The glorious habitation

“Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.” Psalm 90:1

Suggested Further Reading: 1 John 4:13-16

Will you take my master’s house on a lease for all eternity, with nothing to pay for it, nothing but the ground rent of loving and serving him for ever? Will you take Jesus, and dwell in him throughout eternity, or will you be content to be a houseless soul? Come inside, sir; see, it is furnished from top to bottom with all you want. It has cellars filled with gold, more than you will spend as long as you live; it has a parlour where you can entertain yourself with Christ, and feast on his love; it has tables well stored with food for you to live on for ever; it has a drawing-room of brotherly love where you can receive your friends. You will find a resting room up there where you can rest with Jesus; and on the top there is a look-out, whence you can see heaven itself. Will you have the house, or will you not? Ah, if you are houseless, you will say, “I should like to have the house; but may I have it?” Yes; there is the key. The key is, “Come to Jesus.” But you say “I am too shabby for such a house.” Never mind; there are garments inside. As Rowland Hill once said:

“Come naked, come filthy, come ragged, come poor,
Come wretched, come dirty, come just as you are.”

If you feel guilty and condemned, come, and though the house is too good for you, Christ will make you good enough for the house. He will wash you, and cleanse you, and you will yet be able to sing with Moses, with the same unfaltering voice, “Lord, thou hast been my dwelling place throughout all generations.”

For meditation: The Christian has two addresses—a temporary earthly address and an eternal heavenly address, “in Christ” (Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2).

Sermon no. 46
14 October (1855)