Milo

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]

February 25th

The destitution of service

Though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. 2 Cor. 12:15.

Natural love expects some return, but Paul says—‘I do not care whether you love me or not, I am willing to destitute myself completely, not merely for your sakes, but that I may get you to God.’ “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor.” Paul’s idea of service is exactly along that line—‘I do not care with what extravagance I spend myself, and I will do it gladly.’ It was a joyful thing to Paul.
The ecclesiastical idea of a servant of God is not Jesus Christ’s idea. His idea is that we serve Him by being the servants of other men. Jesus Christ out-socialists the socialists. He says that in His Kingdom he that is greatest shall be the servant of all. The real test of the saint is not preaching the gospel, but washing disciples’ feet, that is, doing the things that do not count in the actual estimate of men, but count everything in the estimate of God. Paul delighted to spend himself out for God’s interests in other people, and he did not care what it cost. We come in with our economical notions—‘Suppose God wants me to go there—what about the salary? What about the climate? How shall I be looked after? A man must consider these things.’ All that is an indication that we are serving God with a reserve. The apostle Paul had no reserve. Paul focuses Jesus Christ’s idea of a New Testament saint in his life, viz.: not one who proclaims the Gospel merely, but one who becomes broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for other lives.

February 25

“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you.” (Joshua 1:3.)

BESIDE the literal ground, unoccupied for Christ, there is the unclaimed, untrodden territory of Divine promises. What did God say to Joshua? “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,” and then He draws the outlines of Land of Promise—all theirs on one condition: that they shall march through the length and breadth of it, and measure it off with their own feet.
They never did that to more than one-third of the property, and consequently they never had more than one-third; they had just what they measured off, and no more.
In 2 Peter, we read of the “land of promise” that is opened up to us, and it is God’s will that we should, as it were, measure off that territory by the feet of obedient faith and believing obedience, thus claiming and appropriating it for our own.
How many of us have ever taken possession of the promises of God in the name of Christ?
Here is a magnificent territory for faith to lay hold on and march through the length and breadth of, and faith has never done it yet.
Let us enter into all our inheritance. Let us lift up our eyes to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west, and hear Him say, “All the land that thou seest will I give to thee.”
—A. T. Pierson.
Wherever Judah should set his foot that should be his; wherever Benjamin should set his foot, that should be his. Each should get his inheritance by setting his foot upon it. Now, think you not, when either had set his foot upon a given territory, he did not instantly and instinctively feel, “This is mine”?
An old colored man, who had a marvelous experience in grace, was asked: “Daniel, why is it that you have so much peace and joy in religion?” “O Massa!” he replied, “I just fall flat on the exceeding great and precious promises, and I have all that is in them. Glory! Glory!” He who falls flat on the promises feels that all the riches embraced in them are his.
—Faith Papers.
The Marquis of Salisbury was criticized for his Colonial policies and replied: “Gentlemen, get larger maps.”