Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Vain Self-Flatteries of the Sinner (Psalm 36:2) | Jonathan Edwards

Transcript

The Vain Self-Flatteries of the Sinner (Psalm 36:2) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Hello and welcome back to the show.
0:01
We are sitting down for another session of reformed thinking.
0:05
I am your host, and I'm here with our resident expert to
0:09
crack open a stack of theological sources that
0:12
honestly act a bit like a mirror.
0:15
We are glad you are here with us.
0:16
It is good to be back. And you are right about that
0:18
mirror analogy. Usually when we get together, we
0:21
spend our time looking at these high level doctrines,
0:23
predestination, the attributes of God, the mechanics of the
0:26
covenant. We're looking up, but today
0:29
we're pivoting. We're we're looking in, we're
0:32
looking at the psychology of the human heart.
0:35
Specifically, the psychology of the Sinner.
0:36
We're looking at a sermon by Jonathan Edwards titled The Vain
0:39
Self Flatteries of the Sinner. Now, before we get into the
0:42
text, I have to address the elephant in the room.
0:45
When people hear the name Jonathan Edwards, they usually
0:47
think of one thing sinners in the hands of an angry God.
0:51
They imagine this guy monotone, reading a manuscript while
0:54
people are grasping the pews so they don't, you know, slide into
0:57
hell. Is that who we're dealing with
0:58
today? Yes and no.
0:59
I mean, that caricature of Edwards exists for a reason, but
1:02
it really misses his brilliance. Edwards wasn't just a fire and
1:07
brimstone creature, he was arguably the greatest
1:09
philosopher and psychologist America has ever produced.
1:14
That's a big flame. It is, but he understood how the
1:16
mind works better than perhaps anyone in his century.
1:20
So in this text he isn't just shouting at people, he's
1:23
dissecting them. He is pulling apart the layers
1:26
of lies we tell ourselves to sleep at night.
1:29
And that brings us to the core problem Edwards is trying to
1:32
solve in this sermon. He looks out at his
1:34
congregation, people who know their Bibles to people who know
1:36
the 10 Commandments, and he sees a paradox.
1:39
Right. They know judgment is real.
1:41
They know hell is a possibility according to their own
1:44
worldview. And yet they're totally calm.
1:48
It's the cheerfulness paradox, if you want to call it that.
1:50
If you really believe that there was a Cliff edge 5 feet in front
1:53
of you, you wouldn't be casually checking your stock portfolio.
1:55
You'd be screaming. You'd be paralyzed.
1:58
Exactly. But Edwards sees people buying
2:01
land, planning weddings and, well, sitting comfortably.
2:05
And he asked the question, how is that possible?
2:08
So the mission of this deep dive isn't just to learn history,
2:12
It's to uncover the specific mechanisms.
2:14
Edwards calls them flatteries that allow us to numb that fear.
2:18
We want to expose the mental gymnastics people perform to
2:21
convince themselves they're safe when they're actually walking
2:24
toward destruction. Right, we're going to inventory
2:26
the lies. So let's start with the source
2:28
text Edwards is preaching from Psalm 36.2.
2:32
The verse reads. For he Flat Earth himself in his
2:34
own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
2:38
Break that down for us. What does Edward see in that
2:40
specific phrasing? Well, he starts by looking at
2:42
the context. The verse right before it talks
2:44
about the wicked man having No Fear of God before his eyes.
2:48
And Edwards argues this is strange because in ancient
2:50
Israel, just like in the modern church, people had light.
2:53
They had the law, they heard the warnings.
2:55
Edward says it's a strange thing that men who read such awful
2:58
threatenings can be so secure. So the lack of fear is the
3:02
symptom. The disease is this flattery.
3:05
Precisely. And in 18th century English,
3:08
flattery doesn't just mean giving someone a compliment to
3:10
butter them up. It implies A deception, A
3:13
smoothing something over, Edwards says.
3:16
The Sinner creates a foundation of encouragement.
3:19
That's a key phrase. The foundation of encouragement.
3:22
They build a mental platform that persuades them they will
3:25
escape judgement. They put the evil day far away
3:28
from their minds. But the text says this continues
3:31
until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
3:34
Now a modern listener might hear that and think, oh, that means
3:37
until he realizes sin is bad and repents.
3:40
That's what we would hope it means.
3:42
But Edwards is very careful with the exegesis here.
3:45
He argues that until iniquity be found to be hateful actually
3:48
refers to the consequences. He uses this this visceral
3:52
metaphor of a sweet morsel hidden under the tongue.
3:55
Like a piece of hard candy you're saving.
3:56
Exactly. You keep it there because it's
3:58
sweet. You hide it, you flatter
4:00
yourself that it's lovely, but eventually you have to swallow
4:03
it. And Edwards says that is when it
4:05
turns to bitterness, gall and Wormwood.
4:08
It's when the sin bites like a serpent.
4:10
So the hateful part isn't a change of heart.
4:12
It's the moment the trap springs.
4:15
So the deception works right up until the moment it stops
4:18
working, which is usually when judgement hits.
4:20
That is the doctrine Edwards pulse from this Wicked men
4:24
generally flatter themselves with hopes of escaping
4:26
punishment till it actually comes upon them.
4:29
He makes a statistical observation that's quite
4:32
chilling. He says there are very few
4:34
people who despair. Almost nobody walks around
4:36
saying I am going to hell. Which is true.
4:39
Even people living wild, destructive lives usually assume
4:42
it'll all work out in the end. The big man upstairs loves me.
4:46
Correct. But Edwards counters that by
4:48
saying while few believe they're going to hell, few actually
4:51
avoid it. He says men go to hell every
4:53
day, yet almost none of them thought they were going there.
4:56
They are walking the direct road to the pit, but they have
4:59
convinced themselves they'll never fall in.
5:02
This leads us to the second section, the proof, Because I
5:05
could hear a listener saying, OK, that's a nice theory,
5:07
Edwards, but I'm not deceiving myself.
5:10
I just don't think God is that angry.
5:12
Yeah, Edwards argues that our very behavior proves we are
5:16
under a spell. He appeals to Scripture.
5:17
First, he cites Deuteronomy 29, where God warns about a route
5:21
that beareth gall and Wormwood. This describes the person who
5:25
hears the curse of the law and literally blesses himself in his
5:28
heart, saying I shall have peace even while he adds drunkenness
5:33
to thirst. I shall have peace.
5:35
That is the mantra of the self flatterer.
5:37
It is, and he pairs that with Psalm 50.21, which hits very
5:42
close to home. God says these things that has
5:45
done and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was
5:48
altogether such a one as thyself.
5:49
Wow, that is a heavy psychological insight.
5:53
Because God didn't strike you dead immediately after the sin
5:56
because there was a delay in execution, you assumed God
5:59
didn't care. You assumed he was just like
6:01
you, tolerant of sin. Precisely.
6:03
But the most compelling proof, logically, is what we call the
6:06
cheerfulness argument. Walk us through that.
6:08
It's a deduction, Edwards argues, that if sinners truly
6:12
believe they were in danger of eternal misery, infinite
6:16
unending wrath, they would be in dreadful and continual distress.
6:21
They would be in agony. Total agony.
6:23
You can't genuinely believe a building is about to collapse on
6:26
you and sit there calmly finishing your coffee.
6:29
It just doesn't compute. Right.
6:31
If the diagnosis is terminal and immediate, your behavior changes
6:34
instantly. You drop everything.
6:35
But Edwards observes that men are careless, They are cheerful.
6:38
They focus on business, on recreation, on their hobbies, he
6:42
says. The very fact that they aren't
6:44
panicked proves they have flattered themselves into a
6:46
false sense of safety. Their cheerfulness is the
6:49
evidence of their delusion that. Flips the script.
6:52
We usually think our comfort is a sign of God's blessing, Edward
6:55
says. Our comfort might be a sign of
6:56
our blindness. You hit the nail on the head.
6:59
And he adds that if they really believed the threat, they would
7:01
be restrained from sin. You don't steal the cookie if
7:04
you're staring directly at the security guard.
7:07
The fact that we continue in allowed ways of wickedness
7:10
proofs we have convinced ourselves we won't get caught.
7:13
OK, so we've established the mechanism self flattery and the
7:17
proof that it's happening. Now we need to get to the how.
7:20
This is the inventory of lies. Edwards lists several distinct
7:24
ways or categories of self flattery.
7:26
I want to go through these one by one because this is where the
7:29
mirror really gets held up to our faces.
7:30
Let's do it. The first one he mentions is
7:33
perhaps the most fundamental secret atheism.
7:36
Yes, and notice the adjective. He doesn't mean the person
7:39
standing on a surf box debating apologetics.
7:41
He calls it secret atheism. It's a thought process that
7:45
happens in the back of the mind. The Sinner thinks, How do I
7:48
really know there's another world?
7:49
I've never seen hell. I've never seen a devil.
7:52
It's that practical skepticism. We see animals die and they just
7:55
rot, so the Sinner thinks maybe I'm just like the beast when I
7:59
die. Lights out, no judgement.
8:01
And Edwards points out, the motivation here is emotional,
8:04
not intellectual. These thoughts ease the mind.
8:09
People wish it were true that there's no God to judge them, so
8:12
they essentially will it to be true.
8:14
He quotes Psalm 14.1. The fool have said in his heart
8:17
there is no God. It's expression of truth to
8:20
maintain comfort. That's the first layer of
8:22
defense. But for those who can't quite
8:25
get to atheism, there's the second flattery, which I think
8:28
everyone struggles with. The illusion of time or, you
8:31
know, simply procrastination. This is the belief that death is
8:34
a long way off. Edwards notes how irrational
8:37
this is. We see people die at all ages,
8:40
accidents, sudden illnesses, but the Sinner assumes, without any
8:45
evidence, that they will live to old age.
8:47
He quotes Psalm 49.11 that their inward thought is that their
8:51
houses shall continue forever. But there's a specific nuance
8:56
here Edwards brings up called the utility argument.
8:59
This one really struck me. Oh.
9:00
That is very common. The center thinks I'm healthy,
9:03
I'm young, but more than that, I'm useful.
9:05
Useful. I have a job, I support a
9:07
family. People rely on me.
9:09
God wouldn't Take Me Out of the game yet because I have too much
9:11
left to do. We flatter ourselves that we are
9:14
essential to the world and therefore immune to death.
9:16
We mistake our productivity for a shield against mortality.
9:19
God can't kill me. I have a mortgage to pay and
9:21
kids to raise. It sounds silly when you say it
9:24
out loud, but we live like that. We do and connected.
9:27
This is the conversion plan. We aren't saying we won't
9:32
repent, we just aren't doing it today.
9:34
The Sinner assumes they will have a convenient opportunity
9:37
later. They think when I'm old, when
9:39
I'm retired, then I'll get serious about theology.
9:41
Then I'll settle my accounts with God.
9:43
It's the assumption that you can schedule the Holy Spirit into
9:46
your Google Calendar. Right.
9:47
Which leads us nicely into the third flattery, moral reliance.
9:52
This is the person who says, look, I'm not a bad guy.
9:55
This is the good neighbor defense.
9:56
It is, Edwards describes, the person who checks the social
9:59
boxes. I'm not a drunkard.
10:00
I don't use bad language. I am honest in my business
10:03
dealings. I go to church.
10:06
The logic of the Sinner here is that they can't understand why
10:09
God would be angry with someone so respectable.
10:11
They think their morality pacifies God like God.
10:15
Look at all this orderly hiss. Surely you can't send me to
10:17
hell. That's right.
10:19
It's the spirit of the Pharisee in Luke 18.
10:22
Trusting in themselves that they were righteous, they measure
10:25
themselves against other sinners.
10:27
I'm not like that tax collector. Rather than measuring themselves
10:31
against the infinite holiness of God, they think their decency
10:35
places God in their debt. That is a deadly trap because it
10:39
feels so righteous. Now.
10:41
The 4th flattery is one that hits hard for those of us in the
10:44
reformed world or well, anyone who grew up in the church.
10:47
External advantages. This is the danger of proximity.
10:51
The Sinner thinks I live in a town where the gospel is
10:53
preached. I sit under sound doctrine.
10:55
My parents were godly people. Edwards warns that people think
11:00
this proximity to holiness makes salvation safer or easier for
11:03
them. It's like thinking you're a car
11:05
because you're standing in a garage.
11:06
Yeah, or thinking you're healthy just because you sleep in a
11:09
hospital. Edwards quotes Romans 2.4 saying
11:12
that this attitude is actually despising the riches of his
11:16
goodness. Despising it how?
11:17
Because God's kindness and giving you a Christian family or
11:20
a good church is meant to lead you to repentance, but instead
11:24
the Sinner uses it as a security blanket to stay asleep.
11:28
They rely on their parents prayers while neglecting their
11:31
own souls. He references the Jews in John
11:33
8, boasting we be Abraham's seed.
11:36
It's relying on a heritage rather than a living faith.
11:40
Now #5 is related to procrastination, but it's more
11:43
specific good intentions. This is the I can quit anytime I
11:47
want mentality applied to sin. The Sinner intends to reform
11:50
eventually. The strategy is to enjoy the sin
11:53
for a season, get the pleasure out of it, and then bestir
11:56
themselves later to seek God. They're counting on God's mercy,
12:00
aren't they? They think God is forgiving.
12:01
If I cry out at the last minute, he'll take me.
12:03
And Edwards has a devastating line here.
12:05
He says hell is full of good intenders who never proved to be
12:08
true performers. He points to Felix in Acts 24,
12:11
who told Paul, go thy way for this time when I have a
12:14
convenient season, I will call for thee.
12:16
And did Felix ever call for him? Not that we know of.
12:19
The convenient season never comes.
12:21
The heart hardens. The intention to change tomorrow
12:24
is the very thing that allows you to sin comfortably today.
12:28
It acts as a pressure release valve for your conscience.
12:31
You don't feel guilty because you plan to fix it.
12:33
Hell is full of good and tenders that should stop us in our
12:37
tracks. The 6th flattery is what he
12:40
calls partial effort. This addresses the person who
12:43
isn't totally lazy. They're doing something.
12:45
They might pray occasionally or give to charity or read a
12:48
devotional, but Edwards says they are not violent for the
12:51
Kingdom of heaven. Violent in the sense of Matthew
12:54
11.12, taking it by force, being desperate.
12:57
Right. They're engaged in a
12:58
negotiation. I'll give God this much, but I'm
13:01
keeping my heart. Edwards compares them to the
13:04
foolish virgins in the parable. They had lamps, they were at the
13:07
wedding, they were doing religious activities, but they
13:10
had no oil. They were going through motions
13:12
that look like salvation, but they fell short of actual
13:14
surrender. And the 7th flattery is a
13:16
theological error, self-reliance in conversion.
13:20
This is the idea that I can convert myself when I'm ready.
13:23
It's a fundamental misunderstanding of grace.
13:26
The Sinner thinks that repentance is a switch they can
13:28
flip. I can work up sorrow for sin.
13:31
I can decide to love God whenever I want.
13:33
But we know from Scripture that repentance is a gift.
13:36
If you harden your heart now, you have no guarantee that God
13:39
will grant you a SOG heart later.
13:41
Exactly. By delaying, you're provoking
13:43
the very spirit you need to convert you.
13:47
It encourages delay because it makes salvation seem like a
13:50
utility you can access on demand, like turning on a
13:53
faucet, rather than a sovereign rescue you must beg for while
13:57
it's offered. And finally, the 8th Slattery.
13:59
This might be the most dangerous of all because it mimics true
14:01
faith, false assurance. This is the person who says I
14:04
don't need to worry, I am already saved.
14:06
They rest in a false hope. They might have walked an aisle
14:09
20 years ago or had an emotional experience at a summer camp, but
14:12
their life shows no fruit. They're living in sin.
14:15
Yet they tell themselves, once saved, always saved.
14:18
Edwards quotes Revelation 3.17 here regarding the church at
14:22
Laodicea. Thou sayest I am rich, and know
14:25
it's not that thou art wretched. It's the tragedy of a
14:28
misdiagnosis. If you think you're healthy, you
14:30
won't go to the doctor, Edwards says.
14:33
These people hold on to this hope until it is rent from them
14:35
by death. They will not let go of the idea
14:38
that they're Christians until they stand before Christ.
14:40
And he says I never knew you. So that is the inventory.
14:44
Secret atheism, the illusion of time, moral reliance, external
14:49
advantages, good intentions, partial effort, self-reliance,
14:52
and false assurance. These are the baits, and Edward
14:56
says this leads to an inevitable outcome.
14:58
The trap springs. That's the imagery he uses.
15:01
He quotes the proverb about the bird hastening to the snare, not
15:04
knowing it is for his life. The critical point Edwards makes
15:07
here is about timing. Destruction comes when they
15:09
expect it, not. It connects to 1st Thessalonians
15:12
5.3. When they shall say peace and
15:14
safety, then sudden destruction cometh.
15:16
And note the transition. It's not gradual, it's sudden.
15:19
You go from making yourself easy, flattering yourself,
15:22
feeling secure, to everlasting despair in a single heart
15:25
heartbeat. Men maintain the thought of
15:27
living a good while longer right up until the moment they die.
15:30
The deception works until the very last second.
15:33
So we've seen the mechanism, the proof, the list of lies and the
15:36
outcome. Now we have to land this plane.
15:41
Edwards moves to application to self examination, and he starts
15:45
by answering a question that frustrates every pastor.
15:48
Why do sermons fail? It's a painful question.
15:51
You preach the terrors of the law.
15:52
You preach the beauty of the gospel, and people sit there
15:55
unmoved. Edwards says.
15:56
It's because of these flatteries.
15:58
The listener applies the sermon to someone else.
16:00
They think this doesn't apply to me.
16:02
I'm safe because I have good intentions, or I'm safe because
16:05
I'm a moral person. The flattery acts as a shield
16:09
that deflects the arrow of truth.
16:11
So to penetrate that shield, Edwards turns the sermon into an
16:15
interrogation. And I think we should do that
16:17
right now. We need to look at the listener
16:19
and ourselves and ask these specific questions.
16:22
Let's do it. If you are listening to this and
16:24
you know you are not right with God, you know there is sin
16:26
you're holding on to, what makes you think it's safe to delay?
16:29
Ask yourself, is it secret atheism?
16:32
Are you banking your eternity on the hunch that the Bible is a
16:34
fairy tale? Because if you're wrong, you
16:37
lose everything. Or is it the convenient season
16:40
myth? Are you waiting for a time when
16:43
obedience will be easy? Let me tell you, sin hardens the
16:46
heart. It will never be easier to
16:49
repent than it is today. It will only get harder.
16:52
Is it because you're honest in business?
16:54
Do you think God is impressed by your bookkeeping while you
16:58
reject His Son? Do you think your morality
17:01
obligates God to save you? Is it because you have religious
17:04
parents? Do you think the faith of your
17:06
father or mother covers you by osmosis?
17:09
Edwards reminds us that privilege brings high
17:11
responsibility, not safety. It will be more tolerable for
17:15
Sodom than for those who heard the gospel and ignored it.
17:17
Or is it because you think you are already saved, even while
17:20
you live in willful sin? Are you resting on a past
17:23
experience while your present life contradicts it?
17:25
These are not just rhetorical questions.
17:27
Edwards says that if we could hear the voices of the damned
17:30
right now, if we could interview those who are currently in hell,
17:32
they would curse themselves for these very flatteries.
17:35
That is a terrifying thought, the voice of the damned.
17:38
Edwards suggests there way yellings and yellings preach the
17:41
exact same doctrine we're discussing.
17:42
They would say I thought I had time, I thought I was a good
17:45
person, I intended to repent. They are the witnesses to the
17:49
folly of self flattery. He quotes Proverbs 1.17.
17:53
Surely in vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird.
17:58
We see the net, we have the Bible, we know the rules, and
18:01
yet, because of these flatteries, we fly right into
18:03
it. And Edwards, he deconstructs
18:05
these flatters one by one. In his rebuttal to the atheist,
18:08
he says your skepticism won't stand up at death.
18:11
Conscience usually wakes up when the body fails.
18:13
To the procrastinator, look at the obituaries.
18:15
People die young every day. To the moralist, God demands
18:19
perfection, not just decency. And to the self reliant, you
18:22
cannot manufacture repentance. You're dependent on God's grace,
18:25
so you better seek it while He may be found.
18:27
So what is the final call to action here?
18:30
We have stripped away the defenses.
18:32
The mirror has shown us the ugly truth of our self deception.
18:35
What do we do? The call is immediate
18:37
abandonment of the flatteries. Do not follow the devil's bait.
18:41
You have to stop listening to that voice that says you're
18:44
fine, you have time, you're good enough.
18:45
And seek God immediately. With all your heart, soul and
18:48
strength. Edwards emphasizes that the
18:50
difference between the good and tender in hell and the St. in
18:53
Heaven is not that one wanted to be saved and the other didn't.
18:57
It's that one intended to do it later and the other actually did
19:00
it. The difference is action.
19:02
It is seizing the moment of conviction.
19:04
That's the take away. Intentions don't save.
19:08
Proximity doesn't save. Only Christ saves, and he must
19:12
be sought now. Amen.
19:13
The tragedy of the human heart is that we will use our
19:16
intelligence to build complex arguments for why we don't need
19:18
to bow the knee today. We have to tear those arguments
19:21
down. We have to look at the cross,
19:23
look at the judgement seat and realize that later is a luxury
19:26
we are not promised. We hope this deep dive has been
19:29
helpful. Maybe a little uncomfortable,
19:31
but helpful. Edwards is a master at exposing
19:34
the heart not to hurt us, but to wake us up.
19:37
That's right, it is better to be uncomfortable now than to be
19:40
comfortable all the way to destruction.
19:43
Thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
19:46
We encourage you to take some time, turn off this deep dive,
19:50
and really do business with God. Don't be the bird that sees the
19:53
snare and flies into it anyway. Seek him while he may be found.
19:57
We will see you next time.