Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

SINNERS In the Hands of an angry GOD.

_DEUTERONOMY 32. 35._—Their Foot shall slide in due Time.—

IN this Verse is threatened the Vengeance of GOD, on the wicked unbelieving Israelites, that were GOD's visible People, and lived under Means of Grace; and that, notwithstanding all GOD's wonderful Works, that he had wrought towards that People, yet remained, as is expressed, verse 28 void of Counsel, having no Understanding in them; and that, under all the Cultivations of Heaven, brought forth bitter and poisonous Fruit; as in the two Verses next preceding the Text.

The Expression that I have chosen for my Text, Their Foot shall slide in due Time; seems to imply the following Things, relating to the Punishment and Destruction that these wicked Israelites were exposed to.

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's coming upon them, being represented by their Foot's sliding; the same is expressed, Psalm 73. 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 can't 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 that Psalm 73. 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 don't 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 won't 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 in such slippery declining Ground on the Edge of a Pit that he can't 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 can't 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, that 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 Things 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 cumbreth it the Ground, Luke 13. 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 don't 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 3. 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 8. 23. Ye are from beneath: And thither he is bound; it is the Place that Justice, and GOD's Word, and the Sentence of his unchangeable Law assigns 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 don't go down to Hell at each Moment, is not because GOD, in whose Power they are, is not then very angry with them; as angry as he is with many of those miserable Creatures, that he is now tormenting in Hell, and do 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, that it may be, are at Ease and Quiet, than he is with many of those that 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 has opened her 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 11. 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 permit 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 in them as they do in them. The Souls of the Wicked, are in Scripture compared to the troubled Sea, Isaiah 57. 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, and no further; but if GOD should withdraw that restraining Power, it would soon carry all afore 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 a Thing that is immoderate and boundless in its Fury; and while wicked Men live here, it is like Fire pent up by GOD's Restraints, when 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 that this is no Evidence that a Man is not on the very Brink of Eternity, and that the next Step won't 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 won't bear their Weight, and these Places are not seen. The Arrows of Death fly unseen at Noon-Day; the sharpest Sight can't 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 Expense of a Miracle, or go out of the ordinary Course of his Providence, to destroy any wicked Man, 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 absolutely subject to his Power and Determination, that it does not depend at all 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, don't secure them a Moment. This divine Providence and universal Experience does also bear Testimony to. 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? Ecclesiastes 2. 16. How dieth the wise Man? as the Fool.

9. All wicked Men's Pains and Contrivance they use to escape Hell, while they continue to reject CHRIST, and so remain wicked Men, don't 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, and 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 won't fail. They hear indeed that there are but few saved, and that the bigger 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 Care that shall be effectual, and to order Matters so for himself as not to fail.

But the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes, and in their confidence in their own strength and wisdom; they trust to nothing but a shadow. The bigger part of those that 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 that are now alive; it was not because they did not lay out matters as well for themselves to secure their own escape. If it were so, that we could come to speak with them, and could enquire of them, one by one, whether they expected when alive, and when they used to hear about Hell, ever to be the subjects 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; O 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 sudden 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, that are not the children of the Covenant, and that don't believe in any of the promises of the Covenant, 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.

Finis.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

Deuteronomy 32:35 -- Their foot shall slide in due time. --

In this verse, God threatens vengeance on the wicked, unbelieving Israelites who were God's visible people and lived under the means of grace. Despite all God's wonderful works toward that people, they still remained, as verse 28 puts it, void of counsel, having no understanding. Under all the care heaven had given them, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit, as described in the two verses just before the text.

The expression I have chosen for my text, Their foot shall slide in due time, seems to imply the following things about the punishment and destruction these wicked Israelites were exposed to.

1. They were always exposed to destruction, as someone who stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to falling. This is implied by the way their destruction is described as coming upon them -- represented by their foot slipping. The same idea is expressed in Psalm 73:18: Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction.

2. It implies that they were always exposed to sudden, unexpected destruction. Someone who walks in slippery places is liable to fall at every moment. He cannot foresee for one moment whether he will stand or fall the next, and when he does fall, he falls all at once, without warning. This is also expressed in Psalm 73:18-19: Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are brought to desolation in a moment!

3. Another thing implied is that they are liable to fall by themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another. Someone who stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down.

4. The reason they have not already fallen and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time has not come. For it says that when that due time, or appointed time, comes, their foot shall slide. Then they will be left to fall, as they are pulled by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go. At that very instant they will fall into destruction, like someone standing on such slippery, sloping ground at the edge of a pit who cannot stand alone -- when he is let go, he immediately falls and is lost.

The point I would draw from these words is this: there is nothing that keeps wicked people out of hell at any one moment except the mere will of God.

By the mere will of God, I mean His sovereign will, His free decision, restrained by no obligation and hindered by no difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had the slightest part, in any respect whatsoever, in the preservation of wicked people for one moment.

The truth of this observation may appear from the following considerations.

1. There is no lack of power in God to cast wicked people into hell at any moment. Human strength cannot stand when God rises up. The strongest have no power to resist Him, nor can anyone deliver out of His hands.

He is not only able to cast wicked people into hell, but He can do it most easily. Sometimes an earthly ruler has great difficulty subduing a rebel who has found ways to fortify himself and has made himself strong through the number of his followers. But it is not so with God. There is no fortress that provides any defense against the power of God. Though people join forces together and vast multitudes of God's enemies combine and band together, they are easily broken in pieces. They are like great heaps of light chaff before the whirlwind, or large quantities of dry stubble before devouring flames. We find it easy to step on and crush a worm that we see crawling on the ground. It is easy for us to cut or burn through a thin thread that something hangs by. Just as easily can God, when He pleases, cast His enemies down to hell. What are we, that we should think we can 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. Divine justice never stands in the way and makes no objection against God using His power at any moment to destroy them. On the contrary, justice calls loudly for an infinite punishment of their sins. Divine justice says of the tree that produces such grapes of Sodom, Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? Luke 13:7. The sword of divine justice is brandished over their heads at every moment, and nothing but the hand of sovereign mercy and God's mere will holds it back.

3. They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down there. The sentence of the law of God -- that eternal and unchangeable rule of righteousness that God has established between Himself and humanity -- has gone out against them and stands against them. They are already bound over to hell. John 3:18: He who does not believe is condemned already. So every unconverted person properly belongs to hell. That is his place; that is where he is from. John 8:23: You are from beneath. And that is where he is bound. It is the place that justice, 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. The reason they do not go down to hell at every moment is not because God, in whose power they are, is not angry with them at that time. He is as angry with them as He is with many of those miserable creatures He is now tormenting in hell, who are there feeling and bearing the fierceness of His wrath. Indeed, God is far more angry with great numbers who are now on earth -- yes, undoubtedly with many who are now in this congregation, who may be at ease and unconcerned -- than He is with many of those who are now in the flames of hell.

So it is not because God is unaware of their wickedness, or does not take offense at it, that He does not let loose His hand and cut them off. God is not like them, though they may imagine Him to be. The wrath of God burns against them. Their damnation does not sleep. The pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, and the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them. The flames are raging and glowing right now. The glittering sword is sharpened and held over them, and the pit has opened its mouth beneath them.

5. The devil stands ready to fall upon them and seize them as his own the moment God allows him. They belong to him. He has their souls in his possession and under his control. The Scripture describes them as his goods (Luke 11:21). The devils watch them. They are always beside 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 held back. If God should withdraw His hand by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The ancient serpent is gaping for them. Hell opens its mouth wide to receive them. If God should allow it, they would be quickly swallowed up and lost.

6. There are hellish principles ruling in the souls of wicked people that would immediately kindle and flame out into hellfire if it were not for God's restraints. In the very nature of sinful people there is a foundation for the torments of hell. There are corrupt principles in ruling power within them and in full possession of them that are seeds of hellfire. These principles are active and powerful, extremely violent in their nature. If it were not for the restraining hand of God upon them, they would soon break out. They would flame out in the same way that the same corruptions and the same hostility do in the hearts of damned souls, and would produce the same torments in them. The souls of the wicked are compared in Scripture to the troubled sea. Isaiah 57:20. For now God restrains their wickedness by His mighty power, as He does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, This far you may come, and no farther. But if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon sweep everything before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul. It is destructive by nature. If God should leave it without restraint, nothing else would be needed to make the soul perfectly miserable. The corruption of the human heart is a thing that is extreme and boundless in its fury. While wicked people live here, it is like fire held in by God's restraints. If it were let loose, it would set ablaze the whole course of nature. Just as the heart is now a pit of sin, so if sin were not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, a furnace of fire and brimstone.

7. It is no security for wicked people, even for one moment, that there are no visible means of death at hand. It is no security for a natural person that he is now in health and that he does not see any way he could immediately leave this world by any accident, and that there is no visible danger in any respect in his circumstances. The constant and widespread experience of the world in all ages shows that this is no evidence that a person is not on the very brink of eternity, and that his very next step will not be into another world. The unseen, unexpected ways and means by which people suddenly leave this world are countless and unimaginable. Unconverted people walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are countless 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 noonday. The sharpest sight cannot detect them. God has so many different and unsearchable ways of taking wicked people out of the world and sending them to hell, that there is nothing to suggest God would need to perform a miracle or go outside the ordinary course of His providence to destroy any wicked person at any moment. All the means by which sinners leave this world are so completely in God's hands, and so absolutely subject to His power and decision, that whether sinners go to hell at any moment depends no less on the mere will of God than if no natural means were ever used or involved at all.

8. People's prudence and care to preserve their own lives, or the care of others to preserve them, does not keep them safe for a moment. God's providence and universal experience also testify to this. There is clear evidence that human wisdom is no protection from death. If it were otherwise, we would see some difference between the wise and clever people of the world and others, regarding how likely they are to face early and unexpected death. But how is it in reality? Ecclesiastes 2:16: How does the wise man die? Just like the fool.

9. All the efforts and schemes that wicked people use to escape hell, while they continue to reject Christ and so remain wicked, do not protect them from hell for one moment. Almost every natural person who hears of hell flatters himself that he will escape it. He depends on himself for his own security. He flatters himself about what he has done, what he is now doing, or what he intends to do. Everyone maps out in his own mind how he will avoid damnation, and flatters himself that he has planned well and that his schemes will not fail. They hear indeed that only a few are saved and that the greater part of people who have died have gone to hell. But each one imagines that he has laid out better plans for his own escape than others have. He does not intend to come to that place of torment. He says to himself that he intends to take effective precautions and to arrange matters so that he will not fail.

But the foolish children of humanity miserably deceive themselves with their own schemes and their confidence in their own strength and wisdom. They trust in nothing but a shadow. The greater part of those who previously lived under the same means of grace and are now dead have undoubtedly gone to hell. It was not because they were not as wise as those who are now alive. It was not because they did not plan just as carefully to secure their own escape. If we could speak with them and ask them one by one whether they expected, when they were alive and used to hear about hell, to ever end up suffering that misery, we would undoubtedly hear one after another reply: 'No, I never intended to come here. I had planned things differently in my mind. I thought I had arranged things well for myself. I thought my plan was good. I intended to take effective precautions. But it came upon me unexpectedly. I did not look for it at that time or in that way. It came like a thief. Death outwitted me. God's wrath was too quick for me. Oh, my foolishness! I was flattering myself and entertaining myself with empty dreams of what I would do in the future, and while I was saying peace and safety, then sudden destruction came upon me.'

10. God has placed Himself under no obligation, by any promise, to keep any natural person out of hell for one moment. God has certainly made no promises of eternal life, or of any deliverance or preservation from eternal death, except those contained in the covenant of grace -- the promises given in Christ, in whom all the promises are Yes and Amen. But surely those who are not children of the covenant, who do not believe in any of the promises of the covenant, and who have no share in the Mediator of the covenant have no claim on its promises.

So whatever some have imagined and claimed about promises made to natural people's earnest seeking and knocking, it is plain and clear that whatever efforts a natural person makes in religion, whatever prayers he offers, until he believes in Christ, God is under no obligation at all to keep him from eternal destruction for a single moment.

So this is how it is: natural people are held in the hand of God over the pit of hell. They have deserved the fiery pit and are already sentenced to it. God is terribly provoked. His anger toward them is as great as toward those who are actually suffering the fierceness of His wrath in hell. They have done nothing whatsoever to calm or reduce that anger, nor is God bound in the slightest by any promise to hold them up for one moment. The devil is waiting for them. Hell is gaping for them. The flames gather and flash around them and long to seize them and swallow them up. The fire confined in their own hearts is struggling to break out. They have no share in any Mediator. There are no means within reach that can give them any security. In short, they have no refuge and nothing to hold on to. All that preserves them every moment is the mere free will and uncommitted, unobligated patience of an offended God.

The End.