Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God - 12 yr old

[~Tara~]

Jonathan Edwards opens up the sermon with the words "Their foot shall slide in due time" from Deuteronomy 32:3.

 

This verse was about the unbelieving Israelites who ignored God's great miracles. It meant that destruction would soon come upon them. The only reason they hadn't fallen yet was because God's appointed time had not come yet. At that time, He would let them go and would fall from their own weight. Edwards said that they would "...fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery and declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost."

 

Then he went on to say that there is nothing that keeps wicked people out of hell but the sovereign pleasure of God. And God has unlimited power to throw people into hell. It is like crushing a worm on the ground or cutting a slender thread that something hangs by. Edwards then stated that a man never knows when he is going to die. Even wise men and men who try hard to preserve their lives can die early and unexpectedly.

 

In the application he says that our wickedness makes us as heavy as lead and always leaning towards hell. And if God lets us go we would immediately fall into the bottomless gulf.

 

The wrath of God is like great waters held back by a dam and rise higher and higher. And once it is loose, the flood of God's wrath will come upon you. God holds you over a pit of hell as we would hold a spider or loathsome insect over a fire, but we are ten times more abominable in His sight than the most hateful venomous serpent is in our eyes. Then, Edwards tells us that it is God's wrath. He says that the wrath of kings is very much dreaded, but the greatest kings "...in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but despicable worms in the dust" compared to Him. Later he states that it is everlasting wrath. Not only do you have to suffer all God's fierceness and wrath, you have to suffer it for all eternity. And there would be no end and no rest. But we all have an opportunity to be saved when Jesus has thrown the gates of mercy wide open and calls people in to Him. Then, at the end Jonathan Edwards says to fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for your lives, look not behind you escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed."

 

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is a very harsh but true sermon, and I don't see how someone would not be scared out of their pants and repent. Anyway, sweet dreams!

 

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I just keep cracking up at his last paragraph. :lol:

 

Anything to offer in the way of correction? I stink at this aspect. :(