Exhortation and Encouragement — Zac Poonen

Reading Scripture in Context

We saw the other day that there is a balance in scripture, and sometimes balance is in the immediate verse following or immediate verse before that. So those of us who only remember individual verses and memorize them, it's good.

But be careful that you don't take a verse out of its context. For example, I'll give you one or two examples. It's very popular for people to quote, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

But do you know that's only half a verse? The full verse is 1 John 1 7. If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, then and then only the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. What about someone who does not want to walk in the light of God?

That means he's not willing to allow God's light to shine into every area of his conscience. He doesn't want that. I want to say the blood of Jesus does not cleanse him from all sin. And this is probably the only church where you'll hear that said.

Quote God's word exactly. Because in this word, we have the word of life that shows us the pathway to glory. And the devil is a master at dividing God's word into two and taking out the condition and giving you the promise.

The promise is the blood of Jesus will cleanse you from all sin. The condition is if we walk in the light. And the devil is a master at cutting out the condition, making you memorize the promise. Many of you know this promise.

The Conditions of Christ’s Promise of Eternal Life

I give them eternal life and they shall never perish. No one will pluck them from my hand. My father is greater than I and no one can pluck them from my father's hand. You know, that's also only half a verse.

It's in John chapter 10. The verse begins at 27, but people quote it from verse 28. It's very common for people to quote the latter half. The verse begins with, my sheep hear my voice. Are you one of his sheep?

Secondly, do you hear his voice? Third, does he know you? Fourth, do you follow him? Then, I give them eternal life. They'll never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father has given them to me.

He's greater than I. No one was able to snatch them out of the father's hand. You know, a lot of people think CFC is preaching new truths. It's not. We're not preaching new truths. We're just quoting the whole scripture.

The Bible says in Second Timothy 316, all scripture is inspired by God and is profitable to train us in righteousness, to make us perfect. So what I mean is, it's the whole scripture is like a circle.

You take half that circle and say that's inspired by God, but you leave out the other half. You're going to deceive yourself. Do you know that the devil quoted half a scripture to Jesus? If he can quote it to Jesus, why won't he quote it for you?

You read in Matthew chapter 4, it's very, very important. I'm just trying to teach you how to study scripture so that you're not deceived. Matthew chapter 4, the only difference... I'll tell you this, please listen to this.

The only difference between us and other churches is we quote the whole verse and the whole scripture. We quote the condition, whereas most other churches only quote the promise. If you want to classify it generally, that's about it.

We quote the whole scripture, others quote just the promise. Matthew chapter 4, we read that when the devil came to Jesus and told him, if you're the son of God, turn the stones into bread, and Jesus said, it is written.

That's why he was different from Eve. When you know that the devil came to Eve also questioning, has God really said, has God really said, and for 6 ,000 years he's been telling people, has God really said that?

Imagine how far he's gone. Today, there are parts of the world where the devil says, has God really said that marriage must only be between a man and a woman? How far he's gone, because he leads step by step by step by step by step.

He doesn't suddenly come up with wild things. I heard of an experiment, I don't know whether it's true or not, of how they put a frog in ordinary cold water, and he was quite comfortable there, and they raised the temperature little by little over a period of time, and they didn't make it boiling hot, suddenly the frog would have jumped out, but they raised it maybe a few degrees, kept it there, and the frog was comfortable in that temperature, then raised it a little more, and the frog was comfortable in that temperature, raised it slowly over a long period of time, to the point where it killed the frog.

This is a picture, whether the experiment is true or not, I don't know, but it's a perfect picture of how the devil just makes you compromise a little bit. You just tell a little lie here, a little compromise here, or you skip something which your conscience tells you, ignore it, and little by little, he's got a foothold in you.

Once you've ignored something which your conscience tells you, or once you've ignored some scripture, the devil's got a foothold in you. And when the devil came to Eve and said, has God really said, and he got Eve into a conversation, and then Eve said, yeah, we may die, and the devil said, you will surely not die.

See, he contradicts God's word. And the devil led her astray, that's how sin came into the world. Remember that sin came into the world because the devil questioned God's word, and made Eve discuss God's word with him, and got into a discussion with God's word, and gradually led her into sin.

Whereas when it came to Jesus, Jesus said, there's no question of discussion, it is written, that's the end of the matter. Then the devil said, oh, I can't tackle him the way I tackled Eve, so he says it is written, okay, then I will also quote, it is written.

So the next temptation, the devil comes with, it is written, because this person quotes, it is written. So if he finds that you're one of those who are stickler for God's word, he will bring God's word to you, but quote half of it.

And so he comes to Jesus in the next temptation and says, if you're the son of God, throw yourself down, because it is written. He's quoting Jesus' own words, it is written. He will give his charge of, angels charge of you on their hands, they'll bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone.

You compare that with the original verse in Psalm 91, and you'll see a slight difference. It says in Psalm 91 and verse 11 and 12, he'll give his angels charge of you, to guard you in all your ways, and they will bear you up.

And that is a promise to those who dwell in the shadow of the Almighty, verse 1. For whom is it? Is it for everybody? That promise in Psalm 91, no, it's for one who dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.

And when I see the word shadow of the Almighty, it means this. Supposing you and somebody are walking towards the sun, the sun is in front of you, and somebody is walking. How do you walk in the shadow?

You walk in the shadow by walking behind him. That's the only way you can walk in the shadow, you're not walking beside him, you're walking in the shadow. So to walk in the shadow of the Almighty means I'm walking behind him.

And if I'm walking in the footsteps of the Lord, then he will give his angels charge over me to keep me in all my ways. But if I go wherever I like, and I say, oh, he has said his angels will give charge over me, you'll be as foolish as the way the devil tempted Jesus.

But Jesus said, you quote, it is written, well, let me tell you, verse 7, on the other hand, it is also written. So the truth of God is not found just in it is written. That is one wing of the bird. But if it's one wing of the bird, it'll just go in circles.

And a lot of people who quote one scripture go in circles. But all scripture is inspired by God, so it is written, plus it is also written. Then we don't go astray. I'm just giving you that little warning on Bible study, because so many people I find, I get letters from people who quote one scripture, and they're even trying to correct us.

And then when we quote another scripture and say, it is also written this, they never reply back. They don't even have the honesty or the humility to say, thank you, brother, for correcting me. I see the whole truth now.

No. They are humiliated by the fact that they were proved that they were wrong by another scripture, not what we thought. We just quoted, it is also written. That's how we reply to some emails. Some of them are honest and humble enough to say, thank you for showing us that we learned the truth.

If you are humble enough and thankful when somebody shows you something, corrects you on something, if you have the humility to say, thank you, brother. I did not see that before. You are on the right path, and you'll never go astray.

But it requires humility to say, thank you so much, instead of saying, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I see it. That's an arrogant way. Has somebody shown you the truth a little better than you saw it before?

Have you ever gone up to him and say, thank you, brother, for showing me that? I never saw that before, but thank you so much. That's very good. So I want to show you one of these places in Hebrews chapter 3.

Jesus’ Warnings About Hell and Obedience

You know, sometimes people say, brother, we preach such strong things in the church. We terrify people with the word of God. But I say, do you know that in the Bible, let me ask you something, who preached about hell more than any other preacher?

Do you know who it was? It was Jesus Christ. You read in all the New Testament, look for the word hell in a concordance. It's a good way to study the Bible. I bought a concordance. One of the first things I did when I earned some money way back in 1963 was to buy a concordance, and a really good concordance.

And I began to study words in that, study all that the scripture says about grace and about faith and about hell. It's so easy when you have a concordance. Take a concordance and look for the word hell and find out, and you can write to me if you like, how many times did Paul preach on hell?

How many times did Peter preach on hell? How many times did John preach on hell? And how many times did Jesus speak about hell? You'll really get a surprise. And Jesus spoke about hell in a very scary way.

Before I get here, maybe I should show you that. Matthew chapter 5. How many of you know this, that in the entire Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon on the Mount is the longest sermon that Jesus preached to the multitudes.

I mean, there's a long message in John 14, 15, 16 also. But the longest sermon that Jesus preached to the disciples in general and to crowds listening was in Matthew 5, 6, and 7. And it was at the end of that sermon that he said, if you hear my words and obey them, your house will be founded on a rock.

Unshakable. That means my life will be unshakable. I want an unshakable life. I want a life where the devil tries to shake me, the circumstances shake me, unconverted relatives shake me, Christians call me heretic and shake me, and I will be unshakable like a rock.

One way to get there. Obey Matthew 5, 6, and 7. That's why when we started CFC in 1975, we preached on the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse through many weeks. And you can go to our website and go to the New Testament verse by verse and listen to verse by verse through Matthew 5, 6, and 7 and through the whole New Testament if you like.

Or you can go to another series we have on our website called All That Jesus Taught. There you'll see the whole Sermon on the Mount again. So we have many series there in our website where you can listen to the Sermon on the Mount.

But I want a family life that is unshakable. There are so many attacks on the family in these days. The devil tries to come between husband and wife, come between parents and children. So much of that in the world today.

How shall you build an unshakable home? I want to tell you, take the Sermon on the Mount seriously because at the end of that he said, if you listen to my words and obey them it's the unshakable word of God that can never fail.

Your life will be founded on a rock. But if you listen to it and you don't bother to obey it you can think you're very spiritual. You will shake. The devil is too smart for all of us. He'll be building on sand.

So let me show you. Do you know that in the Sermon on the Mount only two places, only two places Jesus spoke about hell. Did you know that hell is mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount? In two contexts.

Actually the word comes three times but in the context of two sins. That's what I mean. Three times the word hell comes in the Sermon on the Mount but two sins. There are many many sins mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount.

Judging others, being anxious, doing your works to show other people, hating your enemies. That's a sin, you know, to hate your enemies. And not speaking the truth or loving money, that's another sin.

Many sins like that are mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount. And of course many things mentioned in the first part, not being pure in heart, not being poor in spirit, not being peacemakers, etc. But among all these sins Jesus mentioned two, only two out of all these sins which are in danger of taking you to hell.

And do you know what those two are? Anger and lusting after women with your eyes. Anger applies to all men and women. Lusting after women with your eyes, it doesn't just apply to young people, it can apply to older people.

If you don't conquer it in your younger age, you can be 80 years old and still be defeated by it. You have to fight and battle it in your younger days. Fight and battle anger, fight and battle lust to the flesh.

Matthew chapter 5 and verse 22. I say to you that everyone, there's no exception. Everyone. Whenever Jesus uses the word everyone, everyone. And you know, I haven't researched it, but I think it's only in relation to these two sins that Jesus said everyone, everyone.

I mean, in relation to lust of the eyes leads on to adultery also. Everyone, everyone. You try and search out that for yourself. He uses that word everyone, so there's nobody left out. Everyone who is angry, are you included?

With his brother? Shall be guilty. You get angry, you're guilty. And I know in some versions, I think King James version, because they thought the standard was too high, the translators added a little phrase called without a reason.

Angry without a reason. Even Osama Bin Laden was not angry without any reason. He had a reason for getting angry. Once you put without a reason, all anger is justified. That's a very convenient phrase that people put in.

Tell me, do you ever get angry without a reason? I mean, you've got to be mad to be angry without a reason. Always there's a reason. But that is not in the original scriptures. And I believe the NASB is very accurate.

He who is angry with his brother, shall be guilty before the court. And whoever shall say, when the anger in the heart boils out to words, he is more guilty. And when it goes on to say more words, then you are guilty to go to hell.

That's the first place. The second is in verse 28. I say to you that everyone who looks on a woman to lust for her, that means to lust for her body, I wish I had her body has already committed adultery because in his mind, he wanted her.

He couldn't get her for some reason. And therefore, you know, this lusting comes with the eyes. If your right eye makes you to stumble, tear it out, throw it away from you. That means basically, it means just be like a blind man.

Because if you tear out your right eye, is it still possible to lust with your left eye? Do you need two eyes to lust? No. One eye is more than enough to lust. So you need to understand what Jesus was saying.

I mean, if you tear out your right eye, it will cause you to lust, tear it out. The principle is, if after that your left eye causes you to stumble, tear that out as well. Basically, what it means is be like a blind person at that moment.

Which means, close your eyes or turn your eyes away or switch off the computer or something and get away from there so that you are not Because if you don't do that, you may save your body, but your body will go to hell.

It's better that one member of your body perishes than your whole body be thrown into hell. I mean, is it possible for a person's whole body to be thrown into hell? Who is he talking to? Is he talking to the Pharisees?

See Matthew 5, verse 1 and 2. His disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them. He is telling his disciples, you are my disciples. I am telling you. You can go to hell. There are not many preachers who say that a disciple can go to hell.

Jesus did. And he said, you can sin with your right eye sexually and then he also says, verse 30, you can sin with your right hand sexually. You know what that means. Cut it off. Throw it away. Cut off the left hand.

In other words, be like an armless person so that you can't sin with your hands sexually. Otherwise, your whole body will again go to hell. Everyone, everyone. So these are strong words. You know, some people say, Brother Zach speaks very strong.

I say, you haven't heard Jesus. That's why. He said things like, Matthew chapter 12 and verse 36. I say to you, I say to you, every careless word men shall speak, they shall give an account in the day of judgment.

I take that word seriously. Because in that day, I'll be justified by my words. We are justified by faith. But faith without works, James says, is dead. And if it's real faith, I'll believe the words of Jesus.

Faith means to believe the words of Jesus. What does it mean to be justified by faith? Faith in what? Not just general faith. You have faith in a vehicle that brought you here from wherever your home was.

You believe that that vehicle will take you. That's why you got onto it and rode it here. This is faith in God, in his word. And his word says that every careless word you speak, he'll give an account in the day of judgment.

Because by your words, you will be justified. I believe that with all my heart. I didn't believe it for many years after I was born again, but I believe it now and I'm very careful with my words. So you see, think of things like that.

How Jesus called people, generation of vipers and all that type of stuff. Now let's turn to Hebrews chapter 3. Again, a warning to believers. Take care, brethren. Hebrews 3 .12. Lest there should be in any one of you believers an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God.

Verse 14 We become partakers of Christ only if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. I feel there are lots of believers lots of believers and possibly some of you sitting here who think imagine, I'm a special favorite of God.

Those verses don't apply to me. Uh huh. How the devil has fooled you. You're a special favorite of God? That those verses don't apply to you? Whom does that apply to? I remember quoting these verses to an elder in a brethren assembly once and when I quoted this verse he said, don't quote to me from Hebrews that was written for the Hebrews.

Uh huh. Then there's nothing for the Thessalonians and the Corinthians and I'm searching for something for me and I find nothing. Can you believe that an elder in a brethren assembly said that's written for the Hebrews and not for us?

Which part of the Bible is written for you then? It's amazing what all things people think to get out of obedience to scripture. But the devil is a very smart guy. He's got clever arguments to prevent you from obedience.

To just go and claim the promises without the conditions. Brothers, take care brethren, believers. Who are these brethren? Holy brethren partakers of a heavenly calling for whom Jesus is the apostle. These are not Hebrews.

These are not Jews. These are born again believers. To born again believers he says, you believers be careful that you don't have, end up with an evil, unbelieving heart. That means you don't believe all these warnings given in scripture.

You don't believe these warnings about anger and sexual lust. Because people sometimes ask me, Brother Zach, why do you in so many of your messages speak against anger and sexual lust? I'll tell you. Because those are the only two sins mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount that can lead people to hell immediately.

There are other sins, obviously they are not so serious. They are serious because they are sin. You know there are diseases, some are more worse than others. I mean if you have a cancer, that's worse than having a cold.

You know that. Having a cough and a cold is also a sickness. Cancer is also a sickness, but one is worse than the other. And so there are different sins, but some sins are worse than the others. You've got to see that.

Sin is exactly like sickness. Some are worse than the others. So I don't know what is worse than the others. I may think murder, oh that's worse, terrible. Adultery, that's terrible. Or some things like that.

But Jesus says anger and sexual lust are the ones that he relates to things that will take you to hell. So I say, Lord, I'm not the one who knows about hell. I'm not the one who knows what serious sin is.

I just take your word. I mean you listen to a doctor. Why can't you listen to God's word when Jesus says something? Please take God's word seriously. It will change your life. It will change your whole life.

It will change everything in your life. Even if other people in your church don't come to a glorious life, you will come to a glorious life. And people will see that and come to you and say, Brother, how did you come to this life?

And you'll tell them, I took God's word seriously. I believe it's the first step. Take care, brethren, lest there be, should be in any one of you an evil unbelieving heart. Can a heart of unbelief be evil?

Yes. That means you don't believe what Jesus said. You don't believe it's going to happen. Do you know there are so many believers who don't believe these things won't happen to me because I'm sort of a special favorite of God.

God has no special favorites. I fear. I live in the fear of God. And I believe what it says in verse 14. We become partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence. That means we started the race well and if we finish well, then we become partakers of Christ.

But I'm a partaker of Christ now, but I've got to finish well as well. That is one side of the truth. Warning. Exhortation. Now I want to tell you the other side of truth. Encouragement. Verse 13. It's right there.

It's the balance of scripture. But, encourage one another daily. Otherwise you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. So you see, warning and encouragement. That's the balance. How to save people from sin?

Warning. How to save people from sin? Encouragement. Now we think that encouragement may not save people from sin. It does. It says if you want to be saved from being hardened, how do you get hardened?

You keep on ignoring scripture, ignoring scripture, you get hardened. After some time you don't even feel. It's a terrible state to come to. That God's word is preached in power and you don't even feel it.

You don't even feel anymore that lusting with your eyes is a serious sin that can take you to hell. You take it lightly. Ah, yeah, yeah. It happens. We're all men. What to do? Or you don't even feel that careless words can bring judgment to you.

That shows your heart is hardened. Brother, be careful. While it is called today, verse 15, don't harden your heart. Today, if you hear His voice, there's hope for you. Don't harden your heart. So, there's warning but there's encouragement.

Verse 13, encourage one another as long as it is called today because your heart can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. That means sin can deceive you. Oh, I'm not serious, the sin says. This is not serious.

This is not serious. This is not serious. It's amazing how, you know, when I think of these small teeny-weeny germs called viruses and bacteria, it's so tiny you've got to need a microscope to see it.

And that small little thing can kill a man. What a small thing it is that kills somebody. To me, that's a picture of sin. It's not just lions and tigers that can kill human beings. In this world, lions and tigers can kill human beings but the smallest little thing, a bacteria or a virus, that can kill you too.

And so, sin must be taken seriously. But the way to help people not to be hardened is not always by warning. That's what I wanted to emphasize today. Not always warning, warning, warning, warning. That's necessary.

The Bible is full of warnings. We read some of Jesus' warnings. But there must be encouragement. And I want to share some meaning of that with you. First of all, I want you to see John chapter 3 and verse 17.

Freedom From Condemnation Through Christ

God did not send into... Everybody knows John 3, 16. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. But John 3, 17 is another great verse. God did not send the world to condemn or to judge.

Judge usually means in the New Testament, condemn. When it says judge not, it doesn't mean that I should not have any discernment. Sometimes people ask me, what is the difference between judging and discerning?

I say, I tell you, judging is always condemning. As a condemning attitude towards somebody when you judge. In discerning, you don't condemn. You're discerning so that you don't go astray. Hey, I don't want to be led astray by that guy.

I sort of discern that he's not genuine. I discern that that guy's after money. I discern that that guy's seeking his own. I don't condemn him, but I discern and I keep myself clear of such people. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world.

Please remember this. Condemnation is not what Jesus came for. If you ever feel condemned by any preacher or by anybody, that's not from the Lord. What does the Holy Spirit do? Convict. You need to distinguish between conviction and condemnation.

Condemnation makes you feel hopeless. Conviction shows you the sin, but gives you hope. Jesus didn't leave it like that saying, oh well, if you can't get victory over anger, you're going to hell. He didn't leave it there.

He sent the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to show that you can overcome that. You can overcome that anger. You have commands in the New Testament like Ephesians 4 31, put away all anger. All anger means all anger.

If you take it seriously and you say, Lord, your command says, put away all anger, Ephesians 4 31. I believe your Holy Spirit can help me in my life. I remember when praying for the Holy Spirit to be filled with the Holy Spirit, I said, Lord, if it takes 10 years, I'm willing to wait 10 years.

You pray like that to God. Lord, I don't care how long it takes. 20 years, 20 years. The earlier the better. But I'm going to get it. I'm going to put away all anger. Or it says, rejoice always. I don't know how long it's going to take, Lord.

If it takes 20 years, I am going to come to the place where I rejoice always. It's like climbing a mountain. The Holy Spirit will lead you to that place where you will rejoice in the Lord 24 -7. Not rejoice in your circumstances.

We cannot rejoice in our circumstances. Some of them are miserable. But it says, rejoice in the Lord always. Isn't that possible? Has He changed? God is still on the throne. He still loves you. The devil's been defeated.

Christ shed His blood for your sins. Those things have never changed. Rejoice in the Lord always. That means fix your mind on Him and don't be anxious for anything because you've got a father in heaven who cares for you.

Never allow the devil to condemn you. Never, never, never. Condemnation is from the devil. Romans chapter 8. This is a great verse. Romans 8 .1. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Now whenever you read a verse like that, like I've often told you, read it in its context. That means read the verse before it, read the verse after it. Okay, let's read the verse before it. Verse 24.

Wretched man that I am. Romans 7 .24. Who will deliver me from this body of death? He's feeling so miserable because he's so defeated. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he says, now this is a difficult passage.

Romans 7 .14 -25. But I believe he's referring to unconscious sin that comes forth from us even when we don't want to. When we slip up. It's not that I choose to do it but accidentally I slip up. You know there's a difference between a ten month old child who is falling and when you trip somewhere and fall.

You have learned to walk. But once in a while you may trip on a stone or a banana skin and fall. That's not because you haven't learned to walk, you're a bit careless. But when a ten month old child is falling, that's not yet learned to walk.

It's falling and falling and falling and falling. So there's a picture of one who's defeated, that ten month old child and you are a picture of one who's got victory but you can still fall. Any day. I mean you can fall as you go out of this hall today.

So none of us can say I will never fall again. I can trip on a stone or a banana skin today. So victory over sin doesn't mean I will never fall again. It just means I've learned to walk. But I may trip up sometimes.

So it says, Romans 7 14 to 25 is talking about that unconscious sin. There's so many areas in our life which we don't have light on. And so he says, so then this is a very difficult verse to understand if you don't understand what I'm saying.

With my mind in my conscious area, let me paraphrase it, I'm serving the law of God. My entire conscious area I'm serving the law of God but my unconscious area which is probably 90 of my life the law of sin is working.

That means there's a lot of unconscious sin in the best of us. Please remember that. It's a liberating truth that there are areas in your life you're not conscious of but which are sinful and someone who is more godly than you can see it.

You can't see it. And if a person condemns you for that it's because he doesn't know God. Whenever I see someone doing something which I see as wrong see that must be an unconscious area in that person.

I don't condemn that person. I mean it's not like adultery or telling lies which even the worldly person knows is wrong. The Ten Commandments. Ten Commandments everybody knows. I'm talking about other areas of selfishness and pride.

Very often I can see that in some people a selfishness and a pride. It's glaringly obvious to me but I say to myself for him it is still an unconscious area so he is not guilty. God does not hold him guilty and I will not hold him guilty.

Take that attitude and it will also help you to recognize in the same way there must be unconscious areas in me because I'm not perfect either and so there must be things in my life that other people can see which I don't see myself yet and if he condemns me for it it's because he hasn't yet become godly to understand God's way.

I don't condemn because I've seen there is unconscious and conscious areas. With my mind I serve the law of God but unconsciously what can I do? My flesh is serving the law of sin and even though, now understand this verse, even though my flesh is serving the law of sin unconsciously yet verse chapter 8 verse and there is no condemnation I don't feel condemned.

You see the connection between verse 25 and Romans 8 1? Though my flesh is constantly serving the law of sin, unconsciously there are so many areas of my life that are sinful and Christ-like, that's the meaning of sinful.