Milo

May 8

“Walking in the midst of the fire.” (Daniel 3:25)

THE fire did not arrest their motion; they walked in the midst of it. It was one of the streets through which they moved to their destiny. The comfort of Christ’s revelation is not that it teaches emancipation from sorrow, but emancipation through sorrow.

O my God, teach me, when the shadows have gathered, that I am only in a tunnel. It is enough for me to know that it will be all right some day.
They tell me that I shall stand upon the peaks of Olivet, the heights of resurrection glory. But I want more, O my Father; I want Calvary to lead up to it. I want to know that the shadows of this world are the shades of an avenue—the avenue to the house of my Father. Tell me I am only forced to climb because Thy house is on the hill! I shall receive no hurt from sorrow if I shall walk in the midst of the fire.—George Matheson.

“ ‘The road is too rough,’ I said;
  ‘It is uphill all the way;
No flowers, but thorns instead;
  And the skies over head are grey.’
But One took my hand at the entrance dim,
And sweet is the road that I walk with Him.

“ ‘The cross is too great,’ I cried—
  ‘More than the back can bear,
So rough and heavy and wide,
  And nobody by to care.’
And One stooped softly and touched my hand:
‘I know. I care. And I understand.’

“Then why do we fret and sigh;
  Cross-bearers all we go:
But the road ends by-and-by
  In the dearest place we know,
And every step in the journey we
May take in the Lord’s own company.”

8 MAY (PREACHED 7 MAY 1775)

All my salvation, all my desire

‘Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.’ 2 Samuel 23:5.
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Revelation 21:1–7

Can you adopt David’s words, this is all my salvation, and all my desire?
Is it all your salvation? Do you understand this way? Do you approve it? The whole of it? Is Christ precious to you? In all his offices? If so, the covenant is yours. If not, you are yet in covenant with death, under the covenant of the law, bound down with a curse.
Is it all your desire? Then you are waiting upon the Lord, you are weary of sin, you love his ordinances, you account all things loss and dung compared with the blessings of the covenant. Such shall not be disappointed. Although your house be not as you could wish, although you are not made to grow so fast as you are taught to pray for, yet here is comfort: the Lord has made an everlasting covenant. He has made it known to you, drawn your heart to approve and desire it This is a sign you are surely interested in it. Can you, with respect to disappointment, see sufficient compensation if you could be able to say upon good grounds, he hath made with me an everlasting covenant …? Without his grace you could not have made this choice.
Fear not. You are in a good care. You have committed yourself to the Lord and none can snatch you out of his hands. Press on, read, pray, attend diligently on his means, and you shall know more and more of this covenant while you live, and ere long shall be put in possession of all its blessings in a better world. Amen.

FOR MEDITATION: Most gracious Lord, my all is in thy hands, my heart open to thee, my desires before thee. There is a liberty, a freedom, to which thou invitest thy people! O admit me to it and let me apply to thee as my best friend, counsellor and benefactor, and pour into thy gracious ear the incidents of the day and the reflections of my heart.
Diary, 16 October, 1775

SERMON SERIES: 2 SAMUEL 23:5, NO. 3 [3/3]

May 7th

Building for eternity

For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Luke 14:28.

Our Lord refers not to a cost we have to count, but to a cost which He has counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal and hatred; the deep unfathomable agony in Gethsemane, and the onslaught at Calvary—the pivot upon which the whole of Time and Eternity turns. Jesus Christ has counted the cost. Men are not going to laugh at Him at last and say—“This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”
The conditions of discipleship laid down by Our Lord in vv. 26, 27 and 33 mean that the men and women He is going to use in His mighty building enterprises are those in whom He has done everything. “If any man come to Me, and hate not …, he cannot be My disciple.” Our Lord implies that the only men and women He will use in His building enterprises are those who love Him personally, passionately and devotedly beyond any of the closest ties on earth. The conditions are stern, but they are glorious.
All that we build is going to be inspected by God. Is God going to detect in His searching fire that we have built on the foundation of Jesus some enterprise of our own? These are days of tremendous enterprises, days when we are trying to work for God, and therein is the snare. Profoundly speaking, we can never work for God. Jesus takes us over for His enterprises, His building schemes entirely, and no soul has any right to claim where he shall be put.

May 7

“He spake a parable unto them … that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” (Luke 18:1)

NO temptation in the life of intercession is more common than this of failure to persevere. We begin to Pray for a certain thing; we put up our petitions for a day, a week, a month; and then, receiving as yet no definite answer, straightway we faint, and cease altogether from prayer concerning it.
This is a deadly fault. It is simply the snare of many beginnings with no completions. It is ruinous in all spheres of life.
The man who forms the habit of beginning without finishing has simply formed the habit of failure. The man who begins to pray about a thing and does not pray it through to a successful issue of answer has formed the same habit in prayer.
To faint is to fail; then defeat begets disheartenment, and unfaith in the reality of prayer, which is fatal to all success.
But someone says, “How long shall we pray? Do we not come to a place where we may cease from our petitions and rest the matter in God’s hands?”
There is but one answer. Pray until the thing you pray for has actually been granted, or until you have the assurance in your heart that it will be.
Only at one of these two places dare we stay our importunity, for prayer is not only a calling upon God, but also a conflict with Satan. And inasmuch as God is using our intercession as a mighty factor of victory in that conflict, He alone, and not we, must decide when we dare cease from our petitioning. So we dare not stay our prayer until the answer itself has come, or until we receive the assurance that it will come.
In the first case we stop because we see. In the other, we stop because we believe, and the faith of our heart is just as sure as the sight of our eyes; for it is faith from, yes, the faith of God, within us.
More and more, as we live the prayer life, shall we come to experience and recognize this God-given assurance, and know when to rest quietly in it, or when to continue our petitioning until we receive it.—The Practice of Prayer.
Tarry at the promise till God meets you there. He always returns by way of His promises.—Selected.

7 MAY (PREACHED 7 MAY 1775)

Ordered and sure

‘Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.’ 2 Samuel 23:5
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 111:1–10

Ordered in all things. The word signifies disposed, suited, provided, in such a manner as to answer every case and necessity that should arise. O this is a comfortable thought when the soul is enabled to look round. See how everything in this covenant is exactly fitted to its state (1 Corinthians 1:30). The Lord knew what would be wanted and has provided accordingly (1 Timothy 4:8). The poor awakened soul is distressed and terrified by the guilt of sin, but here is pardon—free pardon—a pardon bought with blood. It is distressed by fears and unbelief which make it shrink back and say, ‘For others it may be, but not for me.’ But here are many, great, exceeding, precious promises. It sees itself all over wants, but the ordered covenant contains an infinite fullness. It is alarmed with numerous enemies, but when we look to the covenant, we see there are more with us than against us. There is a dreadful heart of unbelief tempting to depart from God, and when it is felt, the believer thinks, ‘This enemy will be too hard for me at last.’ ‘Nay,’ says the covenant, ‘that cannot be. I will put my fear into thy heart.’ Thus every objection and complaint being provided for and answered, the covenant is sure, or as the word is, secured—freed from any possibility of miscarrying. It is sure by the word of God (Psalm 111:5, 9; Isaiah 54:10), by the oath of God (Psalm 110 [verse 4]; Hebrews 6:17), by the power of God (Deuteronomy 33:27), by the blood of Christ (Zechariah 9:11), by the intercession of Christ (Hebrews 12:24) and by the government of Christ (Matthew 28:18).

FOR MEDITATION: O what comfort does the consideration of this covenant afford! Hence you that desire to be established in faith and peace, meditate much on this subject. You will never get strength by poring only upon your own hearts. Let all examine (concerning your faith in Christ, if you are united to him) this covenant which is made in and with him. You may say of it, as David, ‘He has made it with me.’

SERMON SERIES: 2 SAMUEL 23:5, NO. 3 [2/3]