Delightful Dependence

As earlier I brought you a wonderful sermon from CH Spurgeon, so now I offer another great sermon from a crazy-awesome, dead guy - Jonathan Edwards. I've broken it down just as in the original and given major points from each section. It's meaty - so be ready - but it also speaks a lot of truth - so follow closely.

"God Glorified in Man's Dependence"

1 Corinthians 1:29-31

28God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

I. There is an absolute and universal dependence of the redeemed on God

1. The redeemed have all their good of God (the Father)

i. God is the author and first cause of our good
ii. God sends and accepts Christ as our redemption
iii. The redeemed have all from the grace of God
iv. We receive all from the power of God

2. They are also dependent on God for all, as they have all through Him (the Son)

i. God is the Medium and Mediator
ii. God is both the purchaser and the price

3. The redeemed have all their good in God (the Spirit)

i. Our good consists in him à he is our good
ii. We have our excellence and joy by God’s communication of it to us

II. God is glorified in the work of redemption by this means: by there being so great and universal a dependence of the redeemed on him

1. Man has so much the greater occasion and obligation to notice and acknowledge God’s perfection and all-sufficiency

i. The greater the creature’s dependence is on God’s perfections, and the greater concern he has with them, so much greater occasion has he to take notice of them

2. Hereby is demonstrated how great God’s glory is considered comparatively, or as compared with the creatures

i. By the creature being wholly and universally dependent upon God, it displays that the creature is nothing, and that God is all
ii. God is infinitely above us

3. By the creature having complete dependence upon God, provision is made that God should have our whole souls, and should be the object of our undivided respect

III. Application

1. We may observe here the marvelous wisdom of God in the work of redemption

i. God has made man’s emptiness and ruined estate an occasion of the greater advancement of His glory
ii. Each member of the Trinity is equally glorified in man’s dependence

2. Doctrines opposed to this complete dependence upon God diminish his glory and thwart the design of our redemption

i. They exalt man at the expense of God

3. We can learn why faith is how we come to have interest in redemption – faith, by nature, acknowledges full dependence upon god

i. Faith abases man and exalts God
ii. Humility is a great ingredient of true faith

4. Let us be exhorted to exalt God alone, and ascribe to him all the glory of redemption

Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord.