This is our 12th meeting.
Let's quickly review
what we've covered in the previous 11.
We've learned a bit about Jonathan Edwards life,
including some of the works he wrote
in addition to A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections --
The Freedom of the Will,
Original Sin,
"Miscellanies",
"The Mind",
and many others.
We've learned why he wrote
The Religious Affections,
what the affections are,
and why they are important.
We studied twelve things
that Edwards explains in Part II
do not distinguish between godly
and ungodly affections,
and I gave short names to each of them:
Intensity
Bodily Affects
Verbosity
Origin outside self
Scripture quotations
Appearance of love
Many kinds
Order of appearance
Much worship
Verbal praise
Confidence of salvation
and Beliefs of others.
We then began studying the
twelve distinguishing marks
that Edwards asserts in Part III
are signs that religious affections
are godly.
We began this section of our study with
a quick overview of all twelve,
and have studied ten of them in detail so far:
Spiritual origin of affections,
Appreciation of divine things in themselves,
Love for the holiness of divine things,
Enlightened understanding,
Certainty of divine things,
True humility,
Change of nature,
Christ-like spirit,
tender-spirit,
and
beautiful symmetry and proportion.
We'll cover the last 2 of the distinguishing marks today:
Desire to grow
and
Life of obedience.
Jonathan Edwards introduces
the sign I've called desire to grow
like this:
Another great and very distinguishing difference
between gracious affections
and others
is,
that gracious affections,
the higher they are raised,
the more is a spiritual appetite
and longing of soul
after spiritual attainments increased.
On the contrary,
false affections rest satisfied in themselves.
That is,
true believers
are never satisfied
with their current spiritual condition.
They always yearn
to improve their condition --
to grow in grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That this should be the case
should not come as a surprise,
because the same general principle
applies in other areas of life, too.
For example,
in athletics,
the best athletes are almost always
the ones who work hardest at getting better.
Consider Karch Kiraly,
the greatest volleyball player of all time.
In his prime,
Karch was so good,
that it would be appropriate
to say that Tiger Woods
is almost the Karch Kiraly of golf,
or that Michael Jordan
was almost the Karch Kiraly of basketball.
As one example of how good Karch was,
in the trials and practices for
the 1984 Olympic indoor team,
which won the Gold medal,
whichever group of 5 other men
Karch played with
always won the practice matches.
That is,
If the starting team
with the next best non-starter
substituted for Karch,
played against a team
consisting of Karch and 5 bench-warmers,
Karch's team would win.
Although he was the best player
in the world,
Karch was never satisfied
with his level of play --
he always wanted to get better.
The same principle
applies in academic pursuits,
business,
music,
and just about every other area.
The best and the brightest
want to get better and brighter,
while the mediocre and dull
are often satisfied
with their mediocrity and dullness.
So, too with true Christians.
THE more a true saint loves God with a gracious love,
the more he desires to love him,
and the more uneasy is he at his want of love to him;
the more he hates sin,
the more he desires to hate it,
and laments that he has so much remaining love to it....
Consider also Paul's letter to the Philippians,
in which he wrote this:
Phil 3:13-15
Brethren, I do not regard myself
as having laid hold of it yet;
but one thing I do:
forgetting what lies behind
and
reaching forward to what lies ahead,
I press on
toward the goal
for the prize
of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore,
as many as are perfect,
have this attitude;
and if in anything
you have a different attitude,
God will reveal that also to you;
My son David has a music CD
called "Aussie Praise For Kids: More Like Jesus".
One of the songs on it speaks to this wonderfully.
Here are some of the words:
"Have you seen those fit and healthy guys
Always doin' their exercise?
Well it's better to work
for a heavenly prize
So practice being godly.
Never give up,
make it your aim
Practice being godly.
If you've been forgiven in Jesus' name
Practice being godly.
He paid the price for all our sin
His Holy Spirit dwells within
So center all you do on Him ...
Practice being godly.
You can lift big weights,
you can swim or run
Train everyday to be number one
But it's better to train
for the life to come.
Practice being godly."
Let's now consider
how to apply this sign to ourselves,
to others,
and to ministries.
As we do this,
notice how closely related
this mark is to true humility.
Here are two questions to ask yourself:
Am I satisfied
with my current spiritual condition?
and
Do there exist aspects
of my walk with God
that I'm striving,
by God's grace,
to improve?
If your answer to
the first question is, "yes";
and the second question is, "no",
then Jonathan Edwards,
Paul,
and most importantly, God,
say that, without a doubt,
your answers are wrong.
Concerning others,
besides the obvious questions
coming from modifying the ones I just gave you,
I'll offer one more:
Do the person's attitudes and behavior
show evidence of desire to
grow closer to the Lord?
Now, for evaluating the
extent to which a ministry
is godly,
I suggest the following two questions.
Does the ministry
encourage its members
to improve their spiritual condition,
or does it promote
in them
an attitude of 'having arrived'?
and
Do the leaders of the ministry
regularly
and earnestly
evaluate the condition of the ministry
in regard to
faithfulness to the Word of God?
Any questions about desire to grow
before we move to the last sign?
The twelve sign,
which I've called
life of obedience,
is, in many ways,
a summarization of the other signs.
When we looked at the first sign,
spiritual origin of affections,
recall that I said that it
was the foundation of,
the signs that would follow.
The first sign was the foundation;
this final sign
is the capstone.
Edwards describes this sign like this:
Gracious and holy affections
have their exercise and fruit
in Christian practice.
I MEAN, they have [such an] influence and power upon him
who is the subject of them,
that they cause that a practice,
which is universally conformed to,
and directed by Christian rules,
should be the practice and business of his life.
Now, this is not one of Edwards'
best sentences,
but its meaning is relatively clear,
at least after the 4th or 5th reading.
Here's an edited version:
A person who has
gracious and holy affections
will make it the practice and business of his life
to be universally conformed to,
and directed by,
Christian rules.
Edwards says that
This implies three things:
1. That his behavior or practice
in the world
be universally conformed to,
and directed by Christian rules.
2. That he makes
a business
of such a holy practice
above all things;
that it be a business which he is chiefly engaged in,
and devoted to,
and pursues with highest earnestness and diligence:
so that he may be said
to make this practice of religion
eminently his work and business.
--- And
3. That he persists in it to the end of life:
so that it may be said,
not only to be his business at certain seasons,
the business of Sabbath days,
or certain extraordinary times,
or the business of a month,
or a year, or of seven years,
or his business under certain circumstances;
but the business of his life;
it being that business
which he perseveres in
through all changes,
and under all trials,
as long as he lives.
The necessity of each of these,
in all true Christians,
is most clearly and fully taught in the Word of God.
He then goes on to show
how the Scripture teaches each of these 3 implications.
Let's look at these.
First, conformance.
By this Edwards means
that a regenerate person
strives to obey God
in every area of his life,
and not just in some areas,
and that he becomes
more and more successful
in obeying.
He cites many Scripture passages
to show that this is what God requires.
We'll look at only two short ones:
John 15:14
"You are My friends, if you do what I command you."
James 2:10
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.
Other passages Edwards cites include:
1 John 3:3
1 John 5:18
1 Corinthians 6:9
Galatians 5:19-20
Ezekiel 33:15
Matthew 5:29-30.
While discussing conformance to God's Word,
Edwards makes a very important observation:
... obedience must not
only consist in negatives,
or in universally avoiding wicked practices,
consisting in sins of commission,
but he must also be universal
in the positives of religion.
Sins of omission
are as much breaches of God's commands
as sins of commission.
Christ, in Matt. 25 represents
those on the left hand
as being condemned and cursed
to everlasting fire for sins of omission.
"I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat," &c.
A man,
therefore,
cannot be said to be universally obedient,
and of a Christian conversation,
only because
he is no thief,
nor oppressor,
nor fraudulent person,
nor drunkard,
nor tavern haunter,
nor whoremaster,
nor rioter,
nor night walker,
nor unclean,
nor profane in his language,
nor slanderer,
nor liar,
nor furious,
nor malicious,
nor reviler.
He is falsely said
to be of a conversation that becomes the gospel,
who goes thus far and no farther;
but in order to this,
it is necessary that he should also
be of a serious,
religious,
devout,
humble,
meek,
forgiving,
peaceful,
respectful,
condescending,
benevolent,
merciful,
charitable
and beneficent
walk and conversation.
Without such things as these,
he does not obey the laws of Christ,
and laws that he and his apostles
did abundantly insist on,
as of the greatest importance and necessity.
The second important characteristic
of a life of obedience
is what I've called on your outline,
business.
About this, Edwards writes the following:
In order to men's being true Christians,
it is necessary that
they prosecute the business of religion,
and the service of God
with great earnestness and diligence,
as the work which they devote themselves to,
and make the
main business
of their lives.
All Christ's peculiar people
not only
do good works,
but are zealous
of good works, Tit. 2:14.
No man can do the service of two masters at once.
They that are God's true servants
do give up themselves
to his service,
and make it as it were
their whole work,
therein employing their whole hearts,
and the chief of their strength:
Phil. 3:13, "This one thing I do."
An old Ford slogan said,
"Quality is Job One." (Check on this)
For a true Christian,
the slogan must be
"Obedience is Job One."
The third characteristic that Edward mentions
is perseverance.
Every true Christian perseveres
in this way of universal obedience,
and diligent and earnest service of God,
through all the various kinds of trials that he meets with,
to the end of life.
That all true saints,
all those that do obtain eternal life,
do thus persevere in the practice of religion,
and the service of God,
is a doctrine so abundantly taught in the Scripture,
that particularly to rehearse
all the texts which imply it would be endless;
I shall content myself with referring to some
in the margin.
As a footnote,
he lists some 35 scripture passages.
We'll look at only one:
Hebrews 3:12-14
Take care, brethren,
lest there should be in
any one of you an evil,
unbelieving heart,
in falling away from the living God.
But encourage one another
day after day,
as long as it is still called "Today,"
lest any one of you
be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
For we have become partakers of Christ,
if we hold fast
the beginning of our assurance
firm until the end
Edwards recognizes
that the obedience of true believers
is never perfect in this life.
True saints may be guilty
of some kinds and degrees of backsliding,
and may be foiled by particular temptations,
and may fall into sin,
yea great sins;
but they never can
fall away so as to grow weary of religion,
and the service of God,
and habitually to dislike it
and neglect it,
either on its own account,
or on account of the difficulties that attend it;
as is evident by Gal. 6:9,
Rom. 2:7,
Heb. 10:36,
Isa. 43:22,
Mal. 1:13.
...
Nor can a true saint
ever fall away so,
that it shall come to this,
that ordinarily there shall be
no remarkable difference
in his walk and behavior
since his conversion,
from what was before.
...
they that fall away,
... it is a sign they
never were
risen with Christ.
The true Christian,
should apply these words
of a famous English statesman
and honorary United States citizen
to his life:
"Never give in--
never,
never,
never,
never,
in nothing great or small,
large or petty,
never give in ...
Never yield to force;
never yield
to the apparently overwhelming
might of the enemy."
For the true believer
will persevere.
Edwards spends quite a few pages
writing about the ways in which
a life of obedience is evident,
but I think we've covered enough
to move on to applications.
Are there any questions
before we do so?
As we consider how to apply this sign
to ourselves,
here are two questions we may ask:
First,
Do I yearn
to obey God
in my attitudes and actions
in every area of life?
Remember that obedience
involves both
not doing what God forbids,
and
doing what God requires.
Second,
Do the choices I make
show that my highest priority
in life is to obey God?
The choices we make
are the best indicator
of our true priorities --
much better than
what we simply claim are our priorities.
Here's an example.
Suppose I'm given
the opportunity at work
to take a new assignment
that will pay me more money,
but require me to work on Sundays
twice a month.
If I choose to take that assignment,
then I will demonstrate conclusively --
no matter how loudly I may claim otherwise --
that obeying God
is not
my highest priority.
This second question,
is a good one to consider,
with appropriate wording changes, of course,
when inspecting the fruit of others, too.
Here is another question
that applies well to others:
How does the person
respond to trials in his life?
Another question for others is this:
When the person learns
something new about God's revealed will
does he make all needed changes
to bring his life into conformity
with what God requires?
In applying this sign to ministries,
or supposed works of God,
we might consider these two questions:
First,
Does the ministry
exhort its members
to live lives that
conform to Scripture in every area?
Second,
Do the lives of the ministry's leaders
conform to the Scripture
in every area?
If a ministry
is telling people
to "do what you think is best",
or "let your conscience be your guide"
or even
"follow the leading of the Holy Spirit"
in areas
that are not areas
of Christian liberty,
then
the ministry is definitely in error.
Actually,
I need to issue a warning here,
which actually applies to many things,
and which will be reinforced
by our closing reading
from "The Mind" in a few minutes.
The warning is this:
Be sure you know what people
mean by the words they use,
and don't just assume
that you know,
or that they mean
the same thing
you would mean
by the same words.
For example,
the phrase
"follow the leading of the Holy Spirit"
has been used by some people
to mean something like this:
"Do what the Scripture says
for things in which
the Scripture gives instruction,
and follow your God-given
inclinations and desires
in other things."
This is a really bad choice of words
to convey that particular meaning,
but the error of bad word choice
is not the same error as
suggesting that the Holy Spirit
might lead a person
to do something
that is against the Scripture.
If someone asks you,
"Should I murder my boss
for not giving me a raise?"
I strongly suggest
that answering,
"No,"
is better than answering,
"Follow the leading of the Holy Spirit,"
no matter what
you intend by the latter phrase.
As another example,
consider one of the tragedies
of the U.S. church in the 20th century:
the long rift between Cornelius Van Til,
(and his followers),
and
Gordon Clark (and his followers).
That whole controversy began with
misunderstandings over how words were being used,
and it was perpetuated by continuing misunderstandings.
In some people,
those misunderstandings still exist today.
Had folks stopped to ask questions like,
"What do you mean by incomprehensibility?"
"What do you mean by proof?"
"What do you mean by analogy?",
and listened to the answers,
the two men could've become allies
instead of opponents.
Are there any questions
before we close?
Next week will be our last class.
My plan is to do two main things:
One, discuss applications
at a higher level
than we've discussed so far,
concentrating on some
dangers to avoid wen making application;
and
Two, answer some questions
that some folks have asked
during the course.
I'll close today's class
with a short reading from "The Mind",
Number 18, titled WORDS.
We are used to
apply the same words
a hundred different ways;
and ideas being so much tied
and associated with the words,
they lead us into
a thousand real mistakes;
for where we find
that the words may be connected,
the ideas being by custom tied with them,
we think the ideas may be connected likewise,
and applied every where,
and in every way,
as the words.