Latest / Reformed Thinking / A Warning to Professors (Ezekiel 23:37-39) | Jonathan Edwards

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A Warning to Professors (Ezekiel 23:37-39) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine a spouse committing infidelity, you know, in some
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hotel room and then like mere moments later, walking straight
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into a vow renewal ceremony with her partner.
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Oh wow, yeah, that is dark. Right with the scent of the
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affair literally still clinging to their clothes.
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Just walking right in. Yeah, and they stand there
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looking into the eyes of the one they betrayed maybe an hour ago,
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and they recite these promises of faithfulness with a
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completely straight face. It makes your stomach turn.
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It really does. I mean, the sheer audacity of
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that kind of betrayal is just nauseating.
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And welcome to reformed thinking.
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Glad to be here. So today we are taking a deep
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dive into a really terrifying reality.
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We're looking at a sermon by Jonathan Edwards titled A
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Warning to Professors. And it is a heavy one.
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Yeah, it's a massive theological text.
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It's based on the book of Ezekiel, specifically chapter
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23, and we are looking at what happens when the sacred and the
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profane just, you know, violently collide in the very
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same room. Which is something we don't like
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to think about today. No, not at all.
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But what happens when an individual walks into a
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sanctuary, sits in a Pew, lifts their hands and worship while
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simultaneously harboring this hidden, unrepentant sin?
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Right. And I think we need to be clear
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here. We are speaking directly to you,
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the listener. You listening right now?
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Because the objective for today isn't just some dry academic
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exercise, this text forces a mirror in front of anyone who
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participates in corporate worship.
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Yeah, the central premise is just horrifying.
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Edwards lays out the reality of people participating in holy
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worship while actively hiding a secret sinful life.
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So to really grasp this, we need to carefully look at the
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structure of his analysis, because Edwards builds his
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argument layer by layer. Right, he hasn't just jumped to
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the conclusion. No, not at all.
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If we want to feel the full weight of where he's going, we
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have to follow his logic. So we will start by examining
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the biblical context in Ezekiel that he uses as his baseline.
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OK. So that's step one, yeah.
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Then from there we'll define what actually makes an ordinance
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holy in the 1st place, because if it's not holy, it doesn't
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matter. Right, makes sense.
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Once we establish that baseline of holiness, we'll analyze the
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precise nature of mocking God, like how a person actually
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manages to profane those holy things.
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And then comes the really uncomfortable.
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Part Yeah. Then we turn the mirror inward.
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We'll go through a rigorous process of self examination,
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looking at the psychology of self deception.
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Which we all do. We all do.
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And finally, we will look at the wonder of divine patients in the
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face of all this provocation. All right, well, let's jump into
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that biblical metaphor first. The text from Ezekiel introduces
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2 women, Ahola and Ahola BA, right?
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And to a modern era. Those are just, you know,
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ancient names. But in the context of the
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prophecy, they represent the northern Kingdom of Israel,
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Samaria, and the southern Kingdom of Judah, Jerusalem.
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Yeah, and the metaphor Ezekiel uses here is incredibly
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intimate. Very intimate.
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God acts as their husband like the guide of their youth.
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Yes. This isn't a distant deity
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making some sterile legal contract, you know.
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This is a marital covenant. It echoes the historical reality
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of Sinai, where God literally bound to people, to himself.
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And we have to remember the marital covenant in the ancient
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Near East carry life and death weight.
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Right, it was everything. God brought them out of Egypt,
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He provided for them, He protected them, and he bound
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himself to them in an exclusive relationship.
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So when the text says they turn away, it doesn't use mild
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language. No, it's very graphic.
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It calls their actions spiritual adultery.
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It says that they prostituted themselves to idols.
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Which is such a visceral way to describe it it.
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Is the prophets consistently use this imagery because it is the
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most striking way for humans to comprehend the baseness of
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idolatry, right? Idolatry is not.
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It's not a simple theological error.
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Like checking the wrong box on a test.
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Yeah, or a misunderstanding of doctrine.
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It is a betrayal of the highest vows of fidelity.
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And the actions detailed in Ezekiel are grotesque.
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The text outlines A2 fold wickedness.
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The first part is the adultery with idols, right?
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Bowing down to wood and stone, offering incense to false
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deities. Yeah, which is bad enough, but
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the second action, I mean, it just breaks the mind.
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It really does. They took the children they bore
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to God, their own sons and daughters, and sacrifice them in
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the fire to these idols. They slaughtered their own
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children to make a feast for false gods.
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I mean, we hear about child sacrifice in ancient cultures
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and it's awful, but hearing it described as taking the children
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born into the Holy Covenant and burning them?
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The depravity is staggering. It is.
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It's totally unfathomable. The alienation from their
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covenant God is just absolute. But Edwards zeroes in on a
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specific detail in the text that elevates the horror to another
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level entirely. Yeah, this is the part that
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really gets. You The guilt is exponential,
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not just because of the child sacrifice, as horrific as that
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is, but because of the timeline. The timeline is key.
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Ezekiel states they defile the sanctuary on the same day.
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On the same day. Yes, the sequence of events is
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what convicts them. They slaughtered their children
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to idols, wiped the blood off their hands, and then walked
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straight into God's sanctuary to participate in holy worship.
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And that is exactly where the vow renewal analogy comes into
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play. The proximity in time is what
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makes this so abhorrent. Absolutely.
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Because, I mean, if a year had passed, one might try to argue
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there was some twisted sense of forgetting or a slow drift back
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into a cultural religious habit. People rationalize things over
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time. Sure, but doing it on the same
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day? That shows 0
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compartmentalization. So why does that immediate
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proximity make the offense so much more grievous to the
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Creator? Because the timeline reveals a
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completely dead conscience, doing both on the same day
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demonstrates this calculated, deliberate hypocrisy.
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Like they aren't even trying to hide it.
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Exactly. I mean precisely.
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It proves they possess 0 fear of God's purity.
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They treat the creator of the universe with a casual, flippant
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attitude that they would never dare show to a local governor.
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Wow. Yeah, they assume God is either
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blind to their morning activities or, even worse, that
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he simply does not care about the contradiction.
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That he's just fine with it, yeah.
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And Edwards builds his core thesis from this exact point.
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When individuals attend ordinances of divine worship
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while allowing themselves a known wickedness, they are
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guilty of dreadfully profaning those holy ordinances.
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So before we could even unpack the mechanics of how people
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profane these things today, we really need to define our terms.
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That's a good idea. What does Edwards actually mean
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when he uses the word ordinance? Because a modern listener might
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hear that word and think of a city zoning law, you know, like
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a municipal code about where you can park your car.
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Right. Yeah, In a broad theological
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sense, an ordinance is anything instituted by divine authority.
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Edwards points out from the letter to the Romans that civil
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government is an ordinance of God.
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Magistrates and laws are instituted to maintain order.
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Marriage is an ordinance because God appointed it at creation,
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but in the context of this sermon and this specific
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warning, he restricts the definition to instituted means
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of worship. So church specific thing.
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Yeah, he means the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper,
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public prayer, the singing of praises, the preaching and
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hearing of the Word, and also the officers of the Church and
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church discipline things like censures and excommunication.
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These are the instituted ordinances of God's house.
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Got it. And Edwards constructs this
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massive theological framework to explain why these specific
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church ordinances are considered holy.
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He doesn't just assume they are, he proves it.
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Right, he sets up 4 distinct pillars of holiness and I want
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to go through these slowly. The first pillar is that these
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ordinances involve immediate intercourse with God.
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Which is a heavy phrase. It really is.
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I mean, we often treat Sunday morning as a totally passive
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event, right? Like a spectator sport where we
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just sit back and watch a minister perform a routine.
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Just consuming content. Yeah, but Edwards insists
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worshippers are stepping directly into the special
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presence of God. He references Jeremiah and the
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Psalms talking about coming before his presence.
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And this intercourse is intensely active.
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It is a dual action. What?
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Do you mean by dual action? Well, in prayer and singing
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praises, the congregation is applying directly to God.
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They address the Creator of the cosmos, but then in hearing the
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preaching of the Word or taking the sacraments, they are
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receiving from Him. OK, a two way St.
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Yes, and Edwards highlights human frailty here.
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We are ignorant, fragile creatures.
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God did not leave the method of communication up to our own
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invention. Right.
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We don't get to just make it up. No.
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The regulative principle of worship dictates that God alone
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determines how He is to be approached.
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He gave us these specific, instituted ways to converse with
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Him. The preached Word exhibits His
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will, and the sacraments physically represent Christ to
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our senses. Wait, I need to push back on
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this idea of immediate intercourse with God for a
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second. Sure.
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To a modern listener, that sounds incredibly intimate,
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maybe even uncomfortably so. Yeah, it definitely pushes
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against our casual modern norms. Are we really saying that
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singing a hymn with a congregation carries the exact
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same weight as speaking face to face with the Creator?
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That is precisely the theological claim Edwards is
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making the the modern church strips the awe away from
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congregational singing, treating it like a warm up band for the
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sermon. Yeah, just killing time until
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the pastor speaks, right? But from a Reformed perspective,
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when the congregation sings psalms and hymns, they are
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entering the throne room. Wow.
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The physical location is earthly, but the spiritual
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reality is heavenly. You are not just singing to the
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back of the head of the person in the Pew in front of you.
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Though it often feels that way. Sure, but spiritually you are
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offering words directly to the Almighty.
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That is why treating the ACT casually is so incredibly
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dangerous. And that makes total sense.
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So the second pillar focuses on the goal of these actions.
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Edwards calls it a holy end. Right.
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The immediate objective of these ordinances is the glory of God.
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They exist to direct believers in spiritual exercises, things
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like faith, fear, reverence, submission, thankfulness.
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Holy joy, holy sorrow. Yeah, all of that.
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The ordinances basically act as a structural support system,
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pulling the human mind away from the dirt and pointing it
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straight toward heaven. Then we reach the third pillar,
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which grounds the entire system directly in the Trinity.
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This one is fascinating. It is, Edwards argues, that
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these ordinances possess divine authority.
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God the Father appointed them through the Son.
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Christ appointed them as he received commandments from the
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Father. We see that in the Gospel of
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John, right? Yes.
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Furthermore, the Holy Spirit revealed and ratified them,
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committing them to writing through inspired authors.
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So the eternal 3 in one hallowed and consecrated these practices.
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So they have the stamp of the Trinity on them.
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That divine backing makes them infinitely sacred.
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You cannot alter them, and you certainly cannot treat them with
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contempt without insulting the Triune God.
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Man, the 4th pillar, is the representative nature of the
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actions themselves. These ordinances are attended in
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God's name. Doing all things in the name of
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the Lord Jesus. A minister standing in the
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pulpit acts as an ambassador for Christ.
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He speaks as the Oracle of God, and when the congregation prays,
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they do so in the name of Christ the Mediator.
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Which carries A terrifying weight.
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It really does, because if I do something in my own name, the
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consequences fall on me alone. Right, it's just on.
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You But if I do something claiming the name of the king,
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and I do it hypocritically, I am actively slandering the King's
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reputation. And that realization right there
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sets up the terrifying collision we mentioned earlier.
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If these ordinances carry the direct backing of the Trinity,
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if they are appointed for immediate converse with the
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Creator, and if they are conducted in His name, treating
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them lightly is a catastrophic violation.
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Because of what they represent. The sheer holiness of the
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ordinances is the exact element that makes profaning them so
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incredibly offensive. The higher the sanctity, the
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deeper the sacrilege. OK, so let's examine the
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mechanics of that mockery. How does a person actually
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managed to profane these holy things?
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Edwards says they do this by wittingly continuing in courses
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contrary to the rules of the Word of God while simultaneously
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participating in public worship. So they leave their hidden sin,
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walk into the church, and then walk right back out to resume
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the sin. The contempt lies in the
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contradiction of their practice, right Edwards paints this very
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vivid picture of a man who would not dare approach an earthly
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king wearing dirty, inappropriate clothing of.
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Course not. If you were summoned to a Royal
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Court, you'd clean yourself up, right?
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You'd ensure your outward appearance reflected reverence
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for the monarch. You'd.
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Probably buy a new suit. Yeah, yet this individual
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approaches the King of the universe with a willingly filthy
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soul. Wow.
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The scriptures declare God is of purer eyes than to behold evil,
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but the hypocrites simply ignores that purity.
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They care absolutely nothing about the uncleanness they bring
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into the divine presence. The psychological disconnect
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required to do that is staggering.
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I mean, if they possessed even a fraction of actual reverence for
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God, the sheer awe of approaching his presence would
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paralyze them. They.
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'D be on the floor. Yeah, they would not dare to
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resume their known wickedness immediately after leaving the
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sanctuary, but instead they engage in a calculated show of
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respect. Which Edwards flat out calls
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outright. Mockery.
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It is mockery. They create a facade of
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submission and teachability by listening to the sermon.
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They create a facade of high thoughts of God by joining in
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prayer. They make a show of choosing
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Christ by taking the sacraments. But their private actions are
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screaming the total opposite. And the biblical parallels
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Edwards draws here are just devastating.
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Oh, the Judas comparison. Yeah.
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First, he compares this Sunday morning behavior to the Roman
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soldiers during the crucifixion. Which is such a hard image to
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think about. Those soldiers bowed their knees
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to Jesus, crying out hail King of the Jews, while
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simultaneously spitting in his face and hitting him on the head
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with a Reed. Their outward posture was
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submission, but the inward reality was violent hatred.
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Exactly. And then he compares it to Judas
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Iscariot. Judas oppressed Christ in the
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garden, said Hail Master, and kissed him right.
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That kiss was the prearranged signal for the guards to arrest
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Jesus. I mean, think about the
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psychological horror of that kiss.
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Judas used the ultimate symbol of affection and loyalty to
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execute the ultimate betrayal. It's sickening.
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Edwards is saying that when a person kneels in a communion
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service while actively planning to continue in a sin that Christ
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hates, they are repeating the exact actions of Judas.
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They're buffering Christ and spitting in his face.
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Is this impudent presumption? Edwards notes that you know a
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servant offends his master by disobeying a command, sure, but
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he offends him far worse if he constantly comes asking for the
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masters will, pretending to be eager to obey, and then
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immediately walks away to do the exact opposite.
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And the mockery extends beyond just the individual's
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relationship with God. Edwards also addresses how this
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behavior affects the entire community.
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Right, the corporate aspect. He talks about the profane use
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of ordinances. People use the church for
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worldly advantage. Like networking?
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Yeah, exactly. They attend to maintain a good
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reputation in the community, to secure business connections or
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to gain social credit. They treat the means of grace as
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networking events. Which was huge in Edwards Day.
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In his day, church attendance was heavily tied to civic
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standing. If you didn't go, you were a
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social outcast. Today it might be tied to
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maintaining a certain image in a conservative subculture.
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And the consequence of that profane use is the spreading of
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contempt. Yes, the infection spreads.
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When the rest of the congregation sees sacred things
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treated so casually, totally devoid of any solemnity of
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spirit, the collective sense of the sacred begins to erode.
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It lowers the bar for everyone. Edwards uses a brilliant analogy
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here involving the holy vessels of the Tabernacle.
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I love this analogy. So if the ancient Israelites
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took the sacred golden cups and bowls used for the sacrifices
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and started using them for their regular everyday dinners.
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Just eating cereal out of. Them.
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Yeah, exactly. Those vessels would lose all
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their reverence. They would become nothing more
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than common dishes. The sacredness would vanish.
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In the same way, casual, hypocritical worship breeds a
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culture of contempt. It emboldens the person sitting
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at the very next Pew to treat God with the exact same
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flippancy. And this is where the text
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pivots drastically. Edwards stops lecturing on
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abstract theology, and he turns the mirror directly onto the
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congregation. The tune completely shifts.
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He moves from the historical atrocities of Ezekiel to the
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quiet, hidden sins of the people sitting right in front of him.
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This is the uncomfortable call to self examination.
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Well, I want to ask you, the listener, to consider your own
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posture when you walk into a sanctuary, because Edwards lists
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specific granular offenses here. He gets very detailed.
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He is no longer talking about ancient Israelites bowing to
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statues. He points to unjust dealings in
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business. He highlights cruel behavior
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toward a spouse, children or servants behind closed doors.
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The stuff no one else sees. Right.
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He mentions indulging unclean appetites in thought, word or
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deed. He calls out a lust for strong
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drink, extravagance and the neglect of secret prayer.
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He even redefined Sabbath breaking to catch the people who
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think they're keeping all the rules.
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How? Did he do that?
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He includes letting the mind wander to worldly affairs or
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engaging in profane idle talk on the Lord's.
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Day that catches everyone. But the most chilling accusation
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in the entire text is his assertion about the mind during
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worship. Yes, this part is terrifying.
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He accuses some individuals of perpetrating wickedness in their
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thoughts during the actual time of attendance on the ordinances.
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To sit in the Pew, outwardly participating in public prayer
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while inwardly contriving the fulfillment of a specific sin.
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Right there in the room. That is the ultimate collision
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while the person sitting next to them is having immediate
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intercourse with God. This individual is gratifying a
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wicked imagination in the immediate presence of the
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Almighty. It's.
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Unthinkable. How do human beings handle the
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cognitive dissonance required to pull that off week after week?
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They handle it through aggressive self deception.
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Elaborate on that. Edwards argues that people act
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treacherously when instructed to examine themselves.
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When confronted with their own hypocrisy, they decline the
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examination entirely. They.
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Just refuse to look. Right.
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Or if they are forced to look at themselves, they are exceedingly
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partial. They spare themselves.
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We always grate ourselves on a curve.
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We do. They refuse to judge their
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actions according to the strict truth of the moral law, choosing
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instead to unreasonably flatter and justify their behavior.
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Their goal in self examination is never to actually discover
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the truth. What is their goal?
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Their goal is to blind their own consciences.
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And the primary weapon they use to blind their conscience is the
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myth of the sin of ignorance. Oh yeah, I didn't know.
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Exactly. They say I didn't know it was a
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sin. Or they convince themselves that
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their specific circumstances create this unique exception to
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the rule. My situation is different.
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Always people use their intellect, marshalling all their
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subtle arguments to justify their cheating, their lying or
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their lust. They will study the issue
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endlessly until they find a loophole that quiets their
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guilt. Edwards quotes a striking Latin
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phrase to describe this exact phenomenon.
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What is it? Lesitis Paramus omnis.
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It means we all perish by lawful things.
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Perish by lawful things. Yes, men commonly live wickedly
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and walk straight into hell on paths they have flattered
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themselves into believing are completely lawful.
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They rationalize it all the way down.
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They convince themselves that because their desire is strong
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or their situation is just so unique, God surely understands
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and approves of their compromise.
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But I have to ask, how do we actually distinguish between
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genuine ignorance and willful blindness?
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That's a fair question. Because there are times when a
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person genuinely does not realize a behavior violates
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God's law, we can't assume every single wrong action is born of
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malicious hypocrisy, right? But Edwards does not let anyone
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off the hook easily. He provides 3 rigorous tests to
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completely dismantle the sin of ignorance excuse.
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OK, let's hear them. First, he asks, is the action
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contrary to the real dictates of your own conscience?
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Even without absolute demonstrative proof from a
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specific Bible verse. Yes.
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Do you have sufficient internal light to be secretly convinced
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it displeases God? The conscience often acts as an
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alarm bell long before the intellect builds a theological
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defense. That makes sense.
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We often feel the guilt before we read the rule.
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Exactly. The second test is, have you
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clearly heard it testified against from the word of God?
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If you sit under the preaching of the gospel, where iniquity is
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regularly exposed, you cannot hide behind a claim of
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ignorance, right? And the third test is what
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Edwards calls the deathbed test. And this one, it just strips
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away all the intellectual loopholes.
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It cuts right to the heart. He asks, would you dare to
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proceed in this specific practice if you knew your soul
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was required of you tonight? Would you do it if you had to
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stand before Christ Judgment seat in 24 hours?
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Yeah, he points out that people pretend an action is harmless,
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but they would as soon eat fire as commit that action if they
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knew judgment was imminent. Which proves they're lying to
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themselves. Right.
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That proves they are prevaricating.
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They know it is wrong, they just love the sin too much to abandon
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it. They pretend they don't allow
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themselves in the sin. They might admit the action as a
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sin, but they claim they are, you know, struggling against it.
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Claiming it's just a weakness. Hoping God is not provoked by
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their supposed weakness, yet they make a trade of it.
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They repeat the ACT day after day, week after week, without
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ever demonstrating serious repentance.
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Or taking concrete steps to cut off the source of the
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temptation. Edwards warns that these flimsy
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pretenses might pacify the conscience right now, but they
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will evaporate like smoke when standing before a righteous,
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holy judge. Which brings us to the
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terrifying reality of divine wrath.
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The hardest part of the text. In the final section of the
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text, Edwards argues that no sinners provoke God more than
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the profaners of his ordinances. The fire of God's wrath is
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kindled by none so much as by the polluters of holy things.
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He roots this theological claim directly in the third
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commandment. The Lord will not hold him
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guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
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Why is that specific terrifying warning attached to that
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commandment? Because taking God's name in
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vain is not just about using His name as a curse word when you
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stub your Poe, it fundamentally includes the profanation of holy
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things. To attend ordinances in the name
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of God while harboring known sin is the ultimate taking of His
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name in vain. He.
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Uses his name as a cloak for mockery.
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Yes, it exposes it to contempt and tramples everything sacred
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under foot. Edwards backs this up with
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historical case studies from the Old Testament.
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Real historical examples. He points to Nadab and Abayou.
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They offered strange fire before the Lord, and fire literally
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came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them on
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the spot. Then he looks at Ouza.
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Right and second, Samuel Ouza reached out to steady the Ark of
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the Covenant when the oxen stumbled.
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Which seems like a helpful act to us.
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It does, but he was struck down instantly for his irreverence.
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The ark was the visible symbol of God's presence, and ignoring
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the strict commands regarding how it was to be handled
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resulted in immediate death. And then there is the incident
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at Beth Shemesh. Oh, in First Samuel.
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Yeah, where over 50,000 men were struck down for looking into the
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ark, profaning its sanctity with idle curiosity.
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Now, some might try to argue that those are just harsh Old
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Testament stories, you know, irrelevant to the modern church
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living under a covenant of grace.
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People say that all the time. They do, but Edwards crushes
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that assumption by quoting the New Testament standard.
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He cites First Corinthians. Right.
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If any man defiled the temple of God, him shall God destroy.
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And there's a terrifying emphasis in the original
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language there. What's the emphasis?
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God promises to destroy all unrepentant sinners, sure, but
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He is peculiarly provoked to destroy the defilers of His
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temple with a destruction that is especially dreadful.
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Wow. He also points to Galatians.
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God is not mocked. Those who presume to mock the
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Almighty will discover He is no contemptible being.
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The text makes a staggering claim based on Ezekiel 16.
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Edwards points out that Judah's wickedness was considered far
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worse than the wickedness of Sodom.
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Which is hard to wrap your head around.
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We typically view Sodom as the historical pinnacle of human
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depravity, but Judah was worse specifically because Judah had
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holy ordinances to profane. Sodom didn't have the temple.
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Right. Sodom did not have the
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sacrifices or the covenant. Having access to the sacred and
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deliberately choosing to pollute it multiplies the guilt to a
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degree that eclipses the most notorious Pagan cities.
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Which leaves us with a haunting reflection on God's patience.
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Edwards calls it the Thunder lying still.
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The Thunder lying still. Think about Uza.
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Ouza made a single error in handling the Ark of the
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Covenant, and he dropped dead. One error.
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How is it physically possible that a person can hypocritically
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attend worship week after week, year after year, harboring
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secret sins and actually survived this service?
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Why doesn't the floor of the sanctuary just open up and
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swallow them? Why doesn't the lightning strike
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the Pew? Because of the sheer wonder of
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divine patience, it is a marvel that the Almighty's Thunder lies
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still, suffering the hypocrite to sit in his house and breathe
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his air. God restrains His immediate
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judgement to allow space for repentance.
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Yes, but Edwards issues a solemn warning.
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The fact that you were born with for the moment is no argument
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that your damnation slumbers. God's anger does not operate in
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a haste like human passion. No, it doesn't.
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There's an appointed day of vengeance and recompense.
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When the cup of iniquity is full, none shall deliver the
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hypocrite out of God's hand. Theological weight of this text
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is crushing. It forces every single one of us
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to realize that participating in corporate worship is never a
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neutral, safe activity. You don't just walk in, sing a
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few songs and leave unchanged, no.
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You do not just walk into a church, sing a few hymns, listen
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to a sermon, and walk out the same.
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Approaching the ordinances of God either imparts immense life
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giving grace or it racks up an exponential, terrifying guilt.
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So if God's patience is so vast that he holds back the
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Thunderbolt while we sit in the pews harboring secret sins, how
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should that sudden realization alter the precise way you
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prepare yourself before you walk through the church doors next
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Sunday morning? When that sacred space and your
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hidden private life were about to violently collide, what
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posture will you take? Thank you for joining us for
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this deep dive into the source material.
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We encourage you to rigorously examine your own standing before
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the sacred.