Now that His own are gathered, the others are left as dregs. There may be no marked external change, the observance of religious ordinances may be uninterrupted, there may be nothing more than the expression of wonder at the sudden disappearance of many well-known persons. Little will those who are left behind know that the removal of the true church is the immediate forerunner of judgment upon the false church. Only a little space left for the full ripening of the grapes of the vine of the earth, and then the vintage. In the short interval (comparatively) between rejection as a witness, and destruction as a harlot by the Beast and the ten kings, the false church assumes its final aspect, and is seen by the Apocalyptic prophet in all the shameless wickedness of a harlot. Every feature and aspect of sin from Nimrod downwards is found in her; not in an incipient stage, but in full manifestation. Christendom, when infinite riches of grace has been fully revealed, acquires the dread pre-eminence of being Babylon the Great. And as the expression of the worst evil, so its judgment is the heaviest.
Even when the prophet is declaring God's judgment upon the ancient and heathen Babylon, the Holy Spirit looks onward to the mystic Babylon of which the city of Nebuchadnezzar was but the type. The judgment of the world is included in the prophecy against the ancient Babylon (Isa. 13:1111And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. (Isaiah 13:11)). And though the pride and arrogancy of its king be great, the language of the prophet (Isa. 14) goes beyond a simple description of the heathen king and his city. The Spirit of God gives the time, when “thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon.” It will be in the day when the Lord Jehovah gives rest to Israel. That day is not yet come, and it is evident that the prophecy looks onward to Babylon the Great. But does it not go beyond the ecclesiastical system destroyed by the Beast and the ten kings? Is not the direct power of Satan as exhibited in the false prophet referred to (14:12-21)? Lucifer, son of the morning, is apparently a reference to what Satan was before he fell, and the expression of his heart, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the most High,” the pride which caused his fall. (Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.) The same awful character of pride is seen in the “man of sin,” who “exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thess. 2:44Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2:4)). Disgrace and unhonored with any burial was the doom of the king of Babylon, but does not the prophet speak of a worse than the heathen king, “Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people"? If darkly, yet is not this a prediction of the judgment upon that man of sin who is both the false prophet and the king that does his own will, in a word, the same doom as Rev. 19:2020And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20)? Be this as it may, we know that prophecy wonderfully blends the future with the circumstances which are the occasion of the prophecy. And if the false prophet is included in this prophecy, the name of the Apostasy is applied to that state, which will arise from the destruction of the corrupt thing which is pre-eminently called “Babylon the Great.”
It is given to John in a vision to see this system of iniquity as it appears to God. A woman when used as a type gives the position of those of whom God is speaking. Israel having broken the covenant is a divorced wife; the church of God is as a chaste virgin, the Bride, the Lamb's wife; and here John sees a woman arrayed in the glory of the world, possessing its riches, dominating its rulers, by means of her golden cup seducing the nations to drink of her fornication and sorceries. Her name which the world may not see, which those who drink of her wine may not understand, is revealed to John. This woman is “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth.” She is drunk, but not with her own wine, but with the blood of saints and martyrs. When John saw her he wondered with great astonishment. The angel tells him the mystery—the secret condition and doom—of the Woman and the Beast upon which she is sitting. It is the refuse of Christendom which, after being spewed out of the mouth of the Lord, is perfected in evil, and becomes a harlot—the unholy alliance by man of Truth with all evil, which is designated by God with the name of the most degraded condition among men. She is declared to be the source of every abomination in the earth; it is the system of wickedness which is not merely the sensuality of the flesh, but the opposition of man to God, first seen in Nimrod who manifested the first principle of Babylon, afterward developed against the Jehovah God of Israel, as in the literal Babylon, and now against the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So that Babylon has always been the antagonism of man to the special revelation of God at the time, and is the concentration of all evil.
The Beast—the imperial power of the world—upon which the Woman sits will eventually, with the ten kings, destroy her, “eat her flesh and burn her with fire.” He will take possession of her riches— “eat her flesh,” and utterly destroy the system— “burn her with fire.” The Beast and his coadjutors are the visible means of her destruction, but it is no less a direct judgment from God upon the worst form of evil that had ever yet defiled the earth. The manner of the harlot's judgment is retributive. By her fornications she had deceived the nations, and under the vile name of harlot they turn upon her and become the executors of God's wrath; her slaves become her executioners. This is the end of that which was begun by grace, which soon through unwatchfulness became corrupt, which provided a home for Satanic agencies, which the Lord who began it at the end rejects, and man destroys.
But the harlot is not the last phase of the world's religion. She may be burnt, but there remains much apostasy. They who aided the harlot to deceive men by her sorceries are themselves deceived by the lying miracles of the false prophet. If the false church is swept away it only makes room for open and direct antagonism to Christ. The Beast from the earth may have arisen before the harlot was destroyed, he is beyond question, the little horn that came up among the ten and displaced three of them; for he is characterized by intelligence, eyes like a man, and has a mouth speaking great things, just as the false prophet does who only assumes the place and position of prophet after the corrupt church is destroyed. Not even the shameless harlot could provide a place for him. Such is his open and undisguised enmity to Christ that no system that admits the name of Christ as Lord, however corrupt and vile, could subsist side by side with his blasphemous assumption. This wretched being is called “false prophet” because he is the special opponent of Christ the True Prophet. Christ declared God, His truth, and love. This man denies the Father and the Son, that is, the special revelation of God as in the Person of Christ. For how should we know the Father save by the Son whom the Father sent? It is the denial of the special truth of the gospel, that he might sit in the temple as God. He is also called the king. that does his own will, and disputes the right and title of Christ as king to reign over the earth. He is not called false priest. And in what he is called he is evidently the tool of Satan.
Christ is now our High Priest, and this is His only function now in exercise. “For their sakes I sanctify myself.” “He ever liveth to make intercession for us,” and “if any one sin we have an Advocate with the Father.” And so long as Christ is in the presence of God as our Great High Priest, the aim of Satan is to bring in false priests. Rome is proof, which puts the virgin, saints (so called), and her own ordinances and her priests, in the place of Christ. When Satan is cast out of the heavenlies, knowing that he has but a short time on the earth, he concentrates all his power and malignity against Christ as king and prophet. For it is as such that the testimony for Christ in that day will be characterized. Satan's energy has always been against present testimony. All the sources of power and influence, invisible and visible, will combine to bring men into conflict with God. Frogs issue from the month of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. They are demons working miracles to bring kings and peoples to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Man has emancipated himself from Babylonish corruption, not to seek truth, but to fall under the strong delusion that they might believe a lie. Christendom becomes heathendom. All—save a few sealed in their foreheads by God—worship the Beast and his image; they are idolaters. Is not this image the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel? Satan uses it to seal man's ruin.
The Beast and the false prophet are the personal enemies of Christ, and so in the day of battle the Lord meets them in person, and both are cast alive into the lake. As there was no death such as is common to man, so no resurrection for them—soul and body not separated by death, but cast alive into the lake. All that are in the graves shall come forth, the sea will yield its prey, death and hades will surrender their prisoners at the call of the Son of man to be judged before the great white throne. But the lake of fire never opens its gates save to receive the judged. Satan is bound and chained in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, but is not cast into the lake of fire till immediately before the judgment of the great white throne.
Thus the earth is prepared by judgment for the reign of the Lord Jesus. For He will come in the pomp and glory of victory. His enemies who would not bow to Him must then feel the avenging might of His arm. No other way of taking possession of His kingdom would be consistent with His rights and title. To reign as some imagine by the spread of gospel truth, even if there were outward semblance of obedience, would be an unworthy way for the King of kings and Lord of lords to slip by stealth, as it were, into His kingdom. God's purpose is to exalt the Son. By faith He is exalted now as the Savior; then by unsparing judgment. Satan and his deluded followers are allowed a brief day wherein to manifest their utmost hate and power. But the Lord appears, and His enemies are slain by the breath of His mouth.
Though the special teachings of faith ceased when His saints were caught up to meet the Lord in the air, God will yet have a testimony on the earth. Hitherto it has been a process of grace. At this time though grace be not absent, yet this brief period is characterized by judgment. There was a special testimony by the two witnesses. I apprehend their sphere was in Jerusalem, at most within the land. Rev. 11:9, 109And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. 10And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. (Revelation 11:9‑10) give the moral condition of those who were tormented by their testimony. “They of the peoples” were there, “and kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” But there are other phases, “And they that dwell upon the earth,” an expression that gives their moral character. Jew and Gentile rejoice together over the death of the two witnesses, as they did when in the same city the Lord was crucified. The Lord Jesus said, “When the Son of Man cometh shall He find faith on the earth.” There was no faith in the city “which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also their Lord was crucified.” After three days and a half the Spirit of life from God enters into the two witnesses whose bodies lay unburied, and they stand upon their feet. The only effect upon their enemies is great consternation. A great voice Calls them to heaven, and their enemies see them ascend in the cloud. Heavenly honor for them, but judgment falls upon the city. Seven thousand are slain, all the rest are affrighted. They give glory to the God of heaven, in spite of themselves compelled to acknowledge Him as the God of heaven. But neither the testimony nor the ascension of the two witnesses, nor even the earthquake, led them to receive the testimony of their coming king. The Lord says, “my two witnesses:” they are His special witnesses to the Jew at this time. It is this special testimony that brings upon them the power of the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit. That is, they are slain by the direct and immediate power of Satan.
Besides this special testimony, to the Jew, a general proclamation of the everlasting gospel goes out to all. “Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and sea, and the fountains of waters.” How sunken in ignorance when men are recalled to the worship of God as Creator. There might be some who gave glory to the God of heaven: did they deny Him as the Creator of earth and sea and fountains of waters? And this call to worship Him is not accompanied by the promise of grace as heretofore, but by the announcement of impending judgment. The hour was come. It is the last call before the kingdom. Many a call had been made, to individuals, to a nation, to the church, and all in grace, all for blessing. This is on the eve of judgment. God's forbearance so patient, so long, had only given the world opportunity to increase in evil till there was no remedy but judgment. But God will have His remnant, as Matthew 25 shows. The angel flying in mid-heaven may be the symbolic representation of the “brethren” that carry the gospel of the kingdom, which is nearly the same as the “everlasting gospel,” to the Gentile; and from these the Lord gathers out His sheep and separates them from the goats. Surely there was faith in these “sheep,” but was faith ever on a lower ground? But if never so low, how great the mercy which will save the hitherto outcast Gentile, upon the ground of kindness to the “brethren;” the remnant of the Jews who carry forth this gospel; and the king takes it as being done to Himself. “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me.”
The history of the professing church is the history of the decline of faith, each succeeding phase becoming darker. But grace likewise kept pace, yea kept in advance of the continuously increasing evil, and carries out its purposes. For some must enter into rest (Heb. 4:66Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: (Hebrews 4:6)). These two most prominent facts cannot escape the attentive reader of the seven epistles. There is a third fact, which is the direct result of the break-up of collective testimony and of the grace which meets the ever failing condition of the church as a public witness for Christ, that the power of subjective faith is more manifest at the close than at the beginning. Before the Object of faith was revealed the power of faith was kept up in the soul by the Holy Spirit in view of the promises, as in the patriarchs. Afterward types were given, which, while exhibiting to Israel in the wilderness the several glories of Christ, were a help for those who were led to look beneath the surface. But when Christ was here, the Object of faith was fully manifest, and in exact proportion as He filled the eye and the heart so was the subjective power of faith seen. The Holy Spirit created love in the believer's soul as he gazed upon Him, and the more earnest the gaze, the more would love grow and the faith that worketh by love. When the eye is off Christ, no matter what other object is before it, the church, the saints, or even service—not to speak of the world, then “first love” is left. And though like Ephesus, orthodox and correct, there is a fall, and in these epistles we see it such a fall that the professing church never regained her original standing.
Objective faith was where the decline began. All manner of sin of which the church is guilty dates from this. How could it be otherwise, for what is faith without an object? Men may speak of faith, and even boast of it; but if Christ as the one object fill not the eye and heart, all the talk about faith is mere imagination. Now that the knowledge of the word has so greatly spread, and truth, long forgotten truth, is familiar to most Christians, there is great danger of falling into this most subtle snare of the devil; so that he would make faith to be the object before the soul rather than Christ. It may seem to some paradoxical, but it is no less true that when faith looks at itself, it ceases to be faith.
When the church reached the Thyatira state, it was given up as a witness for Christ. Grace recognized and separated a remnant. Being such, it could not be acknowledged as if in the pristine condition of the church. In Apostolic days it was a holy witness for God, in the days of Thyatira that position was irretrievably lost. But here comes in the grace suited to the despised remnant: “No other burden, but hold fast what thou hast till I come.” The altered condition of the saints is met by the tender and compassionate grace of the Lord. This little remnant soon lost the place of holding fast, and passing through Sardis we come to Philadelphia, where in a condition of greatest weakness we find the sweetest promise of all, grace in its fullest expression of best privilege to the believer. For what promise to the overcomer in any other church, so prized by the heart that has Christ alone as its object, as the promise to the overcomer in the epistle to Philadelphia? Thus as the outward aspect darkens, grace brings Christ before the heart in the most intimate expressions of His infinite and unchanging love, as it were, restoring to the individual believer what the corporate church lost at the first.
As the rejection of Christ by the Jew was the appointed way to the cross, the eternal purpose of God, so the failure of the church—apart from its responsibility—only serves to make still more prominent faith as God's moral means of bringing souls into the most intimate communion with Himself, which is the highest condition of happiness a creature can know. The failure of the church magnifies the riches of His grace, and He is glorified by it. Not that this makes the church less responsible, but it does marvelously show how the grace and wisdom of God makes the sin of man, even the failure of His own saints, to praise Him. Sin brought Judah into captivity in the literal Babylon, then grace gave such power of faith to Daniel and his companions that they became victors over fire and wild beasts. Now, the church-remnant apparently in captivity in the mystic Babylon, or what will soon be developed as such—have the privilege of exhibiting and proving the power of faith over equally adverse circumstances, yea the same, as the Roman amphitheater, and Smithfield declare. Victory in a different way, but the same. The victories of faith must always be subservient to the purpose of God, to the truth He is revealing at the moment. In the one case it was to demonstrate His Godhead and power to an idolatrous king, in the other to prove the sustaining energy of divinely given faith under the cruelest sufferings endured for Christ's sake. In the one we see the God of heaven and earth, in the other the God of grace.
Thus if faith as a dispensation has failed like all before it, in its subjective power it brightens, and amid the wreck of the building that God began on the day of Pentecost, our souls cling more to the object of faith, Christ is more exceedingly precious. This is according to God. But how astonishing the process. With what amazing skill Almighty wisdom and power have blended man's inevitable failure ender any dispensation with the display of the infinite resources of grace. O depth of riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways.
But the time is come for creation to cease groaning, for deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. What a moment for the earth when the voice of a great Multitude is heard, as the voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth (Rev. 19:66And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. (Revelation 19:6)). It is the anticipative shout of the heavenly multitude, of the armies which follow the King of kings and the Lord of lords. One more daring acct of rebellion to fill up the cup of iniquity ere the kingdom be established, one more tremendous display of Divine vengeance, and the earth is set free from the bondage of corruption. It is the supper of the great God, and the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven are called to it. There are two other suppers, that of grace in the gospel (Matt. 22:99Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. (Matthew 22:9); Luke 14:1616Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: (Luke 14:16)), for the Jew and the outcast Gentile. There is the marriage supper of the Lamb, where the church will be displayed in His glory. But this supper of the great God is His vengeance, and not men, but fowls that fly in the midst of heaven are invited, “that ye may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men both free and bond, both small and great” The beast and the kings of the earth then mustering their armies know not that from heaven the command is already gone forth to gather the fowls to feast upon their flesh. All the glory and the might of the world are there arrayed against the Lord God Omnipotent; it all becomes carrion for birds of prey, save the two chiefs who are east alive into the lake.
The millennium is specially for the glory of the Lord Jesus as Son of Man. The world had rejected Him. Now by His own might He rules over the nations with a rod of iron until every enemy is subdued, and peace spreads her wings over the world, and nations shall no more learn war, then all is prepared for the outshining of His glory. Every blessing is poured down upon the earth, and the earth responds in the full yield of her fruits. Israel will have fullness of blessing. “For Jehovah shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody” (Isa. 51:33For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. (Isaiah 51:3)). And these natural blessings are the evidence of their moral condition. All will be taught of God, from the least of them to the greatest of them. As rebellion and iniquity had marked them before, so in that day holiness will raise them above all nations, and their metropolis shall be called “Jehovah shammah.” In His holy mountain ferocious beasts become tame, children lead them; asps lose their venom, infants play with them (Isa. 11). “They shall not hurl nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.” Israel in their destined place, blessing goes out from them to the surrounding nations. The holy mountain is the greatest effect of the King's presence, but the glory radiates to the outermost circle, the inanimate creation rejoices in it, the places where judgment lay heavy join in the song which creation, freed from the bondage of corruption, will then raise. “And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine and oil; and they shall hear Jezreel” (Hos. 2:21, 2221And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. (Hosea 2:21‑22)). This is the order of millennial blessedness, and though specially addressed to Israel, and having special application to the mercy that meets their sinful condition and God's judgment upon them, yet it gives the channels of blessing for the whole earth. Isaiah speaks of Jehovah as sitting upon the circle of the earth (ch. 40); here Jehovah is in the circle of the heavens, and displaying His beneficence with a largeness unknown before; dispensing His blessings through the gradations of rank and order which the government of glory will then have established. He waits, as it were, to hear the heavens, and they become media for communicating fruitfulness to the earth, or, as it is beautifully and poetically said, the corn and the wine and the oil call upon the earth, and the earth hears and brings forth her increase, as witness that the curse is removed. Yea, it is so removed that the corn and the wine and the oil hear Jezreel.
It is not a little remarkable that after the earth has called to the heavens, and has itself responded to the call of the corn, wine and oil, there is a place which in its turn calls to the fruits of the earth, in order to complete the chain of blessedness. Evidently, here “Jezreel” is symbolic, though the name is found frequently in its mere historical import. But I doubt if any name is used symbolically without being either then or previously found in connection with circumstances which intimate its symbolic significance. Naboth's vineyard was in Jezreel. Ahab coveted and Jezebel procured it for him by slaying the owner—murder and robbery which God avenged by the hand of Jehu. But Jehu was a bad man, and gratified his own ambition under pretended zeal for Jehovah. Hence even the blood of Jezreel will be avenged upon the house of Jehu. So Babylon was God's instrument of wrath upon Judah, but she served herself and was proud against Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and therefore she comes under righteous judgment. “And I will render unto Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith Jehovah” (see Jer. 1 and 51). In like manner Jehu was the executor of righteous judgment against the house of Ahab, but he was proud against Jehovah, and judgment overtakes him.
Here Jezreel is the name applied to the whole land, it had all become polluted with blood and oppression. “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood and the city of perverseness” —or wresting of judgment (see Mark; Ezek. 9:99Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceeding great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness: for they say, The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not. (Ezekiel 9:9)). In the prophet's day the whole land was characterized by the crimes which made Jezreel prominent in the days of Ahab, and in judgment Jehovah takes away His blessings. “Therefore will I return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof.” But in “that day,” the day of the reversal of judgment, the place where the heaviest judgment fell shall be cleansed from its iniquity, the curse of innocent blood shall be taken away, yea, the slain of the polluted blood of the house of Ahab shall be obliterated. In “that day” not only shall the earth be delivered from bondage, but mercy will rejoice against judgment, and Jezreel too, the defiled and forsaken, shall flourish again even more abundantly than before.
Sin had interfered with the communication of blessing to the earth, redemption reconnects the severed links, and the chain is complete, most manifestly when the Lord Jesus reigns in glory over the earth. Jezreel the place once of sin and judgment, now of mercy—calls to the corn and the wine and the oil, as the evidence of God's favor, and in accordance with His promise at the beginning; forfeited then because made conditional upon obedience, secure now through restoring grace; and these call upon the earth to bring forth, and the earth calls to the heaven, for the first and the latter rain, and the heavens call to Jehovah, and God the source and giver of all hears and gives in the appointed order and way. “I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil” (Deut. 11:1414That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. (Deuteronomy 11:14)). But the land of Israel can no more be the limit of millennial blessing than the Jew could be the sole object of grace after the cross. Of necessity both the grace and the glory must overflow. Now the grace that bringeth salvation appears to all, then the glory of His presence will fill the whole earth. Jesus, Jehovah God, rules and blesses by His own power.
It is amid this scene of glory and universal blessedness that the final test of man takes place. As grace succeeded law, so glory succeeds grace, and looking at the various ways of God from the beginning, first, man left to himself without government, then the sword put into Noah's hand, then the law, then grace and salvation through faith, and soon the revelation of glory and power in the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus. How complete and perfect the trial of man, how thoroughly he is made bare, and, as we may say, exposed to his own gaze if he will only stop to look thereon, how incurably evil his nature God all through revealing Himself in His majesty and power, in His holiness and truth, in His patience and longsuffering, grace, love, all divinely and marvelously verified in the cross of Christ; the baseness of man, notwithstanding the goodness of God, his moral vileness, his natural inability for anything good, are before us in imperishable records. History and present experience are only collateral proofs of the word of God that in man there dwelleth no good thing, but every evil thing.
But the word goes farther than our experience, or past history; it declares that in the future dispensation the nature of man remains the same, that the presence of glory in the Person of the King of kings and Lord of lords does not change it. Man is fallen, only converting grace can raise him from the ruin, his evil must be purged from him, it cannot be cured. Restrained partially it might be by the sword and the law; rampant now under the dispensation of grace; repressed it will be in the dispensation of glory, as prophecy abundantly declares. But it always was, and will be to the end solemnly true,” Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Millennial blessedness cannot remove this necessity. Israel will in that day be a converted nation, but that is above and beyond the corn and the wine and the oil, though I am perfectly willing to take these earthly blessings as indicating for them the higher and spiritual blessings. But the word of God is plain that no external advantage, not even of glory, can supersede the new birth. So the dispensation of glory is as much a moral process as any preceding dispensation. Vastly different indeed are the circumstances. The power of the King present to the sight, not merely known to faith, to execute instant judgment upon every open and flagrant offender; Satan the tempter is chained up. But this only proves that man is a sinner without the devil to tempt him; it adds another evidence of the essential evil of the nature of man, of its unchangeable character. And when Satan is loosed for a little season, he finds the same material to work with; unrenewed man falls an easy prey. Then the last judgment takes place, death and hades give up the imprisoned bodies and souls, and men in resurrection of judgment stand before the great white throne. The lake of fire closes upon all whose names are not found written in the book of Life.
There will be new heavens and a new earth, not in a mere dispensational sense as in the millennium, though then there will doubtless be surprising physical changes in the earth; but the new heavens and new earth will eternally abide. The kingdom, where Christ has reigned in glory for a thousand years, He will deliver up to God even the Father; the Son Himself be subject—as man—to God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), that God may be all in all.
Then will be accomplished the eternal purpose of God, secured upon the basis of redemption by the blood of Christ. Sin could and did sully the beauty of the old creation, but cannot touch the glory and exceeding beauty of the new creation shining in the brightness of redemption glory. The first creation sprang into being at the simple word of God, but such as the new creation could only be by the blood of Christ. Through that precious blood it is, that the believer now delights in God. Then in eternity man will delight in God, and God will delight in man.