FBC Daily Devotional – July 14, 2021

Well, good Wednesday morning to you. Let me ask you this. Have you ever felt like maybe because you've denied

Jesus at some critical juncture that he's going to deny you as well?

And maybe that question has come up because there have been some times when, you know, you had an opportunity to witness for Christ and you didn't do it, or you were in a and there are some other believers there with you and they are obviously

Christians by what they're saying, what they're doing, but you kind of distance yourself from them because they're getting a hard time from the rest of the group and you don't want to be lumped in together with them and you kind of deny

Christ. And that denial then leads you to wonder when you read our opening verses in today's reading, make you wonder, is

Jesus going to deny me in heaven? Because listen to what he says. He says, I say to you, whoever confesses me before men, him the son of man also will confess before the angels of God.

But he who denies me before men will be denied before the before the angels of God.

So if I've denied Jesus, will he deny me before the angels of God?

Well, let me encourage you from this with just a couple of observations from this passage.

One of them has to do with the matter of confessing. What does Romans chapter 10 tell us?

Romans 10 verses 9 and 10. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is

Lord. You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Have you by God's grace come to that place? Has God so worked in your heart that you by faith truly believe that Jesus is

Lord and you confess him as such? You've confessed him as such. He is my

Lord and my savior. And you've called upon him to save you. And if push comes to shove, if you had to stand in a court of law and you were confronted to confess whether Jesus was your savior or your

Lord, you know, would you do that? You would do that. You've done that before men, especially if you have been faithful enough to join a local church.

You have confessed before that congregation that Jesus is Lord. You've confessed with your mouth.

Now, what about the matter of denial? The passage says, he who denies me, it's in the present tense, denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

That's an ongoing thing that one does. So the best way to understand this,

I think, is to illustrate it with two people who denied Jesus, but in different ways. One is

Judas Iscariot and the other is Peter. Judas, he demonstrates a settled denial, a settled rejection of Christ as his

Lord and savior. He was done with him and he denied him.

He rejected him. It was a done deal and it was therefore a perpetual thing.

And there was for him no forgiveness. Peter, on the other hand, his denial was a temporary distancing himself from Christ out of sinful, unfaithful weakness.

But it wasn't a terminal condition. It wasn't a perpetual thing. He didn't keep on denying

Jesus. When he was confronted with his denial, with the eyes of Jesus looking at him, what did he do?

He went out, wept, repented. He wept bitterly and he was later, therefore, restored.

So I just want to encourage you with that today, that this passage is not talking about those moments of weakness when those of us who are truly followers of Christ, and we do confess him as our

Lord and savior, when in those moments of sinful, unfaithful weakness, we shy away from owning him like we ought to.

And we often will later feel awful about it and we will turn from that sin and repent of it.

And God graciously forgives. But for the person who's settled in his rejection, who is ongoing in his denial, well, he will be denied before the angels of God.

So I trust you're one who has confessed Jesus is Lord and you will not deny him, especially on a permanent, ongoing basis.

And if you have, you can look back and you reflect on some of those things. I trust that by God's grace, you will seek his forgiveness.

He's faithful to give it. May we do so. So our Father and our God, help us to be faithful in our witness for Christ and our identification with Christ.

And those of us who are truly Christ will be sensitive about that. And I pray that we will.

So bless us as we are faithful. Give us the strength and courage to be faithful, ongoing testimonies for Christ.

We pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your