Conversion to Jesus Christ (1)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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a custom, but it's an important matter. Good to have you. I hope some of you, all of you, will plan on staying with us.

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We'll have a good time this afternoon. Bruce, good to see you this morning. Our friend from NERF is visiting with us.

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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.

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Our Father, as we embark on this study, we pray that you would be gracious and help us, our

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God. We know that to the degree we are able to speak forth the truth that is found in your holy word, the

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Bible, that we are hearing from you, and so we pray that you would help us to be as those, say, who heard the

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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.

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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

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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.

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And so we pray that you would help us in this study, our God. May Christ be glorified. We pray,

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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.

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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.

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Indeed, may you awaken us all that each of us would be faithful, fervent disciples of Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

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Amen. Conversion to Jesus Christ.

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And today we want to begin this series by asking the question, are we converted?

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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.

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And so what does the word of God teach us concerning experiencing true salvation, salvation from sin?

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How, what is a true Christian and how is a true Christian made? I don't know how long this study is going to last.

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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.

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The Lord seems to help us and guide us in our studies in this fashion. Let's begin today by reading and counting

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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.

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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.

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

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This is applicable to all people everywhere at all times. Are we converted?

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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?

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They're the same. Then Jesus called a little child to him, set him in the midst of them, and said,

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Assuredly I say to you, unless you're converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

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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.

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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.

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Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes.

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If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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For the son of man has come to save that which was lost. 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 that is straying?

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And if he should find it assuredly, I say to you he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety nine that did not go astray.

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And even so it is not the will of your father who's in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

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The discourse continues onward but we stopped at that point. Matthew's gospel has five major sections of Jesus's discourse included in it.

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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

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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.

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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

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King James, New King James translation but it's not in the others. I don't believe it's in the New American Standard.

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I know it's not in the ESV, English Standard Version, which is a good translation. Verse 11 was probably not originally penned by Matthew.

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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.

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And so the statement of verse 11 is a true statement and the

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Lord Jesus declared this statement but probably it wasn't within this context of Matthew's gospel.

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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.

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Now in the verses we read our Lord said before his disciples three different themes.

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First the disciples asked the question of Jesus who is the greatest in the kingdom and then we have his response verses one through five and then secondly our

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Lord warns his disciples of the necessity of offenses but of great judgment for the offender and then thirdly the

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Lord gives the parable of the of the lost sheep of the 100. So let's work through the passage and understand its meaning and its implications.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Our Lord had been teaching his disciples as they were traveling to Jerusalem that he would suffer and die there and rise the 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 a high place in this kingdom and so they asked the

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Matthew 14 through 18 Peter seemed to have a preeminence in the unfolding story.

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Peter had walked upon the water it was Peter who had asked the question on behalf of the disciples regarding ceremonial washings and defilement.

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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

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Mount of Transfiguration in which Peter's words are recorded of the three disciples who are with Jesus and it would appear here in Matthew 17 just prior to Matthew 18

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Peter seemed to be singled out by the locals and questioned about the payment of the temple tax and so Matthew's gospel presents

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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

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Lord had seemed to humble Peter on occasion perhaps creating some doubt as to whether or not he would be greatest among them.

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The Lord rebuked Peter openly Matthew 16 and then of course

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Peter was but one of the three along with James and John who were the really the inner circle with the

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Lord Jesus. Peter seemed to be impulsive and at times unwise as indicated by his expressed desire to build three tents on the

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Mount of Transfiguration to have Jesus, Moses, and Elijah dwell there with them and so perhaps

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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 trying arguing as to who the people thought was the greatest.

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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

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Lord was about to encounter experience and so the Lord set them straight on that occasion.

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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.

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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

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Lord called a child to them set him in the middle of them all children seem to be found frequently in our

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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

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Lord Jesus and desire 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.

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Think about that he's talking to his disciples here to do so they must become as this child and so in using this analogy our

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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 carry them characterizes 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

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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

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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 fancied 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 thing 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 law 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

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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

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Lord if you don't do it I'm a goner turn me and I will be turned and we trust

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God to do in us and for us that which we cannot do ourselves well then our

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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 about his neck 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

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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

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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

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Lord is when people lead his disciples the disciples of the Lord Jesus into sin the

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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

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Jesus is what Jesus said he views favor shown to one of his own as favor done unto him on the other hand the

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Lord pronounces great condemnation upon one who had caused his disciple to sin against him in fact he uses the word woe that's a common word to the prophets of the

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Old Testament pronouncing God's judgment impending death and destruction upon a people so the

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Lord speaks of the necessity that temptations come but he holds responsible those who bring it about temptations and offenses when one considers our

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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 were reminded of the promise of God to Abraham.

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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

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Jewish people or some say it applies to the nation of Israel as a political entity but our

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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.

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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

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Lord Jesus Christ to become one of his true disciples for the consequences of refusal or failure are horrendous our

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Lord speaks of those who are not his true disciples as being thrown into the fire of hell you might receive those grace gems

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I received them people send them to me Mary 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

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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

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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

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Revelation 21 8 but the cowardly unbelieving abominable murderers sexually immoral sorcerers idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burned with fire and brimstone which is the second death and then

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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 a sin turn from a sin has no hope in hell he shall have death without death night without day morning without myrrh sorrow without solace bondage without liberty the dam 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

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I 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

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Brooks went on to write suppose he gave this metaphor which just caused you to tremble when you consider it suppose a son 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 some 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 eat easeless and remedy less now some people would say that I'm abusing you just by reading something like that but our

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Lord was that's just how he spoke didn't he very clearly and directly this is serious business our

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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

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Lord encouraged not only repentance by warning of the consequence or failure of refusal but he encouraged repentance by showing how much

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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

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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

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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

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Savior 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

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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

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I'm not even gonna go there and try to explain what that is all about but the

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Lord emphasized it's important because they've got they've got people watching 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 talking about the desire of God to rescue lost people and how he welcomes him he does everything that's necessary to recover that one unto himself and our

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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

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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

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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

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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 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

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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 us 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 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 who said at this point

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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 there's several

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I ordered one yesterday by Paul Washer he has one out on conversion I just learned about but David Wells wrote one a couple 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.

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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.

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Conversion always means turning to Christ from unfaithfulness and sin to receive God's grace.

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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

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Christ and knowing a little about the subject of conversion

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I would argue that he did a very good job in the precise words that he chose.

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We'll later show in our study and probably early on maybe next week that conversion involves first the work of God's grace and then our response to that work of grace.

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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.

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So this subject is a very important matter to which we should give our greatest attention seek to understand it because there's a whole lot of error and ignorance regarding this as we'll show.

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The importance of the question of our individual conversion is magnified however when we consider other matters than even what our

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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.

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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.

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There's crass ignorance among so -called Bible believers about the nature of true conversion.

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Much of evangelicalism those who claim to believe and to be governed by the Bible is 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.

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You understand what that's saying? In other words it's a 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.

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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.

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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

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God. Conversion is not an isolated event but is related to the entire life of faith that flows from it follows from it.

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It is the moment of birth into new life it's like a doorway into a room a person who's born to live not to linger on the edge of the womb in a time limbo.

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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.

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Evangelicals often make the test of spiritual life one's willingness to testify about the moment of birth.

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In other words they've reduced conversion to this you know significant personal experience.

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Describing one 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.

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You're 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 spirits renewing work and producing a

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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.

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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 to be fixed.

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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.

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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 in behavior have perhaps undergone a degree of change maybe moral renovation results in a measure.

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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.

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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.

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Our Lord Jesus pressed upon his disciples their responsibility to wholly commit their hearts and lives to him.

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Jesus declared whoever does not forsake all that he has cannot be my disciple.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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But many presume what they believed and what they've done is proof to them that they've been converted. A Puritan by the name of Matthew Meade published a book in 1661 and it was entitled

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The Almost Christian Discovered. In other words somebody who's almost a Christian and this is how you you know this this is he's discovered he's revealed and then the subtitle

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The False Professor Tried and Cast. The false professor is someone who professes to know

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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.

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Question one how far a man may go in the way of heaven or to heaven and yet be almost a

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Christian. In other words not a Christian almost a Christian. I bought a little metal sign you know it's kind of like a you know for sale sign no trespassing sign but it was a sign years ago said how much can

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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.

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How much can I get away with and still go to heaven? Well here he addressed how far may a man go on the way to heaven.

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In other words how 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?

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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

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Christians and they used to religion say religion use the term religion for Christian faith

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Christian life. Well just in answer to question one Mead listed 20 ways in which an almost

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Christian may go in the way of heaven and some of these things will startle you but I've read through the ones that startled me and he makes a good biblical argument for each of them believe me.

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And so we describe beliefs and experiences of those who think they're Christians but who may yet be in their sins and so here are the chapter titles.

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A man may have much knowledge yet be but almost a Christian. You might be better informed in theology than the rest of us and not a

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Christian. Second a man may have great and imminent spiritual gifts and yet be almost a

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Christian. Someone can have the spiritual gifts a spiritual gift and not be a Christian absolutely.

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Paul declared if I could speak in the tongues of angels and have not love I'm nothing. If I do all mysteries had faith to move mountains have not love

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I'm nothing. Third a man may have a high profession of religion be much in external duties of godliness and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may go far in opposing his sin and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may hate sin and yet be almost but almost a

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Christian. Saul the Pharisee hated sin. A man may make great vows and promises strong purposes and resolutions against sin and yet but be but almost an almost

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Christian. A man may maintain a strife in combat against sin and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may be a member of a Christian Church and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may have great hopes of heaven in other words he has assurance of salvation and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may be under visible changes in other words a

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Bunyan John Bunyan described a life of transformation for a year and everybody in the town talked about what a wonderful conversion that John Bunyan underwent until one day he heard a couple older Christian ladies talking about their love for Christ and he realized he had none of that.

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He was unconverted. A man may be very zealous in matters of religion and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may be much in prayer and yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may suffer for Christ and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may be called by God and embrace his call and yet be but almost an almost

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Christian. Demas forsook the Lord for the world.

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A man may have the Spirit of God and yet be almost a Christian. He's not talking about being regenerated there but having the

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Spirit of God operative in his life. Judas apparently could do miracles like the other

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Apostles. Nobody suspected it was Judas. A man may may have faith and yet be but almost a

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Christian. There's a faith that doesn't save. Temporary faith doesn't save. Hypocritical faith doesn't save.

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A man may have a love to the people of God yet be but almost a Christian. A man may obey the commands of God yet be but almost a

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Christian. A man may be sanctified and yet but be but almost a Christian. How could a man be sanctified and yet not be a

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Christian? Peter talked about it in second Peter too about false teachers who cleaned up their lives to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and yet later on they were overcome.

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They fell back into their old way. They were never converted. It was like a dog returning to his mom and a pig to his wallow and so these false teachers, the latter state is worse than the first, it would have been better they had never known than rather have known the way and then turned back.

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And a man may do all the external duties and worship which a true Christian can and yet be but almost a

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Christian. Many people think themselves to be true

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Christians because they are reassured of feelings of affection or emotion they experience regarding Christian things.

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They like Christian things. They like music and this reinforces in their mind they're

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Christian but they're not converted. They may be moved by Christian music, sentimental sermon illustrations.

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They may be attracted and moved by friendships enjoyed among the people in the church.

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They may feel to be a part of the body, presuming this is sufficient evidence of their conversion.

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The other evening I read a paper written in the 19th century by a leading Presbyterian theologian Robert Louis Dabney Shark Guy.

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B .B. Warfield said that he was one of the most brilliant men that he had ever read or known and the title of this paper was

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Spurious Religious Excitements and the paper is about how people have religious experiences and excitement but they're not converted people.

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And he went into some great detail and I think because of the time we're going to have to pass over that but he basically talks about human desires and emotions that we all have.

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We all have a common guilt that we experience because God has given us a conscience. We have common desires and delights as human beings and oftentimes in a church setting these things that are common to man are appealed to and people respond according to these things but there's nothing about them that are life changing and therefore

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Dabney shows that they can characterize people who are not converted and he's absolutely right.

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In the middle of page nine your notes I do want to give attention to this. He talked about the revivalist campaigns of his day.

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Now this is back in the early days of Charles Finney and some a chart of D .L.

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Moody and Moody was a wonderful man in many respects but there began this revivalist kind of evangelistic crusade style of evangelism and this is what

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Dabney was addressing. These plain facts and principles condemned nearly every feature of the modern new measure revival the preaching and other religious instructions are shaped with a main view to excite the carnal emotions and the instructive sympathy instinctive sympathies while no due care is taken to present saving didactic truth teachable truth to the understanding thus temporarily stimulated.

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He talks about the need to stir feelings and emotions but it's only in order to get a window open to present the truth and he talks about preachers who were able to manipulate their congregations get them feeling getting them excited but failing to produce the truth within that window and he says those preachers are abusing their people and he's absolutely right and this is what goes along much of the time in Christian circles.

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As soon as some persons profess Christians or awaken mourners are infected with any lively passion let it be however carnal and fleeting a spectacular display is made of it with confident laudations of it as unquestionably precious and saving with the design of exciting the remainder of the crowd with sympathetic contagion.

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Every adjunct of fiery declamation animated singing groans tears exclamations noisy prayers is added so as to shake the nerves and add the tumult of a hysterical animal excitement to the sympathetic wave.

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Every youth or impressible girl who seemed to tremble or grow pale or shed tears is assured that he or she is under the workings of the

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Holy Spirit and is driven by threats of vexing that awful and essential agent of salvation to join the spectacular show and add himself to the exciting pantomime and meanwhile most probably their minds are blank of every intelligent or conscientious view of the truth.

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They had been tittering and whispering a little while before during the pretended didactic part of the exercises in other words they read the scriptures there's a few words given about it okay but they could give no intelligent account now of their sudden excitement in fact it's no more akin to any spiritual rational or sanctifying cause than the quiver of the nostrils of a horse at the sound of the bugle and the fox howls.

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In other words it's just a just a natural response and much of that is purported as being spiritual and the work of the

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Holy Spirit and it's viewed as conversion when people get involved in this and we've all seen it haven't we in one degree or another maybe experienced it in one degree or another and then thirdly on top of page 10 importance of our study regarding conversion to Jesus Christ is magnified because of the many preachers and teachers who affirm professing

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Christians that they are true Christians when there's little evidence to support their claims. In the days of Jeremiah you know he was the one advocating

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God's judging us he's bringing Babylon and if you want to survive you better surrender and all the false prophets said no no

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God loves us look at the temple here God's with us you're not going to be judged and so they taught peace when there was no peace

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Jerusalem was filled with false prophets and there was Jeremiah and one or two others and there are many preachers and teachers who on the slenderest of threads profess people to be

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Christian and assure them of that when there's really no biblical grounds to suggest it.

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So Dabney again in writing about this speaks about these preachers who actually are abusing their hearers he wrote the whole use then of the sympathetic excitement is to catch the attention and warm it but it's the truth thus lodged in the attention that must do the whole work of sanctification it's the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth is what

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Dabney is saying and here is the all -important discrimination attention sympathetic warmth or merely a preparation for casting in the seed of the word the preacher who satisfies himself with exciting the sympathies and neglects to throw in at once the vital truth is like the farmer husbandman who digs and rakes the soil and then idly expects the crop though he's put no living seed in the ground the only result is a more rampant growth of weeds how often do we see this mistake committed the preacher either displays in his own person a high -wrought religious emotion or stirs the natural sensibilities by painting and exciting and pictorial words and gestures some natural feeling connected by its occasion with a religious topic as a touching death or other bereavement or he stimulates the selfish fears by painting the agonies of a lost soul or the selfish desires and hopes by a sensuous description of the pleasures of heaven and then if sympathetic feeling is awakened or the carnal passions of hope fear and desire are moved he acts as though his work were done he permits and encourages the hearers to flatter themselves that they are religious because they're feeling something round about religion

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I repeat if this stimulation of carnal and sympathetic feeling is not at once wisely used and you solely as a secondary means of fixing a warmed attention on didactic truth which is the sole instrument of conversion and sanctification then the preacher has mischievously abused the souls of his hearers the first and most obvious mischief is the encouragement of a fatal deception and self flattery unrenewed men are tacitly invited to regard themselves as either born again or at least in most part encouraging progress towards that blessing while in fact they've not felt a single feeling or principle which may not be the mere natural product of a dead heart this delusion has slain its tens of thousands that's why this matter of knowing what the

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Bible says about conversion is important and it's important to ask ourselves the question are we converted false prophets were in great number in ancient

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Israel false teachers are a great number in evangelical churches today and the constant theme of their preaching and teaching is to bolster the delusions of the hearers that they are beloved of God they've escaped

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God's wrath they have Jesus Christ as their Savior when there's little evidence in their lives to suggest that so and so because of the great number of false teachers in these matters it accentuates to us the importance of this matter are we converted what bothers me most about dealing with this subject is the common most difficult problem of the pastor and I'm always mindful of it

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I don't know how to deal with it it has to be the Holy Spirit is the tender -hearted take these warnings to heart and they get scared and they doubt they fear but the apathetic unconcerned they're just their heart of stone and you can't awaken them but the tender -hearted take it to heart and so the ones to whom it doesn't apply apply it and the ones that do which apply don't apply it you know what

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I mean it takes the work of the Spirit of God to work through this we have to close but fourthly

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I just want to emphasize just a little bit of this just to make a point or two and then we'll close. Fourth the importance of our study regarding conversion to Jesus Christ is magnified because of the many preachers and teachers who've been used of God to teach biblical truth of this most important matter as we have history you know some people argue we need to be like the church of the first century no we don't they didn't even have the whole

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New Testament they were set with problems and we've got 2 ,000 years of church history by which we can learn a whole lot if we're attentive the history of Protestantism has had its high points and low points with respect to biblical conversion the early decades of the

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Protestant Reformation was the great result or recovery of biblical teaching the biblical doctrine of justification through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone

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Martin Luther 1517 and of course that message of the of the gospel spread throughout

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Europe and people embraced it all had been Roman Catholic for centuries they've been taught by Rome that salvation was distributed by the authority of the church to the sacraments at the church administered to the people but in those lands where Luther's message was understood and embraced that people were converted and I put that in quotes people were converted in mass from Catholicism to Lutheranism because they became convinced of the biblical teaching of justification by grace through faith alone the problem is just because people believe in justification by grace through faith alone doesn't mean they've been justified by grace through faith alone and so you had all of Europe basically coming to believe they were justified by grace through faith alone and they thought well it doesn't matter therefore how

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I live and so for a hundred years in the early decades of the Protestant Reformation the church leaders had a terrible time with lawlessness among their people antinomianism and it was a hundred years later roughly when the

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Lord raised up the Puritans who sought to reform the Church of England when it separated from Rome they took the occasion and tried to reform it and after a time with lack of real success many of them separated from the