Milo

7 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

Direct your hearts and eyes to the Great 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 …’ 1 Kings 8:38
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: John 2:13–22

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]

6 FEBRUARY (PREACHED 6 FEBRUARY 1777)

He knows our hearts

‘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: Jeremiah 17:5–10

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]

February 5th

Are you ready to be offered?

Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. Phil. 2:17.

Are you willing to be offered for the work of the faithful—to pour out your life blood as a libation on the sacrifice of the faith of others? Or do you say—‘I am not going to be offered up just yet, I do not want God to choose my work. I want to choose the scenery of my own sacrifice; I want to have the right kind of people watching me and saying, “Well done.” ’
It is one thing to go on the lonely way with dignified heroism, but quite another thing if the line mapped out for you by God means being a door-mat under other people’s feet. Suppose God wants to teach you to say, “I know how to be abased”—are you ready to be offered up like that? Are you ready to be not so much as a drop in a bucket—to be so hopelessly insignificant that you are never thought of again in connection with the life you served? Are you willing to spend and be spent; not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister? Some saints cannot do menial work and remain saints because it is beneath their dignity.

February 4th

The overmastering majesty of personal power

For the love of Christ constraineth us. 2 Cor. 5:14.

Paul says he is overruled, overmastered, held as in a vice, by the love of Christ. Very few of us know what it means to be held in a grip by the love of God; we are held by the constraint of our experience only. The one thing that held Paul, until there was nothing else on his horizon, was the love of God. “The love of Christ constraineth us”—when you hear that note in a man or woman, you can never mistake it. You know that the Spirit of God is getting unhindered way in that life.
When we are born again of the Spirit of God, the note of testimony is on what God has done for us, and rightly so. But the baptism of the Holy Ghost obliterates that for ever, and we begin to realize what Jesus meant when He said—“Ye shall be witnesses unto Me.” Not witnesses to what Jesus can do—that is an elementary witness—but “witnesses unto Me.” We will take everything that happens as happening to Him, whether it be praise or blame, persecution or commendation. No one can stand like that for Jesus Christ who is not constrained by the majesty of His personal power. It is the only thing that matters, and the strange thing is that it is the last thing realized by the Christian worker. Paul says he is gripped by the love of Christ; that is why he acts as he does. Men may call him mad or sober, but he does not care; there is only one thing he is living for, and that is to persuade men of the judgment seat of God, and of the love of Christ. This abandon to the love of Christ is the one thing that bears fruit in the life, and it will always leave the impression of the holiness and of the power of God, never of our personal holiness.

February 3rd

The recognized ban of relationship

We are made as the filth of the world. 1 Cor. 4:9–13 .

These words are not an exaggeration. The reason they are not true of us who call ourselves ministers of the gospel is not that Paul forgot the exact truth in using them, but that we have too many discreet affinities to allow ourselves to be made refuse. “Filling up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ” is not an evidence of sanctification, but of being “separated unto the gospel.”
“Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you,” says Peter. If we do think it strange concerning the things we meet with, it is because we are craven-hearted. We have discreet affinities that keep us out of the mire—‘I won’t stoop; I won’t bend.’ You do not need to, you can be saved by the skin of your teeth if you like; you can refuse to let God count you as one separated unto the gospel. Or you may say—‘I do not care if I am treated as the offscouring of the earth as long as the Gospel is proclaimed.’ A servant of Jesus Christ is one who is willing to go to martyrdom for the reality of the gospel of God. When a merely moral man or woman comes in contact with baseness and immorality and treachery, the recoil is so desperately offensive to human goodness that the heart shuts up in despair. The marvel of the Redemptive Reality of God is that the worst and the vilest can never get to the bottom of His love. Paul did not say that God separated him to show what a wonderful man He could make of him, but “to reveal his son in me.”