Milo

November 19th

When He is come

And when He is come, He will convict the world of sin.… John 16:8 (R.V.).

Very few of us know anything about conviction of sin; we know the experience of being disturbed because of having done wrong things; but conviction of sin by the Holy Ghost blots out every relationship on earth and leaves one relationship only—“Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned.” When a man is convicted of sin in this way, he knows with every power of his conscience that God dare not forgive him; if God did forgive him, the man would have a stronger sense of justice than God. God does forgive, but it cost the rending of His heart in the death of Christ to enable Him to do so. The great miracle of the grace of God is that He forgives sin, and it is the death of Jesus Christ alone that enables the Divine nature to forgive and to remain true to itself in doing so. It is shallow nonsense to say that God forgives us because He is love. When we have been convicted of sin we will never say this again. The love of God means Calvary, and nothing less; the love of God is spelt on the Cross and nowhere else. The only ground on which God can forgive me is through the Cross of my Lord. There, His conscience is satisfied.
Forgiveness means not merely that I am saved from hell and made right for heaven (no man would accept forgiveness on such a level); forgiveness means that I am forgiven into a recreated relationship, into identification with God in Christ. The miracle of Redemption is that God turns me, the unholy one, into the standard of Himself, the Holy One, by putting into me a new disposition, the disposition of Jesus Christ.

November 19

“Thou, who hast showed us many and sore troubles, wilt quicken us again.” (Psalm 71:20, R. V.)

GOD shows us the troubles. Sometimes, as this part of our education is being carried forward, we have to descend into “the lower parts of the earth,” pass through subterranean passages, lie buried amongst the dead, but never for a moment is the cord of fellowship and union between God and us strained to breaking; and from the depths God will bring us again.
Never doubt God! Never say that He has forsaken or forgotten. Never think that He is unsympathetic. He will quicken again. There is always a smooth piece in every skein, however tangled. The longest day at last rings out the evensong. The winter snow lies long, but it goes at last.
Be steadfast; your labor is not in vain. God turns again, and comforts. And when He does, the heart which had forgotten its Psalmody breaks out in jubilant song, as does the Psalmist: “I will thank thee, I will harp unto thee, my lips shall sing aloud.”—Selected.

“Though the rain may fall and the wind be blowing,
And cold and chill is the wintry blast;
Though the cloudy sky is still cloudier growing,
And the dead leaves tell that the summer has passed;
My face I hold to the stormy heaven,
My heart is as calm as the summer sea,
Glad to receive what my God has given,
Whate’er it be.
When I feel the cold, I can say, ‘He sends it,’
And His winds blow blessing, I surely know;
For I’ve never a want but that He attends it;
And my heart beats warm, though the winds may blow.”

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.