Milo

14 JULY (VERSE 32 PREACHED 13 JULY 1777)

Drawn through the cross

‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.’ John 12:32–33
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 6:35–51

If … I will draw all men unto me. On this clause a few remarks—much is implied in it:
(i) that men are by nature at a distance from God (for in drawing to himself he draws to God—there is no other way to the Father). We are far from the knowledge of God, from his love, from communion with him.
(ii) that men are unable to come to God of themselves—they must be drawn, as in Song of Solomon 1:4; unable in every sense, but especially because unwilling—their carnal hearts are enmity.
(iii) the knowledge of Christ crucified is the effectual and only effectual means to draw sinners to God. The heart will stand it out against every other motive and argument, but not against this, which is spiritually revealed.
(iv) multitudes who call themselves Christians, though they know as a fact that Christ was crucified, yet have not the knowledge of it aright, because they are not drawn to him.
(v) the Lord’s people are drawn, that is, made willing; they do not serve him by constraint. Their hearts are won by the display of love, wisdom and grace manifested in his lifting up upon the cross. This gives them right views of God, of sin, of themselves.
(vi) they whom Christ draws, he draws to himself. This precious promise looks not only to the beginning, but the accomplishment of the work. His love will persevere till it has drawn them safe through all dangers and difficulties and brought them home to his kingdom.

FOR MEDITATION: The expression all men denotes not all universally, but some of all sorts—not the Jews only, but Gentiles also—young and old, rich and poor, of many nations, in various circumstances—so that none who feel their need of him and look to him as lifted up, have reason to think themselves excluded. They are invited without exception, with an assurance that he will in no wise cast them out.

SERMON: JOHN 12:32–33 [2/2]

July 13th

The price of vision

In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. Isaiah 6:1.

Our soul’s history with God is frequently the history of the “passing of the hero.” Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged. Take it personally: In the year that the one who stood to me for all that God was, died—I gave up everything? I became ill? I got disheartened? or—I saw the Lord?
My vision of God depends upon the state of my character. Character determines revelation. Before I can say “I saw also the Lord,” there must be something corresponding to God in my character. Until I am born again and begin to see the Kingdom of God, I see along the line of my prejudices only; I need the surgical operation of external events and an internal purification.
It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever. “In all the world there is none but thee, my God, there is none but thee.”
Keep paying the price. Let God see that you are willing to live up to the vision.

July 13

“God … calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Rom. 4:17.)

WHAT does that mean? Why Abraham did this thing: he dared to believe God. It seemed an impossibility at his age that Abraham should become the father of a child; it looked incredible; and yet God called him a “father of many nations” before there was a sign of a child; and so Abraham called himself “father” because God called him so. That is faith; it is to believe and assert what God says. “Faith steps on seeming void, and finds the rock beneath.”
Only say you have what God says you have, and He will make good to you all you believe. Only it must be real faith, all there is in you must go over in that act of faith to God.—Crumbs.
Be willing to live by believing and neither think nor desire to live in any other way. Be willing to see every outward light extinguished, to see the eclipse of every star in the blue heavens, leaving nothing but darkness and perils around, if God will only leave in thy soul the inner radiance, the pure bright lamp which faith has kindled.—Thomas C. Upham.
The moment has come when you must get off the perch of distrust, out of the nest of seeming safety, and onto the wings of faith; just such a time as comes to the bird when it must begin to try the air. It may seem as though you must drop to the earth; so it may seem to the fledgling. It, too, may feel very like falling; but it does not fall—it’s pinions give it support, or, if they fail, the parent birds sweeps under and bears it upon its wings. Even so will God bear you. Only trust Him; “thou shalt be holden up.” “Well, but,” you say, “am I to cast myself upon nothing?” That is what the bird seems to have to do; but we know the air is there, and the air is not so unsubstantial as it seems. And you know the promises of God are there, and they are not unsubstantial at all. “But it seems an unlikely thing to come about that my poor weak soul should be girded with such strength.” Has God said it shall? “That my tempted, yielding nature shall be victor in the strife.” Has God said it shall? “That my timorous, trembling heart shall find peace?” Has God said it shall? for, if He has, you surely do not mean to give Him the lie! Hath he spoken, and shall He not do it? If you have gotten a word—“a sure word” of promise—take it implicitly, trust it absolutely. And this sure word you have; nay, you have more—you have Him who speaks the word confidently. “Yea, I say unto you,” trust Him.
—J. B. Figgis, M. A.

13 JULY (VERSE 32 PREACHED 13 JULY 1777)

Lifted up to die

‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die.’ John 12:32–33
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 12:20–36

When our Lord spoke these words, the season of his passion was approaching. His holy soul was troubled at the prospect of that woeful hour in which, for sins not his own, he was to sustain the curse of the law in all its horrors. But his purpose was fixed, his love was unalterable. In another view he rejoiced, he saw of the travail of his soul and was satisfied. The thought of the salvation of innumerable sinners made him willingly obedient to the death of the cross. The phrase lifted up may be applied to his suffering upon the cross, to his exaltation in his kingdom, to his being set forth in the preaching of the gospel. The former sense is particularly intended here, as is plain by his own words, though the others are not to be excluded—for the Spirit is given in consequence of his ascension, and if he was not preached he could not be known. He was lifted up—that is crucified—as the brazen serpent in the wilderness. This death was to the last degree painful; it was ignominious, being only the punishment of slaves and the vilest malefactors. And in the eye of the law it was an accursed death (Galatians 3:13 [Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree]).
FOR MEDITATION:
‘Father, forgive (the Saviour said)
We knew not the desert of sin,
They know not what they do’:
Nor whom we thus defied;
His heart was moved when thus he prayed
Nor where our guilty souls had been,
For me, my friends, and you.
If JESUS had not died.

He saw, that as the Jews abused
But JESUS all our guilt foresaw,
And crucified his flesh;
And shed his precious blood
So he, by us, would be refused,
To satisfy the holy law,
And crucified afresh.
And make our peace with GOD.

Through love of sin, we long were prone
My sin, dear Saviour, made thee bleed,
To act as Satan bid;
Yet didst thou pray for me!
But now, with grief and shame we own,
I knew not what I did, indeed,
We knew not what we did.
When ignorant of thee.

SERMON: JOHN 12:32–33 [1/2]

July 12th

The spiritual society

Till we all come … unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Eph. 4:13.

Rehabilitation means the putting back of the whole human race into the relationship God designed it to be in, and this is what Jesus Christ did in Redemption. The Church ceases to be a spiritual society when it is on the look-out for the development of its own organization. The rehabilitation of the human race on Jesus Christ’s plan means the realization of Jesus Christ in corporate life as well as in individual life. Jesus Christ sent apostles and teachers for this purpose—that the corporate Personality might be realized. We are not here to develop a spiritual life of our own, or to enjoy spiritual retirement; we are here so to realize Jesus Christ that the Body of Christ may be built up.
Am I building up the Body of Christ, or am I looking for my own personal development only? The essential thing is my personal relationship to Jesus Christ—“That I may know Him. “To fulfil God’s design means entire abandonment to him. Whenever I want things for myself, the relationship is distorted. It will be a big humiliation to realize that I have not been concerned about realizing Jesus Christ, but only about realizing what He has done for me.

‘My goal is God Himself, not joy nor peace,
Nor even blessing, but Himself, my God.’

Am I measuring my life by this standard or by anything less?