0:01 Heavenly Father, we ask for your presence. We pray that you would speak to us, all of us, especially as I seek to share the word that you have given to me and the word you have given with clarity. 0:22 I submit to you Lord. Please help me in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. So if you have been attending any new covenant church uh this one word you would have heard multiple times many 0:38 times uh one of the word is revelation. The new testament uh new covenant church is built by revelation. Can someone give me the uh reference in the scripture where this is mentioned that Jesus says 0:55 I will uh Jesus says to Peter blessed are you Simon Barjonah because the flesh and blood did not reveal this to you but my father who is in heaven. Anyone kids reference for this? Okay. Um it is in Matthew 16 18. 1:21 Matthew chapter 16 verse 17 and 18 basically. And then in verse 18 he goes on to say Jesus says I say to you that you are Peter upon this rock. I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. So one of the 1:40 most important aspect is to get the revelation from the father. revelation about who God is, what he's like, his attributes, his nature. And um what I felt I'm burdened to say is uh we have we need lot more revelation about God's 1:59 holiness. We have heard a lot about the love of God, the mercies of God, the compassion of God, the grace of God. And we have heard many times God is good. Yes, he is good. But we also we need to go beyond and understand the holiness of 2:15 God because I I come to realization like if I don't understand the holiness of God with its full emphasis I will not be able I will never be able to understand the love of God fully. Um I need I I come to the point where Lord I give me 2:32 greater revelation about your holiness. Um so you can go and check how many times you heard in any of the sermons uh all the messages how many how much we hear about God is love. He takes care of you. God forgives you. God is good to you and 2:50 all of that. And how many times you heard about God is holy, just righteous. He will not wink at sin. His eyes are too pure to behold evil. And uh uh I noticed that the lacks attitude that we see in our own lives in our churches uh 3:08 towards sins especially is because Christians have not understood about God's holiness fully. They understood about God's love uh to the extent that God forgives me and cleanses me and he has accepted me but we have not come to 3:26 the full understanding of his holiness and absolute purity and um so today I thought of sharing few things that the Lord has been teaching me as I meditated on this subject. First I want all of us to open Exodus 3:2. Exodus 3:2. 3:47 So this is one interaction Moses had with God. Uh verse chapter 3:2 it says, "The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush and he looked and behold the bush 4:04 was burning with fire yet the bush was not consumed." So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight. Why the bush is not burned up?" When the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush 4:23 and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Do not come near me. Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you're standing is holy ground." So in the Bible this is the first time 4:39 the word holy a sacred a consecrated pl the word consecrated or sacred or holy comes for the very first time and when Moses saw this uh this vision this this bush and blazing fire from the midst of the bush and bush was burning but bush 4:58 itself was not consumed. This tells a lot about what God he is like his uh his holiness, his purity. He says do not come near because the where you the place on which you're standing is holy. And he's amazed at the sight this 5:15 marvelous sight why the bush is not burned up. And uh this is a picture I want to keep. God being a consuming fire. God is a consuming fire. And this is the first picture Moses got about the Lord when he appeared to him. And um 5:30 going on um moving on, Isaiah also had another vision. Isaiah chapter 6. I think many of us are familiar to that uh passage. Isaiah chapter 6. Uh it starts with in the year king of 5:52 king Uzziah's death I saw the lord sitting in on a throne lofty and exalted with a train of his robe filling the temple. Just use your imagination or you know when you read these verses Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with a train of 6:11 his robe filling the temple. The saraphim stood above him, each having six wings. With two he covered the face, two he covered the feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another. It's not just one person. So each one is 6:26 calling out to one another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts and the whole earth is full of his glory." So just think about if you were like Isaiah looking at this this marvelous vision God has given to him and uh the 6:45 saraphims are calling out to one another holy holy holy and the whole earth is full of his glory it's very very unique only in few places in this entire Bible Bible repeats itself holy holy holy three times it the emphasis is the 7:03 three-fold repetition is to emphasize the completeness Um sometimes Jesus says truly truly I say to you verily verily I say to you just emphasis here three times God is declaring himself I mean the saraphims are praising holy holy holy no other 7:19 attribute of God is described like this you never see God is love love or God is good good good but God is holy holy holy the full the whole earth of his is full of his glory what happens When a person sees this vision about his holiness, 7:39 immediately Isaiah is saying in verse 5, then I said, Isaiah is saying, woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips. Once we get the vision of God's holiness, the immediately we see how the ugliness of sin in our own 7:56 lives. So the reason we don't see lot of sin in us or the clarity about our own lives uh is because we are not seeing the complete picture of God's holiness. But the moment we get that father you are so holy we call you go father 8:11 hallowed be your name holy father but help me to see my sin. Um this is if we see woe unto us. If you say wo wo is me I am ruined. It is not about others. Oh wo is this person wo is this? It's me. W is me Lord. Thank you for this vision. 8:28 Thank you for showing me the veil is removed. When I turn to the Lord, the veil is removed. I see your full glory and I see how how ruined I am because I'm a man of unclean lips or something. You can put whatever I am I have this 8:41 sin something this is unclean that is exposed now in the light of God's holiness. And again John uh disciple he had a revelation. Let's go to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation 4 verse 8. 9:06 [Music] And four living creatures, each one having them six wings are full of eyes around and within. And day and night they do not cease to sing. Day and night all the time. So this is 9:24 the picture. So some people say, "Oh, what do we do in heaven?" This is what is happening in heaven. Day and night, um these four living creatures are saying, "Do not cease." They don't stop. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the 9:40 Almighty who was and who is and who is to come. Again, the same expression three times. Holy, holy, holy. And um if you see the study this uh book of revelation, you will see many times the attributes of God that are described are 9:58 God as eternal, God as creator, God is just and righteous. And again, the reason I I want I'm showing these verses is the emphasis on God's holiness. The way Bible repeats itself to uh to explain how important it is for us to 10:17 focus on this attribute of God. uh if we don't as I said again uh if we don't see God's holiness if we don't understand his holiness we will never be able to understand his love and his purity and we'd never be able to hate 10:33 sin the way he hates um now I want again I'm I want you to turn to Habacook there's one beautiful verse I want to show you uh Habacook uh it's a small little book tugged in uh 10:50 Habacook chapter 1 verse 12. Oops. Um it says um are you not from everlasting, oh Lord, my God, my holy 11:07 one, you who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. It this expression the prophet prophet is telling I mean the word of God says you are of purer eyes to see evil and cannot look at wrong. That is the attribute of 11:26 God. His eyes are absolutely pure. He he will not delight at looking at the evil or wrong. He will not wink at sin. His eyes are pure. Um you will never God will never look at sin or wickedness 11:43 favor favorably. is too pure. And uh in the Old Testament there are many places uh again we see this expression about God himself calling for the Lord your God is a consuming fire a jealous God. This expression consuming fire comes 12:01 again and again in Deuteronomy two times and then again in Hebrews chapter 12 also for our God is a consuming fire. What are the I was thinking about when God is described as fire, what are some of the qualities of fire? So when we go 12:17 for camping, uh we set up a campfire, there's a fire. Even when Moses saw there's fire, what happens when there is a fire, it prevents the predators from coming. Anything wild animals, if you're all by yourself or your wilderness, 12:32 first thing you'll have is a fire. So that you'll protect yourself. It will protect from the predators from anything that is going to cause harm to you and um then also it repels things like snakes um and uh discourages the snakes or any 12:48 other creepy things like that to come near you place where there is fire uh all even insects or anything that is harmful and also it provides light. Fire provides light. It exposes the sin. it exposes the snakes or it it also makes 13:08 us see where our true condition. So God being a consuming fire will help us to see the sin in our own lives. And also when we have the fire uh we have warmth. The true fellowship with one another. That warmth in our fellowship comes when 13:26 we walk with the fire when we are living with the fire of God. When we are truly honest before God. Um so in the church what is the most important thing we need to look at is do we have the presence of God? Do we have this fire of God? Do we 13:42 have this do we sense that there's a consuming fire in our midst? If not we need to ask God why why is there anything what is hindering us from having that presence? Um when we come to the church are we bringing more oil uh 13:57 to pour out on the fire or we are trying to bring some water and to put off the fire. we could uh we could question ourselves and examine ourselves. Um so as I as I meditate on that and there is one more verse in Hebrews chapter 1:7 14:12 talks about now we until now it is about God uh the Moses uh the vision Moses had and then Isaiah and then John and the verse about from Habacook now what God is telling about us in Hebrews 1:7 uh it's an interesting verse 14:33 and of the angels he says he who makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire. His ministers like that means we a flame of fire. So one of the thing is are we on the fire for God? Are we do we do I mean is this verse true in 14:50 my life? Am I being a flame of fire for God? Um just just keep thinking about that verse and then there are other things I mean as I keep trying to understand on this subject there's so many things God is praised uh for his holiness in Exodus we 15:10 see after they were delivered uh God delivers them from Pharaoh's army and they sing a song in Exodus 15 one of the first thing they say is who is like unto thee Lord majestic in holiness before any other quality is described 15:24 who is like unto thee uh among the gods who is majestic in holiness. Um wonderful verses. Uh I highly encourage you to take a concordance and see all these verses. And one more thing I want to show you is from Psalms 93 15:41 verse um Psalms 93:5 very practical and relevant for us. Um it says your testimonies are fully confirmed. Holiness befits your house O Lord forever more. 16:00 It's the other version says holiness adorns your house. Adorn that help help me to understand um what what does um what is the thing that we all look for when we look for the house of God. It is not the activities. It is not how gifted 16:17 people are, how good the singing is, whether the pews are good, whether sound system is good. That's not what is going to make the house of God house of God. Holiness adones the house of God. If we miss the holiness, we miss everything 16:32 else. That is the most important thing and um so I this verse challenged me. Is the church ACFC is it adorned with the holiness of God? If not as the elders we need to mourn and weep why it's not happening. All of us have a part in the 16:48 when Moses saw a consuming fire burning the bush everything every part of the bush was burning it's not just the fire but the part of everything is burning when in the house of god all of us need to be like that flames of fire all of us 17:02 need to bring that presence of god and uh what happens when we have such presence of god among us I want to go in the next part of the message uh the first thing I want to say is how do how does it apply to our lives uh so one of 17:16 the verse that I keep coming back to in my own walk with God is one of the verse in uh 2 Corinthians chapter 7 um 2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse1 therefore 17:35 having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. So I wanted to read that verse very 17:55 slowly for a purpose. There's so many things Paul has packed in this one verse. So whenever there is a word therefore, we need to see what it is there for. So just go couple of verses. I wish there was no chapter boundary for 18:10 this one. Um because it's very much connected to the previous verses. uh vers chapter 6 verse part of 16 this is God telling I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people therefore 18:27 come out from their midst and be separate that be holy says the Lord and do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you I will be a father to you and you shall be the sons and daughters to me says the Lord God Lord Almighty 18:44 He says, "I will dwell among them." That is God is desiring to dwell among us, walk among us. And he's welcoming us. Be separate from the world. Be separate from the life of sin. Then I will welcome you. I will be a father to you 18:59 and you will be my sons and daughters. Because of this promise, Paul is telling beloved all of us, let us including himself, he's saying, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness or defilement of flesh and spirit. What is the defilement 19:17 of flesh? What is the defilement of spirit? Flesh, we understand many things. I think pretty obvious. Uh okay. Anger, lust, adultery or jealousy and whatever the the things that we do with the flesh, right? Uh and then what is 19:33 the defilement of the spirit? Defilement of the spirit uh about spiritual pride the self-righteousness uh things like looking down upon others f the or unforgiving attitudes the defilement of the spirit something that is not too obvious something someone is 19:52 doing something wrong in the flesh we can see it but the filthiness of the spirit only you know and God knows so that's why Paul is encouraging us cleanse ourselves not just the outside acts of the flesh but deep within defile 20:05 defilement of the spirit. One thing that I uh when I was thinking about this verse, the story of the prodigal son came to my mind. Story of the prodigal son. The prodigal son went and did defilement of the flesh. He did 20:17 something. He took away money. He lived in the life of sin. He lost all the money. He came back. But the elder brother had the defilement of the spirit. He's not happy that the father is showing so much compassion on this 20:29 sinner and he did not partake in the heart of his uh his own father. and he was assuming about this his younger brother about a lot of things he did and he was not happy. That is the defilement of the spirit. The self-righteousness and 20:45 self-justification all of that. And the second the last part of the verse perfecting holiness. We are all growing in holiness. So it's not just overnight we are becoming holy but we begin our the perfection of holiness. On the day 21:01 one we become believers. Friday we heard a message. The key thing for that is honesty. We start with being honest about ourselves to become uh perfect in holiness. Yes, we begin the journey. God is going to help us. God is going to 21:18 show who he is as a complete picture of the Lord. As we turn to the Lord, he is going to take out the veil and we get the vision and we constantly cleanse ourselves compared to Christ. Lord, I'm not here. I'm not going to compare with 21:30 others. That will make me either proud or discouraged. I want to compare with the Lord year after year. I want to perfect in holiness. But the last part of this verse, I want all of us to focus in the fear of God, not men. Do not 21:45 practice, do not sorry, do not make your goal to perfect holiness in the fear of men, but in the fear of God. Live before the face of God. It doesn't matter what the elders think about you. It doesn't matter what the other brothers or 21:59 sisters think about you. Don't be try to become perfect in holiness in the fear of man but in the fear of God. I was thinking like when uh when we have this such a wonderful promises um uh that God is going to dwell within us. God is 22:15 going to walk us walk among us and he has given his great promise to be his children. How much careful I need to be. Help me to cleanse myself Lord from all the defilement of this flesh and spirit. I see it and I'm going to I'm not going 22:29 to stay silent. you expose this, I'm going to repent and cleanse myself and I want to become perfect in holiness because I fear you. When I live before the face of God, when I fear God, I don't have to fear man. Uh so this is 22:42 very very important. Uh think about it. When um when there is a in India, I was thinking when a Indian politician lives next to um uh next to our neighborhood or something, the entire area gets cleaned up. It will be cleaned up and 22:57 decorated. And if a godly man comes and stays in your room uh sorry in your house for a week, how much care you take uh to do all the preparation, you will make sure that the bathrooms are clean, the bedrooms are set up, everything is 23:12 perfect. What if God is telling you, I will come and dwell in you. I will live among you. I will walk with you. How much more we need to be careful in cleansing ourselves from all the defilement of the flesh and spirit. 23:25 Uh the next one I want to uh I want to focus on is um I mentioned about honesty. Right? The opposite word for that is hypocrisy. So there is a clear warning in uh in in the Bible about hypocrisy. There are many warnings but I want to show one 23:45 verse Isaiah chapter 33. Isaiah 33:14. So what do what is what happens when we have God's presence among us? When we 24:02 have consuming fire among us 33:14 Sinners in Zion are terrified. Zion is a picture of the true church. Sinners in Zion are terrified. Trembling has seized the godless. Who among us can live with the consuming fire? If sinners 24:22 are comfortable in the church, then there is there's a chance there's a possibility there's no consuming fire because sinners in Zion are terrified because it is impossible if we live in hypocrisy to live with a consuming fire. 24:39 Either you leave or you turn to God and be honest and we then we can live with the consuming fire because God is not expecting a perfection but honesty. So the this is a great warning for all of us. Sinners in Zion are terrified. Let's 24:55 pray that God's presence will be among us in the church. And uh speaking of hypocrisy, I think you all know that story many times. You would have heard about the story of Ananas and Safhira. We we don't have to go into that. But 25:07 when when the the early church was just starting and God was doing mighty works among them through the power of the Holy Spirit and um what happened an Sapphira they projected uh something uh that it is not true in their lives. They they 25:25 wanted to show to everyone that they're wholehearted. They sold certain land and they brought only part of it but they wanted everyone to know that they put they are bringing everything all the proceeds from the sale because everyone 25:39 else is doing it but they wanted to keep some money but they were not honest. So the opposite of honesty is hypocrisy and then God deals with that hypocrisy in the early church in a such a such a strict manner that is uh 25:55 yeah God smites anas and Safira and Peter says Ananas why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit in Acts chapter 5 when we project something that that is not true in our lives uh we are lying to the Holy Spirit we are 26:11 lying to God Uh if we are at kindergarten level, let's be honest. Yes, I'm at kindergarten level. If I am at first grade, let's be honest. I'm at first grade. I'm at 10th grade. So that we can get help and we can help each 26:23 other. We can encourage each other. We are not trying to impress anyone. If we live before the face of God, if we are perfect in holiness in the fear of God, we don't have we don't have to be afraid about what people are going to think 26:35 about me. And and also I want to show one verse uh from 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1 15- 16. 26:57 Actually, let me start with 14. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former laws which were yours in your ignorance, but like the holy one who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior because it is 27:14 written, you shall be holy for I am holy. So like the holy one who called you, God who is holy called you, be holy yourselves. That's the exaltation Peter is giving. In all your behavior, in all your conduct, in everything, not just in 27:30 the church, in your workplace or your home, be holy because God who called you is holy. And um so this is Peter's exhortation. You can um and also verse 17, if you address as father, the one who impartially judges according to each 27:46 one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on the earth. There's so many things we can see here. Our time of our stay on earth is limited. Let's conduct ourselves in the fear. One of the major problem is we 28:01 have such a uh I think this in this generation I see uh the irreverence towards God in the songs in our attitudes in the way we talk. We use the word God so irreverently. I mean this verse should terrify us. Um so conduct 28:17 yourself in fear during the time of your stay on earth. And um so I want to I want to end with couple of verses. Uh let's read uh Zechariah chapter 14. 28:34 Zechariah chapter 14. The same context that we are called to be holy in all our conduct not just in one aspect of our lives in everything. Right? So these are very interesting verses to meditate on. uh chapter 14 28:51 verse 20. In that day there will be inscribed on the belts of horses holy to the Lord and the cooking pots in the Lord's house will be like the balls before the altar. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in 29:09 Judah will be holy to the Lord of hosts. And all whose sacrifice will come and take of them and boil them. And there will be there will no longer be a canonite in the house of the Lord of hosts in that day. Even the bells of the 29:26 horses there will be holy to the Lord. The cooking parts in the Lord's house will be the like the balls before the altar. So everything there is no distinction between sacred and not. Everything about our life should be 29:38 sacred and holy. Every cooking pot in Jerusalem is holy to the Lord. That's how our life should be. That is the that is the calling we have. And when we live like that in the church, there will be no canonite. Canonite is someone who is 29:54 unclean as who lives in sin, who is trading, who is a trader who who wants to make money or profit. Uh there won't be any canonite in the true house of God. Why? Because when we uh uh when we leave before the face of God, we hate 30:11 sin and we confess our sins. And if we deceive ourselves, if you deceive people around us, uh but we can never deceive God. God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Galatians chapter 6, whatever we sow, we shall reap. If we reap, if you 30:28 sow to the flesh, we will reap corruption. If you sow to the spirit, we will reap life. And finally, one last verse before I close is from 1 Timothy chapter 5. This verse, I never read this 30:44 verse uh so carefully before, but I thought I would share verse 24. 1 Timothy 5:24. The sins of some men are quite evident going before them to judgment. For others their sins follow after. The sins of some men are quite 31:04 evident going before them to judgment. For others their sins follow after. What it means is no matter if some of them are quite pretty pretty obvious. We can see people sinning but even if you hide and you deceive their sins will fall 31:18 after that means God will expose the holiness of God the fire of God the consuming fire will expose and saf expose we if we say to God when God shows his true holiness if we say to uh God woe is me 31:37 and if we are honest before God about our own spiritual condition God will not say woe unto Like he said to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, when we walk when we live before the face of God, when we live with this consuming 31:51 fire, may God expose everything and uh instead of being afraid, let's be uh let's take this warning seriously and uh be honest before God and u otherwise this this um at the end we we 32:09 saw that verse sinners are terrified. We don't want to be in the group of people who are terrified but we want to be the group of people who choose the way of honesty and we repent and we say woe is me and we can live with this consuming 32:24 fire. May God cleanse us. Thank you. Thank you brother Surin and brother Kalyan. what you have shared. 32:44 Um if you can read along with me or see uh from Isaiah Isaiah chapter 6 this is Isaiah's vision verse three when he saw that 33:02 and one called out to another and said this is the worship in a vision he saw angels saraphim stood above him each having six wings. With two covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with 33:21 two he flew. And they're saying, "Holy, holy, holy is Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory." What was Isaiah's response when he see that is, "Woe is me for I am ruined 33:40 because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips." Friday we heard about the honesty. And what is our next response is repentance. This is what I see in Isaiah's life. He's calling that person is a sinner. 34:00 This woman is a sinner. He is not calling out the people. He said, "Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips." Brothers and sisters, may this be our response when the Lord has shown something genuinely, genuine repentance. The proof 34:19 of that is it's like yeah we humble oursel not in front of the people but in front of God because our goal is to please our heavenly father and what seven that is what happened when he did that 34:37 he touched my mouth with it the consuming fire the fire of God has touched his mouth and behold This touched my lips and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven. Verse eight, then I heard the voice of 35:00 the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send and who will go with us? Go for us." Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." Brothers and sisters, this is what is needed. He is not lack of money. Our heavenly 35:20 father, he is the god of most high possessor of heaven and earth. What he is looking for is the genuine repented people in the schools. It's not just only the adults, young brothers and sisters in your 35:37 colleges, in your dorms, in your rooms, and brothers and sisters at our workplaces. May we who saw the glory of God walk humbly in front of his face knowing that our God is holy. 35:57 I brother Kalyan referred this second chapter uh 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and brother Josh also read that we have this hope the hope that we will become like Jesus Christ 100%. 1 John chapter 3 verse 2. 1 John chapter 3 36:14 verse 2 and 3. Uh we can read it that we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. 36:33 And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just has he is pure. That's our goal. We are purifying ourself and uh with the help of God we are going to witness this this 36:50 evening. uh couple of our sisters who did these things and they are going to witness publicly about their testimony and uh at some point all of us has to start this journey of 100% becoming like Jesus Christ. That's the 37:08 church's goal. That's the SCFC's church committed members and those who are thinking this is what we are. The body builds the body and uh God has equipped all of us as saints to build this body. We welcome you. Thank you once again for this prophetic 37:26 word and praise God for our tech team who is recording faithfully. And if you haven't catch up this brothers and sisters this week, if you get an opportunity, please listen. Listen twice, listen thrice. May the Lord speak 37:38 to you and u we invite you for even the guests for lunch after this and uh thank you for the brothers and sisters who joined on zoom and uh who could able please help us to 37:56 set it up for the lunch. So thank you once again for coming. May the Lord help us.
