to focus upon Jonathan Edwards
and specifically the resolutions that he wrote as a young man,
18 and 19 years of age. Let me begin by just putting
Edwards in his right place, even in the mountain range of church
history. It was Martin Lloyd-Jones who
said, I am tempted to compare the Puritans to the Alps. Luther and Calvin to the Himalayas,
and Jonathan Edwards to Mount Everest. He seems to me to be
the man most like the Apostle Paul." That's quite a statement
from the doctor himself, Lloyd-Jones, that it was Jonathan Edwards
who in essence stood on the shoulders of Calvin and Luther and the
Reformers and climbed up a little higher and stood on the shoulders
of the Puritans like John Owen and Thomas Watson and other great
divines. And he went all the way to the
top of the mountain range, as it were, and had the clearest
view of God and systematic theology and the inner workings of the
truth of Scripture. And that is why I think it is
very worthwhile to look in this last session at Edwards And what
I want to set before you is there is a reason why I believe God
so greatly used Edwards. Granted, he was the greatest
American pastor to ever walk on the soil of this continent. He is arguably the greatest preacher
over the last three centuries in America. He is called the
greatest theologian America has ever produced and the greatest
philosopher that America has ever produced. He has been argued
to be the most profound author. R.C. Sproul has said his book,
The Freedom of the Will, is the greatest book ever to be written
on American soil. He certainly preached the greatest
sermon ever to be preached in this land, sinners in the hand
of an angry God. It is an amazing thing that all
of those lines would intersect in one person. Greatest author,
greatest philosopher, greatest pastor, greatest theologian,
greatest preacher, greatest book, greatest sermon. All of this
did not merely happen. Nothing just merely happens. The sovereignty of God is in
and through all things. But Jonathan Edwards, when he
was 18 years old, he charted a course that he would follow
the rest of his life. Jonathan Edwards was converted
by the grace of God at age 17. And within one year, he was the
interim pastor in what is today downtown New York City, on Wall
Street, pastoring a church where there had been a split, a divide,
a Scottish Presbyterian church. He was 18 years old. He had grown
up in the home of a Puritan pastor And as soon as he was saved,
his heart was inclined to the ministry and the things of God,
for that is what he had seen all of his life. And at age 18,
he began to pastor in downtown New York. He still had his master's
thesis yet to write. He had completed his coursework
at Yale, both in the bachelor and master's level. And as he
began this interim pastorate at age 18, there was a deep conviction
and concern in his soul that he be faithful to God, that he
not squander this opportunity, that he be one who would pursue
holiness with every inch and every ounce of his being. So
Jonathan Edwards sat down and wrote what has come to be known
as his resolutions. Over the course of the next year
and a half, he wrote 70 resolutions. They were like purpose statements.
They almost all began with the word resolved. And then would
follow a declaration that was rooted and grounded in the Word
of God. These resolutions began with a preamble. And the preamble
is a short two-sentence paragraph that sits on top of the resolutions,
and they are very important because in it, in this preamble, he states
how dependent he is upon the grace of God to be enabled to
fulfill these resolutions. So this is not Jonathan Edwards
pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, where he is self-willed
to carry out his own sanctification. He is totally dependent upon
the grace of God and the ministry of the Holy Spirit to work and
to will for his good pleasure in his own life. The preamble
reads, being sensible that I am unable to do anything. Now you
hear John 15 verse 5 in that. Jesus said, apart from me you
can do nothing. being sensible that I am unable
to do anything without God's help. I do humbly entreat Him,
God, by His grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so
far as they are agreeable to His will for Christ's sake. So having said that, He began
to write his resolutions. The first four are directed and
pointed at the glory of God. There is no rhyme or reason as
to the order of these resolutions. They're almost like reading the
Proverbs, starting Proverbs 10 and following. They're somewhat
jumbled together, except at the beginning. in which Edwards lays
this foundation that the entirety of his life must be directed
toward the pursuit of the glory of God. It is the overflow of
his study of the Westminster Catechism, the Westminster Confession,
the teaching of the Reformers, the teaching of the Puritans.
It was all steeped in the glory of God. He had read Calvin's
Institutes that begins with the knowledge of God and the knowledge
of man. He was steeped in the Westminster Catechism, what is
the chief end of man? To glorify God and to enjoy Him
forever. So as he takes pen in hand at
age 18, the first four resolutions, let me read parts of them, focus
upon the glory of God. Number one, resolved. That I
will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory. Edwards said the interpretive
key in his life, in the pursuit of the will of God, is what will
bring greatest glory to God. Who should I marry? What should
I do with my life? Where should I live? What endeavors
should I undertake? The fundamental core principle
Edwards recognized for his life is, what will most glorify God? Not what will most advance me,
what will most promote myself, but what decisions, what turns
in the road, what forks in the road lie before me? The answer
will always be, what will most glorify God? Resolution 2 resolved
to be continually endeavoring to find out some new contrivance
and invention to promote the aforementioned things. By that
he is saying, as I am on the path to pursue the glory of God,
what can be augmented to my life that will springboard me even
further in the promotion and the pursuit of the glory of God?
What new Bible studies could I undertake? What new ministries
could I launch? What new endeavors could I undertake
that would be further extensions of glorifying God? 3. Resolved,
if ever I shall fall and grow weary, or grow dull, so as to
neglect to keep any part of these resolutions, to repent of all
I can remember. So, if at any point he would
grow fatigued or weary, become spiritually lukewarm in the pursuit
of the glory of God, that he would immediately repent of this.
And turn away from this that he might be fervent in pursuing
the glory of God. Four, resolved. Never to do any
manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what
tends to the glory of God. So, he is a man who is preoccupied
with the glory of God. J.I. Packer writes regarding
these first four resolutions that Edwards was, quote, God-centered,
God-focused, God-intoxicated, and God-entranced. There is no
overstatement here. Every day from morning till night,
he sought to live in conscious communion with God." Now, later in these resolutions,
resolution number 63. This is an extraordinary resolution
and I'm just setting the table for what I really ultimately
want to say in this session. He wants to glorify God, just
like I'm sure you want to glorify God. You wouldn't be here today,
I would not think, were you not one who would desire to glorify
God with your life. 1 Corinthians 10. Whatsoever
you do, whether you eat or you drink, do all to the glory of
God. Resolution 63 is a shock and awe resolution. It is mind-boggling. This is what it says. On the
supposition that there never was to be but
one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly
a complete Christian in all respects, having Christianity always shining
in its true luster, and appearing excellent and lovely, resolved,
to act just as I would do if I strove with all my might to
become that one who would live in my time. You know what Edwards
is saying? I want you to think about this. There can only be on the earth
at any one time the strongest Christian alive. Edwards said, the goal for my
life is to be that man. Now someone
may say, wow, that's kind of an arrogant resolution. Okay, go be the worst Christian
in your generation. You think that'll glorify God?
You talk about having everything upside down. No, every one of
us ought to say, God, I want to be that one in my generation
at that time that Christianity is most fully shining through
with its full luster, shining forth from my life. That will
glorify God. Edwards said that at age 18 and
19. When I was age 18 and 19, I was
just thinking about playing football. Edwards is thinking about, I
want to be the greatest Christian in my generation. Now what he did in the rest of
the resolutions charts the course for how he will glorify God and
be that one most complete Christian in his lifetime. In my book on
the resolutions of Jonathan Edwards, I divide up all of the resolutions
and the different subject matters that he deals with. And there
is a plethora of topics that he covers in the fullness of
his own Christian life. And time does not permit me to
do the overview of all 70 resolutions. What I want to do at this time
right now is just isolate one slice of the pie. Just isolate
one piece of the armor. Just focus upon one area of his
resolutions that addressed a critically important area in his Christian
life. Now, this subject matter may
somewhat surprise you. As Edwards wanted to live for
the glory of God and be the greatest Christian in his generation,
He wanted to do so in the nitty-gritty of life, down in the day-to-day
Christian living. And so he said, I want to live
with an eternal perspective. And in order to live with an
eternal perspective, There are three subjects that need to be
present before my life on a daily basis all the time. The shortness of life, the certainty
of death, and the length of eternity. The shortness of life, the suddenness
of death, and the length of eternity. Edwards would say elsewhere,
God, stamp eternity upon my eyeballs. That was his way metaphorically
to say, I want to live with an eternal perspective. I want to
live in such a way as not to be confined with the mundane,
trivial things of this temporal life and world as if this is
all that there is. If I am to rise above the temporal
and live for the eternal, if I am to rise above that which
I can see and live for that which I cannot see, if I If right now
is to count forever, then I must have this eternal perspective. That is what every one of us
here today needs. We need to live for eternity. What I do right now, how will
it have its impact upon eternity? And so Edwards wrote several
resolutions that dealt with time and dealt with death and dealt
with eternity. Resolution number five. Edwards understood that time
is a very precious commodity. And this is what was driving
Edwards on this. He understood if he wasted his time and squandered
his time. He could not most glorify God. Resolution number five reads
thus. Resolved. And don't you like
that word resolved? How many people do you know that
are actually resolved? How many people do you know that
are actually intentionally, purposely living their Christian lives
and who are not like the wave of the sea being tossed back
and forth? How many people do you know that
are not taking the path of least resistance, but are taking the
path of greatest resistance to the extent that they are being
pointed into the center of living for eternity? Jonathan Edwards
was determined He was resolved. He would not become subject to
the tyranny of the urgent, the latest emergency to be thrown
at his feet. No, he had set the priorities
for his life and his priorities would dictate the decisions that
he would make. Resolved. Never to lose one moment of time,
but to improve it the most profitable way I possibly can." As Edwards
said this, he understood that I can only glorify God in this
life, in the prescribed amount of time that God has given to
me to be alive on this earth, Therefore, this time is precious,
and it is invaluable, and it is like liquid gold, and I cannot
waste, and I cannot squander one moment of time, because it
is in the proper and most efficient use of my time that I will glorify
God. If I use my time most wisely,
I can most glorify God with what is put in front of me. So he
said, I have no time to lose. He would argue that riches can
be lost and then later regained, but not time. Once time is forfeited
and lost, it can never be replaced. Now, Jonathan Edwards had such
a high view of the sovereignty of God, he understood a very
basic truth, which is, But the number of days and the
number of hours and the number of seconds that we have to live
upon this earth have already been sovereignly preordained
by God. From before the foundation of
the world, God determined the moment of my birth. And He has
determined the moment of my death. And everything in between is
what God has sovereignly ordained for me to live, and it is the
perfect number of days, and it is the most wise number of days
that could be chosen for me. Job 14 verse 5, Since His days
are determined, the number of His months is with you, God,
and His limits. You have set so He cannot pass. You cannot pass the predetermined
number of months and days and seconds that you have to live.
Psalm 90 verse 12 says, So teach us to number our days, that we
may present to you a heart of wisdom. God has numbered our
days. We would be very wise to number
our days. Psalm 139 verse 16, "...your
eyes have seen my unformed substance, and in your book they were all
written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was
not one of them." God has ordained the time that
you have to live on this earth. You do not have a second to waste, to live with any other
intention and goal, but to glorify God to the max. Now, to take this further, Edwards
rightly understood that not only had God preordained and prescribed
a certain number of days, but that within that time allotment,
there were designated opportunities to do that which God has appointed
me to do, and that I must capture the moment when those doors swing
open. Those doors will then later be
closed. And I must go through those doors
of opportunity within time. Ephesians 5 verse 16 makes this
very clear. And one of Edward's most powerful
sermons was on this text. If time permits, I would love
to share some of that with you at the end. But Ephesians 5,
16 says that we are to be making the most of your time. The most of our time. This word for time is not chronos,
which refers to clock time, chronology, or a chronometer as a watch.
That's not the word that Paul is using here. Making the most
of the time that you have. It is kairos. which means a season
or opportunity, a fixed period within time in which you are
given divine opportunities to do something for God. We often call them divine appointments.
A prearranged, divinely arranged season of time. Windows of time
that are opened by God for us to do something to glorify Him. And those open doors will soon
shut. Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while
He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.
Psalm 69, 13. Oh Lord, my prayer to You is
in an acceptable time. Psalm 32, 6. Let everyone who
is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. There
are times when God may be found. There are times when God may
not be found. There are times when God is near. There are times
when God is far away. Luke 14, verse 13. There is a
time for Satan to advance against Christ to tempt Him in the wilderness.
And there are times for Satan to withdraw and then come back
again at a more opportune time. There are opportune times in
your life to do certain things today, this moment, that you
will not have at other times in your Christian life. Dads,
you have opportunities with your sons and daughters today that
you will not have next year. They are They cannot be replicated
again. We must seize the moment. Edwards understood this. And
so therefore, he was a driven man, even as a young man, that
he must buy up the time, he must seize the moment, he must live
every day knowing that, I do not have time to waste or to
squander. There was a pace about his life,
there was a press about his life, that he must do the works of
God while it is day, for when night comes, no man can work. Do you feel that press of eternity
upon your life? Do you wake up sensing that this
is a day which the Lord has made, I shall rejoice and be glad in
it? That God has preordained good works for me to walk in?
That I'm living in a sense of destiny every moment of every
day? Would you say to God, God stamp
eternity upon my eyeballs? That would greatly affect The
use of your time this afternoon would greatly affect the use
of your time tonight. It would greatly affect how much
television do you watch? How much do you sleep? When do
you go to sleep? When do you wake up? How much
do you read the Bible? How much do you pray? How much
do you witness? Are you intentional? Are you
resolved? You only have so little time. Edwards said in this resolution
that he wanted to improve it the most profitable way. He understood he had to be very
strategic. that he had to be very thoughtful, that he had
to be very scrutinizing in how he improved the use of his time. In Ephesians 5, verse 15 and
following, the Scripture reads, Therefore be careful how you
walk, not as unwise men, but as wise. Making the most of your
time because the days are evil. That verb, making the most, ex-agorizo,
means to redeem. In the old King James, it says
redeeming the time. It means to buy it up. The imagery
here is going into the marketplace. And something is offered for
sale now that will not be for sale later. And if you're going
to purchase it, you must purchase it now. Almost as if there is
a sale and it is offered now at this price, and if you are
to have it at this price, you must have it now and purchase
it now. There must be an exchange. You
cannot come back to the same place in the same marketplace
next week and expect to be able to purchase this commodity. If
you're to have it, you must have it now. You can't not procrastinate. You cannot put off the time.
The business transaction with the one who is selling, it must
be secured now. Redeem the time for the days
are evil. And Edwards understood that these doors of opportunity
would swing open in life. And when they swing open, he
must move in and he must buy up that time. When I went to college, I went
to Texas Tech University. I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.
I went out on a football scholarship. And when I went out to college,
it seemed like I went to the moon. a long ways away from rivers
and lakes and green grass and trees. Out to the barren country of
West Texas. It was a huge family event. My
family had a Volkswagen bus. We were not hippies at that time,
but we were in this Volkswagen bus My father, my mother, myself,
my brother, my sister, and we all drove. Took us a couple days
to get to Lubbock. I'm the oldest child. This was
a huge step. And I remember moving into the
dorm and my father and my mother carefully helping me gather everything
up. putting it in the closet, fixing
my bed, puffing up the pillow, putting a little alarm clock
out, everything you would do. And then my father, at the very end,
he gave me his speech. And I remember he reached into
his pocket and he pulled out a dollar bill. And he said, Stephen, your allowance
for the semester. I was waiting for the answer
for this. My mom was standing right behind him. I remember
your allowance and he gave me the amount. It was an extraordinarily
small amount. And I was doing the math in my
head while he was talking, breaking this down by month, by week,
by day, by meal, this money. And he pulled out this dollar
bill and he began to pull it in opposite corners. No one could
work a dollar bill like my father. He was the most frugal man who
has ever walked planet Earth. To this day, I still have never
had a large Coke. It's always the small Coke and
get the refill. I used to take his ballpoint
pen and I would click it and he would take it back from me
and say, that's one less time it'll work, son. I suppose you're right. So, he said to me, what this amount was. He said,
this is all that there will be. Now, it's going to have to last
you the entire semester. And he said, every time you put
your hand into your pocket and you pull out a dollar bill, I
want you to remember me standing here with this dollar bill. And
I want you to spend every dollar bill wisely. Because when you run out, there will be no more. I knew my dad was serious as
a heart attack. And I knew that my mother would
give me more. As she was smiling behind my
dad as he's giving this speech. She's winking at me. But I have never forgotten that
little speech. And that's the way I must be with the time allotment
in my life. I don't have a day to waste.
You don't have a day to waste. I don't have a morning to waste.
I don't have an afternoon to waste. I remember one man coming
by my office while early in my pastorate and he came by and
he wanted to visit and he came into my office, sat down, said,
how can I help you? And he said, nothing really,
I just wanted to kill some time. I think there are a lot of people
who go through life that way. They're just time killers. And
it would be nice if they would just kill their own time. But
they want to kill other people's time. And you are taking away
from other people their maximum opportunity to glorify God, to
be productive in the pursuit of what God has laid out in His
will. This is not to say there's not
a place for recreation. There's the Sabbath principle
taught throughout Scripture. We must rest. There is the need
for the recreation of recreation. We cannot live full tilt every
moment of every second of every life. It's like highlighting
in yellow every word on a page, then nothing really necessarily
stands out. There is an ebb and a flow of
life, but I want to tell you this, you only have so much time
on this planet to breathe God's air, and to drink God's water,
and to do God's will, and for God's sake, you better get on
what He's called you to do. If He's called you to the ministry,
then get after it. If this is the time to step forward
and to go in a certain direction, then pursue the will of God in
your life. There is only so much time to
do it. Now, I want to give you another
resolution. Bruce, I don't even know what
time it is. When do I finish? I mean, I... Okay. Alright. I'll make anything work. Yeah, Whitfield's last sermon
was two hours, as I told you, up at Exeter, New Hampshire. Resolution number seven. Resolved. Never to do anything that I should
be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life. Edward's purpose to live his
life as Baxter said we should preach, as a dying man to dying
men, as never to preach again. Edward's purpose that he would
focus upon the end of his life and then work back and that he
never wanted to be found doing anything that he would not do
if it were the last hour of his life. And as he studied the Gospels,
he understood that Christ was consciously aware of that last
hour of his life. John 2, 4, My hour has not yet
come. referring to that last hour,
and it was the finish line. It was the conclusion of the
will of God that the Father had charted for Him, and He was pressing
towards that finish line, and He always kept His eye upon that
last hour of His life. John 7, 6. My hour is not yet
here. John 7, 30. His hour had not
yet come. John 12, 27. Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to
this world." John 17, verse 1. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
Your Son that the Son may glorify You. John 19, verse 30. It is
finished. There was no rambling in his
life. There was no weaving all over
the highway. There was no dabbling over here,
and then let me try something else over here. There was a very
mature press about his life as he was pointed to the finish
line and he would not look to the right, he would not look
to the left, he would not look at the others who were running
around him in the race of life. His gaze was upon the finish
line, the last hour of his life. He prepared all of his life for
the last hour of his life. That he would die well. That
He would die without regret. That He would die without saying,
as so many that He had heard, oh, if I had only done this. Oh, if I had only made these
choices and pursued these endeavors. No, when I come to the end of
my life, I want to say, it is finished. And to die like His
Master. In the very epicenter of the
will of God. for his life. Resolved never
to do anything that I should be afraid to do if it were the
last hour of my life. Can you envision the last hour
of your life? Whether it's this afternoon,
whether it is in a month, whether it's in a year, or a decade,
or whenever it is, Who knows what the circumstances will be?
Who knows where that will be? When that will be? With whom
it will be? But unless the Lord returns before
then, that day is fixed on God's calendar for your life. You need
to stay focused and riveted upon the last hour of your life, so
that you will die without regret. That you make choices and decisions
in your life today that will affect the path that you take
when you arrive on that last day. Resolution number 10. This is a resolution that will
grow you up. This is a resolution that will make an 18 year old
young boy appear to be 68, appear to be 78. This will give you
wisdom beyond your years. Resolved. When I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom,
and hell. If you're going to live with
an eternal perspective, and when you face disappointment,
when you face trials, when you face problems, when you face
difficulty, and adversity, and tribulation, you need to keep
that in proper perspective. we have a tendency to become
preoccupied on our troubles. And they grow, and they grow,
and they grow, and they escalate, and they dwarf us, and they intimidate
us, and they paralyze us. And they cause us to be self-centered,
and they defeat us, and they cause self-pity, to arise out
of our hearts. And Edwards said, so that I can
keep everything in rightful perspective, I want to be constantly thinking
about martyrs and souls in hell. To think about those in Fox's
Book of Martyrs. who were strapped to the stake
and gave a witness for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who were literally burned at the stake for their gospel testimony. And in comparison, we virtually
have never had a bad day here upon the earth. Seven years ago, I was forced
out of the pastorate of a church that I pastored. It was a very
painful experience. It's a publicly humiliating experience. family, friends, enemies, foes,
newspaper, television. It's a very painful thing to
go through. To step into a pulpit, to preach
your last sermon, to give your resignation, and then to just
walk out of the building. Do you know what kept everything
in perspective for me? It was reading about the Marian
martyrs in the English Reformation. Reading about those men who preached
what I preach, but yet they were strapped to a stake and were
burned to a crisp. I walked away. I walked out. I got in a suburban. My son drove the getaway car. I was able to stop and get out
of the car and shake the dust off my feet. I was driven home. I had a meal. Next day, I played
golf with my boys. I've never had a bad day. In my preaching Bible, I have
a picture of John Rogers. He was burned at the stake in
1555. He was the first Marian martyr. He was the first to be
torched by Bloody Mary for his evangelical beliefs. In the back
of my Bible, I have the wood carving of John Rogers being
strapped to the stake in London and being burned to death in
front of his church building, in front of his congregation,
in order to try to attempt to intimidate them all. They would
burn the shepherd. Their intent was for the sheep
to scatter. When I read this resolution of
Edwards, I thought, there is much wisdom in this. For all
of us to think constantly of martyrdom and hell. Not that we have some morbid
spirit or martyrs complex, that's not it. But the things that upset
us and the things that stress us out quite frankly, do not
even begin to compare with what the martyrs experienced. And
then he says, and of hell. Now let me just remind all of
us, if every one of us in this room received what we deserve,
we would all be in hell right now. We would have been in hell
from the moment we were conceived. And the day that you sin, you
shall surely die. The fact that we are not in hell
right now suffering the torment of the damned is far better treatment
than any one of us deserve. That is a theological truth. And that helps put everything
in right perspective for my Christian life. I have pressures in my
life right now that are squeezing me and cause my mind at times
to be anchored into those things. And it's not spiritually healthy
for me to become concentrated upon those things. I need to
set my mind on things above and not on things of the earth. But
I also need to set my mind on things below. Souls being tormented
in hell right now. and realize that that mercy that
has been shown to me is so astonishing and amazing that by comparison
of souls in hell right now, I have no problems. I have nothing for
which I can complain. There's no reason for me to have
a pity party. There is no reason for me to
whine. There is no reason for me to be the focus of every conversation
that I'm in, to draw other people into my problems. I'm not in
hell. Jonathan Edwards, as an 18 year
old young man, he purposed that I will think about hell and I
will think about martyrdom, so that everything in my life will
be kept in proper perspective. When I went to London a few years
ago, I landed at the airport, got on the train, took the subway. I wanted to go first to Bunhill
Fields. I want to see where the Puritans
are buried. At that time it was outside the
city limits. They would not allow John Owen
to be buried inside the city limits. They would not let John
Bunyan be buried inside the city limits. Isaac Watts, you're on
the outside looking in. I wanted to go to Bunhill Field
and just stand with those men who have been rejected and many
who have died ignominious deaths. And from there I went to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital. Interestingly enough, that is
exactly where Martin Lloyd-Jones practiced medicine before he
was called into the gospel ministry. And on the backside of the hospital
is a little brass plaque that no one would ever see unless
you are intentionally going there and looking for it, and on this
brass plaque it says, here is where John Rogers was burned
at the stake for his evangelical faith in the Word of God and
the Gospel of Christ. Just to have it etched into my
mind again. But these men paid a valiant price,
a great price, for their Christian faith. And as I live my spiritual
life, resolved, when I feel pain, when I feel disappointment, when
I feel discouragement, to think of the pains of martyrdom and
of hell. Let me give you one more and
then we're finished. Resolution number 50. Resolved. I will act so as I
think I should judge would have been best and most prudent when
I come into the future world. Edwards wanted his present life
to be shaped by whatever would be most important upon entering
heaven. Whatever is important there must
dominate the landscape of my life now. Whatever is of priority
in heaven there, when I enter into heaven, that must be moved
up the list and must be at the top of what is most important
in my life today. Whatever matters to God and Christ
in eternity, in heaven, around the throne of God, forever and
ever and ever, what is ever of highest value in that day must
be as gold and silver in my life today. That is what Edwards is saying. He cites 2 Corinthians 4 verse
18, "...while we look not at the things that are seen, but
at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Edwards chose to live his life
in such a way. that he was not preoccupied with
the visible, but with the invisible, not with the temporal, but with
the eternal, not with the earthly, but with the heavenly. He wanted
his life to count to the maximum for God. So fast forward, if you would,
to the end of his life. So how did Edwards die? What did it look like on the
last day of his life? Well, it is by no coincidence
that after age 18 and 19, Jonathan Edwards did become the greatest preacher, the greatest
pastor, the greatest theologian, the greatest author, who preached
the greatest sermon. It wasn't because he had time
to kill and he was just shuffling through life, looking for something
to do. He had purpose, he had intention,
and he was resolved. He became the third president
of Princeton, following his own son-in-law. And Edwards, you
know the story, the end of his life, as soon as he was inaugurated
and became president of Princeton, He was resolved to write the
history of the work of redemption. It would be his magnum opus.
It would be in the league of Calvin's Institutes of the Christian
Religion. It would be up there with Luther's
The Bondage of the Will. One month into his presidency,
on February 13th, 1759, Edwards was inoculated for smallpox. He was the president, set the
example for the student body. Everyone needs to be inoculated
for smallpox. I, the president, will be inoculated
to show you that it will not harm you. He took the smallpox
vaccination, and tragically, it had the very opposite effect
on him. His throat began to swell to
the point that he could not breathe. His wife, Sarah, was back in
upstate New York, there where he administered to the Indians
on a fifth grade level. He has now come to Princeton,
New Jersey to assume this presidency. He is there by himself with only
his daughter, Lucy, at his bedside. I recently was in Princeton and
went to this very house and went to the very room in which Edwards
died. Dear Lucy, it seems to me to
be the will of God that I must shortly leave you. Therefore,
give my kindest love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon
union, which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such
a nature that I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever. And I hope she will be supported
in her so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God.
And as to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which
I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a father who
will never fail you." Jonathan Edwards had prepared his entire
adult life for this moment. As he came to the end of his
life, he was not a man cursing and shrieking and pulling back
from the horrors of his appointed time. He was a man who had given
himself for the last years since age 18 to the pursuit of this
day. He died as he had lived, glorifying
God. He died suddenly on March 22,
1759 at age 55, only two short months after becoming president
of the College of New Jersey, which would become Princeton. Upon learning of Jonathan's death,
Sarah, still in Stockbridge, packing their belongings, wrote
this note to their daughter Esther. What shall I say? a holy and good God has covered
us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod
and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it. He has
made me adore His goodness that we had Him so long. But my God
lives, and He has my heart. Oh, what a legacy my husband
and your father has left to us. We are all given to God. And
there I am and love to be your affectionate mother, Sarah Edwards." Upon her arrival in Princeton
with their family belongings, She then immediately died herself. And then Lucy died. All in a
matter of months. And when you go to Princeton
now, to the cemetery, there is Jonathan Edwards. And lying next
to him, Sarah Edwards. They both had lived charting
a course for the day of their death that they would maximize
the time that had been given to them to live every moment
of every day in the pursuit of the glory of God. How are you
investing your life? I wonder how much time you have
left upon this earth. How uncertain it is. Only God
knows. How wise of a steward are you
with the opportunities that are around you today? May every one
of us number our days and present to God a heart of wisdom. Let us pray. Our Father, You have sovereignly ordained
that we would be birthed into the 20th century and that we
would be alive in the 21st century. You have appointed who our parents
would be, what our personality would be, what our gender would
be, what our complexion what our physical body would be, what
our gifts, what our abilities. You have appointed the day of
our conversion. You have appointed those people
who would be around us, whose influences would be brought to
bear upon our lives. Even those that have been of
evil influence, you have meant for good. And over it all, you
have caused all things to work together for our good. And you
have already prescripted the end of our lives. Except Christ
return before then, every one of us in this room will die. And we must prepare for that
day now. May you lead us to put one foot
in front of the other on the narrow path as we would continue
our course in this world. I pray there would be a sense
of urgency about our lives, a sense of picking up the pace and pressing
on to the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us run the
race that is set before us Let us not beat the air. Let us buffet our bodies, lest
we be disqualified. Let us run with endurance the
race that is set before us. Let us not become entangled with
sin. Let us be fixing our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. Father, would you bless
these men And as the dust clears from this conference, I pray
that there would be a certainty and a centrality about these
truths that would be secured and anchored into their hearts. May we live as mighty men of
old. May we be as those who turn the
world upside down. Father, I pray that you would
bless these men, that they might be a blessing to countless others,
and that the eternal destinies of others would be altered through
the pursuit of your will by these men here today. I commend them
to your grace and to your Word, which is able to sanctify them
and make them strong. I pray this in the name of Jesus
Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Amen.