 Okay. Good morning and welcome once again. Right, so this course is called Holiness. BC 209 is the course code. This course was started approximately, two years ago. Two semis, yeah, two years ago in 2022. It's when it was started. And the origins of the scores, the scores and why it was started by Pastor Ashish was so those are leaders conference and a pastors conference that was happening, which was hosted by another ministry. And there came and it was for leaders and pastors, very specifically. And so there were a lot of questions regarding holiness, how to live a holy life. How do I overcome temptations, challenges, repentance was a huge question that that was a recurring question, right. And so, I mean, if, if all these questions were coming from leaders and pastors and all of that. And so pastors thought, Pastor Ashish thought it would be very good to equip our students here at BC regarding living a life of personal holiness and and overcoming challenges and whatnot, right. So once you are equipped here, it's you're not only equipped to live a holy life, you will also be able to equip everybody else. Isn't it so hence that's the origin of this course. I hope you all here in the class have your hard copies and online. I hope you were able to download the PDFs and save it. Okay. So there are four primary documents. One is just a course overview and one is the document called holiness and part one and part two of repentance. And then the last document is overcoming temptations, et cetera. Okay. All right, all good. So should we get started? Yeah. Yeah. What what? Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah. Let's pray and submit. Father, we submit this course into your hands. Lord, our minds. We surrender it all to you. Lord, you are our teacher. We humble ourselves before you. So even as we begin this journey of learning and understanding about your holiness and how we can be empowered and live a holy life as you've commanded us to be Holy Spirit, I pray that you would empower us and help us understand your word. Breathe your breath or your word. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Okay. So this, this subject, this topic, I should say, in many ways is also very special to me when I say special is one of my early encounters with the Lord. What I remember was when I was in sixth standard, I think sixth standard is I remember having breakfast, getting ready to go to school with the, you know, just before middle school. It was just those half pans, you know, and back then there was this channel called, I think it was, we didn't have got TV back then. It was something called TBN and TBN network, a miracle network, something if you remember. Okay. We will remember. Yeah. Yeah. So, and at eight o'clock from eight to eight a.m. to eight thirty was a Benny Hinn's program would be telecasted on TV. And so I was having my breakfast with my uniform and, you know, and just watching this program this starting and his crusade starting and then there was this worship leader called Terry McCallman. Powerful, beautiful worship leader. He's the one who wrote You Deserve the Glory. Yeah. And, and so many more other beautiful classics. It just, it's just beautiful. You have to listen to his albums when you can. And there was this one song that he had written called The Sound of Heaven. I went like, can you hear the sound of heaven sound of many waters? Okay. And the chorus is simply saying, Holy, holy, holy, are you Lord? Holy, holy, holy, are you Lord? Right. So that was just the chorus. And, and as that song was being, you know, sung and worshiped, I could just feel the atmosphere change in the room. Something tangible. And now at this age, I can use the words like atmosphere and tangible and whatnot. Back then I didn't know what was happening. I couldn't understand or fathom what was happening. But all I knew was that moment was very holy. That's all I knew that that moment was very holy. My physical man, I felt like I'm sitting and having my breakfast, but then my spirit man was like, you know, humbled and you know, was bowing down. I knew that my spirit was immediately responding to the worship that was happening and responding to the presence that was there. And all I knew was, okay, what's happening? That was my question. And I knew there was something holy in that moment. And that is really the beginning of my first encounter with the holiness of God is trying to understand. And, you know, much later with all the other experiences and teachings and other encounters, I can now understand, okay, what that was back then. Right. And then moving on, I've been privileged to have people in my life who've emphasized holiness. Holiness not just in the sense of purity, which we will learn in just a bit, but emphasizing on the holiness of God. And this is something that you can't grasp or fathom immediately. And you can never, it's, we're talking about an eternal being. Even those two words, eternal being, I know it kind of makes sense in English, but we can't fathom it because we don't know what eternity is. You know, you're sure you can go to dictionary and look for the word eternity and it might give us certain things. And even then it would, I'm not sure it would be satisfactory, so to speak. So when we, and I was very privileged to have a worship pastor who emphasized on the holiness of God back then with the word of God and other mentors and people in my life who, who would just pursue, you know, a holiness so that, you know, they could. Yeah, something about it. Yeah, and then there was this one season, I'm sorry, I'm just sharing my personal experiences and, you know, where I can bring it and align with the course that we're on. Most of you know that I was part of a worship band, Christian band called Living Waters used to play the drums and so 2009 and 2010. So God was taking us as a group on a, you know, our prayer was what next Lord. So I remember February of 2009, the six of us, we just took on a, off on a prayer trip to Valor just to spend some time seeking the Lord and praying Him, praying, you know. And, you know, God was again through different individuals who would speak about holiness and then we were just worshipping and then, and the songs that we worshipped in those two days over there up in the hills in the Valor. That song list did not change for like a year and a half. Everywhere we went to lead worship, it was about I enter the Holy of Holies, take me past the outer courts. You know, it was all about pursuing His presence, going into His presence, not being satisfied in the outer courts. And so that way the journey has been, I should say, I was very privileged to have the journey with other people that I know of, very honored. And so this, hence the topic is very special, you know, not because I know everything about it. I don't think I'll ever know everything about it, but something about this topic draws me to Him, you know. Okay, so that's about this topic. So in the course overview, what we will cover, it has three simple sections, right? This course has three simple sections. So for us to live a holy life, for us to live a life of personal holiness, we need to understand the holiness of God. Try to understand, have some sort of an understanding of the God that we worship, right? The reason that you and I are here is Jesus. Who is He, right? He is holy. What more can we learn about Him, right? So section one, we will learn about the holiness of God and His holiness in me and perfecting holiness and why personal holiness and in the beauty of holiness. Okay, so that's what section one is all about. Just understanding who He is and His desire for us to be holy like Him as He is. And section two is about repentance, recovery, restoration. And so, you know, there is time in life where we fall, where we backslide, where we sin. Okay, as a Christian, you know, the minute that I give my heart to Jesus and say, Lord, You are my, come and be my personal Lord and Savior. As soon as I make the sinners prayer, I am saved from the state of sin, right? I am saved from the state of sin. At that moment, I have eternal life. Why? Because my spirit is back with Him. I have invited Him back into my heart, right? At that moment, I have eternal life. So the minute I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I am saved from the state of sin. However, I can still commit the, I have the capacity to commit the acts of sin. What are the, because I'm still living in this body, this physical body, right? Galatians 519 to 21, it talks about the acts of sin, murder, adultery, fornication, etc., etc. and all of that, right? So understanding His holiness and in that journey, how can we live a personal holy life? So, and then how can we recover from, you know, sinful life? If you backslide and repentance, recovery, restoration, repentance is not a very popular topic. You know, it's actually a doctrine in itself and there's a very different understanding of what repentance is. So we'll try and understand what that is. And finally, overcoming the flesh. Okay. So these are very three simple sections that we will look at in this course. All good? Yes. Okay. All fine. Francis? Yeah. Okay. Let's look at the introduction. If you look at this one line that starts off by saying, God is holy, holiness is the very nature of God. Okay. Holiness is the very nature of God. Holiness is God revealing and expressing His beauty. Holiness is His absolute purity, sinlessness, righteousness, truthfulness, faithfulness and perfection. God's holiness is infinite, perfect, absolute, unattainable, fearful, unapproachable and beyond what we can grasp. So if it's something beyond what we can grasp, why are we trying to grasp it? Right? So in the journey we can find something, isn't it? Right. Yeah. Sorry, you were saying something. Right. Our words can never sufficiently describe His holiness. Then why are we trying to describe it with our words? Okay. It's something that words cannot define and describe His enough. So here's the thing, right? Okay. Let's do this. Holiness. What is your understanding of holiness? You can pass the mic on. And then, yeah. Set apartness. Okay. Set apart. It's like purified without sin. Purified without sin. All right. Thank you, Francis. Pure. Pure. Okay. Pure. Purified without sin. Unimaginable pureness and that what we discussed here. If we can't grasp, we couldn't explain in our words. Okay. So very quickly, yeah. Great. Let's leave us at the holiness of God for a minute. And let's just say what do you understand by holiness? Yeah. Yeah. When you hear the word, not just for you, but when you hear the word holiness, what does it stand for? In a purity. In a purity. Okay. Anyone online? I'll pass the mic back to Sri Radha. Okay. Okay. Sinless. Spotless. Pure. Sinless. Spotless. Pure. Okay. Sinless. Spotless. In a purity. Okay. All right. Those online. Anyone want to share anything? Being set apart by God or God. Okay. Everything is right, guys. I think we're going to finish this course in one month's time or something, you know. Like, you don't need any teaching on this. No assessments, nothing. Right. Something divine. Okay. Yeah. So, and everything is what you said is right. You know. And I've asked this question to a lot of people. Whatever. Yeah. So I've asked this question to a lot of young people, a lot of people on the same thing. Okay. What does holiness mean to you? Etc. And the response has always been the same, if not similar. And most of it, except for responses like set apart and whatnot, it points towards this thing called moral purity. Moral purity or righteousness. Like you said, sinlessness and spotless. Right. So holiness is, okay, if I don't commit murder, if I don't commit adultery, if I don't commit, if I don't steal anything, if I don't watch any movies that I'm not supposed to be watching, if I don't do the acts of sin that doesn't defile my body, if I'm not jealous, if I'm not greedy, if I'm not, you know, if I'm not a glutton, gluttony is a sin. So all of that, those are all the acts of sin, sinlessness. That's so, which is, it's all fine. Absolutely. Isn't that our understanding of it? Okay. And Nina has just mentioned something, which being whole, no conflict between the inside and the outside. Yes. Okay. And for a long time, that was also my understanding, because again, I was raised in a Pentecostal family. Right. And, and, yeah, and going to a Pentecostal church and whatnot. You can imagine the, I'm not sure how many of you were raised in an IPC, CPM and everything. Beard, sin, piercing, bad boy. Right. Long hair, you're crucified, you know, jewelry will stone you. You know, that was the kind of, really, literally that was, and then white and white, holy, black and white, 50, 50. Okay. So, white shirt, white pants. Oh, what an angel. It's like Angel Gabriel is right in front of us. I will believe whatever you say, you know, it's, look at you. You know, it's like, we have reduced, when I say we, I'm talking about the whole mankind, or let's say Christian, for that matter. We have reduced holiness to mere cosmetics, cosmetics, cosmetics, like makeup, like basically, you know, outward things. So, I understand the outward appearance is the reflection of the inward, you know, thing and all of that. But, I don't think Jesus died on the cross so that you and I can have a dress code. Yeah, right. So, but that's what we are understanding of holiness has been. You and I are not saved by acts, isn't it? You and I are not saved by acts. By the way, we were yet sinners. He died for us. Our righteousness, our good works are nothing but filthy rags. He is our righteousness. Jesus is our righteousness, right? It is in him that we are complete. Okay. So, when we say God is holy, the Hebrew word for holy is kadosh. Kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, literally means to be cut off. That's the literal root meaning of it, to be cut off. And then the words like set apart came, set apart. You're taking this, keeping it set apart, right? When you're cutting any vegetables in the kitchen, what do you do? Things that you need, cut it, you set it apart, isn't it? And so, when we say that God is holy, we are not just talking or saying that He doesn't sin. He cannot sin. When we say that God is holy, we are not just saying that He is sinless. There are other scholars who would say that the holiness of God is His otherness. It's a very deep scripting. It's His otherness, the otherness of God. There is no one like Him. There is nothing like Him. When we say that He is holy, we are talking about the person of God. It is who He is. He is holy, right? And that's the beginning of His response to Moses, I am, right? And in that, everything else is fulfilled. And it is when the world doesn't understand or has understood His holiness, we have questions like if God is loving, if God is good, why is there evil in the world? And it's because in His holiness, He is gracious. In His holiness, He is merciful. In His holiness, He is faithful. In His holiness, He cannot lie. In Psalm 89 verse 35, I think it says, because of my holiness, I cannot lie. I think last Sunday there was a sermon on taking God at His word. And one of the points was that He cannot lie. He is not man that He should lie. That means it's implying that man lies. It's making two points, right? It's saying that God cannot lie. And it's also saying that man lies. So if you have to say that. So He is set apart. There's this beautiful scripture in Exodus 15, 11. It says, Who among the gods is like you? Exodus chapter 15 verse 11. Who among the gods is like you? Who is like you? Majestic in holiness. Awesome in glory, working wonders. It's a rhetorical question. Who is like you? There is no one like you, basically. That's what a rhetorical question is. You again see God asking Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 40. To who will you compare me? Or who is my equal? See those are like rhetorical questions. It's like there is no one like me. There is no one you can compare me to. Lift up your eyes and see the starry host. Who made all of these? Because of His great power and might not one of them is missing. He calls them each by name. God is having this conversation with Isaiah in Isaiah 40. So God has most often in the Bible, He has used the tangible to explain the intangible. He has used the tabernacle of Moses, which is tangible to explain the intangible. His courtroom, His throne room. And again, we know that it's impossible to completely describe His holiness in words. But just for us to understand the intangible, let's use an intangible. You take a diamond. How many carats can a diamond be? I have no idea about diamonds. A hundred. What's the purest form of diamonds? Anybody? Okay, whatever. Take the Kohino diamond. And it has all these fine cuts. It has these beautiful fine cuts. You take it and you lift it up to the light. And just like a reflection that would 28. Okay, awesome. Thanks, Anthony. 28. So, yeah. You lift it up to the light and you can just see the reflections that will, you know, that the, when the light passes through the diamond and, you know, pushes off like a prism kind of a thing, you know. It will be just beautiful, isn't it? And so you will not know where to look at, which part to look at. Right? And explaining his holiness is something like that. Okay, it's, and that's the reason why the angels have been singing Holy, Holy, Holy for the ages. Every time they move, they get a perspective and they can't say anything else but say, okay, he is holy. He is holy. He is holy. He is set apart. There is no one like him. His name is holy. We see that in scriptures. Scripture of the scriptures. I can give you a lot of scriptures where it says that he is jealous for his name. Right? And he says, okay, they did not honor my holy name. They did not honor my holy name. They did not honor my holy name. My name is holy. My name is holy. Holy is my name. He takes, so it is really just not an attribute. There's no attribute that's repeated thrice. Like, okay, God is love, love, love. You know, you've heard this say before. He's merciful, merciful, merciful. He's faithful, faithful, faithful. He's God is good, good, good. No. But he's holy, holy, holy is simply to say it's like, in song of songs, there's like, you're fairer than 10,000 to my soul. So that number was the maximum in those days. It's basically saying there is no one like you. You're the fairest of 10,000, fairest of 10,000. So when we say that God is beautiful, we are again just saying that he is holy. Worship the Lord in the beauty of his holiness. Right? When we say that, are you following what I'm saying? Yes? Yes, no, maybe. Okay. This is really, my desire is that our desire and, you know, the intention of this course is that we encounter his holiness. There's a couple of books that I would recommend. I'll recommend it to you guys. This one is, one book is called Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. And The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. They're all, you know, worth reading. It's powerful and have had a huge impact on me. R.C. Sproul, S-P-R-O-U-L. The book is just called The Holiness of God. And the other book is The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. Like, okay. Are you all with me so far? Yeah? I just mentioned that. I'll give you some scriptures about his name being holy. You can make a note of it. Luke 1.49. Luke chapter one verse 49. You can, there you'll see that he mentioned that holy is his name. Psalm 103 verse one. Bless the Lord of my soul and all that is within me. Bless his holy name. All right. Psalm 105 verse three. Glory in his holy name. Psalm 105 verse three. Glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord. You can read the long scriptures like Ezekiel chapter 36 verse 20 to 23. It talks about how people did not honor his holy name. Ezekiel 36 was 20 to 23. One more scripture I'd like to read for us is in the book of Ezekiel chapter 43 verse 7. Ezekiel 43, 7. Okay. It says, and he said to me, son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the souls of my feet. Where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. The house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name. Neither they nor their kings nor by their whoring and by their dead bodies of their kings are their high places. Okay. That's from the ESV version. So he's saying I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And they shall not defile my holy name. So God will dwell where his name is not defiled. Okay. God will dwell where his name is not defiled. What's his name? His name is holy, right? His name, he will dwell where his name is hallowed. The prayer of our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name. Okay. So let's look at those words. Our Father who art in heaven. That's a greeting. Right? It's like our Father who art in heaven. The next part is hallowed be your name. Okay. It's still continuing with the greeting. Your kingdom come is not a greeting. It's a prayer. Your kingdom come you will be done. So his kingdom, you know kingdom is two words, king and dominion. His kingdom will not come where his name is not hallowed. Okay. His kingdom will not come where his name is not hallowed. That's where he dwells. Right. So his name is holy. He takes his name very seriously. Okay. You are all with me, isn't it? Okay. So an encounter and a revelation with his holiness will push for a response that will draw us close to God. And one of those encounters is Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six. You've read, I'm sure you've read those verses. Okay. That's for the sake of not to be over familiar with the scriptures. Let's read it. I hope that's okay with you guys. Sorry. Yeah. Okay. It says it begins by saying in the year the king that King Uzziah died. I saw the Lord seated on the throne high and exalted. And the train of his robe filled the temple. Okay. Let's stop right there. Isaiah is not just known as a major prophet by us now because we've divided the prophets as major and minors. Like I wonder why because it's like as if what they did was something minor, you know, what they did was major, you know, like Jonah. Jonah's story, we've reduced it to a veil. And while the whole book of Jonah is not about the veil, it's about a city. The last verse of the book of Jonah says, should I not have compassion on this great city? It's about God's love for a city. You know, so Isaiah was known as a prophet of prophets. Isaiah was not one of those prophets who used to live in a cave in the wilderness. And Isaiah had access to the courts of the king because King Uzziah was his uncle, was his cousin. It was related. Okay. Yeah. You could do that one character study, but it's not the room. And he had access to the throne room. And you can see that in the language that is used there, right? And the train of his robe filled the temple. What does that mean? Now, you know, I say this Bible was written for us, but it was not written to us. Okay. And so because Isaiah had the access to the throne room of the kings, the train of the robe, right? The longer their robe, that, you know, means the greater the rain. That's how great their rain was. So you've all seen a wedding gown, no? Like a robe that, you know, it goes on one kilometer long, right? It's a royal palace wedding, royal wedding, you know, it's like, what? It's just going out into the roads also. So 10 people have to carry it and go. So he's using the language of what he's seeing and what he's seeing. And then he's using that to describe here saying, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted. But interestingly, it starts off by saying in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. So it's very important that we understand that a lot of the things that we worship as kings need to die for us to see the Lord high and exalted. A lot of the things in our lives that we worship as kings, we've given the place of gods to things and people and we worship them as kings. But all of the idols and all of that has to die for us to see the Lord high and exalted. And then he goes on to say, the train of his robe filled the temple. There's another translation that uses these words and the train of his robe was filling the temple. So what's the major difference, filled and filling? Filled says it's done. Filling is present continuous. It's happening. So that means he's saying that there was no end for his reign, his sovereign, single reign. That's what sovereign means. And so he's seeing all of this happening in the temple here. And above him were seraphs, each with six wings. With two they cover their faces, with two cover their feet and with two they were flying. Now seraph means the burning ones. That means they're on fire, these angels. Seraph means singular, seraphim is plural. It's not seraphims, it's seraphim for plural. So seraph is singular, seraphim is plural. Now here it says, above him were seraphs, each with six wings. Now we don't know how many seraphs were there. He just says there were seraphs. In that head we think there was only four, for some reason. Maybe it's the connection with Revelation 4. But anyways, they were calling to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. So he is having this incredible encounter of God's holiness, like never before. He is seeing these burning ones, the angels. Like at the sound of their voices, the threshold, the doorpost was shaking. The whole earth is full of His glory it says. And then after that encounter, his response, Woe to me, I cried, I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away and your sin is atoned for. How many of you have read the scripture before? Okay, your sin is atoned for. That is a very powerful line. Why? Because in the Hebrews we see that without the shedding of blood, there is no atonement for sin. Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain before the foundations of the world. There are things about God we can't understand. We can't ask and fathom. There's layers and layers and layers into who He is and what He is done and what He is doing. I have to teach about it. His Holiness will give you a call to action, so to speak. He will tell you where you are in life. When gazing on His Holiness, we kind of know, Okay, your moral purity, good luck. Your righteousness. Okay, now that you've seen who I am. Only then do you know how sinful we are and what He has saved you from. Understood, right? Okay, let's move. I'm still with the introduction. I'm just going to go through some of the notes. Just follow along with me. Some of the statements I'm reading because it's so well put. Okay, it says, Living holy, being holy is embracing the fact that we are completely His. Okay, please highlight that. Living holy, being holy is embracing the fact that we are completely His. Justin said that set apart for God. Okay, set apart for God. We are not set apart for the sake of being set apart. Now, God tells the people of Israel in Exodus chapter 19, when He's bringing the people out of Egypt, He said, I brought you out of Egypt, not so you can just run wild like a headless chicken, you know, in the promised land. I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free, I'm free. I brought you out of Egypt unto myself. Okay, so living holy, being holy is embracing the fact that we are completely His. We belong to Him. Every part of me belongs to the most holy one. Every part of me belongs to the most holy one. I'm just a reminder of the scripture and problems that we know so well. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lead not on your own understanding, and submit all your ways unto Him. Right, what does that mean? Submit all your ways is in my life. So my example, so I'm a father. So there's a way of a father. I'm a son. There's a way of a son, right? I'm a brother. So there's a certain way that I'm a husband. There's a certain way that I live by. I'm a teacher. There's a certain way that I have to follow. I'm a pastor. So the scripture says, in all your ways, acknowledge Him. That means, that's the beauty of it, right? And that's what this is saying. In every part of me belongs to the most holy one. It simply means, in all my ways, I acknowledge Him. As a pastor, I acknowledge Him. As a teacher, I acknowledge Him. As a husband, I acknowledge Him. As a father, as a son, as a brother, as a friend, right? In all these aspects of life, I embrace Him. Where I say, every part of me belongs to you, Lord. Okay? And I'll close the session with one last scripture, in Pus Peter 1.16. Be holy for I am holy. Again, that, you know, for many times I've heard people read the scripture as, be holy as I am holy. Be holy as I am holy is saying that, okay, yeah. He says, be holy for I am holy. Okay. Because you are my people. You are my chosen generation, a holy nation, a royal priesthood. We have no choice. Okay. So more about this, we'll continue learning about the holiness of God in chapter one. We just finished the introduction. So let's see how that goes. All right. We'll stop for now and we'll come to you. Thank you.