New Covenant Living — Zac Poonen

The Old Covenant and the New Covenant

One of the things that has changed my Christian life radically, about 30 years ago, was when I discovered that the old covenant that God had made with the Israelites through Moses had been abolished, and that God had made a new covenant through Jesus Christ.

And when I looked at my own life, and the lives of most of the Christians I knew, I found it was very similar to an old covenant life. So let me describe a little bit about what the old covenant life was like.

In Matthew chapter 19, first of all, Matthew 19 and verse 3, the Pharisees came to Jesus and said, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And Jesus said, of course not. You remember in the beginning, God made them one man, one woman.

So they said, in verse 7, why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away? So divorce was permitted under the old covenant. And it didn't have to be, like Jesus said, for adultery or fornication.

If a man was just tired of his wife, he just sent her off and gave her a certificate of divorce. And Moses said, you've got to give that certificate of divorce. So now listen to the answer that Jesus gave.

That's the important thing. Because, verse 8, of the hardness of your heart, Moses permitted you. So it's when a man's heart is hard that he wants to divorce his wife. It's when a woman's heart is hard that she wants to divorce her husband.

But God's plan, verse 8, from the beginning was not like that. Then why didn't God, why didn't Jesus, or rather, why didn't God in the Old Testament give the same law that Jesus gave in the Sermon on the Mount, that divorce was not permitted except for fornication?

There's no question of giving a certificate of divorce. Because in the new covenant, there is the possibility of this hard heart of man being softened. And I discovered that the reason why I and most Christians I knew were living an old covenant life was because the hearts were still hard.

The Inconsistent Experience of Old Covenant Believers

Now, in the matter of divorce, we may say we are okay. We don't live by old covenant standards. But in the Old Testament, the experience of the most godly men was up and down and up and down and up and down.

To begin with, the first man of God mentioned in the Bible, that's Job, I mean, whose life we know in detail. In the beginning, when he lost his children and property in one day, it says he just fell down and worshipped God.

That's amazing, for a man to lose 10 children and all his property in one day. And as soon as he hears it, to fall down and worship God, Genesis, sorry, Job chapter 1. And a few days later, he became sick, with sores and boils all over his body.

And again, his attitude is, well, if we receive prosperity from God, shouldn't we accept adversity as well? And it says in all this, Job chapter 2, verse 10, Job did not sin with his lips. That's chapter 2, verse 10.

But five verses later, a few days later, Job said, let the day perish on which I was born. And he goes on complaining, why didn't I die at birth? Now, in between, he suddenly rises to great heights, like chapter 13, verse 15, even if he slays me, I will trust in him.

And then again, he goes into the dumps, justifying himself. And then again, he rises up saying, I know my redeemer lives, Job 19 .25, back into the dumps again. And that was his experience, up and down and up and down and up and down.

Now, what I want to say is, that is the experience of an old covenant person. It's the experience of a man whose heart is hard. It's the same with all these men of God. You find Elijah up on the mountaintop, fighting against 850 false prophets, bringing fire down from heaven.

And the next chapter, you read him running away by the threat of a woman, depressed, going into the mountain and saying, Lord, take away my life, I've had enough. And then he's encouraged, and he goes back into the ministry again.

It was like that with Moses. And David rose to great heights, writing wonderful Psalms, and then would sleep with another man's wife and kill the husband and marry the woman. Their life was not consistent.

And even in the law, God told them, you've got to worship me one day in seven. Not all seven days. That's too much for you. But one day in seven, you've got to keep reserved for me the Sabbath. And even that they found very difficult.

And he said, you don't have to give me all your wealth, give me 10%. And even that they found difficult. God never asked for everything in the old covenant. Don't give me all your children, give me your firstborn son.

It was only a token, a portion. And because God didn't require everything from them, their life was up and down. But when it comes to the New Testament, Jesus said in Luke chapter 14 and verse 33, no one can be my disciple if he does not give up all his own possessions.

It's not 10%. This is one of the fundamental mistakes of Christians who believe that God has called them to give 10 of their income to God. It's an old covenant law. They believe they've got to give one day in seven to God.

It's an old covenant law. And the experience of all these Christians is up and down, up and down, up and down, up and down forever. And they think that's normal because that's the experience of all the Christians around them.

It was like that with me. But when I read the New Testament, I found it was different. I found there was not a single verse from the day of Pentecost onwards, and the day of Pentecost was the day the new covenant was established.

There's not a single verse after that which said one day in seven belonged to God, or one-tenth of our income belonged to God. Never. These are the inventions of man, just like child baptism, and priestcraft, and all the other rubbish in Christianity.

Searching the Scriptures Like the Bereans

This is another part of it. And that is because, how is it so widespread in Christendom? Because 90 of believers don't read the Bible carefully. That's the reason. And I believe those who don't read the Bible carefully deserve to be deceived.

Because God's given them His Word and they don't take it seriously. Just listen to some man and listen to what he says and believe that's gospel truth without checking the scripture. There was a wonderful group of believers in a town called Berea, you read in Acts 17, who even when the Apostle Paul preached, imagine that, the Apostle Paul gets up and preaches.

And it says there that they searched the scriptures. As it were, they told Paul, Brother Paul, it's wonderful what we heard, but we can't just follow what you say without checking the scriptures, whether it's true or not.

We'll come back next Sabbath and tell you. And they went home and searched the scriptures, it says here in Acts 17, they searched the scriptures daily, examined it to see whether what Paul said was correct, and then they believed.

And that's the reason why you never find an epistle to the Bereans in the Bible. Because all the letters, most of the letters anyway, were written for correcting some wrong doctrine or some wrong practice from the Corinthians and the Thessalonians and the Philippians and the Colossians.

But there's no letter to the Bereans. Because it didn't matter which preacher came there. They say, great to hear you brother. We'll let you know next week whether we agree with you or not. We'd like to check everything you say with scripture.

And they'd go and spend all of that week comparing what they heard with scripture, and the result was they never went astray in their doctrine. If there were more Christians like the Bereans today, we wouldn't have all these false doctrines prevalent in Christendom, and the quality of our Christian life would be much better.

Rejoicing Always in the Lord

Now notice the places in the New Testament where we are told to do something always. First of all, you read the testimony of the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 2. I want you to notice this word which comes a number of times.

Always, continually, everything. I mean, if you've got a concordance when you go home, you can look it up yourself. The places in the New Testament where the word always, continually, everything comes.

Here's one of those. This is 2nd Corinthians 2 and verse 14. Thanks be to God who always, this is not once in a while, always leads us in His triumph in Christ. Now always means 24 7. It's not once a week.

It's not for a few hours. It's not this up and down experience. It's not thanks be to God who leads us most of the time in victory or part of the time. No. The experience of the Apostle Paul and the experience of a number of the Apostles in the New Testament was, thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ.

That was victory all the time over sin and the devil and the flesh and the world. And he says the result of that is we have a fragrance of Christ to God. That was a consistent fragrance. It was a perfume that came out of Paul's life, not once in a while, but all the time.

It wasn't sort of stinking part of the time and a perfume part of the time, like it is the testimony of most Christians. In Philippians 4, verse 4, Paul says, Rejoice in the Lord always. Again that word, always.

And again I say, I meant it. Rejoice. Now remember, Paul was not sitting in a couch and writing this letter. He was in a Roman dungeon when he wrote this letter. And those Roman dungeons were horrible places.

There were rats and cockroaches and mosquitoes all over the place and filth and rubbish. And he was shivering in the cold. And what does he say there? Rejoice in the Lord always. Is this how God treats His mightiest apostle?

Allow him to languish in a prison? God had a purpose in it. If Paul hadn't been in prison, we wouldn't have got Philippians. We wouldn't have got a number of the epistles. Because Paul was a man who was always on the go.

And the only way God could get him quiet was by getting him in prison. So even though the devil thought he'd got a victory, he hadn't. For thousands of years, Paul's letters have blessed us because he was in prison.

But what does he say in prison? Rejoice in the Lord always. 24 -7. Now, you know, we can look at the commands, you know, I know a lot of people who spend their time arguing about which version of the Bible should be used.

And you know, there are lots of people who say, it's solely the King James Version. I say, brother, you can take any version you like. It says rejoice in the Lord always. What's his arguing about a version?

If you're not obeying even one verse written in it. This is one of the diversions the devil has succeeded in taking Christians into. Rejoice in the Lord always. And when we see something in scripture like that, we say it's the inspired word of God.

But if you believe it's the inspired word of God, you will never take these things as suggestions. I believe if you're honest, many Christians will have to admit that they have taken these verses of scripture as good suggestions that God has made, you know, take it or leave it type of thing.

There are no suggestions in this book. It's all commandments. And so rejoice in the Lord always. Is that a suggestion? Or is it a commandment? I'll tell you, for 16 years of my Christian life, after I was born again and baptized, I thought it was a suggestion.

If you can do it, well and good. If you can't do it, OK, it doesn't matter. I never took it as a command of God that I must have a spirit of joy in the Lord, not in my circumstances. We can never rejoice in our circumstances always.

The Bible is very realistic. I mean, if there was a command saying rejoice in your circumstances always, it would be ridiculous. It says rejoice in the Lord always, in spite of circumstances. Circumstances change, the Lord never changes.

Now the question is, is such a life possible? Would an earthly father ask his son or daughter to do something which he knew it was impossible for them to do? I mean, there may be a few evil fathers like that.

But I think most of us would never ask our children to do something impossible like carry 500 pounds on their head or something like that. Now, if you being evil, Jesus said, know how to give good gifts or how not to put heavy burdens upon your children, how much less will your heavenly father put heavy burdens on his children?

None of us can claim we are better than God or wiser than him. Has God given us a command which he knows is impossible to obey? The great tragedy with many Christians is that when they look around and compare notes with other Christians, they find that most people don't do this.

So I suppose that's OK. One of the things we've got to learn from Scripture is the majority is always wrong in Scripture. It's a very small minority that was right. In the time of Noah, millions were wrong and eight people were right.

When the children of Israel came to the borders of the promised land and were asked to enter Canaan, there were only two people who were right and 600 ,000 were wrong. In the days of Jesus, hundreds and probably thousands of Pharisees and Sadducees were all wrong.

There were very few people who were right. So the fact that 30 ,000 people flock to a church proves nothing. It doesn't prove that what the person preaching there is right. Those are for people who haven't read the Bible, who don't see, who don't compare what a person says in Scripture, but who see whether it produces results.

We have a Christianity today that follows the laws of pragmatism. If it works, it must be right. If it doesn't work, it's not right. Let God be true and every man a liar. That's what the Bible says. That's been a great verse for me, Romans chapter 3 and verse 4.

In the middle of that verse it says, let God be found true though every man be found a liar. Sometimes the Lord has challenged me as I've studied Scripture and taken these verses very carefully. What the Lord has asked me was, supposing you did not find a single Christian in the whole world who could testify that he was rejoicing in the Lord always, would you still believe it was possible?

I said, yes Lord, I would still believe it. Because let God be true and every man a liar. Now unless you take that attitude to God's Word where you're going to honor Him and not allow yourself to live by the standards of the Christians you see around you, I want to tell you right now, you'll never, never enter the new covenant.

You'll never enter into the fullness of the blessing that Christ purchased for us on the cross. We may get a trickle. I believe that most Christians are living on a trickle of blessing when they could have a downpour of heaven upon their lives.

Persistent Prayer and Christ's Purchased Inheritance

We can't live this life without the power of the Holy Spirit. It's impossible. That is the secret. Let me show you another verse. Luke chapter 18 verse 1. Jesus said, He told them a parable, verse 1, to show that men ought to, people ought to pray always, at all times.

We're to never give up praying for something which we know is the will of God. And He told the story of this widow who went to the judge and kept on asking for her rights. I see the picture like this, that here was a poor widow.

The fact that she had to go to the judge showed that she had no male member in the house. That means no son, no husband, and probably no daughter, because she had to go herself. I don't know how old she was, but she had to go and ask the judge for something which was her right.

The enemy is taken something that belongs to me. Maybe there was a neighbor who was encroaching on her property, and that neighbor was a powerful person, thought I can take advantage of this poor widow.

And she goes to the judge, and the picture here is of Satan encroaching on the property Jesus Christ has purchased for us. One part of that property is that I can rejoice always, and Satan's stolen part of that makes us rejoice once in a while.

And if I sit back and say, oh well, that's how most Christians live, that'd be like the widow saying, well, if he takes my property, okay, I still got a house to live in. And then he encroaches some more somewhere else.

And Jesus said, you must not allow it. He's talking about God, verse 7, bringing justice for his elect. Which people? Those who cry to him day and night. What do they cry? Like the widow, Lord, don't let the devil take advantage of me.

Don't let him rob me of what Christ has purchased for me. I want my full inheritance. I mean, if your father was a billionaire and had written a will with properties in different cities in the United States, and he's willed it all for you, I'm sure you'd be very careful that you don't let some cheating lawyer rob you of even 10 of that.

And my guess is that most Christians allowed the devil to rob them of 90 of what Jesus has purchased for them on the cross. I know that because that was my own experience for many years after I was born again.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. He's never a rewarder of laziness. As soon as Adam sinned, he said, by the sweat of your brow, you're going to earn your bread. You're not going to get it if you're lazy.

You're going to lazy, you're going to be lazy, you won't earn your bread, Adam. You got to sweat and earn your bread. And the same principle applies in the Christian life. Those whose attitude to Christ and to God is a lazy, sluggish type of thing, go once in a while for a meeting, read the Bible when you feel like it, etc., etc.

Do you think in a hundred years God would give them anything? No! God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Jeremiah 29 says, you will seek me and find me, verse 13, when you search for me with all your heart.

If you don't search for me with all your heart, you won't find me. There is an inheritance purchased by Christ for us, my dear brothers and sisters, which many of us may be missing out on. And the result is the church suffers, the work of the Lord suffers.

I remember once seeking the Lord. God's called me to India, that's where I live, that's where I lived all my life, and that's where he's called me to serve him. And I said, Lord, India's got 1 .2 billion people.

98 of them don't even know anything about Christ. And the remaining 2%, most of them nominally talk about Christ. Where are the prophets? Don't you love India? I mean, don't you love India to send a few prophets to our nation?

And the Lord said to me, I've called many people in this land to be my prophets, but most of them fall by the wayside. Somebody goes after money, somebody marries some half-hearted girl and goes away from God's calling for his life, or one thing or the other, and somebody goes and joins some organization that'll give him a good salary, and he misses out completely on my calling for his life.

That's happened. Is it possible? I don't want to bring anybody under condemnation. Condemnation is an old covenant ministry. We made a rule in our church many years ago that we would never talk about the mistakes a person has made in his past life.

Even in the church, if somebody makes a mistake, okay, repent, get the Lord to cleanse it in his blood, and that's it. But we must learn something from that mistake. Otherwise, we'll repeat it. So, in that sense, it's good for us to ask ourselves, is it possible that the Lord had a ministry for one of us that we have missed out on?

Rejoicing, Praying, and Giving Thanks as God's Will

Because we were not wholehearted and radical to seek for it, like this widow. Pray always. Let me show you another verse. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 16 and 17 and 18. There are three statements here which are said to be the will of God for our life.

Many people have asked me, Brother Zach, how can I find the will of God for my life? Well, I say in many areas it's a bit difficult, but there are three areas at least we definitely know God's will, because it's written in scripture.

Let me read them to you, because at the conclusion of these three statements, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 to 18, it is written, this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. It's one continuous sentence, just separated by semicolons.

What is God's will for you in Christ Jesus? Number one, rejoice always. That's God's will for us. That's not some top-level Christian life or higher Christian life. It's the normal Christian life. Number two, pray without ceasing.

That is God's will for us. I don't mean to be always on our knees. We got to work eight hours a day. We got to travel on the roads perhaps another couple of hours a day. We got many other needs at home to take care of.

This is spirit of prayer, and prayer speaks of a helpless dependence upon God. It's faith is that helpless dependence, leaning of the personality upon God. It's that spirit. Prayer is not always spoken, like in the song we say, prayer is the soul's sincere desire, uttered or unexpressed.

A desire in the heart that rises up to God, a continual longing after God, a continual dependence upon God. Pray without ceasing, not in words, not in action, but in an attitude of heart. And the third thing is in everything, give thanks.

Notice in all these three things, it's 24 -7. Rejoice in the Lord always, pray without ceasing, in everything, in every circumstance, in every situation, give thanks. That means no grumbling, no complaining about anything.

Now the interesting thing is, none of these commandments were found in the Old Testament. Why? Jesus said, because your hearts were hard. When your heart is hard, you can't do these things. And a man who doesn't do these things, his heart is hard.

It's clear. But it need not be hard. The Holy Spirit has come to fill us, to soften our heart, to make these things real in our life. Hebrews in chapter 13. Hebrews 13, we read, and verse 15. Here again you find this 24 -7.

Continually, therefore, through Christ, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of our lips that give thanks to His name. So praise is not something we are to give to God just on Sundays, or once in a while like this, when He comes on a Friday.

According to Scripture, it's continually. Now if you are an Old Testament Jew, I agree, once in a week on Saturday. But if you are a New Testament Christian, it's continually all the time. That is one of the big differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

In the Old Testament it is one day in seven, in the New Testament it is seven days in seven. Continually, always. In the Old Testament it was 10 of your income. In the New Testament, I recognize, I don't mean that I take all my salary and put it in the offering box.

We're not talking about giving to the church. We're talking about giving it to God. We're acknowledging that God is the rightful owner of everything I have. And I want to use it in a way that He tells me to.

And in the Old Testament you had to give your firstborn son to God. Because the Lord said to Israel, in Egypt I killed all the firstborn. And your firstborn should have died, but I spared your firstborn, so your firstborn son is mine.

So they had to give their firstborn child to God. But in the New Testament, all our children are to be given to God. It's our responsibility to bring up every single one of your children to be a God-fearing Christian.

And that takes labor, but it's possible. So you see, there's a fundamental difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The New Testament life is not meant to be this up and down type of thing.

That may be the experience of most Christians around us, but it's subnormal. The normal Christian life is not that. Normal Christian life is what I just showed you. Thanks be to God who always leads us in His triumph in Christ.

Climbing the Mountains of Christian Obedience

Now I'll tell you something. If when you see a standard proclaimed in God's Word, and you find your own life is down here, below that, you've got one of two options. Either say, well that's not exactly what that verse means, and twist it, and bring it down to your level of your life.

And then that's where you live. That's what most Christians have done. Or you can say, Lord, that is your Word. It's your unchanging Word. I'm not there. I don't know why I'm not there, but I'm not there.

But if it says so in your Word, then I can be there. I remember certain things when I was claiming those promises from God. I remember once when I was seeking God to be filled with the Holy Spirit as a young man.

I knew I was born again, and on my way to heaven, and baptized, but I didn't have power in my life. I didn't have power to preach. I didn't have power for victory. And I knew the answer is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And I said, Lord, I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I really want it, Lord, and if it takes me 10 years to get there, I'm going to get there. Like a mountaineer. You know, people who are interested in mountain climbing, when they see a mountain, they say, I've got to climb that.

When they see another mountain, they go, I've got to climb that. When they see another one, they say, I've got to climb that. It's a passion for them. They sacrifice so many other things to keep climbing mountains.

Now, most of us are quite happy to live on the plains. It's so much of a trouble going climbing all these mountains. But it's something like that in the Christian life, you know. And I tell you, it's not easy to get up to the top of all these mountains.

I don't know how many mountains there are in California, but a lot of people have a or every one in the United States. And there are mountain peaks like that in scripture. And you can look at them and say, that's beautiful.

Boy, what a life you can live, you know, rejoicing the Lord always. It's like admiring a mountain peak and taking a photograph of it and talking about it and never climbing it. That's how it is with many Christians.

They'll hang the verse up on the wall and rejoice in the Lord always and pray without ceasing and all that. It's like photographs of mountains that you never climbed. Is that how it is supposed to be?

I hope I can put in your hearts, in the hearts of some of you at least, I hope many of you have passion to climb some of these mountains and to say, Lord, if it takes me 10 years to get to the top of that mountain, I'm going to get there.

I want to come to a life which these apostles lived, which Christ purchased for me on the cross. It's my birthright. Why should the devil, why should some cheating lawyer rob me of my inheritance that my father has worked so hard to purchase for me, his son?

I want it. Lord, I'm seeking you. And I've been a Christian 50 years. I was born again in July 1959. It's exactly 50 years now. When I tell you there are mountains I'm still waiting to climb in scripture.

It's an endless thing. To the challenges like we read in 1 John chapter 2, 1 John 2, it says in verse 6, the one who says he abides in Christ must walk in the same manner as he walked, as the living bible says.

Anyone who says he's a Christian must live as Christ lived. Now think of that. Anyone who says he's a Christian must live as Christ lived. Now you can look at that verse in two ways. One is, boy, what a burden to live as Christ lived.

Or you can look at it like that great man of God, John Wesley, looked at it when he read it. He said, boy, that gives me the possibility of living on this earth like Jesus lived. Otherwise God wouldn't command it to me.

It's a question of how you look at that verse. You can either look at it as a heavy burden or as a possibility. And God is going to help you in this. But this is the way he wants you to live. I'll take another verse.

Philippians in chapter 2 and verse 5. Have this attitude in yourself which was in Christ Jesus. In every situation, have the same attitude that Jesus had. When you face a particular trying circumstance, have the attitude that Jesus had.

When you have to deal with a difficult person, have the attitude that Jesus had. When you're tempted to lust sexually, have the attitude Jesus had. Look at money the way Jesus looks at it. You know, if you have a passion for it, God will help you.

I'll tell you that. Do you think it's possible to have a better attitude to money than the attitude Jesus had? I hope you're not foolish enough to think that. I mean, if you really believe that the way Christ lived on earth was the most perfect way in every area, his attitude to women, his attitude to money, his attitude to his enemies, his attitude to scripture, his attitude to his earthly parents when he was at home for 30 years, and his attitude to his work as a carpenter, his attitude in every area, that is the most perfect attitude we can have.

So here's a wonderful verse to ask the Holy Spirit to show us, show me Lord, what was the attitude Jesus had towards this thing? Or what what attitude would Jesus have to this particular situation? And to ask the Holy Spirit to show us that.

See, all this is not possible in the Old Testament, because in the Old Testament they only had commandments, they didn't have an example. The wonderful thing about the New Covenant is we look unto Jesus, we don't look unto the law, we don't look unto a written word, we look unto a person.

And Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit has come, John chapter 16, the Holy Spirit will take, verse 15, the things of mine and show it to you. To me this has been a wonderful experience in my pilgrimage as a Christian, to ask the Lord in the circumstances and trials and temptations I face, to ask the Holy Spirit to show me how did Jesus react to this situation in Nazareth when he faced it.

I know he faced it because the Bible says he was tempted in every point as we are, Hebrews 4 .15. So this particular temptation I'm facing, the circumstances were different, obviously. He faced a completely different set of circumstances in Nazareth.

They never faced road rage in Nazareth, because there were no fast cars. But the same temptation to rage and anger that we may face on the road, Jesus would have faced in a different set of circumstances.

So the set of circumstances is immaterial. To ask the Holy Spirit to show me how Jesus faced this particular provocation or temptation, and give me the grace to react in exactly the same way. I remember once when I was, many years ago, when I had a headache, and I said, Lord, what's the purpose of this?

Is there a reason? And, you know, I was in the pursuit of overcoming sin in area after area. And the Lord said, well, when you overcome getting irritated with others, when you don't have a headache, that's one class.

This is a higher class. When you overcome getting irritated with people, when you do have a headache, it's a little more difficult. And I saw that there, even a sickness can have a purpose. In teaching us, for example, you know, when we are sick, we can suddenly become very demanding, which we are not normally when we are healthy.

And the Lord teaches us to be overcomers. That you don't make demands on people when you're healthy, and you don't make demands on them when you're sick. You're called to serve. And because I can't imagine Jesus making demands on anybody.

There are little things like this. He who says he's a Christian must live as Jesus lived. And I'm convinced that most Christians have not taken that seriously. That's why they don't understand the new covenant.