Milo

February 27

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” (Gen. 32:24.)

LEFT alone! What different sensations those words conjure up to each of us. To some they spell loneliness and desolation, to others rest and quiet. To be left alone without God, would be too awful for words, but to be left alone with Him is a foretaste of Heaven! If His followers spent more time alone with Him, we should have spiritual giants again.
The Master set us an example. Note how often He went to be alone with God; and He had a mighty purpose behind the command, “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray.”
The greatest miracles of Elijah and Elisha took place when they were alone with God. It was alone with God that Jacob became a prince; and just there that we, too, may become princes—“men (aye, and women too!) wondered at” (Zech. 3:8). Joshua was alone when the Lord came to him. (Josh. 1:1.) Gideon and Jephthah were by themselves when commissioned to save Israel. (Judges 6:11 and 11:29.) Moses was by himself at the wilderness bush. (Exodus 3:1–5.) Cornelius was praying by himself when the angel came to him. (Acts 10:2.). No one was with Peter on the house top, when he was instructed to go to the Gentiles. (Acts 10:9.) John the Baptist was alone in the wilderness (Luke 1:80), and John the Beloved alone in Patmos, when nearest God. (Rev. 1:9.)
Covet to get alone with God. If we neglect it, we not only rob ourselves, but others too, of blessing, since when we are blessed we are able to pass on blessing to others. It may mean less outside work; it must mean more depth and power, and the consequence, too, will be “they saw no man save Jesus only.”
To be alone with God in prayer cannot be over-emphasized.

“If chosen men had never been alone,
In deepest silence open-doored to God,
No greatness ever had been dreamed or done.”

February 26

“My grace is sufficient for thee.” (2 Cor. 12:9.)

THE other evening I was riding home after a heavy day’s work. I felt very wearied, and sore depressed, when swiftly, and suddenly as a lightning flash, that text came to me, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” reached home and looked it up in the original, and at last it came to me in this way, “MY grace is sufficient for thee”; and I said, “I should think it is, Lord,” and burst out laughing. I never fully understood what the holy laughter of Abraham was until then. It seemed to make unbelief so absurd. It was as though some little fish, being very thirsty, was troubled about drinking the river dry, and Father Thames said, “Drink away, little fish, my stream is sufficient for thee.” Or, it seemed after the seven years of plenty, a mouse feared it might die of famine; and Joseph might say, “Cheer up, little mouse, my granaries are sufficient for thee.” Again, I imagined a man away up yonder, in a lofty mountain, saying to himself, “I breathe so many cubic feet of air every year, I fear I shall exhaust the oxygen in the atmosphere,” but the earth might say, “Breathe away, O man, and fill the lungs ever, my atmosphere is sufficient for thee.” Oh, brethren, be great believers! Little faith will bring your souls to Heaven, but great faith will bring Heaven to your souls.
—C. H. Spurgeon.
His grace is great enough to meet the great things—
The crashing waves that overwhelm the soul,
The roaring winds that leave us stunned and breathless,
The sudden storms beyond our life’s control.

His grace is great enough to meet the small things—
The little pin-prick troubles that annoy,
The insect worries, buzzing and persistent,
The squeaking wheels that grate upon our joy.
—Annie Johnson Flint.
There is always a large balance to our credit in the bank of Heaven waiting for our exercise of faith in drawing it. Draw heavily upon His resources.

February 26th

Inferior misgivings about Jesus

Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with. John 4:11.

‘I am impressed with the wonder of what God says, but He cannot expect me really to live it out in the details of my life!’ When it comes to facing Jesus Christ on His own merits, our attitude is one of pious superiority—‘Your ideals are high and they impress us, but in touch with actual things, it cannot be done.’ Each of us thinks about Jesus in this way in some particular. These misgivings about Jesus start from the amused questions put to us when we talk of our transactions with God—‘Where are you going to get your money from? How are you going to be looked after?’ Or they start from ourselves when we tell Jesus that our case is a bit too hard for Him. ‘It is all very well to say “Trust in the Lord,” but a man must live, and Jesus has nothing to draw with—nothing whereby to give us these things.’ Beware of the pious fraud in you which says—‘I have no misgivings about Jesus, only about myself.’ None of us ever had misgivings about ourselves; we know exactly what we cannot do, but we do have misgivings about Jesus. We are rather hurt at the idea that He can do what we cannot.
My misgivings arise from the fact that I ransack my own person to find out how He will be able to do it. My questions spring from the depths of my own inferiority. If I detect these misgivings in myself, let me bring them to the light and confess them—‘Lord, I have had misgivings about Thee, I have not believed in Thy wits apart from my own; I have not believed in Thine Almighty power apart from my finite understanding of it.’

26 FEBRUARY

What think you of Christ?

‘There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ John 3:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Acts 8:26–40

Nicodemus’s example is an encouragement to such as are like him. Perhaps some of you are much in his case. You have heard strange stories about the gospel preaching, much evil and some good. You have been considering, ‘If the doctrine is false, how comes it that so many flock to hear it? Surely they cannot be all fools. If, as I hear, it breaks people off from their sins, teaches liars to speak truth, drunkards to live sober, and those who were bad neighbours to become good ones, how can this be a delusion? Well, if it please God, I’ll go soon and know, if I can, what it is that causes all the stir.’ And now you are come. Well then, take encouragement. It’s a good thing to be enquiring after Jesus, as Nicodemus found it. He came very ignorant, as you may be now—he seemed to come, as it were, only to satisfy his curiosity, but he heard what he did not expect and by degrees became a faithful friend and follower of Christ. I hope the Lord who brought you now will incline you to come again, for I have many things to say to you. Perhaps you are not aware that the comfort of your life and the salvation of your soul is closely concerned in the judgement you make of what you hear amongst us.
Do not think I take upon me too much in saying this. I have reason to doubt of myself, but I am sure of my doctrine. Do you ask what is preached here? I answer, We preach Christ crucified—Christ the wisdom of God and the power of God; Christ the sinner’s friend, Christ the sure foundation, Christ the only hope and refuge for lost man. Surely then you will attend.

FOR MEDITATION: Should I ask this question: What think you of Christ?—perhaps some of you could give me no answer. But perhaps you have never considered that according to your thoughts of Christ, so will your eternal state prove. If you go out of the world with low, dishonourable thoughts of Jesus, you are lost for ever. But observe, Nicodemus was ignorant too till the Lord taught him, and he will teach you likewise if you seek him with your whole heart.

SERMON SERIES: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 1 [6/7]

25 FEBRUARY

Come and hear for yourself!

‘There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ John 3:1–2
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Kings 5:1–15

What Nicodemus did: he came to Jesus. And thus his weak, infant faith expressed in his words, was justified by his works. He had heard much against Jesus, but then the power of his miracles struck him—he thought there must be something extraordinary. Though he was a ruler and Jesus, to outward appearance, a despised and poor man, he thought it worthwhile to go and see him. He did not send others to judge, but went to hear for himself. In this his example is a reproof to many. As there were disputes about Jesus in person—some saying he was a good man and others, Nay, he deceiveth the people [John 7:12]—so it is now wherever his gospel is preached. When it comes first into a place, it occasions a talk all around the country. Many are hasty to charge it with folly and madness—a strange doctrine that frightens some people out of their wits. The men that have turned the world upside down are come in our neighbourhood likewise. And O, what numbers of poor ignorant souls are kept back by such foolish reports and take up with lies and falsehoods at second hand, when if they could but be persuaded to come and hear for themselves they might perhaps receive conviction. I can only pity and pray for those that will not come; the absent cannot hear me.
FOR MEDITATION:
LORD, I am come! thy promise is my plea,
Bowed down beneath a heavy load of sin,
Without thy word I durst not venture nigh;
By Satan’s fierce temptations sorely pressed,
But thou hast called the burdened soul to thee,
Beset without, and full of fears within,
A weary burdened soul, O LORD, am I!
Trembling and faint I come to thee for rest.

         Be thou my refuge, LORD, my hiding-place,
         I know no force can tear me from thy side;
         Unmoved I then may all accusers face,
         And answer every charge, with, ‘JESUS died.’

SERMON SERIES: JOHN 3:1–2, NO. 1 [5/7]