Milo

28 JANUARY

The law is good

‘But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.’ 1 Timothy 1:8
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 1:1–6

When the mind is enlightened and instructed by the Word and Spirit of God, then the law is known to be good.
(i) It is holy. It manifests the holiness of God and, when obeyed, communicates an impression of his holiness to man. A conformity to this divine law is the perfection of human nature. There can be no excellence in man but so far as he is influenced by this law. Without it, the greater his natural powers and abilities are, so he is but so much the more detestable and mischievous.
(ii) It is just. God had a just right and authority to appoint this rule; it was suited to the relation and ability of his creatures. And though we, by sin, have lost our power, his just right remains and therefore he can justly punish transgressors.
(iii) It is good—good for man, his obedience to the law and the favour of God therein being but another word for his proper happiness. And it is impossible for him to be happy in any other way. Only to sinners these things must be applied according to the gospel as fulfilled in Christ, who has obeyed the law and made atonement for sin in behalf of all who believe in him. So that through him they are delivered from condemnation and entitled to all the benefits of his obedience. Thus God is just in justifying the believers. From him likewise they receive the law as a rule enforced by his example and their peculiar obligations to his redeeming love. This makes obedience pleasing and the strength they receive from him makes it easy.

FOR MEDITATION: Till the law is thus approved, there can be no hatred of sin as sin, though it may be avoided in particular instances. If you say the law is good and the gospel is good and see how they illustrate each other, and yet are walking in a spirit of bondage, it is owing to the weakness of your faith. Your judgement may be clearer than your experience, but wait on the Lord and both in due time shall be established. You would as soon as eat poison, as allow yourself in sin, if you knew the goodness of the law.

SERMON SERIES: 1 TIMOTHY 1:8, NO. 2 [1/1]

27 JANUARY

Under the law or under grace?

‘But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.’ 1 Timothy 1:8
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Galatians 4:21–5:1

Jesus having finished the law, all other sacrifices are unnecessary and vain. The blessed gospel supplies the place of the ceremonial law, to the same advantage as the sun makes the twinkling of the stars and the feeble glimmering of moonlight no longer necessary. May the Lord help you to understand whether you are under the law or under grace. Do you love God? Have you always done so? Do you love your neighbour as yourself, perfectly and constantly doing to others as you would they should do unto you? Can you hear the Ten Commandments read and say deliberately, ‘I am free from the breach of every one, either in thought, word or deed?’ Will you say, why do I ask such vain questions? Why, nothing less than this can save you from hell, if you seek salvation by the law. The Lord help you to understand it, that you may embrace the gospel. By Jesus we are justified from those things for which the law of Moses would condemn us.
But if you are under grace, if you have put your trust in Jesus, then be of good cheer, he is able to save to the uttermost. You need not be afraid of the law; it is magnified and made honourable by your surety. Study it therefore as your rule and pray to him for grace that you may have a growing conformity to it in your temper and conversation, that he may be glorified in you and by you.

FOR MEDITATION: Thy grace is sufficient for me, but not the notion in my head—it must be the efficacy in my heart. Forgive the past, heal my wounds and anoint me with fresh oil. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee. O my Lord, thine eye beholds many hearts and hands and eyes waiting upon thee this morning for a blessing. Behold me among them. And shine upon me this day, that I may feel the importance of the truths and their sweetness in my soul, and may with an enlarged heart declare them to the people.
Diary, 15 and 16 June 1776

SERMON SERIES: 1 TIMOTHY 1:8, NO. 1 [2/2]

26 JANUARY

God’s law—his prescribed course

‘But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.’ 1 Timothy 1:8
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: 1 Timothy 1:1–11

Ignorance of the nature and design of the law is at the bottom of all our mistakes in religious concerns. This is the root of self-righteousness and the grand reason why the gospel of Christ is no more regarded. Without a due knowledge of the law, the gospel cannot be rightly preached or understood. And there are and have been too many like those mentioned in the preceding verse, desiring to be teachers of the law; yet not knowing what they say and affirm. Notice what we are to understand by the law. The law in many passages of the Old Testament signifies the whole revelation of the will of God, as in Psalm 1:2 and 19:7; but the law, strictly speaking, is distinguished from the gospel, as shown at large in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians. In the chapter before us the Apostle plainly intends the law of Moses, but in order to understand the nature and design of the law of Moses, it is necessary to go a little higher. The law of God then in the largest sense is that rule, or prescribed course, which he has appointed for his creatures, according to their several natures and capacities, so as to answer the end for which he has created them. Thus it extends to things without life. So it is said, the wind and storm fulfil his word or law. So he hath appointed the moon for its seasons and the sun knoweth his going down, or going forth, and performs all its revolutions according to its Maker’s pleasure. If we could suppose the sun was an intelligent being and was to refuse to shine, or was to wander from the path in which God has appointed it to move, it would be a transgressor of the law. But there is no such disorder in the natural world. The law of God in this sense, or what is frequently called the law of nature, is no other than the impression of God’s power whereby all things continue to his original purpose. For he spake and it was done, he commanded and it stood fast.

FOR MEDITATION: ‘For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’ (Ephesians 2:10).

SERMON SERIES: 1 TIMOTHY 1:8, NO. 1 [1/2]

25 JANUARY (PREACHED NEW YEAR’S EVENING 1770)

Do not forsake him

‘… If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.’ 1 Chronicles 28:9
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Hebrews 3:7–4:6

The close of my text is awful. If you will not hear, my eye shall weep for you in secret. Attend to the caution—If you forsake him … This is not contrary to what we preach of his unchangeable love to his own people. If you seek him, you shall so find him that nothing shall separate you from him. But if you neglect his call, if you reject him in your hearts, he will cast you off for ever—in life, at death, at the great day. In life you shall be a poor, miserable creature without God in this world, given up to unruly lusts and follies, strangers to peace, without hope or relief. At death—when your soul is plunging into eternity, torn from your idols. At the great day—do you not tremble at the thought? My heart trembles for you. But I would hope better things and things which accompany salvation. I would hope this is a season of grace, that prayer is heard, that the Lord is now about to exert the power of grace and that he will show himself mighty to save. I hope none will think that because I am especially to speak to young persons tonight, that therefore they only are concerned in the subject. If you have lived many years a stranger to God, surely it is high time that you should seek him, for if you do not know him, you must assuredly perish. What though you have lived forty, fifty, sixty, seventy years and are a slave to sin this hour—why, you are, for ought you know, upon the very brink of ruin. Yet it is not too late. Seek him now while he may be found. If your hearts are not utterly hardened against his voice, there is yet hope. But O beware of delays. It is the eleventh hour with some of you. May the God of all grace snatch you as brands out of the burning.

FOR MEDITATION: Some of you he has called out of darkness into his marvellous light. Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Follow hard after him. Be of good courage. Fightings and fears you must expect, but he is faithful who has called, who also will do it.

SERMON: 1 CHRONICLES 28:9 [5/5] [FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE]

24 JANUARY (PREACHED NEW YEAR’S EVENING 1770)

Seeking God

‘… If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.’ 1 Chronicles 28:9
SUGGESTED FURTHER READING: Psalm 34:1–22

This leads to the encouragement: if you seek him he will be found. It is his own promise—Seek and him ye shall find. Come and he will receive you. But do you ask, What is it to come or to seek? To come to Christ is to venture yourselves as poor, perishing creatures upon his blood and promise; and to seek him is to wait upon him according to his word for grace and power to do so. Though you are not sufficient in yourselves to come to Christ, yet you cannot, without stifling and rebelling against the light he has given you, put off seeking him a day longer. Seek him by prayer. Entreat him to make you truly sensible of these things, to soften your hearts, to give you the knowledge of himself. Search the Scriptures. Attend upon the ministry of the gospel. Be found in the way. If you are sincere in your desires, you will break off from sinful and ensnaring company and the things which you yourselves know are contrary and displeasing to him. Thus he will be found of you. And he says, He that findeth me findeth life [Proverbs 8:35]. O blessed shall ye be of the Lord, if you thus seek him. When you receive faith you will receive pardon, peace; you will find access to a communion with the great God. Heaven will begin in your soul while upon earth. He will guide you by his counsel and afterwards receive you to his glory. O that I could tell you the sweetness of the hidden manna, but it can only be known by tasting—some of you I trust have tasted that he is gracious.
FOR MEDITATION:
Our LORD, who knows full well
’Twas thus a widow poor,
The heart of every saint;
Without support or friend,
Invites us, by a parable,
Beset the unjust judge’s door,
To pray and never faint.
And gained, at last, her end.

Though unbelief suggest,
Then let us earnest be,
Why should we longer wait?
And never faint in prayer;
He bids us never give him rest,
He loves our importunity,
But be importunate.
And makes our cause his care.

SERMON: 1 CHRONICLES 28:9 [4/5], [FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE]