Milo

28 AUGUST

Honour your parents

‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.’ Ephesians 6:1–3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Genesis 46:26–47:12

Reverence or honour. It might be hoped that a sense of obligation might make children love their parents, yet this is not always the case, and where there is not a total want of love, there is often a great want of respect. But what shall we say of those who despise their parents, can make a jest of their infirmities and, instead of submitting as they ought, to bear with their temperaments, fly as it were in their faces. I must say, as I said before—it is a sad sign, a presumptuous contempt of God, which, unless they are partakers of his mercy by faith in Christ, will expose them to his curse both here and hereafter. When parents are old and in the decline of life, it is the duty of their children to behave to them with the greatest tenderness and care—patiently to bear with their infirmities and, if necessary and so far as in their power, to provide for them. It is to be feared there is wickedness in many hearts secretly to wish their deaths, to look upon them as a burden, especially if on the one hand they have money to leave behind them, or on the other they contribute more or less to their maintenance. All sharp language and unkind behaviour to them at such a time is not only a breach of the command but barbarous, base and ungrateful. May nothing of this be found amongst us, especially amongst those who profess to fear God. I hope such will always … study how to make the little remainder of their parents’ lives as comfortable as may be. The pains and infirmities of old age are hard enough to bear, without this addition of unkindness from those who are most obliged to them.

FOR MEDITATION: I hope often to pray that this child and all your children may be taught of God, and that if he is pleased to prolong their lives, they may grow up like olive branches around your table, may be an honour and a comfort to their parents, and when their parents shall be removed to a better world, their children may fully supply their places as members of his true church, and instruments in his hand of much good and usefulness in civil life!
John Newton to William Wilberforce, 21 December 1802

[on the birth of Robert Isaac]

SERMON SERIES: RELATIVE DUTIES, NO. 3 [3/5], EPHESIANS 6:1–3

August 27th

Theology alive

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. John 12:35.

Beware of not acting upon what you see in your moments on the mount with God. If you do not obey the light, it will turn into darkness. “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” The second you waive the question of sanctification or any other thing upon which God gave you light, you begin to get dry rot in your spiritual life. Continually bring the truth out into actuality; work it out in every domain, or the very light you have will prove a curse.
The most difficult person to deal with is the one who has the smug satisfaction of an experience to which he can refer back, but who is not working it out in practical life. If you say you are sanctified, show it. The experience must be so genuine that it is shown in the life. Beware of any belief that makes you self-indulgent; it came from the pit, no matter how beautiful it sounds.
Theology must work itself out in the most practical relationships. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, …” said Our Lord, i.e., you must be more moral than the most moral being you know. You may know all about the doctrine of sanctification, but are you running it out into the practical issues of your life? Every bit of our life, physical, moral and spiritual, is to be judged by the standard of the Atonement.

August 27

“And he took him aside from the multitude.” (Mark 7:33.)

PAUL not only stood the tests in Christian activity, but in the solitude of captivity. You may stand the strain of the most intense labor, coupled with severe suffering, and yet break down utterly when laid aside from all religious activities; when forced into close confinement in some prison house.
That noble bird, soaring the highest above the clouds and enduring the longest flights, sinks into despair when in a cage where it is forced to beat its helpless wings against its prison bars. You have seen the great eagle languish in its narrow cell with bowed head and drooping wings. What a picture of the sorrow of inactivity.
Paul in prison. That was another side of life. Do you want to see how he takes it? I see him looking out over the top of his prison wall and over the heads of his enemies. I see him write a document and sign his name—not the prisoner of Festus, nor of Caesar; not the victim of the Sanhedrin; but the—“prisoner of the Lord.” He saw only the hand of God in it all. To him the prison becomes a palace. Its corridors ring with shouts of triumphant praise and joy.
Restrained from the missionary work he loved so well, he now built a new pulpit—a new witness stand—and from that place of bondage come some of the sweetest and most helpful ministries of Christian liberty. What precious messages of light come from those dark shadows of captivity.
Think of the long train of imprisoned saints who have followed in Paul’s wake. For twelve long years Bunyan’s lips were silenced in Bedford jail. It was there that he did the greatest and best work of his life. There he wrote the book that has been read next to the Bible. He says, “I was at home in prison and I sat me down and wrote, and wrote, for joy did make me write.”
The wonderful dream of that long night has lighted the pathway of millions of weary pilgrims. That sweet-spirited French lady, Madam Guyon, lay long between prison walls. Like some caged birds that sing the sweeter for their confinement, the music of her soul has gone out far beyond the dungeon walls and scattered the desolation of many drooping hearts.
Oh, the heavenly consolation that has poured forth from places of solitude!—S. C. Rees.

“Taken aside by Jesus,
  To feel the touch of His hand;
To rest for a while in the shadow
  Of the Rock in a weary land.

“Taken aside by Jesus,
  In the loneliness dark and drear,
Where no other comfort may reach me,
  Than His voice to my heart so dear.

“Taken aside by Jesus,
  To be quite alone with Him,
To hear His wonderful tones of love
  ’Mid the silence and shadows dim.

“Taken aside by Jesus,
  Shall I shrink from the desert place;
When I hear as I never heard before,
  And see Him ‘face to face’?”

27 AUGUST

The duty of obedience

‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth.’ Ephesians 6:1–3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Deuteronomy 5:1–22

The duty of children to obey their parents is also founded on the authority of God. It is his command. When he gave but ten commandments this was one, which shows its importance, and there is a promise—which literally was in some sense peculiar to the Old Testament dispensation, but in general it expresses that obedient children have reason to hope for his blessing, and that disobedience exposes to his displeasure. Under the law, such were subject to the same punishment as blasphemers, and there is severe threatening (Proverbs 30:17). In effect we see that those who are disobedient to their parents are usually marked by the providence of God—some meet the same return from their own, and if you enquire of them who are brought to an untimely end by the law of the land, many or most of them will confess disobedience to parents was their first fatal step that led them into the way of mischief.
This duty of obedience is also founded on the example of Jesus, who, though Lord of all, yet when he humbled himself for our sakes, was subject to his parents during his private life.
FOR MEDITATION:
Dear Myra, hear the Saviour speak,
Devote to me your early days—
He speaks this day to thee,
Can you too soon be blessed?
Renounce the world (he says), and seek
And I will guide you by my grace,
Your happiness in me;
To an eternal rest;
The world will flattering baits present,
The object of my care and love,
But ’tis delusion all,
You then shall walk in peace,
And you can only find content,
And rise to higher joys above,
By yielding to my call.
When this frail life shall cease.

John Newton to Miss Sarah Gardiner on the anniversary of her birthday

SERMON SERIES: RELATIVE DUTIES, NO. 3 [2/5], EPHESIANS 6:1–3

August 26th

Are you ever disturbed?

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you. John 14:27.

There are times when our peace is based upon ignorance, but when we awaken to the facts of life, inner peace is impossible unless it is received from Jesus. When Our Lord speaks peace, He makes peace, His words are ever “spirit and life.” Have I ever received what Jesus speaks? “My peace I give unto you”—it is a peace which comes from looking into His face and realizing His undisturbedness.
Are you painfully disturbed just now, distracted by the waves and billows of God’s providential permission, and having, as it were, turned over the boulders of your belief, are you still finding no well of peace or joy or comfort; is all barren? Then look up and receive the undisturbedness of the Lord Jesus. Reflected peace is the proof that you are right with God because you are at liberty to turn your mind to Him. If you are not right with God, you can never turn your mind anywhere but on yourself. If you allow anything to hide the face of Jesus Christ from you, you are either disturbed or you have a false security.
Are you looking unto Jesus now, in the immediate matter that is pressing, and receiving from Him peace? If so, He will be a gracious benediction of peace in and through you: But if you try to worry it out, you obliterate Him and deserve all you get. We get disturbed because we have not been considering Him. When one confers with Jesus Christ the perplexity goes, because He has no perplexity, and our only concern is to abide in Him. Lay it all out before Him and in the face of difficulty, bereavement and sorrow, hear Him say—“Let not your heart be troubled.”