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Best of Jonathan Edwards Sermons
The Jonathan Edwards trilogy includes three of the most important sermons ever preached on American soil. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is maybe the most important and well-known sermon of his, but also included is A Divine and Supernatural Light describing and illuminating what Edwards describes as a supernatural light imparted by God. His farewell sermon was given in June of 1750 and is a commendation to those who are in the Lord's service, a plea to maintain unity, avoid dissension and false doctrine, and a call to devote themselves to prayer.
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First published March 1, 2007
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About the author
Jonathan Edwards
1,606 books528 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database named Jonathan Edwards.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
Jonathan Edwards was the most eminent American philosopher-theologian of his time, and a key figure in what has come to be called the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s.
The only son in a family of eleven children, he entered Yale in September, 1716 when he was not yet thirteen and graduated four years later (1720) as valedictorian. He received his Masters three years later. As a youth, Edwards was unable to accept the Calvinist sovereignty of God. However, in 1721 he came to what he called a "delightful conviction" though meditation on 1 Timothy 1:17. From that point on, Edwards delighted in the sovereignty of God. Edwards later recognized this as his conversion to Christ.
In 1727 he was ordained minister at Northampton and assistant to his maternal grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He was a student minister, not a visiting pastor, his rule being thirteen hours of study a day. In the same year, he married Sarah Pierpont, then age seventeen, daughter of Yale founder James Pierpont (1659–1714). In total, Jonathan and Sarah had eleven children.
Stoddard died on February 11th, 1729, leaving to his grandson the difficult task of the sole ministerial charge of one of the largest and wealthiest congregations in the colony. Throughout his time in Northampton his preaching brought remarkable religious revivals.
Yet, tensions flamed as Edwards would not continue his grandfather's practice of open communion. Stoddard believed that communion was a "converting ordinance." Surrounding congregations had been convinced of this, and as Edwards became more convinced that this was harmful, his public disagreement with the idea caused his dismissal in 1750.
Edwards then moved to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, then a frontier settlement, where he ministered to a small congregation and served as missionary to the Housatonic Indians. There, having more time for study and writing, he completed his celebrated work, The Freedom of the Will (1754).
Edwards was elected president of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) in early 1758. He was a popular choice, for he had been a friend of the College since its inception. He died of fever at the age of fifty-four following experimental inoculation for smallpox and was buried in the President's Lot in the Princeton cemetery beside his son-in-law, Aaron Burr.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 21, 2020
Truth transcends time. These sermons, despite their age, are worthy of reflection by all. The reader (or listener) can’t help but be humbled by man’s place in relation to God, is forced to examine their study condition, and stands in awe of the holiness and great power of God.
Worth reading and reflecting upon more than once.
Worth reading and reflecting upon more than once.
July 8, 2019
This little volume contains three of Jonathan Edwards’s best sermons. The most well-known is “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Also contained is “A Divine and Supernatural Light” and Edwards’s fascinating sermon he gave at his farewell from his ministry at Northampton (which also includes an introduction explaining some of the events leading up to his firing).
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is rightfully Edwards’s best known sermon. Edwards rhetoric is sharp and vivid. Edwards tells us that each of us is at the mercy of a Sovereign God. Every step we take, every breath we take is only because of God’s mercy. Edwards says, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” Meanwhile, “[the Devil]... stands waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it...” The fact that we are alive speaks to the mercy of God and protection of God in our lives!
Edwards warns the listener who takes lightly the Sovereign Lord who will make all things right. God’s wrath will be poured on out injustice and sin one day. “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?”
He continues: “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 obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”
Meanwhile, many live for their own pleasure and glory. “Some make gods of their pleasures; some choose Mammon for their god; some make gods of their own supposed excellencies, or the outward advantages they have above their neighbors: some choose one thing for their god, and others another. But men can be happy in no other God but the God of Israel: he is the only fountain of happiness.”
These are unusual words for us to consider in 21st Century America, but they are no less biblical nor true than when they were spoken.
In “A Divine and Supernatural Light,” we see that Edwards is no mere preacher obsessed with justice and eternal judgment. Here we see that Edwards sees the way God’s grace shapes us.
This grace is available to all and yet uniquely and powerfully shapes the believer. Edwards says that “there is such a thing, as spiritual and divine light immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means.” This divine light, a spark in our soul allows us “a due apprehension Of God’s beauty.”
Edwards compares this to our other experience and says it dwarfs it: “Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of delighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart.”
It is like someone “having the knowledge of honey being sweet and having actually tasted honey and it’s sweetness.” That is different type of knowledge altogether. This is the knowledge of himself God offers us. “When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension.”
A divine and supernatural light is “a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them, thence arising.”
Finally we come to Edwards’s “Farewell Sermon,” a remarkable sermon given by Edwards after he was fired by his congregation. In the sermon Edwards shows remarkable care and compassion for his congregation as well as concern for their souls.
He says, “It often comes to pass in this evil world, that great differences and controversies arise between ministers and the people under their pastoral care. Though they are under the greatest obligations to live in peace, above persons in almost any relation whatever, and although contests and dissensions between persons so related are the most unhappy and terrible in their consequences on many accounts of any sort of contentions, yet how frequent have such contentions been!”
Reading Edwards sermons is certainly a difficult experience: he writes with incredible eloquence and in a manner that is foreign to the contemporary reader. And yet the jewels held within are well worth the effort.
For more reviews see www.thebeehive.live.
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is rightfully Edwards’s best known sermon. Edwards rhetoric is sharp and vivid. Edwards tells us that each of us is at the mercy of a Sovereign God. Every step we take, every breath we take is only because of God’s mercy. Edwards says, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” Meanwhile, “[the Devil]... stands waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it...” The fact that we are alive speaks to the mercy of God and protection of God in our lives!
Edwards warns the listener who takes lightly the Sovereign Lord who will make all things right. God’s wrath will be poured on out injustice and sin one day. “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?”
He continues: “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 obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.”
Meanwhile, many live for their own pleasure and glory. “Some make gods of their pleasures; some choose Mammon for their god; some make gods of their own supposed excellencies, or the outward advantages they have above their neighbors: some choose one thing for their god, and others another. But men can be happy in no other God but the God of Israel: he is the only fountain of happiness.”
These are unusual words for us to consider in 21st Century America, but they are no less biblical nor true than when they were spoken.
In “A Divine and Supernatural Light,” we see that Edwards is no mere preacher obsessed with justice and eternal judgment. Here we see that Edwards sees the way God’s grace shapes us.
This grace is available to all and yet uniquely and powerfully shapes the believer. Edwards says that “there is such a thing, as spiritual and divine light immediately imparted to the soul by God, of a different nature from any that is obtained by natural means.” This divine light, a spark in our soul allows us “a due apprehension Of God’s beauty.”
Edwards compares this to our other experience and says it dwarfs it: “Men have a great deal of pleasure in human knowledge, in studies of natural things; but this is nothing to that joy which arises from this divine light shining into the soul. This light gives a view of those things that are immensely the most exquisitely beautiful, and capable of delighting the eye of the understanding. This spiritual light is the dawning of the light of glory in the heart.”
It is like someone “having the knowledge of honey being sweet and having actually tasted honey and it’s sweetness.” That is different type of knowledge altogether. This is the knowledge of himself God offers us. “When the heart is sensible of the beauty and amiableness of a thing, it necessarily feels pleasure in the apprehension.”
A divine and supernatural light is “a true sense of the divine excellency of the things revealed in the Word of God, and a conviction of the truth and reality of them, thence arising.”
Finally we come to Edwards’s “Farewell Sermon,” a remarkable sermon given by Edwards after he was fired by his congregation. In the sermon Edwards shows remarkable care and compassion for his congregation as well as concern for their souls.
He says, “It often comes to pass in this evil world, that great differences and controversies arise between ministers and the people under their pastoral care. Though they are under the greatest obligations to live in peace, above persons in almost any relation whatever, and although contests and dissensions between persons so related are the most unhappy and terrible in their consequences on many accounts of any sort of contentions, yet how frequent have such contentions been!”
Reading Edwards sermons is certainly a difficult experience: he writes with incredible eloquence and in a manner that is foreign to the contemporary reader. And yet the jewels held within are well worth the effort.
For more reviews see www.thebeehive.live.
July 20, 2020
1) The farewell sermon was very affecting. While I don't know much about the conflict that precipitated Edwards's dismissal from the Northampton church, and may well have been in disagreement with Edwards, I think I'd've wept through this sermon had I been amongst its original hearers. His depiction of the shepherd and his flock on Judgment Day was vivid and instructive and moving.
2) Could "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" have used a more generous dose of gospel hope? Probably. Could today's loosey-goosey church use a stronger reminder of the dangers of Hell? Definitely.
3) The third sermon kinda whooshed over my head, so I've got nothing to say about it.
2) Could "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" have used a more generous dose of gospel hope? Probably. Could today's loosey-goosey church use a stronger reminder of the dangers of Hell? Definitely.
3) The third sermon kinda whooshed over my head, so I've got nothing to say about it.
February 11, 2024
I now understand why Edwards was so effective as a preacher.
The first sermon in this collection showcases his deep love for everyone, even those who had conflicts with him. The gracious compassion that permeates this sermon is very striking. Next, it is an interesting exposition of his understanding of a pastor’s authority and duty.
Now the second sermon in this series, the one everyone’s heard of and that still terrifies by its title alone. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. That is a rightly terrifying thought. It should scare us for our own souls and those of every person we meet. It is easy to see how this sermon shook everyone who has ever heard it. God’s wrath a moment away from every soul on earth… It is a message that the church tends to forget. Edwards did an excellent job of reminding us of just why preaching, evangelism, missions, and our personal testimonies are so vitally important. But – on its own, it doesn’t offer a very clear explanation of God’s love, mercy, and grace. I think that’s why it is the second book. That first sermon shows the deep love and compassion that Edwards had for every person around him and his deep concern for their eternal salvation.
The third sermon was less striking.
The first sermon in this collection showcases his deep love for everyone, even those who had conflicts with him. The gracious compassion that permeates this sermon is very striking. Next, it is an interesting exposition of his understanding of a pastor’s authority and duty.
Now the second sermon in this series, the one everyone’s heard of and that still terrifies by its title alone. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. That is a rightly terrifying thought. It should scare us for our own souls and those of every person we meet. It is easy to see how this sermon shook everyone who has ever heard it. God’s wrath a moment away from every soul on earth… It is a message that the church tends to forget. Edwards did an excellent job of reminding us of just why preaching, evangelism, missions, and our personal testimonies are so vitally important. But – on its own, it doesn’t offer a very clear explanation of God’s love, mercy, and grace. I think that’s why it is the second book. That first sermon shows the deep love and compassion that Edwards had for every person around him and his deep concern for their eternal salvation.
The third sermon was less striking.
March 10, 2018
Edwards is most famous for "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God." Most today condemn this sermon and reject him for it. But actually all he is doing is echoing the Old Testament prophets.
This is a scary sermon but it tells the truth. Every human being needs to hear and take to heart the message of this sermon no matter how hard it is to hear.
His "A Divine and Supernatural Light" is the other side of the story. It explains how God saves us from our sin.
His "Farewell Sermon" is interesting and sad. It is the sermon he preached after he was fired. It is gracious but honest.
This is a scary sermon but it tells the truth. Every human being needs to hear and take to heart the message of this sermon no matter how hard it is to hear.
His "A Divine and Supernatural Light" is the other side of the story. It explains how God saves us from our sin.
His "Farewell Sermon" is interesting and sad. It is the sermon he preached after he was fired. It is gracious but honest.
December 29, 2022
The content is great and I appreciate the recording of these sermons because they were meant to be heard and they are still relevant today. I just wish the audiobook had more drama and depth in the delivery and execution of these sermons. Audiobooks can be truly amazing and engrossing in the hands of the effective producers and actors.
August 13, 2021
Jonathan Edwards always packs a theological punch. He goes deep and direct to the culture to which he was pastoring. Still, there is much for today’s Christian to wrestle with in each of these sermons.
September 10, 2021
I think these sermons lose something when presented in isolation from their original context.
January 2, 2025
He always is amazing in his writings. Makes you wish you sat live under his sermons
January 9, 2019
Bruce has it
May 22, 2016
In my search for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, I discovered that (1) it was a sermon, not a book, and (2) there are so many options for reading Jonathan Edwards. I chose this book because the three sermons included was the one I was originally interested in, and I am glad at the choice because my favorite of the three was actually his farewell sermon. The content of that sermon, particularly the relationship between a church and its pastor during the final judgement, was something that I had not considered before and found very thought-provoking. I can understand why Sinners in the Hands of and Angry God is a classic, although I struggled to really grasp the third sermon despite going through most of the content twice. I could see in Edward's preaching a style that has likely been observed and incorporated into the teaching of modern preachers I enjoy, particularly his unapologetic use of so many sermon points that each sermon contained multiple lists within it.
Apart from A Divine and Supernatural Light, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed these sermons and how engaging and easy (for my brain) to follow they were. (My rating is an average across the three sermons.)
*I read this as part of my 2016 Reading Challenge for the category "A book written by a Puritan"
Apart from A Divine and Supernatural Light, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed these sermons and how engaging and easy (for my brain) to follow they were. (My rating is an average across the three sermons.)
*I read this as part of my 2016 Reading Challenge for the category "A book written by a Puritan"
April 2, 2024
Don't worry about the older language used. There are some important truths that everyone should understand in these sermons.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews