 Alright, yeah, so before the break, we were looking at the unchanging nature of God, so some critics use the King James version to kind of criticize this point, because in some passages in the KJV English, it says the Lord repented, that word repented basically means you turning around, you're changing your mind about something. So they talk about this Saul passage, where it says that the Lord repented and he wished that he had not made Saul king. So they refer to that passage in the Seisi, in this particular case, God repented, God changed his mind. So how would we explain that? So first Samuel chapter 15, verses 34 and 35. Okay, that's basically where if you were looking at the King James version, it would say that the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel. Now, if you look at the passages which talk about the punishment that God brought upon Saul, we see that God's nature has not changed. So let's look at first Samuel chapter 13 verse 13. So if we could have someone read out for us, first Samuel 13 verse 13. First Samuel chapter 13 verse 13 and Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly, you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which he commanded. You for now the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. Yeah, so there was a promise that God made to Saul that if he would be a good king and be a leader who will really genuinely represent God, then God would establish his kingdom over Israel forever. So you see that was the promise which God gave to Saul. So we see that very clearly in some first Samuel 13 13 where Samuel says, you have not kept the command the Lord your God gave you. If you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. So this is something that God had promised and God would have kept his word. So therefore, you know, so this is the first occasion where Samuel says this to him. Samuel tells Saul to wait for him to come and make the burnt offering, but Saul is very afraid because the Philistines have already gathered for battle. And so instead of waiting for Samuel to come and make the burnt offering, he makes the burnt offering by himself. He disobeys God. And so at that time Saul, Samuel says to him, God had made a promise. God would have kept the promise, but you chose not to keep your side of the promise and you know, your side of the agreement. And so, you know, the kingdom will not be yours anymore. And then you have a second incident where Saul disobeys that is basically where there is a war with the Amalekites. And even though God has said that he must kill all the Amalekite cattle, he chooses to keep some of the good cattle for himself because the soldiers want those cattle. You know, after going into battle, they want to come back with some booty in their hands. They don't want to come back empty handed. And so they just to please them, Saul chooses to disobey the Lord. So in first Samuel 15, 27 to 29, this is what Samuel says about God and his character. So if we could have someone read out first Samuel chapter 15 versus 27 to 29. First Samuel 15, 27 to 29. First Samuel, chapter 15, verse 27. And as Samuel turned around to go away, Saul sees the edge of his rope and it tore. Verse 28. So Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. Verse 29. And also the strength of Israel will not lie, not relent. He is not a man that he should relent. So in verse 29, Samuel explains and says, the he who is the glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind for he is not a human being that he should change his mind. God made a promise to Saul. God said, I can establish your kingdom forever. All you need to do from your side is represent me accurately and be a good leader. Be a good king. But Saul was interested in pleasing the people rather than pleasing God. And so God takes the tears, the kingdom away from him. And Samuel says that he's giving it to one of his neighbors. And so he explains that God does not lie, not change his mind. So even though you're begging me now to change my mind, I cannot do anything about it. Is what Samuel says because God is what God has said. He has said. So in that sense, there is nothing that God has to ever repent of. There's nothing that God has to change his mind about. He has spoken something and he will bring it to pass. According to what he has said from our side, we can choose to either follow his conditions or not follow his conditions. And based on that, we will receive or we will not receive. So we are the ones who would have to vary in our responses. God on the other hand stands by the promises which he has made. So we would have to understand this term repentance used over there in the sense that God made an agreement and God was willing to keep that agreement. Saul refused to keep his side of it and therefore then God thought to himself it would have been better if Saul had not been made king. Because now Saul has unnecessarily brought judgment upon his head. So God did not want to punish Saul but Saul brought the punishment upon his head. Whereas on the other hand when God makes an unconditional declaration, he holds on to his word irrespective of whether the human beings have acted and done their part or not. Which is what you see in the promise made to David. So 2 Samuel chapter 7 verse 16. Very plainly this is what God says to David, your house and your kingdom will end your forever before me. Your throne will be established forever. There are no conditions attached over there. God does not say if one of your descendants sins then your lineage is finished. God does not say that this is an unconditional declaration. So wherever conditional declarations are made like in the case of Saul it was a conditional declaration. If you Saul do your part I will do my part. But when it comes to the promise made to David because God was having the Messiah in mind. Therefore God did not attach any conditions over there with to the Davidic covenant. He says your throne will be established forever. There are no conditions attached over there. And so when it comes to unconditional declarations we see that what God has said he does bring it to pass. Irrespective of whether humans have kept their side or not. So having looked at all of this, we declare that God is faithful in his nature. Whatever he has spoken he will hold to what he has said. And because he is a faithful God, we have that beautiful passage in Lamentations chapter 3 which we can rely on during our classes. So if someone can read out Lamentations 3 22 to 23. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning great is your faithfulness. So here you know Jeremiah is writing this book of Lamentations after the fall of Jerusalem. He is heartbroken about what has happened to his people, to his nation. And he is weeping over what has happened. And he says yes we brought this upon our heads because we were not faithful to the Lord. But even now there is hope and then he uses this term over here. He says because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail. That word compassion which is used over there. That's usually a word which is associated with the covenant of God. So his compassion towards the Israelites was always based on his covenant. He had made a covenant with them that they are going to be his people. So even though he has punished them now even though now they have been driven out of the land of Israel. You know Jeremiah comforts himself and reminds himself and he says his compassions. You know those covenant mercies they will never fail. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Therefore Jeremiah has this assurance that even though something so terrible has happened to them because God is faithful to his covenant. One day they will come back to the land once again. So this is the assurance that he has. So today when we are going through trials and difficulties. Do we look at our situation or do we look at the covenant, the new covenant which has been established through Jesus Christ. Because if we look at our circumstances, circumstances keep changing. One day everything seems to be going well. People are supporting us. People are on our side. But you know one year from now don't know whether those people will still be supporting us. They may have got angry about something and now they are against us. Circumstances change. So it's best not to place our faith in circumstances and in humans. It is good and wise to place our faith in the unchanging covenant of the Lord. Jesus Christ has made a covenant with us and he will abide with it. So every week when you're holding that grape juice and that wafer in your hand. Those are symbols which are pointing to the covenant which God has established. Which he will never bend. Which he will never cheat upon. So we hold on to that and say Lord I no matter what my circumstances are saying to me. I'm holding in my hand the symbol of the covenant which you made. You will never break that. So declare that to him when you're holding those elements in your hand. Declare to him and say I'm standing on this covenant because I know your covenant faithfulness. Because you know here in the Old Testament in lamentations. Of course here Jeremiah is talking about the Old Covenant mercies. And if Jeremiah could talk so confidently about the Old Covenant mercies. Imagine how much more confident we should be. Because now we are in the New Covenant. Which is which you know the New Testament says is a better covenant. So we have to place our confidence in the covenant of God. Because he is faithful in his nature. He will never break the covenant that he has made. So moving on to the righteousness and justice of God. Isaiah 45 21 is basically where God is described as righteous God. Isaiah 45 21. So let's look at this a little bit at this righteous nature of God. Okay, if we could have someone read out for us Psalm 71 verses 19 and 20. Psalm 71 19 and 20 please. Also your righteousness O God is very high. You have done great things O God who is like you. You who have shown me great and severe troubles. Shall revive me again and bring me up again from the depths of the earth. These words are being written by a man who has gone through great hardships. Because that's what he says about his life in verse 20. He says he says to God though you have made me see troubles many and bitter. So here is a man who has gone through many troubles and they are bitter troubles that he has gone through is gone through a tough time. But he reminds himself in verse 19 you know this is what he says your righteousness God reaches to the heavens and last week we established to the heavens. How many miles away are they? How many kilometers away are the heavens? Infinite. So in the same way the sky limit is infinite. There is also limitless. So this man who has gone through many and bitter troubles. He reminds himself of the righteousness of God which reaches to the heavens. And therefore he says because you are righteous even though you have permitted these things to happen to me he says you will restore my life again. And he says from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up. So when we are going through our trials and hardships the trials that we go through may be many and bitter but we must remind ourselves that the righteousness of God extends beyond the heavens. No there's no limit to it and therefore he who has allowed these seasons of difficulty to come for a while once that season is finished he will bring us out of those trials and he will again you know bring joy into our lives. So we need to trust his righteousness and his sense of justice. He will never do injustice for us because sometimes when we see the lives of all the other believers going so smoothly and you know you look at your own life and there are so many hardships and trials the thought may come into your mind that God is treating you unjustly. He's being so nice to the others but when it comes to me and my family why are these things happening to me? Is God being unfair? So then you would have to remind yourself of these verses and declare the truth and say no his righteousness reaches to the heavens. Another aspect of God's righteousness and justice is that he hates to see any kind of oppression or abuse or ill treatment of people. He hates it when people lie to each other, cheat each other, deceive each other. He's against such things so the righteousness of God it extends to the way he treats us personally. It also extends to the way he looks at people who are ill treating others. He will judge them in his perfect timing. So when we look at all the injustice that is going on in the world today we may ask ourselves where is the justice? God is sitting on the throne and looking at what is happening but why is he not acting? That can be a question which comes to our minds but then Jesus when he was speaking regarding this matter this is what he said in Luke chapter 18 verses 6 to 8. Luke 18, 6 to 8. What does the Lord say here? Someone could read out. Then the Lord said, here what the unjust judge said, and shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the son of man comes will he really find faith on the earth? Okay so now due to the kind of translation that is done we kind of misunderstand this verses. Here Jesus says, I tell you he will see you know God will see that these people who are chosen ones who are crying out day and night he says the Lord will see that they get justice and quickly the word over there does not mean that you will get your justice in very shortly like tomorrow or day after tomorrow. It's not talking about span of time over there. It's talking about the suddenness of time. Like when the son of man is going to come back you know when the second coming of Jesus happens it will happen quickly, suddenly, unexpectedly when the people in the evil, the wicked, the oppressors, the unjust rulers and politicians are you know doing all these evil things suddenly when the least expected in that sense you know in that sense when the least expected judgment will crash upon their heads. They'll be thinking oh we are doing fine. You know we have given this many lax to all the religious places of worship. So now we are fine. We are safe. And when the least expected judgment will crash upon their heads. That word quickly they've just used over there. That's the word. That's the Greek word. It's talking about the suddenness of justice. God is patiently waiting giving them opportunity after opportunity to change their ways to at least improve if not completely change so that you know the judgment on their heads can be a little less. God is waiting but when that appointed time comes without they realizing it judgment will crash upon the heads of those evil doers. So therefore Jesus says in this parable do not stop praying. Do not stop expecting justice. Do not stop expecting that God will do good for you. Please do not stop praying you know because this parable starts off with that. It explains in verse one why God was giving them this particular parable so that they will not grow discouraged and get the wrong idea and stop praying. God is saying over here. Jesus is saying over here. If you are crying out to him for justice it will be given to you and it will happen suddenly when you least expect it and when the evil doers least expected it will happen because you know God is sovereign. He will do it. He will do it. However this is how Jesus ends this. He says however when the son of man comes will he find faith on the earth? Will there be anyone left who really trusts God the righteousness of God and the justice of God to that extent? Will there be at least a handful left and we can be that handful even if all the other rest of the believers have given up hope and they're saying yeah injustice justice will not be done. We can be that small handful who are holding on to God and saying yes we are the people who truly believe in the righteousness of God and we believe that in his perfect timing without delay suddenly and in that moment which God has decided which God has fixed judgment will come upon the evil doers. So we can be the minority that are holding on to faith and God will be greatly pleased because we trust his character we trust his nature. The reason that we are doing this course this particular class is so that we can know these things about our God and hold on to them in faith and when we hold on to him in faith in this manner it brings him great pleasure. It brings him great joy because we are the small handful who have chosen to truly believe this about him. We are not doubting it. We are choosing to believe this about him and because he is this truly righteous God he will honor us that we have placed our faith in him. So because he is completely righteous and because he is completely just he chose to sacrifice Jesus Christ. So the reason that Jesus Christ had to be sacrificed is because of the righteousness and the justice of God because God is a just God he cannot simply cover up any sin covering up a sin is quite a bad thing to do and because I think it was probably in a Philippians book that I read a man he speaks in anger and he says my little child was raped. Is God just going to cover up that? Will justice not be done? I mean what kind of an evil judge would just cover up an evil like that and not bring justice and so then the person who is speaking to him and says yes God did not cover it up. He took out the full wrought and punishment of what that rapist did. He took it out upon Jesus. Jesus paid for it in full. The full righteousness of God and the full justice of God. God will not cover up any sin. Every single punishment was fully every single sin was fully punished. It was brought upon Jesus. Jesus paid for it. So the most rotten things that are being done on the earth today the punishment for it was already paid by Jesus. Now if those evil horrible people will just come to Jesus and say Lord I just found out that you have actually taken the punishment for my horrible deeds. I want to change my life and I want to commit myself to you. You know forgiveness is available to that person. So that is the beauty of it. Imagine the level of his righteousness and the level of his justice. He wants even the most rotten people to have a free pass if they will just repent and come to him. Even their rotten sins he has finished paying for them. So that is the beauty of what God has done. So because God has forgiven in that way if that person truly repents you know then we also should be able to approach that person with the same love that God shows. And of course even if the person does not repent we are supposed to walk in forgiveness. That of course is a fact we should not forget. Okay so moving on to the next point. The sovereignty of God. How he is king of kings and Lord of lords. This is an Old Testament word once again you know a Hebrew word king of kings and Lord of lords because you see at that time the world was filled with kings and lords. Lots of masters lords and kings. So the term basically saying there may be a billion kings and lords but this living God he is the king of all of them. Even in the principalities and powers you know you have the spirit kings and the demonic kings the demonic lords but this king is king over even those spirit lords and kings. So in that sense he is the king of all kings and the lord of all lords. So you know if you were to use the current terminology you would say is the politician of all politicians. Only thing of course the Lord is not a politician in any way. So please don't quote me on this ever. I just was trying to bring out the point that you know whomever we consider as the influential leaders of our day he is leader even over them. Okay so I just meant it in that sense because when we use the word politician nowadays it has such crooked nuances. So maybe it's not a term that we should use for God. Okay so yeah. So God is sovereign and this is what Isaiah says about the sovereignty of God. Isaiah 46 verse 10. Isaiah 46 verse 10. Isaiah chapter 46 verse 10 declaring the end of from the beginning and from Asian times things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. My purpose you know in the NIV it says my purpose will stand. I will do all that I please not just some of what I please you know when Satan allows me to get my way then maybe I'll do a little bit of what I please. That's not what God is saying. I will do all that I please it shall happen. My purpose every bit of it will stand. That is what God is saying. Doesn't matter what scheme Satan comes up with. Doesn't matter what strategies the evil ones come up with. Doesn't matter how disobedient human beings choose to be in the end and all is said and done. Ultimately God's purpose will stand to what extent will God's purpose stand. All that he has chosen that he chooses to do he will do it. Nothing not even a little bit of it will get stopped or curtailed you know is what God wants to assure us. And so because he is this kind of a sovereign God if we align our choices with him in a way that pleases him then we will be able to enjoy the benefits of his sovereignty. On the other hand if we take a stand against him because he is sovereign we will end up getting crushed. So when you know when someone is all powerful it's just common sense to align ourselves with that person who is all powerful you know why do you want to take sides with the second most powerful person that person is going to get defeated. So it's best for us in our own interests to align our you know our interests and our choices with the one who is all powerful and God he is sovereign. So it is good for us to align our choices with his purposes you know rather than choosing to rebel against his purposes. So in now you know we are doing a very layman's version of systematic theology and doctrines if we were to actually use all those technical terms and all of that you know it would get a little more complicated so which is why we are trying to avoid all of the you know the really intellectual terms and all of that but you know just to talk about something basic here the antecedent and the subsequent will of God this is a concept which you know is helpful for us to remember the antecedent will of God is basically what God had originally decided okay so for example the antecedent will of God is that nobody should perish even one human being should ever perish and have to go to hell that is God's antecedent will is original will for all humans every single human is that nobody should perish but there is also a subsequent will of God which is based on the choices which human beings have made so even though God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that no one should perish who are the ones who will finally get saved the ones who believe in Jesus that's how that verse ends right John 316 so those who have placed their belief in Jesus even though God's antecedent will is that nobody should perish because of which because of this antecedent will of his that nobody should perish he chooses to give his son as a sacrifice for even the most rotten people so that even those rotten sins will be forgiven will be paid for by Jesus Jesus will take the punishment for those things so that even those people can be forgiven so his antecedent will is very very clear that nobody should perish but his subsequent will is based on the choices which people make so if somebody chooses and says that I will not place my faith in Jesus then God's subsequent will for that person will be yes you will have to go to hell so there is an antecedent will and there is a subsequent will so what is God's antecedent will for every one of us believers sitting over here he wants us to reach our full potential he wants us to enjoy all the glorious riches which are stored up for us in heaven he wants us to become Christ like this is God's antecedent will for us but at the end of your life when you're 85 years when you're 90 years what will actually happen it will depend on how much you have chosen to align your life choices to what he wants so in the end at the age of 90 if you have really not chosen to follow the Lord in any way or obey him or submit to him then God's subsequent will for you will have to be that you know you're just maybe like Paul writes in his epistels you're just saved as though through fire you have because you have made your commitment to the Lord Jesus you will enter heaven but there will not be any reward for you because you have failed in every way to submit to him to accept correction to go in his ways to enjoy the treasures that he is you know that inheritance which he has for you in heaven you have failed to access any of it so finally God's subsequent will for you when you're 90 years sadly will have to be that okay this person will escape as though through the flames of judgment because of the faith they have placed in Jesus but they won't be any reward they won't be any honor but that is not his antecedent will for us his antecedent will for us has always been originally that yes we should enjoy all that he has planned for us and we should get our entire total inheritance in him through Christ that is his antecedent will for us so therefore it is important for us to align our interests with his interests so that you know our end will be a good end the human end because of course once I mean we continue to live even after death so our human end should be a good human end alright let's also look at the holiness of God now this word holy in is of course a Hebrew word an Old Testament word and the Hebrew word over there is Kadosh the word Kadosh basically can be used in two ways the first way that word Kadosh was used by the Israelite community is that anything that was set apart for God anything that was dedicated to God whether it is things or whether it is people all such objects and all such people were declared as Kadosh so if you are a Levite then you are Kadosh because you have been set apart for full-time ministry you are set apart that word Kadosh means set apart so and in the same way the vessels in the temple they are Kadosh they are set apart for only temple usage you cannot use them for any ordinary everyday chores so any object or any person who was set apart and dedicated unto the Lord was automatically declared as Kadosh so that word Kadosh in our English Bibles is translated as holy therefore in Leviticus 1144 when God says I am the Lord your God consecrate yourselves and be holy he is talking about how we should set ourselves apart for him we should dedicate ourselves to him so all the speech coming out of my mouth should be dedicated to him there should be no unclean speech or any destructive speech coming out of my mouth all my speech should be dedicated and set apart for him it should be of a quality which will honour him it should not be anything dishonourable or hurtful or wrong okay so that is the first sense in which that word Kadosh is used so if you look at Leviticus 1144 the first portion this is what God says I am the Lord your God you know consecrate yourselves you know dedicate yourselves be holy set yourself apart for me the second part of the verse is because I am holy now what does this mean God is saying because I am Kadosh is God saying I am set apart for myself I am dedicated to myself what is the second portion of Kadosh mean so the second portion of Kadosh is also set apart but set apart in a different sense set apart as in separate unique there is nothing else like that that is unique completely exclusive so set apart over here is used in two ways in the first portion God is telling the people you people set yourself apart for me dedicate yourself to me why because I am set apart I am unique I am exclusive all these other pagan gods that are there around you the pagan gods that you so happily worshipped when you were you know slaves in Egypt none of them are like me I am unique set apart the one and only true living God so because I am that you people set yourself apart for me and dedicate yourselves to me okay so literally that word Kadosh means set apart but it set apart in two ways set apart can mean exclusive unique separate or it can mean anything or anyone who has dedicated themselves to the Lord so how do we apply that to ourselves today this Jesus whom we consider our Lord and Master he is unique we have all kinds of pagan stories and myths and legends you know which are followed by the different religions but among all the religions of the world nobody talks about a God who sacrifices himself to be a savior Jesus is unique set apart exclusive there's nobody else like him and therefore he says I am the only path to the father there is no other way you can go to the father it's only it's only through me so he is set apart unique in every single way now because he is that and he's the only path to the father we choose we have we know we make a choice to set ourselves apart and become his followers and his followers alone we don't choose to follow the world we don't choose to make friends with the world we don't choose to live the way the other people live our priorities and our value system has to be set apart for him we can't have the same value system as all the other people and so while the whole world is chasing after riches and career and satisfaction of their desires we choose to set ourselves apart and run after what God has for us what God has for us his purposes his plans so our career choices should be in line with what he wants for my life I fulfill those desires which he says yes I can fulfill at that particular point of time on the other hand he says no do not fulfill that desire at that particular point of time we submit and say yes Lord I know to take a very simple reason God has got nothing against food we can enjoy all the food we want to but then if God says you know this is what the doctor said about your BP so I am asking you to curtail what you are eating because your human body is my temple you need to honour it and by doing that you would honour me so in obedience to God you would have to become careful in your eating so in every choice that you make you don't make choices the way the world makes because now you are set apart for him you have dedicated yourself to him so even when it comes to simple things like eating habits you would have to submit to him if we are living in that way then we are really honouring him because it's easy to stand on Sunday and on lift up our hands and say holy holy holy but how are we treating this holy God during the week it is the simple choices the food choices that you are making the choices you make in when you open your mouth and the words come out those simple choices are you set apart in all of those things if you are then indeed you are treating him like as if he is exclusive and you are really acknowledging that he is holy and set apart so those are the aspects which we can focus on when we are talking about the holiness of God now coming to the love of God this is one aspect of God that we actually enjoy talking about and learning about because it makes us feel safe yeah I think that's the reason so 1st John chapter 4 verses 8 to 10 talks about one beautiful aspect of God's love if you could have someone read out for us 1st John chapter 4 verses 8 to 10 1st John 4 8 to 10 please 1st John chapter 4 go on brother ok thank you brother he who does not love does not know God for God is love in this the love of God was manifested towards us that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him in this is love not that we loved God but he loved us and sent his son to be the perpetation for our sins yes so it's in this portion John says God is love and then he goes on to explain what kind of a love this is this is a love which acts and takes action and initiates the action even without explaining even before anyone has has offered to return something in exchange for that love in that I mean in the sense it is unconditional God does not say if you get your act right and you clean yourself up and you come to me and make certain promises only then I will love you no God's love is being freely given even to people who are never going to come and submit to him so in that sense God's love is completely unconditional his love extends to everyone even the people who are never going to submit to him who will never say yes to the Lord Jesus his love has been extended to them just as generously as to everyone else so what kind of a love is this love of God what kind of a nature does he have his is an completely unconditional love it's a love which expresses itself generously whether or not you're ever in your lifetime going to reciprocate we believers we have chosen that we want to reciprocate so we try to act in love towards God we treat him honorably we try to please him and bring joy to his heart we have chosen to reciprocate but there are going to be people out there who will never ever reciprocate his love but he is keeping them in good health day by day they have money in their bank accounts because he is taking care of them the same sunshine the same rain is provided even to them so there are a lot of people enjoying the generous love of God who will never ever reciprocate who will never ever repaid back of course it can't be repaid but they don't express back their love towards him but he is still being faithful to them so it's that kind of an unconditional love which takes the first step and pours itself out even though there is a chance that it will never ever be reciprocated in any way so that is the kind of love that God has and therefore because his love is that generous we choose to honor him and so the correction and the disciplining which God does it's a loving correction Hebrews 12 5-6 talks about the correction of God Hebrews 12 5-6 if someone could read out Hebrews 12 5-6 Hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons my son do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by him verse 6 for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives alright so here the advice which the writer is giving to the readers he is saying do not make light of the Lord's discipline do not lose heart when he rebukes you so just because you know you can feel God correcting you don't get discouraged because you know from the pulpit the love of God is promoted so much that people think that God will just will accept absolutely any kind of behavior so when they start sensing God's correction they get very very upset they start thinking oh maybe God doesn't love me anymore maybe now God is not going to bless me anymore they start having all these thoughts because they have a very shallow idea of God's love but true love doesn't just allow someone to go on going down the path of destruction true love tries to pull the person back so that they can be safe once again so because God truly loves us he is going to correct he is going to discipline he is not going to just watch over there peacefully while you are heading towards destruction that would be very cruelty God is not cruel, God is loving so therefore when correction comes to us when God's disciplining comes upon us let us not be discouraged because he is doing it out of love who is the parent who never corrects it's the parent who couldn't care less what happens to the child I mean we actually see that in some homes where the children are just not corrected at all I mean they are just left to their ways and the parents think that they are being very generous and modern in their parenting but actually it's like as if they have no interest in the future of those kids and it's very very sad if you really cared about your kid you would be so concerned you would keep them inside the boundaries you would place restrictions on them because you do want their life to be destroyed you want them to have the best most beautiful future possible and so when discipline comes to you when correction comes to you when you can feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit and you think my goodness why is he being so picky with me because we sometimes feel that when we go to our father to have our time of devotion we won't go to give all this flowery verses where he is saying all kinds of nice things but sometimes when we are having a quiet time he doesn't give us those flowery verses you get verses which are going straight inside and he is saying this attitude which you have been holding on to it just displeases me I do not like it and then you know you think I wanted to have a nice time today and God is giving me all these corrections but look at the heart with which the correction is being given he says over here because the Lord disciplines the one he loves he chastens everyone he accepts as his son because I am his daughter because I am his son therefore he is convicting me and correcting me and showing me how much that particular attitude displeases him and he will go on at it he will not give up till I have corrected that because he is a loving parent he is not one of those parents who couldn't care less what happens to you and your future so we need to accept correction knowing that he is a loving God there are a few other things that I really wanted to cover so you know we have kind of gotten to this strange system of finishing one topic half way through and then starting the next so next week first session we will finish the doctrine of God because I need to touch upon these aspects of the nature of God and so the second session we will begin our next doctrine which will be the doctrine of Trinity yes alright so there are okay is there any small aspect that we can cover right now because we still have time the graciousness of God you just don't need to be gracious to me for another two minutes and then you can be rid of me so graciousness of God Timothy, no Titus Titus chapter 2 verse 11 it says the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people so over here when it says the grace of God has been offered to people it's talking about the unmerited favor of God there is favor which is given to us because we have earned it you know you're really nice to a person that person will give you something back in return that is something which you have that's favor which you have earned that is favor it is unmerited favor you do not do anything to deserve it but it was just freely given so the graciousness of God it's a grace that is freely given to us even though we have done nothing to earn it and there are actually four kinds of grace of God which are mentioned in our New Testament I think three of them can be applied to our situation one will be of course this divine favor of God people who don't even deserve salvation are freely given salvation the second aspect of the grace of God is the divine giftings the New Testament gifts of the Holy Spirit which are given to us that's the second kind of grace that is given to us the third kind of grace which is given to us is somehow can never seem to remember it it always slips out of my mind I'll touch upon it next class sorry so sorry it's just not in my head right now let's close with the word of prayer as we are out of time Lord we just thank you so much that we worship God who is clean and fair and just in every way there's no corruption of any kind in you Lord you are clean and pure and truly set apart and holy so it is an honor or Lord to worship someone like you help us a lot to be to glorify you in our speech in our actions in the way we treat people in our choices because you are a beautiful God or Lord and you deserve the best so help us a lot we cannot do it on our own but Lord through your Holy Spirit O Lord so that we can be truly honorable in the way we serve you and in the way we live our lives thank you Lord in Jesus name amen thank you