We're speaking this morning of the family life of Jonathan Edwards. We spent the first day and a half talking a lot about their doctrine about what they taught about the family in the last session and this session is given to examining some of the prominent Puritans and how they actually walked this out in their home lives. What a blessing it has been for me to study Jonathan Edwards and see how the doctrine that he held matched up with the home life that he cultivated in Northhampton and then in Stockbridge Massachusetts. There were three other sources that I used but the one that was dominant was a book by Elizabeth Dodds titled marriage to a difficult man and I would highly recommend it. Jonathan Edwards was a difficult man in that he was an extraordinary man. God did not leave him in a quiet life. God called him to a just rigorous great amount of study to leave a deposit for future generations. Today we're the beneficiary of that deposit. But it meant that it wasn't an easy wife for Sarah. EDWARDS That's the title of the book. What we find is that there are many many ways where we can look at the Edwards household and how they related to each other and how they conducted themselves and we can say with confidence that in these ways that we can follow the Edwards's as they followed Christ and so that is really the objective this morning as they look at their family life. Look at the ways in which they patterned that family life after the scriptures and then say let's follow them in these things as they followed Christ.

The first quote that I have is from Jonathan Edwards farewell sermon in Northhampton. He had labored among this congregation for over two decades and then conflict between him and the congregation caused them to dismiss him for a number of theological differences that existed as you can imagine in a farewell sermon. This is your parting shot If you're ever going to have an impact in some way. This is your last opportunity for a pastor who has labored for two decades in a congregation to have that impact. And so you can imagine the emphasis we would put on his words to that congregation knowing that this was the last time that he would address them as their pastor. And these were some of his comments. He goes straight to family life and he says this. We have had great disputes about how the church ought to be regulated and indeed the subject of these disputes was of great importance. But the due regulation of your families is of no less and in some respects of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church consecrated to Christ and holy influenced and governed by his rules and family education and order or some of the chief means of grace. If these fail all other means are likely to prove ineffectual if these are duly maintained all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful. Let me now therefore once more before I finally cease to speak to this congregation. Repeat and earnestly press the council which I have often urged on the heads of families.

While I was there pastor to great painfulness in teaching warning and directing their children bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Beginning early where there is yet opportunity and maintaining constant diligence and in labors of this kind. Remember that as you would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual. There must be government as well as instructions which must be maintained with an even hand and steady resolution as a guard to the religion and morals of your family and the support of its good order. Take heed that it not be with any of you as it was with Ely of old who reproved his children but restrained them not. And that by this means you do not bring the like curse on your families as he did on his this final opportunity that Jonathan Edwards had with the congregation that God had caused him to lead for 20 plus years. His farewell sermon. Jonathan Edwards chose to speak of the due regulation of families saying that a Christian family ought to be as it were a little church how many times have we heard that in the last 24 hours its Puritan after Puritan after Puritan calling the family a little church of Jonathan Edwards does the same he says ought to be as it were a little church consecrated to Christ don't we want our homes consecrated to Christ and he calls this a chief means of grace for the family saying that if you if you fail to do this that the other means of grace are likely not to be effectual. But if you would do this thing that other means of grace are likely to be wildly successful.

This is what Jonathan Edwards preached and he preached it relentlessly to his people and he preached it with great passion. But my address today has very little to do with what Jonathan Edwards priest has to do with how he function in this household how he related to his dear wife Sarah and how they joined together in this in this dual mission working together to raise up their children in the training and in the admonition of the Lord. This time is dedicated to a study of how they live. His home was a little church the home life that Jonathan and Sarah Edwards carefully and intentionally built together in Northhampton and then in Stockbridge was a chief means of grace for their family. And when we see the output of that Grace as we study their descendants it was patterned around the clear teachings of scripture. And now looking back we can see that we can see so clearly that God used this home to give himself what he says clearly that he desires and Malakai too. He says Why did I join the two into one. I seek godly offspring and this is what God did through the Edward's home. He joined this man and woman together in a sacred mission to give him the bring himself glory by giving himself godly offspring on his deathbed. Jonathan Edwards spoke with thankfulness of this quote in common union with his wife Sarah. And though it was it was an uncommon union and though it would be an uncommon union in our day it was thoroughly biblical in many in so many ways.

So as we examine the history of this family we see that the blessings they receive as they faithfully built their home around the patterns of scripture resulted in a great multigenerational blessing of faithfulness. God brought glory to himself in an almost unprecedented way through their descendants. And I trust that as we study their home life will be provoked to jealousy desiring that God would use our homes to give us the same multigenerational faithfulness that we see in the Edwards home and looking at the home life of Jonathan and Sarah. I've distilled their excellent example into ten categories where we can say this is what their home life was life. This is what their home life was like and we can map that back to the flagship scriptures about family life and say they were doing this. We should follow them. We should make our homes like they are like their home life. There are ten number one this godly home life began with Jonathan Edwards's own heart the Gahn in his own heart. Deuteronomy 6 says this here O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is on you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength and these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way. When you lie down and when you rise up there's a there's a progression that we see here in Deuteronomy 6. It's that the head of a home would love the Lord his God with all his heart soul and strength it would consume him. It would be a love without rivals.

And he would hide the words of God in his heart. And then he would teach it diligently to his children. And this was the case in the Edward's home. It was fueled by a father who had a passionate love for God and who had hidden his words in his heart. One of the beautiful things that I love about this book is are appendices in the back where the author just gets out of the way and gives you Jonathan Edwards in his own words just directly from his writings. And so I'm pulling a lot of this from these dependencies where he's writing. Twenty years later looking back at the time of his conversion and just saying just talking about how his heart was on fire for the Lord he says this The Soul of a true Christian. As I wrote as I then wrote meditations appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year. Low and humble on the ground opening its bosoms to receive the pleasant beams of the Suns the glory rejoicing as it were. In a calm rapture diffusing around a sweet fragrant sea standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun. There any John Piper fans here isn't this very Pyper ask where he's talking about the delight in God that we should have that. That's not a coincidence. John Piper is definitely a Jonathan Edwards disciple. He studied extensively Jonathan Edwards and so when you hear Piper you hear the echoes of Jonathan Edwards.

And we might think how odd for a Puritan to be so focused on the line in God. I thought they were the ones who had the Limmen faces always had a pucker with no happiness no. Not so. That's our improper training about the Puritans. The Puritans did understand sin and God's wrath against sin. They had an even greater affection and even greater emphasis on delight in God. Certainly this was true of Jonathan Edwards. Piper gave an address and overview of Jonathan Edwards life and he said this what our people need is not a nice little moral or psychological pep talks about how to get along in the world. They need to see that everything absolutely everything from garage sales and garbage recycling to death and demons have to do with God in all his infinite greatness. Most of our people have no one no one in the world to placard the majesty of God for them. Therefore most of them are starved for the infinite God entranced vision of Jonathan Edwards and they don't even know it. And this is what we see as we examine the writings of Jonathan Edwards that he did have a god entranced vision that God was eating him up from the inside. He had set him on fire with passion and desire for himself. And this was the fuel for that home life of the Edwards family. Edwards wrote this on January 12 1722 I made a solemn dedication of myself to God and wrote it down giving up myself and all that I had to God to be for the future. In no respect my own to act as one that had no right to himself in any respect.

He also wrote this I felt with all an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express than to be emptied and annihilated to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with the divine and heavenly purity. Doesn't this remind you of your first days of salvation when the Lord had impressed himself in a way you'd never seen it and you saw the light came on and such zeal and desire for the Lord doesn't. These words remind you of that. Finally he writes this. Another Saturday night January 1738 had such a sense how sweet and blessed the thing it was to walk in the way of duty to do that which was right and meet to be done and agreeable to the Holy mind of God that it caused me to break forth into a kind of loud weeping which held me some time so that I was forced to shut myself up and to fasten the doors. I could not but as it were cried out How happy are they which do that which is right in the sight of God. They are blessed indeed they are the happy ones. This was the heart that God had placed in Jonathan Edwards and it created an atmosphere in their home life that allowed them to bring up their children in the ammunition and training of the Lord. Jonathan Edwards brought a heart full of passionate love for God into his marriage and into his home and so should we let's let our homes be like the Edward's home. In this way.

Number two Jonathan chose his wife carefully and well definitely an emphasis of the puritans the choosing of a spouse carefully and well and Jonathan Edwards did. Jonathan married Sarah Pierpont on July 28 1727. It was not the result of a man chasing his libido. It was not even the result of a man pursuing the more noble causes of friendship and companionship. Although Sarah was known to be quite lovely and although they had a deep and abiding friendship these were not the objectives of Jonathan Edwards when he went in search of a wife in Malakai to the Lord through the prophet Malakai is rebuking the people of Israel and the prof and the Lord says this Juda has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution which he loves. He's married the daughter of a foreign God here. God calls marriage the holy institution which I love. Wow. And he's condemning the people because they've spurned what God has called holy and they've taken for themselves pagan daughters to be their wives. And Jonathan Edwards understood the principle that the calling of God is that we would be equally yoked in spiritual matters that we be joined together with other strong believers and because we're given a mission to bring the government of God to the ends of the earth through the gospel and that the only way that happens is if a man joins together with a woman and they both have their affections turned towards God. This is what Jonathan Evans was looking for when he went to seek a wife and so he wanted to marry Sarah Pierpont and what kind of woman was this sirup here upon. Well we have a lot of content on that.

We have a Greek study book of Jonathan Edwards where he wrote prior to their courtship about this young lady. He should have been studying his Greek but he was thinking of Sarah and he wrote down his thoughts. They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Almighty Being who made and rules of the world and that there are certain seasons in which this great being in some way or other invisible comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight. And that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on him that she expects after awhile to be received up where he is to be raised out of the world and caught up into heaven being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him and to be ravished with his love favour and delight for ever. Therefore if you present all the world before her with the richest of its treasures she disregards it and cares not for it and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind and sweetness of temper uncommon purity in her affections is most unjust and praiseworthy and all her actions and you could not persuade her to do anything thought wrong or sinful. If you would give her all the world lest she should offend. Great being she is of a wonderful sweetness calmness and universal benevolence of mind.

Especially after those times in which this great God has manifested himself to her mind she will sometimes go about singing sweetly from place to place and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure and no one knows for wife she loves to be alone and to wander in the fields and on the mountains and seems to have some one invisible always conversing with her. Now we might say Oh come on. Everybody thinks like that before a courtship given a year of marriage. Well after many years of marriage this is what Jonathan Edwards wrote about his wife. He describes her this way he says that she's daily sensible of doing and suffering everything for God eating for God and working for God and sleeping for God and bearing pain and trouble for God and doing all the service of love and so doing it with a continual uninterrupted cheerfulness peace and joy. Oh that our spouses after years of marriage would write something like this about us that love for God would have so consumed us and shake us. This is how we would describe years into our marriage. This sounds remarkably like his passion for God isn't it. Yes it is. He went in search of a wife who was consumed with God because he was consumed with God. And this shaped their life together and shaped their home life. She was well educated though not all the Puritans looked favorable favorably on the education of women. Sarah had the best training that a girl was allowed to have George Whitfield. The great evangelists visited and spent time on their home in their home on numerous occasions and he said this a sweeter couple. I have not yet seen.

She talked feelingly and solidly of the things of God and seemed to be such a help me for her husband that she caused me to pray God that he would be pleased to send me a daughter of Abraham to be my wife. This woman was so inspiring in her faith towards God that when the great evangelist George Whitfield comes and visits them in their home she inspires to him that he would pray that God would give him a wife like this. Jonathan Edwards was a wise man when he went in search for a wife and he found what he was looking Jonathan AnseRa years later participated actively in the court ships of their own children Samuel Hopkins was a New England pastor. He was much younger than Jonathan Edwards at the time it was customary for a pastor in training a pastor and waiting to go and spend time months at a time in the home of an established pastor to live with his family and to watch him in ministry and to be an understudy to him and then he would go out and take his own parish. Samuel Hopkins was such a man in the home of John Edwards family and many of the quotes that come from here to the end of the talk will come from Samuel Hopkins and he speaks as an expert because he lived there for months at a time and then even after he had his own pastorate through the years he would frequently visit their homes. So he speaks as a man who knows about the home life of this family. He says this about these courtships that happened later in life as their children grew.

If any gentleman desired acquaintance with his daughters after a handsomely introducing himself by properly consulting the parents he was allowed all proper opportunity for it room and fire if needed. They understood Jonathan and Sarah understood the principle of equal yoking in the Lord and so they practiced it themselves. And they also helped their children and they engaged their children in it years later and it resulted in a family line that you could trace spectacular multigenerational faithfulness. They understood this principle. Then they applied it to their children and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home. In this way. Number three their marriage was characterized by intense mutual affection and respect. As we've seen repeatedly over the last two days Ephesians 5 unashamedly calls for the submission and respect of the wife and the active self sacrificing love of the husband and Jonathan and Sarah had these things in abundance in their marriage and in their home Elizabeth Dadds out of her research she writes this about their home life. In the case of the Edwards's familiarity bred respect the real test of the feeling of one person for another is in the daily encounters when one must pay bills carry out the trash sniffle through a head cold. This period of homely testing's disclosed to the couple that they were permanently committed to one another so they turned now to translating their love into words into a way of life. You can't maintain it forever you're only thinking about her you can't studying your Greek your writing all the flowery language and then marrieds in life hits and children come and there's a routine to life. What does that do to your home life. Does familiarity breed contempt. No not for the Edwards bred respect.

It deepened their friendship and they understood they were committed to one another to serve the Lord together for life and so they worked together in friendship to give God godly offspring Dodd also writes this The casual observer solved the difficult husband the endlessly giving wife. Actually more than anyone of the outside guessed she leaned on him though she carried all the practical details of managing the house. Sarah depended on Edwards for her own spiritual replenishment. She would dart into his study during the day confident that no matter how intent he was on his writing he would put down his pen and turned to her with lighted face. She fed on his leadership of family prayers and on the quiet time she and Edward spent together on devotions after the children were in bed. The time that put a benediction on all the bustle of the daylight hours the rhythm of life in this marriage held love and constant companionship Dodd writes this series transactions with her children were reinforced because her husband treated her with total courtesy and serenely expected that each child would follow his example D.C. this do you understand what's being communicated here. Jonathan treated his wife well in their home and their children were watching and because he treated her with respect and friendship. It was unspoken to the children that they should treat their mother the same way and impacted the way their children related to their mother because they saw how their father did. Men. Is this something we can copy in our homes that our conduct towards our wives would be so full of gentleness and love and respect and friendship that our children would not dare to treat them improperly.

Jonathan and Sarah had a marriage filled with intense mutual respect and affection and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home. In this way Number four we do pick up steam by the way we're not really only 30 percent and through. And I said number for us also looks on faces that may be needed to interject that number for family worship was central to family life. They built their life around family worship. It's called Family Worship in some places is called family prayer but it didn't mean just praying together they meant the whole act of studying the word together and singing together and and praying together. And they built their family with this as the cornerstone. Back to Deuteronomy 6 where were exhorted to teach an unrivaled love to God diligently to our children. Elizabeth Dodd writes is he had noted in his journal in January 1720 a I think Christ has recommended rising early in the morning by his rising from the grave very early. I don't know about the hermeneutical on that but it's not my quote. So everyone in the house was routed out even in the dark winter dawns for prayers by candlelight. With the servants joining in they all heard a chapter from the Bible and ask God's blessing on the day ahead. This is how the day started in the Edwards home before the sun was up. They would be around and out of bed even on the cold winter mornings and they would be given a chapter in the Bible by candlelight. This was the rhythm of their life together.

Elizabeth Dodds says this the surge and thunder of the King James Bible heard twice a day allowed in their father's voice became part of the children's earliest memories. I have a friend whose father was a pastor who had this practice in their home you'd read to them every day and he said to me at the time I didn't appreciate it. I wanted to go play do other things. But now when I hear the Bible read aloud I hear it in my father's voice and this was true of Jonathan Edwards kids of the world. Edwards brought the word of God to them tenderly and this was the routine and the rhythm of their life together in 1874. Long after Jonathan and Sarah were gone. There was a reunion of their descendants and there was a story related there that Cyrano de White was gathering material for his book about his great grandfather Jonathan and he interviewed a very old very old man Dr. Lathrop of West Springfield and Dr. Lathrop had been a local physician. Who had participated from time to time in their family prayers and he told of hearing Edwards provide preside at family prayers and commented that he never heard another prayer that brought heaven and earth so near together. This was not lifeless. Mechanical duty being lived out in the Edwards. It was a man who was on fire for the Lord who was bringing this and imparting it to his children. He was bringing heaven nearer to Earth during their times of family prayer. The Edwards made worship the central routine of their lives. And so should we let's let our homes be like the Edwards home.

In this way number five honor and obedience were secured from the children honor and obedience were secured from the children. Ephesians 6 1 3 4 children obey your parents and the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Samuel Hopkins the young pastor to be spent months in their home wrote this about Sarah and her governorates of the children. She had an excellent way of governing her children. She knew how to make them regard and obey her cheerfully without loud angry words much less heavy blows. She seldom punish them and in speaking to them use gentle and pleasant words if any correction was necessary. She did not administer it in a passion which she had occasion to reprove and rebuke she would do it with a few words without warmth doesn't mean warmth in the way she thinks she means without anger or without warmth and noise in her directions in matters of importance she would address herself to the reason of her children that they might not only know her will but at the same time be convinced of the reasonableness of it. She had need to speak but once she was cheerfully obeyed murmuring and answering again were not known among them in their manners. They were uncommonly respectful to their parents when their parents came into the room. They all rose instinctively from their seats and never resumed them until their parents were seated and when either parent was speaking they were all immediately silent and attentive.

The kind and gentle treatment they received from their mother while she strickly and Punke till piously maintained her parental authority seemed naturally to promote a filial respect and affection and to lead them to a mild tender treatment of each other quarrelling and contention which to frequently take place among children were in her family. She carefully observed the first appearance of resentment and ill will and her young children towards any person whatever and did not connive at it but was careful to show her displeasure and suppress it to the utmost yet not being angry wrath yet not using angry wrathful words which often provoked children to wrath her system of discipline was begun at a very early age and it was her rule to resist the first as well as every subsequent exhibition of temper or disobedience in the child wisely reflected that until the child will obey his parents he can never be brought to obey God. Isn't that better than ninety nine point nine percent of the childhood books in modern evangelicalism. They have much to learn from the Puritans Esther their oldest daughter wrote many letters to her mother's and she normally addressed her as my honored mother. And this was not lip service just pen to page. This was lived out. They honored their mother because Jonathan and Sarah understood that it was their responsibility to secure the honor in obedience to their children for their welfare. Later in life Jonathan and Sarah did secure the honor and obedience of their children and so should we let's let our homes be like the Edwards home.

In this way number six the children were carefully and rigorously educated Ephesians 6 4 says and you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them in the training and admonition of the Lord Edwards was a man with a full schedule. He resolved himself to study 13 hours a day. To study 13 hours a day. Not a lot of chit chat small talk. Wasted time in the Edwards home but the hour after dinner was his hour of relaxation. And Elizabeth the Dadds relates how he would often how he would normally use this hour she said. Edwards would use this relaxed hour to hear one child's lessons. He had the idea unusual in those times that girls as well as boys should be educated. The girls tutored by their father at home and learned Latin Greek rhetoric and penmanship. Edwards also expected all the children to know Jewish and church history. The chronology of Biblical events and how to correlate passages in the old and new testaments a child never knew when at the dinner table he would be called upon to give a crisp answer to some such question as how long was it after the destruction of Jerusalem by never canals or until Babylon was destroyed by Cyrus I shudder to think whether I could accept a dinner invitation from such a man. He was busy. He preached he wrote. He traveled but he had time to educate his children. He tried to take a daughter with them on each of his trips. And they would ride on the cushion behind the saddle he practice the walk along talk along discipleship. We see in Deuteronomy Dadds says this he took opportunities to converse with them singly and closely. There were a lot of children.

He studied 13 hours a day but this was a priority so he took opportunity to converse with them singly and closely Deuteronomy 6 commands us to teach the ways of God diligently to our children in that mold. Jonathan and Sarah carefully and rigorously educated their children and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home. In this way Number 7 The home was run by an industrious home maker and boy was it ever run by an industrious home maker Proverbs 31 10 through 16. Familiar territory. Who can find a virtuous wife. Jonathan Edwards can for her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband's safely trust her so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flags and willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships she brings her Frood from afar. She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maid servants. She considers a field and buys it. From her profits she plants a vineyard. Elizabeth Dodds says this however Sarah had most of the responsibility for the property. So you have the picture Jonathan studying 13 hours a day. What in the world is getting done at home. Elizabeth Dodds tells us she saw that the garden was planted in a hired man had his instructions for each day. They used to tell in Northhampton how once Edwards asked Isn't it about time the hay was cut to which Sarah mildly replied. It's been in the barn for two weeks. This can happen in my house.

Samuel Hopkins this man who stayed with them for months at a time says it was a happy circumstance that he could trust everything to the care of Mrs. Edwards with entire safety and with undoubted confidence. She was a most judicious and faithful mistress of a family habitually industrious a sound economists managing her household affairs with diligence and discretion. While she uniformly paid a becoming deference to her husband and treated him with entire respect she spared no pains and conforming to his inclination and rendering everything in the family agreeable and pleasant. She had counted it her greatest glory. And there where in she could best serve God and her generation to be the means of promoting his usefulness and happiness. We have this great deposit from Jonathan Edwards that can be a blessing and a help from the church. In this century and in the next century and it's a deposit that Sarah Edwards paved the way for by how she handled the affairs of their household so that he could be in his study thinking and reading and praying and developing a deposit to pastor. We are in the debt of this woman Samuel Hopkins also said this when she herself labored under bodily disorders and pains which was not infrequently the case instead of troubling those around her with her complaints and wearing a sour or dejected countenance as if out of humor with everybody and everything around her because she was disregarded and neglected. She was accustomed to bear up under them not only with patience patience but with cheerfulness and good humor. The Edwards home was managed by a hard working industrious homemaker and so she had hours. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home.

In this way number a hospitality was a trademark of their family life. There are no chapters in this book without. This is the thaim day where they had people in and out of their home all the time. It was a trademark of their family life first Peter for nine and 10 says be hospitable to one another without grumbling as each one has received the gift. Ministering to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God Edward's home had received an abundance of the manifold grace of God and they opened up their homes so that others could participate in this grace as well. Hospitality was a trademark. Elizabeth Dodds says those were days of dubious Tavern's so most travelers counted on stopping with the minister of whatever town they struck by night as Edward's reputation mounted and the charms of his daughters became widely known. The number of guests grew. May it be so. Among Us Samuel Hopkins said she was peculiarly kind to strangers. By her sweet and winning manners and ready conversation she soon became acquainted with them and led him immediately to feel as if he were at home. As I mentioned Samuel Hopkins was an understudy to Edwards as it was customary for a pastor in waiting to be and there were many others like him who were adopted by the Edwards and brought him to their home for months at a time so they could see his family life had to be an understudy of pastoral duties. Their home is a place of laboring together that their house functioned efficiently because Sarah Edwards to these eleven children and you get a flavor in the book about the different personalities.

This was not a cookie cutter where they were just stamping out exact replica exact carbon copies one right after the other they had very varied personalities and gift bags. And Sarah was in the background working these together causing them to labor together and hospitality. It was a very efficiently run home and it allowed them to have guests day after day and month after month because they knew how to labor together. In the ward Jonathan and Sarah had a home that was given to hospitality. And so should we let's let our homes be like the Edwards home. In this way number nine the family was made ready for adversity Matthew 7 24 and 25. Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine says Jesus and does them I will like him liken him to a wise man who built his house on the Rock and the rain descended the floods came the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock for the Edwards home the rains did come. The winds did come. The floods did come and their house was found to be established on the rock on Christ Edwards's first pastoral assignment. Was to take the pulpit of his grandfather a well respected pastor in the area for decade upon decade even though in some ways he had different theology and sollom than Solomon Stoddard. Can you imagine the difficulties that would accompany taking that place. He experienced the death of close friends like David Brainerd the missionary who came and lived in their house also for months at a time contracted tuberculosis and died in their home.

A dear friend of theirs through the years Sera's period of darkness she was a stalwart rock except for about six months where she had a breakdown. There's really no exit there is no good explanation for it other than the Lord sent it their way. There's nothing specifically that you can tie it to that would cause those difficulties in that time frame to be different than the other difficulties. But she went into that time as a rock and she came out of it as a rock. There was six months where she was not herself and there was much adversity in that. And they did not unravel. The family rallied Jonathan around his wife and their children around their mother and they withstood the adversity. Jonathan being dismissed from his pastorate of 20 plus years and Northhampton along with a slander and the conflict and contention that comes along with the pastor being dismissed later in life there are children with Mary and some of their spouses would die. This was true. Their oldest daughter Esther. She married a man by the name of Aaron Burr. It's not the here and Burrier thinking of that's the father of the ear and are thinking of who was vice president. United States and this Aaron Burr the husband of Esther their daughter died suddenly prematurely. And this is what Esther wrote to her parents God has seemed sensibly near in such a supporting and comfortable manner that I think I have never experienced the like thus. Dear Madam she's writing to her mother thus dear madam I have given you some broken hint hints of the exercises of my mind.

Oh dear madam I doubt not but I have your and my honored father's prayers daily for me. But give me leave to entreat you to request earnestly of the Lord that I may never think under this severe stroke or I am afraid I shall conduct myself so as to bring dishonor on the religion which I profess her fears did not come to fruition because she grew up in a family where the members were readied for adversity. Their home was built on the rocks so that when the winds came and the rains beat against it and the floods rose they stood firm in their generation. Jonathan and Sarah readied their home for the day of adversity and so should we let's let our home be like the Edward's home. In this way finally God gave them a lasting inheritance for their faithfulness. God gave them a lasting inheritance. We look back on their heritage and we say yes it was well done they were good and faithful servants of our God. Some 127 3 3 5 behold children are our heritage from the Lord the fruit of the womb as a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior. So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be shamed but shall speak with their enemies in the gay God gave Edwards home eleven children.

And they thought rightly about it Jonathan and Sarah thought rightly about it they knew it was a stewardship and a trust and that God was filling their quiver full of arrows and they could send mighty warriors into the next generations for the spread of the Gospel and this is exactly what happened in their family line. Their grandson this is a funny story their grandson Timothy Dwight was invited to be the president of Yale but his parish. He was the pastor of a parish but his parish voted to refuse to dismiss him and this was their reason that there has been a constant uninterrupted harmony and a good agreement with the people of this place. We will not let you go there's been too much harmony and blessing here why you've been among us. So the outside church hierarchy came in and made them release him so that he could go be the president of Yale but they didn't want him to go. He was a blessing. And this was the fruit of the Edwards Tom I mentioned in 1874 descendants of the Edwards clan converged on Stockbridge Massachusetts which is where they went. After Jonathan was dismissed from the church in North Hampton and Mrs. Mary Edwards Whiting the only living grandchild she was 92 years old. Only living grandchild of this marriage was unable to attend but sent this message. She wishes to bear her testimony at that meeting to God's covenant faithfulness and to his covenant mercies to her and hers. The fruit of the Edward's home John Todd was at that gathering that family reunion in 1874. He was not an Edwards but he married an Edwards and this was his testimony. I married a wife and it was years before I found out what made her so much my superior. But when I discovered that she belonged to the Edwards family and that she had their blood in her veins I gave up the contest and have admitted all that she demanded.

Ever since that's not funny Janet. Nineteen hundred a man named a. E. Winship conducted a study of almost 4500 of their descendants just to track them. See what had happened to them. And here's a comment that he made says the family has never lost tone through marriage. The family has never lost home three marriage for its members have chosen men and women of like character and capacity. What we see in the mother and father what we see in the lives of Jonathan and Sarah we see in the lives of their children and their grandchildren and great grandchildren and their great great grandchildren. They ordered their home in such a way that God put his imprint there in a way that it would flow down through the generations. We're all so frightened that our vices would be transmitted to the future generations aren't we but we should set our mind that God can give us virtues and create an environment in our home in such a way that our virtues will be passed down through the generations under his mighty hand. We should pray for that. The result of this study was an interesting comparison between two families one the line of Jonathan Edwards one the line of Max Jewkes. There's a reason you've never heard of Max Jukes and that you have heard of Jonathan Edwards. Here's the study. Max Jukes was an atheist. He did not believe in Christ he did not believe in the Christian training. He married an ungodly girl and refused to take his children to church even when they asked to go.

At the time of this research there were approximately twelve hundred descendants from this union. Of these 3300 died as paupers. At least 150 were criminals. Seven were murderers. One hundred were drunkards and more than half of the women were prostitutes. These hooligans cost the state of New York one point two million dollars in the hundreds a lot of money. The 8300 Jonathan Edwards lived same time as Max Jewkes. He married Sarah Pierpont a godly woman and his spiritual equal. They gave the Lord godly offspring raising them in the training and admonition of the lord of his 13 and 94 known descendants. 13 became college presidents 65 became college professors 100 lawyers 30 judges 60 physicians 76 Army and Navy officers one hundred preachers and missionaries. Sixty authors of prominence three United States senators one vice president of the United States who was one of the more unruly of them. By the way 80 public officials and other capacities. Two hundred ninety five college graduate credit graduates among whom are governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. Jonathan and Sarah desired to have this spiritual legacy given to them from the Lord. And so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home. In this way they poured themselves out to conform their home to the patterns of scripture and God gave tremendous increase for their labors.

Not so that we would stand around and or sit around and say look at Jonathan and Sarah Edwards but so that we would say look at the hand of a mighty God working through the generations that he would raise up such a man and such a woman as Jonathan Edwards and Sarah appear upon and join them together in a holy mission to raise up children to give them self godly offspring for the spread of the gospel and then see it happen through the generations. On his deathbed his wife was not there. He had gone to be the president of Princeton he had been there less than a month. He was inoculated for smallpox. And as a result contracted smallpox and these were among his dying words give my kind of love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature that I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue for our heavenly father. Would you give us uncommon unions where our homes are founded out of love for you that you breathe into our hearts. That is a consuming love. We would love you with all our heart all our soul all our strength. And that these words would be in our hearts and that we would teach them diligently to our children and that you would give us a heritage. Not so that our name would be known by that so your name would be known. That the Earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We ask this in Jesus name Amen. 

We're speaking this morning of the family life of Jonathan Edwards. We spent the first day and a half talking a lot about their doctrine, about what they taught, about the family. And the last session in this session is given to examining some of the prominent Puritans and how they actually walked this out in their home lives. What a blessing it has been for me to study Jonathan Edwards and see how the doctrine that he held matched up with the home life that he cultivated in North Hampton and then in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. There were three other sources that I used, but the one that was dominant was a book by Elizabeth Dodds titled Marriage to a Difficult Man, and I would highly recommend it.

Jonathan Edwards was a difficult man in that he was an extraordinary man. God did not leave him in a quiet life. God called him to a just rigorous, great amount of study to leave a deposit for future generations. And today, we're the beneficiary of that deposit. But it meant that it wasn't an easy Y for Sarah Edwards.

That's the title of the book. What we find is that there are many, many ways where we can look at the Edwards household and how they related to each other and how they conducted themselves, and we can say with confidence that in these ways that we can follow the Edwardses as they followed Christ. And so that is really the objective this morning, is to look at their family life, look at the ways in which they patterned that family life after the Scriptures, and then say, let's follow them in these things as they followed Christ. The first quote that I have is from Jonathan Edwards' farewell sermon in Northampton. He had labored among this congregation for over two decades, and then conflict between him and the congregation caused them to dismiss him for a number of theological differences that existed.

As you can imagine, in a farewell sermon, this is your parting shot. If you're ever going to have an impact in some way, this is your last opportunity for a pastor who's labored for two decades in a congregation to have that impact. And so you can imagine the emphasis we would put on his words to that congregation, knowing that this was the last time that he would address them as their pastor. And these were some of his comments. He goes straight to family life.

And he says this, We have had great disputes about how the church ought to be regulated. And indeed the subject of these disputes was of great importance. But the due regulation of your families is of no less, and in some respects, of much greater importance. Every Christian family ought to be, as it were, a little church, consecrated to Christ and wholly influenced and governed by His rules. Family education and order are some of the chief means of grace.

If these fail, all other means are likely to prove ineffectual. If these are duly maintained, all the means of grace will be likely to prosper and be successful. Let me now, therefore, once more, before I finally cease to speak to this congregation, repeat and earnestly press the counsel which I have often urged on the heads of families while I was their pastor, to great painfulness in teaching, warning and directing their children, bringing them up in the training and admonition of the Lord, beginning early where there is yet opportunity, and maintaining constant diligence in labors of this kind. Remember that as you would not have all your instructions and counsels ineffectual, there must be government as well as instructions which must be maintained with an even hand and steady resolution as a guard to the religion and morals of your family and the support of its good order. Take heed that it not be with any of you as it was with Eli of old who reproved his children but restrained them not and that by this means you do not bring the light curse on your families as He did on His.

In this final opportunity that Jonathan Edwards had with the congregation that God had caused him to lead for 20-plus years. This farewell sermon. Jonathan Edwards chose to speak of the due regulation of families, saying that the Christian family ought to be, as it were, a little church consecrated to Christ. Don't we want our homes consecrated to Christ? And he calls this a chief means of grace for the family, saying that if you fail to do this, that the other means of grace are likely not to be effectual.

But if we would do this thing, that the other means of grace would likely to be wildly successful. This is what Jonathan Edwards preached, and he preached it relentlessly to his people, and he preached it with great passion. But my address today has very little to do with what Jonathan Edwards preached. It has to do with how he functioned in his household, how he related to his dear wife, Sarah, and how they joined together in this dual mission, working together to raise up their children in the training and in the admonition of the Lord. This time is dedicated to a study of how they lived.

His home was a little church. The home life that Jonathan and Sarah Edwards carefully and intentionally built together in North Hampton and then in Stockbridge was a chief means of grace for their family. And boy, do we see the output of that grace as we study their descendants. It was patterned around the clear teachings of Scripture. And now looking back, we can see that we can see so clearly that God used this home to give himself what he says clearly that he desires in Malachi 2.

He says, Why did I join the two into one? I seek godly offspring. This is what God did through the Edwards home. He joined this man and woman together in a sacred mission to bring himself glory by giving himself godly offspring. On his deathbed, Jonathan Edwards spoke with thankfulness of this quote, uncommon union with his wife Sarah.

And though it was an uncommon union, and though it would be an uncommon union in our day, it was thoroughly biblical in so many ways. So as we examine the history of this family, we see that the blessings they received as they faithfully built their home around the patterns of Scripture resulted in a great multi-generational blessing of faithfulness. God brought glory to himself in an almost unprecedented way through their descendants, and I Trust that as we study their home life, we'll be provoked to jealousy, desiring that God would use our homes to give us the same multi-generational faithfulness that we see in the Edwards home. And looking at the home life of Jonathan and Sarah, I've distilled their excellent example into ten categories where we can say, this is what their home life was like. And we can map that back to the flagship Scriptures about family life and say, they were doing this.

We should follow them. We should make our homes like their home life. There are ten. Number one, this godly home life began with Jonathan Edwards' own heart. It began in his own heart.

Deuteronomy 6 says this, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, "'with all your soul and with all your strength. "'And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. There's a progression that we see here in Deuteronomy 6.

It's that the head of a home would love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, and strength. It would consume him. It would be a love without rivals, and he would hide the words of God in his heart and then he would teach it diligently to his children. And this was the case in the Edwards home. It was fueled by a father who had a passionate love for God and who had hidden his words in his heart." One of the beautiful things that I love about this book is there are appendices in the back where the author just gets out of the way and gives you Jonathan Edwards in his own words just directly from his writings.

And so I'm pulling a lot of this from these appendices where he's writing. 20 years later, looking back at the time of his conversion and just talking about how his heart was on fire for the Lord, he says this, The soul of a true Christian, as I then wrote meditations, appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosoms to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory. Rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet fragrancy, standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about, all in like manner, opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun. Are There any John Piper fans here? Isn't this very Piper-esque where he's talking about the delight in God that we should have?

Well that that's not a coincidence. John Piper is definitely a Jonathan Edwards disciple. He's studied extensively Jonathan Edwards. And so when you hear Piper, you hear the echoes of Jonathan Edwards. And we might think, how odd for a Puritan to be so focused on delight in God.

I thought they were the ones who had the lemon faces that always had a pucker with no happiness. No, not so. That's our improper training about the Puritans. The Puritans did understand sin and God's wrath against sin, but they had an even greater affection and even greater emphasis on delight in God. And certainly this was true of Jonathan Edwards.

Piper gave an address, an overview of Jonathan Edwards' life, and he said this, what our people need is not a nice little moral or psychological pep talks about how to get along in the world. They need to see that everything, absolutely everything from garage sales and garbage recycling to death and demons have to do with God in all his infinite greatness. Most of our people have no one, no one in the world to placard the majesty of God for them. Therefore, most of them are starved for the infinite God-entranced vision of Jonathan Edwards, and they don't even know it. And this is what we see as we examine the writings of Jonathan Edwards, that he did have a God-entranced vision, that God was eating him up from the inside.

He had set him on fire with passion and desire for himself. And this was the fuel for the home life of the Edwards family. Edwards wrote this, On January 12, 1722, I made a solemn dedication of myself to God, and wrote it down, giving up myself in all that I had to God, to be for the future in no respect my own, to act as one that had no right to himself in any respect. He also wrote this, I felt with all an ardency of soul to be what I know not otherwise how to express than to be emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust and to be full of Christ and to be perfectly sanctified and made pure with the divine and heavenly purity. Doesn't this remind you of your first days of salvation when the Lord had impressed himself and in a way you'd never seen it, and you saw it, the light came on.

And such zeal and desire for the Lord. Doesn't these words remind you of that? Finally he writes this, Another Saturday night, January 1738, had such a sense how sweet and blessed a thing it was to walk in the way of duty. To do that which was right and meet to be done and agreeable to the holy mind of God. That it caused me to break forth into a kind of a loud weeping, which held me some time, so that I was forced to shut myself up and to fasten the doors.

I could not but, as it were, cry out, How happy are they which do that which is right in the sight of God! They are blessed indeed. They are the happy ones." This was the heart that God had placed in Jonathan Edwards, And it created an atmosphere in their home life that allowed them to bring up their children in the admonition and training of the Lord. Jonathan Edwards brought a heart full of passionate love for God into his marriage and into his home. And so should we.

Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number two. Jonathan chose his wife carefully and well. Definitely an emphasis of the Puritans, the choosing of a spouse carefully and well, and Jonathan Edwards did. Jonathan married Sarah Pierrepont on July 28, 1727.

It was not the result of a man chasing his libido. It was not even the result of a man pursuing the more noble causes of friendship and companionship. Although Sarah was known to be quite lovely, And although they had a deep and abiding friendship, these were not the objectives of Jonathan Edwards when he went in search of a wife. In Malachi 2, the Lord through the prophet Malachi is rebuking the people of Israel. And the Lord says this, Judah has dealt treacherously and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah has profaned the Lord's holy institution, which he loves.

He's married the daughter of a foreign God. Here God calls marriage the holy institution which I love." Wow. And he's condemning the people because they've spurned what God has called holy and they've taken for themselves pagan daughters to be their wives. And Jonathan Edwards understood the principle that the calling of God is that we would be equally yoked in spiritual matters, that we'd be joined together with other strong believers, because we're given a mission to bring the government of God to the ends of the earth through the Gospel. And that the only way that happens is if a man joins together with a woman and they both have their affections turned towards God.

This is what Jonathan Edwards was looking for when he went to seek a wife. So he wanted to marry this Sarah Pierrepont. And what kind of woman was this Sarah Pierrepont? Well, we have a lot of content on that. We have a Greek study book of Jonathan Edwards, where he wrote, prior to their courtship, about this young lady, He should have been studying his Greek, but he was thinking of Sarah, and he wrote down his thoughts.

They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that almighty being who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this great being, in some way or other, invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything except to meditate on him. That she expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised out of the world and caught up into heaven, being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him and to be ravished with his love, favor, and delight forever. Therefore, If you present all the world before her with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange and sweetness in her mind.

And sweetness of temper, uncommon purity in her affections, is most just and praiseworthy in all her actions, and you could not persuade her to do anything thought wrong or sinful if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this great being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind, especially after those times in which this great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about singing sweetly from place to place and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone and to wander in the fields and on the mountains and seems to have someone invisible, always conversing with her." Now, we might say, oh, come on. Everybody thinks like that before courtship.

Give it a year of marriage. Well, after many years of marriage, this is what Jonathan Edwards wrote about his wife. He describes her this way. He says that she's daily sensible of doing and suffering everything for God, Eating for God and working for God and sleeping for God and bearing pain and trouble for God and doing all as the service of love. And so doing it with a continual uninterrupted cheerfulness, peace and joy.

Oh that our spouses after years of marriage would write something like this about us. That love for God would have so consumed us and shaped us that this is how we would be described years into our marriage. This sounds remarkably like his passion for God, isn't it? Yes, it is. He went in search of a wife who was consumed with God because he was consumed with God.

And this shaped their life together. It shaped their home life. She was well educated. Though not all the Puritans looked favorably on the education of women, Sarah had the best training that a girl was allowed to have. George Whitfield, the great evangelist, visited and spent time in their home on numerous occasions.

And he said this, a sweeter couple I have not yet seen. She talked feelingly and solidly of the things of God and seemed to be such a help-me for her husband that she caused me to pray God that he would be pleased to send me a daughter of Abraham to be my wife. This woman was so inspiring in her faith towards God that when the great evangelist George Whitfield comes and visits them in their home, she inspires to him that he would pray that God would give him a wife like this. Jonathan Edwards was a wise man when he went in search for a wife, and he found what he was looking for. Jonathan and Sarah years later participated actively in the courtships of their own children.

Samuel Hopkins was a New England pastor. He was much younger than Jonathan Edwards. At the time, it was customary for a pastor in training, a pastor in waiting, to go and spend time, months at a time, in the home of an established pastor to live with his family and to watch him in ministry and to be an understudy to him, and then he would go out and take his own parish. Samuel Hopkins was such a man in the home of the Edwards family. And many of the quotes that come from here to the end of the talk will come from Samuel Hopkins.

And he speaks as an expert because he lived there for months at a time. And then, even after he had his own pastorate, through the years he would frequently visit their homes. So he speaks as a man who knows about the home life of this family. He says this about these courtships that happened later in life as their children grew. If any gentleman desired acquaintance with his daughters, After handsomely introducing himself by properly consulting the parents, he was allowed all proper opportunity for it, a room and fire if needed.

They understood, Jonathan and Sarah understood, the principle of equal yoking in the Lord. And so they practiced it themselves and they also helped their children in it. They engaged their children in it years later. And it resulted in a family line that you can trace, spectacular multi-generational faithfulness. They understood this principle, then they applied it to their children.

And so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number three. Their marriage was characterized by intense mutual affection and respect. As we've seen repeatedly over the last two days, Ephesians 5 unashamedly calls for the submission and respect of the wife and the active, self-sacrificing love of the husband.

And Jonathan and Sarah had these things in abundance in their marriage and in their home. Elizabeth Dodds, out of her research, she writes this about their home life. In the case of the Edwardses, familiarity bred respect. The real test of the feeling of one person for another is in the daily encounters, when one must pay bills, carry out the trash, sniffle through a head cold. This period of homely testings disclosed to the couple that they were permanently committed to one another, so they turned now to translating their love into work, into a way of life.

You can't maintain it forever. You're only thinking about her. You can't study in your Greek. You're writing all the flowery language. And then marriage and life hits and children come and there's a routine to life.

What does that do to your home life? Does familiarity breed contempt? No, not for the Edwards. It bred respect. It deepened their friendship.

And they understood that they were committed to one another to serve the Lord together for life, and so they worked together in friendship, to give God godly offspring. Dodd also writes this, The casual observer saw the difficult husband, the endlessly giving wife. Actually, more than anyone in the outside guessed, she leaned on him. Though she carried all the practical details of managing the house, Sarah depended on Edwards for her own spiritual replenishment. She would dart into his study during the day confident that no matter how intent he was on his writing, he would put down his pen and turn to her with lighted face.

She fed on his leadership of family prayers and on the quiet time she and Edward spent together on devotions after the children were in bed, the time that put a benediction on all the bustle of the daylight hours. The rhythm of life in this marriage held love and constant companionship. Dodd writes this, Sarah's transactions with her children were reinforced because Her husband treated her with total courtesy and serenely expected that each child would follow his example. Do you see this? Do you understand what's being communicated here?

Jonathan treated his wife well in their home, and their children were watching. And because he treated her with respect and friendship, it was unspoken to the children that they should treat their mother the same way and it impacted the way their children related to their mother because they saw how their father did. Men, is this something we can copy in our homes? That our conduct towards our wives would be so full of gentleness and love and respect and friendship that our children would not dare to treat them improperly. Jonathan and Sarah had a marriage filled with intense mutual respect and affection.

And so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number four. We do pick up steam, by the way. We're not really only 30 percent through.

When I said number four, I saw some looks on faces that made me need to interject that. Number four, family worship was central to family life. They built their life around family worship. It's called family worship in some places. It's called family prayer.

But it didn't mean just praying together. They meant the whole act of studying the Word together and singing together and praying together. And they built their family with this as the cornerstone. Back to Deuteronomy 6 where we're exhorted to teach an unrivaled love to God diligently to our children. Elizabeth Dodd writes this.

He had noted in his journal in January 1728, I think Christ has recommended rising early in the morning by His rising from the grave very early. I don't know about the hermeneutic on that, but it's not my quote. So everyone in the house was routed out, even in the dark winter dawns for prayers by candlelight. With the servants joining in, they all heard a chapter from the Bible and asked God's blessing on the day ahead. This is how the day started in the Edwards home.

Before the sun was up, They would be routed out of bed even on the cold winter mornings and they would be given a chapter of the Bible by candlelight. This was the rhythm of their life together. Elizabeth Dodd says this, the surge and thunder of the King James Bible heard twice a day aloud in their father's voice became part of the children's earliest memories. I have a friend whose father was a pastor who had this practice in their home. He would read to them every day.

And he said to me, at the time I didn't appreciate it. I wanted to go play and do other things. But now, when I hear the Bible read aloud, I hear it in my father's voice. And this was true of Jonathan Edwards' kids as well. Edwards brought the Word of God to them tenderly and this was the routine and the rhythm of their life together.

In 1874, long after Jonathan and Sarah were gone, there was a reunion of their descendants. And there was a story related there that Sarah Noe Dwight was gathering material for his book about his great-grandfather, Jonathan. And he interviewed a very old man, Dr. Lathrop of West Springfield. And Dr.

Lathrop had been a local physician who had participated from time to time in their family prayers. And he told of hearing Edwards preside at family prayers and commented that He never heard another prayer that brought heaven and earth so near together. This was not lifeless, mechanical duty being lived out in the Edwards home. It was a man who was on fire for the Lord who was bringing this and imparting it to his children. He was bringing heaven near to earth during their times of family prayer.

The Edwards made worship the central routine of their lives, and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number five, honor and obedience were secured from the children. Honor and obedience were secured from the children. Ephesians 6, 1-4, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." Samuel Hopkins, the young pastor-to-be who spent months in their home, wrote this about Sarah and her governance of the children. She had an excellent way of governing her children. She knew how to make them regard and obey her cheerfully, without loud angry words, much less heavy blows. She seldom punished them and in speaking to them used gentle and pleasant words. If any correction was necessary, she did not administer it in a passion.

When she had occasion to reprove and rebuke, she would do it with a few words, without warmth. She doesn't mean warmth in the way we think it. She means without anger, without warmth and noise. In her directions and matters of importance, she would address herself to the reason of her children that they might not only know her will, but at the same time be convinced of the reasonableness of it. She had need to speak, but once she was cheerfully obeyed.

Murmuring and answering again were not known among them. In their manners, they were uncommonly respectful to their parents. When their parents came into the room, they all rose instinctively from their seats and never resumed them until their parents were seated. And when either parent was speaking, they were all immediately silent and attentive. The kind and gentle treatment they received from their mother, while she strictly and punctiliously maintained her parental authority, seemed naturally to promote a filial respect and affection and to lead them to a mild, tender treatment of each other.

Quarreling and contention, which too frequently take place among children, were in her family unknown. She carefully observed the first appearance of resentment and ill will in her young children towards any person whatever and did not connive at it, but was careful to show her displeasure and suppress it to the utmost, yet not being angry wrathful words which often provoke children to wrath. Her system of discipline was begun at a very early age, and it was her rule to resist the first as well as every subsequent exhibition of temper or disobedience in the child, wisely reflected that until a child will obey his parents, he can never be brought to obey God. Isn't that better than 99.9% of the childhood books in modern evangelicalism? They have much to learn from the Puritans.

Esther, their oldest daughter, wrote many letters to her mothers and she normally addressed her as my honored mother. And this was not lip service, just pen to page. This was lived out. They honored their mother because Jonathan and Sarah understood that it was their responsibility to secure the honor and obedience to their children for their welfare later in life. Jonathan and Sarah did secure the honor and obedience of their children, and so should we.

Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number six, the children were carefully and rigorously educated. Ephesians 6, 4 says, And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." Edwards was a man with a full schedule. He resolved himself to study 13 hours a day. To study 13 hours a day.

Not a lot of chit-chat, small talk, wasted time in the Edwards home. But the hour after dinner was his hour of relaxation. And Elizabeth Dodds relates how he would normally use this hour. She said, Edwards would use this relaxed hour to hear one child's lessons. He had the idea, unusual in those times, that girls as well as boys should be educated.

The girls, tutored by their father at home, learned Latin, Greek, rhetoric, and penmanship. Edwards also expected all the children to know Jewish and church history, the chronology of biblical events, and how to correlate passages in the Old and New Testaments. A child never knew when at the dinner table he would be called upon to give a crisp answer to some such question as, How long was it after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar until Babylon was destroyed by Cyrus? I shudder to think whether I could accept a dinner invitation from such a man. He was busy.

He preached, he wrote, he traveled, but he had time to educate his children. He tried to take a daughter with him on each of his trips, and they would ride on the cushion behind the saddle. He practiced the walk-along talk-along discipleship we see in Deuteronomy. Dodd says this, he took opportunities to converse with them singly and closely. There were 11 children he studied 13 hours a day.

But this was a priority, so he took opportunity to converse with them singly and closely. Deuteronomy 6 commands us to teach the ways of God diligently to our children. In that mold, Jonathan and Sarah carefully and rigorously educated their children, and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way? Number seven, the home was run by an industrious homemaker.

And boy, was it ever run by an industrious homemaker. Proverbs 31, 10 through 16, familiar territory. Who can find a virtuous wife? Jonathan Edwards can. For her worth is far above rubies.

The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so he will have no lack of gain. She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant's ships. She brings her fruit from afar.

She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field and buys it. From her profits, she plants a vineyard." Elizabeth Dodd says this, however, Sarah had most of the responsibility for the property. So you have the picture. Jonathan's studying 13 hours a day.

What in the world is getting done at home? And Elizabeth Dodd tells us. She saw that the garden was planted and that the hired man had his instructions for each day. They used to tell in North Hampton how once Edwards asked, isn't it about time the hay was cut? To which Sarah mildly replied, it's been in the barn for two weeks.

This could happen at my house. Samuel Hopkins, this man who stayed with them for months at a time, says, It was a happy circumstance that he could trust everything to the care of Mrs. Edwards, with entire safety and with undoubting confidence. She was a most judicious and faithful mistress of a family, habitually industrious, a sound economist managing her household affairs with diligence and discretion. While she uniformly paid a becoming deference to her husband and treated him with entire respect, she spared no pains in conforming to his inclination and rendering everything in the family agreeable and pleasant.

She accounted it her greatest glory, and there wherein she could best serve God in her generation to be the means of promoting His usefulness and happiness. We have this great deposit from Jonathan Edwards that can be a blessing and a help for the church in this century and in the next century. And it's a deposit that Sarah Edwards paved the way for by how she handled the affairs of their household so that he could be in his study thinking and reading and praying and developing a deposit to pass to us. We're in the debt of this woman. Samuel Hopkins also said this, When she herself labored under bodily disorders and pains, which was not infrequently the case, instead of troubling those around her with her complaints and wearing a sour or dejected countenance as if out of humor with everybody and everything around her because she was disregarded and neglected.

She was accustomed to bear up under them, not only with patience, but with cheerfulness and good humor. The Edwards home was managed by a hard-working, industrious homemaker, and so should ours be. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. Number eight. Hospitality was a trademark of their family life.

There are no chapters in this book without this as a theme. They had people in and out of their home all the time. It was a trademark of their family life. 1 Peter 4, 9 and 10 says, Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." The Edwards' home had received an abundance of the manifold grace of God, and they opened up their homes so that others could participate in this grace as well.

Hospitality was a trademark. Elizabeth Dodd says, those were days of dubious taverns, so most travelers counted on stopping with the ministers in whatever town they struck by night. As Edward's reputation mounted And the charms of his daughters became widely known, the number of guests grew. May it be so among us, Samuel Hopkins said. She was peculiarly kind to strangers.

By her sweet and winning manners and ready conversations, she soon became acquainted with them and led him immediately to feel as if he were at home." As I mentioned, Samuel Hopkins was an understudy to Edwards as it was customary for a pastor in waiting to be, and there were many others like him who were adopted by the Edwards and brought into their home for months at a time so they could see this family life and be an understudy of pastoral duties. Their home is a place of laboring together. Their house functioned efficiently because Sarah Edwards took these 11 children, and you get a flavor in the book about the different personalities. This was not a cookie cutter where they were just stamping out exact replicas, exact carbon copies one right after the other. They had very varied personalities and giftings.

And Sarah was in the background working these together, causing them to labor together in hospitality. It was a very efficiently run home. And it allowed them to have guests day after day and month after month because they knew how to labor together in the Lord. Jonathan and Sarah had a home that was given to hospitality, and so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way.

Number nine, the family was made ready for adversity. Matthew 7, 24 and 25, Therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine, says Jesus, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock." For the Edwards home, the rains did come, the winds did come, the floods did come, and their house was found to be established on the rock, on Christ. Edwards's first pastoral assignment was to take the pulpit of his grandfather, A well-respected pastor in the area for decade upon decade, even though in some ways he had different theology than Solomon's daughter. Can you imagine the difficulties that would accompany taking that place?

He experienced them. The death of close friends like David Brainerd, the missionary who came and lived in their house also for months at a time, contracted tuberculosis and died in their home. A dear friend of theirs through the years. Sarah's period of darkness, she was a stalwart rock, except for about six months, where she had a breakdown. There's really no good explanation for it other than the Lord sent it their way.

There's nothing specifically that you can tie it to that would cause those difficulties in that time frame to be different than the other difficulties, But she went into that time as a rock, and she came out of it as a rock, but there was six months where she was not herself. And there was much adversity in that, and they did not unravel. The family rallied Jonathan around his wife and their children around their mother, and they withstood the adversity. Jonathan being dismissed from his pastorate of 20-plus years in Northampton, along with the slander and the conflict and contention that comes along with the pastor being dismissed. Later in life, their children would marry and some of their spouses would die.

This was true of their oldest daughter, Esther. She married a man by the name of Aaron Burr. It's not the Aaron Burr you're thinking of. That's the father of the Aaron Burr you're thinking of. He was vice president of the United States.

And this Aaron Burr, the husband of Esther, their daughter, died suddenly prematurely. And this is what Esther wrote to her parents. God has seemed sensibly near in such a supporting and comfortable manner that I think I have never experienced the like. Thus, dear madam, she's writing to her mother, thus, dear madam, I have given you some broken hints of the exercises of my mind. Oh, dear madam, I doubt not, but I have your and my honored father's prayers daily for me.

But give me leave to entreat you to request earnestly of the Lord that I may never faint under this severe stroke. Oh, I am afraid I shall conduct myself so as to bring dishonor on the religion which I profess." Her fears did not come to fruition because she grew up in a family where the members were readied for adversity. Their home was built on the rocks so that when the winds came and the rains beat against it and the floods rose, they stood firm in their generation. Jonathan and Sarah readied their home for the day of adversity, and so should we. Let's let our home be like the Edwards home in this way.

Finally, God gave them a lasting inheritance for their faithfulness. God gave them a lasting inheritance. We look back on their heritage and we say, yes, it was well done. They were good and faithful servants of our God. Psalm 127, 3-5.

Behold, children are heritage from the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but shall speak with their enemies in the gate." God gave the Edwards home, 11 children, and they thought rightly about it.

Jonathan and Sarah thought rightly about it. They knew it was a stewardship and a trust and that God was filling their quiver full of arrows so that they could send mighty warriors into the next generations for the spread of the Gospel. And this is exactly what happened in their family line. Their grandson, this is a funny story, their grandson Timothy Dwight was invited to be the president of Yale. But his parish, he was the pastor of a parish, but his parish voted to refuse to dismiss him.

And this was their reason, that there hath been a constant uninterrupted harmony and a good agreement with the people of this place. We will not let you go. There's been too much harmony and blessing here while you've been among us." So the outside church hierarchy came in and made them release him so that he could go be the president of Yale, but they didn't want him to go. He was a blessing, And this was the fruit of the Edwards home. I mentioned in 1874, descendants of the Edwards clan converged on Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which is where they went after Jonathan was dismissed from the church in North Hampton.

And Mrs. Mary Edwards Whiting, the only living grandchild, she was 92 years old, the only living grandchild of this marriage, was unable to attend but sent this message, she wishes to bear her testimony at that meeting to God's covenant faithfulness and to his covenant mercies to her and hers. The fruit of the Edwards home. John Todd was at that gathering, that family reunion, in 1874. He was not an Edwards, but he married an Edwards.

And this was his testimony. I married a wife, and it was years before I found out what made her so much my superior. But when I discovered that she belonged to the Edwards family and that she had their blood in her veins, I gave up the contest and have admitted all that she demanded ever since. That's not funny, Janet. In 1900, a man named A.E.

Winship conducted a study of almost 1, 400 of their descendants, just to track them, see what had happened to them. And here's a comment that he made. He says, The family has never lost tone through marriage. The family has never lost tone through marriage, for its members have chosen men and women of like character and capacity. What we see in the mother and father, what we see in the lives of Jonathan and Sarah, we see in the lives of their children and their grandchildren and their great-grandchildren and their great-great-grandchildren.

They ordered their home in such a way that God put His imprint there in a way that it would flow down through the generations. We're all so frightened that our vices would be transmitted to the future generations, aren't we? But we should set our mind that God can give us virtues and create an environment in our home in such a way that our virtues will be passed down through these generations under his mighty hand. We should pray for that. The result of this study was an interesting comparison between two families.

One the line of Jonathan Edwards, one the line of Max Jukes. There's a reason you've never heard of Max Jukes and that you have heard of Jonathan Edwards. Here's the study. Max Jukes was an atheist. He did not believe in Christ.

He did not believe in Christian training. He married an ungodly girl and refused to take his children to church even when they asked to go. At the time of this research, there were approximately 1, 200 descendants from this union. Of these, 1, 300 died as paupers. At least 150 were criminals, seven were murderers, 100 were drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes.

These hooligans cost the state of New York $1.2 million in the 1800s. That's a lot of money in the 1800s. Jonathan Edwards lived at the same time as Max Jukes. He married Sarah Pierrepont, a godly woman, and his spiritual equal. They gave the Lord godly offspring, raising them in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Of his 13 and 94 known descendants, 13 became college presidents, 65 became college professors. 100 lawyers, 30 judges. 60 physicians. 76 Army and Navy officers. 100 preachers and missionaries.

60 authors of prominence. Three United States senators. One vice president of the United States... Who was one of the more unruly of them, by the way. Eighty public officials in other capacities.

Two hundred ninety-five college graduates among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. Jonathan and Sarah desired to have this spiritual legacy given to them from the Lord, And so should we. Let's let our homes be like the Edwards home in this way. They poured themselves out to conform their home to the patterns of Scripture And God gave tremendous increase for their laborers, not so that we would stand around or sit around and say, look at Jonathan and Sarah Edwards, but so that we would say, look at the hand of a mighty God working through the generations, that He would raise up such a man and such a woman as Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierrepont and join them together in a holy mission to raise up children, to give Himself godly offspring for the spread of the gospel and then see it happen through the generations. On his deathbed, his wife was not there.

He had gone to be the president of Princeton. He'd been there less than a month. He was inoculated for smallpox and as a result contracted smallpox. And these were among his dying words. Give my kindest love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature that I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever.

Heavenly Father, would you give us uncommon unions where our homes are founded out of a love for you that you breathe into our hearts, that is a consuming love, that we would love you with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and that these words would be in our hearts and that we would teach them diligently to our children, and that you would give us a heritage, not so that our name would be known, but that so your name would be known that the earth would be filled with the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. Thank you. Thank you.