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Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition (Acts 16:29–30) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed thinking, where we consider truths with
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  open minds. Today we're taking a deep dive
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  into a text that really lays bare a foundational point in
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  Reformed Christian thought. That's right.
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  We're looking into the insights of Jonathan Edwards, a truly
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  significant figure whose writings, well, they continue to
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  shape theological discussion even now.
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  Absolutely a towering figure. We have before us his sermon,
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  Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition, which he drew from
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  Acts chapter 16. It's certainly a compelling
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  title, isn't it? Grabs your attention right away.
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  It does. And our mission for this deep
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  dive really is to truly unpack what Edwards actually meant by
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  the natural, you know, the state of humanity apart from spiritual
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  rebirth. We'll look at what he saw as its
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  characteristics, its relational implications, and ultimately,
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  its eternal outcomes. This was a message crafted well,
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  crafted to stir listeners, definitely.
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  To stir them, to awaken them to their spiritual state, perhaps.
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  Yes. And to compel a response.
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  Yeah, it wasn't just theoretical.
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  OK, so let's begin our exploration with a vivid
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  biblical illustration Edwards himself uses to introduce his
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  doctrine. It's the remarkable conversion
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  of the Philippian jailer from Acts 16.
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  A classic account. Right.
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  And before the extraordinary events we're about to describe,
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  this Jailer was, well, by all accounts, pretty uninterested in
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  spiritual matters. Seems that way.
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  In fact, he appears to have been quite harsh, maybe even a
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  persecutor of Paul and Silas himself.
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  Well, the text suggests the whole city was worked up against
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  them, the magistrates, the population.
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  Right. They rose up against Paul and
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  Silas and the jailer acting with, it seems, great rigor,
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  personal volition. He thrust them into the inner
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  prison and secured their feet in stocks.
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  This wasn't just him doing his job, was it?
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  No, it doesn't read like that. His actions suggest a kind of
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  zeal that went beyond just following orders.
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  It likely mirrored the city's fury, their animosity toward
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  these missionaries. OK, so that sets the scene.
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  A harsh jailer. Apostles imprisoned.
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  Yes, and this is where the story shifts dramatically.
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  Suddenly, middle of the night, a powerful earthquake strikes.
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  Not just any tremor. No, not at all.
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  This is described as a miracle. It opens every prison door,
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  loosens every prisoner's chains. Imagine the chaos.
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  Terrifying for the jailer, surely.
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  Absolutely. This event jolt him into a
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  desperate state. He's so terrified, convinced the
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  prisoners have escaped and thinking he faces, well, certain
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  death or maybe worse from his superiors, that he's on the
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  brink of self destruction. He actually draws his sword,
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  preparing to take his own life. That speaks volumes about his
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  despair. It really does.
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  But Paul and Silas, they intervene.
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  They call out to him, urging him, Do thyself no harm, for we
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  are all here. A crucial moment.
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  So what do you discern about his response once he's stopped from,
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  you know, harming himself? Well, what's really striking is
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  the swiftness and the depth of his change.
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  It's almost instantaneous. Edwards points that out right
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  his sudden urgency. Exactly a pressing concern for
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  deliverance from what he now sees as a truly miserable
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  condition, Edwards says he was urged by the most pressing
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  concern sensible of his present necessity of deliverance without
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  any delay. And the way he moved, he sprang
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  in. Yes, think about that imagery.
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  He leaps into their presence. It's far beyond just walking or
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  running. Edward suggests this haste is
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  like fleeing wrath. Precisely as if he fled from
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  wrath, from the fire of divine justice, and so hastened as one
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  that fled for his life. It's the urgency of someone
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  escaping A catastrophe, you see. And his whole demeanor changes,
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  too. Completely.
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  He fell down before the very individuals he had just
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  mistreated. This isn't just tripping, it's a
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  posture of utter brokenness. A sign of the spiritual distress
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  that had got hold of him. Yes, Edwards observes that some
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  great distress makes such an alteration in him that brings
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  him to this something profound shifted inside him.
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  OK. And that leads to his question.
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  His deepest articulation of this altered state?
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  Yeah, it comes in his earnest inquiry.
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  Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
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  That's the core of it. It reveals a soul brought to a
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  point of, well, profound surrender.
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  Edwards notes that the jailer was willing to do anything,
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  literally anything, to accept salvation on any terms and by
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  any means, however difficult. He was ready to let God dictate
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  the terms. Exactly.
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  Edwards puts it beautifully, doesn't he?
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  Brought, as it were, to write a blank and give it in to God,
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  that God may prescribe his own terms.
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  No preconditions, just utter willingness.
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  And this becomes Edwards foundational example for his
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  main point. It does.
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  He uses this dramatic personal story to show us the spiritual
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  reality he believes applies to all humanity.
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  They who are in a natural condition are in a dreadful
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  condition. So the jailer's conversion helps
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  us grasp that shift Edwards is describing.
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  Right from that spiritual indifference or even hostility
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  to desperate concern about one state before God, it's a
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  powerful starting point. OK, so with the jailer's
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  experience setting the stage, Edwards then guides us to
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  consider this doctrine more broadly for all individuals who
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  remain spiritually unrenewed. Yes, he universalizes the
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  principle. He starts by addressing our
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  actual condition in this present world, focusing first on what he
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  calls the depraved state of our natures A.
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  Core concept in reformed theology.
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  He describes this as a ruinous state right from birth, a
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  terrible defacement, he says, of what was originally a noble
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  piece of divine workmanship. The sources say it is awful to
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  think that so excellent a creature as man is should be so
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  ruined. It's a.
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  Strong statement about our starting point, not something we
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  acquired just through bad habits later on.
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  No, Edwards insists. It's fundamental part of our
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  being as men come into the world.
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  Like an inherited spiritual illness maybe?
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  That's a good way to think about it.
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  And this foundational concept, this depravity, leads to
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  several, well, quite compelling characteristics Edwards
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  identifies within the natural man.
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  OK, what's the first one? The first is what he terms
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  sadish, blindness and ignorance. Sadish meaning foolish or
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  dulled, right? He highlights that human reason
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  which was originally given, you know, to know God in heavenly
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  things has become full of darkness.
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  Not just slightly dim, but full of darkness.
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  Yes. In fact, he says it's all
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  together blind to spiritual things.
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  Completely blind. So this means a radical
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  ignorance of God of Christ. Exactly.
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  Ignorance of God himself, of Christ, of the way of salvation,
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  and even, Edwards argues, of 1's own true well-being.
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  And this blindness persists even when the truth is presented
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  clearly. That's his point.
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  It persists in the midst of the brightest and clearest light,
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  even under all manner of instructions.
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  What Edwards means is that no amount of just rational argument
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  or clear teaching about spiritual truths will in itself
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  overcome this fundamental inability to see or understand.
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  So it's deeper than just not knowing facts.
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  Much deeper, the sources say man has debased himself and has lost
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  his glory in this respect, becoming as ignorant of the
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  Excellency of God as the very beasts.
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  Wow, as ignorant as beasts. It's not about a lack of
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  intelligence, you see. It's a defect of the heart, a
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  spiritual defect that it effects one's perception.
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  It really presents a striking contrast.
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  Then we can figure out complex things in the world science
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  society. Right.
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  We're capable of incredible analysis in earthly matters yet.
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  Spiritually, Edwards paints us as well fundamentally obtuse.
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  He talks about a spirit of atheism prevailing in the hearts
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  of men. And he doesn't necessarily mean
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  a formal philosophical atheism, does he?
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  No, it seems more like a practical disposition, a
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  tendency to doubt God's very being, or the reality of an
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  afterlife, or the certainty of divine judgment, just living as
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  if God isn't there or doesn't matter.
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  Yeah, a practical atheism. We often fail to really grasp
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  that God sees our every sin, maybe showing genuine concern
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  only if other people might find out or if there are earthly
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  consequences. We focus on the horizontal, not
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  the vertical. Exactly.
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  We are, he says, stupidly senseless to the significance of
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  eternal things, preferring to risk ultimate damnation rather
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  than accept conviction or take God's warning seriously.
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  He notes how difficult it is to convince people of this.
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  Yeah, he says. It's hard to convince people
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  that to be happy to all eternity is better than all other good,
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  and to be miserable forever under the wrath of God is worse
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  than all other evil. It seems obvious, but
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  spiritually we don't get it. We don't feel the weight of it
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  naturally. He even goes so far as to say
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  that natural men are more foolish and senseless of what is
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  best for them than the very brutes.
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  That's a really strong comparison.
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  He cites Isaiah 1.3. The ox knoweth his owner, but
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  Israel does not know. My people does not consider.
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  It's not just a casual remark, it's highlighting this radical
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  spiritual unawareness. That is a truly sobering
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  assessment, isn't it? And following this description
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  of spiritual blindness, Edwards lays out a second characteristic
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  of the natural condition. OK, what's next?
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  He says they have no goodness in them.
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  Now that sounds controversial. Does he mean people can't do
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  anything good like being kind or honest?
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  That's a crucial distinction. It doesn't mean natural persons
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  cannot perform outwardly good deeds in society or be kind
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  neighbors or loving parents. Edwards acknowledges that.
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  So what? Does he mean by no goodness?
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  He means there is no principle that disposes them to anything
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  that is good in a spiritual sense.
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  No genuine love for God, no true desire for his glory, no
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  inclination toward holiness for its own sake.
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  Ah. So it's about the motivation,
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  the inner principle. Precisely their highest
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  motivating principle, he argues, is ultimately self love.
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  And he points out this is a characteristic they share even
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  with the devils. Devils love themselves.
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  Well, the sources note that devils love themselves and love
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  their own happiness and are afraid of their own misery and
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  they go no further. Their actions are ultimately
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  self-serving. So if self love is the highest
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  principle, then any outward show of religion.
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  Edwards argues it's all in mere hypocrisy.
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  Like painted sepulchers. Remember beautiful on the
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  outside. Right, but inside containing
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  nothing but tutorfaction and rottenness within.
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  Exactly. He claims they never truly obey
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  God from a spirit of genuine submission, but only at a fear
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  of consequences or for worldly gain, perhaps driven by worldly
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  interest. So no real gratitude either.
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  He says they have never truly thanked God for his mercies or
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  Christ for his sacrifice. Instead, they're constantly
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  shutting the door against Him when He offers salvation.
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  Valuing earthly things more. Yes, valuing earthly things and
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  sinful pleasure above God and Christ, showing no true desires
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  after God or Christ. It's a matter of ultimate
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  allegiance and desire. And this is where the picture
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  Edwards paints becomes, well, even more intense, doesn't it?
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  The Third Point he addresses, yes, is the dreadful wickedness
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  that he argues lies within all unregenerate individuals.
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  Wickedness. OK.
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  He explains that sin itself is of a dreadful nature, primarily
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  because it's committed against an infinitely great and holy
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  God. The offense is measured by the
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  dignity of the one offended right.
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  It manifests, he says, as enmity against God, contempt of God,
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  rebellion against God. These are strong words.
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  Very strong hostility, disrespect, outright rebellion.
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  Edwards asserts there's an infinite evil in sin not because
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  the ACT itself is infinite, but because God's dignity is
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  infinite. Right.
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  The object of the sin makes the sin infinitely serious.
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  He suggests that even the 100th part of the evil there is in sin
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  would be enough to make one's condition dreadful beyond
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  measure. It puts our casual attitude
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  towards sin in perspective. Definitely.
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  And he paints this stark picture of the natural human heart as
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  exceedingly full of sin. He likens it to a mere sink of
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  sin, a fountain of corruption. Once issue all manner of filthy
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  streams. That's graphic imagery.
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  It is, and he lists specific examples, citing scripture, evil
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  thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts,
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  covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness and evil
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  eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.
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  It's a comprehensive and frankly disturbing catalog of internal
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  spiritual corruption, drawing straight from Mark 7.
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  And what's particularly compelling, maybe even shocking,
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  here is Edward's claim that there is no one lust in the
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  heart of the devil that is not in the heart of man.
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  Wait, every lust the devil has that's.
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  What he asserts, he says the image of God is raised out, like
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  utterly erased or scraped away, and the image of the devil is
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  stamped. Upon them.
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  So a complete reversal of our created purpose.
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  A complete spiritual transformation in the wrong
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  direction? Yes.
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  Edwards argues that if it weren't for what he calls
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  gracious restraints. Things like fear of getting
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  caught or concern for reputation.
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  Exactly Fear of consequences, concern for reputation in
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  society, moral education received from family or culture.
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  Without these external checks, he believes, there is no kind of
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  wickedness that men would not commit.
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  Birth would become a kind of hell.
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  That's his phrase, a kind of hell.
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  He talks about an amazing degree of pride that disposes a person
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  to set himself even above the throne of God itself.
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  He states the natural men are mere sinks of sensuality and
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  their souls are more vile and abominable than any reptile.
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  That's a truly unsettling comparison, isn't it?
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  It really is reptile. And his deep seated wickedness,
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  Edwards points out, has dominion over them.
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  It rules them. So they're slaves to it, yes.
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  Slaves to it, sold under sin, dead in trespasses and sins.
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  That means they're driven by their lusts, even against their
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  own conscience, sometimes against their own well-being,
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  and utterly unable to stop sinning by their own strength.
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  That paints A grim picture of humanity's inherent condition
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  without divine help. It's central to his argument
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  about why the condition is dreadful.
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  And that leads naturally to the final aspect of this depraved
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  nature he describes. Which is.
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  Dreadfully hard and incorrigible hearts.
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  Incorrigible, meaning unable to be corrected or reformed.
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  Exactly. Edwards insists that nothing but
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  the mighty power of God will move them.
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  Nothing else. So human effort, persuasion,
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  logic, none of it is enough. Not according to Edwards.
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  He describes a will so utterly bound by sin that they will
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  cleave to sin and go on in sin. Let what will be done with them.
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  Just clinging to it regardless of the consequences.
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  Yes, showing this unyielding resistance to spiritual
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  influence in God's calls, the sources indicate they are not
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  awed by God's majesty nor drawn to obedience by his goodness.
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  So neither fear nor attraction works.
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  Apparently not. Neither mercies they receive,
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  nor afflictions they suffer, nor divine threatenings, nor
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  gracious calls through preaching, nor even fatherly
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  counsels, none of it can sway them to genuine obedience.
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  He quotes Isaiah, doesn't he? Yes, Isaiah 26.90 let favor be
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  showed to the wicked. Yet will he not learn
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  righteousness? It reinforces the idea that
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  kindness alone won't soften such a heart.
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  So this hardness means they are essentially unteachable by
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  ordinary means, unwilling to change course despite all
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  external pressures or invitations.
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  That seems to be exactly what Edwards is arguing.
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  It takes something extraordinary, something divine,
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  to breakthrough that hardness. OK, so if that's the inner
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  spiritual state, the blindness, the lack of goodness, the
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  wickedness, the hardness, what does this all mean for our
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  relationships, especially our relationship with God and maybe
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  conversely, with the devil? Right, because our state isn't
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  just internal. Edwards moves on to describe the
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  dreadful relative state of individuals who remain
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  spiritually unrenewed. Our position you mean?
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  Exactly our standing. This is where the far reaching
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  consequences of our inner nature really become clear, outlining a
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  position of the men's spiritual peril.
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  So let's start with the relationship with God.
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  How does Edwards describe that? He declares.
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  Quite starkly that they are without God in the world.
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  Without God? What?
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  What does that practically mean in his view?
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  It signifies that God is not their God in a covenantal,
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  beneficial sense. They have no interest or part in
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  Him. There's a great alienation and
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  estrangement between God and the wicked.
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  And like believers who have that covenant relationship.
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  Precisely the unconverted have no claim, Edwards argues, to
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  God's attributes his immense power, his infinite wisdom, his
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  perfect holiness, or his unfailing love for their benefit
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  or protection. So they're essentially
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  unprotected. Yes, it means they have no God
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  to protect and defend them from the grip of sin, from the
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  schemes of Satan, or from any form of evil that might attack.
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  Them no divine guidance either. They lack God's guidance and
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  direction in their daily lives, no divine comfort and distress,
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  and no support in any of their affairs, family, personal
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  struggles, even matters concerning their souls.
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  Edwards puts it grimly. He's wretched indeed.
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  Who goes up and down in the world without a God to take care
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  of him? It's a picture of utter
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  spiritual abandonment and vulnerability that.
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  Completely exposed. It really paints a picture of
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  utter desolation, doesn't it? Edwards warns.
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  That being without God leaves them vulnerable, yes.
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  Libel to all manner of evil. This includes constant exposure
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  to the devil's influence, which can lead to temptation and
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  deception, maybe into erroneous doctrines that lead them further
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  away from truth. And he mentions judicial
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  hardness. Right judicial hardness of
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  heart, which Edwards understands as God, allowing the heart to
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  become even more resistant to spiritual truth as a form of
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  judgement for persistent rebellion the.
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  Terrifying thought. It is, and some extreme cases,
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  he suggests. It can even lead to the
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  unpardonable sin, that final, decisive rejection of the Holy
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  Spirit's testimony that seals one's fate.
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  So no real security. None, Edward states.
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  They're not safe. One moment prone to 10,000 fetal
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  mischiefs, he uses these vivid comparisons.
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  Like lost sheep. Exactly.
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  Lost sheep that have wandered from their shepherd, helpless
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  and vulnerable, or poor helpless creatures in a howling
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  wilderness without direction or defense, He emphasizes there is
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  no security for them. Whatever hopes they may have may
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  be disappointed because those hopes aren't founded on God's
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  actual promises to them in that state.
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  Just wishful thinking maybe? Perhaps, and what's particularly
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  sobering here, Building on being without God, is that not only
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  are they estranged from him, but the wrath of God abides upon
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  them. Abides meaning it's constantly
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  there, yes. There is no peace between God
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  and them that a constant state of antagonism, Edwards says.
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  God is angry with him every day to a dreadful degree.
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  This isn't like human anger. Is it fleeting or irrational?
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  No. Edwards portrays it as God's
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  settled, holy opposition to sin. It's described as a fire kindled
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  in God's anger. It burns like fire.
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  A. Consuming fire?
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  This divine wrath, Edwards explains, is constantly burning,
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  ready as it were, to plunge them into the lowest hell for
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  eternity if it were fully executed at any moment.
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  So they live under this constantly.
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  Yes, they eat and drink and sleep under wrath.
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  Their very existence is permeated by God's judicial
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  displeasure. They're continually under a
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  curse. What does under a curse mean
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  practically? It means they can find no true
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  comfort or genuine blessing in their earthly enjoyments,
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  however pleasant those things might seem on the surface.
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  So even good things can be bad for them.
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  In a sense, Edwards suggests, these earthly benefits might
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  even be given in wrath, serving only to fatten them up.
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  You could say fit them for the slaughter, preparing them for
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  ultimate judgement by making them more complacent or attached
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  to the world. Wow, that's a heavy thought.
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  It is, and the wrath of an Almighty God, Edwards asserts,
• 19:44
  is infinitely dreadful, stretching beyond any of our
• 19:47
  words or thoughts to adequately describe its intensity.
• 19:51
  OK, so that's the relationship with God, alienation and wrath.
• 19:54
  What about the other side when we connect this to the broader
• 19:58
  spiritual reality Edwards presents?
• 20:00
  Their relational standing with the devil seems just a sobering.
• 20:03
  If not more unsettling, perhaps Edwards presents natural
• 20:07
  individuals starkly as the children of the devil.
• 20:10
  Children of the devil, he actually says that.
• 20:11
  He does. He says they are begotten of the
• 20:13
  devil, meaning they bear his likeness and image.
• 20:16
  Their spiritual nature, their disposition mirrors His.
• 20:20
  And they acknowledge this relationship.
• 20:21
  How? Not consciously, usually, but
• 20:24
  through their actions, by submitting to His will, by
• 20:28
  listening to His counsels, his temptations and lies, and by
• 20:32
  imitating his rebellious and sinful nature.
• 20:34
  He quotes Jesus and John 8 here, doesn't he?
• 20:37
  Yes, John 8.44 where Jesus tells certain individuals ye are of
• 20:42
  your father, the devil and the lusts of your father you will
• 20:45
  do. Edward sees this as a direct
• 20:47
  statement about this spiritual parentage.
• 20:50
  It's a truly dreadful state, then, to have the Prince of Hell
• 20:53
  as one's spiritual father. He calls the devil a wicked,
• 20:56
  malignant and cruel spirit. It describes an intimate
• 20:59
  spiritual allegiance, a family resemblance and character and
• 21:02
  desire, whether the person recognizes it or not.
• 21:05
  And furthermore, building on that family connection, Edwards
• 21:08
  says. They are the devil's captives
• 21:09
  and servants. Captives and servants.
• 21:11
  Yes, having fallen from its original state in Adam is now,
• 21:15
  apart from Christ, in Satan's possession, under his dominion,
• 21:18
  his rule, and doing his work. Effectively, yes.
• 21:21
  Doing his drudging, as Edwards puts it, performing the grunt
• 21:24
  work of sin, he calls the devil the most.
• 21:26
  Cruel master, he does putting. Them to the vilest service,
• 21:30
  which is the practice of sin itself.
• 21:32
  And this service is hard, Edwards says, because it debases
• 21:36
  them below human dignity. And it's ultimately.
• 21:39
  Self-destructive. Completely.
• 21:40
  It's intended. Solely to work their own ruin,
• 21:43
  with no promised reward from this master but everlasting
• 21:46
  destruction. They are, as Edwards describes
• 21:49
  it, kept hard at work day and night to work their own ruin.
• 21:52
  A relentless, futile cycle. And finally on this.
• 21:55
  Relational point Edwards makes a striking, almost unsettling
• 21:59
  assertion going the. Soul of a natural.
• 22:01
  Man is the habitation of the devil, habitation like he.
• 22:04
  Lives there. That's the implication.
• 22:06
  This isn't just about external influence.
• 22:08
  It suggests a deep spiritual indwelling.
• 22:11
  The devil not only rules them, but dwells in them, taking up
• 22:14
  his constant abode in his heart, setting up his throne there.
• 22:17
  That's incredibly. Invasive imagery it is Edwards.
• 22:20
  Calls the unrenewed man's soul the synagogue of Satan, or
• 22:24
  Satan's house, or even his palace.
• 22:26
  These terms indicate a place of authority and comfort for the
• 22:30
  enemy of souls, a place he feels at home.
• 22:32
  Right. He writes that the doors of a
• 22:35
  wicked man's heart are open to devils inviting them in, even as
• 22:38
  those same doors are shut against God and Jesus Christ so
• 22:42
  welcoming the. Wrong guest.
• 22:44
  Exactly He. Calls it the place of the
• 22:46
  devil's rendezvous, a meeting point for dark spiritual forces
• 22:50
  right within the human heart. It's a chilling conclusion to
• 22:53
  the relational aspect. OK, so we've looked at the
• 22:56
  Interstate and the relational state in this world, according
• 22:58
  to Edwards. Now he shifts our attention to
• 23:01
  the future, to eternity, which he argues is.
• 23:04
  What truly matters, right? He points.
• 23:06
  Out that our state in this world is brief, just a preface really
• 23:10
  to our eternal state. Therefore, our true well-being,
• 23:13
  our ultimate destiny, must be measured by what awaits us in
• 23:16
  the world to come and for those remaining in that.
• 23:18
  Natural condition. The outlook is, well,
• 23:20
  exceptionally dire in his view, he really underscores.
• 23:23
  This by saying things like it matters but little
• 23:26
  comparatively. What our state is here, it is
• 23:28
  nothing to eternity. Our temporary circumstances just
• 23:32
  pale in comparison. It sets the stage.
• 23:35
  For the gravity of what follows. So this brings us to that
• 23:38
  crucial point. What exactly do those in a
• 23:41
  natural condition face in the future, according to Edwards?
• 23:45
  Where does he start? First, he says they.
• 23:47
  Have No title to any inheritance.
• 23:49
  In another world, no inheritance.
• 23:52
  Despite all the descriptions of heaven.
• 23:54
  Exactly. Despite the unsearchable riches
• 23:57
  and unspeakable and inconceivable abundance of
• 24:00
  heaven, it's joy, it's glory, it's fellowship with God, they
• 24:04
  have no right to the least portion of those blessings.
• 24:07
  So if they die. Unrenewed they go destitute.
• 24:10
  Stripped of all spiritual provision, all hope, there's no
• 24:13
  God to whom they may go for comfort or salvation, no
• 24:16
  Redeemer to receive their departing souls, and no Angel to
• 24:20
  be a ministering spirit to them to guide or protect them.
• 24:23
  He quotes Ephesians here. Right.
• 24:24
  Yes, describing them. As without Christ, aliens from
• 24:27
  God's household, strangers from the covenant of promise, having
• 24:31
  no hope, and without God in the world utterly cut off.
• 24:34
  They are Edwards. Concludes without any ground to
• 24:37
  hope for any good in their future and eternal state, Every
• 24:41
  possible source of solace or hope is simply absent for them
• 24:45
  and this complete. Spiritual destitution leads
• 24:48
  directly, then, to the misery to which they are exposed in the
• 24:51
  future world. Yes.
• 24:53
  Which Edwards? Describes in two overwhelming
• 24:55
  respects. What are they?
• 24:56
  It's sheer greatness. In itself and it's endless
• 24:59
  duration. And he stresses that both
• 25:01
  aspects are beyond any of our words or thoughts to adequately
• 25:06
  grasp. We can't really comprehend it
• 25:08
  fully. So first, the torment and misery
• 25:10
  they face are, Edward states, exceedingly great in themselves,
• 25:14
  just inherently massive, transcending human.
• 25:17
  Words or thoughts, he says. Right, those in this.
• 25:19
  State are deprived of all good, all the goodness of God, all
• 25:22
  spiritual light, all comfort. They are totally separated from
• 25:25
  God and all fruits of His mercy. No more mercy shown at.
• 25:27
  All. No, there will be.
• 25:29
  No more smiles of God, no more manifestations of His mercy,
• 25:32
  like benefits, warnings, gracious calls, or the strivings
• 25:35
  of His Spirit, All those cease and cut off from earthly.
• 25:37
  Comforts too, yes. Cut off from all the comforts of
• 25:41
  this life, every earthly pleasure or relief that might
• 25:44
  have once distracted them from their spiritual reality, they
• 25:47
  are definitively shut out of heaven.
• 25:50
  It's glory and peace forever lost to them and cast into.
• 25:53
  Into the blackness. Of darkness into the pit of
• 25:56
  hell, which Edwards describes graphically as a great
• 26:00
  receptacle for the filthy and polluted and abominable of the
• 26:04
  universe, and completely alone. No friends worse than alone
• 26:08
  they. Will have no friends, God
• 26:10
  himself will be their adversary. Angels will be agents of
• 26:13
  judgement, the spirits of the just in heaven will condemn
• 26:15
  their choices, and even devils and other damn spirits will be
• 26:18
  their enemies. Because in Hell, Edward
• 26:20
  suggests, there's only hatred. They will be hated with perfect
• 26:24
  hatred by all, with none to pity them or offer any shred of
• 26:27
  comfort. And this is where.
• 26:29
  That wrath of God we talked about earlier is fully executed,
• 26:32
  right? Unleashed without restraint.
• 26:33
  Exactly, Edward. Says they will suffer the wrath
• 26:35
  of God executed to the full upon them, poured out without
• 26:39
  mixture, without mixture. Meaning undiluted.
• 26:41
  Yes. No.
• 26:42
  Mercy mixed in. It's total, complete judgment.
• 26:45
  He asserts this wrath is infinitely dreadful.
• 26:47
  He even says it's infinitely more dreadful than fire.
• 26:49
  Fire is just an image. Yes, physical fire.
• 26:52
  Is merely an image and shadow of it, a fate resemblance of its
• 26:55
  true spiritual terror. Their souls and their bodies
• 26:59
  shall then be filled full with the wrath of God, as if they
• 27:02
  themselves were a glowing furnace, completely engulfed
• 27:05
  from within and without plunged into a sea.
• 27:07
  Of Wrath. That's his image.
• 27:09
  Plunged into a sea of wrath, overwhelmed and swelled up in
• 27:11
  wrath as men who are cast into a lake or sea utterly submerged in
• 27:16
  it. And he asks that.
• 27:17
  Rhetorical question. Who can conceive the?
• 27:19
  Dreadfulness of the wrath of an Almighty God.
• 27:21
  It underscores his incomprehensibility to our
• 27:24
  finite minds. He concludes by stating
• 27:26
  everything in God is answerable to his infinite greatness,
• 27:30
  meaning His wrath is as infinite and measureless as his being.
• 27:34
  Now when we connect this intense misery to the broader
• 27:36
  theological landscape Edwards presents, this state is
• 27:39
  described as their perfect destruction and eternal death.
• 27:42
  Destruction does he mean? They cease to exist.
• 27:45
  No, not. Annihilation in the sense of
• 27:47
  ceasing to be. Edwards asserts that even one
• 27:51
  sin deserves eternal death and damnation, which he defines as
• 27:55
  the total destruction of the creature in a spiritual sense,
• 27:57
  meaning complete ruin, loss of all good unending suffering, but
• 28:01
  not non existence. OK, so it's ruin not.
• 28:04
  Removal right So. For those who have lived a
• 28:07
  lifetime accumulating sins, committed thousands and
• 28:10
  thousands of sins, especially what he calls many great sins
• 28:14
  with high aggravations, like sinning against the gospel,
• 28:16
  against clear knowledge, the punishment is.
• 28:19
  Multiplied unspirably. Multiplied in his view, he
• 28:22
  states with stark clarity, the punishment of 1 idle word or
• 28:26
  sinful thought would be more than they could bear, let alone
• 28:29
  a life filled with rebellion against God.
• 28:30
  It's a spiritual weight. A weight so great he.
• 28:33
  Writes that they will be ground to powder under the weight of
• 28:35
  God's wrath, crushed completely by it.
• 28:37
  And then there's the truly. Overwhelming aspect.
• 28:40
  You mentioned it's duration, yes, it's not.
• 28:43
  Just a great misery, but one of endless duration.
• 28:45
  It never will have any. End never.
• 28:48
  There will be no. Deliverance.
• 28:49
  No rest, no hope. But it will last throughout all
• 28:52
  eternity. And Edwards really tries.
• 28:54
  To grapple with the concept of eternity, doesn't he?
• 28:56
  Saying it swallows up our minds. He does as.
• 28:59
  Finite beings, we struggle to grasp the infinite.
• 29:02
  He uses that analogy to try and bring it home. 1000 years or
• 29:06
  1000 ages bear no greater proportion to eternity than a
• 29:10
  minute. So even a vast.
• 29:12
  Amount of time is nothing compared to forever exactly.
• 29:15
  He clarifies a minute comes as near inequality to it as 1000
• 29:19
  ages, meaning any finite period, no matter how incredibly vast,
• 29:24
  is still infinitesimally small compared to endlessness.
• 29:27
  It never gets any closer to ending.
• 29:29
  So after millions. Of ages of suffering they will
• 29:32
  be but. In the first point only setting
• 29:34
  out in their sufferings with nonetheless to bear eternity,
• 29:37
  Edwards concludes grimly, will forever be but beginning.
• 29:40
  The suffering is perpetually renewed, always feeling like
• 29:43
  it's just starting. And this thought, this knowledge
• 29:45
  of an ending torment experienced in the midst of constant
• 29:48
  suffering, leads, Edwards argues, to one final, crushing
• 29:52
  reality. Absolute despair.
• 29:54
  They know it will never. End.
• 29:55
  They shall know that. Their misery will have no end,
• 29:58
  and this knowledge itself will fill them with unfathomable
• 30:01
  depths of woe and a boundless gulf of sorrow and woe.
• 30:04
  There's absolutely no relief, no glimmer of hope, ever.
• 30:08
  And he grounds this in. Scripture.
• 30:10
  Yes, The sources. Cite scriptural references like
• 30:12
  Matthew 25.41. Depart from me, cursed into
• 30:16
  everlasting fire and Revelation 20.5.
• 30:19
  They shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.
• 30:22
  Underscoring what he sees as the clear biblical basis for this
• 30:26
  unending conscious torment. It's a grim picture, but when he
• 30:31
  felt compelled to paint based on his understanding of Scripture.
• 30:34
  OK, so given. That stark future outlook, The
• 30:36
  eternal misery. What does this all mean for you,
• 30:39
  the listener, right now in your present condition?
• 30:42
  If you're in that natural state, well, Edwards makes it.
• 30:45
  Very clear, he explains that if individuals continue in this
• 30:48
  natural state, they will unavoidably sink into this
• 30:51
  misery. Unavoidably.
• 30:52
  It's guaranteed. In his view.
• 30:54
  Yes, unless something changes them fundamentally.
• 30:57
  This isn't an arbitrary judgement, he argues, but a
• 30:59
  natural consequence because their state itself naturally
• 31:03
  tends to it being. Separate from.
• 31:06
  God, who is the fountain of all good, means they are inherently
• 31:09
  without any defense or supplies for true well-being or spiritual
• 31:13
  life. The soul in this state, Edward
• 31:15
  says, must be miserable on its own, and will eventually
• 31:19
  miserably famish and die in its separation from the only source
• 31:22
  of true life. And what's quite striking here
• 31:25
  is Edward's analogy. He compares sin to a mortal
• 31:28
  disease of the soul, like cancer.
• 31:30
  Or poison, exactly like an. Incurable cancer or deadly
• 31:34
  poison, if it is not healed, he says, it will surely bring them
• 31:38
  to this death, to that second death, referring to eternal
• 31:41
  spiritual death. So the disease is.
• 31:43
  Already present? Yes, the infection.
• 31:45
  Of the disease has powerfully seized their vital parts,
• 31:48
  spreading throughout their entire spiritual nature.
• 31:50
  He even asserts that the seeds of hell are already within their
• 31:53
  hearts in the form of sin. Seeds of Hell.
• 31:55
  Yes. If these seeds remain
• 31:57
  unmortified, meaning if they were not killed or suppressed by
• 32:01
  divine grace, they will at length breed the torment of hell
• 32:06
  in them. Hell will kindle in them, so
• 32:08
  hell isn't. Just a place they go to, but
• 32:10
  something that grows out of their own condition.
• 32:12
  That seems to be part of his. Point the danger is not just an
• 32:16
  external punishment God imposes from outside, but also an
• 32:19
  internal consequence stemming from their own corrupted nature,
• 32:23
  a fire that begins within and Edwards then.
• 32:26
  Points out that this unavoidable misery is also insured by God's
• 32:29
  own character right, His justice and truth.
• 32:32
  Precisely. So surely as God is just,
• 32:35
  Edwards argues, he will not disparage his own justice by
• 32:39
  letting the guilty go unpunished.
• 32:40
  He quotes Scripture saying God will by no means clear the
• 32:43
  guilty, reinforcing that God is an inexorably just judge His
• 32:47
  justice demands. Punishment for sin?
• 32:49
  Yes, the sources indicate. That His avenging justice is
• 32:51
  seen as an unalterable aspect of His nature, as fixed and certain
• 32:55
  as His Holiness. It cannot be compromised.
• 32:58
  And so surely, as God is true, his absolute threats of eternal
• 33:02
  misery found in Scripture shall not fail.
• 33:05
  Edwards draws a powerful, almost stark conclusion here.
• 33:10
  It is quote. As impossible that he who dies
• 33:13
  in a natural condition should escape suffering that eternal
• 33:16
  misery as that God should lie as impossible as.
• 33:19
  God lying. That's absolute certainty.
• 33:21
  It underscores the certainty. Of judgement for the unrenewed,
• 33:25
  rooted in Edwards view, in God's very character, his justice and
• 33:29
  his truthfulness. But this inevitably brings us to
• 33:32
  a crucial consideration. What about conversion?
• 33:35
  What about getting out of this state?
• 33:37
  Is it possible? Edwards addresses this.
• 33:39
  Directly, he states it is very uncertain whether they will ever
• 33:43
  get out of this condition. Uncertain.
• 33:45
  Why can't? People just decide to change, he
• 33:47
  argues. They have.
• 33:48
  Nothing on which to depend for conversion by their own effort
• 33:51
  or merit. Remember the hardness of heart,
• 33:53
  the slavery to sin he described. Right, so it takes.
• 33:55
  God's intervention it truly depends on.
• 33:57
  God's mighty sovereign intervention.
• 33:59
  And crucially, Edward says there is no promise of God for
• 34:02
  conversion to occur for any specific individual who hasn't
• 34:05
  yet believed. So you can't just.
• 34:07
  Claim a promise of conversion for yourself.
• 34:10
  Not according to Edwards. Not while still in that natural
• 34:13
  state. Your own resolutions are not to
• 34:16
  be depended on, he says. Because the human will in its
• 34:19
  natural state is bound by sin and ultimately unreliable and
• 34:24
  historically. He observed.
• 34:26
  He observed that. But few, comparatively, who are
• 34:29
  ever converted, with the majority sadly dying and
• 34:33
  renewed. The stark danger, he concludes,
• 34:36
  is that most of them who are unconverted now will ever be
• 34:40
  converted, that most of them will die unconverted and will go
• 34:43
  to hell. It's a sobering statistical
• 34:46
  observation based on his ministry experience.
• 34:48
  And this is where the message. Becomes particularly pressing
• 34:51
  intensely personal for you, the listener, right now.
• 34:54
  Yes, the immediate. Danger.
• 34:55
  It means you are in. Danger of going to hell every
• 34:58
  day, every single moment, if you are in that state.
• 35:00
  Edwards uses that incredibly potent image.
• 35:03
  The thread, yes. You hang over.
• 35:05
  The pit of hell, as it were, by a thread that has a moth
• 35:07
  continually gnawing it. Wow.
• 35:10
  That illustrates extreme precariousness, doesn't it?
• 35:13
  The slightest thing could break it exactly you.
• 35:15
  Have nothing to depend on to keep them out of hell.
• 35:17
  One day or one night. Nothing guarantees another hour,
• 35:20
  another breath. Death can come.
• 35:22
  Suddenly, suddenly and. Unexpectedly sending thousands
• 35:26
  to hell every day, Edwards claims based on mortality rates
• 35:29
  and his view of the unconverted state.
• 35:32
  And he concludes. That point with a really
• 35:34
  sobering thought about its value.
• 35:37
  Right, saying that. No wise person would be in their
• 35:40
  condition for 1/4 of an hour for the whole world.
• 35:42
  The risk is that immense. It is a state of constant,
• 35:46
  immediate, terrifying peril and. Adding to the urgency, the
• 35:50
  situation actually grows progressively worse the longer
• 35:53
  it continues. It doesn't stay static.
• 35:55
  How does it get worse? Edwards explains that their.
• 35:57
  Hearts grow more and more polluted and hardened with each
• 36:01
  passing day. They remain in the natural
• 36:03
  state. Sin is in static.
• 36:05
  It strengthens its grip, becoming rooted deeper within
• 36:08
  their being. So the resistance to God.
• 36:10
  Increases yes and. Consequently, Edwards warns,
• 36:13
  Hell, every day grows hotter for them.
• 36:15
  Hell gets hotter. What?
• 36:16
  Does he mean he means their eventual?
• 36:18
  Punishment increases in severity as they continue to add sin to
• 36:21
  sin. Each new transgression, he says,
• 36:25
  adds another eternal death to augment his damnation, as if the
• 36:29
  fire has been increased every day and blown up to a greater
• 36:33
  and greater degree of fierceness.
• 36:34
  Treasuring up. Wrath.
• 36:36
  Exactly. They're continually treasuring
• 36:38
  up wrath against the Day of Judgement, making their final
• 36:41
  account even worse. And to add to.
• 36:43
  This already grim outlook Edwards states that even the
• 36:47
  good things in life, the blessings are actually turned
• 36:50
  into curses for those who live and die in this in a state, how
• 36:53
  can blessings. Be curses their very food their.
• 36:56
  Possessions, their friends, even their natural faculties, their
• 36:59
  reason, their senses become curses because they are used in
• 37:03
  rebellion against God or distract them from their need,
• 37:06
  ultimately serving only to fit them for the slaughter.
• 37:08
  As he put it earlier, he cites Deuteronomy. 28 doesn't he?
• 37:11
  Yes, Which lists. How aspects of life for the
• 37:14
  disobedient, cities, fields, baskets, bodies will be cursed.
• 37:18
  It's a principle he applies spiritually and even spiritual.
• 37:20
  Privileges. Yes, even what?
• 37:22
  Might seem like spiritual mercies and privileges, like
• 37:25
  attending worship, hearing the Bible, Sabbaths, sacraments,
• 37:29
  warnings from Scripture, and incredibly, even the very
• 37:32
  sending of Christ and the shedding of His blood.
• 37:35
  These become a saver of death unto death for the persistently
• 37:40
  unrepentant, meaning they harden the.
• 37:42
  Heart, more exactly they. Serve only to harden the heart
• 37:45
  further and aggravate their guilt, because they represent
• 37:48
  greater light. Rejected.
• 37:50
  The more precious the mercy offered, the greater the curse
• 37:53
  it becomes when trampled under foot.
• 37:55
  So even Christ's. Sacrifice becomes part of the
• 37:57
  condemnation if rejected. That's his point.
• 38:00
  Life itself, for the unrenewed who remains so, is ultimately a
• 38:03
  curse, Edwards says. They will wish they had died
• 38:06
  sooner, or never been born, or even that they had been made
• 38:09
  Vipers and scorpions rather than rational creatures destined for
• 38:13
  such an awful potential fate if they don't find reconciliation
• 38:16
  with God. And finally.
• 38:17
  Edwards argues that people in this natural state have no
• 38:20
  security from the most dismal horrors of mind in this life,
• 38:23
  except for one thing, their own blindness and senselessness,
• 38:27
  their spiritual stupidity, essentially.
• 38:29
  So ignorance is. Bliss, but a dangerous bliss
• 38:31
  precisely without. This stupidity, which he sees as
• 38:35
  itself a tragic evil. They would experience dismal
• 38:38
  horrors just contemplating their true condition and destiny.
• 38:41
  He paints a vivid. Scene of the deathbed Yes on a.
• 38:45
  Deathbed, facing approaching death while still unrenewed,
• 38:49
  still ignorant of God in Christ in a saving way, full of inner
• 38:52
  luft and enmity, and perhaps suddenly realizing the reality
• 38:55
  of God's wrath and the devil's dominion over their soul.
• 38:58
  Their state will be truly dismal.
• 39:00
  And they might even get. Glimpses of hell before dying.
• 39:02
  He's just they may experience. Foretastes of hell even before
• 39:05
  physical death, as the flames of hell do, as it were, come up and
• 39:09
  reach them in their conscience or spirit.
• 39:10
  It's a harrowing prelude and foretaste of the everlasting
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  misery that awaits them if they die in that condition.
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  A truly dreadful end to a dreadful state.
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  Hashtag tag outro. Wow.
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  What a well, a compelling and certainly sobering view of the
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  human condition apart from spiritual renewal.
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  Edwards truly pulls back the veil on what he understood it
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  means to be in that natural state indeed.
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  You really get a candid glimpse through his sermon into a
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  central Reformed theological tenet, the reality of human
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  spiritual inability and the the sovereign nature of God's
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  justice and his grace. It definitely presses.
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  Us and you, the listener, to consider our spiritual standing
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  with well, with deep earnestness.
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  It does. It's not.
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  Comfortable reading, but it wasn't meant to be.
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  So what does this all mean? For you, if Edward's words
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  describe a genuine spiritual reality, even in part, it
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  certainly points to a need for. Divine intervention, doesn't it?
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  A profound need, yes. It's a stirring call.
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  Maybe to examine one's own heart and standing before God.
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  It challenges us all to reflect on where we actually find our
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  hope and what we genuinely count as our greatest good.
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  Is it God? Or is it something else?
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  Definitely something to consider as you go about your week.
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  How does this view of the Natural State, as Edwards lays
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  it out, alter your perspective on the need for genuine
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  spiritual change? Does it change the urgency?
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  A question worth pondering. This has been the deep dive
• 40:35
  brought to you by Reformed Thinking.
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  Join us again next time for another exploration into these
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  timeless truths. Until then, keep thinking and
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  keep seeking.