Milo

February 17

“The land which I do give them, even the children of Israel.” (Joshua 1:2.)

GOD here speaks in the immediate present. It is not something He is going to do, but something He does do, this moment. So faith ever speaks. So God ever gives. So He is meeting you today, in the present moment. This is the test of faith. So long as you are waiting for a thing, hoping for it, looking for it, you are not believing. It may be hope, it may be earnest desire, but it is not faith; for “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The command in regard to believing prayer is the present tense. “When ye pray, believe that ye receive the things that ye desire, and ye shall have them.” Have we come to that moment? Have we met God in His everlasting NOW?—Joshua, by Simpson.
True faith counts on God, and believes before it sees. Naturally, we want some evidence that our petition is granted before we believe; but when we walk by faith we need no other evidence than God’s Word. He has spoken, and according to our faith it shall be done unto us. We shall see because we have believed, and this faith sustains us in the most trying places, when everything around us seems to contradict God’s Word.
The Psalmist says, “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living” (Psa. 27:13). He did not see as yet the Lord’s answer to his prayers, but he believed to see; and this kept him from fainting.
If we have the faith that believes to see, it will keep us from growing discouraged. We shall “laugh at impossibilities,” we shall watch with delight to see how God is going to open up a path through the Red Sea when there is no human way out of our difficulty. It is just in such places of severe testing that our faith grows and strengthens.
Have you been waiting upon God, dear troubled one, during long nights and weary days, and have feared that you were forgotten? Nay, lift up your head, and begin to praise Him even now for the deliverance which is on its way to you.
—Life of Praise.

February 16

“Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.” (Nah. 1:12.)

THERE is a limit to affliction. God sends it, and re-moves it. Do you sigh and say, “When will the end be?” Let us quietly wait and patiently endure the will of the Lord till He cometh. Our Father takes away the rod when His design in using it is fully served.
If the affliction is sent for testing us, that our graces may glorify God, it will end when the Lord has made us bear witness to His praise.
We would not wish the affliction to depart until God has gotten out of us all the honor which we can possibly yield Him.
There may be today “a great calm.” Who knows how soon those raging billows will give place to a sea of glass, and the sea birds sit on the gentle waves?
After long tribulation, the flail is hung up, and the wheat rests in the garner. We may, before many hours are past, be just as happy as now we are sorrowful.
It is not hard for the Lord to turn night into day. He that sends the clouds can as easily clear the skies. Let us be of good cheer. It is better farther on. Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation.—C. H. Spurgeon.
The great Husbandman is not always threshing. Trial is only for a season. The showers soon pass. Weeping may tarry only for the few hours of the short summer night; it must be gone at daybreak. Our light affliction is but for a moment. Trial is for a purpose, “If needs be.”
The very fact of trial proves that there is something in us very precious to our Lord; else He would not spend so much pains and time on us. Christ would not test us if He did not see the precious ore of faith mingled in the rocky matrix of our nature; and it is to bring this out into purity and beauty that He forces us through the fiery ordeal.
Be patient, O sufferer! The result will more than compensate for all our trials, when we see how they wrought out the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. To have one word of God’s commendation; to be honored before the holy angels; to be glorified in Christ, so as to be better able to flash His glory on Himself—ah! that will more than repay for all.
—Tried by Fire.
As the weights of the clock, or the ballast in the vessel, are necessary for their right ordering, so is trouble in the soul-life. The sweetest scents are only obtained by tremendous pressure; the fairest flowers grow amid Alpine snow-solitudes; the fairest gems have suffered longest from the lapidary’s wheel; the noblest statues have borne most blows of the chisel. All, however, are under law. Nothing happens that has not been appointed with consummate care and foresight.—Daily Devotional Commentary.

20 FEBRUARY

Be sober—be vigilant

‘Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.’ Genesis 3:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Corinthians 1:18–31

A lesson of caution: let none be carried away by great names, so as to take things upon trust because the person who teaches them is called a scholar, a divine, a doctor or a pope. For ought I know, if Satan had appeared to Eve as an ass she might have disdained to confer with him. But the serpent was so subtle and engaging that he caught her attention. Now perhaps some of you would not be so willing to venture your souls upon your own righteousness to think so meanly as you do of the person and gospel of Christ, if you did not know that the same sentiments are maintained by persons whom you suppose wiser than yourselves. But if you are blindly led by those who are wrong themselves (and the wisdom of man is foolishness with God) what must the issue be?
We have as yet but entered upon this important subject and our time draws to a close. I must therefore only add a word of exhortation: Be sober—be vigilant. You have an adversary.

FOR MEDITATION: An advance in years and the changing dispensations of thy providence have put an end to many of my conflicts; but my heart is still the same.… O make me wise and watchful, diffident of myself and wholly dependent upon thee! As my ground changes, my enemy can change his mode of attack. My wisdom is not a match for his subtlety, nor my utmost efforts equal to his strength. I am still liable to many snares, and there are many ways in which I might still grieve thy Spirit, wound my own conscience, and even openly dishonour my profession. But if thou art pleased to hold me up, I shall be safe, and nothing short of that power which sustains the stars in their orbits can suffice to keep me from falling.
Diary, 15 December 1796 (aged 71)

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 5 [4/4], GENESIS 3:1

19 FEBRUARY

Satan’s subtlety

‘Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.’ Genesis 3:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 16:13–28

What I can observe to you may be gathered from Satan’s appearance, his address and his arguments. He appeared as a serpent, either in the likeness of a serpent or rather, as I suppose, he actually possessed a real serpent. If I was to tell you the conjectures of the learned upon this subject, it might be more for your amusement than edification. I would say as little as possible that is not founded upon the sure word. It is plain the serpent was degraded by the sentence and therefore was a more excellent creature before the Fall than since. It did not go upon its belly or feed upon dust; what other properties it might possess we know not. Satan’s principal reason for choosing this creature is assigned—he was the most subtle, and therefore Eve was the less liable to be surprised at the subtlety of Satan under such a form. From hence we may note in general that Satan knows how to avail himself of the fittest instruments. In all succeeding times, Satan’s work is carried on by subtle instruments. When he would oppose the commands of God, when he would deprave the doctrines of the gospel, when he would darken the glories of Christ and deny the operations and influences of the Holy Spirit, he does not ordinarily employ fools in these services, but men of parts and abilities, of genius and learning. We shall hardly find one dangerous or damnable error that had considerable prevalence in the church but what has been started and maintained by persons of this sort. Had they been ignorants and blockheads, as we say, their dreams might have been quickly despised and forgot.

FOR MEDITATION: Hence none should be proud of natural abilities, or a turn for reasoning, or the furniture of learning. The more of these things a man has, if they are not sanctified by grace, they make him but so much a fitter instrument for Satan, and qualify him for the greater mischief. Many wise men and great scholars who have admired themselves and been admired by the world for their ingenuity will one day wish they had been born idiots.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 5 [3/4], GENESIS 3:1

18 FEBRUARY

Arts and crafts

‘Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.’ Genesis 3:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Corinthians 10:1–13

The design of Satan was doubtless to dishonour and affront God and to destroy man, whose happiness he envied. But see how he was taken in his own craftiness: hereby occasion was opened for the revelation of God’s glory in justice and in grace, and man was raised from the misery into which Satan plunged him, to a nobler and more established happiness than that in which he was at first created. We may admire and say as Romans 11:33 [O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!]
Observe his wiles. I doubt not but in this first temptation might be noticed the chief traces of all the arts he practises to this day upon Adam’s posterity and that the steps by which he prevailed show much of the workings of the hearts of all men under his influence. But I do not believe that the line of my experience is sufficient to sound the depths of this mystery of iniquity. It is a mercy if we can say, We are not altogether ignorant of his devices [2 Corinthians 2:11].
You that are seeking the Lord, wonder not that Satan is against you. Be humble and continue in prayer. But remember who has conquered him. Make the name of Jesus your high tower and take to you the armour of God.
FOR MEDITATION:
The castle of the human heart
But JESUS, stronger far than he,
Strong in its native sin;
In his appointed hour
Is guarded well, in every part,
Appears, to set his people free
By him who dwells within.
From the usurper’s power.

For Satan there, in arms, resides,
‘This heart I bought with blood,’ he says,
And calls the place his own;
‘And now it shall be mine’;
With care against assaults provides,
His voice the strong one armed dismays,
And rules, as on a throne.
He knows he must resign.

SERMON SERIES: GENESIS, NO. 5 [2/4], GENESIS 3:1