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Two hundred and fifty-three years ago, a tall, pale, awkward man stood in the pulpit of a small church and read a sermon in his usual monotone and without so much as lifting his eyes from the manuscript. But this sermon, though unexceptional in itself, had a very exceptional effect on its hearers, and later, on those who would read it.
The man was Jonathan Edwards. The sermon was "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God". The short-term effect was "The Great Awakening"--a mighty movement of God's Spirit in America. The long-term result was national salvation. The Eighteenth Century was a Revolutionary Age. Voltaire and Rousseau employed the pen in their work, but inspired the guillotine. It was the bloodiest epoch man had ever known. Its children were Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro, and every other leader who "in the name of the people" committed murder on a scale heretofore unknown. And undreamed of.
Only two nations would escape the chaos: England and America. Why? Russell Kirk has told us that it is because of our "natural conservatism"; that Brits and Americans are much slower to change than other people. But this is not true. No culture is more conservative than the Spanish. Yet Spain was nearly destroyed by extremists on both the left and the right. The same is repeating itself in Latin America as I speak. This is also true of Japan and China. Both civilizations practice ancestor worship, which is an attempt to "stop time". Yet the former fell to the militarists, and the latter, to the Communists. These super-conservative peoples succumbed to the lure of Revolution.
I think a better answer is this: England and America had been saved from Revolutionary ideas by a return to Reformation doctrines. Which Edwards preached and applied in his great sermon. This is our only hope today. Personally and socially.
We must know--and feel--ourselves to be "Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God". For it is not until "we have humbled ourselves under the mighty hand of God, (that) "He will lift us up".
And so, today, I want to speak about Edwards' great sermon.
His text was Deuteronomy 32:35: "Their foot shall slide in due time".
He begins with a brief exposition. "In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained void of counsel, having no understanding in them".
These opening words were exposition, of course; and more, too. They were addressed to a Puritan audience, a people who sat under superb preaching, memorized a fine catechism, and lived outwardly spotless lives. But Edwards knew that "Not everyone who said, `Lord, Lord' inherited the kingdom of heaven".
He then went on to say, "The expression that I have chosen for my text, `Their foot shall slide in due time', seems to imply the following things:
1."That they are always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall".
2."It implies that they are always exposed to sudden, unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he does at once without warning".
3."Another thing implied is, that the are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down".
4."That the reason they are not fallen already, and do not fall now, is only that God's appointed time has not come".
Having explained the text itself, Edwards turns to doctrine taught therein. He puts it in the most frightful words:
"There is nothing that keeps wicked men
at any one moment out of hell,
but the mere pleasure of God."
He then adds: "By the mere pleasure of God, I mean His sovereign pleasure, His arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty..." He goes on to illustrate:
1."There is no lack of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment...The strongest have no power to resist Him...He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but He can most easily do it...There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God...What are we, that we should think to stand before Him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?"
2."They deserve to be cast into hell. Divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using His power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins...The sword of Divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back".
3."They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. "He that believeth not is condemned already". So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is; and thither he is bound..."
4."They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell...And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God is not then very angry with them; as He is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, and there feel and bear the fierceness of His wrath...Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth, than He is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell...The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow; the glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them."
5."The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him...The devils watch them, like greedy, hungry lions that see their prey and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw His hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost".
6."There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell-fire, if it were not for God's restraints...Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God were to leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable...The corruption of the heart of wicked men is boundless in its fury...it is like a fire pent up by God's restraints, while, if it were loosed, it would set on fire the course of nature; and if the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone".
7."It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health...or sees no accident...or any danger in his circumstances...The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world...Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotting covering...The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day..."
8."Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment".
9."All wicked man's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment.
10."God has laid Himself under no obligation, by any promise, to keep any natural man of out hell one moment. God certainly has made no promise of eternal life, but to (those) in Christ...But surely (those) who do not believe in (Christ) have no interest in the promises".
The summary comes next: "Thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked; they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God the least bound by any promise to hold them up for one moment...In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance, of an incensed God".
Following this breathless exposition, Edwards turns--incredibly--to the application. Here, he turns up the heat.
"The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation...There is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up...
...Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great wight and pressure towards hell...
...The wrath of God are like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose...It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the meantime is increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath...
...The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood...
...The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked...
...O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in!"
"Consider...
1.Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God.
2.It is the fierceness of His wrath that you are exposed to.
3.The misery which you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that He might show what the wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on His heart to show angels and men, both how excellent is His love, and also how terrible His wrath is. And seeing this is His design, and what He has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath and fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, He will do it to effect. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed His awful vengeance on the poor sinner, then God will call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it".
4.It is an everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. When you look forward, you will see a long forever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will despair of ever having any deliverance, and end, any mitigation, any rest at all.
The sermon is closed with an invitation and appeal.
"What would those poor, damned souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy? And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door or mercy wide open, and stands in calling, and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners...
"Therefore, let every one that is out of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: `Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed'".
So ended the immortal sermon of Jonathan Edwards. And so began "The Great Awakening" in America.
But we have seen no revival; nor shall we, until Christians tremble before the Almighty God and urge sinners to "flee from the wrath to come".
Have you fled yourself? Or, like Lot, are you "lingering"?
Have your children fled? Or, are you content so long as they're well-behaved?
Have your parents fled? Or are you standing by, watching them inch closer to eternal wrath unwarned?
Have your neighbors fled? Are you urging them to?
God help us; we're in an awful mess.
"O LORD, revive Thy work in the midst of the years;
In the midst of the years, make known;
In wrath, remember mercy".
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