Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sinners Delay Concerns of the Soul (Acts 24:25) | Jonathan Edwards

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Sinners Delay Concerns of the Soul (Acts 24:25) | Jonathan Edwards · Reformed Thinking

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You know, if you really stop to think about the human nervous
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system, it is an absolute marvel of engineering.
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Oh, absolutely it's. Like think about physical pain
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for a second. There is this crystal clear
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instantaneous cause and effect. You accidentally place your hand
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on a hot stove and your body does not need to convene a
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committee to decide what to do. Yeah, you don't sit there
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drafting a pros and cons list. No.
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The noscepters in your skin fire off a warning signal.
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It travels up your arm, hits your spinal cord, and your hand
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Yanks itself back before your conscious brain even fully
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registers the heat. It is a completely instinctual,
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hardwired survival mechanism. Right.
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The pain is this localized warning system, and the physical
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reaction is violently immediate. You pull away from the fire.
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Because the body recognizes a threat to its very existence,
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right? So it bypasses all logical
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deliberation to prioritize safety.
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But then you look at how human beings handle invisible threats,
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especially the spiritual kind, and that entire brilliant
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survival mechanism just, well, it completely short circuits.
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It really does. It's fascinating.
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We see the threat to the alarm bells go off in our conscience.
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We feel the heat of the fire and instead of pulling our hand
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away, we reach over with our other hand and just hit the
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snooze button. Yeah.
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We convince ourselves that the fire will somehow be, you know,
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easier to deal with tomorrow. We'll look at the flames and say
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I think I will grab a fire extinguisher next week.
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The timing right now is just a bit inconvenient.
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Which is such a strange, almost unbelievable human quirk when
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you lay it out like that. It really is.
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Welcome to reform thinking. By the way, I am thrilled to
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have you listening in today for this deep dive.
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Yes. Welcome.
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If you are joining us on your commute or, you know, maybe
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while you're out for a run, get ready because today we are
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looking into a manuscript from August 1752.
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A. Really heavy one too.
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Yeah, this is an original sermon written by Jonathan Edwards, and
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he titled it Sinners Delay Concerns of the Soul.
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And Edwards uses a very specific anchor text for this manuscript,
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which sets up this incredible psychological and theological
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breakdown, right? He preaches from the book of
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Acts, specifically chapter 24, verse 25.
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Let us set the historical scene for that text, because the
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context gives the whole sermon its teeth, I think.
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Oh for sure, the context is everything here.
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You have the apostle Paul, who is a prisoner in chains.
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At this time. He is brought into a room to
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stand before the Roman governor Antonius Felix.
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And Felix is not a good guy. Historically, we know he was
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incredibly corrupt. Very corrupt, known for his
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cruelty, and he was currently sitting next to his wife
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Drusilla, who he had essentially stolen from another man.
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So Paul is standing in front of the guy who holds the power of
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life and death over him, and Paul does not give a polite,
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surface level diplomatic speech to appease the governor.
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He doesn't hold back at. All no, he looks Felix in the
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eye and preaches directly to him about righteousness, temperance,
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and the terrifying judgement to come.
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And Felix is not bored by this. He's not rolling his eyes or
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checking his sundial. The biblical text says Felix
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physically trembled. He trembled.
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Yeah, the Greek word used there implies being terrified, like
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being seized with a Sutter overwhelming dread.
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The Roman governor is absolutely terrified by the weight of
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Paul's message. The guy with all the political
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power is shaking in his samples. Exactly.
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But his reaction to that terror is what we are going to spend
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this entire session unpacking. Right, because instead of
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falling on his knees, instead of crying out for mercy right then
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and there, Felix dismisses Paul. He sends the preacher.
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Away, he says, Go thy way for this time when I have a
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convenient season, I will call for thee.
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A convenient season. Those 3 words frame the entire
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human problem Edwards is addressing.
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Yeah, Felix feels the heat of the stove, but he decides the
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current moment is just too crowded to pull his hand back.
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Which brings us to our mission. Today.
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We want to dissect this universal human habit of putting
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off a spiritual reckoning for a supposed more convenient season.
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Yes, we are going to breakdown Edwards categories of
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procrastination. We are going to look at the
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severe catastrophic risks involved, and we are going to
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examine the stark theological reality of why tomorrow is
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never, ever actually better than today.
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Edwards takes this historical account of Felix and holds it up
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as a mirror to the entire human race.
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He really does. He observes this convenient
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season mindset playing out across the entire human
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lifespan. Like he points out that this is
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not a localized incident limited to a corrupt Roman governor in
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the 1st century, right? No, not at all.
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It was happening in the pews of his own meetinghouse in 1752.
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And if we are honest, it is happening in our own living
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rooms right now. Yeah.
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So Edward starts his analysis with a fascinating demographic
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breakdown. This part is so interesting.
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He looks at how different age groups justify waiting.
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It is not a one-size-fits-all excuse.
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Right, the excuse evolves as we get older.
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He starts with children. Children put off the concerns of
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their soul because they figure they will simply know more when
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they are grown. Up They assume adults naturally
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possess this mysterious knowledge of how to pray, how to
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read the Bible, and how to perform religious duties.
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Yeah, they view religion as a heavy adult task, similar to
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paying taxes, managing a household or going to work.
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Right. A child looks at a mortgage and
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thinks I do not know how to do that, but when I am 30 the
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knowledge will just be there. And they look at spiritual
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matters the exact same way. They defer it to a future age
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where they assume competency will naturally arrive through
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the sheer passage of time. It is like thinking you will
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wake up on your 18th birthday and suddenly know how to speak
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fluent French without ever taking a class.
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Oh, that's a great way to put it.
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They think grace is a biological development.
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Yeah, so the child waits. But then that child grows up.
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They move into their youth. Do they suddenly find religion
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convenient? No, the excuse just shape
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shifts. Edward says young people wait
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until they are settled in the world.
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They view their current season of life as a time and
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specifically for mirth, socializing, and youthful
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vanities. And there is a very specific,
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almost crippling fear Edwards identifies in the youth here.
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What is that? They assume religion means an
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immediate loss of their fun company.
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They think if they turn to God now, they will have to abandon
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all their friends. Oh yeah, like they will have to
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associate only with very severe, serious, melancholy people.
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Right. And to a young person whose
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entire social currency is build on being liked and being part of
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the group, that sounds like a social death sentence.
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So they look at the present season as highly inconvenient
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for religion because it is so incredibly convenient for
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pleasure. Think about the 18th century
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context Edwards is preaching in, and then compare it to the
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modern teenager listening to this right now.
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OK, yeah, the youth back then looked at the strict Puritan
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Sabbath and thought, I do not want to give up my freedom.
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And the modern youth looks at a Friday night, the fear of
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missing out, the parties, the social media clout, and thinks
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the exact same thing. God is going to ruin my weekend.
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Yeah, so they push it off. They tell themselves they will
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get serious about God when they're older.
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Maybe when they get married and have a steady job.
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But then the youth become adults and the goal post moves again.
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Right adults wait until they finish specific worldly affairs.
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They are involved in building a business, raising a family,
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climbing the corporate ladder or paying off debts.
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They keep hoping for a season of more liberty.
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And the irony is palpable here. Oh, it really is, the adult
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thought adulthood would bring clarity and freedom.
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Instead, it brought a mortgage, a demanding boss and sleep
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deprivation. There is always one more project
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to finish, one more promotion to secure, one more child to put
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through school before they can focus on their soul.
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So the excuse mutates from a lack of knowledge to a fear of
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social loss to an overwhelming lack of time.
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But the delay remains the constant denominator always that
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Edwards brings up a category of people who do not even bother to
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set a future date. This is what we could call the
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abstract weight. Yes, the abstract weight.
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They simply deem the present time inconvenient because of
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opposition or current temptations or just a general
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deadness in society. They look around and say, well,
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the culture is really secular right now.
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All the talk at the water cooler is focused on politics or
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sports. It is just not a good
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environment for me to get spiritual.
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So they wait passively, almost like a farmer waiting for rain
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but refusing to plant any seeds in the meantime.
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And, Edwards notes, they might even use heavy theological
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language to justify their own inaction.
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Oh really? Like what?
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Well, they sit in the pews and say they're waiting for an
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outpouring of the Spirit of God, or for better circumstances to
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strike them. Wow.
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By framing it this way, they shift the responsibility
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entirely off their own shoulders and try to place the blame for
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their delay onto God's timing. Let us marinate on this for a
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second, because this whole concept of waiting for a better
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inclination feels so incredibly familiar.
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It does. It is the exact same
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psychological trap as buying an expensive gym membership on
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January 1st, but never actually walking through the doors of the
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gym. That is a phenomenal modern
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parallel. Let us breakdown why that
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happens. OK, so you buy the membership
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and you operate under this strange delusion that a future
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version of yourself will magically possess the motivation
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you currently. Right.
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You think, OK, next month things will calm down at work and I
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will be the kind of person who wants to wake up at 5:00 in the
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morning to go lift weights? Yes.
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You completely ignore the fact that your lack of motivation is
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the actual disease. You treat your future self like
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a completely different human being.
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But the future version of you is just the current version of you,
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plus another month of bad habits and atrophied muscles.
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Right, so I have to ask, does Edwards view this spiritual
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delay as a harmless human quirk, like putting off cleaning out
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the garage? Or is he diagnosing something
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far worse here? Oh, he views it as a fatal
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misunderstanding of human nature.
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Fable. Yes.
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Edwards identifies this not as a quirky psychological bias, but
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as a devastating theological error.
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How so? Because waiting for a better
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inclination completely ignores the reality that human
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inclinations do not naturally improve over time without direct
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intervention. They degrade like an abandoned
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house. They rot.
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Exactly. To expect your heart to
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naturally soften toward God while you actively continue to
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ignore Him is theological nonsense.
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Edwards is operating from a highly specific view of human
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depravity. Here the human will is naturally
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bound by sin. It is bent away from God.
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Time alone does not cure the disease of the soul.
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Time is the very medium that allows the disease to spread and
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solidify. Yes, expecting time to fix your
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spiritual apathy is like expecting time to fix a broken
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leg that you refuse to put in a cast.
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Wow. OK, so if everyone from a 7 year
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old child to a 70 year old business owner engages in this
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identical pattern of delay, we need to look at Edwards
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diagnosis of the underlying disease causing this universal
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symptom. Right, the root causes.
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In his manuscript, he unpacks a specific list of 6 causes, the
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root reasons why people put off their souls.
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Let us walk through these because they're incredibly
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piercing. The first 'cause he lists is
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stupidity or senselessness. I want to stop right there and
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clarify because in our modern vernacular, calling someone
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stupid is an insult regarding their intellect.
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He is not talking about someone's IQ here.
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No, not at all. He is talking about a spiritual
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numbness. It is a severe insensitivity to
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the reality, the staggering greatness and the sheer
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heinousness of sin. He calls it a brutish stupidity.
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Yeah. It is the condition of walking
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through a burning building, seeing the flames lick the
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walls, smelling the smoke and genuinely not perceiving it as a
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threat. Their spiritual sensory organs
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are completely deadened. Exactly but.
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Hold on, let me push back on that concept of stupidity and
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senselessness. OK, go ahead.
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Because if we look back at our anchor text, Felix trembled.
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He heard Paul talking about judgment, and his physical body
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shook with terror. He did.
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He clearly felt the terrifying weight of what was coming.
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He's not numb. He was wide awake to the danger
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in that specific moment. Right.
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So how in the world does Edwards reconcile A trembling, terrified
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conscience with British stupidity?
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That is the pivotal question, and it brings up a massive
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distinction Edwards makes regarding how we define fear.
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OK, let's unpack that. Edwards draws a sharp line
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between natural fear and spiritual sight.
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Felix has natural fear. Meaning.
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That is the kind of fear literally any biological
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creature possesses when its existence is threatened.
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A dog will cower and tremble if you raise a heavy stick to
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strike it right, But that animalistic natural fear is
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vastly different from an awakened spiritual sight.
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So feeling terrified of hell does not mean you are having a
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spiritual awakening, it just means your fight or flight
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response got triggered. That hits the nail on the head.
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Natural fear without the inward work of the Holy Spirit leads
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straight into the self blinding behavior Edwards mentions later
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in his list. So what happens when that
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natural fear kicks in? When an unregenerate person,
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someone whose heart has not been changed by God, feels that
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intense terror of hell, their instinct is not to turn toward
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God in broken repentance, right? Their instinct is to shut their
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eyes tightly to the danger, or to send the preacher away, just
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like Felix did. They want the uncomfortable
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trembling to stop, so they remove the trigger.
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Spiritual sight, on the other hand, sees the actual ugliness
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of the sin itself, not just the danger of the punishment.
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Yes, Felix was terrified of the fire, but he still deeply loved
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his sin. He just wanted Paul to stop
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talking so his heart rate could go back to normal.
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That's all he wanted. He wanted to go back to his
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comfortable, corrupt life without the nagging voice in his
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ear that moves us perfectly to the second cause.
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Edwards list the importunity of lust.
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And to explain this, Edward cites Job chapter 20, verse 12.
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Oh yeah, the verse says. Wickedness is sweet in his
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mouth. He hides it under his tongue.
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He spares it and forsakes it not he keeps it still in his mouth.
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This moves the diagnosis from a passive numbness to a highly
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active conscious preference. The delay is not just a
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scheduling oversight. No, it is a deliberate
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preference for sin over obedience.
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The Sinner holds onto the sin because they genuinely like the
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taste of it. Like rolling a piece of hard
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candy under your tongue. Yeah, the Sinner wants to
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extract every last drop of flavor from the rebellion before
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they even consider spitting it out.
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Wow, OK, cause #3 is an aversion to duty.
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This is the plain stubborn refusal to do what is required.
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It is the posture of a toddler crossing their arms, planting
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their feet firmly on the floor and saying no.
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Yes, the carnal mind simply hates the demands of a holy God.
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Then we reach cause for ignorance of themselves and
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self-confidence. This ties beautifully back into
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your gym membership analogy from earlier.
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It really does. People place a massive,
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unwarranted trust in their own wisdom, their own moral
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strength, and their own steadfastness to handle
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salvation at a later date. They honestly believe they
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possess a magical switch inside their own chest, and they can
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simply flip that switch from rebellion to to holiness
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whenever they finally feel ready.
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They overestimate their own free will.
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Drastic. You think I am the master of my
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own soul? I can stop sinning anytime I
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want, I just don't want to yet. Which leads right into cause 5
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self blinding. What does he mean by that?
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Edwards describes A sinful self love that goes to work
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constructing a completely fictional future.
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Like a fantasy world. Yeah, the Sinner builds a
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fantasy world in their mind where future opportunities to
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repent are incredibly abundant, their health is guaranteed, and
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God is essentially A celestial Butler who will simply stand by
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and listen whenever the person finally decides to speak.
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Celestial Butler. That is a stinging image.
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And the final cause, the 6th 1 Edwards identifies, is the
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devil's subtle temptations. So he brings in the spiritual
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warfare aspect. He does.
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Edwards points out the active, unseen spiritual warfare
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component of this procrastination.
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There is an adversary actively whispering in the ear of the
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Sinner, encouraging this exact delay.
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Satan does not necessarily need to convince you to become an
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outright Satanist. He just needs to convince you
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that you have plenty of time to become a Christian later.
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Exactly, it's a much easier sell.
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So understanding these deeply rooted psychological and
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spiritual causes leads directly into how Edwards categorizes the
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severity of this action. And this is where the sermon
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takes a very sharp, heavy turn. Yeah, because the listener might
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hear all of this and think, OK, so I am a bit of a
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procrastinator. I make bad schedules.
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It is an innocent miscalculation.
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But Edwards splits his evaluation of this delay into
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two distinct, terrifying indictments, exceeding
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wickedness and exceeding folly. Let us start with the first
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indictment exceeding wickedness. Edwards does not view the delay
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as a weakness. He views it as a moral crime of
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the highest order. He does not pull any punches
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here. He argues that saying I will
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repent tomorrow is an act of direct, willful disobedience
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today. Right when you schedule your
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repentance for the future, you are making a deliberate,
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calculated determination to continue in a course of sin in
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the present. You are not just slipping up in
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a moment of weakness, you are intentionally putting sin on
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your calendar. You are claiming a license to
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rebel against your creator for a fixed, negotiated period of
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time. And Edwards highlights the
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staggering and gratitude of this posture.
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Think about the sinner's current state.
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God has kept them alive. God has provided the air in
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their lungs. God has offered them mercy.
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And the sinner's response is to take that borrowed, unmerited
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time and use it to continue offending the very God who gave
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it to them. It is cosmic treason wrapped in
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arrogance. It involves a massive contempt
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of acting with presumption on future mercy.
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You assume God is just sitting around tapping His foot, waiting
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to forgive you whenever you pencil Him into your busy
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schedule. Yeah, that covers the sheer
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wickedness aspect. But then Edwards moves to the
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second indictment. Exceeding foolishness.
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The sheer irrationality of the gamble is breathtaking when you
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actually break down the math of it.
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It really is. Edwards lists the wild,
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uncontrollable uncertainty as the Sinner is betting their
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eternal soul. On they were depending on their
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physical life continuing, which is absurd because a blood vessel
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could burst in your brain in the next 10 seconds.
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Right, they are, depending on the means of grace remaining
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available to them. Let us define that phrase for
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the listener means of grace. Well, Edwards is talking about
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access to preaching, access to the Bible, access to the
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sacraments. The Sinner assumes they will
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always live in a place where the truth is easily accessible.
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Right, they assume the church doors will always be open.
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Furthermore, they are hoping they retain the use of their
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actual reason. Yeah, they bank on the fact that
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they will not develop dementia or get into a terrible accident
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that leaves them with a traumatic brain injury before
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they get around to repenting. And most incredibly, they are
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banking on the idea that they will actually have a soft
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disposition to seek God later. When you stack it all up, it is
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a staggering amount of variables entirely outside the sinner's
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control. I was thinking about this and it
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feels exactly like playing Russian roulette with a
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calendar. Oh wow, yeah, that is a
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terrifying image. You just keep spinning the
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cylinder of the revolver, putting the barrel to your head
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and pulling the trigger, hoping the chamber lands on an empty
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slot next Tuesday. And you do it every single day.
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But if someone is listening to this, they might ask, why does
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Edwards consider banking on future repentance to be a
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horrible presumption rather than just a naive, happy optimism?
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Because of the deep theological dread built into the core
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assumption of the delay. What do you mean?
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Relying on future mercy demands that God must supply saving
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grace on the sinner's personal schedule.
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It assumes God's patience operates like a vending machine.
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The Sinner thinks they can put in their delayed half hearted
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repentance whenever they finally feel like it and out will pop
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salvation. Which completely strips God of
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His sovereignty. It turns God into a servant of
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the sinner's timeline. Yes, and Edwards highlights a
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terrifying caveat here. The Sinner is banking on God not
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giving them over to delusion and to heart heartedness.
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Right, because God is under absolutely no obligation to keep
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a rebel's heart soft. The biblical judgment for
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repeated stubborn rejection of the truth is often God simply
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removing his restraining hand and allowing the heart to turn
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entirely to stone. You see this in Romans chapter 1
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where it repeatedly says God gave them over to their desires.
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The presumption is horrible because it arrogantly assumes
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God will infinitely chase a person who is actively,
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deliberately running away from him.
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So if the delay is both exceedingly wicked and
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exceedingly foolish, we have to look at the practical reality of
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this future date the Sinner has on their calendar.
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And Edwards systematically dismantles the central premise
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of the delay, the absolute lie that tomorrow will actually be
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an easier time to repent. This is where Edwards outlines
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the compounding disadvantage of waiting.
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The future is not more convenient.
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It is, in his words, far more inconvenient.
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He breaks this compounding disadvantage down into 3
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distinct areas, internal decay, external opposition and divine
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reaction. Let us take internal decay
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first. Edwards argues that as time
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passes, the heart grows harder and more stupid.
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Every single evil habit becomes deeply physically established in
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the person's life. Sloth, laziness, and a carnal
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worldly disposition take permanent root.
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Sin is not a static condition, it actively petrifies the
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affections. Think of a tree.
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A young sapling is relatively easy to bend OR redirect, but
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100 year old oak tree will splinter and snap before it ever
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boughs. The longer a person lives in
22:08
rebellion, the more their internal architecture solidifies
22:11
against the gospel. The neural pathways of sin
22:14
become highways, while the paths toward righteousness become
22:17
completely overgrown. Then you have the second area,
22:21
external opposition. Right.
22:22
Satan gains a much greater opportunity to establish his
22:25
interest in the person's life. He builds strongholds.
22:28
Plus, let us be completely honest about human aging.
22:31
Outward circumstances usually get vastly more complicated with
22:34
age, not less. Oh, absolutely.
22:37
The youth thinks they will have endless free time as an adult,
22:40
but adulthood brings multiplying temptations, financial stresses,
22:43
relational conflicts and overwhelming responsibilities.
22:47
The actual practical work of repentance becomes vastly
22:50
harder, and mathematically you have significantly less time
22:53
left on your biological plot to do it.
22:55
And the third area is the divine reaction.
22:58
God's righteous anger increases over the continued daily
23:02
rejection of His Son. Furthermore, the habit of making
23:04
light of spiritual awakenings becomes a permanent fixture in
23:07
the person's soul. If you train yourself to hit the
23:10
snooze button on the fire alarm, eventually you will sleep right
23:14
through the sirens while the house burns down around you.
23:16
Yeah. God's Spirit is grieved, and He
23:20
may simply stop sounding the alarm.
23:22
Edwards does not just leave this as high level theological
23:26
theory, he brings up his own visceral pastoral experience to
23:30
drive this point into the floor. This part is so striking.
23:34
He writes I, who have long been in the work of the ministry, and
23:38
he references the actual lamentations of dying people he
23:41
has stood beside. Yeah.
23:42
How does Edwards use this empirical deathbed evidence to
23:45
shatter that youthful illusion of a convenient future?
23:48
Well, Edwards stood beside countless deathbeds in his
23:51
parish. He held the hands of people
23:53
taking their final breaths. He heard the final, desperate
23:56
words of men and women who live their entire lives waiting for
23:59
that elusive convenience season. He uses this grim, undeniable
24:03
reality of pastoral ministry to validate made his theological
24:06
claims. He watched people realize, in
24:08
the terrifying clarity of their final moments, that depending on
24:13
greater future conveniences only created massive, insurmountable
24:17
inconveniences. They realized the gamble failed.
24:20
The Russian roulette chamber finally landed on a bullet.
24:23
Yes, he states plainly that by following this exact method of
24:27
delay, many thousands are actually undone.
24:30
The deathbed lament is the empirical historical proof that
24:33
tomorrow is a trap. The dying person looks back over
24:37
80 years of life and sees that the convenience season was a
24:39
mirage. It was an optical illusion that
24:42
kept moving further and further into the distance every time
24:45
they took a step toward it, until they suddenly ran out of
24:47
road and stepped off the Cliff. That is heavy.
24:50
It takes the breath away to think about thousands of people
24:52
realizing their error only when the clock runs out.
24:55
It really is sobering. So, having established a theory,
24:58
the theology and the grim reality of the future, Edwards
25:01
turns his sights directly on the people sitting right in front of
25:04
them in his meetinghouse. He wants to eliminate their
25:07
remaining hiding places. This is the direct application
25:10
section of his manuscript and it is incredibly surgical.
25:13
He begins by pointing out the glaring hypocrisy of the center.
25:17
He asks the congregation to stop and consider how they deal with
25:21
God versus how they desperately desire God to deal with them.
25:25
It's quite a contrast. You want God to be immediately
25:28
attentive to your cries when you are in trouble.
25:30
If you get a terrible medical diagnosis, you want God to
25:33
answer your prayers that very afternoon.
25:35
Right. Yet you make God wait decades
25:37
while you pursue your own pleasures and ignore His
25:39
commands. The hypocrisy is staggering.
25:42
Then Edwards analyzes A hypothetical terrifying
25:45
confrontation. He asks the listener, What if
25:48
God should say to you, Thou fool, this night?
25:51
He is referencing the famous parable of the rich fool from
25:54
the Gospel of Luke chapter 12. Oh yes, in that parable, A
25:58
wealthy man has a massive harvest and he decides to tear
26:00
down his barns and build bigger ones so he can take his ease,
26:03
eat, drink and be merry for years to come.
26:06
But God says to him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
26:10
required of thee. Edwards points out the extreme
26:12
dream present danger of being utterly given up before your
26:16
chosen time to repent ever arrives.
26:18
And he notes a phrase that should chill the blood.
26:22
He says God giving someone up is a common thing.
26:25
It is not a rare lightning strike anomaly that happens once
26:29
a century. People dying in their sins
26:32
before they get around to repenting Happens all the time,
26:35
every single day. This is a sobering reality check
26:38
for the congregation. He is stripping away the
26:41
illusion of their invincibility. But Edwards goes even deeper
26:44
here. He anticipates the specific
26:47
polished defense mechanism of the religious attendee.
26:49
Yes, he addresses the listener who is sitting in the Pew
26:52
listening to the sermon, who claims in their heart, Well, I
26:55
do not delay. I am in a way of seeking my
26:58
salvation right now. They think because they are
27:00
physically sitting in a meetinghouse listening to a
27:02
preacher, they are completely immune to this critique.
27:05
Edwards provides A rigorous, terrifying test for this excuse.
27:09
He asks a series of penetrating diagnostic questions to test the
27:13
reality of their seeking. First, he asks, are you seeking
27:16
it first? Is the condition of your soul
27:20
your primary burning concern above all worldly matters?
27:24
If religion is just a side hobby you engage in on Sunday mornings
27:27
when you have nothing else going on, you are still delaying.
27:30
Second question, is your reformation universal?
27:33
Meaning, are you addressing both sins of omission and Commission?
27:38
You cannot just stop doing a few bad things like cursing or
27:41
drinking too much and call it repentance.
27:43
Are you actively pursuing the good you are commanded to do?
27:47
Right. Are you loving your neighbor?
27:49
Are you caring for the poor? Are you actively killing the
27:52
quiet, socially acceptable sins in your life?
27:55
3rd are you taking as much pains as needful?
27:58
Have you forsaken all practices you know in your conscience you
28:01
need to forsake? Even the ones that cost you
28:04
money or relationships? And the fourth question is the
28:06
one that really cuts to the bone.
28:08
He asks. How is your secret closet
28:10
religion? How do you keep the Sabbath and
28:12
how do you act after you attend the sermons?
28:14
Anyone can show up on Sunday, wear nice clothes and look
28:17
attentive in the Pew. But what are you doing on
28:19
Tuesday night when absolutely no one is watching you?
28:23
Are you seeking God in secret? Are you pleading with Him in
28:27
your private prayers? Edwards uses these questions to
28:31
expose the vast inadequacy of half hearted religious
28:35
observance. He demonstrates how superficial,
28:37
comfortable religion is frequently just another mask
28:41
form of delay. You can use your church
28:43
attendance as a shield to hide from actual heart level
28:47
repentance. You can use your theological
28:50
knowledge to insulate yourself from God.
28:53
It is like sitting in the waiting room of a hospital,
28:55
thumbing through the old magazines, drinking the bad
28:57
coffee and convincing yourself that you are getting medical
29:00
treatment even though you stubbornly refused to go back
29:03
into the examination room and let the doctor perform the
29:05
surgery. You tell yourself, look, I am in
29:07
the hospital. I am seeking health but you were
29:10
just passing the time. It is a brilliant, terrifying
29:13
observation, He. Drives the listener to the
29:15
realization that their comfortable, routine religion
29:19
might be the very thing killing them because it gives them a
29:21
false sense of security. He systematically strips away
29:25
every conceivable excuse, whether you are blatantly
29:28
ignoring God out in the world or hiding behind a veneer of
29:32
religious activity inside the church walls.
29:34
If your heart is not actively, totally yielded to Christ right
29:38
now, you are playing the fool's game of delay.
29:41
So to try and pull all of this together into a concise recap,
29:44
waiting for a more convenient season is a catastrophic,
29:48
unmitigated risk. Relying on tomorrow is not
29:50
optimism. It is, in reality a bold
29:53
rejection of God today. It is assuming a level of
29:56
control over time and sovereign grace that no human being
30:00
actually possesses. The delay actively hardens the
30:03
heart, it invites divine judgment, and it mathematically
30:06
ensures that the future will be far more difficult, far more
30:09
calloused, and far more inconvenient than the present
30:12
moment. Which brings up a final thought,
30:13
Something that builds on everything Edwards is saying,
30:15
but translates it directly into our modern context.
30:18
If you are listening to this right now, I want you to
30:20
consider the digital age we live in.
30:22
Edwards thought the world of 1752 was filled with
30:25
distractions. He complained about a general
30:28
deadness and endless worldly reasons to put off the soul.
30:32
But think about our reality. How much more does our current
30:36
21st century attention economy manufacture continuous, unbroken
30:41
inconveniences? We have quite literally built
30:44
machines and algorithms designed by the smartest engineers on the
30:48
planet to keep us perpetually distracted.
30:50
We have. I mean, think about the devices
30:52
sitting in your pocket right now.
30:54
Think about the endless streams of information, the infinite
30:57
scroll, the constant notifications.
30:59
Are these not the ultimate perfected tools for perpetual
31:02
spiritual delay? They ensure that a convenient
31:05
season for silence, for introspection, and for A
31:07
reckoning with a holy God will literally never.
31:11
You never actually have to sit in a quiet room and face your
31:13
own conscience anymore. The moment you feel a pang of
31:16
guilt, the moment you feel the heat of the fire, you do not
31:19
have to sit there and process it.
31:20
You could just open an app and flood your brain with a cheap
31:23
hit of dopamine. The noise is constant and
31:25
inescapable. The snooze button on the
31:27
spiritual alarm clock is now built into the glass of every
31:30
screen we look at. We do not even have to
31:33
consciously choose to ignore God anymore.
31:36
We just have to follow the path of least resistance our
31:40
technology has paved for us. O the question you have to ask
31:43
yourself right now, wherever you are listening to this, are you
31:47
letting the noise numb the pain of the fire?
31:50
Are you looking at the jagged white line on the X-ray of your
31:53
own soul and deciding to just put a sweater over it, hoping it
31:57
magically heals itself by next week?
31:58
The alarm is ringing today. The time is now.
32:01
The convenient season is an illusion.
32:03
It will never come. It really won't.
32:05
Thank you for joining this deep dive into Edward's manuscript.
32:07
We will catch you next time on Reformed Thinking.