Confessing Christ

Our subject to-day is Confessing Christ,” and I want to call your attention to two characters. They both lived in Jerusalem at the time Christ was here. One of them, you might say, stood on the very bottom round of the ladder. He was not only a blind man, but he was a beggar. The other stood in the very highest position. He was a very rich man. I want to call your attention to how those two men confessed Christ, and how in his sphere in life each did what the Lord would have him do, and what he would have every one of his disciples do. This ninth chapter of John is a most extraordinary chapter. I have not time to read the whole chapter. Here are forty verses given to an account of this one blind beggar; and it is just an account of his confession. We would have it all in two or three verses were it not for his confession. It was grand and bold, that man standing up there in Jerusalem confessing Christ. The Lord sent him to the pool of Siloam to wash. He went and came back clean. And the first thing we hear is a dispute about this man. The neighbors and those who had seen him before said, “Isn’t this the blind man that used to sit and beg?” Some said it was he. Others said he looked very much like him. If he had been like some people at the present time, he would have said, H Well, I’ve got my sight. What do I care. There will be trouble about this if I don’t keep still.” But, says he7 44 1 am he.” It is a good thing when young converts get their lips open, if it is only to say, “I am he.” That was all he said. You will find that in the ninth verse. “Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him; but he said, I am he. Therefore said they unto him, How were thine eyes opened?” Now he begins to tell his experience,” He answered and said,, a man that is called Jesus

Glory 11
i BIBLE READINGS 333

jnade clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam and wash: and I went and washed, and I received sight.” A straightforward story. ft is not the most flippant and fluent witness that has the most influence with the jury. It is the man who tells the truth, and tells it in his own language; don’t need any polish; just testifies what he knows. “Then said they unto him, where is he? He said, I know not” He did not tell more than he knew. “Then again the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. He said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes, and I washed, and do see.” He told his experience twice. He was not ashamed to tell it over the second time if he could do any good. w Therefore, said some of the Pharisees, this man is not of God, because he keepeth not the Sabbath day. Others said, how can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them.” I am afraid if we had been there we would have kept still. We would have said, “There is a storm coming. I will keep out of it. I will not take sides. I will be neutral. They say unto the blind man again, u What sayest thou of Him, that he hath opened thine eyes?” He might have said, “I haven’t seen him. I don’t know. When I came back he was gone. I didn’t have my eyes when he met me.” He might have dodged the question. He might have said, M There is a storm brewing. I am going to get out of this storm. It is very unpopular to confess Jesus Christ now. There is a hiss going up against Him.” He might very well have said, “Wellt I don’t know. I have not made up my mind. I have not seen him. I would like to talk to him.” That would have been the expression of most of us. But this man, if you will allow me the expression, had backbone. He stood up and said, 4* He is a prophet.” He did the best thing a young convert sould do — told what the Lord had done for him, then confessed Him, and then began to talk about the Master. * But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight. And they asked them, saying, “Is this your son who ye say was born blind, how then doth he now see?” His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind, but by what means he now seeth, we know not; or who hath opened his eyes we know not; he is of age; ask him; he shall speak for himself.” I have great contempt for those parents. It was a downright lie. They knew their boy did not lie. They cast a reflection upon their son. They had not the moral courage to come right out and take their stand with their boy, and say, “Jesus of Nazareth did it.” They were afraid they would lose their position. An edict had already gone forth that if any one should confess that he was Christ, he-should be put out of the synagogue. It was a pretty serious thing to be cast out of the synagogue then. If a man is turned out of one church now, another church will take him. If the Presbyterians won’t have him, the Methodists will take him in. If the Methodists won’t take him in, perhaps the Baptists will receive him. “He is of age; ask him.” Do you know that is the trouble to-day? There is many a time when we could put our testimony in for Jesus Christ that we dodge the question. We haven’t the moral stamina to confess him when we have the opportunity. These parents never had such an opportunity, but they missed it. My friends, let us not miss an opportunity to speak for Jesus Christ. “These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews, for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.

Therefore said his parents, “He is of age; ask him.” Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, “Give God the praise; we know that this man is a sinner.” He answered and said, “Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.” All the Jews in Christendom could not beat that out of him. All the Pharasees in Jerusalem could not beat that out of him. “Don’t 1 know? I have been following my way through the world these twenty odd years. Don’t I know it?” And if we belong to God, shall we not know it? Can infidels and skeptics talk it out of us. Has He not given us a new life, a new nature, a new principle?

You see he did not tell what he didn’t know; but he stuck to what he did know pretty well. They could not move him. He stood there like a man. “Then said they to him again, what did He to thee? how opened He thine eyes? He answered them, I have told you already, and ye did not hear; wherefore would ye hear it again? Will ye also be His disciples?” There is faith for you. He thought he was going to convert those old Pharisees on the spot — those men that Christ could not reach. That is what we want — young convert’s zeal. He was a young convert worth having. If you had a few converts like that, your church would be worth something. “Then they reviled him, and said, 4 Thou art His disciple; but we are Moses’ disciple. We know that God spake unto Moses; as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.’ The man answered and said unto them, * Why, herein is a marvelous thing, that ye know not from whence He is, and yet He hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners; but if any man be a worshiper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.” There is not a theologian in this town that could preach a better sermon than that. If he had been at Princeton four years and sat at the feet of Dr. Hodge or any one else, he could not have got the theology that young man had. Most extraordinary young convert! He preaches like a saint. He preaches as though he had been sitting at the feet of Christ for twenty years. Wonderful argument! Couldn’t get around it! He stood right there and preached Jesus Christ And that is what we want to do as witnesses. Christ has left us down here to confess Him — to stand up for Him in this dark, unbelieving age. And if we stand up for Him, he will stand by us and help us. This man’s testimony was so clear and so keen that they didn’t like him. People talk about their having to leave the world. I tell you if you love Jesus Christ, and stand up for Him, you won’t have to leave the world; the world will leave you. “They answered and said unto him, thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.” And where did they cast him? Right into the arms of the loving Saviour. I tell you it is a good thing when our testimony is so clear for Jesus Christ that the world casts us out. The world can’t separate us from the Master. The very next thing we hear in this story of this man is that Jesus heard of it; and he went out and found him. It pleased the Master. I will venture to say He did not find a man in all Jerusalem that pleased Him more than that poor, blind beggar. He was a prince among men — a man that could stand up against such an opposition as he stood against among those proud, haughty Pharisees, and confess Christ as he did. How it has come along down the ages. I want to see that blind beggar when I get to heaven. I want to shake hands with him, and thank him for that testiraoay.

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and when He

had found him he said unto him, dost thou believe on the Son of God? “Of course he did from the way he had been talking. No man could talk as he did if he didn’t believe. “He answered and said, who is he Lord, that I might believe on Him? And Jesus said unto him, thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped Him.” We have him right there at the feet of the Savior. We could not have him in a better place. “And he worshiped Him.”

The next character I want to call your attention to is Joseph of Arimathea. I will not take up much time, although it is worth a whole day. John tells us that Joseph was a secret disciple of Jesus. Joseph and Nicodemus did not act very well while Christ was alive, I will admit. It was his death that brought them out Nicodemus did not just cast his lot right in with those fishermen and follow Christ from village to village, but he kept his place in the synagogue. He stood up faintly for him. But when Jesus Christ died, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus stood up boldly, no longer secret disciples, and when the other disciples left him, Joseph came out boldly and begged the body of Jesus Christ. The Sanhedrim had already said that if any man should confess that he was Christ, he should be cast out of the synagogue. Joseph was a man that stood high. He was a counseller; but we are told that he never gave his consent to the death of Jesus Christ He was a rich man, an honorable man, a just man. But the only thing that Joseph did that has come along down the ages was to confess Jesus Christ. When the news came tiiaf Jesus was dead, he went in boldly to Pilate. He tool his stand and identified himself with this despised Nasareae, that had died the death of a common criminal ttmt had died the death of one of the most notorious criminals, for only the very worst criminals died the death of the cross, Joseph of Arimathea goes boldly into Pilate’s judgment hall begs that body; and he and Nicodemus take it down, wash it in clean water, wrap it in fine linen, and lay it in Joseph’s sepulcher. Sweet act! Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all tell it. It touched their hearts to think that Joseph should have done that act for the Master. Joseph had a good execuse for not doing it. He might have said, “He is dead. He is gone. If I confess him now, I will lose caste in Jerusalem. I will let him go.” Nicodemus and Joseph might have done that; but they just took their stand. And how it has lived! It was the best act that Joseph ever did. And don’t you think he lay down in that sepulcher all the more sweetly and cheerfully to think that Christ came ap out of it? What a privilege! To lie in the sepulcher that Christ came out of. He might have given thousands of dollars of money and not told it. But that one act he did for Jesus has outlived it all. So when we do any thing for Him with the purest motives, He will bless us. That widow, perhaps, did not know what she was doing when she put those two mites into the treasury. But how it has come along down the ages! That woman that brought that alabaster box brought it for the Master. There is as much fragrance to that alabaster box now as there was when she broke it. It has filled the earth all these eighteen hundred years.

O, my friends, let us confess Jesus Christ in season and out of season. Let us give no uncertain sound. Let Let the world know that we are on the Lord’s side. Let every particle of our influence be on the Lord’s ride. When I went to Europe, in 1867, 1 was introduced to a wealthy merchant in Dublin, a gray-haired, fine looking man. Said he to the London merchant

who introduced me, “Is this man all O. O.?” The London merchant colored, “I don’t know what you mean by that.” “Is he out and out for Jesus Christ?” I have never forgotten the two O’s. I would rather be D. L. Moody, O. O., than D. L. Moody, D. D. or LL. D. What we want to-day is to be on His side, out and out