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 and 15 hour and 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 and to consider 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 Jonathan Edwards book 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 Meade 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. motes." 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 yet as soon as the sun hits it, you see how dirty it really is. Okay? "...as the light of the sun discovers the little motes, and 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. 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 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 is 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 three-fold 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. Thirdly, a man may go far in this a name in the world. Well, same thing is said of the 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 Machiavel's principle that the appearance of virtue is to be sought, because though the use of it is a trouble, Rome, 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 thing shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And he went far and did much, obeying many commands, and all out of a desire of salvation. So then, put these together and 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. Thirdly, how is it that many are but 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. 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. Continuing. 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, 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 upon the sinner's heart, wrought on 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. And this is the conviction that is a sound and thorough work. 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 this question to its just length. I shall therefore in five things only lay down the most considerable Number one, and I'm actually not going to read more than an hour on this because this is a lot to be able to consider. So anyway, continuing. Number one, natural convictions reach chiefly to open and scandalous sins, sins against the light of nature, or for natural convictions. 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 trouble inward as well as 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 as In other words, he's saying, you know, it's a work of the Holy Spirit and 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. Continuing, 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 a 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 original sin. Well, hear what Seneca says. Sin is not born with you, but brought in since. Well, that sounds just like Wesleyan Arminianism 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 means us how blind were they in this point? Okay, and so was Paul till 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 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. Mead says the same thing. But now, spiritual convictions work the soul into a greater sensibleness of the evil that is in sin than of the evil that comes by sin. The dishonor done to God by walking contrary to his will. Thank you. 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. 4. 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 at 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 till they have reached their end, which is the change of the sinner. 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. And 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 physician, and when it is healed, there are the tokens of it remaining in the soul, 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. 5. Natural convictions make the soul shy of God. Okay? Guilt works fear, and fear causes estrangedness. Thus it was with Adam. When he saw his nakedness, he ran away and hid himself from God. Now, spiritual convictions but rather they drive the soul unto God. Ephraim's conviction was spiritual, and thus he runs to God. Turn now me, and I shall be turned. 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 as the former, yet if he be without the latter, he is but almost a Christian. And therefore we have great reason to inquire more after this spiritual conviction. For, 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. Till 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 No, so long as sin is unseen, Christ will be unsought. They that behold 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 the clasp without 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 hypocrites. Nay, it is not only the spring of hypocrisy, but it is also the spring of apostasy. What was the cause of 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 quithers 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 or lack of sound convictions. Secondly, and this has a near relation to the former, where 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 loom will never wear well, nor wear long. It will do little service. And so, thorough work of grace in his heart, and will never wear well. He will shrink in the wedding, and never do much service for God. It is not the pruning of a bad tree that will make it bring forth good fruit, but that the tree must be 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 sure that he will either die a hypocrite or an apostate. Look, as in nature, if a man be not well born, but prove 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, that's John 3.3, if there be not a thorough work of grace in his heart, all his profession of religion will never mend him. Hypocrite at the last A form of godliness may cover his crookedness, but he will never cure it And I'm actually gonna stop there because that's a lot to take in a lot to take in Okay Anyway, I thank you father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to brought us together to consider this work that was wrought on the heart of Matthew Mead by the Holy Spirit with regard to the almost Christian, the false professor, that you would show us these ways and means in order for us to examine ourselves, that we not be almost Christians. Thank you, Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.