Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61:4-NIV)

The saints who appear with Christ will have the responsibility of rebuilding the places of ruin and devastation on the earth.

Antichrist is the abomination that creates desolation. Whenever man acts according to his own will and judgment, not looking to the Lord for guidance, he creates havoc.

We see today in the places of greatest education the moral desolation that is taking place. Today in America the families are at risk. During holidays the strife in families is so great that the police can scarcely cope with the emergency calls they receive. Sometimes when the police go to a house to answer a call they themselves are killed.

In America murders are being committed by young people and children. Some of the largest cities are nearly in anarchy. The police cannot control the gangs or the traffic in drugs. Violence abounds to such an extent that a person would be safer at night in the jungles of Africa than on the main street of a large American city.

Washington, D.C., our nation's capital, should be a showpiece of community life, reflecting the highest ideals of the American way. Instead it is a wretched place of drugs, alcoholism, of murder and other forms of violence.

When man governs, desolation results. When the Antichrist world is crying peace and safety there will be unbelievable desolation on every hand. As long as man can express his own will he thinks he is living in Paradise, even though it is apparent to those looking at him that he is in a wretched condition.

Such perversity and blindness are true today where our government is attempting to force the American way of life on other countries, not recognizing that in some respects these other countries have a more wholesome social structure and are more moral than we.

We are the blind attempting to lead the blind, when one considers the urban areas of our nation. We are ready to colonize Mars but we cannot cope with AIDS or gangs or drugs or alcoholism or violence. Before we investigate life on Venus we ought to pour these billions of dollars into cleaning up New York City and not leave it all up to David Wilkerson to do. What blindness!

In addition to the devastation caused by self-seeking man, when the sons of God invade the earth at the coming of the Lord they will destroy the works of the flesh.

Before them fire devours, behind them a flame blazes. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, behind them, a desert waste-nothing escapes them. (Joel 2:3-NIV)

The earth and its peoples must be purified by Divine judgment and fire before righteousness, peace, and joy can be established. All that is of wickedness must be torn down before justice can prevail. God wounds before He heals. He expresses His anger before He comforts. This is His way.

So we see that a great work of rebuilding will proceed under the administration of the sons of God.

The concept of building up the saints before the saints can rebuild the world is found in Isaiah, Chapter Sixty-one.

Here we find the Spirit of God rests on the Lord Jesus that He may build up the members of His Body in preparation for the great work they have to do when He appears with them.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, (Isaiah 61:1-NIV)

When the Lord Jesus ascended He took of the Spirit resting on Himself and distributed it on the members of His Body in the form of gifts and ministries. The purpose of the gifts and ministries given by the ascended Christ is to build each member of His Body to maturity as measured by the stature of the fullness of Christ.

To proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, (Isaiah 61:2-NIV)

The people of the Christian churches are bound with many sins, fears, and problems. It is time now for God to execute vengeance against His enemies that keep the saints from the fullness of joy. The things that bind us are destined for the Lake of Fire as we let the Lord remove them from us. If we cling to them, then we ourselves are candidates for the Lake of Fire; for the Lake of Fire has authority over all the enemies of the Lord. Christ must wait until God brings all these under His feet.

And provide for those who grieve in Zion-to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor. (Isaiah 61:3-NIV)

Zion must be built up before the Lord can appear. The saints who are to appear with the Lord Jesus must be oaks of righteousness, beautiful in holiness, glad and joyous in the Lord, always praising God for His faithfulness, thus displaying God's splendor to the world.

Only when the saints have thus been built to the stature of the fullness of Christ are they eligible to appear with Christ, capable of working with Him in restoring the desolated earth.

Do you see what comes about as soon as the saints become oaks of righteousness?

They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. (Isaiah 61:4-NIV)

Notice how the saved peoples of the earth will refer to those who appear with the Lord.

And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. (Isaiah 61:6-NIV)

People will recognize the members of the royal priesthood and minister to their needs. We know from the description of the sheep and goat nations that the factor that brought one group to eternal life in the Kingdom of God and the other group to the fire of destruction was the manner in which the individual responded to the needs of the brothers of the Lord.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined. (Isaiah 60:12-NIV)

We see how God saved Rahab and her family because of her response to the needs of Israel. This same principle will continue in the next age. The saved peoples of the nations will be required to serve the royal priesthood.

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.(Revelation 21:24-NIV)

We understand, therefore, from our brief review of the sixty-first chapter of the Book of Isaiah, why it is so utterly important that we work with the Holy Spirit as the members of the Body of Christ minister to each other, building up the whole Body to the standard that God requires if we are to serve Him in the establishing of His Kingdom on the earth.