The Sanctuary

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Dec 1, 1904

(Concluded)

Now I want to read you another text: “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11:19. This brings us to another point in the history of the sanctuary question. When was this?—Under the sounding of the seventh angel. Then the temple of God was opened in heaven. There is a temple of God in heaven, and in that temple there is the ark of God’s ten commandments. When that most holy place was opened in heaven, there was seen by the people on earth the ten commandments. This brings us to a special work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Let me read you a few other verses that cluster around this. Turn with me to Acts 3:19-22: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, 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 unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” Repent and be converted, for what purpose?—“That your sins may be blotted out.” When are your sins blotted out?—“When the times of refreshing shall come.” The time of the blotting out of the sins is the cleansing of the sanctuary at the end of the twenty-three hundred days of Dan. 8:14. Christ entered the most holy place to cleanse the sanctuary from the sins of God’s people, and will blot them from the books, and bring them out and lay them upon the scapegoat. This will give a deeper experience than when Christ ascended on high. When he took his position at the right hand of the Father, it was that men might repent and be forgiven of their sins. But now the Saviour bears them out from the heavenly courts. From our present spiritual condition, I verily believe that many will pass through the loud cry of the third angel’s message and the blotting out of sins without knowing that that event had happened. Many are not near enough to God to catch his voice and to know the moving of his Spirit. O my soul, can it be that we are sixty years in the investigative judgment since Christ entered the most holy place, and at the same time we have no deep moving of the Spirit of God in this time of the loud cry of the message? A friend asked me, since I have been here, “When shall we hear the loud cry of the message?” I did not know what to say. I thought to myself, Poor soul! we may go through the loud cry, and you never know it. “Well,” says one, “will there not be more of an outpouring of the Spirit?” I expect there will be, far greater than anything we have seen as yet, but if you wait for that outpouring of the Spirit of God to save you in the time of trouble, you will never be saved. This is taught both from the Bible and from the spirit of prophecy.

There is another text I want to read you, and that is in Isa. 43:25. How many times within the last few years I have heard that quoted with the statement that it proves that our sins have been blotted out. When Christ covers our iniquities with his own blood, he pledges himself that those sins will be taken away; and if we prove faithful, they all will be taken away; but they are not blotted out yet. Here is the text: “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.” Notice the next verse: “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.” What! put God in remembrance! How could we put him in remembrance if we did not know anything about the heavenly sanctuary? Did we not show you that every soul that will be saved in the time of the end will understand something about the sanctuary question, and that not a wicked person will understand? What does it say here?—“Put me in remembrance.” Then we shall understand about that blotting out, that it takes place in the heavenly courts; and in view of the blotting out, we shall confess our sins, we shall examine our hearts more thoroughly than we have ever examined them before. We shall seek God that he may discover to us our sins, that we may confess those sins, and ask him to blot them out. Then what?—“Declare thou.” Declare what?—When we confess our sins, it is our privilege to believe that God forgives our sins. And when Satan comes to your heart and tries to make you believe that God has not forgiven your sins, it is your privilege to declare that God has forgiven them. But tell me how you can do that if you do not know anything about the blotting out. If your faith is not revived in the sanctuary question and in the work of our High Priest, and if you do not get an experience out of it, I fear you will never go through. We must have an experience in this work of our High Priest. How is it that you have the school buildings erected here? Why is it that you have representatives from different parts of the world at this meeting? Why is the work going in every part of the world to-day, and especially in Russia and in the countries where every plan is laid to intercept the work of God, and God’s providence is so manifestly over it? Why do you hear, in the reports that come from Africa, India, and from China and different parts of the world, of the conversion of souls to-day, to present truth? It is because of the experience that comes to us from a belief in the most holy place in that heavenly sanctuary. You take that out of it, and you have no business to be a separate people. If there is not a transforming power in a belief in Christ’s work in the heavenly sanctuary, our entire position is wrong. “Well,” says one, “I do not see it.” Did you see it in the type? Now think a moment. When they brought the lamb, laid their hands on its head and confessed their sins, and the lamb was slain, and the priest took the blood and went in to the sanctuary, did anybody see the priest? Did they see what the priest did with that blood?—No one ever saw it. He went in, and the veil shut him from their view. But the sinner believed that the priest was presenting the blood before God, and sprinkling it upon the altar of incense. On the tenth day of the month when they brought those two goats, and the blood was carried into the most holy place, who saw the priest offer it before the Lord?—No one. It was a work of faith, and faith grasped the fact that the priest had made an atonement for them. They might have confessed their sins and brought a lamb three hundred and sixty-four days, but if they had neglected the work of the atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, they would have been cut off. You may have had a good experience in the past, but unless you have an experience in the work of the High Priest in the most holy place, it will not stand the test in the shaking time. Put wheat in the sieve and shake it; no two kernels will stick together. They will all be shaken apart, but the wheat will remain in the sieve. It is high time we have an individual experience in the things of God. We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit that we may be able to stand in the coming storm.

I read the following from “Early Writings”: “Now is the time to lay up treasure in heaven, and to set our hearts in order, ready for the time of trouble. Those only who have clean hands and pure hearts will stand in that trying time. Now is the time for the law of God to be in our minds, foreheads, and written in our hearts. The Lord has shown me the danger of letting our minds be filled with worldly thoughts and cares. . . . Time has continued a few years longer than we expected, therefore they think it may continue a few years more, and in this way their minds

are being led from present truth. In all these things I saw great danger. . . . I saw that many were neglecting the preparation so needful, and were looking to the time of ‘refreshing’ and the ‘latter rain’ to fit them to stand in the day of the Lord, and to live in his sight. O, how many I saw in the time of trouble without a shelter! they had neglected the needful preparation, therefore they could not receive the refreshing that all must have to fit them to live in the sight of a holy God. Those who refuse to be hewed by the prophets, and fail to purify their souls in obeying the whole truth, and who are willing to believe that their condition is better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they need to be hewed and squared for the building. But there will be no time then to do it, and no Mediator to plead their cause before the Father. Before this time, the awful, solemn declaration has gone forth, ‘He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; . . . and he that is holy let him be holy still.’ I saw that none could share the refreshing unless they obtained the victory over every besetment, over pride, selfishness, love of the world, and over every wrong word and action. We should, therefore, be drawing nearer and nearer to the Lord, and be earnestly seeking that preparation necessary to enable us to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. Let all remember that God is holy, and that none but holy beings can ever dwell in his presence.”

There is a work for us to do when our High Priest is in the heavenly sanctuary, right at the present time. If there was ever a time when there should be a careful searching of hearts, it is now. Have you temptations that every now and then get the better of you? In the strength of God, master them. We need the baptism of the Holy Spirit to come upon us in our work. The devil has his eye on the persons, at the present time, that have not had an experience in the early work of the former messages, because they do not know what an experience the people of God had in the early times. We should come so near to God that he can speak to us, by his Holy Spirit. If there is anything that would lead us to search our hearts, it is faith in the work of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. You may pass along, day after day, week after week, and hide your sins, but God will have a people that will unearth every wrong, and confess their sins, so that he may forgive them, and they will be blotted out. Shall you and I be prepared to be saved? God grant that this company may be among that number. Do you think it will make men sell their farms? It did in 1844. In the old Signs Office in Boston, Mass., I was told by the editor of the old Advent Signs, that on that counter men brought thousands and thousands of dollars just before the tenth day of the seventh month, and with tears begged them to take it; but they had enough to publish all they wished until the tenth day of the seventh month. May God forbid that that shall be the experience of a single individual in the audience to-night. Let us begin at once to examine our hearts, and see if our case is clear before God. May the Lord add his blessing and save us in his kingdom for his name’s sake.