Milo

13 APRIL

Kingdoms shaken

‘For thus saith the LORD of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land.’ Haggai 2:6
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Jeremiah 9:7–16

The effects of Messiah’s appearance: shaking the heavens and the earth. The prophecy was, in a measure, fulfilled literally: at his birth—a new star; at his death—the sun withdrew its shining, the earth quaked, the rocks rent, and the dead arose. In his life, he often suspended and overruled the usual laws of nature and exercised supreme power over the visible and invisible world. He shook the kingdom of darkness, spoiled principalities and powers. He shook the kingdoms of the earth—the idols trembled and disappeared before his gospel, till at length the Roman Empire renounced heathenism and embraced the Christian name. But the language of prophecy is highly figurative. Mountains and trees, land and water, sun and moon, heaven and earth, often signify nations, peoples and states. And particularly heaven and earth are used to denote the religious and political establishment of Israel—or, as we say, their constitution of Church and State. This, without doubt, is the primary sense here. The appearance of the Messiah shall be accompanied with the total dissolution of the Jewish economy. The whole of their Levitical institution was fulfilled, superseded and abrogated by the Messiah. Before he died he said, It is finished [John 19:30]; the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. And in a few years the temple itself was destroyed and therefore their former worship rendered utterly impracticable. Their civil state likewise was dissolved, they were extirpated from the promised land and sifted as with a sieve among all nations. Though in one view they are preserved a distinct people, in another view they are not a people—having neither settlement nor government, but living dispersed as strangers and foreigners among the nations (Hosea 3:4).

FOR MEDITATION: Nothing like this ever happened to any people. It is a striking, obvious and perpetual proof of the truth of the Scriptures. What was foretold by Moses and the succeeding prophets, is fulfilled to a demonstration in our eyes. How unlikely that it should be so, yet it must be so because the mouth of the Lord had spoken it.

SERMON SERIES: MESSIAH, NO. 3 [4/5], HAGGAI 2:6–7

April 12th

Moral dominion

Death hath no more dominion over Him … in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God. Romans 6:9–11 .

Co-Eternal Life. Eternal life was the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human plane, and it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God. The energy and the power which were manifested in Jesus will be manifested in us by the sheer sovereign grace of God when once we have made the moral decision about sin.
“Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost”—not power as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power is the Holy Ghost, not something which He imparts. The life that was in Jesus is made ours by means of his Cross when once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we will not decide definitely about sin. Immediately we do decide, the full life of God comes in. Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eternal Life has nothing to do with Time, it is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here. The only source of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
The weakest saint can experience the power of the Deity of the Son of God if once he is willing to ‘let go.’ Any strand of our own energy in ourselves will blur the life of Jesus. We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.

April 12

“And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil.” (Luke 4:1, 2)

JESUS was full of the Holy Ghost, and yet He was tempted. Temptation often comes upon a man with its strongest power when he is nearest to God. As someone has said, “The devil aims high.” He got one apostle to say he did not even know Christ.

Very few men have such conflicts with the devil as Martin Luther had. Why? Because Martin Luther was going to shake the very kingdom of hell. Oh, what conflicts John Bunyan had!

If a man has much of the Spirit of God, he will have great conflicts with the tempter. God permits temptation because it does for us what the storms do for the oaks—it roots us; and what the fire does for the paintings on the porcelain—it makes them permanent.

You never know that you have a grip on Christ, or that He has a grip on you, as well as when the devil is using all his force to attract you from Him; then you feel the pull of Christ’s right hand.—Selected.

Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces. God hath many sharp-cutting instruments, and rough files for the polishing of His jewels; and those He especially loves, and means to make the most resplendent, He hath oftenest His tools upon.—Archbishop Leighton.

I bear my willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord’s workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most.—C. H. Spurgeon.

12 APRIL

Refreshing ointment

‘Thy name is as ointment poured forth.’ Song of Solomon 1:3
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 13:32–52

This ointment was poured forth in the preached gospel. It was appointed for this end. And everything that bears the name of preaching, if it does not diffuse the knowledge of this good ointment, is dry and tedious, unsavoury and unprofitable. But by this foolishness of preaching it is spread abroad. The scene of our Lord’s life was confined to a few places and it was a long while ago—but the ointment thus poured out has reached to distant lands and ages. Countless thousands have experienced its efficacy, and blessed be God, it is still fresh and still flowing. It is poured out amongst us at this day.
Farther, the expression poured forth may signify abundance (there is enough to spare) and freeness (it is not enclosed but open and common to all who know its value, as the light or water).
The Lord has likewise special seasons of pouring it into the hearts of his people. These are called times of refreshment (Acts 3:19): usually at the time of their first conversion; often in an hour of distress and trouble. They may expect it likewise at the hour of death. He often meets them with it in the ordinances—particularly when they approach his table. At this feast he revives them with the savour of his ointment and pours it upon their heads. He anoints them with this oil of joy and gladness above their fellows.

FOR MEDITATION:
Weak is the effort of my heart
And cold my warmest thought;
But when I see thee as thou art,
I’ll praise Thee as I ought.

Till then I would thy love proclaim
With every fleeting breath;
And may the music of thy name
Refresh my soul in death.

SERMON: SONG OF SOLOMON 1:3 [5/5]

April 11th

Moral divinity

For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Romans 6:5.

Co-Resurrection. The proof that I have been through crucifixion with Jesus is that I have a decided likeness to Him. The incoming of the Spirit of Jesus into me readjusts my personal life to God. The resurrection of Jesus has given Him authority to impart the life of God to me, and my experimental life must be constructed on the basis of His life. I can have the resurrection life of Jesus now, and it will show itself in holiness.
The idea all through the Apostle Paul’s writings is that after the moral decision to be identified with Jesus in His death has been made, the resurrection life of Jesus invades every bit of my human nature. It takes omnipotence to live the life of the Son of God in mortal flesh. The Holy Spirit cannot be located as a Guest in a house, He invades everything. When once I decide that my “old man” (i.e., the heredity of sin) should be identified with the death of Jesus, then the Holy Spirit invades me. He takes charge of everything, my part is to walk in the light and to obey all that He reveals. When I have made the moral decision about sin, it is easy to reckon actually that I am dead unto sin, because I find the life of Jesus there all the time. Just as there is only one stamp of humanity, so there is only one stamp of holiness, the holiness of Jesus, and it is His holiness that is gifted to me. God puts the holiness of His Son into me, and I belong to a new order spiritually.