 Alright, okay, the recording of the class is on and welcome everybody to BC209, our course on Holiness. It's our second lecture this week and thank you for joining the class. May I request one of us to please lead us in prayer as we get ready to start. Anyone can unmute their mic and just pray with the class. I'll pray. Alright. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Welcome everyone once again. Thank you. See all your comments on the chat. Good morning. Welcome. Glad that people are doing well. Okay. So we are continuing in this study on Holiness and first two chapters has been a focus on getting a revelation of the Holiness of God. And we were towards the end of chapter two where we've really emphasizing in chapter two that not only is God holy, but everything else around him is holy. And he desires, if that's the right word to use, he desires for us, his people to regard him and his name to have this reverence or to have this regard for Holiness. In other words, there has to be that reverence in our hearts as a response towards his Holiness. That's kind of what we were, that's what we were talking about towards the end of the class on Monday. So we're going to just quickly review those points in chapter two and then finish up chapter two. And then we transition into saying, okay, God is holy, everything about him is Holiness. But then he wants that to be transferred to us. So that people shift towards seeing how Holiness is being given to us and how God works his Holiness in us, which is the main focus of our course is to see how we as God's people can live in Holiness. So we're going to be spending time on that. Let me go ahead, share the PDF so we can follow. All right. Chapter two, just quickly reviewing here. We've covered all of this. So we talked about God as the holy one, Christ holy, completely holy. He is name is holy. And he wants us to hold his name in Holiness. We must not profane. His name, the word profane, the word profane simply means it's wounding or piercing the very holy, you know, disrespecting God and really hurting God when we profane his name. When God speaks, he speaks in Holiness. His words are therefore pure. All the angels around him are considered as holy ones. Holiness adorns his house wherever he dwells. Everything about that is holy. And we were, you know, as we were discussing this on Monday, we were relating it to, you know, how we should respond to each of these aspects. Then we saw God desires to be regarded as holy. You know, we were kind of spending some time on this. He said, I must be regarded as holy. And we must serve God. We're looking at it from the New Testament. We serve God with reverence and Godly fear. So God wants us to have that kind of a heart where we are very conscious of his Holiness. And then therefore, whatever we do comes out of that place of reverence and Godly fear. And I was kind of just, you know, in passing mentioning some parts that much of the worship, much of the things that we do in the contemporary church, we have to be a little careful because while, you know, we're trying to be trendy and relevant and modern and all those kinds of things, sometimes, I don't know exactly where the line is, but sometimes it could seem like we are becoming irreverent of God in the way we, you know, worship or the way we do ministry. Because we have all the tools, we have all the mechanisms, we have all, you know, the know-how, how to make things happen. You know, we can run a ministry even without God. That's how good we are. You know, we don't need God to run a Christian ministry because we know exactly how to do all these things, you know, how to, whatever, you know, a lot of things. I'm saying that because sometimes in the ministry today, whether it's in worship or all the other things that we do, we could actually be doing things without this Godly fear in our hearts, you know. So that's the danger with, I think, with the advancements we have, you know, we have all the know-how and all the means to do things. And the danger is that we might quote-unquote be serving God without God in the picture, without reverence for God, you know. So, only we have to watch over our own selves to make sure that we are walking in reverence in Godly fear. As God said, you know, He wants us to be regarded, I must be regarded as holy. Look, that's, you know, it's almost like God wants to be respected or hallowed, you know, God who is holy shall be hallowed. So that's something we must never forget. And what is so, what is so touching is that even Jesus in his prayer in John 1711, when he's praying to the Father, he's referring to the Father as a holy Father. You know, that's, that's even the Lord Jesus, he's walking as a man, he's praying to the Father as a son of God and he's referring to God as holy Father. That means he is also recognizing and regarding the holiness of God. That's a great example for us to follow. So it was a conclusion of this particular chapter. We are transitioning now to more of seeing, you know, how do we respond? How do we walk in holiness? In our own selves, we are unfit to come anywhere near the such a holy God in our own selves. God is dwelling in perfect light. We are not, you know, in our own selves, we are unclean. But it is the atonement that fits us or makes us fit to come into the presence of such a holy God. And this is an unveiling or a revelation that God kind of brings out early in the Old Testament. And then it's perfected for us in Jesus Christ through his sacrifice, of course. But he lets the people know quite early on in the Old Testament, you know, as he's giving the Lord to Moses and explaining things to them, he says, make an atonement for him and he will be cleansed from his uncleanness. And when the priest makes an atonement, he will be clean. So he's trying to get them to understand that this atonement is what makes the cleansing possible. So the atonement is really talking about a sacrifice that is made, the blood is shed. And that offering, that sacrifice, that is what will make the person clean and fit to enter into the presence of God. So we come into the New Testament and that is, you know, a prefiguring or is appointing to the reality, the real atonement, right? And we understand that the real atonement is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It says, you know, through our Lord Jesus Christ, we have received the reconciliation, which really is the word atonement. So through Jesus, we have received the atonement. And it's because of what he has done, his atoning work, we are able to enter in, that gives us access into the holiness of God. And we are familiar with this truth. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 to 22 says, you know, we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So what gives us, you know, we human beings who, you know, by default are unclean, what could even give us boldness? So God has given us access to enter the holiest presence of God, the holiest place, the innermost place, right in the presence of God, Bible is telling us, and we have this boldness, we have this confidence to enter the most holy place, the holiest place, how the blood of Jesus. So that, and that alone is our, what to say, entry into the holiness of God, the blood of Jesus, what Jesus has done for you and me through his work on the cross, the blood. Based on that, we are entering and we are entering with boldness. And that's quite amazing that you and I can actually come into the very, the presence of such a holy, perfect, pure, Christ-holy God, and that we can do so with confidence, with boldness. With, you know, he says we can come, you get, wash your hearts, sprinkled from an evil conscience. That means your conscience doesn't have to condemn you. An evil conscience isn't a conscience that condemns ourselves, it's a self-condemning, a guilty conscience. So it says, you know, we come with full assurance of faith in our hearts, and this when you're going into the, the presence of the most holy God, we can come with full assurance of faith. Nothing, no sense of guilt, shame, and condemnation. Our hearts have been washed away from an evil conscience, just like how you wash your body, your heart, there is no evil conscience, there's no sense of guilt, shame, and condemnation. It's gone. Why? Because of this way that Jesus has made possible through what he did for us. And so that and that alone gives us access into the presence of such a holy God, because you and I can never qualify, right? You and I can never attain to such holiness, but it's through the atonement, through what Christ did, the Bible says, we can enter into the holiest presence of God, we can do so with boldness, with full assurance of faith, with no guilt, shame, and condemnation. So this is something we have to always be grateful to God for, and this is, and this alone is the basis for our entry into the presence of God. Having sat down, we are now going to shift, we're going to chapter three now. God in his mercy has given us access into his presence, into his holy presence. He's a holy God. But there's the other side to all of this, which is God expresses his heart to say that he wants his holiness to be formed in us. And that's what we're going to look at in chapter three, that the holiness of God, he wants it reproduced in us. And we have emphasized this before also that God really, every aspect of his nature, he wants it to be reproduced and revealed in us, you know, God is love. He wants us to walk in love. God is generous. He wants us to be kind and generous to other people. So like this, we understand that every facet of his virtue, his virtues, his nature, he wants it reproduced and revealed through us. And that's why he created us in his own image, giving us the capacity to be able to do that. But we are focusing now on the holiness aspect. So God expresses this in both the Testaments, in the Old Testament especially. He says, I am the Lord, your sanctifier. I am the Lord, your sanctifier. I am Jehovah Mekodesh. So, you know, he revealed himself through different covenant names or Jehovah titles. These, each name was expressing a certain facet of what he would do and what he would be to his people as a covenant people. That's what Jehovah, it's birthed out of covenant. His commitment is promised to his people. And one of those Jehovah titles we see in the Old Testament is, I am Jehovah Mekodesh. I am the Lord, your sanctifier. I am the Lord who makes you holy. So now he's our healer. He's our provider. He's our banner. He's our shepherd. All of that as covenant God. But he also says, I am the Lord who makes you holy. And you know, you find this repeated in many places. I've just given a few. I'm the Lord who sanctifies you. You find that in many places. So, I am Jehovah Mekodesh. The Lord, your sanctifier. The Lord who makes you holy. And so in the Old Testament, he began to declare many things in the lives of the people as holy. It's kind of interesting to just kind of look at that. So, I am the Lord, your sanctifier. I'm your covenant God who makes you holy. Now how is that going to play out in your day to day life? What does that mean? If you kind of probe a little bit into it. And I just put it down as a list here. Just for you to think about that God being our sanctifier. God being the one who makes us holy. Actually, it has its ramifications in every day life. It has its influence or its impact every day life. Just day to day things. You see, he talked about and understand this is the Old Testament, right? Now in the New Testament, we worship in spirit and truth. So, don't get too caught up with all the physical things. But the point is, him being our covenant God who makes us holy affects us in every day life. That's the point I want to get across. But you look at, you know, he talked about those people, Moses and Joshua, when they encountered God, he said, look, you're standing on holy ground. What do you mean, holy ground? Well, God showed up. So where you are becomes a very holy place because you're meeting with God. He gave them holy feasts. So can you imagine celebration? But this is a holy celebration. You're doing something, but God's in it. It's holy. The day, the Sabbath day, the day of rest was holy. The entire nation was holy. And this thought has also continued in the New Testament. We are a holy nation. All of us are a nation of holy people. The tabernacle in which they worshiped, there was the holy place and the most holy place. The garments, the priests wore were considered holy. They brought gifts that were holy. The anointing oil was holy. So you couldn't take that, but that oil and use it for other things. The anointing oil is holy. The priests themselves are holy. What they offered as incense was holy. The place was considered, the house was considered holy. Even certain things that they owned, who the people owned were considered holy. The field offering, the tide. It's actually theirs. It belongs to the people, but God is saying it's holy because they belong to God. So what they own, their field, the producer of their field, the multiplying of their livestock, everything became holy to God. And so you find many other things. So I don't want to take those old Testament concepts and start putting them, just take it literally in the sense of all these little things. The point I want to get across is everything about the life of the people became holy because God was Jehovah, make it dash, the Lord who makes them holy. And therefore he wanted them to treat everything of in life as holiness unto God, everything. So, you know, and we'll talk about this a little later. I mean, we're translating the principle to us as New Testament believers. We will do that. But the point, what he was saying is, everything, I am Jehovah, make it dash to you. I am the Lord who makes you holy. Therefore everything in your life is holy. I want you to treat it as holy. I want you to treat those things as holy to God, not just something unclean. The days, the way you worship, whatever you have, those things must be treated as holy. Now we know in the New Testament we shift from days, weeks, places to focusing on people. God is focusing on us as holy people. So we need to make that shift and I will explain it. So the New Testament, when you come into the New Testament, God in a similar way says, you know, I am the Lord who makes you holy. He is still Jehovah, make it dash to all of us. He is the Lord who sanctifies us. But in the New Testament, it starts from the inside, the heart. And then everything else about our lives becomes holy. Right. So the focus is, he wants to establish our inner person, blameless and holiness before our God. That means the inner person, we're talking about the inner man in the other course, your real person, your spirit man. So it's not the body, but the real person on the inside. God wants to be established in holiness before him. Now obviously, once your inner person is established in holiness, that means, see, holiness is not an on-off thing. That today I'm holy, tomorrow I'm not holy. No, it's something we're established in. This is how we're going to live. Your inner person is established in holiness. Then obviously, everything else about you and me will flow from that, will be holy. You know, the way the body functions, the thoughts function, the way you use your time, the way you use your money, the way you, your habits, your, your recreation, everything else is touched with holiness when, when your inner person is established, blameless and holiness before God. So the New Testament, God is going after that. And so Paul, once again, he says, you know, may God himself sanctify you completely. Sanctify is to make holy. So, you know, so you could rephrase or rephrase this part saying, may God make you holy completely. And then what'll happen? That means your whole spirit, soul and body will be blameless in the coming of our Lord Jesus. So God is working this in us. In the Old Testament, it had to do with a lot of these externals. He was looking, he was telling them, look, I want everything about your life to be holy, understandable. Same thing in the New Testament, but the New Testament, he starts with the inner person. And then everything else about you, spirit, soul and body is preserved whole, blameless before God. Another parallel we could draw between old and new is this truth about being priests to God. It's in both testaments. God considers his people as priests. Actually, every believer is a priest, unlike the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, certain the Levites and the priests, the descendants of Adam were considered priests. So only a certain group or a certain group of people could be considered priests. But the idea of priests was there. And what about the priests? They were holiness unto the Lord. And so you can imagine, God is saying, for this priest, make him wear a turban and there's a plate of pure gold and it says, holiness to the Lord. That means this man, it's not about the turban, but it's about the man who's wearing the turban. He is holiness to the Lord. He's consecrated to the Lord, the priest. New Testament, well, we are all priests to God. Revelation one and verse six, every believer has been washed in the blood and has been made a king and a priest unto God. So the Old Testament, okay, I was certain people in the New Testament, every believer is a priest unto God. And so every believer has on his forehead, so to speak, holiness to the Lord. So each one of us here, you're a priest, on your head is holiness to the Lord, unto the Lord. That's who you are. That's who we are. So we are holy to the Lord and we must discern the holy and the unholy and help others to do the same. So the priests in the Old Testament, they were holiness to the Lord and they had to teach the people that was part of their responsibility. Hey, people, our God is Jehovah, make a dish. So therefore we have to live in a certain way as holy unto the Lord and separate what is holy and unholy. Keep it separate. So the question here as priests today in the New Testament, are we living lives and are we teaching? I mean, teaching means I'm not saying necessarily, some of us may be able to, as leaders, may have the opportunity to teach, but all of us by the life we live can communicate that we are holy unto God and there's a difference between holy and unholy and we have to discern if what is holy, what is unholy. It is discern. My question is, if somebody looked at your life and my life, would they see that we are actually separating what is clean and unclean? What is holy and unholy? Would they see it? Or would they be like, I don't know what is all, but they'd be confused. Now, I don't want us to go to that. I'm talking about that extent where, okay, I only wear white shirt and white trouser and I only, I'm not saying, you know, we have, this is all about external. It's not about external, it's about the life we live, that there is that sense of holiness, of being pure, sanctified, dedicated, set apart to God, because that's what he wanted of the Old Testament and surely that's what he would want of the New Testament priests. And that, that effect of holiness is interesting to consider where in this context here, I'm just talking, the 1st Corinthians 714 is talking about the unbelieving husband is sanctified or made holy by the wife or the unbelieving wife is sanctified or made holy by the husband and therefore the children are also made holy. Now, we need to understand this correctly, of course, that means there's one person in the household who is consecrated to God and they therefore extend the spiritual influence over their family. Now, of course, the life that each one lives is their choice. So if the unbelieving husband or the unbelieving wife, you know, is a drunkard and doesn't mean that those actions become holy, no, those actions are sinful. But God, because of that one person who's living consecrated to God, in that family, God therefore sees that whole family as consecrated to him and in some way he's going to deal with that household differently, even though the individuals may be making their wrong choices and they'll of course face the consequences, but there is something about that house that God is going to see different because there's one person who's living sanctified before him and he says the children are considered holy or set apart for him. So that's just something to keep in mind and that God sees that house sanctified holy to him because there's one person there. I feel that in scripture, when we look at other scriptures, Acts 20 and Hebrews 13, we can actually see this extended to a local short setting as well, but the Bible is teaching us that, you know, the Holy Spirit has made these leaders as overseers or shepherds over the flock and if they are standing consecrated to God, then God sees that whole place consecrated to him, that whole local body consecrated. Now, I'm not saying that the individuals don't have responsibility for their own actions, of course they do, but there is that sense where God says, I see this whole people sanctified unto me because there's one person here standing sanctified. Now, definitely in a local church, the whole congregation or at least majority would be living sanctified or holy unto God, hopefully, but God sees that differently because there's a shepherd there who stands before him sanctified. Just a side thought here because you find that here in scripture for Corinthians 7. So what we want to emphasize is that God is called us as a people to holiness. He's a holy God. Everything about him is holy. Now he's saying, I want you, I'm calling you into this place of holiness and so we want to understand what does it mean and how would God work it out in our lives. That's kind of where we are heading. So we see, now the focus is on the New Testament believer. The New Testament believer is called to be saints at many, many places. It's a calling. It means an invitation given to us by God. And this is, I want you to be saints, hang yours, holy ones, just like we read about the angels, he's saying, you are holy ones, you're consecrated ones. We are made holy in Christ and called to be sanctified, means made holy in Jesus. We are called to be holy ones. So you see this repeated many, many places and you're familiar with it. God didn't call us to uncleanness, but of course he called us in holiness. He called, he called us as holy. So he says be holy, I'm holy and he has called us with a holy calling. So this invitation or a divine summons is a call to holiness. Now I want us to understand it very simply in two statements. First, it means we're called to be like him and share his nature. So the moment we talk about holiness and the call to holiness, in our religious mind, that means because we have been brought up in a religious way, we immediately think about all the do's and don'ts. The moment we say, God has called us to holiness. Oh, we start thinking in those lines, what I can do, what can I not do. But instead, I want us to look at this call to holiness as these two things. First, it's a call to be like him or to share in the very nature of God. That means to have his nature reproduced and revealed, reproduced in me and revealed through me. And secondly, it's a call to belong completely to him. The call to holiness is really a call. God is saying, come, just be completely mine. You know, God's giving an invitation, he says, come. I want my nature to fill you and be seen through you. I want you to just be completely mine. That's the call to holiness. So what is the call to holiness? It's the call to have the holiness of God fill me and be seen through me. And it's the call for me to be completely, for me to belong completely to God. If we see holiness from this perspective, rather than seeing holiness as just do's and don'ts or as a comparison between people, well, that brother watches movies, chews gum and drinks wine. I don't watch movies. I don't chew gum and I don't watch and I don't drink wine. So I'm more holy than him. That's kind of the religious mind things. But that's really not what holiness really is. It is a call to share in the nature of God and to belong completely to him, to the Lord. It's not a comparison between people. So let me see scriptures. I'm going to just touch a little bit here on this and then pause for some questions. So you find this here. Now he says you're a people to be a people for himself. Holiness to the Lord. We are a New Testament. We are a chosen generation who chose us God. We are his own special people. We are the people of God. We belong to him. So the emphasis that I'm putting is belonging to God, being completely his. Yeah, time is up here. I'm just going to pause here so we'll have some time for discussion. But this is where I just want you to think about these two things that can I see holiness? Can I understand holiness from this perspective? It's a call to be like him, share his nature. It's a call to belong completely to him. What is holiness? It's this calling. I'm going to pause here so we can discuss a few things and we will pick up from here on coming Monday. So let me look at the chat and take up these questions. Okay. Okay, Shri Kumar, I see your hand raised. Please go ahead. Thank you, Pastor. Pastor, I want to know, as you said, now the holiness is not the human discipline. I need some more clarification on that. The difference between the holiness and the purification, that when we say the purification part, the repentance and purification part. And many times, this grace messages, that has actually, they have given that some messages are like this, that I'm not against the grace message, but I'm saying there's some messages seems to be like you are given the freedom to do in everything, but that reverence to God, that holiness of God somewhere is not preached. So how can we balance these things and what is the difference between the holiness and the purification? Or many times when we think holiness is also connected as purification, or is there any difference between that? Thank you, Pastor. So it is the same thing. So remember the word holiness or sanctification is synonymous. It means the same thing. To sanctify means to be holy. So I'm intentionally avoiding using the word sanctify, because it's kind of an old English word. So I'm just using the word be holy, but it's, you know, you could use either word. It's the same thing. So, and we will be coming to this, that is, the holiness of God works itself out in our lives, touching every aspect of us, of our attitudes, our thoughts, our desires, our motivations, our relationship with people, how we handle time and money and the choices we make. And so the holiness of God works itself into every aspect of our lives. We will be coming to it. That's the process of sanctification. And that's what God wants, like we saw today. In the Old Testament, he was, you know, specifying a lot of things. In the New Testament, it starts with the heart, the inner person being established in holiness, but then it affects spirit, soul, and body. It affects the whole person and preserves every part of us blameless before God. So the answer to your question is yes, the holiness of God works itself into every aspect of our lives. There's nothing that's untouched. My workplace, money beyond how we spend our time, our recreation, everything is touched by the holiness of God. It's holy unto God. But, okay, let me, so addressing the, you know, what the grace message has inadvertently or maybe knowingly, I don't know, but there's the misunderstandings out of the teaching and the extreme teaching on grace. You see, grace is true. It's the gospel of grace. There's no question. But anything pushed to an extreme goes into an error, right? So when even grace is pushed to an extreme, then people sell kinds of wrong things, which is wrong. So when in the name of grace, people say that you could do anything. Well, Paul addressed that in Romans 6. He says, you know, what shall we say then? Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound? You know, so he, he wrote it way back there in Romans 6. The same issues we are dealing within this church today. Yeah, shall we continue and sin that grace may abound? Obviously not, certainly not, right? So, yes, if the grace message is pushed to an extreme, then any act of sin can be, you know, endowed. But they seem to have a logic behind it, arguments for it, you know, and we will address that as we go along. And actually it's going to be addressed in both the courses on holiness as well as we talk about the development of the inner person, the human spirit. But it's wrong. You know, we cannot continue and sin and say grace covers it. No. The other part thought I just want to leave here is, I know we are out of time, but in our journey on holiness, and this is brought out in Romans the 14th chapter, I shouldn't use comparison, you know, because for example Romans 14, the comparison is somebody eats meat, somebody eats vegetables, a believer. Some believers regard every day as the same. Some believers regard certain days as special days. So what's Paul's conclusion he says that every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. So in these non-essential things, you know, you want to eat meat, you want to eat vegetables, for your every day is the same, for you, there are special days. Okay, you know, each one make your own choice. Let us not compare or let us not think that I am more accepted to God because I eat certain things and I don't eat certain things or you know, I live a certain way and they live a certain way. Let us not think that because Paul says, you know, each man is, he stands before God, he's going to answer God. So why should I judge another man's servant? This is all in Romans 14. So the point I want to say is holiness is not issue of comparison, but we are not condoning what is wrong. That means if somebody is doing something that's sinful, as far as the scriptures are saying, that is sinful. I cannot overlook that. So there's that balance that we have to have in letting holiness work itself out in our lives. Okay, I hope I answered your question. I said some good things. Yes, Master. I am not sure if I spoke. Thank you. Okay, there are two questions, one from Kennedy and one from Malaysia. Okay, yeah. So can we take up these two questions next class? I will make a note of these. I don't want to delay you to your, you know, for your break. And then so I've made a note of what these people pick it up next week. Okay. All right. So I don't, we're ending very abruptly. Let's pray. Let's close and continue to think about these things and, you know, I let the Lord give revelation to our hearts as we journey in this course on holiness. Let's close, please. And we will dismiss. Could somebody pray and dismiss us? Well, Father, we thank you a lot for teaching wonderfully this one on the holiness. Lord, you said that be holy as I am holy. At the same time, you said that I am the one who sanctifies you. Lord, you are Jehovah to God. One who sanctifies us. Therefore, help us, Lord. We may submit ourselves to the sanctification and holiness, that every aspect of our life to the establishment of holiness, our thought, our spirit, our mind, everything we do. All aspects of our life may be submitted unto you in holiness, Lord. Lord, we may be truly sanctified according to the standard that you desire from us, Lord. Help us to study more in the coming days on the Sunday. Bless the pastor, Lord. Thank you for his wonderful teaching on holiness. Strengthen him for filling with the spirit that the heavenly visitor teaches more powerfully in the days to come. In Jesus' name you pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you everyone. Sorry, I took some time from your break. Have a quick break and we can head to your next class. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your day. God bless each one. Bye now. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you all. See you next week.