Post by Cindy on Jul 31, 2015 8:07:57 GMT -5
On July 8, 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached the most famous sermon ever delivered in the history of America. That sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” presents the true condition of fallen humanity and the need for salvation. Here is an excerpt from his message:
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock. . . .There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is 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 mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; & there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, & press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, & the fiery floods of the fierceness & wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, & would come upon you with omnipotent power. Let every one that is yet out of Christ, & hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men & women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word & providence. Awake & fly from the wrath to come.
MacArthur, J. (1993). God: Coming face to face with His Majesty.
You may read the full sermon here if you wish: Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock. . . .There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is 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 mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; & there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, & press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, & the fiery floods of the fierceness & wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, & would come upon you with omnipotent power. Let every one that is yet out of Christ, & hanging over the pit of hell, whether they be old men & women, or middle aged, or young people, or little children, now hearken to the loud calls of God’s word & providence. Awake & fly from the wrath to come.
MacArthur, J. (1993). God: Coming face to face with His Majesty.
You may read the full sermon here if you wish: Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God
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