Rejoicing in What God Has Done — Zac Poonen

Rejoicing in What God Has Done Rather Than Our Works

Sunday we were looking at this verse in Luke's Gospel chapter 10 and I thought we could look at it a little more. Luke's Gospel chapter 10. We read here that this 70 verse 17 Luke 10 17 the 70 disciples returned with joy saying Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name.

Notice there what they rejoiced in. They rejoiced in something that they had done. They had done it in the name of Jesus so there was a religious angle to it but the point there was demons are subject to us and I think in that sentence the emphasis was on us.

In your name agreed but we did that and Jesus said well that's a small thing I mean I've even seen the head of the demons Satan falling as lightning and then he gave them what I believe is a command. Verse 20 do not rejoice in this that evil spirits are subject to you.

You know it's very rare to find people who are in the ministry of healing or miracles or casting out demons remaining ordinary people look around and see all the so-called great healers, miracle workers.

It's almost impossible to meet them. They've become so important so big. Jesus was the one miracle worker you could meet very easily. Peter and Paul were like that but today's healers and miracle workers they have bodyguards around them, secretaries and you can never contact them on a phone you can never email them you cannot get in touch with them at all.

Now those of us who are small and unknown may not realize that temptation but when God has done something through you it's most people not everybody most people tend to rejoice in that, in what I did.

They would not rejoice as much if demons were cast out by somebody else. They may not even talk about it but when we did it we can boast about it. It need not be casting out demons. Could be anything.

You can say I prayed and God helped me to cook a good meal. Could be that. Or preach a sermon or anything. We put in Jesus name there. You know when we read words like this we really need to let God's word be like a mirror where we see ourselves.

God's word is meant to be like a mirror. If you see yourself continuously in this word and like James chapter 1 he says don't forget what you saw it'll go very well with you. We can partake of God's glory more and more and more and more but if I see myself in the mirror and I forget about it or I don't take it seriously then I will remain in the same level forever.

Grace, Humility, and Victory Over Sin

So here is a very clear command we can say don't rejoice in what you have done for God or what you can do for God or the abilities and gifts that you have which God has given you. Don't rejoice in those the exercise of those things but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.

Now who did that? None of us can rejoice that our names are recorded in heaven because why? Because they were not written on the basis of your casting out demons and most important of all they were written before you were even born.

Before you did anything. The Bible says our names were written in the book of life before the worlds were created. What can I glory about in that? And Jesus said if you want to glory in something I mean it's good to glory in something but glory in the fact that God did something for you and not that you have done something for God.

This is a very important thing. There are many things we do for God. We serve others, we pray, we sacrifice. We can and in the back of our mind we can keep a record of all these things and the carnal person does.

The spiritual person is not taken up with what he has done. He's taken up with what God has done. That's the point of this and that's what I read to you the other day in the message Bible. The last part of verse 20 not what you do for God but what God does for you.

That is the agenda for rejoicing. You know what an agenda is? An agenda is when people have a committee meeting in any big corporation or anywhere they have a committee meeting. Before the committee meeting they send out an agenda.

This is what the things we're going to talk about. That's what agenda means and he says if you want to make a list of things a number of things in this agenda that you want to rejoice over let not even one of those items in the agenda be what you did for God.

Every one of those items in the agenda must be what God did for you. But is it like that? We all have to admit that we have not received as much grace from God as we should have. I mean the clearest proof of that is when you don't get victory over a particularly sinful habit.

For example if you don't get victory over anger and you're still losing your temper and getting upset. If you take it lightly you'll be like that even after 50 years. I'll tell you that right now. You'll never change.

Many of us have had sicknesses that we got healed off because we took it seriously. Some of our children had sicknesses when they were small we took it seriously and we did something about it and those children are healthy today.

Imagine if you didn't take sickness seriously. I think all of us have got little children and little babies tend to be sick very soon. Can you imagine if all of us had neglected our little babies from childhood and never given them any medicine, never treated them.

I think we'd have very few children in the church today. We'd have lost most of them. Why are our children alive today? Because we took those little coughs and colds and diarrheas and all seriously. We don't take anger so seriously.

No wonder it still continues. We don't take lusting in the eyes seriously. We don't take internet pornography seriously. We don't take telling little lies. I don't think any of us tell big lies but little lies, exaggerations, giving people a wrong impression.

We don't take it seriously. Then we continue to do that. We'll continue to do it forever and we can think other people do it. We don't see ourselves doing the same thing. All these things are evidence of the fact that we have not received grace as we should.

Why do I say that? Because, let's turn to our favorite verse Romans 6 14. It's an absolute statement. Sin shall not be master over you for you are not under law but under grace. That means, in very simple words, how do I find out whether I'm under law or under grace?

Just from that one sentence. Even a child can answer that. If sin rules over me, I'm under law. I may think, oh yeah, I'm not under law. I've finished all this legalism. Many people think freedom from legalism is, now we don't have to follow all these little little rules.

How clever the devil is to make us think we have become free from legalism because we're not so sticky about certain rules. That's exactly what he wants you to think because it's not true. Oh, we can wear gold on our body now.

We're not legalistic. I wish it were so easy. If the way to get people out of being under the law was giving them to wear gold, I say to God, I would give a necklace to everybody to get them free from law.

If that was the way to get them out of it. I wish it were so easy. It isn't. We think we are free from legalism because we can have a television in our home. Boy, if he could get people under grace through giving him a television, I say before the Lord, I'd give a television to everybody.

Don't let the devil fool you that you're free from legalism because you don't follow any rules on these things. You're free from legalism when you don't get angry, when you don't lust with your eyes, when you overcome sin.

That's this verse. Where did you get those other ideas from? From the devil. He wants you to believe that. Saying, once upon a time we were legalistic. Now we're not. Now we are more free. Jesus said, whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.

But if the Son of God shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. You shall know the truth. The truth shall set you free. There's only one freedom that Jesus ever spoke about. Only one. It was not freedom from poverty, like a lot of people talk today.

It was freedom from sin. The thing which most people don't talk about. It was freedom from the love of money. It was freedom from seeking the honor of men. It was freedom from seeking to please men in order to please God.

It was freedom from doing things to other people that we don't want other people to do to us. That's freedom. Not freedom to, you know, dress as we like, and wear colored clothes, and wear gold, and have bigger houses, and better cars.

That's how they preach in the prosperity gospel. It's one of the greatest deceptions in the last 50 years that the devil has put upon Christendom. That this is freedom. Freedom to dance down the aisle in a pulpit in a church.

They call that freedom. There are drunkards who do that in bars. That's not freedom. We have not got grace if we are sinning. And the Bible says in 2nd Corinthians in chapter 12 and verse 9, Jesus said to Paul, and that applies to all of us, my grace is sufficient for you.

That means it is enough for whatever we have to tackle. You have a trial, a problem, grace is sufficient to make you overcome that. In other words, if I send my little boy to the shop to buy something, I'll give him money according to the cost of the item.

If it costs ten rupees, I give him ten rupees. If it costs a hundred rupees, I don't give him ten rupees. I give him a hundred rupees. The money I give you is sufficient for what I ask you to buy, my son.

That's the meaning of this verse. The Lord saying, have I told you to live according to a certain standard? My grace is sufficient for that. Throughout the ages, the devil has always said to man, God's standards are too high.

You know the number of people who have told me, oh brother Zach, we can't join your church, your standards are too high. It's like saying, I won't go to that hospital, it's too clean. I'd like to go to a dirty hospital.

Crazy. That's how people think. The devil has fooled man, deceived man by saying, God's standards are so high, don't even try to keep them, it's impossible. I remember once I was preaching in a church and there were people there from a Pentecostal background who thought the Pentecostals were backslidden and who had left those Pentecostal churches to come out to what they thought was New Testament assemblies.

I think they even called their church a New Testament assembly. And I spoke there on the subject of all seek their own, not the things that are Christ Jesus. You know what Paul said about Timothy and Philippians 2, that he was the only one who didn't seek his own.

And I said this is the essence of Christianity, that when Jesus comes into our life, we stop seeking our own. We seek the things of Christ, the kingdom of God first. And there was the wife of this elder who came to me after that and said, well, is there anybody in the world who doesn't seek their own?

They all seek their own. There's nobody else. I mean, we don't believe in a Christianity that doesn't seek its own. Yup. This was an Indian person who had gone to a foreign country to make money. Naturally, they have to say that.

So, if you start with that from the beginning, that assumption, of course, I'll never, I'll spend all my life, of course, I'll be seeking my own all my life. Then we have to say that God has commanded us to do something impossible.

But there were people like Paul and Timothy in the first century who did not seek their own. The Holy Spirit says that. And the moment you say that's impossible, it will be impossible. Now, we have to remember, my grace is sufficient.

If God tells us to do something, to live at a certain standard, His grace is sufficient. He gives us enough money to buy what He sends us to the market to buy. And coupled with that is that other well-known verse in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.

God was faithful who will never allow you to be tempted or tested or tried above your ability. That means if He gives you a test, or a trial, allows you to face a temptation, God sees, can He bear it?

Is He strong enough? Okay, Satan, you can tempt Him. I can think of different temptations that have come to my life in recent years. And I have a feeling that the devil would have gone to God and said, can I tempt Zach like that?

God says, no. Next year, can I tempt him? No. He's not ready yet. Four, five, six, seven, eight years? No, no, no, you can't do it. Then one year, God says, okay, Satan, you can test Him now. Isn't that a great honor that God is saying, now you can test Him?

It's like saying, can I give this student a 10 standard paper? No, no, no, not yet. He's in the first standard right now. Next year, can I give him a 10 standard paper? No, not yet. Three, four years, can I give him a 10 standard paper?

No, not yet. But one day, the principal says, now you can give him the 10 standard paper. Isn't that a credit? To that student? That's how it is. And God allows some massive test to come into my life.

We must see that the devil, God stopped the devil from sending it into our life for so many years, because he knew we couldn't handle it. And one day when he said, okay, that proves his confidence in us.

He will not allow us to be tested above our ability. But if we fail there, it's because we didn't get grace. Now I come to the reason why we didn't get grace. Only one reason. 1 Peter 5 verse 5, God gives His grace only to the humble.

He gives His grace only to the humble. 1 Peter 5 verse 5, you see the connection now between what I've been saying all this time with the verse we started out with. Do not rejoice in what you do for God, because that's what makes you proud.

Then you won't get grace. Then you'll be defeated by sin. You see how it all links together now. But rejoice in what God has done for you. You can't glory in that. That'll keep you humble. When it keeps you humble, you get grace.

And when you get grace, you get victory over sin. That's why that is so important that we never rejoice in what we have done for God. There's an expression that often comes to my mind in Acts of the Apostles chapter 7.

This is Stephen talking about the wanderings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And you know they made a golden calf and worshipped it. And it says here in Acts chapter 7 verse 41, at that time they made a calf.

And brought a sacrifice to the idol. And see what it says, they rejoiced in the works of their hands. Or as the message Bible says, they congratulated themselves on the wonderful religious program that they had put together.

Great. They congratulated themselves and each other on the wonderful sing-song session and religious program that they had put together. They rejoiced in the works of their hands. This is the essence of Babylon.

Babylon as a Spirit of Religious Self-Glory

For so many years, many Protestant churches preached, the Roman Catholic Church is Babylon. Get out of it. Aha. I wish it were so easy to get out of Babylon just by leaving the Roman Catholic Church. No, no, no, no, no.

Babylon is a spirit. False Christianity. It's found in every denomination, including ours. Do you think there's nobody with the spirit of Babylon in our churches? I see it very clearly in some people.

It's not out there in some other church there. It's a spirit where you rejoice in the work of your hands. I'll show it to you from Daniel. In Daniel chapter 4, we read about the beginning of this empire, the physical empire of Babylon, which name is attributed to false Christianity in Revelation chapter 17.

You want to go back to the original Babylon? It is the Tower of Babel, where people got together and said, we are going to build something that will reach heaven. That's in Genesis chapter 11. But here you see the same thing here in Daniel 4, where Nebuchadnezzar verse 28, Daniel 4 verse 28.

All this happened to Nebuchadnezzar, the king. 12 months later, he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon. Babylon was a fantastic city. I don't know if there's anything like that in the world today.

They had walls around it, I believe. A chariot ridden by four horses could go on those walls. Those walls were so thick. They had hanging gardens, which were considered one of the seven wonders of the world in those days.

And Nebuchadnezzar was the man who built it, using a lot of slave labor. And listen to what he says. The king reflected, looked at his Babylon that he had built, walking on the roof of the palace and said, isn't this Babylon the great?

Exactly the same expression used in Revelation 17. Isn't this Babylon the great, which I myself have built by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty. From man, through man's power, to man's glory.

Rejoicing in the work of our hands. It could be anything that we rejoice in. I cast out a demon in Jesus' name. Jesus said, don't rejoice. It's Babylon. But aren't we supposed to do it? Sure we're supposed to do it and just give the glory to God and forget it.

I did this and I did that. You know, we may not say it, because we would lose our reputation for humility if we said it openly. And we all love our reputation for humility, right? Is there anybody here who doesn't want a reputation for humility?

We all want it. How many of you would like to be known as a proud man or a proud woman? We all like, I mean, if you heard behind your back somebody say, oh, that's a humble sister. Boy, that's made your day, that's made your whole life.

It means so much to you that people think you're such a humble person. You're not like one of those proud, arrogant Christians. You're a humble person. That's why you don't get grace. Because you care so much that people should think you're humble.

And you do things to preserve that reputation, that Babylon that you have built over so many years. You want to build, preserve it. And you're so careful that the structure never collapses, this reputation for your humility.

Garbage. Tear it down and throw it away. If you're not getting victory over sin, you're not humble, no matter how many people think you are. If you're defeated by sin, God doesn't think you're humble.

Let the whole world call you humble, it doesn't mean a thing. Isn't this what I have done? Isn't this what I have planned, this religious program that I have planned, this demon that I cast out, this message that I preach?

These are all spiritual things we can glory in. This church I belong to, this wonderful family I brought up, where all my children are born again. What is there that we don't have opportunity to glory in?

The work of my hands. People write books on it. How they brought up their family and how they did this and how to do this and how to do that. Jesus said, don't rejoice. Rejoice in what God has done for you.

Pride Through Comparison and the Pharisee's Prayer

When you rejoice in what God has done for you, you cannot boast. Boasting, let me explain boasting. Compare boasting with humility. One of the best examples I can find is this. Supposing a boy gets 10 in mathematics, can he boast?

Yes or no? If you've heard me before, you know the answer. I'm going to ask this to a new congregation. He can boast if everybody else in his class got less than him. He can come home rejoicing, mommy I came first in the class.

How much did he get son? 10 out of 100. Really? You can boast. What is it that makes him boast? Not his marks. Comparison. 50 other students in the class got 7 and 5 and 3 and 2. I got 10 out of 100. Now you take the same boy and the next day you put him in another class, a top-notch school where everybody gets over 98%.

What happens to this proud boy? He suddenly becomes humble. How did he become humble all of a sudden in one day? Comparison. Humility, pride comes through comparison. Humility comes through comparison.

Why don't you get grace? Because you're proud. Why are you proud? Because you compare yourself with other people in the church who are not as spiritual as you are, who are not as zealous as you are for the Lord, who are not as hardworking as you are, who don't cast out demons like you do, who are not sacrificial as you are, who are not as humble as you are.

So you don't get grace. You live on your reputation, your rotten reputation for humility, defeated by sin. What's the use? I don't want that. Long, long ago I said, Lord, I'm not interested in anybody thinking I'm a humble man.

I'm not even interested in anybody thinking I'm a very gentle. I don't care whether they think I'm harsh and hard and anything. Call me the devil if you like. I want to know, Almighty God, my Father, do you think I'm humble?

If you think I'm humble, give me victory over sin. Let the rest of the world think whatever they like about me. Let the rest of the church think whatever they like about me. That's what brought me to victory when I finished bothering about my reputation before people.

I want to tell you, my brothers and sisters, the thing that hinders many, many a person from receiving grace is pride, and that pride comes through comparison. Inwardly, unconsciously, silently, you are comparing yourself with other Christians.

Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. Is that something Jesus spoke about? Do you remember that story? The man who got up in the temple and said, Lord, I thank you I'm not like other men. Luke chapter 18.

I thank you that I'm a humble brother. I'm not proud like these other fellas. I don't go after money like these other fellas. I earn my own living. I brought up my children well. My children are doing well.

They are obedient. Many things like that. I thank God in this. I thank God. You see, we thank God. The Pharisee also said, I thank God. But he was proud in what he had done. I pray, and I fast, and I go to the meetings, and I do this, and I know the Bible, and I know.

He just went home rejected by God. And there was that other sinner there in the corner who didn't even lift up his head to heaven. Lord, I've got nothing to boast about. I'm just a sinner. Jesus said, that man went home justified.

Justified means God did something for him. He went home a happy man, accepted by God. It didn't matter to him that there were 10 ,000 Pharisees in that temple who despised him. So what? God had accepted him.

What does it matter if 10 ,000 people despise you if God has accepted you? Do not rejoice in the work of your hands. He says, this is this Babylon that I have built. And as soon as the word was in the king's mouth, Daniel 4 .31, the voice from heaven said, sovereignty, your kingdom has been taken away from you.

You will now be driven to eat grass like the cattle, verse 32. And it says, he began to eat grass, verse 33, like cattle, his feathers, his hair grew like eagles feathers, his nails like birds claws, verse 33.

He became like an animal. Now the spiritual meaning I get from that is, when you begin to glory in what you have done, you become an animal in God's eyes. That's it. You are an animal. You know, like the lion, the king of the forest.

He says, who can come before me, you rabbits and you deer, you are scared of me. That's what it means to be an animal. God says, you will become like an animal when you are like that. I created you to be in my image.

And if you want to know what God's image is, look at Jesus Christ. I created you to be like Jesus Christ. Look what you have ended up like, an animal. Glorying in the work of your hands, glorying in what you have done and glorying that you are the king of the jungle, superior to all the other animals.

Giving God Glory for Every Accomplishment

We need to repent. We need to give glory to God for every single thing. Has it gone well in your business? Give the glory to God. Have you passed in your examinations, accumulated a number of degrees?

Give the glory to God. Are you doing well in your school or college? Give the glory to God. Let's teach our children to give the glory to God always. I mean, if you are coming last in the class and you are humble, that doesn't mean anything.

But if you are doing pretty well in some area and then you are humble, boy, that means you are doing something. I know people who were humble once upon a time, when they had nothing to say about their accomplishments.

But the test of humility is after you have cast out a demon. Lord, you have cast out demons in your name. The Lord says, don't rejoice in this. Your agenda for rejoicing should not be what you have done, but what God does for you.

See, in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul says, consider your calling, brethren. There are not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty or noble in your midst. Paul says, when I look at you Corinthians, I don't see many of the brightest and the best people in society in your church.

I don't see many influential people sitting around in your church. It's a message Bible. I don't see many people from high society families in your church. Why is that? Why are there so many people whom Indians call Dalits and Shedulkas and very dark-skinned people who are born again and who love the Lord in so many of our churches?

I'll tell you, it's here. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that culture overlooks and exploits and abuses? God chose those nobodies to expose the hollow pretensions of these somebodies.

That makes it quite clear that none of you can go by with blowing your own trumpet before God. Everything that we have, right thinking, right living, a clean slate, a fresh start, everything comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.

That's why we have a saying that if you're going to blow a trumpet, blow it for God. I like that. That's what it means. If you're going to blow a trumpet, brother or sister, blow it for God. Say, God did this.

I can't. No man will be able to boast, it says in verse 29. God does everything so that no man will be able to boast. I mean, that fellow is boasting here on earth, but I'll tell you something, when we stand before the Lord in the final day, you will see not one person will be able to boast, not even the Apostle Paul, who was a million times more useful to God than any of us here today.

No one will be able to boast. All this boasting is here on earth. People with a Babylonian spirit who are always comparing themselves with others because they are rejoicing in what they think they have accomplished.

You know why you rejoice? That you, in your humility or your goodness or kindness or love or anything, you rejoice because you think you produced it. If I made a cake and I distributed it here and everybody said, boy, what a wonderful cake that is, I'd feel a struggle with pride.

I'd have to battle it. But if somebody else brought a cake and passed it around and everybody says, what a wonderful cake, I'm sitting here, I'm not even tempted. I mean, the other day we had a cake passed around and if somebody said, that is a wonderful cake, did you get tempted?

No, because you never made it. But supposing you had made it, oh, then you may have had a struggle with pride. It's because you have produced your humility, you have produced your love, that you're pretty proud of it.

That is the clearest proof God never produced it at all. Or you're taking credit for something God produced. Somebody else made the cake and you act as though you baked it yourself. Oh, that's worse. No, no one will be able to boast before God.

We'll see that in eternity. Notice in Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 it says, verse 8, by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God. Why is it not a result of works?

Everybody knows in the Christian faith, salvation is not of works. You ask them why? They don't know the rest of that verse. The rest of the verse is, so that nobody should boast. That's the reason. That's the reason why God has made salvation not of works, so that nobody can boast.

Nobody can say, well, I was a pretty good chap and I never did this. No. I think that's why the last person whom Jesus saved on earth was a thief and a murderer who was so bad that the Romans said, there's only one way we can deal with this fellow, kill him, get rid of such people from the face of the earth.

The Thief on the Cross and Salvation by Grace

And the last minute Jesus saves him and takes him to paradise. That's the last person Jesus saved when he was on earth before he died. He was such a wicked criminal. What did he have to boast about when he was hanging there?

Everybody knew he was a criminal. You may have something to boast that you're from a good family and you've been brought up in a good way and you've never done some horrible things that other people have done.

Aren't you pretty proud of those things? You were not brought up in a bad way and all that. Why would that fellow hanging on the cross have to boast? He was a million times worse than you. But I'll tell you this, that man is enjoying himself today.

He's got nothing to boast. And I think in all eternity, people like him will say, I've got nothing to say. I never cast out a demon. I never even read the Bible. I had sheer grace. But do you know, brothers and sisters, actually you and I are like that.

Our salvation is like that. We think we have done something for God. God must be very happy with us because we do this or we do that. Come to the place of the thief on the cross. Think how he is in heaven today.

I mean, he's in heaven today. And imagine people going around giving their testimonies and they ask him, what's your testimony? I did nothing, brother. I was just a criminal from day one. You mean right up to your death you did nothing?

Absolutely right. Till my death I did nothing except sin. And you're here. That's right, I'm here. Well, they say God must be a wonderful God. He certainly is, that man will say. What about the rest of us?

I like to think about people like this and I say, Lord, if I think that I'm one atom better than that thief on the cross, I need to work out my salvation. I really need to work out my salvation. And it's because we think we are better that we don't get victory over sin.

See the connection? We think we are better. We not only are better than that thief on the cross, we are better than a lot of other people sitting around us in CFC. Aha, okay. It's no wonder you're so defeated.

No wonder you get discouraged so often. No wonder you get depressed so often. Why is it a man who gets grace from God will never be depressed or discouraged? I believe that. I believe it because I've experienced it for many, many years now.

I'm not boasting, I'm just telling you what God has done. Because I say, Lord, I will refuse to compare myself with other people. John Wesley was one of the greatest men of God as I understand in the history of the church.

Fantastically disciplined man. He was converted very late in life, I think when he was 35 or something. And he lived up to 88 or something like that. There was another great man of God in John Wesley's time called George Whitefield.

These two were the greatest open air evangelists in the 1700s, both in England. Both of them brought hundreds and probably thousands to Christ preaching out in the open air. But they had completely different view on whether a person could be lost after he was saved once.

On that one doctrine, George Whitefield said, a person is saved, he's saved forever. John Wesley said, no, you have to endure till the end in order to be saved. And so they couldn't work together. These were called the Calvinists, George Whitefield and the Armenians, John Wesley's group.