Deniers, Confessors, Professors
and Lovers
By Michael
K. Farrar, O.D.
©
September 25, 2004
There
are basically two categories of people in God’s eyes. Matthew 25 identifies
individuals as either sheep or goats. Sheep people look to their Shepherd,
Jesus Christ, as their Lord and Master. Goat people rebel and refuse to accept
the lordship of Jesus over their lives. But there are other subcategories of
people as well. I call these the deniers, the confessors, the professors and
the lovers.
DENIERS
Those
individuals who fall within this category deny the existence of God either by
their words or deeds. They fail to accept any evidence that God is living and
active in the world. They use the existence of evil in the world to dispel any
potential belief in a supreme being. Many smoke screens are employed to hide
their sin and lifestyle or their spiritual rebellion. Those who deny softly
know deep down that God exists but they love their sin more than seeking to
believe or they are fearful that God might actually change them if they did
believe. They value control over their own lives even though in reality they
have no ultimate control over their destiny. Therefore they strive to hide
their soft dedication to denial. God can still work in their lives if His servants
will strive to minister to these deniers of the faith and bear witness of the
gospel to them. Those who are hard-hearted in their denials have seared souls
and hearts from years of sin, a life of pain or suffering or simply a strong
distaste for belief in the existence of God. Sin can coat a heart with so much
death and disease that it can be impervious to anything but a miracle of
intervention by God. Pain and abuse can so traumatize a person’s heart that it
becomes callous in an attempt to protect itself. Persistent rebellion to the
truth of God desensitizes the heart to receptivity to the gospel of our Lord.
God’s love is the only thing that can penetrate such a callous soul. Left to
themselves the heart of these deniers becomes hard as stone and unreceptive to
words of life from any believer. Deniers are never hopeless in God’s eyes, but
they choose their own path to destruction if they continue to fail to respond
to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Several scriptures give us some insight
into the spiritual condition of the heart of the denier of God.
Matthew
13:14-15
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
For this people's heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’”
1 Timothy
4:1-2
“The Spirit clearly says that in
later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things
taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose
consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.”
Hebrews
3:12
“See to it, brothers, that none of
you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.”
Jude 4
“For certain men whose
condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.
They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for
immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
CONFESSORS
Confessors
are known for the confessions of their shortcomings. When you first consider
this you might think this is an admirable trait. Confessions of wrongdoing are
beneficial and godly but the problem is that these individuals confess for the
wrong reasons. The confessions of these confessors are an excuse for a lack of
repentance. These individuals feel that as long as they confess what they did
wrong, that is enough. They don’t see a need to repent and change their
activities and behaviors, because they feel confessing evil actions are enough.
Confessions of such confessors are done with the mind not the heart or with the
heart but not the mind. There is no connection or interaction between these two
portions of what makes them human. They will intellectually admit and confess
wrongdoing, but their hearts do not convict them of the pain their actions have
caused God. There is no emotional input from their soul as to the severity of
their behavior. Or on the other hand they may feel horrible in their heart
about their actions and confess but disengage their mind and avoid any
discipline to change their behavior. They make no plans to avoid sin in the
future feeling emotionally better after their confession. Whatever their
motivation or process of confessing, the confessor’s motivation is to please
man or to please themselves and their wellbeing. There is no conviction or
desire to confess for righteous, holy or pure reasons. In their lives
confessing is only a way of removing guilt that they may have or avoiding
punishment from God and has nothing to do with restoring a loving relationship
with God. It is always a selfish fulfillment to confess and continue on with
life. There truly is a difference between a fleshy desire to confess and a
spiritual conviction to confess.
John
12:42-43
“Yet at the same time many even
among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not
confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they
loved praise from men more than praise from God.”
PROFESSORS
The
people in this category are not the intellectual men and women we all studied
under in college. By professors I mean those who profess their belief in Christ
but have no relationship with Him. Profession of true faith is good, but only
if it springs from the heart of a true believer who has a relationship with
their Savior. Fleshly professors toot a good horn. They expound upon what they
know of God and put on a good act as to their dedication. The problem is that
as the Holy Spirit examines their lives there is very little, if any, spiritual
fruit to speak of. It reminds me of the hamburger ads you see on television.
You drool and salivate as you see the juicy large beef patties, crisp lettuce,
luscious tomatoes, and creamy spice sauce on those sesame seed buns. You
measure with your mind how tall, thick and wide this beautiful hunky meal must
be. But, when you go through the drive-thru and obtain your prize in the
appropriately marked bag and travel home you receive the truth behind the
advertisement. The burger is half the size of what it appeared on television.
The lettuce is limp. The tomato mushy and there’s barely enough sauce to give
the buns any color that it is even there. We won’t even talk about the round
cardboard beefsteaks that portray themselves as one of the important
foodgroups. It’s the same with professors of faith. There is no substance to
their claims and proclamations. It is fleshly boasting about a nonexistent
faith in a god made in his or her own image. The commitment of such professions
is shallow never reaching any depth of their minds or hearts. Several scripture
passages speak of such individuals.
Matthew
15:8-9
“’These people honor me with their
lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their
teachings are but rules taught by men.’”
Titus
1:15-2:1
“To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do
not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are
corrupted. They claim to know God , but by their actions they deny him. They
are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.”
LOVERS
Finally
we come to the true child of God, the servant of the Lord, the sinner who has
been saved by the precious blood of Jesus. These are members of God’s family.
Believe it or not these servants of the Lord most high are deniers, but they
are deniers of the lies of Satan. They believe in the truth and deny anything
that opposes the truth of the Bible. They also confess when they sin or fail in
their witness, but they mean it. Their hearts are convicted by what they have
done and their minds agree and desire to seek ways to avoid such behavior in
the future. The Holy Spirit finds a receptive vessel for molding into the image
of Christ in such individuals. The conviction of the heart and mind with the
willingness to listen to the Spirit of God results in true repentance and
change. This progressive behavior leads to spiritual growth and a maturing of
faith. The process of sanctification can be observed in action as these
servants of their Heavenly Father seek to change their behavior to match their
professions of faith. Scripture speaks of the proper motivations behind such
confessions. Christians are always confessors, but confessors are not always
Christians.
James
5:15-16
“Therefore confess your sins to
each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
1 John
1:9-10
“If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all
unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar
and his word has no place in our lives.”
Christians
are professors as well. It is part of
the Christian life to proclaim, profess and expound upon the faith that one
has. A servant of the Lord can’t help but tell others of his wonderful Lord and
Savior and profess his faith to others. The true profession of faith originates
from the confession of a repentant sinner who has been saved from their sin and
is in a close relationship with the Holy Spirit. A child of God shares the
gospel and professes their faith in God because they love the Lord with all
their heart, mind and soul. True Christians are always professors of faith, but
not all professors are Christians.
Hebrews
4:14-15
“Therefore, since we have a great
high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold
firmly to the faith we profess.”
Hebrews
10:22-25
“Let us draw near to God with a
sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to
cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is
faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and
good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of
doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day
approaching.”
Christians
confess and they profess because of their love for their Savior. Confessing and
professing is as natural to the Christian as eating and breathing. They love
their Lord because of what He has done for them in His sacrificial death and
resurrection. They love Him because of the gift of His Comforter, the Holy
Spirit that He has given to them. Because of the love shown to Christians by
Christ, they naturally seek to love and minister to others. Gracious, generous
love was and continues to be, poured out upon Christians and they can’t help
but pour this love out to others.
Matthew
22:37-40
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the
Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
As a
redeemed royal priesthood Christians stand in contrast to the false confessors
and professors who lack any love for God and seek the praise of men.
Unfortunately when Christians stray from the faith they can become members of
the false confessors and professors. In such a state they violate their
relationship with their Heavenly Father and play with the possibility of
becoming deniers of the faith as well. Christians who become false confessors
and professors must repent and truly confess so they can once again profess the
faith that they are called to share with others.
As
Christians we must all pray for one another as we seek to allow the Holy Spirit
to guide and direct us as we demonstrate our love for our Lord in our actions,
thoughts and behavior.
If you are
a believer may God bless you as you show your love for Him by denying the
temptations of Satan, confessing your failings humbly and professing your faith
with excitement. It will bring you great joy and praise from your Father in
heaven if you will seek to live as a member of God’s family.
If you
find yourself convicted as a denier, an insincere confessor or a boastful
professor I would challenge you to seek the Savior and let the Holy Spirit
minister to you. You will never regret responding honestly to the grace of God.