Col - (4) One in Christ — Zac Poonen

Let's pray Lord Jesus, we're thankful that we can come together in this place Lord. That you could meet us here speak to us. Thank you that you've not forsaken us, but you've sent your son. I pray father that you would bless this morning that you would anoint the reading of your scriptures.

You would speak through our brother. Give us a word that would encourage us and cause us to press on Lord. I thank you this fellowship that meets in your house, Mary. It may it stay here Lord as long as you like and move us so that we wouldn't stay the same.

Pray these things in Jesus name our brother has come from a long ways. Happen to be having some meetings in Seattle Tomorrow and Sunday, so if you have the ability to go to Seattle to go in here I would recommend.

It's been a blessing in the last 24 hours not even 24 hours to get to know our brother personally to be mailed a little bit over the last year or two a few and For him to be willing to come and meet us.

Well, the sisters are needing to have encouragement from a mature mother and mature sister and it was gracious of you and Share with the mothers and the sisters because it's much lacking. This was so much Blessed us materially and naturally in every way.

But yet we are still lacking spiritually and We never to be content with where we're at. We must continue to look to him who's the giver of life to move us and So I want to invite our brother to come and share with us what's in his heart and We would open up our hearts to receive the word.

I'm not used to shouting Can you hear me at the back? Yes. Okay, okay, first of all, there was one question left unanswered yesterday and There's one question left unanswered yesterday and I'd like to answer that first and that's concerning.

Confession, Accountability, and Fellowship in the Body

And the question is is there a possibility to have to have fellowship within in the Holy Spirit In the body of Christ if we have hurt if you have hurt a brother or sister and Thought it better Tuck it away.

And you sort of hide it don't talk about it to not acknowledge or look over we must recognize That man is a moral creature Answerable to God his creator all his actions words even attitudes and motives.

One day when the Lord comes it says He's gonna judge us by the words we speak and the things we have done in our body. And it says especially he'll bring to light 1 Corinthians 4 5 the things that are hidden in darkness and And Disclose the motives of men's hearts.

So we are answerable to God for our words our actions thoughts Motives Attitudes all of that. We have to answer to God for one day. So if we are aware of Of some area where we have violated God's basic law, which is love God with all your heart and Love your neighbor as yourself.

I Mean God's going to judge all of us by that twofold law symbolized by the two arms of the cross love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself and Whenever we have violated that law By word action motive thought attitudes We are answerable to God and the way we and the wonderful thing is God doesn't hold us responsible.

For some area where I have no light I mean use a very simple illustration if I Step back and stand on your foot without knowing it God won't hold me responsible for that because I didn't know it. It's It's only the area where I'm conscious that God can Expect me to confess my sin.

I Cannot confess a sin That I don't even know I did. There are two parts to our life the conscious and the unconscious and I'm answerable to God. For that which I'm conscious of. The unconscious part if I walk with God faithfully.

More and more I'll get light on the unconscious part and then I can Acknowledge sin, so I don't have to feel condemned. Areas that I have no light on. And all of us have different degrees of light. It's something like in school.

Someone's in second grade third grade fourth grade tenth grade. Somebody's at PhD level. None of us have become totally like Christ, but we get light little by little. Now the question is out of all these sins, which we confess to God.

What are the sins we must confess to one another the only the sins where we have hurt somebody. Now if I've hurt you I have a responsibility to confess that to you. Because I've heard I violated a law of love in the horizontal Dimension, I don't have to confess it to the whole church.

Sin must be confessed in the circle in which it is committed. Inside that circle God is always there because we all our sin is against God. But in addition to God if I've sinned against the whole church, I have to confess to the church.

But if I've sinned against only one individual I confess only to that one individual. There's no I mean some people teach a public confession to Humiliate people. It's the teaching of psychology. There's a lot of psychology in teaching.

There's a lot of psychology that's come into Christendom today. And sometimes people who don't know the scriptures confuse scripture with psychology. It's not by humiliating us that we are free from sin, you know a lot of People who talk about accountability.

Talk about accountability partners, and they think they're going to be free from sin by that. You know if I I don't know how these works I've never believed in it myself because I don't see it in Scripture if I see in Scripture.

I'll accept it but the way it works sometimes is it's very prevalent in Christendom that you say I'm going to be accountable to somebody and Say you watched internet pornography you won't tell that brother.

I watched it and then That keeps you from doing it what keeps you from doing it not the fear of God. But the shame of having to tell him again tomorrow. I watched it again. That's not holiness. True holiness is perfected in the fear of God.

Not in the shame that comes to me of having to confess something or the fear of man. It's a very subtle difference it's. It's purity with a wrong motive, and it's so it's corrupt. I See you can have a good apple, and if it's held by a dirty infected hand.

You don't feel like eating it and God won't accept it so the motive is bad even if the action is good. It's corrupt in God's eyes. It's a dead work. So I mentioned that so now coming to the matter of confessing something where you hurt somebody I believe the whole purpose of Horizontal confession to one another is to make the fellowship better.

So you have to evaluate. In my confessing this is it going to make my fellowship better with this person or worse. Of course if the other person knows that I have Hurt him or hurt her. Then I have to confess it because I have violated laws like When I hurt somebody some like it's equivalent to stealing his money.

I Have to return it. Whether he knew it or not even if somebody did not know that I stole his money. I'm still returning. But where it comes to supposing I Have hurt somebody, but he doesn't know it at all.

I Need to evaluate for example supposing. I spoke to someone Something not too good about you. Yeah, that's a sin against you because I've hurt your reputation. I've stolen I like stealing your money.

I've stolen your reputation by tearing it down before somebody it is a terrible sin. A Lot of people don't think of that some of us would never steal on one dollar or one cent from another person. Would steal their reputation by saying things which are not.

Even if they are true. We have taken away somebody's reputation. Do you know when the Bible says the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He doesn't Go and tell God Zack murdered somebody. I Mean the devil tells us lies, but he dare not tell lies to God.

Every accusation the devil makes to God is 100 true. He dare not make a false accusation against me or against anybody else. So what I'm trying to say there is you can have the spirit of accusation even when you say something true about another person.

Because when the devil is called the accuser of the brethren He's speaking every word. That's true when he says so-and-so did this he can't try and fool God. So that's what I've learned. Where I learned that you can say something true absolutely true about a person.

But what is the motive. The motive is to tear down that person in the other person's eyes. That's the motive of the devil when he speaks the truth to God that person's like this. He's trying to tear him down when he spoke about Joe and said Joe up.

He's only serving you because you blessed him in so many ways to tear down Joe in God's eyes now God's not going to be fooled by Satan, but sometimes we can succeed in Tearing down somebody's reputation before another by speaking the truth and we Satisfy ourselves.

Well the devil also says that what I said to God was true. But what was your motive? There are times when We need perhaps to tell someone if it's an elder brother about somebody in the church. Who's doing something wrong?

That would not be called accusation like I've said to people in my church. If you see a brother drunk somewhere in our church. If you come and tell me about that that would not be an accusation because I could do something about it.

I could help him or Speak to him and help him to be free from it and your motive in telling me would be to help that person. That's not the spirit of accusation but if you go and Speak about it to others who can't even help that person just to tell the guy the drunkard.

That becomes accusation the question of whom you say it to so it's motive ultimately that determines whether you're accusing or Helping so there are times when it may not be wise To confess something to someone if the person is ignorant about it altogether.

Because if you sense that It could make matters worse. If that person knew about it when he's completely ignorant about it right now I'm not talking about stealing money or things like that. But that that we have to return because I must not have a cent in my possession which doesn't belong to me.

Whether it belongs to the government or somebody else I must give it back but when it comes to Confessing that I've hurt you in some way in a way you don't even know about I need to make sure whether you can handle that.

Is it going to deepen our fellowship. In some cases it does. But you need to seek God about it. I'm not saying I'm not. I'm just saying don't follow a standard rule. I'm always going to do it. Seek God about it, but always remember we must build fellowship with people and that is the goal and we shouldn't try to just Cover it up if you hurt somebody you need to go to that person.

Jesus said that very clearly In Matthew chapter 5. He's speaking about anger. He said murder anger is like murder. And that's Matthew 5 verse 21 to 23. Just by the way, the Sermon on the Mount is The replacement of the Old Testament law.

The Sermon on the Mount and the Higher Standard of Righteousness

People have asked me this did Jesus abolish the law? Well in one sense we can say he didn't but he said in Matthew 5 17. I did not come to abolish the law. I came to fulfill it and Having said that in Matthew 5 17 He went on to say but I want to tell you that The righteousness I'm talking about verse 20 is way above the righteousness.

Which you heard from the Pharisees of the Ten Commandments. I haven't come to abolish the Ten Commandments. I come to Enhance the level of it and tell you what it really meant. So that when you read in the Ten Commandments you shall not Kill, I'm telling you that means you shouldn't get angry.

That's what he says further down in verse 21 onwards. When you read in the Ten Commandments, you shall not commit adultery. I'm telling you what it really means that you shouldn't even lust in your heart because that's adultery.

When God told you to love your neighbors and hate your enemy. You know where's 43 you've heard it said you shall love your neighbor but hate your enemy. Well, there wasn't a real command and hate your enemy.

That's sort of accepted. That they didn't understand who their neighbor was so That's because their hearts were hard. You know the God Jesus one said that you're permitted to divorce because your hearts are hard.

Because your hearts are hard you're permitted to hate your enemy. But I've come to raise the standard so that you never divorce and You don't hate anybody. So the Ten Commandments we can say Moses went up to the mountain and brought Ten Commandments.

Jesus went up to the mountain and preached the sermon on the mount. So if you're living under the old covenant you keep the Ten Commandments. Then you should call yourself by your rightful name. You must say I'm not a Christian.

I'm a Jew. I'm an Israeli. I'm not following Jesus. I'm following Moses. I keep the Ten Commandments. We must be honest about it not pretend. If we say we are under the new covenant, then we're following Jesus.

Then we keep the sermon on the mount. If the if an Israeli did not keep the Ten Commandments, he was violating the old covenant. Whichever commandment it was. So a Christian goes back to the old covenant and the Ten Commandments and That's what I keep.

I should then be honest about it and say you're an Israeli and you're following Moses. Don't bring the name of Jesus into it. Because Jesus on the mountain preached the sermon on the mount so that's our standard and That's the way we fellowship and here Jesus said.

If you're angry with somebody and you went and said something to him now, it was only in your heart. You know, there are three stages here. Matthew 5 22 Jesus spoke of an anger is the first of three steps to hell.

First step is it's only in your heart. Anger always begins in the heart. You haven't said anything to anyone. You don't have to confess it to anyone, but you have to confess it to God. Because it is in your heart.

But then you know, whatever is in the heart if you don't deal with it. It bubbles over and it bubbles over through the mouth out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks and You go to that person and you say something to him.

I mean these are Hebrew Aramaic words and I the important thing is not what these words mean. The important thing is you expressed your anger to that person in some way. You're guilty. More guilty than when you had it in your heart when you had it in your heart you were guilty before the court when you expressed that you guilty at a higher level and If you still felt that was not enough and you went in.

You know. Went further and said something really hurting to him much worse. Degrading him as if he were not a human being. You can be guilty enough To go to hell. You know that most Christians don't believe that verse.

I have sometimes thought of when I get a little time writing a book containing Not a single sentence of mine, but just Bible verses title of the book is Verses that Christians don't obey. I want to write a book like that.

It'll only be verses. One of them will be this that you can go to hell. You're going to express yourself like that and anger a lot of Christians don't believe in versus Christians don't believe but This is what Jesus said and I believe it all my life.

And there it says now when you come one day to pray verse 23 and then you remember That you hurt this person by your anger or by something you said or did or behave some way you conducted yourself. Don't pray stop.

Don't put your money in the offering box. God won't accept it. Don't pray stop go back to that person said it right and then come and pray. Where does this begin in husband-wife relationships first of all?

Because that's the area where We can hurt one another. Sometimes many times a day and just take it lightly and say oh, that's off. That's after all my wife. Well, that's not for all my husband that's someone whom God created.

You're answerable to God if you've heard one of his creation. Doesn't matter who it is. I mean you wouldn't speak like that to a judge in a court because you'd be charged with contempt of court. But we can be more afraid of a judge in the court charging us with contempt of court than Almighty God saying.

You violated the law of love in your home or in your relationship with the person. This shows us what how serious it is. Our words. Sometimes we don't realize how serious our words are. We all know Romans 4 that we are justified by faith and Perhaps those of us who are not Calvinist know James chapter 2 as well that we are justified by works.

Do you know that you are justified by your words as well? In fact when Jesus spoke about justification He didn't speak about justification by faith or by works. He said Matthew 12 37 you'll be justified by the way you speak.

It's pretty serious in the final day. Your words are going to either justify you or condemn you. Another of those verses Christians don't believe how many of you can honestly say. That you believe in the final day when you stand by the Lord before the Lord the words you spoke To your husband or wife are going to determine whether you're going to be justified or condemned.

Where would you stand in that day? Okay, you're standing before the Lord the Lord says, okay, I'm gonna play it. On your table or a video table all the words you spoke at home your husband or wife the ones you did not confess everything that's confessed is cleansed in the blood, but Once you did not confess, here's a video recording of all the words you spoke to your husband or wife.

Which you never asked forgiveness for. Now we're going to determine whether you should be justified or condemned. I Tell you honestly ninety nine point nine percent of Christians don't believe that. They don't believe the Bible they say.

They don't believe it. I learned to take it very seriously because He said in verse 36 every single careless word that you speak. You'll render account for it in the day of judgment another verse that most Christians don't believe that every single careless word the word that hurts someone.

You will give an account in the day of judgment the word that hurt someone to that person's face or behind his back. We're going to give an account in the day of judgment if the motive was good God will forgive you, but if the motive was not good I hope you'll escape, but I doubt it very much.

By your words you'll be justified by your words you'll be condemned and If we can acknowledge Going backwards to verse 35 that the reason why that word came out is because Deep down there's evil out of the evil treasure.

Comes forth what is evil and where it's 34 the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. So I can go and confess to someone and say I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I hurt you. But if I don't deal with the Evil that produced that I'm going to be doing it again.

And again and again and again and again. And that's not God's work. God Jesus came to lay the axe to the root of the tree. He didn't come with a pair of scissors to just snip off the fruit every time it appears.

You see that's Confession is pair of scissors. Okay. I'm sorry one more bad fruit and Half an hour later another bad fruit cut it off. He came with an axe and most Christians just go around with a pair of scissors confession is just a pair of scissors.

It's good we need to get rid of the bad fruit, but If Jesus came with an axe to solve the problem at root level I compare external confession and inward dealing with sin like closing you have sores in your body and There's some ointment that cures it.

Okay, you've got a sore you put the ointment and goes off praise the Lord for the ointment. Well, then comes up here. I put it there and goes off then comes on my leg. And then one day the doctor tells me hey, listen, you know, there's a new antibiotic that's discovered.

Which will deal with the root of this problem, it's causing these sores and if you take it follow my prescription. You'll be free from it. It won't come out at all. Wouldn't you accept it? That is grace.

That's the difference between new covenant and old covenant deals with the root of the problem instead of constantly having to Deal with oh, it's come out again. It's come out again. It's come out again.

Are you one of those constantly confessing the same sin again and again and again? I want to tell you the good news. There's an antibiotic That can deal with the root of the problem in today's language.

Like John the Baptist said an axe to the root of the tree. It pulls it out by the root. It's painful, but the Lord can Help you to come into that life. There's a very lovely illustration of this. In a book by CS Lewis, I forget which book it is.

But I don't remember it exactly but it is something like this here was this man. Who had this ugly? Chameleon or lizard. So one of those hideous lizards sitting on his shoulder picture of some lust. Symbolizing some lust and He's become this has become his pet you know you could apply it to pornography or some lust.

That's become your pet, you know, it's dirty, you know, it's ugly, but it's become your pet and so There's an angel standing there and says Get rid of it. Don't throw me away. We're good friends, you know, we've been friends for many years and I promise to behave myself and all that and so you keep it and The angel says he's and so I'm torn.

Between this man's torn between two desires to get rid of it or to keep it and. And he says to the angel why don't you pull it away from me he says no I cannot do it until you permit me. If you don't permit me, I won't do it.

Finally, he shuts his eyes and says, okay, go ahead and do it and the angel pulls it and it tears the skin. It's painful. What's that? You know, the chameleon has got such a grip on his shoulder. He tears it and pulls it away and the angel throws it down into the ground and it's immediately converted into a beautiful white horse and the angel says Now you don't have to walk you can ride on this.

You can go much faster. Then you've gone all your life. You understood the parable. You know how much those lusts that we tolerate whether it's bad speech or dirty thoughts. Pornography busting or Whatever habit it is some retained bitterness some selfish way of life some pride.

You don't know how much is destroying you and how much is hindering your progress if you get if you allow the Lord to Get rid of it in your life. It would be converted into a Horse a stallion that could make you go speeding in the Christian life.

It's a great parable. So if you take some of these things mentioned in Matthew 5 6 7 Seriously and say Lord, I really want this for example when it speaks about speaking the truth. It's not enough. You know the Old Testament didn't there was no law in the Old Testament saying you shall not tell lies.

It was not one of the Ten Commandments. One would think that the Lord should have put a commandment like that. You must not tell a lie. But there is no commandment in the Ten Commandments. It says you shall not tell a lie.

What the commandment was you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. And that reminds me of a court. In other words when you put your hand on the Bible, make sure you speak the truth. But Jesus said whether your hand is on the Bible or not.

You must speak the truth all the time in your heart your yes must always be yes, and your no must always be no. If you promise something for example, I remember years ago I Had something in my house that I wanted to sell.

It was fairly expensive, but I didn't know what his value was. It was some musical instrument, I think if I remember I'm not sure exactly now it's been many years ago and I promised to give it to some brother and we Arrived at a figure.

And he came a few days later and by then I discovered that his value was Way above what I had offered it for. The Lord said your yes must be yes, and your no must be no. I didn't say a word to him. I said take it.

If that's the price I offered it, he'd take it. I have never regretted it. Sometimes we can be so calculating. And get a little more money and lose our soul. What shall it profit a man who gains the whole world?

Your yes must be yes, your no must be no. Like it says in one of the Psalms One who will swear to his own hurt. I think it's Psalm 15 who will dwell in the holy hill of the Lord that means. In the Living Bible, I think it says one who keeps a promise even if it ruins him.

I love that. One who keeps his word even if it ruins him. I gave you my word. I'll keep it. That's New Covenant standard. Your yes is yes, your no is no. You need to be extremely careful, it says in Matthew 6, that when you pray try your best not to let anybody know How much you pray.

You see that's what disturbs me about all the people who tell others how many hours they pray. I say, you know, you're not supposed to tell them. Have you read Matthew chapter 6? I find most Christians just don't take many commandments in the Bible seriously.

Now if somebody discovered it, that's another thing, but We must never tell another person How much you give? How much you pray? How much you fast? Never let it be known. We got to do these things without letting anybody know.

That's Matthew 6 or many other things in the Sermon on the Mount. Is it possible to live according to this? In fact, this many other things there which finally Jesus said that This is the way to a rock-steady Christian life.

Completely unshakable. You know, the Bible speaks about the power of an indestructible life. I like that expression in Hebrews 7, that the New Covenant life is an indestructible life. Hebrews 7 .16. He's comparing the Old Covenant with the New Covenant and he says in the Old Covenant You could become a priest by a law of physical requirement.

That means no matter how spiritual you were If you didn't, if you were not born of the tribe of Levi, you just could not be a priest. Sorry. You could be the most spiritual person in Israel. You can't be the high priest unless you're born of the tribe of Levi.

That is a physical requirement. And unfortunately even in Christendom today people are given ministries on the basis of some external abilities. Eloquence, cleverness, Bible knowledge, theological degrees, or nepotism sometimes.

Somebody just promotes his son or relative. So many ways in which people are given ministries. It's all Old Covenant. The law of an external requirement. But he said in the New Covenant it's your ministry and your service to God based on the power of an indestructible life.

Hebrews 7 .16. The measure in which I have a life that cannot be destroyed. That's the measure of my ministry. And whether my life can be destroyed or not is tested in the moment of temptation. When I'm tempted at home, when I'm tempted in relation to my co-workers, and I'm tempted in relationships in the church, with other brothers and sisters, when I'm tempted in relationships with people who are fundamentally different from me, whose views are completely opposite to mine.

When I have to fellowship with strong brothers, who disagree with me 100%, not on essentials, but on the way we should do things. Do I have an indestructible life that can remain calm and not get upset?

Yeah, it's for myself as one who is an elder. One of the verses that's been a guideline for me for many years in my relationship with, as I speak, as I deal with people, is this verse in the book of Job.

God Does Not Despise Anyone

One verse is this, Job 36 verse 5, where it says, God is Almighty, but does not despise anyone. The closer we get to God, the less we will despise people. The devil despises everybody. I look at it like this.

The devil's over there. He despises everyone. God's over here, Almighty. He despises nobody. And all of us are somewhere in between, you know. The closer you get to God, the more you come to a place where you despise nobody.

You don't despise a person for his language, culture, behavior, temperament, nothing. You may disagree, but you don't despise. God disagrees with most people in the world, but He doesn't despise anyone.

It's a wonderful verse. And I cannot serve people if I despise them. I cannot have fellowship if I despise. For example, you know, you may think that you love your wife a lot, but sometimes it's possible there's something in her which you don't like.

See, I love you lots, but there's something I don't like in you. You've got to get closer to God. That's all. That's the solution. You're hoping she will change or he will change. No, God's waiting for you to change.

When you get closer to God, you despise nobody. Remember that. You don't tolerate sin, but you're willing to bear with people who are different and who rub you the wrong way. You don't get upset over it.

You don't get irritated. You don't meditate on it. You don't think about it. That's one verse that in all our ministry and fellowship, when we seek to build fellowship, the great thing about the New Covenant is fellowship.

We must learn to build fellowship with one another. Otherwise, we'll never be the body of Christ. We'll be just a bunch of holy individuals sitting in one building. That's not God's will. Even if we preach holiness in a church, the church that started with four people is now four hundred people.

Four individuals have become four hundred individuals. God's not happy. It's unity that builds the body. Dissimilar people. Dissimilar people becoming one. Just like a body is formed in a mother's womb.

How is a body formed in a mother's womb? Two dissimilar units, the sperm and the egg, completely different from each other, decide to unite. That's the beginning of a body. It's a way teeny weeny little thing.

That's the beginning of a body. And that becomes four cells, eight cells, sixteen cells, but always united. It's not size that determines a body. You know, a lot of people who are pro-life and fighting against abortion.

Look at the abortion rate. Look at the abortions they themselves do in their churches. The way they behave. Much worse, aborting. The building of a body. Look at the abortions there are in husband-wife relationships.

God's seeking to make two people one. And we do things and say things. It's no different from that abortion doctor doing an abortion. It's just the same. God's trying to make that little embryo in a mother's womb become a body.

Some doctor goes and kills it. What's the difference between that and God bringing two people together to build the body of Christ and somebody destroying it with his speech or language or conversation or backbiting or whatever.

Or he's lording it over people as if he's some type of self-appointed authority or prophet over people. He's an abortion doctor too. People don't see that. Husbands and wives who are so pro-life. They will not abort a baby but they abort their relationship with each other.

That's abortion. It's a relationship where God wants to make something one. And they boast, we are pro-life. You're not. You're aborting a relationship that God is trying to build with your words. Your words are like that surgeon's knife cutting that little baby.

So don't boast about being pro-life if you are not pro-spiritual life. In relationships. First of all at home. And then in that little local church that God's trying to build as one body. I remember the early years.

When we started we were just four families and two of them left. But we were left with two. My brother and I are still together after 36 years. Never one single day we had a conflict or a fight where we wouldn't speak with each other.

It never happened. God united us. Though we disagreed in different areas. Disagreement is not disunity. But I remember in those early days when different people started coming to our church little by little.

We were trying to build a body. I remember dealing with a brother who was very, very un-punctual. If he had an appointment for a particular time I could almost certainly say he wouldn't be there at that time.

And this bothered me. After 11 years in the military I knew that 630 means 630. And it disturbed me. And if he came half an hour late I'd be all worked up in my mind. And when he came and apologized of course I would say, Oh that's okay, I don't mind you coming.

Being a perfect hypocrite. And the Lord spoke to me. And said, you must not have an inward judgment of his weakness. He was not in the military like you. You happen to have. He's got some strong points which you don't have.

And the Lord said, I'm trying to make you both one with each other. I'm trying to make all of you one with each other. And if you have these inward judgments of other people, you're not going to become one body.

And I learned how it's not just externally appearing to be one. It's an inward attitude of a relationship. I really want to be one with my wife. Not that outwardly I don't fight with her or raise my voice.