Doing God's Will Is the Greatest Thing — Zac Poonen

Doing God's Will and Abiding Forever

Turn to 1st epistle of John and chapter 2 and verse 17. 1 John 2 17. The world is passing away and also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. Now there are many verses on eternal life or living forever that are found in scripture, but I have noticed in generally speaking among evangelical Christians that most of them know only one of those verses and that is Romans 6 23 which says the gift of God is eternal life.

So they use logic and say well it's a gift. What do you do with a gift? You just take it. Say thank you. There is a tremendous danger in taking one verse of scripture and interpreting it by logic and not by comparing it with other portions of scripture.

If you take all the verses about eternal life, there are many other things and when you put them all together you understand what eternal life is. For example, here is a verse. The world is passing away and its lusts, but he who does the will of God lives forever.

Now what do you understand by that verse? What about those who don't do the will of God? Are they also going to live forever? You know, if you want to avoid getting surprises at the judgment seat of Christ, you must be very careful to take every word exactly as it's written.

Scripture as the Standard of Judgment

One thing I can tell you, heaven and earth will pass away but this word will not pass away and you will discover in the day of judgment that it's exactly according to God's word that he's going to judge.

Let me show you this verse in John's Gospel chapter 12. In John 12 and verse 47 and 48, he says like this, if anyone hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him. Isn't that great? Jesus said, I'm not going to judge somebody who doesn't obey me.

For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. It's foolish men who judge. Jesus came to save. Then he says, he who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has one who judges him. The word that I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.

So the word that Jesus spoke through his own mouth, through his physical body and through his apostles, through the Holy Spirit, his spiritual body, it's the words of Jesus right through even in the epistles.

You know, there are people who say the words of Jesus in the Gospels are more important than the words of Paul in the epistles. Well, that's if you believe that Paul wrote them. But in John chapter 16, Jesus said, I've got many more things to say to you, but you can't bear them now.

You can't understand them now. But when the Holy Spirit has come, he will guide you into all the truth. And so we have some amazing revelations in the New Testament about the body of Christ and things like that, which Jesus never spoke about, not because he didn't know, but because the apostles wouldn't be able to understand.

So when you come to the episodes, remember those are also the words of Jesus. The only thing he spoke it through people like Paul and Peter. And what is the word of Jesus? He who does the will of God will remain forever.

Eternal Salvation and Obedience

I'll take another verse in Hebrews in chapter 5 about eternal life. In Hebrews 5, it says in verse 9, that Jesus, after he was made perfect on earth, he became to all those who obey him, the source of eternal salvation.

So that's not a very favorite verse for people who preach the gospel, that eternal salvation comes through obeying God. Because that sort of clashes with the gift of God is eternal life. And why does God allow so many people to fool themselves by just taking one verse and skipping over verses like this?

Because I believe that God tests people. When they read a word, are they going to take it? Or are they going to skip over it and comfort themselves with some other verse that says, I don't have to do anything, I don't have to obey him.

Even if I don't obey him, I'll have eternal salvation. Is that what it says here? That those who obey him, he became the source of eternal salvation. Let me show you another verse in Romans in chapter 2.

Now this is a very well-known verse in Romans 2, that God will render verse 6 to every person according to his deeds. OK, we all know that. But what does it go on to say? To those, listen to this, those who are going to get eternal life.

To those who by perseverance and doing good, seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. Is that how you believe that you're going to get eternal life? That was not under the law.

There was no eternal life under the law. And that comes before Romans 6 .23, the gift of God is eternal life. If we don't take all of scripture together, we can have a wrong understanding. It's not only in our day, even in the first century, there were a lot of people who heard Paul preaching on believe and you'll be saved.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. But so many people thought of it as just a head knowledge. I believe that James had to write a letter saying, what's he saying you believe? Even the devils believe like you do.

They tremble, which is more than you do. And they don't have eternal life. And James went on to say, your faith, if it doesn't have works, it's absolutely dead. Peter, when he writes about grace in 1 Peter 5, at the end of the letter he says, this is the true grace of God.

There is a false grace and there is a true grace. So, I want to encourage you to see that the Bible does not speak about people who just sit back and say, well I've accepted the Lord, I've got eternal life.

And not do anything more than that. Because if you put all these verses together, you get a completely different concept of those who have eternal life. I want to show you another verse. And that's in 1 Timothy in chapter 6.

See, God's word is the only book in the world that tells us how we can have eternal life. There's no other book. No other book in the whole world. So, there's no other book in the whole world that tells us about God.

And so, if we don't know clearly, particularly what the New Testament teaches on this, we can have so many wrong ideas. You know, many of us may think it's the Jehovah's Witnesses who got wrong ideas, or the Mormons, or the Roman Catholics, or somebody like that, or the Seventh-day Adventists.

We may have wrong ideas too, because we haven't read the scripture carefully. Think of these verses. He became the source of eternal salvation to those who obey him. And here, those who patiently do good, he gives eternal life.

Or 1 Timothy 6, he says in verse 12, Bite the good bite of faith, and take hold of eternal life, to which you were called. What did Paul think? What did Timothy say to Paul? What do you mean, take hold of eternal life?

I got it as a gift long ago. So, these are the areas where you find we can have certain wrong concepts in our mind, because of the tradition that we have, the messages we have heard, which we never cared to compare with scripture.

Living for Eternal Values

And in that connection, I thought I should share with you something about this verse we just saw at the beginning. The world is passing away, but he who does the will of God will abide forever. Now, if I really believed that verse, then I would not live for this world.

I would live in this world, but I will not live for this world, or its values. Because it says all its passions and all its lusts and everything that the world stands for is going to pass away. You would not put money in a bank that you know is crashing and going down the drain.

When it comes to money, we are very careful that we would invest it only if it's in a company. We wouldn't put it in some company somebody started yesterday, because we don't know whether it will crash.

We put it in something solid, and we must remember that about the world we see around us. It's passing away, its values are going to pass away, and it's going to happen pretty soon. But, if instead of living for this world's values, you spend your life doing the will of God, that is the life for which you'll have no regret when you come to the end of your life and enter into eternity.

You may have made a few slip-ups along the way, but if your basic goal of your life is to do the will of God, that would prove you're a saint. You see, the mark of a saint is not that he never falls, even the apostle Paul fell, but the goal you have in your life, that determines whether you're a saint or a sinner.

It's not a question of whether you come to church and all the Bible has said, Lord Jesus come into my heart. If the goal of your life has not changed to do the will of God, something's seriously wrong.

I don't know whether you'll live forever. According to this verse, I don't know. But he who does the will of God will certainly live forever. And when you look at the conflict that God has had with man throughout the centuries, it's centered around the will of God.

The Fall of Adam and the Conflict of Wills

When God told Adam, revealed his will to Adam, concerning just one area. Adam, you can do whatever you like, but one area, I don't want you to do it. I don't want you to go and eat of that tree of knowledge of good and evil.

That's all. The will of God for Adam was very simple. He didn't tell him, don't kill your wife, don't slap your wife. He wouldn't do any of those things. Don't eat of that tree. And I have a feeling it was the very first day that he went and ate of it.

He was created on Friday evening or late Friday afternoon. And then the sixth day, which started Friday evening to Saturday evening, it was a Sabbath day. It says the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

And then the seventh day he rested. And then pretty early on the eighth day, Sunday, he went and ate of the tree and sin came. Perhaps that's why Jesus rose on the first day of the week, to finish with all those consequences of what Adam did on the first day of the week many years earlier.

But if the conflict was, God had said, this is my will. And Adam and Eve said, that's not my will. My will is to do this, to eat of that tree. So right there in the Garden of Eden, the great conflict was between God's will and man's will.

What is going to triumph now? Man's will triumphed. And that's how the devil got a hold of Adam and the entire Adamic race. Once a man begins to do his own will, he doesn't realize that he actually comes under the power of the devil.

That's what you see in Genesis chapter 3. And if you understood that, you would fear to do your own will. You would fear to speak with your tongue, whatever comes to your mind. And if you do accidentally say something, which you know is not in line with God's will, you would immediately repent and take it back.

Are you like that? Are you like that at home, when you feel like saying something to your husband or your wife, and as soon as it comes to your tongue, the Holy Spirit says, no, don't do it. It's not speaking according to God's will.

Do you hold it back or do you let it out? Very often we let it out because we say, I've got to let him or her know what I think about this whole situation. Go right ahead. But that's where you see your rebellion.

That same rebellious spirit that Adam had, which says, I don't care about the will of God. I'm going to do what I want to feel like doing. I'm going to say what I feel like saying. And the Holy Spirit says, don't you know that word which says, every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment.

Matthew chapter 12, verse 37 to 39. Yeah, I know that, but I don't care. I've got to let this person know what I think of him or her. And then afterwards you can repent. But you know, I have seen with people who do that.

Well, they may be forgiven, but it never goes well with them in their life. I've seen people who are stunted spiritually, you know, like these dwarfs who never grow more than three feet tall. They are fit for circuses.

Spiritually, that's a condition of many Christians. You know why? Because they keep on sinning and keep on asking God to forgive them. They take sin lightly. They say, oh, I'm forgiven. I'm justified.

God looks at me as if I've never sinned. That's true. God does look at you as if you've never sinned, but you don't grow either. You're justified, but you're on the same level. Because we don't take the will of God seriously.

Just like Adam. And through all the centuries, this was God's desire. But he knew that no human being could really do his will. Once the poison of sin had come in, it was like a bent in man's nature that made him automatically go in the wrong direction.

It's like a cycle wheel, cycle handle that's bent. When you hold it straight, it goes in some other direction. The man's nature became like that. And God knew that nobody could do his will. I was looking up the concordance for the praise, the will of God.

The Will of God in the New Covenant

You know, many of you have concordances, but I don't know how much you use them. It's very easy to study God's word with a concordance. Take a word that occurs to your mind. It'll take you only five minutes.

It did not even take me five minutes to study the will of God. Not even five minutes. And I saw that the praise, the will of God, it never comes in the Old Testament. Never. There's not even one occurrence of that praise in the entire Old Testament.

Because God knew that nobody could do it. But as soon as you come to the New Testament, it comes 25 times. And that strikes me. I mean, that shows that in the New Covenant, the will of God is so much greater than in the Old Covenant, like 25 to 0.

That means infinitely more. 25 divided by 0. Infinitely more. And it is so central. And the first person who walked on the earth and did the will of God perfectly was Jesus. In fact, if you were to sum up the life of Jesus in one sentence, why did Jesus come to earth in one sentence?

It's not that he came to die for our sins. That is only one small part of his work. In one sentence, Jesus himself describes it in John 6, verse 38. You must know this verse because this is the only verse that tells us very clearly, in Jesus' own words, why he came to earth.

Listen to this. I have come down from heaven, John 6, 38. What for? Not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. That sums up the life of Jesus. What did Jesus come from heaven to earth for?

Not to do his own will, but to do the will of the Father. Actually, that's the meaning of the cross. The cross is where my will clashes with God's will. Jesus had a will of his own when he came to earth as a man, and that's why he had to take the cross every day from childhood, where he crossed out his will and did the will of his Father.

Not my will, but thine, was not only said on the last day in Gethsemane, but it was said from the time he could discern between good and evil as a child. Not my will, but the Father's will. He told his mother at the age of 12, Didn't you know that I must be about my Father's business?

I must do my Father's will. That was always the guiding beacon in his life. He was always seeing, what is the will of my Father? What's the will of my Father? It doesn't matter what people say. What's the will of my Father?

It doesn't matter what my own body says. Yeah, you must seek some convenience, you must seek this. No, what is the will of my Father? Always. And that included many things. It included the cross, but the cross was maybe item number 895 or something, in the will of the Father.

It wasn't the main thing, it was one thing. There were so many other things in the will of the Father. He had to submit to Joseph and Mary for 30 years. He had to learn what it is to be a carpenter, to earn his own living, to support a family of 8 members.

He had to learn all that. That was all the will of his Father. He had to go around blessing so many people, so many things. And one of them was the cross, to die on the cross. But the whole thing could be summed up in one sentence.

He came to deny his own will and to do the will of his Father. So whenever a person says that I'm following Jesus, I want to follow Jesus, this is what it means. It means that in my life, I don't want to do my will, I want to do the will of my Father.

Because my own will is the spirit of the world. And the world is passing away. And it comes 25 times in the New Testament, this phrase, the will of God, the will of God, the will of God. Because it's only after the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost, that people could do the will of God.

It is impossible to do it before that. Before that, they could keep the law, which was just a small part of God's will. The Ten Commandments, which so many people make much of, is a very small part of God's will.

Very small. You know, some people make much of the Sabbath day. That's even a much smaller part of that. The will of God is seen in the life of Jesus perfectly. In Philippians chapter 2, we read about what man could do after the Holy Spirit came, which he could not do before the Holy Spirit came.

The Holy Spirit Gives Both Desire and Ability

That's why the will of God is found so frequently in the New Testament. Philippians chapter 2, we read, verse 12 and 13. So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Because it is God who works in you. Whenever you find the phrase, God working inside you, that's always the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and it is God working inside us. So here it's referring to God, the Holy Spirit.

God works in you to do what? What does the Holy Spirit work in you to do? Two things. He first of all makes you will God's good pleasure and then work God's good pleasure. In other words, first of all to want God's will and then to do God's will.

Even the desire to do God's will, the one thing to do is the work of the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit did not work in me, I would have no more desire to do the will of God than Adam. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that makes me want to do God's will.

And I'm sure that in many of your hearts you have a desire to do God's will. I hope you are not so conceited to think that you produced it. You didn't produce it. It's God who worked in you to want His will.

We got to be humble enough to acknowledge Lord, that's not me that had a desire. Sometimes we get that idea. We become proud and we think, Oh, I have a desire to do God's will. Who produced that desire in you?

It was not you. We must always remember that. A desire for a holy life. It was not me. It was not you. Desire to please God. That was not you. Don't be conceited to think it was you. The Holy Spirit worked in you to make you desire God's will.

To desire fellowship with God's people. You think you produced it? I produced it? No. It's God who produced that desire in me. When I recognize that, that every good desire in me was produced by God, I will not look down upon other human beings.

No. I will not look down upon other brothers because I see the God who did it in me can do it in them too. I'll share God's word with them, I won't challenge them, but I won't despise them. God is almighty, but He doesn't despise anybody.

And the more we are like God, He doesn't despise anyone. The devil despises everybody. But the more we become like God, we despise no one. If you are despising somebody, you are pretty close to the devil, let me tell you that.

But this desire in us is produced by God. Now the reason I emphasize that is, can you believe that the same God who produced this desire in you will also give you the ability to do it? Because that's where the devil fools us.

He fools us in two ways. First of all, he makes us think that we are the ones who had a desire to do good, to please God. No, the Bible says there's no one who does good, there's no one who seeks after God, no fear of God before all their eyes, that's our condition.

You read Romans chapter 3. But then God worked in us and produced this desire. And, of course, we allowed God to work, that's another thing. But if you don't allow Him to work, then He can't do it, because God doesn't catch people by the neck.

We allow Him to work, He produced that desire in you, and this verse tells me that the same God who produced the desire will also make us do it. He works in us to will and to do. He gives us the desire and the ability.

Many times we have a problem with this. We say, Oh, I have a desire to do God's will, but I'm not able to do it. Who gave you the desire? You think you did it yourself, that's why you think you can't have the ability.

Once you recognize it was God who worked in you to will it, you will also believe that the same God can work in you to do it. He cannot produce in you a desire and then not give you the ability to do it.

See, that's the meaning of this New Covenant promise in Hebrews chapter 8. Please remember these two things. The Holy Spirit works in us to will and to do. To desire and to be able to do God's will. It's all related to God's will.

The New Covenant Law Written on the Heart

So that we can do the will of God and remain forever. For eternal ages. In Hebrews chapter 8, He says, this is the New Covenant, verse 9, that I'm going to make in those days, verse 10. What is this New Covenant that He's going to make with us who are the Israel of God?

There are two things here. I will put my law into their mind. That means I'll give them in their mind a desire to do my will. Number one. And then I will write my law upon their heart. Which means I'll give them the ability to do God's will.

So what you read in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10 is exactly the same what you read in Philippians 2 .13. God works in us. Here it says He writes His laws in us. Same thing. First in my mind to give me a desire to do God's will.

And then in my heart strengthening me to do God's will. See that's why you know that that's the purpose of grace. We talk about grace in the New Testament. And it says in Hebrews chapter 13, and verse 9, the last part.

It's good for the heart to be strengthened by grace. Grace comes to strengthen our heart to do the will of God. God works in us. First of all, writing His law in our mind. Has He written it there? You know like the two tablets of stone.

Do you know that the Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone? I think there were four commandments on one relating to God. Six commandments on the other relating to man. And God wrote both of them.

Moses didn't write them. And when Moses broke the first set, God wrote it again. Now the same God who wrote on those hard pieces of rock says I can write that in your mind and heart as well. These are the two tablets.

Mind and heart. And what does it mean? It means He first of all gives me a desire to do the will of God. Because the Ten Commandments are an expression of God's will in the limited way they could understand it under the Old Covenant.

But now we have a fuller revelation of God's will through Jesus' life. That's why we don't live by the Ten Commandments. At least I don't. I've got a higher law. And that is the life of Jesus is my example, not the Ten Commandments which is a pretty low standard.

Now Jesus' life is my example. I'm not just trying to keep the Ten Commandments. You can live a very wicked life keeping the Ten Commandments. Your thought life can be like a sewer. Filth and muck and keep the Ten Commandments.

But when you make the life of Jesus your goal your thought life will be pure. So God writes His law in my mind means He gives me an understanding and a desire to do His will. Has He done that in you? Has He given you?

Has He written His law in your mind? Given you a desire to do His will? Then the same God He says I'll write it on the second tablet also. He didn't just finish with one tablet and forget about the second tablet when He gave the commandments to Moses.

The same God says now I'll write it in your heart which means I'll strengthen your heart with grace so that all this revelation of my will which I gave you a desire to do I'll make you do it. I will make you do it.

This is the work of the Holy Spirit. It says how the Holy Spirit drove Jesus at different times to the cross to the wilderness. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. The Spirit drove Him.

See this verse in Ezekiel. It's a lovely verse. It's one of the finest verses in this connection that you see in Ezekiel 36 when God puts His Holy Spirit within us. This is a prophecy Ezekiel 36 which is not fulfilled in the Old Testament but which is a prophecy that He would do it in the New Testament.

Verse 26 I will give you a new heart that means He's talking about the new birth and I'll put a new spirit within you that means He'll renew my recreate my dead spirit and then after putting a new spirit within us He'll take away the old hard heart I will put my Holy Spirit within you.

Verse 27 and when I put my Holy Spirit within you He's going to drive you from within and I will cause you to walk in my statutes now there's a lot of difference between saying I will make you walk in my statutes and saying you should walk in my statutes or you must keep my commandments.

You know I hope you see the difference between saying you must keep my commandments which is what He told people under the Old Testament and what He says under the New Testament I will cause you to keep my commandments.

This is the reason why we can keep God's will on earth. We must believe it now if you think that you're you still got to live like those Old Testament people where you struggle struggle to keep it you know what you need brother sister you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

That's the answer see a lot of Christians are not filled with the Holy Spirit that's why they're living under the Old Covenant but He says when I put my spirit within you I will cause you you will go through any inconvenience, sacrifice in order to do my will.

Oh when you read of these mighty men of God who sacrificed so much denied themselves year after year after year after I mean think of a man like John Wesley till the age of 88 or something get up at 4 o 'clock in the morning and ride a horse and go preaching the gospel 88 years old who put that desire in him.

He wasn't doing it for money. He didn't want honor. He didn't want money. They persecuted him tried to kill him but he went on doing it. It was God who put the desire in him and gave him the ability to do God's will and gave him the health as well.

And I tell you if you were more concerned about doing the will of God in your life you would have pretty good health as well. God will give you that you got to be open. You got to allow God to fill you with His Holy Spirit.

And when He fills you with His Spirit He says I'll cause you to walk in my statutes. And you will definitely be careful to observe my command. He's not saying you should be. You will be. You see the difference.

You will be careful very careful not to miss my will in any area. You won't be like those other third rate believers who are just carelessly walking through their Christian life sinning and confessing their sin and saying all types of things with their tongue and confessing it doing wrong things never growing spiritually.

You will not be like that. That's the new covenant. What does he mean when he says I will write my laws. How does God write His laws in our mind and in our heart. I want to show it to you from Scripture.

The Finger of God and the Spirit of God

Turn to Luke chapter 11 and verse 20. It's a wonderful thing to compare Scripture with Scripture. That's another way to study the Scriptures. You know whenever you see a passage of Scripture one way is as I said to use the concordance.

The other is to compare Scripture with Scripture. You see a verse in Scripture and you say hey can I compare that with another verse in Scripture that talks about something similar. Yes. Then we discover something.

I've discovered so many things. I could spend a whole morning telling you things I've discovered just comparing Scripture with Scripture. Okay here's one of them. Luke 11 20. If I cast out demons by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

How does Jesus cast out demons by the finger of God. The finger with which He wrote the 10 commandments. The finger with which He writes His laws upon our mind and upon our heart. The finger with which He makes us desire His will and give us the ability to do His will.

Now turn to Matthew chapter 12 and verse 28. Exactly the same passage. See how Matthew wrote it. And we saw how Luke wrote it inspired by the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 12 28 exactly the same sentence comes like this where Jesus says if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Okay. So the finger of God is the Spirit of God. You got it. It's what Jesus own word. The finger of God is the Spirit of God. So when He says I'll write my law upon your mind with what finger does He write the Holy Spirit.

When He writes it upon our heart it's the Holy Spirit. Exactly like we read in Ezekiel 36 that when the Holy Spirit comes we allow Him to renew our mind. We allow Him to fill our heart. You know what happens.

You have a burning passion to do God's will. Now there were people in the Old Testament who had a desire to do God's will. It wasn't very great desire. But they had some sort of desire but they could never do it.

David, Paul, and the Difference Between Desire and Doing

See for example Psalm 40. This is the Psalm of David. This is another place we need to compare scripture with scripture. Psalm 40. We read Psalm of David. And what could David say verse 7. Verse 6 burnt offering and sin offering.

Sacrifice meal offering. You have not desired my ears. You have opened burnt offering and sin offering. You have not required. Then I said behold I come in the scroll of the book. It's written of me. The scroll of the book is God's word.

It's written of me. What did He say in verse 8. I want you to read this carefully. Don't skip through scripture carelessly. I delight to do your will. Oh my God your law is within my heart. They didn't have a clear understanding in the Old Testament about mind and heart and all that.