 Just waiting for the recording to start. It's taking a little bit of time in case anybody, okay. All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to BC209, our course on Holiness. Thank you for connecting to the class and apologies that we ran over a little bit of time in the previous class. Let's pray and we will get started. Could somebody please unmute your mic and pray with the class? Then we will start. Okay, anyone? Yeah, can I? Okay, Anita, go ahead. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus, Father God. Father God, thank you for this precious time, O Lord, Father, to learn from you over, Tadda. Tadda, in this time, O Lord, Father, as we come together, O Lord, Father, to learn, O Lord, Father, Lord Jesus, about your holiness, Tadda. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Almighty, O Lord, Father, you have called us to imitate you in everything, Tadda. Tadda, in this time, as pastor, imparts the knowledge unto us, O Lord, Father, Lord, help us, O Lord, Father, to comprehend all of it and to imply this in our daily life, Holy Spirit, God. We need your help, Tadda, as set apart people to glorify you, magnify you in each of our lives, Tadda. We bless your name, we praise your name, commit pastor into your hand, Tadda. Every word that he speaks, O Lord, Father, let it be from your wisdom, Father, Lord, Jesus, that it will, O Lord, us be our spirits, O Lord, Father, Lord, Jesus, and imbibe in our hearts, in the mighty and matchless name of Jesus, I pray. Amen, amen. Amen, thank you. Okay, good morning. Welcome, everybody. We are continuing this course on holiness and what we have done so far is we've covered the first section which is on the holiness of God and our call to be holy, our responsibility to live a holy life. So we've covered that section. Now we're going to move into section two which has to do with repentance, recovery and restoration. And then after that, this will be a short section. So I'm assuming it will be about two lecture hours, I hope, on maximum three. And then we will go into the last section which has to do with overcoming. How do we actually overcome? Practically speaking, how do you overcome the flesh, the world and the devil so that we can live holy lives? Now why are we sandwiching this middle section on repentance, recovery and restoration? Because I feel it's very important for us to learn and understand this whole process of repentance. We are called to be holy, but sometimes we sin. Now when we sin, what should be our response? The Bible tells us very clearly there has to be repentance. And it should become a part of our understanding and part of our practice to repent when we do something wrong, repent before God. And maybe sometimes if I've offended somebody then I need to go and tell them sorry or so on. But that repentance should become part of our, should be part of our Christian journey because the fact is even the God has called us to holiness and yes, made us as holy people. In reality, we do sin, we do make mistakes, we do wrong things. And so we need to understand repentance. And also in some cases, if we don't take repentance seriously, if you don't take repentance the way we are supposed to and we are very casual about it, then the recovery and the restoration that should take place in our Christian lives does not happen. And so it just leaves us in a place where we could just drift away from God. It can become indifferent to God and then very indifferent to this call to a life of holiness. So I want us to understand the importance of repentance before God in our Christian life and to maintain this throughout our Christian journey. So that's why I intentionally sandwiched this short section on repentance, the recovery and restoration. So we are moving, we have covered the holiness aspect but now we are talking about, okay, so how is it gonna work out practically in our lives? And part of that practice of holiness is one very important part of that practice is repentance. So I shared the first part of the PDF this is again a work in progress and just putting thoughts together on this. So repentance, recovery and restoration and we will be going through these key parts here. Now, we need to keep in mind that it is our road, repentance is our road to recovery, restoration and redemption and seeing God work in our lives. And it is a very powerful truth and but we must keep it as part of our Christian journey. And so if you don't have that repentance aspect in Christian life, then this journey into holiness could just be lost. So that's why we're intentionally putting this up here, right? Now, what do you think about repentance? We know that the Lord Jesus and actually John the Baptist and then the Lord Jesus he preached the King and they preached a message of repentance. Jesus preached repent and belief in the gospel and so in order to believe in the gospel and the message being preached, I need to repent, right? So repentance precedes believing and if I refuse to repent it's gonna keep me from believing it's gonna keep me from a place of faith and I need to be in a place of believing I need to be in a place of faith in order to receive from God. So what are we saying? Repentance is a prerequisite to believing the message. And if I don't repent then I can't be in this place of believing I can't be in this place of having faith and I need to be in the place of faith in order to receive from God. So I can hear the message preached but in order to come into this place of faith in response to the message and receive what the message is making available to me repentance is necessary. And of course as we go to the book of Acts we see repentance, the proclamation of the gospel being followed by a call for people to repent. Also we see when Jesus preached and even John the Baptist preached they said repent for the kingdom of heaven is here. That means is at hand or is near or is here. In other words, God has made his kingdom available to us or accessible to us but for me to enter in for me to experience that kingdom for me to encounter that kingdom, I need to repent. So you see here that repentance is a prerequisite to receive, encounter and experience the kingdom of God. I mean what is made available to me in and through the kingdom of God I can only enter in, receive, encounter, experience as I repent or repentance is a prerequisite even for the experience of the kingdom. Now many times we think repentance is only for sinners because it was always when you preach the gospel you say repent but that's not the case. Repentance is for both sinners and the church and we can see that in scripture very easily. Jesus of course said, we see Jesus say he came to call sinners to repentance and we all agree with that, we all know that we know that the preaching of the message of salvation is includes a call to repent and we will talk about what repentance means but I'm just laying the background here but we also see Jesus, you know, so Mark to 17, Jesus said, I do not call the right come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Yeah, we understand that sinners need to repent but Jesus also preached repent to the church. So the New Testament begins with being, repent being preached in the gospels but it closes off with repent to the church in the book of Revelation. And if you go through, you know, five of the seven churches were called to repent, only two churches, the one in Smyrna and the one in Philadelphia didn't have a message of repentance. I mean, I didn't have a call to repent but the other five and if you look at what they were called to repent which we will look at carefully, you know, one, the church in Ephesians was called to repent because they first took their first love or they went away from the first love. The church in Pergabas and Thyatira were called to repent because they were tolerating false doctrine and false teachers. The church in Sardis, they had works that were not perfect before God and then the church in Leviticia because they had a sense of a false sense of spiritual well-being when in reality they were spiritually they were in a bad shape. So as you could say, they were in a place of self-deception. They thought everything was okay spiritually but actually things were not okay spiritually. So in all of these instances, Jesus was speaking to the church and he's telling them repent. So repentance is not only for the unsaved. Yes, it has a place for the unsaved but it also is for the church. And in this context, we could say it was actually a call to collective repentance, meaning more than one person in the church had to repent, the church itself had to come into this place of repentance. The call was to the church. That means that local community of believers. The Lord Jesus is telling them repent. So keep in mind two things. Repentance enables us to come into a place of believing or faith. Second, repentance enables us to receive what is being given to us in the kingdom. Two important things and both are very important. We all want to receive from God but that means we have to be in a place where we can place of believing or our faith but repentance is needed to come to that place of faith. Second, we all want to encounter the kingdom. We all want to experience the kingdom but repentance is a prerequisite to encounter the kingdom, what's in the kingdom. And so the first thing is repentance has its place in the life of the church, in the life of the believer and it's not just at the moment of salvation. Now, what is repentance? What is in the New Testament? What does it mean to repent? Biblically, because many times we have this idea repentance means I have to cry for one hour or I have to feel sorry for a long time or I have to be in a state of remorse. But those can be a part of the process but what does repentance really mean? It's very interesting, if you look at the word, the Greek word that's used for repent, metanoia, it literally means to think differently. To think differently. It means to reconsider, to change and I'm just picking up the dictionary words here, to change one's mind for the better, to think differently after. So at the very core of that word metanoia, it means to change our thinking but it doesn't stop with changing our thinking, it will lead us to act differently. So when we look at the context, repent means to think differently which will lead to acting differently about a certain matter. So in our journey to holiness, repentance is part of the process because I need to get rid of the wrong things. Say no to the wrong things. Things that will keep me from holiness. So I need to think differently and act differently in relation to those things so that I can progress in my life of holiness before God. So repent is very important because if a believer is not willing to think differently and act differently, then the things that are going to keep us from holiness are going to continue to beset us. And ultimately, repentance is always in the Bible, we're seeing its results in us turning toward God and moving towards Him. So repentance in the Bible means changing our thinking and our action resulting in us turning toward God and moving towards Him. So repentance is taking me closer to God, towards God as I change my thinking and my acting concerning matters here or not that are keeping me from holiness. I change my thinking and my action acting and it takes me towards God, towards Him. That's biblical repentance. Change not thinking, leading us to act differently so that we can move towards God. So if you look at it in a closer way, I'm going to align my thoughts to God's thoughts and my ways to God's ways. So I need to align my thoughts to God's thoughts and my ways to God's ways. That means what I do, how I act, how I behave. Now, if a believer is out of alignment with God in thought or deed, then to come into alignment, he has to repent. Repentance is what brings us into alignment with God. So even if it's a small matter, my coming into alignment with God happens through repentance, changing my thinking. So an example, if I, in my thought, I'm holding a grudge against somebody, everything else in life is fine, everything else is fine. I love the Lord, I'm praying, I'm reading my Bible, I'm seeking God, all of that is fine, but I'm holding a grudge in my heart towards somebody and I think it's okay. I said, God, that person did like this to me, so I'm holding it. I have a right to hold this grudge because of whatever that person said or did, but is holding a grudge the right thing? No. What must I do? I must forgive, I must release, I must let go, I must walk in love. So in order for me to come into alignment with what God wants in that particular situation, I need to repent and to be willing to change my thinking. And maybe it's a simple thought that I have a right to hold this grudge against that person because of what they did or because they made a wrong choice, whatever. I need to change my thinking in that, say, no, I don't have a right to hold this grudge against them. Maybe what they did was wrong. I'm not denying what they did, but that's between them and God. My responsibility is to keep my heart clean. So I need to change my thinking. It's not right for me to hold this grudge regardless. And then I come into alignment with God, I'm sorry. I shouldn't hold this grudge against that person. I release forgiveness. I erase this grudge. I replace it with your love. I come into alignment. So what have I done? I've gone through a process of repentance, of changing my thinking and my action in that particular situation. I've aligned my thoughts with God's thoughts and my ways with God's ways. I've repented. It may be very simple. There's nothing dramatic to it. It may happen in just an instant of time where I've decided to make this change. I realize my error and I come into alignment. I've actually repented. Now sometimes there may be a tear that is shed or maybe there's a crying that happens or something very emotional. But it's not the emotion that determines the repentance. It's this coming into alignment, a change of my thinking and my action. That is repentance. If it's accompanied by crying and beeping and sorrowful, okay, all that's fine. But just doing the action, the emotion of crying and feeling sorry, but if there's not been a real change in my thinking and my action, then I haven't really repented. An Isaiah 55, 6-9, this captures it so well. God says, in an Isaiah the prophet, he says, if you seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man, implication here is forsake his thoughts. So you forsake your ways. That's how you do things and your thoughts. That is how you think about things and let him return to the Lord. So you're actually seeing repentance here, forsaking his ways, forsaking his thoughts, and returning to the Lord. So that's descriptive of repentance. And whenever there's repentance, and we will see this, as you go through the whole Bible, whenever there's a repentance to return to the Lord, God always has mercy and he always abundantly pardons when there's repentance. He's merciful. He forgives. This is what we need to do. We need to forsake our way, our thoughts return to the Lord. To do what? To take on his ways and his thoughts. And God says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways my ways. In other words, when we return to the Lord, we are choosing his thoughts. It's God's thoughts and God's ways. That's the whole purpose here of returning to the Lord, to embrace his ways and his thoughts. And of course his ways and his thoughts are much higher than our ways and our thoughts. But this is repentance. It is us forsaking our way, our thoughts, returning to the Lord, and he will always have mercy and he will abundantly pardon. And when I return to the Lord, I embrace his ways and his thoughts, which are higher. And this can happen in an unsaved person. You know, when he's going from whatever he's thinking to the truth about God, or it can also happen in a believer, you know, like I said, in any case, in any situation, when I am changing my thinking and embracing God's ways and God's thoughts and willing to act in line with that, I am actually repenting. So repentance is important. And this is what repentance means. A change in our thinking and acting that causes us to return to God and embrace his ways and his thoughts. And it can happen in a very simple way. You know, maybe you're hearing a message preached and that very moment you say, okay, God, this is what you're saying. I'm accepting it. I'm letting go of my ways, my thoughts. I'm accepting your ways, your thoughts. That's repentance. The believer who does that has actually repented and he's come into alignment with God's ways and God's thoughts. Now, what the Bible also emphasizes is it doesn't stop, repentance doesn't stop but just an alteration of the thought process. It starts with a change in thinking, but it also expresses itself in action. And we know this. You know, when John the Baptist is preaching the message of repentance, he says, you know, bring forth fruits unto repentance or I just put the passion translation here. You must prove your repentance by a changed life, meaning if there is genuine repentance, which is a change in my thinking, it will lead into a change in my acting. There will be fruits of repentance. There will be an expression of repentance in my life. Right. And when, you know, again, this is from the passion translation as Paul is, you know, giving his testimony before King Agrippa in Acts 46 verse 20, he says that he went about preaching that people must repent and turn to God and demonstrate it with a changed life. Meaning repentance is not just a state of mind, but it is expressed through a changed life. So that brings us to, you know, what is involved in that changed life? In Matthew 5, 29 to 30, and we are familiar with this passage, Jesus said, if there's something in your life that causes you to sin, lock it up, cast it from you. I mean, let's expel it from yourself. Get rid of it. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it out and cast it because you don't want your whole person to go into hell just because of one member in you that's causing you to sin. Now we understand this is not just a physical thing that he's talking about. He's not talking about plucking out your eye or cutting off your hand, but this is figurative or it's using this to communicate a message that if there's anything that's causing me to sin, I must deal with it with severity and so plucking it out, cutting it off and casting it that is actually getting rid of it is part of what I do. So I changed my thinking about that sin. Yes, okay, that's not right. And then I changed my acting or my behavior and part of it is to get it out of my life to get rid of what is causing us to sin. So if a person says, I'm sorry, I understand what you're saying, I'm sorry, what I'm doing is wrong, but they don't follow through with this action then repentance, the process of repentance has not fully taken place in their lives because they only mentally saying, yeah, I agree what I did was wrong, but in action it hasn't come through. There are no fruits of repentance coming through but sometimes the fruits of repentance can be a very painful process to show that I'm really getting rid of that sin that can be a painful process. But this is where God works by his spirit, he gives us his grace and God helps us through this process and sometimes we need the help of other people, other believers who can come alongside us, come alongside us to help us, like it out, cut it out, cast it out. That's why if you, you know, in some cases, I'm not saying in every case, but in some case you have somebody who's there for you to help you make this journey and that would be very helpful and sometimes maybe even needful in some cases. But the beautiful thing in this whole process is that God is able to make us willing and able to do. So God works in us both to will and to do. That means he works in us to be willing and to be able to do this for his good pleasure. So that's where the prayer starts. So God, I ask that you help me be willing and make me able to do what's pleasing to you because God works in us to be willing and to be able to do what's right. So we pray, oh God help me to be willing and able so when, you know, whether it's for ourselves or that we're helping others, you know, and we say, look, repentance has to happen. But we know repentance is not just a mental thing where you say, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is wrong. But it has to be expressed through fruits of repentance through a life that has changed. It has to be expressed through action. That corresponds with what we are saying. And sometimes that's difficult. As we say, God, help me be willing and able to do your good pleasure. And ultimately, this journey is going to help us return to the Lord to bring us to a place where we should be before the Lord. So we're following through when Isaiah 45, what we have seen. It's going to bring us to the place. So the full journey of repentance, it starts with a thinking followed through with action and then leads us to that place of being where we should be before God. And sometimes at the very beginning, we have to pray and say, God, make me willing and able because sometimes people are not willing or maybe they feel unable to do it. But that's when we assure them, see, God can work in you with the will and to do. If you just are ready to start praying and say, God, help me become willing and able. He'll start the work and there'll be people to help you and you can make the journey onto a place where you come back to God and they be where you should be before the Lord. And what we see in all of these scriptures that, I've just listed them here, is over and over again when God tells us people to return to the Lord, there's always forgiveness and mercy, like we saw earlier in Isaiah 55. There's always forgiveness and mercy. So that's something that we have as a hope for ourselves as believers but also when we work with other people saying, look, there is forgiveness. There's mercy. If you're willing to make this journey there, God is going to meet you with forgiveness and mercy. He will have compassion. And I've just listed these scriptures there over and over again. He says, if you return to the Lord, he's going to deliver you. He's going to have compassion on you. He's going to cause you to overcome. He's going to bring you out of captivity. He's going to be gracious and merciful to you. He will heal your land. He will have mercy. He will abundantly pardon, which we saw. He will bind us up. He will heal us. And he will remove all iniquity and so on. But if we turn our face away from God with pride and we don't seek him, then there's no hope. He's going to return to the Lord. So I'm going to pause here. This is just the first part here on repentance, recovery and restoration. We get into the details of the process. The reason I want to understand what repentance really is is so that we practice it in our lives. Basically what we've said is there's a change in thinking that's followed by action, followed by us returning to the Lord and being in the place where God wants us to be. And sometimes we begin by just praying and asking God to make us willing and able, because that itself could be a struggle. And we must understand that this journey of repentance can be painful because it does require us getting rid of the very thing that's causing us to sin. If I'm not willing to pluck it out, cut it and cast it out, the process of repentance really is not at work. So understand that repentance, recovery and restoration does require this plucking, cutting and casting. Let me see if there are any questions here in the chat. Everybody with me so far? Okay. So any questions so far? I mean we just got started so we haven't got into the details yet, but at least to understand the meaning of repentance and why repentance is important, to be in a place of believing, to be in a place of encountering the kingdom, repentance is important. Any questions so far? Is repentance, okay, so I see Shrikma's question, is repentance a process? Not always. Sometimes repentance is as simple as a prayer. Sometimes it is a process. You know, if it's a thing that I can, you know, I'm just ready to deal with it. As long as this happens, that is there's a change in my thinking and a change in my acting that brings me back closer to God. If that can happen in an instant. By the moment I realize, oh God, I'm sorry, the way I was thinking was wrong. So I changed my thinking and therefore I changed the way I'm going to behave or act. And I bring myself into a place where I should be before God, repentance has happened. It can happen very quickly, you know, in an instant. But in some situations it is a process. It's difficult when, you know, when a person, when a believer has gone deep in sin and then to get them to a place where they return to the Lord and where they should be, it is a long journey which could sometimes take months, you know, because they have to be willing first of all to change your thinking and then change the acting and come into a place before God. Okay. So, so there it could be a process and sometimes it could be a very long process. And to the whole repentance recovery and restoration. Anita's question is Judas repented but didn't receive. Well, we don't know if Judas repented. He was remorseful, that means he was sorry about what happened or he was, you know, he was just upset about what happened. So, so that's where we need to understand the difference between being remorseful versus true repentance. True repentance always causes us to return to God. Remorse, which is, hey, I'm sad this thing happened. I'm sad I did it, but I don't care. Or, you know, you feel right, you know, feel right or angry. It's not taking us back to God. That's not repentance. Sometimes people are sorry because they got caught and they probably will do it again if they think they won't get caught. So that remorse is not repentance in itself. And that's what Judas, in Judas case, he went and hung himself. Now, he don't know what state he was, but then he, and he definitely didn't return to God. He went away from God. So, we can't say that Judas repented. He just felt, you know, bad, miserable about what happened. Anita's question, where does confession come in during repentance? Like it has been done Catholic setting. So he talked about confession. It's part of us acknowledging our sin before God. So when you break down the process, you know, it's like, it's just, it may be as simple as saying God, I realized what I was doing was wrong. So that's confession. I realized, you know, having a grudge against somebody that was wrong God. So that's confession. Now, I don't need to go and confess it to some person. Most importantly, I need to confess it to God. Second, if I have wrong somebody. Yeah, I need to go and tell the pay. I'm sorry I did this that hurt you. So the Bible does tell us to confess our faults one to another. But in some cases that may not even be there. It's just me and confessing to God. But definitely we don't need to do the confessional as practiced in the end. The policies of that's not. Necessary. I confess to God or I acknowledge to the person that I've wronged. If at all possible, the wrong that's been done. These, those two things are biblical. This ignorance of God and his ways require repentance. Divya's question. Does ignorance of God and his ways require repentance? Well, I think, you know, there are two situations. One is that if I was intentionally ignorant, meaning I didn't do my part to study and search out the ways of God. That means, you know, I have no excuse. Right. I just need to tell God, God, I'm sorry. I did not seek out this matter. I didn't study. I didn't search as I should have because for most of us it's available. The scriptures are available. Accessible. We know where to go to find answers. So in that case, I have no excuse. I just have to repent that I didn't do what I needed to search and seek. You know, what God wanted me to do. But then there would be the ignorance where somebody has no option. I mean, they have no access. Then I, you know, ignorance, there is also the repentance there is that when they hear the gospel, they turned from whatever they were believing in, whatever they were pursuing to believe in. The Lord Jesus Christ. So that's the repentance they would do. Unlike a believer who is ignorant of the word of God. So I think these are two different cases, but both require repentance. Elisha, last question here. Can there be a time in the life of a believer where there is no need of repentance? I mean, yeah, if we are not, if you're living, you know, if you're living a life that's clean before God. There's no need to repent. Like, I mean, example, if you go through a day where you haven't sinned, there's nothing to repent of. Or if you go through several days where you haven't sinned, there's nothing to repent of. So there's no need to make up repentance or the sake of repenting. It is if, if and when we do something wrong that the need to repent. But I know in scripture, you know, the psalmist Fred, you know, cleanse me from secret faults or cleanse me from presumptuous sins. So that means there is this place where I say, God, you know, even if I'm not a bear of things I may be doing wrong, please cleanse me. Right. So that's, that's a good thing to do. But I don't want us to, I don't want us, don't think we need to be in a place where we think repentance is something I have to do when I've not done something wrong. No, repentance is when you know you've done something wrong. But if you, you know, you're living clean before God, there's no need to repent of something. All right. So repentance is one last question here from Christopher. Repentance is an integral part of the salvation prayers. We are not sinless. So when we sin, we receive pardon from God. So there's not God pardoned unbelievers. So in both cases, there has to be repentance. So even for believers, we have to repent and receive the forgiveness that's available for us. So also for unbelievers, they need to repent and believe in the gospel. So it's not just an automatic thing, right? It's not like, so when a believer sins, he's not automatically forgiven. He needs to go before God and say, God, I'm sorry. And we will see that later. First on, chapter one, if you sin, we have to confess our sins. So believers, forgiveness, there's this process of repentance, this process of going before God and saying, God, I'm sorry. And I will see the cleansing of the blood of Jesus. That's required in our believers. And so for unbelievers also, they need to hear the gospel in to believe in Jesus and ask him to be their savior. All right, so we will continue this on Wednesday. Hopefully on Wednesday or next Monday, we will finish this section on repentance. Let's go through the process of understanding the process of repentance. We are focusing on the New Testament. There is a lot in the Old Testament about repentance, but I'm intensely focusing on the New Testament because I want us as New Testament believers to understand. This is part of the New Testament and how it is played out in the church in the New Testament. So we will look at that. I will focus on that as we talk about repentance. All right, so think about this. Just review the notes. Think about these first three chapters we looked at. Reflect on it. We will continue this on Wednesday. Let's close and we will dismiss. Let's pray together. Everybody's doing fine. So we are kind of almost midway through the semester. I hope you have been learning and being strengthened spiritually this semester. Could somebody lead us in prayer before we dismiss, please? I'll pray. Go ahead. Lord, we thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the provision, Lord, you provided for us, Lord, knowing that there is a room, Lord. There is a mess, Lord. Whenever we fail, whenever we fall into sin, Lord, we can come to you and ask for forgiveness and repent. Change our ways, Lord. You will forgive us. And we thank you, Jesus, that you will practice in not only in us who are learning, but also those who don't know that there is a way, there is a life. You will teach them, Lord. You will touch their hearts. You will send people, Lord, so that this truth may be proclaimed, Lord, over the world. We thank you for this day. We thank you for this knowledge. Let your Holy Spirit broaden us. Let it be planted in us, Lord, so that it may be a thousand of fruits. In your mighty name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everybody. Amen. Thank you, sir. Thank you. God bless. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll see you all tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. God bless. Bye now. Bye, Rowan. God bless.