Jesus Will Save Me From My Sins — Sandeep Poonen

The Gospel Is Jesus Saving Us From Sin

And I was thinking we can, one of the big truths that we hear in CFC is that we should take sin seriously. That sin is one of the things that is, sin is the only thing that keeps us from God. And if you're like me, we can look at our lives and we can see our sins.

We can look at our lives and we can be sick of our sins. And I think that's probably why all of us came to this church. And we can look at our lives and we wish we didn't have to sin. That's probably why we're here too.

And we can think that the gospel is that Sandeep will not sin. That can be the gospel for me that Sandeep will not sin. And I think that it's a good day when Sandeep did not sin. And it's a bad day when Sandeep did sin.

But I'm realizing that the gospel is not Sandeep did not sin or Sandeep did sin. And the good day is not when Sandeep did not sin and the bad day is not when Sandeep did sin. The good news, the gospel is in Matthew chapter 1 verse 21.

And it's a subtle difference but to me it's a very important difference. And I have to ask myself, is the gospel that I am believing, is the gospel that Sandeep will not sin? Or is the gospel Jesus will save Sandeep from sin?

And I have to ask myself, how did I live today? How did I live this week? How did I live this year? Am I trying to get better and better at not sinning? Or am I trying to get better and better at Jesus saving me from my sin?

The emphasis is very different. If I ask myself, then the gospel becomes a command rather than a promise. I can make it a command, it can become a law that becomes burdensome. Sandeep must not sin, Sandeep will not sin, Sandeep will not sin.

And I wake up every morning and say, Lord Jesus I don't want to sin today, I don't want to sin today. I really don't want to sin today. And it becomes whatever form of gritting my teeth it needs to become.

But the gospel is a promise. The promise is that Jesus will save me from my sins. And so that's a good day. Because otherwise I can look at my track record and get proud. Because I did okay today, I did not sin in this way, I did not sin in that way.

And I look at my track record and say, Sandeep did not sin most of the time. I bit my tongue, I didn't speak in angry tones, I didn't lust, I didn't judge. But I didn't give Jesus the place he was supposed to have in my life.

He was supposed to do the work of saving me again and again. And so if I think about that statement, Jesus will save me from my sins. Who's the hero in the story, in that statement? Jesus will save me from my sins.

Jesus as the Hero of Daily Salvation

Who's the hero? If you were to write a story, if you were to write a movie, a play that the children could act out, Jesus will save Sandeep from his sins. Jesus becomes the hero of that statement. If that became the goal of your story, that you had to draw a big drama about, it's very clear who the hero is.

Jesus is the hero, and Sandeep is the one who got saved. And so all day long, it becomes a story about the hero who is Jesus, who is saving me, he's pulling me, he's grabbing a hold of me, and getting me out of one pit, and the other pit, and the next pit, and the other pit.

And it's not ever immediate, I never attain some mountain of, I'm done with that. Because then I don't need the hero anymore. But if every day, if every day it's a story of Jesus being the hero in my life, then he must play a very active part in my daily struggle.

I don't have to be bothered, I don't have to be beat myself up, if I see pits all over the place in front of me today. The pit to judge one another, the pit to compare myself with somebody else, the pit to get angry, that's just the pit that's in front of me.

But this is a place, either for me to try to make it Sandeep will stay away from the pit, or Jesus will save Sandeep from the pit. And I have to walk every day asking myself, Lord, did I give you the opportunity to save me?

That's the gospel, that's why you came. You didn't come to teach me a method of living so that Sandeep will not sin. You came because you said your name shall be called Jesus because you want to save me from my sins.

Jesus Saves From Present Sin

And we know that Jesus is fully capable of saving me from my sins. We've heard this, that Jesus didn't just come to save me to go to heaven, he came to save me from every one of my present sins. So today he came to save me from the sins that are in front of me.

To get angry, to lust, to not forgive, to be bitter, to compare myself, to compete, to be envious. He came to save me from it today. I don't have to be surprised, I don't have to beat myself up. Over the pit, the pit's coming, 25 pits in front of me, 10 o 'clock I get an email, that's a pit.

And so I don't have to make it about, now Sandeep has to save himself, Sandeep has to stay away from sin. No, this is where I have to say, Jesus you need to be the hero. I need to let you be the hero, I need to give you the space in my life to let you be the hero.

And you're fully capable of being the hero. Hebrews 7 .9, 7 .25 I think, he's able to save completely. He forever lives. That's why he's living, I almost feel like that's what makes his heart beat even now.

Maybe we can turn to that verse just so that, Hebrews 7 .25. Jesus is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him. Because he always lives. I've read that to say, that's why he gets up in the morning.

We know Jesus doesn't get up in the morning. But that's what makes his day. That's what makes him happy. That's what makes life worth living for Christ. To save, to make intercession. To try to root for us and to save forever.

And he's rooting for us. And he lives for that and he lives forever for that. And heathen people don't allow Jesus to save them in the beginning. So they live their own lives and accept nothing about him.

And so Jesus is discarded and set aside for some other God made of wood, stone or imagination. But then Christians, we as Christians also set him aside. Even though we claim his name. Because we don't see that he lives to save us forever.

He didn't live to save us once. He's not just wanting to save us once. He wants to be the hero in your salvation from sin today. So I've told myself, Lord Jesus, I don't want victory over sin. I'm not saying that's a wrong idea.

Of course it's there to get victory over sin, to overcome sin. But how do I overcome? It's by Jesus saving me. Lord, I want salvation from sin. I want to be saved from sin today. And I want to put Jesus, I want you to be the hero of the story today in my life.

I want you to always get the glory and the honor. Even if it is about victory over sin, I don't want to get it my own way. I don't want to short circuit it and lessen the glory you can get from it. Lord Jesus, you came to save me from my sins.

You are fully capable of doing it. Why isn't the story over my life today that Jesus saved Sandeep from his sins? It's not because of Jesus. It's not because Jesus was not powerful enough. It's because I got in the way.

Depending on God Instead of Pushing Him Away

Now I can get in the way because I just love sin. And I don't have control over my will and I'm not able to say no. I don't consider myself dead to sin. Then we should consider ourselves dead to sin. But what I find in my life, at least where I'm at now, is that I push God away.

I push Jesus' hand away because I say, that I'm okay with. I don't need your help in this particular situation. I've got this on my own. I don't need your help anymore because I've lived long enough now.

And so these trials come my way and I say, no, no, Lord, I don't need you. And I get this picture in my head because I have children. And I see my kids pushing my hand away a lot of times. Because they know how to tie their shoelaces now.

Thanks, I got this now. I got that now. You don't need to show me how 2 plus 2 is. I got that now. You don't have to show me how to play this on the piano. I got that now. And the children are growing up to constantly push the parents' hands away.

And it's in our human nature. It's a wonderful thing in a sense. Because we're trying to get our children to become self-sufficient. And to be independent. But we can't carry that into the Christian life.

Because I see that to be independent from God is the worst thing. And God says, you should become like a little child. You've got to go backwards. You've got to become like a little child to enter the Kingdom of God.

And so I feel like my challenge is to start pushing. Not push Jesus' hand away at the times. When he's saying, Okay, I see that you can get around the pit. But the way I wanted this to happen is for me to save you.

I wanted you to grab a hold of my hand. I wanted you to use this that overcomes the world. How are we going to overcome the world? You know that verse in 1 John 5? We want to overcome sin. We want to live lives that are free from sin.

Here's the victory. This is the victory over sin that we're looking for. Our faith. It is our dependence on God. That's what gets me the victory over sin. Not me bypassing the pit. And I find that there are two ways in which I can bypass the pit.

Either pushing God's hand away and say, I got this. Or looking at life as a repeated chance to say many times a day, Lord, I need your help. I want you to save me from this sin. This doesn't mean I just sit back and do nothing.

Obviously not. But that I choose this opportunity to depend on God. This is the victory over sin that we are looking for. This is the victory over sin that overcomes the world. Our faith. And whenever I read the word faith, I think of the word dependence on God.

Faith, Nothingness, and the True Hero

This is the victory over sin that we're looking for. This is the victory over sin that we are so dying to get. And so when I make the gospel of Sandeep today, we'll have victory over sin. I can make myself the hero of the story so easily.

But I want the hero of the story to be my faith. That's the hero of the story. My dependence on God. Jesus will save Sandeep from his sins. Jesus saved Sandeep from his sins today. And that's how I've realized more and more that the only way for me to live this life of where Jesus is the whole hero is when I really embrace my nothingness.

Realize that it is in my nothingness that I shrink to become less and less of the hero of the story and to really enjoy making Jesus the hero of the story is where I get my salvation. I have to embrace that the most beautiful life to live is the life where I am nothing.

And so, again, the story of the prodigal son is so meaningful to me. It is when the prodigal son realized his nothingness and his unworthiness that he could get up and come home. And where he met salvation was not just in his nothingness but when his nothingness met the love of God, the forgiveness of God, the compassion of God, the great mercy of God.

And so I don't glory in my nothingness as if that is something to boast about because my nothingness is meaningless. It just is depressing, it's discouraging, it's self-condemning if it doesn't meet like the prodigal son met the father running down the road to meet him.

And so I have to combine the great love of God, the great sacrifice of God that Jesus did for me on Calvary with my nothingness. And there's cliffs on either side that I could fall into. I could fall on the cliff of Jesus as just a loving God and God's an amazing God, He's full of love and I keep on trying to embrace God's love without my nothingness.

And so I try to overcome sin saying, God you love me, I'm just going to walk as I want and I'm going to try to overcome sin best I can but I'm pushing God out of the way, out of my daily life because God I know you love me, I know you're full of love I sing a lot of songs that tell me about God's love, I remember all of that but I'm in some way pushing God's hand away and that's falling over the cliff of God being a loving God without realizing that it is in my nothingness that my salvation is going to be experienced.

Or I can fall down the other cliff of just saying I'm nothing, I'm nothing, I'm nothing, I'm nothing self-condemning myself thinking I'm useless not realizing that where salvation happens is not in my nothingness alone but my nothingness being met being filled up with the love of God.

The Pharisee, the Tax Collector, and Justification

I've often said that many of us I know for myself for many years misunderstood or didn't read the story in Luke chapter 18 properly the story of the pharisee and the publican I know for many years I read that story wrong not because I misread it but because I didn't read it completely and it talks about a pharisee and the tax gatherer and the pharisee says Lord I thank you.

I'm not like these other people including that tax collector because I do all these things but in Luke chapter 18 verse 13 I see the tax collector standing some distance away saying God be merciful to me a sinner and I used to stop there and I used to think Lord that's what I need to do.

I've got to proclaim my nothingness. I've got to proclaim my unworthiness but that's not the end of the story because the end of the story is in verse 14 where it says this man went down to his house justified.

Justified means just as if I'd always obeyed just as if this tax collector had never sinned. That's the end of the story. So there's no virtue in my nothingness if it doesn't meet the great sacrifice that Jesus did on the cross.

And the great sacrifice that Jesus did on the cross is meaningless to all the heathen out there but also to me if I don't come to him in my nothingness. It's both all the time. That's how I came to Jesus in the first place.

The day I met Jesus is when Jesus' full sacrifice and complete sacrifice met with my nothingness and nothing with my hand I bring simply to your cross. I cling when that happened. That's when salvation came to my house came to me for the first time and over and over again every day I'm seeing that this is where salvation has to continue to happen when God's great love and his great grace that God has given to me through Christ Jesus is connected and united with my nothingness.

I just hold on to one and not the other. I'm going to go astray. I'm not going to have any power. But when those two wires connect when those two magnets connect then there's power. Then there's a real surge of salvation that can come into it.

And so I must find that the sweetness of enjoying God's love only in the context of my nothingness. And so that at the end of a time with God where it's God's great love and my nothingness I get up justified.

I get out of bed. I get out of the time with God and I say I walk with my head lifted high because God lifted my head up. Because God's great love didn't meet a pampered child. God's great love didn't meet a rebellious child.

God's great love met somebody who was a nothing and I say this honestly before God that the sweetest times I have had with God is when I genuinely go to God and say God pay no attention to me. I'm here for you.

I'm here to admire you, I'm here to adore you. This is not about me. I don't want to even be part of the conversation. I want to decrease. I want Christ to increase. I can tell you honestly no doubt about it in my mind this is a lifestyle that is extremely sweet to me and I think that this is where God has promised to give us part of his divine nature, to partake of his divine nature to taste of it to where God says.

I want to show you what a beautiful life an enjoyable life it can be when you realize your nothingness and it's not a nothingness in a vacuum but when your nothingness meets my love that's where the power lies.

Rejecting Self-Made Agendas for Dependence on God

And the reason Jesus is not able to save Sandeep from his sins is because Sandeep is pushing him away or Sandeep thinks he has some agenda or some timetable or some goal or some lifestyle choice or some retirement age or retirement number or certain kind of quality that their children need to have.

I've got some agenda item that I come to the Lord with and I'm not nothing. The woman in Luke chapter 7 who met Simon the Pharisee she came as a nothing and God said though your sins are many they have been forgiven.

She loved much because she's been forgiven much. She had a spirit of nothingness about her and God met with her very easily. I want to have that attitude more and more when I come to God and all day long Lord pay no attention to me.

I'm not the hero in the story. Here you are. I need you to be the hero. I want to give the space away for you. I want to step back. I want to make you the hero. I want to keep you the hero of the story.

Now that I've got this email now that I've got this thought of bitterness now that I've got this spirit of anger Lord I want you to be the hero. I want this promise of God to be true. Jesus will save me from my sins.

I want you Lord Jesus. I want this to be the victory that overcomes the world my faith. It was I depended on you. I reached out to you more and more often that it was the reaching out for God that characterized Sandeep's life.

That is what I hope to be doing in heaven too. That's what we hope to be doing in heaven reaching out for God more and more often in Luke chapter 17 we see the same thing in Luke chapter 17 verse 6 he says if you had faith like a mustard seed you don't need big faith.

You just need to have that little small mustard seed in your life of faith of dependence on God. And you can move mountains. And then he goes on to tell the story of what this quality of this faith is.

And in verse 10 it says when we've done all that we have commanded we say I'm still an unworthy slave. I'm still nothing. I did what was commanded. What was commanded of me Lord what was commanded of me was to reach out.

I did what was commanded of me. I'm an unworthy slave. If you've got even a mustard seed size of that spirit in you mulberry trees can be uprooted. And so I see these big mulberry trees. And I'm trying so hard and I know so much of scripture and I have so many messages to listen from.

But I don't seem to have victory. And God is saying it's so simple you just need mustard seed quantity of something. And it's a mustard seed quantity of faith. And this mustard seed quantity of faith is this mustard seed quantity of unworthiness.

No matter what I do I'm not worthy. I can't figure this out on my own. I want to depend on you. If I had even that mustard seed quantity of that in my heart I can experience great victories. So I see that God is looking for that to forgive other people no matter what the mulberry tree situation is in my life God is saying don't lose that attitude of eagerly seeking to serve your master after you've done everything that you've commanded him that you still have this heart to go and say I'm here to serve you.

I'm here to feed you. I'm here to wash your feet. Lord pay no attention to me. This is not about me. I did everything you commanded me all day. But this is not about me right now at the end of the day.

Lord I did everything you commanded me. But Lord pay no attention to me. I'm here to adore you. I'm here to admire you. I want you. I want your nature. I was thinking about this too about Adam. Adam when he was in the garden of Eden he had never sinned.

He was innocent. There was no stain of sin in him. So what was the choice before Adam. The choice before Adam as we've been taught was the tree of life which was dependence on God. Why should Adam depend on God when he has not sinned.

What's the need to depend on God when he has not sinned. And so in the same way when we come to a life of victory over sin when we come to a chance of where we've attained certain things and certain sins are behind us we can think what's the need to eat of the tree of knowledge of evil.

Now sorry eat of the tree of life. Now I figured this out. That's the great temptation that was the greatest fall one could say. Was Adam completely innocent thought he didn't need God. When things were going really well had such a paradise of a life not at all displeasing to God but not yet tested no stain of sin in him.

So he thought no I don't need God. Now I can do whatever I want now. And we've heard too that's in 2nd Corinthians 11 .3 where it says as the serpent deceived Eve so shall your minds be turned away from a simple and pure devotion to Jesus.

I see that it is interesting that Paul says this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 almost near the second book of 2nd Corinthians. In the first chapter in the first book of 1 Corinthians he wasn't worried about that.

He was worried about much other things. They had some great sins in their church. They were abusing the communion table. There were such gross sins that were happening. Paul said I'm not worried about the serpent deceiving Eve.

I'm worried about more basic things. But by the time he writes 2nd Corinthians the Corinthian church has gotten much better. They had such great repentance they had great sorrow over sin. They had a zeal to do the right thing.

They had corrected a lot of their flaws. And that's when Paul says now I'm worried about something much worse. I'm worried that as the serpent deceived Eve you're kind of like Adam right now. You've kind of cleaned up all your messes.

Now it looks like you're a blank slate. Now you're in really great trouble to not depend on God. Now you think you can make the story about Sandeep was saved. Sandeep stayed away from sin now I'm really worried that you'll lose the message of the gospel that's riding over your life every day that Jesus saved Sandeep from sin today.

Keeping Christ at the Center of the Christian Journal

Look at the journal of my life today. March 8th 2018. Next line. Sandeep stayed away from sin. Is that a good day or a bad day. Or should the journal entry be Jesus saved Sandeep from sin today. Jesus was the hero today because Sandeep kept going more often to Jesus and kept reaching out.

And it was faith that overcame sin today. It was his faith in God. It was the strong bridge that was Christ that won the day not Sandeep. It's a subtle difference. But I want my life to be much more about reaching out in my nothingness to find God to be the hero.

Good Works Cannot Make Us Good

I've seen that I've been blessed by this verse. Matthew 19 the rich young ruler. Verse 17 there is no one who is good but God. And I think what confuses me many times is this verse in Ephesians 2 verse 10 which we know which says that God has created us.

We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. I want to take those two verses. No one is good but God alone. And God has created us for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

And I think one of the great mistakes that I have made is to confuse the good works that God asks me to do with me being good. I think that after all the good works that I do staying away from pornography staying away from lusting of the eyes not getting angry after years of fighting it I finally get to this point and I start doing good works.

One horrible mistake I have made and I can make is that now I start to think that I am good. There is a vast difference between doing good works and being good. I have no chance of being good. That's what Luke 19 Jesus was telling me you have no chance of being good.

There is no one good but God alone. You have zero chance of being good. You can do good works. You can do this good work and first of all God prepared it for you. But you can't be good yet at the end of my life I want God to be able to tell of my life.

Well done, good Lord. How are you going to end up saying that I am a good servant when I have no chance of being good. When you are the only one who is good is it going to be through my good works. That's a mistake I think I have made many times.

I think my good works will end up with God saying now you are a good servant. But I have seen that my good is going to come from if God gives it to me. It's God's nature. I have to partake of the nature of God which I can't manufacture on my own.

And no amount of good works is going to get me to be good. No amount of me doing good works doing all the good things that God asked me to do is ever going to solve the problem of God. I want to hear that commendation at the end of my life.

Well done, good. But if you keep partaking reaching out for me and saying I want a taste of your nature then it's got nothing to do with my good works nothing to do with all these good things that I did that God anyway just prepared beforehand for me to walk in it.

But it's through knowing God it's through getting to know God and reaching out for Him more and more that I say God. I have no chance. I can train a monkey to write, to type on a computer. I can train a monkey to do all kinds of things a human does.

But do I think a monkey can have the nature of a human being to be able to train one day the monkey to just sit back and enjoy the sunset and just ponder about life. I mean how many years, what am I going to do to get that monkey to do that.

Can you imagine just a bunch of monkeys sitting there enjoying the sunset just loving it. What a beautiful life this is. What an incredible, just look at the sun going down. Can I train a monkey one day to just enjoy it like the way we do it.

I'm lost, I don't have a chance to do that. I can train them to type, maybe type from Shakespeare. I can train computers to do that but that joy, that's a different nature altogether. How much more is that, what chance do I have to have the nature of God.

From Avoiding Sin to Hating Sin

We've heard from this pulpit that committing sin is like licking the toilet bowl. I think most of you have heard that it's not the most pleasing analogy but I think it's true. I can't imagine how sin can be anything but that Christ died for it, it's such a filthy thing.

It's got nothing to do with the nature of God. Let me ask you this though, has that truth changed anything for you. It hasn't done much for me. I know, I know that committing sin is licking the toilet bowl but I still sin and I went from licking the toilet bowl to saying okay, now I know I shouldn't be licking the toilet bowl.

So now here's what I do, I don't lick the toilet bowl. I know that I shouldn't lick the toilet bowl but what I find myself doing is I put a stool and I look at the toilet bowl with great enjoyment and I don't want, I know I shouldn't lick it but I find myself in the stool there and I'm sitting there looking at the toilet bowl saying that looks really good, but I'm a Christian so I shouldn't be licking the toilet bowl.

Has that changed anything for me, I'm still sitting there looking at this filthy toilet bowl wanting to lick it. Wretched man, who will save me from this this stool that I put in front of the toilet bowl.

Okay so I'm not licking the toilet bowl, okay I got that but my problem is why do I even look at these sins as if they're enjoyable. Why do I hold on to unforgiveness as if it's enjoyable. Why do I hold on to a spirit of anger as if it's enjoyable.

Wretched man, who will save me from this not licking the toilet bowl but looking at the toilet bowl with enjoyment. God alone can the Holy Spirit can He alone can do that work of giving me tasting of His nature.

And so Lord I'm not going to lick the toilet bowl. Those are the good works that you asked me to do, I'll stay away from it. But who's going to save me from not constantly peeking into the toilet bowl and looking at it with enjoyment, you alone can do that.

You alone can change my heart to where me who was somebody can start to enjoy the thought of being a nothing that I can say. I used to really want to be at the centre of my life. All my life used to revolve around me but it's not so much anymore.

I'm not revolving around my wife and my children. No, I find the greatest enjoyment out of revolving my life around God. This is a little bit of the nature of God that He helps us to partake of. He allows me to see a little bit more of the filthiness of anger.

It's nowhere near where it needs to be. But I'm not after good works. I'm going to do good works because God prepared it for me to do. I'm going to do it, but what I want is a different nature. I don't want to look at the toilet bowl with longing, if I'm licking the toilet bowl let me stop licking the toilet bowl.

But my problem is I don't even want to look at the toilet bowl with pleasure. Lord I want a different nature because it says about you that you hated sin not that you just stayed away from sin. Not that you just overcame sin but you hated it.

These things that give me so much pleasure. Lord Jesus. I'm a nothing. All my good works, I want a different nature. I want a taste of that nature more and more. I'm not going to get fooled by good works.

Returning to the Father’s Love

No amount of good works is going to make me have that nature but I want that. So I want to keep meeting you on that road where nothingness meets your love. I feel that whenever the prodigal son felt like leaving the home again maybe because the father corrected him again maybe he found out how strict the father's love really was.

He may have packed his bags and left the house. But then as he walked down the road he walked down and found that spot where his father tackled him and he looked at that spot and said no. I'm going to turn back and come back home because he remembered what happened there.

Because that was the time when his nothingness met God's great love. And that's what it has been for me too many times. When I want to do my own will I can go and leave the house of God, the love. But I don't go too far because I go back, Lord where shall I go.

As I go down the road I meet that spot again where God met me in my nothingness. And God's voice to me is always coming back to me saying my love is like a river flowing. You can't stop it but you have to be a nothing for you to experience it.

That's how you experienced it the first time and you can experience it again today you just have to be a nothing and you have to embrace that all your ambitions are gone all your biases are gone all your preferences are gone all your desires are gone.

And if you can be a nothing you can have the joy of salvation again. May God help us.