Forty-Six Sermons in Volume II of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Sermon X from the section entitled 'Seventeen Occasional Sermons'.
This week Edwards preaches a sermon from 'Rev. xiv. 2. 'And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps.'
Edwards' main doctrine from the text is 'The work of the saints in heaven doth very much consist in praising God.' He supports his doctrines with the following propositions:
(i) The saints in heaven are employed; they are not idle; they have there much to do: they have a work before them that will fill up eternity;
(ii) Their employment consists very much in praising God.
Edwards then applies the text by giving:
(i) instructions;
(ii) exhortations;
(iii) directions;
(iv) reproofs;
(v) consolations.
What grabbed me
An excellent sermon about the joys of heaven.
For example, the saints in heaven 'have an immensely greater sense of the exceeding greatness of the fruits of God’s grace and mercy bestowed in redemption. They have another sense how great a gift the gift of God’s only-begotten Son is. They have another sense of the greatness and dignity of the person of Christ, and how great a thing it was for him to become man, and how great a thing it was for him to lay down his life, and to endure the shameful and accursed death of the cross. They have another sense how great the benefits are that Christ has purchased for men, how great a mercy it is to have sin pardoned, and to be delivered from the misery of hell. They have another sense how dreadful that misery is, for the damned are tormented in the presence of the holy angels and saints, and they see the smoke of their torment; and have another sense what eternity is, and so are proportionably more sensible how great a mercy it is to be delivered from that torment. They have another sense how great a fruit of God’s grace it is to be the children of God, and to have a right and title to eternal glory. They are sensible of the greatness of the benefits that Christ has purchased, by their experience; for they are in possession of that blessedness and glory that he has purchased; they taste the sweetness of it: and therefore they are more sensible what cause they have to praise God for these things. The grace and goodness of God in the work of redemption, appears so wonderful to them, that their thoughts of it do excite them to the most ardent praise. When they take a view of the grace of God and of the love of Christ in redemption, they see that there is cause that they should exert the utmost of their capacities:, and spend an eternity in praising God and the Lamb. It is but a very little that we at best can conceive of the greatness of the benefits of redemption, and therefore we are but little affected by it and our praises for it are low and dull things. '
We know very little about God's grace compared to what we will know when we reach glory.
Next week's reading
Read Sermon XI 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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