Milo

November 21

“Roll on Jehovah thy way.” (Psalm 37:6, margin.)

WHATEVER it is that presses thee, go tell the Father; put the whole matter over into His hand, and so shalt thou be freed from that dividing, perplexing care that the world is full of. When thou art either to do or suffer anything, when thou art about any purpose or business, go tell God of it, and acquaint Him with it; yes, burden Him with it, and thou hast done for matter of caring; no more care, but quiet, sweet, diligence in thy duty, and dependence on Him for the carriage of thy matters. Roll thy cares, and thyself with them, as one burden, all on thy God.—R. Leighton.

Build a little fence of trust
Around today;
Fill the space with loving work
And therein stay.
Look not through the sheltering bars
Upon tomorrow;
God will help thee bear what comes
Of joy or sorrow.
—Mary Butts.

We shall find it impossible to commit our way unto the Lord, unless it be a way that He approves. It is only by faith that a man can commit his way unto the Lord; if there be the slightest doubt in the heart that “our way” is not a good one, faith will refuse to have anything to do with it. This committing of our way must be a continuous, not a single act. However extraordinary and unexpected may seem to be His guidance, however near the precipice He may take you, you are not to snatch the guiding reins out of His hands. Are we willing to have all our ways submitted to God, for Him to pronounce judgment on them? There is nothing a Christian needs to be more scrutinizing about than about his confirmed habits and views. He is too apt to take for granted the Divine approbation of them. Why are some Christians so anxious, so fearful? Evidently because they have not left their way with the Lord. They took it to Him, but brought it away with them again.—Selected.

21 NOVEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Reverence and humility before God

‘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: Job 42:1–6

The disciples feared as they entered the cloud. From hence I would take occasion to observe that the manifestations of the Lord’s presence have a tendency to humble and abase the Lord’s people, to convince them of their nothingness and unworthiness before him, and at the same time that they are comforted with a sense of his love, they are awed with the consideration of his glorious majesty. By this you may try your spirits. There is a confidence and liberty promised in the gospel—they who have access to God by Christ may come with boldness, they may draw near as children to a father, they may use a holy importunity in prayer—yet when faith is indeed in lively exercise and this liberty is most improved, there will be likewise great reverence and humiliation before God. When God dealt familiarly with Abraham and conversed with him as a friend, Abraham fell on his face before him. When the Lord appeared to vindicate Job and to comfort him after his sorrows, he abhorred himself in dust and ashes. That we can often approach the Most High God with a kind of indifference, as if it were a thing of course, is a proof rather of the hardness of our hearts, than of the strength of our faith. The angels are represented as hiding their faces before him—with what humility then should we poor, sinful dust and ashes take his holy name upon our polluted lips!

FOR MEDITATION: Give me a humbling sense of my sins, give me a humbling view of thy glory, give me a humbling taste of thy love, for surely nothing humbles like these. All my pride springs from ignorance. Grant me to know myself, to know thee, to know my relation to thee, and my dependence upon thee, my unprofitableness and insufficiency before thee; and the extent and importance of the mercies I continually receive from thee.
Miscellaneous Thoughts, 1758

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 8 [4/5], LUKE 9:34

November 20th

The forgiveness of God

In whom we have … the forgiveness of sins. Eph. 1:7.

Beware of the pleasant view of the Fatherhood of God—God is so kind and loving that of course He will forgive us. That sentiment has no place whatever in the New Testament. The only ground on which God can forgive us is the tremendous tragedy of the Cross of Christ; to put forgiveness on any other ground is unconscious blasphemy. The only ground on which God can forgive sin and reinstate us in His favour is through the Cross of Christ, and in no other way. Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony of Calvary. It is possible to take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and our sanctification with the simplicity of faith, and to forget at what enormous cost to God it was all made ours.
Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God. Never accept a view of the Fatherhood of God if it blots out the Atonement. The revelation of God is that He cannot forgive; He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God by the Atonement. God’s forgiveness is only natural in the super-natural domain.
Compared with the miracle of the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the marvellous expression of the forgiveness of sins in a human life, but the thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin. Paul never got away from this. When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.

November 20

“Blessed is he that waiteth.” (Dan. 12:12.)

IT may seem an easy thing to wait, but it is one of the postures which a Christian soldier learns not without years of teaching. Marching and quick-marching are much easier to God’s warriors than standing still.
There are hours of perplexity when the most willing spirit, anxiously desirous to serve the Lord, knows not what part to take. Then what shall it do? Vex itself by despair? Fly back in cowardice, turn to the right hand in fear, or rush forward in presumption?
No, but simply wait. Wait in prayer, however. Call upon God and spread the case before Him; tell Him your difficulty, and plead His promise of aid.
Wait in faith. Express your unstaggering confidence in Him. Believe that if He keep you tarrying even till midnight, yet He will come at the right time; the vision shall come, and shall not tarry.
Wait in quiet patience. Never murmur against the second cause, as the children of Israel did against Moses. Accept the case as it is, and put it as it stands, simply and with your whole heart, without any self-will, into the hand of your covenant God, saying, “Now, Lord, not my will, but Thine be done. I know not what to do; I am brought to extremities; but I will wait until Thou shalt cleave the floods, or drive back my foes. I will wait, if Thou keep me many a day, for my heart is fixed upon Thee alone, O God, and my spirit waiteth for Thee in full conviction that Thou wilt yet be my joy and my salvation, my refuge and my strong tower.”—Morning by Morning.

  Wait, patiently wait,
  God never is late;

Thy budding plans are in Thy Father’s holding,
And only wait His grand divine unfolding.
Then wait, wait,
Patiently wait.

  Trust, hopefully trust,
  That God will adjust

Thy tangled life; and from its dark concealings,
Will bring His will, in all its bright revealings.
Then trust, trust,
Hopefully trust.

Rest, peacefully rest
On thy Saviour’s breast;

Breathe in His ear thy sacred high ambition.
And He will bring it forth in blest fruition.
Then rest, rest,
Peacefully rest!
—Mercy A. Gladwin.

20 NOVEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Above the clouds

‘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: Revelation 4:1–11

The ordinances and means by which the Lord converses with his people are answerable to this cloud. They are bright compared with the dark things of this world, but they are dark and cloudy with respect to that full knowledge and view of his glory which shall shine upon his people when they are permitted to see his face. While in one sense they reveal him to us, in another they hide him from us. They are suited to our present state of weakness and imperfection, but we shall not be quite happy, the desires he has given us will not be perfectly satisfied, till we get above them all. In the meantime we have cause to be thankful:
(i) for the superior light and liberty we enjoy by the gospel above what was vouchsafed to the servants of God under the Old Testament dispensation. They saw our privileges afar off, and would have rejoiced to share in them (Matthew 13:17).
(ii) for the assurances we have that the best we now enjoy is exceedingly short of that full portion reserved for us hereafter. It doth not yet appear what we shall be [1 John 3:2]. There is not so much difference between a believer’s darkest and brightest hours here, as between his sweetest enjoyments now and the glory that awaits him hereafter.

FOR MEDITATION: Mr Cowper was afflicted with what is called a nervous complaint to such a degree as might justly be called insanity. I have had hopes the Lord would remove his malady a little time before his death, but it continued. The last twelve hours of his life … he lay in a state of apparent insensibility. But I seem to think that while the curtains were taking[being taken] down in the tabernacle [of his body that was] removing, glory broke in upon his soul. The Lord had set his seal upon him and though he had not seen him he had grace to love him. He was one of those who came out of great tribulation. He suffered much here for twenty-seven years, but eternity is long enough to make amends for all. For what is all he endured in this life, when compared with that rest which remaineth for the children of God?312
John Newton’s Funeral Sermon for William Cowper, May 1800

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 8 [3/5], LUKE 9:34