CHAPTER THREE BY:  GEORGE R. HAWTIN

[responsivevoice_button voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Listen to Post”]

THE INCREASE OF HIS GOVERNMENT

Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isa 9:7)

The deep and hidden mysteries of God are never discovered by the investigations or probings of the natural mind because they abide in a realm beyond the reach of the natural. God is not far from any one of us, for “in Him we live and move and have our being”, yet “no man hath seen God at any time.” When men with natural minds try to describe God, they manifest themselves to be the fools that they are, for “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. 2:14 As man cannot fathom God, neither can he fully comprehend His plan for the ages, His great redemption, or His merciful purpose, which He has purposed in Himself to gather all things in heaven and earth into His Son, Jesus Christ. (Eph. 1:10)

I earnestly pray that God will give a spirit of true humility to all who read these lines, for revelation and understanding are given only to those who humbly confess their ignorance before God. While there is no searching of His understanding, yet “He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isa, 40:29-31

Long ago our Lord Jesus Christ warned the Pharisees, saying, “Ye make the word of God of none effect through your tradition.” Mark 7:13 What a painful thing it really is that men through centuries of imbibing the teachings and sermons of men should have their hearts so full of religious tradition that they can never see the truth because it is contrary to their tradition. The scribes and Pharisees had formed such definite opinions as to who and what Christ should be that, when He appeared before them, they not only did not know Him but thoroughly rejected Him. Our Lord Jesus was forever knocking holes in their traditions, but for all that they would not abandon them. “What think ye of Christ?” He once asked. “Whose Son is He?” To this they replied, “He is the Son of David.” “How is it, then,” He asked, “that David in spirit calleth Him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said unto my Lord, sit Thou on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.’ If David then called Him Lord, how is He his son?” Matt. 22:41-46 Though they could not answer His question and dared not try, they still held doggedly to their traditions. But were these scribes and Pharisees more blind and stubborn than the preachers and people who are their counterparts today? I tell you, nay, for the same blindness fills the minds of those who adhere to that unchaste harlot who dares to call herself the church. Blindly they grope and grovel in the darkness of her tradition, obscuring the light of revelation and the understanding of the truth.

“Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the ages.” Acts 11:18 How could it be otherwise with an omniscient mind? We may therefore rest assured that the all wise God planned in the minutest detail each eternal purpose. Nothing happens without His will. No power prospers without His permission. Nations rise at His command and fall at His bidding. He raises up kings and puts them down again. Every stormy wind obeys His command. Angels, principalities, and powers are made subject unto Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Everything everywhere, whether seen or unseen, obedient or rebellious, is fulfilling His mind and will in some way work toward His infinite purpose and the spokes of a wheel are centered in the hub. From the foundation of the world and the beginning of the ages, before ever there was a man on the face of the earth, the Lord God omniscient and almighty “appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained.” Acts 17:31 That man whom He hath ordained is none other than Jesus Christ, and it is of Him and the increase of His government and peace that we will concern ourselves in this chapter.

When the Lord declares Himself immutable, saying, “I am the Lord; I change not”, we should understand that His purposes are the same now as they were in the beginning. He is not changing, but is working out that which from the beginning flourished in His divine mind. The ways of God are eternally progressive, for progression was His purpose in the beginning, and progression was His purpose when He declared, “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.” Why do men quote the scripture, “I am the Lord; I change not”, or “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever” hoping to relegate God to the static, hearing of no progression or change in anything? The real truth is that God never changes His purpose, but all the growth and development and the glorious increase of His government are according to His unchanging purpose. How often we have read the truth, “The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more until the day is full”, but while we rejoice in the statement, we reject its truth, preferring to believe that God, being perfect, remains static in all things.

Have we not noticed the ever increasing growth of revelation in the life of John the Apostle? He who fell down in a daze before Christ at the transfiguration (Matt. 17:6) fell down as one dead before the greater glory when Christ was revealed as the Alpha and Omega in Rev. 1:17, and later still, when carried in the Spirit to behold the bride of Christ, he fell down once more, staggered by the wonder of that which is yet to come. (Rev. 22:8) Let us then raise our sights and lift our eyes unto the high hills of God that we may behold the increasing greatness of the revelation of Christ and the increasing greatness of the revelation of His government.

THE GATHERING OF THE ELECT AND THE REIGN OF CHRIST IN THEIR HEARTS

When the Apostle James stood to speak in the council at Jerusalem, he began by making this remarkable statement which embraces within itself the complete outline of God’s purpose for the age of grace in which we live and the dispensation of the kingdom of God, the millennial kingdom, which is to follow. In these words James instructed the brethren at Jerusalem, saying. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written. After this (i.e. after God has taken a people out of the Gentiles) I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up; that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” Acts 15:14-18

It is true that God has known all His works from the foundation of the ages, for it was God who formed the ages and appointed what should be done in each one of them. I must, therefore, with utmost force impress upon all who read these lines that, if we are to comprehend God’s great plan for the ages, we must raise our eyes far above the engulfing muck and sucking quicksand of Babylonish church tradition handed down to us by the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth to keep God’s people in bondage, and, as though this were not enough, she has bequeathed many of her sordid and hopeless doctrines to her harlot daughters of so-called Protestantism. As long as you tenaciously hold to the tradition of the church system (which is not the church at all, but Babylon), believing that every Chinaman or African or Indian is forever doomed who through no fault of his own has never heard the name of Jesus Christ, then you will fail to see God’s plan for the ages, but if you see, as the Apostle Paul taught, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times God will gather together in one all things in Christ (Eph. 1:9-11), then for the first time in your life God’s marvelous working in every age will make good sense.

God’s purpose for this age of grace is not the conversion of the whole world. This never was His plan. God’s purpose for this age is to take out a people for His name. (Acts 15:14) And may I further add that, if it were God’s plan to bring the whole world to repentance in this age, then the whole world would come to repentance in this age, and nothing could stop it from doing so. Is not God almighty? Does He not hold all the nations in the palm of His hand, turning them about as a watercourse and appointing the bounds of their habitation? Did not our Lord Jesus Christ say, “All that the Father hath given Me will come to Me?” John 6:37 And did He not also say, “No man cometh to Me except the Father draw him?” John 6:44 On that wonderful day of revival when the church was in its infancy was it not said, “As many as were ordained to eternal life believed?” Acts 13:48 Who else could believe but they? Did God ask Saul of Tarsus whether or not he wanted to be saved? Or did He say to Ananias, “He is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel?” Acts 9:15 Where do these man-made preachers get the notion that man is a free moral agent? Indeed, he may be free in some minor things that concern his personal conduct, but concerning God’s eternal purpose for him he is not free to do his own will, for “it is not of him that willeth or him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy.” Rom. 9:16

God’s purpose, then, in this dispensation of grace is to call out a people for His name. Out from among the billions of earth God is choosing an elect company to bear His name. Even the word church means the called out ones. These are the ones who are being called out of the world, called out of every nation, called out of the Gentiles, called out of Israel until there is a multitude which no man can number of all nations, and kindreds, and tongues. (Rev. 7:9) Just as God passed by all the inhabitants of Ur of the Chaldees, choosing out one man by the name of Abram, saying to him, “Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house unto a land that I will show thee” (Gen. 12:1), so He does today. Passing among the nations, He calls out all those who were ordained to eternal life, leaving the rest to fulfill His purpose in ages to come.

I am persuaded that the true church, which God sees and recognizes, is not the church which man sees and recognizes. God pity us if it were! The visible thing which man sees is a church made by the art of man’s device of which he, like Nebuchadnezzar of old, can say, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” Dan. 4:30 But the church, which God sees and recognizes, is comprised of those called out ones, for they have heard the voice of God and not the voice of man. They are the sheep of His fold. They are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:10) He has become our peace, having broken down the walls and partitions erected by sects and denominations and by the ingenuity of the carnal mind. They are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and the household of God. They are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom the whole building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

“So you are no longer outsiders or aliens, but fellow-citizens with every other Christian. You belong now to the household of God. Firmly beneath you is the foundation, God’s messengers and prophets, the actual foundation stone being Jesus Christ Himself. In Him each separate piece of building, properly fitting into its neighbor, grows together into a temple consecrated to God. You are all part of this building in which God Himself lives by His Spirit.” Eph. 2:19-22 (Phillips)

My earnest prayer to God is that those who read this message may quickly come to see the vast and abounding difference between the true church, the mystical body of Christ, which is rising to form a spiritual habitation and dwelling place for God, and that visible thing, the work of man’s hands, which like a lewd harlot waits at every corner to catch the man who is void of true understanding. The thing which men today call the church is not the church, but an enormous usurper, full of the lames of blasphemy, abounding in false worship and every service of man. Name off every denomination and every sect in the world and I will still affirm, after you have completed the list, that these are but names. They are neither the true church nor segments of it. Their worship is neither in spirit nor in truth. You owe no allegiance to them, but you owe God the obedience of “coming out from among them and being separate from them.”

I suppose all the arguments and persuasions in the world will not awaken Christians to the falsehood of the visible church system or to the reality of that spiritual temple, every member of which is stamped with the name of Christ, washed in His blood, and made partakers of His Spirit. They hear His voice and follow Him and strangers will they not follow. It is here in this blessed virgin church that Jesus Christ first sets up His government that He might begin to rule and reign on the throne of their hearts. God never intended that Jesus should reign over all the earth in this age. His reign is confined completely to that company of believers who have heard His voice and who follow Him.

As soon as a man believes, the Lord Jesus Christ desires immediately to set up His government in that life. He plans to subdue it completely unto Himself, to imbue the believer with His mind, with His Spirit, and with His thoughts until the soul is so yielded to Christ and filled with His ways that it can with truth be said, “As He is, so are we in this world.” Under this blessed reign of Christ the believer partakes of truth until he becomes truth. He learns wisdom until he is wisdom. Judgment, justice, and equity become integral parts of his redeemed spirit. All that Christ is the believer becomes. He is a partaker of the divine nature. He escapes the corruption that is in the world. He, like his Lord, becomes meek and lowly in heart. He loses his own will and delights himself in the will of God. God’s will is his will; God’s love is his love; God’s justice is his justice. In this age of grace Christ is the King and those who follow Him are the kingdom over which He reigns. This may seem to be a very small kingdom for such a great and eternal King, but we cannot over-emphasize the importance of this lowly beginning for a government whose authority is destined to be as boundless as eternity, for “of the increase of His government there shall be no end.”

How pitiful it is that for centuries Christians have been taught that their hope was to die and fly away to heaven where they would spend eternity shouting “Hallelujah” up and down the golden streets! Oh how much truth is missed by confining ourselves to such doctrines of men! This is not and never was God’s purpose for the saints, but the kingdom of God and the sovereign reign of Christ is being set up in the hearts of His believing saints. Thus He is preparing them for the government of the world when the time is ripe for it. He is bringing the true saints to full sonship that these sons, begotten of God, may, together with Jesus Christ the first begotten Son, be used to display unto principalities and powers the manifold wisdom of God. Eph. 3:10. These are the sons of whom it is written, “That He might be the firstborn among many brethren,” Rom. 8:26, and again, “Here am I and the children (sons) which God has given Me.” Heb. 2:13

When Jesus the Lord came to earth, His own received Him not because He did not come according to their tradition. For centuries they had cherished the hope that the moment the Messiah appeared He would immediately seize authority, cast down their enemies, and begin His reign over the nations of the earth. They expected that He would smite down the Caesars Tom their thrones and restore the kingdom immediately to Israel. Even His disciples were filled with this doctrine, for after His resurrection they inquired, “Wilt Thou at this time restore he kingdom to Israel?” But He answered, “It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in His own lower, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Acts 1:6-7 The people unto whom He came understood not that this King who had come from glory was not ready to set up His kingdom and reign, but first with utmost care He must choose and prepare through seemingly endless centuries that blessed “cabinet”, God’s sons, who were to reign and rule with Him. He must first set up His throne and reign in all their hearts, bringing them to the exact likeness and image of the Son of man, knowing full well that, when they had all become partakers of His Spirit, of His flesh, and of His bones, they would be in His image in all things and ready to take the kingdom and reign with Him, not in a limited, confined, and restricted kingdom, but over the whole earth and everything in. He knew that at the end of the age they should be in His image. They would be like Him – so wonderfully like Him that they would be indistinguishable from Him.

Those Jews who rejected Him as their king knew not that He would employ the next two thousand years to slowly, surely, and wisely choose that governing body of sons, preparing them through fiery furnaces and trials of affliction to sit together with Him in His throne, for those who suffer with Him shall reign with Him and those who deny Him He will deny. When that glorious kingdom comes, God will manifest twelve times twelve thousand sons in the image and likeness of God’s firstborn Son that all the earth may be filled with the glory of the Lord.

It would take volumes without number to write of the infinite preparation our Lord is making in the hearts of those saints who are to rule and reign with Him. See how He is preparing our hearts, conforming our very nature to the likeness of His own: First, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; second, that we may be rooted and grounded in love; third, that we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the length and breadth and depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge; and, fourth, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God, that the church should bring glory to Him throughout all ages. Cf. Eph. 3:16-21. Since the reign of Christ is to be one of increasing peace, judgment, justice, order, love and equity, it is necessary that the King of kings and Lord of lords should take this whole dispensation to prepare the hearts of His sons that they might be prepared to reign with Him in the same spirit and with the same knowledge that He Himself possesses. He is not only preparing our spirits and our minds to shine in His exact likeness, but He is making known the mystery of His will, opening the eyes of our understanding that we may know the hope of such a sublime and worthy calling and what riches He enjoys among His saints. See Eph. 1:9-11, 18. It is through His great kindness freely bestowed on us that He will demonstrate the exceeding riches of His grace in the boundless ages, which are yet to come. See Eph. 2:7.

This then is the beginning of Christ’s reign – silent, unpretentious, and unnoticed as He reigns in the hearts of those elect whom He has chosen to reign with Him in the ages to come. But how boundless and important is this the beginning of His government, and how necessary that all the saints should walk in Him and suffer with Him, being “worthy of God who has called s unto His kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:12) that we might walk continually in His will and stand at last in His image.

THE REIGN WITH HIS SONS IN THE KINGDOM

The world, which for six thousand years has endured the ever increasing injustice and inequity of the rule of man, is soon) see a change so unbelievable in its glory and magnitude that /even he that seeth it will scarce believe it. For centuries and dispensations the world has been blighted by the government of the carnal mind until the confusion and disorder has become so real that men’s hearts fail them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming upon the earth. But the long, long night of sin and misrule is nearing its end. The Sabbath of the dispensations draweth nigh – that seventh dispensation in God’s order, which is the millennial Sabbath. In six days God made the heaven and the earth and all that in them is, and on the seventh day He rested from all His work of creation. Those six days of work and labor represent the six thousand years of man’s travail under the misrule of the carnal mind, to be followed by a thousand year Sabbath day of rest in which all the former things will have passed away and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace ere shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with slice from henceforth even forever (or, for the age). The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isa. 9:6,7)

What a glorious day for all the world and all the inhabitants thereof will be this millennial day when the Christ shall reign! And how much more glorious will it be for those saints who, having suffered with Him through the ages of darkness and wail, will now reign with Him in love and peace that the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters now fill the seas. Then no man shall ever say, “Know the Lord”, for in that day all shall know Him from the least even to the greatest.

Throughout the ages of sin and travail, puny man with his carnal mind has devised many forms of government, but each in its turn has proved a failure. The carnal mind wherever it is found continually seeks his own at the expense of others. Thus do all man’s efforts fall into decay and pass away. But in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and that kingdom will be the glorious kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with all the sons of God, which is in truth the body of the bridegroom. With the coming increase of His government there shall be also an increase of those who govern, and we shall now attempt to show as best we can, limited as we are to words and phrases of human language, the very image of that majesty who is to reign over all the earth in the kingdom of our Lord, which is the kingdom of God.

The Apostle John had been exiled to the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and the testimony of the Lord. He was one of those precious saints in whose hearts the meek and lowly Jesus reigned supreme. He was one of the in Christ company, or shall I boldly say he was one of the enchristed. He knew experimentally the truth of the words of the blessed Master, “Thou in Me and I in Thee that they may be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” But he who was exiled to Patmos for permitting Jesus Christ to set up His kingdom in his heart was now to clearly see the meaning of the words, “Of the increase of His government there shall be no end.”

As he walked the lonely shores of Patmos, he found himself borne away into the realm of the Spirit. In Spirit he traversed the two thousand years of the dispensation of grace to stand in the day that he calls “the Lord’s day” or better understood by us as the day of the Lord. From his vantage point in the Spirit he was to behold the tribulation with all its horror unveiled before his eyes. He was to see the rise of antichrist and view the swaggering harlot of Babylonish religion as it exists in our day. He was to hear the voice of an angel proclaiming to God’s people, “Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partaker of her plagues; for strong is the Lord that judgeth her.” He was to look upon the awful smoke of her burning and destruction and hear the angel voice proclaiming, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign unto the age of the ages.” How awesome was his vision!

It is significantly wonderful that, at the very beginning of this great vision in which he was to see the reign of Christ with His saints for a thousand years, he should first be given a vision of the Christ who is to reign. The reign of Christ, which for two thousand years had been restricted to a mystical sovereignty in the hearts of His saints, is now to be greatly increased that He with all those sons whom He has chosen should now reign over all the earth, filling it with the knowledge of the Lord. Thus did John stand in the Spirit on the day of the Lord, and in his own words he declared. “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia… And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed in a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in His right hand seven stars; .and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.” Rev. 1:10-17

Let us take particular note that this mighty One who stood among the candlesticks, proclaiming, “I am Alpha and Omega”, was something more than the meek and lowly Jesus of Nazareth, It is stated with great clearness that John, being turned, saw one like unto the Son of man. This is none other than Jesus Christ, the first begotten Son of God, together with all those other precious sons that have come into His image and likeness throughout the ages. This is in truth the fullness of the body of the bridegroom, for the bridegroom is more than Jesus of Nazareth. He is Jesus Christ and all the sons whom God has given Him now joined together as one glorious body of sons, the bridegroom of whom it was said, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet Him.”

I am terribly at a loss for words to explain or express the glory of that which is soon to come to pass. John, who had been so near to Jesus during His time on earth, could not endure the glory of that mighty One which he now beheld. All his strength ebbed from him until he fell upon the ground as one who is dead. No wonder it is said, “Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath entered the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit.” This He desires to do that we might abandon fully all the weakness of the beggarly things of this age to grasp by faith the marvels of that age which is soon to come.

The voice of this all glorious One was as the sound of a multitude. The significance of this lies in the fact that this was not the voice of the lonely Galilean, but this was Christ, the head, together with all the sons appearing as one body of Christ. Therefore it is fitting that the voice that proceeded forth from Him was the voice of a multitude, or as the voice of many waters. I shall never forget an occasion when we sat amid a crowd of thirty thousand. As they waited for the parade to begin, each was chatting to the other, and as they talked, I heard the swelling voice of a multitude. The only fitting description was that it was as the sound of many waters.

Time’s clock is striking the hour and the time is near at hand for the manifestation of the sons of God, and what a manifestation it is going to be! All creation from time immemorial has groaned and travailed for the manifestation of God’s sons, but soon their prayer will be answered in this mighty One, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

I am too weak and earthbound to describe the glory of that heavenly vision that caused John to fall as one dead. Perhaps one should just read it and pass along to let the truth speak for itself. Nevertheless, we shall pause to notice briefly some of the outstanding features that John beheld. This Alpha and Omega was like unto the Son of man. His whole body was clothed with one single garment. He was girt about with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and His feet were like brass as if they burned in a furnace. In His right hand were seven stars, and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. His voice, though the voice of a multitude, was as the sounding of a trumpet, which tells us clearly of the sublime unity of these many voices. Oh, how different it is today as we hear the seven thousand voices of Babylon, each proclaiming his own doctrine! But not so with the sons of God! They have become one Spirit with the Father in heaven. His will He has imparted to them. His will is their will, His purpose their purpose, and His plans their plans. Thus was the multitude of voices as the sound of a single trumpet.

His head was white as wool, as white as snow. The scriptures clearly teach that the hoary head is to be greatly honored, for therein lies the wisdom, experience, and knowledge of great age. The Ancient of days will be no novice in government, for in His hoary head is the wisdom of God who reigneth forever and ever. His eyes were as aflame of fire. How unlike the eyes of mortal man, which can do nothing more than receive light and images from without! Not so with his blessed One. His eyes are as fire, and in the beautiful words of Daniel, who evidently saw the same vision, as lamps of fire. (Dan. 10:6) Everything about the Ancient of days will exude light. All He beholds will receive light, for His eyes are as lamps of fire, and, because they will thus receive light from His countenance, they will receive life as well. “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” His feet were as burnished brass as though they burned in a furnace. As brass is symbolic of judgment, and fire, I am sure, has a score of symbolisms, we can behold here the judgment of the nations through those blessed feet members of the body of Christ. Judgment, we must remember, is not merely condemnation as so many seem to think, but judgment may mean acquittal just as it may mean condemnation. The judgment of God has the distinct purpose of setting things right, and, indeed, all things will be set right and all things will be gloriously reconciled unto Himself, yes, things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under earth, or wherever they may be. Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. The word of God that proceedeth forth from the mouth of the Lord is a sharp two-edged sword. It wounds and heals; it kills and makes alive. The whole world is to be judged by that blessed word of God. Just as the eyes give light, so the word that goeth forth from His mouth gives life. There will be no reprieve from its truth nor any error in its judgment.

In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. Of such great import is this revelation which Jesus Christ gave to John and all the church that He allowed a vision to be given to Daniel which is so exact in detail with that given to John that none of us can doubt that the two visions were in truth one. As Daniel fasted and prayed, he stood beside the river Hiddekel. “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with the fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude … Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me to corruption, and I retained no strength.” Dan. 10:5-8

Thus has the Lord revealed that in preparation for the increase of His government He has mightily increased the Governor in that through trial and affliction He has perfected a vast family of sons that they with Christ as one body in God may be able to take the kingdom and reign with Him for one thousand years.

The prophet Daniel, speaking of those days, sums them up in these wonderful words: “I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hairs of His head like pure wool: His throne was like a fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened. I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake. I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” Dan 7:9-14

It would be futile to close this part of our meditation without mentioning a few of the blessed events of that reign of hitherto unexcelled excellence. Do not relegate the kingdom of God to pure mystery as a thing ethereal, having nothing in common with time. The millennial kingdom is the reign of Christ on the earth. It is just as real as the kingdom of David or Solomon. Into it will be gathered the glory, majesty, and truth of all past ages and dispensations, for it is the millennial Sabbath in which under Christ the world will rest from the travail of the past dispensations.

HIS REIGN OVER THE ENTIRE EARTH

“And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one. And the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem: and it shall be lifted up, and inhabited in her place . . . And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction…” Zech. 14:9-11 “And in the days of these kings (the present forms of government) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever.” Dan. 2:44

The universal extent of the kingdom of God was foretold by the angel Gabriel at the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Appearing to Mary, he proclaimed, “Behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highesl: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: and He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:31-33 And our blessed Lord taught His disciples lo pray for the coming of this great kingdom when He said, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is done in heaven . . . And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” Matt. 6:9,10,13

“The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing; the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.” Isa. 35:1, 2 “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isa. 40:4, 5

The transformation of the world in that day will be the marvel and joy of the inhabitants of earth. The weeds and pests that now blight the earth will be no more. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree.” Isa. 55:13 “Behold, the days, come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt… And they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God.” Amos 9:13-15

THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE PEOPLE

“Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass and reeds and rushes”. Isa. 35:4-7  Then shall “the earth be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isa. 11:9 “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord…” Jer. 31:34

Even the animals will be changed in the glory of that reign. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and falling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Isa. 11:6-9

“And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.” Rev. 20:4, 6

In the years of my preaching I am not sure that I ever attempted to preach from John 3:16. It is too big for man’s little mind to comprehend, let alone explain. It may be better just to read it and pass on. So also are our voices hushed as we contemplate the effulgent glory of that coming reign of reigns when Christ in the magnificent glory revealed to John (Rev. 1:9-18) shall reign over all the earth, the sons of God in His perfect likeness with Him. Then shall the whole earth know the wisdom of the mind of Christ, which shall fill every governor of that glorious and holy realm.

THE INCREASE OF HIS GOVERNMENT AND THE DISPENSATION OF THE FULLNESS OF TIMES

The dispensation of the fullness of times (Eph. 1:10) is the eighth and final dispensation. In it God will gather all things in heaven and earth into Christ. This will be the most glorious of all ages, exceeding the millennial kingdom of God in glory as that age exceeded all others before it. The dispensation of the fullness of times is a completely new age, which follows the kingdom age. It is the eighth dispensation, typified by the year of jubilee in which year all debts were cancelled and all property returned to its rightful owner. (Lev. 25:1-24)

Seven is God’s number of completeness, and as seven twenty-four hour days make one week, so seven dispensational days make one dispensational week. The number eight is the number of new beginnings. Therefore the dispensation of the fullness of times, being the eighth dispensation, is identical with Eden. To make this point clear you will notice by looking at the calendar below that, when the first day of a month falls on a Sunday, the eighth day also falls on a Sunday and is the beginning of a new week. Eight is the number of new beginnings.

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri  Sat

1     2      3      4      5    6     7

         8

The dispensation of the fullness of times, then, is the eighth dispensation due to begin when the seven dispensations of innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and the kingdom of God are complete.

In reading these pages, you have noticed that the beginning of Christ’s reign during the dispensation of grace was confined completely to the reign of Jesus Christ in the hearts of those few people whom He has chosen for Himself. There is now no outward sign anywhere of the reign of Christ over the nations of the earth. The so-called Christian nations are not Christian in reality. They are only called Christian because they have come under the influence of the gospel, but they continue to live in sin, war, and the turmoil and confusion of the carnal mind. Greed and wickedness reign supreme and the nations are as little like Jesus Christ as they can possibly be. Thus, while sin reigns over all nations, Christ reigns in the hearts of a small but elect company who have been chosen of God in this age that they might be prepared to reign over all the earth in the coming kingdom of God. In that age, as we have already seen, the reign of Christ will have been increased and extended over all the earth. There will be no other government anywhere but the government of Christ, whose voice is as the sound of many waters, and all who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful. (Rev. 17:4)

Christ, together with all the sons of God, is the completeness of the body of the bridegroom. It is this many membered bridegroom, whose voice, though sounding as many waters, rings with the unity of one trumpet, who will reign over all the earth in the kingdom of God. But this is not the end of the matter; for this all glorious bridegroom, at the sight of whom John fell as dead, is about to immeasurably increase Himself. The long awaited time has come to take the bride, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His wife hath made herself ready. The marriage of the bridegroom, the male company, to the bride, the female company, will be the signal for the beginning of that age of all ages in which everything in heaven and earth will be gathered into Christ. (Eph. 1:10)

Adam was male and female in one in the beginning, but the female was separated from the male and thus began the tortuous ages of sin which we have known for so long. But now at last, in greater glory far, Christ, the last Adam, is joined to the New Jerusalem bride, for it is the eighth day – the dispensation of the fullness of times in which God has declared, “Behold, I make all things new.”

It was after the millennial kingdom was past and the thousand years of Christ’s government ended (Rev. 20:1-6) that a mighty angel came to John, saying, “Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the Holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.“ Rev. 21:9-14 (Please read the entire chapter.) “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them, which are saved, shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” Rev. 21:23-27

John, who had fallen down as dead before the excellent glory of the revelation of Christ (Rev. 1:17), now, beholding the bride, the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, and overcome by her splendor, falls down to worship at the feet of the angel. (Rev. 22:7) And how can we wonder at it? I am at a loss to know which was the more glorious, the bridegroom in all His lordly splendor as portrayed in Rev. 1, or the magnificent glory of the Holy City, the New Jerusalem bride of Christ manifest for the first time in (Rev. 21:9-27). The things of which we speak are too sacred for much elaboration. Rather does my soul desire to fall down to worship at the feet of Him who hath showed me these things. Philosophers and sages could not with golden pen trace the glories that must inevitably follow such a long awaited union as this, for with the marriage to the bride the bridegroom is mightily increased, and with the increase of the governor comes the increase of His government in an eternal reign. Here at last the truth is complete: “In Christ there is neither male nor female,” but being joined to Him they are sons of God indeed.

It would be impossible to describe the wonderful glory of the dispensation of the fullness of times. In fear and trembling we will therefore mention a few of these more excellent glories and leave them for the Spirit of God to make real to our hearts. Paul only once mentioned the endless accomplishments of that age, including in one inspired statement universality of purpose so great that the imagination is staggered. Thus he writes: “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself: that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth even in Him.” Eph. 1:9,10  And again, he says, “He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet,” (1 Cor. 15:25), for He must put down all rule, and all authority, and all power, that there shall be no power or will in the universe but the will of God.

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (1 Cor. 15:26) Death in all its forms shall be destroyed until it shall be said, “There is no more death!” This dreadful enemy has from the beginning devoured all things, eating the vitals of the young and swallowing up the old, destroying beasts and birds, plants and trees, until nothing can escape it. But He must reign until even death has been destroyed to exist no more anywhere in the universe. Then shall every creature in the universe in glad chorus sing, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 15:55-57 “And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither the light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.” Rev. 22:3-5

“… So abundant was God’s grace, the grace which He, the possessor of all wisdom and understanding, lavished upon us when He made known to us the secret of His will. And this is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it – the purpose which He has cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him.” Eph 1:8-10 (Weymouth) “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.”

When I consider the greatness of God’s program, and the vastness of His eternal plan, my soul grows weary with the vain bickerings of earthbound, tradition-ridden men who never are able to deliver themselves from their own trivial calculations about heaven and hell, what we must eat, what we must drink, what we must put on, and as a consequence are not able to see who God is or grasp the wonder of His ways.

I like the words of Walt Whitman, entitled When I Heard the Learned Astronomer, in which he says:

When the proofs and figures were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams to add,

divide and measure them,

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer

where he lectured with much applause in the lecture room,

How soon, unaccountable. I became tired and sick

Till, rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself

In the mystical, moist night air, and from time to time

Look’d up in perfect silence to the stars.

Ah, my brethren, that is the secret of it all. There may be truth in cold, hard facts about God’s universe and the number of light years this star is from that. It is all very interesting and good and I love to know and hear about it, but there is nothing so refreshing as to wander into the breathless stillness of the night, there to lift one’s wondering eyes in admiration of the handiwork of God, uncluttered and unspoiled by human calculations. There in the wonder of the starlit night, standing alone in the glory of God’s presence, our hearts breathe out that holy inspiration, “When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the sun and the moon which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that Thou visitest him?” There the heavenly architect in accents rare begins to reveal to the inner heart that it was from those realms of glory we came, and our coming to this world was by reason of God’s great intention, that we should be prepared to reign in Christ’s image over all these beautiful works of God’s hands. Did not the beloved Paul by inspiration say, “For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou are mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not vet all things put under him (man). But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” Heb. 2:5-9 Jesus is the first man to be in God’s image, but He is not the last. What He is we also shall be; that is the purpose of His redemption. He was tempted in all points as we are. We are tempted in all points as He was. What He is by His grace we are becoming.

Perhaps in spirit we have stood with our adorable Christ as He in His rejection tasted death for every man. but have we stood with Him in His exaltation, where He sits far above principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but in the ages to come, highly exalted and given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father? The purpose of the sufferings of the Christ of God is revealed by the glory of the things that follow His travail. In like manner the purpose of the suffering of all who are His is revealed in the words, “If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” 2 Tim. 2:12

Christians everywhere, like Israel of old, stagger on in their blindness, reveling in the acts of God, but remaining perennial strangers to the wonder of His ways. Why is it, my brother, that thou canst not see that “God hath reconciled all things unto Himself? Why do thine ears remain closed to the voice of His Spirit as He speaks the message that “God will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”? Why can we not hear the mystery of His will, which He has made known unto us and which He hath purposed in Himself – that “in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him?” Eph. 1:10 Weymouth has so beautifully portrayed the message of this scripture in these words: “This is in harmony with God’s merciful purpose for the government of the world when the times are ripe for it – the purpose which He cherished in His own mind of restoring the whole creation to find its one Head in Christ; yes, things in heaven and things on earth, to find their one Head in Him.” That which He hath purposed in Himself the unbelief of man can never undo.

When we were dead in trespasses and sins, He quickened us together with Christ (by grace are we saved). He raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But to what purpose did He so marvelously demonstrate to us the wonder of His grace? There can be only one answer to that great question: “That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kingdom toward us through Jesus Christ.” Compare Eph. 2:5-8. It was by grace that you were saved, my brother. Paul keeps reminding our believing hearts of that fact that he might the more clearly reveal to our tradition-ridden minds that, if it was through grace alone that we were saved, then we should not think it either impossible or strange that in the ages to come His grace shall freely reach all men and touch everything in the universe with the eternal life of Him from whom all things come, by whom all things exist, and in whom all things end.

Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. There shall be no end to its increase in this age, no end to its increase in the age to come, and no end to its increase in the ages of the ages. His increase shall reach far beyond the measure of man’s mind until planet after planet, star after star, galaxy after galaxy throughout the vast rock strewn sidereal shall taste the increase of His government and the glory of His restoration and no inharmonious chord is heard in all God’s universe forever, but order, interdependence and unity, where Christ is all in all.