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 (as vers 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them.
The problem for the Israelites was
certainly their lack of knowledge. Hosea prophesies, “My people perish for a
lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 6: 8)
Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit;
Because man was still dead in his
trespasses under the Mosaic covenant, they did not have the Holy Spirit living
within them at the time. For that reason, the fruits of the flesh were evident
in their lives (Galatians 5: 19-21)
Every human being must be transformed from
within, thoroughly reconciled, according to 2 Corinthians 5: 21. Out of a man’s
heart come the vile things that corrupt him; therefore, the Lord Promised
through the prophet Jeremiah (31: 33-34) to give His people a new heart, one
which would have God’s laws written thereon, and He would remember their sins
no more. This is the message which every preacher must preach, not the arbitrary hell fire of a God who does not seem to care if we live or die.
as in the two verses next preceding the text. -- The
expression I have chosen for my text, their foot shall slide in due time,
seems to imply the following things, relating to the punishment and destruction
to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.
Yet Jesus preached that He did not want
anyone to perish. Even Ezekiel manifested the loving Heart of God the Father,
in that He does not delight in the destruction of the wicked.
1.
That they were always exposed to destruction; as
one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is
implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented
by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm 73:18.
"Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down
into destruction."
It is stunning that this well-versed preacher could not
distinguish the audience and the speakers even in the Old Testament. Psalm 73
was penned by Asaph, one of the Levites. He denounces the wicked, but that does
not necessarily indict all the Israelites. It certainly would not include
Father Abraham, whom God called His friend.
2.
It implies, that they were 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 falls at once without warning: Which is also
expressed in Psalm 73:18,19. "Surely thou didst set
them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they
brought into desolation as in a moment!"
However, the Lord is slow to anger, rich in mercy to
those who believe. Edwards presents the erroneous and blasphemous notion that
God’s wrath, not His mercy, lasts forever.
3.
Another thing implied is, that they 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 why they are not fallen already and do
not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come.
Edwards subscribed to the ruthless Calvinist heresy that
all people who are elected to be saved have been predetermined, predestined
from before the foundation of the world. Nothing could be further from the
truth. For we are saved by grace, which we receive by faith. Salvation is as
close as one’e mouth and heart. God does not wish to condemn His creatures. He
wants all to come to the knowledge of salvation.
For it is said, that when that due time, or
appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to
fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in
these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very
instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery
declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let
go he immediately falls and is lost.
Man is dead in his trespasses. God has sent His Son, who
bore our sins on the tree, suffering the wrath of God, which everyone of us deserves.
God is no longer angry with His creation. Yet if they choose not to believe on
Him whom He has sent, then they are dead already in their sins, and consigned
to eternal death.
The observation from the words that I would now insist
upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment
out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure
of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by
no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing
else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever,
any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. -- The truth of this
observation may appear by the following consideration.
1.
There is no want of power in God to cast wicked
men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up.
The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his
hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily
do it.
God does not send anyone to hell. Those who blaspheme the
Holy Spirit, who refuse so great a gift as His Son, will choose by their
refusal to spend eternity dead, forever separated from God.
Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a
great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify
himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is
not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of
God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and
associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps
of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before
devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see
crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread
that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his
enemies down to hell. 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; so that 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. Divine justice says of the tree that
brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the
ground?" Luke 13:7.
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.
Never once does Edwards explain why we are sinners. We
have broken God’s law, we have been made in the likeness of fallen, sinful
Adam, we are spiritually dead, and only through the death and resurrection of
Christ Jesus do we receive life, and that more abundantly.
3.
They are already under a sentence of condemnation
to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the
sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness
that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and
stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John 3:18.
"He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every
unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is,
John 8:23.
"Ye are from beneath:" And thither he is bound; it is the
place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law
assign to him.
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, in whose power
they are, is not then very angry with them;
God is no longer angry! He has exhausted His wrath on the
person of His Son. He hates sin, no doubt about it. Our God is a consuming
fire, and any fallen flesh in His presence would be consumed in an instant. Yet
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoeever
believes on Him will not perish, but have everlasting life! We need to hear the
gospel, not this despicable hell-fire preaching which has marred the American
consciousness about God, His Beloved Son, and the Holy Spirit who flows about
the earth, seeking to be received in
everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord.
as
he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who 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: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in
this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who
are now in the flames of hell.
So that it is not because God is unmindful
of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his
hand and cut them off.
God has provided the Way for man to escape the sin which
separates Him from God. He will remember our sins no more. But we must receive
this grace by faith, we must receive the indwelling Holy Spirit, who will
quicken us to avoid the wrath to come and live life everlasting through His
Son.
God is not altogether such an one as
themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. 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. They belong to him;
he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture
represents them as his goods, Luke 11:12.
Luke 11: 12 actually reads:
“Or if he [a child] shall ask an egg, will he [the
child’s father] offer him a scorpion?
This passage Jesus preaches to demonstrate the warmth and
love of God the Father, whose lavish regard for His children exceeds the
apparent generosity of even the worst of earthly fathers.
Satan has no power to take anyone into dominion. At the
Cross, he was spoiled and his power put to open shame, for at the Cross the law
and its penalties were fully and forever satisfied. The devil ain’t what he
used to be. In fact, Satan will be cast into hell along with all unbelievers
who reject the gospel of God the Father.
The
devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand
waiting for 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.
This theology of Satan is based on a poorly-divided
understanding of the devil’s power in the Old Testament. Then, he retained
Adam’s authority, which our first parents forfeited by their disobedience. Yet
by the Second Adam, Jesus Christ, we can be received once again as sons of God.
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. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a
foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in
reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell
fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature,
and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon
break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions,
the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same
torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared
to the troubled sea, Isa. 57:20.
For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does
the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou
come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining
power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the
soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without
restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable.
The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and
while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints,
whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as
the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would
immediately turn the soul into 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, and that he does not see which way he should now
immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible
danger in any respect 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. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going
suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men
walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable
places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these
places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest
sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of
taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is
nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expense of a miracle,
or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked man,
at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world,
are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power
and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of
God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never
made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
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. To
this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There
is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death;
that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and
politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early
and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. 2:16. "How dieth the wise man?
even as the fool."
9.
All wicked men'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. Almost every natural man that
hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon
himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what
he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his
own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives
well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that
there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died
heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters
better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to
that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take
effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably
delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength
and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who
heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are
undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those
who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for
themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire
of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to
hear about hell, ever to be the subjects of misery: we doubtless, should hear
one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out
matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself -- I
thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me
unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as
a thief -- Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed
foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of
what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction came upon me."
10.
God has laid himself under no obligation, by any
promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made
no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from
eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises
that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely
they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the
children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have
no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
By faith in the final sacrifice of our Lord and Savior,
man can be transformed from fallen and alienated to a welcomed child into the
extended family of God!
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about
promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and
manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers
he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to
keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, 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, his anger is as great towards
them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness
of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or
abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them
up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the
flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and
swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break
out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach
that can be any security to them. 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.
Application
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening
unconverted persons in this congregation.
We need to be awakened unto righteousness,
that we may sin not. The ministry of condemnation has glory, but the ministry
of righteousness has a greater glory!
This that you have
heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of
misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is
the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's
wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to
take hold of; there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the
power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
How staggering and saddening that this
preacher spent more time talking about hell instead of revealing the glorious
person of Jesus Christ. Him God the Father sent to save, He sits at the right
hand of the Father, are blessed substitute making intercession for us on this
earth.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are
kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other
things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own
life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things
are nothing; if God should withdraw his hand, they would avail no more to keep
you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in
it.
Yes, all of this fire and brimstone.
Intellects like Benjamin Franklin learned to see the through this heated
rhetoric. It is not the imagined torments of hell which convict, for they can
be dismissed with easy disdained by learned minds. In convicting a man through
his conscience, however, there a man finds that he has no excuses and no escape
from the rightful and righteous judgment of a loving God who has provided a way
out for man to escape from hell and be received into eternal life.
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. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the
earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation
groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your
corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give
you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her
increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness
to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain
the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of
God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God
with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they
are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the
world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath
subjected it in hope. 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 on 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; and there is nothing but
the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be
stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand
from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the
fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and
would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten
thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the
strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to
withstand or endure it.
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,
without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from
being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great
change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all
you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being
dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life,
are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in
many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of
religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing
but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in
everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of
what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone
from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them;
for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of
it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those
things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air
and empty shadows.
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:
Thank God for preachers like Jacob
Harmensen, Jacobus Arminius, who emphasized that God is love, and that God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son to rescue us.
Even in the Old Testament, God the Father
depicts Himself as a loving Father, Husband, and savior. Jonathan Edwards is a
professing a God who is not to be found in the Holy Scriptures.
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."
I do not dispute in the slightest the
reality of hell. The place of great torment, the wailing and gnashing of teeth,
awaits every soul who rejects the great gift of grace offered to every
believer. He is love, but because He is just, He sent His Son to pay an awful
price for our sins, for our trespasses which have alienated the sons of Adam
since the Fall.
Hell fire preaching creates a false of
image of God, as an arbitrary deity who would just as soon damn us as well as
save. Scripture in the Old and New Testaments conveys the image of God as
Father as well as righteous judge, who by sending His Son to die for us,
fulfilled His righteous wrath and exposed His great love of us, sending His
Beloved to die for us!
Hell fire preaching such as Edwards’
overwhelming missive here places more emphasis on hell and the devil than
Christ. He does not even mention the Holy Spirit, but whose quickening we
receive life and that more abundantly.
Edwards’ sermons are heavy with sensory
imagery, emphasizing the illiterate nature of his congregations, perhaps. His
cursory references to scripture betray an unlearned misappropriation of the
Word of God, especially the existence of a New Covenant, which has replaced the
old and faulty covenant initiated at Mount Sinai.
This sermon, well regarded as a core
element of colonial literature, also betrays some of the heresies which still
persist in the American religious community. A stern adherence to a pastor and
his rhetoric, instead of the Word of God; An emphasis on emotion instead of
doctrine, including the Person and the Finished Work of Jesus Christ; and the overwhelming
pressure placed on the the power of the devil and the demands of God, listed in
the Old Testament, which have been changed in the New. Jesus Himself gave His
disciples new commandments, which spring from His love for us. The love of God
is manifest throughout Scripture, in
that before the foundation of the World, Jesus Christ was tapped to be the
Sacrifice that would redeem mankind from their hereditary, fallen state.
We need to get our pulpits out of Calvinist
colonial Boston and bring them to Mount Zion, where every race can here the
Good News: our sins are forever forgiven, put away from us as far as east is
from west, and that God desires now to inhabit his Creation, to transform them
from “Not My People” to His very flesh and bones.
No comments:
Post a Comment