Milo

19 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

Making allowances

‘… 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.’ Luke 9:33
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 21:15–25

A want of experience makes us very apt to mistake and misapply the cordials the Lord gives us by the way. Peter did not say, ‘Now we have seen his glory, let us take courage and be willing to do and suffer for him, for he is worthy. Let us improve the remembrance of this to make us more earnest in pleading with our friends or obstinate countrymen to believe on him.’ Friends, neighbours, services and sufferings, were all forgot, and he only thought of building tabernacles and having his present comforts continued. There is much selfishness in our hearts, often when they seem best disposed. St Paul was better taught—he had been caught up into the third heaven, yet though he had an earnest desire to depart and be with Christ, he was willing to wait for his happiness, for the sake of being useful to his church.
We may observe our Lord’s gracious compassion to the weakness of his people. He accepted Peter’s willing mind according to his light, and though what he said showed ignorance, rashness and selfishness had too much place in him, we do not find he rebuked him upon this occasion. He knows our frame, he remembers we are but dust. He does not teach us all at once, but with patience and tenderness, as we are able to bear it. We should learn of him. If we advise (as we ought to do) young believers of what is amiss in their first joy, let us do it with candour and gentleness and make allowances for those mistakes which can only be corrected by experience. Fruit is not ripened as soon as it is formed, but it is not to be thrown away because it is yet green. If good in its kind, allow it time and it will come to maturity.

FOR MEDITATION: Methinks the Apostle strongly intimates the deep depravity of our nature, when he says, Ye have need of patience … We are selfish, ungrateful creatures, and if the Lord crosses us in one thing, we are prone to forget our many calls for thankfulness.… Notwithstanding all we know, and the fine things we can say to others upon the subject, we are liable to toss like a wild bull in a net, or to sink into despondency.
John Newton to John Ryland, 30 August 1790

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 7 [4/5], LUKE 9:33

October 18th

The key to the missionary devotion

For His name’s sake they went forth. 3 John 7.

Our Lord has told us how love to Him is to manifest itself. “Lovest thou Me?” “Feed My sheep”—identify yourself with My interests in other people, not, identify Me with your interests in other people. 1 Corinthians 13:4–8 gives the character of this love, it is the love of God expressing itself. The test of my love for Jesus is the practical one, all the rest is sentimental jargon.
Loyalty to Jesus Christ is the supernatural work of Redemption wrought in me by the Holy Ghost Who sheds abroad the love of God in my heart, and that love works efficaciously through me in contact with everyone I meet. I remain loyal to His name although every commonsense fact gives the lie to Him, and declares that He has no more power than a morning mist.
The key to missionary devotion means being attached to nothing and no one saving Our Lord Himself, not being detached from things externally. Our Lord was amazingly in and out among ordinary things; His detachment was on the inside towards God. External detachment is often an indication of a secret vital attachment to the things we keep away from externally. The loyalty of a missionary is to keep his soul concentratedly open to the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The men and women Our Lord sends out on His enterprises are the ordinary human stuff, plus dominating devotion to Himself wrought by the Holy Ghost.

October 18

“Know of a surety that thy seed shall be sojourners in a land that is not theirs;… they shall afflict them four hundred years;… and afterward they shall come out with great substance.” (Gen. 15:12–14.)

AN assured part of God’s pledged blessing to us is delay and suffering. A delay in Abram’s own lifetime that seemed to put God’s pledge beyond fulfillment was followed by seemingly unendurable delay of Abram’s descendants. But it was only a delay: they “came out with great substance.” The pledge was redeemed.
God is going to test me with delays; and with the delays will come suffering, but through it all stands God’s pledge: His new covenant with me in Christ, and His inviolable promise of every lesser blessing that I need. The delay and the suffering are part of the promised blessing; let me praise Him for them today; and let me wait on the Lord and be of good courage and He will strengthen my heart.
—C. G. Trumbull.

Unanswered yet the prayer your lips have pleaded
In agony of heart these many years?
Does faith begin to fail? Is hope departing?
And think you all in vain those falling tears?
Say not the Father hath not heard your prayer;
You shall have your desire sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Nay do not say ungranted;
Perhaps your work is not yet wholly done.
The work began when first your prayer was uttered,
And God will finish what He has begun.
If you will keep the incense burning there,
His glory you shall see sometime, somewhere.

Unanswered yet? Faith cannot be unanswered,
Her feet are firmly planted on the Rock;
Amid the wildest storms she stands undaunted,
Nor quails before the loudest thunder shock.
She knows Omnipotence has heard her prayer,
And cries, “It shall be done”—sometime, somewhere.
—Miss Ophelia G. Browning.

18 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

Build upon the Word of God

‘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.’ Luke 9:33
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Judges 8:22–27

A person’s being in a lively state of mind and near the Lord will not exempt him from the danger of making great mistakes in what they would propose and determine to do in such a state. Some people are ready to think that any purpose that comes into their minds, when their spirits are lively and they have liberty in prayer, must therefore be right and proper. They will say, I trust the Lord was surely with me when I purposed it, and therefore it must doubtless be from him. The Lord was surely and sweetly with Peter at this time, but he did not put it into his heart to build tabernacles. Satan may be near at such a time likewise and many plausible motions may arise from Self. If we would be wise builders, we must build not upon feelings and suggestions, but upon the Word of God. Is your spirit quickened by a taste of his love and a glimpse of his glory? Then to the law and the testimony to learn his will concerning you, and do not think your human temperament will warrant you to do anything which you are not directed to by the Scripture. Innumerable enthusiasms and offences have arisen from a want of caution in this respect. The zeal of young converts is very apt to spend itself in singularities and things not commanded.
FOR MEDITATION:
Once I thought my mountain strong,
When my friends have said, ‘Beware,
Firmly fixed no more to move;
Soon or late you’ll find a change’;
Then thy grace was all my song,
I could see no cause for fear,
Then my soul was filled with love:
Vain their caution seemed and strange:
Those were happy golden days,
Not a cloud obscured my sky,
Sweetly spent in prayer and praise.
Could I think a tempest nigh?

Little, then, myself I knew, Little thought of Satan’s power;
Now I find their words were true, Now I feel the stormy hour!
Tell him, since I know thy name, Though I change thou art the same.

SERMON SERIES: ON THE TRANSFIGURATION, NO. 7 [3/5], LUKE 9:33

October 17th

Greater works

And greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father. John 14:12.

Prayer does not fit us for the greater works; prayer is the greater work. We think of prayer as a commonsense exercise of our higher powers in order to prepare us for God’s work. In the teaching of Jesus Christ prayer is the working of the miracle of Redemption in me which produces the miracle of Redemption in others by the power of God. The way fruit remains is by prayer, but remember it is prayer based on the agony of Redemption, not on my agony. Only a child gets prayer answered; a wise man does not.
Prayer is the battle; it is a matter of indifference where you are. Whichever way God engineers circumstances, the duty is to pray. Never allow the thought—‘I am of no use where I am’; because you certainly can be of no use where you are not. Wherever God has dumped you down in circumstances, pray, ejaculate to Him all the time. “Whatsoever ye ask in My name, that will I do.” We won’t pray unless we get thrills, that is the intensest form of spiritual selfishness. We have to labour along the line of God’s direction, and He says pray. “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.”
There is nothing thrilling about a labouring man’s work, but it is the labouring man who makes the conceptions of the genius possible; and it is the labouring saint who makes the conceptions of his Master possible. You labour at prayer and results happen all the time from God’s standpoint. What an astonishment it will be to find, when the veil is lifted, the souls that have been reaped by you, simply because you had been in the habit of taking your orders from Jesus Christ.