All That Jesus Taught : Bible Study Part 17 | Zac Poonen

We continue our study today on ‘All that Jesus taught’. The reason why we are studying it is because before Jesus went up to heaven he told his disciples to go in to every nation on the phase of the earth in Matthew 28:19-20 to make disciples and teach them every single thing that he commanded. So we are just trying to fulfill that great commission. To teach people every single thing that Jesus commanded, especially those things laying emphasis on those things that are not being sufficiently emphasized in Christendom today. A lot of people are just happy with having their sins forgiven and that’s it. They do not know Jesus as their savior. They know him as their forgiver.

If we were considering for example two particular sins in our last two studies which are anger and sexually lustful thinking, these are not two sins that you hear spoken about much because most preachers do not have victory on both of these areas. So they can’t possibly have the authority to speak against it and even if they do speak against it, they will not speak about it in a practical way as to how to overcome them. We want to look a little more of these sins so that we don’t just hear about it and see the seriousness of it but also understand how we can overcome it. The seriousness of it is seen by the fact that these are the only 2 sins in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus mentioned the possibility of men going to hell as a result of the sin. Now I would say 99% of Christians do not feel that anger is a very serious sin. They certainly not feel that anger can take them to hell. In other words they don’t believe what Jesus said in Matthew 5:22. I don’t know what type of Bible they have. I don’t know what type of Christians they are but they don’t believe what Jesus Christ said. Whom do you believe? Do you believe the psychologist? Well, they can’t lead you to heaven. In the same way I don’t think 99% of Christians believe that lusting out for women with your eyes is serious enough to take you to hell. Most people don’t take that seriously at all and that is the work of the devil. He made sin such a light, unimportant thing. Think of a disease like AIDS. How many would take AIDS very lightly, it doesn’t matter? I’ll tell you who. The one who is completely ignorant of what AIDS can do. Some illiterate woman from a poor village, if you tell her she’s got cancer, she’s not disturbed. She doesn’t know what cancer is. She doesn’t know the seriousness of cancer because she is illiterate. An educated person would be very disturbed if the doctor tells them that cancer has spread all over inside his body. Why is he disturbed? Because he sees the danger of cancer. In the same way when you’re spiritually illiterate you don’t consider anger as serious. When you’re spiritually illiterate you don’t consider lusting out for women as serious. That is the mark of your spiritual illiteracy. Just like that illiterate woman who does not know how serious cancer is. In the same way one who is spiritually literate will take these sins very seriously. He doesn’t need even the words of God to tell him that. He knows it instinctually that these are serious sins because on hurts other people and one hurt himself. That’s why we want to look at these more carefully and ask ourselves how we can overcome them.

Remember, Jesus said that it is the responsibility of those who preach Gods word to make every single one of their flock, if they are pastors or they are teachers to teach every single one of the people they teach how to overcome in these two areas. I want to ask you if you are a preacher or a pastor or teacher whether you are doing that. Have you overcome yourself in these two areas and are you teaching to other people to who you teach to overcome in these areas? Are you showing them how it is possible? If not, you are failing in your duty. I would say you have no right to be a minister of the gospel if you are not teaching people what Jesus taught.