In this, Edwards most famous sermon, he vehemently encouraged the unconverted in the pews to cry out for God’s mercy while they still could; while it was still available.
His chief texts were:
Deut 32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.’
Psalm 73:18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin.
Psa 73:19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors!
But he used the whole Bible to indicate that God has, for the unconverted, an appointed time when their foot will slide and they will go into destruction. Those who continue to rely upon their own schemes to keep them out of hell are in a very dangerous place.
All are in His hands, and He is angry at the unconverted, perhaps more angry than those already in hell….
The above is a sampling of the first couple of minutes of the sermon.
Bible students listening to this sermon will hear Edwards pulling scriptures from the whole Bible to support his plea to the unconverted to not rest in that state; as it is a very dangerous state that is not in their control, they may be taken from the earth at any moment – none is safe, regardless of what his present situation suggests.
Furthermore, if you have unconverted friends, family…that don’t even attend church, then this sermon provides plenty of encouragement to pray that God might draw them to Himself and give them repentance and faith.
Some considerations this sermon raises:
Do you observe your thoughts and deeds?
Do you know God’s word, His standard against which your thoughts and deeds are being evaluated?
Do you examine yourself to know whether you actually are in the faith? (Are you, for example, being humbled by God, being shown your sin, mourning your sin; are you learning to love other believers….)
Do you honestly acknowledge your sin?
Do you own your sin or blame it on others, justify it, avoid it…?
Do you take your sin to God to be forgiven by His mercy via Christ?
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
For more about Jonathan Edwards in this blog, see Categories: Jonathan Edwards.
For help dealing with your sin, see: Categories; John Owens; and Thomas Brooks. In those posts, Dr. Mayfield provides much user friendly teaching for dealing with sin via his simplifying of Owens’ and Brooks’ works for the layperson of this postmodern world.
For other posts on hell, see, Categories: Judgment / hell.
This sermon came from the YouTube site: Christian Sermons and Audio Books. I highly recommend subscribing to the site for many sound Christian sermons. You will rarely hear modern preachers teaching on sin, self-examination…such as you will find on this site and similar sites such as Sermon Library.