Milo

8 DECEMBER (PREACHED 6 DECEMBER 1767)

Placed out of danger

‘And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest …’ Isaiah 32:2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 53:1–12

Am I speaking to some that are now in the storm? Behold—a hiding place. Look to the Man in my text, flee to him and you shall be safe. Faith in his name shall place you out of danger, and as faith grows, you shall be out of fear likewise. O flee for refuge to the hope set before you. Dreadful as this storm sounds in the sinner’s ears, it is indeed a merciful dispensation, sent to urge him to flee to the ark before a more dreadful storm comes. Consider the person of Christ—how great and how near—as God and man (John 1:1, 14). Think of the storm he endured for our sakes (Matthew 26:36–46, Gethsemane). His office in heaven is to present and plead his own blood and righteousness for us (Romans 3:25) and to receive and dispense pardon, peace and grace and eternal life (Revelation 5:1–14). Remember his promises—and these are absolute without exception (John 10:28).
Let others remember there is a storm of unmixed wrath in reserve for those who refuse this salvation (Jeremiah 23:19).
FOR MEDITATION:
Incarnate GOD! the soul that knows
In vain the fowler spreads his net,
Thy name’s mysterious power
To draw them from thy care;
Shall dwell in undisturbed repose,
Thy timely call instructs their feet,
Nor fear the trying hour.
To shun the artful snare.

Thy wisdom, faithfulness and love,
No midnight terrors haunt their bed,
To feeble helpless worms;
No arrow wounds by day;
A buckler and a refuge prove,
Unhurt on serpents they shall tread,
From enemies and storms.
If found in duty’s way.

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

December 7th

Repentance

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. 2 Cor. 7:10.

Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words—

‘My sins, my sins, my Saviour.
How sad on Thee they fall.’

Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man’s conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God—“against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight.” Conviction of sin, the marvel of forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God’s grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: ‘I have sinned.’ The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.
The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man’s respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for ‘the gift of tears.’ If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.

December 7

“Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, that ye may drink, both ye, and your cattle, and your beasts. And this is but a light thing in the sight of the Lord: he will deliver the Moabites also into your hands.” (2 Kings 3:16–18.)

TO human thinking it was simply impossible, but nothing is hard for God.
Without a sound or sign, from sources invisible and apparently impossible, the floods came stealing in all night long; and when the morning dawned, those ditches were flooded with the crystal waters, and reflecting the rays of the morning sun from the red hills of Edom.
Our unbelief is always wanting some outward sign. The religion of many is largely sensational, and they are not satisfied of its genuineness without manifestations, etc.; but the greatest triumph of faith is to be still and know that He is God.
The great victory of faith is to stand before some impassable Red Sea, and hear the Master say, “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord,” and “Go forward!” As we step out without any sign or sound—not a wave-splash—and wetting our very feet as we take the first step into its waters, still marching on we shall see the sea divide and the pathway open through the very midst of the waters.
If we have seen the miraculous workings of God in some marvelous case of healing or some extraordinary providential deliverance, I am sure the thing that has impressed us most has been the quietness with which it was all done, the absence of everything spectacular and sensational, and the utter sense of nothingness which came to us as we stood in the presence of this mighty God and felt how easy it was for Him to do it all without the faintest effort on His part or the slightest help on ours.
It is not the part of faith to question, but to obey. The ditches were made, and the water came pouring in from some supernatural source. What a lesson for our faith!
Are you craving a spiritual blessing? Open the trenches, and God will fill them. And this, too, in the most unexpected places and in the most unexpected ways.
Oh, for that faith that can act by faith and not by sight, and expect God to work although we see no wind or rain.
—A. B. Simpson.

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.