Forty-Six Sermons in Volume II of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon IV from the section entitled 'Seventeen Occasional Sermons'.
Today Edwards preaches a sermon that would warm any Calvinist's heart from Romans ix. 18. 'Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.'
His doctrine is 'God exercises his sovereignty in the eternal salvation of men. He not only is sovereign, and has a sovereign right to dispose and order in that affair; and he not only might proceed in a sovereign way, if he would, and nobody could charge him with exceeding his right; but he actually does so; he exercises the right which he has.'
Thus Edwards shows:
I. What is God’s sovereignty (The sovereignty of God is his absolute, independent right of disposing of all creatures according to his own pleasure);
II. What God’s sovereignty in the salvation of men implies (it implies that God can either bestow salvation on any of the children of men, or refuse it, without any prejudice to the glory of any of his attributes, except where he has been pleased to declare, that he will or will not bestow it);
III. That God actually doth exercise his sovereignty in this matter;
IV. The reasons for this exercise (his glory).
Edwards then makes several applications.
What grabbed me
A great sermon.
I loved this application: 'Hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great matter of the eternal salvation of our souls. We are dependent not only on his wisdom to contrive a way to accomplish it, and on his power to bring it to pass, but we are dependent on his mere will and pleasure in the affair. We depend on the sovereign will of God for every thing belonging to it, from the foundation to the top-stone. It was of the sovereign pleasure of God, that he contrived a way to save any of mankind, and gave us Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, to be our Redeemer. Why did he look on us; and send us a Saviour, and not the fallen angels? It was from the sovereign pleasure of God. It was of his sovereign pleasure what means to appoint. His giving us the Bible, and the ordinances of religion, is of his sovereign grace. His giving those means to us rather than to others, his giving the awakening influences of his Spirit, and his bestowing saving grace, are all of his sovereign pleasure. When he says, “Let there be light in the soul of such an one,” it is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace. Hence we learn how absolutely we are dependent on God in this great matter of the eternal salvation of our souls. We are dependent not only on his wisdom to contrive a way to accomplish it, and on his power to bring it to pass, but we are dependent on his mere will and pleasure in the affair. We depend on the sovereign will of God for every thing belonging to it, from the foundation to the top-stone. It was of the sovereign pleasure of God, that he contrived a way to save any of mankind, and gave us Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son, to be our Redeemer. Why did he look on us; and send us a Saviour, and not the fallen angels? It was from the sovereign pleasure of God. It was of his sovereign pleasure what means to appoint. His giving us the Bible, and the ordinances of religion, is of his sovereign grace. His giving those means to us rather than to others, his giving the awakening influences of his Spirit, and his bestowing saving grace, are all of his sovereign pleasure. When he says, “Let there be light in the soul of such an one,” it is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace.'
We really don't even begin to understand how utterly dependent on God we are.
Next week's reading
Read Sermon V from the section entitled 'Seventeen Occasional Sermons'.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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