Ten Who Will You Deny?

Chapter Ten

Who Will You Deny?

"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny [“disown”] Me before men, I will also deny [“disown”] him before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32-33/NAS)

“And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.’” (Luke 9:23-24/NAS)

“It is a trustworthy statement: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; If we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny [“disown”] Him, He also will deny [“disown”] us...” (2 Timothy 2:11-12/NAS)

Every day, while walking out our Christian faith, we make a decision of who we will deny, ourselves or the Lord. Everything the Lord creates must be proven. That which has not been tested cannot be trusted. It must go through the fire of His “quality control” to reveal strengths and weaknesses. The Scriptures clearly state that this will happen to every child of God.

Peter tells us that the testing of our faith is a normal occurrence;

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. ” (1 Peter 4:12/NASU)

The tests of God prove what is truly within our hearts. The Lord already knows, but it is for our sakes, so that we know exactly where we stand. It is what the Bible defines as the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

The true baptism of the Holy Spirit always involves His leading you into the fiery trials in order to burn off the impurities within. The false, or counterfeit baptism of the Holy Spirit, never involves the fire, just an experience. Satan wants to create confusion with this in order to keep us from the cleansing property of the fire.

False teachings are a doctrine with no cross or suffering. Our enemy will give people all the experiences they want, as long as they don't follow Jesus to His cross. Reason being the cross represents the place of defeat for him. Paul said in Colossians 2:15;

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Jesus’ victory is ours through the cross, not around it.

Repairing The Altar

In the Scriptures, the sacrifice unto the Lord was always placed on an altar. The place of the altars now is within His people. With some of us, due to neglect, they must be restored. As Elijah told the Israelites when he had the showdown with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah on Mount Carmel;

“‘Come near to me.’ So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD which had been torn down.” (1 Kings 18:30/NAS)

The Lord is, once again, declaring this message to His people within our nation so as to get them ready before He acts further. We must draw near to God through repentant hearts and repair what has been torn down within us through spiritual apathy. The Lord desires to draw near to us, which requires us to first draw near to Him (James 4:8).

At a time when Israel had turned away from Him, the Lord said through the prophet Zechariah;

“Return to Me,” declares the Lord Almighty, “and I will return to you.” (Zechariah 1:3/NASU)

This is one of the many conditional statements the Lord declares to His

people. He is always the one who initiates the needed return of His people back to Himself. If He didn’t reach out first we would never repent. He starts the conversation and then waits for our response.

In every revival throughout history, God’s people become burdened over the low spiritual condition of the church and begin to pray and seek His face, turning from their wicked ways, thereby preparing the way for Him to come.

Many talk of the second coming of Christ in our time, believing that it is near, but never prepare their hearts. They are the foolish virgins Jesus spoke of in Matthew 25:1-13. Those who, after hearing the midnight shout, are obediently cleansing their hearts by faith “today” will be the ones through whom the Spirit of God will usher in His Kingdom “tomorrow.”

The Spirit Of Antichrist

Elijah had told the Israelites;

“How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” (1 Kings 18:21/NASU)

Their problem was a divided heart. They were trying to serve two masters at the same time. Many Christians in America are doing the same. This is, in fact, the spirit of antichrist.

The Greek for “antichrist” in the New Testament is antichristos (an-tee'khris-tos) which means “an opponent of Messiah, the adversary of the Messiah.” Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words states that it can mean either “‘against Christ’ or ‘instead of Christ,’ or perhaps, combining the two, ‘one who, assuming the guise of Christ, opposes Christ.’”

In one of his letters, John, after encouraging us to not love the world but to do the will of God in order to abide forever, then warns us concerning the spirit of antichrist. He says;

“Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen; from this we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18/NAS)

The spirit of antichrist is always at work within the hearts of God’s people. It looks for a place to lodge in among those who, like the Israelites in their wilderness journey to the Promised Land, are fighting against the leading of the Holy Spirit. If allowed to remain, it will end up shipwrecking your faith by undermining the power and authority of Christ within you.

Concerning denying Christ, John goes on to say;

“Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.” (1 John 2:22/NASU)

You deny that Jesus is your Christ, your Messiah, when you say “No” to His power within you. This inalienable right in Christ that is granted to all who turn to Him is meant to deliver His followers from their sinful nature in order that we may “become the children of God” (John 1:12).

As we are now learning in America, though, rights can be lost through our negligence in defending them to those whose desire is to gain greater control over us. This is exactly how the devil works in the lives of God’s people. His desire is to remove our power of choice (one of the definitions for “right” in John 1:12) through unguarded, apathetic hearts within Christians.

As Samson discovered, our disobedience to the will of God grants our enemy the right to bind and afflict God’s anointed (Judges 16:5). Through continued disobedience, his heart was hardened and the strength of the Lord to defeat the enemy taken away from him.

In one of Paul’s letters to Timothy he describes the hearts of people in the last days. He says that, among many other things, they will have a form of godliness but will deny its power (2 Timothy 3:5). Again, they have said “No” to the power of God within them to transform them into the image of Christ. They are anti, or against Christ, in opposition against His lordship over them.

When Joseph was thinking of divorcing Mary because she was pregnant, an angel of the Lord told him, “that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Every person who has turned to Christ is in the same state. We have become pregnant with the holy seed of God in Christ Jesus. It is through this seed that the Holy Spirit desires to give birth to the image of Christ within us. Satan’s desire is to cause a spiritual abortion before the new birth is fully gained. This is why Paul stated;

“My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19/NASU)

The good news is that all who have received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior have received the right of access to the power of God over sin. But, as all who have chosen to follow Christ will learn, access alone is not enough to overcome wickedness. It is only as we work together with the Holy Spirit, choosing that which is right per the revealed will of the Lord, rather than opposing Him with a spirit of antichrist, that His power is released on our behalf within us and we are saved.