Milo

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.

October 21

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:1.)

THE owner of the tenement which I have occupied for many years has given notice that he will furnish but little or nothing more for repairs. I am advised to be ready to move.
At first this was not a very welcome notice. The surroundings here are in many respects very pleasant, and were it not for the evidence of decay, I should consider the house good enough. But even a light wind causes it to tremble and totter, and all the braces are not sufficient to make it secure. So I am getting ready to move.
It is strange how quickly one’s interest is transferred to the prospective home. I have been consulting maps of the new country and reading descriptions of its inhabitants. One who visited it has returned, and from him I learn that it is beautiful beyond description; language breaks down in attempting to tell of what he heard while there. He says that, in order to make an investment there, he has suffered the loss of all things that he owned here, and even rejoices in what others would call making a sacrifice. Another, whose love to me has been proven by the greatest possible test, is now there. He has sent me several clusters of the most delicious fruits. After tasting them, all food here seems insipid.
Two or three times I have been down by the border of the river that forms the boundary, and have wished myself among the company of those who were singing praises to the King on the other side. Many of my friends have moved there. Before leaving they spoke of my coming later. I have seen the smile upon their faces as they passed out of sight. Often I am asked to make some new investments here, but my answer in every case is, “I am getting ready to move.”—Selected.
The words often on Jesus’ lips in His last days express vividly the idea, “going to the Father.” We, too, who are Christ’s people, have vision of something beyond the difficulties and disappointments of this life. We are journeying towards fulfillment, completion, expansion of life. We, too, are “going to the Father.” Much is dim concerning our home-country, but two things are clear. It is home, “the Father’s House.” It is the nearer presence of the Lord. We are all wayfarers, but the believer knows it and accepts it. He is a traveller, not a settler.
—R. C. Gillie.
The little birds trust God, for they go singing
From northern woods where autumn winds have blown,
With joyous faith their trackless pathway winging
To summer-lands of song, afar, unknown.
Let us go singing, then, and not go sighing:
Since we are sure our times are in His hand,
Why should we weep, and fear, and call it dying?
’Tis only flitting to a Summer-land.
—Selected.

21 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

The pre-eminence and dignity of Jesus

‘While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.’ Matthew 17:5
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Matthew 17:1–13

This is my beloved Son. The Greek is emphatic with a double article—This is that Son, that beloved Son of mine—to distinguish him from all others and to show his pre-eminence and dignity. Believers are the sons of God, not by nature but by adoption. Jesus is his own, his only beloved Son. He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, the express image of his person and the temple of his glory. If we speak of his divine nature, he is of the same essence with the Father, equal in power and glory. If we speak of his human nature, this is assumed into such an immediate and indissoluble union with the Divine, that in his whole person as Mediator and Head of his church reside all the characters and perfections of the Godhead. He is the true God and eternal life. There are mysteries in this subject which cannot be truly understood by any who are not taught of God, and cannot be fully comprehended by the most exalted creatures, for none knoweth the Son but the Father [Matthew 11:27]. Enough, however, is revealed for faith to build and feed upon—enough to point him out to sinners as the ground of their hope and the object of their supreme love, trust and adoration. If you would know this great mystery of godliness aright, you must pray the Father to reveal the Son to you and in you. According to the views you have of Jesus, in the glory of this character, the beloved Son of God, such will be your knowledge of the other great truths of the gospel which are derived from this and depend upon it.

FOR MEDITATION: The disciples not only saw the cloud, but they heard a voice directing them to Christ. This is a sure mark: whatever seems extraordinary in our experience, any manifestation or comfort that does not lead us to Jesus and tend to make him glorious in our eyes and precious to hearts, may be justly suspected. The Word of God, the ordinances, the teachings of the Spirit, all concur with this voice to glorify Jesus. Let us now attend to this voice from the excellent glory, which still speaketh to us also. May the Holy Spirit impress it powerfully upon all our hearts.

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 9 [1/4]

October 20th

Is God’s will my will?

This is the will of God, even your sanctification. 1 Thess. 4:3.

It is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me; is it my will? Am I willing to let God do in me all that has been made possible by the Atonement? Am I willing to let Jesus be made sanctification to me, and to let the life of Jesus be manifested in my mortal flesh? Beware of saying—‘Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.’ You are not, stop longing and make it a matter of transaction—“Nothing in my hands I bring.” Receive Jesus Christ to be made sanctification to you in implicit faith, and the great marvel of the Atonement will be made real in you. All that Jesus made possible is made mine by the free loving gift of God on the ground of what He performed. My attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound humble holiness (there is no such thing as proud holiness), a holiness based on agonizing repentance and a sense of unspeakable shame and degradation; and also on the amazing realization that the love of God commended itself to me in that while I cared nothing about Him, He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification (see Rom. 5:8). No wonder Paul says nothing is “able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God, and it is done only through the superb Atonement of Christ. Never put the effect as the cause. The effect in me is obedience and service and prayer, and is the outcome of speechless thanks and adoration for the marvellous sanctification wrought out in me because of the Atonement.