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Do We Fear God or Deny, Disown, and Reject Him?
Episode #672
10/20/2019

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow

The blessings and rewards that attend the fear of the Lord are great but too few reap them. How many instead actually deny, disown, and reject God daily?

Martha:
Well, I say, “Good morning, John!” And then I’m gonna start telling you where I’ve been, okay? (Laughs)

John:
Okay, that’s perfect.

Martha:
I started with this scripture this morning and then I went around the world. It’s 2 Timothy 1:7 – and we know it well, I think (laughs).

“For God did not give us the spirit of timidity (of cowardice…cringing and fawning fear) but [He has given us a spirit] of power…of love…of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.”

And not really realizing the sequence of where I was going, the Lord took me to the fear of God. Because God’s not given us a spirit of fear, but we need the fear of God.

John:
Yeah, absolutely. The fear of God is the, the crucial thing.

Martha:
I knew about a young man who was troubled – I didn’t know details – but the Lord gave me a heart for him. And I felt God’s love and compassion for him and I prayed for him a good bit. And then he had a dream that everyone around knew was God showing him how scary God is. And it gave him the fear of God. And so one day I got to meet him, face to face.

And I took him aside and said, “I want to tell you something. God has given you the most precious gift, that will cause your life to be a success, cause you to be covered and protected and blessed and prosperous. And that gift is the fear of God.” And I said, “You won’t find many men in your life who have that gift. This is not a day and age where we understand the fear of God. We don’t know it, but you know it. And if you keep that fear of God, you will prosper.” And I said, “Go look, go look in Psalms and Proverbs and see the promises if you fear the Lord.” And I gave him some things to pray and that project and I said, “You see, you will see. You’re going to prosper.”

Well, in weeks, just short weeks, he began to– His whole life changed with the blessing and favor of God, giving him things he had never dreamed, and opportunities he never dreamed about. But that’s how I feel about the fear of God, is it is precious.

And we are supposed to pursue it! In Psalm 34, you are supposed to seek the fear of God. Someone asked me to pray for them to have the fear of God and I said, “I can’t do it, because YOU have to seek it. I won’t give you my fear of God, you have to get it. You have to seek Him, and when you see Him, you will have the fear of God.”

So anyway, in reading this morning, I came to this passage and it’s 2 Timothy. Paul’s in prison and he’s suffering a lot, but he has this amazing statement, that he is willing to endure everything for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. He’s ready to endure it. Then he says,

“The saying is trustworthy, for: if we have died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful—for He cannot deny Himself.”

And I was just struck with that, because that strikes the fear of God.

John:
Sure enough.

Martha:
Remember in Matthew how they say to Him, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophecy in Your name and cast out demons and, and, call You Lord, Lord?” And He said, “Get away from Me. I don’t know you. I never knew you. You are lawless.” In other words, what they were doing was not being done in Christ. And so they were rejected at the very throne of God in heaven.

So I looked it up in the Amplified and it says,

“The saying is worthy of confidence and sure: If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us. If we are faithless [do not believe and untrue to Him] He remains true (faithful to His word and His righteous character), for He cannot deny Himself.”

And then Paul writes to Timothy, “Remind the people of these facts and solemnly charge them in the presence of the Lord.” So see, there’s plenty of places in the
Bible to develop the fear of God if we will just face them. And most of the time we won’t face it. But I know that I recently came to understand, you can obey the Lord and yet not die with Him. And you will end up being bitter and an enemy of His. Because He will ask you to do things, give up things, and you have to die. You have to learn— The skill of the Christian life is learning how to die. And I don’t know how to explain it but it’s letting go of what God wants and letting Him have what He’s already taken. And saying, “Okay, I agree. I let go.”

John:
That’s beautiful. Say that again.

Martha:
It’s letting go of what God wants and letting Him have what He’s already taken. I give up what God has taken. I let go of what God wants and truly give it to Him. And I’ll, I will hurt and die in that, but if we die with Him, we shall also live with Him. So learning to die is the skill. But this in the Amplified is so chilling. “If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.” And I looked it up, I looked up ‘endure’ in the original languages and in the dictionary and it means “persevere, stay with it, carry on, don’t give up.” And also it’s mentioned in Revelation, one of the keys to overcoming is to endure with perseverance. And we have to endure with His perseverance. And Paul was in prison and he was enduring and he was also not withholding these serious matters that give you the fear of the Lord. And today we have a grace that is false. What does Paul say in Romans, John?

John:
It’s Romans 6:15 and it says – I love it! I always call it the ‘what then?’ and ‘certainly not!’ – “What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under the Law but under God’s favor and mercy? Certainly not!”

Martha:
That’s the grace of today in many places. But the reigning with Christ is supposed to be the greatest treasure that God has waiting for us. To be, to be beside Him forever and ruling the nations. That is supposed to be our goal.

John:
That’s the highest reward.

Martha:
I believe so, yeah. But this says, “If we deny and disown and reject Him, He will also deny and disown and reject us.” And what I’ve seen so much through my years with the Lord is that when it comes to obeying the Lord, and we don’t give Him what He wants, which is self, really all of it is just self. Give up your self and that’s where the death is. The death of Martha is the death of self. An agreement to be dead and to be as worthless as self is.

So if we deny, disown, and reject Him, He will deny, disown, and reject us. That happens when you talk about the Lord and you put yourself with people of the Lord, but you do not surrender, obey, and die where He wants you to. You can be in the midst of believers and be the traitor. But the problem is, if you deny Him, He will deny you. If you disown Him and don’t claim Him, He will disown you. And if you reject Him in those subtle ways we can do it, then He will reject us. If we’re faithless and do not believe and are untrue to Him, He remains true, faithful to Himself. He will continue to be Jesus Christ, Son of God, King and Master of the universe. And then, He cannot deny Himself. So it’s possible, all this, is it clear what I’m saying? That we can appear to be true and not at all be, and be in the rejection of Him.

John:
That absolutely is clear. I, it reminds me of the thing I wrote about Jonah and the whale and Jesus and I said that death is inevitable. That we are all gonna die. Nature displays this before us seasonally and circumstantially. It is not whether; it is when how and to what end. So if we are all going to die, don’t we want to appropriate that death wisely?

My choice is whether I die a living death for Christ or die to my destiny in self will. Again, I am going to die regardless, so I might as well make it count and reap the maximum benefit. If I die on my personal cross, I am rewarded with Christ’s life. If I die through avoidance of God’s will, I lose everything. One is to save my life and lose it, the other is to lose my life and save it.

Martha:
Oh John, thank you! That is— See it’s absolute. It is absolute! If you’re going to follow Him, you’re gonna have to give everything up!

Do We Fear God or Deny, Disown, and Reject Him? – Episode #672 – Shulamite Podcast

The blessings and rewards that attend the fear of the Lord are great but too few reap them. How many instead actually deny, disown, and reject God daily? Paul warned us all that in the end Jesus would respond in kind to our rejection and it’s too late by then!

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