In a continuation of our study in Pilgrim's Progress, we've gotten to the place of the Enchanted Ground where Hopeful details his conversion to Christian. Because I had some class notes that I think would be important for this discussion, I'm going to read a couple of paragraphs. Here's the overview of the lesson. Hopeful was convinced by the life of Christian and faithful while still living in Vanity Fair. Hopeful loved sin and then he was moved at last by fear to flee it. He set about reforming himself, left off his evil practices, but yet oppressed with dread, felt with a shudder that he was not saved. He saw clearly that of himself he could do nothing. He had an interview with Faithful who told him that a person had come to this world on purpose to take up the old debts of all those who would sincerely call upon him. Hopeful prayed over and over again, but could get no answer. Finally, after much seeking, Christ is revealed to the eyes of his understanding, Ephesians 1.18. But the question we're trying to answer is why, sometimes, is there a length of time between the sinner's first awakening and conviction to his lost condition, and his final obtaining of peace and embrace in the gospel? So we're examining the conversion of Hopeful. George Cheever, in his lectures on Pilgrim's Progress in 1846, said, Hopeful gave Christian an account of his own conversion, and seldom indeed has there ever been a description of the workings of conscience and the leadings and discipline of divine providence and grace, with an individual soul bringing it to repentance, in which the points and main course of conviction, conversion, and Christian experience have been brought out with such beautiful distinctness and power. Augustus Hopkins Strong, who taught at Cleveland Seminary, wrote in the year 1903 in his Systematic Theology, Conviction of sin is an ordinary, if not an invariable antecedent, or that which goes before, antecedent of regeneration. It results from the contemplation of truth. It is often accompanied by fear, remorse, and cries for mercy. But these desires and fears are not signs of regeneration. They are selfish. They are quite consistent with manifest and dreadful enmity to God. They have a hopeful aspect simply because they are evidence that the Holy Spirit is striving with the soul. But this work of the Spirit is not yet regeneration. At most, it is preparation for regeneration. So far as the sinner is concerned, he is more of a sinner than ever before. Because under more light than he has ever before been given, he is still rejecting Christ and resisting the Spirit. The Word of God and the Holy Spirit appeal to lower as well as appeal to higher motives. Most men's concern about religion is determined at the outset by hope or fear. All these motives, though they are not the highest, are yet proper motives to influence the soul. It is right to seek God from motives of self-interest and because we desire heaven. But the seeking which not only begins but ends upon this lower plane, that of selfishness, that of mercenary motives, is never successful. Until the soul gives itself to God from motives of love, it is never saved. And so long as the preliminary motives rule, regeneration has not yet taken place. Bible reading and prayers and church attendance and partial reformations are certainly better than apathy or out-breaking sin. They may be signs that God is working in the soul. But without complete surrender to God, they may be accompanied with the greatest guilt and the greatest danger. simply because under such influence, the withholding of submission implies a most active hatred to God in opposition to His will. William Shedd, Dogmatic Theology, 1888. The sinner's agency in respect to regeneration is in the antecedent work of conviction, the work of conviction that goes before regeneration. not in the act of regeneration itself. In other words, regeneration is monergistic, not synergistic, God acts alone. The Holy Spirit does not ordinarily regenerate a man until he is a convicted man. Until in the use of the means of grace, under conviction, he has become conscious of his need of regenerating grace. To the person who inquires, how am I to obtain the new birth, and what particular thing am I to do respecting it, the answer is, find out that you need it, and that your self-enslaved will cannot originate it. And when ye have found this out, cry unto God the Holy Spirit, create in me a clean heart, and renew within me a right spirit. And this prayer must not cease until the answer comes, as Christ teaches in the parable of the widow and the unjust judge, Luke 18, 1-8. When men are convicted of sin and utter helplessness, then they are a people prepared for the Lord, Luke 1, 17. So this Sunday School will enlarge upon this historically and analytically as we examine the conversion of hopeful. If you remember from last week, we entered into the enchanted ground, and because of the tendency for spiritual lethargy, dullness, and sleep, Christian and hopeful engaged in a conversation to try to stir one another up, exhorting one another daily, it says in Hebrew 3.13. One of the ways they did this was Christian drew out hopeful to tell of his conversion. And it's interesting how many theologians, I have just one quote on your handout, think that this is such a satisfactory detail of conversions, but a lot of you won't recognize your conversion in this, because this conversion is the awakening. The conviction of sin prior to his conversion is lengthy. And I'm going to get into that as I go along. Since about 1983, there's hardly anything that has occupied my studies in theology, specifically in soteriology, than the doctrine of conversion and those things that lead up to conversion. So let me do a little comparison of Charles Spurgeon and John Owen to start. Charles Spurgeon said, My heart was fallow, covered with weeds, but on a certain day the great husbandmen came and began to plow my soul. Ten black horses were his team, and it was a sharp plowshare that he used, and the plowers made deep burrows. The Ten Commandments were those black horses and the justice of God like a plowshare for my spirit. I was condemned. undone, destroyed, lost, helpless, hopeless. I thought hell was before me. Then there came a cross plowing, for when I went to hear the gospel, it did not comfort me. It made me wish I had a part in it, but I feared that such a boon was out of the question. The choices, promises of God frowned upon me, and a threatening thundered at me. I prayed but found no answer apiece, it was long with me thus." If you remember the story, it was a winter's day and he was headed to a certain church and couldn't get there because of how strong the storm was driving, the winds, the snow, and he ended up in a probably primitive Methodist chapel where he heard It may have been the deacon that got up for all they know, but what I was interested in besides that, and how it compares to Owen's conversion, was that his awakening seemed to be as long as five years. Now, the conversion of John Owen, although he has left us no detailed account of his religious views and exercises when he first obtained permanent relief from his long-continued perplexity and distress, yet there are some circumstances recorded which are worthy of attention When he came to reside in London, same city as Spurgeon, he went to Alder Manbury Church to hear Edmund Kellamy. Now, this is Edmund Kellamy Sr. He had a son, but he went to hear this man who had some notoriety, a preacher greatly distinguished for his powerful eloquence and for his boldness as a leader of the Presbyterian party. On some account, Mr. Calamee did not occupy his pulpit that day. He never showed up. And Owen was urged by the friend. Now this friend that was with John Owen, another account says he almost carried Owen in. He let him lean on his shoulder to bring him in because Owen had been so long under conviction of sin. And his friend, because Calamee wasn't going to be there, urged him to go hear another pastor. Now there's two different accounts of the life of Owen that I lean on. One is by Andrew Thompson, which is a later one, 1856, and William Orme, which is 1820. So the account is a little bit different. But to make a long story short, a pastor, a person, Owen was never able to discover the identity of this person, but he was so heavy in spirit that he couldn't get up. He said, let's just stay here. And after praying very fervently, this pastor took for his text, Matthew 8, 26, Why are you so fearful, O you of little faith? The mere annunciation of the text produced a solemn impression on Owen's mind and induced him to lift up his heart in fervent prayer to God that he would bless a sermon to him. The prayer was heard, for in that sermon the preacher was directed to answer the very objections which he had been accustomed to bring against himself, and although the same answers had occurred to him often, they had not before afforded him any relief. But now God's time of mercy had arrived, and the truth was received, not as the word of man, but as the word of the living and true God. The sermon was a very plain one, and the preacher was never known, but the effect was mighty through the blessing of God. Now Owen made some effort to find the identity of the preacher, and he was never able to find him. So it's very similar in a sense to what happened to Spurgeon, person totally unknown, was used of God in their conversion. Now to get back to Spurgeon's testimony, I've known some who have suspended the prayer through the idea that the petitions of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord, in other words, praying for mercy, and that therefore it was but committing sin to attempt to offer their supplications. Well, can I remember when coming to Jesus myself that for years I sought pardon and found it not, but Spurgeon didn't think it was in vain to cry out to God for mercy. So, from Hopeful's conversion, Christian rubbed his palms together enthusiastically. They're going to have some good fellowship to prevent drowsiness in this place. Let us engage in good conversation with all my heart, Hopeful said. From Cottage Lectures, Charles Overton, 1849. Then did Christian begin with a deeply interesting question and asked his fellow how he came at first to look after the good of his soul. Hopeful answered that he continued a great while, delighted with all things which were sold in vanity fair, and enumerated the sins and follies to which he had been addicted, but at length from what he heard from Christian and faithful. So remember, hopeful came out of vanity fair, And it was a testimony, mostly of faithful, and we'll find out it was faithful's witness too hopeful, that led him, by degrees, to come to Christ. But at length, from what he heard from Christian and faithful, he began to think that the end of these things is death, and that they exposed him to the wrath of God. He owned, however, in reply to another question of Christian, that he had struggled hard against conviction. He was unwilling to know all his guilt and danger, and endeavored, when shaken a little by the word, to shut his eyes. to the light. Hopeful said, but at last I discovered by listening to and considering spiritual truth that this ungodly lifestyle would eventually lead me to my death. Hopeful admitted, At that time, I wasn't willing to know about the evil of sin or the damnation that results from obeying it. Instead, when troubled by the word of truth, I endeavored to shut my eyes to its revealing light." Now commentators commonly say that it was the testimony of John Bunyan that was used as a picture for Christian and Pilgrim of Progress with that burden on his back going through the slough of despondence and so on. But I think that there's more Also in the conversion of hopeful, because hopeful, unlike many of us, was not raised in a Christian home. He derived his light by degrees. And some of our children were raised in a Christian home, and it was a whole lot different. I can remember about the time that the obstetrician said to us that a child can hear sounds outside of the womb at five months. That's about when we started to catechize kids. Who made you? Betty was at one kick or two. But hopefully that wasn't the case. But I started to get interested in these things probably 1981. And the two quotes that I have there, the one by A.H. Strong in your handout, I gave you that before when we were looking at the testimony of Christian, and that was, Strong was a Baptist that taught at Cleveland Theological Seminary, and this was published in 1903. Shedd was 1886, so these aren't Puritan writers. So what I'm communicating here wasn't unique to the Puritans. It's what's typically called the antecedents, that which goes before conversion, conviction of sin, and so on. And I had expressed to you some time ago, probably now, coming on 25 years ago, I wrote a paper when I was auditing a class by Sam Waldron on this subject that ended up being 60 pages long, and it was called the antecedents to regeneration, conviction of sin, seeking, awakening, and so on, and the charge of preparationism in Reform preaching from the Puritans to the present. And by the present, I aim to get as far as David Martin Lloyd-Jones, but as I had told you before, I probably bit off more than I was able to communicate, helpfully. And I've been able to study a lot since then, but one of the first works that I had come across. Lloyd-Jones has numerous books that are his commentary on Romans. And I had told you that Lloyd-Jones was so much my spiritual father. But there is a couple of his comments in Romans that I don't agree with, and this was one. And the commentary was specifically on Romans 7, and it was called, The Law, Its Limits and Functions. And in Romans 7, 14-25, that which I would, I do not. I am carnal, sold under sin. Oh, wretched man that I am, and so on. Lloyd-Jones took that to be a person who was under this awakening. He wasn't yet converted. He wasn't yet unregenerate, but he was awakened, he was seeking. And I just reject that, and all sound scholars do. And I reject it for just one part of that context, and that is, Paul said, I delight in the law of God after the inward man. And this is the same type of language that David employs, and we happen to be listening to it on the way to church in Psalm 119, you know, about Him being inclined to his testimonies, loving his law, and so on. Well, that cannot possibly be the case with a heart to distill an enmity against God, Romans 8, 7. How can someone who is still hostile to God because he hasn't been born again delight in his law after the inward man? It's an impossibility. But what was interesting in that book, and that's what got me started on this pilgrimage of studying these things, was the appendix by William Perkins, one of the early Puritans, in fact he died in 1602. I put the date here, this is 1592. Now where the mistake is in talking about the Puritans, a lot of people think that the Puritans are detailing what has to manifest itself in your conviction or your conversion as suspect. And I don't think that's the case of what's going on here at all. What he is doing is talking about God's normal way when a person is from a state of being totally insensible, totally obdurate, to being convicted prior to coming to Christ, and they were. so analytical that they would lay these things out in steps. And Perkins said, in the work effecting of man's salvation, ordinarily there are two special actions of God. The giving of the first grace, and after that the giving of the second The former of these two works has ten actions, and I'm just going to read the first four. Number one, God gives man the outward means of salvation, especially the ministry of the Word, and with it he sends some outward and inward cross to break and subdue the stubbornness of our nature, that it may be made pliable to the will of God. In Spurgeon's case, he said that was the Ten Commandments, that was the plow that was crossing his heart one way and then crossing it again the other way. This we may see, Perkins says, in the example of the jailer in Acts 16. And of the Jews that were converted at Peter's sermon, it says that they were cut to the heart. I believe the Greek actually means their hearts were sawn asunder. That's how deep the conviction was. Number two, this done, God brings the mind of man to consideration of the law, moral law, and therein generally to see what is good and what is evil, what is sin and what is not sin. Number three, upon a serious consideration of the law, he makes a man particularly to see and know his sin, peculiar or improper sins in which he offends God. Number four, upon the site of his sin, he strikes the heart with a legal fear. Illegal fear is not an evangelical fear that is a result of the new birth. It's that same fear that every man is going to have when he stands, if he is unconverted, before Christ in judgment. Illegal fear. Whereby a man sees his sin, he makes into fear punishment, and hell into despair of salvation. He despairs of salvation as regards anything in him. And so he knows, he's beginning to see that he has to look outside of himself to another. So back to our text, Christian, but what was the cause of your stubborn resistance to these first workings of God's blessed Spirit upon you? It was more than one cause, Hopeful said. First of all, I was ignorant that this was the work of God upon me. I never understood that God begins a conversion with a sinner by using awakenings towards sin. Second, sin was still very sweet to my flesh and I was very reluctant to let go of it. I think there's a, I don't remember where it is, about rolling the sweet morsel under our tongues in the Old Testament, and I can't remember the reference. Thirdly, I didn't know how to part with my old friends because their friendship and lifestyle were still desirable to me. And lastly, the times in which convictions grasped me were so troublesome and fearful to my heart that I could not endure them, or even the mere remembrance of them. Quoting again Cottage Lectures, the pains of conviction were so painful that he would gladly escape them by any means. For these reasons he has sought a little relief wherever he could, but again and again his distress had returned upon him. When Christian inquired what it was especially that had brought his sins again to mind, very affecting was the reply, the sight of a good man in the street, the sight of a good man in the street, the feeling of bodily pain, the sound of the tolling bell. Remember the phrase, the play, The movie for whom the bell tolls. The bell would toll when anybody had died. Hearing of a sudden death or the thought of dying and coming to judgment himself. Any one of these was sufficient to give him the alarm and recall his distress. Upon these occasions he had great difficulty in removing the uneasiness that weighed upon his conscience. He thought that he must mend his life or else perish forever. And did he endeavor to amend? Yes, truly. He fled from his sin and sinful company and betook to religious duties. for a while began to think well of himself, but all would not do. Iniquities still prevailed against him, and troubles and distress increased upon him." So Christian asked, at any time could you easily be relieved of the guilt of sin when it confronted you by any of these ways? Christian wanted to know. No, not recently anyway, for they grabbed hold of my conscience and If I even thought of going back to sin, though my mind was in opposition to it, it resulted in double torment to me. And what did you think of doing?" Hopeful said, I decided I must make every effort to fix and improve my life or else I thought I was sure to be damned. And did you actually follow through on this resolve and try to improve your ways? Yes, Hopeful said quite enthusiastically. And I fled from not only my sins, but sinful company too. Plus, I devoted myself to religious duties such as praying, reading the Bible, weeping for my sins, speaking the truth to my neighbors, and more. I was involved with so many of these types of activities that they are too numerous to mention. Archibald Alexander This quote has been with me since 1984. I cannot tell you how many times I've read this to instruct me about what's going on. When the entrance of gospel light, when the entrance of light is gradual, the first effect of an awakened conscience is to attempt to rectify what now appears to have been wrong in the conduct. It is very common for the conscience at first to be affected with outward acts of transgression, and especially with some one prominent offense, one particular sin. An external reformation has now begun, for this can be effected by mere legal conviction. Remember, William Perkins used the phrase, he strikes the heart with a legal fear. This has added an attention to the external duties of religion, such as prayer, reading the Bible, hearing the word, and so on. Everything, however, is done with a legal spirit, that is, with a wish and expectation of making amends for past offenses. And if painful penances should be prescribed to the sinner, he will readily submit to them, if he may by this means make some atonement for his sins. But as the gospel light increases, he begins to see that his heart is wicked, and to be convinced that his very prayers are polluted for lack of right motives and affections. He of course tries to regulate his thoughts and to exercise right affections, but here his efforts prove fruitless. It is much easier to reform the life than to bring the corrupt heart into a right state." And did you think all was well then, and what, and that you were better off because of this religious involvement?" Christian asked. Hopeful shrugged, yes, for a while, but eventually greater trouble overwhelmed me again. It reached a whole new level that rose above that of all my reformations. How could that possibly have come about since you had reformed your ways and improved your life? One of the most interesting conversion stories that I came across very early on, I also believe 1984, early in 1985 was the conversion of David Brainerd, the missionary to the Indians, who went through an extensive time of awakening before he got relief, and he said, though hundreds of times I renounced all pretenses of any worth in my duties, as I thought, even while performing them, and often confessed to God that I deserved nothing for the very best of them, But eternal condemnation, yet still I had a secret hope of recommending myself to God by my religious duties. When I prayed affectionately and my heart seemed in some measure to melt, I hoped God would by this be moved to pity me. My prayers then looked with some appearance of goodness in them, and I seemed to mourn for sin. I seemed to mourn for sin. And then I could, in some measure, venture on the mercy of God and Christ, as I thought, through the preponderating thought, the foundation of my hope, with some imagination of goodness in my heart meltings, flowing of affections and duty, extraordinary enlargements, and so on. Though at times the gate appeared to be so very straight that it looked next to impossible to enter, yet at other times I flattered myself that it was not so very difficult, and hoped I should by diligence and watchfulness soon gain the point." Well, why is God allowing him to go through this? I believe David Brainerd knew the gospel. I believe he knew it is his immediate duty to repent and believe the gospel. But God allows sometimes people to struggle in their own strength because what they don't know is their innate tendency to self-righteousness. So he allows the awakened sinner to go through this for sometimes an extended time, in the case of Spurgeon and Owen, so that they could see more deeply their utter inability, as it says in our confession, in the Westminster Confession, chapter 9, verse 3, under free will, that they cannot prepare themselves thereunto. But they don't know this by nature. Sometimes it needs to be taught to them, and sometimes God allows some people to go through this, because He means to use them greatly later on after their conversion. Hopeful says, another thing that troubled me was that even in my latest efforts to change, Hopeful paused, searching for the right words. When I took a closer look at the best of what I do now, I still see sin, new sin, which mixes itself with the best of what I do now. And I am forced to conclude that in my former fond conceits regarding myself and the debt I owe, I committed enough sin in one day to send me to hell, even if all the rest of my former life had been faultless. And what did you do then? What did I do?" Hopeful's voice raised. I was at a loss as to what to do. I had no idea which way to turn until I shared my troubled thoughts with Faithful. So he's going to go to a Christian brother and ask, this is what's going on with me. Can you shed any light on this? For he and I were well acquainted. He told me that unless I could obtain the righteousness of a man that had never sinned, then neither my own righteousness nor all the world could save me." Jonathan Edwards, a narrative of many surprising conversions, this is about 1735, which means this is written by a pastor of 32, but there's so much in here that is profound. His understanding of what was going on during this revival, he says, Many times persons under great awakenings were concerned because they thought they were not awakened but miserable, hard-hearted, senseless, soddish creatures still and sleeping upon the brink of hell. The sense of the need they have to be awakened and of their comparative hardness grows upon them with their awakening. so that they seem to themselves to be very senseless when indeed they are most sensible. There have been some instances of persons who have had as great a sense of their danger and misery as their natures could well subsist under. In other words, it would do physical damage if they stayed in that kind of conviction, legal conviction. so that a little more would probably have destroyed them, and yet they have expressed themselves much amazed at their own insensibility and sottishness at such an extraordinary time." Hofel said to Christian, what did I do? Hofel's voice raised. I was at a loss as what to do. I had no idea which way to turn until I shared my troubled thoughts with faithful, for he and I were well acquainted, and so on. I offered my objections as to why I should not believe because I thought this Christ was not willing to save me. Self-righteousness, he's not gotten to the end of his own legal striving. Christ is willing to save others. I'm too bad for him to save. Jonathan Edwards says, The corruption of the heart has discovered itself in various exercises in the time of legal convictions. Sometimes it appears in a great struggle, like something roused by an enemy, and Satan, the old inhabitant, seems to exert himself like a serpent, disturbed and enraged. Many of such circumstances have felt a great spirit of envy towards the godly. They envy them. These people already have received mercy. And God doesn't seem to hear my prayers. He says, themselves in particular. When they begin to seek salvation, they are commonly profoundly ignorant of themselves. They are not sensible how blind they are and how little they can do towards bringing themselves to see spiritual things right and towards putting forth gracious exercises in their own souls." Cottage Lectures. Hopeful had many scruples and many objections before he could avail himself of this wonderful and gracious plan of salvation. but he had a wise advisor and faithful who well replied to his objections. Moreover, he set before him the free promises and the gracious invitations of the gospel, and earnestly he sought him to apply to Christ in heartfelt prayer and to cast himself unreservedly upon what he had done, Christ had done, for the salvation of sinners." Trisha next inquired, and did you do exactly as you were told? Hopeful's head bobbed earnestly. Oh, yes? Over? and over and over. And did the Father reveal the Son to you? Christian asked. Hopeful's faith grew thoughtful. Not the first time, nor the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, nor the fifth, nor even the sixth occasion either. What did you do then? Well, I didn't know what to do, Christian. Christian asked him then, did you ever have thoughts of giving up on praying? Yes, at least a hundred times, and then another hundred. And what was the reason you did not give up?" Christian prodded. Hopeful shrugged. I believe what he had told me was true. That is, that without the righteousness of this Christ, all the world could not save me. Therefore, I thought to myself, if I stop praying, then I die. And I can only die at the throne of grace. And in addition to this came the thought that if it delays, then wait for it, because it will certainly come and will not delay. Quoting Habakkuk 2 verse 3, For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come. Wait for it. So I continued praying until the Father showed me His Son. and how was he revealed to you? I did not see him with my physical eyes, but rather with the eyes of my understanding." So, the question again is, why the delay? And we have to distinguish the knowledge that Christ is our righteousness for justification, and they are aware of that. But what they aren't aware of is their innate inability to come to Him in faith. Faith is a gift of God. And sometimes God is pleased to show people what they are by nature, so that when Christ is revealed to them, Ephesians 1.18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. They prize him the more because he that is forgiven much, loves much. He prizes it. He sees it in me. And this is talking about unregenerate. I'm not applying Romans 7.14-25 to this situation. There is nothing that I can bring forward to assist me in my conversion. Notice, Hopeful said that he applied to Christ over and over. Why is it that he is not granted saving faith at once? Archibald Alexander answers this, quote, God deals with man as an accountable moral agent, and before he rescues him from the ruin into which he is sunk, he will let him see and feel in some measure how wretched his condition is, how helpless he is in himself, and how ineffectual are his most strenuous efforts to deliver himself from his sin and misery. He is therefore permitted, he is allowed to try his own wisdom and strength. Now I haven't defined for you the term preparationism, because here's a good place to define it as it's misinterpreted. Some people held that the Puritans thought that there was a certain thing that they called the law work, this whole process that you had to go through And when you've gone through it, now you are prepared to receive Christ, to embrace him. And I only know of a couple of Puritans who made statements that were to that effect, and they were the New England Puritans, probably Thomas Hooker and Thomas Shepard. But what the preparation is, is what God is doing to empty a person of his self-righteousness, that he comes to Christ with an empty hand and receives him poor in spirit. Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. But in some cases, a person goes through this for a while. We don't understand how self-righteous we are by nature. So finally God designs to lead him to the full acknowledgement of his own guilt and to justify the righteous judge who condemns him to everlasting torment. Conviction then is no part of a sinner's salvation, but to clear practical knowledge of the fact that he cannot save himself and is entirely dependent on the saving grace of God." So David Brainerd's testimony again, another thing was that I could not find out what faith was, or what it was to believe. and come to Christ. I read the calls of Christ to the weary and heavy laden, but could find no way that he directed them to come in. I thought I would gladly come if I knew how, though the paths of duty were never so difficult." Now, if you remember, in the case of Christian, he falls into the slough of despond. And there's a statement in there that is very, very interesting, that when help pulls him out, and Christian inquires, you know, what is this? What have I gone through? Why is there a slough of despond? And help says that cartloads of instructions have been poured in here. Millions and millions of instructions, and yet it is a slough of despond still. Now Brainers is about to quote from one such book, A Guide to Christ by Solomon Stoddard, the grandfather of Jonathan Edwards. But there are so many, and in the last 30 years, I cannot tell you how many of these I've read, I've narrated. The Anxious Inquirer, John Angel James, 1832, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul by Philip Doddridge, which was used in the conversion of William Wilberforce, and on and on and on. But until God enlightens the eyes of the understanding to seek Christ in faith, Faith is a gift of God. No matter how many of these things that they read, these books cannot give you saving faith. They can direct you. But listen to what Brainerd says, I read Mr. Stoddard's Guide to Christ, which I trust was, in the hand of God, the happy means of my conversion. And my heart rose against the author. He was angry at the author, who had long been deceased. For though he told me my very heart all along under convictions, and seemed to be very beneficial to me in his directions, yet here he failed. He did not tell me anything I could do that would bring me to Christ, but left me, as it were, with a great gulf between, without any direction to get through. For I was not yet effectually and experimentally taught. that there could be no way prescribed in which a natural man could, of his own strength, obtain that which is supernatural and which the highest angel cannot give. But after a considerable time spent in such like exercises and distresses, one morning, while I was walking in a solitary place as usual, I at once saw that all my contrivances and projects to effect or procure deliverance and salvation for myself were utterly in vain. I was brought quite to a stand, as finding myself totally lost. I had thought many times before that the difficulties in my way were very great, but now I saw in another and very different light that it was forever impossible for me to do anything towards helping or delivering myself. I then thought of blaming myself that I had not done more and been more engaged while I had opportunity, for it seemed now as if the season of doing was forever over and gone. But instantly I saw that let me have done what I would, it would no more have tended to my helping myself than what I had done, that I had made all the pleas I ever could have made to all eternity, and that all my pleas were vain. The tumult that had been before in my mind was now quieted, and I was something eased of that distress which I felt, while struggling against the sight of myself and of the divine sovereignty. I had the greatest certainty that my state was forever miserable. for all that I could do and wondered that I'd never before been sensible of it before. Jonathan Edwards says, whatever pastor has a like occasion to deal with such souls, if you have to counsel these people. A couple of months ago, three months ago, I was interviewed on Iron Sharpens Iron, and my first topic, the second was the Second Great Awakening and revivals prior to Charles Finney, but the first was counseling this awakened sinner. And this stuff has been written on for 400 years in great detail, and yet what I'm telling you, a lot of people never read this stuff. But it is so interesting to me. He says, I cannot but think he will, the pastor, find himself under a necessity greatly to insist upon it with the awakened that God is under no manner of obligation to show mercy to any natural man whose heart is not turned to God. that a man can challenge nothing either in absolute justice or by free promise from anything he does before he has believed on Jesus Christ or has true repentance begun in him. It appears to me that if I taught those who came to me under trouble any other doctrine, I should have taken a most direct course utterly to undo them." Differences in persons experience a moment of their conversion. Our conversions are so very various. And some of the truth and certainty of the gospel in general is the first joyful discovery they have, and others a certain truth of some particular promises, and some the great grace and sincerity of God and his invitations, very commonly in some particular invitation in the mind, And it now appears real to them that God does indeed invite them. Some are struck with the glory and wonderfulness of the dying love of Christ, and some with the sufficiency and preciousness of His blood, is offered to make an atonement for sin, and others with the value and glory of His obedience and righteousness. In some, the excellency and loveliness of Christ chiefly engages their thoughts. In some, His divinity, that He is indeed the Son of the living God, and in others, the excellency of the way of salvation by Christ, and the suitableness of it to their necessities." Well, how would Edwards know this? During the Great Awakening, and this was the first revival, this was years before he even preached his sermon at Enfield, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, but he had brought in to his office as many as 300 people that he counseled and drew them out to find out what was going on. And he says, I have to confess that Christ is not always distinctly and explicitly thought of in the first sensible act of grace, though most commonly he is, but sometimes he is the object of the mind only implicitly. Thus, sometimes when persons have seemed evidently to be stripped of all their own righteousness, and to have stood self-condemned as guilty of death, they have been comforted with a joyful and satisfying view that the mercy and grace of God is sufficient for them, that their sins, though never so great, shall be no hindrance to their being accepted, that there is mercy enough in God for the whole world, and alike when they give no account of any particular or distinct thought of Christ. But yet, when the account they give is duly weighed, and they are a little interrogated about it, it appears that the revelation of mercy in the gospel is the ground of their encouragement and hope, and that it is indeed the mercy of God through Christ that is discovered in them. and that it is depended on in him and not in any wise move by anything in them." So, to go back to William Perkins and the actions of grace. The fifth action of grace, therefore, is to stir up the mind to serious consideration of the promise of salvation propounded and published in the gospel. After this, to kindle in the heart some sense of the sparks of faith that is a will and a desire to believe and grace to strive against doubting and despair. Now in the same instant when God begins to kindle in the heart, any sparks of faith, then also he justifies a sinner, and with this begins the work of sanctification. Notice, even in a spark of faith, when that faith is given of God, it is effectual, and immediately the sinner is justified. Then so soon as faith is put into the heart, there is presently a combat. So there may be a combat going on, even though he's been brought from death unto life, he's still fighting with doubting and despair and distrust. And in this combat, faith shows itself by fervent constant and earnest invocation for pardon, and after invocation or prayer, follows the strength and prevailing of this desire. Furthermore, God in mercy quiets and unsettles the raging conscience, quiets it down, as touching the salvation of the soul and the promise of life in which he rests and stays upon him. Next, after this settled assurance and persuasion of mercy, falls a storing up of the heart to evangelical sorrow, not legal sorrow, not legal fear, according to God. That is a grief for sin because it is sin and because God is offended. And then the Lord works repentance in which the sanctified heart turns itself on him. And though this repentance be one of the last in order, yet it didn't itself. First is when a candle is brought into our room. He's saying, you may see the light of the candle before you actually see the candle, and the candle must needs be before the light can be. So there is, when we talk about faith and repentance, We don't talk about the chronological order because they happen at the same time, we talk about the logical order. But all of these things are the immediate effect of regeneration, God changing the governing disposition of the soul. And did the Father reveal the Son to you? Christian asked. Hopeful's face grew thoughtful. Not the first, nor the second, nor the third, nor the fourth, nor the fifth, and so on. I want to emphasize this here. Did you ever have thoughts of giving up on praying? Yes, at least a hundred times, and then another hundred. You ever heard a verse in Gospels, the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence? and violent men take it by force. In the prayer of Jacob in the Old Testament, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And the verse, if any man draws back my heart shall have no pleasure in it." And what is being communicated here is hopeful did not get the desire of his heart at first. He refused to give up. He cried, he prayed, he pleaded. Well, where does that cry, where does that supplication come from? That's already the Holy Spirit. working in the inner man to call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. And so he would not be turned away. I will not let you go unless you bless me. So I continued praying until the Father showed me a son. And how was he revealed to you? Not by my physical eyes, but the eyes of my understanding. Cottage Lectures. Christians then asked how at length Christ was revealed to him and deeply affecting as well as very scriptural was the reply of Hopeful. It was by no voice or vision but by the opening of the eyes of his understanding and the apprehension of Christ by faith that Hopeful at length found peace and rest to his soul. One day, as he was very sad, and the remembrance of his sin sat heavily upon him, and he was looking for eternal damnation, he thought of the glorious Redeemer, saying to him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. When he objected the greatness of his sin, the cheering assurance was given, My grace is sufficient for you. When he asked what it was to believe, he was made to understand that coming and believing are all one, and that whoever ran out in his heart in affection to Christ and rested on Him for salvation did really believe on Him. Then did the water stand in hopeful's eyes, and he asked again if indeed such a wretched sinner as himself would be accepted. The gracious reply was given, Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast. So Samuel Davies, one of the early presidents of Princeton, or the College of New Jersey, was a great preacher. Lloyd-Jones believed he was second only to Whitefield. He called him the greatest preacher America had ever produced, but he died at the age of 36. But his exhortations were so powerful. Men say to us, you teach us that faith is a gift of God and that we cannot believe of ourselves, and why do you exhort us to it? How can we be concerned to endeavor that which is impossible for us to do? In answer to this, I grant that the premises are true and that God forbid that I should so much as intimate the faith as a spontaneous growth. of corrupt nature that you can come to Christ without the Father's drawing you. But the conclusions you draw from these premises are very erroneous. I exhort and persuade you to believe in Jesus Christ, because it is while such means as preached in the Gospel are used with sinners, and by the use of them that it pleases God to enable you to comply and to work faith in you. I would therefore use those means which God is pleased to bless to this end. I exhort you to believe, in order to set you upon the trial to believe. For it is putting to trial and that only which can fully convince you of your own inability to believe. Until you are convinced of this, you can never expect strength from God." William Sprague was a Presbyterian pastor and wrote at the same time as John Angel James, and this is from about 1832, chapter 6, treatment due to the Wiccan sinners. He says, suppose a sinner says that though he is aware that his case is as bad as you represent it, yet he can do nothing to render it any better. and therefore must be contended to remain where he is. You are to endeavor in the first place to convince him by a direct appeal to his conscience that the inability under which he labors is nothing more than a settled aversion of the heart from God, and therefore is entirely without excuse. Let him see that he has all the powers of the moral agent, that he has a conscience to distinguish between right and wrong, and a will by which he may choose one and refuse the other. Let him see that in withholding his heart from God, he is as free as in any other course of action, and therefore blameworthy, and therefore condemned in the plea which he sets up for doing nothing. But let it be admitted, as it certainly must be, that every sinner, if left to himself, will perish. that though the inability is of a guilty sort, yet it really does prevail. Still, you are to show the awakened sinner that this is nothing to him in the way of discouragement, for he is not left to himself. The Holy Spirit has already come to his aid, and is offering not only to convince him of his guilt, but to renew him to repentance. What if it be true that by his unassisted powers he will never enter in at the straight gate? Yet so long as the almighty energy of divine grace is actually proffered to his assistant, how can he stand still on a plea of inability?" Why is that applicable to people that are growing up in Grand Rapids that know anything of the history of this city? Because I had already mentioned in the early Netherlands Reformed churches, these people were thrown upon themselves and they're waiting for something to zap them, to get them out of this state of lethargy, and so on. And the one thing that I find here is an exhortation to press into the kingdom that God will open the eyes of your understanding and grant you faith in the use of means. Do not let him go until he blesses you. That's what we tell the unconverted. Virgin had a sermon called The doctrine of election is no discouragement to seeking souls. The very fact that they will not let him go until he grants this saving faith is proof that the Holy Spirit is already given him, working with him, and enabling him to come. So, I don't know if I stirred up any questions, because a lot of this part of the conviction of sin and antecedents to the new birth is hardly even mentioned in our day. Next week we're going to discuss ignorance. I've decided not to, you know, there's so much that could be said on this, but I think that you understand, I hope, that I've communicated it God was showing hopeful his innate ability and self-righteousness by nature, and though he called a first, a second, a third, a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth time, and he was ready to leap off in despair, and sometimes he said, I don't know what to do. Yet he knew that you and you alone have the words of eternal life. I dare not despair and despond and go back. I will press in." And God granted him the desire of his heart. So with that, I'll close that. Father, thank you for granting us a seeing eye, hearing ear, and though it's probably true that many in this room didn't have these kind of struggles prior to their conversion, some have, many have, and we want to be able to assist them. But the last thing we ever want to do is throw them upon their own selves, so they're looking for that in themselves, which they can only find in Christ. I think of the words in Mark 4, blessed are your eyes for they see in your ears. Are they here? Thank you for drawing us. Thank you for the promise that Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Help us now to prepare our hearts for the morning service. In Jesus' name, Amen.