I'll read to you the preaching text. Starting in verse 13. When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, who do men say that I, the son of man, am? So they said, some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered and said to him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of the earth, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Then he commanded his disciples that they should tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ. Please be seated. And let's pray. Father, as we consider your words of wisdom and your living words from the Bible, Lord, help us to see the excellency of the Lord Jesus, that he is the Christ, the son of the living God, and God the son come in flesh. Lord, convince us of these things, not by our own intellect or understanding, but by the illumination of your spirit. All these things we pray in Jesus, amen. Good evening, everyone. So we find ourselves in a situation where Mr. Devin Gay had an opportunity to go to another location to preach, possibly a future call for him in his ministry. I won't tell you where, you can ask him when he comes back. But because of that, juxtaposed with the presbytery meeting this past weekend, all the elders and some of the ministers are just scattered to the four winds. So I'm here to read to you a sermon by Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards was an 18th century theologian and one of the presidents of Princeton Theological Seminary. And the sermon I'm about to read to you is titled, A Divine and Supernatural Light, Immediately Imparted to the Soul by the Spirit of God, Shown to be Both Scriptural and Rational Doctrine. Quite the title. Very often you see older sermons with more elaborate and longer titles, much less of a tagline and much more of an explanation of the thesis. And Jonathan Edwards preached this particular sermon in Northampton, in the year 1734 and was published also as a pamphlet. So I will begin to read his words from here to the end. Christ says these words to Peter upon occasion of his professing his faith in him as the son of God. Our Lord was inquiring of his disciples who men said that he was. Not that he needed to be informed, but only to introduce and give occasion to what follows. They answer that some said that he was John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. When they had thus given account who others said he was, Christ asks them who they say that he was. Simon Peter, whom we always find zealous and forward, was the first to answer. He readily replied to the question, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Upon this occasion, Christ says as he does to him and of him in the text, in which we may observe several things. One, that he knew that Jesus was the Christ. That Peter is pronounced blessed on this account. Blessed art thou, thou art a happy man. Thou art not ignorant of this, that I am the Christ, the son of the living God. Thou art distinguishingly happy. Others are blinded and have dark and deluded apprehensions. As you have now given account, some thinking that I am Elijah, some thinking that I am Jeremiah or some other thing. But none of them thinking right. All of them misled. Happy art thou, Peter, that thou art so distinguished as to know the truth in this matter. God had revealed this to him. The evidence of this happiness declared that God and only he had revealed it to him. This is an evidence of his being blessed. First, as it shows how peculiarly favored he was of God above others, and how highly favored art thou that others that are wise and great men, the scribes, Pharisees, and rulers, and the nation in general, are left in darkness to follow their own misguided apprehensions about the Lord Jesus. That thou, Peter, shouldst be singled out as it were by name, that my heavenly father should thus set his love on thee, Simon Bar-Jonah. This argues the blessed, that thou shouldst thus be the object of God's distinguishing love. And secondly, it evidences that his blessedness also, as it intimates, that this knowledge is above that of any flesh and blood, and any that flesh and blood can reveal. This is such knowledge as only my father which is in heaven can give. It is too high and too excellent to be communicated by such means as other knowledge is. Thou art blessed. Thou knowest that which God alone can teach. God, the author of all knowledge. The original of this, sorry, the original of this knowledge is here declared both negatively and positively It's declared positively as God is here declared as the author of this knowledge. It's negatively declared that flesh and blood cannot reveal it. All moral knowledge and business skill from God. God is the author of all knowledge and understanding whatsoever. He is the author of knowledge that is obtained by human learning. He is the author of all moral prudence and of the knowledge and skill that all men have in their secular businesses. Thus it is said of all Israel that we are, thus it is said of all in Israel that were wise hearted and skilled in embroidering that God had filled them with the spirit of wisdom. In Exodus 28 verse three. Yet flesh and blood reveals this type of knowledge. God is the author of such knowledge but yet not so but that flesh and blood reveals it. Mortal men are capable of imparting knowledge of human arts and sciences and skill in temporal affairs. God is the author of such knowledge by those means. Flesh and blood is employed as the second cause. He conveys it by the power and influence of natural means. God alone, the author of spiritual knowledge. But this spiritual knowledge spoken of in this text is what God is the author of and no one else. He reveals it and flesh and blood reveals it not. He imparts his knowledge immediately, not making any use of any intermediate natural causes as he does in other types of knowledge. What had passed in the preceding discourse naturally occasioned Christ to observe this. because the disciples had been telling how others did not know him, but were generally mistaken about the Christ and divided and confounded in their opinions of him. But Peter had declared his assured faith that he was the son of God. Now it was natural to observe how it was not flesh and blood that it had revealed it to him, but God. For if this knowledge were dependent on natural causes or means, how come How came it to pass that they, a company of poor fishermen, illiterate men, and persons of low education, attained to the knowledge of this truth? While others, the scribes, the Pharisees, men of vastly higher advantages, and greater knowledge in other matters, remained in ignorance. This could be owing only to the gracious distinguishing influence. and the revelation of the Spirit of God. Hence, what I would make the subject of my present discourse from these words is this, doctrine. That there is such thing as a spiritual and divine light immediately imparted to the soul by God of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means. And on this subject I would one, show what this divine light is. Two, how it is given immediately by God alone and not obtained by natural means. And three, show the truth of this doctrine and then conclude with a brief improvement. One, I would show what this spiritual divine light is. And in order to show it, would show first in a few things what is not here and not mere conviction of sin and mere misery. Those convictions that natural men may have of their sin and misery is not this spiritual and divine light. Men in a natural condition may have convictions of guilt that lie upon them and of anger of God and their danger of divine vengeance. Such convictions are from the light of sensibleness of truth. that some sinners have greater conviction of their guilt and misery than others. It is because some have more light or more of an apprehension of the truth than others. And this light and conviction may be from the spirit of God. The spirit convinces men of sin, but yet nature is much more concerned in it than the communication of the spiritual and divine light that is spoken of in this doctrine. It is from the spirit of God only as assisting natural principles and not as infusing any new principles. Common grace differs from the special in that it influences only by assisting of nature and not by imparting grace or bestowing anything above nature. The light that is obtained is wholly natural or of no superior kind to what mere nature attains to. though more of the kind be obtained than would be obtained if men were left wholly under themselves. Or in other words, common grace only assists the faculties of the soul to do that more fully which they do by nature. As natural consequences or reason will, by mere nature, make a man sensible of guilt and will accuse and condemn him when he has done amiss. Conscience is a principal nature to men. and they work and the work that it doeth naturally or of itself is given an apprehension of right and wrong and to suggest to the mind the relation that there is between right and wrong and retribution as well. The spirit of God in these convictions which unregenerate men sometimes have assists conscience to do this work in a further degree than if they were left unto themselves. He helps it against those that tend to stupefy it and obstruct its exercise. But in the renewing and sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost, those things are wrought in the soul that are above nature and of which there is nothing of the like kind in the soul by nature. and they are caused to exist in the soul habitually and according to such a stated constitution or law that lays such a foundation for the exercises in a continued course as it is called a principle of nature. Not only are remaining principles assisted to do their work more freely and fully, but those principles are restored that were utterly destroyed by the fall of man. And the mind thenceforward habitually exerts those acts that the dominion of sin had made it wholly destitute of as a body dead in its vital acts. The Spirit of God acts in a very different manner in the one case from what he doeth in the other. He may indeed act upon the mind of a natural man, but he acts in the mind of a saint as an indwelling vital principle. he acts upon the mind of an unregenerate person as an extrinsic, occasional agent, for in the acting upon them, he doth not unite himself to them, for notwithstanding all of his influences that they may be subjects of, they are still sensual, having not the spirit, as read in Jude 19. but he unites himself with the mind of a saint, takes him for his temple, actuates and influences him as a supernatural principle of life and action. There is a difference that the spirit of God and acting in the soul of a godly man exerts and communicates himself there in his proper nature. Holiness is the proper nature of the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit operates in the minds of the ungodly, but uniting himself to them and living in them and exerting his own nature in the exercises of their faculties, that is of the godly. The Spirit of God may act upon a creature and yet not in acting communicate himself. The Spirit of God may act upon inanimate creatures as the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters in the beginning of the creation. So the spirit of God may act upon the minds of men in many ways and communicate himself no more than when he acts upon an inanimate creature. For instance, he may excite the thoughts in them, may assist their natural reasoning and understanding, or may assist other natural principles, and this without any union with the soul, but may act, as it were, as upon an external object But as he acts in his holy influences and spiritual operations, he acts in a way of peculiar communication of himself so that the subject is thence dominated as spiritual, not mere impressions of imagination. This spiritual and divine light does not consist in any impression made upon the imagination. It is no impression upon the mind as though one saw anything with the bodily eyes. It is no imagination or idea of an outward light or glory, or of any beauty of form or countenance, or of visible luster or brightness of any object. The imagination may be strongly impressed with such things, but this is not spiritual light. Indeed, when the mind has lively discovery of spiritual things, and is greatly affected by the power of divine light, it may and probably very commonly does affect the imagination, so that the impressions of an outward beauty or brightness may accompany those spiritual discoveries. But spiritual light is not that impression upon the imagination, but an exceeding different thing from it. Natural men have lively impressions of their imaginations, And we cannot determine but that the devil who transforms himself into an angel of light may cause imaginations of outward beauty or of visible glory and of sounds and speeches and of other such things. But these are things of vastly inferior nature to spiritual light. Not new revelations apart from scripture. This spiritual light is not suggesting of any truths or propositions not contained in the word of God. This suggesting of new truths or doctrines to the mind, independent of any antecedent revelation of these propositions, either in word or in writing, is inspiration, such as the prophets and the apostles had, and such as some enthusiasts pretend to have. But this spiritual light, and I am speaking of, is quite a different thing from inspiration. It reveals no new doctrine. It suggests no new proposition to the mind. It teaches no new thing of God or of Christ or of another world, not taught in the Bible, but only gives due apprehension of those things that are taught in the word of God. It is also not mere religious insight or affection. It is not every affecting view that men have of the things of religion, that is spiritual and divine light. Men, by mere principles of nature, are capable of being affected with things that have special revelation to religion, as well as other things. A person by mere nature, for instance, may be liable to be affected with the story of Jesus Christ and the sufferings he underwent, as well as by other tragic stories. He may be more affected with it from the interest he conceives mankind to have in it. Yea, he may be affected with it without believing it, as well as a man may be affected with what he reads in a romance or sees acted in a stage play. He may be affected with a lively, eloquent description of many pleasant things that attend the state of blessedness in heaven, as well as his imagination entertained by a romantic description of the pleasantness of a fairyland or the like. and that common belief of the truth of the things of religion that persons may have education or otherwise may help forward their affection. We read in scripture of many that were greatly affected with the things of a religious nature, yet who are represented as wholly graceless, and many of them very ill men. A person, therefore, may have affecting views of the things of religion, and yet be very destitute of spiritual light. Flesh and blood may be the author of this. One man may give another an affecting view of divine things with but common assistance. God alone can give spiritual discovery of them. Secondly, positively what this spiritual divine light is. Divine light defined. And it may be thus described a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word of God and a conviction of the truth and reality of them thence arising. This spiritual light primarily consists in the former of these, a real sense and apprehension of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the word of God. A scriptural and saving conviction of the truth and a reality of these things arises from such a sight of their divine excellency and glory. So that this conviction of their truth is an effect and a natural consequence of this sight of their divine glory. There is therefore in this spiritual light a sense of divinity and excellency of the things of faith. a true sense of divine and superlative excellency of the things of religion, a real sense of the excellency of God and of Jesus Christ and of the work of redemption and the ways the works of God revealed in the gospel, there is a divine and superlative glory in these things, an excellency that is of vastly higher kind and more sublime nature than other things, a glory greatly distinguishing them from all that is earthly and temporal. He that is spiritually enlightened truly apprehends to see it or has a sense of it. He does not merely rationalize believing that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart. There's not only a rational belief that God is holy and that holiness is a good thing, but there is a sense of the loveliness of God's holiness. There is not only a speculative judging that God is gracious, but a sense on how amiable God is upon that account, or a sense of the beauty of this divine attribute. There is a twofold understanding or a knowledge of good that God has made the mind of man capable of in his image. The first, that which is merely speculative and notional, as when a person only speculatively judges that anything is, which by the agreement of mankind is called good or excellent, and that which is most general as an advantage, and between which there is a reward as a suitableness and the like. The other, which consists in the heart as where there is a sense of beauty, amiableness, or sweetness of a thing, so that the heart is sensible of pleasure and delight in the presence of the idea of it. In the former is exercised merely the speculative faculty or the understanding strictly so-called or as spoken of in a distinction from the will of disposition of the soul. In the latter, the will or inclination of the heart are mainly concerned. Thus, there is a difference between having an opinion that God is holy and gracious and then having a sense of the loveliness and the beauty of that holiness and grace. There is a difference between having a rational judgment of how sweet honey is and having a sense of its sweetness. A man may have the former and knows not how honey tastes, but a man cannot have the latter unless he has an idea of the taste of honey in his mind. So there is a difference between believing that a person is beautiful and having a sense of his beauty. The former may be obtained by hearsay, but the latter only by the seeing of his countenance. There is a wide difference between mere speculation and rationalization, judging anything to be excellent and having a sense of its sweetness and beauty. The former rests only in the head. Speculation is concerned in it, but the heart is concerned in the latter. When the heart is sensible of the beauty and the amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension. It is applied in a person's being, in a person's being heartily sensible of the loveliness of a thing, that the idea of it is sweet and pleasant to his soul, which is a far different thing from having a rational opinion of it being excellent. A conviction of the divine truth. There arises from this sense of divine excellency of things contained in the word a conviction of the truth and the reality of them, and that either directly or indirectly. First, indirectly, that in two ways, as the prejudices that are in the heart against the truth of divine things are hereby removed, so the mind becomes susceptible of due force of rational arguments for the truth. The mind of a man is naturally full of prejudices against the truth of divine things. It is full of enmity against the doctrines of the gospel, which is a disadvantage to those arguments that prove their truth and causes them to lose their force upon the mind. But when a person has discovered to him the divine excellency of Christian doctrines, this destroys the enmity, removes those prejudices, and sanctifies the reason and causes it to lie open to the force of the arguments to their truth. Hence was the different effect that Christ's miracles had to convince the disciples from what they had to convince the scribes and the Pharisees. Not that they had stronger reason or had their reason more improved, but their reason was sanctified and those building And those blinding prejudices that the scribes and the Pharisees were under were removed for the disciples by the sense that they had the excellency of Christ and his doctrine. It not only removes the hindrance of reason but positively helps reason and makes even the speculative notions the more lively. It engages the attention of the mind with the fixedness and the intenseness to that kind of object. which causes it to have a clearer view of them and enables it to more clearly be seen in the mutual relations and the occasions to notice them. The ideas themselves that otherwise are dim and obscure are by this means impressed with a greater strength and have a light cast upon them so that the mind can better be a judge of them. As he that beholds the objects on the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them, so that the mind can better judge them, so is the spirit. As he that beholds the objects on the face of the earth, when the light of the sun is cast upon them, is under greater advantage to discern them in their true forms and their mutual relations, that he that sees them in a dim and starlight or twilight, The mind, having a sensibleness of the excellency of divine objects, dwells upon them with delight, and the powers of the soul are more awakened and enlivened to employ themselves in the contemplation of them, and exert themselves more fully and much more to that purpose. The beauty and the sweetness of objects draws on their faculties. and draws forth their exercises so that reason itself is under far greater advantage for its proper and free exercise and to attain its proper end free of darkness and delusion. But a true sense of the divine excellency of the things of God and in God's word doth more directly and immediately convince of the truth of them and that because the excellency of these things is so superlative, there is a beauty in them that is so divine and godlike that is greatly and evidently distinguished from the things that are merely human or that men are the inventors or the authors of. A glory that is so high and great that when clearly seen commands assent to their divinity and reality. And when there is an actual and lively discovery of this beauty and excellency, it will not allow any such thought that is human as work or the fruit of men's invention. This evidence that they are spiritually enlightened, have the truth of the things of the true religion, is a kind of intuitive and immediate evidence. They believe the doctrines of God's word to be divine. and because they see divinity in them, i.e., they see a divine and transcendent and most evidently distinguished glory in them, such glory as, if clearly seen, does not leave the room to doubt of their being from God and not of men. Such a conviction of the truth of religion as this is arising these ways from a sense of divine excellency of them is that true spiritual conviction that there is in such saving faith. And this origin of it is that by which it is most centrally distinguished from the common ascent which unregenerate men are capable of. How this divine light is given by God. I proceed now to the second thing proposed. To show how this light is immediately given by God and not obtained by natural means. Natural faculties are involved. It is not intended that the natural faculties are not made in use of it. The natural faculties are the object of this light. They are the subject in such a manner that they are not merely passive but active. The acts and exercises of a man's understanding are consumed and made use of in it. God, in letting in this light to the soul, deals with a man according to his nature or as a rational creature and makes use of his human faculties But yet this light is not the less immediately from God because of that. Though the faculties are made use of, it is as the subject and not as the cause. And that acting of the faculties in it is not the cause, but is either implied in the thing itself or is the consequence of it. as the use that we make of our eyes in beholding various objects. When the sun arises, it is not the cause of light that discovers those objects to us. Outward means are also involved. It is not intended that the outward means have no concern in this affair. As I have observed already, it is not in this affair as it is in this inspiration where new truths are suggested. For here is by this light only given due apprehensions of the same truths that are revealed in the word of God. And therefore it is not given without a word. The gospel is made use of in this affair. This light is the light of the glorious gospel of Christ. Second Corinthians four, four. The gospel is as a glass by which this light is conveyed to us. First Corinthians 13, 12. Now we see is through a glass. Only God's spirit gives divine light. When it is said that this light is given immediately by God and not obtained by natural means, hereby it is intended that it is given by God without making use of any means that operate it by their own power, or a natural force God makes use of means. But it is not immediate causes to produce this effect. There are not truly any second causes of it, but it is produced by God only and immediately. The Word of God is no proper cause of this effect. It does not operate by any natural force in it. The Word of God is only made use of to convey to the mind the subject matter of the saving instruction. And this indeed, it doth convey to us a natural force or influence. It conveys to our minds these and those doctrines. It is the cause of the notion of them in our heads, but it is not the sense of the divine excellency of them in our hearts. Indeed, a person cannot have spiritual light without the Word. But that does not argue that the Word properly causes the light. The mind cannot see the excellency of any doctrine unless that doctrine be first in the mind, but that the seeing of the excellency in the doctrine may be immediately from the Spirit of God. Through conveying of this doctrine or the proposition itself by the Word so that the notions that are the subject matter of this light are conveyed to the mind of the Word of God by the Word of God. But the due sense of heart wherein this light formally consists is immediately by the Spirit of God as, for instance, that notion that there is a Christ and that Christ is holy and gracious and is conveyed to the mind by the Word of God. But the sense of the excellency of Christ by reason of that holiness and grace is nevertheless immediately the work of the Holy Spirit. I will conclude with a very brief improvement of what has been said. First, this doctrine may lead us to reflect on the goodness of God that has so ordered it, that a saving evidence of truth of the gospel is such as attainable by persons of means and capacities and advantages, as well as those are of the greatest parts of learning. If the evidence of the gospel demands only on history, and depends only on history, and such reasonings are learned, and such reasonings as learned men are only capable of, it would be above the reach for the greatest part of mankind. But persons with an ordinary degree of knowledge are capable, without long and suitable training of reasoning, to see this divine excellency of the things of religion. They are capable of being taught by the Spirit of God as well as learned men. The evidence that is this way obtained is vastly better and more satisfying than can be obtained by the arguings of those who are more learned and greatest masters of reason. Secondly, the doctrine may well put upon us examining ourselves whether we have this divine light or not that has been described. Let into our souls If there be such a need, and there be such a thing indeed, and it should not be a notion or a whimsy of persons of weak, determined brains, then doubtless it is a thing of great importance, whether we have been thus taught by the Spirit of God, whether the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, hath shined unto us, giving us the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. whether we have seen God and believed on him, or have the faith of the gospel doctrines, which arises from the spiritual sight of Christ. And thirdly, all may hence be exhorted earnestly to seek this spiritual light, to influence and move to it, the following things may be considered. That one, this is the most excellent and divine wisdom that any creature is capable of. It is more excellent than any human learning, It is far more excellent than all the knowledge of the greatest philosophers or statement. Yea, the least glimpse of the glory of God in the face of Christ doth more exalt the soul than all of the knowledge that those have speculated in the history of the world. This knowledge has been the most noble object that is or can be the divine glory and the excellence of God in Christ. Two, this knowledge is that which all is that which above all others is sweet and joyful. Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge and studies of natural things, but this is nothing to that joy which arises from divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a new view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful and capable of delighting the eye or the understanding. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart. there is nothing more powerful as this to support persons in affliction and to give the mind peace and brightness in a stormy and dark world. And third, this light is such as effectually influences the inclination and changes the nature of the soul. It assimilates the nature to the divine nature and changes the soul into an image of the same glory that is beheld. Second Corinthians 3.18 reads, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord. This knowledge will wean from the world and raise the inclination into heavenly things. It will turn the heart of God It will turn the heart to God as the fountain of the good and to choose him for their only portion. This light and this light only will bring the soul to a saving close with Christ. It conforms the heart to the gospel, mortifies its enmity and opposition against the scheme of salvation therein revealed. It causes the heart to embrace the joyful tidings and adhere entirely thereunto and acquiesce in the revelation of Christ as our savior. It causes the whole soul to accord and synchronize with it, admitting it with entire credit and respect, cleaving to it with full inclination and affection. It effectually disposes the soul to give itself up entirely to Christ. And lastly, this light and only this light has its fruit in a universal holiness of life. No mere notional or speculative understanding of the doctrines of religion will ever bring us to this, But this light, as it reaches the bottom of the heart and changes the nature, so it will effectually dispose to a universal obedience. It shows God's worthiness to be obeyed and served. It draws forth the heart in a sincere love to God, which is the only principle of a true, gracious, and universal obedience. and it convinces us of the reality of those glorious rewards that God has promised to them that obey him in spirit and in truth. Those are the words from our forefather, Jonathan Edwards. I'll end up sending this to the church to read in your personal devotions, but let us pray. Lord, we thank you that we are not left unto ourselves to navigate this life without the Spirit of God. Lord, we know that we may have a knowledge, a head knowledge of the things of God and the things of Christ, but Lord, as we read and were exhorted by our forefather in the faith and from your word, help us, Lord, to have a true heart knowledge of saving truth. Help us to see the excellency and savor the sweetness of the Lord Jesus Christ. One may know that honey is sweet, but help us to think about the sweetness of it as we have experienced in the changed life that you have given us through your spirit, this divine and supernatural light given to us freely. And Lord, as we sing your praises and end worship today, Help us to be encouraged in this knowledge and in this truth. All these things we pray in Christ, amen.