05 God's Holy Dwelling Place

God’s Holy Dwelling Place

“And let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show THEE, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” (Exo 25:8-9).

GOD having redeemed the people of Israel out of Egypt, desired to have a dwelling-place among them in the wilderness. So God now desires that sinners redeemed by the blood of the Lamb should be builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph 2:22), and be built up a spiritual house composed of living stones (1Pe 2:5). When Jesus was here upon the earth, He Himself was the sanctuary and dwelling-place of God. In Him the glory of the Godhead dwelt. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). Before His death, in this respect, He abode alone (John 12:24). But having finished His work, and ascended up on high, He built the church of the living God, as a habitation for God (Mat 16:15-18). Upon this foundation, upon Himself, and on the confession of His name as the Christ, the Son of the living God, made known to the soul by the revelation of the Father, He built His Church, as the house of God, to be the pillar and ground of the truth (1Ti 3:15).

How perfect, how suggestive are the words of God! $e does not say, “Let them make themselves a tabernacle, or meeting-place, that I may come and visit them.” It is natural to man to think of himself first, and to begin from himself. But God’s thoughts and ways are the opposite of man’s. God begins from Himself—” Let them make ME a sanctuary! that I may dwell among them.”

O for grace to learn this lesson perfectly! so that in meeting together in church fellowship our first thought may be, not of our own comfort and convenience, nor even our edification—God will take care of that—but that God may have a dwelling place among us, and that God, through Christ, may be glorified. “That I may dwell among them,” not as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night, but to be at home there. And Jesus has told us the secret of this (John 14:23). And the secret is love and obedience—love to Christ and obedience to Him, “If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” The VISIT of Divine grace, in a Father’s love and a Saviour’s pity, to the abodes of the saints in the midst of their unworthiness and self-will, is one thing; the HOME-DWELLING of Divine love, where holiness is cultivated, truth maintained, and obedience sought, is another, and far more blessed. Again the Lord adds, “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but My Father’s which sent Me.” One proof of love to the Lord Jesus, and of regard to the authority of God, is keeping, retaining, and guarding the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake on earth, even those words which were given Him by His Father to make known to us. Surely it becomes us to be careful, lest on the authority of some two or three Arian manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries, we blot out large numbers of these inspired utterances from the sacred page. The Lord’s message of commendation to the messenger to the church in Philadelphia was, “Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word, and hast not denied My name” (Rev 3:8). A Sanctuary

God does not say, “Let them make Me a tabernacle, or a tent,” as though anything would do for God; but “Let them make Me a SANCTUARY,” a holy habitation, “that I may dwell.” Yes, “holiness becomes God’s house for ever.” In the Gospel, God comes down to sinners; it is grace abounding amidst the aboundings of sin. But the truth for the saint is the doctrine which is according to godliness. To the sinner, by the gospel, God says: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” But to the believer He says, “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? And what part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you: I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (2Co 6:14-18).

“Having, therefore, these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1). The Plan In the things of God no place is left for human reason, and no margin for self-will. God has arranged everything according to infinite wisdom, and the word of God contains full instructions.

These earthly types were the “example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, see, saith He, that thou make all things according to the plan showed to thee in the mount” (Heb 8:5). Weighty and important words? May they be brought to bear upon our consciences, and tell upon our hearts! The assembly of believers on earth should be the reflection down here, of what the Church of the first-born is in Christ above. Is the Church above redeemed to God from an evil world? The Church on earth is to be separate to God, as not of the world, even as Christ is not of it.

The high priest in garments of glory Is the Church above one in Christ its glorious Head? Church on earth should exhibit this oneness. Is the Church above a holy and true church? The Church on earth should be conspicuous for holiness and truth, “the epistle of Christ known and read of all men,” the pillar and ground of the truth.” And just as Christ on earth was “God manifest in flesh;” so the Church should exhibit Christ manifest in His people. In that marvellous prayer of the Lord Jesus recorded in John 17., this separateness, holiness, and oneness of the Church are the main subjects of His petitions. The Lord distinctly said, “I pray not for the world,” neither is Israel mentioned, but His prayer is for those whom the Father had given Him out of the world. Of these He said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil. Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.”

Three times He prays for their oneness. First, that they may be one after a Divine model (v. 11), “That they may be one as We are.” Second, that they may be all one in the Spirit from Pentecost till His return, “That they all may be one; as Thou Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us” (v. 21). And this oneness in the Spirit, notwithstanding their outward divisions, might be a proof to the world that He was the sent One of God, “That the world might believe that thou didst send Me.” Third, that they might be one in the glory, “And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given them: that they may be one, even as We are one” (v. 22). That when thus manifested with Him in glory, it may be a proof to the World that He was not only the sent One, but that they also were loved with the same love. The answer to this prayer commenced at Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost came to sanctify them, and to baptise them into body, and He has continued in the world ever since to carry on the work, and will not cease until whole body is complete, and until He has established them, “unblamable in holiness before God, even Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ all His saints” (1Th 3:13).