7 MARCH
Repairing the ruins
‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Genesis 3:4–5
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: James 1:13–15
When Satan has drawn us from the belief of the truth, there is nothing so false, absurd and dangerous but he can persuade us to receive. How vain was the thought, that she could be better than she was without the Lord’s leave and in defiance to his will. Learn the deceitfulness and hardening nature of sin, how it prevails by degrees, till at length the soul ventures the loss of all for present gratification—and is equally unmindful of past obligations and future consequences of disobedience.
As pride and self-seeking were the first sins, so the first work of God’s Spirit when he comes to renew the sinner is to lay the axe to these roots of the evil tree, which he does by a conviction of sin upon the conscience and giving affecting views of the humiliation of Jesus—man would be as God, therefore God became man. O admire this grace and look to this Saviour who alone is able to repair the ruin we have brought upon ourselves.
FOR MEDITATION: [for New Year’s Evening 1773]
Ensnared, too long, my heart has been
LORD, I have hated thee too long,
In folly’s hurtful ways;
And dared thee to thy face;
O, may I now, at length, begin
I’ve done my soul exceeding wrong
To hear what Wisdom says!
In slighting all thy grace.
Approach my soul to Wisdom’s gates
Now I would break my league with death,
While it is called today;
And live to thee alone;
No one who watches there and waits
O let thy Spirit’s seal of faith,
Shall e’er be turned away.
Secure me for thine own.
SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 7 [4/4], GENESIS 3:2–5
Milo 