Welcome to a continuation of A History of Redemption by Jonathan Edwards, Part 16. This Reformation audio resource is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalogue containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs and much more, at great discounts, are on the web at www.swrb.com. Also please consider, pray and act upon the important truths found in the following quotation by Charles Spurgeon. As the Apostle says to Timothy, so also he says to everyone, give yourself to reading. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brains of his own. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all like literature. but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers and expositions of the Bible. The best way for you to spend your leisure is to be either reading or praying. And now to SWRB's reading of the history of redemption, which we hope you will find to be a great blessing, and which we pray draws you nearer to the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the way, the truth and the life And no man cometh unto the Father, but by him. John 14, verse 6. Now shall be the marriage of the Lamb in the most perfect sense. The commencement of the glorious times of the Church on earth, after the fall of Antichrist, is represented as the marriage of the Lamb. But after this, we read of another marriage of the Lamb at the close of the Day of Judgment. After the beloved disciple had given an account of the Day of Judgment in Revelation 20 and 21, he gives an account that he saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Christ shall bring his church into his Father's house in heaven as his bride, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The bridegroom and the bride shall then enter into heaven, both having on wedding robes, attended with all the glorious angels. And there they enter on the feasts and joys of their marriage before the Father. They shall then begin an everlasting wedding day. This shall be the day of the gladness of Christ's heart, wherein He will greatly rejoice, and all the saints shall rejoice with Him. Christ shall rejoice over His bride, and the bride shall rejoice in her husband in the state of her consummate and everlasting blessedness of which we have a particular description in the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation. And now the whole work of redemption is finished. Now the top stone of the building is laid. In the progress of our discourse we have followed the Church of God in all her great changes, all her tossings to and fro, all her storms and tempests through the many ages of the world. We have seen her enter the harbour and landed in the highest heavens in complete and eternal glory. We have gone through the several ages of time as the providence and word of God have led us. We have seen all the Church's enemies fixed in endless misery and have seen the Church presented in her perfect redemption before her Father in Heaven. there to enjoy this most unspeakable and inconceivable glory and blessedness and there we leave her to enjoy this glory throughout the never-ending ages of eternity now all Christ's enemies will be perfectly put under his feet and he shall have his most perfect triumph over sin and Satan and all his instruments in death and hell now shall all the promises made to Christ by God the Father before the foundation of the world the promises of the covenant of redemption be fully accomplished. Christ shall now perfectly have obtained the joy set before him, for which he undertook those great sufferings in his state of humiliation. Now shall all the hopes and expectations of the saints be fulfilled. The state of the Church before was progressive and preparatory, but now she has arrived to her most perfect state of glory. All the glory of the church on earth is but a faint shadow of this, her consummate glory in heaven. Now Christ, the great Redeemer, shall be most perfectly glorified. God the Father shall be glorified in Him, and the Holy Ghost shall be most fully glorified in the perfection of His work on the hearts of all the church. And now shall that new heaven and earth and new earth appear, or the renewed state of things be completely finished, after the material frame of the old heavens and the old earth is destroyed in Revelation 21.1. And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away. And now will the great Redeemer have perfected everything that appertains to the work of redemption, which He began so soon after the fall of man. And who can conceive of the triumph of those praises which shall be sung in heaven on this great occasion, so much greater than that on the fall of Antichrist? The beloved disciple John, in Revelation 19, seems to want expressions to describe those praises, and says, It was as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. but much more inexpressible will those praises be which will be sung in heaven after the final consummation of all things? How shall the praises of that vast and glorious multitude be as mighty thunderings indeed? How are all the former things passed away, and what a glorious state are things fixed in to remain to all eternity? And as Christ, when he first entered upon the work of redemption, had the kingdom committed to him of the Father. And as he took on himself the administration of the affairs of the universe, to manage all so as to subserve the purposes of this affair, so now the work being finished, he will deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father in 1 Corinthians 15.24. Then cometh the end. when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of God even the Father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power now that Christ shall cease to reign after this for it is said in Luke 1.33 he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there shall be no end and Daniel 7.14 his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. But the meaning is that Christ shall deliver up that kingdom or dominion which he has over the world as the Father's delegate or vicegerent which the Father committed to him to be managed in subservience to this great design of redemption. The end of this commission or delegation which he had from the Father seems to be to subserve this particular design of redemption and therefore, when that design is fully accomplished, the commission will cease, and Christ will deliver up to the Father from whom he received it. Part 10 Improvement of the Whole I proceed now to enter upon some improvement of the whole that has been said from this doctrine. Hence we may learn how great a work is this of redemption. For we have now had it, though in a very imperfect manner set forth, in its whole progress, from its first beginning after the fall to its consummation. We have seen how God has carried on this building by a long succession of wonderful works, advancing it higher and higher from one age to another till the topstone is laid. And now let us consider how great a work this is. Do men, when they behold some great edifices, admire their magnificence? How well may we admire the greatness of this building of God, which He builds after age after age. There are three things exhibited to us in what has been said, which especially show the greatness of the work of redemption. the greatness of those particular events and dispensations of providence by which it is accomplished. How great are those things which God has done, which are but so many parts of this great work! What great things were done in the world to prepare the way for Christ coming to purchase, and what great things were done in the actual purchase of redemption! What a wonderful thing was accomplished to put Christ in an immediate capacity for this purchase, that is, his incarnation, that God should become man and what great things were done in that purchase that a person who is the eternal Jehovah should live upon earth for four or five and thirty years together in a mean, despised condition that he should spend his life in such labours and sufferings that at last he should die upon the cross and what great things have been done to accomplish the success of Christ's redemption what great things to put him into a capacity to accomplish this success for this purpose he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and all things were made subject to him how many miracles have been wrought what mighty revolutions have been brought to pass in the world already and how much greater shall be brought to pass in order to it 2. The number of those great events by which God carries on this work shows the greatness of the work. These mighty revolutions are so many as to fill up many ages. The particular wonderful events by which the work of creation was carried on filled up six days. But the great dispensations by which the work of redemption is carried on are so many that they fill up six or seven thousand years at least, as we have reason to conclude from the word of God. There were great things wrought in this affair before the flood, and in the flood the world was once destroyed by water, and God's church was so wonderfully preserved from it in order to carry on this work. And after the flood, what great things did God work, relating to the resettling of the world, to the building of Babel, the dispersing of the nations, the shortening of the days of man's life, the calling of Abraham, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the long series of wonderful providences relating to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and those wonders in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, in the wilderness, and in Canaan in Joshua's time, and by a long succession of wonderful providences from age to age towards a nation of the Jews. what great things were wrought by God in so often overturning the world before Christ came to make way for his coming what great things were done also in Christ's time and after that in overturning Satan's kingdom in the heathen empire and in so preserving his church in the dark times of potpourri and bringing about the reformation how many great and wonderful things who will be effective in accomplishing the glorious times of the church, and at Christ's last coming on the day of judgment, in the destruction of the world, and in carrying the whole church into heaven. 3. The glorious issue of this whole affair, in the perfect and eternal destruction of the wicked, and in the consummation, glory of the righteous. And now let us once more take a view of this building. now all is finished and the top stone laid. It appeared in a glorious height in the Apostles' time, and much more glorious in the time of Constantine, and will appear much more glorious still after the fall of Antichrist. But at the consummation of all things, it appears in an immensely more glorious height than ever before. Now it appears in its greatest magnificence, as a complete lofty structure, whose top reaches to the heaven of heavens, a building worthy of the great God, the King of Kings. And from what has been said, one may argue that the work of redemption is the greatest of all God's works, of which we have any notice, and it is the end of all his other works. It appears plainly from what has been said that this is the principle of all God's works of providence. and that all are subordinate to the great affair of redemption. We see that all the revolutions in the world are to subserve this grand design. This shows how much greater the work of the redemption is than the work of creation, because it is the end of it. As the use of a house is the end of the building of it. But the work of redemption is the sum of all God's works of providence. All are subordinate to it. So the work of a new creation is more excellent than the old. And so it ever is that when one thing is removed by God to make way for another, the new one excels the old. Thus the temple excelled the tabernacle, and the new covenant the old. The new dispensation of the gospel, the dispensation of Moses, the throne of David, the throne of Saul. the priesthood of Christ, the priesthood of Aaron, the new Jerusalem, the old, and so the new creation far excels the old. God has used the creation for no other purpose but to subserve the designs of this affair. To answer this end, he hath created and disposed of mankind, to this the angels, to this the earth, to this the highest heavens God created the world to provide a spouse and a kingdom for his son and the setting up of the kingdom of Christ and the spiritual marriage of the spouse to him is what the whole creation labours and travels in pain to bring to pass this work of redemption is so much the greatest of all the works of God that all other works are to be looked upon either as parts of it or appendixes to it or are some way reducible to it. And so all the decrees of God, some way or other, belong to that eternal covenant of redemption which was between the Father and the Son before the foundation of the world. Every decree of God is some way or other reducible to that covenant. And seeing this work of covenant is so great, we need not wonder that the angels desire to look into it. We need not wonder that so much is made of it in Scripture, that it is so much insisted on in the histories and prophecies and songs of the Bible. For the work of redemption is a great subject of the whole, its doctrines, its promises, its types, its songs, its histories, and its prophecies. 2. Hence we may learn how God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending of all things. Such are the characters and titles we find often described to him in scripture. In Isaiah 41 verse 4, Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first and with the last, I am He. And particularly does the scripture ascribes its titles to God where it speaks of providence as it relates to and is summed up in the great work of redemption. as in Isaiah 44 verse 6 and 7 and 48 verse 9 to 12 therefore when Christ reveals the future great events of providence relating to his church and people to his disciple John he often reveals himself under this character in Revelation 1 verse 8 I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. So again, verse 10 and 11, I heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Alpha and Omega being the names of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, it signifies the same as it being the first and the last. the beginning and the ending as in Revelation 21 6 and he said unto me it is done I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end and so chapter 22 12 and 13 and behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end, the first and the last we have seen on what design God began the course of his providence in the beginning of the generations of men and how he has all along carried things unagreeably to the same design without ever failing and how at last a conclusion and final issue of things are to God and therefore may well now cry out with the apostle in Romans 11.33 O the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! And verse 36, For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. We have seen how other things come to an end, one after another, how states and kingdoms and empires fell and come to nothing, even the greatest and strongest of them. And we have seen how the world has been often overturned, and will be more remarkably yet, yet we have seen how it was first destroyed by water, and at last it shall be utterly destroyed by fire. But yet God remains the same through all ages. He was before the beginning of this course of things, and He will be after the end of them. in Psalm 102, verse 25, 26, Thus God is he who is, and was, and who is to come. We have seen in a variety of instances how all other gods perish. Those in the nations about Canaan and throughout the Roman Empire are all destroyed, and their worship long since overthrown. We have heard how Antichrist, who has called himself a god on earth, how Mohammed, who claims religious honours, how all the gods of the heathen through the world will come to an end, and how Satan, the great dragon, that old serpent, who has set up himself as god of this world, will be cast into the lake of fire, there to suffer his complete punishment. But Jehovah remains. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion there is no end. We've seen what mighty changes there have been in the world, but God is unchangeable. We're saying yesterday, today, and forever. We began at the head of the stream of divine providence, and have traced it through its various windings, till we are come to the end where it descends. As it began in God, so it ends in him. God is the infinite ocean into which it empties itself. Providence is like a mighty wheel, whose circumference is so high that it is dreadful, with the glory of the God of Israel above upon it, as it is represented in Ezekiel's vision. We've seen the revolution of this wheel, and how as it was from God, it returns, has to be has been to God again. All the events of divine providence are like the links of a chain. The first link is from God, and the last link is to Him. 3. We may see, by what has been said, how Christ has in all things the preeminence. For He is the great Redeemer, and therefore the work of redemption, being the sum of God's works of providence, shows the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ as being above all and through all and in all. That God intended the world for His Son's use in the affair of redemption is one reason why He created the world by Him in Ephesians 3 verse 9 to 12. What has been said shows how all the purposes of God are purposed in Christ and how He is before all and above all. All things consist in him, are governed by him, and for him, in Colossians 1, verse 15 to 18. God makes him his firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth, and sets his throne above their thrones. God has always upheld his kingdom when others have come to an end. That appears at last above all. however greatly opposed for so many ages. All other kingdoms fall, but his kingdom is the last, and never gives place to any other. We see that whatever changes there are, and however highly Christ's enemies exalt themselves, yet he reigns in uncontrolled power and immense glory. In the end, his people are all perfectly saved and made happy, and all his enemies become his footstool, unless God gives the world to his Son for his inheritance. 4. The consideration of what has been said may greatly serve to show us the consistency, order, and beauty of God's works of providence. If we behold events in any other view, all will look like confusion, like the tossing of waves. Things will look as though one confused revolution came to pass after another, merely by blind chance, without any regular or certain end. But if we consider the events of Providence in the light of which they have been set before us, and in which the Scriptures set them before us, they appear an orderly series of events, all wisely directed, in excellent harmony and consistence, pending all to one end. The wheels of providence are not turned round by blind chance, but are full of eyes round about, as Ezekiel represents them, and are guided by the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit goes, they go. All God's works of providence, through all ages, make at last so as many lines meeting in one centre. God's work of providence, like that of creation, is but one. The events of providence are not so many distinct, independent works, but rather so many different parts of one work, one regular scheme. They are all united, just as the several parts of one building. There are many stones, many pieces of timber, but all are so joined, and fitly formed together, that they make but one building, they have all but one foundation, and are united at last in one topstone. God's providence may not unfitly be compared to a large and long river, having innumerable branches, beginning in different regions, and at a great distance from one another. all conspiring to one common issue. After their very diverse and apparent contrary courses they all collect together. The nearer they come to their common end and at length discharge themselves at one mouth into the same ocean. The different streams of this river are apt to appear like mere confusions to us because of our limited sight whereby we cannot see the whole at once. A man who sees but one or two streams at a time cannot tell what their course tends to. Their course seems very crooked, and different streams seem to run for a while different and contrary ways. And if we view things at a distance, there seem to be innumerable obstacles and impediments in the way, as rocks and mountains and the like. to hinder their ever uniting and coming to the ocean. But yet if we trace them, they all unite at last, all come to the same issue, disgorging themselves in one into the same great ocean. Not one of all the streams fail. Five. From the whole that has been said, we may strongly argue that the scriptures are the word of God because they alone inform us of what God aims at in his works. God doubtless is pursuing some design and carrying on some scheme in the various changes and revolutions which from age to age come to pass in the world. It is most reasonable to suppose that there is in some degree some certain great design to which Providence subordinates all great successive changes in affairs. It is reasonable to suppose that all revolutions, from the beginning of the world to the end of it, are but the various parts of the same scheme, all conspiring to bring to pass that great event which the great Creator and Governor of the world has ultimately imbued, and that the scheme will not be finished, nor the design fully accomplished, and the great and ultimate event fully brought to pass till the end of the world and the last revolution is brought about. Now there is nothing else that informs us what this scheme and design of God in his works is but the Holy Scriptures. Nothing else pretends to set in view the whole series of God's works of providence from beginning to end and to inform us how all things were from God at first and for what end they are how they were to be ordered from the beginning, how they will proceed to the end of the world, what they will come to at last, and how then all things shall be to God. Nothing else but the Scriptures, and any pretense for showing any manner of regular scheme or drift in those revolutions which God orders from age to age. Nothing else pretends to show what God will affect by the things which He has done, is doing, and will do. what he seeks and intends by them. Nothing else pretends to show with any distinctness or certainty how the world began, or to tell us the true original of things. Nothing but the Scriptures set forth how God governed the world from the beginning of the generations of men upon the earth in an orderly history, and nothing else sets before us how he will govern it to the end by an orderly prophecy of future events. agreeable to the challenge which God makes to the gods, the prophets and the teachers of the heathen in Isaiah 41 verse 22 and 23. Let them bring them forth and show us what will happen. Let them show the former things that they may be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them, or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods. Reason shows that it is fit and requisite that the intelligent and rational beings of the world should know something of God's scheme and design in his works, for they proudless are principally concerned. God's great design in his works is doubtless concerning his reasonable creatures rather than brute beasts and lifeless things. the revolutions by which God's great design is brought to pass, are doubtless chiefly among them, and concern their state, and not the state of things without life or reason. And therefore surely it is requisite that we should know something of it, especially since reason teaches that God has given his rational creatures a capacity of seeing him in his works, for this end that we may see God's glory in them, and give him that glory but how can they see God's glory in his works if they do not know what his design in them is and what he aims at by what he is doing in the world further, it is fit that mankind should be somewhat informed of God's design in the government of the world because they are made capable of actively falling in with that design of promoting it and acting herein as his friends and subjects. It is therefore reasonable to suppose that God has given mankind some revelation to inform them of this and there is nothing else that does it but the Bible. In the Bible this is done. Here we may learn the first original of things and have an orderly account of the scheme of God's works from the beginning through those ages that are beyond the reach of all other histories. Here we are told what God aims at in the whole, what is a great end, how he has contrived the grand design and the great things he will accomplish. Here we have a most rational excellent account of this matter, worthy of God, and exceedingly showing forth the glory of his perfections, his majesty, his wisdom, his glorious holiness, grace and love. and His exultation above all as the first and the last. Here we are shown the various parts of the work of providence and how all are connected together in a regular, beautiful and glorious frame. In the Bible we have an account of the whole scheme of providence from the beginning of the world to the end of it, either in history or prophecy, and are told what will become of things at last, how they will issue in the subduing of God's enemies, and in the salvation and glory of his church, and setting up of the everlasting kingdom of his Son. How rational, worthy, and excellent a revelation is this, and how excellent a book is the Bible, which contains so much beyond all other books in the world, and what characters are here of its being indeed a divine book. a book that the great Jehovah has given to mankind for their instruction, without which we should be left in miserable darkness and confusion. 6. From what has been said, we may see the glorious majesty and power of God in this affair of our redemption. His glorious power appears in upbuilding His church for so long a time, and carrying on this work. and upholding it oftentimes when it is but a little spark or as a smoking flax, in which the fire was almost extinct, and the powers of earth and hell combined to destroy it. Yet God has never suffered them to quench it, and finally will bring forth judgment unto victory. God glorifies his strength in his church's weakness, in causing his people, who are like a number of little infants, finally to triumph over earth and hell, so that they shall tread on the lion and the adder, the young lion and dragon shall they trample underfoot. The glorious power of God appears in conquering his many and mighty enemies by that person who was once an infant in a manger and appeared as a poor, weak, despised man. He conquers them and triumphs over them in his own weapon, the cross. The glorious majesty of God appears in conquering all those mighty enemies of the church one age after another, in conquering Satan, that proud and strong spirit, and all his hellish hosts, in bringing him down underfoot, long after he had vaunted himself as God of this world, and when he did his utmost to support himself in his kingdom. Christ, our Michael, has overcome him. The devil was cast out, and there was found no place for him in heaven but he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. He is conquered in that kingdom wherein his pride and subtlety and cruelty above all appears, that is, the kingdom of Antichrist. And the glorious power of God appears in thus conquering the devil, and bringing him underfoot, after a long time giving him to strengthen himself to his utmost. He was once overthrown in his heathen Roman Empire, after he had been making himself strong in those parts of the world ever since the building of Babel. It appears also in overthrowing his kingdom more fatally and universally all over the world after he had another opportunity to strengthen himself to his utmost for many ages by setting up those two great kingdoms of Antichrist and Mohammed and to establish his interest in the heathen world. We have seen how these kingdoms of God's enemies look strong, as though it was impossible to overthrow them. If God appears, they seem to melt away as a fat of lambs before the fire, and are driven away as a chaff before the whirlwind. Those mighty kingdoms of our Antichrist and Mohammed, which have made such a figure for so many ages, and have trampled the world underfoot, when God comes to appear, will vanish away like a shadow and will disappear of themselves as the darkness in a room does when the light is brought in. What are God's enemies in his hands? How is their greatest strength weakness when he rises up? And how weak will they appear together at the day of judgment? Thus we may apply these words in the song of Moses, Exodus 15 verse 6. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, has dashed in pieces the enemy. And how great doth the majesty of God appear in overturning the world from time to time, to accomplish its designs, and at last in causing the earth and the heavens to flee away for the advancement of the glory of His kingdom. 7. From what has been said, we may see the glorious wisdom of God. It shows the wisdom of God in creating the world, in that he has created it for such an excellent use, to accomplish it, so glorious a work. And it shows the wisdom of divine providence, that he brings such great good out of such great evil, in making the fall and ruin of mankind, which in itself is so sorrowful and deplorable, an occasion of accomplishing such a glorious work as redemption, and of erecting such a glorious building whose top should reach up unto heaven, and of bringing his elect to a state of such unspeakable happiness. And how glorious doth the wisdom of God appear in that long course and series of great changes in the world in bringing such order out of confusion, in so frustrating the most subtle machinations, and in causing the greatest works of Satan, those in which he has most glorified himself, to be wholly turned into occasions of so much the more glorious triumph of his son Jesus Christ. And how wonderful is the wisdom of God in bringing all such manifold and various changes and overturnings in the world to such a glorious period at last. and in so directing all the wheels of providence by his skillful hand, that every one of them conspires, as the manifold wheels of a most curious machine, at last to strike out such an excellent issue, such a manifestation of the divine glory, such happiness to his people, and such a glorious and everlasting kingdom to his son. 8. From what has been said we may see the stability of God's mercy and faithfulness to his people how he never forsakes his inheritance and remembers his covenant to them through all generations now we may see what reason there was for the words of the text the moth shall eat them up like a garment and the worm shall eat them like wool but my righteousness shall endure forever and ever and my salvation from generation to generation And now we may see abundant reason for that name of God which he reveals to Moses in Exodus 3, 14. And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. That is, I am the same that I was when I went into covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and ever shall be the same. I shall keep covenant forever. I am self-sufficient, all-sufficient, and immutable. And now we see the truth of Psalm 36, 5 and 6. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens, and thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great mountains. Thy judgment are a great deep. And if we consider what has been said, we need not wonder that the psalmist in the 136th Psalm so often repeats this. for his mercy endureth forever, as if he were in an ecstasy at the consideration of the perpetuity of God's mercy to his church. Delighted to think of it, I knew not how but continually to express it. Let us with like pleasure and joy celebrate the everlasting duration of God's mercy and faithfulness to his church and people. and let us be comforted by it under all the dark circumstances of the Church of God, and all the uproar and confusions that are in the world, and all the threatenings of the Church's enemies. And let us take encouragement earnestly to pray for those glorious things which God has promised to accomplish for His Church. 9. Hence we may learn how happy a society the Church of Christ is. For all His great work is for them. Christ undertook it for their sakes, and for their sakes He carries it on. Is it because He has loved them with an everlasting love? For their sakes He overturns states and kingdoms. For their sakes He shakes heaven and earth. He gives men for them, and people for their life. Since they have been precious in God's sight, they have been honorable. and therefore he gives the blood of his own son, and then gives the blood of all their enemies, many thousands and millions, all nations, that stand in their way, as sacrifice to their good. For their sakes he made the world, and for their sakes he will destroy it. For their sakes he built heaven, and for their sakes he makes his angels ministering spirits. Therefore the apostle says, in 1 Corinthians 3, 21, etc. All things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours. How blessed is this people who are redeemed from among men, and are the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, who have God in all ages for their protection and help. in Deuteronomy 33, 29. Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency? And thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Let who will prevail now Let the enemies of the church exalt themselves as much as they will. These are the people that shall finally prevail. The last kingdom shall finally be theirs. The kingdom shall finally be given into their hands and shall not be left to other people. We have seen to what a blessed issue things shall finally be brought and what glory shall they arrive at and remain in possession of for ever and ever. After all the kingdoms of the world are come to an end, and the earth is removed, and mountains are carried into the depths of the sea, or where the sea was, and this lower earth shall all be resolved. O happy people! O blessed society! Well may they spend an eternity in praises and alleluias to Him that has loved them, and will love them to eternity. 10. And lastly, Hence all wicked men, all that are in Christless condition, may see their exceeding misery. You that are such, whoever you are, shall have no part or lot in this matter. You are never the better for any of these things. Yea, your guilt is but so much greater, and the misery you are exposed to so much the more dreadful. You are some of those against whom God, in the progress of His work, exercises so much manifest wrath, so some of those enemies who are liable to be made Christ's footstool, to be ruled with a rod of iron, and to be dashed in pieces. You are some of the seed of the serpent, to bruise the head of which is one great design of all this work. Whatever glorious things God accomplishes for His church, they will not be glorious to you, The most glorious times of the Church are always the most dismal to the wicked and impenitent, in Isaiah 66, verse 14. And so we find, whatever glorious things are foretold concerning the Church, there terrible things are foretold concerning the wicked, its enemies. So it ever has been in remarkable deliverances wrought for the Church, there is also a remarkable execution of wrath on its enemies when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt at the same time he remarkably poured out his wrath on Pharaoh and the Egyptians when he brought them into Canaan by Joshua and gave them that good land he remarkably executed wrath upon the Canaanites when they were delivered out of their Babylonian captivity signal vengeance was inflicted on the Babylonians. When the Gentiles were called, and the elect of God was saved by the preaching of the Apostles, Jerusalem and the persecuting Jews were destroyed in a most awful manner. I might observe the same concern in the glory accomplished in the Church in the days of Constantine, at the overthrow of Satan's visible kingdom, in the downfall of Pentecost, and at the Day of Judgment. In all these instances, and especially in the last, there have been, or will be, exhibited most awful tokens of the divine wrath against the wicked. God will indeed make use of you in this affair, but it will be for the glory of His justice, and not of His mercy. The enemies of God are reserved for the triumph of Christ's glorious power in overcoming and punishing them. You are some of those who shall be consumed with this accursed world after the day of judgment, when Christ and his church shall triumphantly and gloriously ascend to heaven. Therefore let all who are in a Christless condition seriously consider these things, and not be like the foolish people of the old world, who would not take warning when Noah told them that the Lord was about to bring a flood of waters upon the earth. or like the people of Sodom who would not regard when Lot told them that God would destroy that city and would not flee from the wrath to come and so were consumed in that terrible destruction and now I would say to conclude my whole discourse on this subject these sayings are faithful and true and blessed is he that keepeth these sayings behold Christ cometh quickly and his reward is with him, to render to every man according to his work shall be. And he that is unjust shall be unjust still, and he that is filthy shall be filthy still, and he that is holy shall be holy still. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city, for without a dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie he that testifieth these things saith surely I come quickly even so come Lord Jesus that is the end of this reading of Edward's history of redemption and the end of Edward's History of Redemption. This audio resource is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. Many free resources as well as our complete mail order catalogue containing classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, CDs and much more at great discounts are on the web at www.swrb.com We can also be reached by email at swrb at swe.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6L, If you do not have a web connection, please request a free printed catalogue. 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