Milo

7 DECEMBER (PREACHED 6 DECEMBER 1767)

A hiding place

‘And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest …’ Isaiah 32:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Daniel 5:1–30

Here is a wind spoken of and a hiding place provided. In fair weather a hiding place is not thought of, but when a storm arises, everyone is glad of a shelter. Sinners are like those servants of Pharaoh, who, when Moses threatened a tempest, made light of it, and even ventured their people and cattle in the fields. The wrath of God is denounced against sin, and yet sinners are secure. But when the Spirit convinces the heart, then all is found true. O when a charge does conviction make, and how welcome would a hiding place be then. This may be compared to a storm of wind for:
(i) suddenness: the storm often rises when little expected. So conviction comes upon a soul unawares. Such was Belshazzar’s case [Daniel 5]—and such the jailer’s, though a vessel of mercy [Acts 16].
(ii) violence: who can stand before the whirlwind? It is uncomfortable to face a storm, yet when a building is known to be weak, fear forces people into the air lest their shelter should fail and bury them in the ruins. Such is the sinner’s case—he had a refuge before the storm came, some good works or good resolutions, but now he dares not trust—the storm forces him out—and though he cannot stand, he cannot flee or hide.
(iii) The wind is searching: it will find its way, as we say, through a crevice. So is the wind of the Spirit—it pierces the inner man, it reaches to the remembrance of past and long-forgotten sins. It lays open the soul.
(iv) The wind cannot be stopped or moderated by all the art or power of man. It will blow where it listeth.
FOR MEDITATION: [for the Fast Day 10 February 1779]
Happy they, who love his name!
Hark! his voice in accents mild,
They shall always find him near;
(Oh, how comforting and sweet!)
Though the earth were wrapped in flame,
Speaks to every humble child,
They have no just cause for fear.
Pointing out a sure retreat.

SERMON SERIES: ISAIAH 32:2, NO. 1 [2/3]

December 6th

The bow in the cloud

I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between Me and the earth. Genesis 9:13.

It is the will of God that human beings should get into moral relationship with Him, and His covenants are for this purpose. ‘Why does not God save me?’ He has saved me, but I have not entered into relationship with Him. “Why does not God do this and that?’ He has done it, the point is—Will I step into covenant relationship? All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.
Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that. God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship. Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man. It is a question of faith in God—the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings. I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say—‘Now I believe.’ There is no faith there. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.”
When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.

December 6

“Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.” (Rev. 3:11.)

GEORGE MUELLER bears this testimony, “When it pleased God in July, 1829, to reveal to my heart the truth of the personal return of the Lord Jesus, and to show me that I had made a great mistake in looking for the conversion of the world, the effect that it produced upon me was this: From my inmost soul I was stirred up to feel compassion for perishing sinners, and for the slumbering world around me lying in the wicked one, and considered, ‘Ought I not to do what I can for the Lord Jesus while He tarries, and to rouse a slumbering church?’ ”

There may be many hard years of hard work before the consummation, but the signs are to me so encouraging that I would not be unbelieving if I saw the wing of the apocalyptic angel spread for its last triumphal flight in this day’s sunset; or if tomorrow morning the ocean cables should thrill us with the news that Christ the Lord had alighted on Mount Olivet or Mount Calvary to proclaim universal dominion. O you dead churches wake up! O Christ, descend! Scarred temple, take the crown! Bruised hand, take the sceptre! Wounded foot, step the throne! Thine is the kingdom.
—Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage, D. D.

“It may be in the evening,
  When the work of the day is done,
And you have time to sit in the twilight,
  And watch the sinking sun,
While the long bright day dies slowly
  Over the sea,
And the hours grow quiet and holy
  With thoughts of Me;
While you hear the village children
  Passing along the street—
Among those passing footsteps
  May come the sound of My Feet.
Therefore I tell you, Watch!
  By the light of the evening star
When the room is growing dusky
  As the clouds afar,
Let the door be on the latch
  In your home,
For it may be through the gloaming
  I will come.”

6 DECEMBER (PREACHED 6 DECEMBER 1767)

The God-Man … all in all

‘And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’ Isaiah 32:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 1:9–18

Nothing raises the wonder and disgust of the world more than the high regard believers pay to the Lord Jesus. If they would only speak seriously of God, his goodness and providence, they might be borne with—but so much of Christ is offensive. Those who know him, however, will never think they can say enough of him, and they have good reasons the others cannot understand them: what he is in himself and what he is and will be to them. With regard to the latter we have a comprehensive description in this verse, which speaks at once the dangers and difficulties in the believer’s path, and the security he enjoys in the Redeemer. The person to whom these great and gracious properties are applied is called a man—and this is our comfort that our Redeemer is our ‘Goel’, our near kinsman—he took upon him our flesh and blood and was made man. But was he not more than man, who could venture upon him for these great purposes? We may read it the Man—here we may be sure it means the God-Man—the Man that is God’s fellow—the Word who was made flesh—and who in the nature wherein he suffered, now reigns over heaven and earth. You that are desirous to escape this evil world, see what lies before you—here is winds and floods, a barren wilderness and a burning sun. Be prepared, but be not discouraged, for here is a hiding place where you shall be safe. Here is a river of life to cheer you when all within and without is dry. And here is a shadow through which the heat cannot pierce to hurt. In a word—if you seek Jesus you will find him all in all.
FOR MEDITATION: [preached from on Sunday evening, 26 February 1775]
He who on earth as man was known,
His righteousness, to faith revealed,
And bore our sins and pains;
Wrought out for guilty worms,
Now, seated on the eternal throne,
Affords a hiding place and shield,
The GOD of glory reigns.
From enemies and storms.

SERMON SERIES: ISAIAH 32:2, NO. 1 [1/3]

December 5th

The temple of the Holy Ghost

Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Genesis 41:40.

I have to account to God for the way in which I rule my body under His domination. Paul said he did not “frustrate the grace of God”—make it of no effect. The grace of God is absolute, the salvation of Jesus is perfect, it is done for ever. I am not being saved, I am saved; salvation is as eternal as God’s throne; the thing for me to do is to work out what God works in. “Work out your own salvation”; I am responsible for doing it. It means that I have to manifest in this body the life of the Lord Jesus, not mystically, but really and emphatically. “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” Every saint can have his body under absolute control for God. God has made us to have government over all the temple of the Holy Spirit, over imaginations and affections. We are responsible for these, and we must never give way to inordinate affections. Most of us are much sterner with others than we are in regard to ourselves; we make excuses for things in ourselves whilst we condemn in others things to which we are not naturally inclined.
“I beseech you,” says Paul, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The point to decide is this—‘Do I agree with my Lord and Master that my body shall be His temple?’ If so, then for me the whole of the law for the body is summed up in this revelation, that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.