Latest / Reformed Thinking / Unbelievers Despise the Glory and Excellency of Christ (Acts 4:11) | Jonathan Edwards

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Unbelievers Despise the Glory and Excellency of Christ (Acts 4:11) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  So imagine someone handing you a literal treasure chest.
• 0:04
  OK, that sounds pretty good. Right, you open it up and it is
• 0:07
  just filled to the brim with flawless diamonds, heavy gold
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  bars, and all sorts of priceless historical artifacts.
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  I mean, I would be thrilled. Sure, anyone would be, but in
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  this scenario you just look at it, give a little nod, drag it
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  over to your front door and wedge it underneath the frame to
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  use as a. Doorstop.
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  Wait, a doorstop. Yeah, doorstop.
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  And you do this simply because while you happen going to like
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  the brass hinges on the side of the box.
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  That is ridiculous. It is.
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  You completely ignore the incalculable wealth inside
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  because your internal sense of value is just entirely broken.
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  Wow. Yeah, that puts it into
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  perspective. Welcome to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is wonderful to have you listening.
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  Today we are initiating A comprehensive deep dive into a
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  staggering historical text that makes this precise argument
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  about human nature. It really is a heavy text.
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  It is we are looking at a sermon preached by Jonathan Edwards
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  back in May of 1736. The title alone sets a very
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  heavy tone. It is called Unbelievers Despise
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  the Glory and Excellency of Christ.
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  And he preached this based on just a single verse, right?
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  Yes. Acts 4.11.
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  Our mission for this deep dive is to examine a specific jarring
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  claim that Edwards makes here. Which is quite the claim.
• 1:23
  Exactly. Wait, I mean, it is very direct.
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  He argues that those who do not believe in Christ do not just
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  passively misunderstand Him. Right, it is not just a lack of
• 1:30
  information. No, it is not a case of missing
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  the facts, or needing better pamphlets or just being a bit
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  confused about theology. Rather, Edwards claims that
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  unbelievers actively despise his glory.
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  Consider him completely worthless.
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  Yes, the value of Christ is objective and infinite, much
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  like that treasure chest, but the human reception of that
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  value is completely. Shattered.
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  That is a harsh diagnosis. It really is.
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  To grasp how Edwards builds this case, we need to look at the
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  basis he uses. So I will let my colleague
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  provide the historical context of Acts chapter 4 so we can see
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  where Edwards grounds this striking theological argument.
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  Yeah, the setting here in Acts 4 provides a brilliant contrast to
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  the theological points. Edward straws out it.
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  Sets the stage perfectly. It really does.
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  So the context is the immediate aftermath of Pentecost.
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  The Holy Ghost has been poured out upon the apostles.
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  Which was a massive public event.
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  Absolutely. There are extraordinary effects
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  happening in real time. The apostles are speaking boldly
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  in the name of Jesus. They're speaking in foreign
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  languages they never learned. And vast multitudes are
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  converting suddenly. Yes, just in the preceding
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  chapter we get the account of Peter and John miraculously
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  healing a man who had been completely crippled from birth.
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  And that healing did not happen in a corner.
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  No, not at all. It happened at the temple gate
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  called Beautiful, which was right in the center of public
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  life. Everyone saw it.
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  You could not miss it, right? This healing, paired with the
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  preaching that followed in Solomon's Colonnade, caused a
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  massive influx into the early church.
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  I think the text notes that the number of those who heard the
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  word and believed grew to about 5000 men.
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  Yes, 5000. Now this sudden explosive
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  progress of the Gospel severely alarmed the established
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  religious order. I can imagine.
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  Oh, they were terrified. The priests, the scribes, the
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  Sadducees, and the chief man among the Jews just panicked.
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  Because they had a fragile political setup.
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  Exactly. You have to understand the
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  political tension of the time. They are operating under the
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  watchful eye of Rome. And Rome did not like massive
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  crowds. No, they hated instability and
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  suddenly there is a massive crowd of 5000 people rallying
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  around the name of a man they just executed.
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  Which makes the religious leaders look like they've lost
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  control. Completely.
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  So they arrested Peter and John, put them in a holding cell for
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  the night, and brought them out the next day to demand an
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  account. What did they ask them?
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  They specifically asked by what name or authority they healed
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  the crippled man. And Peter does not hold back.
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  No, Peter, who is filled with the Holy Ghost, answers them
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  directly and fearlessly. He addresses them as the rulers
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  and elders of Israel. He calls them out by their
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  titles. Right.
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  And he declares that it's by the name of Jesus Christ of
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  Nazareth, whom they crucified and whom God raised from the
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  dead, that the man stands before them completely whole.
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  That is so bold. It is, and then Peter delivers
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  the critical line. Quoting Psalm 118 verse 22, he
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  says This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders,
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  which has become the head of the corner.
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  That is the verse Edwards focuses on.
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  Yes, and Edwards draws out a tremendous irony from this text.
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  The builders mentioned here are the religious elite.
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  They are the professionals. Exactly.
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  They are the rulers, the elders, the scribes, the high priest By
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  their very office. Their explicit job description
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  was to build God's church. They were supposed to be the
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  architects of the religious life of Israel.
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  Right. Yet when the main foundation
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  stone arrived, the very cornerstone required to hold the
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  entire structure together, these professional builders rejected
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  it completely. That irony is incredibly sharp.
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  I mean, you have the people who are supposedly the most trained,
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  the most educated in the ancient scriptures, and they completely
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  miss the central figure those scriptures point to.
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  They missed him entirely. And Edwards makes a careful note
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  of their methods in this text. They did not just, you know,
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  politely decline Jesus. No, they did not just disagree
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  with his theology. Right.
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  They manifested the greatest possible contempt.
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  They mocked Him. They scourged Him, They spit
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  upon Him. It was vicious.
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  It was They crowned him with thorns in this grotesque parody
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  of royalty, dressed him in a mock robe, and then executed him
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  through most ignominious, shameful death.
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  And they had a goal in mind with all of that.
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  They did. They took all of these extreme
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  measures for a very specific reason.
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  They wanted to stop his followers.
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  They thought public humiliation would do the trick.
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  Yeah, they assumed that a public, humiliating crucifixion
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  would utterly put an end to his influence in Judea.
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  They calculated that no one would follow a crucified,
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  disgraced teacher. Well, the historical reality
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  provides A fascinating extrapolation regarding how
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  human calculations fail when positioned against divine
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  decrees. It really highlights the
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  contrast. Yes, these religious elites
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  thought they had a flawless strategy.
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  They believed crucifixion would definitively cancel the
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  movement. But the result was the exact
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  opposite. Exactly.
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  The Gospel had incomparably greater success after Christ's
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  death than it ever did before. God accomplished His sovereign
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  goal through the very actions the elites took to prevent it.
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  That is staggering to think about.
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  It is they put him to death to stop people from believing in
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  him, and yet his death became the very mechanism by which
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  thousands were suddenly believing in him.
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  Submitting to him as the great prophet and Prince.
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  Right. It highlights the absolute
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  futility of opposing divine will.
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  The opposition itself becomes the instrument of fulfillment.
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  You know, reading this, a question immediately jumps out
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  to me. What is that?
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  Why does Edward start a sermon about the internal hearts of
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  everyday unbelievers by focusing so heavily on the political and
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  religious elites of the ancient world?
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  It does seem like a jump. Yeah, on the surface, it seems
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  like a massive leap from the ancient Sanhedrin in Jerusalem
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  to, say, a farmer or a merchant sitting in a Pew in 1736
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  Massachusetts. Most people would not make that
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  connection naturally. Right.
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  Most people listening to Edwards would not see themselves as
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  wealthy, powerful elites who execute prophets.
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  That is a very perceptive angle and it really reveals Edwards
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  rhetorical brilliance. He uses the Elites as a
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  terrifying mirror for the average person.
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  A mirror? How so?
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  Think about the status of those builders.
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  They were the most religious, most educated, most rigorously
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  observant people in that entire society.
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  They had all religious advantages.
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  Yes, they possess the law, the prophets, the temple rituals, if
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  they, with all their advantages, all their scriptural knowledge
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  and all their zeal, could completely miss the chief
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  cornerstone. And hate him enough to
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  orchestrate a crucifixion. Exactly.
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  If they could do that, then any natural human heart is capable
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  of the exact same blindness. Wow, so he is leveling the
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  playing field? Yes, Edwards is establishing A
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  baseline argument here. This rejection is not a matter
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  of lacking education. It is not a matter of being
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  particularly wicked in a worldly criminal sense.
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  It is just standard human. It is a fundamental condition of
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  the natural human heart. When theologians use the phrase
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  natural man, they are referring to human nature as it exists
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  normally without any supernatural regenerative
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  intervention. Just how we are born, right?
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  Edwards is saying that if the very best, most refined segment
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  of human society despised him, it proves that human nature
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  itself is hostile to him. That prepares the ground
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  perfectly to look at the central doctrine Edward straws out.
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  Yes, regarding how people view the Excellency of Christ's
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  Person. That sets up the primary
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  doctrine of the sermon very clearly.
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  Unbelievers set at nought the glory and Excellency in Christ.
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  That is the core of it. And Edwards starts by focusing
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  entirely on the person of Christ before he even gets to what
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  Christ actually did. He starts with who he is.
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  Right. He states that unbelievers have
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  no esteem for his divine nature. They have no respect for His
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  infinite majesty. They do not value Him being the
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  Son of God. It just does not register, you
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  know? Christ is exalted above all
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  created beings, yet He is not exalted at all in the esteem of
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  the unbeliever. Edwards notes His absolute
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  holiness, pointing out that the heavens are not pure in His
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  sight. That is a beautiful way to
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  phrase it it. Is he possesses the infinite
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  beauty of the divine nature, but the unbeliever sets nothing by
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  this holiness. And Edwards breaks down these
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  attributes with incredible precision.
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  He goes into a lot of detail. He does.
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  He talks about Christ as the wisdom of God and the might of
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  God, but the unbeliever sets nothing by that might and
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  wisdom. They just brush past it.
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  Yeah, he talks about Christ being full of grace and mercy,
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  noting that the love of God appears nowhere else so brightly
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  as in the face of Jesus Christ. Yet the unbeliever assigns no
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  value to this grace. Furthermore, Edwards points out
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  that this does not just apply to abstract divine attributes.
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  It also applies to the excellent human virtues Christ displayed
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  on earth. Like what kind of virtues?
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  Well, he was holy, harmless, undefiled.
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  He was meek and lowly of heart. He was incredibly patient under
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  severe affliction and injury. Which are things we usually
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  respect. Exactly when he was reviled, she
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  did not revile in return. These are virtues that human
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  beings typically pretend to admire in each other.
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  If we read a biography of a historical figure who showed
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  immense patience under unjust suffering, we applaud.
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  Them we build statues of them, but when perfectly embodied in
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  Christ, the unbeliever sets nothing by them.
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  I want to highlight a chilling phrase you just touched on,
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  which Edwards uses repeatedly in the text.
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  He says unbelievers set nothing by this.
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  That phrase carries a lot of weight.
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  He does. He does not say they value it a
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  little bit or they have a mild passing appreciation for it.
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  He says they literally set nothing by it.
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  Value is 0. Yes, the value they assigned to
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  infinite glory is mathematically 0.
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  To help you visualize this, think of it like taking a road
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  trip to stand on the edge of the Grand Canyon.
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  OK, I am picturing the Canyon. You drive for days, you walk up
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  to the rim and you are looking out over this massive mile deep
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  expanse of ancient red rock carved by millions of years of
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  water, stretching out as far as the eye can see.
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  The scale is breathtaking. It is, but imagine standing
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  there, leaning against the railing and feeling absolutely
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  nothing. Just completely numb to it.
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  Right. No awe, no sense of scale.
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  No wonder whatsoever. You might as well be looking at
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  a blank Gray wall in a parking garage.
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  That would be a very strange reaction.
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  It would be now if that happens, the flaw in that scenario is
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  obviously not in the Grand Canyon.
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  No, the Canyon is fine. The Canyon is objectively
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  magnificent. The flaw is entirely in the
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  observers dead and sensory equipment.
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  Their capacity for awe is broken.
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  That is a great way to understand what Edwards is
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  describing here. Yeah, the infinite beauty of
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  Christ is staring humanity in the face, and the internal
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  registry of the natural Heart reads 0.
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  That analogy perfectly captures the mechanics of what Edwards is
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  arguing. The object of beauty remains
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  untouched, but the perceptive faculties of the subject are
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  ruined. The receiver is broken.
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  Exactly. And if we examine the
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  theological weight of this deadness, the contrast Edwards
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  builds is jarring. It is a huge contrast.
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  Yes, in the theological framework Edwards operates
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  within, Christ is infinitely esteemed by God the Father.
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  He is the eternal delight of the Godhead.
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  And the angels. Right.
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  Furthermore, he is continually adored by the angels.
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  So you have a situation where the angels, who see him clearly
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  and have absolutely no need of a Savior, adore him endlessly.
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  They just worship him constantly.
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  Right. God the Father, who knows his
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  worth perfectly, esteems him infinitely.
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  But human beings who Edwards describes as worms of the dust.
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  Which is a heavy phrase. It is humans who desperately
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  need him for their very survival from hell.
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  Look at the same glorious person and feel nothing.
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  It exposes A terrifying dysfunction in the human soul.
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  It does. The highest beings in existence
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  recognize His worth, while the lowest, most needy beings
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  despise Him. That contrast really sits heavy
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  on the mind. If they are completely dead into
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  his person, how on earth do they interact with what he actually
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  did? That is the logical next step.
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  Right. Edwards does not let the
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  listener rest there. He moves directly from the
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  Person of Christ into how we view His work and His office.
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  He outlines how unbelievers make light of Christ as a glorious
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  mediator. We are told He is sufficient to
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  answer all our necessities, and to save sinners to the
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  uttermost, yet people make light of it.
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  They really do. They hear about the wonderful
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  wisdom of God contriving the specific way of salvation, but
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  they make absolutely no account of its Excellency.
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  The detail Edwards provides regarding the incarnation is
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  particularly striking here. How does he describe it?
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  He describes how he who is in the form of God and esteemed it
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  no robbery to be equal with God, took upon himself human nature.
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  He came to live in this world in a mean, low condition.
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  Stepping down from glory. Yes, and Edwards focuses heavily
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  on the visceral language of the text.
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  He uses the phrase worms of the dust again.
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  We should probably pause on that phrase, because modern ears
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  often react. Poorly.
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  To that very poorly. It sounds insulting today.
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  Yeah, but Edwards is not using it just to hurl insults.
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  He is using it to establish scale and disproportion.
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  Scale is the keyword. Right.
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  Christ, who is infinitely above the angels, set his love on
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  creatures who are comparatively nothing.
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  He loved them so much that he was willing to become a curse
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  for them. Dying a cruel and ignominious
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  death in their stead. This is the maximum display of
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  condescending love. Yet Edwards points out that the
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  Unbeliever makes nothing of this.
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  The dying love of Christ is of no account to them.
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  The great things he did and suffered are treated as light
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  matters, things of no real consequence.
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  Just brushed aside. Now I struggle to buy that at
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  face value, and I suspect a lot of listeners might be feeling a
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  similar pushback right now is. A strong claim to make.
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  You might be listening to this and thinking, wait a minute,
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  people talk about Jesus respectfully all the time.
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  Sure, people say nice things. Right people pray, they go to
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  church, they take the sacraments, they celebrate
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  holidays in his name. Many secular people even call
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  him a great moral teacher. It happens quite a bit.
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  So how can Edwards possibly claim that they make nothing of
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  his work? It seems like a massive
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  overstatement when you look at the sheer volume of religious
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  activity in the world. That reaction makes complete
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  sense, and Edwards anticipates it.
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  He saw it coming. He did.
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  This is where he applies his piercing distinction between
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  outward shows of religion and actual inward value.
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  Because Edwards is never fooled by external behavior.
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  No, never. He lived in 1730s New England, a
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  society completely saturated and outward religion.
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  Everyone went to church. Everyone knew the theology.
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  It is culturally expected. Yes.
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  Yet he argues that despite all these outward pretenses,
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  speaking honorably in prayers, attending ordinances like
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  communion and baptism, or having polite conversations about
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  religion, natural men do not actually value the glory of
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  Christ. How does he prove this though?
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  He observes human behavior. He states that natural men value
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  the smallest earthly enjoyment more than the dying love of
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  Christ. The smallest earthly enjoyment.
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  Yeah, if you look at what actually drives their decisions,
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  what excites their affections, what they spend their mental
• 16:46
  energy on while lying awake at night, it is always earthly
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  things. Like a promotion at work or a
• 16:51
  new possession? Exactly.
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  A comfortable home, a relationship.
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  These things generate real excitement, real anxiety, and
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  real affection in the natural heart.
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  But not Christ. Right.
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  The dying love of the Savior, meanwhile, might get a polite
• 17:06
  nod on the Sunday morning, but it commands no real governing
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  value in their soul. So the smallest earthly trinket
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  outranks the infinite sacrifice of the Cross in their functional
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  daily economy of value. That's exactly it.
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  When you frame it like that, exposing the functional economy
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  of value, it is a very difficult diagnosis to argue argue
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  against. It strips away all the excuses.
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  It does. Edwards knows it is a hard pill
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  to swallow, so he does not just leave it as an assertion.
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  He actually outlines specific evidences to prove this harsh
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  reality about the human heart. He breaks it down very
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  systematically. He does.
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  He lists 4 specific evidences of unbelief and we will walk
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  through the 1st 2 right now. Edwards says.
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  First, that unbelievers give Christ no true honor, and
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  second, they have no true love for Him.
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  Let us unpack that first evidence.
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  No true honor. Where does he start with that?
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  Edwards references Psalm 66 verse 3, which says, Through the
• 18:00
  greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves
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  unto thee. OK, that sounds like a good
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  thing initially. It does, but Edwards points out
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  that in the original language it means thine enemies shall lie
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  unto thee. Oh wow, they lie unto thee.
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  Yes, they yield A feigned fake obedience.
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  Any outward worship and unbeliever offers is not born of
• 18:21
  actual respect, it is forced. Forced by what?
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  It is driven either by a raw fear of hell and wrath, or it is
• 18:27
  done purely for fashion's sake, in compliance with societal
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  custom. Because they see no real glory
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  in Christ. Exactly.
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  So they do nothing in religion out of a genuine desire to seek
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  His honor. Christ is set last and lowest in
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  their heart. They shut the door on him while
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  holding high thoughts of created objects.
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  Right. Perhaps the most damning proof
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  Edwards offers regarding this lack of honor is that
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  unbelievers simply will not trust Christ's word.
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  They will not take him at his word.
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  No, they will trust the word of an honest neighbor or a faithful
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  servant far more readily than they will trust the promises of
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  Christ. That point about trusting the
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  honest neighbor is incredibly convicting.
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  It really hits home. Let me offer a scenario to help
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  you see what Edwards is getting at here.
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  Imagine you are running a business and you need to sign a
• 19:15
  company defining deal. A very high stakes situation.
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  Right, You have a local vendor you have worked with for 10
• 19:21
  years. You trust them completely.
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  You shake hands over a cup of coffee and the deal is done.
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  Oh, paperwork needed. Exactly.
• 19:28
  You do not even feel the need for a contract because you have
• 19:30
  absolute faith in their character.
• 19:32
  But it is different with God. Vastly different.
• 19:35
  The Creator of the universe offers you a covenant of
• 19:37
  salvation. He guarantees it with his own
• 19:40
  blood. But instead of trusting him, you
• 19:42
  demand 50 pages of legal guarantees.
• 19:45
  You want all the fine print. Yeah, you want signs, you want
• 19:48
  emotional feelings, you want empirical mathematical proof.
• 19:52
  And even after all of that is provided in the text of
• 19:55
  scripture, you still refuse to sign.
• 19:57
  You still hold back. You still refuse to rest your
• 20:00
  soul on His word. You give a local Baker more
• 20:03
  functional trust than you give the Son of God.
• 20:06
  That is a brutal realization. It is the utter lack of honor
• 20:10
  Edwards is exposing, and the second evidence follows right
• 20:13
  behind it. No true love.
• 20:15
  Which he illustrates very vividly.
• 20:16
  Yes, Edwards states that displaying the perfections of
• 20:19
  Christ draws no more love from an unbeliever than it draws from
• 20:23
  stones and rocks. The imagery of stones and rocks
• 20:26
  is vital here. Yeah, a stone is completely
• 20:28
  inert. It has no life in it.
• 20:30
  Right, you can shine the warmest, brightest sun on a rock
• 20:33
  for 1000 years and the rock will never produce a flower.
• 20:37
  It just sits there. It lacks the biological capacity
• 20:39
  to respond to the light, Edward says.
• 20:41
  The natural heart is equally inert toward the beauty of
• 20:44
  Christ. How does he unpack that?
• 20:46
  He unpacks this by analyzing 2 specific types of love that were
• 20:51
  common in 18th century philosophical vocabulary.
• 20:54
  What were they? Benevolence and complacency.
• 20:57
  Let's define those because they mean something slightly
• 20:59
  different today. Yeah, words shift over time.
• 21:02
  They do. First, he says unbelievers have
• 21:05
  no love of benevolence toward Christ.
• 21:07
  Benevolence means wishing well towards someone desiring their
• 21:11
  success and happiness. Like hoping a friend does well
• 21:14
  in their career. Exactly.
• 21:16
  Edwards bluntly states that a natural man would not care if
• 21:19
  Christ ceased to exist, so long as that man could still escape
• 21:23
  hell. That is terrifying.
• 21:24
  If the Kingdom of Christ went to ruin, it would not grieve the
• 21:27
  unbeliever at all, provided his own personal interests were
• 21:31
  secure. And what about the second type
• 21:33
  of love? Second, there is no love of
• 21:35
  complacency. Today, complacency means being
• 21:38
  lazy or unbothered. But in Edwards of vocabulary,
• 21:41
  complacency meant delighting in the beauty and character of an
• 21:44
  object. So it was a word about aesthetic
• 21:46
  and relational joy. Yes, the unbeliever takes no
• 21:50
  delight in thoughts of Christ. When forced to think about
• 21:53
  Jesus, the subject feels completely dry and barren.
• 21:56
  There's no loveliness there to please or gratify their soul.
• 22:00
  Whereas thoughts of earthly objects are highly entertaining
• 22:03
  and delightful to them, thoughts of Christ feel like an
• 22:06
  intellectual chore. It is a totally deadened
• 22:08
  palette. They can taste the sweetness of
• 22:11
  everything in the world except the one thing that is actually
• 22:14
  sweet. It is a tragic condition.
• 22:16
  From this lack of honor and love, we move straight into the
• 22:19
  final two evidences, which are just as clinical in their
• 22:21
  diagnosis. Yes, the third and 4th evidences
• 22:24
  are that unbelievers have no desire to enjoy Christ and no
• 22:28
  desire to be conformed to His image.
• 22:30
  Let us start with desires. The natural man certainly
• 22:33
  desires things. Oh, they have plenty of desires.
• 22:36
  Right when Christ is offered, He is presented as the proper
• 22:39
  object of choice. Usually people desire what they
• 22:42
  prize, especially if it is attainable.
• 22:45
  But Edwards notes a critical distinction here.
• 22:47
  Unbelievers only desire to be delivered from hell.
• 22:50
  They just want the fire insurance.
• 22:52
  Exactly. They do not actually desire to
• 22:54
  enjoy Christ. They literally cannot conceive
• 22:57
  of what happiness there could possibly be in beholding Christ,
• 23:01
  see His Holiness, and contemplating His grace.
• 23:05
  They have no relish, no appetite for it whatsoever.
• 23:07
  So they want the benefits of salvation, but they do not want
• 23:10
  the Savior Himself. Which leads directly to the 4th
• 23:13
  evidence. No desire for conformity.
• 23:15
  Precisely, Edwards argues that human beings naturally imitate
• 23:19
  those they esteem. Like looking up to a mentor,
• 23:22
  Yeah. If you admire a successful
• 23:24
  business leader, an athlete or a brilliant thinker, you naturally
• 23:28
  try to adopt their habits, their mannerisms, their ways of
• 23:31
  thinking. It happens all the time.
• 23:33
  Because the natural man feels no disposition whatsoever to learn
• 23:36
  of Christ or imitate him, it is absolute proof that they hold
• 23:41
  him in no esteem. Their tempers and dispositions
• 23:43
  remain entirely contrary to Christ's.
• 23:45
  They do not grow bad, better, or more conformed to him over time.
• 23:49
  In fact, Edwards quotes Sick Timothy 3.13 pointing out that
• 23:54
  evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.
• 23:57
  So without an esteem for Christ, the natural trajectory of the
• 24:00
  human heart is downward, away from his image.
• 24:03
  It is a steady decline. I want to pause here because
• 24:06
  there is a very obvious objection that comes to mind.
• 24:08
  What is the objection? What about secular morality?
• 24:11
  What about people who actively try to be good, moral citizens?
• 24:15
  If a natural person, an unbeliever, seeks to be a better
• 24:20
  person, if they seek to be holy or moral, isn't that a good
• 24:22
  thing? It seems like a good thing on
• 24:24
  the surface. Right.
• 24:25
  Edwards says they might seek holiness, but he dismisses it
• 24:28
  entirely. Why does he dismiss a person's
• 24:31
  attempt to clean up their life? He dismisses it based on the
• 24:34
  underlying motive. Edwards points directly to the
• 24:37
  mechanics of human nature. What is driving?
• 24:40
  Them. They seek holiness not for the
• 24:42
  sake of holiness itself, but only to escape wrath.
• 24:45
  They do not not actually want holiness because they are
• 24:47
  fundamentally enemies to it. It is just self preservation.
• 24:51
  Think of it like modern corporate compliance training.
• 24:53
  Oh. Everyone loves that.
• 24:54
  Right, you sit in the room and click through 50 slides about
• 24:57
  data security and HR regulations.
• 25:00
  You do not do this because you have a burning, passionate love
• 25:03
  for the corporate handbook. No, you do it because you want
• 25:06
  to keep your paycheck and you do not want to get fired.
• 25:08
  You are complying under threat of loss, Edward says.
• 25:12
  That is exactly how the unregenerate person views
• 25:16
  religious duties and morality. They view it as a miserable toll
• 25:19
  they have to pay on the highway to avoid going to hell.
• 25:21
  Yes, they do not desire to have their soul actually conformed to
• 25:26
  the glorious beauty of Christ. If they genuinely prized His
• 25:31
  Excellency, they would want to be like Him.
• 25:33
  But since they only want to avoid pain, their pursuit of
• 25:36
  morality is entirely self-serving.
• 25:38
  It is completely devoid of any actual respect for the person of
• 25:42
  Christ. That completely dismantles any
• 25:44
  moral high ground a person might try to claim without faith.
• 25:48
  It strips the veneer. Right off, it really does, and
• 25:50
  it brings us to the application of all these truths and what
• 25:53
  Edwards calls the greatness of guilt.
• 25:55
  He shifts from the theory to the courtroom, essentially.
• 25:57
  Yes, Edwards transitions from proving his doctrine to applying
• 26:01
  it, and his main goal is to teach the heinousness of the sin
• 26:04
  of unbelief. He points out that unbelief
• 26:06
  brings far greater guilt than other sins that typically
• 26:09
  trouble people's consciences. Which is counterintuitive for
• 26:12
  most people. It is.
• 26:14
  People lose sleep over lying or stealing or losing their temper,
• 26:18
  but they rarely lose sleep over the fact that they do not value
• 26:21
  the Son of God. So to explain why unbelief is
• 26:24
  such a massive crime, Edwards breaks down the logic of slight
• 26:28
  an insult using our own human psychology against us.
• 26:32
  How does he frame it? He points out that we are vile,
• 26:34
  sinful creatures, yet we take it incredibly grievously when we
• 26:38
  are despised. Think about how much you resent
• 26:41
  it when an equal like a neighbor or a Co worker slights you.
• 26:45
  We hate being ignored. If they set light by what you
• 26:47
  say, if they ignore your input, if they treat you as if you are
• 26:51
  good for nothing, you get highly offended.
• 26:53
  Oh, absolutely. Now Edwards turns the screw.
• 26:56
  You dislike it when equals treat you with contempt, but you would
• 26:59
  be furiously angry if an inferior despised you.
• 27:02
  That is a great point. If someone you clearly excel in
• 27:05
  every conceivable way treated you like garbage, your
• 27:08
  resentment would burn hot. We see this all the time.
• 27:11
  Someone ignores an e-mail or talks over you in a meeting and
• 27:14
  you Stew on it for days. Our pride is incredibly fragile.
• 27:18
  It is Edwards applies this exact logic to our relationship with
• 27:21
  God. He asks what a crime is it then
• 27:25
  for a vile, sinful creature to set at naughty the brightness of
• 27:29
  the glory of the King of Kings? The contrast is massive.
• 27:32
  We are less than nothing, yet we commit the ultimate insult
• 27:36
  against infinite majesty. And Edwards emphasizes the
• 27:39
  aggravating factors that multiply this guilt.
• 27:42
  Christ did not just exist in a vacuum.
• 27:44
  He. Acted.
• 27:45
  Yes, He came down out of infinite grace to sinners.
• 27:49
  He laid down His life to deliver them from hell.
• 27:52
  He suffered considerably to do us a kindness.
• 27:54
  It was a proactive rescue mission.
• 27:56
  Right Edwards reasons that if Christ had only come to teach
• 27:59
  us, it would be a heinous crying to trample his word and
• 28:01
  instructions under foot. Because he is God.
• 28:04
  Exactly. But he came to die.
• 28:06
  He offered his own blood, trampling the blood of the Son
• 28:08
  of God. Bloodshed for such poor sinners
• 28:11
  is infinitely more heinous than trampling mere instructions.
• 28:13
  When someone puts themselves out of their way, denies themselves
• 28:16
  and suffers to do you a kindness and you spit in their face.
• 28:19
  Humanly speaking, we consider that the lowest form of
• 28:21
  betrayal. Edwards says this is exactly
• 28:24
  what the unbeliever does to the cross of Christ.
• 28:26
  To really drive home the magnitude of this guilt, Edwards
• 28:30
  paints A cosmic contrast for the listener.
• 28:32
  He brings in the angels again. Yes, he references Revelation
• 28:35
  chapter 5 where thousands upon thousands of angels surround the
• 28:38
  throne, crying out with a loud voice.
• 28:41
  Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
• 28:44
  The angels who are vastly superior to us in intellect and
• 28:48
  might dedicate their entire existence to admiring and
• 28:52
  adoring the glory of Christ. They do not hold back at all.
• 28:55
  Furthermore, God the Father holds Christ as the absolute
• 28:58
  darling of heaven eternally. His delight the Father ordains
• 29:02
  that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
• 29:05
  Father. So you have the Father and the
• 29:07
  angelic hosts holding Christ in Infinitis scheme.
• 29:10
  And yet the unbelieving children of men sitting down here in the
• 29:14
  dirt, entirely dependent on him, treat him as completely
• 29:17
  worthless. The sheer arrogance of it is
• 29:19
  terrifying. It is terrifying, and it
• 29:20
  logically brings Edwards to his final points of conviction.
• 29:23
  The danger of wrath, the worthlessness of self driven
• 29:26
  efforts and the absolute justice of God.
• 29:29
  Let us start with the danger. Edwards explains that this
• 29:33
  enmity between the human heart and Christ does not exist,
• 29:36
  despite his perfections. It exists because of his
• 29:39
  excellent perfections. Exactly.
• 29:41
  By being such a holy, pure Savior, He is entirely contrary
• 29:45
  to our corrupt lusts. If someone offered a Savior who
• 29:48
  endorsed our sins and patted us on the back, we would gladly
• 29:52
  accept Him. We would love that kind of
• 29:53
  Savior, but Christ is a rock of offense because of his purity.
• 29:57
  However, Edwards warns that Christ's exaltation is not
• 30:01
  dependent on our approval. He shall be ahead of the corner
• 30:04
  regardless. You cannot break his bands.
• 30:06
  If you will not submit to the scepter of His grace, you will
• 30:09
  absolutely be subjected to the rod of His wrath.
• 30:12
  Edwards quotes Psalm 2 here. He will rule you with a rod of
• 30:15
  iron. That brings up a very common
• 30:17
  excuse that people use, and Edwards anticipates it.
• 30:19
  People always have an excuse. They do.
• 30:21
  People say I want to come to Christ.
• 30:23
  I would gladly come to him if I could.
• 30:25
  It is not my fault my heart is dead.
• 30:27
  Edwards shatters this excuse entirely.
• 30:29
  How does he address it? He says these so-called desires
• 30:32
  are totally forced. Sinners take a great deal of
• 30:36
  pains to get an interest in Christ.
• 30:38
  Like reading, praying, going to church.
• 30:41
  Yes, but they do it to make a righteousness out of it.
• 30:44
  They are seeking him purely out of respect to their own
• 30:47
  self-interest, to avoid hell, while at the exact same time
• 30:52
  they still value his actual person in nothing.
• 30:54
  Their efforts are utterly worthless because they are
• 30:57
  entirely self-serving. Which leads to the final
• 30:59
  devastating logical point regarding divine justice.
• 31:02
  This is the part that really stings.
• 31:04
  It does. Edwards asks a series of
• 31:05
  rhetorical questions that shut the mouth of every complainant.
• 31:09
  Why should God give you an interest in someone you actively
• 31:12
  trample any foot? Why should?
• 31:13
  God give you a part in a precious stone that you esteem
• 31:16
  no more than the dirt in the street.
• 31:18
  Is God obliged to cast such a Pearl before swine?
• 31:22
  Is God forced to make you a possessor of His infinitely
• 31:24
  glorious Son when you count Him not worth having for his own
• 31:27
  sake, but only want Him so you do not have to burn?
• 31:30
  The logic is airtight. God is completely, perfectly
• 31:34
  just and refusing to give an unbeliever an interest in
• 31:36
  Christ. I have to admit, this sounds
• 31:38
  incredibly bleak. It really does.
• 31:41
  If our best efforts to seek Him are just thinly veiled
• 31:44
  self-interest, and if God is entirely justified in leaving us
• 31:48
  to our doom because we treat His Son like dirt, where does that
• 31:51
  leave the listener? It leaves the listener entirely
• 31:54
  stripped of their pride, which is the pastoral goal Edwards is
• 31:57
  aiming for. He wants to take away all our
• 31:59
  confidence. He is.
• 32:00
  Systematically stripping away every single ounce of human
• 32:03
  autonomy, self-reliance and moral posturing by proving that
• 32:08
  the natural heart is utterly hostile, dead as a stone, and
• 32:11
  brings absolutely nothing of value to the table.
• 32:14
  He backs the Sinner into a corner.
• 32:15
  Yes, a corner where only one conclusion remains.
• 32:18
  If we are this dead and God, is this just that salvation cannot
• 32:22
  possibly come from our own efforts or our own goodness.
• 32:25
  It highlights the absolute necessity that salvation must be
• 32:27
  an act of sheer, unmerited, sovereign grace.
• 32:30
  God has to act first. God has to change the heart
• 32:33
  Edwards wounds with this law to make the necessity of grace
• 32:36
  undeniably clear. That really brings all the
• 32:39
  pieces together. To summarize the staggering
• 32:41
  reality presented in this text, Unbelief is not a passive lack
• 32:46
  of information. It is not just an innocent
• 32:48
  mistake. No, it is an active, heinous
• 32:51
  rejection of infinite beauty driven by a corrupted heart that
• 32:55
  functionally prefers the smallest earthly trinkets over
• 32:58
  the Creator of the universe. Edwards leaves no room for
• 33:01
  nominal, comfortable religion. He really demands we look at the
• 33:04
  actual affections of our soul. So as we wrap up, I want to
• 33:09
  leave you with a final thought to Mull over.
• 33:12
  Edwards proved that our natural hearts are completely dead to
• 33:15
  the beauty of Christ, responding like inert stones.
• 33:18
  So the question you have to ask yourself now is, if a stone
• 33:21
  cannot make itself beat with love, what kind of supernatural
• 33:25
  heart transplant is actually required for a person to finally
• 33:28
  see the cornerstone for what he truly is?
• 33:30
  That is the question we all have to answer.
• 33:32
  Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into Edward's thought.
• 33:36
  We wish you well as you ponder these heavy realities.