(Laying Hold on Eternity) Knowing Jesus as Our Lord — Zac Poonen

Eternal Life Means Knowing God

For most Christians, I think eternal life means living forever, and that's how I understood it in my younger days and as when we have a wrong concept of what the Bible teaches We're not going to experience It in its fullness.

Jesus said you shall know the truth. The truth will set you free free from a lot of bondages. Eternal life does not mean living forever because people who go to hell live forever as well. The worms in hell live forever.

They don't have eternal life. Eternal life refers to a life that had no beginning and no end which is the life of God and When it speaks about our receiving eternal life It's not just living forever when man's created he's created with a soul that lives forever but that we can partake of God's own life and Jesus defined this in John 17 and verse 3 in this way.

John 17 verse 3 Jesus said this is eternal life. To know God. The true God in the Jesus Christ whom he has sent this is eternal life. If We therefore it's not something we can just receive in a moment, and we've got it because knowing God is a process that should continue all through our life and That's why When Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy and chapter 6 to someone Who had already known the Lord for 25 years?

He writes to him in 1 Timothy 6 verse 12 fight the good fight and lay hold of eternal life. So eternal life is something we have to lay hold of 1 Timothy 6 verse 12 and Even after 25 years of being a believer Timothy needed to lay hold of it.

So the question I want to ask you is Have you understood eternal life is just something you got some time ago when you accepted Christ. If so, there's a lot that you're missing in the Christian life. I want you to know the truth.

So the truth will set you free eternal life is something got a lay hold off. We must pursue the knowledge of God. The Apostle Paul towards the end of his life. He said this in Philippians in chapter 3.

And verse 10 he already knew Christ but his passion was that I may know him more. He was not satisfied with the knowledge of Christ that he already had. And I want to say to you. I don't it doesn't matter how much you've grown in the Christian life.

If you don't have a passion to know Christ more. To know God as your father more and more and more. You're not gonna make progress in the Christian life. And that's something we've got to pursue all the time.

Knowing God Every Day

I've Often said this in my home church in Bangalore in India. Then for many churches it's Sunday, that's the important day Sunday morning. But I said for us Every day of the week is important. That should be a big difference.

Sunday is not any more special than any other day. We got to know God on Sunday, we got to know God on Monday Tuesday Wednesday right through the week. We've got to worship him on Sunday. We got to worship him every day of the week.

It's an Old Testament concept. That you worship God once a week and do what you like the rest of the week. That's how it was in the Old Testament. They had a Sabbath day when they were supposed to stop all their work and go to the synagogue or temple and And praise and worship God and the rest of the week they did what they liked they lived for money and fought and yelled with each other and then came back again on Saturday to worship God, but Jesus came and changed all that.

He says that was only a picture. The the Sabbath day was only a picture of how it was meant to be in God's plan where every day was a Sabbath. But every day we live and worship God every day. We came to know God in the midst of our secular occupation.

It's not just coming to a meeting and a singing and praising and listening to a message. We know God in the circumstances of life. God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us to know him. So eternal life is to know Jesus Christ.

Salvation From the Power of Sin

Our greatest need Is not money, it's not even health. Our greatest need is deliverance from sin. That's the root of the problem and If we don't deal with the root of the problem and just keep snipping off the bad fruit that appears on the tree.

We're never going to be completely delivered from all that Adam got from the devil. Jesus came the very first promise in the Bible in the New Testament. Sorry, the very first promise in the New Testament is found in the words of the angel Gabriel to Joseph when he said Mary is going to have a son and You got to call him Jesus.

Do you know what that means? The angel defined it in that first promise in Matthew 121. You shall call his name Jesus. Because he will save his people from their sins. Never forget that. That's how the first page of the New Testament opens in Matthew 121.

He will save his people from their sins. Now there are a lot of other things we may need salvation from. From poverty perhaps from sickness. From unemployment from lack of housing many things but the root of it all is Salvation from sin.

All these other problems come because of sin. If there was no sin in the world, there wouldn't be any of these other problems. A good doctor Will always seek to hit the root of a disease. Not just the symptoms.

Now a disease like tuberculosis May produce fever but if you just take a Medicine just to remove the fever. It doesn't heal the disease because you keep healing the fever and the disease just keeps growing and This is the problem With the presentation of a gospel and we hear a lot of it today.

Which is dealing with only the symptoms of the disease and not the disease itself. Is God interested in our earthly needs? Yes, he is. Sickness can be a very serious problem for people who are sick. Poverty can be a real problem.

I've seen that in my country a lot of my work Is in the villages of India poor villages many of our churches we have planted there. In some places where they have no no church for 2 ,000 years and I've seen poverty more than any of you have in these places.

So it is a real problem. But I'll tell you how I have seen that problem solved in the last 25 years. In some of the poorest places in the face of the earth. It's by teaching them to seek the kingdom of God first.

It's not by giving them handouts and helping them all the time. This is not theory. I Proved it. In fact when we when we started our ministry many years ago. One of my great desires When we started our church 32 years ago in India was I say Lord.

I want to prove in my lifetime that Matthew 6 33 Which which says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these other needs of yours will be added to you. I want to prove in my life that that's true.

That it works in the 20th century. It works in the 21st century and it works in the poorest places on the face of the earth. And I want to tell you today That I have seen it proved not only in my life, but in the lives of many others hundreds of families.

So I have seen that it's a deception of the devil to get people to concentrate on deliverance from poverty and sickness and To preach a gospel that tells you that Jesus will make you healthy and wealthy.

Those are the byproducts of being saved from sin. You know, I'll tell you this that if you are saved from poverty and you become a millionaire and You're saved healed from all your sicknesses and you haven't got rid of your anger.

You're still gonna go to hell. Yeah, that's right. And that's not me who said it. It's not me who said it. I want to read that to you in Matthew chapter 5 listen to the words of Jesus words of Jesus, which You may not hear much about Matthew chapter 5.

He said I say to you Matthew 5 verse 22 He equated anger with murder. He said in verse 21 you heard the ancients say that you shouldn't commit murder, but I say to you Everyone who is angry with his brother.

He's talking about anger is guilty. Guilty before the court that's when his anger is in his heart and When that anger flows out of the heart overflows through his mouth and he says raka, which means you fool.

You empty head. He'll be guilty further before a Supreme Court and and then if it boils over further and he gives him another bad name. It says you fool. He'll be guilty enough to go to hell. Who said those words?

Anger is the first of three steps to hell. That's what he said in that verse. So what's the use being delivered just from a poverty to say that God has blessed me with money to God has blessed me with health.

Is that what he came to save us from. Did did the angel Gabriel tell Joseph? You shall call his name Jesus because he's going to save people from poverty. That's not what he said. He's going to save people from sickness.

Those are byproducts of his saving people from sin. He came to save us from sin. That's why he died. We should never forget that he's interested in our other needs, but Jesus said your Heavenly Father knows what you need.

But he came to save us from sin. We must never forget that and so we need to understand. How is it that Jesus is going to save us from sin? First of all He has to save us from the guilt of sin. He's to save us save us from the mess.

We have made of our life and That is why he died on the cross. And he died on the cross and rose again. Not only to forgive us, but to justify us in case you don't understand those two words. I Want to explain it so that everybody here understands it clearly.

Forgiveness is God saying okay the guilt of your sin is removed. He can't remove it unless somebody's paid the price, and that's why Jesus had to die. You know God is a righteous judge not only a loving father.

But he's a righteous judge, and he can't let us go if you have committed a crime just because we love he loves us. I mean a son can't stand in a court, and if his dad is the judge say dad. Don't you love me?

Let me go for this crime. He can't do that and the foundations of justice in the world would be Removed if God stopped being just. You know many people when they think of God as a God of love. They don't realize that love includes justice.

For example if you you love one son of yours a child of yours a lot, and he is hammering his younger brother and You you want to punish him for doing that and he said dad don't you love me? Yeah, I love you, but I love that other son of mine, too.

And if you're gonna trouble him then I have to put discipline you. That's why There is a hell. I heard a story of is hell an expression of God's love. When you punish one son because he's harming the other one is that an expression of love of course.

It's an expression of your love for the other other child of yours. I Heard of a story of a man Who couldn't believe that a God of love could ever create hell? He said that's impossible one day. Somebody kidnapped his only daughter raped her Murdered her and he was never caught.

This man's opinion changed. He said if God hasn't created a hell. He has to create one for somebody like that who escaped justice on the earth. God is a God of justice there are millions of people who have harmed others who committed crimes.

Who escaped justice on this earth, but they're not gonna escape it forever. Because God is a God of love. He doesn't just love you. He loves your wife, and you better not hurt her. He loves your husband don't hurt him, so don't just think of God as a God of love for me.

It's because God is a God of love for the other person that he's a God of justice, and that's why Our sin when we heart others when we harm others. It's a crime against God and we need to be forgiven and That's why Jesus died on the cross.

To take our punishment so that we don't have to face it. He was forsaken on that cross when he cried out My God my God. Why have you forsaken me? I want I'm trying to get you to know Jesus eternal life is to know God and to know Jesus Christ whom he sent and And Why he sent him and I need to lay hold of this eternal life.

The Meaning of Christ’s Forsakenness

I need to know clearly what happened on the cross if we don't understand clearly what happened on the cross and We're just sentimental about it and get emotional when we see pictures of Jesus hanging on the cross and being whipped etc.

We're not gonna be freed from sin. We need to understand what actually happened there When he cried out my God my God. Why have you forsaken me I Tell you I have meditated on that for a long time if you understand that you'll hate sin with all your heart.

If you understand what Jesus went through from those three hours on the cross It's the only time in his entire life on earth That he looked at Heaven and said my god. He never called him father at that time only once he called him God.

All his life. He referred to him as father and he would talk to him as father father father father except once. When he hung on the cross He called him God. Have you ever thought about that? Why was that?

Because there he was standing in your place and my place. Before the judge of the universe. He was standing facing the punishment that a righteous holy judge of the universe demanded for our sin. Because God knows the future.

He could see the sins you're committing now. He could see it 2 ,000 years ago. That's why he could put that punishment on the cross on Jesus on the cross every sin that we've ever committed. God already saw it way back then in eternity and he put it on Christ on the cross and I've thought about this, you know.

Was it only physical death? That Jesus suffered on the cross. Is physical death the punishment for our sin? If it is. Then when I die, I paid the punishment for my sin, you see how ridiculous it is. Every man dies and if that is the punishment for sin, then he's paid the punishment.

But the punishment for sin is not physical death. It's eternal death and eternal death means being forsaken by God. The only God forsaken place in this universe is hell and that's what is the worst part of hell.

It's not the fire and the worms is the fact that God is not there. And we don't understand what it means to be in a place where God is not there. There's no part of this earth where God is not there. God is there.

His mercies are there even on the worst people on earth. God's presence is there but in hell it really is a God forsaken place. It's being forsaken by God for eternity. That's the punishment for sin. And then we understand what Jesus suffered on the cross when he hung there when he said my God my God.

Why have you forsaken me? He was really experiencing it and You know, that's the only time When Jesus asked a question when there was no answer from heaven. Every prayer of his was answered throughout his life immediately.

But here was one prayer a prayer why have you forsaken me. And there was no answer shall I tell you why? Because God doesn't answer the prayers of those whom he has forsaken. You know, we need to understand what Jesus went through on the cross.

It was the concentrated Punishment of an eternity in hell that was concentrated into three hours on the cross. It wasn't just physical. Wasn't just a whipping that you see in that film the passion of Christ.

That was nothing compared to what he went through which can never be portrayed in any movie those three hours that he went through being forsaken being cut off where if the Bible says that the father is the head of Christ as The head was wrenched off at that time.

It's very difficult for us to understand but as I began to understand what he went through for my sin. I Tell you the effect it had on me. I Said Lord, I Never want to sin again. If that's the price you had to pay.

If that's what you have to pray In order to deliver me that load was for him who bears the universe a load too heavy for him to bear My sin your sin when you see it You will understand that the forgiveness for our sins was not cheap.

It's free. But it's not cheap. Don't ever forget that Eternal life is to know Jesus Christ the price he paid for our forgiveness. The Bible says in the last verse of Romans chapter 4 that Jesus was raised again for our justification.

Justification and Imputed Righteousness

Now that's another word which many people don't understand our forgiveness and Justification the same they're not these are legal words. God is a righteous judge and if we understand these words it helps us in our relationship with God.

First of all forgiveness. I told you that's removal of the guilt of our sin because Sin deserves punishment and Jesus took it. Can we now that our sin is forgiven stand before God? Supposing this moment I have confessed all my sins and because of Christ's death all my past is forgiven.

I Still can't stand before God. Because there's so much sin still in my flesh When we are born again There's still sin in our flesh and we behave so badly thereafter. I mean haven't you seen the way believers behave?

Around you. How you don't need any more proof that there's sin in their flesh or haven't you seen how you behave After you were born again and after you were baptized. We even if all our sin is forgiven.

We're still unfit to stand before God because of sin in our flesh and That's why we need something else. We need to be justified and Justified means justified by the righteousness of Christ means that the righteousness of Christ It clothes us.

Where it's covers us we're clothed. Imagine a white robe the righteousness of Christ being put upon us and Then God sees us as he sees Jesus Christ. Think of that he sees me as he sees Jesus Christ. Because I'm clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

That's the meaning of justification. It's more than forgiveness now I'm declared righteous how righteous as Believe it or not as righteous as Christ himself. Many Christians haven't understood that and that's why they're so afraid to come to God.

Oh. But there's still so much sin in me. Well, if you haven't confessed the sins you're committed, then of course you can't go before God. The only sin that God doesn't forgive Is the sin you don't confess.

That's all I hope you know that every sin that you confess and Acknowledge and don't put the blame on your wife or husband or somebody else like Adam did you'll be forgiven. It's when we put the blame on somebody else and say well Lord, you know.

It's this wife of mine who gave me this fruit and you're the one who gave me this wife. That's why Adam was kicked out of paradise and that's the way to get out of paradise yourself. Blame your wife blame your husband blame somebody else blame your neighbor blame God ultimately but on the other hand.

Learn a lesson from the thief on the cross. Who lived such a wicked life, but in that last moment just before he died. He said Lord, I'm guilty. I deserve this. Oh. Really Jesus said You can come to paradise today.

You can be with me in paradise. Paradise is made for those who take the blame themselves for their sin. And you don't blame anybody else. But it's so difficult. It's so difficult. Try taking the blame in your home and Try stopping.

Blaming other people it's very difficult. We've got the nature of Adam right in us. We can all learn a lesson from the thief on the cross who was saved. Lord I'm guilty. I deserve this. That's the way to enter paradise.

Coming Boldly in Christ’s Righteousness

So if our sin is confessed and forgiven We also need to recognize we are clothed now the righteousness of Christ that we can come boldly to God now. Can you imagine how boldly Jesus could come to the father when he was on earth?

He could ask the father for anything. How boldly can Jesus go to the father today? You have any doubt in your mind about Jesus having some hesitation to go before his father or something like that. Oh, he he could go boldly to the father at any time.

Why. Because he was perfectly righteous. Can you believe it that you can go to the father in exactly the same way. This is what it means when we pray in the name of Jesus. For many people when a person prays in the name of Jesus it all it means is that's the end of the prayer we can Say amen.

It means a lot more than that. It means that I come in the person of Christ Clothed with the righteousness of Christ father. That's why I'm asking for it. I don't deserve it. I remember many years ago when I asked God for some.

It was some little material thing for my home for my family a Real need not luxuries, and I said Lord Can't you do this for me? Well, I've served you for so many years. And the Lord said no, and I learned something that day.

I Was coming in my name. I Have done so much for you. Once you do this for me and the Lord says no. You've got to come in the name of Jesus and say Lord I deserve nothing even if I've served you for 50 years.

I deserve nothing. But because Jesus died for me I come father says sure. You can have it in that case. It's all a question of how you come and I don't mean just using the magic words in the name of Jesus.

I don't mean that. We're not talking about mantras that non-christian religions teach no. We're talking about a whole attitude where I come before God recognizing that there's nothing in me. Paul said towards the end of his life in my flesh there dwells nothing good.

That's the greatest apostle in the first century who said that. Then how was he accepted clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We need to know Jesus Christ. We need to lay hold of this eternal life so that we have boldness of access when we come before God.

You know so many years of my early Christian life was wasted in hesitation and fear to come before God. Can I ask him for this. Can I ask him for that because I wasn't told clearly what justification was I?

Was told Jesus died for me or sins are forgiven. But nobody explained to me the truth. If somebody had I would have been free a lot earlier than I did become free. Now I want every one of you to be free if you have confessed your sin.

I want you to know that you can be justified in Christ. Forgiveness is only half the story. Justification is the other half and It's quite likely that some of you have probably understood it for the first time this morning.

Your life will be free when you understand that you need you can have boldness when you come before God you remember that story the parable that Jesus taught about a whole lot of people invited for a wedding and They made one excuse or the other that was referring to the Jewish nation.

They didn't want to come and the king said this is my son's wedding feast go out into the highways and byways and pick up all the beggars and the lame and the sick people and the lepers and bring them in and At the gate.

Everybody was given, you know, these were beggars in the rags. You can't come into King's wedding feast in rags. So at the gate everybody was given this beautiful white robe. The beggars were delighted and we don't have to go in here in our rags.

We can go in this beautiful white robe. But there was one fellow who came along with a nice suit and tie and he said I don't need that robe. I'm okay by myself. He went in without that robe because his dress he thought was good enough.

He wasn't in rags, he wasn't a beggar. He was a big executive. And he sat there in the feast with everybody dressed in white and this man sitting in his suit and tie. And the king came and looked over and said, how did that fellow get in here?

Without a robe and It says the king said take him out and throw him into the outer darkness. You know, what is the message of that? Parable. That no matter how holy you think you are. You can't get in the king's feast without the robe of Christ's righteousness.

You with all your holiness. Are down at the same level as the worst prostitute in the city. With all your holiness. You're no better than the worst criminal the person you despise the most. You're no better than Hitler.

No better than Osama bin Laden or Whoever you think is the worst sinner. You've got to have the righteousness of Christ if you want to enter the king's feast. But that's not all. Jesus came to save us not only from the penalty of sin.

Salvation From Sin’s Power

He came to save us from the power of sin. What did the angel say you shall call his name Jesus? Because he shall save his people from their sins. Not he shall forgive them and leave them in their sins.

He shall save his people from their sins. And one of the best illustrations I like to use for that is Supposing I have a five-year-old boy and I tell him Hey son, they're digging the road outside our house.

Doing some repair work there and there's a deep six-foot pit there. Don't go anywhere near it and like all little children they disobey and He goes and falls into the pit. Poor five-year-old boy inside that pit me cries out daddy daddy, and I come running and say daddy.

I'm sorry. I Disobeyed you please forgive me. And I say, okay son, you're forgiven. Goodbye. Have I forgiven him? Yes, I have. Have I saved him? You understand the difference between forgiveness and salvation.

Very Often we ask are you saved and the reply we give is I'm forgiven. When I ask you are you saved? Are you saved from your anger? Are you saved from lusting with your eyes? Are you saved from the love of money?

Are you saved from jealousy? Are you saved from complaining? Are you saved from murmuring grumbling? Are you saved from fear? Are you saved from anxiety? Are you saved from hatred? Are you saved from backbiting?

Are you saved from? Empty criticism of others. Are you saved from stabbing people in the back? Are you saved from climbing on people's shoulders and pushing them down so that you can go up? You say no none of these things then.

What are you saved from? Oh? I'm saved from hell. Do you know that there's no such expression in the Bible as being saved from hell. Nowhere. Take a concordance and have a look you won't find it. You shall call his name Jesus the angel said.

Because he will save his people not from hell, but from their sins as a byproduct they escape hell. But he came to save us from our sins. He didn't come to forgive us and leave us in the pit. He came to save us.

To lift us up. Otherwise this wouldn't be a gospel. Imagine if I were to give a tract a gospel tract to a non-christian whom I'm trying to witness to about Christ a Non-christian who doesn't know anything about Christ or the gospel.

There are many like that different religions and I tell him you know this Jesus died for our sins and If you receive him he'll forgive you. He said that's great but he says I Have other problems in my life.

I have these addictions and Jesus. I get angry I fight at home and He asked me you think Jesus can save me from all that and if I haven't experienced deliverance from that I said no no. No, Jesus can't save you from all that, but he can forgive you your sin.

What do I do if I yell and hit my wife tomorrow? Well just ask Jesus to forgive you. And what if I hit her a day after tomorrow just ask Jesus to forgive you. And what if I keep on hitting her for the next 10 years just ask Jesus to forgive you.

He'd say I don't want this. This is no gospel. What type of gospel are you trying to preach to me I? Can never be delivered from all these bad habits of mine rather just keep being forgiven. Is that the gospel?

No. He came to save his people from their sins. The name of Jesus is Blasphemed in every nation on earth today. Because Christians have not proclaimed by their life that Jesus can save from sin. They've only proclaimed that Jesus can forgive.

I know because I when I left my job in the Navy in 1966 I spent nine years traveling all across India north south east west and I Went to different denominations mission stations places where so many missionaries had come and worked.

And I saw everywhere the problem was the quality of the life of Christians and you know I Found many Christians were complaining. Oh, we're only 2 of India's population. 98 are non-christians. It's so sad.

We're only 2 And I said boy, thank God we're only 2 of this quality of Christians. Imagine if it were 50 of this quality of Christians. What a disgrace it had been the name of Christ. We need to improve the quality of Christians before we increase the percentage of Christians.

So I decided at that time that God was calling me to preach discipleship. Evangelism is necessary very necessary. But evangelism without discipleship, I've discovered brings dishonor to the name of Christ.

Laying Hold of Eternal Life Through Discipleship

And that's because we're not encouraging people to lay hold of eternal life. We've told them Romans 6 23 use our logic and said Romans 6 23 says the gift of God is eternal life. How do you what do you do with a gift if somebody gives you a gift?

You just say thank you very much, and then the Bible is mine for the rest of my life. But eternal life is not like that. You can't use logic when you come to scripture. You can use logic when you're studying math.

But not when you come to scripture. Eternal life is not something I just received once in habit. Paul told Timothy 25 years after he saved lay hold of eternal life Timothy. You got to know God better.

You got to know Jesus Christ better. Now I want to tell you the good news that Jesus came. Not only to forgive our sins not only to justify us and give us boldness before God. But to deliver you from every wretched thing you got from Adam.

Every wretched sinful habit when Adam opened his heart to the devil of the poison of Satan came in the poison of pride and jealousy and selfishness and every wretched thing and we've got it and Jesus came to deliver us from it.

He came to save us from it, and that's why he sent the Holy Spirit Into our hearts so that we can be delivered from it. So to know Jesus Christ. To know him as my Savior. The one who's died for me on the cross it's not enough.

There isn't there is a there are many titles of Christ. You know in the Bible. But I want to tell you about the title of Christ now, which I think most of you my guess is most of you Have probably never heard of.

Jesus Christ as Our Forerunner

You know him as a good Shepherd. You know he's the bread of life. He's no use the light of the world. He's a resurrection in the life the many many titles of Christ. He's Savior good Shepherd. Everything but have you heard this title of Christ our Forerunner that's not found in the Gospels.

It's found in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 20. We need to know Jesus not only as our Shepherd our Savior. We also need to know him in Hebrews 6 20. This is what it means part of what it means to know him known as it to lay hold of eternal life.

Jesus has entered in within the whale. It says as a forerunner Jesus has entered in to the most holy places of forerunner. A Forerunner means just what it says one who is run in front of us and when you link that with Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1 and 2.

You understand it better. Hebrews chapter 12 where it's 1 and 2 it says. The last part of verse 1 it's lets us run with endurance. This race that is set before us verse 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith who for the joy set before him Endured the cross despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God.

How are we to run this race? Looking at our forerunner who ran this race in front of us. Taking up the cross Despising the shame that was in his earthly life and now at the right hand of God. So when we look at Jesus, we need to look at him in two areas one in his earthly life where he despised the shame and endured the cross and Secondly where he is today at the right hand of God.

We need to know Jesus the way he lived on earth and Where he is right now. He ran the same race That we are called to run. I remember when they were training us in as cadets To become officers in the Indian Navy.