The Saved People of the Nations, and the Tabernacle of God...

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There is a concept basic to the Kingdom of God that is assumed in the Twenty-first and Twenty-second chapters of the Book of Revelation. This basic concept is that at the end of God's working there will be two classes of people on the new earth. The first class is that of the elect, the called-out, the Church, the Tabernacle of God.

The second class of people, the great majority, is that of the people of the nations of the earth whom God has saved to eternal life on the new earth.

(4/10/2011). Revelation, Chapter Twenty-one tells us that the Tabernacle of God is with men. The Tabernacle of God is the Christian Church, the Body of Christ, God's elect, his Israel, the Wife of the Lamb, the eternal Temple of God.

If the new Jerusalem is the Christian Church, who, then are the "men" with whom the Christian Church is dwelling on the huge new earth? Did you ever wonder about this?

The "men" whom the Church is with are people who have been saved from among the nations but who are not part of the Church. I find this simple statement causes bafflement and confusion when I present it, but it is set forth in the last two chapters of Revelation as clearly as can be.

Until the design that I have just presented is understood, much of the Bible remains unintelligible. Also, Gospel work can be ineffective if the workers are labouring in terms of a faulty concept. Actually, the correct design is simple and easy to understand. It becomes difficult to understand when we try to blend it with our traditions. Then there is confusion.

The end product of much of God's working is his Tabernacle. God intends to plant his Tabernacle among the nations of saved people on the earth so he can guide and bless them. That's all there is to it! Not so difficult, after all.

Contemporary Christian thinking is that there is only one class of people, namely the saved. They are the Church. They are destined to live forever in Heaven. This idea is not scriptural. It does not at all fit the last two chapters of the Book of Revelation, or much of the writings of the Prophets, particularly Isaiah.

Until we understand that God is creating a Church that he will use as a dwelling place, through which he can have fellowship with the people of the world and become their God, their Father, and their Helper, how can we interpret correctly what God is doing with Christian people?

God is coming to the new earth to live in His Church, His eternal Temple. Then the saved people on the earth can come up to God's House and be blessed. Can you think of anything more wonderful than that!

Today the emphasis is on getting as many people of the world "saved" as we can, meaning, they will go to Heaven and not Hell when they die. Because of this emphasis, numerous pastors preach nothing but basic salvation.

Perhaps every member of their congregation has been "saved" for fifty years. It doesn't matter. There always is the possibility that someone will enter the building who is not "saved." Therefore, every Sunday the Pastor preaches about the need to get "saved."

The remainder of the believers go without most of what is taught in the Bible. The result is churches filled with people who never have grown in the Lord. Tell me I am incorrect in this!

Because the people of the congregation are not being fed, they are filled with adultery, hatred, meanness, unforgiveness, a desire to be preeminent, gossip, covetousness, jealousy, hatred, divisiveness, selfishness, and the love of pleasure more than the love of Christ. They are starved spiritually.

Are such people "saved"? Saved from what? No, they are not saved. They are revealing Satan in their personality rather than the Lord Jesus. But they will go to Heaven when they die because they have "accepted Christ," won't they? They may have received Christ at some point in their life, but then they did not keep on receiving Christ each day.

Why not? Because they have not been taught this is what they are supposed to do. While the pastor is trying to get other people "saved," the flock under his supervision is not entering the Kingdom.

The 2000 years since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ might be termed the "Church Age." It is not the Kingdom Age. It is not the age during which the people of the nations are to be saved. It is the "Church Age." The other ages will come later. What is to be done during the Church Age? During the Church Age the Gospel is to be preached to every person. Those who believe shall be saved in the Day of Wrath.

Then what is to happen? God is to choose, from among the people who have been saved, those whom he wants for His Church, His Tabernacle.

God has given the Lord Jesus Christ absolute authority over all mankind. Then from among the people of mankind, God has given Jesus certain people that Jesus may give them eternal life. Christ does not pray for the world but for those whom God has given Him.

These people whom God has brought to Christ are the elect, the Church. They will become the Body of Christ, the Bride of the Lamb, the eternal Tabernacle of God, if they submit to the work of the Holy Spirit. If they do not submit, they will be cast aside as dead branches.

God has given all kinds of gifts and offices that those whom God has called may be brought to maturity—maturity as measured by the Standard that Jesus Christ is.

Now, what is God's purpose in building up the members of the Body of Christ to the full stature of Christ? It is so that in the last days God can pour out His Glory on the mature saints. When He does, the nations will come running to the light. That which the Church hopes to achieve by its own money and efforts will be done quickly and easily once the members of the Body of Christ come to maturity.

Realizing this, would you say we ought to emphasize getting new converts, or should we emphasize building up the church members? I am not speaking of ignoring the need to gain converts, I am speaking of emphasis—the major application of time, money, and energy. This is not really a difficult question, I think.

There is one more point I wish to make. The Lord Jesus said when the people God has given Him from the nations of the world, the Church, His elect, have arrived at oneness in Christ in the Father, the world will believe that Christ is from God. With this in mind, should we be trying to get the world to believe, or emphasizing that the Christians become one in Christ? Instead, the denominations compete against one another.

Here is the critical issue: In order to become one in Christ in God, a believer must trade his right to be an individual in order that he or she may become an integral part of Christ. We find this difficult, don't we? We find it hard to live every moment saying, "Not my will but Yours be done." But until we do, the world will never believe and come to God for His blessing.

Why is this? It is because God will not give His Glory to another person. God gives His Glory to Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ lives as part of God, not as a private individual. God will not give His Glory to another person, not even to the Lord Jesus if Jesus chooses to live as an individual apart from God.

Now it comes down to us. Are we willing to trade our right to be an individual (which "right" consists largely of our self-will) in order that we may become an integral part of the Lord Jesus Christ? We cannot have it both ways. We cannot do our religious dance from the vantage point of our individuality, telling God what we are willing to do to gain His favor.

I like the story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with very expensive perfume. She did not sell the valuable perfume and give the money to the poor, thus serving God on her own terms. Instead she "wasted" it all on Jesus. What a lesson this is for us, isn't it? Are we willing to "give up" as we realize we cannot make a success of life by our own efforts? Are we willing to give up and become part of Jesus; or are we going to say with Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him; I will surely defend my ways to His face"?

God is looking today for believers who will surrender all their hopes, ambitions, and plans to Jesus in order that the individual may be an eternal part of the Glory of Christ. Are you willing to give up trying to be someone important? Are you ready to be nothing that Christ may be everything?

I will tell you why Christian people do not abandon their own ways and walk humbly with God. It is because they don't understand this is what they are supposed to do.

Why don't the believers know this is what they are supposed to do? Because their pastors and teachers all too often neglect them so that they can "get more people saved" who in term are to go out and "get more people saved" who are to set forth and "get more people saved" etc. etc. etc.

This is why the believers do not come to maturity and then take their maturity and wash Jesus' feet with it. No one ever told them that this is what God wants.

Until we become one in Christ in God, the world will not believe.

I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:23)

Following are a few of the passages that point out the difference between the nations of saved people, and Israel—the Tabernacle of God:

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.(Isaiah 60:12) Then the King will say to those on his right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." (Matthew 25:34)

In the above instance, people from the nations are given the Kingdom of God because they ministered to Christ's brothers when they were in need.

You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (I Peter 2:5)

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)

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. (Isaiah 61:11)

The glory and honour of the nations will be brought into it. Revelation 21:26) "It," in the above verse, is the Wife of the Lamb.

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