 Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome to BC 111, our course on faith. Thanks to everybody who joined the class. Let's take a moment just to pray together and then we will get started. Can I request somebody in the class just to pray and then we can start? Anyone can pray? All right. Cheer up. Cheer up. Why don't you pray? Yes, Pastor. Go ahead. Pray. Holy Father, thank You for this morning. We come before You. We thank You for Pastor Asif and thank You for the way students are working. God, help us to learn from Your Word. Whatever You are going to teach us, my Father, help us. Give us understanding, wisdom to learn from Your Word. Thank You Jesus for this wonderful day. Amen. Amen. Thank You. All right. So once again, good morning to everybody. Apologize for being late on this class. Just a little emergency situation happened just before the class. I was a little delayed. Okay. So we are continuing learning about faith. And we are, you know, like I was mentioning in our last class, our last week, faith and along with a lot of the other topics that we are sharing with you in the Bible College. These are things that have to be part of our lives as believers. So we are believed by these things every day. We learn to exercise faith in God and in His Word. So when we want to see God do great things through our lives, to see the work of God released through our lives, we have to walk by faith. When we face difficult situations in life, we have to walk by faith to overcome those situations. When we are ministering to other people, you know, other people come to us with prayer needs and so on. Again, we have to minister by faith. So whether it's for our own personal lives, whether it's for the ministry that God has called us to do or whether it's to serve other people, all aspects, we have to learn to operate out of faith in God. Now, the other disciplines in the Christian life are also important. Like you will be learning about, you're learning about prayer, you're learning about worship and so many other things. All of those are important. So all these things have to be held together in balance. They're all very important part of our Christian life. Faith is one important part and everything else that you're learning has to be held together with faith. And so we've journeyed so far in the subject of faith and what we are doing right now is trying to understand piece by piece how to exercise faith in God. How do I exercise faith in God so that God can work in my life? If you want to think about it, faith is like giving God an open door. Now, faith is what opens the door for God to work in our lives. If there is no faith, it's like the door is shut and God cannot work in our lives. He works wherever he finds faith. In whoever's heart, he finds faith. So the first thing we started talking about towards the second lecture last week was about confession. And so I want to quickly review that and then move forward from where we stopped last week. Let me just share the PDF. So this is lesson number 11. We started talking about confession. So confession is one of the ways by which we release or exercise or express faith in God. So we introduced the word confession in Greek as homologia. It's a compound word. It's a word that's made with two other words. So the word homo simply means same. Logia means word, something that is spoken, something that you're saying. So it is to say the same thing. It's homologia simply means you're saying the same thing. Now the word confession, like we said before, is often used in the context of sin when we confess our sins. That means we say the same thing. Okay, I've done something wrong. Go before God. I say the same thing. I say, God, I have done it. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. We also see confession of Jesus Christ as Lord. That means you are saying the same thing. Jesus is Lord. And now Jesus is your Lord. He is Lord. Whether anybody acknowledges him or not, he is Lord. But then when we come under his Lordship, we confess him as our Lord. I mean, you're saying the same thing. He is my Lord. He is my Savior. Along the same lines, what we find in Scripture, the Bible is teaching us to confess the Word of God, to confess or to speak the Word of God. So we began in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8. We read that where God told Joshua, I want you to, you know, don't let this book depart from your mouth. In other words, keep the words of this book always in your mouth. Keep speaking the words of this book. And then you meditate in it and then you will carefully observe to do it. And then you will make your way prosperous. You will have good success. And then we looked at Deuteronomy. So I want to start here. We were looking at these two verses last week. And so we will pick up from here. Let's please turn once again in our Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 13. You know, I was just thinking about something the last few days. And I was thinking that, you know, we need to be turning in our Bibles and looking up the verses of Scripture as we go through our classes. Otherwise, you know, nowadays we have all these advantages. You know, we have the projector. We have the PDF. We have printed notes that all the Scriptures are there. And so, you know, we don't actually open the Bible to look up these Scriptures and mark them up. And then it's almost like the Bible becomes, you know, an untouched book because we're always seeing it on the projector or we're seeing it in some other form. Anyway, I want to encourage all of us to, you know, open the Bible, read it, mark it up, mark your Bible, read it from your Bible. And of course, ultimately the Word should get into us. But you know, having turning in the Bible, opening it, reading it is something that's going to help get the Word of God into our hearts. So I want to encourage you to do that. I know we have the tools these days, but make use of the Bible. Okay, let's go, please, to Deuteronomy chapter 30. Could somebody read for us verses 11 to 14? We read this last week. We're going to read it again. Deuteronomy 30 verses 11 to 14, please. Anyone? For this commandment, which I command you today, is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should save. Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? Nor is it beyond the sea that you should take. Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us that we may hear it and do it? For the Word is very near you, in your mouth and your heart that you may do it. Thank you. Thank you, Ren. All right, so God is speaking through Moses and he's saying verse 11. This commandment, that is my word, is not something very strange, unknown to you. So God is saying, look, my word. I'm looking at verse 11. My word is not something unknown. It's not some mystery. Also, my word is not something so far away that you don't have access to it. Then he says, you know, you don't have to speak like this. You don't have to say who's going to go to heaven to get God's word for us. Verse 13, you don't have to say who's going to cross the seas to get the word of God for us. But then he says in verse 14, the word is very near you. It's in your mouth and in your heart. So God is telling us there are two places that his word should be in our lives. It's in your mouth and it's in your heart. So he says, you know, if you keep, so basically if you try to, you know, paraphrase what God is saying, you're saying, look, I've given you my word, but I want you to keep my word in your heart and in your mouth. If you keep your, if you keep my word in your heart, in your mouth, it's not going to be mysterious. It's not going to be so far away. It's right there. It's so close to you. It's part of you. Really, it's part of you. God's word. So very interesting. This was spoken or written right here in Deuteronomy, the 30th chapter. And then when we come into the New Testament, so we went to Romans chapter 10. And we were looking at Romans chapter 10 verses 8 through 10. We read it last week. We'll read it again. Or we can read it from verse 6 to 10. Sorry, Romans 10, 6 to 10. What we see is the apostle Paul in the New Testament is quoting those verses of scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse 11 to 14. He's quoting that and he's using that to teach us New Testament believers something. So he's using that. He's saying, okay, here's something you need to learn. So let's read it, please. Romans chapter 10 verses 6 through 10. Could somebody read it for us, please? But the righteousness that is by faith safe, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven or who will descend into the earth. Yeah, go on till verse 10. But what does it say? The world is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the world of faith. We are proclaiming that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. He will be saved. But it is with your heart that you believe and are justified and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Thank you, Surya. So the Apostle Paul is writing to New Testament believers. He's saying, you know, so what he has established through Romans chapter, you know, all the preceding chapters, the Apostle Paul has already established that the New Testament believer, the believer has been made righteous in Christ. He has already established that. So he's building on that. And so he says here in verse 6, you know, the righteousness that comes through faith speaks like this, meaning those of us who have received righteousness by faith, which all of us have as believers in Christ, we have received righteousness by faith. So we people, we speak like this. This is how we speak. And so then he quotes from Deuteronomy 30. He says, we don't say, oh, who's going to bring God from above? God is in heaven. I'm here on earth. I'm so helpless. We don't speak like that. We don't, verse 7, you know, who's going to bring Christ from the dead? You know, as Jesus didn't rise from the dead, we don't speak like that. But how do we speak, verse 8? He says, the word, the word is near you. God's word is in your mouth and in your heart. So he's quoting from the same Old Testament passage, Deuteronomy 30, and he's telling you and me, hey, we people, we who have righteousness of faith, we also do the same thing that God taught his people in the Old Testament. The word is near us. It's in our mouth and it's in our heart. Then Paul goes on to explain, which we don't read in Deuteronomy 30. He explains to you and me here in verses 9 and 10, what is the importance of having the word in our mouth and in our heart? He says, with the mouth, confession is made. So what are you supposed to do with your mouth? Confess. What does the word confess? Say the same thing. What is in your mouth, the word? So what are you going to confess? The word. Say the same thing. With the mouth, confession is made. So as a believer, you and I must confess the word. Say with our mouth. And in this case, of course, he's talking about the word of faith, or he's talking about the message of the gospel. He's saying, you know, the message of the gospel is about Jesus Christ, who died for our sins, was buried, rose up again. He was alive today. He's Lord. Now that message is, that message, when you hear it, it's in your heart, it's in your mouth. So you confess, you say. But it's not only the message. He's applying it to the whole word of God. Right. So actually he starts off with the whole word of God, and then he applies that specifically to the message that he's preaching, the word of faith, or the message of the gospel. But he's starting with the entirety of the word of God. The word is in your mouth and it's in your heart. Then he says in parenthesis, that is the word of faith, which we preach. That is the message which we are preaching. But what did he start with? The word. So the entirety of the word of God is to be in our heart and in our mouth. And with our mouth, confession is made. Say the same thing. Say what God's word says. With a heart, man believes. So I must believe in my heart, the word of God, because the word is in my heart. I must confess with my mouth the word of God, because the word is in my mouth. So you believe in your heart, you confess with your mouth. But then he also says in verse 10, what will be the effect of doing that? He says with the heart, man believes unto righteousness. That means when you believe in your heart, what is the outcome? Righteousness. Righteousness means to be in right standing with God. So when you believe God's word in your heart, what's happening? You're being, you are the righteousness. You are in that place where God wants you to be. You're in the right standing before God. So with a heart, man believes resulting in righteousness. And then he says with the mouth, confession is made unto. That means resulting in with a mouth confession is made resulting in salvation. Salvation is a generic word, a Greek word, talking about everything that God does in saving us. He forgives our sins. So salvation includes forgiveness for our sins, healing for our bodies, deliverance from bondage, victory over enemies, and well-being, a total well-being of our person. All of that is in that word salvation. So confession is made resulting in salvation. Very powerful. So as a believer, we must learn to do this. Believe God's word in your heart. It puts you in the place where you should be before God and the right standing before God when you believe. Then confess with your mouth. What do you confess? The word of God. Confession is unto salvation. You see the work of God. So when I want forgiveness for sins, what do we do? I believe in my heart that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses me from every sin. I believe that because that's what the Bible says. That's the word of God. Then I say with my mouth. I say the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed me from every sin. The word is in my heart. The word is in my mouth. What do I receive then? I receive righteousness and salvation, the forgiveness for my sins. If I want healing for my body, the word is in my heart. The word says that God is my healer. The word says by his stripes I've been healed. The word says he forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. The word says his word is health to my whole body. His word says the fear of the Lord is health to my, it's nourishment to my bones. It's health to my body. The word says, so what do I do? I believe in my heart. I believe the word. Then I confess the word with my mouth. I say with my mouth, the Lord is my healer. The Holy Spirit gives life to my mortal body. My body is for the Lord and the Lord is for my body. The life of Jesus Christ is made manifest in my body. By his stripes every cell in my body has been healed. So I say with my mouth. Then what happens? Believing in my heart. Righteousness. I'm in right standing in the right place before God. Confession with my mouth is unto salvation. It results in salvation. It results in God's healing work taking place in my body. So like this, we do for everything that we find in the word of God. Because you said the word is in your heart and it's your mouth. Everything, every promise. This is how we exercise our faith in the word of God. Are you all with me? Any questions? Is it clear? Okay. Any questions from anyone? So let's just continue on this a little further. So this was actually a review because we did talk about these things last week. So we covered these two verses. I went through it one more time because they're very important. It's very important. We need to understand this dynamic that we see in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. God's emphasizing it in both testaments. Words in your mouth. And it's in your heart. And it's in your mouth. So let's look at some more scriptures. Let's go to Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Hebrews 3 verse 1. Also, we will read all of these scriptures here. The three passages from Hebrews. Somebody please read Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Then somebody else can read Hebrews 4 14. And then somebody else can read Hebrews 10, 23. Please go ahead. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1. Therefore, holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. Thank you. Hebrews 4 14 please. Seeing them that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Thank you. Hebrews 10, 23 please. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised his faithful. Thank you. So these three verses. Hebrews 3 1. Hebrews 4 14. And Hebrews 10, 23. In all of these three verses. We see the word confession. Interesting. All these three verses. The word confession is there now. This is not these verses are not talking about confession of sin. You know, it's not talking about. Confession of sin is just using the word confession. And then in. Hebrews 10, 23, this is confession of hope or confession of faith. But notice what do we learn about this? Hebrews 3 1 says, brethren. Let's look at each of these verses one by one. Hebrews 3 1. Therefore, holy brethren. Partakers of the heavenly calling that is we all share in this. Heavenly calling. He says, consider a think about or look at focus on. The apostle and high priest of our confession. Christ Jesus. So here in Hebrews 3 1. The right of Hebrew book of Hebrews is pointing us to Jesus. And he's telling us that. Jesus is the. Apostle. And high priest. Of our confession. So what is confession? It's to say the same thing. What are we to confess? Well, we've learned. That we are to confess the word of God, you know, based on. The scriptures we saw earlier from Deuteronomy 30 and. And. Romans 10. We had to confess the word. The word is in our heart. And it's in our mouth. Now Jesus is the apostle. And high priest. Of our confession. So when you and I. Are confessing. We are saying the same thing. With our mouth saying the word of what the word of God says. Jesus is in heaven. As the apostle and high priest. Of our confession. You see. Jesus went or has gone into heaven. The word apostle simply mean talks about somebody. Who's going ahead is going in front. As a representative. An apostle is a sent one. The word apostle simply means a sent one. That means the one who's going as a sent one is actually. Representing someone or something else. In New Testament times. The word apostle was typically used. Of especially the Romans, the way they used it was. When the Roman army. Wanted to invade. New territory. They would send the first ship. The first group of people who are leading everything going in front. They were referred to as the apostle. They were in the front. The first. The apostle. They were going and they were representing. You know. Everybody they were representing Rome. As they entered in. Or advanced toward new territory. So the word apostle literally means sent one. But it has the idea of representing. This is the apostle. Of our confession. He is representing. Our confession before the father. And he's also the high priest. So the book of Hebrews really talks about Jesus as the high priest. As the high priest is our intercessor. He is again. He is interceding. You know. Making request. Pleading. He's interceding for us. So think about what Hebrews 3.1 is saying. It's telling us that. Jesus represents and intercedes. Alligned to our confession. He's the apostle and high priest of our. Confession. So what is Jesus. Representing. What is Jesus interceding. He's interceding on behalf of. We are making confession on earth. Confession of our faith in God. Confession of who Jesus Christ is to us. Confession of who God the Father God the Holy Spirit. God the Son is to us. We are saying who God is to us. And Jesus is representing and interceding. On behalf of that. Obviously. God has already instructed us. That our confession must be. That of his word. The word is near you in your heart. And in your mouth. So the word is in our mouth. We confess the word of God. We say what God has said in his word. And Jesus is representing. And interceding. For our confession. Or aligned to our confession. So when you and I make our confession. Just remember this. There's the apostle and high priest in heaven. Was standing and I'm saying yeah. That's what's going to happen. That's the way it's going to be. I want that fulfilled. So when you and I are making a confession. It's not, you know, empty. It's not wasted. It's not useless. There is an apostle and high priest Jesus Christ. The very presence of the father. Standing there. On behalf of an interceding for. And representing our confession. And therefore he bruised for 14. Let's go to the next verse. 14. He says. Seeing then that is because you know now. That we have a great high priest. Who is in heaven? We have a great high priest. He will not fail in his job. He will not fail as our high priest. We have a great high priest in heaven. He says. And that is Jesus, the son of God. What must we do? We must hold fast our confession. What do we confess? We confess the word of God. The word is in your mouth with a mouth confession is made. And he says you hold fast to that confession. Hold fast to your confession of faith. Don't let it go by. We have a great high priest. He won't fail us. So he's not going to fail. Our side hold fast to that confession. Don't give up on it. Don't stop it. Don't change it. Hold on to it. Hold fast to the confession of the word of God. Because we have a great high priest. Then Hebrews 10, 23, which we read. He says. Make other Hebrews 10, 23. Once again. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Now that word hope, like we explained it earlier. It means expectation. It means an expression of faith. So he says. Hold fast. Hold firmly. Don't give up. Hold firmly. The confession of the hope we have, the expectation we have, the faith we have in our heart without wavering. Don't go back and forth. Just stay with it. Why? Because he who promised his faithful. So obviously the implication is that we are confessing our expectation of his promise. We are confessing our faith in what he has spoken. So he says, you know, you don't give up on it. Why? Because the one who promised, the one who spoke that word is faithful. He'll make it happen. He won't quit. So when we confess our faith and we say what the word of God is saying. Keep this in mind. We've got an apostle and a high priest of our confession in heaven. And we need to just hold on to it. Be firm. You know, there may be, I used the word delay, meaning passing of time. So it may take a long time. Certain things, you know, we may expect it to happen in one week and it may take many months to happen. That's okay. You just hold on to the word of God. Things may be very challenging, but you hold on to the word of God. Things may be very discouraging, but you hold on to your confession of the word of God because he who promised is faithful. Any questions? Is it clear? Surya, please go ahead. Ask you a question. Sir, just now you have told that regarding Hebrews 3, verse 1, therefore holy brothers who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus. So, sir, in this context, I have one question. Here holy brothers means referring to whom I think about Israelite settings here. So the book of Hebrews is written to believers in Jesus Christ. It's not addressed to Jews or Jews who are under the law. So when we say believers in Jesus Christ, of course, at that time, there were Jews who believed and then there were Gentiles who believed. It's inclusive. So the book of Hebrews, whom is it written to? And if you read the entire book of all the chapters, what is coming out there is he's telling us about the new covenant. So new covenant is relevant to us believers. So in the book of Hebrews, it talks about the priesthood. He talks about, and I'm just giving you a summary here, talks about the Aaronic priesthood, which was for the Old Testament. But then he talks about, he points to Christ, who is the High Priest in the New Testament. He talks about the sacrifices in the Old and he says, talks about Christ was completed, the one in complete perfect sacrifice. He talks about the Old Covenant. He tells us we have a better covenant, the new covenant. So these contrasts are happening throughout the book of Hebrews. So therefore it's very clear the book of Hebrews is written to new covenant, new Testament believers, which is made up of everybody, Jews and Gentiles. So when he talks about Holy Brethren, Hebrews 3.1, he's referring to those who are believers in Jesus Christ, because the Old Testament Jews would not be looking to Jesus Christ. Is that okay, Surya? Did I answer your question, Surya? Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Any other questions? Is it all clear so far? So we looked through these three scriptures and let's turn in our Bibles now. Let's look at one more scripture and we will then go for break. I want to just reiterate the same truth from what Jesus taught us, Mark 11, 22 to 24. Let's go there once again. Mark 11, 22 to 24, please. Jesus answered them, have faith in God. I assure you that whoever tells this hill to get up and go itself in the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. For this reason, I tell you, when you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it and you will be given whatever you ask for. Amen. Thank you. So Jesus, that he's teaching about faith. We are familiar with this, Hebrews 11, 22, 23, 24. He's teaching us about faith, but even in his teaching about faith, he emphasized speaking. He said in verse 23, verse 22, have faith in God. So we have faith in our heart, in God. But what do we do with it? How do we release that faith? How do we bring that faith in our heart out into this world to make things happen in this world? How do we do that? He said, have faith in God and then this is what you do. Verse 23, he said, say to this mountain. So speaking is involved. Say to the mountain, be removed, be cast into the sea and don't doubt in your heart. So I'm believing in my heart, but I'm also saying with my mouth. So don't doubt in your heart, but believe that those things you say will be done and you will have whatever you say. So Jesus is teaching us, this is how you use your faith. You believe in your heart and you say with your mouth. And notice what Jesus said. He said, speak to the mountain. That means we are speaking to things in this realm. And remember last week, we saw how Jesus himself spoke to sickness and disease. He spoke to the winds and the waves. He spoke to different things in this realm. So we must learn to speak words of faith, what we believe in our heart. We speak with our mouth. Jesus taught us to do that. So that's confession. That releases our faith. It brings faith out of our hearts into this realm to make things happen. So, example, in your own life, in your own personal life, you begin to call things, you begin to speak things, whatever God has promised for you. You begin to declare. You say the word of God. God has anointed me. God has called me. In the name of Jesus. Sorry. I lay hands on the sick and they are healed. In Jesus' name, the power of God flows through my life and ministers to people. In the name of Jesus, you speak the word of God concerning yourself. As you minister to people, you speak to things in their lives. You speak to situations, circumstances. In your own life, you speak to things. You speak to... If there's a need in your life, you declare God's word. In the name of Jesus, I speak to this need. I say my God supplies for every need in my life. I declare this need met. If there is confusion, some situation where there's confusion, you say in the name of Jesus, I declare peace over the situation. If there's confusion and the disturbances to stop, I declare God gives me shalom. He gives me perfect peace. You begin to speak. Whatever God has promised, you begin to speak that into your life. What are you doing? You're releasing your faith. You're bringing your faith out of your heart into your life so that faith can work in those situations. Let me just say... There's a question here, Sri Radha. In Hebrews 4.14, it says that Jesus passed through the heavens, but isn't he in heaven? Yeah. So Jesus is in heaven. Now, in the Bible, the word heaven or heavens are used in different context. So the word heavens is used for the atmospheric heavens. That means, you know, the atmosphere we see, the clouds and so on. That is also referred to. That's the old English word. Yeah. So it's used. Heavens is used for that. The word heaven is also used for the place where God lives, you know, in heaven. Our Father who art in heaven. Jesus, I go to heaven to prepare a place for you. In heaven, Paul also refers to as, he calls it the third heaven. That means, you know, I was caught up to that place where God is the third heaven. So the word heaven or heavens is used in different contexts. So when it says in Hebrews 4.14, he passed through the heavens. That is the atmospheric heaven. So, you know, we know that when Jesus ascended, he went through the clouds. You know, the disciples, all of these saw him ascend. So he passed through the heavens. That is the atmospheric heavens to enter into heaven. The place where God is, and he is seated at the right hand of the Father. So that's what it means. Hebrews 4.14. In Matthew 11.23. Okay. So, Sri Radha. I think you're referring to Mark 11.23. When Jesus says, speak to the mountain, the mountain is metaphorical. That means the mountain is representative. It speaks of anything that's in this physical realm. It symbolizes an obstacle, symbolizes something big, something, you know, insurmountable, something that seems huge and difficult in our realm. It could represent anything. So in Mark 11.23. The mountain is used figuratively to represent anything in this realm. All right. So let's take a break here. I hope all of you are following me. This is so important to learn how to release our faith. And I want to encourage you to begin to use it in your life. I'm going to talk a little bit on how we can practically, you know, apply this and use this when we come after the break. But this is something so important. I want to encourage all of us to learn how to do it, right? So let's go for a break. We'll be back in 10 minutes. Thank you.