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The Greatest Performances or Sufferings in Vain without Love (1 Corinthians 13:3) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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  It is good to have you with us. Good to be here.
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  I want to start today by asking you to construct a a mental
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  image. OK, I want you to picture the
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  absolute best version of yourself.
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  Imagine you have finally done it.
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  You've conquered your greed. You've conquered your fear.
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  It's a tall order already. It is, but stay with me.
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  You're standing before a crowd and you're not just writing a
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  modest check for charity, you are liquidating everything.
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  Everything. The house, the car, the
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  retirement fund, the stocks. You're handing it all over to
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  feed the hungry. You are standing there with
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  empty pockets and you know a full heart.
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  That is a powerful image. It's the kind of thing that
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  would get you on the cover of magazines.
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  You'd be the Saint of the century.
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  That's the picture, and let's take it a step further.
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  Go on. Imagine you're not just
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  generous, but you're brave. You're standing tied to a stake,
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  the wood is piled around you, and you are about to be burned
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  alive because you refuse to denounce your faith.
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  The ultimate sacrifice. You're making the ultimate
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  sacrifice. The martyr's death, I mean.
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  Historically, the church is viewed that as the highest honor
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  a Christian can receive. Right now, here's the question.
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  Is it possible to do all of that?
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  To be the philanthropist and the martyr and have God look at you
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  and say this means absolutely nothing to me.
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  Wow. Yeah, that is a terrifying
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  question. Yeah, most of us operate on the
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  assumption that the the action proves the faith.
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  If I do the big thing, surely the big faith is there.
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  Surely, how could it not be? But today we're looking at a
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  text that says no, not necessarily.
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  We're doing a deep dive into what might be the scariest verse
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  in the New Testament. We are looking at First
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  Corinthians 13.3 and we're doing it through the lens of Jonathan
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  Edwards. And Edwards is the perfect guide
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  for this. You often think of him as the
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  fire and brimstone preacher because of sinners in the hands
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  of an angry God. But Edwards was actually he was
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  a surgeon of the soul. That's a great way to put it.
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  He's obsessed with motives. You want to know why are you
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  doing what you are doing? What is the root?
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  What is the engine? So the source material today is
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  his sermon, The greatest Performances or Sufferings in
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  Vain Without Love. And I have to tell you, reading
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  this, it felt like Edwards was taking a sledgehammer to my
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  entire religious resume. It is a demolition project for
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  sure. He strips away every defense
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  mechanism we have. He really does.
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  And he adheres strictly to the Reformed view, consistent with
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  the Westminster Confession that works no matter how shiny, are
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  dead without the specific regenerating grace of God.
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  OK. Let's get the text in front of
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  us. First Corinth 13 verse three.
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  Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
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  my body to be burned and have not charity, it profits me
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  nothing. It profits me nothing.
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  That is the hammer blow at the end of the sentence.
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  It just lands. It really is, and our mission
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  today is to figure out why. Why are these external actions,
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  which look so holy to us, considered vanity without the
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  specific motive, A sincere Christian love?
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  We need to figure out the difference between what Edwards
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  calls slavish duty and filial obedience.
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  And that distinction, slavish versus filial, that is going to
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  be the key that unlocks this whole discussion.
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  How so? Well, one is the obedience of a
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  slave who fears the whip. The other is the obedience of a
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  child who loves the Father. They might be doing the exact
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  same task, but the internal reality is worlds apart.
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  And God, Edwards argues, only cares about that internal
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  reality. That's it.
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  So let's get into Section 1. Edwards calls this the
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  insufficiency of great performances, and he starts with
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  the first half of that verse bestowing all goods to feed the
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  poor. I want to pause on the scope of
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  this. We're not talking about dropping
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  a 20 in the offering plate or setting up a recurring donation
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  on a credit card. No, we are not.
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  Edwards is very careful to define the magnitude here.
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  What does he say? Well, the Greek phrasing implies
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  a distributive act to dole out all my goods bit by bit until
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  they are completely gone. It's the liquidation of 100% of
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  your assets. 100% this is a radical concept.
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  It is, and Edwards points to the historical context to show this
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  isn't just hyperbole like what he points to the primitive
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  church in Acts 4.32. Remember in those early days
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  believers were selling lands and houses and laying the proceeds
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  at the apostles feet. So people were actually doing
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  this? They were.
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  It was a communal survival strategy in a time of
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  persecution, but it was also this, this massive act of faith.
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  He also mentions a specific famine, right?
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  Yes, the famine in Judea, the Corinthian church, the very
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  people Paul was writing to, was being asked to contribute to the
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  relief of the Saints in Jerusalem.
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  So this is on their minds. It's very practical for them.
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  So when Paul says, though I bestow all my goods, he's not
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  using a hypothetical. That's impossible.
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  He's describing a very real, very high bar of sacrifice that
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  these people might actually be called to make.
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  And the extreme necessities of persecuted Christians.
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  Right. If you were a Christian in the
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  first or second century, losing your property was a very real
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  risk. Confiscation by the state was
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  common. So you might lose it anyway.
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  Exactly. So voluntarily giving it away
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  before they took it was a plausible scenario.
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  And yet, Edwards says you can do that.
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  You can liquidate your portfolio, sell your house, give
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  it all to the hungry and have it count for nothing.
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  For nothing. That seems counterintuitive.
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  I have to push back here a bit. If I sell my house and feed 1000
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  starving people, you're telling me God looks at that and says 0
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  value? That sounds incredibly harsh.
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  I get that. I mean, the poor people got fed,
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  didn't they? A good thing happened.
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  The poor were fed. Yes, their stomachs are full in
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  a horizontal sense. Human to human, good was done.
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  There's no denying that. But Edwards is talking about the
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  vertical dimension. He's talking about the prophet
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  to the giver's soul. And in that transaction between
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  the giver and God, it's possible for it to be worth nothing.
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  Because of motive. Because of motive, this is where
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  we run into the problem. Edwards distinguishes between
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  the moral nature of an act and the spiritual gift of love.
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  He points out that you can perform the ACT without the
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  heart. So the action is a shell A.
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  Hollow shell. Yeah, you can paint the shell to
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  look like a diamond, but if it's hollow, it's hollow, and God
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  sees right through the paint. He gives some examples of this
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  performance without love. The first one he hits is the
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  Pharisees. Yes, he immediately goes to
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  Philippians 3. This is where the Apostle Paul
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  lists his own resume before he was converted.
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  His spiritual CV. His CV yeah, yeah, Paul says.
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  He had confidence in the flesh. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees,
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  blameless according to the law. I always find that list in
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  Philippians fascinating because Paul isn't saying I was a bad
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  guy, he's saying I was the best guy.
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  Correct. He was the valedictorian of
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  Judaism. He fasted.
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  He ties mint and keemon down to the spices in his cabinet.
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  He was scrupulous. So he was doing all the great.
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  Performances, all of them. And Edwards also points to the
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  Pharisee in Luke 18. The one who goes to the temple.
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  And praise God, I thank you that I am not like other men.
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  Oh that guy. I fast twice a week.
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  I give tithes of all that I get. Precisely.
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  He had the performance down pat. But Edwards notes that his
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  motivation was pride. He was doing it to establish his
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  own righteousness, to be seen by men, right?
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  He was using God as a mirror to admire his own reflection.
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  His giving wasn't for God, it was for himself.
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  Edwards also mentions the heathen.
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  This is interesting to me. He acknowledges that people who
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  do not believe in God at all can still be famous for integrity
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  and justice. That is a crucial observation.
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  We call this common grace in Reformed theology, though
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  Edwards here frames it as natural principles.
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  Explain that. You look at figures in
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  antiquity, Greek philosophers, Roman senators, men famous for
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  their justice or their service to the public good.
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  They did not have the Holy Spirit.
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  They did not have the love of Christ.
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  But they did good things. They performed great acts of
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  generosity and self sacrifice. So if a Stoic philosopher can
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  live a life of virtue, then virtue itself can't be the thing
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  that saves you. So if a Roman Pagan can be
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  generous, then generosity itself isn't proof of salvation.
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  That is the logic. Edwards argues that natural
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  principles are strong enough to replicate almost any religious
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  duty. What does he mean by natural
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  principles? Things like conscience, a desire
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  for a good reputation, fear of punishment, even just a natural
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  sympathy for other people. You don't need the Holy Spirit
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  to be a good citizen. You just need a conscience or
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  pride or fear. Let's unpack those alternative
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  motives. You mentioned cried, but Edwards
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  also talks heavily about the fear of hell.
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  This is a big one, and it probably hits closer to home for
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  many religious people. I would think so.
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  And we says many have done great things simply to appease a deity
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  or make atonement for their sins.
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  They view God as a transaction. If I give this money, God won't
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  punish me. Or if I build this cathedral, I
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  can pay off my guilt. It's like paying protection
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  money to the mob. That's an.
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  Apartment analogy, It's a bribe. You're trying to buy God off and
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  Edward says that is not love, that is self preservation.
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  Think about it, if you pay a kidnapper a ransom to not hurt
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  you, do you love the kidnapper? No, you fear him.
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  You just want to survive. Right.
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  And Edwards argues that a huge amount of religious activity,
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  giving, serving, attending is just ransom money.
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  It's people trying to buy their way out of God's anger.
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  And that's a fundamental misunderstanding of
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  justification. A complete misunderstanding.
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  In the Reformed view, we are justified by faith alone through
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  grace alone. If you're doing good works to
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  buy your way out of hell, you're not acting in love, you're
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  acting out of a slavish fear. That really reframes the
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  generous donor concept. You could be giving millions.
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  But if the motive is I hope this covers my sins, it's actually an
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  insult to the cross. It is.
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  It's saying the blood of Christ wasn't enough, so I need to top
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  it off with my cash. It's a deeply prideful act, even
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  though it looks humble. The other side of that coin is
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  pride, which we touched on the desire for reputation.
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  The desire to be honored by men. Edwards points out that pride is
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  a wildly powerful engine. It can make people do incredibly
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  difficult things. Men will starve themselves, work
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  themselves to death or give away fortunes just to be admired, to
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  have their name on a building, Edwards says.
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  If that is your engine, the car might move, but it is not going
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  to heaven. So natural principles, fear,
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  pride, desire for reputation can drive a person to perform almost
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  any religious duty. Almost any.
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  They can mimic true grace without possessing it.
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  That is a sobering thought. You can look like a super
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  Christian on the outside and be running entirely on the fuel of
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  self love. And that brings us to the second
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  section, where Edwards escalates the cost.
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  It's one thing to give away your stuff.
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  It's another thing to give away your life.
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  Right, Section 2, The insufficiency of great
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  sufferings. The verse says though, I give my
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  body to be burned. Edwards follows the logic of the
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  verse perfectly. When a man has given away all
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  his goods, what does he have left?
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  Nothing but himself. He has himself his physical
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  body, so the ultimate offering is to take that body and subject
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  it to torture or death for the sake of religion and.
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  Again, historically, this was not a metaphor for the early
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  church. No.
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  Paul was writing to people who knew martyrs.
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  They had seen it. Edwards mentions that the
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  primitive church was under persecution.
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  People were being used as human torches in Nero's gardens.
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  It's an unimaginable horror. It is, But Edwards argues that
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  even this, even letting your body be consumed by flames, can
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  be done in vain. How?
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  I mean, that's the one that's hardest for me to grasp.
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  Who would let themselves be burned to death if they didn't
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  really love God? That seems like a level of
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  commitment that you just can't fake.
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  I can fake writing a check, I can't fake burning.
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  You would think so, but Edwards points to history to show that
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  people suffer for all sorts of reasons that are not Christian
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  love. OK, like what?
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  He starts with asceticism. Think of the hermits who spent
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  their lives in deserts, the desert fathers.
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  The guys living on top of pillars for 40 years.
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  Stylites. Right.
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  Or wearing hair shirts that scratch their skin raw, beating
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  themselves with whips, walking barefoot on hot stones.
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  A lot of self-inflicted pain. A lot.
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  And Edwards asks why were they doing that?
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  In many cases it was a voluntary Penance is another form of
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  payment. They thought that by making
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  themselves miserable, they were earning merit with God.
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  It goes back to that transactional view.
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  If I hurt myself enough, God will owe me.
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  Precisely. It's suffering.
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  His currency is still all about the self.
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  It's trying to make yourself righteous through your own
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  efforts, through your own pain. Then he brings up a very
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  specific historical example that I found fascinating.
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  The Crusades. Yes, he explicitly mentions the
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  Papists in the holy wars. Now we need to remember Edwards
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  is a Puritan, A staunch Protestant, so his view of the
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  crusade is colored by that theology.
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  He's not exactly an unbiased observer.
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  He's not a fan, to put it mildly, but his point is
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  theological. He points out that thousands of
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  men went to war, risking their lives bleeding and dying in
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  foreign lands. Why?
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  Was it out of pure love for Christ?
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  He argues no. For many, he argues, it was
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  because the Pope promised it participation in the crusade
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  would secure the pardon of sins. Plenary indulgence, right?
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  The promise was if you die in this holy war, you skip
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  purgatory and go straight to heaven.
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  So again, the soldier rushing into battle isn't necessarily
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  driven by love for God. He's driven by a desire for a
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  reward. It's self-interest.
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  It's eternal self-interest. He's buying his ticket to
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  paradise with his blood, which again undermines the sufficiency
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  of Christ's blood. Edwards also mentions the Turks,
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  the Muslims of his day. He does.
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  He mentions that they were willing to rush on to the very
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  points of swords because they believe their prophet promised
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  paradise to those dying in war. So he's drawing a parallel.
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  He's saying, look, if a Muslim soldier can die for his faith
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  without Christian love, and a crusader can die for his faith
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  just to get an indulgence, then the act of dying itself proves
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  nothing about your relationship with the true God.
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  That is the argument. Death is not a validator of
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  truth. It is a validator of conviction,
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  certainly. But you can be convinced of a
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  lie. You can be stubborn.
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  He uses that word obstinacy. He does, and sturdy as a spirit,
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  that phrase spit out. To me.
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  Some people are just incredibly stubborn.
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  They would rather die. They admit they are wrong.
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  They'd rather burn than yield to their enemy.
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  That is not love for God. That is just a rigid human will.
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  It is cried wrapped in a martyr's robe.
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  So the verdict Edwards lands on is pretty harsh.
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  Even if your body is mangled, burned or tormented, if the
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  motive isn't sincere love, the suffering provides no profit to
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  the soul. You basically suffer twice, once
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  in the flames on Earth and then again in the judgement.
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  It is a tragedy, the double tragedy.
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  You lose the world and you lose your soul.
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  It's the worst possible outcome. OK, so we've established that
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  neither extreme generosity nor extreme suffering proves
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  anything on its own. Now we need to get to the Why?
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  The logic behind it. This is Section 3, the
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  theological logic. Edwards doesn't just say God
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  says so. He breaks down the mechanics of
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  a why this is true. And this is where we really see
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  the reformed philosophical mind at work.
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  His first reason is that external acts are lifeless.
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  Uses a machine analogy. This was a great image.
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  I want to spend some time here because it feels very modern.
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  Even though he wrote it in the 1700s.
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  He compares a person without a heart of love to a lifeless
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  engine. Think about a clockwork
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  automaton in Edwards Day. They were fascinated by these
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  complex machines, little figures made of gears and springs that
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  could write a letter or play a flute.
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  Like the ones you see in museums.
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  Very intricate. Very.
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  And Edward says, imagine you build a machine that can
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  physically execute the motions of a good deed.
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  It has springs and weights that force its arm to extend and drop
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  a coin into a beggar's cup. OK.
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  Now let me ask you, is that machine generous?
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  No, of course not. It's just mechanics.
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  It's physics. There's no I in there deciding
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  to be kind. Precisely, Edwards argues that
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  if a human being performs a religious duty, say going to
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  church or giving money, but their heart is disconnected from
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  it, they're no different than that machine.
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  So they're just going through the motions.
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  They're being moved by natural principles, fear, habit, social
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  pressure, just as the machine is moved by weights and springs.
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  So from the outside, the machine Christian and the real Christian
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  look identical. The arm moves, the coin drops.
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  The physics are identical. The result for the beggar is
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  identical. But Edwards says God doesn't
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  look at the physics, God looks at the will.
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  The inner person. He looks at the inward part.
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  He argues that external motion has no moral value in itself.
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  A rock falling on a villain isn't brave, and a machine
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  feeding the poor isn't kind. The moral quality exists
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  entirely in the intent of the agent.
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  That is a heavy concept. It implies that God is entirely
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  unimpressed by our output. We are obsessed with output.
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  Numbers impact results. God is obsessed with the engine.
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  That's the point, and this leads directly to his second point,
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  which I think challenges a lot of modern Christian thinking.
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  It's about God's self-sufficiency.
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  Right. The practical question someone
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  might ask is, well, doesn't God want the money for the poor?
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  Doesn't he want the job done? And Edwards answers with the
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  resounding No, God does not need the money.
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  He doesn't need our help. He quotes Psalm 50.10 For every
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  beast of the forest is mine the cattle on 1000 hills.
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  He says if God were hungry, he wouldn't tell us.
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  That is a blow to our ego. We like to feel needed.
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  We like to feel like we are helping God out, like we are
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  partners in his business. It is a blow, but the reformed
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  view of God is that he has a CD. He is self existent and
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  self-sufficient. He needs nothing from his
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  creatures. So why does he want our gifts at
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  all? Edwards explains that humans
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  value gifts because we have needs.
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  If I am starving and you give me a sandwich, I value that
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  sandwich regardless of whether you like me or not because I
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  need the calories. Right.
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  You just want the food. The motive is secondary at that
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  moment. But God has no needs.
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  He is full. Therefore, the value of a gift
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  to Him cannot be in the utility of the gift, it's entirely in
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  the affection of the giver. Say that again.
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  That's really key. Since the thing given adds
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  nothing to God, the only thing he cares about is the love
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  behind it. That really changes how you look
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  at the offering plate. God doesn't need the $20.
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  He wants the heart that wants to give the $20.
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  Correct. The $20 is just the vehicle for
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  the affection. Without the affection, it's just
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  paper. It's nothing.
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  And that leads to his third reason, The nature of giving
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  Edwards defines what a gift actually is.
• 18:44
  Yeah, this part is very philosophical, but it's
• 18:45
  brilliant. He says a gift is giving to the
• 18:48
  object that is the great end or the ultimate goal of the giver.
• 18:52
  OK, walk us through that. It's teleological.
• 18:54
  It's all about ends and goals. Edwards argues that every action
• 18:57
  has a goal, a final purpose. OK, so if I give money to a
• 19:01
  charity, but my ultimate goal, my great end, is to get my name
• 19:05
  in the paper or feel good about myself, or to quiet my
• 19:08
  conscience, then what That, Edwards argues.
• 19:10
  I haven't actually given the money to the charity or to God.
• 19:13
  I have given it to myself. So the recipient was just a pass
• 19:16
  through. The real destination of the gift
• 19:19
  was my own ego. Precisely, you use the poor as a
• 19:22
  tool to purchase reputation for yourself.
• 19:25
  If the end is self honor, the gift is given to self.
• 19:28
  God was just instrumental to your real goal.
• 19:31
  He uses the musical instrument comparison here too.
• 19:34
  Harps and symbols make pleasant sounds, but they don't give
• 19:36
  praise to God because they have no will, no love.
• 19:39
  They're just objects making noise.
• 19:41
  And a human without love is no better than a loud symbol, which
• 19:45
  is exactly the metaphor Paul uses in First Corinthians 13.1.
• 19:48
  I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.
• 19:52
  It all connects. Reason #4 is a bit more legal.
• 19:56
  The sum of the law. This is the argument that you
• 19:59
  cannot pay a debt by offering the wrong currency.
• 20:03
  Explain. The law at his heart is about
• 20:05
  relationship. Love is the fulfilling of the
• 20:09
  law. That is what God demands.
• 20:11
  The sum of the commandments is love the Lord your God with all
• 20:15
  your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.
• 20:18
  So that's the currency, love. Love is the currency of the
• 20:21
  covenant. So if you owe a debt of love,
• 20:23
  you can't pay it with rituals, right?
• 20:25
  Imagine you owe the bank $1,000,000.
• 20:27
  You walk into the bank and instead of giving the money, you
• 20:29
  start doing jumping jacks in the lobby.
• 20:31
  I'm working hard, look at me sweat.
• 20:33
  This is really difficult. You're working very hard.
• 20:35
  You might even collapse from exhaustion, but the bank manager
• 20:39
  is going to look at you and say that doesn't settle the debt.
• 20:41
  Right, it's the wrong category of payment.
• 20:44
  The debt is financial. Physical exertion doesn't pay
• 20:47
  it. In the same way, the debt we owe
• 20:50
  God is love. Rituals, pilgrimages, fasting,
• 20:54
  those are just spiritual jumping jacks.
• 20:56
  If they aren't backed by the currency of love, they don't pay
• 20:58
  the debt. And his fifth reason is the most
• 21:00
  biting 1 Hypocrisy and idolatry. He calls it practical lying,
• 21:05
  which is such a great phrase. It is if you act outwardly
• 21:08
  religious, singing the songs, bowing your head, giving the
• 21:12
  money, but you don't love God internally you are lying to the
• 21:16
  Holy. 1 Psalm 78.36 says They lied unto him with their
• 21:21
  tongues. You're putting on a show for an
• 21:23
  audience of one who can see backstage.
• 21:26
  The worst possible audience to try and fool.
• 21:28
  Yeah, and he compares it to idolatry.
• 21:31
  How does he make that connection?
• 21:32
  Because if you are not doing it for God, you are doing it for
• 21:35
  something else, usually yourself or the world or your reputation.
• 21:39
  That something else is an idol. So you're just sacrificing to a
• 21:42
  different God. You're sacrificing your goods or
• 21:45
  your body to the idol of self while pretending to offer it to
• 21:48
  Jehovah. It's the ultimate bait and
• 21:50
  switch. He uses a marriage analogy
• 21:52
  there, doesn't he? He does, and this is where the
• 21:54
  relational aspect really shines. He says a wife cannot make up
• 21:58
  for unfaithfulness by doing extra chores.
• 22:01
  Oh, that's powerful. Imagine a wife who is sleeping
• 22:04
  with another man, but she comes home and says to her husband,
• 22:07
  well, I know I'm cheating on you, but look, I washed the
• 22:10
  dishes and swept the floor really well today.
• 22:12
  I even cooked your favorite meal.
• 22:14
  That puts it in perspective. The chores don't matter if the
• 22:17
  covenant love is broken. In fact, the chores are almost
• 22:20
  insulting at that point. They're offensive.
• 22:22
  She is trying to use the chores to distract from the betrayal,
• 22:26
  to manage the relationship instead of repenting.
• 22:28
  It's damage control. Edward says that is what we do
• 22:32
  when we offer God works without love.
• 22:35
  We are spiritual adulterers trying to smooth things over
• 22:38
  with a clean house. God wants the marriage, not just
• 22:41
  the housekeeping. So we have stripped away the
• 22:43
  performances. We have stripped away the
• 22:45
  sufferings. We have seen the logic of why
• 22:47
  they are empty. Now we need to figure out what
• 22:50
  is the real thing. What is the real thing look
• 22:52
  like? Section 4 is what is sincerity.
• 22:55
  Edwards pivots here to self examination.
• 22:58
  After tearing everything down, he starts to build back up.
• 23:01
  He contrasts the wealth of a Kingdom given without love
• 23:04
  against a cup of cold water given with love.
• 23:07
  And God's reaction is the opposite of what we'd expect.
• 23:09
  Completely. God accepts the cup of water.
• 23:12
  He rejects the Kingdom. That is the hope in this
• 23:14
  message. It's not about volume, it's
• 23:16
  about quality. It's not about how much, but
• 23:19
  with what heart. Yes.
• 23:21
  And so he breaks down 4 marks of sincerity, a diagnostic tool for
• 23:25
  the soul. Let's go through them because I
• 23:27
  think you listening need a diagnostic tool here.
• 23:29
  The first one is truth. Truth.
• 23:32
  This connects back to the hypocrisy point.
• 23:35
  Edwards says the outside must match the inside.
• 23:38
  Behold, thou desirous truth in the inward parts.
• 23:42
  From Psalm 51. It sounds like authenticity.
• 23:44
  It is to be sincere means to be without guile.
• 23:48
  It means you are the same person in the prayer closet as you are
• 23:51
  on the public stage. No acting, no masks.
• 23:53
  No masks. If you show respect to God
• 23:55
  outwardly, you must feel it inwardly.
• 23:58
  It is an alignment of the soul in the body.
• 24:00
  You are not trying to project an image that you know is false.
• 24:02
  The second mark is freedom. This one feels very central to
• 24:05
  the reformed understanding of the will.
• 24:07
  It is this is where he brings back that distinction between
• 24:10
  filial obedience and slavish obedience.
• 24:13
  Filial meaning of a son or daughter.
• 24:15
  And slavish meaning of a slave. I feel like a lot of people,
• 24:19
  maybe most people, operate in that slavish mode.
• 24:21
  I have to do this where God will ZAP me.
• 24:23
  That is the default human mode. A slave obeys because he is
• 24:28
  forced to. He fears the whip, he hates the
• 24:31
  work, He resents the master, but he does it to avoid punishment.
• 24:35
  So his body is present, but his heart is absent.
• 24:38
  That is the person who obeys God only out of fear of hell or a
• 24:41
  guilty conscience. But a child, a true son, obeys
• 24:45
  because he loves the Father. He delights in the Father.
• 24:49
  Edwards says sincere love chooses God for his own sake.
• 24:52
  Yes. For who he is, not just for what
• 24:55
  he gives or what punishments he withholds.
• 24:57
  The sincere Christian finds delight in the duty itself.
• 25:00
  They don't just pray to get things, they pray because they
• 25:03
  love being with God. They don't just give to check a
• 25:05
  box. They give because they love what
• 25:07
  God loves. It's a free, willing obedience.
• 25:10
  It's the difference between kissing your spouse because it's
• 25:12
  your anniversary and you feel you have to.
• 25:14
  And kissing them because you walk into the room, see them,
• 25:17
  and are just overwhelmed with affection and you can't help
• 25:19
  yourself. One is duty, the other is
• 25:22
  delight. The third mark is integrity.
• 25:25
  Integrity comes from the root word.
• 25:27
  For integer or whole it means wholeness.
• 25:30
  What does that look like in practice?
• 25:32
  Edward says you can't pick and choose duties.
• 25:35
  You can't say, well, I'll be generous with my money, but I'm
• 25:37
  going to keep harboring this grudge against my neighbor.
• 25:40
  Or I'm great at attending church but my business practices are
• 25:42
  shady. The whole heart is involved.
• 25:45
  Right. Sanctification affects the whole
• 25:47
  man, body, soul, spirit. If you are only religious in
• 25:50
  certain areas of your life but you fence off other areas for
• 25:53
  fin, that is a lack of integrity.
• 25:56
  Sincerity demands the whole person.
• 25:58
  You can't be a St. on Sunday and a crook on Monday.
• 26:01
  And the fourth mark is purity. Purity means unmixed motives.
• 26:04
  He quotes first Peter 2.2, the sincere milk of the word.
• 26:09
  That word sincere there implies something unadulterated.
• 26:12
  Like pure milk, no water added. No water added, no poison added.
• 26:16
  The motive isn't 80% love for God and 20% love for reputation.
• 26:20
  It's pure. So it's opposition to sin.
• 26:23
  It is. It's a hatred of defilement.
• 26:25
  It's not just doing the right thing, but hating the wrong
• 26:27
  thing. It's a clean heart, not just
• 26:29
  clean hands. It's a different kind of
• 26:31
  question you ask yourself. Exactly the question changes
• 26:34
  from. Can I get away with this to Does
• 26:38
  this offend God whom I love? So truth, freedom, integrity,
• 26:42
  purity, those are the metrics. If we look at those honestly, I
• 26:46
  think most of us start to get a little nervous.
• 26:49
  I look at that list and I see a lot of gaps in my own life, a
• 26:52
  lot of mixture in my motives. We should feel nervous.
• 26:54
  That is the intended effect of the law, to show us our
• 26:58
  insufficiency to crush our self righteousness.
• 27:00
  Which brings us to Section 5 Application and reformed
• 27:04
  analysis. Edwards addresses two groups of
• 27:06
  people. First, he speaks to the
• 27:08
  unregenerate, those who have not been born again.
• 27:10
  And this is where the deep dive into Edwards requires us to face
• 27:14
  the doctrine of total depravity. Meaning what in this context?
• 27:17
  Meaning that in our natural state we are unable to produce
• 27:21
  this kind of sincere love. Our hearts are turned inward.
• 27:25
  We are the machines. So Edwards warns that for those
• 27:27
  outside of Christ, the reality is frightening.
• 27:31
  You cannot make up for a lack of love by working harder.
• 27:34
  You can't. That is the natural human
• 27:36
  instinct, isn't it? I feel distant from God, so I'll
• 27:39
  volunteer more. I'll read 5 chapters instead of
• 27:41
  one. I'll fix this.
• 27:43
  It is the religious treadmill. You just run faster and faster,
• 27:46
  but you're not going anywhere. But Edwards says a person can
• 27:49
  pray, fast and suffer, yet remain A wretched, lost,
• 27:53
  miserable creature if the heart is not renewed.
• 27:55
  He says building hopes on works is feeding upon the east wind.
• 28:00
  Such a vivid image. Feeding on the wind.
• 28:03
  You're chewing, but you're starving.
• 28:04
  All this effort and you're getting no nourishment, no
• 28:06
  profit. It's empty calories.
• 28:08
  Actually the 0 calories is depleting you.
• 28:10
  So the call here isn't to try harder to love God, no.
• 28:14
  Yeah, if you're listening to this and thinking, OK, I need to
• 28:16
  go conjure up some sincere, free, pure love for God, you
• 28:21
  have missed the point entirely why you can't conjure it.
• 28:24
  A machine cannot decide to become a real boy.
• 28:26
  A stone cannot decide to bleed. It's a change of nature that's
• 28:30
  required. And this connects to the
• 28:32
  necessity of grace. It does, since we cannot
• 28:36
  manufacture this love naturally because our hearts are naturally
• 28:39
  curved inward on ourselves. We are dependent on regenerating
• 28:43
  grace. We need a heart transplant.
• 28:45
  We need God to do what we cannot do.
• 28:48
  That is the Reformed distinctiveness.
• 28:50
  We don't love God so that He will choose us.
• 28:52
  He chooses us and gives us the heart to love Him.
• 28:54
  Exactly. We are undone until God
• 28:57
  intervenes. The application for the
• 28:59
  unbeliever is to stop trusting in their resume.
• 29:02
  Stop waving your charity receipts at God.
• 29:04
  Stop pointing to your suffering. What should they do instead?
• 29:07
  Fall in the mercy of Christ to change your nature.
• 29:09
  The prayer isn't God except my works, it's God.
• 29:12
  Give me a new heart that can actually love you.
• 29:14
  Edwards then paints a picture of Judgement Day.
• 29:17
  He talks about the King of Terrors.
• 29:19
  That is his name for death, he says.
• 29:21
  When the King of Terrors arrives, and when you see Christ
• 29:24
  in the clouds, the vanity of all those empty works will be
• 29:27
  revealed. They'll just burn up.
• 29:28
  They'll be like ash. You won't be able to hold up
• 29:31
  your charitable donations as a shield against the judgement of
• 29:34
  God. The only safety is resting on
• 29:36
  Christ, not on the great things we have done.
• 29:39
  And finally, he exhorts the believers.
• 29:41
  What is the take away for the Christian who is sincere but
• 29:44
  struggling? Because I think that is where
• 29:46
  many of us live. We have the love, but it feels
• 29:49
  weak, It feels mixed. The exhortation is to seek this
• 29:53
  love, to prize it above everything else.
• 29:55
  Do not rest in the external evidences, the doings and
• 29:58
  sufferings, but look at the Spirit behind them.
• 30:01
  So it's a constant recalibration of the heart.
• 30:03
  A constant diagnostic. Why am I doing this?
• 30:05
  Is it for him? Is it out of love or has fear or
• 30:09
  pride crept back in? It's a call to intimacy, really.
• 30:12
  It is without this religious activity, Edwards warns, only
• 30:15
  tends to deepen condemnation. It makes us harder.
• 30:19
  It makes us more hypocritical. It creates a callus on the soul
• 30:22
  so we become comfortable with a disconnect between our actions
• 30:25
  and our hearts. So the believer needs to
• 30:27
  constantly return to the source of love.
• 30:30
  Which is Christ. And ask for that love to be
• 30:32
  rekindled, to ask for a pure heart.
• 30:36
  The struggle itself is a sign of life, but we shouldn't be
• 30:39
  content to stay in it. Well, we have covered a lot of
• 30:41
  ground. We've gone from the liquidation
• 30:43
  of assets to the burning of bodies, to the mechanics of the
• 30:46
  human heart. It's a comprehensive dismantling
• 30:49
  of the idea that we can manipulate God with our actions.
• 30:53
  It's a tough message. It is.
• 30:55
  So let's bring this home. The machine versus the child.
• 30:58
  That seems to be the core contrast.
• 31:00
  That is the summary. You can be a machine that
• 31:03
  performs duties perfectly. You can click and were and
• 31:06
  execute every command. You can be efficient.
• 31:09
  You can be useful. You can look like a great
• 31:11
  Christian. You can look like a perfect
• 31:13
  Christian, but God doesn't want a machine.
• 31:15
  He wants a child. He wants a relationship defined
• 31:18
  by freedom, delight and sincere affection, not by gears and
• 31:22
  springs. And that leads me to this final
• 31:24
  thought for us to chew on. We've seen that God doesn't need
• 31:28
  our help. Not at all.
• 31:29
  He doesn't need our money, he owns the cattle on 1000 Hills.
• 31:32
  He doesn't even need us to suffer for him, strictly
• 31:34
  speaking. So if he doesn't need our
• 31:37
  utility, what is left? Only us.
• 31:39
  Only us. The only thing we actually bring
• 31:42
  to the table is the one thing we most often withhold, our honest
• 31:46
  affection. It makes me wonder, are we busy
• 31:49
  for God? To avoid being intimate with
• 31:52
  God, it is much easier to work for Him than to love Him.
• 31:56
  That is the question of the ages, and Edwards would say the
• 31:59
  work is only valuable if it flows from the love, Otherwise
• 32:02
  it profits us nothing. Thank you for joining us for
• 32:04
  this deep dive into Jonathan Edwards.
• 32:06
  It has been a challenging one, but a necessary one.
• 32:09
  Indeed, a very necessary one. Thanks for listening to Reformed
• 32:12
  Thinking. We will see you next time.