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[Mike Abendroth]

God makes men sensible of their misery before He reveals His mercy and love

by Jonathan Edwards

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 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and
seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Hosea 5:15 

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Subject: That 'tis God's manner to make men sensible of their misery and
unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them. 

IN the preceding part of the chapter is threatened the destruction of
Ephraim. Ephraim, in the prophets, generally means the ten tribes, or the
kingdom of Israel, as distinguished from the kingdom of Judah. When we read
of Ephraim and Judah in the prophets, thereby is meant the whole people of
Israel of the twelve tribes, as in verse 12 of this chapter, "Therefore will
I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness." By
Judah is meant the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which were under the
king of Judah, and by Ephraim is meant the ten tribes under the king of
Israel. Ephraim is put for the whole kingdom of Israel, because Samaria, the
seat of the kingdom, the royal city, was in that tribe. In the verse
immediately preceding the text it is declared in what a terrible manner God
was about to deal with Ephraim. (Hos. 5:14) "For I will be unto Ephraim as a
lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, will tear and go
away, and none shall rescue him." In the text God declares how he would deal
with them after he had torn as a lion, etc. And here, 

First, God declares how he would withdraw from them. "I will go and return
to my place;" when I have torn as a lion. I will go away; I will leave them
in that condition. I will depart from them, and they shall see no more of
me. 

Second, what God will wait for in them before he returns to them to show
them mercy. There are three things here signified. 

1. That they should be sensible of their guilt. "Till they acknowledge their
offense." It is in the original, "till they become guilty." That is, till
they become guilty in their own eyes, till they are sensible of their guilt;
in the same sense as the same expression is used in Rom. 3:19, "That every
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God:" that
is, become guilty in their own eyes. 

2. That they would be sensible of their misery, implied in the expression,
"in their affliction they shall seek me." Their calamity was brought upon
them, before God had torn them, and left them. But in their pride and
perverseness, they were not well sensible of their own miserable condition,
as this prophet observes in Hos. 7:9. 

3. That they should be sensible of their need of God's help, which is
implied in their seeking God's face, and seeking him early, that is, with
great care and earnestness. Before, they would not seek God. They were not
sensible of their helplessness, as we learn in the verse but one preceding
the text. "When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then went
Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb." But as we are there told,
he could not heal him, nor cure his wound. And notwithstanding all the help
he could afford, God wounded him, tore him as a young lion, and as he
declares, would leave him, and he should cease going to any other, and
should be sensible that no other could heal, and accordingly come to him for
healing. 

Doctrine. That it is God's manner to make men sensible of their misery and
unworthiness, before he appears in his mercy and love to them. 

I. That it is ordinarily thus with respect to the bestowment of great and
signal mercies. 

II. That it is particularly so with respect to revealing his love and mercy
to their souls. 

III. That they are made sensible of the desert of their sin. 

I. This is God's ordinary way before great and signal expressions of his
mercy and favor. He very commonly so orders it in his providence, and so
influences men by his Spirit, that they are brought to see their miserable
condition as they are in themselves, and to despair of help from themselves,
or from an arm of flesh, before he appears for them, and also makes them
sensible of their sin, and their unworthiness of God's help. This appears
from the account which the Scriptures give us of God's dealings with his
people. Joseph, before his great advancement in Egypt, must lie in the
dungeon to humble him, and prepare him for such honor and prosperity. The
children of Jacob, before Joseph reveals himself to them, and they receive
that joy, and honor, and prosperity, which were consequent thereupon, pass
through a train of difficulties and anxieties, till at last they are reduced
to distress, and are brought to reflect upon their guilt, and to say, that
they were verily guilty concerning their brother. God humbled them in his
providence, and then an end was put to all their difficulties, and their
sorrow was turned into joy upon Joseph's revealing himself to them. Jacob,
before he hears the joyful news of Joseph's being yet alive, must be brought
into great distress at the parting with Benjamin, and supposed loss of
Simeon. He was reduced to great straits in his mind. He says in Gen. 42:36,
"All these things are against me." But soon after this he had these gladsome
tidings brought to him, "Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all
the land of Egypt." And to confirm it, he sees the wagons and the noble
presents, which Joseph sent to him, so that he was now brought to say, "It
is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die."
And so with the children of Israel in Egypt. Their bondage must wax more and
more extreme. Their bondage had been very extreme. But yet Pharaoh gives
commandment that more work should be laid upon them, and the task-masters
tell them they must get their straw where they can find it, and nothing of
their work should be diminished. And quickly upon this was their
deliverance. So when the children of Israel were brought to the Red sea, the
Egyptians pursued them, and were just at their heels, and they were reduced
to the utmost distress. They see that they must assuredly perish, unless God
work a miracle for them, for they were shut up on all sides: the Red sea was
before them, and the army of the Egyptians encompassing them round behind.
And they cried unto the Lord. And then God wonderfully appeared for their
help, and made them pass through the Red sea, and put songs of deliverance
into their mouths. 

So before God brought the children of Israel into Canaan, he led them about
in a great and terrible wilderness through a train of difficulties and
temptations for forty years, that he might teach them their dependence on
him, and the sinfulness of their own hearts. Deu. 32:10, "He found him in a
desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he
instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye." God brought them into
those trials and difficulties in the wilderness to humble them, and let them
see what was in their hearts, that they might be convinced of their own
perverseness by the many discoveries of it under those temptations, and so
that they might be sensible that it was not for their righteousness that God
made them his people, and gave them Canaan, seeing it was so evident that
they were a stiff-necked people. Deu. 8:2, 3, "And thou shalt remember all
the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether
thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did
thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by
bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord
doth man live." And Deu. 8:15-17, "Who led thee through that great and
terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and
drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the
rock of flint; who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers
knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do
thee good at thy latter end; and thou say in thine heart, My power and the
might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth." And so we have examples of
this from time to time in the history of the Judges. When Israel revolted,
God gave them into the hands of their enemies. He let them continue in their
hands, till they were reduced to great distress, and saw that they were in a
helpless condition, and were brought to reflect on themselves, and to cry
unto the Lord. And then God raised them up a deliverer. And when they cried
unto God, he would not deliver them till he had humbled them, and brought
them to own their unworthiness, and to own that they were in God's hands.
Judges 10 beginning with the 10th verse, "And the children of Israel cried
unto the Lord, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have
forsaken our God, and also served Balaam. And the Lord said unto the
children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the
Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? The
Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and
ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken
me, and served other gods; wherefore I will deliver you no more, Go and cry
unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your
tribulation. And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, We have sinned;
do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray
thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and
served the Lord; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." And
this is the method in which God declared from the beginning he would proceed
with his people. Lev. 26:40, etc. "If they shall confess their iniquity, and
the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed
against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also
have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their
enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept
of the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember my covenant with
Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham
will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left
of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without
them; and they shall accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even
because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my
statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I
will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly,
and to break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will
for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought
forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be
their God." It is God's manner, when he will bestow signal blessings in
answer to prayer, to make men seek them and pray for them with a sense of
sin and misery. As 1 Kin. 8:38, 39, "What prayer and supplication soever be
made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the
plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house; then
hear thou in heaven, thy dwelling-place, and forgive, and do, and give to
every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; for thou, even
thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men." By knowing the
plague of their own hearts is meant both their sin and misery. Being
sensible of their misery is included, as is evident from the manner of
expressing the same petition of Solomon's prayer, as it is related in 2 Chr.
6:29, "Then what prayer or supplication soever shall be made of any man, or
of all thy people Israel, when every man shall know his own sore and his own
grief." By which is probably meant his misery and his sin, which is the
foundation of it. Paul gives us an account how God brought him to have
despair in himself before a great deliverance, which he experienced. 2 Cor.
1:9, 10, "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not
trust in ourselves, but in God, which raiseth the dead; who delivered us
from so great a death." How did Christ humble the woman of Canaan, or bring
her to the exercise and expression of a sense of her own unworthiness before
he answered her, and healed her daughter! When she continued to cry, after
he answered her not a word, and seemed to take no notice of her, and his
disciples desired him to send her away, and when she continued crying after
him, he gave a very humbling answer, saying, "It is not meet to take the
children's bread, and to cast it to dogs." And when she took it well, as
owning that being called a dog was not too bad, and owning that she was
therefore unworthy of children's bread, she only sought the crumbs, then
Christ answered her request. And the experience of God's people in all ages
corresponds with those examples. It is God's usual method before remarkable
discoveries of his mercy and love to them, especially by spiritual mercies,
in a special manner to humble them, and make them sensible of their misery
and helplessness in themselves, and of their vileness and unworthiness,
either by some remarkably humbling dispensation of his providence or
influence of his Spirit. 

We are come now,  

II. To show particularly that it is God's manner to make men sensible of
their misery and unworthiness before he reveals his saving love and mercy to
their souls. The mercy of God, which he shows to a sinner when he brings him
home to the Lord Jesus Christ, is the greatest and most wonderful exhibition
of mercy and love, of which men are ever the subjects. There are other
things, in which God greatly expresses his mercy and goodness to men, many
temporal favors. The mercies already mentioned, which God bestowed upon his
people of old: his advancing Joseph in Egypt, his deliverance of the
children of Israel out of Egypt, his leading them through the Red sea on dry
land, his bringing them into Canaan, and driving out the heathen from before
them, his delivering them from time to time from the hands of their enemies,
were great mercies. But they were not equal to this of his people from under
the guilt and dominion of sin. Several of them were typical of this, and as
God would thus prepare men for the bestowment of those less mercies by
making them sensible of their guilt and misery, so especially will he so do,
before he makes known to them this great love of his in Jesus Christ. When
God designs to show mercy to sinners, it is his manner thus to begin with
them. 

He first brings them to reflect upon themselves, and consider and be
sensible what they are, and what condition they are in. What has already
been said proves this. There is a harmony between God's dispensations. And
as we see that this is God's manner of dealing with men when he gives them
other great and remarkable mercies and manifestations of his favor, it is a
confirmation that it is his method of proceeding with the souls of men, when
about to reveal his mercy and love to them in Jesus Christ. 

First, God makes men consider and be sensible of what sin they are guilty.
Before, it may be, they were very regardless of this. They went on sinning,
and never reflected upon what they did. [They] never considered or regarded
what or how many sins they committed. They saw no cause why they should
trouble their minds about it. But when God convinces them, he brings them to
reflect upon themselves. He sets their sins in order before their eyes. He
brings their old sins to their minds, so that they are fresh in their memory
- things which they had almost forgotten. And many things, which they used
to regard as light offenses, which were not wont to be a burden to their
consciences, nor to appear worthy to be taken notice of, they are now made
to reflect upon. Thus they discover of what a multitude of transgressions
they have been guilty, which they have heaped up till they are grown up to
heaven. There are some sins especially, of which they have been guilty,
which are ever before them, so that they cannot get them out of their minds.
Sometimes when men are under conviction, their sins follow them, and haunt
them like a specter. God makes them sensible of the sin of their hearts, how
corrupt and depraved their hearts are. And there are two ways in which he
does this. One is by setting before them the sins of their lives. They are
so set in order before them, they appear so many and so aggravated, that
they are convinced what a fountain of corruption there is in their hearts.
Their sinful natures appear by their sinful lives. There is sin enough,
which every man has committed, to convince him, that he is sold under sin,
that his heart is full of nothing but corruption, if God by his Spirit leads
him rightly to consider it. 

Another way which God sometimes makes use of, is to leave men to such
internal workings of corruption under the temptations which they have in
their terrors and fears of hell, as shows them what a corrupt and wicked
heart they have. God sometimes brings this good out of this evil, to make
men see the corruption of their nature by the workings of it under
temptations, which they have in their terrors about damnation. God leads
them through the wilderness to prove them, and let them know what is in
their hearts, as he did the children of Israel, as we have already observed.
By means of the trials which the children of Israel had in the wilderness,
they might be made sensible what a murmuring, perverse, rebellious,
unfaithful, and idolatrous people they were. So God sometimes makes sinners
sensible what wicked hearts they have, by their experience of the exercises
of corruption, while they are under convictions. Not that this will in the
least excuse men for allowing such workings of corruption in their hearts,
because God sometimes leaves men to be wicked, that he may afterwards turn
it to their good, when he in infinite wisdom sees meet so to do. We must not
go and be wicked on purpose that we may get good by it. It will be very
absurd, as well as horridly presumptuous, for us so to do. Though God
sometimes in his sovereign mercy makes those workings of corruption, and a
spirit of opposition and enmity against God, a means of showing them the
vileness of their own hearts, and so to turn to their good. So God
oftentimes is provoked thereby utterly to withdraw and forsake them, after
the example of those murmurers, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, of
whom God sware in his wrath that they should never enter into his rest. And
they who allow themselves therein, are the most likely so to provoke God.
But it is God's manner to show men the plague of their own hearts by some
means or other, before he reveals his redeeming love to their souls. While
sinners are unconvinced, sin lies hid. They take no notice of it. But God
makes the law effectual to bring men's own sins of heart and life to be
reflected on, and observed. Rom. 7:9, "I was alive without the law once, but
when the commandment came, sin revived." Then sin appeared and came to
light, which was not before observed. Joseph's revealing himself to his
brethren, is probably typical of Christ's revealing himself to the soul of a
sinner, making known himself in his love, and in his near relation of a
brother, and a redeemer of his soul. But before Joseph revealed himself to
them, they were made to reflect upon themselves, and say, "we are verily
guilty." 

Second, God convinces sinners of the dreadful danger they are in by reason
of their sin. Having their sins set before them, God makes them sensible of
the relation which their sin has to misery. And here are two things of which
they are convinced about their danger.  

1. God makes them sensible that his displeasure is very dreadful. Before
they heard often about the anger of God, and the fierceness of his wrath,
but they were not moved by it. But now they are made sensible that it is a
dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They are made in
some measure sensible of the dreadfulness of hell. They are led with
fixedness of impression to think what a dismal thing it will be to have God
an enraged enemy, setting to work the misery of a soul, and how dismal it
will be to dwell in such torment forever without hope. Isa. 33:14 "The
sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who
among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?" Other sinners are told of hell, but convinced sinners
often have hell, as it were, in their view. Their being impressed with a
sense of the dreadfulness of its misery, is the cause why it works upon
their imagination oftentimes, and it will seem as though they saw the dismal
flames of hell; as though they saw God in implacable wrath exerting his fury
upon them; as though they heard the cries and shrieks of the damned.  

2. They are made in some measure sensible of the connection there is between
their sins and that wrath, or how their sin and guilt exposes them to that
wrath, of the dreadfulness of which they have such lively apprehensions, and
so fear takes hold of them. They are afraid that will be their portion. And
they are sensible that they are in a miserable and doleful condition by
reason of sin. Many things in the Scriptures make it evident that this is
God's method. The account we have of our first parents confirms it. They had
a sense of guilt and danger, before Christ was revealed to them. They were
guilty, and were afraid of God's wrath, and ran and hid themselves. They
were terribly afraid when they heard God coming. And doubtless their sense
of their guilt and fear, when they were brought before God, and were called
to an account, and God asked them what they had done, and whether they had
eaten of that tree, whereof he commanded them that they should not eat,
prepared them for a discovery of mercy. God made them sensible of their
guilt and danger before he revealed to them the covenant of grace. And it is
probable that their reflecting upon what God said about the seed of the
woman bruising the serpent's head, soon wrought faith: that it was not long
before the discovery God made of a merciful design towards them was a means
of true consolation and hope to them. Joseph's brethren were brought into
great distress for fear of their lives before Joseph revealed himself to
them. Those who were converted by Peter's sermon were first pricked in their
hearts in a sense of their guilt and their danger. Acts 2:37. And Paul,
before he had his first comfort, trembled, and was astonished. Acts 9:6. And
continued three days and three nights, and neither ate nor drank, which
expressed his great distress. The jailer, before he was converted, was in
terror. He called for a light, and sprang in and came trembling, and fell
down before Paul and Silas. Acts 16:29, 30. Christ's invitation is made more
especially to the weary and heavy laden, which doubtless has respect, at
least partly, to laboring and being weary with a sense of guilt and danger.
We read when David was in the cave, that everyone who was in distress, was
gathered unto him. 1 Sam. 22:1. This doubtless was written as typifying
Jesus Christ, and the referring of those who were in fear and distress unto
him. The expression of flying for refuge, by which coming to Christ is
signified, implies that before they come, they are in fear of some evil.
They apprehend themselves in danger, and this fear gives wings to their
feet. Pro. 18:10, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower." The voice of God
to a sinner, when he gives him true comfort, is a still small voice. But
this voice is preceded by a strong wind, and a terrible earthquake, and
fire, as it was in Horeb when Elijah was there. 1 Kin. 19:11, 12, "And,
behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains
and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the
wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the
earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice."  

Another thing in the Scriptures, which seems to evince this, is the frequent
comparison made between the church spiritually bringing forth Christ, and a
woman in travail, in pain to be delivered. John 16:21 and Rev. 12:2. The
conversion of a sinner is represented by the same thing. It is bringing
forth Christ in the heart. Paul speaks of men's regeneration as of Christ
being brought forth in them. Gal. 4:19. And therefore Christ calls believers
his mother. Mat. 12:49, 50, "And he stretched forth his hand toward his
disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall
do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and
sister, and mother." 

III. They are made sensible of the desert of their sin: that their sin
deserves that wrath of God to which it exposes them. They are not only
sensible of the dreadfulness of God's wrath, how fearful a thing it would be
to fall into the hands of the living God, and to sustain the eternal
expressions of his fierce anger, as well as of the connection between their
sins and this wrath, and how their sins expose them to it, but God is also
wont, before he comforts them, to show them that their sins deserve this
wrath. By a clear discovery of the connection between their sin and God's
wrath, they are sensible of their danger of hell, of which many are in a
measure sensible, who are wholly insensible of their desert of hell. The
threatenings of the law make them afraid indeed, that God will punish sins.
Yet they have no thorough apprehension of their desert of the punishment
threatened, and therefore many, who are afraid, murmur against God. They
charge him foolishly with being hard and cruel. But it is God's manner
before he speaks peace to them, and reveals his redeeming love and mercy in
Jesus Christ, to make them sensible that they also deserve it. Thus Mat.
18:24-26, "And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord
commanded him to be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and
payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him,
saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord
of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him
the debt." Very commonly when men are first made sensible of their danger,
their mouths are open against God and his dealings, that is, their hearts
are full of murmurings. But it is God's manner before he comforts and
reveals his mercy and love to them, to stop their mouths, and make them
acknowledge their guilt, or their desert of the threatened punishment. Rom.
3:19, 20, "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to
them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the
world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law there
shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of
sin." God would convince men of their guilt before he reveals a pardon to
them. Now a man cannot be said to be thoroughly sensible of his guilt, till
he is sensible that he deserves hell. A man must be sensible that he is
guilty of death, or guilty of damnation, to use the scriptural mode of
expression, before God will reveal to him his freedom from damnation. A
sense of guilt consists in two things - in a sense of sin, and in a sense of
the relation which sin has to punishment. Now the relation which sin has to
punishment, is also twofold. First, the connection which it has with
punishment, by which it exposes to it, and brings it. Secondly, its desert
of punishment. When a man is truly convinced of his desert of the punishment
to which his sin exposes him, then he may be said to be thoroughly sensible
of his guilt. Then he is become guilty, in the sense of our text, and in the
sense of Rom. 3:20.  

Inquiry. How is it that a sinner is made sensible of his desert of God's
wrath? A natural man may have a sense of this, though not the same sense
which a person may have after conversion, because a natural man cannot have
a true sight of sin, and of the evil of it. A man cannot truly know the evil
of sin against God, except it be by a discovery of his glory and excellence.
Then he will be sensible how great an evil it is to sin against him. Yet it
cannot be denied that natural men are capable of a conviction of their
desert of hell, or that their consciences may be convinced of it without a
sight of God's glory. The consciences of wicked men will also be convinced
of the justice of their sentence and of their punishment at the day of
judgment, and doubtless will echo to the sentence of the Judge, and condemn
them to the same punishment. Here, therefore, we would inquire how it is
that a natural man may be made sensible of this. First, we shall show what
is the principle assisted. Second, how it is assisted. And third, what are
the chief external means which are used in order to this.  

First, what principle in man is assisted in convincing him of his desert of
eternal punishment? No new principle is infused. Natural men have only
natural principles, and therefore all that is done by the Spirit of God
before regeneration is by assisting natural principles. To observe,
therefore, in answer to this inquiry,  

That the principle, which is assisted in making natural men sensible of
their desert of wrath, is natural conscience. Though man has lost a
principle of love to God, and all spiritual principles, by the fall, yet
natural conscience remains. Now there are two things, which are the proper
work of natural conscience. One is to give man a sense of right and wrong. A
natural man has no sense of the beauty and amiability of virtue, or of the
turpitude and odiousness of vice. But yet every man has that naturally
within, which testifies to him that some things are right, and others wrong.
Thus if a man steals, or commits murder, there is something within, which
tells him that he has done wrong. He knows that he has not done right. Rom.
2:14, 15, "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto
themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing,
or else excusing, one another." And the other work of natural conscience is
to suggest the relation there is between right and wrong, and a retribution.
Man has that in him, which suggests to him, when he has done ill, a relation
between that ill and punishment. If a man has done that which his conscience
tells him is wrong, is unjust, his conscience tells him that he deserves to
be punished for it. Thus natural conscience has a twofold power; a teaching
or accusing, and a condemning power. The Spirit of God, therefore, assists
natural conscience the more thoroughly to do this, its work, and so
convinces a man of sin. Conscience naturally suggests, when he has done a
known evil, that he deserves punishment, and being assisted to its work
thoroughly, a man is convinced that he deserves eternal punishment. Though
natural conscience does remain in the man since the fall, yet it greatly
needs assistance in order to its work. It is greatly hindered in doing its
work by sin. Everything in man, which is part of his perfection, is hindered
and impaired by sin. A faculty of reason remains since the fall, but it is
greatly impaired and blinded. So natural conscience remains, but sin, in a
great degree, stupefies it, and hinders it in its work. Now when God
convinces a sinner, he assists his conscience against the stupefaction of
sin, and helps it to do its work more freely and fully. The Spirit of God
works immediately upon men's consciences. In conviction their consciences
are awakened. They are convinced in their consciences. Their consciences
smite them and condemn them.  

Second, it may be inquired how God assists natural conscience so as to
convince the sinner of his desert of hell? I answer, 

1. In general, it is by light. The whole work of God is carried on in the
heart of man from his first convictions to his conversion by light. It is by
discoveries which are made to his soul. But by what light is it, that a
sinner is made sensible that be deserves God's wrath? It is some discovery
that he has, which makes him sensible of the heinousness of disobeying and
casting contempt upon God. The light which gives evangelical humiliation,
and which makes man sensible of the hateful and odious nature of sin, is a
discovery of God's glory and excellence and grace. But what is it which a
natural man sees of God, which makes him sensible that sin against God
deserves his wrath. For he sees nothing of the excellence and loveliness of
God's glory and grace? I answer, 

2. Particularly, it seems to be a discovery of God's awful and terrible
greatness. Natural men cannot see anything of God's loveliness, his amiable
and glorious grace, or anything which should attract their love, but they
may see his terrible greatness to excite their terror. Wicked men in another
world, though they do not see his loveliness and grace, yet they see his
awful greatness, and that makes them sensible of the heinousness of sin. The
damned in hell are sensible of the heinousness of their sin. Their
consciences declare it to them. And they are made sensible of it by what
they see of the awful greatness of that Being, against whom they have
sinned. And wicked men in this world are capable of being made sensible of
the heinousness of sin the same way. If a wicked soul is capable while
wicked of receiving the discoveries of God's terrible majesty in another
world, it is capable of it in this. God may, if he pleases, make wicked men
sensible of the same thing here. And in this way natural men may be so made
sensible of the heinousness of sin, as to be convinced that they deserve
hell, as is evident in that it is by this very means, that wicked men will
be made sensible of the justice of their punishment in another world, and at
the day of judgment. For then the wicked will see so much of the awful
greatness of God, the Judge, that it will convince their consciences what a
heinous thing it was in them to disobey and contemn such a God, and will
convince them that they therefore deserve his wrath. Which shows that wicked
men are capable of being convinced in the same way. A wicked man, while a
wicked man, is capable of hearing the thunders, and seeing the devouring
fire, of mount Sinai, that is, he is capable of being made sensible of that
terrible majesty and greatness of God, which was discovered at the giving of
the law. But this brings me to the  

Third, thing, viz. the principal outward means, which the Spirit of God
makes use of in this work of convincing men of their desert of hell. And
that is the law. The Spirit of God in all his work upon the souls of men,
works by his Word. And in this whole work of conviction of sin, that part of
the word is principally made use of; viz. the Law. It is the law which makes
men sensible of their sin; and it is the law, attended with its awful
threatenings and curses, which gives a sense of the awful greatness, the
authority, the power, the jealousy of God. Wicked men are made sensible of
the tremendous greatness of God, as it were, in the same manner in which the
children of Israel were, viz. by the thunders, and earthquake, and devouring
fire, and sound of the trumpet, and terrible voice at mount Sinai. All the
people who were in the camp trembled, and they said, "Let not God speak with
us, lest we die." So that it is the law, which God makes use of in assisting
the natural conscience to do its work. Gal. 3:24, "Wherefore the law was our
schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." It is the law which God makes use of,
to make men sensible of their guilt, and to stop their mouths. Rom. 3:19,
"Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them that are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God." It is the law, which kills men as to trusting in their
own righteousness. "For I was alive without the law once, but when the
commandment came, sin revived, and I died." Gal. 2:19, "For I through the
law am dead to the law." Conviction, which precedes conversion, is of sin
and misery. But men are not thoroughly sensible of their sin or guilt, till
they are sensible they deserve hell; nor thoroughly sensible of their
misery, till they are sensible they are helpless.  

Fourth, it is God's manner to make men sensible of their helplessness in
their own strength. It is usual with sinners, when they are first made
sensible of their danger of hell, to attempt by their own strength to save
themselves. They in some measure see their danger, and endeavor to work out
their own deliverance. They are striving to make themselves better. They
strive to convert themselves, to work their hearts into a believing frame,
and to exercise a saving trust in Christ. Having heard that if ever they
believe, they must put their trust in Christ, and in him alone, for
salvation, they think they will trust in Christ and cast their souls upon
him. And this they endeavor to do in their own strength. This is very common
with persons upon a sick bed, when they are afraid that they shall die and
go to hell, and are told that they must put their trust in Christ alone for
salvation. They attempt to do it in their own strength. So sinners will be
striving without a sense of their insufficiency in themselves to bring their
own hearts to love God, and to choose him for their portion, and to repent
of their sins. Or they strive to make themselves better, that so God may be
more willing to convert them and give them his grace, and enable them to
believe in Christ, and love God, and repent of their sins. But before God
appears to them as their help and deliverance, it is his manner to make them
sensible that they are utterly helpless in themselves. They are brought to
despair of help from themselves. There is a death to all their hopes from
themselves. Rom. 7:9. Before God opens the prison doors, he makes them see
that they are shut up, that they are close prisoners, and that there is no
way in which they can escape. Christ tells us in Isa. 61:1 that he was sent
to bind up the broken-hearted, and to proclaim liberty to captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound. Christ was sent to open the
prison to them that are not only really, but sensibly, bound. Gal. 3:23,
"But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith,
that should afterwards be revealed." God makes men sensible that they are in
a forlorn condition, that they are wretched, and miserable, and blind, and
naked, before he comforts them. Christ tells us in John 9:39, "For judgment
I am come into the world, that they which see not, might see; and that they
which see, might be made blind;" meaning, partly at least, by those that
see, those who think they see: having respect to the Pharisees, who were
proud of their knowledge, and by the blind, those who are sensibly blind.
This is emblematically represented by Saul's blindness before his first
comfort. He was blind till Ananias came to him to open his eyes, probably
designed to intimate to us that before God opens the eyes of men in
conversion, he makes them sensibly blind. God brings men to this despair in
their own strength in these ways. 

1. God oftentimes makes use of men's own experience to convince them that
they are helpless in themselves. When they first set out in seeking
salvation, it may be they thought it an easy thing to be converted. They
thought they should presently bring themselves to repent of their sins, and
believe in Christ, and accordingly they strove in their own strength with
hopes of success. But they were disappointed. And so God suffers them to go
on striving to open their own eyes, and mend their own hearts. But they find
no success. They have been striving to see for a long time, yet they are as
blind as ever; and can see nothing. It is all Egyptian darkness. They have
been striving to make themselves better; but they are bad as ever. They have
often striven to do something which is good, to be in the exercise of good
affections, which should be acceptable to God, but they have no success. And
it seems to them, that instead of growing better, they grow worse and worse.
Their hearts are fuller of wicked thoughts than they were at first. They see
no more likelihood of their conversion than there was at first. So God
suffers them to strive in their own strength, till they are discouraged, and
despair of helping themselves. The prodigal son first strove to fill his
belly with the husks which the swine did eat. But when he despaired of being
helped in that way, then he came to himself, and entertained thoughts of
returning to his father's house. 

2. God sometimes, by a particular assistance of the understanding, enables
men to see so much of their own hearts, as at once causes them to despair of
helping themselves. He sometimes convinces them by their own trials,
suffering them to try a long time to effect their own salvation, until they
are discouraged. But God, if he pleases, can convince men without such
endeavors of their own, and sometimes he does so, as must be the case in
many sudden conversions, of which the instances are not unfrequent. By
revealing to them their own hearts, he sometimes enables them to perceive
that they are so remote from the exercise of love to God, of faith, and of
every other Christian grace, as well as from the possession of the least
degree of spiritual light, that they despair of ever bringing themselves to
it. They perceive that within their souls all is darkness as darkness
itself, and as the shadow of death, and that it is too much for them to
cause light. They find themselves dead to anything good, and therefore
despair of bringing themselves to the performance of gracious acts. Thus we
have shown that it is God's ordinary manner, before he reveals his redeeming
mercy to the souls of men, to make them sensible of their sinfulness and
danger, of their desert of the divine wrath, and of their utter helplessness
in themselves. This we have shown to be most accordant with the Holy
Scriptures, as well as with God's method of dealing with mankind in other
things. And we have shown in an imperfect manner how, and by what means, it
is that God thus convinces men. This work is what Christ speaks of, as one
part of the work of the Holy Ghost, John 16:8, "When he is come, he will
convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." It is
God's manner to convince men of sin, before he convinces them of
righteousness. 

I come now to show the reasons of the doctrine. 

The propriety of such a method of proceeding is very obvious. How agreeable
to the divine wisdom does it seem that the sinner should be brought to such
a conviction of his danger and misery, as to perceive his utter incapacity
to help himself by any strength or contrivance of his own, and his entire
unworthiness of God's help, and desert of his wrath. That he should be
brought to acknowledge that God, in the exercise of his holy sovereignty,
may with perfect justice deal thus with him before he appears in his
pardoning mercy and love as his helper and friend. A man who is converted is
successively in two exceedingly different states: first, a very miserable,
wretched state of condemnation, and then in a blessed condition, a state of
justification. How agreeable, therefore, does it seem to the divine wisdom,
that such a man should be conscious of this: first, of his miserable,
condemned state, and then of his happy state; that, as he is really first
guilty, and under a deep desert of hell, before he is really pardoned and
admitted to God's favor, so he should first be conscious that he is guilty,
and under such a desert of hell, before he is conscious of being the object
of pardoning and redeeming mercy and grace. But the propriety of God's thus
dealing with the souls of men will appear perhaps better by considering the
following reasons: 

1. It is the will of God that the discoveries of his terrible majesty, and
awful holiness and justice, should accompany the discoveries of his grace
and love, in order that he may give to his creatures worthy and just
apprehensions of himself. It is the glory of God that these attributes are
united in the divine nature, that as he is a being of infinite mercy and
love and grace, so he is a being of infinite and tremendous majesty, and
awful holiness and justice. The perfect and harmonious union of these
attributes in the divine nature, is what constitutes the chief part of their
glory. God's awful and terrible attributes, and his mild and gentle
attributes, reflect glory one on the other, and the exercise of the one is
in perfect consistency and harmony with that of the other. If there were the
exercise of the mild and gentle attributes without the other, [and] if there
were love and mercy and grace in inconsistency with God's authority and
justice and infinite hatred of sin, it would be no glory. If God's love and
grace did not harmonize with his justice and the honor of his majesty, far
from being an honor, they would be a dishonor to God. Therefore as God
designs to glorify himself when he makes discoveries of the one, he will
also make discoveries of the other. When he makes discoveries of his love
and grace, it shall appear that they harmonize with those other attributes.
Otherwise his true glory would not be discovered. If men were sensible of
the love of God without a sense of those other attributes, they would be
exposed to have improper and unworthy apprehensions of God, as though he
were gracious to sinners in such a manner as did not become a Being of
infinite majesty and infinite hatred of sin. And as it would expose to
unworthy apprehensions of God, so it would expose the soul in some respects
to behave unsuitably towards God. There would not be a due reverence blended
with love and joy. Such discoveries of love, without answerable discoveries
of awful greatness, would dispose the soul to come with an undue boldness to
God. The very nature and design of the gospel show that this is the will of
God, that those who have the discoveries of his love, should also have the
discoveries of those other attributes. For this was the very end of Christ's
laying down his life, and coming into the world, to render the glory of
God's authority, holiness, and justice, consistent with his grace in
pardoning and justifying sinners, that while God thus manifested his mercy,
we might not conceive any unworthy thoughts of him with respect to those
other attributes. Seeing, therefore, that this is the very end of Christ's
coming into the world, we may conclude that those who are actually redeemed
by Christ, and have a true discovery of Christ made to their souls, have a
discovery of God's terribleness and justice to prepare them for the
discovery of his love and mercy. God, of old, before the death and suffering
of Christ were so fully revealed, was ever careful that the discoveries of
both should be together, so that men might not apprehend God's mercy in
pardoning sin and receiving sinners, to the disparagement of his justice.
When God proclaimed his name to Moses, in answer to his desire that he might
see God's glory, he indeed proclaimed his mercy: "The Lord, the Lord God,
gracious and merciful, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth;
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and
sin." (Exo. 34:6, 7) But he did not stop here, but also proclaimed his holy
justice and vengeance: "and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's
children unto the third and fourth generation." (Exo. 34:7) Thus they are
joined together again in the fourth commandment. "For I, the Lord thy God,
am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." (Exo. 20:5) Thus
we find them joined together in passages too numerous to be mentioned. When
God was about to speak to Elijah in Horeb, he was first prepared for such a
familiar conversing with God by awful manifestations of the divine majesty.
First there was a wind, which rent the rocks, and then an earthquake, and
then a devouring fire. 1 Kin. 19:11, 12. God is careful even in heaven,
where the discoveries of his love and grace are given in such an exalted
degree, also to provide means for a proportional sense of his terribleness,
and the dreadfulness of his displeasure, by their beholding it in the
miseries and torments of the damned, at the same time that they enjoy his
love. Even the man Christ Jesus was first made sensible of the wrath of God,
before his exaltation to that transcendent height of enjoyment of the
Father's love. And this is one reason that God gives sinners a sense of his
wrath against their sins, and of his justice, before he gives them the
discoveries of his redeeming love. 

2. Unless a man be thus convinced of his sin and misery before God makes him
sensible of his redeeming love and mercy, he cannot be sensible of that love
and mercy as it is, viz. that it is free and sovereign. When God reveals his
redeeming grace to men, and makes them truly sensible of it, he would make
them sensible of it as it is. God's grace and love towards sinners is in
itself very wonderful, as it redeems from dreadful wrath. But men cannot be
sensible of this until they perceive in some adequate degree how dreadful
the wrath of God is. God's redeeming grace and love in Christ is free and
sovereign, as it is altogether without any worthiness in those who are the
objects of it. But men cannot be sensible of this, until they are sensible
of their own unworthiness. The grace of God in Christ is glorious and
wonderful, as it is not only as the objects of it are without worthiness,
but as they deserve the everlasting wrath and displeasure of God. But they
cannot be sensible of this until they are made sensible that they deserve
God's eternal wrath. The grace of God in Christ is wonderful, as it saves
and redeems from so many and so great sins, and from the punishment they
have deserved. But sinners cannot be sensible of this till they are in some
measure sensible of their sinfulness, and brought to reflect upon the sins
of their lives, and to see the wickedness of their hearts. It is the glory
of God's grace in Christ, that it is so free and sovereign. And doubtless it
is the will of God, that when he reveals his grace to the soul, it should be
seen in its proper glory, though not perfectly. When men see the glory of
God's grace aright, they see it as free and unmerited, and contrary to the
demerit of their sins. All who have a spiritual understanding of the grace
of God in Christ, have a perception of the glory of that grace. But the
glory of the divine grace appears chiefly in its being bestowed on the
sinner when he is in a condition so exceedingly miserable and necessitous.
In order, therefore, that the sinner may be sensible of this glory, he must
first be sensible of the greatness of his misery, and then of the greatness
of the divine mercy. The heart of man is not prepared to receive the mercy
of God in Christ, as free and unmerited, till he is sensible of his own
demerit. Indeed the soul is not capable of receiving a revelation or
discovery of the redeeming grace of God in Christ, as redeeming grace,
without being convinced of sin and misery. He must see his sin and misery
before he can see the grace of God in redeeming him from that sin and
misery. 

3. Until the sinner is convinced of his sin and misery, he is not prepared
to receive the redeeming mercy and grace of God, as through a Mediator,
because he does not see his need of a Mediator till he sees his sin and
misery. If there were, on the part of God, any exercise of absolute and
immediate mercy towards sinners bestowed without any satisfaction or
purchase, the soul might possibly see that without a conviction of its sin
and misery. But there is not. All God's mercy to sinners is through a
Savior. The redeeming mercy and grace of God is mercy and grace in Christ.
And when God discovers his mercy to the soul, he will discover it as mercy
in a Savior; and it is his will that the mercy should be received as in and
through a Savior, with a full consciousness of its being through his
righteousness and satisfaction. It is the will of God, that as all the
spiritual comforts which his people receive are in and through Christ, so
they should be sensible that they receive them through Christ, and that they
can receive them in no other way. It is the will of God that his people
should have their eyes directed to Christ, and should depend upon him for
mercy and favor, [so] that whenever they receive comforts through his
purchase, they should receive them as from him. And that because God would
glorify his Son as Mediator, as the glory of man's salvation belongs to
Christ, so it is the will of God that all the people of Christ, all who are
saved by him, should receive their salvation as of him, and should attribute
the glory of it to him. None who will not give the glory of salvation to
Christ, should have the benefit of it. Upon this account God insists upon
it, and it is absolutely necessary, that a sinner's conviction of his sin,
and misery, and helplessness in himself, should precede or accompany the
revelation of the redeeming love and grace of God. I shall also mention two
other ends which are hereby attained. 

4. By this means the redeeming mercy and love of God are more highly prized
and rejoiced in, when discovered. By the previous discoveries of danger,
misery, and helplessness, and desert of wrath, the heart is prepared to
embrace a discovery of mercy. When the soul stands trembling at the brink of
the pit, and despairs of any help from itself, it is prepared joyfully to
receive tidings of deliverance. If God is pleased at such a time to make the
soul hear his still small voice, his call to himself and to a Savior, the
soul is prepared to give it a joyful reception. The gospel then, if it be
heard spiritually, will be glad tidings indeed, the most joyful which the
sinner ever heard. The love of God and of Christ to the world, and to him in
particular, will be admired, and Christ will be most precious. To remember
what danger he was in, what seas surrounded him, and then to reflect how
safe be now is in Christ, and how sufficient Christ is to defend him and to
answer all his wants, will cause the greater exultation of soul. God, in
this method of dealing with the souls of his elect, consults their
happiness, as well as his own glory. And it increases happiness, to be made
sensible of their misery and unworthiness, before God comforts them. For
their comfort, when they receive it, is so much the sweeter. 

5. The heart is more prepared and disposed to praise God for it. This
follows from the reasons already mentioned: As they are hereby made sensible
how free and sovereign the mercy of God is towards them and how great his
grace in saving them, and as they more highly prize the mercy and love of
God made known to them, all will dispose them to magnify the name of God, to
exalt the love of God the Father in giving his Son to them, and to exalt
Jesus Christ by their praise, who laid down his life for them to redeem them
from all iniquity. They are ready to say, "How miserable should I have been,
had not God had pity upon me, and provided me a Savior! In what a miserable
condition should I have been, had not Christ loved me, and given himself for
me! I must have endured that dreadful wrath of God; I must have suffered the
punishment which I had deserved by all that great sin and wickedness of
which I have been guilty."

  _____  

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Thanks.

 

Charis,

 

Mike Abendroth

 

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2 Tim 1:2b  "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord."

 

"The typical modern Christian breastplate is a little paper bib.  Absolutely
useless!  It's made up of a system, or a method, or a program... 10 to 12
sessions with a counselor.  That's not what you need.  What you need is
about 10 or 12 hours in the presence of God until you sort out the unholy
characteristics in your life and get right with Him." John MacArthur, The
Believer's Armor, Study Notes. Eph. 6:10-24, pg. 33.

 

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