"There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." - Jonathan Edwards

God lacks no power to cast wicked men into hell at any moment. Men's hands cannot be strong when God rises up. Though hand join in hand, and all the vast multitudes of God's enemies combine together against him, they are most easily broken in pieces. No fortress proves a defense from the power of God, nor can any deliver out of his hands. Like piles of light chaff before the tornado, or fields of dry stubble before devouring flames, they are instantly consumed. If the earth trembles before him and the boulders are thrown down violently, how then can the wicked stand before him?

They deserve to be cast into hell. Justice can make no exception, no objection against God using his power at any moment to destroy them. Rather, on the contrary, justice cries aloud for their punishment. The sword of divine justice hangs every moment over their heads, and it is nothing but God's will that holds it back.

They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell, by the divine decree of the Law of God, so that presently they wait on death row. Every unconverted man properly belongs to hell and thither be is bound; it is the place that justice and the sentence of God’s unchangeable Law assign to him.

They are presently the objects of God’s wrath, the same wrath that ends in judgment and destruction in hell. Why do they then not go there immediately? It is not because God has forgotten his anger against them. It is not because God is unmindful of their wickedness. The wrath of God burns against them, their damnation does not slumber; the pit is prepared, the fire is made ready, the furnace is now hot, ready to receive them; the flames do now rage and glow. The glittering sword is whet, and held over them, and the pit hath opened its mouth under them.

The devil stands ready to fall upon them, and seize them as his own, at what moment God shall permit him. They belong to him; they are under his dominion. The devils watch them; they stand waiting for them, like greedy hungry lions that see their prey, and expect to have it, but are for the present kept back. If God should withdraw his hand, by which they are restrained, they would in one moment fly upon their poor souls. The old serpent is gaping for them; hell opens its mouth wide to receive them; and if God should permit it, they would be hastily swallowed up and lost.

If God did not restrain them, wicked men, in whose hearts hell is kindled, would soon consume the world in hellish torment. They would soon break out, they would be engulfed in flames after the same manner of damned souls, and would kindle in others the same wickedness that consumes them. The souls of the wicked are in scripture compared to the troubled sea, Isaiah 57:20. For the present, God restrains their wickedness by his mighty power, as he does the raging waves of the troubled sea, saying, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." But if God should withdraw that restraining power, it would soon carry all before it. Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature, and if God should leave it without restraint, it would immediately turn the soul into a furnace of fire and brimstone."

Read Article on Gospel Basics Here