The Future Punishment of the Wicked by Jonathan Edwards

This sermon was first preached sometime around the mid-1700s. Our text for this morning comes from the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 22, verse 14. Will your courage endure, or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.

In the first part of this chapter, we have a dreadful listing of the sins of Jerusalem, as you may see from the first to the thirteenth verse. In the thirteenth, which is the verse preceding our text, God manifests his great displeasure and fearful wrath against them because of their iniquities, saying, I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst.

The expression of God striking his hands together signifies the magnitude of his anger and of his preparing himself, as it were, to execute wrath in response to their heinous crimes. It is an allusion to what we sometimes see in men when they are surprised by seeing or hearing of some horror defense or most excruciating injury, which greatly stirs up their spirits and stirs them up with great resentment. On such an occasion, they will rise up in wrath and strike their hands together as an expression of the intensity of their indignation. and full resolution to punish those who have committed the injury.

We now turn to our text for today and we will see the punishment of that people. In general, the nature of their punishment is represented in that God will undertake to deal with them. God here threatens to deal with the unrepentant sinners in Jerusalem. the prophets could do nothing with them. God had sent them one prophet after another, but those sinners were too strong for them and beat one and killed another. Therefore, God himself now undertakes to deal with them.

Specifically, we see their punishment represented in three things, the intolerableness, the impossibility, and the unavoidableness of it, the intolerableness of it, will your courage endure? The impossibility of their doing anything for their own relief, will your hands be strong? And the unavoidableness of it, I the Lord have spoken and I will do it.

Since God has undertaken to deal with unrepentant sinners, They will neither avoid the threatened misery nor deliver themselves out of it, nor can they endure it.

In handling this doctrine, I will, first, show what is implied in God's undertaking to deal with these unrepentant sinners. Secondly, that they cannot avoid punishment. Thirdly, that they cannot in any measure deliver themselves from it or do anything for their own relief under it. Fourthly, that they cannot bear it. And lastly, I will answer a question and then proceed to the application.

First, what is implied in God's undertaking to deal with unrepentant sinners? What is implied in God's undertaking to deal with unrepentant sinners? Others are not able to deal with them. They fight against all the means used with them by those that are appointed to teach and to rule over them. They will not yield to parents or to the counsels, warnings, or reproofs of ministers. They prove themselves to be obstinate and hard-hearted. Therefore, God undertakes to deal with them himself.

This implies the following things. First, that God will deal with them and ensure that his justice is satisfied. That God will deal with them and ensure that his justice is satisfied.

In this world, God proclaims his authority to command them. and requires their subjection to him. In his commands he is very positive, strictly requiring of them the performance of certain duties, and positively forbids certain things which are contrary to their duty. But they will not obey these commands. God continues commanding, and they continue rebelling. They think nothing of God's authority. God threatens, but they despise His threatening. They think nothing of dishonoring God. They do not care how much their behavior is to the dishonor of God. He offers them mercy if they will only repent and return. But they despise His mercy as well as His wrath. God calls. but they refuse to come and repent. Thus they are continually plunging themselves deeper and deeper in debt, and at the same time they imagine somehow they will escape the payment of the debt and plan to totally rob God of His due.

But God has undertaken to bring justice and honor to His name. God will deal with them. God has undertaken to see that the debts due to him are paid. All their sins are written in his book. Not one of them is forgotten and everyone must be paid. God is wise enough and strong enough to ensure that he will have full satisfaction. He will exact to the very uttermost the amount due. God undertakes it as his part, as what belongs to him, to see himself righted where he has been wronged by them. God says in his word, it is mine to avenge, and I will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate me.

Secondly, God has undertaken to vindicate the honor of his majesty. God has undertaken to vindicate the honor of His Majesty. They despise His Majesty. They hear that He is a great God, but they despise His greatness. They look upon God as being worthy of contempt and treat Him accordingly. They know that He is called a great King, but they do not pay any attention to His authority. and sometimes they trample upon it for many years. But God has not left the honor of His Majesty holy to their care. Though they now trample it in the dust, yet that is no sign that it will finally be lost. If God had left it holy in their hands, it would indeed be lost. But God does not leave his honor and his glory with his enemies. It is too precious in his eyes to be so neglected. God has reserved the care of it to himself. God will see to it that his own injured majesty is vindicated. If the honor of God, upon which sinners trample, finally lies trampled in the dust, then it will be because God is not strong enough to vindicate himself. But God has sworn with a great oath, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, no one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Sinners despise God's Son and they trample him under their feet But God will ensure, if he cannot make the glory of his Son appear with respect to them, that all the earth may know how evil a thing it is to despise the Son of God. God intends that all men and angels, all heaven and earth, will see whether he is sufficient to magnify himself upon sinners who now despise him. God intends that the wickedness of their sins and the just punishment due them will be made public, that all men may see it.

Thirdly, God has undertaken to subdue unrepentant sinners. Their hearts, while in this world, are very unrepentant. They lift up their heads and conduct themselves very proudly and contemptuously, and often sin in open defiance. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues walk throughout the earth. They practically say, as Pharaoh did, who is the Lord that I should obey him? I do not know the Lord. It is recorded in the Bible that the wicked say to God, leave us alone, we have no desire to know your ways. Some wicked cover up their sin with an outward show of righteousness and put on a face of religion and a submissive expression and behavior, yet have this rebellious spirit secretly reigning in their heart. Yet despite all their outward appearances and good external behavior, they despise God in their hearts and have the weapons of war within them. They are secret enemies and carry their swords hidden in their clothes. They have the most proud, stubborn, and rebellious hearts, which are ready to rise in opposition to contend with God and to find fault with his commands and decrees. Their hearts are full of pride, hostility, stubbornness, and blasphemy, which works in them in many different ways while they sit under the preaching of the Word and while the Spirit of God is striving with them. And they always continue to oppose and resist God as long as they live in the world. They never lay down the weapons of their rebellion.

but God has undertaken to deal with them and to subdue them. And those proud and stubborn hearts, which will not yield to the power of God's word, will be broken by the power of his hand. If they will not be willing subjects to the golden scepter and will not yield to the appeals of his love, they will be subject to the force of the iron rod, whether they are willing or not. those that proudly establish their own righteousness and their own wills against God, those are the ones that God has undertaken to bring down. And without a doubt, it will be done. God has undertaken to make those who now ignore him to pay strict attention to him. They will know that he is Jehovah. Today, they will not acknowledge that he is the Lord, but they will know it someday. In the book of Isaiah, we read, O Lord, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see and be put to shame. Let the fire consume them.

Today, wicked men and wicked women not only hate God, but they snub him. They are not afraid of him. but he will subdue their contempt. When God comes to take them in hand, they will still hate him, but they will not snub him. They will not make light of his power as they do now. They will see and feel too much of the infinity of his power to insult it. They are now in the habit of snubbing his wrath, but then they will snub it no more. they will be infinitely far from it. They will discover by experience that his wrath is not to be snubbed nor ignored. They will learn this to their detriment, and they will never forget it.

Fourthly, God has undertaken to give to the unrepentant sinners the judgments they are due. God has undertaken to give to the unrepentant sinners the judgments they are due. Today, they will not be convinced of those things which God tells them in His Word. Ministers take great pains to convince them, but all is in vain. Therefore, God will undertake to convince them, and He will do it completely. Today they will not be convinced of the truth of divine things. They surely have convincing arguments set before them. They hear and see enough to convince them, yet they are so prone to unbelief and atheism that divine things never seem to be real to them. But God will. God will in the future make it all very real to them when they are thrown into the fires of hell. Today, unrepentant sinners are always doubting the truths of the Scriptures, questioning whether they are the Word of God and whether the threats of the Scripture are true. But God has undertaken to convince them that those warnings of judgment are indeed true. And He will cause them to understand that they are true, so that they will forever and ever never doubt it again.

they will be convinced by costly experience, the experiences of the torments of hell. Today they are always questioning whether there is such a place as hell. They hear a lot about it, but it always seems to them like a dream. But God will make it seem otherwise than a dream.

Today they are often told of the vanity of this world, But we may as well preach to the animals as to persuade the ungodly of the vanity of earthly things. But God will undertake to convince them of this. God will hereafter give them a thorough conviction of it so that they will have a strong sense of the vanity of all these things.

Now ministers often tell sinners of the great importance of committing oneself to Christ and that that is the one thing that is most needful. They are also told of the folly of delaying the salvation of their souls and how important it is to respond to the opportunity before them. But the instructions of ministers do not convince them. Therefore, God will undertake to convince them in the fires of hell.

Unrepentant sinners, while in this world, hear how dreadful hell is, but they will not believe that it is as dreadful as ministers represent. They cannot imagine that they will, for all eternity, suffer such intense and horrible torments. But they will be taught and convinced of it when they are in hell. Convinced that the illustrations ministers give of those torments are agreeable to the word of God, and are no exaggerations, and that the wrath of God is indeed as dreadful as they declare.

God has undertaken to deal with sinners, and to bring them to judgment in these matters, and he will do it thoroughly, for his work is perfect. When he undertakes to do these things, he does not do them halfway. Therefore, before he is done with sinners, he will convince them effectually so that they will never, never be in danger of relapsing into their former errors anymore. God will convince them of their folly and stupidity in entertaining such notions as they now entertain.

Thus God has undertaken to deal with obstinate unbelievers. They carry on in their lives in what appears to be a great confusion of sin. But we need not be dismayed at it. Let us wait, and we will see that God will rectify things. Sinners will not always continue to rebel and despise without receiving just punishment for their sins. The honor of God will in due time be vindicated, and they will be subdued and convicted and will give an account.

Jesus said, I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. And the sins of the unrepentant must be fully judged. must be paid for and complete satisfaction obtained. Today judgment against their evil works is not quickly executed. Therefore, their hearts are fully set within them to do evil. Yet God is a righteous judge. He will see that judgment is executed in due time.

I come now to our second point. to show that unrepentant sinners will not avoid their due punishment. Unrepentant sinners will not avoid their due punishment. God is committed to inflict it. God has promised to do it. God accepts it as his work, as what properly belongs to him, and we may expect it of him. If God has sworn by His life that He will do it, and if He has sufficient power, if He is the living God, then without a doubt we will see it done.

And that God has declared that He will punish unrepentant sinners is manifest from many different scriptures, such as Deuteronomy 32, verse 41. I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me. Deuteronomy 7.10 Those who hate me I will repay to their face by destruction. Exodus 34.7 I will not leave the guilty unpunished. Nahum 1.3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. The Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. And God says in our text, I the Lord have spoken and I will do it, which leaves no room to doubt the actual fulfillment of the threatened judgments in their utmost extent.

Some wicked men have flattered themselves that although God has threatened very dreadful things to wicked men for their sins, yet in his heart he never intends to fulfill his threatenings, but only to terrify them and make them afraid while they live. But would the infinitely holy God, who is not a man that he should lie, and who speaks no vain words, himself speak in this manner? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it. I have not only threatened, but I will also fulfill my threatenings." Would he have said these words when at the same time they would not agree with his heart? Do you think God secretly knew that though he had spoken in such a manner, yet he did not intend to do it? Who is he that dares to entertain such horrid blasphemy in his heart? No, let no unrepentant sinner flatter himself so vainly and foolishly.

If God were indeed only a man, a being of like weakness and mutability with themselves, who had undertaken to deal with them, they perhaps might with some reason flatter themselves, that they would find some means to avoid the threatened punishment. But since an omniscient, omnipotent, immutable God has made a commitment to inflict punishment, then all their hopes are in vain. There is no possible hope that they can sneak into heaven, though they die unconverted. There is no hope that they can deceive God by any false show of repentance and faith, and so be taken to heaven by mistake. For the eyes of God are like a flame of fire. They perfectly see through every man and woman. The inmost closet of the heart is completely open to him.

There is no hope of escaping the threat and punishment by the thought of simply ceasing to exist after death like the animals. Indeed, many wicked men and women on their deathbeds wish for this. If it were so, death would be nothing to them in comparison with what it is now. But all such wishes are in vain. There is no hope of their escaping without notice when they leave the body. There is no hope that God, by reason of the multiplicity of affairs which he has to watch over, will happen to overlook them and not take notice of them when they come to die, and so that their souls will slip away privately and hide themselves in some secret corner and so escape divine vengeance. There is no hope that they will be missed in a crowd at the day of judgment. and that they may have opportunity to hide themselves in some cave in the mountains or in some secret hole of the earth, and that while doing so, they will not be noticed because of the many things which will be happening on the great day of judgment. Neither is there any hope that they will be able to crowd themselves in among the multitude of the saints at the right hand of the judge, and so go to heaven undiscovered. nor is there any hope that God will change his mind, or that he will repent of what he has said. For God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind.

" Does God speak and then not act? Does God promise and not fulfill? When did God ever undertake to do anything and fail?

I come now To our third major point today, to show that unrepentant sinners cannot shun the threatened punishment, and neither can they do anything to deliver themselves from it or to relieve themselves from it. To show that unrepentant sinners cannot shun the threatened punishment, and neither can they do anything to deliver themselves from it or to relieve themselves from it. This is implied in those words of the text, will your hands be strong? It is with our hands that we make and accomplish things for ourselves. But the wicked in hell will have no strength in their hands to accomplish anything at all for themselves or to bring about any deliverance or any degree of relief.

First, They will not be able, in that conflict, to overcome their enemy and thereby deliver themselves. God, who will then undertake the deal with them, will use his infinite strength to execute his wrath. He will be their enemy and will act the part of an enemy with a witness, and they will have no strength to oppose him. Those who live with no concern for their souls under the light of the gospel act as if they supposed that they would be able to stand firm against God on the day of judgment. But they will have no power, no might to resist that omnipotence which will be engaged against them.

Secondly, They will have no strength in their hands to do anything to appease God or in the least to abate the fierceness of His wrath. They will not be able to offer any satisfaction. They will not be able to procure God's pity. Though they cry out, God will not hear them. They will find no price to offer to God in order to purchase any favor or to pay any part of their debt.

Thirdly, they will not be able to find anyone to help them and intercede with God for them. They have the offer of a mediator often made to them in this world, but they will have no such offers in hell. No one will help them. They will have no friend in hell. Everyone there will be their enemies. They will have no friend in heaven. None of the saints or angels will be their friends, and even if they could, it would be to no purpose. There will be no creature that will have any power to deliver them, nor will any ever pity them.

Fourthly, nor will they ever be able to make their escape. They will find no means to break prison and flee. In hell, they will be kept in chains of darkness forever and ever. Criminals have often found ways to break out of prison and escape the hands of civil justice, but no one ever escaped out of the prison of hell, which is God's prison. It is a strong prison. It is beyond any finite power or the united strength of all wicked men and devils to unlock or break open the door of that prison. Christ has the key of hell. He shuts it and no man can open it.

Fifthly, nor will they be ever able to find anything to relieve them from the sufferings of hell. Nor will they ever be able to find anything to relieve them from the sufferings of hell. They will never find any resting place there, any place of relief, any secret corner which will be cooler than the rest, where they may have a little break, a small reduction of the extreme pain of their torment. They will never be able to find any cooling stream or fountain. in any part of that world of torment, no, nor so much as a drop of water to cool their tongues. They will find no one there to give them any comfort or to do them the least good. They will find no place where they can remain and rest and catch their breath for one minute, for they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur and will have no rest, day or night, forever and ever.

Thus, unrepentant sinners will not be able to avoid the threatened punishment, nor to deliver themselves from it, nor to find any relief in it.

I come now to our fourth point for today. to show that they will not be able to endure it. Neither will their hands be strong to deliver themselves from it, nor will the courage of their hearts be able to endure it.

It is common with men, when they meet with calamities in this world, in the first place to endeavor to avoid them. But if they find that they cannot avoid them, they will endeavor to deliver themselves from them as soon as they can, or at least to arrange things in such a way so as to deliver themselves in some degree. But if they find that they cannot deliver themselves from the calamity, and see that the case is such that they must bear them, Then they fortify their spirits and become resolved that they will endure the calamity as best they can.

But it will be utterly in vain for unrepentant sinners to try to do this in respect to the torments of hell. They will not be able to endure them. The torments will be immensely beyond their strength.

What good will it do for a worm, which is about to be crushed under the weight of some great rock, to muster up all of its strength and try to support the weight of the rock so as to preserve itself from being crushed by it? In the same way, it will be absolutely useless for a condemned lost soul to endeavor to hold back the weight of the wrath of the Almighty God.

What good is man's strength, who is nothing but a worm against the power of Jehovah and against the fierceness of his wrath? What is man's strength when it tries to stand up against the exertions of infinite power?

The Bible says, He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.

When sinners hear of the torments of hell, they sometimes think within themselves, well, if it comes to that, that I must go to hell, I will bear it as well as I can. As if by clothing themselves with resolution and firmness of mind, they would somehow be able to support themselves in some measure, when sadly they will have no resolution, no courage at all.

No matter how they prepare themselves and collect their strength, as soon as they begin to feel the wrath, their hearts will melt and become like water. Regardless of how they harden their hearts in order to prepare themselves to face God's wrath, yet the first moment they feel it, their hearts will become like wax before a hot furnace. Their courage and resolution will be gone in an instant. It will vanish like a shadow in the twinkling of an eye.

The strongest and most powerful will have no more courage than the feeblest infant. Let a man be as weak as an infant or as strong as a giant, it will all be the same. They will not be able to keep alive any courage, any strength, any comfort, any hope at all.

Fifthly, for today, I come to answer the question which may be raised concerning these things. Some may be ready to say, if this is the case, if unrepentant sinners can neither avoid future punishment, nor deliver themselves from it, nor bear it, then what will become of them? The answer is simple. They will completely sink down to eternal death.

There will be that sinking of heart of which we now cannot conceive. We see how it is with the body when it is in extreme pain. The nature of the body will support itself for a considerable time under very great pain. So as to keep from completely sinking, there will be great struggles, sad groans and panting, and there may be convulsions. These are the struggles of nature to support itself under the pressure of great pain. There is, as it were, a great reluctance in nature to yield to it. It cannot stand to completely sink under the pain. But yet, sometimes the pain of the body is so extreme and excruciating that the nature of the body cannot support itself under it. However reluctant it may be to sink, yet it cannot bear the pain. There are a few struggles and spasms and gasping for breath, and there may be a shriek or two, and then nature yields to the violence of the torments, sinks down, and the body dies. This is the death of the body. So it will be with the soul in hell. It will have no strength or power to deliver itself. Its torment and horror will be so great, so mighty, so vastly disproportioned to its strength, that having no strength at all to support itself, although it is infinitely contrary to the nature and inclination of the soul utterly to sink, yet it will sink. It will utterly and totally sink without the least degree of remaining comfort or strength or courage or hope. And though it will never be annihilated, nor will its being and perception ever be abolished, yet such will be the infinite depth of gloominess that it will sink into, that it will be in a state of death, eternal death. The nature of man desires happiness. It is the nature of the soul to crave and thirst after comfort. And if it is suffering misery, It eagerly pants after relief, and the greater the misery is, the more eagerly does it struggle for help. But if all relief is withheld, all strength overthrown, all support utterly gone, then it sinks down, down into the darkness of death. We can only conceive a little of the matter. We cannot conceive what that sinking of the soul is in such a case. But to help your conception, I want you to imagine that you are about to be thrown into a fiery oven or a great furnace, where your pain would be much greater than that experienced by accidentally touching a burning piece of coal. Imagine also that your body were to lie in that great furnace for 15 minutes. all the while completely awake and able to feel all the pain. What horror would you feel at the entrance of such a furnace? And how long would that 15 minutes seem to be to you? And after you have endured it for just one minute, how overwhelming would it be to you to think that you still had to endure it for 14 more minutes? But what would be the effect on your soul if you knew that you must lie there enduring that torment to the maximum for 24 hours? And how much greater would the effect be if you knew you must endure it for a whole year? And how greater still if you knew that you must endure it for a thousand years? Oh then, how your heart would sink if you thought if you knew that you must bear it forever and ever, that there would be no end, that after millions and millions of years your torment would be no nearer to the end than it ever was, and that you never, never would be delivered. But your torment in hell will be immensely greater than this illustration represents Oh, how the heart of a poor creature will sink under it. How utterly inexpressible and inconceivable must the sinking of the soul be in such a case. This is the death threatened in the law. This is dying in the highest sense of the word. This is to die with the full awareness of the death taking place. To die and know it. to be sensible of the gloom of death. This is a death that is worthy of the name of destruction. This is the sinking of the soul under an infinite weight which it cannot bear. This is the gloom of hell. We read in the scriptures of the blackness of darkness, this is it, this is the very thing. We read in the scripture of sinners being lost and of their losing their souls. This is it. This is what it is to lose the soul. They that are the subjects of this are utterly lost.

And now we come to the application of this doctrine. This dreadful truth can be applied by using it to awaken unrepentant sinners. What has been said about this doctrine is for you, O unrepentant sinner, O poor wretch, you who are in the same miserable state in which you came into the world, except that you are now loaded down with a vast amount of guilt by your actual accumulated sins. These dreadful things which you have heard about are for you. you who are yet unconverted and still remain an alien and a stranger, without Christ and without God in the world. They are for you who to this day remain an enemy to God and a child of the devil, even in this remarkable time of revival, when others both here and elsewhere, far and near, are flocking to Christ. For you who hear the sound, the notoriety of these things, but know nothing of the power of godliness in your heart. Whoever you are, whether young or old, small or great, if you are in a Christless, unconverted state, this is the wrath. This is the death to which you are condemned. This is the wrath that remains on you. This is the hell over which you hang and into which you are ready to drop, drop into every day and every night. If you will remain blind and hardened and dead in sin a little longer, this destruction will surely come upon you. God has spoken and he will do it. It is vain for you to flatter yourself with hopes that you will avoid it, or to say in your heart, perhaps it will not be. Perhaps it will not be the way I have just explained it. Perhaps things have been represented worse than they are.

If you will not be convinced by the word preached to you by men in the name of God, then God himself will undertake to convince you in the actual fires of hell. Does it not seem real to you that you will suffer such a dreadful destruction because it seems to you that you do not deserve it? And because you don't see anything so horrid in yourself as to deserve such a dreadful punishment? Why is it that your wickedness does not seem bad enough to deserve this punishment? The reason is that you love your wickedness. Your wickedness seems good to you. It appears lovely to you. You don't see any hatefulness in it, or to be sure, any such hatefulness as to deserve such misery. But know this, know this, you foolish, blind, hardened wretch, that God does not see you as you see yourself with your polluted eyes. Your sins in his sight are infinitely abominable.

You know that you have thousands and thousands of times made light of the majesty of God. And why shouldn't that majesty, which you have despised, be manifested in the magnitude of your punishment? You have often heard what a great and dreadful God Jehovah is, but you have made light of it and you have not been afraid of him. You have not been afraid to sin against him. nor to go on day after day by your sins to provoke him to wrath, nor have you been afraid to cast his commands underfoot and to trample on them. Now, why shouldn't God, in the greatness of your destruction, justly vindicate and manifest the greatness of that majesty which you have despised?

You have despised the mighty power of God. You have not been afraid of it. Now why is it not fitting that God should show the greatness of his power in your ruin? What king is there who will not show his authority in the punishment of those subjects that despise him? And who will not vindicate his royal majesty in executing vengeance on those that rise up in rebellion? And are you such a fool as to think that the great King of heaven and earth, before whom all other kings are like grasshoppers, will not vindicate his kingly majesty on such contemptuous rebels as you are? You are very much mistaken if you think so. If you choose to ignore God's majesty, then know this. God will not ignore his own majesty. He takes care of the honor of it, and He will vindicate it.

Do you not think it strange that God should deal so severely with you, or that the wrath which you shall suffer should be so great? For as great as it is, it is no greater than that love of God which you have despised. The love of God and His grace, condescension, and pity to sinners in sending His Son into the world to die for them is every bit as great and wonderful as this inexpressible wrath. This mercy has been held out to you and described in its wonderful greatness hundreds of times and has been offered to you, but you would not accept Christ. You would not have this great love of God. You despised God's dying love. You trampled the benefits of it underfoot Now why should you not have wrath as great as that love and mercy which you despised and rejected?

Does it seem incredible to you that God should so harden his heart against an unrepentant sinner as to destroy him and to crush him with infinite power and merciless wrath? And is this a greater thing than it is for you to harden your heart, as you have done, against infinite mercy and against the dying love of God? Does it seem to you incredible that God should so utterly disregard the sinner's welfare so as to sink him into an infinite abyss of misery? Is this shocking to you? And is it not at all shocking to you that you should so utterly disregard the honor and glory of the infinite God? It arises from your foolish stupidity and senselessness, and it is because you have a heart of stone that you are so senseless of your own wickedness as to think you do not deserve such a punishment, and that it is to you incredible that it will be inflicted on you.

If when all is said and done, you are still not convinced, wait just a little while, and you will be convinced. God will undertake to do the work which ministers cannot do. Though judgment against your evil works is not yet executed, and God now lets you alone, yet he will come at you with his great mighty power. and then you will know what God is and what you are. Don't flatter yourself that if these things will prove true and the worst will come that somehow you will bear it as well as you can. What will it prove to gather up all your strength to try to fight against God's wrath, the wrath from the omnipotent King Jehovah? He that made you can take up his sword against you. His sword is not the sword of man, nor is his wrath the wrath of man. If it were only the wrath of man, then possibly you could bear it. But it is the fierceness of the wrath of the great God who is able to dissipate all your strength in a moment.

God can fill your soul with an ocean of wrath, a flood of fire and brimstone, Or he can make it 10,000 times fuller of torment than any oven was ever full of fire. And at the same time, he can fill it with despair of ever seeing an end to its torment or of any rest from its misery. And then where will your strength be? What will become of your courage then? What will be the purpose of your attempts to withstand the wrath? What are you in the hands of the great God who made heaven and earth by speaking a word? What are you when dealt with by that strength which manages all of this vast universe, holds the globe of the earth, directs all the motions of the heavenly bodies from age to age, and when the ordained time will come will shake it all to pieces?

There are other creatures a thousand times stronger than you. There are the great Leviathans. strong and proud spirits, with gigantic strength and stamina, but how little are they in the hands of the great God. They are less than weak infants, they are nothing, and less than nothing in the hands of an angry God, as will appear at the Day of Judgment. The hearts of the most wicked men and women, those who claim to be the strongest, will be broken They will sink, they will have no strength nor courage left. They will be as weak as water. Their souls will sink down into an infinite gloom, an abyss of death and despair. Then what will become of you, a poor worm, when you shall fall into the hands of the living God, when he comes to show his wrath and make his power known to you? If the strength of all the wicked men and women on earth, and of all the devils in hell, were united into one, and you were to possess it all, and if the courage, greatness, and strength of all their hearts were united into your single heart, you would still be nothing in the hands of Jehovah. If it were all collected, and you would be determined to bear it as well as you could, you still would sink under his great wrath in an instant and would be utterly abolished. Your hands would drop down at once and your heart would melt like wax. The great mountains, the hard rocks cannot stand before the power of God. As firm as they stand, they are tossed here and there and skip like lambs when God appears in his anger. God can tear the earth to pieces in a moment. Yes, he can shatter the whole universe and destroy it in one single blow. How then will your hands be strong or your heart endure? You cannot stand before the lion of the forest because an angry wild beast, if stirred up, will easily tear a person like yourself into pieces. Yes, not only a lion, but even a very little thing, a little spider or some other insect is able to kill you with their poison. What then can you do in the hands of God? It is vain to go into battle with weapons of briars and thorns against an enemy of glowing flames. The sharp points of thorns, though very sharp, do nothing to withstand the fire. Some of you have seen buildings on fire. Imagine, therefore, what a poor shield your body would make at fighting with the flames if you were in the midst of so great and fierce a fire. You have often seen a spider or some other harmful insect when thrown into the midst of a fierce fire and have observed how immediately it yields to the force of the flames. There is no long struggle, no fighting against the fire, no strength exerted to oppose the heat or to fly from it, but it immediately yields and the fire takes possession of it, and at once it becomes full of fire.

Here is a little image of what will happen to you in hell, unless you repent and fly to Christ. However you may think that you will fortify yourselves and bear it as well as you can, in reality, the first moment you are cast into hell, all your strength will sink and be utterly abolished. To encourage yourselves that you will somehow prepare to bear the torments of hell as best as you can is just the same as if a worm that is about to be thrown into a glowing furnace would swell up and fortify itself and prepare itself to fight against the flames.

What can you do with the bolts of lightning? What does it prove to fight against them? What an absurd figure would a poor weak man make who in the middle of a thunderstorm would expect a flash of lightning on his head or his chest and would go forth sword in hand to oppose it. when a bolt of intense fire and power would, in an instant, drink up all his spirits and his life and melt his sword.

Consider these things, all you enemies of God and rejecters of Christ. Whether you are old men or women, Christless heads of families, or young people and wicked children, be assured that if you do not listen and repent, then God intends to show His wrath and make His power known to you. God intends to greatly magnify Himself in throwing you down into hell. He intends to show His great majesty in the day of judgment, before a vast assembly by your misery, before a greater assembly many thousandfold than ever yet appeared on earth, before a vast assembly of saints and a vast assembly of wicked men, a vast assembly of holy angels and before all the bands of devils.

God will before all these get himself honor in your destruction. You will be tormented in the presence of them all. Then all will see that God is a great God indeed. then all will see how dreadful a thing it is to sin against such a God and to reject such a Savior, such love and grace as you have rejected and despised. All will be filled with awe at the great sight and all the saints and angels will look upon you and adore that majesty of God, that mighty power. and that holiness and justice of God, which will appear in your indescribable destruction and misery.

It is probable that some are present, some who hear me this day, who at this very moment are still unsaved and could care less about their souls. I fear there are some among us who are very hardened. Their hearts are harder than rocks. It is easier to make impressions on an extremely hard substance than upon their hearts. I suppose some of you have heard all that I have said with little or no concern. It appears to you as nothing but big sounding words, but it does not reach your hearts. You have heard such things many times before. You're like old soldiers and are so used to hearing the roaring of heaven's cannon that it does not frighten you. It will therefore probably be in vain for me to say anything further to you. I will only remind you that before long God will deal with you.

I cannot deal with you. You despise what I say. I have no power to make you aware of your danger and misery and of the dreadfulness of the wrath of God. The attempts of men in this way have often proved vain. However, God is undertaken to deal with such men and women like yourselves. It is His common method to first let men and women try their utmost strength, particularly to let ministers try, that thus He may show ministers their own weakness. And when they have done what they can and it all fails, then God takes the matter into His own hands.

So it seems by your continued stubbornness that God will undertake to deal with you. He will undertake to subdue you. He will see if he cannot cure you of your senselessness and lack of regard of his warnings. And you will be convinced. You will be effectually subdued. Your hearts will be broken with a witness. Your strength will be utterly broken. Your courage and hope will sink.

God will surely break those who will not bow. God with his power and wrath has therefore undertaken to deal with many stubborn, senseless, obstinate hearts, and he has never failed. He always does his work thoroughly. It will not be long before you will be sadly changed. You who now hear of hell and the wrath of the great God and sit here in these seats so easy and quiet and go away so careless, in time we'll shake and tremble and cry out and shriek and gnash your teeth and we'll be thoroughly convinced of the vast weight and importance of these great things which you now despise.

Amen.