Milo

12 DECEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Under the dispensation of the Spirit

‘And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ Mark 9:9–10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 16:5–18

The disciples were only restrained till Jesus should rise from the dead. In the meanwhile they understood not what he meant. You see they had an extraordinary privilege upon the mount, above anything that we can expect, and yet, in point of knowledge, they were below the lowest of us. Peter could not bear to hear of Christ’s death, and none of them could conceive what was meant by his rising again. But the rising of Christ from the dead was properly the beginning of the gospel kingdom. Then he opened their understandings, gave them his Spirit and commanded them to proclaim, as on the housetops, the things which they had heard in secret. Under this state which was established at his resurrection, we live. Under the dispensation of the Spirit now, all things are made known to us—his transfiguration, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension. What was once hidden from the apostles for a season is made known to us. Say not then, ‘Though the love of the world now keeps me from professing the gospel, if I had lived then I should surely have followed Jesus.’ If any perish here it will not be for want of evidence. If what you hear and say does not affect you, neither would you be persuaded though one should rise from the dead. Let not the troubled soul say, ‘If I could have seen him and been permitted to touch him and cast myself at his feet, surely he would have bid me go in peace; I should have believed.’ Nay, indeed you have in some respects greater advantage than those who saw him in the flesh. His Word is himself—when you hear the promises, you hear him speak. He is now in the midst of you. Lift up your heart to him. If his time is come, he will surely give you peace. If not, continue waiting, and you shall surely find. He never bid any seek him in vain.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me’ (John 15:26).

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 13 [4/4]

December 11th

Individuality

If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself. Matthew 16:24.

Individuality is the husk of the personal life. Individuality is all elbows, it separates and isolates. It is the characteristic of the child and rightly so; but if we mistake individuality for the personal life, we shall remain isolated. The shell of individuality is God’s created natural covering for the protection of the personal life; but individuality must go in order that the personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God. Individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality debases human nature for itself.
The characteristics of individuality are independence and self-assertiveness. It is the continual assertion of individuality that hinders our spiritual life more than anything else. If you say—‘I cannot believe,’ it is because individuality never can believe. Personality cannot help believing. Watch yourself when the Spirit of God is at work. He pushes you to the margins of your individuality, and you have either to say—‘I shan’t,’ or to surrender, to break the husk of individuality and let the personal life emerge. The Holy Spirit narrows it down every time to one thing (cf. Matthew 5:23–24 ). The thing in you that will not be reconciled to your brother is your individuality. God wants to bring you into union with Himself, but unless you are willing to give up your right to yourself, He cannot. “Let him deny himself”—deny his independent right to himself, then the real life has a chance to grow.

December 11

“Ye servants of the Lord, which by night stand in the house of the Lord. The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.” (Psalm 134:1, 3.)

STRANGE time for adoration, you say, to stand in God’s house by night, to worship in the depth of sorrow—it is indeed an arduous thing. Yes, and therein lies the blessing; it is the test of perfect faith. If I would know the love of my friend I must see what it can do in the winter. So with the Divine love. It is easy for me to worship in the summer sunshine when the melodies of life are in the air and the fruits of life are on the tree. But let the song of the bird cease and the fruit of the tree fall, and will my heart still go on to sing? Will I stand in God’s house by night? Will I love Him in His own night? Will I watch with Him even one hour in His Gethsemane? Will I help to bear His cross up the dolorous way? Will I stand beside Him in His dying moments with Mary and the beloved disciple? Will I be able with Nicodemus to take up the dead Christ? Then is my worship complete and my blessing glorious. My love has come to Him in His humiliation. My faith has found Him in His lowliness. My heart has recognized His majesty through His mean disguise, and I know at last that I desire not the gift but the Giver. When I can stand in His house by night I have accepted Him for Himself alone.—George Matheson.

“My goal is God Himself, not joy, nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God;
’Tis His to lead me there, not mine, but His—
‘At any cost, dear Lord, by any road!’

“So faith bounds forward to its goal in God,
And love can trust her Lord to lead her there;
Upheld by Him, my soul is following hard
Till God hath full fulfilled my deepest prayer.

“No matter if the way be sometimes dark,
No matter though the cost be ofttimes great,
He knoweth how I best shall reach the mark,
The way that leads to Him must needs be straight.

“One thing I know, I cannot say Him nay;
One thing I do, I press towards my Lord;
My God my glory here, from day to day,
And in the glory there my Great Reward.”

11 DECEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Spiritual pride: fuel to the fire

‘And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ Mark 9:9–10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 8:9–24

There is reason for enjoining secrecy: on their own account. Such a favour as they had lately received was very likely to open a door to spiritual pride, and if they had been suffered to speak of it, it would have been like adding fuel to fire. We know their graces were but weak. Now our Lord, by enjoining them silence, preserved them from a snare. It is right and our duty to declare upon proper occasions and within the bounds of prudence what God has done for our souls, but if he is pleased to lead us in an extraordinary way and to favour us with peculiar comforts, it is not always easy to preserve a right spirit where self is closely concerned.

Diary, 4 August 1789
[birthday and anniversary of dedication to the ministry, 1758]:
Thirty-one years have today elapsed since thou didst draw my heart solemnly to devote myself to thy public service. There was then but little visible probability that such an unworthy creature would ever be employed in thy vineyard. But in thy best times, mountains became plain—the door which to appearance was fast barred and bolted, flew open. Thou hast honoured me. Thou hast given me a tongue and a pen, many friends, hast made me extensively known among thy people, and, I have reason to hope, useful to many by my preaching and writings. Totum muneris hoc tui est. It is of thine own that I can serve thee. And if others speak well of me, I have no cause to speak well of myself. They see only my outward walk—to thee I appear as I am. In thy sight I am a poor, unworthy, unfaithful, inconsistent creature. There is pride in my humiliation, in my repentance; self in my most spiritual desires—all is wrong, but thou art gracious.339

FOR MEDITATION: ‘But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart’ (Luke 2:19).

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 13 [3/4]

December 10th

The offering of the natural

Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. Gal. 4:22.

Paul is not dealing with sin in this chapter of Galatians, but with the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The natural must be turned into the spiritual by sacrifice, otherwise a tremendous divorce will be produced in the actual life. Why should God ordain the natural to be sacrificed? God did not. It is not God’s order, but His permissive will. God’s order was that the natural should be transformed into the spiritual by obedience; it is sin that made it necessary for the natural to be sacrificed.
Abraham had to offer up Ishmael before he offered up Isaac. Some of us are trying to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God before we have sacrificed the natural. The only way in which we can offer a spiritual sacrifice to God is by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. Sanctification means more than deliverance from sin, it means the deliberate commitment of myself whom God has saved, to God, and I do not care what it costs.
If we do not sacrifice the natural to the spiritual, the natural life will mock at the life of the Son of God in us and produce a continual swither. This is always the result of an undisciplined spiritual nature. We go wrong because we stubbornly refuse to discipline ourselves, physically, morally or mentally. ‘I wasn’t disciplined when I was a child.’ You must discipline yourself now. If you do not, you will ruin the whole of your personal life for God.
God is not with our natural life while we pamper it; but when we put it out in the desert and resolutely keep it under, then God will be with it; and He will open up wells and oases, and fulfil all His promises for the natural.