Milo

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.

December 5

“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” (Jer. 10:23.) “Lead me in a plain path.” (Psalm 27:11.)

MANY people want to direct God, instead of resigning themselves to be directed by Him; to show Him a way instead of passively following where He leads.
—Madame Guyon.

I said: “Let me walk in the field”;
  God said: “Nay, walk in the town”;
I said: “There are no flowers there”;
  He said: “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said: “But the sky is black,
  There is nothing but noise and din”;
But He wept as He sent me back,
  “There is more,” He said, “there is sin.”

I said: “But the air is thick,
  And fogs are veiling the sun”;
He answered: “Yet souls are sick,
  And souls in the dark undone.”

I said: “I shall miss the light,
  And friends will miss me, they say”;
He answered me, “Choose tonight,
  If I am to miss you, or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given;
  He said: “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in Heaven
  To have, followed the steps of your Guide.”

I cast one look at the fields,
  Then set my face to the town;
He said: “My child, do you yield?
  Will you leave the flowers for the crown?”

Then into His hand went mine,
  And into my heart came He;
And I walk in a light Divine,
  The path I had feared to see.

—George MacDonald.

5 DECEMBER (PREACHED CHRISTMAS EVENING 1769)

To seek and to save

‘For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.’ Luke 19:10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 80:1–19

He came to seek and to save—to restore man to God and to restore life and peace and happiness to man. This magnifies his grace. He did not come to save those who, sensible from their misery, were imploring his compassion, but he must seek them as well as save them. It magnifies his power. Had not this ruin been under [his] hand, we must have been lost for ever. For none less than Almighty could save us. Nor could he save by speaking; it was necessary he should come, that is, take our nature upon him, take our sin upon him and stand in our place for obedience and atonement. He came for these purposes and he effectually fulfilled them. Thus he saves by price and redemption. Farther, he saves by power—this is the seeking spoke of. They are insensible of his love and their own misery—in seeking he employs his providence, Word, ordinances and Spirit. May I not hope that he has come thus here to seek and to save some of you tonight? When he saves, he saves completely, he removes the curse, restores access and power with God, renews the divine image upon the soul, and thus reclaims the rebel and teaches him to reverence, love and serve the God of his life.
The Lord is now seeking. O may you be willing to be found of him, or else you are lost for ever. And let those whom he has redeemed out of the hand of the enemy, praise and magnify his name and renew their engagements in his strength to serve him and walk before him in holy obedience all their days.
FOR MEDITATION:
Sinner, hear the Saviour’s call,
Raise thy downcast eyes, and see
He now is passing by;
What throngs his throne surround!
He has seen thy grievous thrall,
These, though sinners once like thee,
And heard thy mournful cry.
Have full salvation found:
He has pardons to impart,
Yield not then to unbelief!
Grace to save thee from thy fears,
While he says, ‘There yet is room;’
See the love that fills his heart,
Though of sinners thou art chief,
And wipe away thy tears.
Since JESUS calls thee, come.

SERMON: LUKE 19:10 [5/5]