The Almost Christian

This morning I listened to a sermon by John MacArthur driving into work. The sermon is titled "The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian, Part 4" and is preached by MacArthur from Philippians 3:3. I have been going through the Philippians sermons with MacArthur for a while now. If you get a chance for sure you need to listen to all of the series as there is much good stuff within them. But in this sermon MacArthur talks about a puritan named Matthew Mead and a book he wrote back in 1661 titled "The Almost Christian Discovered". I was so taken back by what MacArthur shared from the book that I will have to find a copy of it for my own.

But here is a little from the sermon MacArthur preached in regards to his book;

He wrote the book because he wanted to address a very significant problem. The problem he wanted to address was the fact that there were many people who thought they were saved and weren't. There were many people who claimed to be saved, and weren't. So he was addressing the problem 300 years ago that Paul was addressing nearly 2,000 years ago that we are now addressing today. Because as I told you last time, in the New Testament where the gospel is presented, it is often followed up by instruction as to how to tell a true respondent to the gospel from a false and deceived one.

I had occasion recently to receive the book with my foreword in it. And by the way, it is now available in the bookstore. And I reread it and I was fascinated as I went through the book, and I want to share just a couple of things with you that came out of it, more than a couple, a list. In fact, I want to distill a hundred and twenty pages into a brief few words.

Matthew Mead has a long section in the book of about 120 pages in which he addresses how far a person can go and still not be a true Christian...how far a person can advance toward heaven, toward Christ, toward God and still not truly be saved. And these are the things he suggests.

"A man may have much knowledge about Christ and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may have a great and eminent gift, yet be but almost a Christian." He means by that a speaking gift, a leadership gift.

"A man may have a high profession of religion. He may be much in external duties of goodness and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may go far in opposing his own sin and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may hate sin and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may make great vows and promises, strong purposes and resolutions against his sin and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may maintain a strife and a combat against sin and yet be but almost a Christian.

"A man may be a member of the church and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may have great hopes of heaven and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may under visible changes, altered life and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may be very zealous in matters of religion and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may be much in prayers and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may even suffer for Christ's sake and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may outwardly obey the commandments and yet be but almost a Christian. A man may perform external worship yet be but almost a Christian. And a man may have faith and yet be but almost a Christian."

Amazing list, isn't it? In fact, if you were to kind of reverse the list and read it another way, it would sound like you were describing Christians, someone who has the knowledge of God and Christ, someone who has great and eminent and gifts, someone who professes true religion, who does duties of goodness, someone who opposes his sin, hates his sin, makes great vows and promises, strong purposes and resolutions against his sin, a man who strives in combat against sin, a man who is a member of a church who has hopes of heaven, whose life has had some visible changes, who is zealous in matters of religion, who praise, who may even suffer because of his association with Christ, who outwardly seems to obey the commandments and performs external worship and believes. You might say, "Well, that's got to be a Christian."

Matthew Mead is right in assessing, however, that you can have all of those things and be but only almost a Christian. These are not enough. These are not enough. Well what does it take? What is the evidence? What is the mark of the true Christian? Well, we go from the outside to the inside when we come to verse 3. And let me just share with you these three simple statements that identify the true Christian. They have nothing to do with his outward conduct, his outward profession, his outward goodness. They have nothing to do with his church membership. They have nothing to do with his religious duties. They have nothing to do with his external professions. They have nothing to do with the fact that he might not like sin in the world, he might not even like sin in his own life. They have to do with what is inside. They have to do with his character, with his nature, with something that no one sees, but eventually that everyone sees because it works its way out. And that's what I want to share with you.

I highly recommend checking out the series of sermons titled "The Distinctive Qualities of the True Christian". There are four parts and they are preached from Philippians 3:1-3. Here is a link to get your mp3 so you can download it to your ipod. It not only will challenge your heart, but it will cause you to examine your heart.