Forty-Six Sermons in Vol II of the Works - Edwards - XXIV - 'Great guilt no obstacle to the pardon of the returning sinner'

-->Required reading
Forty-Six Sermons in Volume II of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read the Sermon entitled 'Great guilt no obstacle to the pardon of the returning sinner'.

My summary
Today Edwards preaches to us from Psalm xxv. 11. 'For thy names sake, O Lord, pardon my iniquity; for it is great'.

Edwards' main doctrine from the sermon is that 'if we truly come to God for mercy, the greatness of our sin will be no impediment to pardon.'

So, firstly, Edwards teaches us that the following things are needful in order that we truly come to God for mercy:
(i) we should see our misery, and be sensible of our need of mercy;
(ii) we must be sensible that we are not worthy that God should have mercy on us;
(iii) we must come to God for mercy in and through Jesus Christ alone.

Then Edwards answers some objections which some awakened sinners may be ready to make against what he now exhorts them to:
(i) I have spent my youth and all the best of my life in sin, and I am afraid God will not accept of me, when I offer him only mine old age;
(ii) I am afraid that I have committed sins that are peculiar to reprobates;
(iii) Had I not better stay till I shall have made myself better, before I presume to come to Christ.

What grabbed me
I liked how Edwards told us what was 'not' the plea of the Psalmist to draw out the truth of the text: 'The Psalmist pleads the greatness of his sins as an argument for mercy. He not only doth not plead his own righteousness, or the smallness of his sins; he not only doth not say, Pardon mine iniquity, for I have done much good to counterbalance it; or, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is small, and thou hast no great reason to be angry with me; mine iniquity is not so great, that thou hast any just cause to remember it against me; mine offence is not such but that thou mayest well enough overlook it: but on the contrary he says, Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great: he pleads the greatness of his sin, and not the smallness of it; he enforces his prayer with this consideration, that his sins are very heinous.'

The only prayer we can offer as sinners before God is a prayer that admits our utter sinfulness.

Next week's reading
Read the Sermon entitled 'The most high a prayer-hearing God'.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.