The Sanctuary

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Nov 17, 1904

(Continued)

Now I pass this part of the subject, and turn to some familiar texts in Exodus. In the eighth and ninth verses of the twenty-fifth chapter we read: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it;” again, in the same chapter and the fortieth verse: “And look that thou make them [all the furniture] after their pattern, which was showed thee in the mount.” “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Could not he dwell among Israel unless they made him a sanctuary? If that text reads all right, I do not think he could. “Let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” Did he not dwell with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?—Yes. We will see if we can find why he did not dwell with Israel. If Jacob’s sons had not sinned, and their judgment become so perverted that they could sell Joseph, they never would have gone into Egypt, but because their minds were blinded by sin, and they fell so far from appreciating God, he permitted them to go into Egypt, and when they got down to Egypt and saw before them continually the worship of the gods of Egypt, they became permeated with those principles of heathen worship, and God could not dwell with them until it was cleansed out of their heart. God took three steps to do it. The first one was to demolish the gods of Egypt, and show there was no power in them. The ten plagues that came upon the Egyptians were directed against their gods. God showed by those plagues that there was no power or salvation in their gods to withstand the judgments that he brought upon them. Ex. 12:13; Num. 33:4.

Next the Lord brought them to Mount Sinai, and spoke the ten commandments to them. Let me read you a few verses to show the effect it had on them at that time: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to-day and to-morrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, or touch the border of it: whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death: there shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.” Ex. 19:10-13; see also Ex. 20:18, 19. Now what kind of impression would that make on Israel?—It would teach them that God was holy, and in his presence sin could not exist. The mount became so holy that the man or beast that touched it would die. Would not that give them an experience, a realizing sense of the character of God, of his holiness, of his righteousness? When they heard God speak the ten commandments, they said to Moses, “Speak thou with us, . . . but let not God speak with us lest we die.” Why would they die?—Because of sin in their hearts. When a man gets a genuine experience, it affects him—heart, head, and body—spiritually, mentally, and physically. True holiness includes physical cleanliness. 2 Cor. 7:1. They were to build the sanctuary to perfect holiness. It was that the Lord might dwell among them. It would give them an experience in the hatred of sin, and an exalted idea of the holiness of God.

In all their typical arrangement, in their eating, their clothing, in cultivating the soil, there was something to impress their mind with the sacredness of Jehovah. And so repeatedly he says, “Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.” If an unconsecrated person even touched or looked upon the ark, he was smitten. When that ark was taken by the Philistines, over fifty thousand men were slain for looking into it, and they exclaimed, “How can we dwell with such a holy Lord God?” The priest was consecrated to his office by blood placed upon the tip of his ear, showing that his ear should be consecrated to God, and upon the thumb of his right hand, that he would not engage in anything but the service of God, and upon the toe of his right foot, that he would run in the way of the commandments of God. This was the impression the building of the sanctuary would have upon Israel,—it was that God was holy, and those that approached God and approached his services must consecrate themselves to God. In all the services of the sanctuary there was a penalty of death if they did not do as God directed. Why?—Because God had come down to dwell with them, and this represented God’s dwelling-place in heaven.

Now I want you to see that the building of that sanctuary would give them an experience far different from what they had ever had before. It would require a heart consecration. It would give them a genuine experience, and in that building God dwelt. Over and over again he commanded them to do this and to do that, that they might be holy. Here was a marked distinction between the people and the sanctuary and its services that made them holy. They never were the sanctuary. And while there is a sense that man becomes a temple of the Holy Ghost, man never becomes the antitypical sanctuary. It is contrary to all the Scripture teaching. The Israelites were required to be holy. And what made them holy?—It was a faith in the sanctuary and its service; and those services which they performed were only a shadow, to show them how they could approach the God in heaven. It pointed to the real sanctuary which was above.

I might read you scripture here by the hour to show you that every ceremony given was that they might be holy. There was a transforming power in their faith in God’s dwelling in that building on the earth that imperceptibly transformed their character and made them holy. Can you not see why they were to build a sanctuary? “Let them build me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” It would wipe out of their hearts the last vestige of heathenism. Language fails me in expressions to show the importance of believing in a God that is something, and that dwells somewhere. The devil well knows the power of such a faith, and every idol temple is but a counterfeit of the true.

Fifteen hundred years later Christ went up to heaven. I read from Heb. 8:1, 2: “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: we have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” You might just as well say that Christ turned to nothing when he went up to heaven, as to say that he did not take his place on the right hand of the Father in the tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. What happened when he got there? Turn with me to John 16:7: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” It was necessary for Christ to go away in order that the Comforter might come to them. Read John 15:26. “But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” Again, Acts 2:33: “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.”

Where did Christ go to receive the Holy Spirit?—To the Father. Then when he took his position at the right hand of the Father, as an high priest in the heavenly sanctuary, there was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Was not there an experience that was far greater than they had when they built the sanctuary? Did they not get something there which made them a separate people, and which they carried with them until the gospel went to the ends of the earth? The Saviour said, “And greater works than these shall ye do because I go to my Father” in the heavenly sanctuary. And when he took his place at the right hand of the Father, they received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This greater work was a manifestation of the Spirit in the conversion of souls because Christ had taken his place at the right hand of the Father. And when they received the Spirit, it continued with them.

When Paul came to those brethren at Ephesus, he said, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” It gave them a realizing sense of sin they had never experienced before. See Acts 19:2-6, also Acts 8:13-24. It is to the opening of the temple of God in heaven, and the entering of Christ into the most holy place, before the ark of his testament, that we owe our existence as a people. God has something now for his people, as he had for the believers in Ephesus. They said, “We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.” He said unto them, “Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.” They believed that they had received something, and they had something.

So when Peter went down to preach to Cornelius, they received the Holy Ghost. “While Peter spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.” The Holy Ghost came upon them just as it had come upon the believers on the day of Pentecost.

The experience of receiving the Holy Ghost took hold of men’s thoughts. When Peter said to Simon, “Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee,” Simon was frightened, and said, “Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.”

If we had more of the Holy Ghost, there would be a power that was manifest in the early experience of this work. We lack the Spirit of God. Why did the early Christians have it?—It was because of their faith that grasped the Saviour at the right hand of the Father in the heavenly sanctuary. That experience would have been worth nothing had they not believed in the special work at that time. It was their faith in Christ’s position in heaven that brought them the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. It made them a separate company. It originated the gospel church. There on the day of Pentecost, when they had confessed their sins and put them away, God set his seal to the work as Christ took his position at the right hand of God.

When Brother Butler suggested that we might obtain sixty-five thousand dollars during the week of prayer, I thought that one hundred thousand dollars would be a small sum if we had the same experience that we had when we first believed. If we were to receive the experience that God has for us, as I shall presently show you, from Christ’s entering into the most holy place, we could raise five hundred thousand dollars. How much urging had to be done to get the early Christians to give for the gospel work? Their faith in Jesus Christ, who went to the heavenly courts at the right hand of the Father, laid hold of their pocketbooks. It gave them an experience in God. It gave them a far greater experience than Israel obtained in the wilderness. Why?—Because they had reached that stage when Christ took his place at the right hand of the Father. We read about apostolic times, but it will take more zeal to go through to the kingdom than they had in that time.

(To be concluded)