Final Warning | The Whole Counsel

Welcome to the Whole Council Podcast. I'm Jon Snyder and with me again is Chuck Baggett and we're looking at the last chapter in the book, Salvation in Full Color, 20 Sermons by Great Awakening Preachers.

And they're all on the theme, if you remember, the theme of redemption or salvation. And they're laid out in a very specific order beginning with the character of God all the way down to the final warning.

Asahel Nettleton and the Second Great Awakening

And the final warning is what we're looking at today and it really is quite a beneficial sermon. But before Chuck reviews the sermon for us and then we hit some of the high points, I want to give you kind of an overview of the man that preached it.

His name is Azahel Nettleton. And Azahel Nettleton is not as well known in our day as he was in the 19th century. But in the 19th century, he really was one of the key ministers, especially for the United States.

Particularly not only because of his own preaching and the significant revivals that occurred under his ministry, but because of the leadership he gave to those that stood against Charles Finney and the new theology, the new methods that were creeping up as the older and we believe much more biblical theology was being set aside.

So let me just give kind of a quick sketch of his day and then just a little bit about Nettleton. Nettleton was born in 1783 and died in 1844. Now, that life basically covers the time of the Second Great Awakening, which started around late 1780s, early 1790s and lasted into the 1840s, depending on kind of how you're measuring it.

This is a significant revival for a number of reasons. One reason is that it lasted so long, it affected the fabric of our early nation significantly. It's much longer than the Great Awakening, the First Great Awakening lasted.

Second, it covered more territory. The First Great Awakening tended to be focused only in the New England area and the Second Great Awakening covered much more territory. But while it was a significant movement, it was a divided movement.

There was a lot of careless enthusiasm and zeal among some of the young leaders. And men like Edwards were not there to kind of guide them. And so we do find in this movement, especially in the frontier regions, zeal without biblical knowledge.

And so the excesses eventually lead to damage of the reputation of the Lord and of the revival. But primarily, as I mentioned, in 1820s, Finney's views and how different his views were than biblical Protestant and historical evangelical theology, how different he was really starts to be seen when he discusses man's ability, basically, to regenerate himself, to save himself apart from that extraordinary grace of the Lord.

So grace was helpful, but not essential. If it was essential, Finney argued, as a lawyer, then God requiring us to believe and repent when belief and repentance required God's help, God's gifts, you know, the work of regeneration, Finney said that that would be unfair.

So he approached it as a lawyer, had some bad, you know, assumptions right at the beginning and led to a whole system that really we still feel the ill impact of in our day. Probably the most significant for our nation, the most significant wrong turn for evangelicals occurred during this revival.

And so for that reason, a lot of people are not very excited about the Second Great Awakening, but it was a real work of the Lord. Asahel Nettleton was converted and wanted to devote himself to foreign missions.

For a while, he preached in Connecticut. And there, as a young man, he saw firsthand the division between, you know, the Finney and the Reform side. And he saw the damage that was doing. He also saw the damage done by excesses and just careless, you know, zeal.

And early on in his ministry, he really did adopt a very wise and balanced biblical approach to preaching and evangelizing and really to the work of a revivalist in the best sense of that word. After a number of years of preaching, he was affected by typhus and his health was permanently impaired.

Never was he able to become a foreign missionary. So he devotes the rest of his life. And for 30 years, he travels and preaches. Now, he doesn't travel and stay only one week. We were discussing before the podcast, how long does he stay?

It seems like we remember a pastor telling us that it was nearly a year in each place, but we can't give you the exact date on that. And we both have lost our biographies on Asahel Nettleton, which reminds me, if you want to read a good biography on Nettleton, Andrew Bernard, the young man, the Scottish pastor who wrote a biography of Robert Murray McShane also wrote one on Nettleton.

And in the show notes, you can find a link to that. Banner of Truth still publishes that. But as Nettleton went from place to place, and he did stay for some period as the work of God progressed, he really becomes kind of the George Whitefield of the Second Great Awakening.

After 30 years of being wonderfully used by the Lord, he passes away. And he is noted by his contemporaries for his simple, direct, unflowery, penetrating sermons. And I think that this sermon on Proverbs 29 .1 is a wonderful example of that.

We were both talking about how this sermon is not as kind of complicated as some of the others. And because of that, some of the things he says really are quite penetrating.

Proverbs 29:1 and the Threefold Structure of the Sermon

So you want to give us an overview? Yeah. The sermon is a solemn warning or a final warning. And as you mentioned, it's from Proverbs 29 .1, a man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.

That's the New American Standard version of that verse. And he makes the point as he begins that a person who receives rebukes, how they receive rebukes is a strong indication of whether or not they're reconciled to God.

And so, very simply, three points. He says that God has carefully provided for you to receive many reproofs or corrections. And he lists a number of ways in which we receive reproofs throughout our lifetime.

Second, every reproof causes an effect. We're either humbled by those reproofs or we're hardened by them. And he's writing primarily to the person who does not receive these reproofs. So they're being hardened.

Third, the consequences of repeatedly hardening yourself against God's reproofs is that you will be destroyed suddenly and without remedy. So those three points and a few reflections is the sermon. Very simple.

Really, this final chapter is a good spiritual test for anybody who wants to give an honest examination of where we're at spiritually. You can do that in a number of ways. You know, you could look at external duties, which are important in the Christian life.

So those do often make a thermometer for us, you know, a measure. Are we doing well? So church attendance, Bible readings, you know, book studies. You could look at how the people in the church think you're doing.

You know, do people say to you things like, you know, that you're very helpful as a teacher or, you know, as a preacher? Or, you know, people just say nice things about your life. You know, you're very encouraging as a Christian.

But one of the ways we could do it is we could look and ask ourselves, before we even look at those six things he mentions that God uses to correct us, do I eagerly, easily receive correction? Or do I make someone really pay for it if they correct me?

You know, am I such a monster that they just dread saying anything to me? And when they rebuke me, do I love them for it? Do I really change? And so he mentions a verse from Proverbs 9, verse 8, Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you.

Reprove a wise man, and he will love you. So which one are we? Are we the people that are offended and kind of hold a grudge toward those who have really had to sit down with us and say some hard things to us?

Or are we people who, for the rest of our life, there is, you know, at least in some measure, a real sense of gratitude. I look back and I remember a significant time in my life where a hard talk turned to me.

I mean, can you think of any of those in your life, Chuck? I mean, you don't have to give us the exact details, but.

Yeah, I can think of a few. One in particular, it's been quite a few years ago now, our friend Clyde Granford sat me down. I was bothered about something, had been bothered for quite a while, and I guess I didn't realize how proud I'd become about it.

But Clyde saw it and famously busted me. And when he first did it, I was, I mean, at first I was a bit angry, you know, that he said that. But the anger quickly became kind of anger that it was true. And I was what he said that I was.

And God did use it to bring about repentance. And I'm thankful that he did that.

Reproof Through Relationships, Providence, Word, and the Spirit

Yeah, the same friend, Clyde Granford, I was able to live with him for a number of months soon after he led me to the Lord. And so, you know, I look back on that time as a time of pretty structured discipleship.

But I remember that some of the talks, he would always introduce them the same way. He would say, buddy, I need to talk with you. And that meant bad news, you know, like, oh, no. And so, I mean, I lived with them and I was kind of an open book, especially back then.

And so it was just like everything I thought I said. And so he just, so he always had plenty to correct. I'm sure he thought, you know, he would not live long enough to get to all the topics that needed to be gotten to.

So when he would do that, I would just think maybe I could climb out the window and escape, you know, and never see him again. And because it would just be so, it would be pretty, you know, it'd be pretty rough to listen to the rebuke, not because it made me mad at that time, but because I felt bad for him having to have those talks.

I think one of the, you know, as we look at this chapter, one good thing to kind of think of for yourself if you're having to give a difficult talk would be it ought to cost you more than it costs the other person.

You know, in preparation, making sure I'm saying in the right way, you know, knowing that this is going to hurt for someone else to hear it, that's generally a good rule. Have I paid a high cost to bring a hard word to a friend so that it will do them good?

I mean, it's much easier just to get it off my chest immediately and you just shoot it off and it does damage, even if what you said was right, the way you said it, the timing not right. So Clyde paid a high cost and the things he said, I can still look back and remember saying to myself when he told me he needed to have a talk, I would go get my notebook that I I would go get this notebook and I would kind of walk slowly to the, you know, to the execution chamber, the living room, and I would say to myself, humble yourself, John.

Humble yourself, John. Humble yourself, John. This is the kindness of the Lord. And I did actually reach a point where I could be glad that he was about to say something hard because I knew it would be, if I wanted it, it would be a map to Christlikeness, you know, and those months, that year, year and a half was probably, I would look back on that as the time I grew most quickly as a believer.

So let's hit some of the big points in the sermon. In this sermon on page 354 and 355, he gives a list of things that God uses to reprove us or to correct us. So, Chuck, you want to run us through those, and then we can kind of talk about which ones we feel are most helpful, most difficult, and maybe which ones we hadn't thought of before.

So page 354 and 355, he gives six things.

Yeah, I'm not sure I counted the same six you did, but I'll give you what I got. Yeah, you go ahead. I'll tell you if I have a different six. First, he talks about how it is the duty of all of God's people to deal faithfully with each other, so one another.

We reprove one another. Then the duty of parents toward their children, reproving, and he mentions how God uses providence to reprove sinners, and then in that same paragraph, he talks about being admonished by His Word, so I counted that as a separate one.

Okay, so you're going to have seven. Okay. Ministers reprove us, we're reproved by the Holy Spirit, and then he talks about how we are sometimes reproved by the conviction and conversion of someone else, seeing the change that occurs in them.

Yeah, so of the six, which one... Seven. Sorry, yeah, of the seven, which one do you find God uses probably, that you notice that He uses most often in your life? Most often.

I think probably His Word, either through reading the Bible or another book about the Bible or a sermon, but still kind of under the category of His Word.

Yeah, yeah, I would say the same. Oftentimes I feel that that's not the most painful. Yeah. I think that... I kind of feel like that's the most gentle, because you're meeting with Him in His Word, and because you're a Christian, even when there's sin, and perhaps you're blind to it, or kind of stuck your fingers in your ears the last time He pointed it out, the Bible is a joy to us, so I find that to be the gentlest.

It would be wisest for us to respond immediately to that, wholeheartedly, so that the others don't have to come. Right. Which one do you find most difficult?

Well, difficult in two ways. One, I think providence is often hard to discern. There are hard things that happen that you're meant to plow through, and you don't quit because it was hard, but there are providences that are reproofs, so determining which is which sometimes maybe, not so easy.

Yeah, yeah. But then the other, there are some people that it's harder to receive a reproof from than others. Are you looking at me? No, I am, but not because... Okay. But like you just said, Clyde paid a price to reprove you, and so you heard it in a way perhaps that you wouldn't if someone were just getting it off their chest.

Right. And so there are some reproofs that come, and maybe it is me more than it is them. It's me, not you, yeah. But some people I receive reproof from more readily than others.

Yeah, and I think there's a danger there. I mean, I have felt it on both sides of the issue. I mean, being pastors, sometimes we do have to have hard talks, and I really hate that. I mean, it's my least favorite part of the job.

But love does require that, and I wish that I did it more like Christ. But I think that, you know, sometimes you talk to people and you look back on it later, and maybe you do see ways that you didn't do it perfectly, especially as a parent, you know?

I mean, because we're probably not as careful. With our kids, we're probably more quick to just shoot off rebukes. They come more often. Yeah, yeah. I don't have enough time. But I have seen people basically have this attitude, if you don't correct me in a perfect way, which I deserve, then I don't have to listen to any of it.

And I think that's a really dangerous response. And I have had that attitude at times, like, well, they didn't say it right. I do remember in the early days of the church, one of the elders, Lanny Autry, who is now with the Lord, who is a good friend to both of us, and a good deal older than both of us, probably about 20 years older than us, I think Lanny was, a little bit more, about.

And Lanny really was slow to rebuke. But I remember one time that he pulled me aside. And Lanny was usually very complimentary, probably more than he should have been. But this time he rebuked me. And the thing he pointed out, I wasn't doing, but it was right next to another thing kind of in my mind, that there was an attitude that was wrong there.

And even though he was kind of shooting a little left of the mark, I remember thinking while he was talking, I'm not doing that, you're mistaken. But then immediately, you know, as from the Lord, yes, but you know what you are.

And he's just not saying it perfectly, but he's pointing to the same attitude. So yeah, I think we have to be careful when people are difficult to listen to. I think I would say rebukes from people that you really care about most.

So spouse, kids, co-workers that you really do respect. People that, you know, in a sense, rightly or wrongly, we would like for them to look at us and say, at the end of our life, they were a good witness, you know, they were helpful.

You know, in a sense, you kind of would like for them to have admired you. And I think that's a dangerous desire, but it creeps up often. Um, so when people that you care what they think of you have a rebuke, I think we tend to hear it like 10 times louder, especially from your spouse, because that's probably the one that, you know, is closest and dearest to us.

So if your spouse says, you know, what you've been doing is really harmful to our family, and you think you hear it like it's in a megaphone, and then they may find it difficult to understand why you react so, you know, and so I think we have to be careful there not to hear it wrongly.

And if you're rebuking someone that really loves you, not to say it in a way that might be overstated. Um, which one have I not thought of? I think that I had never considered that final one, um, the conversion or correction of another sinner.

So he kind of gives a picture of two people running together in life, and they're kind of living the same way and living it up and encouraging each other in a life of just self indulgence. One of them is stopped in their tracks.

So it could be conversion, but it could be a Christian where God deals with them. And the other person suddenly, you're, you know, you're, you're, you're running mate isn't running with you anymore. And so that's kind of shocking.

But if you see a really deep, distinct change, he says, that's, take that as a correction from God and don't brush it off. You know, it bothers you. It got your attention. So use it. Yeah. Any of those that you hadn't thought of as an aspect of correction?

I don't, I don't think so. The one you just mentioned, not in the exact category or as he describes it exactly, but, um, the Lord used the conversion of my father to deeply affect me. And so I do see how that could be used as a reproof.

Yeah. Yeah. Kind of someone to just shake us. And again, I mean, you know, we are talking about God exposing something to us that perhaps we've become blind to. So almost like you've fallen asleep and someone shakes you and it can be alarming, but it's for the, but it's for love.

It's to do us good. Well, he talks about the danger of hardening yourself. And I, and I was thinking about what would that look like? And so, you know, I think sadly in this category, I can always look at myself and see plenty of examples.

Three things I could see in me in the past, how have I hardened myself or become kind of calloused toward God's gentle rebukes, his exposing of sin. Um, and so I thought of three, I don't know if you can think of others.

Ways People Harden Themselves Against Reproof

Um, sometimes I get angry and say, it's not my fault. You're dead wrong. You know, to, to whatever manner that the message is coming to me, I just shrugged my shoulder and say, it's not me. Um, the other would be to agree, but to throw in some blame for everybody else around me to say, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right.

But so-and-so, and so the ultimate product of that is I don't really change. Um, and then the third, which might look very different than the others is I completely agree. And I get really sentimental and, um, my feelings get hurt and I get down in the dumps and I despair that I'm ever going to be any different.

And I always seem to do this, you know, and, you know, this isn't the first time someone's had to say this to me. And that is not repentance. You know, all it is, is an offended, humiliated pride in me.

And it doesn't lead to any Christ-like alterations in my behavior, especially at that deeper root level. And so generally I just end up back there again, you know, if the person is willing to say it again or if God uses other means.

Can you think of any other ways that, you know, we can harden?

The only thing I think I would add is maybe an apathy or an indifference. So you just kind of shrug and keep going.

Yeah, yeah. And that can come with age, you know. I mean, we've had the benefit of being friends for over 20 years. We met when we were at college. You can see how easy it is for yourself or for your Christian friends.

When you're a young Christian, you're pretty tender. And as we were talking before the podcast, I think one of the evidences of a hardening, you know, when you're a young Christian, you probably have a very short list of gray areas.

I mean, you know, you're very earnest. So everything's black and white, and maybe there's a gray area or so. And as you grow older as a Christian, sometimes you realize that your black and white list wasn't biblical.

But I distrust myself when, with, you know, 30 years. Yeah, it's been 30 years that we've known each other. With 30 years of being a believer, John Snyder's gray list has increased. Is it because I'm becoming more like Christ?

Or is it because in pride, I'm willing to be a bit hardened in those areas and do what you mentioned, I shrug my shoulders when someone or the Bible points them out. And I think, come on, that's an immature view of this.

Everybody knows that this is okay. I don't need to be a legalist. And I wonder if, especially with the, you know, the reform movement in our day, with so many activities that used to be considered wrong or not really right, now they're just...

We're told that if you're a serious, clear-thinking Christian and not a legalist, you understand that these are great. And I'm not convinced that we are becoming more like our Lord when we have more gray areas.

So in Hebrews 6, it's quite a terrifying picture. And he applies it to the person who is often reproved and simply becomes harder and harder. You know, ground that gets the rain and the seed. But instead of producing crop, harder and harder, more and more thorns until finally, the only thing for the farmer to do is just burn it off.

You know, it's just start over in a sense. And, you know, a terrifying picture of how a person can be hardened by God's reproofs to the point that, humanly speaking, it's like we're beyond hope.

It's kind of shocking to think that every reproof of God brings one of those results. It's tempting to think that I'm really unaffected. But he makes the point that you're not unaffected. You are always affected, either growing harder or softer.

So the afflictive hand of the Almighty comes, and we're made better, we're made worse. We're not left unchanged, even if we don't feel the change. Yeah.

Sudden Destruction Without Remedy

Well, let's hit those, you know, those three words that he emphasizes in his sermon, that if we harden our hearts, there is an everlasting, sudden destruction without remedy. Everlasting, sudden, and without remedy.

And we were talking about, if you hear those words, if you hear destruction without remedy on earth, you know, your business, your family, you know, your marriage, your kids, your house, you know, those are pretty terrifying words.

But that does not compare to, instead of a human saying it to you, a banker, a doctor giving you bad news, but the Creator saying everlasting and sudden destruction has come on you without remedy. And he's talking about the millions of millions of millions of endless years in eternity.

And there's no more remedy because we hardened our heart, and now it's late. He talks about how this sets us, in a sense, apart from God's miraculous intervention, it even puts us outside the hope of the gospel.

Why would he say that?

If you're unwilling to hear warnings, and will you hear gospel warnings,.

Will you hear the gospel and repent? Yeah, he talks about the fact that the only people that embrace the gospel are repenters who turn from and turn toward. But nobody repents who doesn't first feel something of the conviction of sin.

So, if your one problem is you can't feel because you've hardened yourself, then that one problem is enough, really, to damn a man. So, apart from God's extraordinary intervention, we reach a place where even the gospel offers us no hope.

We feel nothing. He gives some examples in the Bible. Pharaoh wakes up one morning. He's the king of the most powerful earthly empire, especially in the region. And by the time he goes to bed that night, his firstborn son is dead, or he wakes up, this child is dead.

And within a 24-hour period, his armies are destroyed as they've chased the Israelites into the Red Sea. Sudden, everlasting, without remedy, his destruction. So, certainly, the final warning is quite frightening.

Warnings for the Young and the Old

He gives a couple of applications to two different age groups. Do you want to walk us through that?

He gives an application to the young person. It is a good warning when you're young to hear what God's saying to you and to respond, not to put it off and think that you can ignore God's warnings as a youth and not be affected.

You may be hardening your neck in a way that suddenly this destruction comes without remedy. And then a warning to the aged person who has been ignoring God's warnings. How much time do you have? Before suddenly God comes.

Yes, this is not a sin that we leave behind as we grow older. There are some sins that seem to kind of lose their grip on us little by little as we mature. But some sins seem to accumulate strength. And I think this would be one of them.

If we're not careful, hardening will become a more natural response as we become older. Because if you're the older person in a situation, pride tends to kick in. And you think, well, who are you, young person, to tell me?

I'm in my 60s now. You're in your 20s. You're a little kid in my eyes. And that's different than when you were in your 20s and a 60-year-old set you down in a kind way and said, have you considered this?

And you think, wow, I'm just a kid. I got so much to learn. There's a couple of other applications before we close. And one is, he says that the more stupid and hardened the sinner, so stupid as in the sense of stupefied, blinded, unaware, the more hardened the sinner, the nearer to destruction he is.

But he doesn't notice it. So it may be that reading a sermon like this, we might say to ourselves, well, of all the chapters in the book, this is one that I'm not in danger of that. I am not hardening my heart against God.

And I am not on the verge of a sudden, everlasting destruction without remedy. But the very nature of the hardening, he says, means that it is the most hardened that recognize the danger the least. So they are closest to the edge, but convinced they're furthest from the edge.

So what a terrifying thing. And what a kindness of the Lord that it's not just through the Bible or just a preacher. Or a Christian in church or a parent or a friend, a spouse or life's events, you know, or the changes we see in someone around us.

But he gives us, and it's not an exhaustive list, but he gives us seven different ways that God kindly interrupts us so that we do not ever become the hardened man or woman on the precipice, thinking we are the safest.

What if he left us to ourselves? Like we prefer sometimes. Well, this is the last chapter of the book. And so Chuck and I felt like a great application really for the whole book is a simple question. 20 sermons on one of the most significant themes that we can find in scripture, from the character of God all the way down to the final warning.

And in between those two bookends is the work of our rescue. So certainly it would be hard to find a more significant selection of chapters. Our question for ourselves, our question for our listeners is this.

Are you more receptive, more tender, more eager to change in very concrete ways at the end of the book than you were at the beginning? Or have you become just a little harder so that when we read these final sermons, we blame someone else, we say it's not me, or we get down into a puddle of despair, but ultimately we don't repent.

So do not let that be the case with you, young or old. It's a kindness of the Lord to wake us and to alert us.