The Resolutions Of Jonathan Edwards

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Oh, no, no, no, no. Well, thank you for that. I feel so warmly received.
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And I have already been immersed in your New England love. And it's just wonderful to be here with you.
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Scott Brown and Dan have just treated me so wonderfully today. And my wife and my son,
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John, also, who's 16 years old, is here with me on this trip. We've been looking forward to this for really over a year.
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Mike was so kind to invite me almost two years ago to come, a year and a half.
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And so this has been on my calendar. I'm so excited for this weekend to spend this time with you.
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And I know that I'm with like -minded brothers and sisters, so I feel just such a total freedom to preach the word and to share all that's on my heart.
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I do want to say, I know that this church is a lighthouse in this part of the world.
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And God has strategically placed you here. And the influence and the ministry that you have is really an influence that I think uniquely belongs to this church.
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And so the ministry of exposition through Pastor Mike and the way you host conferences and the way you assist other churches by lending out
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God -called men to fill their pulpits, what an extraordinary ministry you have in this part of the world.
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And I just want you to know that our church is praying for your church. Our elders are so excited, as I gave them a report, what's going on in the life of this church.
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And so really, as iron sharpens iron, so one man another, and even one congregation another.
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And let's just keep encouraging one another in what we're doing right now. This conference is called, what is it,
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Big God Conference? I like the title of that already. I don't know that I can quite deliver all your expectations on that, limited man that I am.
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But we shall look tomorrow morning at three Psalms that speak of the sovereignty, the supremacy, the greatness, the grandeur, and the glory of our
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God. And so we shall enjoy that time together. We're going to take it up to the third heavens tomorrow.
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And then on Sunday, for Sunday school, as we're all in here together, we'll look at another
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Psalm. And then Pastor Mike asked me to bring a message on bring the book, and Ezra, and Nehemiah.
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And so we'll do that. I also have a great love for church history. And the reason
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I have a love for church history is so many great men in centuries past have been so faithful during their time in history to preach and to proclaim the
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Word of God. And one of those men is Jonathan Edwards. And so tonight,
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I would like to talk about Jonathan Edwards, but only because Jonathan Edwards was such a faithful minister of the
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Word of God and lived his life in an exemplary way. And I believe that it will be of great encouragement to our hearts tonight to consider how
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Jonathan Edwards pursued the glory of God in his life. If you were to walk into my pastor's study, my pastor's office at the church where I served down in Mobile, Alabama, I have books on the wall, just like your pastor has books on the wall.
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And one of my prized possessions, if not my prized possession, of course, other than my children and wife,
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I have a picture of Jonathan Edwards. That is a huge picture of Jonathan Edwards.
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And Mike, we're going to Yale, I believe, on Monday. And several years ago,
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I called to Yale and talked the librarian or the curator into taking the original picture of Jonathan Edwards off the wall.
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And they laid it on the floor. And then with a ladder, someone climbed up the ladder and took a picture of the original painting of Jonathan Edwards.
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And then they have mailed it to me. And I have all the mildew and everything on this picture.
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And it is a perfect replica of the portrait of Jonathan Edwards that hangs on the wall at Yale University.
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Only a portrait like that, it should be framed in a certain way in a period piece framing.
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And so that required more money than what I had. And so I actually sold all my golf clubs to frame this picture.
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Now, great sacrifice for me. We are a golfing family. And so I sold multiple sets of golf clubs in order to frame this picture.
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And thank you very much. And it hangs on my wall. And I draw inspiration from that, because I want to be faithful like this brother was faithful to the word of God.
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And there is a very real sense in which he looks over my shoulder and watches as I write my sermons and becomes a standard for me of holding to sound doctrine and to rightly dividing the word of truth.
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And so it would be, I think, of great encouragement for us to consider
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Jonathan Edwards tonight in his pursuit of the glory of God. It was none other than the doctor himself,
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Martin Lloyd Jones, who said, quote, I am tempted to compare the Puritans to the
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Alps, Luther and Calvin to the Himalayas, and Jonathan Edwards to Mount Everest.
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He always seemed to me to be the man most like the
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Apostle Paul, unquote. Well, Martin Lloyd Jones is not known for his superlatives when it refers to other people.
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And for him to make that statement, that Jonathan Edwards would be the Mount Everest of church history,
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I think, draws our attention to him tonight. John Piper has said, my best friends are dead men, and enjoys studying church history.
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And I can say that Jonathan Edwards, a dead man, is one of my dear friends as well.
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If you were to ask me who was the greatest American pastor over the last 300 years,
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I would have to say Jonathan Edwards. If you were to ask me who has preached the greatest sermon on American soil over the last 300 years, the answer would be
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Jonathan Edwards. If you were to ask me who has written the most influential book and the greatest book in the history of America and the colonies, the answer would be
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Jonathan Edwards. R .C. Sproul has said that his book on Freedom of the Will is the greatest book ever written by an
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American pen. If you were to ask me who is the greatest preacher in the history of America, the answer would be the same,
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Jonathan Edwards. If you were to ask me who is the greatest theologian that has ever been born on American soil, the greatest philosopher to ever be born on American soil, the answer would be the same, it would be
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Jonathan Edwards. And if you were to ask who is the greatest author to ever be birthed on American soil, the answer,
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I think, remains the same, it is Jonathan Edwards, the greatest pastor, the greatest preacher, the greatest theologian, the greatest philosopher, the greatest author who preached the greatest sermon, and who wrote the greatest book.
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Jonathan Edwards. He did not come by this by mere happenstance.
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Certainly, under the sovereign hand of God, he was brought to such a place of greatness.
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But Jonathan Edwards took deliberate steps in his Christian life as a young man that he might be all that God would have him to be here upon the earth.
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Jonathan Edwards came to faith in Jesus Christ when he was 17 years old.
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And that should be of encouragement to us as pastors because, or all of us as Christian parents, because Jonathan Edwards grew up in a pastor's home and sat under some of the great preaching of the
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New England era, and yet did not come to personal faith in Jesus Christ until he was 17 years old.
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One year after that, Jonathan Edwards entered the ministry at age 18.
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He entered Yale University at age 13, distinguished himself in his schoolwork, and at age 18, for one summer, he became an interim pastor in downtown
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New York on Wall Street, what is presently Wall Street.
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And in order to guide his Christian life as he began to walk with the
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Lord at age 17, at age 18, and at age 19, Jonathan Edwards sat down and he drafted a document.
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That document is called his resolutions. And this document was intended to be a personal mission statement.
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It was to be like a compass for his soul that would point him always to the glory of God.
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Jonathan Edwards, during those teenage years, wrote out some 70 resolutions that were declarations of faith to himself and to his
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God that he would be resolved to live for God with all of his heart, all of his soul, all of his mind, and all of his strength.
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And as Jonathan Edwards wrote these resolutions, they were intended to drive him to live what
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J .I. Packer has called a life that is, quote, God -centered, God -focused,
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God -intoxicated, and God -entranced. And so I want to talk about some of those resolutions with us tonight because they are all dipped in the word of God, and they are all but a reflection of what is contained in the word of God.
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And the preamble to the resolutions that were written by Jonathan Edwards begins this way.
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Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help.
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Now, that is John 15, verse 5. Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing.
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Jonathan Edwards was aware, as a young man beginning to live his Christian life, that he was what he was by the grace of God, that he could only excel in the
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Christian life and progress in the Christian life to the extent that he was humbly dependent upon God's help and God's grace.
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That is a lesson for all of us. So he said, being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help,
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I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these resolutions so far as they are agreeable to his will for Christ's sake.
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So these resolutions are not legalism. He humbly cast himself upon the
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Lord that only God by the power of his Holy Spirit could enable him to carry these out, and he desired to do so only to the extent that they squared with the word of God and the will of God.
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The first four resolutions, the first four of these 70 focused upon the glory of God.
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Jonathan Edwards understood that his purpose on the earth was to bring glory to God.
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1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, whatsoever you do, whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God.
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That was Jonathan Edwards. And so resolution number one, out of the box, began this way, resolved, and that's what we need in our heart tonight, resolved, that I will do whatsoever
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I think to be most to God's glory. That really is the ultimate key for the
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Christian life. Every decision that I make, the ultimate question is, what will most glorify
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God? As I seek to give my time, my treasure, my talent, as I seek to give my life, the fundamental question is always, what will be most to promote the glory of God?
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Who should I marry? Which job should I take? Where should I live? Which ministry should
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I embrace? The overarching hermeneutical principle to interpret the will of God for every one of our lives is always, what will be most to promote the glory of God?
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And so that is resolution number one. The second resolution resolved to be continually endeavoring, to find out some new contrivance and invention to promote the aforementioned things.
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In other words, Jonathan Edwards did not want this to be a momentary commitment that he would make.
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As many say would do, they would go to a conference, go to a camp, and come to a point of great dedication of their life and then go back to their work, go back to school, et cetera, and be back to just the normal, whole home walk.
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No, he said, I want to continually, every moment of every day, be passionately in pursuit of the glory of God.
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And then the fourth resolution, and these first four really serve as the foundation, the launching pad, resolved.
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Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God.
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That I would never do anything, that I would never say any word, that I would never carry out any action or any deed, but what most promotes the glory of God.
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The 63rd resolution really bears my reading, and still by way of introduction into this.
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Resolution 63 was written on January the 14th, 1723, and renewed on July, or reaffirmed on July 13th, 1723.
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Listen to this. What an extraordinary insight for a young man, 19 years old.
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On the supposition that there was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete
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Christian. Jonathan Edwards reasoned, there has to be in every generation, one man, one woman, who would be the most complete
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Christian. Jonathan Edwards said, in this generation, and in my generation, it is my passion to strive with all of my might to be that one
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Christian who would be the most complete Christian in my generation.
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You say, well, that sounds like a prideful thing. Well, do you want to be the worst
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Christian in your generation? Is that your goal? Listen, you've got a martyr's complex.
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Listen, every one of us, deep within our soul tonight, ought to long before God, that God, I will be that one most complete
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Christian in this generation. And the fact of the matter is, we can all be that tonight, by the grace of God.
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So here's how this resolution goes. On the supposition that there was to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete
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Christian, resolved to act just as I would do if I strove with all my might to be that one who should live in my time.
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That was his goal, to live for the glory of God and to do so more than anyone else in my generation.
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Listen, Jonathan Edwards marked the course of his life when he was a teenage boy.
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This didn't just happen, that he became the greatest pastor, the greatest preacher, the greatest author, the greatest theologian, the greatest philosopher.
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America has ever seen. That didn't just happen. There are means to the appointed end.
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And Jonathan Edwards set a course for his life that took him to that destination by the grace of God.
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As we prepare to look at this tonight, I wonder if you, within your heart tonight, would say,
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God, I want to be all of the Christian it is possible for me to be tonight and for the rest of my days here upon the earth.
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By the grace of God, I will be all that you desire me to be.
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Listen, you only have one life to live, and it is so short, and there is no time to waste.
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You have only so much time left here upon the earth. You only have so much of an influence and so much of a witness to give for Christ within your own home and in the community and in the life of this church.
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You must seize this opportunity and purpose to live for the glory of God.
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So, Jonathan Edwards thought through how, how will
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I pursue the glory of God? And beginning with resolution number five and extending through the rest of these resolutions that he wrote for the next two years, he charted what would be a practical course for his
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Christian life. And what is so amazing, as we will look at some of these resolutions, is that they reflect this.
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Jonathan Edwards wanted to live with an eternal perspective. There are three key words that I think describe the rest of these resolutions, and here they are.
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You ought to write these down. Time, death, and eternity.
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He wanted to live every moment of every day under the shadow of the reality of time, death, and eternity.
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He was very aware of the shortness of time, the certainty of death, and the length of eternity.
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And if you are to glorify God to the maximum in your life, those three subjects need to have a grip upon your heart and upon your soul.
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So, resolution number five, coming out of the first four resolutions.
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Resolution number five reads this way, resolved, never to lose one moment of time, but improve it the most profitable way
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I possibly can. Jonathan Edwards understood that time was a very precious commodity, that it is utterly irreplaceable, and that he is only a steward of a measure of time that God had allotted to him in which he would live his life for the glory of God.
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There is a measure of time that had been loaned to Jonathan Edwards, and he would appear upon the stage of history for this designated time.
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And if he is to glorify God, he could not waste any of his time while here upon the earth.
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To waste his time would be to waste his life because his life would be lived within the parameters of time and space.
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So, Edwards realized he had no time to lose. Lost riches, he reasoned, could be regathered.
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A lost estate could be reamassed. But to lose time, it could never be recovered, and to lose time is to lose opportunity to live for the glory of God.
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Let me give you some verses, Job 14, verse 5. Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and his limits you have set so that he cannot pass.
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What Job has recorded here is that for every one of us, there is a predetermined amount of time that has been measured for each and every one of us.
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And you will not live one split second past the time that has been sovereignly designated for you from before the foundation of the world.
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In fact, God has appointed the time of your entrance into this world, when you would appear in this world.
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And God has determined how long you will be in this world.
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Psalm 90, verse 12. So, teach us to number our days so that we may present to you a heart of wisdom.
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If you are to present to God a heart of wisdom, you must ask
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God to teach you to number your days. You know why you need to do that? Because God has numbered your days.
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God has portioned out the number of days that you have to live here upon the earth.
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And if you are to present to God a heart of wisdom, you must seek to measure those days and to consider them to be very valuable as they would be spent in the pursuit of the glory of God.
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Psalm 139, verse 16. I have my son John here tonight. I have twin boys who live in Los Angeles.
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They went to the Master's College. They have graduated. They are now setting the world on fire, living out of college, working in Los Angeles.
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And when they were born, my wife needle -stitched this verse and it hung over their baby bed when we brought them home from the hospital.
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Psalm 139, verse 16. Your eyes have seen my unformed substance.
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Now, here it is. And in your book were all written the days that were ordained for me when as yet there was not one of them.
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The psalmist says that God has a book and in this book is the eternal decree of God.
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And before time began, God has recorded all that shall come to pass under his sovereignty in this book and God has already pre -recorded the number of days that you have to live here upon the earth.
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Further, God has decreed within the number of days that you have to live certain opportunities, certain open doors, certain passing seasons in your life that can never be recovered again at another time.
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Doors that swing open but only for a season and then will shut.
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Opportunities to influence your family and influence your children and that door shuts.
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Opportunities for ministry, opportunities to witness. There are seasons, there are windows of time within time that are divine appointments.
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And Jonathan Edwards so well understood that and he asked
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God to enable him to capture every God appointed opportunity that was set before him within the parameters of time.
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Ephesians 5 verse 16 says, making the most of your time.
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And that word for time is not chronos in the Greek which speaks of chronology or clock time but kairos which means a season or an opportunity within time.
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Making the most of your time. Psalm 32 and verse 6 says about these passing seasons within time.
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Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found.
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There is a time when God may be found and there is a time for some when
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God may never be found. How important it is to seek the
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Lord in those days of divine visitation. Psalm 69 and verse 13, but as for me, my prayer is to you,
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O Lord, at an acceptable time, O God. Isaiah 55 and verse 6, seek the
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Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.
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So Jonathan Edwards determined and resolved that he would not lose one moment of time nor any opportunity within his allotted time.
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And he understood that the enemy of this which would prevent him from glorifying
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God was idleness and laziness and dullness and frivolity and those things that would cause him to squander time and waste his time while he is here upon the earth.
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And so in this resolution, he was determined to maximize his time, to improve it to the most profitable way.
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Listen to Ephesians 5, 15 through 17, as we think of improving the use of time in the most profitable way.
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Therefore, be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise.
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Paul is saying, God is saying, you and I need to walk very wisely.
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Now, listen to the very next words in this verse, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.
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So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Making the most of your time, it's this verb, making the most of, it is a word drawn out of the marketplace that speaks of buying up a precious commodity.
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Every day, every moment is a precious commodity to be used to pursue the glory of God for your life.
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And you must buy up the time and the opportunities very wisely because you only have so much.
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Do you realize you'll never have tonight again to live for the rest of your life?
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Do you know that you will never have this week to ever live again as long as you are here upon the earth?
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And that there are some things that can only be done this week that cannot be done next week?
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I remember when I went off to college, I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. I went off to college at Texas Tech University.
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I went out and played football out at Texas Tech. And when it came time for me to go to college, my family put me in our red
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Volkswagen bus, and we drove from Memphis, Tennessee all the way out to West Texas.
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And I didn't know anyone on campus. I was a long way from home. I was just out there to play football, and my dad told me to go to school.
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And I remember as my dad and mom helped move everything into my dorm room,
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I remember my dad giving me this speech, Stephen, here is your allowance for the semester.
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And I knew that he had thought this out very carefully. My dad is the most frugal human being who has ever lived in the history of the world.
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Not your uncle, not your father, my dad. To this day, I've still never ordered a large
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Coke. And my dad reached into his pocket, and no one can take a dollar bill and work a dollar bill like my dad.
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My dad grew up in the Dust Bowl, the depression of the Dust Bowl at the end of the 1920s out in West Texas, grapes of wrath, that whole scene.
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And I remember my dad handing me, he said, you have $200 for the entire semester.
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I was doing the math in my head as he handed that to me, and then he told me this.
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He said, once you spend this $200, there will be no more money.
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And I knew he meant that. And he said, every time you put your hand into your pocket, you feel that dollar bill before you pull it out.
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And just know that you will never have that dollar bill to spend again.
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Well, I was traumatized the rest of the semester. I really was. And my dad still sits on my shoulder and says that into my ear.
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That's what God is saying in Ephesians 5. You only have so much time here upon the earth to live for the glory of God.
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And every day that you live for God, Edward said, that day must be carefully measured out and invested wisely in the pursuit of the majesty and in the honor of God.
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Colossians 4, verse 5 says, conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity.
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Jesus himself said in John 9, verse 4, we must work the work of him who sent me as long as it is day.
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Night is coming when no man can work. That was resolution number 5.
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And it was the part of the engine under the hood within the heart and the soul of Jonathan Edwards that was driving him as he pursued ministry for God that I only have so much time to give for the work and the will of God.
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Does that reflect your perspective on life? Is that part of the machinery of your soul that is driving you to live for God?
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There's another resolution. Resolution number 7. This is amazing that a young teenage boy would think this way.
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Resolution number 7, resolved, never to do anything that I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.
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He wanted to live every hour as if it were his last hour and that would cause certain things to rise to the surface as of being great importance and other things would be displaced and to always live as if it were the last hour of his life.
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By focusing upon the end of his life, he could then take calculated steps in order to pursue that final hour.
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It was Richard Baxter, the great Puritan who once said, always preach as a dying man to dying men as never to preach again.
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And by that, he meant always preach as if it is your last sermon and you will never preach again.
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Always listen as if this is the last sermon you will ever hear and to act upon it with a sense of urgency.
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And whatever it is that God has called you to do, whether it is to love your children, whether it is to shepherd a part of this church, whether it is to work in the marketplace, whatever it is that God has called you to do, to serve him and to promote his glory, to do so as if it is the last hour of your life.
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In fact, that is how Christ lived his life, always looking to that last hour.
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You remember in John 2 verse 4, he said, my hour has not yet come.
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John 7 verse 6, my time is not yet here. John 7 verse 30, his hour had not yet come.
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John 12 verse 27, Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose
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I came to this hour. John 17 verse 1, Father, the hour has come.
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Glorify the Son that the Son may glorify you. He lived the entirety of his life focused upon that last hour of his life that when he would cross the finish line of the race that the
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Lord had set before him, that he would live that last hour for the glory of God.
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That is what Jesus said. Father, the hour has come. Glorify the
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Son that the Son may glorify you. You don't have any time to waste.
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I remember when I was a young man in the ministry and was sitting in my study and one day there was a knock on the door and a man came in and wanted to talk.
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And after we talked a while, I asked him, so how can I help you? And he said,
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I really don't have any need. I just had some time to kill.
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We don't have any time. We have only the time that God has allotted to us.
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And it must be invested very strategically and very carefully and very deliberately and very intentionally that it would maximize the opportunity that God has set before us to live for the glory of his name.
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There's another resolution that I want you to see. Resolution number 10. This is an amazing resolution.
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Resolved. Resolved when I feel pain to think of the pains of martyrdom and hell.
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Now, you may say, that's a sadistic way to go through life. Is it really?
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That resolution has a way of putting everything in right perspective.
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Compared to the martyrs who have been burned at the stake and compared to damned souls in hell this moment, you've never had a bad day.
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And so often we waste our time because we spiral down into a pity party and we begin to whine and we begin to complain about all that is going on around us.
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And we begin to compare ourselves with other people in our circle around us and begins to eat on us.
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And it has a way of pulling us out of circulation and pulling us back from doing what
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God has set before us. And Edwards said, I will always set before me the pains of the martyrs and the pains of those in hell as I would live my life upon this earth.
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A couple of years ago, I was put out of my church. I was put out of my pulpit.
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And it was a very painful experience to go through. And without giving you any of the details of it, for someone who hates confrontation as I do, it was a very painful ordeal.
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Very public. Very humiliating. At the time, and I did not realize how true this resolution is, in my preaching
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Bible, I have a picture of John Rogers. John Rogers is the first Marian martyr.
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John Rogers is the first martyr to be burned at the stake by Bloody Mary. And John Rogers has been a hero of mine.
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Someone who was faithful all the way to the end. In the back of my preaching
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Bible, I actually have a wood carving of John Rogers burning at the stake in front of his church with his congregation gathered around him.
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And I remember after being put out of my church, my boys drove me home.
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I was able to play golf soon. I had hundreds of people who gathered around me.
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And I began to realize I have nothing to complain about.
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I've never really suffered for the gospel. Not compared to martyrs who were burned at the stake.
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Not compared to lost souls who are the object of the eternal wrath of God forever.
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All I've ever known of suffering is so minuscule that it is not even worthy to be compared to those who really have paid a price for the gospel.
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Jonathan Edwards, as he lived his Christian life, wanted to keep everything in proper perspective and that he would always compare whatever pain, whatever suffering, whatever difficulty, whatever opposition, whatever adversity, whatever trials, whatever troubles that he would be engaged in, whatever dark valley he was walking through, it was nothing.
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Compared to the martyrs strapped to the stake being lit a fire for the testimony of the gospel of Christ.
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If you are to maximize the time that you have before you, you have no time to spiral down, being self -absorbed in personal tragedy that would keep you from launching forward to serve
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God. Now, there's one more that I want to show you. Resolution number 50 resolved,
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I will act so as I think I shall judge would have been best and most prudent when
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I come into the future world. In other words, what I want to invest my life in today is that which will last for eternity.
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I do not want to invest in temporal things and trivial things. I want to invest in that which is eternal, mainly the word of God and the souls of men which will go out of this world.
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And what I want to do is conclude by sharing with you a sermon that Jonathan Edwards preached in December of 1734 entitled,
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The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It. The first wave of the great awakening that came to this very part of America came in 1734.
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It began in November of 1734 when Jonathan Edwards preached a handful of sermons on justification by faith.
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He saw that there were two great dangers that threatened the colonies.
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One was Arminianism and the second was Antinomianism. And he said both of these dishonor the glory of God.
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Both of these are degrading to the glory of God. And that he might set the bar high for the supreme glory of God, he preached these sermons on justification by faith and that was the beginning of what would be the great awakening here in the colonies.
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The very next month in December of 1734, he followed up with this sermon,
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The Preciousness of Time and the Importance of Redeeming It. And God used this sermon to begin to awaken and begin to arouse those in his congregation to come out of the sluggishness of their
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Christian lives. And for others who were in an unconverted state, God used this sermon to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ.
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His text was Ephesians 5 verse 16, making the most of your time.
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And Jonathan Edwards began this sermon, Why Time is
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Precious. And he gives a few reasons why time is precious.
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I want to lay these before you. Number one, because time affects eternity.
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Edwards reasoned that how a believer invests his time, whether wisely or unwisely, has eternal consequences.
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R .C. Sproul writes an article in his Table Talk magazine every month and it is entitled
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Right Now Counts Forever. That's what Jonathan Edwards was saying.
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And Edwards said in this sermon, quote, A happy or miserable eternity depends on the good or ill improvement of time.
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This renders time so exceedingly precious because our eternal welfare depends on the improvement of it.
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It is above all things precious as our state through eternity depends upon it. In other words, how you use your time right now will affect the entirety of your eternal state.
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And not only will it determine whether you will be in heaven or in hell, but it will also affect the degrees of reward or the degrees of punishment that you will experience whether in one of these two places.
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And so why time is precious is because how you live your life right now affects the entirety of eternity.
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Second, because time is very short. Edwards in this sermon began to speak of how short a supply there is of time in your life.
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He said the scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a high value upon it.
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I was a finance major when I was in college and it's the old supply and demand law. The shorter the supply will drive the demand up and will drive the price up.
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And the more the commodity becomes scarce, the value will escalate.
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Edwards said the scarcity of any commodity occasions men to set a high value upon it, especially if it be necessary.
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Now it's one thing if bubble gum is in short supply. You can get along without it.
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But not if it's food, not if it's water, not if it's time.
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He says, but time is to be the more to be prized by men.
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Because a whole eternity depends upon it. And yet we have but a little of time.
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It is but a moment to eternity. Time is so short and we have none to spare.
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But not only is it so short, he then said, third, time is uncertain. You have very little of it and you actually have less of it than what you realize at this moment.
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It is uncertain how little that remains for you. Edwards said time ought to be esteemed by us, very precious, because we are uncertain of its continuance.
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We know not how little of it remains whether a year or several years or only a month, a week or a day.
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Now listen to this. If a man had but little provision laid up for a journey or a voyage and at the same time knew that if his provision should fail, he must perish by the way.
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In other words, a long journey, only a small amount of food, only a small amount of water.
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He would be the more choice of it. He wouldn't squander that food.
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He wouldn't waste that water because if he did, he would perish before he could complete his journey.
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Edwards said then, how much more would many men prize their time if they knew they had but a few months or a few days more to live?
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And then number four, he said, why it is so precious, time cannot be recovered.
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Once it is lost, it is lost forever. Edwards said time is very precious because when it is passed, it cannot be recovered.
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There are many things which men possess which if they part with, they can obtain them again.
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But it is not so with respect to time. When once that is gone, it is gone forever.
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If a man should lose the whole of his worldly substance and become bankrupt, it is possible that his loss may be made up.
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He may have another estate as good. But when the time of life is gone, it is impossible that we should ever obtain another such time.
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Do you see how valuable it is? It affects your eternity. You have so little of it.
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You are uncertain how little really you have of it. And once it is lost, it can never be recovered.
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Then he said, who wastes time? And he says, there are several people who are wasting their time.
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Perhaps you may see yourself in this list in some way. He said, there are those who are involved in idleness.
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They are frivolous in their living and are involved in doing nothing.
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Edwards said, some spend much of their time at the tavern over their cups and in wandering about from house to house, wasting away their hours in idle and unprofitable talk, which will turn to no good account.
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Their life is leaving no mark upon others, no mark for the gospel, no mark for ministry.
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It is just filled up with nothing. Proverbs 14, 23, Edwards then quoted and said, mere talk leads only to poverty.
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Edwards quoted Proverbs 18, verse 9. He who is slack in his work is brother to him who destroys.
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Edwards then quoted Proverbs 19, 15. Laziness casts into a deep sleep and an idle man will suffer hunger.
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Not only those who are marked by idleness, but those who are involved in wickedness.
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Worse than doing nothing is spending your time being caught up in wicked activity.
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Edwards said, some spend much time in reveling and in unclean talk and practices, in vicious company keeping, in corrupting and ensnaring the minds of others, setting bad examples and leading others into sin, doing not only their own soul's danger, but the souls of others.
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They spend their time backbiting and quarreling and fomenting and stirring up strife and contention.
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It is far worse than you are ruining your own life, but you are also investing it in the practice of sin.
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And you are taking others down and you are stealing time from others as you pull them in to your gossip and pull them in to your wrong priorities to be taken away from the will of God.
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And then he said, those who are involved in only worldly pursuits.
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Edwards said, they therefore whose time is taken up in caring and laboring for the world only.
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In inquiring what they shall eat and what they shall drink, and whether all they shall be clothed, in contriving to lay up for themselves treasure upon earth, how to enrich themselves, how to make themselves great in the world, or how to live in comfortable and pleasant circumstances.
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Edwards understood that a man wrapped up in himself makes for a very small package. And a man who only lives for the things of this world is pouring his time into a black hole that shall never yield eternal dividends.
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He is not saying that it is wrong to be involved in the things of this world because we all have to be involved in some things of this world.
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But to live for these things only is a squandering of your time and a wasting of your life.
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He then talks about how to improve your time. He said, first you must consider your accountability to God.
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That God has allotted you only so much time, and when you stand at the judgment seat of Christ, part of your accountability and part of your stewardship to your master will be how you invested your time.
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Others may have been given more talent, others may have been given more treasure, but no one will be given more time as they will live next to you.
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Consider your accountability to God of the time that you have. Edwards said, time is a talent given us by God.
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He has set us our day and it is not for nothing. Our day was appointed for some work.
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Therefore, He will at the day's end call us to an account. Would you not behave otherwise than you do if you considered with yourselves every morning that you must give an account to God how you have spent that day?
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Brother at the judgment seat of Christ, sister at the judgment seat of Christ, there will be an accounting of our time and of our days and how we have invested them in eternal things and for the good of others.
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Edwards said, you must also consider how much time you have already lost.
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You have already squandered so much time in your life, you can ill afford to squander any more of your days.
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Edwards said, if in that you have lost so much time already, you have the more need of diligence as your opportunity is so much the shorter.
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You have the same work to do that you had the first but the less time in which to do it.
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You see, God before the foundation of the world has predestined good works for you to walk in and that is fixed.
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And he has given you the proper amount of time in which to do all that he has prepared for you to do.
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And as you have squandered your time, God has not lessened what he prepared for you to do.
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And you must still do it, but you have already wasted so much time in which it could be done.
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How carefully you must measure what time remains in order to do all that which
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God has prepared for you to do. And then he said, you not only have the same work to do, but you have more work because God is setting before you new opportunities and new seasons in which you are to take on a new work for him.
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You have no time to squander. He then said, consider those at the end of their time.
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Do you want to use your time wisely? He said, you need to go and listen to those who are at the end of their time, who are at the end of their life.
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Edward said, go to their deathbed and hear what they have to say.
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What a sense of its preciousness have poor sinners sometimes when they are on their deathbeds.
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Such have cried out, oh, a thousand worlds for an inch of time.
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When time appears to them indeed precious, the near approach to death makes men sensible of the inestimable worth men would give their fortunes if they could but buy some more time.
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You have the time right now. Invest it wisely. But then
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Edwards goes all the way. And fourth, he says, consider those who are past their time.
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Consider those who have no more time. Those who are past death and especially those souls who are already in hell.
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Hear them talk of how they would give anything for the opportunity that you have tonight, to invest wisely the opportunity that is before you.
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Edwards said, what thoughts do you think they would have of its preciousness who have lost all their opportunity for obtaining eternal life and are now gone to hell, though they were very lavish of their time while they lived.
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Oh, they had much time to burn while they were alive. And they might even hear the gospel and think, well, one day
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I'll give serious consideration to spiritual things. One day
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I'll give my soul to the Lord. But that day never comes.
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Though they were very lavish of their time while they lived, they had other things in this world that drew them away to invest their life in that and set no great value upon their time, yet how they have changed their judgment of time now.
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Now that there is no more time, now they see the preciousness of time.
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Edwards said, what would they not give for one of your days?
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Under the means of grace, so will you first or last be convinced.
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Edwards is saying, oh, you'll be convinced of the preciousness of time either now or later.
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Either now in this world or later in hell, but you will be persuaded of the preciousness of time.
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But if you be not convinced now, you will be convinced when it is too late.
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So Edwards said, act now while you have time to believe
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God, to trust Christ, to serve the Lord, to seek the glory of God, to invest your life in eternal things, to spread the word of God, to love others, to give a witness for Christ.
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What you must do, do it now. Edwards quoted 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2.
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Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day of salvation.
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Edwards quoted again Isaiah 55, 6. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near.
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I want you to fast forward with me to the end of Edwards' remarkable life and I'm finished. Edwards spent 22 faithful years pastoring the church at Northampton, Massachusetts.
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And after 22 plus years, he was put out. He spent the next seven years at Stockbridge and very difficult years as a missionary to the
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Indians. And in January of 1759,
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Jonathan Edwards assumed the presidency of the College of New Jersey, which was to become
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Princeton University. It seemed now that the final volume of his life would be written.
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He prepared himself to write what would be his magnum opus. It would be his institutes as Calvin wrote.
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It would be his bondage of the will as Martin Luther wrote. It would be his legacy for the church.
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It would be an expanded version of the history of the work of redemption.
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One month later, Jonathan Edwards took a smallpox vaccination in order to show the students that it was safe.
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He would lead out as the president. It had the very opposite effect upon him.
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It caused his throat to swell so badly that he could not drink nor eat and soon that he could not breathe.
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It would become obvious that Jonathan Edwards would die. His wife,
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Sarah, was still at Stockbridge packing up their family belongings. He called for his daughter,
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Lucy, to come to his side as he lay on his deathbed.
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Jonathan Edwards had prepared his entire life for this one, that he would come to the end of his life and glorify
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God in his death. As he would come to the end of his life, he had always desired that it would be without regrets that he would have lived with resolution.
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He drew Lucy near and said, Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you.
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Therefore, give my kindest love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever, and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial and submit cheerfully to the will of God.
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And as to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which
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I hope will be an inducement to you to seek a father who will never fail you.
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Edwards died suddenly, March 22nd, 1759, at age 55, only two short months after becoming president of Princeton.
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Interestingly enough, at 1013 tonight, I pass from being age 55 to age 56.
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He died ablaze for the glory of God.
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He prepared his entire life for this day.
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Upon learning of Jonathan's death, Sarah Edwards, still in Stockbridge, packed her belongings and wrote this letter to daughter
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Esther. What shall I say? A holy and good
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God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod.
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Those were the last words of John Calvin as he died upon his dead on his bed.
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He said, I kiss the rod that is chasing me. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.
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The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness that we had him so long.
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But my God lives and he has my heart. Oh, what a legacy my husband and your father has left to us.
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We are all given to God. And there I am and love to be your ever affectionate mother,
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Sarah Edwards. As an 18 -year -old college student pastoring in downtown
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New York, Jonathan Edwards had written his resolutions in order that he might live most to God's glory.
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And if he could maximize his life for God and the allotted time that he had, he would be able to die without regrets.
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Jonathan Edwards died as he lived for the glory of God.
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Every one of us here tonight has a choice how we will live our lives here upon the earth.
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The overriding theme and the target and the focus and the aim for every one of us here tonight must be to live most for the glory of God.
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And in order for you to live most for the glory of God, you must chart a course for your life that involves the measurement of the time that you have that remains here and to invest it very wisely.
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I would remind you that time is such a precious commodity. It will affect your eternal state and it is becoming shorter and shorter.
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Resolution number 52, and I finish. Resolved, I frequently hear persons in old age say how they would live if they were to live their lives over again.
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Resolved, that I will live just so as I can think
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I shall wish I had. Done supposing I live to an old age.
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Jonathan Edwards lived and died without regrets for the glory.
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May it be so of each one of us here tonight. May we seek his grace.
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May we seek his direction. May we seek his wisdom. May we seek to invest our lives wisely in the time that remains here upon the earth.
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Because the time is coming when you will have no more time.
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If you find yourself here tonight and do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, you find yourself here tonight with a haunting realization that when you die, your soul could likely end up in the bowels of hell.
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I urge you to use this time wisely tonight to seek the
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Lord while he may be found. To call upon him while he is near. And surely
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God has brought you here tonight for a purpose and for a reason. And it is to hear this message and for you to hear urged upon your heart and upon your soul, the absolute dire necessity that is laid upon you that except you be born again, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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You must enter through the narrow gate. For the way is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction.
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And many are those who are on it. But the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life.
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And few are those who find it. For many shall say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
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Did we not cast out many demons in your name? And I will say unto you in that day, depart from me you who work iniquity, for I never knew you.
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Truly, truly I say unto you, he who hears these words of mine and acts upon them is like a very wise man who built his house upon the rock.
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And when the rains came and the winds blew and beat against the house, it did not fall because it was built upon the solid rock.
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He who hears these words of mine and does not act upon them is like a very foolish man who built his house upon the sand.
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And when the rains came and the winds blew and beat against the house, great was its fall because it was built upon the sand.
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You are a fool to be here tonight and to hear this message and to be outside of Christ and to be in an unconverted state and to have this measure of time to believe upon the
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Lord Jesus Christ, to repent of your sin and to cast yourself upon the loving arms of Christ.
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To walk out of this meeting tonight without Christ is to trample underfoot the precious blood of Christ and to perhaps step out into an eternity without Christ.
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While you have this time, while you have this opportunity, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
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Lord shall be saved. Come to Christ, believe upon Christ, call out upon his name, seek him while he may be found, and you shall find mercy and you shall find grace for your soul in this hour of opportunity.
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Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, thank you for the record of your word in which we find the gospel of Jesus Christ, Christ crucified for sinners,
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Christ buried for sinners, Christ raised for sinners. Father, I pray that here tonight there would be those who would come all the way to faith in Christ.
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And for those of us who have already renounced the world, for those of us here tonight who have already surrendered and committed our lives to the
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Lord Jesus Christ, may we understand with a sense of eternal destiny how important it is that I invest my time wisely during the days that remain for me here upon the earth.
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And Lord, may you use the example of Jonathan Edwards with us tonight to spur us on, to stimulate us to love and good deeds.
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As iron sharpens iron, so one man another. And may this brother, Jonathan Edwards, in the example of his life, sharpen us here tonight that we would live exclusively for the glory of God.
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Even father, we pray this in Jesus name.