 Okay, recording is on. Welcome everybody to BC 209, our course on Holiness. And this is the first lecture this week on this course on Holiness. Let's please pray together and we will get started. I request somebody in the class to pray with us and then we will start please. Anybody can pray? Please go ahead Anita. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus Father God, Father we want to give you glory and praises, O Lord Father, for this precious time, O Lord Father, I'll invite you, O Lord Father, open our ears and eyes, O Lord Father, for Jesus spiritual Father, O Lord Jesus, to receive everything, O Lord Father, which has been taught to us, O Lord Father, that will be pleasing sacrifice into your eyes, O Lord Father, O Lord Father, you are the only source for us, O Lord Father, for Jesus, for our joy, for our life, which is better according to your word. Let it be, O Lord Father, O Lord Jesus, pleasing unto your eyes, help us, O Lord Father, that you please out of us, O Lord Father, as we learn, O Lord Father, Father, O Lord Jesus, in light of our spiritual understanding, this is where the wisdom, O Lord Father, God, to grasp everything that has been taught to us and to imply, O Lord Father, O Lord Father, we need you more than ever before, and I thank you that you are with us, O Lord Father, I come fast into your hand, O Lord Father, O Lord Father, O Lord Jesus, I believe, O Lord Father, that you are speaking to Him, O Lord Father, O Lord Jesus, thank you for His, O Lord Father, O Lord Jesus, the faculty gift that He has, O Lord Father, thank you for His heart, O Lord Father, we bless you, O Lord Father, thank you, O Lord Father, in the mighty and master's name of Jesus, we commit the time ahead into your hand, in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, amen. Amen, thank you, Anita. All right, good morning and welcome everybody to the class on holiness. I'm going to quickly review what we did last week and today we're getting into chapter four, which is, let me say, addresses many of the practical questions that usually come up in relation to living in holiness. So we will be getting into that today. I will go ahead and share the PDF that'll help us to quickly review. Sorry, this is chapter four, yes, we are in chapter four. We did chapter four last week and just quickly review this. So we talked about the need, the call to perfect holiness in the flesh and the spirit that means to protect ourselves from things that, you know, the wrong, the dirt, the filth, the sin, that's all around us from affecting us. And we have to perfect holiness, grow in holiness in the fear of God. And so God works that in us and He empowers us. So we said, first of all, the Holy Spirit Himself. He's a spirit of holiness. So He comes. He's doing His work in us. He's empowering us. He's strengthening us. He's helping us overcome the filth around us that tries to, that would, you know, seek to attach itself to us. The Holy Spirit empowers us. Secondly, we are the Word of God. Just as we keep listening to the Word, it's cleansing us. You know, and this is so powerful, you know, example, you know, you may go sit in a church service. There could be hundreds, maybe even thousands of people around you, or you may be listening to a sermon online, whatever, you know, you're listening to the Word. And if something in my life is not right, I'm listening to the Word. The Word comes, and then, you know, I feel like, oh, hey, I need to correct that. And then I pray, God, you know, the Word has come. It has shown its light. God, I know that this particular thing, my life is not right. Please, you know, take it out of me, cleanse me. So what has happened through the Word, something in my life, which is not right, has been taken out, and holiness is being perfected in me, you know. So it's a very simple way, but it's a very powerful way. It happens, you know, just almost all the time, you know, when we listen to the Word, it's affecting us. Something in us is being corrected, changed, you know, and we are being perfected in holiness through the Word of God. Then, of course, we also spoke about how God disciplines us, lovingly corrects us. By His Word, by His Spirit, He lovingly corrects us. Sometimes He uses people to speak into our lives. And He does it all for our profit. And He does, it's for our benefit that He works this way. He lovingly corrects us so that we could be partakers of His holiness. And we are trained by it. I mean, this is an ongoing thing, you know, and sometimes the same things keep repeating in our lives, but as God trains us, we get better at it. And we realize, okay, this is how we should respond quickly when He corrects us. And so holiness is being perfected in us. So we covered those three things. And then we said, number four is, from our side, so God is working in us by His Spirit, by His Word, through His divine discipline. And from our side, He requires consecration. That is something He can't do. He wants us to do it. That means I say yes to His working. So holiness has worked in our lives. He works in us, but we must yield to it. That's our consecration. So He calls us to consecrate ourselves. And then we said, you know, consecration sometimes can be painful, like we saw in Matthew 5, 29, and 30. It requires that we cut off something in our lives so that we can present ourselves to God. Anything that's causing us to sin, that's causing us to go away in the wrong direction, we take it off so that we can present ourselves unto God. So that's our response. And this is where we stopped last week. We said that a simple test, a simple test, you know, without making it very complicated, just a simple test to ask myself, you know, or to check if I am actually walking in the highway of holiness ears, am I walking in love? Right? Because if we increase and abound in love, what will happen? We will be established, blameless in holiness. So it's a simple thing. If I'm walking in love, then I know I'm walking in what is pleasing to God. I'm walking in God and I will be, I know it will be the highway of holiness. It'll be blameless in holiness. So it's a simple test for us to keep ourselves in holiness. Because when we walk in love, we are walking in God and God's in us. So we move forward from there. That's where we stopped last week. Now, godliness, godliness, we need to understand is more than just the externals, right? Because God desires truth in the inward parts. Where does God desire truth? He desires that in the inward parts. That means in your inner person, or like we are learning in the other course, in our spiritual person, our hidden person of the heart. God wants it there first, because if it is there first, it becomes a permanent part of us. So whatever is established in your spirit is a permanent thing. Now, of course, you know, if it's a negative thing, of course, you can get it out. But if it's a good thing, it can be put in you and it can endure. So God desires truth where in the inner person, not just the outer person, because the outside, if I just, you know, the outside could be a pretense. You know, I could pretend to do this or pretend to do that. But when it is established in my heart, then it becomes part of me, right? So God desires truth in the inward parts, right? So again, even in Romans 4, that was Psalm 51 and verse 6. And then in Romans 14 and 17, you know, Paul says, look, God's kingdom is not about eating and drinking. The emphasis of the focus is not on these matters, but it's on righteousness, peace, and joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. So Romans 14, 17, it says, with God's kingdom, the emphasis is on what comes from the Holy Rises, righteousness, peace, and joy. So it's not the outward eating and drinking, but focus on righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. So we also must have a focus. When we're talking about holiness or godliness, being like God, our focus must be let it start from the inside. Of course, if it starts on the inside, it will show up on the outside. You know, we will glorify God and the food and drink, of course. But it's got to start from the inside. It's got to be that righteousness, the peace and the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit, starting in our inner person and then expressing itself on the outside. These are scriptures we kind of are working on in our other course. When we talk about the hidden person of the heart, and in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verse 9 and 10, verse Peter 3, 3 to 5, in both these passages, the emphasis is on what comes from the inside. It's just don't focus on the outside, the apparel, the clothing, all of that. But it's the godliness which comes from the inside, or it is this incorruptible beauty that comes from the hidden person. And so what I want to say is that, okay, I know these verses are speaking to women and having to do with what you wear and so on. But I think what I want to say here is for all of us, whether men or women, that our focus should be on the godliness, the beauty that's formed in the inner person and then let that show up in who we are as people. So whether we are men or women, okay, I know I'm going a little out of the context of these verses but nevertheless we are emphasizing the right thing which is godliness is something that starts in the heart and then comes outside, expressed in the way we live. So when we talk about holiness and godliness, let's not get too focused or let's not start with the outside, let's start with the inside, the heart and from there let these things come forth in our lives. So having said this, I want to, in our next chapter, we want to talk about the motivation for holiness. Now before we get into, you know, overcoming temptation and all those kinds of things later on, it's good to have why is holiness important in the life of the believer. So this chapter is on why personal holiness and this chapter is also arranged in terms of question answers. Now what has happened in the church? I think more so in the last decade or yeah, the last decade or a little over a decade now, is that somehow the ideas and the teaching that has been put forth, especially on grace and on the goodness of God, both of these are beautiful things, right, the grace of God, the goodness of God, beautiful, but somehow we have presented grace and we have presented the goodness of God in such a way that we have totally, it's almost like we've said, don't worry about holiness, it's almost like, so that at the end of the day people even ask, why should I be holy? If God is so gracious and God is so good, why is holiness important? It's left us thinking like that. And so I've intentionally put this in these kind of questions because these are common questions that people have asked. So this chapter on why personal holiness has been, we have the main headings, but we're also kind of answering some underlying questions that have come up in the minds of people and I say believers, which we will address. But if you and I understand why personal holiness is important, then we'd be able to, we won't question why we need to live our holy life and we will take things seriously. If we are not really convinced that holiness is important, one thing is sure, we will live compromised lives. The reason many believers are living compromised lives is because they're not convinced that holiness is that important because we have learned the grace of God, we have learned the goodness of God and it's left us feeling that holiness is not that important, so I can compromise. But we need to reverse that and we need to be convinced of the importance of personal holiness to the point compromise is not an option. And when we are so convinced about the importance of personal holiness, we will live with the reverence and godly fear while we enjoy the grace and goodness of God. So understand that godliness is not robbing us of the enjoyment of the grace and the goodness of God, instead godliness makes the enjoyment of grace and goodness that much better. And so we need to bring that back into our teaching on grace and goodness, that godliness is important in, while we know about the grace and goodness of God. So we will answer some of these questions, okay? So personal holiness is a difference it makes. So our question here is, if a believer has already been saved and his sins are forgiven, meaning Jesus already paid for all our sins past, present, future. So when Jesus died in the cross 2000 years ago, he paid, already paid for all the sins we may commit in, or 10 years from now, should the Lord tarry. It's already been paid. Then why should a believer live a holy life? You know, that's like an unspoken thought in the minds of people. Now I'm talking about believers. So why? Well, there are some things we must understand here, which we cannot disregard, that sin affects our relationship with God. All our position in Christ doesn't change. And these are two different things. So what do you mean? See, you are in Christ as a believer, you're in Christ. That never changes. It's not like you go in and out of Christ. You are in Christ, yes. But being in Christ, your relationship is your day-to-day engagement with God, your communion with God. You can be in Christ because God puts you in Christ, but you can have a weak relationship with God because perhaps a believer's living in sin. And these are two different things. Our position in Christ is the work of God's grace. Our relationship with God is a day-to-day communion with God based on our walk with God. So how can you prove it? Well, it's right there. In 1 John, and you know, several places, we just refer in 1 John Paul is talking about fellowship. Now, you remember 1 John is written by John the Apostle. What's a beloved disciple of Christ? He wrote the Gospel of John. He talked about us being in Christ. You know, Christ is the wine and we are branches and all of that. So he understands this thing about, you know, being connected to Jesus. And yet in 1 John, he's saying, look, we are fellowship with him. But if we walk in darkness, believers, if we walk in darkness, we are lying. But for us to have fellowship, we must walk in the light as he is in the light. And he's running to believers. Look, we have to walk in the light as he is in the light. If you're going to walk in fellowship with him, that's relationship. But if we claim that we have fellowship with him, but we're walking in darkness, that means believers living in sin, the believers just lying. Now, in the Gospel, in the episode of John, he explains, he says, look, if a believer is walking in hatred, he's walking in darkness. So he's not even talking about, you know, externals, like, or believers doing something wrong. He says, look, if a believer has hatred towards his brother, that's walking in darkness. He explains that to us. If a believer is practicing on righteousness, he's walking in darkness. And then this fellowship, we cannot have fellowship. That's relationship. You're still in Christ, but this is being affected. But the good news is, if we walk in the light as he is in the light, what he's saying is, even if we sin, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. So why would he say this? It's possible for a believer, as he's walking in the light, to do something that's out of light. But then there is the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. And then we know we're saved. That a veil that's when we confess our sins. Okay. So why should a believer live a holy life? Well, one reason is because a sin affects our relationship, our fellowship with God. It doesn't change a position, but affects a relationship, right? And, you know, so when a person, when a believer sins, our heart condemns us, saying, hey, you've done something wrong. And if a heart condemns us, this is first on 321-22, have heart condemns us, then our confidence towards God is affected. My position is still there. I'm still in Christ. But my confidence, my sense of going before God and, you know, engaging him with him is affected. Think about this. If a believer is living in sin, that's walking in darkness, but pretends to have fellowship with God, that is, he pretends to be confident toward God. How could it be? What he's doing is, he's ignoring his own heart. This is where this is the voice, this is the conscience. This is, you know, his heart speaking, but he's ignoring it. And he's lying to himself that everything is okay. So he puts on the pretence of having confidence toward God when actually he's walking in darkness. So what am I saying? That we have to listen to our heart. But if I choose not to listen to my heart, then I'm going to be lying to myself. So why should a believer walk, live a holy life? Relationship with God. Second reason, why should a believer live a holy life? Because sin gives the enemy access. And again, Paul is writing in Ephesians 4 to believers. He says, be angry, do not sin. You're writing to believers. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and nor give any place to the devil. The implication here, yes, or the inference here is, if I am in sin, I'm going to let this continue in my life. I could potentially give place to the devil. Otherwise, there's no need for this instruction to the believer. Don't give place to the devil. Now, I'm not saying the moment you do something wrong, the devil comes running in. No. But if we continue practicing sin, that is, we don't deal with that sin. We don't bring it cleansed and forsaken. But a believer continues in sin. I'm going to give place to the devil. It gives the enemy access. James is also writing to believers. He says, submit to God, and we will see this again a little later. So submit to God, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Then he continues writing to believers, and these are very strong words. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, yes sinners. Those of you who are writing to believers, believers, those of you who are continuing in sin, get your hands clean. Get it out of the dirt. Get out of the dirt. So it's a strong word. But it's given in the context right here. You know, you've got to resist the devil. He'll flee from you. He'll draw near to God. He'll draw near to you. But you can't draw near to God. You can't resist the devil if you're not cleansing your hands. And if you double-mind it, pure for your heart. That means become single-minded or become fully persuaded, become committed in your heart. Don't be divided in your heart. Little to God, little to the world, which is the context. We read the verses earlier in James 4, the preceding verses. He says, you know, you're a friend of God. You're a friend of the world. So they're double-minded, you know, little here, little there. So he says, you've got to purify your heart. Right. So, thicken in context. Submission to God, drawing near to God, resisting the devil requires that a believer keep his hands clean and his heart pure. If my hands are not clean, if my heart is not pure, then these things will, I won't be able to do these things, submitting to God, resisting the devil, drawing near to God. And lastly, you know, we must understand that sin will cripple our effectiveness in ministering. Because if I, if a believer is living in sin, hey, people are not going to listen. You can say, what kind of a person is this? He's not living what he's, you know, he's, he's preaching. What kind of a testimony? They'll cripple our effectiveness. It will also impact the exercise of gifts and spiritual authority. The maybe for some time, you know, especially if, if somebody is living in sin and they cover it up, you know, okay, yeah, people won't know and people won't see for some time. But at some point, these things will happen. You know, these things will happen. People will get to know the wildlife, then they will discredit everything we've said. They will disregard it's difficult for people to receive. And they will not accept our gifts and authority. You know, they will say, okay, he's living something, he's speaking something else. So, you know, this will get affected. So just three quick reasons, you know, okay, why is holiness important? Even though my sins are forgiven. Well, one, Christ has truly paid for all my sins, but my relationship with God, my day to day relationship with God. Secondly, remember sin can open a door to the enemy. And thirdly, it can affect our ministry. Then righteousness and holiness, if you talk about that, you know, it is true that we are righteous in Christ. You know, so the question in the minds of many believers, okay, we are already righteous in Christ. Christ is my righteousness. I cannot be made any more acceptable to God. Christ is my righteousness. So that means God has given me his own righteousness. So why should I live holy? Why do I need to live holy? If I'm already righteous in Christ, right? If we are already righteous of God, why live a holy life? And you know, the Bible is saying we've already been given this inheritance. God has already given it to us. We've already been sanctified and perfected forever in Christ. So if all of this is done, why live a holy life? So this is trying to reconcile our identity in Christ, our righteousness in Christ with the living of a holy life. Now, the problem here, how where this problem comes from is we are taught that in Christ you're righteous, in Christ you've been justified, in Christ you have an inheritance, in Christ you're sanctified, you're perfected. It's already done in Christ. So nothing to worry, okay? So if that's already done, why do I need to bother being holy life? Why do I bother living a holy life? So that's another thought that question you have to answer, right? So it's related to what we have already spoken in the previous question on living a holy life, but let's add to that. You must understand that righteousness is a standing before God, but righteousness is also a way of life before God. It's contained in that one word, righteousness. It's a right standing, but it's also a right living. It's a right standing before God, that means I'm accepted in God's eyes. It's also a right living, that means I live in a way that is acceptable and approved by God. And it's both these aspects are part of New Testament, right, of biblical righteousness, both old and New Testament, right? So when Paul for instance is talking about the new man, which is created in true righteousness holiness, so this new man is already in this state. It is in a state of true righteousness and holiness. But yet, while teaching about the new man, which is in the creature in the image of God in true righteousness and holiness, he's still telling people, you've got to put off, put off, get rid of your former conduct. That means you can't continue living the sinful life you used to live because the inner man is true righteousness, is righteousness and true holiness. So he didn't say, hey, your new man is righteousness and holiness, so live however you want. He didn't say that. He said the new man is true righteousness and holiness, burn. You've got to get rid of your old way of living the old way. And that of course is possible when you let the new man affect your mind and your body. That's why we had to renew our mind, so that this new man can begin to express itself into, through our mind, into our body. So if only our position of righteousness was important and not our living of righteousness, he would not have given this instruction. He would have said, hey, it's okay, your new man is inside this righteousness, and only live however you want, doesn't matter. He could have said that, but he didn't say that. He said your new man is righteousness and holiness, that is, you have a right standing with God, but you've got to live right before God. So watch out for your conduct. Right? So righteousness has both these aspects and in our teaching, we intentionally emphasize righteousness as a standing before God, which is important because we are dealing with the guilt, shame, and condemnation, which is another big problem among believers. But in our teaching of righteousness, and in our attempt to deal with the guilt, shame, and condemnation, to get rid of that, we must not forget that we must say that, look, we still need to live right, and both are part of New Testament righteousness. Developing this further, why personal holiness, why is this important? A third question is, you know, what difference will it make if I live a holy life in my practical experience? Because anyway, God is giving everything to me freely by grace. I'm not earning anything. Okay, so here's another question, and it has to do with the rewards of personal holiness. Anything I'm going to receive from God, I'm receiving by grace, and God has already blessed me with every spiritual blessing I had set to receive by faith. So if that's the case, what was the reward of living a holy life? Practically, what difference is this going to make in the blessings I enjoy? Because everything is by grace through faith. Where does holiness come in? Okay, okay, how do we respond to that? Well, it's related again, all of these are related. Holiness is key to our experience of Him. We used the word fellowship or relationship earlier in the first point, but now we can say, look, your experience of God is going to be affected. So we're not talking about, okay, yeah, I mean, we know that God has blessed us everything by grace, and He tells us to receive it by faith. That is all true, but our experience of God is determined by your life of holiness. So how do you, what do you mean? Well, if you look at in John 13, when Jesus was washing the feet of His disciples, you know, Peter raises an objection, Lord, you can never wash my feet. I mean, I mean, He's just, you know, He's just being, I would say, you know, very considerate, or, you know, He's just expressing himself, Lord, Lord, no, you can't wash my feet. But Jesus answer is very profound. He said, and you and I need to understand that not in just the context of washing feet, listen to what Jesus said. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. If I do not wash you, is he talking about, okay, just getting the dirt off your feet? Or is he talking about something more? If I don't wash you, you have no part with me. Now, what does Jesus try to tell us here? It's not the washing of the feet, because physically they're just still dirty, right? I mean, they walked around everywhere. They must have been sweaty and dirty. So just washing a little bit of the feet is not going to make them physically clean. But the statement Jesus is making, like, you know, if you look, listen to, you know, many of the statements of Jesus, in John 3, he said, the wind blows where it wants, and you don't understand where it's coming from going. So as everyone is born of spirit, I mean, he sees he's talking about spiritual truth in that statement. So we must understand, look for the spiritual truth in this statement. If I do not wash you, if I don't clean you, if I don't sanctify, purify, you have no part with me. There's this fellowship with me that experience with me cannot happen. If I do not wash you, you have no part with me. Was Peter an apostle? Of course. Was he already chosen to be an apostle? Of course. Would he remain as an apostle? Of course. So there's something more than your position. It's your experience that he's talking about, of who he is, that comes through the him washing us. He can then part with him. He can partake of him, experience him much more. A few more thoughts here. I know it's already 11 time up. A few more thoughts here. So we're answering this question, you know, why is holiness important if everything is coming by grace and through faith and everything's already been given? Why is it? Well, were you to partake of him or to be a part of him? Secondly, let's try to go through this very quick. Possessing of oppositions. But Aya 17 talks about on Mount Zion there will be deliverance and there will be holiness. The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. Now Mount Zion in the Old Testament parallels the church in the New Testament. Mount Zion basically Jerusalem or the people of God. He says there among the people of God there's going to be deliverance so I'm transposing it to New Testament. And there will be holiness. And the people of God, house of Jacob referring to the people of God will possess their possessions. That means for us to walk in our inhabitants we must experience both deliverance and holiness. On Mount Zion if I transposes it to the New Testament it's the church. There will be deliverance. There'll also be holiness. And the house of Jacob in the God's people will possess their possessions. So if there is no working of God's deliverance and if there's no working of God's holiness God's people are not going to be able to possess their possessions. I'll just do one more and then we will keep the last 10 minutes for questions. I think there are two more here or three more here. All right let's do one more and take questions. Why is holiness important? If everything is given to us freely by grace and we're already being blessed with every spiritual blessing. Well two believers, the Apostle Paul wrote Godliness is profitable in all things. That means it is true we are saved by grace through faith. It is true God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing by grace through faith and we can receive and enjoy. But there is certain things that come through godliness. Godliness is profitable for all things in this life and in the life to come. That means there are certain things that I cannot have in this life outside of godliness. I'm a believer. God has given to me everything freely by grace through faith but godliness brings something into my life. In this life another life to come which I need to have so godliness is profitable and this definitely has to do with the development of our spiritual life because the he contrasts right bodily exercise godliness. The bless the benefit that bodily exercise brings to the human body godliness brings to your human spirit and that benefit is not received by grace through faith but that benefit is received the same way the benefits of bodily exercise come to the human body physical body godliness brings those benefits to the human spirit. Okay we are already out of time I'm going to pause here we'll continue this on Wednesday but let's take some time for questions okay I'm looking in the chat. Okay so Anita's question is God made him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God so that second Corinthians 521 so what Paul is teaching us then second Corinthians 521 is our standing before God has been taken care of right so we have become the righteousness of God we are perfectly completely accepted by God we are righteous that's what gives us standing before God we can go before God freely without any sense of condemnation and we can therefore have fellowship with God but what we are trying to say is also you have to live righteous okay so second Corinthians 521 deals with the issue of sin and has been removed we've been justified made righteous before God. Christopher please explain first on 321 how do we have confidence towards God when our heart does not condemn us yeah so you know practically it's like this right if my heart is not condemning me I can go before God but if my heart is condemning me or like in Hebrews 10 it says you know I have a bad conscience because my heart is condemning me I need to cleanse myself of a bad conscience right so example suppose you know I am I treated somebody very badly I'm going to go before God and pray I'm going to worship God then inside me saying hey first of all you treated someone badly you haven't sorted that out how can you worship God what's happening my conscience is condemning me or I have a bad conscience because my conscience is telling me I can't go and worship God if I have treated somebody badly so what must I do I say God I'm sorry I you know I I did this I treated this person badly I'm sorry about it and I apologize to that person you know so I may call that person I may message that person whatever I can do I apologize I say hey what I did was wrong I'm sorry so what has happened and now my conscience is clear of that so now I can have confidence toward God this is a practical thing right but if there's nothing like that my heart is clear conscience is clear I can easily I just go ahead and worship God I move in the righteousness God is God is giving me I just worship God okay Maggie can you please explain Matthew chapter 7 verse 23 let's look at it Matthew chapter 7 and verse 23 verse 23 and then I will declare to them I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness right so Jesus talking here about those who are doing things but they in the prophesying the doing these supernatural things are doing prophesying casting demons out wonders in his name but it's not coming out of a place of relationship with the Lord right so Jesus saying I never knew you so there's no relationship secondly they're not doing the will of the Father so two things if you look at the whole context was 21 to 23 there are two main problems one there's no relationship with God two there is no doing the will of God so what are they doing they just using the name of Jesus in order to do certain things now the question of course would be how is it possible that they're doing supernatural things in the name but without relationship and without alignment to the will of God now there could be many possibilities I'm not saying it is always the same of one is they could be using the name but they could be demonically empowered so how can is that how can that be possible because Satan's counterfeit is like that right they can come as close to the real Jesus but it's not the real Jesus they may even use the name of Jesus and you know if you look at new age people are operating in new age it's very much like that they use the name of Jesus they may quote the Bible but it's not from the Lord it's from a different spirit right so and that's what counterfeit is always about counterfeit is like come as close to the real but it's not the real right so that's one way or two maybe these are people who are kind of just departing from the faith you know they're just walking away and they're just using the name for their own gain that's a possibility but the key problem here in verse this passage is one is I never knew you that means they didn't have a relationship with Jesus two they're not doing the will of the father those are the two problems in Matthew 7 21 to 23 okay I hope I explained Prabhakar's question next one Prabhakar's question please give us a few scripture for sin cripples of effectiveness in ministry please and a few scriptures for sin the cripples of effectiveness okay let me just think very quickly one I would think of a man called Demas who was a fellow worker with cheese with Paul and then in 2 Timothy chapter 4 so if you look at this in 2 Timothy chapter 4 I'm trying to find that verse yeah verse 10 2 Timothy 4 10 Paul writes about Demas now in I think it's in Philippians or Philemon Paul refers to Demas as his co-worker but then in his very last episode in 2 Timothy 4 10 Paul says Demas has forsaken me having loved this present world so here's the example of one man who was a fellow worker with Paul who traveled with Paul in the ministry but then now he's left everything why because he loved this world so there must have been something that attracted him we don't know what it is but he is that's it his ministry's ended he's no longer serving with Paul he's gone away to pursue whatever so Paul writes about him in 2 Timothy 4 10 let me think of other examples of scriptural examples sin crippling effectiveness in ministry what I can't think of is in 1 Timothy chapter 3 the other another example I can think of right now is Paul in 1 Timothy chapter 3 as he outlines the qualifications of somebody's going to be a spiritual leader he says in verse 6 a spiritual leader should not be a novice he shouldn't be a new person why because being puffed up with pride he ends up into the same condemnation of the devil so think about this here's a person who wants to be a spiritual leader but Paul says don't put a new person there why because he gets proud and if he gets proud and gets full of pride what happens he will be he will fall in the same condemnation as the devil what happened to the devil pride got him out of the presence of God and he's saying this same thing could happen if you make a new believer as a spiritual leader pride will get him out of the ministry so that's the second example I can just think of right now this is 1 Timothy 3 6 and 7 okay there could be others but I'm not yeah okay Christopher please explain your last one godliness does not come out of grace um oh no what I was contrasting I wasn't saying godliness doesn't come out of grace what I'm what I'm saying I'm contrasting two things there are things that are freely given to us by grace and there are things that come out of godliness so godliness of course is empowered by grace meaning godliness in our lives is a work of God's grace in us by his word by his spirit and by his divine discipline but so but there are there God has given to us things freely by his grace there are things that godliness brings to us which we don't doesn't come to us as part of this things that God has given the blessings God has given to us freely by grace and the way we saw it in 1 Timothy 4 is Paul is saying the way bodily exercise benefits the physical body godliness benefits the spiritual person so that means the development of the spiritual person it is a work of grace but it comes through godliness being perfected in us so it's not like God just blesses that into our spirit as a spiritual blessing but it comes into our spirit through godliness being worked in us the same way bodily exercise somebody goes through bodily exercise in order to develop their physical body so that's the contrast that I was making there all right uh Divya you know but I am 117 I did not understand regarding the possessions that is referring for to for a New Testament believer are the spiritual blessings the possessions so in that case how can we say that it's purely by grace yeah so it's talking about yeah so the answer is yes it's talking to us about the inheritance right possessing our possessions so that means God has already blessed us in the spirit right it's already ours but we need to possess them or walk in them in the natural right in our everyday life so that's what we talk about as coming into our inheritance or possessing our inheritance right so God has given it to us but we need to walk in it we need to experience it it's got to become experiential in our life but in order to do that what we're seeing about our 117 is that just as there has to be deliverance and holiness on Mount Zion so that the house of Jacob can possess the possessions if you paddle that to the New Testament God's people have to walk in deliverance and holiness in order to walk in their spiritual inheritance so what we are saying is that holiness is one of the keys there for us to walk in our inheritance to experience it spiritually positionally every believer has been blessed with every spiritual blessing coordinated by grace practically holiness is one of those keys there is what we were trying to say okay all right so already 12 o'clock let's answer the questions of people who raised their hands say your question please yes pastor very quickly I'll just ask pertaining Matthew 7 20 ones 23 I just wanted to verify if the scripture also applies to Christians who have fallen away but are just doing walking in the manifestation gifts but don't truly are not truly practicing righteousness they're not working in holiness and they are just doing it for their own good does that verse apply to them or does it just apply to only those who never really had a relationship and are using other sources from powers you know to prophesy to cast out demons or does this apply to both parties those who are Christians at one point but give into the lust of the world and by virtue of the gifts they have they're just doing it for their own sake for their own will or for their own glory if I put it that way yes okay so to answer your question both those states the answer I mean it is those both those conditions are possible and it's true that means it is possible that those who once knew about the things of God they have departed from that place of you know relationship with God but are just using it and then you find this really brought out for us in in in the epistle of Jude and also in 2 Peter you know so both 2 Peter and Jude talk about these kind of people that means they started outright but now they've gone away and they're now pursuing things for their own gain right so that is possible when we go to Matthew 7 21 to 23 if you want to my answer my understanding is both these are possible that yes but if you want to get very technical somebody can say well he Jesus said I never knew you that means they didn't even he didn't even knew know the Lord at any point in time so if you want to get very technical somebody could say that that's okay fine we won't find about it because okay people who never had a relationship with God and they just are using the name of the Lord and fine but we also know the other condition is also possible because we see it mentioned in other places in scripture especially 2 Peter and Jude talk about these kinds of people so even if somebody says Matthew 7 does not talk about people who or only talks about people who never knew the Lord well okay very technical yes we'll agree with that but it's also possible that people who once knew the Lord depart and then just use the name of the Lord for their own gain we see it in other places did I answer your question okay thank you thank you all right Anita's question last one pastor will it be possible to name the recordings after the portion covered in that it would be helpful oh you're talking about the videos put the names yeah see the problem Anita is that is being done by our TA and the TA doesn't know like the TA is not attending the class these are recordings automatically recorded by Google classroom so Google automatically gives it a number and then we just follow a standard nomenclature for all our recordings and it's done by a TA who doesn't necessarily know the content of the recording and so that's why and it will not be practical for the TA to listen because there are nine yeah at least nine videos every day yeah so it's going to be a little difficult so that's what we have we just follow a standard nomenclature using the date and the course number for the recordings yeah so I'm not you know it'll be too much work to get it get that done but thanks for the suggestion okay is it possible to work in gifts without relationship with God so like we said so that's the last question Prabhakar so like we said Prabhakar uh you know and we and you read about this in second second Thessalonians chapter two versus you know 1 to 11 that whole passage uh but we talk about I mean where Paul writes about lying signs and wonders so there are signs and wonders but these are lying signs and wonders now when you talk about lying signs and wonders you're talking about deceptive signs and wonders the implicit idea there is it's going to be as close to the real and there are two categories of people who could flow in that one is those who once knew how to flow in it through a genuine relationship with God but now they've gotten out of that place of genuine relationship but they're operating they're moving in that because they know the form and the function but either they're just moving it as a as as an expression of the flesh which is like they're just making things happen but they may not be real fruit or they could be empowered by the wrong source so that's one category and second is there that second category is these are people who are starting out right from influenza demon experts the wrong spirits but the output is lying signs and wonders meaning these are very close to the real they look like the real okay so both possibilities are there so these people don't have relationship with the true God but they are you know the manifestations look like as though they are from God and if you look at the church world these things have happened uh or I should say they continue to happen and that's where we need to have discerning discerning discernment or the discerning of spirits as well okay thank you um can we all right I know we rushed through the last but uh uh so the focus here today is you know on on why holiness why personal holiness is important we kind of answering certain thoughts and questions I will finish this on venice day okay let's close and pray and they'll be dismissed I know we've already taken 10 minutes over could somebody pray and dismiss us please can I pray pastor please go ahead yeah thank you lord thank you father for this wonderful opportunity lord you've given us lord to learn these spiritual truths by the way pray that let these sink in lord that they may renew our minds father they may transform our lives father they may transform our communities father lord we pray that thank you lord that you are teaching us lord why we need to have holiness lord in our life so that your character your nature will be reproduced in us father it will be reflected in us and through us father lord we pray to bless uh pass rashish father lord uh empower him lord equip him with the holy spirit and continue to use him mightily lord I pray lord for each and every one of us lord we pray lord these sessions lord may bear fruit in our lives father let us not just hear it and be like a father in the parable of the sower it just it be taken away lord we pray that let it bear fruit in us lord take deep root in our hearts father lord and spirits lord in uh all these things we comment yeah in the name of our lord and savior jesus christ amen amen amen thank you everyone enjoy the rest of your afternoon enjoy the rest of your day and see you all tomorrow god bless