Preserving God's Standards - Part 1 — Zac Poonen

The Danger of Drifting from the Right Course

Let's turn to Galatians and chapter 5. Galatians 5 and verse 7. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Who deflected you from that right course? This detour is not from the one who called you to the race in the first place.

I'm reading from a paraphrase and don't toss off or ignore this detour as something insignificant. It's serious. You know when you're headed for a certain path, if you deviate one degree from that, your distance from the straight path doesn't look much in the beginning, but you go a hundred miles and you're miles away from where you wanted to go and your deflection was only one degree.

A lot of deviations from the standard of Christianity given us in the New Testament may look very slight in the beginning and we can say, well, it's almost the same. It doesn't really matter, but it's what's going to happen after some years when you're way off track.

Knowing Scripture and Judging Ourselves

And so that's why it's very important to know the scriptures, to know the standards of God's word, to seek the help of the Holy Spirit in humility and self-judgment. Never to judge others, but only ourselves and say, Lord, show me where I'm missing the pot.

Never mind if everybody around you is missing the pot. Please listen to me, brothers and sisters. Never mind if everybody in the church around you is missing the pot. You say, Lord, it's not my business to judge them.

I want to see if I'm on the pot. That's the only way you will preserve yourself till the day Jesus comes and have no regret in eternity. If you allow yourself to be molded by the world around or to be deflected from your path by the reasonings and arguments of worldly minded Christians or compromising Christians who say, well, that's not so serious and who will call total obedience to God's word as legalism.

Distinguishing Legalism from Obedience

You know, we're all afraid of legalism because we have spoken so much against it. And I'm afraid of legalism totally. But I want to distinguish between legalism and obedience to God's word. Jesus was not a legalist, but he said, every jot and tittle in the law I came to obey and fulfill.

It's a spirit in which it was done. It's a spirit. Legalism is a spirit. And some people in avoiding legalism end up in disobedience. And as I have observed through this, I mean, read about how Christendom has developed through the centuries, it's good sometimes to read about how different churches grew and fell, backslid.

Learning from the Decline of Churches

Because we can learn from the failures of others. I can certainly learn for myself when I think of servants of God who started out well, fell away. Churches that started out well and drifted. I think of that verse, this verse.

You were running well. You started out well. How is it you got deflected from that? Very subtly. And he goes on to say, in verse nine, it takes only a little amount of yeast to permeate a whole loaf of bread.

Just a pinch of yeast and a whole loaf of bread gets affected by it. And he says, a little deflection from the course may not look serious to you. But to put a pinch of yeast into wheat dough that you plan to make a chapati with, it's not going to end up as a chapati anymore.

It's just a little bit, a pinch. It becomes a puffed up loaf of bread. So he's using that example. He says, don't think that a slight deviation is not serious. Because that's how the devil says, oh, that's a little thing.

It doesn't matter. Beware of that voice. Because years later, you don't know where that'll lead you. That is how wonderful church movements that started out well have drifted and are in a backslidden condition today.

Church History and Institutional Drift

Today, you know, we have so many denominations. We say, look at that church. I wouldn't be a part of that church. I'd say they don't even preach the new birth. But 400 years ago, they did preach the new birth.

But today, that denomination doesn't. 400 years ago, they were pioneers to stand up for God. If Martin Luther were to come to earth today, I don't think he'd join the Lutheran Church. If John Wesley were to come to earth today, I don't think he would join the Methodist Church, which he started.

A lot of movements started out so well. But over a period of time, usually by the time the founders died, there was no one to hold them to the standards. And they drifted. So that's something we cannot avoid.

It's happened all through 2 ,000 years of church history. And it has happened to every single group. The only thing was almost all the groups said, it happened to others, but it will not happen to us.

Give them 50 years, it happened to them too. So the question is, will it happen to us? I say yes. I will not say like all those foolish people in the past centuries, it happened to others, but it will not happen to us.

I say it can happen to anyone. Because I don't see a single case, not a single case that I've read of in the history of Christianity, where a movement continued with the same vision and fervor. No movement.

The Decline of the Church at Ephesus

Everything tends to decline. I mean, even in the days of the... It's not because... I mean, they think of the days of the apostles. When the apostles were alive, think what happened to churches like the church in Ephesus, which is the finest church on earth, I think, when Paul planted it and lived there for three years.

But he told the elders, it's going to be different now. He says, I know what's going to happen. You'll all seek your own.