Milo

25 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED 22 SEPTEMBER 1782)

The value of a soul

‘Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’ Judges 5:18
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Romans 10:1–15

Methinks I have a still more important and prevailing argument to excite your benevolence to provide Bibles for those who make jeopardy of their lives in fighting our battles, if we consider their situation as it respects themselves. They hazard their lives, they rush into danger—they fight, they die—cut off in a moment, they launch into an invisible, an unchangeable state—who can estimate the consequence? Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord [Revelation 14:13]; though they should fall by sword, pestilence or famine, they are blessed. The righteous hath hope in his death, but hope, to deserve the name, must be built by faith on the Word of God. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Indeed they often hear of the name of Jesus, but it is only when they hear it blasphemed. If they knew the dignity of his person, the greatness of his love to sinners, the nature and design of his sufferings—if they knew the greatness of his power and the riches of his grace—surely they would blaspheme him no longer. Furnish them with the means of this knowledge. Procure them Bibles and accompany your gift with your prayers. Whenever you succeed, you will be instrumental in saving a soul from death. This is an endeavour worthy of your ambition. To save a soul from death is of more real importance than to save a kingdom, or many kingdoms, from temporal ruin. Can you estimate the value of a soul? It is beyond the reach of natural members to express. It consists chiefly in two things—an immense capacity—an endless duration. Capable of possessing the power of God, or of being filled with an exquisite sense of his wrath, and that, for ever. It is not only the bodily life, but the precious soul is exposed to jeopardy in the high places of war. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall he give in exchange for his soul?

FOR MEDITATION: ‘For every living soul belongs to me …’ (Ezekiel 18:4).
‘… and he who wins souls is wise’ (Proverbs 11:30, NIV).

SERMON: JUDGES 5:18 [4/4] [FOR THE BIBLE SOCIETY AT ALDGATE]

September 24th

The “go” of preparation

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there thou rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Matthew 5:23, 24.

It is easy to imagine that we shall get to a place where we are complete and ready, but preparation is not suddenly accomplished, it is a process steadily maintained. It is dangerous to get into a settled state of experience. It is preparation and preparation.
The sense of sacrifice appeals readily to a young Christian. Humanly speaking, the one thing that attracts to Jesus Christ is our sense of the heroic, and the scrutiny of Our Lord’s words suddenly brings this tide of enthusiasm to the test. “First be reconciled to thy brother.” The “go” of preparation is to let the word of God scrutinize. The sense of heroic sacrifice is not good enough. The thing the Holy Spirit is detecting in you is the disposition that will never work in His service. No one but God can detect that disposition in you. Have you anything to hide from God? If you have, then let God search you with His light. If there is sin, confess it, not admit it. Are you willing to obey your Lord and Master, whatever the humiliation to your right to yourself may be?
Never discard a conviction. If it is important enough for the Spirit of God to have brought it to your mind, it is that thing He is detecting. You were looking for a great thing to give up. God is telling you of some tiny thing; but at the back of it there lies the central citadel of obstinacy: ‘I will not give up my right to myself’—the thing God intends you to give up if ever you are going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

September 24

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7.)

WHAT a strange prohibition! These men were going into Bithynia just to do Christ’s work, and the door is shut against them by Christ’s own Spirit. I, too, have experienced this in certain moments. I have sometimes found myself interrupted in what seemed to me a career of usefulness. Opposition came and forced me to go back, or sickness came and compelled me to retire into a desert apart.
It was hard at such times to leave my work undone when I believed that work to be the service of the Spirit. But I came to remember that the Spirit has not only a service of work, but a service of waiting. I came to see that in the Kingdom of Christ there are not only times for action, but times in which to forbear acting. I came to learn that the desert place apart is often the most useful spot in the varied life of man—more rich in harvest than the seasons in which the corn and wine abounded. I have been taught to thank the blessed Spirit that many a darling Bithynia had to be left unvisited by me.
And so, Thou Divine Spirit, would I still be led by Thee. Still there come to me disappointed prospects of usefulness. Today the door seems to open into life and work for Thee; tomorrow it closes before me just as I am about to enter.
Teach me to see another door in the very inaction of the hour. Help me to find in the very prohibition thus to serve Thee, a new opening into Thy service. Inspire me with the knowledge that a man may at times be called to do his duty by doing nothing, to work by keeping still, to serve by waiting. When I remember the power of the “still small voice,” I shall not murmur that sometimes the Spirit suffers me not to go.
—George Matheson.

“When I cannot understand my Father’s leading,
And it seems to be but hard and cruel fate,
Still I hear that gentle whisper ever pleading,
God is working, God is faithful, ONLY WAIT.”

24 SEPTEMBER (PREACHED 22 SEPTEMBER 1782)

A nation’s secret strength

‘Zebulun and Naphtali were a people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high places of the field.’ Judges 5:18
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Nehemiah 1:1–11

This war is complicated. Never before perhaps was the nation opposed by so powerful a combination of enemies—we feel the disparity and it is no dishonour in our situation to feel it. Except the Lord of hosts be on our side, there is but little hope of our standing long in so unequal a contest. We are brought to a crisis and our possessions, our civil and religious liberties, are all eminently at stake. Next to the prayers of those who fear God, our grand resource is in our fleets and armies. How desirable is it that the men to whom we commit our cause should be such as know to whom they should look for success. We may well wonder that the Lord of hosts should so often give us victory by such instruments as who, far from improving his blessing, or rendering him praise, disown his authority and in a manner defy him to his face. Could this insensibility and presumption be removed, we might hope that one might chase a thousand and five put ten thousand to flight—and that though millions were engaged against us, yet the Lord of hosts would be for us and preserve us. As things stand at present, they who really believe there is a God that governs the earth, can place but small dependence upon our warlike preparations when he is so little acknowledged either by those who plan our enterprises, or by those who undertake to carry them into execution. They know not what they do. Put the Bible into their hands, and who can tell but it may be in many instances the happy means of teaching them their sin, their dangers, their need of salvation and the worth of a Saviour. This would habituate them to obedience and subordination more than the strictest discipline without it. This will inspire them with a courage founded in principle; this would give strength to their arms and edge to their weapons, when lawfully called forth to plead the cause of their country.
FOR MEDITATION:
We now of fleets and armies vaunt,
Yet, Lord, we hope thou hast prepared
And ships and men prepare;
A hidden few today;
But men like Moses most we want,
(The nation’s secret strength and guard)
To save the state by prayer.
To weep, and mourn, and pray.

SERMON: JUDGES 5:18 [3/4] [FOR THE BIBLE SOCIETY AT ALDGATE]

September 23rd

The missionary’s goal

Behold, we go up to Jerusalem. Luke 18:31.

In the natural life our ambitions alter as we develop; in the Christian life the goal is given at the beginning, the beginning and the end are the same, viz., Our Lord Himself. We start with Christ and we end with Him—“until we all attain to the stature of the manhood of Christ Jesus,” not to our idea of what the Christian life should be. The aim of the missionary is to do God’s will, not to be useful, not to win the heathen; he is useful and he does win the heathen, but that is not his aim. His aim is to do the will of his Lord.
In Our Lord’s life Jerusalem was the place where He reached the climax of His Father’s will upon the Cross, and unless we go with Jesus there, we shall have no companionship with Him. Nothing ever discouraged Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem. He never hurried through certain villages where He was persecuted, or lingered in others where He was blessed. Neither gratitude nor ingratitude turned Our Lord one hair’s breadth away from His purpose to go up to Jerusalem.
“The disciple is not above his Master.” The same things will happen to us on our way to our Jerusalem. There will be the works of God manifested through us, people will get blessed, and one or two will show gratitude and the rest will show gross ingratitude, but nothing must deflect us from going up to our Jerusalem.
“There they crucified Him.” That is what happened when Our Lord reached Jerusalem, and that happening is the gateway to our salvation. The saints do not end in crucifixion: by the Lord’s grace they end in glory. In the meantime our watchword is—I, too, go up to Jerusalem.