 Okay, so good morning everyone and welcome to class. I would like to welcome all the students online, on campus and later on the e-learning students who are going to view this session. So let's pray and let's get into what we have for this morning. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank and praise you for this day. Thank you for your presence in our lives. We thank you, Lord, for your word. Father, we believe that you're helping us, Lord, learn. Lord, line upon line, precept upon precept, Lord, to just build ourselves up in you day by day, Lord, with all that you're speaking to us through your spirit. Lord, even today we pray in the name of Jesus that we will be built up. Father, that you will give us clarity about your word and enable us a lot to walk in victory that you have given to us through the cross. We bless you. We honor you. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay, so we're talking about faith and we said we have to build our faith. We have to nurture, develop our faith because faith is something that can grow exceedingly. That's what we saw in the last class. So there is an opportunity for us to take it from whatever level it is at in our lives or whatever measure and increase it. So we saw the different ways in which we can increase it mainly or primarily it's through the word of God because the word of God is the agent that makes faith to grow. So we saw all those meditation techniques. You remember we talked about what is meditation? Meditation is intently focusing on the word of God and taking the word inside us. Then we saw how one must also visualize, one must confess. So these are all things that we have looked at. So we said contemplation, visualization and confession of the word. And the other aspect of applying the word is to consider it like a seed. So when we saw the seed, the plant comes in the same way, we have to sow the word of God and the word of God will develop or it will grow. And that growth, it is what will develop the faith in our hearts as well. And we saw that when we saw the word of God, there are results which we are going to reap from it. It's like a farmer, it's like a harvest and that's the way we look at it. And we said that when we nurture our faith, it must be based on the word of God. It must be based on the victory of the cross. It must be based in the identity that God has given us. So these are all ways in which we can engage our faith. Now today we will talk about another very important aspect about faith which is confession. Confession or what we speak about the word that God has in the logos or the written word of God or the word which comes to us by inspiration. We said that such a word is known as, what is it known as? Logos is the written word of God. What is the inspired word of God or the spoken word? Reema. So both Reema as well as logos, we are required to make that our confession and our declaration. So we will try to understand why God wants us to do this, how to do this and maybe some other questions that you all have, we can address those matters. So now something for us to recognize is that when we have faith, we must not just keep it hidden. Yes, we all have faith in our hearts and we keep saying, yeah, I have faith and that's about it. But we'll see today there are two aspects. One is to speak the faith. Another is to do according to our faith. You got it? So just because we are saying we have faith, it's not going to be helpful. Faith is there in the heart. Yes, it is there. But there are two more things for us to engage in. One is confession. Second is action. Okay, so we'll look at both of these today. So having faith in our hearts and keeping it inside is just one part of what is necessary or important. But the other one is to express to express or to release the faith which God gives to us. So how do we express this faith? So I've been saying that we will now look at confession or declaration. Now when we receive salvation, what does the Bible have to say? How do we receive salvation? Two things we do. Yes, we confess our sins. We acknowledge that Jesus is Christ. Okay, what else? What else do we do? Two things that are, you know, the Bible says you do that. Okay, Romans 10, 9 and 10. Just look at those verses. Romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10. What does it say? You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. He will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Okay, so what are the two things there? Diksha, you will give me the answer. Try. First we have to confess our mouth that Lord Jesus is our Lord and second thing we have to believe in our hearts. Yes, right? So two things I'm saying. Okay, even for salvation, first we have to believe. Then we confess. Then what does it go on to say? Because it is with the heart that one believes, right? And with the mouth confession is made. So when we carry faith in our hearts, there is also the aspect of speaking the faith or confessing the faith. But what is confession? Okay, what is confession? Confession is, what is it? Declaration. Okay, but what is it? We accept. Okay, we accept. We confess. So when we look at the word of God, there are two places where you really look at this word confession. One is at the place where it talks about accepting Christ. So in that place, we just said, if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, you will be saved. The other aspect of confession is when one has sinned or when one has made a mistake. So when one has made a mistake, what does the Bible encourage us? So if you go to passages like 1 John chapter 1 verses 7 through 9, or if you go to passages like James chapter 5 verses 14 and 15, both of these say that if we confess our sins to God. So when we make a mistake, we confess to God. Okay, but there is also the aspect of confess your trespasses one to another. We should even be in a position where we are humble enough to share our mistakes with others. Two kinds of confessions. What are they? One is we confess to God. When we make a mistake, we are supposed to confess to God. Okay, second is we in some cases, I told us in the last class, don't go around confessing your sins to the whole world because that's not what it means. It means that in certain situations, it is necessary to make confession to the right people. Maybe you have wronged a person or there is an elder that you must confide in and you must share. So in an environment of trust, you have to go ahead and share what has happened. So that is confess your trespasses one to another. So this is the confession that we all understand, confessing our sins, confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord and we think that confession is just that. But there is a little more to this word called as confession. Whenever we see a word, you have the subject hermeneutics this year, this semester, no. So you will have it in the next semester. So in that subject, what we will learn is when we have the Bible, right? How do we study the Bible with certain tools? So with certain principles, the right way of interpreting. So one of the things that we have to do is we have to go back to its original language. When we say confess, we'll have to check what does it mean? Because today we are speaking in a different language, English. But they have written it in another language. So we go back and check in that language. So the Greek language is where we have this word. So you know where like in Romans and all where we use it. So when you pick out that word confession and you check. Okay, you check the meaning of that word in Greek language. It comes from a term known as homologia. Okay, that's the original Greek word homologia. And what does it mean? So it simply means homo is same homo is same. Logia or logia however you want to pronounce it is to say to say. So homologia or confession is you say the same thing. You say the same thing. Understood everyone? So what is confession? Confession means to say the same thing. So what is the same thing that we are supposed to speak? We've already understood one kind of confession for salvation. And you know to receive forgiveness of sins to confess to one another that we have understood. Now we are talking about confession of faith. Got it? So what are we talking about now? Confession of faith. So when we talk about confession of faith, we must understand that we must say the same thing. Same thing as what? Same thing as what? Okay, what we believe? Okay, God's promises? God's word? Correct. We need to believe God's word, God's promises, what God says about us. That is one aspect. You believe. What else we are supposed to do? We are supposed to confess. And what is confess? Say the same thing. Okay, so we are supposed to say the same thing that the word of God teaches us. And that is an expression of our faith. That's an expression of our faith. Now this is not something new that you know Jesus came up with. Only you know when he was there and in the New Testament and all of that, where he suddenly thought, okay, let me teach them about speaking their faith. No, you go way back to the Old Testament. Even there, God had given instructions to speak in order to walk in the blessings that God gave us. So can somebody turn to Joshua chapter 1 and verse 8? One person can turn to that. And another person can please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 30 verses 11 to 14. So we look at these passages and then we'll go on to look at other passages. Anyone at Joshua 1-8? Yes. Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will have good success. Okay, so it's like God is giving a key for success to Joshua and the people. So how to be successful? God is speaking and he's saying this book of the law, what does it say? This book of the law shall not depart from your heart, mind. What does it say? From your mouth. Okay, that's great. So this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. So notice it does not say this book of the law shall not depart from your heart because anyway it's supposed to be in our hearts but it has to go to the next level. What is that? It's in the heart but it should be in the mouth. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. You shall meditate on this day and night. So how will it come to my mouth? Only when I'm meditating, isn't it? So it's quite challenging. Okay, let me be honest. There are many scriptures that I can say by heart but then I still get confused because sometimes it's a little difficult to memorize it unless you've meditated deeply on it. So I really appreciate when I see people who can just... You ask them a question, they'll say it with the scripture and the proper scripture because one thing which is required, okay, I'm still not that good at it but I would love to be. But you see meditation, every word, unless we meditate on every word it becomes a little challenging for our mind to grasp it and for it to get into our hearts. And then when we speak from that place of deep meditation of the word it just flows, right? It just flows and that's the way God wants it to be for all of us and God told Joshua that this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth. Meditate on it. If you meditate on it, it will come. It'll come to the mouth, okay? Meditate on it day and night and then it goes on to say in this way you will make your way successful. So how to be successful? God gave a key to Joshua. He said if you are a man or a woman who meditates in the word of God to the extent where the word is in your mouth. You got it? It is in your mouth. You will make your way successful. So even back in the Old Testament what has God teaching us? Speak your faith. Don't just hide your faith inside your heart. Yeah, I have faith in my heart. Very good. But confess the faith. Confess your faith. Speak your faith. That's the lesson which we learn even in the Old Testament. Now let's look at Deuteronomy 30 verses 11 through 14. Deuteronomy 30, 11 to 14. Yes. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you. Neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us. That we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us. But that we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. Okay. Can you go back to the beginning Nelson? Just read one small slowly. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you. Neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us. That we may hear it and do it. Neither is it beyond the sea that you should say who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us. That we may hear it and do it. But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart so that you can do it. Okay. So in the commandment that God gave Joshua, he is telling Joshua, it is actually not so difficult. So what is God saying? The commandment that I have given you, it's not like it's so high up that you have to go to heaven and then you have to do something and make it happen. Or he says it's not far away from you. You don't have to go anywhere to get the word and do it. But where is the commandment or the word that I have given you? It is near you. It is in your mouth and it is in your heart. Okay. This is what God has done. God has put his word in our mouth, in our heart. Can it be closer than that? Tell me. It's so close, isn't it? God is saying my word is not out there where you have to do some adventurous trip and go find the word. You know how you have all these movies where they make it difficult for you to find the treasure. Go find it, bring it, then do it. God is saying it's nothing like that. My word, it's near you. How near is it? It is in your mouth, in your heart. That's what you should do it. Okay. So in this way, what God was actually telling us is we must have faith in our hearts and the expression of that faith should come through the words that we speak. Okay. And we've already said confession means say the same thing. What is my faith? We look at it, you know that I'm victorious because of what Jesus has done on the cross. I'm victorious. That's my faith. So what should I say? What should I say? If I believe I'm victorious, I should say that I am victorious. Got it? So say the same thing. Whatever the word of God teaches us, the word is very near us. The word is in our mouth. The word is in our heart. We are supposed to speak it out. And that's the way we express our faith. And there are many passages here that talk about it. I think we look at it because it's all so important. But I will refer you to an APC publication by the name Speak Your Faith. Okay. Speak Your Faith. We have it in English. I think the Hindi copy is also available. So you can just pick your copies. Those who are on campus, it's right here. Collect a copy. It will give us more information about what this whole confession is about. As far as our faith is concerned. And for our online students, you can get the PDF. There are audio books available. So you can listen to the books in the audio format as well. So we are working on that. So I request us to please make an effort, whichever way. Hard copy, PDF, audio file, listen to it. And this is very essential for our Christian faith. To not just know the word, but believe the word and speak the word. So let's look at these foundational passages. Let's go to Romans 10 verses 6 through 10. And then Hebrews 3 verse 1. I want us to be a little more enthusiastic to quickly search it out and be ready to read it. Same thing with the online students. If you found it, please unmute. You can read it. I said Romans 10, 6 through 10. Can I read it, sister? Yes, sister, get through it please. Yeah. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss. That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Okay. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. All right. So here Paul writes to the Romans and you know Paul is actually reiterating what was a shed earlier where we've seen, isn't it? In the book of Deuteronomy where God said my word is near you. My word is in your heart. It's in your mouth. You just have to speak it. So Paul is reiterating that and he's saying the same thing to the Romans and he's saying look God's word is very near you and then he goes on to talk about how to receive salvation. That is you believe in your heart the Lord Jesus and you confess the Lord Jesus that's the way that you will be saved. So this whatever we shed earlier whatever we discussed earlier the same thing Paul is instructing to the Romans. Okay. Now let's move on. We'll move on to Hebrews 3 and verse 1. It's a very interesting scripture. Hebrews 3-1. Yes. Therefore holy brothers you who share in a heavenly calling consider Jesus the postal and high priest of our confession. Okay. So it says here Jesus Christ the apostle and high priest of our what does it say? Confession the apostle and high priest of our confession. So where is Jesus now? We discussed about this last time. Where is Jesus right now? In heaven sister. Sitting at the right hand of the God the Father. Okay. Thank you. Thank you sister Gertrude. So Jesus is in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father and what is his ministry right now? Intercession. He's our great high priest. He's a high priest forever. But what does it say? It says Jesus Christ the apostle and high priest of our confession. It simply means that when we confess in line with God's word what does Jesus do? He backs it up. But if we don't confess in line with God's word Jesus has nothing to back up. You understand? So every time we make a confession of faith it's like, you know, it's like Jesus agrees with what we are saying and he's the high priest of our confession and our confession, you know, in that sense is acceptable and very, very powerful. So Jesus stands in agreement with our confession and that's a confidence that we should have that every time I'm confessing in line with what the word of God says the word of God says about me the word of God says about you know, a certain truth Jesus is agreeing with me from heaven he's agreeing with me and that is why our confession is so powerful. So Jesus Christ is the apostle and the high priest of our confession. Say the same thing. Now imagine if I say something opposite do you think Jesus will agree? If I say that oh, there's no abundant life life is only tough, it only gets harder. You know, sometimes they share all these theories of I don't know who it was, some Murphy's law or something and I'll say it only gets worse, right? So when you speak things like that do you think Jesus is going to agree? No thumbs up for that, right? From heaven. So we want the agreement of our high priest to what we are saying. So then we must say what he says, say the same thing then he'll agree with us as the high priest, right? He will back it up and imagine what can be better than that? Jesus saying yes, wonderful, go for it you know, go ahead, I'm with you regarding any matter So he is the high priest of our confession which means he's in agreement and he backs up our confession. So that is why our confession is so important. Okay, so now let's move on look at some of the other passages here. We have Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus, the Son of God let us hold fast our confession. Okay So again we are being told that Jesus backs up our confession so we must not give up you know, think about Noah we discussed about Noah as an example and we said that the flood was going to come and God chose him to build an ark but throughout people did not believe what God had spoken to him so he went about doing his work and he must have had a lot of temptation to give up because people would have said what is a flood we've never seen a flood, what are you talking about it's not going to happen right, so at some point he could have been under pressure to give up and say yeah, maybe I didn't hear from God maybe there is no flood, maybe this, maybe that. He could have changed his confession but he didn't, he held on to the promise that God gave him and you know, he must have said to himself yeah, definitely God is going to do it so I'll hold on to it. Think about this lady in Mark chapter 5 there is a crowd and Jesus is walking in the crowd but suddenly Jesus asked the question, who touched me and then he says like the healing virtue power has gone out of me and the Bible says immediately the flow of blood stopped, okay, so she received a miracle but if you just look at that passage Mark chapter 5, I think it's verse 25, 28 I don't know there it says that that lady when she was going near Jesus she said to herself meaning she had a confession right, she had a confession what was that? She said to herself if I may only touch his clothes I will be healed so she believes that if she touches the clothes of Jesus she will be healed but what is she saying is she saying even if I touch his clothes I don't know maybe I'll try you know, if she speaks like that then what she's saying is not the same as what the word says or what the truth is or what she believes isn't it so she spoke in line with what she believed if only I can touch his clothes I will be healed, okay, so we learn from these people they didn't give up they didn't give up and that's what the writer of the Hebrews is saying he's saying look you have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens the Lord Jesus Christ hold on hold on to your confession don't let it go God has promised if that is the truth it will happen you will see the fruit of it just because things get tough you know just because the people around or the environment or the situation says that it won't happen think about the blind men we see in the Bible there's a blind man crying out to Jesus son of David have mercy on me what did the other people there do on the street they said keep quiet keep quiet stop screaming keep quiet imagine if he didn't continue to call out to Jesus right because if he did not hold on to his faith that yes Jesus can heal me then what happens you know Satan will always try to stop stop our faith stop our confession right but it's only those who don't give up you hold fast to your confession keep saying the same thing maybe we are still experiencing some weakness in our body or pain or you know discomfort and we feel I'm believing God for healing but it's not happening okay let me give up don't give up that's what the writer of the Hebrews is saying hold fast to your confession say the same thing you don't feel it right now but say the same thing because remember what if we say there is the fat and there is the truth we must believe in the truth fat can change truth cannot change right so that is why hold fast to your confession it's important to have a good confession have you you know have you seen like at church we put the announcements there is a vision the vision of all people's church is to be salt and light in the city of Bangalore to the nation and to the nations so in a way right the vision every Sunday the vision is being repeated that is true but also it's a confession it's a confession like you know to the nation and to the nations like for the first time I came to APC I was actually amazed because I saw the name of the church was all people's church world outreach okay and I was thinking where is world outreach you know it's a church yes but world outreach but you see that's the vision that's the confession that's the declaration you keep saying the same thing because God said so and then what happens you've got a journey with God and God makes it happen he makes it happen right things begin to take place but we must hold on to the confession we can't just give it up because we don't see any anything happening you can't say oh forget it hold fast to your confession because Jesus will back it up as long as it is the truth of God's word we said logos Reema speak it speak it confess it let's let's move on so same thing in Hebrews 1023 it's again encouraging us to hold on to the confession do you want to read Nelson 1023 Hebrews 1023 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful okay great so we must hold on and not give up on the confession because confession of faith it's likely that there is going to be a journey of faith so we've already talked about the fact that it won't be so easy right it's not so comfortable but it will happen and we need to journey with God now coming to confession let's also go back to our passage Mark 11 we've spoken about that you remember Jesus he spoke to the disciples he told them have faith in God and we discussed that particular passage now let's see something here look at this Mark 11 verse 22 to 24 I will read it in 22 Jesus answered and said to them have faith in God verse 23 for assuredly I say to you whoever what does it say whoever are you looking at your scripture yeah Matthew Mark 11 23 whoever says to this mountain right okay says to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done he will have whatever he whatever he thinks or believes or says right here also it says therefore I say to you whatever things you ask when you pray believe that you receive them and you will have them so Jesus is giving us a key it's this passage is about believing God okay before this what happened before Jesus said this what happened anyone in that passage Mark 11 good yeah victory who said that victory correct so Jesus looks at a victory and there's no fruit on that victory so he curses the victory okay the next day Jesus and his disciples are walking by the same path and they see the tree the tree is dried up and the disciples are amazed they start asking Jesus Jesus remember you curse this tree and it's dried up so Jesus is like what is there to be so amazed right let me teach you how to operate okay or how to work your faith so it's actually a lesson Jesus is mentoring his disciples because he wanted them to realize the power of confession what did Jesus do before he said this he himself spoke to the victory right he cursed it then what was the result it dried up from its roots okay it dried up from its roots so the very next day you see that you know it's all gone but the moment Jesus spoke that faith that authority was released and the victory was affected so that is why Jesus is now telling the disciples I want you to do this exactly what I did what is that if you see a mountain okay nowadays mountain is not just a mountain mountain can be fear can be our mountain anxiety can be our mountain doubt can be our mountain right or let's say some sort of financial difficulty can be our mountain some opposition can be our mountain we face all kinds of mountains so when you see the mountain what are you supposed to do say to the mountain speak to the mountain right you speak you issue the command of your faith to the mountain then what will what will happen the mountain will be removed and cast into the sea if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that the things that you say will be done okay two things you believe in your heart and whatever you believe speak okay so this is something that we must all practice I try to practice it all the time all the time and I have some maybe weird stories which I don't know if I can even share here because of the recordings because there are times that I have really exercised my faith and spoken spoken to like stuff things around me and I've actually seen the results okay because it's true it's real what Jesus is saying here is real and I'm not trying to say you know be weird or be spooky spiritual no don't be wherever it's essential you can speak like have you noticed even in the ministry of Jesus sometimes he spoke he spoke to sick bodies right be healed be made well so we can even issue commands to the body or parts of the body or some system in the body be made well become normal something like that so will it work what is Jesus saying it has to work if you believe if you speak right your faith and if it is in line with what God is wanting to do so many wonderful things happen I've heard of stories of people who have commanded the weather people who have commanded the rain to come and I don't know if I told you there was one particular person there was a forest something like a forest fire and it caught on to his field all his work he's a farmer so it caught on to his field and even though they had called the fire services and everything it was too huge to put it off and he didn't know what to do at that time and he just started praying he said God I want you to protect my field I don't want it to be burnt and at that time he realized speak so he called out for rain and it just poured right and the whole fire just was put off because of a huge rain that happened at that time so it's not something which is theory it's very much practical so I encourage you I encourage you speak your faith speak your faith if you believe in your heart if you confess with your mouth you will see those mountains moved but we must exercise our faith just keeping faith in our hearts is good but the expression of faith is what Jesus is teaching he's teaching his disciples why are you so amazed you know what I did I believed and I spoke to that victory it dried up you do the same thing if you believe in your heart you speak to the mountain it will be uprooted it will be cast into the sea okay so that's a little bit about our confession so yeah we can maybe we can just pause now if there are any questions anything I'll answer and then we'll stop for a break I thought there'll be lots of questions or maybe they'll come up right in the next session so let's talk about all the questions that you have we'll go for a break let's come back at 11 or 10 10 o'clock sorry 10 okay see you then thank you