New Covenant - Superior to the Law - Part 1 — Zac Poonen

Denominational Differences and Defeat by Sin

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

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

But as I have observed Christians in all these different groups, I find there are people defeated by sin in every single denomination. And there are people who love money in every single denomination.

I'm just talking about the leaders. I'm not talking about the people who sit in the church. We can never judge a church by the people who attend it. Because the devil can put all types of wolves and crooks in any church.

Leadership Determines the Direction of the Church

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

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

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

The Devil's Blindness to the New Covenant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Victory Over Sin Through the New Covenant

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

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

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

Holiness and Peace in the Christian Home

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

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

Faithfulness on Earth and Nearness to Christ in Eternity

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

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

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

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

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

That will determine whether He will make sure I'm close to Him in eternity. Everybody will want to be close to Him in heaven, isn't it? Sure. Everybody will go to heaven and say, Oh Lord, I want to be close to You.

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

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