 Okay Good morning everyone. Welcome to PC 209 our lecture on Holiness We're going to pray and we're going to get started Charles wants to know how many countries are here I'm not sure Maybe at least five or six or seven five six maybe But let's pray and get started Who'd like to pray with the class today? Go ahead Anita. Go ahead. Please pray Comprehension Thank you and good morning everyone once again. Welcome. We are going to continue our study on holiness. All right, I'm just sharing the PDF that we have put out in the class works section. We'll just quickly review what we covered in our lecture on Monday and then we will go forward from there. So we are in chapter one where we were talking about getting a revelation of a holy God that about the fact that God is holy. So what we emphasize or mentioned is that just as we are familiar with other attributes of God, God of love, goodness, power, wisdom, healer and so on, we also must get a revelation of the holiness of God. And we said, of course, this revelation comes to us from the Holy Spirit himself, the spirit of wisdom and revelation. He is the one who gives us the knowledge of him. So we have to welcome the Holy Spirit to bring this revelation to our hearts and enlighten our eyes to see God as holy. But this revelation of God is very important because only when we have a correct revelation is there going to be a correct response from us and only then will we yield ourselves to have his nature reproduced and revealed through us. So receiving that revelation of the holiness of God is going to eventually lead us to the place where his holiness is reproduced in us. So one of the things we stated in the earlier class is we must understand that holiness, the right way for holiness to be formed in us is through revelation. Yes, there is, you know, the divine disciplinary dealings of God in our lives, which we will talk about later. That means God works in us by his spirit and refines us and brings us into this place of holiness. But really it must start with revelation. If it doesn't start with revelation, but it's just something that's enforced on us by rules and, you know, all those kinds of things which we discussed last class, then it is something we do just as an outward form, but there is no real life transformation that conforms us to holiness. So receiving the revelation of God of his holiness is so important even for us to have his holiness reproduced in us. The other thing we mentioned was that a reverence for God is birthed out of knowing the holy one or knowing his holiness. And it is in this place of reverence that real wisdom and understanding is birthed. So it starts there. Then we looked at Isaiah's experience or encounter with the holy one of God. Several things we said there is, you know, when Isaiah had this vision of God, he saw God being worshipped in his holiness. He will be building on that today. And his response was, I am undone. That means there's nothing more I can say, nothing more I can do. I'm as good as dead. But then it is God who imparts to Isaiah the ability to stand in his presence. The Lord removes this in. And out of that comes the commission says, go for me. And Isaiah says, you know, I'll go. And what we see later in his ministry is his message to the people, his preaching and prophetic message to the people really brings a revelation of the holy one of God. Because, you know, we said about 27 times, he is talking about the holy one. So what we said was, you know, out of that revelation of God's holiness, Isaiah is able to impart that to people through his preaching or proclamation. So a question we ask ourselves is, is our preaching and our ministry, whatever you're doing, is it really creating in people a sense of the holiness of God? And that can only happen if we've ourselves had a revelation of the holiness of God. So even in our ministry, receiving a revelation of the holiness of God is so important. And then we went on to say that God really desires for his nature to be reproduced in us. You know, and just as he is a God of love, he wants us to walk in love, he's also a God of holiness and he wants us to be holy like him. And so this is where he stopped. So I'm going to pick up from here today and delve a little further into this subject. So when we try to, you know, maybe define or describe holiness, what is some language that we can use? And remember, we are trying to communicate in our language something that is so great, right? But at least to some extent, to some degree, we could try to understand. But when we talk about holiness, we're talking about absolute sinlessness. We're talking about absolute purity. We're talking about absolute truth because any kind of lie or untruth cannot be part of holiness. We're also talking about absolute faithfulness because there is nothing that would violate a covenant or any form of unfaithfulness. We're also talking about absolute justice or fairness, equity because there is no injustice, you know, holiness. We're talking about absolute love because there cannot be anything of hate in holiness. We're talking about absolute goodness. There's nothing unkind in holiness. We're talking about something that's absolutely sacred. There's nothing, there cannot be anything that's profane. We're talking about absolute perfection. So this is language we can use to try to capture in our minds what is this quality of holiness, sinlessness, purity, truth, faithfulness, justice, love, goodness, something that's sacred, something that's absolutely perfect and this is who God is. He is holy. And so this is the very nature of God and therefore what we must understand is that, and we have mentioned this earlier, that every facet of who he is is mingled with holiness. Every facet who he has, that means he's love but his love is in the context of holiness or it is mingled with holiness. He is good but his goodness is mingled with holiness. That means in his love God is unable to express love in any form that would contradict holiness. God is unable to express goodness in any form that will contradict holiness because every part of who he is, he is completely holy. So every other attribute of God must be understood in the context of holiness or we could put it like this, it's mingled with holiness. And this is important for us because sometimes we tend to isolate attributes of God that we like. Every common one would be grace. Is God a God of grace? Of course he is a God of grace. He is a God of all grace. He is the God of all mercy but his grace and his mercy is mingled with holiness. It's not outside of holiness. Holiness is an integral part of his grace. Holiness is an integral part of his mercy. So we should never think of grace outside of the context of holiness. That means grace will never enable me to do something that contradicts holiness. But sadly we don't think like that and many times in the Christian church grace is used as a license to sin. Oh God, it's grace. You know, gracious, I'll just do something wrong and come back. But that's not a proper understanding of grace because your grace is never the grace of God. It's never outside the context of holiness. God is completely holy and his grace must be understood in holiness. So this is very important to get a revelation of the holiness of God. Now when we talk about the holiness of created things, that means us people are angelic beings or other things. So God is holy by his nature. That's who he is through and through. But in the holiness of created things like us people, it's a quality that's bestowed on us. It's given to us because we don't start out as holy. You know, we start out as sinful and imperfect and all the opposites of holiness. That's how we generally start out. But then God calls us to be holy and then he bestows on us this quality and the state of holiness. And one of the things that I think is a very simple, simple truth, but it's also very important that for created things to be holy simply means to be set apart to God. It's a very simple biblical concept or understanding of holiness. But it's also very powerful. So in the holiness of created things like us people, for us to be holy simply means and set apart to God, to the one who is holy. That's what it means, set apart. And let me say set apart, we mean set apart in entirety completely to the one who is holy. And because we don't start out that way, but when that quality of holiness and the state of holiness is bestowed on us, all it means is we've been fully set apart for God. So this is understood when you look at the meanings of both the Hebrew and the Greek words. They are parallel words, the Hebrew kadosh or kadesh and the Greek hagios. It simply means to be consecrated, sanctified or set apart, dedicated for a particular use. So it's being set apart, sanctified for God. So in that understanding, we must recognize that it's when we are set apart for God, God is imparting towards his own nature, his own quality. He is giving us what he is. He is holy. He sets us apart for himself and then he gives us his own nature, holiness. So we understand holiness as God's nature being given to us. Therefore, it's not something an outward form. It's not just an outward cleansing or making something appear clean on the outside. But it has to do with two things. It has to do with being set apart to God and us receiving his quality, his nature, his very nature. That's holiness. And if that doesn't happen, then we are really not holy from a biblical perspective. This outward cleansing, that means, you know, I just make myself look nice on the outside. Okay, okay, everything looks nice. Wow, this person is so holy. Well, it is actually not the kind of holiness that God has called us to. The holiness he's called us to involves two things. One is us being set apart and us receiving his nature imparted to us. And that's what we are looking to happen in our lives. So as we talk about later on in the third section, as we talk about overcoming sin, overcoming the flesh and the world and the devil, keep this in mind. We are not trying to achieve an outward form. Let me just just look nice on the outside. That's not what you're trying to achieve. What we are pursuing when you're pursuing holiness, we are pursuing a state where we are fully set apart for God and where his nature permeates our being through and through. That's what we are pursuing because this outward cleansing sometimes is possible even by an unsaved person, you know, through a lot of self discipline and other the strength of the human will that they're able to have some form of outward, you know, cleanliness. Yeah, that person, he doesn't do this. He doesn't do that. He doesn't eat this. He doesn't eat that. He doesn't drink. He doesn't go here. He doesn't, oh, okay. So, you know, outwardly, very, very clean. But no one knows what's on the inside. That doesn't qualify for the biblical understanding of holiness. Another interesting understanding of holiness is so when we look at Exodus 28 verse two, it says, And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. So God is saying make holy garments. So again, this is now the garments the priest was going to wear. But the purpose of those garments was to show glory and beauty, to display. And in other places in scripture, we see, you know, Psalm 29 verse two, given to the Lord glory due to his name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. You see it again in Psalm 96 verse nine, the beauty of holiness. So this is an interesting observation that there are different metaphors for different attributes of God. So for example, the Bible uses the hand of the Lord to talk about the power of God. It uses eyes of the Lord to talk about his all knowing, the year of the Lord to talk about the years of prayers, the face of the Lord to refer to his presence, the feet of the Lord to refer to his dwelling place or place of dominion, the mind of the Lord to refer to his wisdom and understanding. But what we are seeing in the scriptures here, these scriptures is that the metaphor of beauty is connected to holiness, hand, power, eyes, omniscience, ear, prayer, face, presence, feet, dominion, mind, wisdom, beauty, holiness. So the beauty of God or you could say the attractiveness of God is holiness. So holiness is God revealing and expressing his beauty, his splendor, his magnificence, his attractiveness or let's put it like this, the holiness of God makes God attractive and therefore should draw us to him and is not intended to push us away from him and somehow in our human understanding whenever we talk about holiness you know it's like something that drives us away from God but actually it's the opposite, it's the beauty of God, it's the attractiveness of God and so holiness should draw us to him and say whoa I want that so beautiful, it should capture us, it should enthrall us, it should make us fixated on God, not make us afraid of God and drive us away from God, no, no, no, this is the beauty of God, the holiness is the beauty of God. So a correct revelation of God, a correct revelation of the holiness of God will draw us closer to God, it will make us enthralled with God fixed on him. Now another aspect of the holiness of God and I think we've mentioned this already is that the holiness of God is something that is way beyond our ability to comprehend or describe. Exodus 15, 11 says you are glorious in holiness, glorious in, that means God you are so wonderful in holiness and so this is beyond what we can describe, you're glorious in holiness or Samuel 2 says there's no one holy like the Lord, there's nothing else that we can compare or even try to measure, he himself is the standard, he himself is the perfection and it's beyond our ability to fully comprehend and explain but as we continue we can progressively understand little more, little more, little more of the holiness of God and the more we, like we said earlier, the more we understand about the holiness of God the more attractive God becomes to us, for God this is too much, this is wonderful, this is too good, glorious in holiness, we become more in love with God so while we know that we cannot fully describe and comprehend this holiness because he's glorious in holiness the more we understand the more in love we become with God, so he is absolutely holy and I think we've already mentioned this that the holiness of God and the goodness of God should be held side by side so there is the goodness of God and there's also the severity of God and this is something, I'm just mentioning here and I know I mentioned it a little earlier as well is something we must never forget, there is the goodness of God, there is the holiness of God and they meet, they meet so some 85, 10 was 75 hours, 10 says mercy and truth have met or righteousness and peace or righteousness and justice or grace and truth right so there's grace there is truth mercy and truth meet so in his mercy or in his grace God is willing to forgive sin he's willing to cleanse sin and in his holiness he requires that only what is holy can come into his presence can stand before him and yes the bible says that you know mercy triumphs over judgment but we must never forget that that if we don't embrace the mercy of God then the other side is the holiness of God or the judgment of God so both are there in in God is mercy his truth his goodness his severity and it is his mercy and his grace it forgives but if I don't want his mercy and grace then I have to try to match up you know qualify for being holy which I cannot do on my own and that's where judgment comes so goodness and holiness of God have to be understood together we have already mentioned that and in talking about receiving a revelation of God when we see different people who had an encounter with God it's Isaiah or Jacob sees how awesome is this place or Moses when he encountered God God said you know Moses gotta take your sandals off other times Moses bowed his head to the earth Joshua fell on his face to the earth Ezekiel Daniel and John if they were down on their faces like dead men what we say is that in which we have said earlier a true revelation of God completely or we become completely undone in the presence of a holy God that means there's nothing more I can say nothing more I can do when I receive a revelation of the holiness of God I said God you are everything there's nothing about me that I can boast about nothing about me that I can brag about because you are perfection and before you I am undone so these are some thoughts here about the revelation of God we're going to build on this further in the next chapter and then the subsequent chapter we talk about that holiness being brought into us let me pause and see if there any questions or any thoughts here let me all right I have there's Divya and there's Samuel please go ahead Divya and then Samuel please go ahead thank you thank you pastor so when we say the very nature of God is holy I was trying to recollect any like verses because most of the attributes there's a like a Hebrew name associated with like the or El Shaddai or El Alam El Roy so is there a Hebrew name that God is revealing in the Bible well the name that he refers to him as himself as Jehovah Mekadesh so the Lord of a sanctifier the Lord who makes us holy so that and we will be saying that that is in the context of holiness the Lord of a sanctifier the Lord who makes us holy so that's one I can think about yeah okay okay and I also was thinking of this portion where the Israelites are instructed to keep the Sabbaths so is there a relation between that holiness of God and remaining in God's rest thank you interesting question is there a relation between holiness and remaining in God's rest well at this point the thing I what I can think of is that really I can think of you know in the context of obedience that means whether it's the Sabbath or whatever else God has called us to do from our side holiness means I'm set apart for God which means I do what God has told me to do right now for the people in the Old Testament yeah Sabbath was an important thing for us it's resting in God coming into that place of rest in God and God teaches us to do that so I would look at it I mean right now when I think of your question I would think of it in terms of obedience you know that in connecting holiness to resting it's an act of obedience so I'm setting myself apart for God out of obedience to his word because he instructed us to rest in him and that is part of our expression or holiness that's what comes to my mind right now I hope it answers sure thank you thank you let's take up we have Samuel then we have Maggie and then we have Rupa please go ahead thank you pastor so pastor with all that we are learning today and even in the last class the verse that keeps coming back is be holy as I'm holy and so in that context as we see that we you know it's it's only God who is the source of holiness and as humans we are not so it's it's something that we acquire or we progress in and you know as you mentioned the the outer can be attained with discipline but that's that's not the reality that could be helpful beneficial so it's it's the inner and then again so so what I'm getting tangled is you know there is there's like a complete sinner like people who met God Peter when he realizes who Jesus is he also is in a way you know shown how sin like the sinfulness of his own nature therefore he says like he says step away from me for I'm a sinful man so so I'm thinking like for a complete person who doesn't I mean when God's holiness is revealed you know like you said it should be something that should attract us and not try this away but I'm thinking like one reason why I try because we get reminded of our own unholiness and of our own incomeings and therefore we won't we don't want to encounter something that's so pure that and then the other thing is I know so the outer holiness can be attained probably with effort and discipline like I don't drink I don't go there I don't see this the inner the nature of sin the so there's the component of faith like that only with what Jesus did can I be sinless so it's me believing that but then again so I'm so so I believe that and that is that something that assures me that God has made me sinless and God can God's the only one who can be holy but and then but then again James says faith without works is dead so so now I so I need to pursue that holiness so and hopefully maybe in the later courses we will learn about how to pursue the holiness but when I'm so the whole and like this verse that I get reminded of is be holy as I'm holy and I'm thinking how it's definitely not the outer one it's the inner one and there's the faith component but then knowing like knowing God's holiness the more I know God's holiness and the more I get reflected of my own unholyness and then the journey that I need to me to to fulfill that verse and and then just how do I begin that journey so so these are parts that I thank you for yeah good good good so um you know what what you're described is really the journey we intend to make in this course so we all start out like that we are you know we are sinners now like you said because of that of course we are very scared to stand in the presence of God was absolutely holy but then we get saved and he imparts to us this state of being righteous so now we go from being sinners to being saints he gives to us this uh the capacity to stand in his presence it's bestowed on us it's given to us so from then on we are no longer fearful but we get attracted to this hey I want more of this I want to know this God who's so holy so perfect he's so beauty and we get attracted to him and that whole process draws us away from the world so so if you just imagine as you're drawing close to him um we are becoming more like him holiness is being perfected in us because we're drawn towards it but there is avapat and this is what you were asking or you're talking about on and and I'll just reference a few verses but we are going to get into that in section three section two and section three section two talks about repentance which is where you know we begin this journey or whenever we need to we have to start there and section three we're dealing with overcoming overcoming the flesh the world and the devil three things that really pull us down three things that really keep us all of us from pursuing holiness the flesh the world the devil but we can overcome you know we can overcome so there's avapat and and I just reference you know Paul writes in Timothy he says if a man will cleanse himself from whatever is dishonorable he will be a holy vessel so that means I have my part to play and I cleanse myself from whatever is dishonorable before God and I become a holy vessel sanctified and fit for the masters used and ready for every good work you know so that's what we all want to be a useful vessel but part of that process Paul said is hey cleanse yourself so that cleansing ourselves part is what we want to learn but the good news is God empowers that cleansing work for us he empowers us and he gives us a strength so it's a it's a little different from outward whole outward cleanliness that is achieved by self will it is good I'm not saying you know people who are able to do that okay wonderful but it's not the same as the kind of holiness the Bible is calling us to because it's an an impartation of his nature as well as us being set apart for God and it's empowered in us by his word and by his spirit and that's where as believers we need to learn how to receive that empowering to cleanse ourselves from whatever is dishonorable so that we can be holy vessels useful for the must so that journey is what we are making in this course yeah good okay two more we have Maggie and then we have Rupa please thank you sir uh if I answered most of the question I had so uh but I have one one one more question that I'd like to ask is when uh elders of Israel went and ate with God and it said that they saw God's uh foot footstep or feats that does it can you say that means that we didn't see God's place that the soul is dominion or is that when flesh way his dominion or his glory was manifest manifested or manifesting itself thank you sir so um you're you're you're you're saying that when the people of Israel the elders leaders of Israel they saw the place where God's free to are does it always mean does it mean they saw his well um okay maybe I can respond to it like this uh you see the the visible expression of God that the people have had different encounters with a visible expression of God sometimes they you know it's a pillar of cloud or a fire or different forms and so in this particular case and I forget the exact reference but I think it's an exodus or you're trying to me I forget but when they see the feet um maybe okay uh they that's how God revealed himself to them uh and what did it communicate to them did it express God's dominion God's power uh perhaps I'm not sure uh let me just quickly look up that and I can't remember that uh very well right now as I'm just trying to look you up um yeah this is exodus 24 verse 10 it says they saw the God of Israel there and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness so exodus 24 10 so that's the reference they saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness and um and upon the nobles the next verse exodus 24 11 and upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand and they saw God ended eating drink um yeah it doesn't tell us here what kind of reaction you know they had in this encounter you know if it had told us that we could have said um you know um uh that this was what they felt in exodus 24 10 11 it just says they saw his feet they saw you know everything so clear so majestic God didn't you know lay his hand on them but doesn't tell us you know how they responded how they reacted just didn't record it for us um but let's say let's say and this this is my imagination at work let's say that when they saw this they were struck with awe and wonder so what did they see they saw the feet on this clear crystal uh you know glass like thing it doesn't tell us well how the response was but I'm just using my imagination so they they must have oh you know they're stuck in awe and wonder this is how great God is something you know what of their response was um and that would have you know given us a better understanding that wow this is the response that was evoked from them when they saw the feet of God and perhaps they must have said wow how great how mighty how powerful you know so I know your question was does a feet always represent this place of dominion maybe that's that may have been their sense okay but it doesn't tell us there so I cannot be you know very certain I cannot say those words with absolute confidence hope that's okay mangy yes that is thank you all right we are out of time and I know you have to get ready for the next class I don't want to hold you all up uh Rupa would was it okay if you take up your question in our next class next week sure sir is a small uh I wanted to just share something I will do it next week thank you next class okay all right okay so we will quickly close because we've already taken time and you need to have a little break could somebody just pray with us quickly we will you know we will continue this next week and delve further in can we could somebody pray and then dismiss the class please hold by our pray go ahead holy father we thank you lord we thank you for your holiness we thank you for unchanging nature of Jesus and we we are grateful to be given this wisdom and understanding of how you who you are and how you operate and we pray Jesus that you reveal yourself to us so that we be changed and become more like you be with us until we meet again next week in Jesus name amen amen amen thank you all everyone god bless you all have a quick break and then you'll continue the next class I'll see you all next week enjoy the rest of the week and the weekend god bless you see you soon how bless you pastor how about bless you thank you bless you everyone bless