Milo

October 24th

The viewpoint

Now thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ. 2 Cor. 2:14.

The viewpoint of a worker for God must not be as near the highest as he can get, it must be the highest. Be careful to maintain strenuously God’s point of view, it has to be done every day, bit by bit; don’t think on the finite. No outside power can touch the viewpoint.
The viewpoint to maintain is that we are here for one purpose only, viz., to be captives in the train of Christ’s triumphs. We are not in God’s showroom, we are here to exhibit one thing—the absolute captivity of our lives to Jesus Christ. How small the other points of view are—‘I am standing alone battling for Jesus’; ‘I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold this fort for Him.’ Paul says—‘I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.’ Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and now that is all he is here for. Paul’s joy was to be a captive of the Lord, he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. The Victor ought to have got us so completely that it is His victory all the time, and we are more than conquerors through Him. “For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.” We are enwheeled with the odour of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

October 24

“I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument.” (Isa. 41:15.)

ABAR of steel worth five dollars, when wrought into horseshoes, is worth ten dollars. If made into needles, it is worth three hundred and fifty dollars; if into penknife blades, it is worth thirty-two thousand dollars; if into springs for watches it is worth two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. What a drilling the poor bar must undergo to be worth this! But the more it is manipulated, the more it is hammered, and passed through the fire, and beaten and pounded and polished, the greater the value.
May this parable help us to be silent, still, and longsuffering. Those who suffer most are capable of yielding most; and it is through pain that God is getting the most out of us, for His glory and the blessing of others.—Selected.

“Oh, give Thy servant patience to be still,
  And bear Thy will;
Courage to venture wholly on the arm
  That will not harm;
The wisdom that will never let me stray
  Out of my way;
The love that, now afflicting, knoweth best
  When I should rest.”

Life is very mysterious. Indeed it would be inexplicable unless we believed that God was preparing us for scenes and ministries that lie beyond the veil of sense in the eternal world, where highly-tempered spirits will be required for special service.
“The turning-lathe that has the sharpest knives produces the finest work.”

24 OCTOBER (PREACHED 1770)

The Beloved Son of God

‘And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.’ Luke 9:35
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Isaiah 45:15–25

Except you conceive aright of Jesus as the Beloved Son of God, all your professed dependence upon him as a Saviour, is presumption and idolatry. You may learn from Isaiah 45:21 and 43:11 that there is but one Saviour, and that he is the Lord Jehovah. He is jealous of his glory and will not give it to another, nor could he, consistent with his honour and holiness, command all men to honour the Son as they honour the Father, if he was not the proper object of our supreme adoration and love. Your making mention of the name of Jesus, being baptized in it, and concluding your prayers with it, will not make you a Christian, except you are enlightened to receive him as he is revealed in the Word.
Here is comfort for believers and all who are truly seeking salvation. That name in which you are directed to trust is above every name—he on whom your help is laid is mighty, all-mighty. As the Beloved Son, he exercises all power in heaven and earth and is therefore able to save unto the uttermost.
What think you of Christ? If he is the Beloved Son, what will be the end of those who despise him, live in rebellion against him and say in their hearts, We will not have this man to reign over us [Luke 19:14]?
FOR MEDITATION:
What think you of CHRIST? is the test
If asked what of JESUS I think?
To try both your state and your scheme;
Though still my best thoughts are but poor;
You cannot be right in the rest,
I say, he’s my meat and my drink,
Unless you think rightly of him.
My life, and my strength, and my store,
As JESUS appears in your view,
My Shepherd, my Husband, my Friend,
As he is beloved or not;
My Saviour from sin and from thrall;
So GOD is disposed to you,
My hope from beginning to end,
And mercy or wrath are your lot.
My Portion, my LORD, and my All.

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

October 23rd

Not a bit of it!

If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away. 2 Cor. 5:17.

Our Lord never nurses our prejudices, He mortifies them, runs clean athwart them. We imagine that God has a special interest in our particular prejudices; we are quite sure that God will never deal with us as we know He has to deal with other people. ‘God must deal with other people in a very stern way, but of course He knows that my prejudices are all right.’ We have to learn—‘Not a bit of it!’ Instead of God being on the side of our prejudices, He is deliberately wiping them out. It is part of our moral education to have our prejudices run straight across by His providence, and to watch how He does it. God pays no respect to anything we bring to Him; there is only one thing He wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit begins to work His new creation in us, and there will come a time when there is not a bit of the old order left; the old solemnity goes, the old attitude to things goes, and “all things are of God.” How are we going to get the life that has no lust, no self-interest, no sensitiveness to pokes, the love that is not provoked, that thinketh no evil, that is always kind? The only way is by allowing not a bit of the old life to be left, but only simple perfect trust in God, such trust that we no longer want God’s blessings, but only want Himself. Have we come to the place where God can withdraw His blessings and it does not affect our trust in Him? When once we see God at work, we will never bother our heads about things that happen, because we are actually trusting in our Father in Heaven Whom the world cannot see.

October 23

“There hath not failed one word of all his good promise.” (1 Kings 8:56.)

SOME day we shall understand that God has a reason in every NO which He speaks through the slow movement of life. “Somehow God makes up to us.” How often, when His people are worrying and perplexing themselves about their prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way! Glimpses of this we see occasionally, but the full revelation of it remains for the future.

“If God says ‘Yes’ to our prayer, dear heart,
And the sunlight is golden, the sky is blue,
While the smooth road beckons to me and you,
And the song-birds warble as on we go,
Pausing to gather the buds at our feet,
Stopping to drink of the streamlets we meet,
Happy, more happy, our journey will grow,
If God says ‘Yes’ to our prayer, dear heart.

“If God says ‘No’ to our prayer, dear heart,
And the clouds hang heavy and dull and gray;
If the rough rocks hinder and block the way,
While the sharp winds pierce us and sting with cold;
Ah, dear, there is home at the journey’s end,
And these are the trials the Father doth send
To draw us as sheep to His Heavenly fold,
If God says ‘No’ to our prayer, dear heart.”

Oh for the faith that does not make haste, but waits patiently for the Lord, waits for the explanation that shall come in the end, at the revelation of Jesus Christ! When did God take anything from a man, without giving him manifold more in return? Suppose that the return had not been made immediately manifest, what then? Is today the limit of God’s working time? Has He no provinces beyond this little world? Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but infinite darkness and eternal silence?
Yet, even confining the judgment within the hour of this life, it is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without intending to bring upon it some grander gift, some tenderer benediction. He has attained to an eminent degree of Christian grace who knows how to wait.—Selected.

When the frosts are in the valley,
  And the mountain tops are grey,
And the choicest buds are blighted,
  And the blossoms die away,
A loving Father whispers,
  “This cometh from my hand”;
Blessed are ye if ye trust
  Where ye cannot understand.

If, after years of toiling,
  Your wealth should fly away
And leave your hands all empty,
  And your locks are turning grey,
Remember then your Father
  Owns all the sea and land;
Blessed are ye if ye trust
  Where ye cannot understand.

—Selected.