Sinners In The Hands Od An Angry God

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

    300 years ago Jonathan Edwards preached judgment and repentance in his sermon: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.”  People responded in what is called The Great Awakening.  They genuinely repented and came to God.  Other times of revival, renewal and spiritual awakening have taken place over the years.  We pray for a new Awakening in America!

    Edwards’ text: “Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.”  Psalms 73:18-19 (KJV)

    Edwards preached God’s Power: “But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defense from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God’s enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell.”

    “God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.” Psalms 53:2 (KJV)

    “Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God.” Romans 2:9-11 (KJV)

    Why will you die!

    “The word of the Lord came again to me, saying: "Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness," says the Lord God.”  Ezekiel 14:12-14)

 

   

    God began judgment with His People the Jews.

    “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  1 Peter 4:17

    As the scripture says. Peter paraphrases Prov. 11:31 and Ezek. 9:8-11.  Peter is saying: “The time has come for judgment to be poured out on the Jewish nation for their crimes, and it must begin with you Jewish Christians who have become in fact God’s own people. If God allows such punishment to come on us, whom He loves so dearly because of our faith in Christ, what will He do to those Jews who reject His Son.”  Johnson’s Notes applies the principle to the whole church. “If even we Christians must suffer in this life, what will God do to the godless and sinful after the Judgment?”

    The time has come. Those who think this passage teaches that in the Judgment, Christians will just barely squeeze by, do not give full honor to God‘s finished work in Christ! Christians are given full right to enter the eternal Kingdom (2 Pet. 1:11)! MacKnight is right in thinking the judgment is that which Christ predicted in Matt. 23:35. Even Christian Jews such as Peter would suffer in the events which led up to the destruction of Jerusalem. But Josephus tells us no Christian Jew was in Jerusalem when it was destroyed. (see note on Matt. 24:21).

 

 

    Come to God and be saved!

    Edwards offered hope:  “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in, calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God.”

    “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.” Acts 3:19-21  

    “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”  Matt 8:11

    “Revive us again, Fill each heart with Thy love, May each soul be rekindled with fire from above!”  [from old song]

    “Lord – We pray for Revival, Renewal, Spiritual Awakening!  Fill our hearts with Christian Love, Holy Joy, and all the Fruit of the Spirit!  Bless America again!”