 Okay, good morning and welcome everybody to BC 209 our course on Holiness and we're making this journey together learning about holiness and How we can practically Live a life of holiness unto God Let's please pray together and we will get started may I request somebody? to please Unmute your mic and pray with us as a class and we'll start Father we glorify you this morning We honor your name because you're so amazing Reveal you because you are the most that God We thank you for another opportunity father to learn about your holiness as we strive to be holy because your words to be Holy because I am home Lord Content to pour out in us through pastor Ashish. Thank you Lord for the gifts your blessing So we can equip us father and we can apply what we've learned to our lives in Jesus name Thank you, thank you All right. Good morning everyone once again so I'm going to just quickly review what we did in our first lecture this week on Monday we after we you know, we did The first section on the holiness of God and how we are called to holiness We said, okay. Now, let's talk about the practical side. You know, how does it happen in our lives? practically and We introduced a short small section on repentance recovery and Restoration so we started talking about that on Monday and And the reason we introduced this short section Is because repentance is an important part of our lives even as believers It was important for us to come to Christ the faith in Christ But it is also important for us as we make this journey of faith And so we just trying to understand, you know, what is repentance and hopefully today or definitely by Monday next week we will also look at the process of repentance and Sometimes repentance is as simple as you know a momentary thing where We realize we are out of line with God and we immediately say Lord, I'm sorry We change our thinking and change our acting bring it in alignment with God and we move on It may be as simple as that But sometimes It's a process There's a lot more involved especially if it's something very serious in our lives and And that is also important We need to understand that and we need to yield ourselves to the process of repentance recovery and restoration because That's going to bring us back to a place where we need to be before God to continue in our journey towards living wholly before him So I'm just going to quickly review I'm going to share my screen and then we're going to review what we did on Monday then go forward And let's see, you know, how much we can cover today and So we started this this past Monday we We established the fact that repent repentance Is important for us to come into a place where we can believe so repent and believe So in order to believe to be in this place of faith And that's the place that receives from God the place of believing the place of faith How to believe I need to repent repent and believe We also saw that repentance is important for us to experience and counter and experience the kingdom of God So God is offering He's made the kingdom his kingdom all that is available in his kingdom He's made it accessible for us. It's at hand. It's within our reach. It's available for us but We need to repent in order to experience the kingdom of God So repentance is also important than that And we said that repentance is not just for sinners But it's for the church as well and we quickly mentioned, you know, we just highlighted the fact that Jesus when he spoke to the churches seven churches Five of them to five of them. He said, you know, they needed to repent of something that he pointed out And we look into that a little bit later Then we said, okay, let's understand. What is the meaning of repentance and Very simply and then you testament it's it means to think differently So it starts with that my willingness to change my thinking To change how I see something To change my mind about something So it's my thinking And of course it will lead me to act differently as well so to change in thinking leading me to acting differently and Essentially what we're saying is From based on eyes of 55 629 we said we are forsaking our ways and our thoughts And we're embracing God's ways and God's thoughts That means we are choosing to think like is the way he thinks and Then we're choosing to act how he would act his thoughts and his ways and That really is Repentance so when we make that change We have actually repented according to the Bible definition right so it could be as simple as In a moment, I realize they I've been thinking wrong and therefore Acting wrong and I realized that and I change and Based on the word of God embrace God's thoughts and God's ways and I have actually repented But sometimes make that change. I may need some help. I may and I may go through some struggle With my own mind and my own flesh so on It may not be very easy Because the flesh seems to have a very loud voice But the other thing we see the New Testament emphasizing is that There has to be fruits of repentance. So it's not just I can't just say well I've changed my mind about something which is good. It's a starting point But it has to culminate in action changed action or a changed life So repentance doesn't stop with change in thinking it follows through with the change in action so that's important that's emphasized in the Bible and Then John John the Baptist was preaching he Said you know bring forth fruits that demonstrate repentance or prove your repentance by changed life Or when the Apostles were preaching they preached, you know, you must demonstrate it with a changed life But that change in behavior change in my action sometimes requires some a painful step, you know It requires a painful step that but I it may involve plucking out and Cutting off something and getting rid of something. You know and Jesus put it like this You know you pluck out your right eye if that's what's causing you to sin or you cut off your right hand If that's what's causing you to sin Of course, we know he's speaking figuratively telling us that if something is so close to us Yet if it is causing sin causing us to sin You know, we need to deal with it pluck it out cast it out and That can be painful and Sometimes we may not be able to do it on our own and so we may need the help of you know A brother or sister who can you know, somebody can just encourage us to do it and to stay But that decision and that's what we need each other as well and God of course helps us by his grace and by his spirit and Sometimes even the willingness to do it may not be there, you know We face they're faced up for the truth We face. Okay. This is the way of these are thoughts of God and these are the ways of God and I'm here in my thoughts in my ways But sometimes I may not even be willing to make the change and that's where the Bible says, you know, God works in us to make us willing and able to do his good pleasure So I just go to God and say God help me to become willing. Yeah, sometimes it starts with a prayer like that God help me to become willing To do your will to make this change in my thinking and my acting so that I can pursue holiness in my life And then God is faithful He will work in us as long as we are open He will work in us to make us willing and able and this is where we stop lust class You know, the assurance we have throughout scripture old and New Testament that look if we return to the Lord There's always mercy. There's always forgiveness. There's always the goodness of God If we return to God, I'm coming to you I'm forsaking my thoughts my ways and I'm returning to the Lord He will have mercy and he will abundantly pardon He will restore and he will bring about a recovery and a restoration in our lives That is always assured for us and you know, I just Listed out many of these scriptures that we find and God over and over again assures us people look if you return I'm gonna heal. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna do a work in you And so this there's really no reason why We shouldn't return to the Lord At any point when we when we know that we are out of alignment with God So now let's go forward. I've put the rest in in part two of the PDF which I have shared so So we want to understand this whole connection between repentance grace and forgiveness now We have spoken about it a little bit While we were talking about holiness, but I'm repeating it here just to kind of, you know, reinforce this because Somehow in the contemporary teaching on grace The word repentance seems to be a bad word for for the church, you know and In in some of the in the modern church or the post-modern church It's like you don't it's almost like you never tell a believer to repent Repentance is never preached to a believer or to the church Because the emphasis has been so much on grace and goodness of God, which is true We need to feed upon the grace and the goodness of God Hey, but if a believer is doing something wrong We have to address it and we have to say look you need to repent You need to change your thinking and your acting and get into line with God's ways and God's thoughts That has to happen But sometimes, you know, we've kind of left that out Sometimes we say not the blood of this automatically covers your sin or in your sins automatically forgiven because Jesus paid for it or You know, you don't need to repent and and God doesn't see your sin or God just overlooks your sin And so all kinds of you know impressions we have given But we need to you know, we need to correct that and so this chapter is in some way You know highlighting certain truths in the New Testament or certain portions of the New Testament that speak towards this Speaking to us as believers telling us that This repentance is an integral part of our Christian life It's not to be shunned. It's not something to be avoided But it's something that we just practice normally Every day or you know as and when you need So think about repentance, righteousness and transformation Now the apostle Paul is the one, you know who especially in the book of Romans Who brings this out so so beautifully and and if you just follow the train of thought and Romans chapters five through 12 And I'm just outlining this here and it's really beautiful to study those chapters, which we will do next year In Romans five he brings out this beautiful truth that we are justified freely by the grace of God and God has given to us the gift of righteousness and it's God has already made us righteous in his eyes But right after that in Romans six chapter six he says we have received grace we have received righteousness but we cannot continue and sin And instead he emphasizes the fact that the power of sin of our lives are broken. You don't have to live in sin In chapter seven of Romans he highlights the fact that an unregenerate man cannot keep the law Even if he wants to do what is good there is sin that's dominating him So apart from what God has done for us on the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit we cannot live this holy life by ourselves And then having stated that in Romans eight he brings us to the understanding that the Holy Spirit living in us is the one who helps us put an end to sin in our lives The Holy Spirit. Christ has done the work on the cross and the Holy Spirit makes it possible for every believer to bring an end to sin And then there are some chapters nine, ten, eleven hour patterned theoretical he kind of just deals with Israel and the church Then in Romans 12 he comes back to the believer and he says look so now you have to live a transformed life By renewing the mind so Romans six the cross Romans eight the spirit Romans 12 the transformed mind the transformed mind The renewed mind that leads to a transformed life So the renewing of our mind and constantly changing my thinking constantly changing my thinking to think in God's ways And that's going to constantly change my or transform my way of life So basically Romans 12 is you know if you want to put it a very concise picture of repentance I'm renewing my thinking My way of living is being constantly transformed winning your thinking Changing your thinking repentance changing your living repentance So you see that although Romans five I have perceived grace and righteousness I still must live constantly renewing my mind transforming my living So that that that repentance is an ongoing thing in the everyday life of the believer And eventually we are being changed more and more into Christ likeness So it's it's highly it's just you know it's just beautifully brought out there in Paul's epistle to Romans Then if you journey through all his other epistles in fact all the other epistles whether it's written by Paul or the other other apostles In all of these episodes they do emphasize the fact that we have to live in righteousness We had to practice right living we are forgiven we are redeemed we are washed we are sanctified we are justified God has done all of that but it's not a license to live any way we want to we have to live in righteousness I just highlighted one verse of scripture passage of scripture then Titus to where you know he says look the grace of God the grace of God the grace of God Has brought a salvation but what is the grace of God call us to it teaches us so what is the grace of God teaching us It teaches us that denying ungodliness and burly loss we must live soberly righteously and godly in this present world So think about this the grace of God teaches us to deny ungodliness and burly loss so if let me put it like this and it's it might sound rather blunt But if any teaching of grace doesn't lead us to deny ungodliness and burly loss then that grace that is being taught about is not the grace of God Because the teacher of the grace of God or the grace of God that the Bible talks about teaches us or instructs us to holiness to deny ungodliness and burly loss So that he can you know we can be a people are redeemed from every lawless deed and we are purified for himself We are his own special people living in good works So that's the the essence if you say that the New Testament say God's grace has been given but it leads us to holiness Another thing we see emphasized in the episodes is the relationship between fellowship with God repentance and forgiveness And the Apostle John brings us out very beautifully in his first episode You know he says look we have fellowship with him so what an honor How we are fellowshiping with God with the father the son the Holy Spirit they're walking in clothes fellowship communion Koinonia friendship intimacy and walking in fellowship with him But in order to walk in that place of fellowship with them we cannot walk we cannot walk in darkness And if we say we're having fellowship with them and walking in darkness then we are actually lying But he must walk in the light as he's in the light That's when fellowship with him is possible and then we do have the blood of Jesus cleansing us from all sin But how does that happen he explains it We shouldn't say we have no sin if we do that we are deceiving ourselves But he must confess our sins He was confessed our sins we acknowledge it then what happens he's always faithful And his blood the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin So we shouldn't say we have not sinned if we have sinned he should acknowledge it So this place of fellowship and maintaining our place of fellowship involves an ongoing repentance and forgiveness If and when we say so I'm not saying we just do it you know as a as a ritual now If we have sinned then we repent confess receive forgiveness cleansing and keep walking in fellowship with him So that's part of our walk with God and John brings it out brings it out beautifully in his episode And one of the things and I just put one verse here to highlight what John is emphasizing in his episode is That we should not commit whoever commits sin and that word commit that he uses often in verse John chapter 3 It's the continuation the habit of doing sin or you know living in constants If you are if a believer is continuing in sin then he is actually in a place of lawlessness outside of that place where God wants him to be So that's what John is saying you know if you can't live that way And in the New Testament itself we see many examples of believers being called to repentance and I will just quickly run through some of these You know Simon the sorcerer in the city of Sumeria now he was you know a former sorcerer he he practically was practicing all kinds of dark arts He hears for the preach and he receives the message of Christ is even baptized in water And yet so you know so as far as we see that phase or that stage of his life there seems to be genuine conversion because he has heard the gospel preached He's seen the mighty works and he has been baptized So I don't think that that was a frivolous thing or a very light thing You know we just have to say that he seems to have been genuinely converted But even though he was genuinely converted when he sees Peter and John praying for people and they've been baptized in the Holy Spirit He offers the money and Peter tells him Repent so he's telling a new of course is maybe a new believer but he's telling the believer repent because of that part of your heart The wicked part of your heart now he may not have known better maybe that's all he knew maybe that's what he used to practice that you know he would take money from people in exchange of offering You know his spiritual black magic so he thought he could do the same thing when it comes to the things of God and he had to learn that's not the way But he had to repent change your thinking your thoughts are wicked God to change go before God change So repentance you look at the Corinthian church we know the problems in the Corinthian church there are many But one of the most notable ones is that there was a man there who was living in sexual immorality And and it seemed like initially the Corinthian church didn't address that you know they just tolerated it or you know maybe they addressed it and this man didn't do anything so just let them be So they were tolerating it and so Paul had to write a very strong letter or it addressed it very very very strongly in first Corinthians chapter 5 he says you know don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump And it's even if you have if you're tolerating a little bit of sin it's going to affect the whole body And so he's very strong in that and and I've just put out a couple of verses here he tells them he says see don't keep company with anyone who's a brother but if he's sexually moral Or you know any of these other things he lists he said look you can't you can't walk in fellowship with such a person It's not that we hate them but we understand there's a difference that if somebody's intentionally continuing in sin we have to draw the line somewhere And so look I love you as a person but I cannot you know condone your wrongdoing neither can I be a participator in that wrongdoing And Paul is very strong he says put away from you the evil person depends you got to deal with that even the church has to deal with that there has to be a change in the way they're thinking about this person whom they're tolerating in their fellowship And he's correcting that put away from you that evil person When it comes to church leaders you know and Paul is writing to Timothy says you know even concerning church leaders he says Timothy you know against an elder how do you treat elders that are spiritual leaders You know if there's an accusation make sure you have two or three witnesses that means don't just go by one person's word make you know verify the accusation that means there's something wrong There's a spiritual leaders doing something wrong but when the spiritual leaders doing something wrong and obviously there's no repentance there what must you do If you have sinning that means they're continuing in that you have to rebuke in the presence of all so that's pretty strong That means when there's ongoing sin there's no repentance it's got to be addressed right and you do this without prejudice without partiality You know that means don't give any preference to anybody when it's a matter of sin that's affecting the body you've got to address it publicly and if there's no repentance So it's very clear here that you know sin has to be addressed there has to be a correction being administered and even when a case of a believer He says look and this is in the case of restoring a fallen believer see if a man that is a believer is overtaken in any trespass that's any kind of sin What must we do we must restore such a person so the goal is we've got to get them back in line there has to be this process of repentance that will lead to recovery and restoration And we do it with humility because we know that hey anybody could fall into temptation so here we're dealing with trespass and we're dealing with temptation Now somebody has fallen in what do we do we have to restore such a person and as we do that we are fulfilling what Christ wants us to do And lastly this is something we have mentioned earlier when you look at the Lord's message to the seven churches it is very clear to five of them there is a call to repentance And if you look at the details I mean what was he addressing is very interesting because to the church in Ephesians they have departed from their first love I mean this is a very good church the church in Ephesians they're doing a lot of work they're very discerning very diligent very passionate But in all that they're doing they've gone away from loving God first and he's calling them back to repentance and back to the place of first love to do the first works But in order to come back to that to be restored there has to be repentance So repentance is the pathway to recovery and restoration To the church in Pogamos they are accepting the false doctrine of the Nicoletians Now we don't know exactly what the Nicoletians were but there are two you know two major understanding one is just going by the name Nicoletians This was a group that suppressed the laity Nicol is meant to conquer the laity so they were suppressing the laity Another possibility is that they were just teaching doctrine that led to immorality So whatever the case was this particular group of people were being accepted in the local church and the Lord said no I hate it I hate what they're teaching you cannot accept it and you need to repent Same thing with the church in Theatrum they were accepting the teaching of a false prophetess a prophetess named Jezebel Basically she was wrong teaching the teacher was teaching people that was things that were leading people into immorality And there again he says you got to repent The church in Sardis they had a great reputation but their works were not right before God They were doing things God didn't want them to do perhaps they were doing things That were what would you say improper because he talks to them about majority of them having their having their garments defiled Defiled means sin so even though they had works the works were not perfect because there was defilements in the church So if you put all of that together maybe they were doing things but you know they were tolerating sin or doing it in sin or out of sin So he says your works are not right you need to repent And the church in Levedicia they were self-deceived right they said maybe you've got everything good we have rich we have wealthy But he says you're actually poor miserable naked and blind so they had a wrong estimation of themselves they were self-deceived And he says look you really need gold you really need garments and you need anointing So he's saying look I want you to come and buy from me that means you know pay a price to receive what is truly of God gold What is truly of God the clothing and the anointing you know you pay the price to receive what comes from God don't be in this place of self-deception And get what is truly that what comes from God the two riches the true garments and the true anointing And pay the price for it repent so he calls this church repent So what are we saying when you look at all of these throughout the New Testament it is absolutely important for believers individuals for the church for the collective community To be in this I'm just saying in a place of repentance meaning I must be constantly willing to correct myself Lord I was wrong I put myself I changed my thinking and my acting to align myself to your ways and your thoughts So it's a it's a continual time I'm not saying we should live in condemnation or live in you know always demeaning self demeaning manner that's not the point the point is we need to be living in a place where we are constantly willing to be to change because you see this throughout the New Testament So let me pause here take any questions and then move forward into the next chapter. Let me just see if there are any questions here Any questions so far everybody's with me. Okay, Sri Kumar, please go ahead. Thank you pastor Pastor there are in case in case if the people if as you said when the Holy Spirit inspires them or like how you how you like how how it is written in Acts chapter eight words 22 and in a first Corinthians five 113 How the Paul is telling them to repent. I just want to know that that even after receiving the instruction from the Holy Spirit even if directly the church like as you discussed about the grace is to deny the Godliness is not for no denying the Godliness So it's to it's to walk in the Godliness it teaches us but I saw so many you know so many are even though they know that they are doing you know these are not the right path and and even though they know that they have to repent but they think that what they are doing absolutely right Because they are their attendance in the church. They are giving in the church maybe you know is much more than any other people because of their finance finances and they are strong in finances and And in such case how can we how can we you know tell that person that how important this repentance is because their heart is so stubborn because they think that they think that they are the they are perfect people because they are They are coming to church regularly they are in the all the services and but their life where they walk with God is not right but they think that they are giving tight their offerings everything they are the best given in the church so in that case how we how we can deal with such people or how can we correct them. Thank you Thank you best. Okay. Yeah, I understand the question. We will be looking in an upcoming chapter, we'll be looking at what brings people to repentance. And one of the things we will see there is, you know, of course, there are different things sometimes it's the work of God, it's the goodness of God, etc. But sometimes we just have to pray that God will grant them repentance. Because it seems like in some situations, and especially when it comes to believers right, it's very hard to convince somebody that, you know, the way they're thinking or what they're, what they're doing is wrong. It's very hard sometimes to convince them, you know, you may talk to them and they may not see any validity and they may not be willing to accept that there was, you know, what they're doing or position or way thinking is actually wrong. It's contrary to the word of God or something is out of line. And then in such cases, we just have to pray that God will grant them repentance. It means God has to work inside them in some way to bring them to this place of repentance. So, you know, it's nothing that we can do other than just just Lord open his open their heart, open their mind to you and you work in their lives to bring them to that place of repentance. That's one of the ways that, you know, that eventually people will come to a place of repentance. And sometimes that's the only thing we can do. Just pray for them and ask God to do it. Yeah. Thank you Pastor. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Let's cover a little bit more ground before we close. I'm going to share my screen again. So the next point I just want to highlight, maybe we can cover this before we go for the day is this, you know, another common mindset, perhaps a misconception that we have as believers is in our mind we think, you know, there are small sins and big sins. And I just want us to, you know, try to see things from God's perspective. And you look at it from the scriptures. Think about lust and adultery. Jesus put both these things on the same level. Right. That's in Matthew five. He said, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you've committed adultery in your heart. So there's adultery of the heart. And then there's the adultery, the physical act of adultery. You know, of course, this was our physical act. We will say, Oh, that's, you know, some person did it. But then what about in the eyes of God? There's the adultery of the heart and that's equally wrong. I think about hate and murder. This is first John 315 where John says he who hates his brother is a murderer. Now physically, if somebody murders, it's a big thing. But in the eyes of God, if you hate your brother, it's murder. Or think about pride, sexual immorality. Think about serving this unity and idolatry. Think about speaking lies or killing the innocent. Now we would always, you know, we're killing the innocent. That's such a, you know, big sin or idolatry or immorality. These are big sins, but we don't pay attention to things like pride, serving this unity or speaking lies. But if you look at problem six and also you see Revelation 21, all of these lead to the same place. All of these are an abomination to God. First of all, problem six. I mean, God hates them, all of these and all of them lead to the same place. In other words, God sees pride or serving this unity or speaking lies as evil or as abominable as immorality, idolatry, or killing the innocent. So, but generally, you know, we tend to tolerate if somebody speaks lies, okay, we tolerate that. And then we go after those who are killing the innocent. Well, in God's eyes, both are equally sinful, equally abominable. You know, we, we go after people in idolatry, but we tolerate people who are actually dividing us and so on. So what I want us to, I mean, this very small section here. What I want us to, at least for ourselves is all sins, great and small. This great and small is according to our understanding. But all sins, great and small, we must recognize that equally detestable in God's eyes. And so they should be equally detestable in our eyes. And as much as we do not tolerate idolatry, we must not tolerate lust in our hearts. And as much as we would never commit murder, we must never tolerate hate in our hearts. And as much as we would never do commit immorality, we must not tolerate pride. And as much as we would never engage in idolatry, we must not so disunity. in as much as we would not kill the innocent, you must not speak lies. For us, all of these, all sins should be the test. We want to keep ourselves clean from anything that can stain our flesh or spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God. That means we just don't tolerate sin, full stop. Small or big, it doesn't matter. We are perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So anything, small or big, I've got to deal with. We should not have the attitude where we are tolerant of small things and we make a big deal of other things. No, all sins, big or small. Say, I don't want to touch me in the flesh or in the spirit. Okay, our time is up. So I guess we will have to take one more lecture next on Monday. We will cover this. You know, what leads a person to repentance? I know Sri Kumar just asked a question. So we'll look at what brings somebody to a place of repentance. We need to look at some other things there. You know, Godly sorrow and God grants repentance. And then we talk about when and how do we repent? And then the process of repentance. We will look at a one passage in scripture that really breaks this down for us. You know, we see what is involved in repentance, what is involved in recovery and what is involved in restoration. And then what would as a restored lifestyle look like? And then why is this so important? Why is repentance so important? What if you don't repent? We will cover that and talk about, you know, collectively, what are some of the things we should be watchful for as a community of believers. Right? So these are some of the things that we would look at next Monday. Hopefully we'll finish it. Then we will proceed into section three in this course. Okay, that's, we have two more minutes. I think we will just pray so that you can be in time for your next class. Okay. Everyone's with me so far. Nobody's changed their mind about the course. No. Okay, good. Thank you. Let's pray. Somebody could pray with us and then we will take a break. Anyone can pray. Let's pray. We thank you, Father. We thank you for the wisdom and the knowledge you're imparting us, Lord. We thank you for your hand and your knowledge and your blessing that you've imparted in the past. Ashesh's life, Lord. So through his life, Lord, you may teach. And then through his life, Lord, you may advance your, your gospel, through all the corners of the world. And we pray Jesus that you will continue to empower him, Lord. You continue to teach him, Lord, so that through him, Lord, he may do wonders, Lord, and you may influence all cultures and all nations and all races, Jesus. We thank you, Father. Be with us and protect us, protect our mind in your mighty name, Lord Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll see you all next week. God bless you. See you soon. Bye now. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. God bless. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. God bless. Thank you. Thank you.