Are We Denying Christ? — Jon Couch

Humble Transformation Instead of Self-Focus

We have made it so much about us, us, us, us, us, give me, give me, give me, give me. But when you look at scripture, scripture is not about give me, give me, give me. Scripture is about humble transformation, the submission of Jesus Christ that says make me, make me, make me.

See, it's high time, high time that professed believers get out of the stained glass bunkers and go onto the battlefield of life and go make a difference. And I want to welcome you to another broadcast of This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries.

It's a joy to have you listening today and our prayer is that you'll be challenged and motivated to live for Christ like never before. Well, I don't know about you, but I need to be fed through scripture today.

And so let's go to God's Word now and let's see what He has to say. Well take your Bible and turn to 1 John, 1 John chapter 2, 1 John 2, looking at 22 -23 this morning. And as you're turning there, I want us to think on this question of are we individually, as we look at our own hearts this morning, are we denying Christ?

Think about that question. Are we denying Christ? Think about what we say, think about what we don't say, think about what we do, think about what we don't do, think about how we behave. Are we denying Christ?

I love Wayne Cordero. He says it this way, are we on mission to create a subculture, that is a culture where it's about us, it's internally focused, we have all the focus and the spotlights on us to get what we want, or are we counterculture?

Are we creating knowingly or unknowingly a subculture, or are we creating and being counterculture? See we want to be counterculture, don't we? The true believer, the professed believer, if you follow Scripture, will have a heart that wants to be counterculture, that doesn't want to blend in with the crowd and go along with the world, but they blend in with God and they go along with God.

Oh, are we in the world and we need to minister to the world? The answer is a resounding yes, but we're in the world but not of it, amen? The reality in our culture today in 2012 is this, in many of our homes and our churches and certainly in secular America.

A Godless Culture and the Gospel-Centered Life

And the reality is this, we live in a Godless and a Christless culture. We live in a Godless and Christless culture. Now are there people that honor God? Of course there are, but the reality is on a whole, we live in a very Godless and a Christless culture.

Now when I say Godless and Christless, I'm referring to biblically being God-fearing, not that we just acknowledge God, not that we acknowledge there's a Jesus, but we truly through Scripture, through the lens of Scripture, our benchmark, what we're gauged by, we live in a very Godless, Christless culture.

What we've done in America, and unfortunately it's filtered its way into the American church, is we've taken this approach that we've invented this doctrine, and I don't know where it came from, but the new doctrine in our culture today in 2012 is that my life, what I do, and especially in church and even in the home front, it's all about me.

We've come up with this doctrine that says, it's all about me. Don't tell me about sin. Don't tell me about attitudes. Don't tell me about being Christ-like. Don't tell me about heart transformation.

Don't tell me about getting on God's page and not being on my page. Don't tell me any of that stuff because it's all about me. We hear so many times through our media that it is about us, don't we? That's all we hear.

We're bombarded daily, internet, TV, newspaper, magazines. We are bombarded with messages over and over and over that's all about us, and now we're actually believing this. We've drunk the Kool-Aid, haven't we?

But the reality is is that it's not about us. It's not about what we want. It's truly from a biblical perspective, it's about Jesus and his glory. It's about exalting the name of Christ. It's about talking about sin.

It's about confronting my lousy attitude. It's about me being Christ-like. It's about all these things that we don't want to talk about because this is what we want to hear. We want to hear all the things that please us, right?

We don't care if during the service the Holy Spirit's working. At a certain hour, we say, shut down the service because we got to get to the lunch hour and go see the ball game. We have made it so much about us, us, us, us, us, give me, give me, give me, give me, but when you look at scripture, scripture's not about give me, give me, give me.

Scripture's about humble transformation, the submission of Jesus Christ that says make me, make me, make me. But yet we got this thing all backwards, don't we? And boy, when we don't get what we want, what do we do?

We pick up our bag of marbles and we sling her over the shoulder and we march on down, don't we, to the next church. And you know what we've now done? We've taken our bag of marbles of lousy attitude, stinking, rotten thinking, and now we've now infected another church.

Why? Because we've made it about me and what I want. In the meantime, the devil's going, I got another one. Let's see, I got first Baptist, second Baptist, third Baptist, now I got fourth Baptist. Yes!

Because I got them thinking about self and what self wants to do, and at the Bible, what does it do? It screams, oh, don't give me, give me, give me. It screams, transform my heart and make me, make me, make me.

But we don't like that, do we, because we want everyone else to be changed but us. We'll pray for the guy down the street, the guy in the pew next to us, the guy at work in the cubicle next to us, but we don't pray, oh, Lord, prune my thought process, prune my attitude.

No, no, we want everyone else to change, but again, the Bible says, no, he who comes to me must deny himself that denial process is going through a radical heart change that is truly cleansed and all the old is flushed out and Jesus is poured in, amen?

John tells us here in 1 John 2 .22. He says this, who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Verse 23, whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either.

He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. Raise your hand if you consider yourself to be a liar. I mean, here's some pretty strong words, right? I'm going to read this again from John. He says this, who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?

What is a liar? Don't answer out loud, but just think in your mind's eye. When you think of that word liar, just think what comes to your mind. Maybe you have an image of someone you know. Maybe it is you.

Maybe you have an image of a bad experience. You know, you think of that word liar and in the Greek it literally means this, to speak falsehood. To speak falsehood. To speak something that is not true.

Even in our culture today, we have all these isms that we've talked about before, but the reality regardless of what anyone says, I don't care, I'm going to say this again and again and again. I don't care what Hollywood says.

I certainly don't care what Washington says. There is truth and it's biblical truth, and so we don't want to be liars, do we? Well, what is the characteristic of someone who is a liar in this text, and he moves forward into this, and it's kind of our topic today, are we denying Christ?

See, the liar then moves on to the next phase, which is denial, isn't it? Now what does it mean to deny something? Well, it simply means this in the Greek, it means this, to not accept the truth, to reject, to forego.

So let's think through that for just a minute here. A liar is someone who promotes falsehood. They live in denial, they are denying, they are rejecting, they are not accepting, they are foregoing the truth.

So let's put this all back together, and I'm going to read it in context. Here it is. Who is a person who speaks falsehood, but he who does reject, does not accept, foregoes that Jesus is the Christ? What did Pilate say, do we remember?

One of my favorites, Jesus is there in front of him. He said, what then shall I do with this Jesus who is called the Christ? That is at the nub of where we have to get to. Plain church, dropping into church once every few months, giving God a tip in the bucket, all these things that we somehow think we're getting away and getting by with it, isn't working.

What then are we doing right now, today, what are we doing with this Jesus who is called the Christ? By our lives are we lying about this Jesus? By our lives, and what we say and do, are we denying this Jesus?

What then shall I do with this Jesus, this Jehovah is salvation, he's the anointed one, he's the Messiah. What are we going to do, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, not when we have enough money in the bank, not when we move where we want to move, not when we marry the person we want to marry, what are we going to do with this Jesus who is called the Christ now?

Following Christ Beyond Comfort

Because you see what's happening to our country, don't you? We've had far too many, for far too long, professed believers that have just sat on their hands, and this week was another reminder of how our country is going down the tubes.

Because we just sit back and pretend like everything's great. Sooner or later we're going to have to realize that we've got water pouring in the boat, and someone needs to go get a cork and cork it up, but yet it's going to be uncomfortable, isn't it?

But we've got to remember that Jesus didn't call us to a life of comfort, he actually called us to a life of being uncomfortable, because those who come after me, he told us, they actually may hate you because of me, sign me up, right?

It's a very hard word to understand, but it's very biblically grounded. It's a very difficult word to embrace, but it's something that you won't lose your life in, you'll actually gain your life. It's something that that's where life begins.

Oh, if I could tell anyone here today, let me tell you something, I'm going to get real gut level on this with you. Ministry is hard. If I would have quit the number of times I wanted to quit, I would have quit a thousand times ago, literally.

But praise be to God, who gives us the grace through his son Jesus Christ, but oh, we look to the Messiah by his grace and his mercy and what he's done through the cross and the empty tomb. Oh, it gives us renewed vigor, it gives us renewed hope, it gives us encouragement, it enables us to press on, and oh, we do not lose heart, we do not faint, but we press on towards the goal of the high calling through those who are called to be in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10, 33 says this, but whoever denies me, that's Jesus speaking, before men, him I will also deny before my father who's heaven, oh good grief. Let's get that one out of there, we didn't like that, did we?

Did we catch that? That when we deny Christ before men, that also we will be denied before the father in heaven, that those, what's that word deny mean? To reject, to forego, to not accept, oh, we got to be vigilant, my dear brothers and sisters, we got to be vigilant people that as we go to the mission field of life, as you exit these doors, you're going to go enter the mission field.

The mission field's not in here. Can we care for one another? You better believe we will, amen? We're going to protect our soldiers, aren't we? We're going to care for our soldiers, we're going to reach out for our soldiers, but the mission is not in this room, the mission is outside this room.

Can we say with resounding clarity today, can you say this, can I say this? Can we say from the bottom of our heart that no matter how bad it gets, yea, that none go with me, still I will follow. You are listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries.

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Living as Ministers in Everyday Spheres

Let's now go back to the second part of this message, and let's see what God's Word has to say. Can we say that no matter how difficult the road gets, that I will not deny the name of Jesus? See, some of us in this room today have incredible platforms, incredible.

Think about your sphere of influence. There's some of you in this room today that will touch people that a pastor will never touch, that you are set up on a platform, that you're in a position to be a lighthouse and a beacon to those all around you for the cause of Jesus Christ.

As you give that encouraging word, as you share the gospel, as you offer to pray, whatever it may be, you literally can broadcast the love of Jesus right where God has put you. You don't have to be a pastor.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you are already ordained as a minister. So we need to realize our roles, don't we? The second part of this verse says this, he who is anti-Christ, who denies the Father and the Son, whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either.

I know what some of you are thinking right now. You're thinking, look, I don't verbally deny him. And I don't deny that you don't verbally deny him. But the reality I've asked myself this past week is even though I may not verbally deny him, does my life deny him?

The bitterness, the resentment, the discontentment. Do any of these things that are wedged and harbored in our heart, are they jockeying for position over Christ? And in fact, and by a byproduct of that, are they actually denying Christ?

We want to root out everything that can be an idol. You know, wait a minute, I thought idols are something that we like. Well, they could be. But maybe my idol is that I got a stinking attitude and I want to hang on to it.

We got to root that out, don't we? Maybe my idol's that I'm just never content. Maybe my idol's that I'm not grateful. What a powerful video we saw about Ian and Larissa. You saw the before and you saw the after.

You saw Eve and the strapping young man, good looking. He's driving down a road and boom, things change in a heartbeat, don't they? Larissa could have bolted for the high hills. Larissa's gonna say, no, no, what did she do?

She said, I am committed to Ian. I'm gonna walk life's journey. I'm going to sacrifice me so that he can live. And don't we understand that that's what Jesus did? See, Jesus, when he saw you and me and our predicament, we were in the car wreck.

We were the ones that couldn't talk. But Jesus said, I'm gonna sacrifice my life so that you can live. What glory that is. That's a time to rejoice. This is a hallelujah moment that we can truly understand that my redeemer lives.

Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. What a mighty God we serve. A mighty fortress is our God. It is well, it is well with my soul. Titus 1 .16 says this, make sure you write this verse down. They profess to know God, but in works they reject, they forego, they do not accept him.

Being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. That totally refutes our argument, well, I don't deny him with my voice, with my verbal skills. But maybe with our works, we're denying him.

Maybe we're being disqualified for every good work because of those attitudes in our heart that have been resting there for years. They've been in there for years. And no one's loved us enough to say, I need to pull you aside because this is not God honoring.

This is not how Christians behave. See, it's high time, high time that professed believers get out of the stained glass bunkers and go onto the battlefield of life and go make a difference. You say, how do you know?

Romans tells us, 13 .11, and do this knowing the time that now it is high time to wake out of the sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Some of us are just asleep at the wheel, aren't we?

We don't have to sit back. We can rise up and be the church. We have a saying around here as we're changing the culture around here. We have one option, and this option is to please God in all we do. That's the option.

It's kind of neat we don't have any other options, because guess what you start doing? The option. We got one option, and we got one life, and I don't know about you, I'm gonna leave it all in the field with no regrets, amen.

Acknowledging Christ at the Foot of the Cross

It says this in the last part of the verse. Verse 23, he who acknowledges the son has the father also. I love this in the Greek, acknowledges. Listen very closely to what this means. To declare openly, to profess, not to deny.

Now here's the part I love. To admit or declare oneself guilty of what one is accused of. Oh, good grief. Isn't that a good one? When you and I come to the foot of the cross, when we come to the foot of the cross, you know what we're really doing?

We are acknowledging that we're guilty as charged. Oh, we don't come to the foot of the cross all purty, do we? No, we come filthy rags. And we come guilty as charged, and Jesus goes, oh, I will clean you up.

I'm gonna prop you up. I'm gonna make your life into something that you could never have dreamed of, because now you've submitted to me, you've got it out of give me, give me, give me, and now you're into make me, make me, make me, and that's where God does the work.

Are we acknowledging that he really is the Christ, or are we denying and forgoing? Denying, not accepting. Not just verbally, but as a lifestyle. See, this is kind of a unique verse here in that it's a firm mandate of where we need to go, but I don't want us to miss the point how glorious this is, because when we come to Jesus Christ, we now have direct access to the Father.

Oh, John 14, six, what's it say? What's that great verse? I am the way, Jesus speaking, I am the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life, and no one, no one can come to the Father but through me. What access we've now been granted that we have communion with the Father.

We no longer have to go through a priest, we go through the high priest, Jesus Christ. We can see his majesty and his glory. We have direct access as we acknowledge him. Oh, that should give you encouragement today, professed believer.

Romans 8, one, very famous verse. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Do we understand that when we've truly come to Jesus, that we have been blood bought by him?

We are no longer condemned, there is no more bondage, we've actually been just the opposite, we've been set free. Well, that should give us a reason to rejoice, amen? I mean, I know from scripture we're supposed to rejoice in our trials, but I think from scripture too, we can certainly rejoice when we've been set free, amen?

We have a reason to have a great attitude. We have a reason to be joyful. We have a reason to go minister to the neighbor, to give that kind word. We have a reason to be nice to one another, amen? Why?

Because Jesus has set us free, and there is therefore now no condemnation in those who have truly placed their trust in him. That gives us reason to rejoice, amen? I love this verse here, Hebrews 13, six.

So may we boldly say, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear, what can man do to me? See, when we acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God, do we realize the ammunition that we now have? Do we understand this?

I think there's so many professed believers across America today that are basking in the fear of the evil one, instead of relying and basking in the holiness of the Holy One, Jesus Christ. We're so scared about tomorrow, we don't know how this is going to work out, oh, I'm worried about this, and I'm worried about that, stop worrying, how?

It's simple, what can man do to me? I'm covered by the blood of Jesus, whether we exit this life, or we stay in this life, we win either way, amen? Because if we stay here in this life, we got an assignment to do, don't we?

We got work to be accomplished. We have the opportunity to live for Him, but if we're in this mode where we are denying Him, that we're not acknowledging Him, oh, professed believer, beware, beware, beware, there will be consequences, there are consequences for rejecting Jesus Christ.

I think of this bracelet, have you ever seen one of these bracelets? It says WWJD, have you ever seen these before? Do we know what it means, WWJD? What would Jesus do? Anyone know Peyton Stewart, that name?

Peyton Stewart was an incredible man, Peyton Stewart was an incredible golfer, because I don't know if you know this, but on October 25th, 1999, Peyton Stewart is flying, he's flying in a private aircraft, something went terribly wrong, and for 2 ,400 miles, this aircraft flew on autopilot, and then it descended into the slanes of South Dakota at the speed of sound, boom, gone.

The bodies were destroyed beyond human recognition, but then the authorities brought his wife these personal belongings, devotional books that survived a incinerated jet fuel fire, come on now, come on, and the bracelet.

See it was almost like in the midst of heartache, in the midst of pain, God is screaming out, I don't care what you're going through, I win, I win, no matter what you're dealing with in life, I win, I'm gonna reveal my holiness and my majesty so all the world can see that how great is the God.

You have been listening to This Day in the Word, the radio teaching ministry of This Day Ministries. These messages are recorded at Manhattan Baptist Church in Tampa, Florida. Each week we hear from listeners who are being blessed by the teaching of God's Word, and we would love to hear from you as well.

You can email us at info at thisdayministries .org, or you can write us at This Day Ministries, P .O. Box 7267, Brandon, Florida, 33508. Thanks again for tuning in. Let's all go out intentionally and urgently this day, and let's go make a difference for Jesus Christ.