Milo

August 20

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” (Gen. 32:24.)

GOD is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. It was the Son of man, the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form pressing down and pressing out the old Jacob life; and ere the morning broke, God had prevailed and Jacob fell with his thigh dislocated. But as he fell, he fell into the arms of God, and there he clung and wrestled, too, until the blessing came; and the new life was born and he arose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, the natural to the supernatural. And as he went forth that morning he was a weak and broken man, but God was there instead; and the heavenly voice proclaimed, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”
Beloved, this must ever be a typical scene in every transformed life. There comes a crisis-hour to each of us, if God has called us to the highest and best, when all resources fail; when we face either ruin or something higher than we ever dreamed; when we must have infinite help from God and yet, ere we can have it, we must let something go; we must surrender completely; we must cease from our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness, and become crucified with Christ and alive in Him. God knows how to lead us up to this crisis, and He knows how to lead us through.
Is He leading you thus? Is this the meaning of your deep trial, or your difficult surroundings, or that impossible situation, or that trying place through which you cannot go without Him, and yet you have not enough of Him to give you the victory?
Oh, turn to Jacob’s God! Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your strength and wisdom in His loving arms and rise, like Jacob, into His strength and all-sufficiency. There is no way out of your hard and narrow place but at the top. You must get deliverance by rising higher and coming into a new experience with God. Oh, may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of the Mighty One of Jacob!—But God.

“At Thy feet I fall,
Yield Thee up my ALL,
TO SUFFER, LIVE, OR DIE
For my Lord crucified.”

20 AUGUST

Plucked as a brand out of the fire

‘And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.’ Genesis 15:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Zechariah 3:1–10

In this passage we have the Lord’s word to Abraham by way of remembrance: I brought thee from Ur of the Chaldees—from idolaters, plucked thee as a brand out of the fire [Zechariah 3:2]. Thus he reminds all his people. It is said the night when Israel left Egypt was a night much to be remembered [Exodus 12:42]. Believers surely will never forget the mercy which called them. It was a special mercy. Many [were] left when Abraham was called. How many of your companions have been left? Some of you were brought from places at a great distance, like Abraham, and it was a foundation mercy—how much depended upon it. As it is farther said: to give thee this land—a type of the heavenly Canaan. The Lord did not call Abraham to leave him by the way. If you are called out of sin and the world, brought to Jesus, it is because the Lord designs to give you the good land—for his gifts and callings are without repentance.
FOR MEDITATION:
With Satan, my accuser near,
At his rebuke the tempter fled;
My spirit trembled when I saw
Then he removed my filthy dress;
The Lord in majesty appear,
‘Poor sinner take this robe,’ he said,
And heard the language of his law.
‘It is thy Saviour’s righteousness.

In vain I wished and strove to hide
And see, a crown of life prepared!
The tattered filthy rags I wore;
That I might thus thy head adorn;
While my fierce foe, insulting cried,
I thought no shame or suffering hard,
‘See what you trusted in before!’
But wore, for thee, a crown of thorn.’

Struck dumb, and left without a plea,
O how I heard these gracious words!
I heard my gracious Saviour say,
They broke and healed my heart at once;
‘Know, Satan, I this sinner free,
Constrained me to become the Lord’s,
I died to take his sins away.
And all my idol-gods renounce.

‘This is a brand which I in love,
Now, Satan, thou hast lost thy aim,
To save from wrath and sin design;
Against this brand thy threats are vain;
In vain thy accusations prove,
Jesus has plucked it from the flame,
I answer all, and claim him mine.’
And who shall put it in again?

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 32 [1/3], GENESIS 15:7–11

August 19th

Self-consciousness

Come unto Me. Matthew 11:28.

God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone. Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the life in God, and self-consciousness continually produces wrestling. Self-consciousness is not sin; it may be produced by a nervous temperament or by a sudden dumping down into new circumstances. It is never God’s will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him. Anything that disturbs rest in Him must be cured at once, and it is not cured by being ignored, but by coming to Jesus Christ. If we come to Him and ask Him to produce Christ-consciousness, He will always do it until we learn to abide in Him.
Never allow the dividing up of your life in Christ to remain without facing it. Beware of leakage, of the dividing up of your life by the influence of friends or of circumstances; beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately. Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually. The great solution is the simple one—“Come unto Me.” The depth of our reality, intellectually, morally and spiritually, is tested by these words. In every degree in which we are not real, we will dispute rather than come.

August 19

“As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.” (2 Cor. 6:10.)

SORROW was beautiful, but her beauty was the beauty of the moonlight shining through the leafy branches of the trees in the wood, and making little pools of silver here and there on the soft green moss below.
When Sorrow sang, her notes were like the low sweet call of nightingale, and in her eyes was the unexpectant gaze of one who has ceased to look for coming gladness. She could weep in tender sympathy with those who weep, but to rejoice with those who rejoice was unknown to her.
Joy was beautiful, too, but his was the radiant beauty of the summer morning. His eyes still held the glad laughter of childhood, and his hair had the glint of the sunshine’s kiss. When Joy sang his voice soared upward as the lark’s, and his step was the step of a conqueror who has never known defeat. He could rejoice with all who rejoice, but to weep with those who weep was unknown to him.
“But we can never be united,” said Sorrow wistfully.
“No, never.” And Joy’s eyes shadowed as he spoke. “My path lies through the sunlit meadows, the sweetest roses bloom for my gathering, and the blackbirds and thrushes await my coming to pour forth their most joyous lays.”
“My path,” said Sorrow, turning slowly away, “leads through the darkening woods, with moon-flowers only shall my hands be filled. Yet the sweetest of all earth-songs—the love song of the night—shall be mine; farewell, Joy, farewell.”
Even as she spoke they became conscious of a form standing beside them; dimly seen, but of a Kingly Presence, and a great and holy awe stole over them as they sank on their knees before Him.
“I see Him as the King of Joy,” whispered Sorrow, “for on His Head are many crowns, and the nailprints in His hands and feet are the scars of a great victory. Before Him all my sorrow is melting away into deathless love and gladness, and I give myself to Him forever.”
“Nay, Sorrow,” said Joy softly, “but I see Him as the King of Sorrow, and the crown on His head is a crown of thorns, and the nailprints in His hands and feet are the scars of a great agony. I, too, give myself to Him forever, for sorrow with Him must be sweeter than any joy that I have known.”
“Then we are one in Him,” they cried in gladness, “for none but He could unite Joy and Sorrow.”
Hand in hand they passed out into the world to follow Him through storm and sunshine, in the bleakness of winter cold and the warmth of summer gladness, “as sorrowful yet always rejoicing.”

“Should Sorrow lay her hand upon thy shoulder,
And walk with thee in silence on life’s way,
While Joy, thy bright companion once, grown colder,
Becomes to thee more distant day by day?
Shrink not from the companionship of Sorrow,
She is the messenger of God to thee;
And thou wilt thank Him in His great tomorrow—
For what thou knowest not now, thou then shalt see;
She is God’s angel, clad in weeds of night,
With ‘whom we walk by faith and not by sight.’ ”

19 AUGUST

True justifying faith

‘And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.’ Genesis 15:5–6
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 3:21–31

Answerable to Abraham’s faith is the way of justification now, by faith in the same object, and upon the same ground. The object is Christ. No other name is given, no other name is desired or regarded by those who are truly convinced of sin. He is appointed of God and proposed to them and set before them as wisdom, righteousness, and so forth. The Holy Spirit who has convinced them of sin, convinces them of righteousness, the necessity of it—that it is not in themselves and that it is in Jesus.
The ground (or warrant) is the promise, and that under no less outward discouragements than Abraham had to encounter. The guilt of sin, the power of corruption, the stress of temptation, the delay of comfort—by these things the soul is sometimes startled and put almost to a stand. But faith prevails and reasons, as Abraham, ‘God has promised and is able also to perform—therefore I will hope against hope’ [Romans 4:18].
We conclude then that a venturing upon Jesus from the invitation of gospel promises is true, justifying faith. To such, his righteousness is accounted as their own, and, notwithstanding all their fears and infirmities, they are accepted in the beloved; their state is safe. O blessed are ye of the Lord that are seeking salvation in this way. But this faith in the lowest degree, if but as a grain of mustard seed, will have fruits: love, desire, obedience. Though in many things they come short, they will be pressing forward.

FOR MEDITATION: Two sorts of persons then are in a dangerous state:
(i) they who seek salvation by the works of the law. If they can be saved in their present way, Christ has died in vain.
(ii) they who talk of faith and are utterly destitute of its fruits, who have a form without the power. This is the proper description of a corpse. So James says the faith of such is dead [James 2:26].

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 31 [2/2], GENESIS 15:5–6