Milo

23 NOVEMBER

A precious promise

‘Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.’ Isaiah 41:10
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 41:8–20

This precious promise has been a fountain of consolation to the people of God at all times, and it is as full as ever, as necessary, as suitable, as sure to us, as it has been to others. May the Lord open it at this time, and satisfy every weary soul with his goodness. Let us enquire to whom it is made. The promise is made to Jacob, or Israel, the Lord’s chosen (verse 8). We may understand it in a literal and confined sense—to the nation of Israel. That though they were brought low and had many enemies, yet they should not be overpowered, for the Lord would plead their cause and provide their deliverance. The great promises which chiefly respected gospel times and spiritual things were usually made in such a manner as to afford some comfort to hope to the people under their present distresses. But though it might have this meaning, this was far from being the whole or the chief. We may understand it as a covenant promise to the Mediator that he should be successful in the work of redemption against all obstacles. Though he was Lord of all, for us he humbled himself to the form of a servant, and as such he is in many places encouraged and strengthened by the promises of his God and Father. The intimate and near relation between the Lord Jesus and his people is such that many things said of him are applicable to them likewise. He is pleased to take their name of Jacob, and to allow them a part of his (1 Corinthians 12:12). In this sense I shall consider it: as a promise to the church of God in general, and consequently to each particular believer, to every soul that like Jacob is wrestling for the blessing of the new name.
FOR MEDITATION:
Of thy goodness of old when I read,
Thine arm is not shortened since then,
To those who were sinners like me,
And those who believe in thy name,
Why may I not wrestle and plead,
Ever find thou art Yea, and Amen,
With them a partaker to be?
Through all generations the same.

SERMON: ISAIAH 41:10 [1/5]

November 22nd

Shallow and profound

Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Cor. 10:31.

Beware of allowing yourself to think that the shallow concerns of life are not ordained of God; they are as much of God as the profound. It is not your devotion to God that makes you refuse to be shallow, but your wish to impress other people with the fact that you are not shallow, which is a sure sign that you are a spiritual prig. Be careful of the production of contempt in yourself, it always comes along this line, and causes you to go about as a walking rebuke to other people because they are more shallow than you are. Beware of posing as a profound person; God became a Baby.
To be shallow is not a sign of being wicked, nor is shallowness a sign that there are no deeps; the ocean has a shore. The shallow amenities of life, eating and drinking, walking and talking, are all ordained by God. These are the things in which Our Lord lived. He lived in them as the Son of God, and He said that “the disciple is not above his Master.”
Our safeguard is in the shallow things. We have to live the surface commonsense life in a commonsense way; when the deeper things come, God gives them to us apart from the shallow concerns. Never show the deeps to anyone but God. We are so abominably serious, so desperately interested in our own characters, that we refuse to behave like Christians in the shallow concerns of life.
Determinedly take no one seriously but God, and the first person you find you have to leave severely alone as being the greatest fraud you have ever known, is yourself.

November 22

“Believe ye that I am able to do this?” (Matt. 9:28.)

GOD deals with impossibilities. It is never too late for Him to do so, when the impossible is brought to Him, in full faith, by the one in whose life and circumstances the impossible must be accomplished if God is to be glorified. If in our own life there have been rebellion, unbelief, sin, and disaster, it is never too late for God to deal triumphantly with these tragic facts if brought to Him in full surrender and trust. It has often been said, and with truth, that Christianity is the only religion that can deal with man’s past. God can “restore … the years that the locust hath eaten” (Joel 2:25); and He will do this when we put the whole situation and ourselves unreservedly and believingly into His hands. Not because of what we are but because of what He is. God forgives and heals and restores. He is “the God of all grace.” Let us praise Him and trust Him.—Sunday School Times.

“Nothing is too hard for Jesus
  No man can work like Him.”

“We have a God who delights in impossibilities.” Nothing too hard for Me.—Andrew Murray.

22 NOVEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

True comforts have a humbling nature

‘While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.’ Luke 9:34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 6:1–7

By this you may try your comforts. Many sincere souls are fearful lest their spiritual comforts are not of the right kind. Such fears are often the fruit of unbelief. Yet it is a good sign to be cautious and unwilling to be deceived. There are such things as false comforts. One of the best marks of the true, is that they are of a humbling nature and tend to fill our hearts with a fear and reverence of the great God from whom they proceed. If people talk of the Lord’s presence and display a light, trifling, self-confident and careless disposition of spirit, I confess I do not understand them. The stony-ground hearers had a joy [Mark 4:5], but it was not of the right sort; it was not accompanied with gracious fruits and soon came to nothing. But if when you have most comfort, the sense of your sin is lively and your heart is led to bemoan and abase yourself before the Lord and to rejoice only in Christ, then you need not fear. What thus leads us to him undoubtedly comes from him.

FOR MEDITATION: Since there was so wonderful, so precious and expensive atonement for sin provided by God, it follows that there can be no other, no more cheap or easy way under heaven by which man may be saved: whatever schemes people may propose to themselves, it will appear at length that all who refuse to build upon the rock of salvation, Jesus Christ, are only setting up empty notions in express opposition to the work of infinite wisdom: for if any inferior satisfaction could have been sufficient, our blessed Lord would never have been manifested in so extraordinary a manner, and made a spectacle to angels and to men. Lord, impress these thoughts effectually on me.… grant me humility, charity and faith; and enable me carefully to study the pattern thou didst set me upon earth, as the only method by which I can attain the happiness thou reservest in heaven for such as shall approve themselves thy real disciples. Make me rich in good work and poor in spirit, and whatever blessings or attainments thou bestowest on me, give me grace therewith to subscribe myself less than the least of all thy mercies.
Diary, 1 February 1752

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 8 [5/5], LUKE 9:34

November 21st

It is finished

I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. John 17:4.

The death of Jesus Christ is the performance in history of the very mind of God. There is no room for looking on Jesus Christ as a martyr; His death was not something that happened to Him which might have been prevented. His death was the very reason why He came.
Never build your preaching of forgiveness on the fact that God is our Father and He will forgive us because He loves us. It is untrue to Jesus Christ’s revelation of God; it makes the Cross unnecessary, and the Redemption “much ado about nothing.” If God does forgive sin, it is because of the death of Christ. God could forgive men in no other way than by the death of His Son, and Jesus is exalted to be Saviour because of His death. “We see Jesus … because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour.” The greatest note of triumph that ever sounded in the ears of a startled universe was that sounded on the Cross of Christ—“It is finished.” That is the last word in the Redemption of man.
Anything that belittles or obliterates the holiness of God by a false view of the love of God, is untrue to the revelation of God given by Jesus Christ. Never allow the thought that Jesus Christ stands with us against God out of pity and compassion; that He became a curse for us out of sympathy with us. Jesus Christ became a curse for us by the Divine decree. Our portion of realizing the terrific meaning of the curse is conviction of sin, the gift of shame and penitence is given us; this is the great mercy of God. Jesus Christ hates the wrong in man, and Calvary is the estimate of His hatred.