The Tabernacle of God.
I still am laboring in Revelation, Chapter Twenty-one.
I got about as far as Verse three. The reason I am going so slowly is
that there is a basic concept here that has not been taught clearly, in
many instances. The thought 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.
(8/31/2008) Until the design that I have just presented is understood
clearly, much of the Bible remains unintelligible. Also, Gospel work is
ineffective because the workers are laboring 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 all 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!
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?
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 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!
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. Then what is to happen? God is
to choose, from among those who hear the Gospel, people 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 He 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 a dead branch.
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 that 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 don’t 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 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 on in Christ? Another
difficult question.
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 it and give it 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 cry “Uncle,”
meaning we 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 I will trust Him.
But I will maintain my own ways before Him?
God is looking today for believers who will surrender
all their hopes, ambitions, and plans to Jesus in order that they may be
an eternal part of the Glory of Christ. Are you willing to give up
trying to be something? Are you ready to be nothing that Christ may be
everything?
Just between you, me, and the lamppost, 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.”
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.
But until they become one in Christ in God, the world will not believe.
rbt5@cox.net
http://www.wor.org
http://www.mount-zion.org
Church: (760) 747-8325
Fax: (760) 747-0416
