmed Adam to be obedient like he did with the planets, or you know the seed that falls into the ground. It's programmed to die and bring forth fruit.

It's automatic. There's no choice in that seed. You plant a mango tree, it'll never produce oranges. It's programmed to produce mangoes. So God could have programmed man like that, and he could have programmed you and me when we were born again, that he took away our power of choice, and we were just programmed to do automatically.

That's what some people believe, that once you accept Christ, you'll never be lost. To me, it's just a lot of rubbish. It means that God makes you into a robot that time. Even when he fills you with the Holy Spirit, you're not a robot.

You still have the power of choice. For example, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I've heard people testify like this. I was praying, and I got filled with the Spirit, and I got thrown from one end of the room to the other, and I continued speaking in tongues, and I couldn't control myself.

I said, brother, that was certainly a demon. That was without a doubt a demon. God doesn't throw people from one end of the room to the other, and God doesn't, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, and if you couldn't control yourself, brother, that was a demon.

I've seen demon possessed people who can't control themselves. They can't. That's a demon. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control. I got more control over myself after I got filled with the Holy Spirit.

More control over my tongue, more control over my thoughts, more control over my emotions, more control over everything. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control, but he doesn't force us. Even the gifts of the Holy Spirit, every gift he gives.

If, for example, he gives me the gift to teach the Word of God. It's not a sort of uncontrollable. I mean, I can't tell you, I don't know when I'm gonna stop. It may be four o 'clock this afternoon that I finish speaking.

No, it's completely under my control, but the gift is not my own. The gift is from God, but he gives me the choice to use it, and that's how people abuse the gifts of the Spirit, too, to, you know, get benefits for themselves.

So what I want to say is the power of choice is very, very important in the pathway of holiness, and God will never take it away. No matter how much you have progressed, think of Jesus, the perfect Son of God who lived on earth at the end of his life.

He could choose in Gethsemane whether he wanted to drink the cup or not drink the cup. In fact, his choice was, I don't want to drink this cup, but he said, Father, not my will but Thine. There was a choice there.

He could have said, Father, I'm not going to drink this cup. I'm not going to be forsaken by you on the cross for three hours, sorry. I'm willing to go through physical death a thousand times. I mean, if that's all that's required to save people from sin, I'm ready to go through it ten thousand times, but physical death is not the punishment for sin, and if Jesus had died only physically for us on the cross, our sins would never have been forgiven.

Christ's Suffering and the Cost of Redemption

It's one of those truths which I find even many Christians haven't understood, that Jesus' physical death was not enough to pay a price for my sin, because if physical death is the price for sin, then when I physically die, I paid the price for my sin, and every believer, every atheist in the world, when he dies, he's paid the price for sin.

He should go to heaven, but what is the price for our sin? It is being forsaken by the Father for all eternity, and that's what Jesus experienced for three hours on the cross, being forsaken. That's the cup he didn't want to drink, but he drank it for you and me.

When I understood that, I saw the love of Jesus for me personally. I make these things personal, then it becomes real. I mean, Gethsemane, long before Calvary. The decision was taken in Gethsemane. It was executed on Calvary, but it is in Gethsemane I see the choice he made.

Okay, Father, for the sake of Zach Poonen, I will drink that cup. I make it personal. Make it personal. It'll make a tremendous difference in your life when you understand that Jesus was willing to face the agony of an eternal hell for three hours on the cross for you.

Put your name there. It made all the difference in my life. I said, Lord, there's nothing I will not do for you from now on. Anything you ask of me, I'm willing to sacrifice anything because I saw what you did for me in Gethsemane.

I'm surprised that Christians are so reluctant, who have this minimum attitude to the Christian life. What is the minimum I must do to go to heaven? I'm not interested. What is the maximum I can do in this one earthly life for one who gave his life for me?

That's what I'm interested to find out. The reason for carnality is because people are always saying, what's the minimum I have to do to be accepted in a church? What's the minimum I have to do in order to be church members?

Look at all the church members who never go to church regularly, who float around, drift from one church to another church, treat churches like restaurants. I like the food here today. I'll go for Thai food tomorrow, Japanese food the other day.

That's restaurants. The church is not a restaurant. It's a family. You got to be committed. My children grew up and they ate. Whether the food was good or bad, they ate there. It was a home. It was not a restaurant.

Where do you find churches like that today? Where do you find Christians like that who are committed? Very rare. Because people are playing the fool with God. What is the minimum I must do to be accepted in this church?

What's the minimum I must do and go to heaven? I tell you people who have that attitude, the chances are they'll finally end up in hell. It's an absolute insult. It's like a wife saying, what's the minimum I have to do in order to be your wife?

Am I allowed to fool around with other men once in a while? What's the minimum I have to do? What type of marriage will that be? If a woman's attitude is, what's the minimum I have to do to please my husband?

It's not going to be a healthy marriage. I can say that from day one. That's the reason why many Christians don't have a satisfying relationship with Jesus Christ. Most Christians, if you were to ask them honestly, tell me honestly, do you have a satisfying relationship with Jesus Christ?

The answer would be no from more than 90 of born-again believers. And I'll tell you the reason is because they have this attitude of, what is the minimum I have to do? What is the minimum I have to give?

What is the minimum I have to read the Bible? Is half an hour reading the Bible enough? It's always, what is the minimum? What is the minimum? What's the minimum? But when they go out into the world, their attitude is, what is the maximum amount of money I can make?

What is the maximum amount of pleasure I can get? Well no wonder such people are worldly. Now if someone were to take that same attitude into Christianity, he would be a radical wholehearted Christian.

I've seen businessmen who work so hard to make money. They go to their stores early in the morning, go late at night, working, working. Even Christians, they skip meetings, they skip everything to make money, money, money is their God.

And I've looked at them and I said, Lord, those guys, mammon is their God and they serve mammon so wholeheartedly. What a shame it is if I can't serve Christ more wholeheartedly than those guys serve mammon.

Look at the things they're willing to give up. They're willing to give up church meetings. They're willing to give up God in order to make money. Shame on me if I can't serve Christ who died for me better than them.

See such people will never be disciples of Jesus Christ. They'll never have a satisfying experience with Christ. They'll just be members in a church. But if you want a satisfying experience in church with Jesus Christ, be one of those maximum Christians.

Wholehearted Discipleship and Living for Christ

And there's another another thing I want to say. Today there's a lot of teaching about getting things from God. Brother, you must have faith. You must have faith if you want to get healing, if you want to get a car, you want to get a house, you want to get this, get things from God, and you must have faith.

And people are trying to look inside their heart to see if I can have more faith, more faith, more faith. What is the maximum I can get from God in this one earthly life? I'll tell you what my attitude has been for many, many years.

What is the maximum God can get from me in my one earthly life before I pass on? Just change that attitude and you'll see what a difference it makes in your Christian life. God sees that you've taken the Christian life seriously.

It will change you completely and you will be a blessing. Mark my word. You may be ungifted. You'll be a blessing to thousands. And you'll fulfill God's will on earth and you'll come to the end of your life and say, Father, I have finished the work you gave me to do.

You know that most Christians, when they come to the end of their life, not only they cannot say, Father, I've finished the work you gave me to do, they have to say, Lord, I come to the end of my life.

I don't even have a clue what your work for me on earth was. What a tragedy. We're not supposed to live like that. And they'll have such, even if they make it to heaven, they'll have such regret when they get there for all eternity.

I believe I will. If I fooled around on the earth and played the fool with things of God and always had this, what is the minimum I have to give to God and what's the maximum I can get from God of earthly things?

If I lived like that for 50, 60 years on earth after I was born again and I go to heaven, you think I'm going to enjoy heaven? I'm going to have such tremendous regret for all eternity that in the one lifetime God gave me on earth, I lived for myself instead of living for Christ.

I thought of what I could do, what I could gain, what I could gain of earthly things instead of thinking of what Christ could get out of my life. So I want to say to all of you young people, don't make the mistake that some of the older generation have made.

You look around you and you see a lot of older people, you don't see radical Christianity in them, you don't see the passion for living for Jesus or some of them may have had it when they were young, but they've lost it.

Somewhere along the line they lost it. I never want to lose it. I had a passion to live for Christ when I gave myself to Him. When I was 19, when I was 21, I got baptized and I had a tremendous passion to live for God.

I have that passion even more today and I hope it'll increase as the years go by. Let's say, Lord nothing is too big a sacrifice for me to make for you when I think of what you went through in Gethsemane.

I want you to meditate on Gethsemane. He made a choice there. I don't want to drink this cup, but Father if you want me to do it, I'll do it. That is the meaning of the cross. The cross in the life of the believer.

The Way of the Cross and Daily Self-Denial

That's the fourth thing I want to speak about. I spoke about the blood of Christ, the Word of God, the importance of these to get a solid grip on the Christian life, the power of the Holy Spirit, and I want to speak today about the way of the cross.

The way of the cross is very little preached about and even less understood. When Jesus said in Luke 9 23, it's so clear. If anyone wants to come after me, anyone, any person in the world wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Let's read that slowly. Anyone. Anyone means brother, sister, man, child, anyone wants to come after me. Not anyone wants to go to heaven. You never find Jesus saying, how many of you want to go to heaven?

Well is there any stupid fellow who will say I don't want to go to heaven? Is there any person who will raise hands and say I want to go to hell? No. That's not the question Jesus asked. He never asked anybody how many people want to go to heaven.

That's all foolish preachers ask such questions. Jesus asked this question, how many of you want to follow me? How many want to love me more than your own life? How many of you want to love me more than your money, more than your business, and more than your father and mother and brother and sister and wife and children?

How many of you want to do that? Then they're not so many hands raised up. If anyone wants to come after me, he has to do certain things. He can't say God do this for me. No. Let him whose responsibility is that?

His. Let him deny himself. That means say no to self. You want to follow Jesus, the first thing you got to say is no to yourself. I remember once a brother and I were speaking to a Hindu man who seemed to want to receive Christ as his Savior.

We don't believe in forcing anyone to change their religion because it's worth nothing. There's a lot of accusation by people in India who say that Christians are forcing others to change their religion.

It's a lot of rubbish. No. Any forced change of religion means nothing. I said we're not interested in getting a person to change religion. We're interested in a person being connected to God through Jesus Christ.

So we were speaking to this man because he seemed to show some interest in Christ and I asked him, do you want to receive Christ as God as your Savior? He said yes. So we were about to pray and this brother who was with me said no.

I want to ask him another question before we proceed because the Holy Spirit keeps telling me the word Saraswati. I don't know what that means but does that mean anything to you? It was like a word of knowledge that the Spirit gave at that time and he said yes of course.

It's one of the gods I worship. Oh. I said so I presume you're going to give up that and now receive Christ. He said oh no not at all. I want to receive Christ in addition to all the other gods I have.

I said sorry you can't receive Christ. It's like a man who's married ten wives and says I want to marry another one now. Would you give your daughter to that man? Well God's not going to give Christ to someone who's already wants him in addition to other gods and if money is your God you can't have Christ.

It's not just to the non-christian we say that. This is the fundamental problem with many Christians. They want to marry Christ but they have not given up their old marriages to something on earth which means a lot to them.

Pleasure, comfort. They have to say no to self. Self is the God that all the children of Adam worship. It's their idol and you have to make a choice now. You're forsaking that and marrying Christ and many people the problem with their Christian life is they've been asked to receive Christ without having given up that other God they're worshiping.

I mean if that man for example if at that time the Spirit had not revealed that and we had asked him to receive Christ and we patted him on the back wonderful brother now you're born again now you're saved you're going to heaven like many creatures would say who don't believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit revealing things like that.

We would have fooled him and fooled ourselves and that person would have joined some church and considered himself a Christian when all along he was worshipping some other God as well in private of course he wouldn't bring that God to his church.

In the church he'd be worshipping Christ but in private he's worshipping another God. This is exactly the problem with a lot of people who are born again. They come to church and they sing all the praises of Christ but in private life during the week they're worshipping themselves.

They're worshipping money. They're worshipping another God which is just as much an idol as any idol that any person in another religion worships. No difference and they're wondering why their Christian life is not satisfactory.

It won't be satisfactory brother. I'll tell you that in a hundred years it won't be satisfactory. Ten years from now you'll be more miserable than you are today but you may be a good member and good standing in some church that does not tell you the truth.

I want to say to you young people especially from day one determined to be a radical Christian and not like the half-hearted older generation you see around you in your church. Don't follow their example.

I say that in my own home church. I say if you see a worldly young sister suddenly changing her dress fashions to the worldly fashions of people around her in the world don't follow her. She may be a member of this church but she's a worldly member of this church.

You don't have to follow her. There will be. God allows such worldly people to exist around us to see whether you'll follow them or follow him. So say no to yourself. Say no to seeking your own honor.

Say no to seeking your own comfort. Say no to seeking your own reputation. That's the meaning of taking up the cross and then say no to yourself and take up your cross daily. The cross means death. You say no to yourself and then you crucify your flesh every single day.

It's not a once-for-all thing. It's something you've got to do every day. Let me just explain the difference between what the Bible calls the old man and the flesh. Many people don't understand that.

The Old Man, the Flesh, and Victory Over Sin

The Bible says in Romans 6 your old man was crucified with Christ on the cross and that's something people can't understand. How could that happen? Well I'll tell you. Do you believe God knows the end from the beginning?

Yes he does. I mean God's mind knows everything that's going to happen in the next million years and way back before anything existed on this earth and there was before there was any angels or Adam or heaven or earth or stars or anything when there was only Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

That's all. At that time God knew the whole history of the human race. He knew all about you, where you'd be born, what your name would be and he knew that at some time in your life you would open your heart to receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You'd really repent and you'd be born again. Now when did God know that? Before he created, before Genesis 1 verse 1. Do you know there's a verse in the Bible about something that happened before Genesis 1 verse 1?

Let me read it to you. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 4. Ephesians 1 verse 4 says, before the foundation of the world, that means before Genesis 1 1. This is a verse that took place before Genesis 1 1.

Before the foundation of the world, God the Father chose you and me in Christ to be holy and blameless before him. He didn't choose you to go to heaven. He chose you to be holy and blameless before him.

So Ephesians 1 4 is something that happened before Genesis 1 verse 1. So before Genesis 1 verse 1, when God looked into way into the future of millions of years, he saw me. Let's make it personal. He saw you and he saw me when I was nineteen and a half years old giving my life to Christ and saying Lord I receive you as my Lord and my Savior and I want to live for you.

Thank you for dying for my sins. I'm a sinner. I want to turn from my sin. God saw that millions of years ago and therefore he put my name in the book of life way back there and he put me even though I didn't exist.

I was not going to exist for another millions of years. He already in God's mind I existed and in God's mind he put me in Christ. When? Before Genesis 1 1. If this is me and this is Christ he put me in Christ millions of years ago and when Christ came to earth and died on the cross I was there in Christ and I died with him and when he was buried I was buried with him when he rose again I was there I rose up with him and when he ascended up to heaven in my spirit it says I'm seated with Christ in the heavenly places.

Very simple. The Bible is a very simple book. If you don't listen to preachers will make it complicated. Really very simple. It's written for children. I thank you father you've hidden these things from the clever intellectual people revealed to babes.

Come to it like a little baby you'll understand everything. This is what it means to be in Christ. What some of you perhaps never understood till now. You understood it now? How you could have been crucified with Christ 2 ,000 years ago?

How Jesus could take the sins you commit today and pay for it 2 ,000 years ago when you were not even born? You believed without seeing it that he took your sins on the cross 2 ,000 years ago otherwise you wouldn't be here today.

But you find it difficult to believe that your old man was crucified with him? It's the same Bible that says both those things. That's difficult to believe. You understood it today because he placed you in Christ long long ago.

See most Christians think of Christ in them which is important. That's the emphasis in Colossians 125. Christ in you the hope of glory. In Ephesians the emphasis is you are in Christ. There are two sides of truth.

Christ in you, you in Christ. And most Christians think a million times more about Christ in me. He lives, he lives, he lives. You know ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart. It's absolutely true.

But it's only one side of truth and one side of truth will give you an imbalanced Christian life. It's like a person who's got only one leg. He's limping along and that's how many Christians are. The other side of truth is that we are in Christ and Ephesians emphasizes that.

We were placed in Christ and Jesus is our example. In Christ our old man was crucified but the flesh is different. So let me explain the difference. The old man is the, let's look at it like your heart is a home and the lusts of the flesh are like the burglars, the robbers who want to come inside your heart and take away everything precious.

They want to take away your joy and make you depressed. They want to take away your purity and leave you impure. They want to take away your love for God and replace it with the love of money. They want to take away everything good.

That's what burglars come for and that those are the lusts of the flesh. A whole gang of robbers just trying to get inside your heart and inside your heart was this guy called an old man who was the servant.

Your servant who was in league with these robbers and every time the robbers came he'd open the doors and say, come right in. What do you want? I want everything precious. Take it. You want purity? Take it.

You want take away my joy? Take it. This is the old man that opened the heart for sin to come in. That old man was crucified with Christ on the cross. In a moment God did it. You didn't have to do anything about it and when you received Christ it became real in your life.

Of course if you didn't know the truth it wouldn't make you free but once you know the truth it makes you free. To know that my old man was crucified, it's finished. That means the desire to sin is gone and now God has put within me a new man, a new servant who now the gang of robbers are still hale and hearty.

That's the lust in the flesh. The lust in the flesh are the gang of robbers. The old man, the old servant has been killed and got rid of but the lust in the flesh still come knocking the very next day after you're converted because they're hale and hearty.

But there's a new man inside who says no I'm not gonna let you in. You see how after you're really born again you find a changed attitude to sin? You don't want to? You're still tempted to go to that pornographic site on the computer.

You're still tempted to lose your temper but something within says hey hang on don't do that but sometimes the robbers are stronger. They push their way in and come through the door even though the new man doesn't want them to come in and the reason is because this new man hasn't eaten properly or he ate such a lot and became fat and didn't do any exercise so he had no strength.

What do I mean by that? He didn't feed on the Word of God and he didn't seek for the power of the Holy Spirit to be able to resist these robbers. Then though he wants to stop them he can't stop them and the robbers come in.

That's how a believer sins. In both cases the robbers have taken away purity or joy or whatever it is just like in the unbeliever but there was a difference. The believer wanted to stop it because he had a new man.

Biblical Pictures of Redemption and Conquering the Flesh

Now taking up the cross means I have to put these lusts of the flesh that come to death. We can compare it in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is a very beautiful picture. Egypt is a picture of the world.

Pharaoh is a picture of Satan. We were enslaved there. By the blood of the Lamb it's a picture of Christ. We got delivered. We escaped death. They went through the Red Sea in and out. They didn't get sprinkled with the waters of the Red Sea.

They went in and out. That's a picture of baptism. You go in and out. It's very exact these pictures and then what did God do? He took that entire Egyptian army which is a picture of the old man buried them in a moment.

The Israelites did nothing. God put the old man to death and the Bible says buried them in the Red Sea and the Bible says when you get into the waters of baptism you are testifying that your old man was buried and you come out.

It's so exact. The Word of God is exact. More accurate than two plus two is four and then the children of Israel that was not the end of their journey. The Lord said now you come out of Egypt but that's not the end.

You don't just go to heaven now. You've got to enter a land called the land of Canaan. The land of victory. The land that's ruled by Giants. A land that should belong to me but is ruled by Giants. I want you to go there and possess it but there is a difference now between the way these Giants are to be killed and the Egyptian soldiers were to be killed.

You have to kill the Giants. I killed the Egyptian army the Lord says but you've got to kill the Giants in Canaan but I'll give you the power. That's the difference between the old man and the flesh. The lusts of the flesh are pictured by the Giants of Canaan.

God's not going to kill them. He killed the old man. Galatians 5 24 says those who belong to Christ they crucify their flesh with the affections and lusts but Romans 6 says your old man was crucified with Christ that God did.

That's the Egyptian army. These are the Giants of Canaan but you can look at the Giants of Canaan and what are the Giants of Canaan in our life? Anger, lust, bitterness, love of money. You know the love of money is a giant?

Many Christians never kill it. They allow that giant to occupy some territory in Canaan forever and ever and ever and they become like a thorn in the flesh harming them. They know that sexual lust is dirty, internet pornography is dirty but this giant love of money doesn't look such an ugly man.

Yeah some of the Giants are pretty pretty but they occupy areas that should belong to God. You know if God opens our eyes to see these things and they're all revealed in Scripture. If you read the Sermon on the Mount you'll see all of them there.

Anger, lust, seeking the honor of men, judging others, love of money, anxiety. The thing that makes you anxious is a giant. You've got to get rid of it. So these are the Giants that rule Canaan and what did the Israelites say when they saw these huge Giants?

You know it says that the spies went to check out on the land and they came back with grapes that were so heavy that two people had to carry a branch of grapes and they said this is a wonderful land. We've never seen anything like it.

It's a land flowing with milk and honey. Water comes from heaven and we don't have to keep on peddling the wheels like we did when we pumped the water of the River Nile in Egypt. This just receives land from rain from heaven but these Giants rule the land.

They are too tough. They're nine feet high. We're the tallest of us are six feet and these guys nine feet high they're so huge we'll never be able to conquer them. That's exactly what Christians say today.

This anger of mine I've been enslaved to it for 30 years I'll never be able to conquer it. This lust of mine I'm enslaved to it I'll never be able to conquer it. This habit of drinking alcohol or smoking or drugs or whatever it is I can never conquer it.

That's exactly what the devil wants you to say. Keep on confessing that this filthy habit of yours is more powerful than Almighty God who created this universe and you keep on confessing that lie. Which lie?

That your filthy habit is more powerful than Almighty God who created it. You know what God told the Israelites? Okay it'll be like that for you. For the next 40 years you'll never enter the land because you insulted me by saying that those nine-foot Giants were more powerful than me who created the universe.