Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #36 of Revelation, chapter 21 and we are continuing to look at Revelation 21:24:

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Here, God is speaking of His elect that enter into the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem, and He identifies them as “the nations of them which are saved.”  The word “nations” is the Greek word “ethnos” and it is translated as “nations,” “Gentiles,” “people” or “heathen.”  It is actually a word that would be equivalent to the Old Testament Hebrew word “goy” and that Hebrew word is Strong’s #1471 and it is also translated as “nations,” or “heathen” or “Gentiles” or “people.”  They are the same four English words that the Greek word “ethnos” are translated as, so there is no question that it is the equivalent word.  The fact that God makes reference to the promise made to Abraham that the “nations” would be blessed and in the New Testament He uses the word “ethnos” to refer to that same thing means there is no question that the Old Testament word is equivalent to the New Testament word.

We are interested in this because in our last study we saw that God had a plan during the church age to allow the wheat and tares to grow together and at the end of the church age He put into motion his final judgment as judgment began at the house of God and He opened the Scriptures to reveal that the Holy Spirit had departed out of the churches.  What did God’s people do?  Well, we are His followers and we follow the voice of the Lamb whithersoever He goes and we hear only His voice and not the voice of a stranger.  So when we heard from the Bible that Christ’s Spirit was no longer in the churches the child of God did not want to have anything to do with the churches any longer.  We had been there for Christ.  We were not there for the “trappings” like comfortable pews, air conditioning or fellowship with other people.  Those things were nice things to have, as long as God the Holy Spirit was in the midst, but once God’s Spirit departed out, the people of God departed out.  The elect were directed to come out of the churches and we did. 

The professed Christians (the tares) had not been given ears to hear and, therefore, they did not understand.  They looked around and they saw the fellowship of others and they saw a pastor they thought was reasonably faithful and these things were sufficient for them.  They would not leave.  God used that method to separate the wheat from the tares.  It was a process that was carried out throughout the course of the judgment.  While the judgment of God was taking place in the churches and congregations during the Great Tribulation, it could never be said that they were totally separated or that we could know who they were.  We did not.  For example, even in 2011 (but before May 21, 2011) after the message had been going out to get out of the churches, we could not know that those that came out were truly wheat and we could not know that some of those that remained were truly tares.  We could have made that conclusion, but maybe the next day that person did come out of the church and that was how it was up to May 21, 2011, so the final separation did not take place during their period of judgment. 

It was only after the 23-year judgment on the churches was complete and the door also shut upon the world (in regard to salvation) that was finalized and God had made the final distinction as to who were the tares.  And now the determination from the Bible could be made that these that did not hearken to the Word of God and the voice of Christ were tares.  Now God had ended salvation inside and outside the churches and their fate was sealed.  That is why at the very beginning of Judgment Day, it was as if God took the entire corporate body of about two billion in number and threw them into the spiritual fire of His wrath and they were burned up, spiritually.  The wrath of God was upon them and there was no possibility for salvation because they were not in a place where God was saving people.

But, again, as we talked about in our last study, the last part of the Great Tribulation period lasted about 17 years during which the Latter Rain was falling.  I say that it lasted “about 17 years” because the Latter Rain began after the first 2,300 evening mornings of the Great Tribulation and during those first 2,300 days there was virtually no one being saved in the world and no one at all was being saved within the congregations.  But God’s plan was to stretch forth His hand the second time to evangelize the earth by pouring out His Spirit the second time during the second Jubilee period.  God was going to work to save the great multitude outside of the congregations within the nations of the world.  The “Gentiles” or the nations would hear as the Word of God went forth without the churches; the churches were no longer being used of God and they no longer represented God.  God did not give them that command to go into the world.  They were “finished” when the church age ended, but now the people of God would utilize the electronic medium that God had raised up to broadcast the information God had unsealed to the nations of the world. 

Much “seed” began to fall upon the nations.  The nations were the “ground” or the “soil” where the Word of God was being sown upon the hearts of men.  When we read of sowing the Word of God in the Bible, the “ground” is always the hearts of men.  There was an abundance of “seed” that was sown.  There was an abundance of Scriptures as the Word of God went forth and covered the earth as the waters cover the sea.  Many hours of the day the Scriptures were being read and the Scriptures were being taught faithfully, as never before in history.  The nations were the arena and the focal point where the effectual Word of God was being declared.  Over the course of the last part of the Great Tribulation of 6,100 days, it went forth.  It was a period of almost 17 years from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011, during which the Word of God was broadcast to the entire earth and God saved a great multitude of people from every tribe and tongue and nation. 

God had His people among all the nations of the world as they became saved in the region of the “Gentiles.”  God saved a great multitude which could have been tens of millions, although we do not know exactly how many, but we do know from the language of the Bible that it was more people than ever before in history.  God saved this enormous number of people over a relatively short span of time of about 17 years, but it also meant that the vast majority of the people of the world did not become saved and, yet, they heard the Word of God because God caused the entire world to be the place where God was bringing the Gospel outside of the churches.  Just as had happened during the 1,955 years of the church age, we had an arena where there were saved and unsaved alike, but now it was the world at large.  The “Gentiles” of the world were mixed.  They had received the Word of God and a great multitude was saved, but it was really only a remnant of the whole.  They were mixed in with the nations of the world and what was God going to do about that? 

Before we look at a Scripture where God tells us what He would do about that, let us show from the Bible, once again, that there are really only two nations.  There have always been only two nations.  We understand that when it comes to kingdoms, as there is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and the kingdom of Satan.  But with this word “nations,” we have not had as clear an understanding as we can have now.  Let us go to Genesis, chapter 25 where we find that Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, had been granted conception and she had twins in her womb.  We read in Genesis 25:22:

And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of JEHOVAH. And JEHOVAH said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

These twins were Jacob and Esau and God tells us in the Book of Romans, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau I have I hated.”  These represent the two nations, the beloved nation and the hated nation or the nation of the saved and the nation of the unsaved.  Jacob would represent the nations of them which are saved, which we read about in Revelation 21, verse 24.  Esau would represent the nations of the world that are unsaved.  Remember what we read in Luke 12:30:

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after…

That is the nation of the unsaved.  There are only two nations since the fall of man.  There are the nations of the saved and the nations of the unsaved.  In the natural world there are many different nations, but, spiritually, the Bible is only concerned with two nations. 

Look at 1Peter 2:9:

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation…

This is speaking of the elect, which are a holy nation.

Also, let us go to Isaiah 26:2:

Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

The “righteous nation” is those made righteous by the obedience of One, the Lord Jesus Christ.  His righteousness is our covering, making the people of God the “righteous nation.”  This is the nation typified by Jacob and those that are not righteous are the nation typified by Esau.  The nation of the saved are holy and they are righteous and the opposite is true for the unsaved nation – they are unholy and unrighteous.  They are the nation of sinners that were never saved and born again.

Let us also go to Revelation, chapter 15 where God speaks of the saints in Revelation 15:3-4:

… just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

I am finding it has really been helpful to go through the Bible and look at all the verses where God speaks of “nations” or “Gentiles” and there are many places.  Then we can look at it in the light of the two nations, the nations of them that are saved or the nations of the world.  In this case, it said, “for all nations shall come and worship before thee.” And what nation would this be?  What nation of these two nations would present themselves to God and worship Him?  It would be the nations of them which are saved, so we can see this really helps us to understand because formerly we may have had the idea that since Revelation 15 deals with Judgment Day the nations (all the people of the world) would come to God.  But this is not the case – it is only the nations of them which are saved.

Let us keep that in mind regarding the two nations as we look at Matthew 24:7:

For nation shall rise against nation…

I know I have read that and maybe we had the thought that it was the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan.  We should have been sure of that and now we know for sure that it is the nation of them that are saved versus the nations of the world or, to put it another way, the nation of Christ versus the nation of Satan.  It goes on to say in Matthew 24:7:

For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…

This is just repeating the same idea.  It is the nation of Jacob against the nation of Esau.  It is the longstanding spiritual battle that has raged all through history.

Let us also go to Matthew, chapter 28.  This has really been helpful to me to read these verses again in light of our verse in Revelation, chapter 21.   In the concluding chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Christ is going to issue the Great Commission that churches followed throughout the church age and that God’s people followed throughout history.  But let us take a look at this Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Did you notice how that can be understood and, perhaps, how we had misunderstood it?  When God said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,” I thought it meant to go to the nations of the world.  Go to China, India, Africa, Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Canada and everywhere in all the nations (literally).  The nations might change their names over time, but whatever name they have, go to all these nations.  But this is not what Christ is saying.  Christ is speaking to His people and He is saying to go and teach the elect, “the nations of them which are saved,” as we read in Revelation 21:24:

And the nations of them which are saved…

Go and teach all the nations of them which are saved.  And who is saved?  It is only the elect.  Then the next statement in the verse confirms that this is what Christ had in mind, as it goes on to say in Matthew 28:19:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

The nations are to be taught and all nations are to be baptized.  We had understood that as going into all the world and for those that responded, we would baptize them (a portion of the nations).  That is how we have understood this and, of course, the churches have misunderstood it completely because they think it speaks of “water baptism,” the ceremonial sign.  They think they have to go into all nations and make converts and have them come to church so they can be (water) baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Let us take a look at “baptism” in Mark, chapter 16.  It is different than Matthew 28 because God is telling us to go into the world.  In other words, He is filling us in and helping us to understand that in order to teach all nations and baptize all nations, it would be necessary to go into all the world, but that is an entirely different thing than to think that the command is to go into the world and have people come to us so we can baptize them with water.  However, the command is to go out into the world and find the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  Remember what Jesus said to the woman who wanted Him to heal her daughter that was grievously vexed with a devil?   It says in Matthew 15:23:

But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The Father sent the Son.  The Son sent the children of God into the world and who were we sent to?  It said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”  We are sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, only and exclusively.  The purpose of missions that went into the world during the day of salvation was to seek out the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  We were sent to them.  Of course, we did not know who they were, so that is where Mark, chapter 16 comes into view, as it says in Mark 16:15:

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

This is a companion verse to help us better understand Matthew 28.  Yes, you will need to go to all the world and sow the seeds on many hearts because you do not know who the elect are, but we are actually sent to the elect, the “nations of them which are saved.”  We are to teach them and baptize them.