Milo

23 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

A right knowledge of sin

‘And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.’ Luke 9:35
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Revelation 5:1–14

On the knowledge of this character of Christ depends the right knowledge of the sinfulness of sin. Conceive of him for a moment as he stood transfigured in glory upon the mount and attested by a voice from heaven. And then follow him in your thoughts to those sufferings which he soon after endured. Think of him in his agony in the garden—see him the sport of servants and soldiers, see him buffeted and spit upon and at last hanging upon the cross, surrounded with his enemies who mocked his torments. Would any of you, being evil, treat a son, a beloved son, in this manner, or permit him to be so treated, if it was in your power to prevent it? And can you think that the great God would deliver up his only Son, who had always pleased him, to endure such things without an important reason? O sin, how exceeding sinful, when viewed in this light. He had, of his enormous love, given his Son to stand for sinners, and when sin was found charged upon him, though he was the beloved Son, he was not spared. Here let me drop a word:
(i) to you who go on in your sins. If God spared not his own Son, can you presume that he will spare you?
(ii) to you that are seeking to establish your own righteousness. Are you prepared to meet this holy God, who dealt thus with his own Son? Will you reject this atonement to trust to the work of your own hands?
(iii) to believers. You know there is much evil in your natures and many temptations and snares in the world. See here your best preservative against sin. The Lord help you the next time you are in danger, to remember what your sins cost Jesus. Sure, if this had not been out of your thoughts, you would not have given way in one or another instance, the remembrance of which now fills you with shame.

FOR MEDITATION: Yes, my soul, for thee, wretched sinner, a vile miserable apostate, did this wonderful Saviour leave the fullness of all glory and happiness to redeem thee from destruction, and took upon him the form of a servant, that thou mightest receive the adoption of a son.
Diary, Sunday 1 July 1752

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 9 [3/4]

October 22nd

The witness of the Spirit

The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit … Romans 8:16 (R.V.).

We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do. ‘Why does not God reveal Himself to me?’ He cannot; it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won’t abandon absolutely to Him. Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself; He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion. Immediately you transact on the Redemption and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives you the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and you are amazed at your impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28—“Come unto Me.” Come, if you are weary and heavy laden; ask if you know you are evil (Luke 11:13).
The simplicity that comes from our natural commonsense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in God, and He will give the witness.

October 22

“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” (Exod. 3:1, 2.)

THE vision came in the midst of common toil, and that is where the Lord delights to give His revelations. He seeks a man who is on the ordinary road, and the Divine fire leaps out at his feet. The mystic ladder can rise from the market place to Heaven. It can connect the realm of drudgery with the realms of grace.
My Father God, help me to expect Thee on the ordinary road. I do not ask for sensational happenings. Commune with me through ordinary work and duty. Be my Companion when I take the common journey. Let the humble life be transfigured by Thy presence.
Some Christians think they must be always up to mounts of extraordinary joy and revelation; this is not after God’s method. Those spiritual visits to high places, and that wonderful intercourse with the unseen world, are not in the promises; the daily life of communion is. And it is enough. We shall have the exceptional revelation if it be right for us.
There were but three disciples allowed to see the transfiguration, and those three entered the gloom of Gethsemane. No one can stay on the mount of privilege. There are duties in the valley. Christ found His life-work, not in the glory, but in the valley and was there truly and fully the Messiah. The value of the vision and glory is but their gift of fitness for work and endurance.—Selected.

22 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

God’s love known only in Christ

‘And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.’ Luke 9:35
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Ephesians 3:1–21

This is my beloved Son. By this you must learn to estimate the love of God to sinners. When St Paul is speaking of this love, he often labours for words, though he exhausts the power of language. His expressions are strictly true, or rather too low and faint to do justice to the subject, upon a supposition that Jesus is that excellent and glorious person, the beloved Son of God; but upon any other scheme his language must appear excessive, hyperbolical and idolatrous. But St Paul’s views were right, and therefore we can easily conceive why the holy angels looked down with wonder, and learn the brightest discoveries of God in his dealings with his church. For he has so loved it as to give his only begotten Son to redeem it from ruin. That God is good may be easily proved from his works of creation, of providence—but his love is only to be known in Christ. They who refuse to give Jesus the glory due to his name, can never entertain due apprehensions of the love of God. On the other hand, if this love of God in this unspeakable gift does not affect you with wonder and draw forth your love to him, though you may have been brought up with right notions and may confess Christ in words, be assured you have not as yet received the true knowledge of him.
FOR MEDITATION:
My guilt is cancelled quite, I know,
The love I owe for sin forgiven,
And satisfaction made;
For power to believe,
But the vast debt of love I owe,
For present peace, and promised heaven,
Can never be repaid.
No angel can conceive.

         That love of thine! thou sinner’s Friend!
         Witness thy bleeding heart!
         My little all can ne’er extend
         To pay a thousandth part.

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 9 [2/4]

October 21st

Direction by impulse

Building up yourselves on your most holy faith. Jude 20.

There was nothing either of the nature of impulse or of coldbloodedness about Our Lord, but only a calm strength that never got into panic. Most of us develop our Christianity along the line of our temperament, not along the line of God. Impulse is a trait in natural life, but Our Lord always ignores it, because it hinders the development of the life of a disciple. Watch how the Spirit of God checks impulse, His checks bring a rush of self-conscious foolishness which makes us instantly want to vindicate ourselves. Impulse is all right in a child, but it is disastrous in a man or woman; an impulsive man is always a petted man. Impulse has to be trained into intuition by discipline.
Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God. Walking on the water is easy to impulsive pluck, but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient, we can face the strain magnificently; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes.