Milo

9 DECEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Urge the testimonies of Scripture

‘And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.’ Matthew 17:9
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Corinthians 2:1–16

The account of the Transfiguration closes with the former verse [And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only]. But this verse seems to belong to the subject, and I shall employ our present opportunity in some observations upon it. It contains an injunction of secrecy for a limited time, after which they were freely to declare what they had seen. May we humbly enquire why our Lord was pleased to forbid them to speak of it till he should have risen from the dead? It may afford us some instruction for our own conduct. I conceive there might be several reasons. One reason: on account of the people. They daily saw Jesus conversing among them as a common, yea, as a poor man. The scribes and Pharisees traduced him and treated him as an impostor. Now the doctrine and miracles of our Lord in public were suited to convince the unprejudiced that he was indeed a teacher sent from God—but his transfiguration was a point which, if it had been mentioned, must have depended on the testimony of the three disciples. Who would hardly have been believed [them], when they could only say and not prove! Afterwards, when he had declared his power and glory by rising from the dead, and sent down his Spirit to confirm the words of his servants, the case was different. The disciples might enlarge upon our Lord’s public works and urge the testimonies of Scripture concerning him. But they were directed not to take notice of this; having no such proof as the world would call for to offer, their bare assertion of such an extraordinary event might bring their sincerity into suspicion. It seems still a good rule, when conversing with unawakened people with a view to their good, to keep to such things as we can plainly prove from the Scripture. And there may be some kinds of experiences which, for this reason, it would be improper to lay before worldly people, because, not being able to understand them, they would be more prejudiced against anything else we could say.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘… But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word’ (Isaiah 66:2).

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 13 [1/4]

December 8th

The impartial power of God

For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Hebrews 10:14.

We trample the blood of the Son of God under foot if we think we are forgiven because we are sorry for our sins. The only explanation of the forgiveness of God and of the unfathomable depth of His forgetting, is the Death of Jesus Christ. Our repentance is merely the outcome of our personal realization of the Atonement which He has worked out for us. “Christ Jesus … is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” When we realize that Christ is made all this to us, the boundless joy of God begins; wherever the joy of God is not present, the death sentence is at work.
It does not matter who or what we are, there is absolute reinstatement into God by the death of Jesus Christ and by no other way, not because Jesus Christ pleads, but because He died. It is not earned, but accepted. All the pleading which deliberately refuses to recognize the Cross is of no avail; it is battering at another door than the one which Jesus has opened. ‘I don’t want to come that way, it is too humiliating to be received as a sinner.’ “There is none other Name …” The apparent heartlessness of God is the expression of His real heart, there is boundless entrance in His way. “We have forgiveness through His blood.” Identification with the death of Jesus Christ means identification with Him to the death of everything that never was in Him.
God is justified in saving bad men only as He makes them good. Our Lord does not pretend we are all right when we are all wrong. The Atonement is a propitiation whereby God through the death of Jesus makes an unholy man holy.

December 8

“Put on as the elect of God, kindness.” (Col. 3:12.)

THERE is a story of an old man who carried a little can of oil with him everywhere he went, and if he passed through a door that squeaked, he poured a little oil on the hinges. If a gate was hard to open, he oiled the latch. And thus he passed through life lubricating all hard places and making it easier for those who came after him.
People called him eccentric, queer, and cranky; but the old man went steadily on refilling his can of oil when it became empty, and oiled the hard places he found.
There are, many lives that creak and grate harshly as they live day by day. Nothing goes right with them. They need lubricating with the oil of gladness, gentleness, or thoughtfulness. Have you your own can of oil with you? Be ready with your oil of helpfulness in the early morning to the one nearest you. It may lubricate the whole day for him. The oil of good cheer to the downhearted one—Oh, how much it may mean! The word of courage to the despairing. Speak it.
Our lives touch others but once, perhaps, on the road of life; and then, mayhap, our ways diverge, never to meet again. The oil of kindness has worn the sharp, hard edges off of many a sin-hardened life and left it soft and pliable and ready for the redeeming grace of the Saviour.
A word spoken pleasantly is s. large spot of sunshine on a sad heart. Therefore, “Give others the sunshine, tell Jesus the rest.”

  “We cannot know the grief
  That men may borrow;
  We cannot see the souls
  Storm-swept by sorrow;
  But love can shine upon the way
  Today, tomorrow;
  Let us be kind.
  Upon the wheel of pain so many weary lives are broken
  We live in vain who give no tender token.
  Let us be kind.”

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love.” (Rom. 12:10.)

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.