Good morning. It is the 21st of November, the year 2020. It is 10 minutes after 10, Central Standard Time in the United States, and we're going to continue this morning in The Almost Christian Discovered, or The False Professor Tried and Cast, by Matthew Mead, and this will be part six of We move on to the second question. Why or whence is it that many men go so far as that they come to be almost Christians? Well, first, it may be to answer the call of conscience. Though few men have grace, yet all men have conscience. Now, do but observe, and you shall see how far conscience may go in this work. conscience owns a God, and that this God must be worshipped and served by the creature. Atheists in practice we have many, such as the Apostle speaks of. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. But atheists in judgment none can be. Tully, a heathen, could say, Nola gens tom barbara, etc. Now, there being such a light in conscience as to discover that there is a God, and that he must be worshipped by the help of farther light, the light of the word, a man may be enabled to do much in the ways of God, and yet his heart, without a dram, or gram, of grace. 2. Know this, that natural conscience is capable of great improvements from the means of grace. That is, sitting under the ordinances may exceedingly heighten the endowments of conscience, though they do not sanctify conscience. It may be much regulated, though be not all renewed. It may be enlightened, convinced, and yet never savingly converted and changed. You read in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 4, of some that were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost. What work shall we call this? It could not be a saving work, a true change and conversion of state, for notwithstanding this enlightening, and tasting, and partaking, yet they are here said to fall away." This is verse 6. Had it been a true work of grace, they could never have fallen away from that. A believer may fall, but he cannot fall away. He may fall foully, but he cannot fall finally. for underneath are the everlasting arms. His faith is established in the strength of that prayer of Christ, that our faith fail not. Nay, he tells us expressly that it is eternal life which he gives, from which we shall never perish. Now this work here then spoken of cannot be any saving work. because it is not an abiding work, for they that are under it are said to fall away from it. But though it be not a saving work, yet it is a supernatural work. It is an improvement made by the word upon the consciences of men through the power of the Spirit, and therefore they are said to taste the good word of God and be made partakers of the Holy Ghost. They have not the spirit abiding in them savingly, but striving with them and working upon them convincingly, to the awakening and setting conscience on work. And conscience, thus stirred, may carry a man very far in religion and in the duties of the gospel, and yet be but a natural conscience. A common work of the spirit, may stead a man very much in the duties of religion, though it must be a special work of the Spirit that steds a man to salvation. A man may have the assisting presence of the Spirit, enabling him to preach and pray, and yet he may perish for lack of the renewing presence of the Spirit, enabling him to believe. Now Judas had the former, and yet perished for lack of the latter. He had the spirit assisting him to cast out devils, but yet he had not the spirit renewing him, for he was cast out himself. Thus a man may have an improved conscience, and yet be a stranger to a renewed conscience. And conscience thus improved may put a man very much upon duty. I pray God none of us mistake a conscience thus improved by the word for a conscience renewed by the Spirit. The mistake is very easy, especially when a life of duties is the fruit of it. Number three, the conscience of a natural man is subject to distress and trouble. Though a natural conscience is not sanctified with grace, yet it is often troubled at sin. Trouble of conscience is not incident to believers only, but sometimes to unbelievers as well. A believer's conscience is sometimes troubled when his sin is truly pardoned, and a natural man's conscience is troubled for sin, though it is never freed from sin. God sometimes set the word home upon the sinner's conscience and applies the terrors of the law to it, and this fills the soul with fear and horror of death and hell. Now in this case, the soul usually betakes itself to a life of duties, merely to fence trouble out of conscience. When Absalom sets on fire Joab's cornfields, then he runs to him, though he refused before. So when God lets a spark of hell, as it were, fall upon the sinner's conscience, in applying the terrors of the word, this drives the sinner to a life of duties which he never minded before. And now the ground of many a man's engaging in religion the trouble of his conscience and the end of his continuing in religion is the quieting of conscience. If conscience would never check him, God should never hear from him. Now, natural conscience has a voice and speaks aloud many times in the sinner's ears and tells him that this ought not to be done. God must not be forgotten. The commands of God ought not to be slighted. Living in sin will be the ruin of the soul. And hence it is that a natural man runs to duties and takes up a lifeless and graceless profession that he may thereby silence his conscience or her conscience. As a man sick in his stomach, whatever a sweet morsel he hath eaten, he brings up all. In other words, he throws it up. And although it was sweet in the eating, yet it is bitter in the rising. And so it fareth with the sinner when he is sermon sick or conscience sick. Though his sin was sweet in the practice, yet the thought of it riseth bitter upon the conscience. And then his profession of religion is the pill that he rolls about in his mouth to take away the bitterness and the taste of sin. 4. Natural conscience, enlightened by the word, may discover to a man much of the misery of his natural state, though not effectually to bring him out of it, yet so as to make him restless and weary in it. It may show a sinner his nakedness, and thereupon the soul runneth to a life of duties. thinking here by to stead the miseries of his case and to make a covering for his nakedness. Now it is said that when Adam and Eve saw that they were naked they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves a covering. So when once the sinner sees his nakedness and vileness by reason of sin whereas he should run to Christ and close with him and beg his righteousness for a covering that the shame of his nakedness does not appear. He rather runs to a life of duties and performances and thus makes himself a covering with the fig leaves of a profession without Christ truly embraced and conscience at all renewed. Natural man would feign be his own Savior and supposeth a change of state to be a thing within his power, a decision of the will, and that the true work of grace lies in leaving off the practice of sin and taking up a life of duties. And therefore, upon this principle, doth many a graceful professor outstrip a sound believer, for he resisteth in his own performances, and hopeth these will commend him to God." Now, we come to a question. If a natural conscience may go thus far, then what difference is there between this natural conscience in hypocrites and sinners, and a renewed conscience in believers? Or, how may I know whether the working of my conscience be the working of nature only, or else of grace wrought in it? Then, here meet answers. I grant that it is difficult to distinguish between the one and the other. And the difficulty here has a two-fold rise. Number one, it arises from that hypocrisy that is in the best of saints. The weakest believer is no hypocrite, but yet there is some hypocrisy in the strongest believer. Where there is most grace, there is some sin. and where there is most sincerity, yet there is some hypocrisy. Now, it is very incident to a tender conscience to misgive and mistrust its state upon the side of any sin. When he sees hypocrisy breaking out in any duty or performance, well then he complains, surely my aims are not sincere. My conscience is not renewed, it is but natural conscience enlightened, not by grace purged and changed. Number two, it arises from that resemblance that there is between grace and hypocrisy. For hypocrisy is a resemblance of grace without substance, likeness of grace without the life of grace. there is no grace, but a hypocrite may have somewhat like it. And there is no duty done by a Christian, but a hypocrite may outstrip him in it. Now when one that hath not true grace shall go farther than one that hath, this may well make the believer question whether his grace be true or not, or whether the workings of his conscience be not the workings of nature only. But, to answer the question, you may make a judgment of this in these seven particulars. 1. If a natural man's conscience putth him upon duty, he doth usually bound himself in the work of God. His duties are limited. His obedience is a limited obedience. He does one duty and neglects another. He picks and chooses among the commands of God. He obeys one and slights another. And thus much is enough. What needs say any more? If I do thus and thus, I shall go to heaven at last. But now, where conscience is renewed by grace, there it is otherwise. Though there may be many weaknesses which accompany its duties, yet that soul never bounds itself in working after God. It never loves God so much, but still it would love Him more. Nor seeks Him so much, but still it would seek Him more. Nor does it serve God so well at any time, but it still makes conscience of serving Him better. A renewed conscience is a spring of universal obedience, for it seeth in infinite excellency, and goodness, and holiness in God, and therefore would fain have its vice rise up toward some proportionableness to the object. A God of infinite excellency and goodness should have infinite love, saith conscience. A holy God should have service from a holy heart, saith conscience. Now then, if I set boundaries to my love to God or my service to God, if I limit myself and my obedience to the holy God, that is to love one command and slight another, or obey in one point and yet lie cross in another, than is all I do but the working of a natural conscience. But on the other hand, if I love the Lord with my whole heart and whole soul and serve Him with all my might and strength, if I esteem all God's precepts concerning all things to be right and have respect to all His commands, then is my love and service from a renewed conscience. 2. If a natural man's conscience check or accuse for sin, then he seeketh to stop the mouth of it, but not to satisfy it. Most of the natural man's duties are to still and stifle conscience. But now the believer chooseth rather to let conscience cry than to stop the mouth of it, until he can do it upon good terms, until he can fetch insatisfaction to it from the blood of Jesus Christ by fresh acts of faith apprehended and applied. The natural man seeketh to still the noise of conscience rather than to remove the guilt. The believer seeketh the removal of guilt by the application of Christ's blood, and then conscience is quiet of itself. As a foolish man, having a moat fallen into his eye, and making it water, he wipeth away the water and labors to keep it dry, but never searches his eye to get out the moat. But a wise man mindeth not so much the wiping as the searching of his eye. Somewhat is God in, and that causes the watering, and therefore the cause must be removed. Now then, if when conscience accuses for sin, I take up a life of duties or a form of godliness to stop the mouth of conscience, And if hereupon conscience be still and quiet, then this is but a natural conscience. But if when conscience checks it, will not be satisfied with anything but the blood of Christ, and therefore I use duties to bring me to Christ. And if I beg the sprinkling of his blood upon conscience, and labor not so much to stop the mouth of it as to remove guilt from it, then this is a renewed conscience. Number three, there is no natural man. Let him go never so far, let him do never so much in the matters of religion, but still he has his Delilah, that is his bosom lust. Judas went far, but he carried his covetousness along with him. Herod went far, but did many things under the force of John's ministry. But yet there was one thing he did not. He did not put away his brother's wife. His Herodias lay in his bosom still. Nay, commonly all the natural man's duties are to cover some sin. His profession is only made use of for a cover shame. But now the renewed conscience hates all sin, as David did. I hate every false way. He regardeth no iniquity in his heart. He uses duties not to cover his sin, but to help to work down, to work out the sin. Now then, if I profess religion, if I make mention of the name of the Lord, and make my boast of the law and yet through breaking the law dishonor God, if I live in the love of any sin and make use of my profession to cover it, then am I a hypocrite and my duties flow but from a natural conscience. But on the other hand, if I name the name of the Lord Jesus and with all depart from iniquity. If I use duties not to cover but to discover and mortify sin, then am I upright before God and my duties flow from a renewed conscience. Number four, a natural man prides himself in his duties. If he be much in duty, then he is much lifted up under duty. Well, so did the Pharisee. God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are. And why? Why does he do this? Where lays the difference? Why, I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all, etc. But now take a gracious heart. a renewed conscience, and when his duties are at highest, then his heart is at lowest. Thus it was with the Apostle Paul. He was much in service, in season and out of season, preaching up the Lord Jesus with all boldness and earnestness, and yet very humble in a sense of his own unworthiness under all. I am not worthy to be called an apostle. To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And again, of sinners I am chief. Thus a believer, when he is highest in duties, then he is lowest in humility. Duty puffs up the hypocrite, but a believer comes away humble. And why? Well because the hypocrite has no visions of God. He has seen only his own gifts and parts and this exalts him. But the believer has seen God and enjoyed communion with God and this humbles him. Communion with God, though it be very refreshing, yet it is also very abasing and humbling to the creature. Now these are the differences that Mead is pointing out between the real Christian, the true Christian, and the hypocrite. Okay? Hiram observes in Zechariah, Zechariah chapter 1 verse 1, where it is said that Hushai was the son of Gedaliah, the son of Amariah, and that Amariah signifies the word of the Lord. Gedaliah signifies the greatness of the Lord, and Cushi is interpreted humility, or my Ethiopian. So that, saith he, from the word of the Lord cometh a sight of the greatness of the Lord, and from a sight of the greatness of the Lord comes humility. Now then, if I pride myself in any duty and then puffed up under my performances, then have I not seen nor met with God in any duty. But on the other hand, if when my gifts are at the highest, then my heart is at the lowest, if when my spirit is most raised, my heart then most humbled, if in the midst of all my services I can maintain a sense of my own unworthiness, If Hushai be the son of Gedaliah, then have I seen and had communion with God, and my performances are from a renewed conscience. Number five, look what that is to which the heart doth secretly render the glory of duty, and that is the principle of the duty. In Habakkuk chapter 1, 16, We read of them that sacrificed to their net and burned incense to their drag, where the glory of an action is rendered to a man's self. The principle of that action is self. All rivers run into the sea. That is an argument that they came from the sea. So when all a man's duties terminate in self, then is self the principle of all. Now all the natural man's duties run into himself. He was never by a thorough work of grace truly cast out of himself and brought to deny himself. Therefore he can rise no higher than himself in everything he does. That's everything. He does it for his own benefit. He, for example, and this is just me talking. I'm not reading the book. It's like a good example is a person who follows after Christ because he's afraid to go to hell instead of following after Christ because he knows he's ruined in sin and that he's offended God. Okay, continuing. He was never brought to be poor in spirit and so to live upon another. to be carried out of all duties to Jesus Christ. But the believer giveth the glory of all his services to God, whatever strength or life there is in duty. God has all the glory, for he is by grace outed of himself, and therefore sees no excellence or worthiness in his own body, in himself or herself. I labored more abundantly than they all, saith the Apostle. But to whom doth he ascribe the glory of this? Does he ascribe it to himself? Not a chance. Yet not I, saith he, but the grace of God which was with me. Gives the glory to God, not himself. Whenever the grace of Christ is wrought in the heart as a principle of duty, you shall find this soul when it is most carried out with a yet not I in the mouth of it. I live, yet not I. I labored more abundantly than you all, yet not I. Self is disclaimed and Christ most advanced when it is from grace that the heart is quickened. Here's another example. The 24 elders cast their crowns at Christ's feet. It's a way of saying this crown is nothing. I take it off my head. I throw it away. Christ is all. It's not the reward that I'm after. It's the man that I'm after. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now there are two things very hard. One is to take the shame of our sins to ourselves and the other is to give the glory of our services to Christ. Now then, if I sacrifice to my own net, if I aim at my own credit or profit and give the glory of all I do to myself, then I do so to the flesh. and was never yet cast out of myself, but act only from a natural conscience. But if I give the glory of all my strength and life in duty only to God, if I magnify grace in all and can truly say in all I do, yet not I, then am I truly cast out of self. and do what I do with a renewed conscience. 6. Though a natural conscience may put a man upon much service, or put a man much upon service, yet it never presses to the attainment of holiness, so that he carries an unsanctified heart underneath all of it. How long was Judas a professor and not one gram of grace that he had gotten? The foolish virgins, you know, took their lamps but took no oil in their vessels. That is, they looked more after a profession than after sanctification. But now when a renewed conscience puts a man upon duty, it is succeeding. with the growth of holiness, as grace helps to the doing of duty, so duty helps to the growing of grace. A believer is the more holy and the more heavenly by his being much in duties. Now then, if I am much in a life of duties and yet a stranger to a life of holiness, If I maintain a high profession and yet have not a true work of sanctification, if, like children in the rickets, I grow big in the head but weak in the feet, then I have gifts and parts, but no grace. And though I am much in service, yet have I but a natural conscience. But on the other hand, If the holiness of my conversation carries a proportion to my profession, if I am not a hearer of the word only but a doer of it, if grace grows in seasons of duty, then do I act in the things of God from a renewed conscience. Number seven, and lastly, If a natural conscience be the spring of duty, why then this spring runs fastest at first, and so abateth, and at last dryeth up? But if a renewed conscience, a sanctified heart be the spring of duty, then this spring will never dry up. It will run always, from the first to the last, and run quicker at the last than at the first. I know thy works, and the last to be more than the first. The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger. Here comes a question. But you will say, Why doth that man abate and languish in his duties that doeth them from a natural conscience more than he that doeth them from a renewed conscience? Which is a great question. Well, here's the answer. The reason is because they grow upon a fallible root, a decaying root, and that is nature. Nature is a fading root and so are all its roots fading. But the duties done by a renewed conscience are fruits that grow upon a lasting root, and that root is the Lord Jesus Christ. Gifts have their root in nature, but grace hath its root in Christ. And therefore the weakest grace shall outlive the greatest gifts and parts. Because there is life in the root of the one and not in that of the other. Gifts and grace differ like the leather of your shoe and the skin of your foot. Take a pair of shoes that have the thickest soles and if you go much in them the leather wears out and in a little time a man's foot comes to the ground. But now a man that goes barefoot all his days, the skin of his feet does not wear out. Why should not the sole of his foot sooner wear out than the sole of his shoe? For the leather is much thicker than the skin. Well, the reason is because there is life in the one and not in the other. There is life in the skin of the foot and therefore that holdeth out and grows thicker and thicker. Another becomes calloused, harder and harder. But there is no life in the sole of his shoe. and therefore that wears out and grows thinner and thinner and so it is with gifts and grace. Now then, if I decay and abate and grow weary of a profession and fall away at last, if I begin in the spirit and end in the flesh, then was all that I did from a natural conscience. But if I grow and hold out, if I persevere to the end and my last works be more than my first, then I act from a renewed conscience. And thus I have in seven things answered that question, namely, If conscience may go thus far in putting a man upon duties, then what difference is there between this natural conscience in hypocrites and sinners and a renewed conscience in believers? And that's where I'm going to stop for today. I hope that all of you who are listening to this really take this stuff to heart. It's important that we think about these things. It's important that we are always in a state of examination of our own hearts and our own souls. We always have to make sure that these things that we're doing is out of love to Christ and not just to escape hell. The true Christian lives for Christ and not himself. The true Christian is always seeking to please God and not himself. And there are many other illustrations that I could give to this, but I think you guys who are listening are going to get the point. Take heed to what you do. Take even more heed to what you think. Try every spirit to make sure whether they are of God or not. Question your conscience to make sure that it is your conscience. and not a demon sitting on your shoulder whispering in your ear. You do these kind of things and you examine yourself thoroughly, you are sure to be on that narrow road which leads to life. Anyway, may the Lord Jesus Christ bless and preserve you all and have a good rest of your Sabbath. Good morning. It is the 5th of December. Time is now just after 11. Greenwich Mean Time. It is 5.05 a.m. Central Standard Time here in the United States. And we're going to pick up again today in the Almost Christian Discovered. I'm Matthew Mead. If I start to hit past an hour, 15 hour, 20 minutes, I'll probably stop. But in any event, it's my prayer that those of you who are listening to this would not take this as a dejection or something to keep you down, so to speak, to the point where you can't get up, but to take it into consideration. many in this day, in the 21st century, and as there were in times past, many who call themselves Christians, who think they're Christians, but yet are not. And that's been the purpose of Matthew Mead through all of this, is to put us on a firm road to examine ourselves. Now, I just recently reposted Jonathan Edwards' on self-examination and there are 76 questions in that which we should all be asking ourselves you know just to you know to make sure we can never be too sure as to whether we're walking in the faith or not Matthew Mead is doing the same thing here okay so to pick up where we left off I'm gonna re-read the last paragraph before we get started into the fresh material, and it was the answer to the main question, namely, how is it that many men go so far as that they come to be almost Christians? Well, it is to answer the call of conscience. Secondly, it is from the power of the Word under which they live. Though the Word does not work effectually upon everyone, Yet it does have a great power upon the hearts of sinners to reform them, though not to renew them. 1. It has a discerning, discovering power. The Word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. In other words, how light brings out the imperfections. Say, for example, on your windscreen in your automobile, where when it's dark, you can't really tell how messed up it is. But as soon as the sun hits it, you see how dirty it really is. As the light of the sun discovers the little moats, so does the light of the word shining into conscience discover little sins. Number two, the word has the power of a law. It gives law to the whole soul. It binds conscience. It is therefore frequently called the law in scripture. Unless thy law had been my delight, et cetera, to the law and to the testimony, And this is the spoken of the whole word of God, which is therefore called a law because of its binding power upon the conscience. Number three, it has a judging power. The word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day. The sentence that God will pass upon sinners here The judgment of God is not a day wherein God will pass any new sentence, but it is such a day wherein God will make a solemn, public ratification of the judgment passed by the ministry of the Word upon souls here on earth. This I gather clearly from Matthew 18. Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be found in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So that by bringing a man's heart to the word and trying it by that, he may quickly know what that sentence is that God will pass upon his soul in the last day. For as the judgment of the word day. Indeed, there is a two-fold power farther than this in the Word. It hath a begetting and a saving power, but this is put forth only upon some. But the other is more extensive and has a great causality upon a profession of goodness, even among them that have no grace. A man that is under this threefold power of discerning law and judgment that has his heart ransacked and discovered, his conscience bound and awed, his state and sinful condition judged and condemned, may take up a resolution of a new life and convert himself to a great profession of religion. A man may go far in this course of profession from affectation of applause and credit and to get a name in the world. The same thing is said of Pharisees, that they love to pray in the marketplaces and in the corners of the streets to be seen by men. Many are of a Machiavellian principle. that the appearance of virtue is to be sought, because though the use of it is a trouble, yet the credit of it is a help. Jerome, in his epistle to Julian, calls such the base bond-slaves of common fame. Many a man does that for credit, that he will not do for conscience, and owns religion more for the sake of lust than for the sake of Christ. thus making God's stream to turn the devil's mill. Fourthly, it is from a desire of salvation, and there is in all men a desire of salvation. It is natural to every being to love and seek its own preservation. Who will show us any good? Well, this is the language of nature, seeking happiness to itself. And many a man may be carried so far out in the desires of salvation as to do many things to obtain it. And so did the young man who said, Good master, what good things shall I do? and he went far and did much, obeying many commands, and all out of a desire of salvation. So then, put these together, and there is an answer to that question. The call of conscience, the power of the word, the affectation of credit, and the desire of salvation. These may carry a man so far as to be almost a Christian. The third question propounded is this. Third, how is it that many are but almost Christians when they've gone thus far? Well, what's the cause of this? And here's the answer. I might multiply answers to this question, but I shall instance in two only, which I judge the most material. First, it is for want of right and sound conviction could be lack of right and sound conviction. If a man be not thoroughly convinced of sin, and his heart truly broken, whatever his profession of godliness may be, yet he will surely miscarry. Every work of conviction is not a thorough work. There are convictions that are only natural and rational, but not from the powerful work of the Spirit of God. For example, and this is not me talking, it's me talking. For example, you get caught speeding. Well, you have a natural conviction of being sorry and repentant for the fact that you got caught, but not for the fact that you actually broke the law to begin with. Okay, continuing. A rational conviction. Rational conviction is that which proceeds from the working of a natural conscience charging guilt from the light of nature by the help of those common principles of reason that are in all men. And this is the conviction you read of in Romans chapter 2 verses 14 and 15. And it is said that the Gentiles who had not the law yet had their conscience bearing witness, and accusing or excusing one another. Though they had not the light of scripture, yet they had convictions from the light of nature. Now, by the help of the gospel light, these convictions may be much improved, and yet the heart not renewed. But then there is a spiritual conviction, and this is that work of the Spirit of God that heart by the Word, whereby the guilt and the filth of sin is fully discovered, and the woe and misery of a natural state distinctly set home upon the conscience, to the dread and terror of the sinner whilst he abides in that state and condition. Many have their convictions, but not this spiritual conviction. Question or Query Now you will say, suppose I am at any time under conviction, how shall I know whether my convictions be only from a natural conscience or whether they be from the Spirit of God? Well, here's your answer. I should digress too much to draw out the solution of length. I shall therefore in five things only lay down the most considerable difference between the one and the other. Number one. And I'm actually not going to read more than an hour of this because this is a lot to be able to consider. So anyway, continuing. Number one. Natural convictions. sins against the light of nature, for natural conviction can reach no farther than natural light. But spiritual conviction reaches to secret, inward, and undiscerned sins, such as hypocrisy, formality, lukewarmness, deadness, and hardness of heart, etc. Observe, then, whether your outward, and reaches not only to open sins, but to secret lusts, to inward and spiritual sins. And if so, this is a sure sign of the work of the Spirit, because the trouble occasioned by these sins bears a more immediate relation to the holiness of God, who only is offended by them. They being such In other words, he's saying, you know, it's a work of the Holy Spirit. Your conviction over sin is because it offends God and doesn't, I mean, it has nothing to do with anything else, but other than you are offending God and that alone should break you. Okay, number two, natural convictions deal only with a man's conversation. not with his state and condition, with sins actual, not original. But spiritual convictions reach to all sins, to sins of heart as well as sins of life, to the sin of our nature as well as the sins of practice, to the sin that is born in us as well as the sin that is done by us. where the Spirit of the Lord comes to work effectually in any soul, he holds the glass of the law before the sinner's eyes, and opens his eyes to look into the glass, and to see all that deformity and filthiness that is in his heart and nature. See, this is why the newer churches, the modern-day church, has got their They don't even bother with it. They say that the law is for the Jews, and that's it. But they totally, grossly neglect the truth that it's the law that tells the sinner that they are sinners. It's the law that is the schoolmaster that leads to Christ. Continue. The apostle Paul said, I had not known sin but by the law. Well, how can this be true, that he had not known sin except by the law? When, as the light of nature, discover sin, well, it is said of the Gentiles that, having not the law, they are in law unto themselves. This sin, therefore, that the apostle speaks of, is not to be understood of sin actual, but sin original. I had not known the pollution of nature this I had not known except but by the law." And indeed, this is a discovery that natural light cannot make. It is true, the philosopher could say, that lust is the first and chief of all sins. But I cannot think he meant it of original sin, but of the inordinancy of appetite and desire at most. where I find that the wisest of the philosophers understood nothing of the original sin. Well, hear what Seneca says. Sin is not born with you, but brought in since. Well, that sounds just like Wesleyan Arminians in our day. Quintilian says, quote, it is more marvel that any one man sins than that all men should live honestly. That's ignorance right there, and it makes sense. How blind were they at this point? And so was Paul, until the Spirit of the Lord discovered it to him by the Word. And indeed, this is a discovery proper to the Spirit. It is He that makes the sinner see all the deformity and filthiness that is within. It is He that pulls off all the sinner's rags and makes him see his naked and wretched condition. It is He that shows us the blindness of the mind, the stubbornness of the will, the disorderedness of the affections, the searedness of the conscience, the plague of our hearts, and the sin of our natures, and therein the desperateness of our state. 3. Natural convictions carry the soul out to look more on the evil that comes by sin than on the evil that is sin, so that the soul under this conviction is more troubled at the dread of hell and wrath and damnation than at the vileness and heinous Many people become Christians only because they're scared of going to hell. They don't want to burn for eternity. But they don't, they're not really interested at the vileness and heinous nature of sin that is offensive to God. The Bible says the same thing. But now, spiritual convictions work the soul into sin than of the evil that comes by sin. The dishonor done to God by walking contrary to His will. The wounds that are made in the heart of Christ. The grief that the Holy Spirit of God is put to. This wounds the soul more than a thousand hells. Natural convictions are not durable. They are quickly worn out. They are like a slight cut in the skin that bleeds a little and is sore for the present, but is soon healed again, and in a few days, not so much as a scar to be seen. But spiritual convictions are durable, and they cannot be worn out. They abide in the soul until they have reached their end. which is the change of the center. The convictions of the spirit are like a deep wound in the flesh that goes to the bone and seems to endanger the life of the patient and is not healed but with great skill. And when it is healed, it does leave a scar behind it. that when the patient is well, yet he can say, here's the mark of my wound, which will never wear out. So a soul that is under spiritual conviction, his wound is deep and not to be healed. But by the great skill of the heavenly position, and when it is healed, there are the tokens that can never be worn out, so that the soul may say, here are the marks and signs of my conviction still in my soul. Number five, natural convictions make the soul shy of God. Guilt works fear, and fear causes estrangeness. Thus it was with Adam, when he saw his nakedness, he ran away and hid himself from God. Now, spiritual convictions drive not the soul from God, but rather they drive the soul unto God. Ephraim's conviction was spiritual, and thus he runs to God. Return now me, and I shall return." So that there is, you see, a great difference between conviction and conviction, between that which is natural and that which is spiritual, that which is common and that which is saving. Yea, such is the difference that though a man has never so much of the former, yet if he be without the latter, he is but all And therefore, we have great reason to inquire more after this spiritual conviction. Four, number one, spiritual conviction is an essential part of sound conversion. Conversion begins here. True conversion begins in convictions, and true convictions end in conversion. Until the sinner be convinced of sin, he can never be converted from sin. Christ's coming was as a Savior to die for sinners, and the Holy Spirit's coming is to convince us that we are sinners, that we may close with Christ as a Savior, till sin be thoroughly discovered to us. interest in the blood of Christ cannot rightly be claimed by us. No, so long as sin is unseen, Christ will be unsought. They that be whole need not the position, but they that are sick. 2. Slight and common convictions, when they are but skin deep, are the cause of much hypocrisy. Slight convictions may bring the soul to a clasp about Christ, but not to close with Christ, and this is the guise of a hypocrite. I know no other rise and spring of hypocrisy like this of slight convictions, and this has filled the Church of Christ with difference. It is not only the spring of hypocrisy, but it is also the spring of apostasy. What was the cause that the seed was said to wither away? Well, it was because it had no deepness of earth. Where there is thorough conviction, there is a depth of earth in the heart, and there the seed of the word grows. But where convictions are slight and common, there the seed withers for lack of depth, so that you see clearly in this one instance whence it is that many are but almost Christians when they have gone so far in religion to wit for lack of sound convictions. and this has a mere relation to the former. It is for lack of a thorough work of grace first wrought in the heart, for this is not all a man's following profession comes to nothing. That scholar is never liked to read well. That will needs be in his grammar before he is out of his primer. Cloth that is not wrought well in the bloom will never wear well. nor wear long, it will do little service. And so, that Christian that does not come well off the loom has not a thorough work of grace in his heart, and will never wear well, he will shrink in the wedding, and never do much service before God. It is not the pruning of a bad tree that will make it made good before the fruit can be good. He that takes up a profession of religion with an unbroken heart will never serve Christ in that profession with his whole heart. If there be not a true change in that man's heart that yet goes far and does much in the ways of God, he is short that he will either die a hypocrite or apostate. Look, as in nature, the man be not well born, but through crooked or misshapen in the birth, why he will be crooked as long as he lives. You may bolster or stuff out his clothes to conceal it, but the crookedness, that is the deformity, it remains still. You may hide it, but you cannot help it. It may be covered, but cannot be cured. And so it is in this case, if a man come into a profession of religion, but be not rightly born, if he be not begotten of God and born of the Spirit, John 3.3, if there be not a thorough work of grace in his heart, all his profession of religion will never mend him. but an hypocrite at the last. A form of godliness may cover his crookedness, but he will never cure it. And I'm actually going to stop there because that's a lot to take in. A lot to take in. Anyway, I thank you, Father. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, you brought us together to consider this work that was wrought on the heart of Matthew Lee by the Holy Spirit. With regard to the almost Christian, the false professor. Greetings, and good morning. Almost good afternoon to you. It is the 19th of December. It has just gone past 1130. And it was my intention to not actually preach today because of the United Kingdom. Their Sabbath is going to come to an end here within an hour. But I cannot neglect the United States. for the sake of England or Australia or New Zealand. And for those of you who follow along in those countries, please forgive me. My animals would not allow me to get to the laptop here to be able to preach without them barking and carrying on. Anyway, we are going to pick up again. the almost Christian discovered or the false professor tried and cast by Matthew Mead and this will be part eight and I'm going to continue Actually, I'm going to go back and read the paragraph previously to set the context for what is going to be preached today and So it is in this case If a man come into a profession of religion, but be not right born, if he be not begotten of God and born of the Spirit, if there be not a thorough work of grace in his heart, all his profession of religion will never mend him. He may be bolstered out by a life of duties, but he will be but a hypocrite at the last. A form of godliness may cover his crookedness, but will never cure it. A man can never be a true Christian, nor accepted of God, though in the highest profession of religion, without a work of grace in the heart. For, number one, there must be an answerableness in the frame of that man's heart that would be accepted of God, to the duties done by him. His spirit and affections within must carry a proportion to his profession without. Prayer without faith, obedience to law given without fear and holy reverence of the law giver, God abhors this person. Acts of internal worship must answer the duties of external worship. Now where there is no grace wrought in the heart, there can never be any proportion or answerableness in the frame of that man's heart to the duties done by him. Number two, those duties that find acceptance with God must be done in sincerity. They must be done in sincerity. God does not take our duties by tail. nor judge of us according to the frequency of our performances, but instead according to the sincerity of our hearts he looks upon in the performance. It is this that commends both the doer and the duty to God. With sincerity God accepts the least we do. Without sincerity, God rejects the most we do or can do. And this is that temper of spirit which God highly delights in. Proverbs chapter 11 verse 20. They that are of a froward heart are an abomination to the Lord, but such as are upright in the way are his delight. They are his delight. The Apostle gives it a great epithet. He calls it, in 2 Corinthians 1.12, the sincerity of God, and that is, such a sincerity as is his special work upon the soul, setting the heart right and upright before him in all his ways. And this is the crown of all our graces and the commendation of our duties. Thousands perish and go to hell in the midst of all their performances and duties, merely for lack of a little sincerity of heart toward God. Now where there is not a change of state, a work of grace in the heart, there can be no sincerity to God. For this is not an herb that grows in nature's garden. The heart of man is naturally deceitful. and desperately wicked. That's Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. More opposite to sincerity than anything, than to anything. As things corrupted carry a greater dissimilitude to what they were than to anything else which they never were. God made man upright. Now man voluntarily losing this has become more disliked to himself than anything below himself. He is more like a lion, or a wolf, or a bear, a serpent, a toad, than to a man in innocency. So that it is impossible to find sincerity in any soul till there be a work of grace brought there by the Spirit of God. and hence it is that a man is but almost a Christian when he hath done all. And we come now to the fourth question. What is the reason that many go no farther in the profession of religion than to be almost Christians? Well, reason number one, it is because they deceive themselves in the truth of their own condition. They mistake their state and think it good and safe, when in fact it is bad and dangerous. A man may look upon himself as a member of Christ, and yet God may look upon him as a vessel of wrath. As a child of God, by looking more upon his sins than his graces, more upon his failings than his faith, more upon indwelling lusts than renewing grace. You may think his case very bad, when yet it is very good. I am black, saith the spouse, and yet saith Christ, O thou fairest among women. And so the sinner, by looking more upon his duties than his sins, may think he sees his name written in the book of life, and yet be in the account of God a very reprobate. There is nothing more common than for a man to think himself something when he is nothing, and so he deceives himself. Many a man blesses himself in his interest in Christ when he is indeed a stranger to him. Many a man thinks his sin pardoned when alas he is still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. Many a man thinks he has grace when he has none. There is, saith Solomon, there is that makes himself rich and yet has nothing. This was the very temper of the church at Laodicea. Christ says, Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not, pray mind that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. Thou knowest not. As bad as she was, she thought her state good. And meat is referring now to the church, calling it a she instead of a he. She thought her state good. As poor as she was in grace, she thought she was rich. As miserable and naked as she was, yet she thought she had need of nothing. Now there are several rises or grounds of this mistake, and I will name five to you. First, the desperate deceitfulness of the heart of every natural man. The heart is deceitful above all things. Again, Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9. The Hebrew word is the same with Jacob's name. Now you know he was a supplanter of his brother Esau, and he is rightly called Jacob, saith he, for he hath supplanted me these two times. And so the word signifies to be fraudulent, subtle, deceitful, and supplanting. There's no wonder then that God changed his name to Israel from Jacob being that's what it means. How about that? Thus is the heart of every natural man deceitful above all things. You read of the deceitfulness of the tongue. I've actually preached on that. the deceitfulness of riches, and the deceitfulness of beauty, and the deceitfulness of friends. But yet the heart is deceitful above them all. Nay, you read of the deceitfulness of Satan. Yet truly a man's heart is a greater deceiver than even he. For he could never deceive a man if his own heart did not deceive him. Now it is from hence that a man presumes upon the goodness of his case from the desperate treachery of his own heart. Well, how common is it for men to boast of the goodness of their hearts? I thank God, though I do not make such a show and pretense as some do, yet I have as good a heart as the best." Or another way of putting it, and you'll hear from a lot of people will say, well, God knows my heart. as if that's any excuse. Now he knows your heart and the Bible tells us of your heart, all of our hearts outside of regeneration. It is deceitful, desperately wicked above all things who can know it. That's the state of everyone's heart. Oh do but hear Solomon in this case. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. A fool. Will any wise man commit his money to the cut purse? In other words, will any man commit his money to a purse with a hole in it? Back in those days the purse was like a bag and the money, the coins, went into the bag and he's referring to the bag actually having a big hole in it. Will he trust a cheat? And it is a good rule, remember, to distrust. And it was Austin's prayer that man that trusts to his own heart shall be sure to find himself deceived at the last. Okay, don't trust your own heart. It's deceitful and desperately wicked. Okay. Secondly, this mistake arises from the pride of a man's spirit. Okay. Pride. We all know where this is going. I'm going to read it anyway. There is a proud heart in every natural man. Again, natural man refers to the man outside the generation. Their hearts are proud. And there was much of this pride in Adam's sin. And there is much of it in all of Adam's sons. That's us, the human race. It is a radical sin and from hence arises this overweening opinion of a man's state and condition. Okay, here's what Solomon says about this matter. Be not righteous over much. Austin, speaking occasionally of those words, saith, it is not meant of the righteousness of the wise man, but the pride of the presumptuous man. Pride and presumption. Presumption and pride. Can't have one without the other. Now, in this sense, every carnal man is overly righteous, though he has none of that righteousness which commends him to God, and to wit, the righteousness of Christ. Yet he hath too much of that righteousness which commends him to himself, and that is self-righteousness. Self-righteousness, seed fruit of pride. A proud man hath an eye to see his beauty but not his deformity, his parts but not his spots, his seeming righteousness but not his real wretchedness. And it must be a work of grace that must show a man the lack of grace. It's a work of grace to show a man that he lacks that grace. The haughty eye looks upward, but the humble eye looks downward, and therefore this is the believer's motto. The least of saints, the greatest of sinners. But the carnal man's motto is, I thank God I am not as other men. Thirdly, many deceive themselves with common grace, instead of saving grace. And I preached on that before too. Common grace has always been substituted for saving grace to give man that sense of everything's going to be okay. But as we're going to find out it's not okay. Many deceive themselves. I'm going to read it again too. Many deceive themselves with common grace instead of saving grace. Through that Resemblance that is between them. See common grace and saving grace are like sheep and goats to the untrained ear Okay, they sound the same. They look the same. There's there's a I mean, they don't look the same obviously, but they sound the same Except for to a shepherd who knows the difference but to most of us we don't know the difference they both sound the same while meat here is saying that common grace instead of saving grace is and they are deceiving themselves with common grace instead of saving grace and through that resemblance that is between them. As many take counterfeit money for current money or real money and so do too many take common grace for true. Saul took the devil for Samuel because he appeared in the mantle of Samuel. And so many take common grace for saving grace because it is like saving grace. A man may be under a supernatural work and yet fall short of a saving work. The first resisteth or the first raises nature. The second only reneweth nature. Though every saving work of the Spirit be supernatural, yet every supernatural work of the Spirit is not saving. And hence, many deceive their own souls by mistaking a supernatural work for a saving work. Fourthly, many mistake a profession of religion for a work of conversion. outside reformation or a sure sign of inward regeneration. Preached on this too. Okay. There are a lot of people there who can talk the talk and they can make other people think that wow this guy's really a Christian. Look at how smart he is. When in fact there's no saving grace in the man. This can be done. Matthew Mead is even saying so 350 years ago. Okay. I'll read it again. Many mistake a profession of religion for a work of conversion. That's like somebody saying, I believe that Jesus is the Christ. Okay, well the scriptures say any man that says that is saved. Well, James tells us that the devils know that Jesus is the Christ and profess it. Does that save them? Of course not. Of course not. Many mistake a profession of religion for a work of conversion and outside reformation for a sure sign of inward regeneration. If the outside of the cup be washed, then they think all is clean, though it be never so foul within, like whitened sepulchres, all clean on the outside and filthy and rotten on the inside. This is the common rock that so many souls split upon to their eternal hazard, taking up a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. Fifthly, lack of a home application of the law of God to the heart and conscience to discover to a man the true state and condition he is in. where this is lacking, a man will sit down short of a true work of grace and will reckon his case better than it is." That is a notable passage which the Apostle hints concerning himself. He's talking about the Apostle Paul. I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died." And here you have an account of the different apprehensions Paul had of his condition with and without the word. Number one, here is his apprehension of his condition without the word. I was alive, saith he, I was alive without the law. Paul had the law for he was a Pharisee. And they had the form of knowledge and the truth of the law. Therefore, when he saith he was without the law, you must not take him literally, but spiritually. He was without the power and efficacy of it upon his heart and conscience, convincing and awakening and discovering sin. And so long as this was his case, he doubted not of his state. He was confident of the goodness of his condition, but he hinted when he saith, I was alive. But then, number two, here is his apprehension of his condition with the word, and that is quite contrary to what it was before. When the commandment came, saith he, then sin revived, and I died. It's like the Lord Jesus Christ telling us that unless your righteousness is better than that of the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you'll not enter the kingdom of God. Well, why would he say such a thing? Well, because to the outward eye, the people of Israel, the Pharisees were the top tier of religion. Okay. They looked like they acted like they were elect. They did. Jesus says that that righteousness is not good enough to enter into the kingdom of God. Okay? When the word of the Lord came with power upon his soul, the Spirit of God set it home effectually upon his conscience, that is meant by the coming of the commandment, then sin revived and I died. That is, I saw the desperateness of my case and the filthiness of all my self-righteousness. self-righteousness. Then my hope ceased and my confidence failed and as before I thought myself alive and my sin dead. So when God had awakened conscience by the word then I saw my sin alive and powerful and myself dead and miserable. See this is why the modern doctrine in the modern church, this is why they never preach on the law. They never do it. It's almost like they're red-letter New Testament Christians, and they just go specifically off of that. How in the world is anybody supposed to know that they're a sinner unless the law is read to them? Paul is saying the same thing. The word came by the law. He saw himself a sinner and that he was dead and miserable. And so that this is the first reason why men go no further in the profession of religion than to be but almost Christians. And it is because they mistake their state and think it is good when it is not. Okay, which mistake is fivefold? Okay, number one, they think their state is good, but they have a deceitful heart. Number two, they have a proud spirit. Number three, They mistake common grace for saving grace. Number four, they mistake outward reformation for true regeneration. And number five, the lack of home application of the law of God to the heart and the conscience. Okay, that takes care of reason number one. I'm going to keep going with this because it's important. So both of you counting on a 30 minute sermon. Sorry, we're going a little longer. at least to finish reason number two. Reason number two. It is from Satan's cunning who, if he cannot keep sinners in their open profaneness, then he labors to persuade them to take up with a form of godliness. If he cannot entice them on in their lusts with a total neglect of heaven, then he entices them to such a profession as is sure to fall short of heaven. And he will consent to the leaving of some sin, so as we do but keep the rest, and to the doing of some duties, so as we neglect the rest. name, rather than part with his interest in the soul, he will yield far to our profession of religion and consent to anything but our conversion and closing with Christ for salvation. He cares not which way we come to hell, so as he gets us but thither at last. Reason number three, it is from worldly and carnal policy And that brings back memories to John Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress. Worldly and carnal policy. This is a great hindrance to many. Policy many times enters caveats against piety. Jehu will not part with his calves lest he hazard his kingdom. Now among many men there would be more zeal and honesty where there less design and policy. There is an honest policy that helps religion, but carnal policy hinders it. We are commanded to be wise as serpents. Now, the serpent is the subtlest of creatures, but then we must be as innocent as doves. If piety be without policy, it lacks security. If policy be without piety, it lacks integrity. Piety without policy is too simple to be safe, and policy without piety is too subtle to be good. Let men be as wise, as prudent, as subtle, and as watchful as they will, but then let it be in the way of God, and let it be joined with holiness and integrity. That is a cursed wisdom that forbids a man to launch any further out in the depth of religion than he can see the land, lest he be taken in a storm before he can make safe to shore again. Reason number four. There is some lusts espoused in the heart that hinder a hearty close with Christ. Though they bid fair, yet they come not to God's terms. In other words, they, they love the fact of being able to call themselves a Christian. And I can probably point at a few things to allegedly prove that they are, but they're doing it on their own terms and not on God's terms. Okay. The young man would have eternal life. Okay. And this is the man who said good masters, the rich man. Okay. And he bid fair for it. He had a willing obedience to every command but one, but only one. And will not God abate him, one? Well, is he so severe? In other words, will God not accept him just for the one fault? Okay. Is he so severe? Will he not come down just a bit in his terms when man rises so high? Must man yield all? And will God yield nothing? No, my brethren. He that underbids for heaven shall as surely lose it as he that will give nothing for it. He that will not give all he has. And that's not just money. That's heart. That's mind. That's purpose. That's zeal. Everything for God at the expense of everything that is not of God. He that will not give all he has, in other words, to part with all for that pearl of great price, shall as surely go without it as he that never once cheapens it. Now, the not coming up to God's terms is the ruin of thousands of souls. Nay, it is that upon which all that perish do perish. A naked sinner to a naked Christ. A bleeding, broken sinner to a bleeding, broken Christ. Now these are God's terms. Your face must be in the mud. It has to be. You cannot just lay in the mud with your face up. The face must be down in the mud. And I'm being, I'm using an illustration. I'm not saying going, you know, lay in a mud puddle. Okay, but that's the symbolic part of what he's saying here. Now most professors are like iron between two equal lodestones. God draws and they propend towards God. And then you have the world that draws and they incline to the world. They are between both. They would not leave God for the world if they might not be engaged to leave the world for God. You see this is why Christ said you can't serve both. You can't serve God and the mammon, the unrighteous ungodly mammon. These are the things of the world. It's not just money. It's the things of the world. All of it. You can't serve both. It's just you can't. Okay? But if they must part with all with every lust, with every darling, every beloved sin, why then the spirit of Demas possesses them and God is forsaken by them. And again you see he's not just talking about money, he's talking about every lust, every darling sin that you have. Okay? And God is forsaken by those who hold on to them. My brethren, This is the great reason why many that are come to be almost Christians go no farther and some one beloved lust or other hinders them and after a long and high profession it parts them and Christ forever like John chapter 6 verse 66. When from verse 37 of chapter 6 to verse 65 the Lord Jesus Christ lays out the case Where He is the bread and the blood and if you don't have those you don't have Him. Verse 66 says that many who were His disciples turned away from Him and followed Him no more. Now I'm paraphrasing it but that's what it says. Departs them and Christ forever. They did run well but here it is that they give out and after all they fall short and perish to eternity. Thus having answered these four questions. Okay now these are the four questions that he covers and this is going to be the end of it because after such is the application. Okay and I'll start the application next week. These are the four questions that were just covered. If you're listening and have a pen and paper, write them down. Or better yet, find the PDF and read it and then still write it down. Four questions. Number one, how far a man may go in the way to heaven and yet be but almost a Christian? Number two, whence it is that a man goeth so far as to be almost a Christian? And number three, Whence it is that a man is but almost a Christian when he hath gone thus far. And number four, what is the reason men go no farther in religion than to be almost Christians? It's a lot to consider. It really is. But it's good for you. I mean, I for one, I thank God that I'm alive. okay, to be able to consider these things. I'm grateful that I have eyes to see and ears to hear by adoption to see these things and consider them so that I may examine myself to make sure, to make my calling and election sure. This is what we are all supposed to do. We are not to trust in anything but the Word of God. Don't trust your physical things that you can see with your eyes. That you're like, for example, you're a member of a church. You go and you pay 10% of your gross income even though you were coerced into doing it as a prerequisite for church membership. That's a whole other thing. I don't want to digress into that. Okay? Okay? Don't put your trust in that you go to church every Sunday. You should be going on Saturday, but again, I don't want to digress any further. Okay? Second, don't put your trust in your duties. Well, I do this. I visit the sick in hospitals. I, you know, I'm on social media all the time and I'm preaching and doing thus and thus and, you know, don't put your trust in that either. Put your trust only in the word. Always be examining yourselves. Always. I mean, look, next Friday, we have the greatest day of idolatry in human history. that has been going on for centuries. And yet nobody even bothers to look to see where it came from. They're just following it blindly. And you think that because you are saying happy birthday Jesus, which is blasphemy, okay? It's not his birthday. But yet people, millions are still doing it and they think themselves Christians and they're just carrying on and they don't know or even want to know that they're following the spirit of Antichrist. They're comfortable in it, but yet they won't examine themselves. They won't even bother to look to see where these things have even come from to begin with. And we know that Rome, we know that Rome is the author of all evil. Nothing good has ever come out of Rome. Nothing. but yet millions upon millions still blindly follow what has been set up through their infrastructure and through history. Guys, girls, brothers, sisters, even those of you who are listening maybe for the first time, okay? You've got to examine yourselves all the time. All the time. Don't let your guard down for a minute. Always be seeking God Always be seeking to please God, our Father. God is our Father, our real flesh and blood Father. Do we not want to please Him? Do we not want to make sure that we're doing the right things? Our Bibles tell us what is pleasing to God. Read it, or even listen to it. Okay? Anyway, that's all I have for today. Next time we will get into the application of everything that we have just read, these four questions. They will meet us going into an application portion and that's where we will continue. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and preserve each one of you. May He keep you from evil. May your minds and your hearts be ever or always seeking Him and what pleases Him. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. Good morning. It is 946 a.m. in Wisconsin Rapids. It is the 9th of January in the year 2021 and we're going to get straight back to it. Back to the hammer. And we're going to finish up here with Part 9 of the Almost Christian Discovered, or the False Professor Tried and Cast. If you're following along in the PDF file, we're starting on page 177. And I'm going to retreat just a little bit, so that way I can refresh your memories as to what we're discussing. And let's get to it. Thus having answered these four questions, namely, number one, how far a man may go in the way to heaven and yet be but almost a Christian. Number two, where it is that a man goes so far as to be almost a Christian, or how it is that a man goes so far as to be almost a Christian. Number three, it is that a man is but almost a Christian when he has gone thus far. And number four, what is the reason men go no farther in a religion than to be almost Christians? And I proceed now to the application. Inference number one, that salvation is not so easy a thing as it is imagined to be. And this is attested to by the Lord Jesus himself. Matthew chapter 7 verse 14. Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. The gate of conversion is a very straight gate, and yet every man that would be saved eternally must enter in at this straight gate, for salvation is impossible without it. We go to John 3.3. Except the man be born again, that is, born from above, he cannot see, perceive, or understand the kingdom of God. And not that this gate is straight simply and in respect of itself. No! For converting grace is free. The gate of mercy stands open all the day long. In the tenders of gospel grace, none are excluded, unless they exclude themselves. Christ does not say, if such and such will come to me, I will not cast them out. But he says, him that cometh unto me, be he who or what he will, if he hath a heart to close with me, I will in no way cast him out. He doesn't say if this or that man will. Here is water of life for him, but he says if any man will, let him take the water of life freely. Christ grudgeth mercy to none. Though salvation was dearly purchased for us, yet it is freely pro-offered us. So that the gate which leads to life is not straight on Christ's part or in respect of itself. but is straight in respect of us because of our lusts and corruptions which make the entrance difficult. A needle's eye is big enough for a threat to pass through, but it is a straight passage for a cable rope. Either the needle's eye must be enlarged or the cable rope must be untwisted or the entrance is impossible. And so it is in this case. The gate of conversion is a very straight passage for a carnal and corrupt sinner to go in at. The soul can never pass through with any one lust beloved and espoused and therefore this sinner must be untwisted from every lust. He must lay aside the love of every sin or he can never enter in at this gate for it is a straight gate. And when he is in at this straight gate he meets with a narrow way to walk in. So our Lord Christ says, narrow is the way that leadeth to life. And what way is this but the way of sanctification? For without holiness no man shall ever see the Lord. Now this way of sanctification is a very narrow way. For it lies over the neck of every lust and in the exercise of every grace, subduing the one and improving the other, dying daily and yet living daily, dying to sin and living to God. This is the way of sanctification. And oh, how few there are that walk in this way. The broad way has many travelers on it. But this narrow way is like the way of Canaan in the days of Shongar. It is said in the days of Shongar, the son of Aua, the highways were unoccupied and the travelers walked through byways. In the Hebrew, it is through crooked ways. The way of holiness is by the most and unoccupied way, and so says the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 35 verses 8 and 9. Quote, a way shall be there and it shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon. But the redeemed shall walk there. Close quote. The unclean, and the lion, and the ravenous beast, they are in the crooked ways. None but the redeemed of the Lord walk in the way of the Lord. And it is no wonder then that our Lord Jesus Christ says of life that few there be that find it, when as the gate is straight, in the way narrow that leads to it. Many pretend to walk in the narrow way, but they never entered in at the straight gate. And many pretend to have entered in at the straight gate, and yet they walk not in the narrow way. Now it is a very common thing for a man to perish upon a mistake of his way. To go on in those paths that take hold of hell and yet hope to find heaven at last. Those 20 parts aforementioned run into destruction and yet many choose them and walk in them as the way of salvation. And for those who may be coming in at this part here not having listened to the first eight portions, those 20 paths that he's referring to are recited in those previous eight parts. As many profane and open sinners perish by choosing the way of death and so many formal professors perish by mistaking the way of life. And this I gather from the things that our Lord Christ says, like, few there be that find it, which does clearly imply what in Luke chapter 13 verse 24 says, to wit that many seek it. Many seek to enter in and yet are not able. Many run far and yet do not run as to obtain. Many bid fair for the pearl of price and yet go without it. And hell is had with ease, but the kingdom of heaven suffers violence. Now inference number two. If many go thus far in the way to heaven and yet miscarry, Oh, then what shall be the end of them who fall short of these? If he shall perish who is almost a Christian, what shall he do who is not at all a Christian? If he that owns Christ and professes Christ and leaves many sins for Christ, they may still be damned, notwithstanding. What then shall his doom be that disowns Christ and refuses to part with even one sin or one lust or one oath for Christ? Namely, that openly blasphemes the precious name of Christ. A blasphemy or a perversion of this, for example, could be that I invited the Lord Jesus Christ into my heart and he definitely came in. that is profaning the gospel. Or I can make a decision for Christ of my own will outside of regeneration. That too is a blasphemy and a profanity. Or even saying that faith comes before life. That too is a blasphemy and a profanation or a profaning of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the gospel. If he that is outwardly sanctified shall yet be eternally rejected, what will be the case of such as are openly unsanctified that have not only the plague of a hard heart within, but also the plague sore of a profane life without? If the formal professor must be shut out, surely then the filthy adulterer and the swinish drunkard the deep swearer, the profane Sabbath breaker, which I'm going to get into with a sermon that I wrote later on this afternoon, the foul-mouthed scoffer, and yea, even every carnal sinner much more. If there be a woe to him that falls short of heaven, then how sad is the woe to him who falls short of them that fall short of heaven. Ah, that God would make this an awakening word. Oh, that he would make this an awakening word to sinners that are asleep in sin without the least fear of death or dread of damnation. And now we come to the use of examination. The use of examination. Are there many in the world that are almost and yet but almost Christians? Why then it is time for us to call our condition into question and to make a more narrow scrutiny into the truth of our spiritual state. That is, we are going to examine ourselves and what it is, whether it be right or not, whether we are sound and sincere in our profession of religion or not. When our Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples, one of you shall betray me Everyone began presently to reflect upon himself. Master, is it I? Master, is it I? And so should we do when the Lord discovers to us from his word how many there are under the profession of religion that are but almost Christians. We should straight away reflect on our hearts. Lord, is it I? Is my heart unsound? Am I but almost a Christian? Am I one of them that shall miscarry at last? Am I a hypocrite under a profession of religion? Have I a form of godliness without the power? Now there are two questions of very great importance, very great importance, which we should, every one of us, me reading and you listening, that we should often put to ourselves. What am I Where am I? Number one, what am I? Am I a child of God or not? Am I sincere in religion or am I only a hypocrite under a profession? Number two, where am I? Am I yet in a natural state or a state of grace? Am I yet in the old root, in old Adam, or am I in the root of Christ Jesus? Am I in the covenant of works that ministers only wrath and death? Or am I in the covenant of grace that ministers life and peace? Now indeed, this is the first thing a man should look at. There must be a change of state before there can be a change of heart. In other words, life must come before faith. We must come under a change of covenant before we can be under a change of condition. For the new heart and the new spirit is promised in the new covenant. There is nothing of that to be heard of in the old. Now a man must be under the new covenant before he can receive the blessing promised in the new covenant. He must be born again. He must be in a new covenant state before he can receive a new covenant heart. No mercy, no pardon, no change, no conversion, no grace dispensed outside of this covenant. And therefore this should be our great inquiry. And by the way brothers and sisters, when Mead is talking about a new covenant state before he can receive a new covenant heart. The no mercy, no pardon, no change, no conversion, no grace dispensed outside of that covenant. He's saying that in words that we would understand possibly in this day, that there is no such thing as common grace. No such thing as common grace. For if we know not where we are, we cannot know what we are. And if we know not what we are, we cannot be. And remember, cannot means not able. We are not able to be what we should be. Namely, altogether Christians. Let me then, I beseech you, Press this duty upon you that our professors, in other words, a professor is someone that says, I am a Christian. You are professing. Okay. I know those of you who are listening are going, come on, Duane. Come on, brother Duane, please. We already know what professors are. I'm sorry. There may be some who are listening who do not understand. Baby Christians even. Okay. I want to be as understanding toward you. young Christians. A professor is someone who calls himself a Christian. Let me then I beseech you to press this duty upon you that are professors to try your own hearts and examine yourselves whether you are in the faith. Prove your own selves. And I urge this upon most cognate arguments. Because many rest in a notion of godliness and outward shows of religion and yet remain in their natural condition. In other words, they may go to church every Sunday. They may pay 10% of their gross income so God can fulfill his will and they think that they're doing their part. That, my brothers and sisters, is remaining in a natural condition. You're resting on your works and not on Christ. Many are hearers of the word but not doers of it, and so deceive their own souls. Some neither hear nor do. These are profane sinners. And some both hear and do. These are true believers. Some hear but they do not do. These are hypocritical professors. He that slights the ordinances, the ordinances, cannot, is not able to be a true Christian. But yet it is possible that a man may own them and profess them and yet be no true Christian. For example, and I'm mixing in with what Mead is saying with what we see in our own day. For example, a man may own them and profess them and yet be no true Christian. Like I had just previously said, someone that goes to church every Sunday and Wednesday. Someone that pays their tithes. Someone that reads their Bible every day. Someone that chooses Christ because they're afraid to go to hell. And that being the only reason why he chose them or she chose them. These are all kinds of duties. Okay, and professions, but yet not be a true Christian. Who would trust to a profession that shall see Judas as a disciple, an apostle, a preacher of the gospel, one that cast out devils to be cast out himself. There's another example, Judas. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Now I want you to understand something here that is in this quote. Okay, I'm going to quote it again. He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Okay, well what's Paul talking about? He's not a Jew who's one outwardly. We're not Jews, right? We're Gentiles. We're Paul saying we're Jews. Because the true Jew is what a Christian is. Christianity comes from Judaism, which is why Paul refers to us Christians as Jews. Okay? We're not Roman Catholics. Christianity did not come from Roman Catholicism. It came from Judaism and is the completion of Judaism. He is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Number two, because errors in the first foundation are very dangerous. Now if we be not right in the main, in the fundamental work, if the foundation be not laid in grace, in the heart, All our following profession comes to nothing. The house is built upon a sandy foundation, and though it may stand for a little while, yet when the floods come and the winds blow and beat upon it, great will be the fall of it. 3. Because many are the deceits that our souls are liable to in this case. There are many things like grace that are not grace. Like I said, those who believe in the doctrine of common grace, that is not true grace. That's an example. Now it is the likeness and similitude of things that deceives and makes one thing to be taken or mistaken for another. Many take gifts for grace, common knowledge for saving knowledge. when as a man may have great gifts and yet no grace, great knowledge and yet not know or love Jesus Christ. Some take common faith for saving. Same thing. Some take common grace for saving grace. When as a man may believe all the truths of the gospel, all the promises, all the threatenings, all the articles of the creed to be true and yet still perish for lack of saving faith. Some take morality and restraining grace for piety and renewing grace when as it is common to have sin much restrained where the heart is not renewed. Some are deceived with a half work taking conviction for conversion or mistaking conviction for conversion. Mistaking reformation for regeneration. We have many mermaid Christians. Or like Nebuchadnezzar's image, the head of gold and feet of clay. The devil cheats most men by a synagogue. putting a part for the whole, partial obedience to some commands for universal obedience to all. Endless are the delusions that Satan fastens upon souls for lack of this self-search. It is necessary therefore that we try our state, try the spirits, to see if they be of God lest we take the shadow for the substance and embrace a cloud instead of Juno. Number four, Satan will try us at one time or another. He will winnow us and sift us to the bottom. Look, if you are a true Christian you're going to get butchered by Satan. It's just a give me. It's going to happen. Your life is not going to be gravy. It is not going to be a Joel Osteen's getting your best life now. It is not going to be a Rick Warren purpose-driven life where you're free from being attacked. And I'm not talking about someone saying, oh, you're not a Christian and you being lily-livered and weak and effeminate fall down screaming like you've got a broken leg. No, Satan will try us at one time or another. He will winnow us and sift us to the bottom. And if we now rest in a groundless confidence, it will then end in a comfortless despair. Nay, God himself will search and try us at the day of judgment especially. And who can abide that trial? that never even tries or examines his own heart. Number five. Whatsoever a man's state be, whether he be altogether a Christian or not, whether his principle be sound or not, yet it is good to examine his own heart. And we should be examining our own hearts because the scriptures tell us what our hearts are. Genesis 6-5, Genesis 8-21, Jeremiah 17 verse 9. We know what our hearts are like. I mean there's plenty of you that say you can't judge me, you don't know my heart. Yes I do. Because the Bible tells us what our hearts are like. Wicked. Desperately wicked. From our youth. from conception. Psalm 51 verse 5. Psalm 58 verse 3. We know the state of our hearts. Whatever a man's state be, whether he be altogether a Christian or not, whether his principle be sound or not, it is good to examine his own heart. If he find his heart good, his principles right and sound, And this should be a matter of rejoicing. Rejoicing and praising God that His mercy has stood and will stand forever to those who are left. If you find his heart rotten, his principles false and unsound, the discovery is in order to a renewing. God is showing you He's not leaving you left out. He's not turning his back on you. If you examine your heart and you find that your heart is rotten and your principles that are false and unsound, this discovery is in order to a renewing. It is good news. Good news. Not good news that you have a chance to choose Christ, But good news that you know that you are already chosen. Already chosen. Because God is showing you where you're wrong. If a man have a disease upon him and knows it, he may send to the physician in time. And Christ is the great physician. We all learn about how rotten we are in the book of the law. That's what tells us, it shows us. When we read those five books of Moses we see how rotten we really are. And that is the schoolmaster which leads to Christ. Okay? If a man have a disease upon him and know it, he may send to the physician in time. But what a sad vexation will it be not to see a disease until it be past the cure. Like a person on their deathbed. They finally see it, but it's too late to do anything about it. You're not going to trust in an 11th hour conversion because they just don't happen. They don't happen that often. So for you to put your hopes in, well I can be a sinner and all of that. I don't really see how but I know just because I know and yet it's okay I got time you know to repent and choose Christ. It's not going to work like that. For a man to be graceless and not see it till it is too late to think himself a Christian when he is not and that he is in the right way to heaven when he is in the ready way to hell and not know it till a deathbed or a judgment day confute his confidence, this is the most irrecoverable misery. Irrecoverable. It's too late. I would especially ask those who are young and listening to this to think about it. You may think that you're young. You may think that you've got years to go and that you can, you know, have your taste of sin. I remember my daughter telling me once when she was young, long before I rejected her and cast her out, how she said all she wanted was a taste. Not that she believed the Bible. She had to have believed. Otherwise she would at least believe to a point. but said that she wanted to at least taste it. Okay, well, I'm sure there's a lot of people that feel the same way. That's what I'm talking about. You're young, you think you've got all the time in the world, but you may not. Okay? This is the most irrecoverable misery. These are the grounds upon which I press this duty of examining our state. Oh, that God would help us! to grant us grace, sustaining grace, operating grace, that God would help us in the doing of this necessary duty. Now here comes a question. You say, but how shall I come to know whether I am almost or altogether a Christian? If a man may go so far and yet miscarry. Well, how shall I know when my foundation is right, when I am a Christian indeed? Well, here's an answer. Number one, the altogether Christian closes with and accepts of Christ upon the gospel terms. Gospel terms. True union makes a true Christian. Many do close with Christ, but it is upon their own terms. They take him and own him, but not as God offers him. The terms upon which God in the gospel offers the Lord Jesus Christ are that we shall accept of a broken Christ with a broken heart. and yet a whole Christ with the whole heart. This is taking the plunge. This isn't just putting your foot in just to test the water to see if it's warm or cold. This is diving straight in. But I tell you the truth you already know that it's okay to dive straight in. A broken Christ with a broken heart as a witness of our humility. witness of our humility. A whole Christ with a whole heart as a witness of our sincerity. A broken Christ respects his suffering for sin. A broken heart respects our sense of sin. No way we can have a broken heart from the sense and understanding of our own sin. unless we take it completely without excuses. We take the scripture for what it is in the law without saying, but I, no buts, goats but, goats but. Okay? A whole Christ includes all his offices. A whole heart includes all our faculties. The mind, the body, the heart, the hands, the feet, the eyes, the mouth, the ears, all of it. Christ is a king, priest, and prophet, and all as mediator. He is the go-between, not the priest, not the nun, Not your mother, not your father, not the pastor at your church. Christ is the mediator. Without any one of these offices the work of salvation could not have been completed. As priest he redeems us. As a prophet he instructs us. As a king he sanctifies and saves us. Therefore, the Apostle says, he is made to us of God. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. All in one fell swoop. It all comes in one shot. Bam! Righteousness and redemption flow from him as a priest. Wisdom as a prophet, sanctification as a king. Now many embrace Christ as a priest, but yet they own him not as a king or a prophet, or a king and a prophet. They like to share in his righteousness, but not to partake of his holiness. They would be redeemed by him, but they would not submit to him. They would be saved by His blood, but not submit to His power. Now many love the privileges of the gospel, but not the duties of the gospel. Now these are but almost Christians, notwithstanding their close with Christ. For it is upon their own terms, but not upon God's. You cannot have it your way. It is not Burger King. The offices of Christ may be distinguished, but they can never be divided. But the true Christian owns Christ in all his offices. He not only closes with him as Jesus, but as Lord Jesus. And he says with Thomas, my Lord and my God. He does not only believe in the merits of his death, that is Christ's death, but also conforms to the manner of his life as he believes in him so he lives to him. He takes him for his wisdom as well as for his righteousness. for his sanctification as well as his redemption. Number two, the altogether Christian has a thorough work of grace and sanctification brought in the heart as a spring of duties. Regeneration is a complete change. All old things are done away. and all things become new. It is a perfect work as to parts, though not as to degrees. Okay? Carnal men do duties, but they are from an unsanctified heart, and that spoils all of it. A new piece of cloth never does well in an old garment, for the tear is made worse But when a man's heart is thoroughly renewed by grace, the mind savingly enlightened, the conscience thoroughly convinced, and the will truly humbled and subdued, the affections spiritually raised and sanctified, not sanctifying, sanctified, and when mind and will and conscience and affections all join issue to help on with the performance of the duties commanded, then is the man altogether a Christian. Number three, he that is altogether a Christian looks to the manner as well as to the matter of his duties. Not only that they be done, but how they be done. Hebrews 12.2, Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. As an example, where is you or I involved in that? We're not anywhere in it. It's all Him or none of Him. He knows the Christian's privileges lie in pronouns. but his duty in adverbs. It must not only be bonum, or good, but it must be bene. That good must be rightly done. And here the almost Christian fails. He does the same duties that others do for the matter, but he does them not in the same manner. His motive, his operation. Not what the Bible is teaching. does it of his own. While he minds the substance, he regards not the circumstance. If he pray, he regards not faith and fervency in the prayer. If he hears, he does not mind Christ's rule. Quote, take heed how you hear, close quote. If he obeys, he looks not to the frame of his heart in obeying and therefore miscarries in all that he does. And of these defects, it spoils the good of every duty. Number four, the altogether Christian is known by his sincerity in all his performances. Sincerity nowadays we can also use the word transparency. Because a person is definitely going to be known whether he's sincere or not by what he shows. His transparency in all his performances. Whatever a man does in the duties of the gospel he cannot be a Christian without sincerity. Now the almost Christian fails in this. For though he does much, prays much, hears much, and obeys much, yet he is a hypocrite under all. And again, for example, he chose Christ because he didn't want to go to hell. Not that he came to Christ because Christ broke his heart and drew him to himself, but that he did it in his own way, in his own manner. We've already covered that. Number five, he that is altogether a Christian has an answerableness within to the law without. There is a connaturalness between the Word of God and the will of a Christian. His heart is, as it were, the transcript of the law. The same holiness that is commanded in the Word is implanted in the heart. The same conformity to Christ that is enjoined by the Word of God is wrought in the soul by the Spirit of God. The same obedience which the Word requires of Him, the Lord enables Him to perform by His grace bestowed on Him. And this is that which is promised in the New Covenant. I will put my law in their inward parts. and write it in their hearts. Now the writing, His law, in us, is nothing else but His working, that grace and holiness in us which the law commands and requires of us. In the old covenant administration, God wrote His laws only upon tables of stone, but not upon the heart. And therefore, though God wrote them, yet they broke them. But in the new covenant administration, God provides new tables, not tables of stone, but the fleshly tables of the heart, and writes his laws there. God writes his laws there, that there might be a law within, answerable to the law without. this every true Christian has. True Christians love the law. They do. Why do they love the law? Because it is the Word of God. The laws, the ordinances, the precepts are the things that God wants us to do. They come from his mouth. This is what I want you to do. Not that it's gonna save you, but this is what I want you to do. Full stop. God provides new tables, not tables of stone, but the fleshly tables of the heart, and writes his laws there, that there might be a law within, answerable to the law without. And this every true Christian has, so that he may say in his measure, as our Lord Jesus Christ did, I delight to do thy will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. And every believer has a light within him, not guiding him to despise and slight, but to prize and to walk by the light without him. The word commands him to walk in the light and the light directs him to walking according to the word. And moreover, from this impression of the law upon the heart, obedience and conformity to God becomes the choice and the delight of the soul. For holiness is the very nature of the new creature. So if there were no scripture or no Bible to guide him, yet he would be holy. for he has received grace for grace. There is grace within to answer the word of grace without. Now the almost Christian is a stranger to this law of God within and without. He may have some conformity to the word in an outward conversation, but he cannot have this answerableness to the word in the inward constitution. Number six. The altogether Christian is much in duty and yet much above duty. Much in duty in regard of performances. Much above duty in regard of dependence. Much in duty by obeying, but much above duty by believing he lives in his obedience. But he does not live upon his obedience, but rather upon Christ and his righteousness. The almost Christian fails in this. He is much in duty but not above it. He rests in it. He works for rest and he rests in his works. He cannot come to believe and obey as well. If he believes then he thinks there is no need of obedience and casts it off. If he be much in obedience, then he casts off believing and thinks there is no need of that. And he cannot say with David, I have hoped for thy salvation and done thy commandments. The more a man is in duty and the more above it, the more in doing and more in believing, the more Christian. Number seven, he that is altogether a Christian is universal in his obedience. He does not obey one command and neglect another, do one duty and cast off another, but he has respect to all the commandments and he endeavors to leave every sin and to love every duty. Now the almost Christian fails in this as well. His obedience is partial and piecemeal. If he obeys one command, he breaks another. The duties that least cross his lust, he is much in. But those that do, he lays aside. Now the Pharisees fasted, prayed, and paid tithes, etc. But they did not lay aside their covetousness, their oppression. They devoured widows' houses. they were unnatural to parents. Number eight, the altogether Christian makes God's glory the chief end, the chief end of all his performances. If he prays, or hears, or gives, or fasts, or repents, or obeys, etc. God's glory is the main end of all. It is true, he may have someone else at the hither end of his work, but God is at the further end. As Moses' rod swallowed up the magician's rods, so God's glory is the ultimate end that swallows up all his other ends. Now the almost Christian fails in this as well. His ends are corrupt and selfish. In other words, like I said previously, selfish in the means of I want to come to Christ because I'm afraid to go to hell. You didn't do it because you were shown to be a sinner and it broke your heart. You did it to preserve yourself so you wouldn't burn. And that is selfish. God may possibly be at the hither end of his work, but self is at the farther end. For he that was never truly cast out of himself can have no higher end than himself. In other words, he does everything for his own benefit. I'll use paying tithes, even though it's not biblical. Not biblical for us. We're not Levites, okay? But for example, A person pays their tithes because they're told that God can't get his will done unless they pay them. Or they pay their tithes every week because they get a check back at the end of the year or they get a tax exemption. They're not doing it for the purposes of actually giving money so that people in the church who cannot support themselves or are having trouble meeting their ends, that money is supposed to go to them to help them out. to love your brother as you love yourself. Okay? That's what the money's for. It's not to pay a priest a salary or to pay a pastor a salary or an elder a salary. It's to share amongst the church. Not for people to go out there and video them giving money to blatant sinners, showing, look, look, I'm doing good. I'm giving away all this money to people who don't deserve it. I'm a good Christian. They do that for selfish reasons. Okay? This is what meat is talking about. Self is at the farthest end of it. For he that was never truly cast out of himself can have no higher end than himself. Now then examine yourself by these characters and put the question to your own soul. Do you close with Christ upon the terms of the gospel? Is grace in the heart the principle of your performances? Do you look to the manner as well as the manner of your duties? Do you do all in sincerity? Is there an answerableness within the law without? Are you much above duty when much in duty? Is your obedience universal? And lastly, is God's glory the end of it all? That is your motive. If so, then are you not only almost, but you are altogether a Christian? And like I said, I'm going to plow through this thing to the end. Second use of caution. Oh, take heed of being almost and yet but almost a Christian. It is a great complaint of God against Ephraim that he is a cake not turned. That he is half-baked, neither raw nor roasted, neither cold nor hot, as Laodicea. Because thou art neither cold nor hot, therefore I will spew thee out of my mouth. This is a condition that of all others is greatly unprofitable, exceedingly uncomfortable, and desperately dangerous. First, it is greatly unprofitable to be but almost a Christian, for failing in any one point will ruin us as surely as if we had never made any attempt for heaven. It is no advantage to the soul to be almost converted, for the little that we want. It spoils the good of all our attainments. We say, as good never acquit as never the near. There is no profit in leaving this or that sin unless we leave all of the sin. Herod, for example, heard John the Baptist gladdening and did many things. but he kept Herodias, and that ruined him. Judas did many things, prayed much, preached much, professed much. He had the power to work miracles, but yet his covetousness spoiled all of it. One sin ruined the young man. that kept all the commands but one. That's the man who said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Some like to say, well, it says in the scripture that Jesus loved him. Well, if he loved him, then it would have saved him, right? No, he didn't. One sin ruined the young man that had kept all the commands but one. He that offends in one point is guilty of all. that is, that lives willfully and allowedly in any one sin. He brings the guilt of the violation of the whole law of God upon his soul, and that upon a twofold account. Number one, because he manifests the same contempt of the authority of God, the sovereignty of God, in the willful breach of one as of all. Number two, by allowing himself in the breach of any one command. He shows he kept none in obedience and conscience to God. I'll give you one example, the fourth commandment. And that's going to get many of you, many of you, most of you I would say, breaking the Sabbath. You worship on Sunday, you're a Sabbath breaker. God never appointed Sunday as the Sabbath day. The Lord Jesus didn't do it. The apostles didn't do it. And again I'll be preaching on that later this afternoon. You are breaking the Sabbath. Period. No excuses. By allowing himself in the breach of any one command he shows that he kept none in obedience and conscience to God. For he that hates sin as sin hates all sin and he that obeys the command as the express will of God obeys every command. For this cause the least sin willfully and with allowance lived in spoils the good of all our other obedience and lays the soul under the entire wrath of God. Now again brothers and sisters I'm not talking about the ceremonial law We know the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ. But the moral law and the judicial law have yet to be fulfilled. That's not going to happen until the final judgment. The moral law will exist for us as long as this earth exists. And I don't have the scripture number right off the top of my head, but you know it. I shouldn't have to tell you. For this cause the least sin willfully and with allowance lived in it spoils the good of all our obedience and lays the soul under the whole wrath of God. One leak in a ship may sink her though she be tight in every other way. Gideon had 70 sons and but one bastard and yet that one bastard destroyed all his sons. And so may one sin spoil all our services. One beloved lust may spoil all our profession as that one bastard slew all the sons of Gideon. By the way, for those of you who don't know, a bastard is a child born out of wedlock. That's what a bastard is. It is exceedingly uncomfortable and this appears in three ways. Number one, in that such a one is hated of God and men. The world hates him because of his profession. God abhors him because of his dissimilation. The world hates him because he seems good and God hates him because he doth but only seem so. God knows your heart and your mind and your motive. You think you're doing it in secret, but see you can't sense that God sees through all of that. And being that he's omniscient and omnipresent, he's everywhere. No escape. You cannot escape from God. You cannot sin without him seeing it. No person that God hates more than the almost Christian. And here the Lord Jesus tells us, I would thou work either cold or hot. That is, either all a Christian or not at all a Christian. Because thou art neither cold nor hot, therefore I will spew thee out of my mouth. What a loathsome expression does God here use to show what an utter abhorrency there is in Him against lukewarm Christians. How uncomfortable then must that condition needs be wherein a man is abhorred both of God and man. Wow. Number two, it is uncomfortable in regard of sufferings. For being almost a Christian will bring us into suffering. But being but almost a Christian will never carry us through the suffering. In Matthew chapter 13 verses 20 and 21 it is said, quote, He that receiveth the seed into stony ground, the same is he that hears the word and with joy receives it. Yet he did not have root in himself, but does for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended." Now there are four things observable in the words. Number one, Number two, that it may for some time abide in a profession of it. He dureth for a while. Number three, that this profession will expose to suffering. Like I said earlier, if you're a Christian, you're going to suffer. Even if you're a fake Christian, you're still going to suffer. And we see why. For Mark. Persecution. Not Mark the person. Mark as in observe. Persecution is said to arise because of the Word. Number four, this suffering will cause an apostatizing from our profession. For that which is here called offense as in Luke chapter 8 verse 13 called falling away. Which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away close quote. Now I gather hence a profession may expose a man as to much are as much to suffering as the power of godliness. But without the power of godliness then there's no holding out in a profession under suffering or persecution or affliction. The world hates the show of godliness and therefore persecutes it. The almost Christian lacks the substance and therefore cannot hold out in it. Now this must needs be very uncomfortable. If I profess religion, I am like to suffer. But if I do but profess it, I am never like to endure. Number three, it is uncomfortable in regard of that deceit that it lays our hopes under. It is uncomfortable in regard of that deceit it lays our hopes under. To be deceived of our hopes causes sorrow as well as shame. He that is but almost a Christian hopes for heaven, but unless he be altogether a Christian he shall never come there. Now to perish with hope of heaven only to go to hell by the gates of glory, to come to the very door and then to be shut out as the five virgins were, to die in the wilderness within the sight of the promised land, at the very banks of the Jordan. This must needs be sad. To come within a stride of the goal and yet to miss it. To sink within sight of harbor. In other words, like you hear a ship and you see the harbor and yet you sink right before it. Well, how uncomfortable is this? Number four. as it is greatly unprofitable and exceedingly uncomfortable to be but almost a Christian. So it is desperately dangerous for, number one, this hinders the true work. A man lives, a man lies in a fair capacity for conversion that lies in open enmity and rebellion. than he that soothes up himself in the formalities of religion. And this I gather from that parable of the two sons which our Lord Jesus urged to the professing scribes and Pharisees. Quote, there was a man who had two sons. He came to one and said, go to work today in the vineyard. And he said, I will not. But afterwards repented and went. He came to the second and said likewise, and he said, I go, sir, but went not." Now the first represents the carnal, open sinner that is called by the word but refuses, yet afterwards repents and believes. The second represents the hypocritical professor that pretends much but performs little. Now let's observe how Christ applies this parable. Verse 31. Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." And upon this account it is better not to be at all than to be almost Christian. For the almost hinders the altogether. It is better in this regard to be a sinner without a profession than to be a professor without conversion. For the one lies fairer for an inward change when the other rests in an outward. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells the scribe, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God, yet never like to come there. None farther from the kingdom of God than such as are not far from the kingdom of God. As for instance, when there lies but one lust or one sin between a soul and Christ. That soul is not far from Christ. But now when the soul rests in this nearness to Christ and yet will not part with that one lust for Christ, he thinks his condition secure, though that lust be not subdued. Who is farther from the kingdom of God than he? And so our Lord Jesus Christ tells a young man, One thing thou lackest. While he was very near heaven, near being a Christian altogether, and he was almost saved, he tells Christ that he had kept all the commands in verse 30. He lacked but one thing. I say, but one thing. But it was a great thing. And that one thing he lacked was more than all the things that he had. For it was the one thing necessary. It was a new heart, a work of grace in the soul, a change of state, a heart weaned from the world. This was that one thing and he that lacks this one thing perishes with all things else. Number two, This condition is so like a state of grace that the mistake of it for grace is easy and common. That's the common in common grace. It's common to mistake it for true grace. For it is very dangerous to mistake anything for grace that is not grace. For in that a man contents himself. as if it were grace. Formality does often dwell next door to sincerity, and one sign serves the both. And so the house may be easily mistaken, and by that means a man may take up his lodging there and never find the way out again. What one saith of wisdom, many might have been wise had they not thought themselves so when they were otherwise, but one sayeth of wisdom the same I may say of grace. Many a formal professor might have been a sincere believer had he not mistaken his profession for conversion or mistaken his duties for grace and so rested in that for sincerity. That is but hypocrisy. Number three, it is a degree of blasphemy to pretend to grace yet have no grace. And I gather this from Revelation chapter 2 verse 9. Quote, I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not. Close quote. This place undergoes variety of constructions. Grotius and Pyramus do not make their blasphemy to lie in their saying that they are Jews and are not. but rather to lie in the reproaches that these Jews fastened upon Christ. That is, they call them an imposter, a deceiver, one that has a devil, etc. Breitman goes the other way and says this was the blasphemy of these Jews, that they retained that way worship that was abrogated and thrust upon God those old rites and ceremonies which the Lord Jesus Christ had abolished and nailed to the cross by which they overthrew the glory of Christ and denied his coming. But I conceived the blasphemy of these Jews to lie in this, that they said they were Jews and were not." And again, a Jew At that time, natural Jews were the chosen people of God. Same principle as a Christian. A Christian is a chosen follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. A Jew here is not to be taken literally and strictly only. Now this is me talking. For one of the lineage of Abraham but it is to be taken metonymically for a true believer and one of the spiritual seed of Abraham. He is a Jew which is one inwardly, so that for a man to say he is a Jew when he is not, to profess an interest in Christ when he has none, to say that he has grace when he has none, this the Lord Jesus Christ calls blasphemy. Why would the Lord Jesus call this blasphemy? This is hypocrisy. But how may it be said to be blasphemy? Why, he blasphemes the great attribute of God's omniscience. He doth implicitly deny that God sees and knows our hearts and thoughts. Sorry, I might get this word wrong because it's almost blacked out of the PDF here. While he blasphemes the great attribute of God's omniscience, he does implicitly deny that God sees and knows our hearts and thoughts. For if a man did not believe the omniscience of God, he he does search the heart and sees and knows all within, he would not dare to rest in a graceless profession of godliness. This therefore is blasphemy in the account of Christ. Number four, it is dangerous to be but almost a Christian. I'm not gonna be able to get through all of this there's 45 pages left so I'm gonna hurry up here and close this out. Number four, it is dangerous to be almost a Christian and that this stills and serves to quiet conscience. Now it is very dangerous to quiet conscience with anything but the blood of Christ. It is bad being at peace till Christ speaks peace. Nothing can truly pacify conscience less than that which pacifies God. that is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the almost Christian quiets conscience, but not with the blood of Christ. It is not a peace flowing from Christ's propitiation, but a peace rising from a formal profession. By the way, formal profession is a sort of work. Not a piece of Christ's giving, but a piece of his own making. that is the sinner's own making. He silences and bridles conscience with a form of godliness and so makes it give way to an undoing soul-destroying peace. He rocks it to sleep in the cradle of duties and then it is a thousand to one that he never wakes up anymore till judgment or death or death or judgment. Oh my brethren, it is better to have conscience never quiet than quiet in any way but by the blood of sprinkling. A good conscience, unquiet, is the greatest affliction to saints and an evil conscience, quiet, is the greatest judgment to sinners. I want to read one more, number five. It is dangerous to be almost a Christian in respect of the unpardonable sin. The sin that the scriptures say it can never be forgiven neither in this world nor in the world to come. I mean the sin against the Holy Ghost. Now such are only capable of sinning that sin as are but almost Christians. A true believer cannot The work of grace in his heart, that seed of God abiding in him, secures him against it. The profane, ignorant, open sinner cannot, though he lives daily and hourly in sin, yet he cannot commit this sin, for it must be from an enlightened mind. Every sinner, under the gospel especially, sins sadly against the Holy Ghost, against the strivings and motions of the Spirit, He resists the Holy Ghost, but yet this is not the sin against the Holy Ghost. There must be three ingredients to make up that sin. Number one, it must be willful. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin. Number two, that sin must be against light and convictions after we have received the knowledge of the truth. Number three, it must be in resolved malice. It's got to be done deliberately, in malice with effect. Now, you shall find all these ingredients in the sin of the Pharisees. Matthew chapter 12 verse 22. Christ heals one that was possessed with a devil. A great work which all the people wondered at. That's verse 23. But what say the Pharisees? See verse 24. This fellow casteth out devils by the prince of devils. Now that this was the sin against the Holy Ghost is clear. For it was both willful and malicious and against clear conviction. They could not but see that he was the Son of God and that this work was a peculiar work of the Spirit of God in him. And yet they say he wrought by the devil. Whereupon Christ charges them with this sin against the Holy Ghost. Verse 31, 32, and 33. Now the Pharisees were a sort of great professors. Whence I gather this conclusion. that it is the professor of religion that is the subject of this sin, not the open carnal sinner, and not the true believer, but rather the formal professor. Not the sinner, for he has neither light nor grace. Not the believer, for he has both light and grace. Therefore the formal professor, for he has light but no grace. Here then is the great danger of being almost a Christian that he's liable to this dreadful unpardonable sin. I'm gonna go ahead and stop there at number five because like I said there's 42 more pages and that's quite a bit. Anyway again This is a lot to take in, and I would invite those of you who haven't listened up to this point, the first eight parts, to please catch up. Binge it. Okay? I'm gonna finish this off, the last 42 pages, next Lord's Day, which is Saturday, not Sunday. And again, I'll get into that in my afternoon sermon. If I don't get to it today, I mean, I want to get to it today, but stuff happens. If I manage not to get to it today, it will be done within the next couple of days. So, and I have preached on this before, so it's not like I'm dropping something new. It's just I found somewhere else where someone who put it a lot together a little bit better than I did about the Lord's Day. And now there are two Sabbaths during Passover. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and preserve you, brothers and sisters. Good afternoon. It is five minutes shy of one o'clock in the afternoon on the 23rd of January in the year 2021. And we are going to continue with part 10 of the Almost Christian Discovered, or the False Professor Tried and Cast. And we will continue along. Actually, Last time we were discussing the sin against the Holy Ghost and we finished five parts to it, five numbers to it, and I'm going to read this last paragraph starting with number six. Not the sinner freeth neither light nor grace. Not the believer freeth both light and grace. therefore the formal professor, for he hath light but no grace." Here then is the great danger of being almost a Christian. He's liable to this dreadful, unpardonable sin. Number six. This being but almost a Christian subjects us to apostasy. He that gets no good by walking in the ways of God will quickly leave them. and walk no more in them. In this I gather from Hosea chapter 14 verse 9. Who is wise and he that understand these things prudent and he shall know them. For the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein. The just shall walk in them that is he whose heart is renewed and made right with God. He shall keep close to God in his ways. His ways being like God's ways. But the transgressor shall fall therein. The word in the Hebrew is apashangim, from a word that signifies to prevaricate. So that we may read these words thus. The ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them. But he that prevaricates, that is, and hypocrite in the ways of God, he shall fall therein. An unsound heart will never hold out long in the ways of God. He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in that light. This is referring to John the Baptist. For a season. for an hour, a short space, and then they left him. It's a notable question that Job puts concerning the hypocrite. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God? He may do much, but these two things he cannot do. Number one, he cannot, that is he's not able, to make God his delight. Number two, He cannot persevere in duties at all times and in all conditions. He will be an apostate at the last. The scab of hypocrisy usually breaks out in the plague sore of apostasy. Conversion ground is standing ground. It is terra firma. But a graceless profession of religion is but a slippery ground. a falling ground. Julian, the apostate, was first Julian the professor. And I know it is possible that a believer may fall, but yet he rises again. The everlasting arms are underneath. But when a hypocrite falls, who shall help him up? Solomon says, Woe to him that is alone when he falls. that is, without interest in Christ. Well, why woe to him? For he hath none to help him up. If Jesus Christ do not recover him, who can? David fell and was restored, for he had none to help him up. But Judas fell and perished, for he was alone. This being but almost a Christian provokes God to bring dreadful spiritual judgments upon a man. Well, barrenness is a spiritual judgment. Now this provokes God to give us up to barrenness, like the barren fig tree. Okay? When Christ found the fig tree that it leaves, and no fruit, he pronounces the curse of barrenness upon it. Never fruit grow on thee anymore. And so also Ezekiel chapter 40, 48. Ezekiel 48 verse 11. The miry places thereof and the marshy places thereof shall not be healed and they shall be given to salt. A spirit of delusion is a sad judgment. why this is the almost Christian's judgment. That receives the truth but not in the love of it. Because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved. For this cause God shall send them strong delusions. To lose either light or sight, either ordinances or eyes, is a great spiritual judgment. Why, this is the almost Christian's judgment. He that profits not under the means provokes God to take away either light or sight, either the ordinances from before his eyes or else to blind his eyes under the ordinances. To have a hard heart is a dreadful judgment. There is no hypocrite but he that hath a hard heart. My brethren, it is a dreadful thing for God to give up a man to spiritual judgments. Now this being almost a Christian provokes God to give a man up to spiritual judgments and surely therefore it is a very dangerous thing to be but almost a Christian. Number eight, being almost and but almost Christians will exceedingly aggravate our damnation. That is the higher a man rises under the means, the lower he falls if he miscarries. He that falls but a little short of heaven will fall deepest into hell. He that hath been nearest to conversion, being not converted, shall have the deepest damnation when he is judged. This is Capernaum's sentence, that it shall exceed Sodom's for severity, because she exceeded Sodom in the enjoyment of mercy. She received more from God. She knew more of God. and she professed much for God and yet was not right with God. Therefore, she shall be punished more by God. The higher the rise, the greater the fall. The higher the profession, the lower the damnation. He miscarrieth with a light in his hand, and he perisheth under many convictions. And convictions never end but in a sound conversion. as in all saints, or in a sad damnation as in all hypocrites. Praying ground, hearing ground, professing ground, and conviction ground is of all the worst ground to perish upon. Now then, to sum up all under this head. If to be almost a Christian hinders the true work of conversion, if it be easily mistaken for conversion, if it be a degree of blasphemy, if this be that which quiets conscience, if this subjects a man to commit the unpardonable sin, if it lays us liable to apostasy, if it provokes God to give us up to spiritual judgments, And if it be that which exceedingly aggravates our damnation, sure then it is a very dangerous thing to be almost and but almost a Christian. Oh, labor to be altogether Christians, to go farther than they who have gone farthest and yet fall short. This is the great counsel of the Holy Ghost. so run that ye may obtain. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Need you any more motive to quicken you up to this important duty? Consideration number one. This is that which is not only commanded of God but that where unto all commands of God tend. A perfect conformity of heart and life to God is the sum and substance of all the commandments, both of the Old and New Testament. As the harlot was for the dividing of the child, so Satan is for dividing the heart. He would have our love and affections shared between Christ and our lusts. For he knows that Christ reckons we love him, not at all. unless we love Him above all. And this is, this isn't me speaking, this is me speaking, but this is what Luke 14 26 is all about. Loving Christ and forsaking all else. But God will have all or none. My son give me your heart. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Look into the scriptures and see what that is upon which your only stands. And you shall find that God has fixed it upon those great duties which alone tend to the perfection of your state as Christians. God has fixed your only upon believing. Only believe. God has fixed your only upon obedience. And that's what it's always been about brothers and sisters, obedience. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Only let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ. Letter A. so that your only is fixed by God upon those two great duties of believing and obeying, which both tend to the perfection of your state as Christians. Now shall God command and shall not we obey Can there be a higher motive to duty than the authority of the great God whose will is the eternal rule of righteousness? Oh let us fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man. And this is what damns the antinomian the most. The antinomian who doesn't think that God's laws have any meaning anymore in this dispensation of grace. Impossible. It's impossible. The antinomian is anti-law. Anti-law. Consideration number two. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior throughout perfect and complete mediator. He has not shed his blood by halves nor satisfied the justice of God and redeemed sinners by halves. No! But he went through with his undertaking. He bore all our sins, all of them, and shed all his blood. He died to the utmost. satisfied the justice of God to the utmost, redeemed sinners to the utmost, and now that he is in heaven he intercedes to the utmost and is able to save to the utmost. It is observed that our Lord Jesus Christ when he was upon the earth in the days of his flesh He wrought no half-cures, but whomsoever they brought to Him for healing, He healed them throughout. They brought unto Him all that were diseased, and besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment, and as many as touched were made perfectly whole. Oh, what an excellent physician is here, and there is none like Him. He Cureth infallibly, sudden and perfectly. He cures infallibly. No one ever came to him for healing that went away without it. He never practiced upon any that miscarried under his hand. He cures suddenly. No sooner in his garment touched, or no sooner is his garment touched, but his patient is healed. The leper Matthew chapter 8 verse 3, is no sooner touched but immediately cured. The two blind men in Matthew chapter 20 are no longer touched but their eyes are immediately opened. That's verse 34. And he cures perfectly. As many as were touched were made perfectly whole. Now, all this was to show what a perfect and complete Savior the Lord Jesus Christ would be to all sinners that would come to Him. They should find healing in His blood, virtue in His righteousness, and pardon for all their sins, whatever they were. Look, as Christ healed all the diseases of all that came to Him when He was on the earth, And so He pardons all the sins and heals all the wounds of all those souls that come to Him now that He is in heaven. He is a Savior throughout and shall not we be saints throughout? Shall He be altogether a Redeemer and shall not we be altogether believers? Oh what a shame is this. Consideration number three. There is enough in religion to engage us to be altogether Christians and that whatever and that whether we respect profit or comfort or grace brings both. First, religion is a gainful thing and this is a compelling motive that becomes effectual upon all. Gain is the God whom the world worships. that his prophet is the God whom the world worships. What will not men do? What will they not suffer for profit? What journeys do men take by land? What voyages by sea? Through hot and cold, through fair and foul, through storm and shine, through day and night, and all for profit. Now there is no calling so gainful as this of religion. It is the most profitable employment that we can take up. Godliness is profitable unto all things. It is a great revenue. If it be closely followed, it brings in the greatest income, peace. Indeed, some men are religious for the world's sake, and such shall be sure not to gain and not to profit. not prophet spiritually anyway. But they who are religious for religion's sake shall be sure not to lose if heaven and earth can recompense them. For godliness hath the promise both of the life that now is and that which is to come. Who would not be a Christian when the gain of godliness is so great? Many gain much in their worldly calling, but the prophet, which the true believer has from one hour's communion with God and Christ, weigheth down all the gain of the world. Cursed be that man who counts all the gain of the world worth one hour's communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, said that noble Marquis Galatius Caraciola. Galatians. It is nowhere said in scripture, quote, I mean nowhere, happy is the man that findeth silver and the man that giveth fine gold. Nowhere in scripture does it say that. These are of no weight in the balance of the sanctuary. But it is said, happy is the man that findeth wisdom. and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." By wisdom and understanding here we are to understand the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and so the Spirit of God interprets it. Quote, Behold the fear of the Lord, that it is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding." Now of all merchants, he that trades in this wisdom and understanding will prove the richest man. One grain of godliness outweighs all the gold of Ophir. There is no riches like being rich in grace. Four. Number one. This is the most necessary of riches. Other things are not so. Silver and gold are not so. And we may be and are happy without them. There is but one thing that is necessary and that is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart. have this and you have all. You lack this and you lack all. Number two, it is the most substantial gain. The things of this world are more shadow than substance. Pleasure, honor, and profit comprehend all things in this world. and therefore are the carnal man's trinity. Pleasure, honor, and profit, the trinity of the carnal man. The Apostle John calls them the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This, saith he, is all that is in the world. And truly, if this be all, all is nothing. For what is pleasure but a dream and conceit? What is honor but fancy and opinion? And what is profit but a thing of naught? Why wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? The things of the world have in them no solid substance, though foolish carnal men call them substance. but now grace is a substantial good. And so our Lord Jesus Christ calls it. That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance. To inherit that which is. Grace is a reality and other things are but show and fancy. Number three, godliness is the safest game. The gain of worldly things is always with difficulty, but seldom with safety. The soul is often hazarded in the overeager pursuit of worldly things. Nay, thousands do pawn and lose, and damn their precious souls eternally for a little silver and gold, which are but the guts and garbage of the earth. And what is a man profited to gain the whole world if he loses his own soul? But the gain of godliness is always with safety to the soul. Nay, the soul is lost and undone without it, and not saved but by the attainment of it. A soul without grace is in a lost and perishing condition. The hazard of eternity is never over with us until the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be sought by us and wrought in us. Number four. Godliness is the surest profit. As it is safe, so it is sure. Men make great ventures for the world, but all runs upon uncertainty. Many venture much and wait long and yet find no return but disappointment. They sow much and yet reap nothing. But the gain of godliness is sure to him that soweth righteousness. To him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. And as the things of this world are uncertain in the getting, and so they are uncertain in the keeping. Sure you might be able to get it, but can you keep it? It's like saying that democracy is great as long as you can keep it. Same thing. If men do not unto us For if men do not undo us, moths may. If robbery does not, rust may. If rust does not, fire may. To which all earthly pleasures are incident, as our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us in Matthew chapter 6 verse 19. Solomon lineth the world with wings. Riches make themselves wings and fly as an eagle towards heaven. A man may be rich as Devas today and yet as poor as Lazarus tomorrow. Oh how uncertain are all worldly things. But now the true treasure of grace in the heart that can never be lost. It is out of the reach of both the rust and the robber. He that gets the world gets a good that he can never keep, but he that gets grace gets a good that he shall never lose. Number five. The prophet of godliness lieth not only in this world but in the world to come. All other prophet lies in this world only, riches, honor, etc. and are called this world's goods. But the riches of godliness is chiefly in the other world's goods, in the enjoyment of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit among the saints and angels in glory. Lo, this is the gain of godliness. Such honor have all his saints. Number six, the gain of godliness is a durable and eternal gain. All this world's goods are perishing. Perishing pleasures, perishing honors, perishing profits, and perishing comforts. Riches are not forever, says Job. Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? Gregory, upon these words, observes that earthly treasures are treasures of snow. What pains do children take to scrape and roll the snow together to make a snowball, which is no sooner done that the heat of the sun dissolves it and it comes to nothing? Why, the treasures of worldly men are but treasures of snow. When death and judgment come, they melt away and come to nothing. Rich is profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death. Now you can see here the great advantages of godliness. So that if we look at profit, we shall find enough in religion to engage us to be altogether Christians. Number two, if we look at comfort, well religion is the most comfortable profession. There are no comforts to be compared to the comforts of grace and godliness. Number one, worldly comfort is only outward. It is but skin deep. In the midst of laughter, the heart is sorrowful. But now the comfort that flows from godliness is an inward comfort, a spiritual joy. Therefore it is called gladness of heart. Thou hast put gladness in my heart. Other joys smooth the brow, but this fills the breast. Number two, worldly comfort has neither spring or worldly comfort hath another spring. The spring of worldly comfort is in the creature and in some earthly enjoyment, and therefore the comfort of worldly men must needs be mixed and muddy. An unclean fountain cannot send forth pure water, but spiritual comfort has an upper spring. The comfort that accompanies godliness flows from the manifestations of the love of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. from the workings of the Blessed Spirit in the heart, which is first a counselor and then a comforter. Therefore, the comforts of the saints must needs be pure and unmixed comforts or they flow from a pure spring. Number three, worldly comfort is very fading and transitory. The triumphing of the wicked is but short, and the joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment. Solomon compares it to the crackling of thorns under a pot, which is but a blaze and is soon out. So is the comfort of the carnal heart. But now the comfort of godliness is a durable and abiding comfort. Your heart shall rejoice and your joy no man shall take from you. The comfort of godliness is lasting and everlasting. It abides by us in life, in death, and after death. First, it abides by us in life. Grace and peace go together. Godliness brings forth comfort and peace naturally. The effect of righteousness shall be peace. It is said of the primitive Christians that they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Every duty done in uprightness and sincerity reflects some comfort upon the soul. In keeping the commands, there is a great reward, not only for keeping of them, but in keeping of them. As every flower, so every duty carries sweetness and refreshness with it. Now here's an objection. But who more dejected and disconsolate than saints and believers, whose lives are more uncomfortable whose mouths are more filled with complaints than theirs. If a condition of godliness in Christianity be a condition of so much comfort, then why are they thus? Well, here's the solution. That the people of God are oftentimes without comfort, that I grant. They may walk in the dark and have no light, but this is none of the product of godliness. Grace brings forth no such fruit as this. there is a three-fold rise and spring of it. Sin within, desertion and temptation without. Number one, sin within. The saints of God are not all spirit and no flesh, all grace and no sin. They are made up of contrary principles. There is light and darkness in the same mind. will, carnal and spiritual in the same affections. There is the flesh lusting against the Spirit. In all these, and too often the Lord knows, is the believer led away captive by these warring lusts. So was the Holy Apostle himself. Okay, speaking of the Apostle Paul. Revelation, I'm sorry, Romans chapter 7. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. Now remember the Apostle Paul had been regenerated for a good 20 years in his ministry when he's writing this. Okay, this happens to the best of us. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with me. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin. And this was that which broke his spiritual peace and filled his soul with trouble and complaints, as you see in Romans chapter 7 verse 24. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Or from this body of death? And so that it is sin that interrupts the peace of God's people. Okay? And all the elect know this. We go through it every single day. Not a day goes by. Just doesn't. Indwelling lust, stirring and breaking forth must needs cause trouble and grief in the soul of a believer. For it is as natural for sin to bring forth trouble as it is for grace to bring forth peace. Every sin contracts a new guilt upon the soul, and guilt provokes God. And where there is a sense of guilt contracted, God provoked, there can be no peace, no quiet in that soul till faith procures fresh sprinklings of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the conscience. It's like the Lord Jesus telling Paul when Paul's complaining about his thorn, my grace is sufficient for thee. Well he wouldn't have said it if it wasn't true. Number two, Another spring of the believer's trouble and disconsolateness of spirit is the desertions of God. And this follows upon the former. Look, brothers and sisters, God does sometimes disappear and hide himself from his people. It's just a fact. It happens that way. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself. But the cause of God's hiding is the believers sinning. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you. It's because we dwell in flesh. Just because our spirits are regenerated, we still have to live in this flesh which is not regenerated. The flesh isn't cured until glorification, when our race on this earth is over. That's it. That's why we have this problem, because we live in flesh, warring against it constantly. In heaven, where there is no sinning, there is no losing the light of God's countenance for a single moment. And if saints here could serve God without corruption, then they would enjoy God without desertion. But this cannot be. While we are in this state, remaining lusts will stir and break forth and then God will hide his face. And this must needs be trouble. Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled. The light of God's countenance shining upon the soul is the Christian's heaven on this side of heaven. Therefore it is no wonder if the hiding of his face be looked upon by the soul as one of the days of hell. So it was by David, quote, the sorrows of death compass me, the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow, close quote. Number three, a third spring of that trouble and complaint that brims the banks of the Christian spirit is the temptations of Satan. He is the great enemy of the saints and he envieth the quiet and the comfort that their hearts are filled with. when his conscience is brimmed with horror and terror. Therefore, though he knows he cannot destroy our peace, yet he labors to disturb our peace. Mead says there, I say ours since I'm talking to you. Okay? And that's just a fact, brothers and sisters. Satan's minions are upon us 24-7. It's just that way. That is their commission, to torment us. Which is another reason why the Lord Jesus said, my grace is sufficient for you. As the blessed spirit of God is first a sanctifier and then a comforter, working grace in order to peace. So this cursed spirit of hell is first a tempter and then a troubler, first persuading to act sin, then accusing for sin once the sin has been executed. And this is his constant practice upon the spirits of God's people. He cannot endure that they should live in the light of God's countenance when he himself is doomed to eternal, intolerable darkness. And thus you see, whence it is that the people of God are often under trouble and complaint. All arises from these three springs of sin within, desertions and temptations without. Look, if the saints could serve God without sinning, and enjoy God without withdrawing, and resist Satan without yielding, well they might enjoy peace and comfort without sorrow. And this must be endeavored constantly here. But, and I want you to pay attention to this but, it will never be attained fully, except in heaven. And that's after our bodies are glorified. But yet so far as grace is the prevailing principle in the heart, and so far as the power of godliness is exercised in the life, so far the condition of a child of God is a condition of peace. For it is an undoubted truth that the fruit of righteousness shall be peace. But suppose the people of God experience little of this comfort in this life. And yet, number two, they find it in the day of death. They find it in the day of death. We find it in the day of death. Grace and holiness will minister unto us then. And that ministration will be peace. Look, believers have a two-fold spring of comfort, each one emptying itself into his soul in a dying season. One is from above him, the other is from within him. The spring that runs comfort from above him is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ sprinkled upon the conscience. The spring that runs comfort from within him is the sincerity of his heart in God's service. We lie upon the deathbed and can reflect upon our principles and performances in the service of God and there find uprightness and sincerity of heart running through all. This has to be comfort. It must be comfort. And it was so. Jew Hezekiah. Remember O Lord how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight. Nothing makes a deathbed so uneasy and hard as a life spent in the service of sin and lust. Nothing makes a deathbed so soft and sweet as a life spent in the service of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Or, put the case, the people of God should not meet with this comfort then. Yet, number three, they shall be sure to find it after death. Again, glorification. It's right there, Romans chapter 8, 28 through 30. They shall be sure to find it after death. If time bring none of this fruit to ripeness, why yet, eternity shall. Grace in time will be glory in eternity. Holiness now will be happiness then. Whatever it is a man soweth in this world, that he shall be sure to reap in the next world. He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. When sin shall end in sorrow and misery, holiness shall end in joy and glory. Well done thou good and faithful servant. Wow, those are the best words. best words. Well done thou good and faithful servant enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. That's what we do it for. We do it because we love Him. He saved us and that is our reward. Those words are better than all the gold and silver on the entire earth. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Wow, brings a tear to my eye. Whoever shareth in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ in this world shall share in the joys of the Lord Jesus Christ in the world to come. And that joy is joy. Unspeakable. and full of glory. Lo, here is the fruit of godliness. Say now, if there be not enough in religion, whether we respect prophet or comfort, to engage us to be Christians throughout. Consideration number four. What an entire resignation wicked men make of themselves to their lusts. And shall we not do the same to the Lord Jesus Christ? They give up themselves without reservation to the pleasures of sin. And shall we not, and shall we have our reserves in the service of God? They are altogether sinners. And shall we not be altogether saints? They run and faint not in the service of their lusts. And shall we faint and not run in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ? Shall the servants of corruption have their ears bored to the doorposts of sin in token of an entire and perpetual service? And shall we not give up ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ to be His forever? Shall others make a covenant with hell and death? And shall we not join ourselves to God in an everlasting covenant that cannot be forgotten? Shall they take more pains to damn their souls than we do to save ours? And make more speed to a place of vengeance than we do to a crown of righteousness? Which do you judge best? To be saved everlastingly or to perish everlastingly? There's one for you who say don't judge. Judge that. Which do you judge best? To be saved everlastingly or to perish everlastingly? Which do you count the better master? God or the devil? Christ or your lusts? I know you will determine it on Christ's side. Oh then, oh then, when others serve their lusts with all their hearts, do you serve Christ with all your heart? If the hearts of the sons of men be fully set in them to do evil, then much more let the hearts of the sons of God be fully set in them to do Consideration number five. If ye be not altogether Christians, ye will never be able to appear with comfort before God, nor to stand in the judgment of the last and great day. For this sad dilemma will silence every hypocrite. If my commands were not holy, just, and good, why did you own them? If they were holy, just, and good, why do you not obey them? If the Lord Jesus Christ was not worth the having, why did you profess Him? If He was, then why did you not cleave to Him and close with Him? If my ordinances were not appointed to convert and save souls, why did you sit under them and rest in the performance of them? Or if they were, then why did you not submit to the power of them? If religion be not good, why do you profess it? If it be good, why do you not practice it? Friend, How camest thou in here not having on a wedding garment? If it was not a wedding feast, why did you come at the invitation? If it was not a wedding feast, why did you come at the invitation? Well if it was, then why did you come without a wedding garment? I would but ask a hypocritical professor of the gospel what he will answer in that day. And actually this is something that we should all be considering ourselves. Okay? What are you going to answer in that day? Truly you deprive yourselves of all possibility of apology in the day of the righteous judgment of God. It is said of the man that had no wedding garment on that when Christ came and examined him he was speechless. He that is graceless in the day of grace will be speechless in a day of judgment. Professing Christ without a heart to close with Christ will leave our souls inexcusable and make our damnation unavoidable and more intolerable. Look, these are the motives to enforce the duty. And oh, that God would set them home upon our hearts and our conscience. Conscience says that you might not dare to rest a moment longer in a half work or being Christians within a little, but that you might be altogether Christians. Here comes a question. I apologize for my dog, Bailey, shaking her ears. Question. But you will say possibly, how shall I do? What means shall I use that I may attain to a thorough work in my heart, that I may be no longer almost, but altogether a Christian? Actually, I think I'm going to stop there. Actually, you know what? No, I'm going to finish it. I'm going to finish it. Question. What you will say possibly, how shall I do? What means shall I use? And that I may attain to a thorough work in my heart that I may be no longer almost, but altogether a Christian. Answer. Now I shall lay down three rules of direction instead of many. to further and help you in this important duty, and so leave this work to God's blessing. Direction number one. First, break off all false peace of conscience. This is the devil's bond to hold the soul from seeking after Christ. As there is the peace of God, so there is the peace of Satan. They are easily known. They are contrary, as heaven and hell, as light and darkness. The peace of God flows from a work of grace in the soul, as is the peace of a regenerate state. But the peace of Satan is the peace of an unregenerate state. It is the peace of death. In the grave, Job says there is peace. There the wicked cease from troubling. And so a soul dead in sin is full of peace and the wicked one troubles him not. The peace of God in the soul is a peace flowing from removal of all guilt by justifying grace. Being justified by faith in his blood we have peace with God. But the peace of Satan in the soul arises and is maintained by a stupidity of spirit and insensibility of guilt upon the conscience. The peace of God is a peace from sin that fortifies the heart against it. The peace of God that passeth all men's understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through the Lord Jesus Christ. Bailey, will you stop it? Stop it. Sorry. The more of this peace there is in the soul, the more is the soul fortified against sin. But the peace of Satan is peace in sin. The strong man armed keeps the house and there is all at peace. The saint's peace is a peace with God, but not with sin. The sinner's peace is a peace with sin, but not with God. This is a peace better broken than kept. It is a false, a dangerous, an undoing peace. Beloved, death and judgment will break all peace of conscience. but only that which is wrought by Christ in the soul and is the fruit of the blood of Spriggan. When he gives quietness, who can make trouble? Now that peace that death will break, why should you keep? Who would be fond of that quietness which the flames of hell will burn asunder? And yet how many travel to hell through the fool's paradise of a false peace. Oh, break off this peace! For we can have no peace with God in the Lord Jesus Christ whilst this peace remains in our hearts. The Lord Jesus gives no peace to them that will not seek it. And that man will never seek it that does not see his need of it. And he that is at peace in his lusts sees no need of the peace of Christ. The sinner must be wounded for sin and troubled under it before Christ will heal his wounds and give him peace from it. Think about that. When you go to corporate worship, do you leave broken or do you leave full of joy? I mean, it says it right here. Sinner must be wounded for sin and troubled under it before Christ will heal his wounds and give him peace from it. Direction number two. Labor after a thorough work of conviction. Every conviction will not do it. The almost Christian has his convictions as well as the true Christian. or else he had never gone so far. But they are not sound and right convictions or else he had gone farther. God will have the soul truly sensible of the bitterness of sin before it shall taste the sweetness of mercy. The plow of conviction must go deep and make deep furrows in the heart before God will sow the precious seeds of grace and comfort there so that it may have depth of earth to grow in. This is the constant method of God. First to show a man his sin, then his Savior. First his danger, then his Redeemer. First his wound, then his cure. First his own vileness, then Christ's righteousness. We must be brought to cry out, unclean, unclean, to mourn for him whom we have pierced. And then he sets open for us a fountain to wash in for sin and for uncleanness. See brothers and sisters this is more than making a decision for Christ because you're afraid to go to hell. Do you see the difference? Can you understand the difference? This is why it's important to always ask each other and those who call themselves Christians, why did you become a Christian? Why? This is a notable place, Job chapter 33 verses 17 and 28. He looked upon men and of any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not. He will deliver his soul from going down into the pit and his life shall see the light. Do you understand now? The sinner must see the unprofitableness of his unrighteousness before he profit by Christ's righteousness. The Israelites are first stung with the fiery serpents and then the brazen serpent is set up. Ephraim is first thoroughly convinced and then that is thoroughly convicted and then God's bowels of mercy work towards him. And thus it was the same with Paul, Manasseh, the jailer, etc. So that this is the unchangeable method of God in working grace. To begin with conviction of sin. Oh therefore, labor for a thorough conviction. And there are three things we should especially be convicted or convinced of. First, be convicted or convinced of the evil of sin, the filthy and heinous nature of it. This is the greatest evil in the world. It wrongs God, it wounds Christ, and it grieves the Holy Spirit. It ruins a precious soul. All other evils are not to be named with this. Beloved, though do to sin. My brethren though to do sin is the worst work, yet to see sin is the best sight. For sin discovered in its vileness makes Christ to be desired in His fullness. But above all labor to be convinced of the mischief of an unsound heart. What an abhorring it is to God what certain ruin it brings upon the soul. Oh, think often upon the hypocrite's hell. Matthew chapter 14 verse 15. Secondly, be convinced of the misery and desperate danger of a natural condition. For until we see the plague of our own hearts and the misery of our state by nature, We shall never be brought off ourselves to seek help in another. In short, total depravity. Total depravity. That's the natural condition. Total depravity. Thirdly, Be convinced of the utter insufficiency and inability of anything below the Lord Jesus Christ to minister relief to your soul in this case. All things outside the Lord Jesus Christ are physicians of no value. Duties, performances, prayers, tears, self-righteousness, corporate worship, they avail nothing in this case. They make us like the troops of Temah, to return ashamed at our disappointment from such failing brooks. Alas, it is an infinite righteousness that must satisfy for us, for it is an infinite God that is offended by us. If ever your sin be pardoned, it is infinite mercy that must pardon it. If ever you be reconciled to God, it is infinite merit that must do it. If ever your heart be changed and your state renewed, it is infinite power that must effect it. And if ever your soul escape hell and be saved at last it is infinite grace that must save it. In these three things right and sound conviction lie. That's where they lie. That's where they dwell. And wherever the Spirit of God worketh these through convictions It is in order to a true and sound conversion. For by this means the soul is brought under a right qualification for the receiving of Christ, not accepting of Christ. Receive to be given to you, not accept as in you acquiesce to it. Okay? It's all God, all the Lord Jesus Christ, all the Holy Spirit, and none of you! You are passive in it. And you must know that a sinner can never come to Christ on his own account. For he is dead in sin, in enmity against the Lord Jesus Christ, an enemy to God and the grace of God. You can't do it. That is total depravity. That is the effect of the fall. This is what David was talking about in Psalm 51 verse 5. That he was conceived in sin. You can't do it. It is impossible. You cannot make a decision for Christ outside of a work from God. You can't do it. But there are certain qualifications that come between the soul's dead state in sin and the work of conversion and closing with Christ. Whereby the soul is put into a capacity of receiving, not accepting, receiving the Lord Jesus Christ. For no man is brought immediately out of his dead state and made to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some qualifications coming in between. Now sound convictions are the right qualifications for the sinners receiving Christ. You're not even going to have those convictions without first being born again. For he came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, that is, such as see themselves as sinners, and thereby in a lost condition. And so Luke exemplifies it. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He is anointed and sent to bind up the brokenhearted, to comfort all that mourn, Oh therefore if you would be sound Christians get sound convictions. Ask those that are believers indeed and they will tell you that had not been for their convictions they had never sought after Christ for sanctification and salvation. They will tell you they had perished if they had not perished. They had been in eternal bondage but for their spiritual bondage. Had they not been lost as to themselves, they had been utterly lost as to Christ. Direction number three. Never rest in your convictions till they end in conversion. In other words, knowing is not the same as having. This is that wherein most men miscarry. For they rest in their convictions and mistake them for conversion. if sin seen were therefore forgiven or as if a sight of the lack of grace or the truth of the work of grace. That is a notable place in Hosea chapter 13 verse 13. Ephraim is an unwise son for he would not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children. The place of the breaking forth of children is the womb. As the child comes out of the womb, so is conversion born out of the womb of conviction. Now when the child sticks between the womb and the world, it is dangerous. It hazards the life both of mother and child. So when a sinner rests in conviction and goes no farther, but sticks in the place of the breaking forth of children, this is very dangerous. It hazards the life of the soul. You that are at any time under convictions, oh take heed of resting in them. Do not stay long in the place of breaking forth of children. Though it is true that conviction is the first step to conversion, yet it is not conversion. It is not conversion, it is a step towards it. A man may carry his convictions along with him into hell, What is that which troubleth poor creatures when they come to die but this? I have not improved my convictions. At such a time I was convinced of sin, but yet I went on in sin in the face of my convictions. In such a sermon I was convinced of such a duty, but I slighted the conviction. I was convinced of my lack of Christ. and of the readiness of Christ to pardon and save. But, alas, I followed not the conviction. My brethren, remember this. Slided convictions are the worst deathbed companions. There are two things especially which, above all others, make a deathbed very uncomfortable. Number one, purposes and promises not performed. Number two, convictions slided and not improved. when a man takes up purposes to close with Christ and yet puts them not into exercise or execution, and when he is convinced of sin and duty and yet improves not his convictions, oh this will sting and wound at the last. Now therefore, hath the Spirit of the Lord been at work in your souls? Have you ever been convinced of the evil of sin or the misery of a natural state? Of the insufficiency of all things under heaven to help? Of the fullness and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? Of the necessity of resting upon Him for pardon and peace or sanctification and salvation? Have you ever been really convinced of these things? Oh then, as you love your own souls, as ever you hope to be saved at the last and to enjoy God forever, improve these convictions and be sure you rest not in them till they rise up to a thorough close with the Lord Jesus Christ. and so end in a sound and perfect conversion. Thus shall you be not only almost but altogether a Christian. And this is the end of the book. I truly hope and pray, brothers and sisters, to take these things to heart. Take them to heart. This is serious business. The mark of the beast is upon us already and the time is short. Time is so very short and we don't have a promise for tomorrow. Any one of us could wake up dead at any moment. Please, I beg you. Seek your salvation. Seek it. Make your calling and election sure for those of you who believe yourselves to be saved. Don't close half-stepping and find out at all at the end that you were almost a Christian. This is Duane Lynn, your narrator and preacher, signing off. May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and preserve you all. Amen.