- This is one of the last discourses Mr. Cook preached—he died in 1858—and was delivered on the Monday of a Communion.
WE should all desire and seek to have a dwelling in this house. There are many lessons given us in God’s Word, and we have all many precious calls to wait on the Lord—privileges that are denied to many of our fellow-men. We have all many precious encouragements to wait on the Lord, but I fear they will be to the condemnation of many—yes, the saviour of death to many, but the saviour of life to His own people. Those who are satisfied with the outward means of grace apart from Christ, “the god of this world” has blinded their eyes, but you whose eyes have been opened are not so satisfied. You were once, like others, under the power of “the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience”—you were running in the broad way that leads to destruction—but the Lord has opened your eyes and shown you your danger. He has arrested you as He did Saul of Tarsus. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And He has made you cry, “Lord, what shall I do to be saved?” He has showed you that “the wages of sin is death,” but that “the gift of God is eternal life.” You had formerly the letter of the Word merely, and were satisfied, but He has now made it truly precious to your souls. O, what do you want? “I want Jesus; if I am saved I shall be content.”
I have just thought on this passage to-day for you who are “in the way,” and who desire to behold the beauty of the Lord. You are leaving the ordinance and going out into the world. May you be enabled to take His Word with you!
There are several houses in which God dwells. We have “the house of the Lord” here. The Church of God on earth is the temple of the Holy One. “Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool, saith the Lord. Where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? . . . . But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah lxvi. 1, 2). In the renewed man then, I say, the Lord has a house. He that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at His reproofs—here His tabernacle is. I will now endeavour to say something that may be profitable to you—something that, with the Lord’s blessing, may stick to you.
This house was built on a rock. The wise man digs deep, and lays his foundation on a rock. The rains came, the winds blew, and beat upon this house, and it fell not, because it was built on a rock. But the foolish man built his house on the sand; the rains came, the wind blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, because it was built on the sand. This ought to be a question with you and me, if our foundation is on the rock. The Christian may have many crosses and trials; many hard winds may blow upon him; but he is safe, because his house is on the rock; his foundation is Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner stone, and all His people are lively stones in the building. They are all new creatures who are in this house, all hewn out of the rock of fallen nature. He took the hammer of His word and broke every stone and neatly prepared it for the spiritual house. He prepared some stones for the doors, others for the windows, and others still for the walls, all looking to Christ Himself as the chief corner stone, and remembering the rock whence they were hewn and the hole of the pit whence they were taken.
Now, you know the use of ordinances. Did you come here to see, or to be seen, or because it is the general practice, just as the door upon its hinges moves as it is moved? Are you just as hardened to-day as ever you were? Care you no more about a soul than the bird that flies over the house? “O! I have made use of sacraments and prayers, and have gone to the Lord’s Table”! Yes, and go perhaps to hell at last, unless you have your eye on the Chief Corner Stone. Every builder must have his eye on the corner stone else the building will not be straight. So must you have your eye chiefly set on Jesus Christ, the great Corner Stone. Jesus said, “I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture.” O! well did David know this, when he said, “This is the gate of God; by it the just shall enter in.” Many are professing to seek this door, who will be struck blind for their hypocrisy. But be you seeking in sincerity and truth; it is well worth seeking to get into such a house as this. The top thereof is gold; and if you fall on the pavement, it will not hurt you, for the pavement thereof is love. O seek, then, to get a place in this house. But you who are in will be longing to be with Christ in the house not made with hands. You must remain, however, for a season in the house on earth, and you will not be without sorrows. The people of God have their sorrows. You will have many trials, but “be of good cheer,” Christ says, “you will overcome the world, even as also I overcame it.” You must carry “the cross of Christ” with you. He will keep you in this house, until He prepares a place for you, for He says, “I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Some children are taken away soon out of this world; they cannot be taken away too soon. “Come out from among them, and be ye separate; and I will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.”
This house was not only a chosen but also a purchased house. Christ “gave himself for it”—more than heaven and earth could give. The blood of bulls and goats would not do, nor an angel from heaven. Christ Himself was the great ransom given that alone could suffice. Then justice was fully satisfied; the demands were all paid. Thus the Church of God was purchased with His own blood—the blood of Jesus Christ. You cost Him much. He sent His Son—”made of a woman, made under the law”—to die for you, to be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He had a crown of thorns put upon His precious head, and was spit upon and buffeted; all manner of despite was done unto Him. Yet He bore it all patiently for your and my sake. Look, then, O flock, at Jesus as the door and chief corner stone, you that were at His holy ordinance and table, and give yourselves wholly up to Him—to that dear Saviour who suffered so much for you. His people are made willing in the day of His power. In the former dispensation there were only types and figures of good things to come, but now you have the unction from the Holy One. Will merely hearing about Him satisfy you? No; you must be brought into the banqueting house to enjoy divine fellowship, and have “the flesh and blood” of the Son of God as your spiritual food. “Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able” to separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. O! then give yourselves up to Him. This is the house of God—where He dwells—made up of those who say, “Whatever others do, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” They have the spirit of adoption, and desire to be in their Father’s house. The strong man will be cast out. The Lord says, “I will take possession where the devil was wont to be, for I am stronger than man or devil.” And He takes with Him new furniture for the house, for the house must be newly furnished. The cry of the spouse in the Song of Songs was, “Let my beloved come into his garden”; and His answer was, “I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. . . . Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.” Jesus stood for you; He will not come empty-handed. This is Jesus and His spouse meeting—the Son of God meeting with poor sinners. The carnal affections are being crushed. “Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” He came in and wrote the law on the heart, not on tables of stone, but with His own finger on the fleshy tables of the heart. When He comes in, “the old man” is cast out and you are made new creatures. When He comes He will make people lively hearers. “The unction from the Holy One” will teach us all things. I am not able to go further at present. We will sing a verse or two. May God bless what has been spoken, to your souls!
[A few verses of a Psalm were sung.]
The members of God’s spiritual house are not mere servants; they are made sons and daughters. Jesus is all you want; seek then to lay hold of Him, so that when you leave this house below, you may enter the mansions above, the Paradise He has prepared for His own people. All this should be matter of anxiety to us—it should be a concern to each of us. You see the anxiety of David:—
“One thing I of the Lord desired,
And will seek to obtain
That all days of my life I may
Within God’s house remain:
“That I the beauty of the Lord
Behold may and admire,
And that I in his holy place
May reverently enquire.”
The beauty of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son of the Father is what he desired to behold. O sinner, is this your desire? David’s chief desire was to dwell in the house of God, to see the beauty of the only-begotten and well-beloved Son. He got riches and honours, but his chief desire was to dwell in “the house of the Lord.” This desire is begotten by the Holy Spirit in the soul, to dwell forever in God’s house. Job had this desire, even when he thought he was far from God, when he cried, “O that I knew where I might find Him.” “We shall be saved,” says the sinner, “for we attend the Sacrament and have the Bible.” Having the form of godliness without the power, “from such turn away.” The men of the world have a desire for the world. “Who will show us any good? is that which many say.” But David said, “Lord, lift on us the light of thy countenance; I have more joy in my heart than they when their corn and wine do most abound. And I will not give sleep to my eyes nor slumber to my eyelids, until I have found a place for the Lord.” The hungry have a desire for food. “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness.” Who begot that desire in your souls? Jesus Christ. The sorrowful cry of those who are seeking the Lord is, “I go to bed without Christ, go to Church without Christ, go home without Christ.” Well, the whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, like the poor woman who was going to all the physicians, and none of them could cure her, until she came to Christ, and we might hear her then say, “O when I saw Jesus, and but touched the hem of His garment, I was cured at once.” Go to the God of Israel; He will make up all your wants for time and eternity. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him, while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
Perhaps you will not get Him to-day or to-morrow, but persevere in seeking Him. David here sets us an example, and says in effect, “I will seek Him until I find Him.” If you seek Him from the heart, be assured He sendeth none empty away. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. There are many who have been (professedly) seeking Him all their life, and have never found Him. They have had a form of prayer all their life, and have never got Him. Pray with the heart. The Lord cares not for lip service. “They draw near me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Where the spirit of prayer is, the desire rises from the soul. When the child seeks its mother’s breast, give it gold or silver and it will care nothing for it. So with you who are truly seeking Christ; you will be satisfied with nothing else. But when Christ puts the breast of “the word” in your mouth, how happy you will be!