11 NOVEMBER
The Lord’s patience and mercy
‘And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.’ Genesis 19:16
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 1:9–20
To some of you, we seem as mockers; we can only repeat our message and leave it with your consciences, entreating the Lord to give a blessing, while we declare the danger and the remedy. That Lot escaped at last, is ascribed to the Lord’s mercy. He might justly have been left to perish with the rest. O the patience of the Lord towards his own people. Indeed it is in some respects more wonderful than his long forbearance of the wicked. These know not what they do. But believers sin and trifle against knowledge and love and experience. On this account they may be said to be though scarcely saved. They have so often provoked the Lord, that if his mercy was not infinite, he would be weary of them and cast them off for ever.
Annotated Letters to a Wife, 4 August 1796, aged 70:
O my LORD! If I would recollect or recount thy mercies they are more in number than the sands! The best part of my childhood and youth was vanity and folly but before I attained the age of man I became exceeding vile indeed and was seated in the chair of a scorner in early life. Troubles and miseries I for a time endured, were my own. I brought them upon myself by forsaking thy good and pleasant paths and choosing the way of transgressors, which I found very hard. They led to slavery, contempt, famine and despair, but my recovery from that dreadful state was wholly of thee. How exact were the terms upon which my deliverance from Africa depended. Had the ship passed one quarter of an hour sooner I had died there a wretch as I had lived.
FOR MEDITATION: We are passengers in a ship in which the Lord’s cause and faithfulness are embarked with us, and therefore we need not fear sinking. The infallible pilot will guide us safely through the storms.
John Newton to John Ryland, 28 January 1781
SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 41 [3/4], GENESIS 19:16
Milo 