Milo – Page 351

365 days with Newton

10 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

The plague in our hearts

I can tell some of you what the plague of your heart is. It includes such things as these:
(i) guilt. I have sinned against the LORD [2 Samuel 12:13]. Well, there is forgiveness with him—for those who are beginning to come to him and for those who have backslidden from him.
(ii) unbelief. This is always with us. I see the gospel is good and true. I know and in my judgement approve the way of salvation, and yet I cannot make it my own. Look to the temple and say, ‘Lord, increase my faith.’
(iii) indwelling sin. Some may say, O I am ready to be swept away by the stream of corrupt nature, and especially in one instance: I have an enemy who knows where I am weak and threatens to overpower me. But in this temple there is a treasury of grace.
[contd in 6/6]
FOR MEDITATION:
Physician of my sin-sick soul,
It makes me deaf, and dumb, and blind,
To thee I bring my case;
And impotent and lame;
My raging malady control,
And overclouds, and fills my mind,
And heal me by thy grace.
With folly, fear, and shame.

I would disclose my whole complaint,
A thousand evil thoughts intrude
But where shall I begin?
Tumultuous in my breast;
No words of mine can fully paint
Which indispose me for my food,
That worst distemper, sin.
And rob me of my rest.

It lies not in a single part,
LORD I am sick, regard my cry,
But through my frame is spread;
And set my spirit free;
A burning fever in my heart,
Say, canst thou let a sinner die,
A palsy in my head.
Who longs to live to thee?

SERMON: 1 KINGS 8:38–39 [5/6]

365 days with Newton

9 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

All persons and all cases

When we meet in the name of Christ in his ordinances, we are at the gate of the temple. The Lord is near, his eye upon us, his ear open to us, and his arm stretched forth to bestow upon us the blessings of his goodness—therefore the promise and encouragement. What Solomon asked, the Lord put in his heart because it was his pleasure to perform. Here is leave given for all persons and all cases.
(i) All persons—that is, all who account it a privilege, every man who knows the plague of his own heart. How strongly does unbelief work when those who do have a right, make the ground of that right an objection against themselves! Do you say, ‘Ah, I am such a sinner, such a backslider, I dare not come?’ Is not this rather a proof that you know the plagues of your own heart and are therefore invited by name?
(ii) All cases—what prayer and supplication soever. This is a large word. Let no one say, ‘I am shut out.’ They who know the plague of their own hearts will have matter for various supplications. A sense of our wants and wills will teach us to pray. What is this plague? Let the Lord know and direct your prayers to the Temple and you shall be heard.
FOR MEDITATION:
Behold the throne of grace!
My soul ask what thou wilt,
The promise calls me near;
Thou canst not be too bold;
There Jesus shows a smiling face,
Since his own blood for thee he spilt,
And waits to answer prayer.
What else can he withhold.

That rich atoning blood,
Beyond thy utmost wants
Which sprinkled round I see;
His love and power can bless;
Provides for those who come to GOD,
To praying souls he always grants,
An all-prevailing plea.
More than they can express.

SERMON: 1 KINGS 8:38–39 [4/6]

365 days with Newton

8 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

The true Temple

‘What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men).’ 1 Kings 8:38–39
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 2 Corinthians 3:7–18

I shall speak of the true Temple. The type points out to us several things. Though the whole earth was filled with the providence and goodness of the Lord, he was only known in the temple worship. No other place or people had tokens of God’s presence amongst them. Thus God is only known in Christ. The book of nature and even the book of Scriptures give us no comfortable apprehensions of him, any farther than Jesus the true Temple is acknowledged. If men have not eyes to see what is taught of the person, offices and saving work of Christ, even the Scripture is a sealed book to them, and with the Word of God in their hands and in their mouth, they stumble like the blind at noonday. Many who acknowledge the Scripture in words know no more of God in a way of comfortable dependence and influence than the heathens. All acceptable service was confined to the temple, or immediately referred to it. No sacrifices could be offered anywhere else, and prayers by those at a distance must be directed towards it. Thus, as there can be no knowledge of God, so no communion with God, but by Christ. He is the door and the way, and no one cometh to the Father but by him. In the temple there was a veil separating the things within it from the people’s view, intimating the state of distance of the church under the law. But this veil was removed, and every partition broken down at his death. The hidden glories are revealed. All the Lord’s people are priests and have right of access, and the temple, no more confined to one space, is open to people of all languages and nations.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God’ (Revelation 21:3).

SERMON: 1 KINGS 8:38–39 [3/6]

365 days with Newton

7 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

Direct your hearts and eyes to the Great Temple

The people were directed to pray toward the temple, which we find was observed by Daniel when captive in a far distant country. Those of the Jews who went no farther than the literal sense, and trusted in their outward privileges, have been long in a hopeless state; their temple and priesthood have been destroyed more than 1700 years, since which they have been incapable upon their own principles of offering one acceptable prayer, for they have no temple whither to direct their supplications. But the design of the prayer is made good to the spiritual Israel. Before the temple made with hands was finally destroyed, God was pleased to raise up another made without hands, of which the other was but a type, as our Lord himself teaches us in John 2 [19–22]. In these happy, gospel times wherein God is made known in Christ, we have the full blessings of which the worship in Solomon’s temple conveyed but the emblem and foretaste. The Lord give us faith to direct our hearts and eyes to the Great Temple in which the fullness of the Godhead unchangeably dwell, and may the glory of the Lord be revealed to our souls.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.… Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said’ (Matthew 12:6; John 2:19–22).
‘And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.… And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it’ (Revelation 21:10, 22).

SERMON: 1 KINGS 8:38–39 [2/6]

365 days with Newton

6 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

He knows our hearts

The Lord gave Israel to understand from first to last, and especially when he was affording them signal mercies, that he knew them and knew what returns they would make to him. He knew them, and long experience taught them to know themselves. Therefore it was often sounded in their ears, Not for your own sakes [Ezekiel 36:32]. The song of Moses was published with this view before they entered Canaan, that the grant might be known to be wholly of grace. The most glorious day perhaps ever seen by Israel was at the dedication of the first temple. The Lord had wrought wonderfully for them, subdued their enemies, given them rest, plenty riches, a king who was the wisest of men. The temple, built by divine direction, was finished in all its beauty and glory; the people, to appearance, all of one heart and mind; the sacrifices immense, the congregation innumerable, the glory of the Lord in view filling the house in token of his favour and acceptance. Yet the Lord then saw a day coming, which they were little aware of, when Israel would be delivered up into the hands of their enemies and their temple destroyed—not one stone left upon another. The prayer of Solomon upon this occasion was doubtless pronounced under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, and gives throughout a prophetic intimation of the changes that would take place.

FOR MEDITATION: Take heed to thyself, for there the principal danger lies. The world and the devil will undoubtedly spread all their snares, and join all their force against thee, but thy principal danger lies at home. As nothing from without entering into a man defileth him, so it may be said that nothing from without that befalleth a man can either hurt or hinder him in his spiritual progress unless he himself become one of the party. Thou that art devoted to God, take heed of thyself.

SERMON: 1 KINGS 8:38–39 [1/6]