Game Prayers
Yea, though I walk though the valley of death I shall have no fear.0
Because the good Lord shall provide me with the strength and courage to
Conquer my enemies. The Lord all mighty will reward me with victory and the spoils of victory.
Amen
NLKSA
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Dear Lord
Grant us the strength to vanquish the evil that opposes your will.
Grant us the courage to stand up for what is right and might.
Let us to evangelize your word and your will through our win.
Lord Carry us to victory
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord
We are about to face the wicked and unwashed evil that is our enemy, and our competition
We will send them home dear Lord. They will say your name in prayer as we create an insurmountable gain and a huge victory on their asses. So much so that they will say nothing but “I am Sorry Lord that I have strayed I am sorry.”
YES they are coming home O’ Lord, they are coming home.
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord
We are about to face our enemies on the field of competition.
Please extinguish the doubt that is in our mind and fill our hearts and our muscles with your righteous power so that we can stomp the evil that we are about to face.
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord
We are preparing to do battle in your name. These blasphemers we are about to face are right now talking evil about your humble servants, Lord. We are now going to do your will, we are now going out onto the field of war and kick their asses Lord, oh yes we are going to kick their asses. We are going to beat the snot out of them. So that they will know that you are the true Lord, the righteous Lord, and because we will let them live they will know that you are a fair and kind Lord.
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord
We now embark on a righteous path to your glory. We carry you name and strength in our hearts. We are to be victorious in your name Lord. We are to beat and stomp the shit out of our opponents, Lord. We will tattoo your name in their buttocks as we kick them down the field.
And when they have realized their loss they will be sorry they opposed you Lord they will utter pleas of forgiveness and repentance. They will ask you to take them back into your fold and let them suckle on you generosity and forgiveness.
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord,
The heathens and the unwashed have challenged your word and your will. They have stepped onto our field. They have defiled the sacred ground that was blessed by you Lord. Right now Lord they speak terrible untruths and blasphemous accusations about you humble servants. They say we are not worthy of being champions, they say you are not with us Lord. Help us to show them the path Lord, help us show them the error of their ways, let us be your muscle and your sinew. Lets us deliver your punishment to the evil that is our competition, Lord.
Amen
NLKSA
Dear Lord
Let us carry your word with our strength and our hearts. Let us shine with your glory that is so bright that the evil that opposes us will be blinded. Let your voice be so loud that the sinners that are the other team be deafened from your word. Let those that came to watch your servants perform your will on this field be proud of us like you are proud of us now.
Though our win Lord, the blasphemers and the unrighteous will see you your strength and your might, and they will bow and beg forgiveness. For on this day Lord through you we will be victorious and we will be the champions you made us.
Amen
NLKSA
Anger Management By Rev. J. Sleestaxx
We need to celebrate anger, wallow in anger, and be angry. Somebody or some people made us angry why do we need to control this. It was their fault they need to figure out the whys and the hows.
"My anger management"
God made us in his image. God is an angry vengeful God.
Deu 29:23
The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger.
Holy crap! Brimstone! Salt!, Burning debris! Nothing will fucking grow!
Yes I would say that God is an angry Vengeful God. Why is my anger wrong then and why do I have to manage my anger? God does not attend group therapy. He smites those that have offended him!
Lev 26:21
If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins.
Shit! Seven times according to your sins.
He states that we are to smite those that offend us or have taken a position against him! How can one smite another without anger?
Judges 15:6
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. Samson said to them, “Because you did this, I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” He struck them down and defeated them.
He later whoop their asses with just the jaw bone of a donkey. But mind you he was pissed they had killed his best girl and her father. They had offended him. No one said 'hey Samson, Dude, I can empathize with your feelings and I can see where you are coming from but this anger is not good. You should learn to control your anger, manage it.'
Yeah fucking right! God said here you should beat them down, whoop their girly asses with a bone, just a freakin’ bone. And that is exactly what Samson did! God gave him the strength to do so.
So why am I told that I have to control, quell and stop an emotion that is so close to God, so revered by God so encouraged by God? Because it is God's enemies that want me to be pacified, pussified, whimpified. The enemies of God want me controllable. Because, if I am controllable then they can control me. And that is what all this anger management shit is about.
I...nay we should not try to stop our anger or control our anger, we should wallow in it bath in the wondrous power of the felling of anger. We should celebrate the anger with parties and beatings and make total festivals for anger.
That is anger management! That is what we should do.
Let me share another passage with you...
Isa 5:25
So the Lord is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.
If we act on our righteous God given anger it will become stronger and better attuned. This is the anger management that God would want. This is the type of anger that God has. And we all know that the premise of worship and learning is to be more like God and the way that God wants us to be. So to better own the anger you should act on it, encourage it, train it to be there for you. This is anger management that is right with God and in Gods way.
Isa 9:17
So the sovereign master was not pleased with their young men, he took no pity on their orphans and widows; for the whole nation was godless and did wicked things, every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.
Again another example of God's anger being there when it was needed. We all know that our God is an angry God and a vengeful God. The bible has many lessons for us to read and take to heart.
Isa 13:9
Look, the Lord’s Day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.
"Annihilating its sinners." WOW! No seriously WOW! He is coming to kick their asses. And it is our duty to help the Lord when ever possible. But if we let them and their "anger management" and their "politically correctness" control our lives and the way we feel then we will not be ready to purge the earth of the unholy, unwashed, evil hordes that are the enemies of God. And this is their plan with the propaganda and the "oh we have to LOVE everybody" "We need to be more compassionate to our neighbors, especially our neighbors to the south."
NO! [HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] If the have offended me I do not have to be compassionate, I do not have to provide them health care when I can not provide health care to myself.
NO! [HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] If someone has pissed me off then I have the right to express that anger.
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] It is my anger. I own that anger
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] God gave me that anger
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] It is mine to do with what I want
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] Stop fucking telling me to manage it!
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] fucking manage this bitch! [Show the middle finger]
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] this is my right [hold the finger up again] and you will not take it from me!
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] you want to control something control your desire to control me
I will not be your patsy, I will not be your hey boy, I will not be your bitch!
I will make them pay for what they have done. Just as the Lord makes all sinners pay. Because it is my God given right.
Do not think that I am a man who will give up my fucking rights with out a fight. God would be very disappointed in me No all of us if we did not stand up for ourselves.
Think about it! If child is being bullied would you want him to let the bully own him or would you be proud of your child standing up for himself??
DAMN Skippy! You want him to be assertive, you want him to take what is his, it belongs to him he should have it!
God feels the same about us. We are his children and he wants us to succeed. We can not succeed if we are taken out of the game by weird rules, rules that the winners do not follow. Why do they not follow because the rules are only there to keep the competition down?
Get off your asses and compete. Get off your asses and find that middle finger and let that finger be seen. Show that you have a back bone. Use the jaw bone a donkey. That is what your middle finger is it is your donkey jaw bone. Beat their asses and take what is yours. Celebrate in your anger and be free from the evil that tries to bind.
Gen 20:9
Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!”
So I want to leave you with some things to think about. If you make someone angry realize that this is their feeling and you should ask for forgiveness, if they do not want to forgive you then that are just tough shit. You forked up and well what your back. If someone makes you mad then let them know they made you mad and that they should watch their back.
It is your feeling and they mad you feel it is their fucking fault.
Some items that need to be passed along.
Thursday baptismal beatings are still very popular and we are starting to have to reschedule some of the converts to another night. We will now hold the ring open earlier on Thursday no-one should have to wait to be right with the lord.
The teen’s club is beginning to flourish and become quite the place to be instead of cruzing, making babies, and doing drugs. The girls have their champion in the ring and she may have shot at taking the title from the boys. The girls keep trying every Friday night but they just need that little extra upmph.
The food bank is actually overflowing so if you are aware of any legal citizens, not H1B visas either I mean Real Americans have them contact Judy McFugly for assistance.
Now lets us turn to our neighbor and show them the finger. HA HA ha
"My anger management"
God made us in his image. God is an angry vengeful God.
Deu 29:23
The whole land will be covered with brimstone, salt, and burning debris; it will not be planted nor will it sprout or produce grass. It will resemble the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his intense anger.
Holy crap! Brimstone! Salt!, Burning debris! Nothing will fucking grow!
Yes I would say that God is an angry Vengeful God. Why is my anger wrong then and why do I have to manage my anger? God does not attend group therapy. He smites those that have offended him!
Lev 26:21
If you walk in hostility against me and are not willing to obey me, I will increase your affliction seven times according to your sins.
Shit! Seven times according to your sins.
He states that we are to smite those that offend us or have taken a position against him! How can one smite another without anger?
Judges 15:6
So the Philistines went up and burned her and her father. Samson said to them, “Because you did this, I will get revenge against you before I quit fighting.” He struck them down and defeated them.
He later whoop their asses with just the jaw bone of a donkey. But mind you he was pissed they had killed his best girl and her father. They had offended him. No one said 'hey Samson, Dude, I can empathize with your feelings and I can see where you are coming from but this anger is not good. You should learn to control your anger, manage it.'
Yeah fucking right! God said here you should beat them down, whoop their girly asses with a bone, just a freakin’ bone. And that is exactly what Samson did! God gave him the strength to do so.
So why am I told that I have to control, quell and stop an emotion that is so close to God, so revered by God so encouraged by God? Because it is God's enemies that want me to be pacified, pussified, whimpified. The enemies of God want me controllable. Because, if I am controllable then they can control me. And that is what all this anger management shit is about.
I...nay we should not try to stop our anger or control our anger, we should wallow in it bath in the wondrous power of the felling of anger. We should celebrate the anger with parties and beatings and make total festivals for anger.
That is anger management! That is what we should do.
Let me share another passage with you...
Isa 5:25
So the Lord is furious with his people; he lifts his hand and strikes them. The mountains shake, and corpses lie like manure in the middle of the streets. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.
If we act on our righteous God given anger it will become stronger and better attuned. This is the anger management that God would want. This is the type of anger that God has. And we all know that the premise of worship and learning is to be more like God and the way that God wants us to be. So to better own the anger you should act on it, encourage it, train it to be there for you. This is anger management that is right with God and in Gods way.
Isa 9:17
So the sovereign master was not pleased with their young men, he took no pity on their orphans and widows; for the whole nation was godless and did wicked things, every mouth was speaking disgraceful words. Despite all this, his anger does not subside, and his hand is ready to strike again.
Again another example of God's anger being there when it was needed. We all know that our God is an angry God and a vengeful God. The bible has many lessons for us to read and take to heart.
Isa 13:9
Look, the Lord’s Day of judgment is coming; it is a day of cruelty and savage, raging anger, destroying the earth and annihilating its sinners.
"Annihilating its sinners." WOW! No seriously WOW! He is coming to kick their asses. And it is our duty to help the Lord when ever possible. But if we let them and their "anger management" and their "politically correctness" control our lives and the way we feel then we will not be ready to purge the earth of the unholy, unwashed, evil hordes that are the enemies of God. And this is their plan with the propaganda and the "oh we have to LOVE everybody" "We need to be more compassionate to our neighbors, especially our neighbors to the south."
NO! [HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] If the have offended me I do not have to be compassionate, I do not have to provide them health care when I can not provide health care to myself.
NO! [HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] If someone has pissed me off then I have the right to express that anger.
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] It is my anger. I own that anger
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] God gave me that anger
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] It is mine to do with what I want
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] Stop fucking telling me to manage it!
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] fucking manage this bitch! [Show the middle finger]
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] this is my right [hold the finger up again] and you will not take it from me!
[HIT THE PODIUM HARD and yell loud] you want to control something control your desire to control me
I will not be your patsy, I will not be your hey boy, I will not be your bitch!
I will make them pay for what they have done. Just as the Lord makes all sinners pay. Because it is my God given right.
Do not think that I am a man who will give up my fucking rights with out a fight. God would be very disappointed in me No all of us if we did not stand up for ourselves.
Think about it! If child is being bullied would you want him to let the bully own him or would you be proud of your child standing up for himself??
DAMN Skippy! You want him to be assertive, you want him to take what is his, it belongs to him he should have it!
God feels the same about us. We are his children and he wants us to succeed. We can not succeed if we are taken out of the game by weird rules, rules that the winners do not follow. Why do they not follow because the rules are only there to keep the competition down?
Get off your asses and compete. Get off your asses and find that middle finger and let that finger be seen. Show that you have a back bone. Use the jaw bone a donkey. That is what your middle finger is it is your donkey jaw bone. Beat their asses and take what is yours. Celebrate in your anger and be free from the evil that tries to bind.
Gen 20:9
Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? You have done things to me that should not be done!”
So I want to leave you with some things to think about. If you make someone angry realize that this is their feeling and you should ask for forgiveness, if they do not want to forgive you then that are just tough shit. You forked up and well what your back. If someone makes you mad then let them know they made you mad and that they should watch their back.
It is your feeling and they mad you feel it is their fucking fault.
Some items that need to be passed along.
Thursday baptismal beatings are still very popular and we are starting to have to reschedule some of the converts to another night. We will now hold the ring open earlier on Thursday no-one should have to wait to be right with the lord.
The teen’s club is beginning to flourish and become quite the place to be instead of cruzing, making babies, and doing drugs. The girls have their champion in the ring and she may have shot at taking the title from the boys. The girls keep trying every Friday night but they just need that little extra upmph.
The food bank is actually overflowing so if you are aware of any legal citizens, not H1B visas either I mean Real Americans have them contact Judy McFugly for assistance.
Now lets us turn to our neighbor and show them the finger. HA HA ha
I am My Brother’s Keeper By Rev. J. Sleestaxx
Jer 30:17
Yes, I will restore you to health. I will heal your wounds. I, the Lord, affirm it! For you have been called an outcast, Zion, whom no one cares for.”
My friends I have another story to relate to you all. This is about
“I am My Brother’s Keeper.”
By Rev. John Sleestaxx
I was in the gas station this weekend and there was this guy, this guy must have weighed 400-450lbs.
He is standing there in line in front of me waiting to buy a 44oz coke, Twix, Twinkies, and one of those travel cups of resses swoops.
I am looking at this guy and listening to him huff and wheeze and I am thinking how can this guy take a crap and not think about how he looks. I am willing to bet that he has not seen his feet or his penis for years. I know that the shower stall in my house would be hard pressed to have him fit in and I know that my tub could not fit him and water at the same time.
Where are the cops to stop this man???
I have cops standing at intersections giving out tickets for seatbelts. Why are they not making this a law?? I think that these people should be held accountable fro their actions like motorcycle riders without helmets and car occupants without seat belts.
I decided to do the right thing and I smacked his hand holding the candy and made him drop it. As he turned I brought my hand up under the 44oz cup and sent it flying. He looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was but it did not matter. He looked at the candy on the ground and the soda puddle next to it and asked me "What was that for." I smiled and said I was performing an act of good citizenship and saving his life. I also said that I thought that his size did not warrant such crappy food.
Then I slapped my right hand, the one that was touched by God himself, on his forehead and said, “You need to get down to Bally's Total Fitness and get buff, because if you are fat you will not be able to get through the Pearly Gates even turned sideways.”
Then I said, “Your lard will be burned up in the Lake of Fire along with ... dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Revelation 22:15”
He said it was none of my business and to mind my own affairs. I explained that under the same premise as the seat belt laws and helmet laws that his size and willful neglect of his health was placing a strain on the health care system that ultimately I am going to have to shoulder since he will not live long enough to pay for enough insurance to cover his debt.
Abdul Seheem Shamire began yelling at us about the mess. I threw a twenty at him and told him that that should cover the problem on the floor. But he continued to scream and yell as though he was in prayer. I deftly stepped around the fat man and reached the counter in two steps. I grabbed the twenty and the back of Abdul's head and slammed the Middle Eastern cranium into the scratcher ticket window on the counter. Abdul began to stop yelling and just whimper. I will make it up to him and his family like I always do.
The fat man stepped back away from me for fear that I was going to hurt him next. Just as I was about to say that I was not going hurt him he slipped in the coke and candy puddle and fell down.
He began to wallow on his back and scream "don't hurt me don't hurt me."
I yelled for him to shut up.
He did but the fear in his eyes was tremendous.
I asked if he was alright.
He said “yes.”
I asked if he could get up from that position.
He said “no.”
I asked, “Do I need to roll you over to your stomach so you can get up.”
He nodded.
I grabbed a hand and pulled him over to his side and he huffed and wheezed for a minute or two and then he began the laborious process of getting up.
When he was on his hands and knees he reached out and picked up that fucking Twix bar. I kicked him in the ribs and yelled "What the hell are you doing, you dip shit?"
He "uffed" and let go of the candy bar. When he was back on his feet I told him that he had better make right his body as his body was a temple of the lord and that God and Jesus do not need that much room.
He nodded and left the station.
I helped Abdul to the back room and made sure that the first aid kit had the proper size bandages and I told him that his family would be receiving a gift to make up for this terrible grievous error on my part.
I also told him that his sister made a wonderful wife and has brought much pride and honor to his family.
I did not have the heart to tell him that his sister is a harlot and a skank. And that I have to beat her daily for committing adultery while I’m at work.
Please remember that your body is a temple for the lord and that it should be fit and ready for him to enter at all times. Also remember that your health is also a burden on the rest of us. Everyone should do their part in making the world a blessed place and as stress free as possible.
Friends I want to remind you all again about the Thursday night bible beat downs. And that you do not have to be a “Lost soul” to get your ass stomped by me, you can just need some good old fashion encouragement and path straitening.
Why just last Thursday deacon Timothy was in need of some guidance because he was having lustful thoughts for a woman at work. But he talked to his wife and she recommended that he come down and see me. After counseling the two I brought the kind deacon into the ring and we went 2 rounds before he saw the light and errors of his ways.
The deacon’s wife went one round before she realized that she should make herself more available to the deacon and maybe spend a little more time on her morning makeup routine.
Cookies, cakes, and coffees have been arranged by the women’s auxiliary and are out in the foyer for a short Sunday morning social please stop have some and talk to your fellow worshiper before going home today.
Thank you and God bless.
Yes, I will restore you to health. I will heal your wounds. I, the Lord, affirm it! For you have been called an outcast, Zion, whom no one cares for.”
My friends I have another story to relate to you all. This is about
“I am My Brother’s Keeper.”
By Rev. John Sleestaxx
I was in the gas station this weekend and there was this guy, this guy must have weighed 400-450lbs.
He is standing there in line in front of me waiting to buy a 44oz coke, Twix, Twinkies, and one of those travel cups of resses swoops.
I am looking at this guy and listening to him huff and wheeze and I am thinking how can this guy take a crap and not think about how he looks. I am willing to bet that he has not seen his feet or his penis for years. I know that the shower stall in my house would be hard pressed to have him fit in and I know that my tub could not fit him and water at the same time.
Where are the cops to stop this man???
I have cops standing at intersections giving out tickets for seatbelts. Why are they not making this a law?? I think that these people should be held accountable fro their actions like motorcycle riders without helmets and car occupants without seat belts.
I decided to do the right thing and I smacked his hand holding the candy and made him drop it. As he turned I brought my hand up under the 44oz cup and sent it flying. He looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe I was but it did not matter. He looked at the candy on the ground and the soda puddle next to it and asked me "What was that for." I smiled and said I was performing an act of good citizenship and saving his life. I also said that I thought that his size did not warrant such crappy food.
Then I slapped my right hand, the one that was touched by God himself, on his forehead and said, “You need to get down to Bally's Total Fitness and get buff, because if you are fat you will not be able to get through the Pearly Gates even turned sideways.”
Then I said, “Your lard will be burned up in the Lake of Fire along with ... dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Revelation 22:15”
He said it was none of my business and to mind my own affairs. I explained that under the same premise as the seat belt laws and helmet laws that his size and willful neglect of his health was placing a strain on the health care system that ultimately I am going to have to shoulder since he will not live long enough to pay for enough insurance to cover his debt.
Abdul Seheem Shamire began yelling at us about the mess. I threw a twenty at him and told him that that should cover the problem on the floor. But he continued to scream and yell as though he was in prayer. I deftly stepped around the fat man and reached the counter in two steps. I grabbed the twenty and the back of Abdul's head and slammed the Middle Eastern cranium into the scratcher ticket window on the counter. Abdul began to stop yelling and just whimper. I will make it up to him and his family like I always do.
The fat man stepped back away from me for fear that I was going to hurt him next. Just as I was about to say that I was not going hurt him he slipped in the coke and candy puddle and fell down.
He began to wallow on his back and scream "don't hurt me don't hurt me."
I yelled for him to shut up.
He did but the fear in his eyes was tremendous.
I asked if he was alright.
He said “yes.”
I asked if he could get up from that position.
He said “no.”
I asked, “Do I need to roll you over to your stomach so you can get up.”
He nodded.
I grabbed a hand and pulled him over to his side and he huffed and wheezed for a minute or two and then he began the laborious process of getting up.
When he was on his hands and knees he reached out and picked up that fucking Twix bar. I kicked him in the ribs and yelled "What the hell are you doing, you dip shit?"
He "uffed" and let go of the candy bar. When he was back on his feet I told him that he had better make right his body as his body was a temple of the lord and that God and Jesus do not need that much room.
He nodded and left the station.
I helped Abdul to the back room and made sure that the first aid kit had the proper size bandages and I told him that his family would be receiving a gift to make up for this terrible grievous error on my part.
I also told him that his sister made a wonderful wife and has brought much pride and honor to his family.
I did not have the heart to tell him that his sister is a harlot and a skank. And that I have to beat her daily for committing adultery while I’m at work.
Please remember that your body is a temple for the lord and that it should be fit and ready for him to enter at all times. Also remember that your health is also a burden on the rest of us. Everyone should do their part in making the world a blessed place and as stress free as possible.
Friends I want to remind you all again about the Thursday night bible beat downs. And that you do not have to be a “Lost soul” to get your ass stomped by me, you can just need some good old fashion encouragement and path straitening.
Why just last Thursday deacon Timothy was in need of some guidance because he was having lustful thoughts for a woman at work. But he talked to his wife and she recommended that he come down and see me. After counseling the two I brought the kind deacon into the ring and we went 2 rounds before he saw the light and errors of his ways.
The deacon’s wife went one round before she realized that she should make herself more available to the deacon and maybe spend a little more time on her morning makeup routine.
Cookies, cakes, and coffees have been arranged by the women’s auxiliary and are out in the foyer for a short Sunday morning social please stop have some and talk to your fellow worshiper before going home today.
Thank you and God bless.
Greener Pastures and Being a Good Steward by Rev. J. Sleestaxx
Greener Pastures and Being a Good Steward
By Rev. John Sleestaxx
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. - Ezekiel 25:17
For the lord is my Sheppard he leads me to green pastures and ye although I walk through the valley of I shall fear no evil because the lord is my savior and I am a mean son-of-a-bitch. I shall smite with great vengeance those evil and blasphemous men that shall tempt and distract the children of the lord.
The world is full of inequities and selfishness. There are many distractions and temptations that await us at every turn.
If we take our eyes from the prize for even a second some slick snake oil sales man is there to detach us from our cash. An evil wanton temptress is there to draw from our path to the lord with her guiles and false beauty. If you are truly righteous you can see that her beauty is not as beautiful as the lord's promise of salvation.
Not too long ago I was beset with a choice. Now this choice was not like what shall I have for lunch, or the clerk just gave me back too much change do I tell him or do I keep it?
This was a greater choice, a soul defining choice, one of those that when you see it you know that the decision you are about to make is one that will say to the world what kind of man, or woman, you are.
I was downtown and I was walking on the sidewalk behind the Ex-mayor Brown. He and one of his associates were having a discussion of some importance because as they did not see the derelict and the other two people set him up for the oldest pickpocket trick in the book. I did, and this is not the choice, I slowed my pace, when the lift was done nobody saw the pick made, no-one saw me change direction and no-one saw me position for the oldest mugging trick at the alley entrance.
As the lady that lifted the wallet from the ex-mayor pass me at the entrance, I slammed my fist into the side of her head and she disappeared into the alley against the dumpster. I charged her and demanded the wallet she coughed, cried, and looked at me with the eyes of a woman that were soft and pleading. I kicked her in the thigh right above the knee with enough force to lift her leg and drop her on her back. I jumped up and at the moment the air left her lungs I planted my foot on her chest. A couple gasps of air and she knew that to breath she had to hand over the wallet. Weakly her hand lifted and gave me the wallet.
Now here is my choice, do I return the wallet or do I keep the wallet? You see the wallet was already stolen, and would have been stolen weather the lord had sent me downtown or not. So the lord put me on that street at that time to be a witness. Now I know the lord did not expect me to the mugger I once was, or a player in an elaborate pick pocket scheme. So I kept the wallet knowing that the lord leads me to greener pastures and there was 465 dollars ion the wallet not to mention a social security card and 8 credit cards, and one of them was an account of the City's.
The rectory now has a 72 inch surround sound worshiping system. The rectory pantry is full of all the foods that are not healthy. And I have a month’s supply of burritos, burritos, and beer.
I then sold the Social security card and credit cards on a forum board to some poor unfortunate soul and the bounty will help his family and then some other family will benefit also.
So in conclusion I brought the lords vengeance down on some criminals, I was given a betterment of life and I stewarded some others of god’s children.
Had I just said "hey stop, look out you are about to be robbed" I would not had done any of gods work and that fat bastard of a pig fucker would have been saved some of the lord's punishment for being a porker of cats and hamsters.
So I would like my congregation to reflect on this lesson for the rest of the week look for opportunities where the lord is trying to help you and the rest of the world.
And again baptismal beatings are still occurring every Thursday. If anybody is wavering in the faith or you know someone who is need of the lord please come on down to the rectory ring.
“angry, anger, politics, stupid, stupiddrugaddicts, ponytails, heroin, falwel, farrakhan, faggots, fucktard, wussies, warrior”
By Rev. John Sleestaxx
The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee. - Ezekiel 25:17
For the lord is my Sheppard he leads me to green pastures and ye although I walk through the valley of I shall fear no evil because the lord is my savior and I am a mean son-of-a-bitch. I shall smite with great vengeance those evil and blasphemous men that shall tempt and distract the children of the lord.
The world is full of inequities and selfishness. There are many distractions and temptations that await us at every turn.
If we take our eyes from the prize for even a second some slick snake oil sales man is there to detach us from our cash. An evil wanton temptress is there to draw from our path to the lord with her guiles and false beauty. If you are truly righteous you can see that her beauty is not as beautiful as the lord's promise of salvation.
Not too long ago I was beset with a choice. Now this choice was not like what shall I have for lunch, or the clerk just gave me back too much change do I tell him or do I keep it?
This was a greater choice, a soul defining choice, one of those that when you see it you know that the decision you are about to make is one that will say to the world what kind of man, or woman, you are.
I was downtown and I was walking on the sidewalk behind the Ex-mayor Brown. He and one of his associates were having a discussion of some importance because as they did not see the derelict and the other two people set him up for the oldest pickpocket trick in the book. I did, and this is not the choice, I slowed my pace, when the lift was done nobody saw the pick made, no-one saw me change direction and no-one saw me position for the oldest mugging trick at the alley entrance.
As the lady that lifted the wallet from the ex-mayor pass me at the entrance, I slammed my fist into the side of her head and she disappeared into the alley against the dumpster. I charged her and demanded the wallet she coughed, cried, and looked at me with the eyes of a woman that were soft and pleading. I kicked her in the thigh right above the knee with enough force to lift her leg and drop her on her back. I jumped up and at the moment the air left her lungs I planted my foot on her chest. A couple gasps of air and she knew that to breath she had to hand over the wallet. Weakly her hand lifted and gave me the wallet.
Now here is my choice, do I return the wallet or do I keep the wallet? You see the wallet was already stolen, and would have been stolen weather the lord had sent me downtown or not. So the lord put me on that street at that time to be a witness. Now I know the lord did not expect me to the mugger I once was, or a player in an elaborate pick pocket scheme. So I kept the wallet knowing that the lord leads me to greener pastures and there was 465 dollars ion the wallet not to mention a social security card and 8 credit cards, and one of them was an account of the City's.
The rectory now has a 72 inch surround sound worshiping system. The rectory pantry is full of all the foods that are not healthy. And I have a month’s supply of burritos, burritos, and beer.
I then sold the Social security card and credit cards on a forum board to some poor unfortunate soul and the bounty will help his family and then some other family will benefit also.
So in conclusion I brought the lords vengeance down on some criminals, I was given a betterment of life and I stewarded some others of god’s children.
Had I just said "hey stop, look out you are about to be robbed" I would not had done any of gods work and that fat bastard of a pig fucker would have been saved some of the lord's punishment for being a porker of cats and hamsters.
So I would like my congregation to reflect on this lesson for the rest of the week look for opportunities where the lord is trying to help you and the rest of the world.
And again baptismal beatings are still occurring every Thursday. If anybody is wavering in the faith or you know someone who is need of the lord please come on down to the rectory ring.
“angry, anger, politics, stupid, stupiddrugaddicts, ponytails, heroin, falwel, farrakhan, faggots, fucktard, wussies, warrior”
Anger and Malice by Rev. John Sleestaxx
Anger and malice
by Rev. John Sleestaxx
A couple of readings first….
Rom 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, and hostility. They are gossips!
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us
My friends I carry much anger over the care of our fellow man. Meaning what we do to our neighbors, what we inflict on our brothers deeply and profoundly troubles me.
Let me tell you the story of two panhandlers
I wanted to know why one race makes more than another race. I mean we are both men, we are both created in God's image, getting it down to brass tacks we both have the same mother and father. As we all know that Adam and Eve is our father and mother.
But everyone expects one to work and the other not to work.
This has to be wrong, so I decided to test the theory. I asked one race to panhandle with me ( I explained I would double any money he collected). We picked a street corner and took one side while I took the other.
During the course of the day I was yelled at, spit at, and basically treated as trash, no more than a piece of human garbage. While the other guy made 350 dollars.
This was ridiculous!
I was expected to work and I was not entitled to any help or handout because I was white while the other panhandler made 350 dollars. He made 350 dollars for doing nothing but standing there with his hand out. I even made the friggin’ sign so that they would read the same
Did I double his money?
Hell No! The lord helps those that help themselves!
He needs nothing from me he makes more from handouts than I do for hard work! Fuck That!
I bust my hump every day and make less while he hangs out for a few hours and makes more money.
What do you think I did? That's right! I kicked his ass and took all of the money.
Now that Is Malice.
Now there maybe some of you that are a little upset by this, There maybe some of you that may be offended.
And well that is fine, you are entitled to your own opinion and you are welcome to come down after the sermon to get your ass kicked by me.
Rom 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,
I hold baptismal beatings every Thursday night in the rectory boxing ring.
Why do we call them baptismal beatings?
Num 22:23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.
You are all the ass that when you see the lord or his angels you turn from the road in fear.
Because the beatings do not stop until you are screaming in tongues "oh God stop oh God Make it stop!"
Sa 22:39 I wipe them out and beat them to death; they cannot get up; they fall at my feet
Some parishioners think that maybe I am a bit to harsh, but you know what? I am this way because this is the life I was dealt and it has made me this way.
All the years of being some fuck heads bitch and not getting the break I kept getting told I was due.
Mat 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth
My congregation is mostly made up of many individuals that realize that they are back sliders stubborn sinners that need an ass whoopin' to get set straight.
And that is where I come in, old or young, man or woman. I kick their ass until they see the light. They are the ass that runs from god and his angels. And I am the one that beats them back to the road to righteousness.
They are allowed to fight back I expect them to but you see God has made me strong
Jdg 6:14 Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?”
This is my calling.
God has asked me to kick your ass.
by Rev. John Sleestaxx
A couple of readings first….
Rom 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, and hostility. They are gossips!
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us
My friends I carry much anger over the care of our fellow man. Meaning what we do to our neighbors, what we inflict on our brothers deeply and profoundly troubles me.
Let me tell you the story of two panhandlers
I wanted to know why one race makes more than another race. I mean we are both men, we are both created in God's image, getting it down to brass tacks we both have the same mother and father. As we all know that Adam and Eve is our father and mother.
But everyone expects one to work and the other not to work.
This has to be wrong, so I decided to test the theory. I asked one race to panhandle with me ( I explained I would double any money he collected). We picked a street corner and took one side while I took the other.
During the course of the day I was yelled at, spit at, and basically treated as trash, no more than a piece of human garbage. While the other guy made 350 dollars.
This was ridiculous!
I was expected to work and I was not entitled to any help or handout because I was white while the other panhandler made 350 dollars. He made 350 dollars for doing nothing but standing there with his hand out. I even made the friggin’ sign so that they would read the same
Did I double his money?
Hell No! The lord helps those that help themselves!
He needs nothing from me he makes more from handouts than I do for hard work! Fuck That!
I bust my hump every day and make less while he hangs out for a few hours and makes more money.
What do you think I did? That's right! I kicked his ass and took all of the money.
Now that Is Malice.
Now there maybe some of you that are a little upset by this, There maybe some of you that may be offended.
And well that is fine, you are entitled to your own opinion and you are welcome to come down after the sermon to get your ass kicked by me.
Rom 1:29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips,
I hold baptismal beatings every Thursday night in the rectory boxing ring.
Why do we call them baptismal beatings?
Num 22:23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.
You are all the ass that when you see the lord or his angels you turn from the road in fear.
Because the beatings do not stop until you are screaming in tongues "oh God stop oh God Make it stop!"
Sa 22:39 I wipe them out and beat them to death; they cannot get up; they fall at my feet
Some parishioners think that maybe I am a bit to harsh, but you know what? I am this way because this is the life I was dealt and it has made me this way.
All the years of being some fuck heads bitch and not getting the break I kept getting told I was due.
Mat 5:5 “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth
My congregation is mostly made up of many individuals that realize that they are back sliders stubborn sinners that need an ass whoopin' to get set straight.
And that is where I come in, old or young, man or woman. I kick their ass until they see the light. They are the ass that runs from god and his angels. And I am the one that beats them back to the road to righteousness.
They are allowed to fight back I expect them to but you see God has made me strong
Jdg 6:14 Then the Lord himself turned to him and said, “You have the strength. Deliver Israel from the power of the Midianites! Have I not sent you?”
This is my calling.
God has asked me to kick your ass.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by J. Edwards
Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God
by Jonathan Edwards
Their foot shall slide in due time -- Deut. xxxii. 35
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as ver. 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. The expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following doings, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm lxxiii. 18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."
2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm lxxiii. 18, 19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and do not fall now, is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John iii. 18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John viii. 23. "Ye are from beneath." And thither be is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke xi. 12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should perrnit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. lvii. 20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expence of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked nian, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. ii. 16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell ever to be the subects of that misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself: I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief: Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then suddenly destruction came upon me.
10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
APPLICATION
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of, there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his band, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligatioti at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. And consider here more particularly
1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. xx. 2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke xii. 4, 5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah lix. 18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah lxvi. 15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and wifh his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. xix. 15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. viii. 18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. i. 25, 26, &c.
How awful are those words, Isa. lxiii. 3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, vis. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you, in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. ix. 22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. xxxiii. 12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites," &c.
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. lxvi. 23, 24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before to-morrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportuniry to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield*, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?
of an Angry God
by Jonathan Edwards
Their foot shall slide in due time -- Deut. xxxii. 35
In this verse is threatened the vengeance of God on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, who were God's visible people, and who lived under the means of grace; but who, notwithstanding all God's wonderful works towards them, remained (as ver. 28.) void of counsel, having no understanding in them. Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit; as in the two verses next preceding the text. The expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following doings, relating to the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed.
1. That they were always exposed to destruction; as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall. This is implied in the manner of their destruction coming upon them, being represented by their foot sliding. The same is expressed, Psalm lxxiii. 18. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction."
2. It implies, that they were always exposed to sudden unexpected destruction. As he that walks in slippery places is every moment liable to fall, he cannot foresee one moment whether he shall stand or fall the next; and when he does fall, he falls at once without warning: Which is also expressed in Psalm lxxiii. 18, 19. "Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How are they brought into desolation as in a moment!"
3. Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.
4. That the reason why they are not fallen already, and do not fall now, is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment. The truth of this observation may appear by the following considerations.
1. There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist him, nor can any deliver out of his hands. -- He is not only able to cast wicked men into hell, but he can most easily do it. Sometimes an earthly prince meets with a great deal of difficulty to subdue a rebel, who has found means to fortify himself, and has made himself strong by the numbers of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that is any defence from the power of God. Though hand join in hand, and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and associate themselves, they are easily broken in pieces. They are as great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind; or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to tread on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the earth; so it is easy for us to cut or singe a slender thread that any thing hangs by: thus easy is it for God, when he pleases, to cast his enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think to stand before him, at whose rebuke the earth trembles, and before whom the rocks are thrown down?
2. They deserve to be cast into hell; so that divine justice never stands in the way, it makes no objection against God's using his power at any moment to destroy them. Yea, on the contrary, justice calls aloud for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that brings forth such grapes of Sodom, "Cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" Luke xiii. 7. The sword of divine justice is every moment brandished over their heads, and it is nothing but the hand of arbitrary mercy, and God's mere will, that holds it back.
3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. John iii. 18. "He that believeth not is condemned already." So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John viii. 23. "Ye are from beneath." And thither be is bound; it is the place that justice, and God's word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law assign to him.
4. They are now the objects of that very same anger and wrath of God, that is expressed in the torments of hell. And the reason why they do not go down to hell at each moment, is not because God, in whose power they are, is not then very angry with them; as he is with many miserable creatures now tormented in hell, who there feel and bear the fierceness of his wrath. Yea, God is a great deal more angry with great numbers that are now on earth: yea, doubtless, with many that are now in this congregation, who it may be are at ease, than he is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell. So that it is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness, and does not resent it, that he does not let loose his hand and cut them off. God is not altogether such an one as themselves, though they may imagine him to be so. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.
5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; he has their souls in his possession, and under his dominion. The scripture represents them as his goods, Luke xi. 12. The devils watch them; they are ever by them at their right hand; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should perrnit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.
6. There are in the souls of wicked men those hellish principles reigning, that would presently kindle and flame out into hell fire, if it were not for God's restraints. There is laid in the very nature of carnal men, a foundation for the torments of hell. There are those corrupt principles, in reigning power in them, and in full possession of them, that are seeds of hell fire. These principles are active and powerful, exceeding violent in their nature, and if it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out, they would flame out after the same manner as the same corruptions, the same enmity does in the hearts of damned souls, and would beget the same torments as they do in them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isa. lvii. 20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further;" but if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the heart of man is immoderate and boundless in its fury; and while wicked men live here, it is like fire pent up by God's restraints, whereas if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.
7. It is no security to wicked men for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security to a natural man, that he is now in health, and that he does not see which way he should now immediately go out of the world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The manifold and continual experience of the world in all ages, shows this is no evidence, that a man is not on the very brink of eternity, and that the next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unthought-of ways and means of persons going suddenly out of the world are innumerable and inconceivable. Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen. The arrows of death fly unseen at noon-day; the sharpest sight cannot discern them. God has so many different unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to make it appear, that God had need to be at the expence of a miracle, or go out of the ordinary course of his providence, to destroy any wicked nian, at any moment. All the means that there are of sinners going out of the world, are so in God's hands, and so universally and absolutely subject to his power and determination, that it does not depend at all the less on the mere will of God, whether sinners shall at any moment go to hell, than if means were never made use of, or at all concerned in the case.
8. Natural men's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, do not secure them a moment. To this, divine providence and universal experience do also bear testimony. There is this clear evidence that men's own wisdom is no security to them from death; that if it were otherwise we should see some difference between the wise and politic men of the world, and others, with regard to their liableness to early and unexpected death: but how is it in fact? Eccles. ii. 16. "How dieth the wise man? even as the fool."
9. All wicked men's pains and contrivance which they use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ, and so remain wicked men, do not secure them from hell one moment. Almost every natural man that hears of hell, flatters himself that he shall escape it; he depends upon himself for his own security; he flatters himself in what he has done, in what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Every one lays out matters in his own mind how he shall avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he contrives well for himself, and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the greater part of men that have died heretofore are gone to hell; but each one imagines that he lays out matters better for his own escape than others have done. He does not intend to come to that place of torment; he says within himself, that he intends to take effectual care, and to order matters so for himself as not to fail.
But the foolish children of men miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who heretofore have lived under the same means of grace, and are now dead, are undoubtedly gone to hell; and it was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive: it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them, and inquire of them, one by one, whether they expected, when alive, and when they used to hear about hell ever to be the subects of that misery: we doubtless, should hear one and another reply, "No, I never intended to come here: I had laid out matters otherwise in my mind; I thought I should contrive well for myself: I thought my scheme good. I intended to take effectual care; but it came upon me unexpected; I did not look for it at that time, and in that manner; it came as a thief: Death outwitted me: God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my cursed foolishness! I was flattering myself, and pleasing myself with vain dreams of what I would do hereafter; and when I was saying, Peace and safety, then suddenly destruction came upon me.
10. God has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. God certainly has made no promises either of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, but what are contained in the covenant of grace, the promises that are given in Christ, in whom all the promises are yea and amen. But surely they have no interest in the promises of the covenant of grace who are not the children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises, and have no interest in the Mediator of the covenant.
So that, whatever some have imagined and pretended about promises made to natural men's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and manifest, that whatever pains a natural man takes in religion, whatever prayers he makes, till he believes in Christ, God is under no manner of obligation to keep him a moment from eternal destruction.
So that, thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire pent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of, all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.
APPLICATION
The use of this awful subject may be for awakening unconverted persons in this congregation. This that you have heard is the case of every one of you that are out of Christ. -- That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under you. There is the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God; there is hell's wide gaping mouth open; and you have nothing to stand upon, nor any thing to take hold of, there is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.
You probably are not sensible of this; you find you are kept out of hell, but do not see the hand of God in it; but look at other things, as the good state of your bodily constitution, your care of your own life, and the means you use for your own preservation. But indeed these things are nothing; if God should withdraw his band, they would avail no more to keep you from falling, than the thin air to hold up a person that is suspended in it.
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God's enemies. God's creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are black clouds of God's wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed for the present; they increase more and more, and rise higher and higher, till an outlet is given; and the longer the stream is stopped, the more rapid and mighty is its course, when once it is let loose. It is true, that judgment against your evil works has not been executed hitherto; the floods of God's vengeance have been withheld; but your guilt in the mean time is constantly increasing, and you are every day treasuring up more wrath; the waters are constantly rising, and waxing more and more mighty; and there is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, that holds the waters back, that are unwilling to be stopped, and press hard to go forward. If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood-gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would come upon you with omnipotent power; and if your strength were ten thousand times greater than it is, yea, ten thousand times greater than the strength of the stoutest, sturdiest devil in hell, it would be nothing to withstand or endure it.
The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligatioti at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood. Thus all you that never passed under a great change of heart, by the mighty power of the Spirit of God upon your souls; all you that were never born again, and made new creatures, and raised from being dead in sin, to a state of new, and before altogether unexperienced light and life, are in the hands of an angry God. However you may have reformed your life in many things, and may have had religious affections, and may keep up a form of religion in your families and closets, and in the house of God, it is nothing but his mere pleasure that keeps you from being this moment swallowed up in everlasting destruction. However unconvinced you may now be of the truth of what you hear, by and by you will be fully convinced of it. Those that are gone from being in the like circumstances with you, see that it was so with them; for destruction came suddenly upon most of them; when they expected nothing of it, and while they were saying, Peace and safety: now they see, that those things on which they depended for peace and safety, were nothing but thin air and empty shadows.
The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes, than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to nothing else, that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep. And there is no other reason to be given, why you have not dropped into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held you up. There is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not this very moment drop down into hell.
O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hang by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing to lay hold of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment. And consider here more particularly
1. Whose wrath it is: it is the wrath of the infinite God. If it were only the wrath of man, though it were of the most potent prince, it would be comparatively little to be regarded. The wrath of kings is very much dreaded, especially of absolute monarchs, who have the possessions and lives of their subjects wholly in their power, to be disposed of at their mere will. Prov. xx. 2. "The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: Whoso provoketh him to anger, sinneth against his own soul." The subject that very much enrages an arbitrary prince, is liable to suffer the most extreme torments that human art can invent, or human power can inflict. But the greatest earthly potentates in their greatest majesty and strength, and when clothed in their greatest terrors, are but feeble, despicable worms of the dust, in comparison of the great and almighty Creator and King of heaven and earth. It is but little that they can do, when most enraged, and when they have exerted the utmost of their fury. All the kings of the earth, before God, are as grasshoppers; they are nothing, and less than nothing: both their love and their hatred is to be despised. The wrath of the great King of kings, is as much more terrible than theirs, as his majesty is greater. Luke xii. 4, 5. "And I say unto you, my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that, have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom you shall fear: fear him, which after he hath killed, hath power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, Fear him."
2. It is the fierceness of his wrath that you are exposed to. We often read of the fury of God; as in Isaiah lix. 18. "According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries." So Isaiah lxvi. 15. "For behold, the Lord will come with fire, and wifh his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire." And in many other places. So, Rev. xix. 15, we read of "the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." The words are exceeding terrible. If it had only been said, "the wrath of God," the words would have implied that which is infinitely dreadful: but it is "the fierceness and wrath of God." The fury of God! the fierceness of Jehovah! Oh, how dreadful must that be! Who can utter or conceive what such expressions carry in them! But it is also "the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." As though there would be a very great manifestation of his almighty power in what the fierceness of his wrath should inflict, as though omnipotence should be as it were enraged, and exerted, as men are wont to exert their strength in the fierceness of their wrath. Oh! then, what will be the consequence! What will become of the poor worms that shall suffer it! Whose hands can be strong? And whose heart can endure? To what a dreadful, inexpressible, inconceivable depth of misery must the poor creature be sunk who shall be the subject of this!
Consider this, you that are here present, that yet remain in an unregenerate state. That God will execute the fierceness of his anger, implies, that he will inflict wrath without any pity. When God beholds the ineffable extremity of your case, and sees your torment to be so vastly disproportioned to your strength, and sees how your poor soul is crushed, and sinks down, as it were, into an infinite gloom; he will have no compassion upon you, he will not forbear the executions of his wrath, or in the least lighten his hand; there shall be no moderation or mercy, nor will God then at all stay his rough wind; he will have no regard to your welfare, nor be at all careful lest you should suffer too much in any other sense, than only that you shall not suffer beyond what strict justice requires. Nothing shall be withheld, because it is so hard for you to bear. Ezek. viii. 18. "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them." Now God stands ready to pity you; this is a day of mercy; you may cry now with some encouragement of obtaining mercy. But when once the day of mercy is past, your most lamentable and dolorous cries and shrieks will be in vain; you will be wholly lost and thrown away of God, as to any regard to your welfare. God will have no other use to put you to, but to suffer misery; you shall be continued in being to no other end; for you will be a vessel of wrath fitted to destruction; and there will be no other use of this vessel, but to be filled full of wrath. God will be so far from pitying you when you cry to him, that it is said he will only "laugh and mock," Prov. i. 25, 26, &c.
How awful are those words, Isa. lxiii. 3, which are the words of the great God. "I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment." It is perhaps impossible to conceive of words that carry in them greater manifestations of these three things, vis. contempt, and hatred, and fierceness of indignation. If you cry to God to pity you, he will be so far from pitying you in your doleful case, or showing you the least regard or favour, that instead of that, he will only tread you under foot. And though he will know that you cannot bear the weight of omnipotence treading upon you, yet he will not regard that, but he will crush you under his feet without mercy; he will crush out your blood, and make it fly, and it shall be sprinkled on his garments, so as to stain all his raiment. He will not only hate you, but he will have you, in the utmost contempt: no place shall be thought fit for you, but under his feet to be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
The misery you are exposed to is that which God will inflict to that end, that he might show what that wrath of Jehovah is. God hath had it on his heart to show to angels and men, both how excellent his love is, and also how terrible his wrath is. Sometimes earthly kings have a mind to show how terrible their wrath is, by the extreme punishments they would execute on those that would provoke them. Nebuchadnezzar, that mighty and haughty monarch of the Chaldean empire, was willing to show his wrath when enraged with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego; and accordingly gave orders that the burning fiery furnace should be heated seven times hotter than it was before; doubtless, it was raised to the utmost degree of fierceness that human art could raise it. But the great God is also willing to show his wrath, and magnify his awful majesty and mighty power in the extreme sufferings of his enemies. Rom. ix. 22. "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endure with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction?" And seeing this is his design, and what he has determined, even to show how terrible the unrestrained wrath, the fury and fierceness of Jehovah is, he will do it to effect. There will be something accomplished and brought to pass that will be dreadful with a witness. When the great and angry God hath risen up and executed his awful vengeance on the poor sinner, and the wretch is actually suffering the infinite weight and power of his indignation, then will God call upon the whole universe to behold that awful majesty and mighty power that is to be seen in it. Isa. xxxiii. 12-14. "And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites," &c.
Thus it will be with you that are in an unconverted state, if you continue in it; the infinite might, and majesty, and terribleness of the omnipotent God shall be magnified upon you, in the ineffable strength of your torments. You shall be tormented in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb; and when you shall be in this state of suffering, the glorious inhabitants of heaven shall go forth and look on the awful spectacle, that they may see what the wrath and fierceness of the Almighty is; and when they have seen it, they will fall down and adore that great power and majesty. Isa. lxvi. 23, 24. "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh." 4. It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it to all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For "who knows the power of God's anger?"
How dreadful is the state of those that are daily and hourly in the danger of this great wrath and infinite misery! But this is the dismal case of every soul in this congregation that has not been born again, however moral and strict, sober and religious, they may otherwise be. Oh that you would consider it, whether you be young or old! There is reason to think, that there are many in this congregation now hearing this discourse, that will actually be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity. We know not who they are, or in what seats they sit, or what thoughts they now have. It may be they are now at ease, and hear all these things without much disturbance, and are now flattering themselves that they are not the persons, promising themselves that they shall escape. If we knew that there was one person, and but one, in the whole congregation, that was to be the subject of this misery, what an awful thing would it be to think of! If we knew who it was, what an awful sight would it be to see such a person! How might all the rest of the congregation lift up a lamentable and bitter cry over him! But, alas! instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in hell? And it would be a wonder, if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short time, even before this year is out. And it would be no wonder if some persons, that now sit here, in some seats of this meeting-house, in health, quiet and secure, should be there before to-morrow morning. Those of you that finally continue in a natural condition, that shall keep out of hell longest will be there in a little time! your damnation does not slumber; it will come swiftly, and, in all probability, very suddenly upon many of you. You have reason to wonder that you are not already in hell. It is doubtless the case of some whom you have seen and known, that never deserved hell more than you, and that heretofore appeared as likely to have been now alive as you. Their case is past all hope; they are crying in extreme misery and perfect despair; but here you are in the land of the living and in the house of God, and have an opportuniry to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned hopeless souls give for one day's opportunity such as you now enjoy!
And now you have an extraordinary opportunity, a day wherein Christ has thrown the door of mercy wide open, and stands in calling and crying with a loud voice to poor sinners; a day wherein many are flocking to him, and pressing into the kingdom of God. Many are daily coming from the east, west, north and south; many that were very lately in the same miserable condition that you are in, are now in a happy state, with their hearts filled with love to him who has loved them, and washed them from their sins in his own blood, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. How awful is it to be left behind at such a day! To see so many others feasting, while you are pining and perishing! To see so many rejoicing and singing for joy of heart, while you have cause to mourn for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of spirit! How can you rest one moment in such a condition? Are not your souls as precious as the souls of the people at Suffield*, where they are flocking from day to day to Christ?
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