Milo

October 6

“He opened not his mouth.” (Isa. 53:7.)

HOW much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness! Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about him. This is the file that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold. If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our trials we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, “Let him curse; … it may be … that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day.”
Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned into one little petty whirl of warfare. It is like a nest of hornets. You may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.
God give us more of His Spirit, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again”; but “committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.” “Consider him that endureth such contradiction of sinners against himself.”—A. B. Simpson.

“Before you” He trod all the path of woe,
He took the sharp thrusts with His head bent low.
He knew deepest sorrow and pain and grief,
He knew long endurance without relief,
He took all the bitter from death’s deep cup,
He kept not a blood-drop but gave all up.
“Before you” and for you, He won the fight
To bring you to glory and realms of light.
—L. S. P

6 OCTOBER

Sin cries out

‘And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know.’ Genesis 18:20–21
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 59:1–20

This is one of the many passages in which the Lord speaks after the manner of men. He is present in all places, and knows all things. But it intimates the exactness of his judicial proceedings, that he will not punish without cause, and that he exercises such forbearance and patience as will leave sinners without excuse. Sin has a voice, a cry. It cries for vengeance, like the blood of Abel. It is opposite to the perfections of God. His holiness, justice, truth and authority are called upon, provoked and defied by sin. Though he spare long, his honour would suffer if he did not at length take notice of it. Ah my friends, you little know what you do, when you allow yourselves in a course of sin against the great God who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell.
FOR MEDITATION:
Ah, what can I do,
And must I then go,
Or where be secure!
Forever to dwell
If justice pursue
In torments and woe
What heart can endure!
With devils in hell?
When GOD speaks in thunder,
Oh where is the Saviour
And makes himself known,
I scorned in times past?
The heart breaks asunder
His word in my favour
Though hard as a stone.
Would save me at last.

With terror I read
Lord JESUS, on thee
My sins heavy score,
I venture to call,
The numbers exceed
Oh look upon me
The sands on the shore;
The vilest of all!
Guilt makes me unable
For whom didst thou languish,
To stand or to flee,
And bleed on the tree?
So Cain murdered Abel,
Oh pity my anguish,
And trembled like me.
And say, ‘’Twas for thee’.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 39 [1/3], GENESIS 18:20–21

October 5th

The bias of degeneration

Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Romans 5:12.

The Bible does not say that God punished the human race for one man’s sin; but that the disposition of sin, viz., my claim to my right to myself, entered into the human race by one man, and that another Man took on Him the sin of the human race and put it away (Heb. 9:26)—an infinitely profounder revelation. The disposition of sin is not immorality and wrong-doing, but the disposition of self-realization—I am my own god. This disposition may work out in decorous morality or in indecorous immorality, but it has the one basis, my claim to my right to myself. When Our Lord faced men with all the forces of evil in them, and men who were clean living and moral and upright, He did not pay any attention to the moral degradation of the one or to the moral attainment of the other; He looked at something we do not see, viz., the disposition.
Sin is a thing I am born with and I cannot touch it; God touches sin in Redemption. In the Cross of Jesus Christ God redeemed the whole human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a man responsible for having the heredity of sin. The condemnation is not that I am born with a heredity of sin, but if when I realize Jesus Christ came to deliver me from it, I refuse to let Him do so, from that moment I begin to get the seal of damnation. “And this is the judgment” (the critical moment) “that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light.”

October 5

“It came to pass … that the brook dried up.”
(1 Kings 17:7.)

THE education of our faith is incomplete if we have not learned that there is a providence of loss, a ministry of failing and of fading things, a gift of emptiness. The material insecurities of life make for its spiritual establishment. The dwindling stream by which Elijah sat and mused is a true picture of the life of each of us. “It came to pass … that the brook dried up”—that is the history of our yesterday, and a prophecy of our morrows.
In some way or other we will have to learn the difference between trusting in the gift and trusting in the Giver. The gift may be good for a while, but the Giver is the Eternal Love.
Cherith was a difficult problem to Elijah until he got to Zarephath, and then it was all as clear as daylight. God’s hard words are never His last words. The woe and the waste and the tears of life belong to the interlude and not to the finale.
Had Elijah been led straight to Zarephath he would have missed something that helped to make him a wiser prophet and a better man. He lived by faith at Cherith. And whensoever in your life and mine some spring of earthly and outward resource has dried up, it has been that we might learn that our hope and help are in God who made Heaven and earth.
—F. B. Meyer.

Perchance thou, too, hast camped by such sweet waters,
And quenched with joy thy weary, parched soul’s thirst;
To find, as time goes on, thy streamlet alters
From what it was at first.

Hearts that have cheered, or soothed, or blest, or strengthened;
Loves that have lavished so unstintedly;
Joys, treasured joys—have passed, as time hath lengthened,
Into obscurity.

If thus, ah soul, the brook thy heart hath cherished
Doth fail thee now—no more thy thirst assuage—
If its once glad refreshing streams have perished,
Let HIM thy heart engage.

He will not fail, nor mock, nor disappoint thee;
His consolations change not with the years;
With oil of joy He surely will anoint thee,
And wipe away thy tears.
—J. Danson Smith.

5 OCTOBER

Faithful in teaching others

‘For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgement; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.’ Genesis 18:19
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 6:1–25

[One] reason the Lord assigns to why he would not hide this thing from Abraham is much to the honour of Abraham, and in this we are called upon to imitate him: I know him, that he will teach. May he give like grace to all who have families, to be wise and faithful in teaching, warning and ruling their children and servants. All who know and fear the Lord, whether parents or children, masters or servants, have a talent committed to you—some opportunities of speaking to those whom you love or who love you, or with whom you are acquainted or connected, concerning the things of God. Entreat the Lord to give you a concern for souls, for the honour of his name, and to teach you to speak in meekness a word in season [Isaiah 50:4]. To him that hath shall be given [Mark 4:25]; in attempting to water others you shall be watered also yourself. And if you have little opportunity in other ways, be careful of your conduct and example. By this, through the blessing, you may be greatly useful to win upon others; if you let your light shine before men, it shall be to the glory of God and to your own comfort.

FOR MEDITATION: When I am in the pulpit, perhaps I am about to preach my last sermon; and it is almost certain that there are those present who come to hear me for the last time. Some of these are probably ignorant of God and themselves, standing upon the brink of the pit, and regardless of their danger. If I miss this opportunity of warning and rousing them, I shall not have another. I would therefore bend my whole strength to this point, and not drop a word to draw the attention to anything else. I endeavour to do the same in the parlour. If what I say has no tendency to impress eternal concerns upon my friends and acquaintances, I had better hold my tongue. Why should I encumber myself and them with many things, when I profess to believe that one thing is needful? It will be a poor plea for me, to say at last, While thy servant was busy here and there, the man was gone.
John Newton to John Ryland, 15 March 1794

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 38 [4/4], GENESIS 18:17–19