New Covenant Doctrine or Life — Zac Poonen

New Covenant Doctrine and the Danger of Doctrinal Pride

So, we call ourselves a New Covenant Christian Church and I think in all these five years there's a lot that you have heard about the New Covenant both in maybe videos that you watched at home on the internet and also messages that you've heard from different ones I've shared here through the years.

So, we considered some of the marks of spiritual growth which is the spirit of thankfulness, humility, and deeper fellowship among ourselves. What are some of the dangers as we seek to pursue this life?

I think one of the dangers which I have seen because we've been planning churches for forty years, I've seen one of the dangers is particularly for clever, intelligent people, which most of you are or if not all of you, is the danger of thinking that because we understand the doctrine and we can explain it clearly and that we are better than other churches that don't understand the doctrine or that don't preach it.

That can be a tremendous deception. The Bible says in John chapter 1 and verse 4 that in Christ was life and that life was the light of men. Jesus told us to be the light of the world. What does that mean?

In the Old Covenant, here we read of the light as the life of Jesus, it's very clear. In him was life and that life was the light of men. So that's why he said I am the light of the world in John chapter 8 and verse 12.

I am the light of the world. But he also said in John chapter 9 and verse 5 that I am the light of the world only as long as I am in the world. Once I leave the world, I mean it's very clear, as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

We know that he's not in the world now. He said in John 17, Father I'm coming to you, I'm no longer in the world. Then he gave that responsibility to us. He said in Matthew 5 .14, you are the light of the world.

He looked at his disciples and said you're the light of the world. So if somebody were to ask you who is the light of the world today, you say we, we as a church. You say not Jesus. Jesus said he was the light of the world as long as he was in the world.

I believe his word in John 9 verse 5. And then he turned around to us and said you're the light of the world. Now that's an awesome responsibility and that's why we don't like to say it. We don't like to say we're the light of the world because we look at the way we're living and some of us may be pretty ashamed of the way we live.

We say how can I say we are the light of the world? That's what should bring us down on our faces and say why are we living like that? Why are we living in a world, why are we living in a way that we're not the light of the world?

Something's seriously wrong. Okay, if you're newly born again for a couple of years, that's okay. It's like little children take about two years to get steady on their feet. And we read in the Old Testament that when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, it took two years for them to come to the borders of Canaan.

You read that in Deuteronomy 2 .14. After two years they came to the borders of Canaan. God told them to go in and they didn't go in. So they wandered for another 38 years. So what I see from that is Canaan is a life of victory and triumph.

Picture of it. And God expected them to come to that in two years. So I see that as God's plan. That if you're born again, if you're really sincerely born again, in two years you should come to life of victory.

If you haven't, I think part of the reason is there's not been a proper repentance. That means we are born facing sin with God on our back. Repentance means a 180 degree turn where God is in front of us and sin and the world are behind us.

Now with many, many Christians that is not true. Sin and the world are not behind them. And that's because they heard an improper gospel. A gospel that emphasized faith, believe, believe, just confess your sin and believe.

And did not emphasize the most important thing, repentance. So without repenting or repenting 90 degrees instead of 180 degrees, one eye on the world, one eye on God. They try to believe and confess their sin.

And they imagine, I'm okay, you're not okay. The message that John the Baptist brought as a forerunner to Christ is the message that is the forerunner of the gospel. The gospel is salvation through Christ, but there's a message that prepares the way for the gospel, that's the message of John the Baptist.

Repentance. That is a turning around. So just like God sent John the Baptist and he said, I've come here to raise the valleys and bring down the mountains and make the crooked places straight and to remove the rough places and make them smooth.

These are four different pictures he used about repentance. Bringing down all the high thoughts and lifting up all the depressed valleys and making the crooked things in our life straight and making the rough places smooth.

You read that in Luke chapter 3. He was preaching repentance and that was the preparation for faith. Paul said in Acts 20, I preach repentance and faith everywhere I go. So that is the reason why and if that's been true in your case, you can see perhaps that is the main reason why people have not grown spiritually or not come into a life of victory in two years or can be here for five years and still be defeated.

Even though you've heard and heard and heard and heard and still you're yelling at each other at home and still lusting and pursuing after money and things like that and you've got all the right theory.

But the light which is the life of Jesus is not shining and that's okay. But the sad thing is it's not bringing us down on our faces in weeping and saying, Lord, why isn't that happening? I've been here so long and why isn't that happening in our life?

We're not disturbed by it. That's a serious thing. I've often told people that the fact that you sin is not as serious as the fact that you don't weep after you sin. That's more serious. That shows a lack of sensitivity.

It's like, you know, when we get a little injury on our hand, we immediately react to it and want to do something about it. If you get a cut, you don't just leave it. But if you have leprosy, you wouldn't even feel that because lepers don't have sensation.

So when I sin and it doesn't make me weep, it's an indication of our conscience having lost its sensitivity. It's a serious condition. It's spiritual leprosy. I know a lot of people who have come to our church in Bangalore and have said to me after a few years there, Brother Zang, I don't really believe I was saved until I came here.

I said, why? He said, I thought I was born again and saw the church I attended. But I was so defeated by sin and I realized that I never knew what repentance was until I came here. I never got a clear understanding of what sin was until I came here.

So until you understand what sin is, how can you repent from it? If you know where South is, then you can turn around from South and face North. But if you don't know where the South is, then how do you turn around and face North?

So if you don't know what sin is, you can't repent. So you don't know what darkness is, you don't know what the light is. And that, I believe, is where the devil has blinded so many people concerning what is darkness.

Self-Centeredness as the Root of Darkness

The darkness in our life is basically due to our self-centeredness. That our life is centered around myself. If we grow up like that, the entire world lives a self-centered life. Whether they are politicians or businessmen or academics or megachurch pastors, very often it's self projecting themselves.

And if my life is self-centered, I'm really following the way that Adam went. Even if I've added a little religion to it. Because the way Jesus is being preached by many preachers today is, He will bless you.

Well, who in the world doesn't want to be blessed? There's not a single human being in the world who doesn't want to be blessed. Come and Jesus will bless you and He'll forgive all your sins. He will take you to heaven and He will even bless you materially.

And He'll make you healthy. Every human being in the world wants to be healthy. Every human being in the world wants to be wealthy. Every human being in the world wants to be blessed. And every human being in the world wants to go to heaven.

So the entire world should respond to such a gospel. And most people do. But Jesus said the way to life is narrow and very few find it. So that must be another gospel altogether. And that's the deception that's going on in Christendom today.

So that's the thing we have to stand against. And proclaim as error. By the light of our lives. In the old covenant, if you read Psalm 119. We read there. Psalm 119 and verse 105. Psalm 119 verse 105.

Lord your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. You see there. In the old testament, the light was the written word. The law and the messages of the prophets. Thy word is my light. What is the light in the new covenant?

The life of Jesus. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. So in what way was Israel supposed to be a light? In the old covenant. By keeping the law. And keeping everything written in the word as long as they kept those commandments.

God was happy with them. You are my witnesses. But in the new covenant. It's not by keeping certain commandments. That we manifest the light. So remember this very clearly in your mind. In the old covenant, the word was the light.

In the new covenant, it's the life of Jesus. That is the light. And I believe these two are symbolized in the two trees in the garden of Eden. There is a tree of knowledge of good and evil. And there is a tree of life.

To me in one sense, that is a picture of old covenant and new covenant. Because knowledge of good and evil is not wrong in itself. Don't we want our children to know what is good and what is evil? To do evil is wrong.

But to know what is good and evil. Why did God tell Adam? If you eat of that, you will die. Why does the knowledge of good and evil bring death? We need to understand that. You see, you could have spent five years here.

Recognizing more and more what is good and what is evil. It's evil to shout at my wife. It's good to speak kindly to her. Knowledge of good and evil, many, many things. And through the years, the more you hear, the more you understand what is good and evil.

And you may be sitting around the tree of knowledge of good and evil the whole time. Because this book can be the tree of knowledge of good and evil to you or the tree of life. It all depends on how you approach it.

The Tree of Knowledge Versus the Tree of Life

I show you that from the New Testament. This is the big difference between the Pharisees and Jesus. The Pharisees knew the Scriptures. Jesus knew the Scriptures. The Pharisees prayed, Jesus prayed. The Pharisees fasted, Jesus fasted.

Do you know the Pharisees even did evangelism? They crossed land and sea to make proselytes, we read in Matthew 23. Jesus did evangelism, traveling around. The Pharisees gave their money to God and Jesus gave also.

So what was the difference? There's a lot of similarity. And yet one was all religious. And the other was spiritual. Living under the old covenant makes a man religious. Living under the new covenant makes a person spiritual.

There's a world of difference between the two. And it's very, very easy to sit in a new covenant church and to take the letter of the law and just be a Pharisee. To say, I thank you that I'm not like other men.

I thank you that we're not like other churches. And yeah, the Pharisees had a pretty good life. Jesus himself gave a certificate to the Pharisees, do you know that? He gave two certificates to the Pharisees.

Good certificates. They weren't all evil. There were a lot of things wrong with the Pharisees. There were two good things he said in Matthew 23. One is, Matthew 23 and verse 25, he said, you clean the outside of the cup.

Isn't that a good testimony that our external life is clean? Isn't it good not to be a drunkard or a gambler or sexual molester or very gracious and good externally? You keep your external life clean.

The Pharisees were like that. Jesus gave that certificate. If Jesus gives you a certificate that your external life is clean, that's great. There's one more certificate he gave to them. And that was in verse 2 and 3.

He told his disciples, the Pharisees sit on the seat of Moses. They are the people who proclaim the law. Everything they tell you to do, do. Isn't that a good certificate? Jesus wouldn't say, everything that the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you to do, do.

Or everything that the Roman Catholics tell you to do, do. About whom would Jesus say every single thing that they tell you to do, do? I would say in a new covenant church. Everything they tell you to do, do.

Whatever they teach from the pulpit is absolutely spot on, right. And yet they were Pharisees. Is that possible? So what are the two things Pharisees had which are good? Absolutely right doctrine and a very good external life.

Do you have absolutely right doctrine and a good external life? You could be a Pharisee. Jesus also had absolutely right doctrine and a good external life. But he had something more. He had an inner life that was pure.

He had a private life where nobody could see. That was pure and full of love. That is what makes the difference. So all of us sitting here, we may have the right doctrine and a good external life. Everybody sees it and admires you.

Thinks you are a wonderful Christian. Because they can only see your external life. All of us, apart from members of your own family, all the others you meet here, you actually know only about less than 10 of their life.

90 of their life you never see. Even a wife does not see that major area of her husband's thought life. She sees zero in there. Even if they have been married 50 years. He could be absolutely impure there.

His wife may be thinking he is such a pure man. Because externally he is pure. That is the great area of deception. That is the great danger that new covenant churches can face. And the only way we can overcome that, is if you refuse to live before the face of man.

And say, Lord, it is only your opinion about me that matters. I refuse to live before my wife or my husband or what they think of me. It is good. It is good to have a good testimony before men. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

So I am not devaluing your good external testimony. It is very, very important. If your life is bad before men itself, then it is hopeless. At least we should come to that as a minimum standard, that our light shines before they see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

What I am saying is that is not enough. Jesus wasn't living before men. He lived before his Father. In Isaiah 53, the well-known chapter about Jesus and his crucifixion, and his death on the cross. We read these words at the beginning.

Isaiah 53, I don't know whether you noticed it. Sometimes a little phrase you can miss. What is the first thing mentioned in Isaiah 53? It is not about the cross. It is not about us bearing our sins and carrying our griefs and being afflicted by God and smitten.

All that comes later. The first thing mentioned about Jesus in Isaiah 53 verse 2 is He grew up before his Father like a tender shoot, like a root out of a parched ground. And before men, the rest of that verse says he has no form or majesty nor appearance that people should be attracted to him.

And he was despised and rejected, verse 3. That is okay. But he grew up before his Father. This is where we are to follow Jesus. So, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is something that tells us what is right and wrong.

External life, we can set it right according to that. And yet, not enjoy eternal life, which is the nature of God within us. A person who is partaking more and more of eternal life, which is the life of God, will find that his inner life becomes purer and purer.

It's not just his external testimony before men. That is new covenant Christianity. That's what Jesus said is the new wine. The old wine is what the Pharisees had. A good external testimony, but a pretty corrupt inner life.

And I fear, I fear that many who understand new covenant truths could be living like that. And we don't want to get a rude shock when Christ comes again and discover that you were no better than somebody sitting in an old covenant church.

Except that your external life was better. Or your knowledge and understanding of good and evil was better. That's the great danger. So, we read in John chapter 5 about this difference. You know, Jesus spoke to the Pharisees.

Scripture Knowledge Must Lead to Christlikeness

And he says in John 5 verse 39, You search the scriptures. Well, that's a very good thing. We do it too. A lot of people today don't search the scriptures, I'm sorry to say. We have a generation of Christians growing up today who know more about television than God's word.

A lot of Christians, they consider themselves Christians. I don't know how they call themselves Christians. If they spend more time before television than the word of God. What sort of Christianity is that?

I can't imagine Jesus living on earth, even if you're living today, watching television more than reading God's word. Or knowing God's word. There's something fundamentally wrong with that type of Christianity.

Where they can spend hours watching sport, in just a few minutes, in God's word. You could be a new government Christian with that attitude. It means that this is a ritual I have to go through. Because I'm a Christian, I have to sort of go through the ritual of reading the Bible everyday.

But my real interest is, not sin, not sinful things, but a lot of other things. The Bible says all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. And the difference between a carnal, soulish Christian and a spiritual Christian is this.

Both may stick to doing only lawful things, but the spiritual man is, from the hundred lawful things that he can do, he selects ten profitable things and does that. And there are very few Christians who do that type of selection, of the way they use their time or spend their money, or the way they live their life.

And if God sees that, I ease my conscience by saying, I'm not doing anything unlawful. Well, you keep a good testimony and you may get to heaven. I hope so, but you can get there with a lot of regret.

About the way you lived on earth. I don't know whether you're familiar with that verse, if you're not, let me show it to you. 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 12. All things are lawful for me. He didn't mean by that sinful things.

Paul had already come to give up sin. He was saying, among the things that I've given up, sinful things, but among all the other things that I can do now, which are not sinful, they're all lawful. But among them, maybe only ten percent is profitable.

And I select what is profitable and spend my life doing that. Yeah, I have a little time for other things, but those are not the main things in my life. And so, all things are lawful for me, but I won't be mastered by anything.

He refused to be mastered by anything on this earth. You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free. If there's anything on earth that masters me, I'm a slave to that. It may not be a sinful thing.

Maybe a good thing. Maybe eating. Maybe a sport. Maybe my profession. Maybe a job. And that masters me. It's the most important thing for me in my life. I want to say to you, my dear brother and sister, you're not a New Covenant Christian at all.

You're an old Covenant Christian with a little bit of New Covenant whitewash, which fools people. But you know in your life what masters you. A New Covenant Christian is one who is mastered by God. The law, Jesus explained the law once when people asked him.

He said, it is to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength in mind. That, the Pharisees missed. So, coming back to John 5, I was pointing out that verse. He was speaking to the Pharisees, and he said to them in John 5 .39, You search the Scriptures, which is a very good thing.

But your mistake is, you think that eternal life is there. That eternal life is in these pages in ink. This is only paper and ink. There's no eternal life in paper and ink. It can give you knowledge. It can give you information.

Correct knowledge, correct information. It's like reading a good chemistry book. You'll get correct information on chemistry. So you can get correct information about God and about Jesus by reading the Scriptures.

But you think eternal life is there. It's not there. That was the mistake of the Pharisees. They thought eternal life is in a book. You read it, you know the Scriptures, you know the verses, you know all the teachings of the New Covenant, and I've got eternal life.

No, it is these that bear witness of me, Jesus said. So the Scriptures bear witness of Jesus. And if we don't see Jesus in the Scriptures, then we missed it completely. And he says, you're unwilling to come to me, that you may have this eternal life.

So you see the contrast there between the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Let me read to you like this. You go to verse 39, you search the tree of knowledge of good and evil because you think eternal life is there.

But it's not there. But you won't come to the tree of life, that you may have eternal life. So I believe that is one of the dangers we face. What's that? Being satisfied with our external testimony, being satisfied that our knowledge of doctrine is all accurate, very accurate, that we can explain the New Covenant so clearly that other people can understand it.

Understand it what? Intellectually. It just makes you a good, soulish Christian, not a spiritual one. Because you still may be satisfied doing lawful things and not selecting the profitable out of the lawful.

But yet your testimony is very good. You know, if you examine your life, and see whether, do you constantly, I want to ask you, do you constantly compare your life with Jesus' life or not? I seek to do that every day.

And for many years now. I think I've understood New Covenant doctrine for a number of years now. But I've discovered through the years that that's not enough. I'm not purifying my doctrine because there's very little left to be purified.

I've studied it pretty thoroughly and my doctrine is pretty accurate. But I'm purifying my life. You search the scriptures and you think eternal life is there. It's not there. And through the scriptures you're supposed to come to me.

Turn to 1 John and chapter 3. See, we've all got this doctrine right because we've heard it many times, Romans 8, 29, that we are predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son, Jesus Christ, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.

So we've got it right. I mean, if you have a questionnaire on New Covenant, I think most of us would get probably 100%. Which only proves you've got a good knowledge, you've got a good understanding. Our intellect is wonderful.

And the cleverer you are, the more you get marks for that questionnaire on New Covenant theology. But it doesn't mean necessarily that your life is like that. So we've understood our goal is to become like Jesus Christ.

That's a destination I have to go to. And like you've heard me say, if your ticket says San Francisco to New York and you get into, how do you know you got into the right plane? Well, every hour you should be getting closer to New York.

If you're not, you're in the wrong plane. You're in the wrong flight. How do I know that I'm going in the right direction? Predestined, my destination is becoming like Christ. Every year, I should be becoming a little more like Christ.

And the best person to tell you whether that's right or wrong is your marriage partner. Who can tell you, darling, you're becoming more Christ-like. Something has changed in you in the last one year.

Not your knowledge is better, or you preach better, or you share better, or you pray better. The Pharisees could do all that. So 1 John 3 says, we know, here's the destination. In the middle of verse 2, right now, beloved, we are the children of God.

Verse 2, we are born again. But it has not yet appeared what we shall be, our destination. When He comes, we shall be like Him. We would have reached our destination, becoming Christ-like. But how do you know whether you're going in the right direction?

That it says in the next verse. If you have this hope, or if you're going in the right direction, you will be purifying yourself constantly. To what extent? As He is pure. In other words, you will not stop purifying yourself until you become like Christ, which is only when He comes again.

So how do I purify myself? There is a cleansing of my life, like I've said many times, which is the guilt of my sin. I can do nothing about it. I cannot purify my sin. I can cleanse it away. It's only the blood of Jesus and His death on the cross that can take care of my past.

But in this future of my life, I have to purify myself with God's help. The past, God takes care of. The future, I have to take care of. To me, it's the picture of the Egyptians God killed in the Red Sea.

He buried them all. The Israelites didn't have to lift a finger. But the Canaanites, the Israelites had to kill themselves. God didn't say, OK, I'll kill the Canaanites for you. You see the difference between the two?

One is the old man that's crucified with Christ. The other is the flesh, which I have to crucify. Galatians 5 .24 says, those who are Christ's crucify the flesh. But Romans 6 says, the old man was crucified by God.

The Egyptians were buried by God. The Canaanites, I have to kill myself. The Old Testament picture is exact. That's why it's good to study the Old Testament. And the Egyptians are all buried in a moment.

One moment. The old man is finished. It's not a gradual process. It's like baptism. Baptism symbolizes your old man is buried and you're up again. It's in a moment. It's over. But the flesh is a lifelong thing.

It's like the Israelites went into the land of Canaan, and each of those giants represent different lusts in our flesh, desires and passions. And they had to kill them one by one by one by one. And the New Testament speaks about conscious sin and unconscious sin.

And we need to know the distinction. I have to finish with conscious sin constantly. And as I finish with conscious sin, God shows me a little more of what I was unconscious of, unchrist-like areas that I didn't know about.

And I can deal with that and move on. That is the mark of Christian progress. This is the way that I know I'm in the new covenant. That someone asked me this, Brother Zach, what is the proof that God is blessing you?

And I said, first of all, let me tell you, it's got nothing to do with my ministry. A lot of people who cast out demons and prophesy and heal the sick, who will stand before Jesus and say, boast about all that, and the Lord will say, I didn't even know you.

Can you imagine that? Anybody who glories in a ministry doesn't have a clue how it's going to be in the day of judgment. Jesus said that in Matthew 7, 22 -23. Many will come to me. Many means hundreds of thousands of people, preachers, who will stand before Jesus and say, Lord, Lord, we did miracles in your name.

We cast out demons in your name. We prophesy, that means we preach great sermons in your name. And Jesus doesn't say, you're telling lies. You never did that. No. That's not what he tells them. If they were bluffing, they wouldn't dare to bluff Jesus.

Even if they were trying, he would have told them, that's all a lie, you never did any of that. And you never did it in my name. No, he accepts it. In Jesus' name, you preached, you cast out demons, and he did many miracles, not one or two.

You read Matthew 7, 23, many miracles. But I will say to them, depart from me, you who lived in sin. So that shows me one very important thing about the day of judgment. That the important thing in the day of judgment will not be how much ministry you had, but what your attitude to sin was.

Because when it comes to ministry, you can feel so inferior to someone who is so gifted. And I've seen that in the church, that some are extremely gifted. They've got ten talents. You've got only one.

But God's not going to evaluate us on the basis of how many talents you had. You don't have to feel discouraged that you can't preach like somebody else, or do miracles like somebody else, or cast out demons like somebody else, because that's not going to be the important thing in the day of judgment.

The important thing in the day of judgment is going to be, was there sin in your life? Did you deal with sin in your life? And that puts us all on the same level. Who here can say that somebody else has got an advantage in dealing with sin?

We've all got the same flesh. We've all got the same access to the Holy Spirit's power, if we want to. We all have the same opportunity to humble ourselves. God gives grace to the humble. Who's preventing you from humbling yourself and getting God's grace?

Nobody. Only you yourself. And if you get grace, the Bible says, sin will not rule over you when you're under grace. I mean, this is a verse that I often, I never get tired of repeating it. Romans 6 .14 says, I can never sin as long as grace is over me.

If I'm under grace, during the moments I'm under grace, sin cannot rule over me. The moment I move away from that covering of grace, sin gets power over me. And when is it I move from the covering of grace?

When I become proud. God gives grace to the humble, 1 Peter 5 .5, but he resists the proud. And I sin because at that moment God has not given me grace. I made this a law, a rule in my life, that any time I slip up, even if I slip up in a word that was unchrist-like, one word that was unchrist-like, that's a sin.

I say, Lord, I slipped up there, and I know why I slipped up. I didn't get grace from you. That's why I spoke like that. Oh, that's why I did that thing. And I didn't get grace from you because you saw some area of pride in me which I still haven't seen.

Please show it to me. That's what I always do. And if you do that, I guarantee you will walk on this path of self-purification by the power of the Holy Spirit, that you will not be the same person next year that you are right now.

You'll be more Christ-like. You'd have progressed towards your destination. You're on the right flight then, moving in the right direction. I just want to save all of you from self-deception. The Bible speaks about deceiving ourselves.

Humility, Self-Deception, and the Value of Christ

And it's one thing for the devil to deceive us. It's okay, but the Bible often speaks about deceiving ourselves, and that's what I'm trying to save you from. See, for example, Galatians 6, and verse 3.

If anyone thinks he's a somebody when he's a nobody, he deceives himself. Do you recognize that you're a nobody? Maybe you recognize that when you got first converted, that you're a nobody. But I've seen very often people after they've been a few years in a church, they no longer feel that they are nobodies.

They are now senior believers. They're sort of somebodies in the church. That's why they don't grow. They're deceiving themselves. If anyone thinks he's a somebody when he's a nobody, he deceives himself.

Do you know that you're supposed to be a nobody till the end of your life? Because that's the only way we can give Jesus the right place. I don't know, some of you may have seen that video of mine, of a message I gave in CFC Bangalore, where I got seven or eight brothers to come up one by one and hold a zero in front of them.