Self-rule produces chaos. Without government there is self-rule. Without a governor there is no government. So-called “faith-based religion” is in a state of chaos. Hundreds of different cults, calling themselves by hundreds of different names and following hundreds of different doctrinal sets go in hundreds of different directions in a vain attempt to lure the masses into the chaotic religious morass known as “the church.” This fiasco is the result of having no governor, religious man having assumed that status. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Governor of true saints. The Lord’s saints think like Him (Phil. 2:5) and live like Him (Eph. 5:1) in preparation for ruling with Him (Lk. 22:29). For the saint, this life is spent preparing to assist Jesus in ruling and reigning with Him over His Father’s earthly kingdom for ever (Rev. 22:5). True saints know that they will not be allowed to rule WITH God in the next life unless they have been ruled BY God in this life. There will be no on-the-job training in the Kingdom of God. Those who believe and obey Him in this life are being trained to rule in the next one. Those who refuse to be ruled by Him in this life are preparing to either burn in the Lake of Fire or be ruled by His saints in the next life. It is the job of God’s called, appointed and anointed ministers to tell all who will listen what is required of them in order to make the cut. This ministry is not new. Obedience (righteousness) versus disobedience (sin) has been THE issue since the Garden of Eden. THE issue has evolved over time. Never before has sin been such a dominating force in the lives of men.

The Prophet Jeremiah also lived during a time when God’s Law (His Word in general and His Ten Commandments in particular) had been cast aside as men did what was right in their own eyes. During Jeremiah’s time the nation of Judah was creating monumental problems for herself which would eventually result in her being conquered and enslaved by the Babylonians. Under instructions from the Lord, the prophet was continually telling the people about His standard, how they were not living up to it and how they would eventually pay a terrible price for their rebellion against the Lord. God’s saints must take on Jeremiah’s mind-set. We must counsel people to meditate on God’s Word and obey it as we watch the society around us collapse. Jeremiah watched the nation of Judah go down to defeat and enter into slavery at the hands of the Babylonians. His warnings had fallen on deaf ears.

In Acts 19 we find Peter and John, having gone to the Temple to pray, coming upon a man who had been crippled from birth. Finding that he had faith to be healed, Peter pronounced his healing, which brought a crowd to the area to see the man walk and to wonder aloud what had happened. Hearing what was being said, Peter delivered to them a premier statement concerning the future of those who would believe and obey: “Repent you, therefore, and be converted (not saved), that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached to you. Whom the heaven must receive UNTIL THE TIMES OF RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS” (vss 19-21). “Restitution” means to restore something to its original condition. Jesus will return to restore the earth to its once God-obeying state. He will return to remove  sin once and for all and to create a world where His Law reigns. Lucifer and one-third of God’s angels once occupied the earth in blissful obedience to God’s Law. Jesus will restore the world to that condition.

When the Lord returns to RESTORE ALL THINGS He will begin with the reinstitution of God’s government (Isa. 9:6,7/Jer. 23:5). The establishment of the government of God is the only path to true and lasting freedom from sin. By that government Jesus will teach mankind the Father’s ways. And He will have help.

Before the restitution of all things to the earth, all things (the absolute rule of God) must be restored to His church. It is His true church who is being ruled by Him according to His Word/Law in this life so that upon the return of Jesus she will be ready to rule the world with Him. To use a baseball analogy, in this life the church is the minor league (God’s kingdom in embryo) in which saints are being trained in the fundamentals of rulership. Those who make it to the big league (the Kingdom of God) will live there (New Jerusalem) and minister to the rest of the world from there.

In the Middle East some fruit trees produce a tiny crop of what are called “firstfruits”–small, very sweet, very expensive fruit that appear before the larger harvest later on in the year. God’s church is His firstfruits who are being called out of this world and trained to minister to the rest of mankind who, due to sin, will not have been allowed to enter the Kingdom of God upon the return of Jesus Christ. See The Kingdom of God. Would that we all enter that kingdom. L.J.