Will grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to welcome all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus to Dayspring Fellowship and to our 45th anniversary conference celebration. We are just delighted that you are here with us. And I want to encourage you to find a red hymnal. We're going to be in the red Trinity hymnal for this opening part of our conference. and you can go ahead and turn if you want to in that red hymnal to hymn number 30. We're going to sing hymn 30 in a moment. But before we do, I just want to talk a little bit about why we're here, what we're celebrating, and what we're going to be doing this Saturday. So delighted that you have chosen to spend your Saturday with us to celebrate God's grace and mercy to Dayspring Fellowship and to this local church and to the 45 years that God has blessed and sustained us and persevered us firm in our faith to this point. And that's what we're celebrating today. We're celebrating the gospel. For those of you who are newer to Dayspring or who are visiting us today, I want to give just a brief overview of some of the history of this local church that we're celebrating. So it was formed in 1978 out of a Bible study that began in the home of Jackson and Barbara Boyette. Jackson Boyette was the founding pastor. And in preparation for today, I actually went back last night and listened to a message that Jackson gave on our anniversary from 1998, so our 20th anniversary as a church. This is before I ever came to Day Spring. And he told a little bit of the story, and it was fascinating. The one thing that he said that I'd never heard him say before, was how ashamed he was for being an Arminian. He talked about the shame that he felt having believed that you could actually lose your salvation after being saved. And that's what he believed. In 1978, when this church was formed, he was an Arminian and a Baptist. And two years later, He became a Calvinist and convinced of the doctrines of grace, and really the five solas of the Reformation and the five points of Calvinism became central doctrines to this church. And he began to teach these doctrines and to preach them in May of 1980. He said that one couple was opposed to the doctrines, but everyone else was open. And he taught and he preached and he said that starting in May, working through the doctrines of grace, by October, the whole church had become Calvinists. And there was no church split. It was just, he called it a revival. It was a revival. And he was convinced that if only the other churches could just reclaim these great historic doctrines that they would experience revival to. And he began to put on this Texas Conference on Reform Theology and bring in great renowned speakers like Sinclair Ferguson and J.I. Packer and Dr. Tom Nettles, who is with us this morning, was a part of that way back in the early days. And so we're celebrating God's faithfulness in bringing those clear and glorious God-exalting doctrines to us and how they have shaped us over the years. We're going to be looking at the life and theology of Jonathan Edwards. And Edwards has been such an influence on this church. If you go to YouTube and search for Jackson Boyette Edwards, you'll find an old video that our brother Larry Wessels preserved and put up on YouTube of Jackson preaching through an Edward sermon titled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And you can tell it's from the 1980s when you look at it. But just a wonderful rendition of such an important sermon, and Jackson did it unabridged. Every word of that is there on that video. Edwards meant quite a lot to Jackson. Jackson was influenced by Edwards. I think it was via reading from, I'm drawing a blank, Martin Lloyd-Jones. And Jackson loved Lloyd-Jones, and Lloyd-Jones loved Edwards. And Lloyd-Jones would talk about a living Calvinism as opposed to a dead Calvinism. And that's really what I think Edwards' project is all about, is the living Calvinism. Yeah, Ben. It would be good for these people to know that Jackson did that centers in the hand Jackson and I have this marvelous memory. And so Ben remembers Jackson preaching, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, from memory. Of course, here in one of the theaters downtown in Austin, Jackson performed in the King James Version, the Gospel of Mark from memory. And all of Austin came out to see him perform. the Gospel of Mark, and then that led to a publication of tape cassettes that the Christian bookstores in town carried of him giving dramatic readings of all four of the Gospels. And that's available on Sermon Audio to this day. We've digitized and uploaded those renditions that Jackson did. So Jackson was very much shaped by Edwards's theology and I think he would be delighted that we are focusing in on Jonathan Edwards for this 45th anniversary and the great doctrines and preaching and life that has influenced and shaped this church. Our guest speaker to lead us in this celebration is Dr. Tom Nettles. Like I said, Dr. Nettles and Jackson go back a long way, so we are coming full circle in a lot of ways to have Dr. Nettles back with us. He spoke in the early days of those Texas conferences on Reformed theology that we had here. He stayed up in the guest bedroom upstairs of the Yellow House on Sunset Lane and remembers Jackson and Barbara fondly, and so it's a great pleasure to have him back. And some of you were there in those days and remember him as a skinny, black-haired man. I was greatly, greatly blessed at the very outset of my seminary training to have Dr. Nettles as a professor. I was at Southern for seven years, but when I first started, it was the fall of 2005, and I was signed up for four classes. I had Greek syntax and exegesis, Hebrew syntax and exegesis, Church History I with Dr. Nettles and the Theology of Jonathan Edwards with Dr. Nettles. And that class on Edwards in particular, as I kicked off my seminary time, shaped my thinking and really shaped my life through seminary and into pastoral ministry. I remember so much from that class. In fact, I had a A pastor friend called me up the other day and said, years ago you and I were talking about how young an age would you baptize a believer. And you were telling me the story about someone who was maybe three years old, converted under Edwards. And I was just instantly able to say, no, four years old, and her name is Phoebe Bartlett, and you can read all about it in A Surprising Work of God, Faithful Narrative, A Surprising Work of God. All of the things that Nettles taught me has stuck with me and has definitely shaped me and my ministry here. So what a great day to be able to celebrate God's faithfulness to us for 45 years as we consider the life and the theology of Jonathan Edwards. We're so glad to have you with us. Before we sing, I do want to Just to see, I want to show a hands of who is here who's not a member of Day Spring Fellowship, not a member of this local church. All right, we got one, two, three, four, five, six who have traveled up to be with us. I wonder if One of you who's not a member of Dayspring would be interested in this old Founders Journal. It's issue 53 from the summer of 2003, which focused on Jonathan Edwards and has the most content here is by Dr. Tom Nettles on Edwards and his impact on Baptists. Would anyone who's not a Dayspringer raise their hand who would want to read that? Daryl, come on, get this. Thank you, brother. Give that to Daryl. And then I have this book by Stephen Nichols titled Jonathan Edwards, A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought, a very helpful book just guiding you through Edwards' life and his teaching. Anyone not from Dayspring interested? Yes, you. What is your name? Kyle. Kyle. If you could get this to our brother, Kyle. Thank you. All right. Well, without further ado, I'm going to ask Jonathan to come up here and lead us in singing some hymns. We're going to do a little congregational singing before we kick off session one, which will be on the life and influence of Jonathan Edwards. Ages past, our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Under the shadow of your throne, your saints have dwelt secure. Sufficient is your arm alone and our defense is sure. Before the hills in order stood, O'er earth received her frame. From everlasting you are God to endless years the same. A thousand ages in your sight are like an evening gone, Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun. busy tribes of flesh and blood with all their lives and cares are carried downward by your flood and lost in following years time like an ever rolling stream bears all its sons away they fly forgotten as a stream Our God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Oh, be our guard when troubles last and our eternal home. All right. To the next page on hymn number 31. Have you not known, have you not heard that from remains on high the everlasting throne of Him who formed the earth and sky? Are you afraid His power shall fail when comes your evil day? And can all creatures Creating our weary or decay. Supreme in wisdom as in power, the Rock of Ages stands. Though him you cannot see nor trace the working of his hands, he gives the conquest to the weak, supports the fainting heart, and courage in the evil all our His heav'nly aids impart. Here human power shall fast decay, and youthful vigor cease. But they who wait upon the Lord in strength shall still increase. They with unwearied feet shall tread the path of life divine. With growing honor onward move, with growing brightness shine. On eagles' wings they mount, they soar. Their wings are faith and love. Till past the cloudy regions, here they rise to heaven above. Amen. Now please turn to hymn number 466. I sought the Lord and afterward I knew. I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him seeking me. It was not I that found, O Savior, true. Though I was found of Thee, Thou didst reach forth Thy hand in mine enfold. I walked in sake, not on the storm-baked sea. T'was not so much that I on Thee took hold, As Thou, dear Lord, on me. I find I walk, I love, but, oh, the whole of love is but my answer, Lord, to Thee. For Thou wert long beforehand with my soul. Always Thou'd love it's me. Amen. Before I call Dr. Nettles up here, I do want to read scripture and pray and then give a short introduction to our speaker. Revelation chapter 5. Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. Let us pray. Our great God, you are worthy. And we thank you for your son. We thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the great truth that you sent your son to pay the penalty of all of your elect, that he bled and died for all of their sins, past, present, and future. Father, we thank you that you have all wisdom, all might, that you are worthy to open the scroll, that you are worthy of all of our worship, and we bow down and worship you today. Father, we pray that as we celebrate your work here among us as a local church that this day would be a day of worship as we rest in you and in the finished work of your son Jesus Christ on behalf of this church and all of your church. We pray, Father, that you would bless this first session and that you would bless our entire conference as you remind us of the great truths that we celebrate today and that you would build friendships and that you would build communion and true fellowship here today by your grace and through the working of your Holy Spirit with your perfect, inerrant, inspired Word. We pray all of these things in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. Well, so good to have you here for this occasion to celebrate God's work among us. And we are very thankful to have Dr. Tom Nettles with us. I introduced him briefly, but I want to just point out to you that Dr. Nettles is a world-renowned church historian. He's here to talk to us about Jonathan Edwards, his life and theology, but he could just as well be talking to us about any figure in church history and probably wouldn't even need his notes. I have been greatly blessed by Dr. Nettle's ministry and particularly his wrestling with Edwards and spending much of his career as a church historian in the area of historical theology. Teaching Edwards, inspiring a lot of young seminarians like myself who've gone out to pastor churches, has just made a tremendous impact. And he has a remarkable gift and love for the church. He, at one time, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think at one time he very seriously considered leaving academia to go pastor a church that really wanted him to come be their senior pastor. In the end, the Lord made it clear that he was to continue to raise up pastors and train them up and send them out. We thank God for his many, many years of service, not only at Southern Seminary, but he taught at Trinity, at Southwestern Seminary, and one other, Midwestern maybe? Mid-America. He has published a number of books. Among his books are By His Grace and For His Glory. For those of you who are Dayspringers, we have that in our library for checkout if you want to check that out. Baptists and the Bible, a book on James Pettigrew Boyce, a Southern Baptist statesman. His magnum opus, in my opinion, is this book titled Living by Revealed Truth, The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles H. Spurgeon. I know that was a labor of love and it's a magnificent work that I encourage you to get a hold of. I almost asked him to come speak on Spurgeon, but I really wanted to let him speak on one of his favorite topics and one of mine as well, which is Jonathan Edwards. So Dr. Nettles, please come. Thank you very much. There, okay, thank you. He kept singing to me and I thought he was saying, you're just, you're kind of mumbling your words, you're nuts. The third one is going to be dealing with a specific area of Edwardian thought that is called sensibilities. Do you have your mic on? It's on now. It's on, okay. You came out probably just as I was turning it on and so you didn't realize. But I've been duly warned now. I'll not make that mistake again. So the third one is going to be on sensibilities. This is a very well-defined area within Edward's thought. He picks it up from Puritanism. It's not something that's new to him, but he develops it with such rigor and with such clarity that it's worth our giving some time to think about because it is something that helps us understand the nature of saving faith. So in this first one, I want to talk about Edward's life. I'd like to begin by reading out of 1 Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 17. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason. that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Now Edwards was a person who recognized that there was a distinct difference between the way the Apostle Paul first heard the gospel and the way Edwards heard it. And he would recognize that there was a difference in their attitude toward Christians and toward Christian ministry. But he would not want to fall behind Paul at all in saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am foremost. There are sections in Edward's narrative in which he so emphasizes his sin and he feels himself more sinful than anyone. And yet if you read about his life, if you read the kinds of devotions that he had, the kinds of contemplations, the way he writes his resolutions, you would think that he could never have been a person that was as aware of indwelling sin as Edwards was. But the language that he uses to describe his sin is just sometimes overwhelming. In fact, it's almost embarrassing. You wonder how a person can actually talk about themselves in that way until you realize how deep a sense that Edwards had of the nature of sin against a holy God, the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever. and ever. So Edwards was born October the 5th, 1703 in East Windsor, Connecticut. His father was Timothy Edwards. His mother was Esther Stoddard Edwards, whose father was a minister also there in New England. He began the study of Latin when he was six years of age under his father and some of his older sisters. He had four older sisters and six younger sisters, so he was the one boy in a family of 11 children. He entered Yale College when he was 13, 17, 16. His early life had two remarkable experiences that he talks about in his narrative. If you are looking for perhaps one book that would be a good introduction to primary source material, this little book here called a Jonathan Edwards Reader. would be a nice book. It has some sermons. It has portions of his narrative. It has some letters that he wrote. It has sections of some of his major writings. And so this would be a nice primary source introduction to the life of Edwards and in his narrative he talks about these times when as a boy, he says, he was much affected for many months and he set up a booth for prayer in the woods. He says he took much righteous pleasure in religious duties, praying five times a day. And he said that as he looks back on it, he realizes that he was the epitome of self-righteousness at that point, thinking somehow that God was quite blessed to have him as one who would pray to him quite as often as that. During his last year of college, he had been struggling with this. He became aware of his sin. He was sick. He had what he called pleurisy. and he says that he was on the verge of death and he said God shook him over the pit of hell at that time and he became deeply aware of the righteousness of God and the justice of God in sending whomever he desired to hell. In 1717 to 1719 He went to Wethersfield because this was a break off from Yale because there was a student resistance to the instability of the tutor system of government there at Yale. And one of the tutors was opposed to this other tutor and led these students to go out to Wethersfield. It's at this time that he read John Locke's work called On Human Understanding. And he says he found greater pleasure than the most greedy miser finds when gathering up handfuls of silver and gold from some newly discovered treasure. Now of course there are many things about the philosophy of Locke that Edwards did not accept, but He was very impressed with Locke's understanding of how knowledge comes through empirical investigation, through the senses. And we'll see this much more strongly when we deal with Edward's understanding of sensibility. Around 1720, he started writing what was called the Miscellanies. He would stitch together 44 sheets of a size called fool's cap into blank folio books. The first entry was entitled Of Holiness. And he defined holiness, he says, holiness is the most beautiful and lovely thing. We drink in strange notions of holiness from our childhood as if it were a melancholy, morose, sour and unpleasant thing. But there is nothing in it but what is sweet and ravishingly lovely. The second meditation was entitled of Christ's Mediation and Satisfaction. By 1758, these miscellaneous observations had filled nine such volumes, and the number of these miscellaneous was 1,360, some of them about a paragraph long, some of them major treatises. In these, he developed concepts that he never repudiated according to Perry Miller. Now, others have said that though he may not have repudiated them, it's very clear that Edwards grew in his conceptual understanding of the subjects that he dealt with. a study of the theology of Edwards by two scholars named McClyman and McDermott. And they believe there was a noticeable development in this. I'm probably somewhere between Perry Miller and McClyman and McDermott. They opt for a little bit more change than I think is really evident because Edwards' understanding was quite mature and quite sophisticated from the very beginning on these areas. And he established himself even at that young age as a person who was quite adept in philosophical understanding of the nature of reality, always submitted to and subdued to the propositions of divine revelation. He talks about how he learned through writing. And toward the end of his life, he was asked to become president at Princeton, which he eventually did, but he was objecting to it. He didn't want to. And we have a good insight into Edward's own perception of himself as to how he learned and what he thought his greatest gifts were. He said, my method of study from my first beginning, the work of the ministry, has been very much by writing, applying myself in this way to improve every important hint, pursuing the clue to my utmost when anything in reading, meditation, or conversation has been suggested to my mind that seemed to promise light in any weighty point. Thus, pinning what appeared to me my best thoughts on innumerable subjects for my own benefit, the longer I prosecuted my studies in this method, the more habitual it became, and the more pleasant and profitable I found it. The further I traveled in this way, the more and wider the field opened, which has occasioned my laying out many things in my mind to do in this manner. if God should spare my life, which my heart has been much upon, particularly many things against most of the prevailing errors of the present day, which I cannot with any patience see maintained to the utter subverting of the gospel of Christ, with so high a hand and so long continued a triumph, with so little control, when it appears so evident to me that there is truly no foundation for any of the glorying and insult. Now he's talking about Daniel Whitby's arguments in which he is defending Arminianism point by point and Edwards was so upset by that and that's what led him to write his famous work on the freedom of the will, that so-called freedom of the will which is supposed to be foundation to all virtuous action and so forth. So that's what he's talking about. He's working on that and he felt that it was a very destructive theological position. He says, I've already published something on one of the main points in dispute between the Armenians and the Calvinists, and I have it in view. God will, as I have already signified to the public, in like manner to consider all the controverted points and have done much towards a preparation for it. Well, some of those books he was able to finish, but they were not published until after his death, like The Nature of True Virtue and The End For Which God Created the World. In May or June of 1721, he experienced what he calls that change by which Alice brought to those new dispositions and that new sense of things. So we'll be talking about that in the third lecture, but just a little bit of an introduction to it here. He records in his narration The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since was on reading those words now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. As I read the words, there came into my soul, and as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the divine being. A new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before. Then later on down in this narrative he says, From about that time I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious way of salvation by Him. An inward sweet sense of these things at time came into my heart, and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations on them. and my mind was greatly employed to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ and on the beauty and the excellency of this person and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him." Well, by August of 1722, about a year and a half after that particular new apprehension began to develop in Edwards, He began a regular preaching ministry at a Presbyterian church in New York. He had a wonderful time at this. He was there for less than a year. And when he left, his narrative describes the things he felt when he left. It was a very deeply moving experience to leave these friends that had been so close to him and that had benefited him so much and with whom he had had so much conversation. And he truly was moved with their friendship and then very disturbed at the fact that he had to leave simply because of the direction that his life was taking in education. He began his resolutions while he was there, which finally reached the number of 70. 34 of them were written before December of 1722. And he says that while he was there, he had that sense of divine things to a much greater degree than he had before. The reason he had to leave is because of the educational advantage. He had to go back and defend his master's thesis. He received his M.A. in 1723. And it's probably at this time that he wrote a famous work that is called his Apostrophe to Sarah Pierpont. And also, probably he wrote the Spider Letter at that time. I'll not go through the spider letter, although it indicates the kind of investigation that Edwards did and how he described spiders and how they made their webs and all of these kinds of things. And it's quite a detailed analysis of spiders. But here he says, they say that there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that almighty being who made and rules the world and that there are certain seasons in which this great being in some way visible or invisible comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight and that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on him. And she expects, after a while, to be received up to where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven, being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always. There she is to dwell with Him and to be ravished with His love and delight forever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her with the riches of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind and singular purity in her affections, is most just and conscientious in all of her actions, and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful if you would give her all the world lest she should offend this great being." I wonder sometimes if these are really accurate observations that he has seen about her and her relationship to God or if this is an overflow of his heart as to how much he's fallen in love with her because of her spirituality. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind, especially after those seasons in which this great God has manifested Himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly, and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure. No one knows for what. She loves to be alone and to wander in the fields and on the mountains and seems to have someone invisible always conversing with her." Well, Edward's considerable powers of analysis that were evidence in his early age prompted the 20th century scholar Vernon Parrington to reflect regret that Edward's mentality was anachronistic and that a potentially great scientist was lost to religion. Parrington failed to appreciate the point that all of Edward's scientific, philosophical, aesthetic, and psychological musing served as an entry point to a discussion of the larger invisible world where God dwelt in infinite sufficiency, bliss, and beauty. All of these disciplines were servants of divine revelation and must be subdued to the assertion of divine revelation in the scripture. In his essay of insects, Edwards gives detailed description of the operation of insects in building their dwellings, providing for their food and so forth. He reflected on how the creator equipped them and how he invested them into the larger natural context. His work on insects was something that was actually taken to England, published there, and some naturalists read it and learned things about the observations that Edwards had made that they had not really seen before. Just one final thing that he does on spiders, after he talks about the webs that they they give and the wisdom of the Creator, the corollaries that he gives, he talks about the wisdom of the Creator and so nicely and mathematically adjusting their multiplying nature that notwithstanding their destruction by this means, meaning they use their webs and they get blown out over the marshes and they fall down in the marshes where the frogs and the fish eat them. So they're having fun while they're making these webs and said it's a great joy for them and they're having all this recreation, but they don't understand that the end of it is that they're going to be eaten by frogs. And he says, but this is the way that God mathematically keeps the same number in the world all the time, though so many are eaten by frogs and by birds and by other things, and yet they multiply at such a pace that this is just God's rhythm in keeping these things in the world. He says, hence the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who hath not only provided for all the necessities, but also for the pleasures and recreation of all sorts of creatures, even the insects, and those that are most despicable. He then shows that in spite of the recreation involved, the purpose of such flying is something totally different. He says, but yet, sir, and this is the person to whom he's writing, I'm assured that the chief end of this faculty that is given them is not their recreation but their destruction, because their destruction is unavoidably the constant effect of it. So he has another corollary. Hence there is reason to admire the wisdom of the creator and to be convinced that he is exercised about such little things in this wonderful contrivance of annually carrying off and bearing the corruption and nauseousness of the air did they not die in such a manner, they would be of no use or benefit in that which they are now so very serviceable, and which is the chief end of their creation." Well, from November to 1723, in February of 1724, not a very long time, he served briefly as a pastor at Bolton. His father was the one who talked him into this and talked the church into calling him. Edwards did not like it. He did not think that he fit in there, but nevertheless, some of the sermons that he preached there are quite remarkable sermons. some of the entries that he makes at this time on minimizing the troubling nature of an affection or thinking and speaking mainly of spiritual joys were written. It's clear that he was having conflict and that he was having internal difficulties with his father having put him there and so he's talking about ways in which people take revenge. He doesn't want to take revenge. He doesn't want to have a vengeful spirit. It says sometimes you can take revenge even in your mind. You can imagine things that you would like to do or that you would like to see happen, though you never act on them, you never say anything about them, but that just shows the vengeful spirit we have. And so he made resolutions about guarding his thoughts, to have no vengeful thoughts at ever. at all. He preached a sermon entitled, The Pleasantness of Religion, while he was there at Bolton. In this sermon he says, Repentance of sin is a sorrow arising from the sight of God's excellency and mercy. But the apprehension of excellency or mercy must necessarily and unavoidably beget pleasure in the mind of the beholder. It is impossible that anyone should see anything that appears to him excellent and not behold it with pleasure. And it's impossible to be affected with the mercy and love of God and his willingness to be merciful to us and love us and not be affected with pleasure at the thoughts of it. But this is the very affection that begets true repentance. Also, his theme of sensibility was present in his preaching there. It was prominent as shown in a sermon entitled, A Spiritual Understanding of Divine Things Denied to the Unregenerate. The eyes of believers are opened and they do, as it were, see divine things. One passage develops the analogy between the senses and the development of human love and how perception of divine love is, as it were, giving a new sense. Thus, with respect to earthly beauty, it is not the hearing of elegant descriptions of a beautiful face that can ever make a person have a sense of the sweetness and amiableness of the beauty. It is not the slight notion of beauty by hearsay that causes love to burn in the heart, but it is the sight of the eye. One glance of the eye doth move, doth more than all the most particular descriptions that can be given. And so it is with an experience of the love of God. We can hear the love of God, we can make propositions about the love of God, we can describe theologically what the love of God does, but it's only when a person has a sense of that love, when it is somehow through the propositions of scripture by the Spirit revealed to the soul that that sense of love actually takes root as a reality in the person's life. Well, he received a call from Yale uh... and this released him from his reluctant stay in bolton this happened early in seventeen twenty four may of seventeen twenty four he was elected to the office of tutor at yale for two years he has worries about the students and he talks about this in his narrative it's it's uh... the kinds of things that he had to deal with was uh... really uh... very distressing and in a letter to one of the students that he wrote he talked about the disorderly conduct of the students, and he just lists all the various things that they go around doing. It sounds like a fraternity party at, well, I shouldn't say University of Texas, should I? Maybe Tennessee or someplace like that. And so he's there, he's this tutor, but he says, but he himself, he's got good friends that are able to encourage him, he's able to encourage them. And so he thinks that's a very difficult thing for those students and certainly an indication of the depravity that exists within humanity. And he describes that quite clearly. He says, after I went to New Haven, I sunk in religion, my mind being diverted from my eager and violent pursuits after holiness by some affairs that greatly perplexed and distracted my mind." In September of 1725, he became ill and sought to go home to Windsor, but he could travel no further than the North Village. He had to remain there for around three months, convalescing being cared for at the home of Ezra Stiles. He experienced some gracious visitations of the Spirit of God during this time. And again, he describes the way in which these visitations would affect him, what they would make him think about his sin, what they would make him think about the grace of God and about the beauty of God and all of these things. Edward's diary and Edward's narrative, when he talks about events, you learn actually very little about the chronology or about geography or about anything. It's always the internal life. He's always describing how all of these things affected him internally. Of course, we'll get into more of that later. In September of 1726, he was called to Northampton to assist his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He settled there in November 1726. He was ordained as a minister in February of 1727. He was given 300 pounds for purchase of land for a house and salary of 100 pounds. Stoddard was 84 years old and in his 55th year of ministry. There had been five different revivals of religion, awakenings that had occurred during the time of Solomon Stoddard. 1679, 1683, 1690, 1712, 1718. So he was a person who was very interested in seeing the the progress of the kingdom of God moved by these awakenings. He thought it would be in this kind of awakening that the millennium would be established. And this view that Stoddard had was greatly influential upon Edwards. And so when the first great awakening came later, Edwards considered that this was the time in which God was going to set up the millennial kingdom. And it was probably going to... the center of it was probably going to be in New England. He was dissuaded of that later, but nevertheless that's one of the influences of Stoddard on Edwards. He married Sarah Pierpont when she was 17, so this was three years after he had written the letter about her. On August the 25th, 1728, their first child, Sarah, was born. They eventually had 11 children, eight daughters and three sons, one child about every two years. Well, Stoddard was the grandfather of Edwards. and Stoddard was a writer in his own. He wrote a book on the righteousness of Christ about imputed righteousness. He wrote a book about the defects of preachers talking about preaching and what is bad preaching and what is good preaching and he wrote a book called A Guide to Christ which was basically a book as to how a minister should regard the evangelistic conversations that he has with people and what to look for as to whether or not there's genuine repentance, whether there's a sufficient knowledge of the gospel and these kinds of things. And it's really quite a remarkable book. So Edwards was influenced by the preaching, the views of preaching that Stoddard had. One thing of bad preaching, we'll talk about this when we look at the preaching of Jonathan Edwards. Stoddard said, bad preaching is when a man uses a manuscript. If you can't talk about your text and just look at the people when you're talking about it, then you're a bad preacher. Well, people accuse Edwards of doing that, and to a degree he did. I think Stoddard was sort of epitomizing a particular talent that he had, and saying that that's the way it ought to be done. But nevertheless, that view was influential upon Edwards, and we see him struggling with that during his life. Also, his view of evangelism, There, this kind, this idea of preparation, preparationism that was orthodoxy in New England at the time. Stoddard was very strong on that. Edwards himself is what I would call a modified preparationist. He did not find that in his own experience all of the steps of preparation for the reception of the gospel actually happen in the way that they said it should happen. And when he analyzed the first Great Awakening, also as he observed the various conversions, he has a section in this analysis of the Great Awakening called the manner of conversion various, yet bearing a great analogy. And so he's looking for both preparationism and for differences in the way that God might deal with people and different doctrines that people might focus on. The love of God, the wrath of God, the condescending mercy of Christ, the glory of Christ, the reality of hell, the glories of heaven. There are all different kinds of ways in which people can be brought into an understanding of God's purpose in salvation. And yet, he says, they bear a great analogy. Eventually, they sort of all come to the same place in an understanding of Christ, and the gospel, and heaven, and hell, and God's justice, and attributes, and all of these things. So, this is something of the remnants of influence of Solomon Stoddard on Edwards. While he was there, before Stoddard died and Edwards became the pastor of the church, one sermon that he preached was called, Nothing on Earth Can Represent the Glories of Heaven, built on Revelation 21 uh... eighteen in which part of heaven is uh... gold as clear as glass he says that we don't ever see anything like that here we don't see gold as clear as glass and so the doctrine of the sermon was that there's nothing on earth that can represent the glories of heaven another one that he preached was all of God's methods are most reasonable we'll have to talk a little bit about the way in which Edwards dealt with reason as it relates to divine revelation but just listen to these ideas that are clear biblical ideas built on propositions of scripture and yet he's saying that all of these are most reasonable he says the first of these that he dealt with was the decreeing of sin He has a long discussion of necessity and liberty and contingency. Talks about what it means to say that a thing is accidental. It's accidental in one way, not accidental in another. But that for God to decrease sin for the reasons that He decrees it is most reasonable. It's not unreasonable to withhold sustaining grace in a state of innocence in the context of clear commands. It's one of his points. He talks about election and reprobation. That these are most reasonable. God deals most reasonably with man in choosing some to eternal life and not others. In the making of covenants. And he talks there about the covenant of works, the covenant of grace, and how this is a reasonable way for a holy God to deal with his creatures. In the giving of commands, his absolute right unto us, his sovereignty over us makes it most reasonable that we should obey whatever he commands. Then the reasonableness of God in punishing those who disobey his commands. And the reasonableness of God, finally, in his providential dealings with all of his creatures. In February of 1729, Solomon Stoddard died. Edwards became the minister. His salary increased to 200 pounds from 100 pounds. At his installation, Edwards preached from 2 Corinthians 4-7. The sermon was titled, Ministers Need the Power of God. the doctrine that he preached was that God is pleased to make his own power appear by carrying on the work of his grace by such instruments as men that in themselves are utterly insufficient for it. Edwards was really engaged with that particular question for many times in his life. Why is it that God has chosen to use sinners, to use men who are weak, not only from the standpoint of their very being as creatures, but from the standpoint of their being fallen creatures. from the standpoint of they are always having to deal with indwelling sin from their lack of clarity of understanding from the fact that they all continue to grow and need to grow and that they will not be perfected until they come to heaven. Why does God use men? Why didn't he send out angels? to do this. And so he has all of these reasons that he gives, and he's quite impressed with it, and it's really an engaging discussion whenever he begins to deal with that issue. He says, the instruments that God makes use of are utterly unable to do it. They're created and sustained by God, they're dead in trespasses and sins, they're captive to the devil. The instruments in themselves are imperfect. They are creatures, and finite, and conversion is a work of infinite power. So they can't do it. They're called to preach the gospel, but they can't convert anybody. They're feeble, they're infirm, they have the same impotency as their hearers. This demonstrates that God's own power and influence is the work. Moses, Jeremiah, the Apostles, all of these he talks about. It says, there was an extraordinary alteration made in them at the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in the day of Pentecost, meaning the Apostles, and they were wonderfully furnished unto their work. So his application in this sermon was God needs no means, but it is a manifestation that he makes use of means for his decreed ends. It is a great honor to be made use of in such a calling. He recalls Jesus' words, greater works than these you will do. Speaking about Jesus' own works, and then he tells the apostles, greater works than these you will do. Well, how does that happen? Well, it's because it's not their power that does it, but it's because of the blessing of the Holy Spirit on them in which he wants to honor and glorify Christ and his completed work. actually bringing about larger numbers of conversion than the preaching of Christ ever brought about. Dependence upon God for the effectuality of the Word and the ordinances. The people are to know and pray in light of their absolute dependence on Him for the success of their minister. Let us be exhorted at this day to look to God for his blessing upon the means of grace, that though he has removed one that had much of his spirit, meaning Solomon's daughter, and whose administration he was wont to accompany with so much of his spirit, that he would still make the excellency of his power to appear by the success of the remaining means, that is, Edwards and his own preaching and his ministry. that he would make it appear that he is able to do the greatest things by the feeblest instrument. Let us, all of us, earnestly pray that he would give us a great treasure, though it be an earthen vessel. Let us give all glory to God when there is any success of the gospel. We have this treasure in earthen vessels." So that's his sermon that he preached when he was ordained to the ministry there at Northampton. He delivered his first public lecture at First Baptist Church Boston entitled, God Glorified in Man's Dependence, built on 1 Corinthians 1, 29, and 30. Christ is made unto us wisdom from God, that is, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He says, God is glorified in the work of redemption in this, that there appears in it so absolute and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him. He proposed it to show two things, that there is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God for all of their good, and second, that God is hereby exalted and glorified in the work of redemption. Another message he preached in 1733 was entitled, The Divine and Supernatural Light Immediately Imparted to the Soul of God by the Spirit of God Shown to be Both a Scriptural and Rational Doctrine. So there's that combination of having a proposition from Scripture and then Edwards using reason to show why that is a reasonable doctrine given all the parameters of biblical understanding. He preached another message, or that message was built on Matthew 16, flesh and blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father which is in heaven. And after a careful reworking of it, it was published in 1734. Again in 1734, in the context of these messages, the Great Awakening began at Northampton through a series of messages on the doctrine of justification by faith. These were eventually published at the request of his congregation. He also preached messages like the justice of God and the damnation of sinners, Ruth's resolution, uh... and uh... the excellency of jesus christ there was a great movement of the spirit there apparently some three hundred people seem to have been savingly wrought upon there were ten above ninety years old fifty above forty years old thirty between ten and fourteen and one four-year-old named phoebe bartlett he has a record of the dialogue that he has with Phoebe Bartlett and a record of how her mother describes what was happening to her. She came out of her closet one time and she said, ah, there's one. And then she said, ah, there's another. And her mother was listening to this and said, what is it you're talking about? My catechism answers. I understand what they mean now. And so she had been catechized and now they were coming back to her mind. Edwards had a discussion with her and said she had clear views of her unworthiness, of her sin, that God had a right to cast her off, and yet Christ was merciful and would receive her if she came in faith. And it proved that she lived all the rest of her life as a devoted Christian. There's also the story of a girl named Abigail Hutchinson. who was like in her forties. She was converted also and he talks about this. He was great at analysis of conversions and showing all the different stages people would go through and he does this in that section that I mentioned a moment ago called the manner of conversion various yet bearing a great analogy. This is his discussion of what he calls the surprising work of God in the conversion of many hundreds of souls in a revival in Northampton in New England. So he first of all gives this historical narrative, then he talks about the manner of conversion various, yet bearing a great analogy, then he illustrates that in the lives of Phoebe Bartlett and Abigail Hutchinson, and then he has warnings about Satan's opposition to this. He warns ministers who are opposing this movement that they may be found to be opposing the work of the Spirit and may put themselves in danger of committing the unpardonable sin. And then he also talks about the negative sides of it, very frank about that. And one of these was the disturbing results of melancholia that would affect some people. And one of his relatives, a man named Joseph Hawley, actually committed suicide. And it seems that this was the thing that sort of stopped the revival. He began to see the evidence of a withdrawing of the Spirit of God. Edward sought to conserve the results of the awakening of preaching on the distinction between true and false faith. In the winter of 1737, he preached on true and false Christians, on the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins. He said the church is espoused to the Lord Jesus. He makes statements of love. There are statements of love between Christ and the church that focus on its bridging a gap of deep separation. He goes into the idea of the kinds of people that have been saved, the kinds of people that God uses, and he goes through the genealogies and he points out the unsavory women that are in the genealogy of Christ to show that God is able to take that which seems to us to be impossible and to work His grace and grant salvation in situations where there would be no human hope at all. It says, the true Christians only receive a deep, real, living conviction of the truth and excellency of divine things. He says, he that doesn't follow Christ for his own sake won't follow Him long. He's talking about people that would become Christians because they felt that there was some personal advantage to it, either a social advantage or a psychological advantage, but they did not have a deep sense, a deep taste of the excellence of Christ himself. And so he explained the way that some people fell away is because they only saw many of the external advantages of professing to become Christians, but they had never had a deep engagement with the glory of Christ Himself. They that don't follow Christ for His own sake won't follow Him long. He admonishes, don't rest in any sort of affection without a real and deep conviction of the reality and the divine excellency of spiritual things. He spoke about how this teaches us the nature of justifying faith. He says, but now the nature of faith, as we have just now heard, is to unite to Christ and to make us one with Him. It is the very act by which we close with Him. And thus it is that faith justifies and gives an interest in Christ's satisfaction and merit, not any goodness or worthiness in the act of faith. justification is not given for faith properly as the reward of faith to reward any goodness that is in the act but it rather results from the nature of faith which is to unite to the mediator through whom justification is to be had." He deals with several points that he gives more formal literary expression to in a work that we will briefly look at called Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God. 1738, he preached a sermon, a sermon series on 1 Corinthians 13 called Charity and its Fruits. I think the book is probably still available. Is it in the works? I think it's in the Banner of Truth edition of the works of Edwards, but it's several sermons on 1 Corinthians 13, and it's beautiful. It's absolutely wonderful, and especially the last sermon, Heaven, a World of Love, is just a marvelous presentation of the ways in which the saints will enjoy the presence and the glory of God in heaven. 1739 he wrote his personal narration. That is when he talks about his past life. He talks about when he became a knowledge of his sinfulness. We'll deal with that when we deal with sensibilities because that's a place where he talks about all the different stages that he went through in becoming sensible of various aspects of Christian truth. In 1741 he wrote the distinguishing marks of a work of the Spirit of God. That's the year also that he preached Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, and he preached it at Enfield, Connecticut, before he preached it in Northampton. Now, distinguishing Marx is based on 1 John chapter 4. He wrote this because he wanted, on the one hand, to approve many of the things that had happened in the revival that people were critical of, but on the other hand, to explain why there were those who were falling away from their initial profession of faith in Christ. he discusses nine phenomena by which a work cannot be judged either negatively or positively concerning the origin as a work of God and each one of these is very insightful but all of them are things that were brought up by those who oppose the revival saying because this happened we know that it cannot be a genuine revival well Edwards would investigate that compare it to biblical data and say well the fact that this happens can be no sure indication that this is not a genuine work of God because these things happen quite often in scripture in the midst of a genuine work of God. And he would give examples of how that. But the fact that it happens is not a sure indication that it is a work of God either. And so he's very balanced, very nuanced in this, but he has nine of those, the effects that it has on the bodies, the effects it has on the mind, creating a great stir and a dew and a noise about the things of religion, the effects on the mind, making impressions on the imagination, the fact that example is used in promoting it. Well, look at them. They believe the gospel. You should, too. And so there's this idea of example, following examples. He said that's no indication that it's not of God or it's not an indication that it is of God. Some people that are wrought upon fall into gross errors of scandalous practices. It's promoted by ministers insisting on the terrors of God's holy law, and that with a great deal of pathos and earnestness. In the midst of this, he's talking about himself, actually. He's talking about the way people criticized him for preaching sinners in the hands of an angry God and some of the sermons of Gilbert Tennant and even of George Whitefield, but I think he has mainly criticisms that were related to him. He says, if I'm in danger of going to hell, I should be glad to know as much as I possibly can of the dreadfulness of it. He does me the best kindness that does most to represent to me the truth of the case that sets forth my misery and danger in the liveliest manner. Then the second part contains five positive evidences that a movement is of divine origin. And these are based on 1 John 4. The first is that it raises their esteem of that Jesus that was born of the Virgin, was crucified without the gates of Jerusalem and so forth. Everything Jesus did in the flesh. He that confesses that Jesus is the Christ, come in the flesh, is of God. And so he talks about the necessity of humanity, why it's important to understand that he came in the flesh, And so that is an evidence when people believe that about Christ. It operates against the interest of Satan's kingdom. It takes the minds of people off corruptible things of this world, removes our affections from the accumulation of worldly profit and pleasure and prestige, and engages us to a contemplation of future and eternal happiness. It gives a greater regard to the Holy Scriptures. John said, He that does not believe us, don't follow them. He that believes us, believes the truth. This is the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, meaning the apostolic writings, the apostolic teaching. It operates as a spirit of truth as opposed to a spirit of error. and it operates as a spirit of love to God and to man. 1 John 4, 7 to the end of the chapter is where he deals with that. He says, "...there is sufficient said in this passage of Saint John that we are upon of the nature and motive of a truly Christian love, thoroughly to distinguish it from all such counterfeits. It is a love that arises from an apprehension of the wonderful riches of free grace and the sovereignty of God's love to us in Christ Jesus. being attended with a sense of our own utter unworthiness as in ourselves, the enemies and haters of God and Christ, and with a renunciation of all of our own excellency and righteousness." Now there were two different spheres, two different periods of this first great awakening. The first was from 34 through 36. And then the second was accompanied by the coming of George Whitefield from 38 to 41. And so there were five years of remarkable awakening. The second part of it was not just in New England. The first part was mainly in New England and in Northampton. But the second part from 38 to 41 actually went from Georgia all the way up to Maine. It was amazing. It was transforming to the colonies at that time. And the itinerant evangelist George Whitefield was one of the main promoters of this. Edwards wrote a letter to Whitefield inviting him to come preach at Northampton, which Whitefield does. And it's sort of a marvel of a letter in which he recognizes that the work of God is going on through Whitefield, the Spirit of God is upon him. He asked Whitefield to pray for him that he would have a portion of that Spirit in his own ministry. It's really interesting the relationships that develop during that time. So Edwards was convinced that all of this was a work of the Spirit of God. He gives warning to those who would oppose and receive no benefit by it. And he instructs those that have benefited to avoid the things that give offense, such as spiritual pride, or an expectation of special revelation, restoration of extraordinary spiritual gifts. He says that's an error. And then developing a spirit of censoriousness toward others. He does another work, this is the third work now on revival. He's done the work, a narrative of the surprising work of God was the first one. Then he did distinguishing marks of the work of the Spirit of God, the second one. Now this third one is called Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion. in New England. And the fourth one is sort of his major theological treatment of the idea of religious experience called religious affections. But in the Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion, it included a series of warnings at the end concerning things to be corrected and avoided during a time of religious excitement. This is a time also that he talks about the best effects of the revival, and he talks about them in terms of someone that he simply calls this person. Well, this person was his wife and he talks much about the way this person could go about the daily tasks that this person was supposed to do and do them with a great faithfulness without failing to do any of them and yet at the same time being aware of the presence of God and being a person of prayer, and being a person of kindness, and generosity, and spirituality, and repentance, and meditation, and all of these things this person did. And he says this is an evidence of what happens when there is a genuine operation of the work of the Spirit of God. Now it's an extraordinary work, But nevertheless, he was using that to demonstrate that the times of the awakening, the extraordinary operations of the Spirit of God, were genuinely at work in many cases. 1744, something happens called the Bad Book Controversy. A midwife's book was used by some of the male youths to intimidate the female youths. They had pictures in it and they would go to these youth groups and they would begin to say things like, I know more about you than you know about yourself. And they would use that almost as like a kind of pornography that they would intimidate. And he called their names out in a worship service, at least the families. He wanted the families to come and meet with him. And so he called the names of the families up. Now, no one knew if these families had young people in them that were guilty of this or had been intimidated by this. And so it seemed to be a blanket accusation. And this began to turn people against Edwards. In 1746, he wrote a treatise concerning religious affections, probably one of the most important books ever written in America, a very insightful look at the nature of true spiritual experiences. 1747, he compiled The Life and Diary of David Brainerd, one of the most influential books as far as missionary work is concerned, influence of missionaries. 1748 the dissension became so strong at Northampton that by 1750 Edwards had been dismissed as pastor. He preached a farewell sermon that was delivered at Northampton based on 2 Corinthians 1.14 which says, as also you have acknowledged us in part that we are your rejoicing even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus." The doctrine was ministers and the people that are under their care must meet one another before Christ's tribunal at the day of judgment. Some people say that this was his taking a little vengeful jabs. will meet at the judgment seat and God will judge you. You read the sermon, that's not it at all. Edwards is aware that he is going to be judged, but he does believe that ministers and those who are under their care will give an account to each other before God for the faithfulness of their biblically prescribed obligations to one another. He then went to Stockbridge. He served as a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians. He preached regularly to the Mohawk tribe there. Some very, very powerful messages. I don't have time to go into these, but there are some that borrowed parts out of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God as he talked with them. He says, in one section, he says, talking to this tribe that had gathered, he says, there the soul shall be cast into a great fire and shall be tormented continually without any rest day or night. Dead bodies shall be raised and then the body and soul will be cast into a great fire along with the devils. God will have no pity on them. They shall have no friends. so that they will have no hope when they think of eternity before them. If you are a great sinner, a wicked person, if you have done wickedness a thousand times, yet Christ is ready to receive you if you will come to Him. He had a series of large writings that he had developed during this time, a strict and careful inquiry into the modern prevailing notions of freedom of the will, the nature of true virtue, the end for which God created the world, and the great Christian doctrine of original sin. defended. He was chosen as the president of the college at New Jersey, Princeton. He had many objections to this. I read one to you about his thinking that his work was more in writing than it was in teaching, but nevertheless they talked him into going. And in 1758 he was inaugurated president at Princeton. He received a smallpox vaccination that failed and he died March the 22nd of smallpox. Let me just have another couple of minutes and go through a brief summary of areas in which Jonathan Edwards has left a substantial, lasting, and stimulating legacy for American Christianity. One is in preaching. We could look at the doctrinal content of his preaching, which we will do in our next presentation. We look at the nature of the application of his preaching, which we will do some also. And we will see the massive synthesis of doctrine and of biblical passages that he uses. Every sermon is a marvel of these things. So it's his preaching. Second, religious experience related to temperament and indwelling sin. All of these books that he wrote on the revival and on religious experience. uh... distinguishing marks of a work of the spirit of god in religious affections all of these things have have created a particular way of talking about that in among evangelicals worldwide he also was a theologian of revival he talks about his divine purpose to bring revival it's dependent upon divine sovereignty He described the distinguishing marks of revival, and he set it forth in such a way that Charles Finney felt that he had to oppose Edwards directly in order to make his own understanding of revival being something that is just the proper use of means, and it is something that is brought about by human faithfulness. His discussions of the will, fourth, his discussion of the wills, the freedom of the will within a causal complex. Fifth, his open display, unabashed display of Calvinism as true Christianity. He really believed that things that departed from doctrines of God's sovereignty and total depravity and the sovereign prerogatives of God and electing whom he would was a strike at Christianity itself. He opposed Arminianism, Deism, Socinianism. He also looked at rationality governed by divine revelation. It's a marvelous application of the gift of reason, the gift that God has given to humans of reason, he describes it in particular ways, but the propositions upon which we reason are developed from divine revelation. The insufficiency of reason to function properly without well-grounded first principles and that these principles must be either provided for or clarified by divine revelation. And then seventh is his theory of application, a life conformed to the whole system, to the whole of his system of divinity. He had no interest in a dull and lifeless presentation of Christianity. He did not engage in doctrinal formulation merely for intellectual stimulation. It was a means of promoting the glory of God. Father, we thank you that we can study about One of the gifts that you've given to the church and the person in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, we pray that that which is valuable in him, we may be able to absorb into our lives as having come from you. We pray that we may share his sense of repentance, his sense of absolute dependence upon you, and his sense of the glory of God now and the endless, unimaginable wonders of heaven. Grant us these graces for Christ's sake, we pray, amen. Thank you, Dr. Nettles. I hope you all have a better grasp of sort of an overview of the life of probably the greatest pastor and theologian to have lived here in North America and so influential upon our churches here today. When we come back from the break, we're going to be in presentation two, looking at the doctrinal preaching of Jonathan Edwards. I look forward to that. But right now, we do have a break of about 20 minutes or more it looks like so I just want to say that especially for visitors as you go out the double doors here Restrooms are on your right and on your left. You'll go into the fellowship hall where we have drinks and refreshments and you can hang out there and get to know one another and visit and I'm sure dr. Nettles will be around if you want to talk to him We do, I want to mention, have a Q&A session at the end. So if you have questions that come up during these sessions, just make note of them, write them down, and you can bring those questions to Dr. Nettles at the end of our time. But you're free to take your break now. Thank you.