In July of 1741, in the town of
Enfield, Connecticut, Jonathan Edwards preached his now-famous
sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God.
It was said of that evening, by an
eyewitness, that ye minister had to desist from
preaching, because he could no longer be heard
above the shrieks and cries throughout the meeting
house.
America, at that time, was a land of
revivals.
But gradually, the theology of the New England
churches changed into Universalism and Unitarianism, and ministers
stopped preaching about hell, and told their hearers
that God wasn't the angry entity that hated
sin anymore, but God was a more accommodating
being that would not punish sin.
The trickle-down effect from this change into
preaching is where we are today.
Few ministers preach sermons against sin, or warn
sinners to repent or be sent to a
burning inferno called hell.
God is just a big loving being who
loves everyone, and he is tolerant about sin.
That's the God we hear about today, because
America has replaced the God of Edwards.
And that's the title of my message this
evening, friends.
America Replaced Edwards' God A few wanted to
believe in a God who was strict, and
who was angry with the wicked every day.
Few want to believe in a God who
must punish sin, and send people to devil's
hell, where his wrath is outpoured upon them
for all eternity.
Who wants a God like that?
Most folks today don't even believe in a
literal hell, because they don't believe in a
God who would send people there.
They just don't believe that God is a
God who must punish sin.
Their God wouldn't act that way.
The God of Jonathan Edwards was put out
to pasture years ago as an unpleasant entity
that wasn't needed anymore.
That's when the churches changed their message to
a God is love message, and stopped warning
sinners to flee from the wrath to come.
Therefore, hell isn't necessary either.
As a nation, we decided to kill off
the God of Jonathan Edwards, and replace him
with a much more loving, merciful God, who's
more understanding and tolerant toward modern man.
A God that we can get along with
better.
But the trouble is, the God of Edwards
is the God of the Bible.
And when we replaced the God of the
Bible, we created one of our own imagination.
And it is mainly an imaginary God we
hear about today.
But the gospel of Jonathan Edwards proclaimed a
bloodstained Christ, who had rights and claims on
all followers of his.
The God of Edwards saw his blessed son
hanging on a cross, and he had to
look away because God can't look on sin,
because Christ bore the curse becoming sin for
us.
Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me?
That cross had the blood of the son
of man running all down it.
I was standing in line at the grocery
store, and a homeless man was in line
ahead of me.
He had all his belongings in the cart
with him, as he bought a bag of
ramen noodles for his dinner.
He smelled so bad, it made you sick
just to stand near him.
He was covered in filth, but I can
promise you, friends, he smelled like a rose
compared to the stench at the foot of
Calvary.
All the blood and pus and gore from
Christ's wounds trickled down that rugged cross.
It was a terrible sight to look at.
The face of Jesus had been so badly
beaten, it looked like a pound of raw
hamburger meat.
The filthy spit and phlegm of the Roman
soldiers matted his beard.
The cross was a bloody scandal that smelled
the smell of death.
But we preachers today have gotten out our
mop buckets and have cleaned up all the
blood and gore of Calvary to make it
more palatable to sinful man.
That's because the Church today has changed her
gods.
We have replaced the God of Justice, the
God of the Bible, who was Edward's God,
with her own modern version.
So not to offend anybody, when we stand
in the pulpit to preach our little anemic
messages, no one is crying out in agony
of sin.
No one is shrieking because they feel like
they're going to drop down to hell at
any moment.
Our little messages don't disturb anybody.
Trouble is, they don't save anybody either, because
we don't preach the God of Edwards.
Oh, some of us might get out our
violin and pluck away on one string called
election, but we're too afraid to call men
and women and boys and girls to repentance
and warn them that unless they repent, they
will surely be cast into hell for all
eternity, where God's wrath will be poured out
upon them like a smoking furnace in Malachi
4.1 we read.
For behold, the day cometh that shall burn
as an oven, and all the proud, yea,
and all that do wickedly shall be stubble.
And the day that cometh shall burn them
up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it
shall leave them neither root nor branch.
If we could only give back to preaching
the God of Edwards, then maybe, just maybe,
some of our unsaved teenagers at church, some
of our unsaved church members in our congregations
would cry out in conviction of sin and
say, what must I do to be saved?
Help me.
I'm going to hell.
What can I do to be saved?