Conversion to Jesus Christ (1)

Conversion and the Need for True Salvation

Good to have you. I hope some of you will, all of you will plan on staying with us. We'll have a good time this afternoon. Bruce, good to see you this morning. Our friend from NERF is visiting with us.

Well, today we begin a new series that we've been considering to do for quite some time. It's a very important matter, of course. So let us pray for God's blessing and assistance. Our Father, as we embark on this study, we pray that you would be gracious and help us, our God, we know that to the degree we are able to speak forth the truth that is found in your holy word, the Bible, that we are hearing from you.

And so we pray that you would help us to be as those, say, who heard the Apostle Paul proclaiming your word to them, that they heard it not merely as the voice of man, but as it was in truth, your very words to them.

And so we ask that the blessed Holy Spirit, Father, take your word, the truth of your word, and illuminate our minds as to its substance and help us, our God, to see its relevance. And we pray that you would be gracious to us and enable our compliance to what we read and what we learn.

And so we pray that you would help us in this study, our God, may Christ be glorified. We pray, Lord, for those souls that are perhaps struggling and a little bit troubled, that they'd not be overwhelmed at some of these very difficult things.

And then on the other hand, we pray for perhaps those who are rather indifferent and apathetic toward the things of Christ, that you would use your word to awaken them. Indeed, may you awaken us all, that each of us would be faithful, fervent disciples of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, amen.

Conversion to Jesus Christ. And today, we want to begin this series by asking the question, are we converted? And I think that's a legitimate question to ask ourselves. There have been better men and women than you and I who have been deceived, who have deceived themselves and been deceived by others.

And we hope that that will not continue if that be the case. And so what does the word of God teach us concerning experiencing true salvation, salvation from sin? What is a true Christian, and how is a true Christian made?

I don't know how long this study is going to last. I really don't even know what we're going to address in detail next Sunday. But I know what we're dealing with today. And we'll take it a week at a time.

The Lord seems to help us and guide us in our studies in this fashion. Let's begin today by reading and counting Matthew's gospel, in which our Lord Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God. He was talking to his disciples.

And he spoke of their great need to be converted to enter the kingdom of God. Now notice the context. We're going to read this. Jesus is speaking to his disciples. Peter, James, John, the other disciples, and he tells them they need to be converted if they want to enter the kingdom of heaven.

If the Lord Jesus would tell them, I suspect the Lord Jesus could tell that to any one of us.

Also.

This is applicable to all people everywhere at all times. Are we converted? And so we read Matthew 18, 1 through 14. At that time, the disciples came to Jesus, saying, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God?

They're the same. Then Jesus called the little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said, assuredly, I say to you, unless you're converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Therefore, whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones.

For I say to you that in heaven, their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the 99 and go to the mountains to seek the one that is strayed?

And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the 99 that did not go astray. And even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

The discourse continues onward, but we stopped at that point. Matthew's gospel has five major sections of Jesus's discourse included in it. In fact, some have shown the gospel is really organized according to these five speeches, five discourses of Jesus.

And this one that we just read a portion of is the fourth discourse. And if we saw the larger context, we would see that he was actually talking about the church principally, the local church, in which our Lord sets forth the character and authority of the local church.

Now before we begin, we might just say a quick word about verse 11. If you read it in the notes that I gave you or made available to you, you'll notice that verse 11 is in brackets. And that's because it is found in the King James and New King James translation, but it's not in the others.

I don't believe it's in the New American Standard. I know it's not in the ESV, the English Standard Version, which is a good translation. Verse 11 was probably not originally penned by Matthew. Probably a scribe inserted it in a text he was copying, and he probably did so motivated out of conforming this passage in Matthew to that which is found in Luke.

And so the statement of verse 11 is a true statement, and the Lord Jesus declared this statement, but probably it wasn't within this context of Matthew's gospel. It was in Luke's gospel that it's recorded, and the scribe wanted to harmonize the gospel and so inserted it here.

But it's a true statement nevertheless, but it was perhaps given on another occasion. Now, in the verses we read, our Lord set before his disciples three different themes. First, the disciples asked the question of Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom?

And then we have his response, verses 1 through 5. And then secondly, our Lord warns his disciples of the necessity of offenses, but of great judgment for the offender. And then thirdly, the Lord gives the parable of the lost sheep, of the 100.

So let's work through the passage and understand its meaning and its implications. First, the disciples asked the question of Jesus, who is the greatest in the kingdom? At that time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God?

Matthew used the expression kingdom of heaven because he was a Jewish man, writing to Jewish readers principally, and they had a tendency to want to avoid the name of God out of reverence, and so they would speak of heaven, the dwelling place of God, rather than mentioning God directly.

And although there's some old dispensational teaching that the kingdom of heaven is different than the kingdom of God, that is not true. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are synonymous. They say the same thing.

And so here they're asking, who then is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Our Lord had been teaching his disciples as they were traveling to Jerusalem that he would suffer and die there and rise a third day.

And so the disciples expected that this event would inaugurate the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. And they desired of themselves, probably viewed themselves to have an important place or role in this kingdom.

They knew he was the king. And so they wanted a high place in this kingdom. And so they asked the Lord, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Assuming that that was a legitimate request and a legitimate desire.

It would seem they were more concerned about themselves and their role in the kingdom than what the Lord was to face in Jerusalem. And whereas he spoke to them of his own sufferings and humiliation, they would ask him of their own glory and privilege.

There's something incongruent here. And the Lord essentially rebukes them. There may have been an additional reason for asking this question. It would seem that Peter had been singled out to stand above the rest up to this point.

Was Peter to be their leader, the most prominent in the kingdom? For Matthew had given a great attention to Peter and his involvement among the disciples. No, not in the earlier chapters, but in several chapters prior to this, Matthew 14 through 18, Peter seemed to have a preeminence in the unfolding story.

Peter had walked upon the water. It was Peter who had asked a question on behalf of the disciples regarding ceremonial washings and defilement. Our Lord had singled out Peter when he said to him, You are Peter, upon this rock I will build my church.

And then it was on the Mount of Transfiguration in which Peter's words are recorded of the three disciples who were with Jesus. And it would appear here in Matthew 17, just prior to Matthew 18, Peter seemed to be singled out by the locals and questioned about the payment of the temple tax.

And so Matthew's gospel presents Peter as really being a preeminent person coming to the forefront. It might be understandable then that the disciples wanted to know whether Peter was to be their leader, whether he was to have the greatest position in the kingdom.

But on the other hand, our Lord had seemed to humble Peter on occasion, perhaps creating some doubt as to whether or not he would be greatest among them. The Lord rebuked Peter openly, Matthew 16. And then, of course, Peter was but one of the three, along with James and John, who were really the inner circle with the Lord Jesus.

Peter seemed to be impulsive and at times unwise, as indicated by his express desire to build three tents on the Mount of Transfiguration to have Jesus, Moses, and Elijah dwell there with them. And so perhaps Peter wouldn't be the greatest among them.

And so some have suggested that this is the nature of their question. But it seems to me that there was among the disciples at this stage of their development a sinful competition among them as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest among the disciples.

In fact, we can read of the parallel account of this event in Mark 9. They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house, Jesus asked them, what were you discussing on the way? But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.

And he sat down and called the twelve. Now, can you imagine the apostles, you know, I'm the greatest. And the other one said, no, no, you're not, I'm the greatest. That is so unchristian, isn't it? We see that now, but they didn't.

In fact, it even gets worse than that. If I recall the language in particular, it suggested that they were actually arguing as to who the people thought was the greatest. They think I'm the greatest. No, no, they think I'm the greatest.

It really showed a crass ignorance on their part and an insensitivity to what the Lord was about to encounter, experience. And so the Lord set them straight on that occasion. He took a small child, we read, and put the child in the midst of them, taking him in his arms.

He said, whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me, but him who sent me. And so perhaps they posed the question to Jesus, you know, who will be the greatest in the kingdom?

Will it be Peter or not? But I think probably they were expressing some of their sinful, selfish ambition on this occasion. And so the Lord called a child to them, set him in the middle of them all. Children seem to be found frequently in our Lord's presence.

Here he calls his child to come to him, even among 12 grown men, and the child comes readily, immediately. It would seem that children felt comfortable with the Lord Jesus and desired to be with him. He was approachable.

He then told his disciples, not who would be the greatest in the kingdom, but they would do well to even enter the kingdom. Think about that. He's talking to his disciples here. To do so, they must become as his child.

And so in using this analogy, our Lord, it's not saying that children are innocent and pure, for the Bible does not teach this. Children are not pure and innocent and righteous. They're sinners, they're guilty, they're condemned.

They need a savior. But children are humble in one sense, at least in a humility that should characterize his disciples, and that's the point of the child. Unless you humble yourself as a child, you're not going to enter the kingdom, is basically what he told his disciples.

And so a child is one who is commonly, generally humble, unpretentious, unassuming, teachable, and compliant. And disciples of Jesus are to be to their master as children, humble before one another, not characterized by sinful pride.

And that's the point of the analogy. And so our Lord told the disciples they needed converted. In one sense, they were already converted men. They were disciples of Jesus, obviously. But they needed to be converted further.

They needed to become as children. Charles Spurgeon wrote of this. They needed to be converted from self-seeking to humbleness and content. A little child has no ambitious dreams. He's satisfied with little things.

He trusts, he aims, not at greatness. He yields to command. There is no entering into the kingdom of heaven but by descending from fancy greatness to real lowliness of mind and becoming as little children.

To rise to the greatness of grace, we must go down to the littleness, the simplicity, and the trustfulness of childhood. And since this was the rule for the apostles, we may depend upon it. We cannot enter the kingdom in any less humbling manner.

Amen.

Only those who become as children have any place in the kingdom of God. Those who humble themselves as children, they are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In the kingdom of heaven, the least is the greatest.

And that was a correct statement by Spurgeon. And so the disciples were to turn, that is, repent and be converted. Of course, we recognize that although men are commanded, all people are commanded to do such things, it's only through the grace of God that they do those things or can do those things or respond to the command of the Lord.

And so we may take to heart the words of Jeremiah when he appealed to God, Turn thou me and I shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. And that should always be our attitude and approach when we recognize we need to turn, we need to recognize our really inability, apart from the grace of God, to do it.

Lord, if you don't do it, I'm a goner. Turn me and I will be turned. And we trust God to do in us and for us that which we cannot do ourselves. Well, then our Lord warned his disciples about the importance and their accountability to treat believers righteously.

Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses.

Offenses must come. We live in a fallen world. They are going to come. But woe to that man by whom the offense comes. If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It's better for you to enter into life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire.

Here, when our Lord speaks of one such child or one of these little ones, we should understand him as not only speaking of children in general, but of his disciples in particular. The metaphor continues.

He regards his people as his little ones. They are the ones for whom he cares greatly. He loves greatly. The one who leads one of his disciples into sin will receive great condemnation by the Lord when he stands in judgment.

You can well imagine, as a parent, if you learned that someone was leading your son or daughter into sin, you'd be greatly concerned, wouldn't you? And the Lord is when people lead his disciples, the disciples of the Lord Jesus, into sin.

The Lord promised blessing on the one who receives one such child, that is, a humble disciple of Jesus. And so to receive a disciple is to receive Jesus, is what Jesus said. He views favor shown to one of his own as favor done unto him.

On the other hand, the Lord pronounces great condemnation upon one who would cause his disciple to sin against him. In fact, he uses the word woe. That's a common word to the prophets of the Old Testament, pronouncing God's judgment, impending death and destruction upon a people.

And so the Lord speaks of the necessity that temptations come, but he holds responsible those who bring it about. Temptations and offenses. And one considers our Lord's words to his disciples in this context.

Basically, he will bless those who bless his people and essentially curse those who curse his people. We're reminded of the promise of God to Abraham. God told Abraham, I will bless those who bless you, will curse him who curses you.

And often you'll hear people extend this promise to ethnic Jewish people, or some say it applies to the nation of Israel as a political entity. But our Lord makes it clear that the promise of blessing and cursing is contingent on how people treat his disciples who are in covenant relationship with God through faith in Christ.

The Lord then warned his disciples about their need to repent of sin. He spoke in very graphic and hyperbolic terms in order to press upon his disciples the absolute necessity to be converted. If your hand or foot caused you to sin, cut it off.

If your eye caused you to sin, pluck it out. And so he's arguing that true conversion was absolutely necessary. It should be our foremost priority. Nothing should cause us to delay action or to diminish or lessen the steps to turn from sin and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ to become one of his true disciples.

For the consequences of refusal or failure are horrendous. Our Lord speaks of those who are not his true disciples as being thrown into the fire of hell. You might receive those grace gems. I receive them.

People send them to me. One of Mary's sisters out in California sends them to me about every day or two. And I received this the other day from her. And it was by Thomas Brooks. And he wrote about the eternal punishment of the wicked.

And this is frightening. And by the way, he wrote these words immediately in the context of the great London fire of 1670. And then he was trying to waken the people to the reality of hell. First he quoted a couple verses, Revelation 20, verse 10.

The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and false prophet are. They'll be tormented day and night forever and ever. And then Revelation 21, 8. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable murderers, sexually immoral sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

And then Thomas Brooks went on to say, as the mercy of God is infinite towards the elect, so the justice of God is infinite towards the reprobate in hell. The reprobate shall have punishment without pity, misery without mercy, sorrow without support, crying without compassion, mischief without measure, and torment without end.

All men in misery comfort themselves with the hope of an ending to their misery. The prisoner comforts himself with hope of a deliverance. The mariner comforts himself with the hope of a safe harbor. The soldier comforts himself with the hope of victory.

The slave comforts himself with the hope of liberty. But the impenitent sinner, that is a sinner who doesn't repent of his sin, turn from his sin, has no hope in hell. He shall have death without death, night without day, mourning without myrrh, sorrow without solace, bondage without liberty.

The damned shall live as long in hell as God himself shall live in heaven. That's not something you don't hear today in our so-called polite society, is it? Why, preaching hellfire and damnation. But that's what the Lord Jesus was doing, wasn't he?

To his own disciples in this context of Matthew 18. And then Brooks went on to write, suppose, he gave this metaphor, which just causes you to tremble when you consider it, suppose, say some, that the whole world were turned into a mountain of sand and that a little bird should come every thousandth year and carry away one grain of sand from that heat.

What an infinite number of years not to be numbered by all finite beings would be spent before this supposed mountain would be fetched away. Mountain as large as the earth. Now if a man should lie in everlasting burning so long a time as this and then have an end of his woe, it would administer ease, refreshment, and comfort to him.

But when that immortal bird shall have carried away this supposed mountain of sand a thousand times over and over, alas, alas, man shall be as far from the end of his anguish and torment as ever he was.

He shall be no nearer coming out of hell than he was the very first moment that he entered into hell. If the fire of hell were terminable, it might be tolerable, but being endless, it must be easeless and remedy-less.

Some people would say that I'm abusing you just by reading something like that, but our Lord, this is how he spoke, didn't he? Very clearly and directly, this is serious business. Our Lord gave great encouragement for Sanders to repent of sin.

He spoke in terms that would arrest the attention of his hearers, and that's why he spoke in these terms, to press upon them the vital importance to respond to his instructions and the urgency to take action for the outcome of compliance is eternal blessing of God.

The result of failure or refusal is everlasting misery, and our Lord encouraged not only repentance by warning of the consequence or failure of refusal, but he encouraged repentance by showing how much God desires and welcomes the one who repents of sin and comes to him through faith in Jesus Christ, and so the outcome, the result, is either everlasting life or everlasting fire, and both are realities.

The Lord Jesus spoke truth. Every word was true, but natural man would push these thoughts far from him. We might shrink from bringing the matter up before us, but our Lord Jesus was forthright about the reality of this matter, and again he declared the need for full, absolute, continuous faith and commitment to him as a great savior of sinners.

There's no action too great, he's arguing. We must not fail to repent of sin. We must be converted wholly to him. Are we converted? Well, then thirdly, the Lord warned his disciples about their need to repent of sin and then tells them the parable of the lost sheep.

Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones. He's still using the metaphor of the children as his disciples. For I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

I'm not even going to go there and try to explain what that is all about, but the Lord emphasizes it's important because they've got angels watching over them. You better be careful how you treat them.

And then he gave this parable.

What do you think?

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety and nine and go to the mountains to seek the one he strayed? He's talking about the desire of God to rescue lost people and how he welcomes them.

He does everything that's necessary to recover that one unto himself. And our Lord concluded that statement with verse 14. Even so, it's not the will of your Father who's in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

And so our Lord sought to encourage his disciples. He showed forth their need for repentance and the blessing that would come if they were converted, truly converted, and they would avoid perishing. And so our Lord pressed upon his disciples the absolute necessity of personal conversion in order to be granted everlasting life and to escape everlasting damnation.

Conversion is absolutely essential. Jesus said, unless you be converted, become like one of these children, this child, you're not going to enter the kingdom of heaven. You're not going to have salvation.

It doesn't matter what you claim, what you believe, what you do. If you're not converted, you're not going to heaven. You're going to hell. And so this emphasizes, before it presses upon us, the importance of this matter of conversion, doesn't it?

We need to understand it. Not just understand it, but we need to make sure that we are converted to Jesus Christ. And so we should ask that question. Are we converted to Jesus Christ? There's a sense of urgency to our Lord's words.

There's a pressing of individual responsibility and accountability. If he said this to Peter, James, and John, he's saying it to you and me. This is the most important matter that a human being can give his attention and his effort towards.

And so we should ask ourselves, are we converted to Jesus Christ? What is that? What does that look like? How is that done? Well, we must use all the means available to us to make sure we're numbered among his little ones for whom he has great care and concern, for he will rescue them from all threat and danger that they had brought upon themselves through sin.

At this point, I thought a definition or description of conversion would be good. And by the way, I have a number of books, older Puritan books on conversion, but there's one that I have, and there's several.

I ordered one yesterday by Paul Washer. He has one out on conversion I just learned about. But David Wells wrote one a couple of years ago, some years ago, Turning to God, Biblical Conversion in the Modern World, and it's quite a good book.

And here is a definition he provides for conversion. Conversion is the process whereby we turn from our sin and repentance and turn to God through faith in the finished work of Christ upon the cross for us.

Conversion always means turning to Christ from unfaithfulness and sin to receive God's grace. After his resurrection, conversion occurs through God's son, Jesus Christ. For Jew and Gentile, insider and outsider, the same salvation is offered, received, celebrated, and proclaimed.

The salvation results in the same responsibilities and demands the same obedience. Its beginning, center, and end is Christ. And knowing a little about the subject of conversion, I would argue that he did a very good job in the precise words that he chose.

We'll later show in our study, and probably early on, maybe next week, that conversion involves first a work of God's grace and then our response to that work of grace. Conversion involves both God's action as well as our action.

Conversion involves our response as well as God's work of grace in us. And so this subject is a very important matter to which we should give our greatest attention and seek to understand it, because there's a whole lot of error and ignorance regarding this, as we'll show.

The importance of the question of our individual conversion is magnified, however, when we consider other matters than even what our Lord presented here in this passage. And I want to give us several other reasons why this subject of conversion and this question, are we converted, is most important.

So first, the importance of our study regarding conversion to Jesus Christ is magnified because of the prevalent ignorance concerning true conversion to Jesus Christ. There's crass ignorance among so-called Bible believers about the nature of true conversion.

Much of evangelicalism, those who claim to believe and to be governed by the Bible as the Word of God, have distorted the meaning of conversion. And there are numbers of forms of this error. But one common error is the belief that conversion is a single event in one's life, irrespective of the kind of life that follows one's conversion.

Do you understand what that's saying? In other words, it's some great event that happens in a person's life, but conversion is viewed as not being associated with or accompanied with a life change. Conversion is an experience somebody had, maybe a very important emotional, spiritual experience.

And they assume that experience in and of itself is conversion irrespective of whether it changes the life. And this is a common error. Wells wrote about this. However, this relationship is initiated quietly or dramatically over a long or a short period of time.

It, that is, conversion, inaugurates a life devoted to serving God. Conversion is not an isolated event, but is related to the entire life of faith that flows from it, follows from it. It is the moment of birth into new life.

It's like a doorway into a room. A person who is born to live, not to linger on the edge of the womb in a time limbo. A person opens a door, not for the pleasure of standing forever on the threshold, but to enter the room.

The evangelical world has strangely perverted this truth. Evangelicals often make the test of spiritual life one's willingness to testify about the moment of birth. In other words, they've reduced conversion to this significant personal experience.

Describing one's sensations in passing through the doorway is proof that one is in the room. If you can give a glowing testimony of an experience, and any more, you can make that experience of any kind you want, as long as it's significant to you, and you're in the room.

You're a Christian, it's argued. You've been converted. And Wells argues rightly, this shifts the focus from where it ought to be, the evidence of the Spirit's renewing work in producing a God-centered life, a God-fearing heart, God-honoring character and witness, and places it on a person's autobiographical account of the conversion crisis.

The only real proof of our conversion is an obedient and fruitful life.

Amen.

And if everybody just took that to heart and understood that, a lot of problems could be fixed. But most regard conversion as an experience in which one is greatly impressed and moved, which results in a change of how they view themselves and how they think their relationship with Jesus Christ has been changed.

And so because of their experience, and after that experience, the person believes himself to have been converted. And this experience can be quite remarkable in nature and degree. A person's belief and behavior have perhaps undergone a degree of change, maybe moral renovation results in a measure.

But this can occur and does occur frequently in people when true conversion has not occurred. There is much error and ignorance about the conversion experience. And in our study, we are going to try and sort through that and show what's true and what's false.

Second, the importance of our study regarding conversion to Jesus Christ is magnified because many look to slim or wrong evidence to support their belief that they are converted to Christ. Our Lord Jesus pressed upon his disciples their responsibility to wholly commit their hearts and lives to him.

Jesus declared, whoever does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple. You cannot be a Christian. You cannot have salvation. You cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you forsake all that you have and you commit yourself to Christ as your Lord and your Savior.

He also said this, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. There again, our Lord's manner of pressing upon people his truth in such a way to slap them in the face to get their attention and see the gravity of the matter.

We could ask a simple question. Is there anything in your life that you love more than Jesus Christ? You've got a problem. And all these things always encroach upon us, of course, and we've got to always put them in proper place, don't we?

But this is a lifetime struggle that we have as Christians. When we read a passage like that, we start assessing ourselves, doubting ourselves, correcting ourselves by the grace of God. But this is what he declared.

But many presume what they believe and what they've done is proof to them that they've been converted. A Puritan by the name of Matthew Mead published a book in 1661, and it was entitled The Almost Christian Discovered.

In other words, somebody who's almost a Christian, and this is how you, you know, this is, he's discovered, he's revealed. And then the subtitle, The False Professor Tried and Cast. The false professor is someone who professes to know Jesus Christ, but he's a false professor.

He's not a true believer. And his book addressed four overarching questions which include the following. Question one, How far a man may go in the way of heaven, or to heaven, and yet be almost a Christian?

In other words, not a Christian,.

Almost a Christian.

I bought a little metal sign, you know, kind of like a, you know, for sale sign, no trespassing sign, but it was a sign years ago. It said, How much can I get away with and still go to heaven? And I bought that because I thought that so graphically depicted the attitude and belief of so many.

How much can I get away with and still go to heaven? Here he addressed, How far may a man go in the way to heaven? In other words, how far can a person look like a Christian but not be? Question two, Why is it that many go so far and yet no farther?

Question three, Why is it that many are but almost Christians when they've gone thus far? And fourthly, What is the reason that many go no further in the profession of religion than to be almost Christians?

And they used to religion, say religion, use the term religion for Christian faith, Christian life. Well, just in answer to question one, Mead listed 20 ways in which an almost Christian may go in the way of heaven.