Milo

17 FEBRUARY

Beware your adversary

‘Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made.’ Genesis 3:1
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: James 4:1–10

To the Word of God we are indebted for the knowledge we have of the first state of things. We have here the mournful account concerning the entrance of evil, which is given not to indulge our curiosity, but because it most highly concerns us to know it and to be suitably affected with it.
The serpent. Yet he was not a mere serpent, but that evil spirit who is called in Scripture (I suppose upon this account) the old serpent the devil (John 8:44; Revelation 12:9). The Scripture is very brief in the account it gives us of the invisible world. But this much is clear: that there is in the scale of God’s creatures an order of beings, superior to man in powers and knowledge, called angels, formed for the service and vision of God; that many of these angels kept not their first estate, but rebelled against God, were cut off from his light and holiness, and became fallen, apostate and hopeless spirits, or in other words, devils; that the word ‘devil’, singularly in Scripture, seems used sometimes collectively for the whole body and interest of these powers of darkness, and sometimes to denote one chief spirit or head amongst them who is called the prince of the bottomless pit and (from the advantages he gained over our first parents) the god of this world; that Satan and all his associates in misery are filled with malice, enmity and rage against God and his creatures. Their study is to defile and to destroy, and though they are chained by the power of God and cannot do all they would, yet they have a permissive liberty, which God by his holy wisdom makes subservient to his own glory. In brief we may collect from Scripture that Satan, or the head of these apostate angels, was suffered to tempt Adam to break God’s commands—force him he could not.

FOR MEDITATION: Be sober—be vigilant. You have an adversary. Did he attempt thus against Adam in Paradise and shall you escape? If you do not find him assaulting and endeavouring to deceive you, it is because you are asleep in his hands. He thinks he has you sure—he has blinded your eyes and stopped your ears and is leading you captive at his will.

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

16 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 13 FEBRUARY 1774)

Hope in him

‘The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.’ Lamentations 3:24
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 130:1–8

Consider to whom he is a portion. Those who have the Lord for their portion are:
(i) humble. They have abasing thoughts of themselves, admiring thoughts of his grace and condescension. They say as Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel 19:28.
(ii) spiritual. A carnal principle indeed still cleaves to them, but their prevailing desire is towards their portion.
(iii) obedient. A sense of his love constrains them; they acknowledge that they are not their own.
If so, does not the Word of God assure some of you that as yet you have no part or lot in this portion? What can the self-righteous, the worldly and the self-willed claim here? Which of us may not take up a lamentation and say, my leanness [Isaiah 24:16]? If we have the beginnings of these gracious principles, yet how weak and faint. However, there is a comfortable and safe conclusion. If the Lord is your portion, your desire, you may hope in him:
(i) for that renewed pardon you want.
(ii) for a clearer manifestation of your interest.
(ii) for increase of grace.
(iv) that he will not cast you off for ever.
FOR MEDITATION: [prompted by Betty Abraham’s death]
His person fixes all my love,
For him I count as gain each loss,
His blood removes my fear;
Disgrace, for him, renown;
And while he pleads for me above,
Well may I glory in his cross,
His arm preserves me here.
While he prepares my crown!

His word of promise is my food,
Let worldlings then indulge their boast,
His Spirit is my guide;
How much they gain or spend!
Thus daily is my strength renewed
Their joys must soon give up the ghost,
And all my wants supplied.
But mine shall know no end.

SERMON: LAMENTATIONS 3:24 [4/4] [FOR BETTY ABRAHAM’S FUNERAL]

15 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 13 FEBRUARY 1774)

What a portion!

‘The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.’ Lamentations 3:24
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Lamentations 3:19–24

What a portion! The word implies two things:
(i) excellence. None account anything a portion but what is (in their esteem at least) valuable.
(ii) propriety. However excellent a thing may be, if it is not ours, or if we have no hope of attaining it, we cannot look on it as our portion.
Now the Lord is deservedly a portion to believing souls, for he is most excellent in himself, and he gives them a right to call him their own. Compare this with the portions and desirable things of this life. They are:
(i) hard to get.
(ii) unsatisfactory when obtained. The want of one thing will spoil the sweetness of many, as Haman [in Esther].
(iii) hard, nay impossible, to keep.
But the Lord is:
(i) a free portion. None that sincerely desire him shall be rejected. Grace reigns, and sinners, though vilest and most unworthy, are welcome.
(ii) an all-sufficient portion, exceeding all their capacities, wants and desires.
(iii) an everlasting portion: in life, in death and for ever.
FOR MEDITATION: We had a full house and I hope a good time in the evening. The subject, death—it being the first time of our meeting there since Betty Abraham was removed; I had made a hymn upon the occasion.
Diary, Sunday evening 20 February 1774

From pole to pole let others roam,
JESUS, who on his glorious throne
And search in vain for bliss;
Rules heaven and earth and sea;
My soul is satisfied at home,
Is pleased to claim me for his own,
The LORD my portion is.
And give himself to me.

[hymn prompted by Betty Abraham’s death; first used 20 February 1774]

SERMON: LAMENTATIONS 3:24 [3/4] [FOR BETTY ABRAHAM’S FUNERAL]

14 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 13 FEBRUARY 1774)

It’s all of grace

‘The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.’ Lamentations 3:24
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 119:57–72

Happy indeed are the people who have the Lord for their God. Let us consider how the Lord becomes a portion. If the holy angels should use these words they would not seem strange, but when sinful worms are not ashamed or afraid to say so, it seems wonderful indeed. How different our portion by nature: sin our choice, misery our state, wrath our inheritance. Such were once all those who have now the Lord for their portion. They did not obtain their portion as that which Jacob speaks of: by his sword and his bow. It was all of grace. It pleased the Lord to make them his people, to choose them for his portion, and then he gave himself to be a portion for them.
(i) He spared and waited for them (Ezekiel 16:6).
(ii) He opens their understandings, to look upon themselves and desire him.
(iii) He gives them faith—then they claim him as their own.
FOR MEDITATION:
Once perishing in blood I lay,
At length the time of love arrived
Creatures no help could give,
When I my Lord should know,
But Jesus passed me in the way,
Then Satan, of his power deprived,
He saw, and bid me live.
Was forced to let me go.

Though Satan still his rule maintained,
O can I e’er that day forget
And all his arts employed;
When Jesus kindly spoke!
That mighty Word his rage restrained,
‘Poor soul, my blood has paid thy debt,
I could not be destroyed.
And now I break thy yoke.

         Henceforth I take thee for my own,
         And give myself to thee;
         Forsake the idols thou hast known,
         And yield thyself to me.’

SERMON: LAMENTATIONS 3:24 [2/4] [FOR BETTY ABRAHAM’S FUNERAL]

13 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 13 FEBRUARY 1774)

When every creature comfort fails

‘The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.’ Lamentations 3:24
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 27:13–44

The prophet Jeremiah and the spiritual worshippers of God in his time lived in a cloudy and dark day. Though the Lord set a mark upon them for good and gave them their lives for a prey, yet were they deeply affected with the common calamity of their people. It is no small trial to the people of God to live where wickedness prevails, suppose they suffer no more than from what they see and hear around them, but when the Lord arises to take vengeance, when he sends his desolatory judgements, when he breaks the staff of bread and water, or says to the sword, Sword, go through the land [Ezekiel 14:17], his people, as well as others, have a share in the trouble—and that justly, for they have not been so faithful as they ought in bearing a testimony against sin, neither have they been so deeply humbled before God on this account as became them. However, at the worst they have two consolations: firstly that his providence is with them to support and bring them safe through all they meet, and secondly that he himself is their friend, their God, their portion—a portion which no change of circumstance can deprive them of. And here we see the triumph of faith that can rejoice in the Lord when every creature comfort fails and can claim an interest in him when all things seem against them. The believers at this time saw their country laid waste, their cities destroyed, their temples burnt by fire, their neighbours and friends cut off by sword and pestilence, they themselves rooted out from their pleasant dwellings and sent captives into a strange land. Yet in the midst of all this desolation they could say, The LORD is my portion, therefore though cast down, we are not destroyed—I will hope in him.

FOR MEDITATION: We have had a great blow at Olney. Betty Abraham is gone. We prayed for her continuance, but the time when Jesus had prayed she might be with him to see his glory being come, we could not keep her, nor is it fitting we should. My soul desires to say, Thy will be done. Yet I feel as if I had lost a right hand.… I preached her funeral last night from Lamentations 3:24, which were some of the last words she spoke.
John Newton to John Ryland jnr, 14 February 1774

SERMON: LAMENTATIONS 3:24 [1/4] [FOR BETTY ABRAHAM’S FUNERAL]