Several days ago I had printed a sermon recommended by Monergism.com by Jonathan Edwards entitled “The Sole Consideration, that God is God, Sufficient to Still all Objections to His Sovereignty.”
Last night I read it and was amazed at how it echoed what I had read that morning in R.C. Sproul’s The Holiness of God.
The whole sermon is worth reading. The view of God that Edwards describes is awe-inspiring, humbling, and worship inducing. His text, Psalm 46:10, sums it up well- “Be still and know that I am God.”
Here is the section that especially hammered home the idea of holy justice that Sproul referenced.
It is from mean thoughts of God that you are not convinced that you have by your sins deserved his eternal wrath and curse. If you had any proper sense of the infinite majesty, greatness, and holiness of God, you would see, that to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, and there to have no rest day nor night, is not a punishment more than equal to the demerit of sin. — You would not have so good a thought of yourselves; you would not be so clean and pure in your own eyes; you would see that vile, unworthy, hell-deserving creatures you are. If you had not little thoughts of God, and were to consider how you have set yourselves against him — how you have slighted him, his commandments and threatenings, and despised his goodness and mercy, how often you have disobeyed, how obstinate you have been, how your whole lives have been filled up with sin against God — you would not wonder that God threatens to destroy you forever, but would wonder that he hath not actually done it before now.
Below are a couple of highlights.
In that he is God, he is an absolutely and infinitely perfect being; and it is impossible that he should do amiss. As he is eternal, and receives not his existence from any other, he cannot be limited in his being, or any attribute, to any certain determinate quantity. If anything have bounds fixed to it, there must be some cause or reason why those bounds are fixed just where they are. Whence it will follow, that every limited thing must have some cause. And therefore that being which has no cause must be unlimited.
Being thus infinite in understanding and power, he must also be perfectly holy; for unholiness always argues some defect, some blindness. Where there is no darkness or delusion, there can be no unholiness. It is impossible that wickedness should consist with infinite light. God being infinite in power and knowledge, he must be self-sufficient and all-sufficient. Therefore it is impossible that he should be under any temptation to do anything amiss; for he can have no end in doing it. When any are tempted to do amiss, it is for selfish ends. But how can an all-sufficient Being, who wants nothing, be tempted to do evil for selfish ends? So that God is essentially holy, and nothing is more impossible than that God should do amiss.
As he is God, he is so great, that he is infinitely above all comprehension. And therefore it is unreasonable in us to quarrel with his dispensations, because they are mysterious. If he were a being that we could comprehend, he would not be God. It would be unreasonable to suppose any other, than that there should be many things in the nature of God, and in his works and government, to us mysterious, and which we never can fully find out.
What are we? and what do we make of ourselves, when we expect that God and his ways should be upon a level with our understandings? We are infinitely unequal to any such thing, as comprehending God.
As he is God, all things are his own, and he hath a right to dispose of them according to his own pleasure. All things in this lower world are his; Job 41:11, “Whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.” Yea, the whole universe is God’s; Deu. 10:14, “Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s; the earth also with all that is therein.” All things are his, because all things are from him; they are wholly from him, and from him alone. Those things which are made by men, are not wholly from them. When a man builds a house, it is not wholly from him. Nothing of which the house is made has its being from him. But all creatures are wholly and entirely the fruits of God’s power, and therefore it is fit that they should be subject to, and for, his pleasure. Pro. 16:4 — And as all things are from God, so they are upheld in being by him, and would sink into nothing in a moment, if he did not uphold them. And all things are to him. Rom. 11:36, “For by him, and through him, and to him are all things.” Col. 1:16, 17, “For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities or powers: all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
In that he is God, he is worthy to be sovereign over all things. Sometimes men are the owners of more than they are worthy of. But God is not only the owner of the whole world, as all is from and dependent on him; but such is his perfection, the excellency and dignity of his nature, that he is worthy of sovereignty over all. No man ought in the temper of his mind to be opposite to God’s exercising the sovereignty of the universe, as if he were not worthy of it; for to be the absolute sovereign of the universe is not a glory or dignity too great for him. All things in heaven and earth, angels and men, are nothing in comparison with him. All are as the drop of the bucket, and as the light dust of the balance. It is therefore fit that everything should be in his hands, to be disposed of according to his pleasure. — His will and pleasure are of infinitely greater importance than the will of creatures. It is fit that his will should take place, though contrary to the will of all other beings; that he should make himself his own end; and order all things for himself. — God is possessed of such perfections and excellencies as to qualify him to be the absolute sovereign of the world.
“Be still and know that I am God.”