1295. Some Confessed, and Some Confessed Not

Some Confessed, and Some Confessed Not

"Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My Father which is in Heaven;

"But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven" (Mat_10:32-33).

We are climbing an ascending ladder. There were some who believed and some who believed not. There were some who received, and some who received not. Now we come to the statement, some confessed and some confessed not.

1. Those who confessed not. There were, perhaps, two classes of people who refused to confess Christ.

1. There were those who believed Him not and confessed Him not. They would not confess Him because He meant nothing to them. Their attitude toward Christ was one of rejection, and negation. They had no room for Him; they had no love for Him. Instead of confessing, they denied Him and they denounced Him.

At the foot of the Cross, the crowds passed by, wagging their heads, and crying out against the Son of God.

There are still those who deny our only Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. They cry out against Him as though He were a malefactor. If they could, they would rush Him once more down the streets and out to the hill that is lone and gray–they would nail Him again to the Cross.

2. There were those who believed and confessed Him not. We read in Joh_12:42-43 : "Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God."

We would not say that these rulers in Israel had saving faith, for the Word of God plainly says that, "He that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest" (Joh_3:21). Yet, these certain men certainly had an intellectual faith in Christ. They believed in Him and in His claims, but they were unwilling to take a stand at His side. This is often the case There are those, who, deep in their hearts, accept the fact of the Cross; they acknowledge themselves as sinners, but they are unwilling to pay the price of confessing Him before men. This is a great fault, and a common one.

2. Those who confessed Him. The people who confessed the Lord Jesus Christ did so at a great cost. They did not care what men should say against them. It is a beautiful thing to behold the saints in Ephesus as they "believed and confessed and showed their deeds." They ceased their curious arts which they practiced, and brought their books together, and burned them before all men; then they counted the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.

When saints are ready to cast to the flames nearly $10,000.00 worth of the books and arts which represented everything that they had formerly believed, we know the sincerity of their faith. The result in this instance was: "So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed" (Act_19:20). The contrast is before us and it is plain: "Some confessed, and some confessed not."

Let each one take their proper place, on one side or the other of these distinctions.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR