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Pardon for the Greatest Sinner | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Hello and welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  I am. I'm really glad you were here
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  with us today. We are doing what we always do
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  on this show, which is opening up the archives, blowing the
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  dust off the old books and, you know, seeing if the theology of
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  the past can actually handle the pressure of the present.
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  Right, because we aren't just here to admire these texts like
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  they're museum pieces. Yeah, we want to know if they
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  work. We want to know if they are
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  true. That is the standard.
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  I mean, if it isn't true it really doesn't matter how old it
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  is. But if it is true, well then the
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  age just means it has been tested.
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  Right. And today we are taking a deep
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  dive into something that, on the surface at least, feels
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  completely backward. We're looking at a sermon by
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  Jonathan Edwards called Pardon for the Greatest Sinner, and I
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  know the immediate reaction when I say the name Jonathan Edwards.
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  Oh for sure, the cultural caricature is strong.
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  Yeah, you think of a stern man in a wig standing in a pulpit up
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  in Northampton, MA, dangling a spider over a fire.
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  You know you immediately think of sinners in the hands of an
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  angry God. Which is a real sermon, and a
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  necessary one to be fair. Sure.
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  Absolutely, but the vibe people associate with him is just pure
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  terror, fire, judgment, wrath. So when we see a title like
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  Pardon for the Greatest Sinner, I think we might expect the fine
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  print to be terrifying. But this text is different.
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  It's very different. It's surprising.
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  It is based on Psalm 25, verse 11, and the logic Edwards pulls
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  out of that verse is, well, it's strange.
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  It goes against how I was raised to think, and it definitely goes
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  against how our legal system works.
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  It is strange to the natural mind, it's foreign logic.
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  So the text is King David praying and he says this.
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  He says For thy name Seiko, Lord, pardon my iniquity, for it
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  is great. Or it is great that right there
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  that is the hinge of the whole thing.
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  That is the argument. Let's just pause there for a
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  second because I want to make sure you, the listener, catch
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  why that is so weird. David is in trouble.
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  He's guilty. He needs a pardon.
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  And his argument, his actual legal defenses, my sin is huge.
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  I mean, imagine I get pulled over for speeding, right?
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  The officer walks up to the window.
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  I roll it down. He asks, do you know how fast
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  you were going? If I say to him, Officer, you
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  should let me go because I was going 100 miles an hour in a
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  school zone. He is going to arrest you on the
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  spot. Right.
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  My defense is usually oh I was only 5 miles over or I didn't
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  realize the speed limit dropped. I tried to minimize the offense
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  to get mercy. Because that is the human
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  instinct, we minimize the guilt to maximize the chance of
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  acquittal. We think that if the sin is
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  small, it is somehow easier for God to forgive.
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  Yeah, like we bring our smallness as a defense.
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  Precisely. We think, you know, I'm not
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  Hitler, I'm not a serial killer. I'm just a guy who loses his
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  temper sometimes, but David brings his greatness, he says.
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  The reason you should forgive me is that what I did was horrible.
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  Is he tricking God though? Is this some kind of reverse
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  psychology? Because it sounds manipulative.
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  Like I'm so bad you just have to save me.
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  It isn't manipulation, it is desperation.
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  And to really grasp why it works, we have to look at the
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  context Edwards lays out here. This isn't David sitting
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  comfortably on his throne, having a theological debate.
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  Right, he's in the thick of it. He is in affliction and danger.
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  If you look at verses 15 through 18 of Psalm 20, 25, he talks
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  about his feet being in a net. He says he is desolate.
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  He is afflicted. So he is suffering.
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  He is suffering, and Edwards points out a connection here
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  that I think we often miss. When David feels pain, he
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  immediately thinks of his sin. The distress wakes up his
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  conscience. That is fascinating because I
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  feel like modern psychology would tell us the complete
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  opposite. Oh, absolutely.
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  If I am suffering, let's say I lose my job or I get really
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  sick. Modern responses.
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  You poor thing, you are a victim of circumstance.
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  We completely separate the suffering from the person's
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  moral standing. But you are saying David linked
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  them? In the Reformed worldview, and
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  certainly in the biblical worldview, there is no such
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  thing as an innocent sufferer in the ultimate cosmic sense.
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  Now, that doesn't mean every specific pain is a direct
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  punishment for a specific sin. Right, The Book of Job teaches
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  us that isn't always the case. Spot on.
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  Job is the perfect counterexample.
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  But for David, in this moment, the net around his feet made him
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  look up and realize he wasn't with God.
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  The external trouble forced an internal audit.
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  An internal audit. I like that phrasing.
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  So he looks inside and he doesn't see a clean spreadsheet.
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  He sees red ink everywhere. He realizes he has absolutely no
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  merit. He cannot say, Lord help me
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  because I am a faithful, obedient servant.
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  He looks at his life and just sees a disaster.
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  Yeah. So he's in a very low place.
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  He has nothing to offer God but His need.
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  And that brings us to the core mission of this deep dive.
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  Today, we need to figure out why the magnitude of guilt is not an
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  obstacle to grace. Right, because for us magnitude
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  is usually a massive obstacle. It is like if I borrow 5 bucks
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  from you and don't pay it back, we can still be friends.
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  If I burn down your house, we probably aren't hanging out next
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  weekend. The size of the offense really
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  matters to us. But Edwards is arguing that for
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  God, the size of the sin can actually be a plea for mercy.
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  If, and this is a big if, we understand the nature of the
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  plea, Edwards calls it a plea of necessity.
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  Let's break that down. A plea of necessity.
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  Think about a beggar. Edwards uses this analogy and it
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  is timeless. Imagine a man begging on the
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  street. He is starving.
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  He asks A passerby for money for food.
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  Does he say please help me, I'm only a little bit hungry?
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  No, that implies he can wait. He's fine.
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  Right. Does he say I have a sandwich in
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  my pocket, but I'd like another one?
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  No. If he wants to move your heart
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  to pity, he has to show you the extremity of his condition.
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  He says I haven't eaten in three days, I am fainting, I am going
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  to die right here on the sidewalk if you don't help me.
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  The greatness of his hunger is the argument for the bread.
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  So he isn't applying for a loan. Bingo.
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  If you apply for a loan, you show your assets, you prove you
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  are reliable, you prove you don't really need the money,
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  ironically, in order to get the money.
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  That's so true. But David isn't at a bank, he is
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  at a charity ward. He is asking for alms.
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  And when you ask for alms, you show your.
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  Wounds That changes the dynamic completely.
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  I think a lot of us approach God like we are applying for a
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  mortgage. We do.
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  We try to fix up our credit score before we pray.
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  We think, you know, I'll go to church for three weeks, I'll
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  stop swearing, I'll volunteer, and then I'll ask for
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  forgiveness. We are trying to prove we are a
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  good investment. And that is fatal.
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  That is the one thing that will get your application rejected in
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  the court of heaven. God doesn't finance the
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  self-sufficient, He rescues the destitute.
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  Edwards uses another analogy here.
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  The physician. The Doctor.
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  Yeah, if a man has a scratch on his finger, he might put a
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  Band-Aid on it. He doesn't go to the emergency
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  room screaming. But if a man is having a massive
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  heart attack, the extremity of the case, he cries out for the
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  physician. The severity of the disease is
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  the reason he needs the doctor. He doesn't try to hide the
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  symptoms. It reminds me of the triage
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  system in an ER. Oh, perfect example you.
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  Walk in and say I have a mild headache.
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  They tell you to sit in the waiting room for six hours.
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  But if you walk in or get wheeled in, blue in the face,
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  not breathing, you go to the front of the line, you get the
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  immediate attention of the best doctors.
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  Edwards is saying that spiritually we need to be the
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  code blue. We are the code blue.
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  That is the reality. We just pretend we have a
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  headache, Edwards is saying. Stop pretending.
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  Admit the condition is critical because that is what triggers
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  divine pity. Divine pity.
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  Let's look at that, because Edwards makes a very specific
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  distinction about what actually moves God.
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  He does, and this is hard for our pride.
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  He says God is not moved to mercy by anything good in the
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  Sinner. We want to believe there is
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  something in us, a spark, a potential, a good heart that
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  makes God say, oh, I should save that one.
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  He has promise. We want to be the diamond in the
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  rough. Yes, but Edwards says no.
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  God is moved to mercy by nothing in the Sinner but their
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  miserableness. Their miserableness.
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  That's it. Just the fact that they are
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  wretched. It's.
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  Just the fact that they are in need, he writes.
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  He does not pity sinners because they are worthy, but because
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  they need his pity. This is the beauty of the
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  Reformed doctrine of grace. It is free.
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  If it depended on your worthiness, it would be wages.
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  You would earn it, but since it depends on your misery, it is
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  mercy. That is actually a huge relief
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  because if I have to find something worthy in myself to
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  leverage God's attention, I am going to be constantly anxious.
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  Like, did I do enough good today to tip the scales?
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  But if the only qualification I need is I am a mess, well, I can
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  provide that. I have plenty of that.
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  We all do, but there is a catch. There's always a catch.
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  Well, it isn't a catch in the sense of a trick, OK, but it is
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  a prerequisite. Edwards is very clear that you
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  can't just mouth the words my sin is great and expect a
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  result. It isn't a magic spell.
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  The argument only works if the is truly coming to God, and
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  Edwards lists three things, three specific heart conditions
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  that must be present for this plea to be valid.
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  OK, let's walk through these. This is the diagnostic part.
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  If you are listening and you want to know am I doing this
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  right? These are the checkpoints.
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  The first one is a sensibility of misery.
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  Sensibility of misery? That just sounds like
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  depression. It is more than just feeling
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  sad, it is a theological awareness of your standing,
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  Edwards says. The listener must understand
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  they are children of wrath. Children of Wrath, we definitely
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  don't use that phrase at dinner parties.
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  What does that actually mean? It means that by nature we are
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  born into a state where the law of God is against us.
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  We are not neutral. We are not blank slates.
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  We are born in debt to the law, Edwards says.
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  They must see that God is angry with them every day they remain
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  in unbelief. They hangover the pit of eternal
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  misery. That is heavy, and I've played
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  devil's advocate here. In our modern context, if you
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  tell someone God is angry with you and you are hanging over a
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  pit, they will say that is toxic.
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  Oh, they'll hate. It they will say that is
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  damaging to self esteem, they will say I need to love myself,
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  not see myself as a child of wrath.
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  How does Edwards, or the Bible for that matter, answer that
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  objection? The answer is that a diagnosis
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  is only toxic if it is false. Think about it.
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  If you go to a doctor and he tells you have stage 4 cancer,
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  that is devastating news. It hurts yourself esteem.
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  It ruins your day. But if it is true, then telling
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  you that you are healthy is the toxic act.
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  Telling you you're fine when you are dying is malpractice.
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  Yeah, that's a brilliant way to put it.
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  Edwards believes, because the Bible teaches it, that the
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  natural state of man is separated from God and heading
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  toward judgement. To hide that is to hate the
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  person. So the sensibility of misery is
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  really just accepting that diagnosis.
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  It is the moment the patient looks at the X-ray and says this
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  is real, I am in trouble. You cannot ask for a savior if
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  you don't think you need saving. You can ask for a life coach,
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  you can ask for a therapist, but you only ask for a savior if you
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  are drowning. OK, so step one, realize the
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  ship is sinking. What is Step 2?
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  Step 2 is even harder. It is a sensibility of
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  unworthiness. How's that different from
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  misery? Misery is realizing I'm going to
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  hell. Unworthiness is realizing I
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  should go to hell. Whoa, that is a massive leap.
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  It is the difference between fear and repentance.
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  A criminal can be afraid of prison.
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  He can be miserable that he got caught, but that doesn't mean he
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  agrees with the law. He might think the judge is
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  unfair. He might think the sentence is
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  way too harsh. Edwards says the true seeker
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  engages in just judgement. Just judgement.
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  They judge themselves. They look at God's law, they
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  look at their own life and they say, God, if you sent me to hell
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  right now, you would be 100% fair.
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  You would be right to do it. They do not find fault with
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  God's severity. That is the rope around the neck
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  image Edwards uses, right? Yes, he references a story from
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  First Kings chapter 20 where the servants of Ben Haddad come to
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  the king of Israel. They put sackcloth on their
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  loins and actual ropes around their necks.
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  Which is a highly visual way of saying we are already condemned.
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  Well, precisely that. A man with a rope around his
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  neck isn't arguing his case. He isn't saying.
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  But wait, I did charity work last week.
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  He is handing the the other end of the rope to the king and
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  saying my life is in your hands. You have the right to pull this
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  rope. I am asking you not to.
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  That kills self righteousness dead.
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  You can't have a rope around your neck and be proud at the
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  same time. It is the absolute death of yes,
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  but you know how we apologize usually.
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  I'm sorry I yelled, but you made me angry.
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  I'm sorry I lied, but I was under a lot of pressure at work.
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  Right. The rope around the neck means
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  there is no but it is just. I am sorry, I am guilty, I have
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  no excuse. It is total surrender.
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  If we stop there, though, we are just in despair.
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  We have misery and we agree we should be condemned.
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  That sounds like Judas. Judas had misery.
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  He knew he was guilty, but he didn't find grace.
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  That is a brilliant distinction. Judas had misery and guilt, but
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  he didn't have the third prerequisite, and this is the
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  one that changes everything, Edwards says.
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  They must come through Jesus Christ alone.
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  This provides the hope. This is the pivot.
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  You look at your sin and see it as great.
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  You look at God's a justice and see it as right.
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  But then you look at Christ and you have to believe that his
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  blood is sufficient. It has to be Christ.
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  It can't be. I'll try harder next time.
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  No, if you try to fix it yourself, you are basically
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  taking the rope off your neck and trying to run away.
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  You have to stay there in that posture of surrender, but lift
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  your eyes to the cross. Edward says we must look only to
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  Christ, not Christ. Bless my tears.
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  Not Christ plus my Reformation. Just Christ.
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  Why is that only so critical? Because if you add anything to
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  Christ, you subtract from His glory.
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  If I say God forgive me because Jesus died for me, A&D because I
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  promised to be nice, I am saying Jesus's death wasn't quite
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  enough. I needed to top it off with my
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  own niceness. Edward says no.
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  The plea rests entirely on the merit of the Son of God.
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  So if I have those three things, I know I'm in trouble, I know I
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  deserve it, and I'm trusting Jesus to fix it.
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  Then I can use the argument. Pardon my iniquity, for it is
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  great. Then, and only then, does the
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  argument work, because now you aren't bragging about your sin,
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  you are magnifying the physician who can cure it.
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  This leads us right into the theological engine room.
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  Edwards is a systematic guy. He doesn't just want us to feel
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  this, he wants us to understand why it works.
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  He gives defense. He basically argues that God is
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  not intimidated by the size of our sin.
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  He breaks it down into 5 arguments and the first one is
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  almost mathematical. It is the Infinity of God's
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  mercy. I love this part because it
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  really puts our ego in check. We think our sins are so big
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  that they intimidate God. We do.
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  We think God can handle a parking ticket.
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  But I've committed murder, I've committed adultery, I've
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  betrayed everyone. We think our sin is a massive
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  mountain, and to us it is. But.
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  Edwards asks what is a mountain compared to the universe?
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  It's a speck. And what is a mountain compared
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  to Infinity? It is 0.
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  Edwards argues that God is infinite, His being is infinite,
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  and his mercy is infinite. Now, mathematically speaking,
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  what is the difference between the number 10 and the number 10
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  million if you compare both of them to Infinity?
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  Neither of them gets you any closer.
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  You were still infinitely far away.
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  Absolutely. The distance between a small sin
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  and a great sin is negligible to an infinite God.
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  Edwards writes that God is as much above a great king as he is
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  above a worm. One finite measure doesn't tax
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  his resources more than another. So forgiving a great Sinner
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  doesn't drain God's battery faster than forgiving a small
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  Sinner. It is completely effortless for
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  him. Think of the ocean.
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  The ocean doesn't care if you throw in a Pebble or a boulder.
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  It swallows both without even noticing.
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  That is comforting, but I can hear a skeptical listener right
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  now. They are saying OK sure God is
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  infinite, but God is also just. Doesn't justice care about the
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  size of the crime in our human courts?
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  If I scale a candy bar I get a slap on the wrist.
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  If I steal a car I go to jail. Justice discriminates based on
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  the magnitude of the offense. If God just treats all sin as 0
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  compared to Infinity, doesn't that make him an unjust judge?
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  That is the crucial question. If God just waved his hand and
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  said it's all fine, don't worry about it, he would be a corrupt
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  judge. He would be mocking justice.
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  So Edwards moves to a second argument, which is the
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  sufficiency of satisfaction. Satisfaction.
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  That is a very specific theological term.
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  It refers to the atonement, the payment.
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  Edwards argues that Christ didn't just ask God to overlook
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  sin. Christ paid for the sin.
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  He settled the account. He settled it fully first.
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  John 1.7 says the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
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  all sin. Edwards logic is all about debt.
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  If I owe the bank a dollar and you pay it, I am free.
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  If I owe the bank a billion dollars and you pay it, I am
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  equally free. Because the freedom depends on
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  the payer's ability to pay, not the debtor's debt.
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  Precisely. And Christ is the payer because
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  he is the Son of God. His sacrifice has infinite
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  value, so whether the debt is small or huge, his payment
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  covers it. But Edwards adds a really
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  fascinating point here about God's hatred of sin.
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  People worry that free grace makes God look socked on sin.
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  If he just forgives the greatest Sinner, does he really hate
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  evil? That is the classic cheap grace
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  objection. Edwards says look at the cross.
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  How did God demonstrate his hatred of sin?
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  Did he demonstrate it by sending all of humanity to hell?
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  He could have. But Edward suggests that God
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  demonstrated his hatred of sin more by crushing his own son
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  than he would have by damning the world.
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  Wait. Unpack that for us.
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  How was the death of one person, Jesus, a bigger demonstration of
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  justice than damning billions of people?
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  Because of who Jesus is, He is the Prince of life.
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  He is the beloved of the Father. For God to pour out his wrath on
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  the person he loves most, that shows that the standard of
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  justice is absolute. It shows that sin must be
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  punished no matter who bears it. If God didn't spare his own Son,
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  He isn't soft on sin. That is, it's disturbing.
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  Actually it is violent, but I see the logic.
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  It proves that the debt was real and the payment was real.
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  It wasn't just a paperwork error that got deleted from the
• 18:04
  system. It cost God everything, so if
• 18:06
  the debt is paid, justice is satisfied.
• 18:09
  The judge looks at the great center and says there is no debt
• 18:12
  here. It was paid on Calvary.
• 18:14
  The size of the original debt is now completely irrelevant to the
• 18:17
  legal standing of the center. Wow.
• 18:20
  OK, so we have the Infinity of mercy and the sufficiency of the
• 18:22
  payment. What is the third argument?
• 18:24
  The third argument is about the office of the savior.
• 18:27
  It's a job description argument. You're back to the doctor.
• 18:29
  Yes, Matthew 9.12 They that are whole need not a physician, but
• 18:34
  they that are sick, Edwards argues.
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  Why did Jesus come? What is his actual role to save
• 18:40
  sinners? It seems obvious, but we
• 18:42
  constantly forget it. We do.
• 18:44
  We act like Jesus came to hang out with nice people.
• 18:47
  But Edwards says if Jesus rejected A Sinner because they
• 18:50
  were too sinful, he would be rejecting the very purpose of
• 18:53
  his coming. It would be like a fireman
• 18:54
  refusing to enter a burning building because there's too
• 18:57
  much fire. That is why the fireman is
• 18:59
  there. Right.
• 19:00
  If the fire is small, you can use a garden hose yourself.
• 19:03
  You call the fire department when the fire is completely out
• 19:05
  of control. Edwards argues that the
• 19:08
  greatness of the sin is what makes the Sinner the proper
• 19:11
  subject for Christ's work. It is His glory to heal the
• 19:14
  incurable disease. That leads right into the 4th
• 19:17
  argument, the glory of grace. This is very reformed.
• 19:21
  Everything is about the glory of God.
• 19:23
  Edwards asks what brings God more glory, saving a generally
• 19:27
  decent person who made a few mistakes or saving a Wretch?
• 19:31
  It's the before and after photo. It is if you watch those home
• 19:34
  renovation shows. Nobody wants to see a house that
• 19:36
  just needs a fresh coat of paint.
• 19:38
  They want to see the gut job. They want to see the house with
• 19:41
  the collapsing roof in the black mold everywhere.
• 19:44
  Because when that house is fixed, everyone claps for the
• 19:47
  contractor. Look at what he did.
• 19:48
  So we are the moldy house. We are the tear down.
• 19:52
  Edwards uses the example of the apostle Paul in First Timothy 1.
• 19:56
  Paul calls himself the chief of sinners.
• 19:59
  He was a blasphemer. He murdered Christians.
• 20:01
  Why did God save him? Paul tells us that in me first,
• 20:05
  Jesus Christ might show forth all along suffering.
• 20:08
  He was a billboard. A billboard.
• 20:10
  God pinned Paul up on the highway of history and said,
• 20:12
  look, if I can clean him up, I can clean anyone up.
• 20:16
  If God only saved good people, his grace would look weak.
• 20:20
  It would look like a mere supplement to human effort, but
• 20:23
  when he saves the greatest Sinner, grace shines.
• 20:26
  So if you were listening and you think my sin is too shameful,
• 20:29
  Edwards would say your sin is the perfect dark background to
• 20:32
  show off the diamond of God's grace.
• 20:34
  Beautifully put. You are the perfect candidate to
• 20:37
  bring him glory specifically because of your baggage.
• 20:40
  And the final argument. The universal offer.
• 20:42
  Edwards simply looks at the text of the Bible.
• 20:44
  He says show me the limit. The fine print.
• 20:47
  Isaiah says ho everyone that thirsteth.
• 20:50
  Not everyone who thirsteth a little bit, Revelation says.
• 20:53
  Whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.
• 20:57
  The Great Commission says preach the Gospels at every creature.
• 21:00
  Edwards emphasizes that the offer is made to men, not moral
• 21:04
  men. It is an open door.
• 21:06
  It is Christ, says him, that cometh to me.
• 21:08
  I will in no wise cast out. He doesn't say.
• 21:11
  I won't cast him out unless he did that one terrible thing back
• 21:15
  in 1995. It is an absolute promise.
• 21:17
  If you come, you are in. So the logic is airtight.
• 21:21
  God is infinite. The debt is paid, the job
• 21:24
  description requires it, the glory demands it, and the offer
• 21:27
  confirms. It he was a fortress of logic.
• 21:29
  But, and there's always a but with us humans, we still have
• 21:32
  objections. We have fears.
• 21:33
  Edwards moves to the pastoral application section of the
• 21:36
  sermon, and he addresses the people who are still sitting
• 21:38
  there, arms crossed, thinking, yeah, but my case is special.
• 21:41
  He deals with the yeah but people directly and he
• 21:44
  identifies 3 specific types of sinners who struggle with this.
• 21:47
  The first one is the old age Sinner.
• 21:49
  This is the person who says I've wasted my life.
• 21:51
  I'm 7080 years old. I spent my youth in sin.
• 21:54
  I gave my strength to the world. Now I'm old, I'm tired, my body
• 21:58
  is failing. I can't offer God anything.
• 22:01
  It would be an insult to give him the dregs of my life.
• 22:04
  I hear this a lot. It feels respectful in a strange
• 22:08
  way. It feels like I missed my window
• 22:11
  and I don't want to insult God with my leftovers.
• 22:13
  It feels humble, but Edward says it is actually pride.
• 22:17
  How is that pride? Because it assumes that your
• 22:19
  youth had value to God. It assumes that if you had come
• 22:22
  when you were 20, God would have been lucky to have you.
• 22:25
  Look at this strong, energetic young man.
• 22:28
  What an asset for the Kingdom. Ouch.
• 22:30
  So we think we are God's employees, right?
• 22:33
  We think God is hiring a workforce and now that we are
• 22:35
  old, we aren't hirable anymore. But God isn't hiring employees,
• 22:38
  He is adopting children. Edwards reminds us that God
• 22:41
  doesn't accept us because of what we can do for him.
• 22:44
  He accepts us because of Christ. So the 20 year old and the 80
• 22:47
  year old are accepted on the exact same basis.
• 22:50
  Zero merit. The 20 year old's energy is not
• 22:52
  a credit and the 80 year old's frailty is not a debit.
• 22:56
  Both need the blood of Christ. Edward says that while is a
• 22:59
  tragedy to waste a life and we shouldn't minimize that regret,
• 23:03
  God is just as ready to receive the old Sinner as the young 1.
• 23:06
  He isn't looking for future utility.
• 23:09
  That is a relief for anyone who feels like the clock has run
• 23:12
  out. The clock doesn't run out until
• 23:14
  you are dead. As long as there is breath, the
• 23:16
  plea for it is great, is completely valid.
• 23:19
  The second objection is much scarier.
• 23:21
  This is the person who worries they are a reprobate.
• 23:24
  This is the unpardonable sin fear.
• 23:26
  Right, the person says. I knew better.
• 23:28
  I grew grew up in church, I sinned against light.
• 23:30
  I did it on purpose. Surely I have hardened my heart
• 23:32
  so much that God has given me over.
• 23:34
  I am Esau. I am Pharaoh.
• 23:36
  This is a form of spiritual anxiety that is very common in
• 23:39
  Reformed circles, Actually, because we believe in election,
• 23:43
  people naturally worry, What if I'm not elected?
• 23:45
  It is the dark side of the theology when it's misapplied.
• 23:48
  Edwards handles this with such pastoral precision, he argues
• 23:52
  that if you are worried about it, you probably haven't done
• 23:55
  it. Why is that?
• 23:56
  Because the mark of the reprobate, the person God has
• 23:58
  truly given over, is a complete lack of feeling.
• 24:01
  It is a seared conscience. Pharaoh didn't walk around
• 24:04
  wringing his hands, worrying if he hurt God's feelings.
• 24:07
  Pharaoh didn't care. He was numb.
• 24:09
  Numb, hard, cold. If you were listening to this
• 24:13
  and you are terrified that you have committed the unpardonable
• 24:16
  sin, that terror is actually a sign of life.
• 24:19
  Dead nerves don't feel pain. The fact that you feel the
• 24:22
  weight of your sin means the Holy Spirit is still stinging
• 24:25
  your conscience. That is a great diagnostic tool.
• 24:28
  Pain proves life. Yes, Edward says.
• 24:30
  If you can find it in your heart to come to Christ now, you are
• 24:33
  not reprobate. The door is not locked from the
• 24:36
  outside. If you want to come in, you can.
• 24:38
  The only people who don't come in are the ones who don't want
• 24:40
  to. That brings us to the third
• 24:42
  objection, which I think is probably the most common 1
• 24:44
  today. It's the I need to get better
• 24:46
  first Sinner. The fixer upper mentality.
• 24:49
  I'm addicted to porn. I'm an alcoholic.
• 24:51
  I'm cheating on my taxes. I can't come to God like this.
• 24:54
  I need to clean up my ACT, get sober for a month, stop lying
• 24:58
  and then I will come to God with my head held high.
• 25:01
  This is the most subtle trap because it looks like
• 25:03
  repentance. It looks like trying to do the
• 25:05
  right thing, but Edwards identifies it as setting up
• 25:09
  yourself as your own Savior. You are trying to do the work of
• 25:12
  salvation before you have the power of salvation.
• 25:15
  You're trying to engage in sanctification before you have
• 25:18
  justification. You're trying to heal yourself,
• 25:21
  to impress the doctor. We are back to the the hospital
• 25:23
  parking lot. Imagine a guy with a compound
• 25:26
  fracture sitting in the parking lot of the ER trying to set the
• 25:30
  bone himself with a stick and some duct tape because he
• 25:32
  doesn't want the doctor to see how bad the break is.
• 25:35
  It is insanity, but we do it spiritually all the time.
• 25:38
  We think I can't bring this dirty laundry to God.
• 25:40
  We want to wash it before we bring it to the cleaner.
• 25:43
  Yes, Edwards says. Bring the dirt, bring the
• 25:46
  addiction, bring the failure. Do not plead your improvement.
• 25:49
  Plead your vadnais, say Lord, I am here because I can't stop
• 25:54
  sinning. If I could stop, I wouldn't need
• 25:56
  you. That requires so much humility
• 25:59
  is humiliating to walk into the light when you're covered in
• 26:01
  filth. It is but that humiliation is
• 26:04
  the doorway to exaltation. Humble yourselves in the sight
• 26:09
  of the Lord and He shall lift you up.
• 26:11
  You have to go down to go up. So if we look at this whole
• 26:13
  sermon from a bird's eye view, Edwards has completely flipped
• 26:17
  the script on us. The very thing we think
• 26:19
  disqualifies us, the greatness of our sin, is actually our
• 26:23
  ticket in. Provided, and we must always
• 26:25
  come back to this, provided we bring it to Christ.
• 26:27
  The greatness of sin is a ticket to hell if you keep it to
• 26:30
  yourself. It is a plea for mercy only if
• 26:32
  you give it to Jesus. That is the key.
• 26:34
  You don't just wallow in the misery, you trade it.
• 26:36
  You trade it for his righteousness.
• 26:38
  That is the great exchange. As we wrap up this deep dive, I
• 26:41
  want to leave you with a final thought to chew on.
• 26:44
  We have spent an hour talking about how big our sins are, and
• 26:48
  that can feel heavy. But Edwards isn't trying to
• 26:51
  depress us. He's trying to free us.
• 26:52
  He is. The danger, when you get right
• 26:55
  down to it, is not that your sins are too big for God.
• 26:58
  The real danger is that you might think they are small
• 27:00
  enough to handle on your own. That is the fatal error.
• 27:04
  If you think you can handle it, you won't pray.
• 27:06
  The greatest impediment to pardon isn't the size of the
• 27:09
  iniquity, it is the absence of the plea.
• 27:11
  If you never cry out, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.
• 27:14
  You remain in your guilt, but if you make that plea looking to
• 27:18
  Christ, there is no amount of guilt, not a mountain out, a
• 27:21
  universe of guilt that can stand against the ocean of His mercy.
• 27:24
  So stop minimizing, stop hiding, start confessing, and let the
• 27:29
  greatness of your need meet the greatness of His grace.
• 27:32
  Amen to. That thank you for joining us
• 27:34
  for this deep dive into Jonathan Edwards.
• 27:36
  It is heavy stuff, but it is good stuff.
• 27:38
  We hope it helps you think more clearly and love God more
• 27:40
  deeply. Until next time on Reformed
• 27:42
  thinking.