Selective reading of America's most famous sermon, one of the greatest ever preached, preached in 1741 by Jonathan Edwards, along with facts about the man, his times and beliefs, personal reflections by the reader-narrator, and a challenge for today. Outline:
1. God may cast wicked men into hell at any given moment.
2. The Wicked deserve to be cast into hell.
3. The Wicked, at this moment, suffer under God's condemnation to Hell.
4. The Wicked, on earth must not think, because they are not physically in Hell, that God is not now as angry with them as He is with those who are already in hell.
5. At any moment God permits him, Satan stands ready to fall upon the Wicked and seize them as his own.
6. If it were not for God's restraints, there are, in the souls of wicked men, hellish principles reigning which, presently, would kindle and flame out into hellfire.
7. The wicked should not feel secure simply because there are not visible means of death before them.
8. Men should not think themselves safe from God's wrath simply because they take pains to preserve their own life.
9. All wicked men may do to save themselves from Hell's pains come to nothing if they continue to reject Christ.
10. God has never promised to save us from Hell, except for those contained in Christ through the covenant of Grace. |
