Milo

29 APRIL

Full of shame

‘And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.’ Genesis 3:7
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 25:1–22

The immediate consequences for Adam and Eve were:
(i) Their eyes were opened. Satan had blinded them but, when the Lord pleased, they came to themselves; they knew now the difference between good and evil. The full meaning of these expressions I am not able to explain. They were naked before, but now they were sensible of such a change in their state, that they were ashamed of themselves.
(ii) They made a covering of fig leaves. An emblem of the poor expedients of sinners, to supply their own wants, to hide their own shame and to satisfy their consciences by their own performances.
Here was the first sin—which indeed contained all other sins in one—idolatry, rebellion, robbery and murder—yet they found mercy. Here is encouragement to convinced souls—the Lord Christ who was revealed to them as the Seed who should break the serpent’s head is preached amongst you. Say not your sin is great and therefore no hope—so was Adam’s, but where sin abounded, grace has much more abounded.
FOR MEDITATION:
O, speak that gracious word again,
Oh then let saints and angels join,
And cheer my drooping heart!
And help me to proclaim,
No voice but thine can soothe my pain,
The grace that healed a breach like mine,
Or bid my fears depart.
And put my foes to shame!

And canst thou still vouchsafe to own
Dear LORD I wonder and adore,
A wretch so vile as I?
Thy grace is all divine;
And may I still approach thy throne,
Oh keep me, that I sin no more
And Abba, Father, cry?
Against such love as thine!

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 8 [3/3], GENESIS 3:6–7

April 28th

What you will get

Thy life will I give thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Jeremiah 45:5.

This is the unshakable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him—‘I will give thee thy life.’ What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. ‘Thy life for a prey’ means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life, nothing can harm it. So many of us are caught up in the shows of things, not in the way of property and possessions, but of blessings. All these have to go; but there is something grander that never can go—the life that is “hid with Christ in God.”
Are you prepared to let God take you into union with Himself, and pay no more attention to what you call the ‘great things’? Are you prepared to abandon entirely and let go? The test of abandonment is in refusing to say—‘Well, what about this?’ Beware of suppositions. Immediately you allow—‘What about this?’ it means you have not abandoned, you do not really trust God. Immediately you do abandon, you think no more about what God is going to do. Abandon means to refuse yourself the luxury of asking any questions. If you abandon entirely to God, He says at once, “Thy life will I give thee for a prey.” The reason people are tired of life is because God has not given them anything, they have not got their life as a prey. The way to get out of that state is to abandon to God. When you do get through to abandonment to God, you will be the most surprised and delighted creature on earth; God has got you absolutely and has given you your life. If you are not there, it is either because of disobedience or a refusal to be simple enough.

April 28

“And when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, the Lord raised up a deliverer … who delivered them, even Othniel … Caleb’s younger brother. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” (Judges 3:9, 10)

GOD is preparing His heroes; and when opportunity comes, He can fit them into their place in a moment, and the world will wonder where they came from.
Let the Holy Ghost prepare you, dear friend, by the discipline of life; and when the last finishing touch has been given to the marble, it will be easy for God to put it on the pedestal, and fit it into its niche.
There is a day coming when, like Othniel, we, too, shall judge the nations, and rule and reign with Christ on the millennial earth. But ere that glorious day can be we must let God prepare us, as He did Othniel at Kirjath-sepher, amid the trials of our present life, and the little victories, the significance of which, perhaps, we little dream. At least, let us be sure of this, and if the Holy Ghost has an Othniel ready, the Lord of Heaven and earth has a throne prepared for him.
—A. B. Simpson.

“Human strength and human greatness
  Spring not from life’s sunny side,
Heroes must be more than driftwood
  Floating on a waveless tide.”

“Every highway of human life dips in the dale now and then. Every man must go through the tunnel of tribulation before he can travel on the elevated road of triumph.”

28 APRIL

Guilty!

‘And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.’ Genesis 3:6
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Timothy 2:15–3:9

The facts. Eve completed the transgression by actually eating the fruit, in a daring spirit, despising the threatening of the God who made her. She gave to her husband and he did eat. It should seem Adam was absent at first, but now sin had hardened her heart, she sought him out to make him partner in her iniquity. I suppose she used some arguments, because the Lord charges Adam not only with taking the fruit from her hand, but with hearkening to her voice. As she had eaten and was yet alive, she might, from that circumstance, tempt him to doubt and disbelieve the threatening as she had done before him. Observe:
(i) When Satan has prevailed upon any to sin, he will not suffer them to sin alone, but employs them as instruments to tempt others. Many of you know this but too well. It is a small thing for you to break God’s commands yourself, unless you can seduce others. When Adam came to consider what he had done, his answer to the Lord intimates that he wished he had never seen the face of Eve. O what a miserable greeting will those have in the other world who have helped to ruin each other in this. How will they revile and charge and curse each other!
(ii) The patience of God which ought to lead sinners to repentance, is a means of hardening them (Ecclesiastes 8:11). If Adam had found Eve struck dead upon the spot for eating the fruit, it would have terrified him from a compliance. But now her impunity made him bold.

FOR MEDITATION: I met with a young man who had formerly been a midshipman on board the Harwich.… I gave him a plain account of the manner and reason of my change, and used every argument to persuade him to relinquish his infidel schemes. He would remind me that I was the first person who had given him an idea of his liberty. He was exceedingly profane, and grew worse and worse. I saw in him a most lively picture of what I had once been. He died convinced but not changed. Narrative, 1764, Letter 13.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 8 [2/3], GENESIS 3:6–7

April 27th

What do you want?

Seekest thou great things for thyself? Jeremiah 45:5.

Are you seeking great things for yourself? Not seeking to be a great one, but seeking great things from God for yourself. God wants you in a closer relationship to Himself than receiving His gifts, He wants you to get to know Him. A great thing is accidental, it comes and goes. God never gives us anything accidental. Nothing is easier than getting into a right relationship with God except when it is not God Whom you want but only what He gives.
If you have only come the length of asking God for things, you have never come to the first strand of abandonment, you have become a Christian from a standpoint of your own. ‘I did ask God for the Holy Spirit, but He did not give me the rest and the peace I expected.’ Instantly God puts His finger on the reason—you are not seeking the Lord at all, you are seeking something for yourself. Jesus says—“Ask, and it shall be given you.” Ask God for what you want, and you cannot ask if you are not asking for a right thing. When you draw near to God, you cease from asking for things. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him.” Then why ask? That you may get to know Him.
Are you seeking great things for yourself—‘O Lord, baptize me with the Holy Ghost’? If God does not, it is because you are not abandoned enough to Him, there is something you will not do. Are you prepared to ask yourself what it is you want from God, and why you want it? God always ignores the present perfection for the ultimate perfection. He is not concerned about making you blessed and happy just now; He is working out His ultimate perfection all the time—“that they may be one even as We are.”