Great is The Lord Jesus - Merciful & Mighty KING!
"For
thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose
name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that
is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the
humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
-Isaiah
57:15 [KJV]
O
what a mystery that God should have two dwelling-places! The "heaven
of heavens" that "cannot contain Him," and the humble,
broken, and contrite heart! But in order that the Lord of heaven
might have a place in which He could live and lodge, God gives to His
people gifts and graces; for He cannot come and dwell in the carnal
mind, in our rebellious nature, in a heart full of enmity and
wickedness; He therefore makes a lodging-place for Himself, a
pavilion in which the King of glory dwells, the
curtains of which are like the curtains of Solomon. His abode is that
holy, divine nature which is communicated at regeneration— "the
new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true
holiness."
Thus
Christ dwells in the heart by faith; and is "in His people, the
hope of glory." And this made Paul say, "I
am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, Who
loved me, and gave Himself
for me." This is the object of God's dealings—that the
Lord God might dwell in His people; that there might be a union
betwixt the Church and her covenant Head: "I in them, and
Thou in Me, that they might be perfect in
one."
This
is the unfolding of the grand enigma, the solution of the
incomprehensible mystery, "God manifest in the flesh,"—that
the Lord God might dwell in His
people; "I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and
they shall be My
people"
and thus glorify Himself
by filling their hearts with His
grace and glory, as Solomon's temple was of old, and that they might
enjoy Him,
and be with Him
when time shall be no more. This is the grand key to all the Lord's
dealings with the soul, and all His
mysterious leadings in providence,—that the Lord God might dwell in
the hearts of His
people here, and be eternally glorified in them in a brighter and a
better world.
-Gospel
report by preacher J.C. Philpot (1802-1869
A.D.)
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