Milo

19 NOVEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

Under a cloud

‘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: Exodus 20:18–21; Hebrews 12:18–24

There came a cloud and overshadowed them. Matthew [17:5] calls it a bright cloud. It was a token of God’s presence and favour, as when the cloud filled the tabernacle [Exodus 24:16; 40:34]. It was not filled with blackness, darkness and tempest, like that from which the Lord spoke from Sinai, when he would impress Israel with the awe of his holy majesty and law, but suited to the voice which soon proceeded from it, bearing testimony to Jesus and his acceptance of sinners in the beloved. Consider the difference of these clouds out of which God spoke at different times to men: they are emblems of the different spirit of the law and the gospel. When the Lord first speaks to the sinner’s conscience to convince him of his lost estate, it is as if he was brought to the foot of Mount Sinai; he speaks in thunder, his majesty is awful and terrible, and the poor worm trembles before him. But when he speaks peace by the blood of Jesus, though the majesty and authority are the same, and produces a holy awe and reverence upon the spirit, it is different from the former—light and comfort and peace by the voice which directs and enables the soul to fix by faith upon Jesus, the Beloved, in whom the Father is well pleased. Yet still it was a cloud, though a bright one. In all divine communications in this mortal state, the Lord, who knows our frame, softens his majesty with a cloud. We are not able to bear his presence without the interposition of a cloud.

FOR MEDITATION: I have been praying that tomorrow may be a day of power with you and with us, and with all that love Jesus in sincerity, that we may see his glory and taste his love in the sanctuary … For this I sigh and long, and cry to the Lord to rend the veil of unbelief, scatter the clouds of ignorance and break down the walls which sin is daily building up to hide him from my eyes. I hope I can say, My soul is athirst for God [Psalm 42:2], and nothing less than the light of his countenance can satisfy me.
John Newton to Hannah Wilberforce, Saturday 9 June 1770

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 8 [2/5], LUKE 9:34

November 18th

Winning into freedom

If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:36.

If there is any remnant of individual conceit left, it always says—‘I can’t.’ Personality never says—‘I can’t,’ but simply absorbs and absorbs. Personality always wants more and more. It is the way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God; and sin and our individuality are the things that keep us from getting at God. God delivers us from sin: we have to deliver ourselves from individuality, i.e., to present our natural life to God and sacrifice it until it is transformed into a spiritual life by obedience.
God does not pay any attention to our natural individuality in the development of our spiritual life. His order runs right across the natural life, and we have to see that we aid and abet God, not stand against Him and say—‘I can’t do that.’ God will not discipline us, we must discipline ourselves. God will not bring every thought and imagination into captivity; we have to do it. Do not say—‘O Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.’ Don’t suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your individuality, and get emancipated out into personality.
“If the Son shall make you free, …” Do not substitute ‘Saviour’ for ‘Son.’ The Saviour set us free from sin; this is the freedom of being set free by the Son. It is what Paul means in Gal. 2:20—“I have been crucified with Christ,” his natural individuality has been broken and his personality united with his Lord, not merged but united; “ye shall be free indeed,” free in essence, free from the inside. We will insist on energy, instead of being energized into identification with Jesus.

November 18

“Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” (Luke 7:23.)

IT is sometimes very difficult not to be offended in Jesus Christ. The offenses may be circumstantial. I find myself in a prison-house—a narrow sphere, a sick chamber, an unpopular position—when I had hoped for wide opportunities. Yes, but He knows what is best for me. My environment is of His determining. He means it to intensify my faith, to draw me into nearer communion with Himself, to ripen my power. In the dungeon my soul should prosper.
The offense may be mental. I am haunted by perplexities, questions, which I cannot solve. I had hoped that, when I gave myself to Him, my sky would always be clear; but often it is overspread by mist and cloud. Yet let me believe that, if difficulties remain, it is that I may learn to trust Him all the more implicitly—to trust and not be afraid. Yes, and by my intellectual conflicts, I am trained to be a tutor to other storm-driven men.
The offense may be spiritual. I had fancied that within His fold I should never feel the biting winds of temptation; but it is best as it is. His grace is magnified. My own character is matured. His Heaven is sweeter at the close of the day. There I shall look back on the turnings and trials of the way, and shall sing the praises of my Guide. So, let come what will come, His will is welcome; and I shall refuse to be offended in my loving Lord.—Alexander Smellie.

Blessed is he whose faith is not offended,
When all around his way
The power of God is working out deliverance
For others day by day;

Though in some prison drear his own soul languish,
Till life itself be spent,
Yet still can trust his Father’s love and purpose,
And rest therein content.

Blessed is he, who through long years of suffering,
Cut off from active toil,
Still shares by prayer and praise the work of others,
And thus “divides the spoil.”

Blessed are thou, O child of God, who sufferest,
And canst not understand
The reason for thy pain, yet gladly leavest
Thy life in His blest Hand.

Yea, blessed art thou whose faith is “not offended”
By trials unexplained,
By mysteries unsolved, past understanding,
Until the goal is gained.
—Freda Hanbury Allen.

18 NOVEMBER (PREACHED 1770)

A momentary glimpse within the veil

‘And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud.’ Luke 9:33–34
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 1:1–11

Peter and his companions awoke from their sleep but just in time to be eye-witnesses of their Lord’s glory and of the appearance of Moses and Elias. They were about to depart when he cried out, being struck with what he saw. He cried out, It is good to be here. Presently after, the whole was withdrawn. Some of the Lord’s people have been witnesses to happy moments when the veil seemed to be removing and they were upon the point, as it were, of getting a sight of things invisible, but they have hardly had time to recollect themselves and raise their expectations, before a cloud comes between and they are left at their former distance, convinced indeed that there were great realities, ready open to their view, but unable to recollect even to their own apprehensions what that wonderful impression was which so affected them. Something like this was the experience of the disciples; they were beginning to rejoice in what they saw, when a cloud overshadowed them and turned their joy into fear.
FOR MEDITATION:
A glance from heaven, with sweet effect,
The lightning’s flash did not create
Sometimes my pensive spirit cheers;
The opening prospect it revealed;
But, ere I can my thoughts collect,
But only showed the real state
As suddenly it disappears.
Of what the darkness had concealed.

So lightning in the gloom of night,
Just so, we by a glimpse discern
Affords a momentary day;
The glorious things within the veil;
Disclosing objects full in sight,
That when in darkness, we may learn
Which soon as seen, are snatched away.
To live by faith, till light prevail.

But shall I murmur at relief?
The LORD’S great day will soon advance,
Though short, it was a precious view;
Dispersing all the shades of night;
Sent to control my unbelief,
Then we no more shall need a glance,
And prove that what I read is true.
But see by an eternal Light.

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 8 [1/5], LUKE 9:34

November 17th

The external goal

By Myself have I sworn, said the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, … that in blessing I will bless thee.… Genesis 22:15–19 .

Abraham has reached the place where he is in touch with the very nature of God, he understands now the reality of God.

‘My goal is God Himself …
At any cost, dear Lord, by any road.’

‘At any cost, by any road’ means nothing self-chosen in the way God brings us to the goal.
There is no possibility of questioning when God speaks if He speaks to His own nature in me; prompt obedience is the only result. When Jesus says—“Come,” I simply come; when He says—“Let go,” I let go; when he says—“Trust in God in this matter,” I do trust. The whole working out is the evidence that the nature of God is in me.
God’s revelation of Himself to me is determined by my character, not by God’s character.

‘Tis because I am mean,
Thy ways so oft look mean to me.’

By the discipline of obedience I get to the place where Abraham was, and I see Who God is. I never have a real God until I have come face to face with Him in Jesus Christ, then I know that “in all the world, my God, there is none but Thee, there is none but Thee.”
The promises of God are of no value to us until by obedience we understand the nature of God. We read some things in the Bible three hundred and sixty-five times and they mean nothing to us; then all of a sudden we see what God means, because in some particular we have obeyed God, and instantly His nature is opened up. “All the promises of God in Him are yea, and in Him Amen.” The “yea” must be born of obedience; when by the obedience of our lives we say “Amen” to promise, then that promise is ours.