Falling into the Hands of the Living God!
Part 4
Matthew Mead,
1629-1699
"It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!" Hebrews 10:31
In speaking thus far, I have showed you:
1. In what sense God is the living God.
2. Opened the notion of falling into his hands, what is intended by it.
3. Demonstrated the truth of this scripture, that it is a fearful thing. I gave evidence for this from that which is the chief subject of this misery—the soul of man. It is also evident,
a) in that the partial withdrawings of God from a believer in this life are so dreadful.
b) From the terrors that lost sinners many times feel under the sense of God's wrath in this world.
c) From the sense Christ had of this wrath of God, when he as our surety fell into the hands of the living God.
d) From the dreadfulness of that judgment which shall pass upon every soul in the great day.
I now come to show you, to WHOM it is such a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. If you respect the notion more largely, as having to do with God in a state of eternity—then it is not a dreadful thing for everyone. For to some it is a matter of comfort. It is so to all who believe, to all who are in union to Christ by faith—and it must necessarily be so. Consider the following.
I. It is such a union as that by it, a man's state is fundamentally changed, so that he is no longer a child of wrath.
II. It is a union fixed in the blessed state of justification, and the forgiveness of sins.
III. By virtue of this union, he has a right to all the blessings of the covenant.
IV. This is that which gives great boldness in the day of judgment.
But if you consider this falling into the hands of the living God in another sense than this is, than only having to do with God in a state of eternity, and that is falling into the hands of an absolute God—that is a fearful thing. And this is that which is intended in the text, having to do with God alone, with God without Christ—this is dreadful. This was that which a good man so dreaded when he cried out, "Let me not have to deal with an absolute God"—with God alone, with God out of Christ, for this is to have to deal with the power and wrath of God. This is when there is nothing in God himself, nothing in his word, nothing in his promises, nothing in his institutions, which should oblige him to show mercy or mitigate punishment.
Now in this sense, none fall into the hands of the living God, except those that live and die in their sins. Them, all of them, and none but them—are the subjects of this misery. All men since the fall are, "by nature children of wrath," (Ephesians 2:3). But there is a way, found out by the wisdom and grace of God, to escape it—and to this we are called to flee from the wrath to come. It is by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only remedy which God has set up by which his wrath may be avoided—and there is no other. He who believes on the Son, has everlasting life; but he who does not believe on the Son, shall not see life, for the wrath of God abides on him.
Such is the one who falls into the hands of the living God. This is the case of all lost sinners, such as live and die in the neglect and contempt of the grace of the gospel. God has, in rich grace, set Christ to be a Redeemer, and the great design of the gospel is to bring us to Christ, that we may be the sharers in the benefits of redemption. He who slights and sinfully rejects the offers of Christ, and the grace and mercy purchased and offered by Christ in the ministry of the gospel—does, by his own act, sinfully exclude himself from all hopes of mercy, and so falls into the hands the living God. There remains to him, then, "nothing but a certain fearful looking for the wrath and fiery indignation that shall consume his adversary!
O! how dreadful is this sin of unbelief—though we make so little of it! How miserable is the state of every soul who lives and dies in this sin. His damnation is unavoidable. He must perish. Why? Because he has no saving interest in the great mediator. Christ is the middle person between us and God to screen us from the wrath of God, who is a consuming fire. Now the unbeliever does not have Christ. He may have had him, but he does not desire to have him. He neglected him and refused and despised him. Now, therefore, Christ will reject him, and he shall fall into the hands of an absolute God.
V. Let me give you the REASONS of this truth. Why it is such a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
1. Judgment shall be with respect to those attributes of God which make it so fearful. The attributes of God are all eternal like himself, and those attributes must produce suitable acts. Power shows itself in acts of power. Mercy in acts of mercy. Justice in acts of justice. And these must have suitable objects. For though the immanent acts of God, such as abide in him, of which number are his secret decrees, do not necessarily require the pre-existence of any object—yet his transient acts must necessarily suppose some object on which they are terminated.
Now as there are no creatures besides angels and men which are capable of merit and demerit, and consequently of rewards and punishments—so there are no creatures else that are immortal, and so capable of eternal happiness or misery. There are some attributes of God, which though they are in their nature eternal—yet they are but temporary in their use and exercise—such as patience and long suffering, by which God bears with lost sinners and delays to execute the judgments threatened, gives warning before he strikes, and sends lesser judgments to prevent greater. By these things, he waits to be gracious, and these are the exercises of his patience and long-suffering to lost sinners.
But in the eternal world, all these shall cease, God will then wait no longer, and bear with lost sinners no more. "I have a long time been still and refrained myself—now will I destroy and devour," (Isaiah 42:4). Neither lost sinners nor saints shall ever share in the patience of God towards them, in the eternal world.
Not the SAINTS—for they cannot need it, they shall never sin more, nor provoke God more, and therefore shall need the exercise of his patience no more, but shall be in the full fruition of his love and goodness.
Nor shall lost SINNERS share in it in that state. They have sinned away the patience and mercy of God by abusing it, and so are fallen into that condition where there is no room for the exercise of it. There shall be then an exercise of such attributes only, as shall make the sinner's case dreadful. I shall give three instances of them: the Omniscience, the Power, and the Justice of God.
(1). The OMNISCIENCE of God. That is one of the attributes by which God knows all things. "His understanding is infinite!" (Psalm 147:5). It is one of the names of God. "The Lord is a God of knowledge;" it is spoken there to give check to the pride of vain man who is so apt to be puffed up with his own light and knowledge and attainments. Alas! what does man know, like God knows? As it is said of the essence of man, compared with the essence of God—that it is nothing, less than nothing and vanity. So it may be said of the knowledge of man in respect of the knowledge of God. Who can search the infiniteness of God's understanding? He knows more than all the men in the world, and more than all the angels in Heaven. Knowledge is the root of wisdom—as wisdom is the flower of knowledge. God is described with "seven eyes," (Zechariah 3:9) which is to set out the perfection of his knowledge. God's knowledge is a universal knowledge—for it reaches to things past, present, and to come.
1st. He knows all things PAST. There is no duty or good work which the believer has ever done, but God remembers it. Therefore it is said, "a book of remembrance was written for those who fear the Lord," (Malachi 3:16). This intimates that they are continually in God's eye.
On the other hand, any sin a lost sinner ever did in this world, in all his lifetime—God remembers it as if it were but now committed. This is that point which Job intended, (Job 14:17). "My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity."
How could Moses, who was born two thousand years after the world was made, have given such a distinct account of the life of Adam, the circumstances of Cain's murder and the like—if God had not revealed them? And how could God have revealed them, if he had not known them? No, without this knowledge of things past, he could not be the governor of the world. He could not reward virtue according to his promises, nor punish sin according to his threatenings.
2nd. He knows all things as PRESENT. There is nothing hidden from him, "All things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to deal," (Hebrews 4:13). Actions are not only known to him, but thoughts too—the most secret imaginations, the most inward contrivances, secret inventions are all in the view of God! This is one of God's peculiars, from which all creatures are shut out. "For who among men knows the thoughts of a man. except the man's spirit within him?"1 Corinthians 2:11. There is no good or bad angel that can know your thoughts or mine.
Omniscience is an incommunicable property of God. The devils do not know our thoughts, they may guess at them by our actions, but thoughts merely as thoughts cannot be known by any, but God himself. Indeed one man may know the heart and thoughts of another by revelation, as Elisha knew what was in Gehazi's heart. But we cannot know them without revelation.
"The heart is deceitful above all things, and who can know it?" You have the question put, and none can answer it but God. "I the Lord search the heart and try the thoughts."
Now then, if God knows all things, all our actions and thoughts—then he must necessarily know all our sins, whether they are more open or secret, "there is no darkness, where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves," (Job 34:22). If God did not know all sin—then how could he permit it, or order it, or punish it, or pardon it?
What is sin but the transgression of the Law, and the Law is the revelation of the will of God, and that will is the rule of righteousness. And shall God make his will the rule of righteousness, and not know when it is fulfilled or transgressed? It is our imperfection to be ignorant of the nature of anything. And can there be imagined such a defect in the understanding of God? There is not one motion of lust in us, nor one sin acted by us, but it is known to God. "Does not he see all my ways, and count all my steps?" (Job 31:4). How can any action of man be concealed from God, who makes darkness light before him? How could he be a righteous judge of the world—if he did not know all the sins of man?
3rd. God knows all things FUTURE, and those things which shall at any time come to pass. As nothing can actually be, without his will giving it existence—so nothing can be future, without his will designing it shall be. This is a knowledge which distinguishes the true God from all false deities, and proves him to be God indeed. Isaiah 41:22 says, "Let them show us what shall happen, or declare the things that shall come hereafter, that we may know they are God's."
Where did the prophets have their skill in foretelling things to come? It could not be natural, for then others might have had it as well as they. It must be from divine revelation, and so the Jews acknowledge this. Who could have foretold the seven years of famine in Egypt? Who could have foretold the captivity of the Jews in Babylon for seventy years? Who could have foretold coming of Christ in the flesh thousands of years before he was born? Who could have foretold calling of the Gentiles, and the casting off of the Jews? None but God could know this!
God must necessarily know all things future, because he knows his own decrees and will. God sees all things by his effecting will, as having decreed to produce them. By his permitting will, there is nothing in the world but what God has willed to be. Not an action to be done, but he has willed it to be by his permission. Otherwise, we may say that things come to pass whether God wills them or not, or that he does not know it. But this cannot be, "for known unto God are all his works."
God knows all things as if now present. On this account things that are to come, are spoken by God with respect to God, as if they were present. Isaiah 9:6, "To us a child is born, to us a son is given," and yet it was a long time after before Christ was born. So Isaiah 53:4, "He has born our griefs, and was wounded for our transgressions," and yet this was to be done long after. God foreknew that Judas would betray our Lord, and therefore speaks of it as a thing done already.
He foreknows all the sins lost sinners would commit, and which they are at present averse from committing. When the prophet told Hazael what he would do when he was king, that he would burn their houses, and slay their young men, and rip up the women with child—"What?" said Hazael, "is your servant a dog that he should do this?" (2 Kings 8:12). Hazael did not think himself so vile and base, but the Lord (the prophet says) has showed unto me that you shall do so.
That such a perfect knowledge as this should be ascribed to God is highly reasonable,
For,
(1). This knowledge is most essential to the perfections of God. If God is all-wise—then he must be all-knowing, for knowledge is the foundation of wisdom. A creature can be no more wise without knowledge, than active without strength. Now God is said to be the only wise God, therefore he must be an all-knowing God.
(2). Where has man that measure of knowledge that he is endowed with? Is it not from God? What a great measure of wisdom had Solomon—but it was all received from God. Now see how the Psalmist argues in Psalm 94:9-10, "He who framed the eye—shall he not see; and he who teaches man knowledge—shall he not know?" Can we think that he who enriches the creature with knowledge from time to time, should not have a fullness of it in himself?
(3). There is that in every man that gives a great evidence of this, for why does conscience check a man at any time for the most hidden and secret sins? Why does it accuse and gnaw for such sins, as none in the world are privy to but himself? Does not this bear witness to the omniscience of God? Those fears and terrors in our conscience give evidence that there is one above us who understands all our secrets. This self-judging in a man's own conscience, for such things as none in the world can charge him with—plainly proves that there is one greater than our consciences who knows all things. What need does a man's conscience trouble him—if no one could know his sin but himself? But every man's conscience preaches up a God—and tells him that there is a God that knows all things!
(4). How could we suppose God in any way is fit to govern the world without this omniscience? If God directs everything to its proper end—then he must know its nature, and its fitness to reach that end, for which it is intended. Divine Providence is conducted by Divine Omniscience, "your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things." Suppose a blind man should drive a chariot, he could never direct it in the right road. In the same way, if God were ignorant of the things under his conduct, he would not be fit to rule the world.
(5). If God were not omniscient—then he would not be fit to judge the world at the last day; for right judgment is to proportion the punishment to the crime, therefore it is necessary in order to it, that the crime is exactly known. Two may commit the same kind of sin which may be in every way alike, in regard of outward circumstances—and yet the sin in one may be far greater, and have much more guilt in it than the other. It may proceed from viler principles, and from more corrupt ends, from a heart more envenomed against God—and these do very much aggravate a sin.
Now therefore, if God did not have a knowledge of our hearts, our principles, our ends, and of the whole bent and disposition of our minds—then how could he pass a right judgment? Among men, justice is painted blind—not blind with regard to the offence, but the offender. Blind so as not to regard one more than another, but not so as not to distinguish the nature of one crime from another. Therefore it is necessary that God should know all things—the most hidden things of the heart, secret thoughts and secret principles, secret aims and ends. Therefore he tells us, in Jeremiah 17:10, "I the Lord search the heart, and try the thoughts, to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Now as this Omniscience of God, makes him fit to govern the world—so the great reason why it is made known to us, is to awaken us to duty.
The other attributes of God have been more manifested and made to shine forth more than this of his omniscience.
The creation of the world is a rich display of the power of God.
The harmony of the creature wonderfully sets out the wisdom of God.
Sending a Redeemer sets out the mercy of God.
The great sufferings of Christ on the cross set out the justice of God.
But what sets out his omniscience in proportion to the other attributes? There has been some discovery of it in those gripes of conscience which some have felt—but yet when these inward terrors are not felt, this attribute of omniscience is little believed. Sinners in favor of their lusts, will not own it. They say: "How does God know? Can he see through the thick darkness?" Psalm 10:11 says, "He has said in his heart, God has forgotten, and he hides his face and will never see!"
Therefore there must be a day when there shall be a judgment, and such a judgment in which his Omniscience shall be made manifest to all, in bringing to light the hidden things of darkness, and making manifest the counsels of the heart. It shall then appear that God knows all that we have ever done—all the sins that you ever committed:
sins of thought, of word, of deed;
sins against the Law of God;
sins against the gospel of God;
sins of omission—and sins of commission;
sins of ignorance—and sins of knowledge.
Open sins and secret sins shall all be told and made manifest. "Neither is there anything hidden, which shall not be made known."
And so the exercises of this attribute of God in that day will make the sinner's case dreadful, for then God will be a judge and a witness too, and he will witness according to truth! He is called, "a swift witness," (Malachi 3:5). It is his own omniscience that makes him so. God does not need to call for other evidences as judges now do—but by a light in himself, he shall enlighten the consciences of men, to see and own all the sins they have ever done! As God now knows all, so it shall then be made manifest to the sinner, that he knows it. He, "will convince them of their ungodly deeds," (Jude 5:15).
O! The conviction of that day will not be like present convictions here—which are few, and seldom, and sometimes slight. It may be that God is pleased to take hold of one here—one is convinced at this word, another at that. Some sit all their days under the powerful preaching of the word, and yet are never convinced of their sins, and their lost estate—but go on in their lusts.
But that will be a day of great, and of full conviction. Such a day as never was, such as in which all their sins shall be set in order before them, and they shall have a full view of all that ever they did. O! this Omniscience of God will appear a dreadful attribute in that day, though now many deny it. For,
1st. Why else do many forbear to commit that sin in the view of man, which they dare do in the sight of God? The presence of a child will hinder us—when the eye of God cannot restrain us. Is not this a practical denying of God's omniscience?
2nd. Why do men mock God in duty, and put him off with a mere external worship? Why do men serve him with their lips, when their heart is far from him? Why do men honor him with their lips, but keep their hearts for their lusts? Is not this a practical denial of God's omniscience? This is as if God could be deceived, by feigned lips and false pretenses?
3rd. Why do men in their confessions of sin to God, deal so falsely and partially and loosely? A plain ripping up of the heart to God, puts a kind of glory on this attribute. It is as much as if the soul should say, "I know God knows all things, and therefore I will confess all to him." But to excuse sin or to conceal it, or to transfer it to another, or in any way to extenuate it—is practically to deny that God knows our hearts.
4th. Why do men nourish thoughts of sin, indulge secret lusts, and inward and notional impurity? Many refrain from the overt acts of sin—who yet make no conscience of inward contemplative wickedness! What is the giving our thoughts up to sin—but a practical denial of the omniscience of God? The same may be said of neglect of secret duty.
Now many deny the omniscience of God, but then all shall know and own it. God will then bring all to light, reveal all hidden and secret sins. Not a vain word, not an idle thought, not a malicious glance—but it is more visible to God than any object is to us, even in the light of the noonday sun!
O! what a poor shelter is secrecy to lost sinners. Can anything be hidden from God? What if man does not know your sins? What if the devil and the angels do not know them—so long as God knows them? What a fearful consideration is this to the dissembling hypocrite, and the vile sinner dressed up in specious shows and sanctified appearances.
For this all-knowing God does not judge according to appearance. Omniscience will in that day, rend off all masks and veils, pull off all paint, and make every man appear to be what he is! We may take wolves for sheep, dross for gold, lost sinners for saints, and hypocrites for believers. But, "God sees not as man sees, his eyes are not flesh like ours," (Job 10:4). He sees the treacherous heart of a Judas, under a kiss! He sees the devil, in Samuel's mantle.
Woe to all hypocrites in that day. This omniscience of God will be a terrifying thing to them. So the prophet says in Isaiah 33:14, "Sinners in Zion are afraid, fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites!" Sinners in Zion are false members of a true church—therefore they are called hypocrites. This omniscience of God must necessarily be a terrifying thing to all such, to all who live and die in sin, and this will appear by two things:
(1.) This all-knowing God never forgets one sin, they are written as with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond! "The sin of Ephraim is hidden"—not hid from God, but with God. (Deuteronomy 32:34). "Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures." So that not one sin shall be forgotten by God.
We sin, and forget it. The sins of our youth are forgotten when we are grown up and in old age. We forget the sins of riper years—but God remembers them all—the sins of your childhood and youth, riper age and old age. As this speaks great comfort to all believers that this omniscient God knows all their graces and duties, doings and sufferings for Christ, and he will not forget one of them—so it speaks terror to all lost sinners, that God knows all their sins, their impurity and filthiness, and they shall never be forgotten, for they are recorded in Heaven!
(2). This all-knowing God shall be the all-judging God, for the eye of his omniscience is to guide the hand of his justice. To what end should he take such an exact account of the sins of men—but in order to punish them? Lost sinners go on in their own sins and wickedness now—and God lets them alone, and they prosper. Therefore they think that God takes no notice of them. "These things have you done, and I kept silence," God says? And what do they infer from the present silence of God? They, "thought that he was altogether such an one as they." Because they forget their sins—they think that God forgets them too. But make note of it, "I will reprove you, and set them in order before your eyes!" And then it follows, "Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver!" Consider what? This omniscience of God.
Why is it that men are so daring, and impudent, and resolute in sinning—but because they never consider that God sees and takes notice of all they do? So David says, "The proud has risen against me" Why? "for they have not set God before them." What wickedness will not a man commit—when the sense of God's omniscience is blotted out. Ezekiel 8:12, "Son of man," God says, "have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? They say, 'The LORD does not see us!" That made them bold in sin.
O! that you would much and often, think of this all-knowledge of God. Keep the sense of it always upon your minds. Wherever you are, remember this: God sees you, and observes all your actions. This would be of admirable use for three great ends.
1st. It would be an excellent means to prevent much sin, and stir us up to the mortification of our lusts. What put Job on making a covenant with his eyes against impurity? (Job 31:1). But what he says, "Does not God see my ways, and count all my steps?" When you are tempted with any sin, say with David, (Psalm 44:21), "Shall not God discover it—since he knows the secrets of the heart?"
Solomon prescribes this as a sovereign remedy against impurity in Proverbs 5:21, "Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife? For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths!" There is nothing like the sense of the omniscience of God, kept up in the mind, to check the breaking out of lust.
2nd. It would greatly excite us to more care and diligence, and conscience in duty. What is the reason of all our omissions of duty—but because we have not a due sense of God's omniscience? Did you but consider this—that God knows what you do, how you pray and hear the Word, how you make it the rule of your practice, "When my body is coming to the ordinance, where is my heart? Both my body and soul are in God's presence." If you would but consider this—there would not be so much deadness in duty. This would make our duties more vigorous, and our minds more watchful.
3rd. It would be an excellent means to sanctify our whole conduct, and make us more upright in the whole course of our lives. Therefore they are put together. "Walk before me, and be upright." We can never be sincere with God, any further than as we walk under the eye of God.
This truth of God's omniscience is the foundation of all religion. A powerful impression of it on the mind, is that which promotes the practice of all godliness. Who will regard the serving of God, who thinks that God does not regard his service? He who thinks God does not see him—does not care how much he sins against him, nor how little he serves him. Psalm 119:168 says, "I have kept your precepts and your testimonies—for all my ways are before you!"
When David presses Solomon to a close walking with God, the omniscience of God is his argument. "And you Solomon my Son, know the God of your fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart. For the Lord searches the heart, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts!"
Think often what an all-knowing God is. As he is too just to be bribed, and too holy to be mocked—so he is too knowing to be deceived! Until you come under an solemn affecting sense of God's omniscience, you can never come to walk close with him, nor be sincere in your obedience to him.
The case would not be so dreadful with lost sinners, if it were not for this attribute of God's omniscience. What end can we think God has in so often declaring his omniscience to us in his word—but in order to the government of our practice, and to convince us of a future judgment? As his justice, which consists in giving every man his due, could not be glorified, unless men were called to an account for their actions—so neither will his omniscience appear in glory without a manifesting of the secrets of the hearts of man.
There must be a time for this, and no time so fit as that of the great judgment. Therefore, think what a dreadful reckoning lost sinners shall have in that day of judgment, when the omniscience of God shall set before a sinner all the sins that he has ever done, in thought, word and deed. If you have no right to the merit of Christ—then you shall then be undone and lost forever. For you must fall into the hands of an absolute God, and he is a living God, and "it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Therefore the case of lost sinners in that day will be most dreadful!