92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
We are dependent not only on His wisdom to arrange a way to accomplish it, and on His power to bring it to pass, but we are also dependent on His mere will and pleasure in the matter. We depend on the sovereign will of God for everything belonging to it, from the foundation to the very top. It was because of the sovereign pleasure of God, that He designed a way to save some of mankind, and gave us Jesus Christ, His one and only Son, to be our Redeemer.
Why did God look on mankind with favor, and send us a Savior, and yet never did the same for the fallen angels? It was simply because of the sovereign pleasure of God. His sovereign grace gave us the Bible, and the truths of Christianity. His giving of those blessed things to us rather than to others, His giving the awakening influences of His Spirit, and His bestowing saving grace, are all of His sovereign pleasure. When he says, "Let there be light in the soul of that person," it is a word of infinite power and sovereign grace.
2. Let us with the greatest humility adore the awesome and absolute sovereignty of God.
As we have just seen, it is an eminent attribute of the Divine Being, that He is sovereign over the souls of men and women, and that in every respect, even in their eternal salvation. The infinite greatness of God, and His exaltation above us, appears in nothing more, than in His sovereignty. It is spoken of in Scripture as a great part of His glory.
Deuteronomy 32:39, "See now that I myself am He! There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand."
Psalm 115:3, "Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him."
Daniel 4:34, 35, "His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of