"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" by Jonathan Edwards

Yesterday morning, I preached about the wrath of God displayed against sinners through the Flood, but also shared how Jesus the Ark saves us.  But I thought it would be helpful to hear the common language of the "flood" from Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon in 1741 "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."  His text was Deuteronomy 32:35.

The black clouds of God’s wrath are hanging directly over your heads. They are full of a dreadful storm with its loud thunder. And if it were not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst upon you. For now the sovereign pleasure of God holds back the rough winds; otherwise they would come with fury, and your destruction would come as a tornado, and you would be blown away like dry chaff.

“The wrath of God is like great waters that are temporarily dammed up. They keep rising higher and higher until they find an outlet. The longer they have been dammed up, the more rapid and powerful will be their flow once they are let loose.

“It is true that judgment against your evil works has not been carried out yet, but in the meantime, your guilt has been building up, and every day you are storing up for yourself more wrath. The waters are constantly rising, and nothing but the mere pleasure of God holds them back. They are unwilling to be stopped and are pushing with great force to break free.

“If God were just to lift His hand from the floodgate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God would rush forward with unbelievable fury and would overtake you with unlimited power. Even if your strength were 10,000 times greater than what it is; in fact, if it were 10,000 times greater than the boldest and most powerful devil in all of hell, it would not be able to withstand or endure it.”