Tuesdays with Edwards!
Sometime between August 1728 and February 1729 Edwards preached The Spiritual Blessings of the Gospel Represented by a Feast based on Luke 14:16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many. My Tuesdays with Edwards posts have been looking at the ways which show “how gospel provision is well represented by a feast.”
Today’s post looks at the third of several applications of this, specifically offering some directions on what to do so that you can be sure to be in attendance at the heavenly feast the Lord’s Supper pictures for us.
You can read this sermon in its entirety at www.edwards.yale.edu. This selection is from Sermons and Discourses, 1723-1729, ed. Kenneth P. Minkema, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 14 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997) Pages 291-293.
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That this may not hereafter be the case with you, to see others {entering into the kingdom of heaven and you shut out}, attend these directions:
Dir. I. You must choose the kingdom of God for your portion. That so many fail of entering into the kingdom, and shall stand without as rejected, when they shall see others entering in, is not because the terms of admittance are hard: for God only requires that men should choose that kingdom for their portion, and the happiness of it for their happiness; and then they shall have it: they shall enter in and sit down with other saints.
God leaves them to their choice. God would not give the kingdom of heaven to them that don’t much value it, that don’t set their hearts upon it, but had rather have the world than have that; that don’t account the happiness of it worth much seeking, that treat it with neglect and prefer the vanities of the world before it, and seek that with a great deal more earnestness and more affection.
God don’t mean to bestow the kingdom of heaven upon any but those that prize and value [it]. God don’t set forth such a glorious gift as the kingdom of heaven to be slighted and trampled on, as those [who] throw pearls before swine. God would not command this inestimable happiness and glory upon men against their wills. God is freely willing that man should have it, but only he would have them sensible of the worth and value of it, that they should prize and set their hearts upon it. God would not give this precious jewel to be set below the dust of the earth. He won’t give in to those men that prefer their worldly pelf before it.
The kingdom of heaven is a thing of infinitely more value than all worldly things, and they that prefer worldly things before it shall not have it. But all that choose it for their portion have a right and title to it; God gives it to ’em freely.
They that at the day of judgment shall be thrust out and shall see others admitted, now indeed they would gladly enter in. Now they wish and long for entrance. But why were they not more concerned about it when they might have had [it], when God offered it to ’em, as he doth to gospel sinners, over and over again? But then they concerned themselves little about [it]; they sold the kingdom of heaven for pleasure or a little worldly gain, a few trivial worldly vanities.
Therefore be intreated, you who have yet the offer of the kingdom of heaven, now to make choice of it. Be content to sell all for this pearl of great price. Matthew 13:44–46, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hid in a field; which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
As long as you set your heart, your honor, on estates or pleasures more than upon the kingdom of heaven, you may be sure you never shall have the possession of it. You must prize this blessedness above any worldly blessedness; your heart must be most upon it; it must be your portion. There is no such thing as your choosing two portions, choosing the world for a portion and the kingdom of God for a portion too. Matthew 6:24, “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
But if you once are brought to renounce the world, to choose your happiness here, so that this shall be the happiness you most relish, have a greatest appetite to, and most earnest desires after and do chiefly pursue; there is no doubt but that when those multitudes are flocking “from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south” [Psalms 107], and sitting down in the kingdom of God, you will be admitted amongst ’em.
Learning To Be Full Of Grace And Truth. 