Now as soon as these successive revelations are made, and the light shines clearer concerning God’s purpose, then the effort is always to pervert or hide that purpose; so the sanctuary service was perverted in the days of Israel, and so the heavenly sanctuary service was perverted. It began to be perverted in the early church. The mystery of iniquity, which began to work in Paul’s day, was simply the working out of a definite plan on the part of the enemy of God’s truth that he should hide from the people the light and the blessing and the power for salvation from sin that were revealed in this new opening up of the truth of the sanctuary question. The church and the world went into the darkness of the Dark Ages, because the light that would shine from him who sitteth between the cherubim was shut off from them.
Now, after eighteen centuries, we have come to a third step in the development of this truth, set forth in the sanctuary4question, and that is this: According to the prophecy of the twenty-three hundred days, we have come to the time of the cleansing of the sanctuary. Now mark that in the prophecies these several things all come at the same time: the cleansing of the sanctuary, as set forth in Dan. 8:13, 14; the coming of the Son of man to the Ancient of days, as set forth in the seventh chapter of Daniel; the coming of the Lord to his temple, as set forth in the third chapter of Malachi; the coming of the bridegroom, as set forth in the parable of the virgins, in Matthew 25. All deal with the same grouping of events, and they all center in that time in 1843 and 1844. At that very time comes the message to the church concerning him who “openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;” and the message to the church, “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.”
Now that was at the beginning of this message and this work,—the word that was to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord. When that transfer of the ministry was made from the holy to the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary, as set forth in these scriptures, it marked a new step in the development of the gospel. And it marked a phase of truth that the people ought to know.
Now note the history of that time. First came what we call the first angel’s message, a message that went forth to prepare the way of the Lord,—a definite time-message concerning the fulfillment of prophecy and the coming of the Lord. And in the preaching of that message the position was definitely taken that the prophecy of the twenty-three hundred days would expire in the year 1843 to 1844.
After 1843 had passed, and the Lord did not come, there was a general agreement of the Advent believers that the Lord would come in the spring of 1844, with no effort to fix a definite date, and that time also passed. And then the light came again, and they fixed upon a definite day, the tenth day of the seventh month, the twenty-second day of October, 1844. And then came in the message of the second angel and the midnight cry. And in that short time, the summer and early autumn of 1844, there went forth a message of wonderful power. But the tenth day of the seventh month came, and the Lord did not come to this earth, and they experienced that most bitter disappointment.
But those whose faith held to the prophecies, whose personal experience in the message was the experience of deliverance from sin, who had found in that message personal salvation, could not believe that they were all wrong in that work, and they waited upon God, and they studied his word for light, and light came; and what was the light that came?—It was the light on the sanctuary question. When they took up the study of the sanctuary, light was thrown upon the past, upon the present, and upon the future. And the people of God arose with new courage, with fresh hope, to go forth to give the final message.
Now the question is always raised, If they were so certain in their time that the Lord was coming on that day, and preached it, and he did not come, and they were mistaken about it, how do you know that you are not mistaken in preaching the message now of his soon coming? And the answer to that question is found in the study of the sanctuary. I mean not merely in the fact that after twenty-three hundred days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed, not merely in the fact of a date, but in the nature of the work set forth in the services of the sanctuary, and that is this:—
The work of Christ as our Mediator in the atonement for sin is the work to be followed all the way through; through his work as Mediator, through the atonement provided, we have redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins, according to the riches of his grace.
But there is a difference between the forgiveness of sins and the blotting out of sin. There is a difference between the gospel being preached for the forgiveness of sins and the gospel being preached for the blotting out of sin. Always, and to-day, there is abundant provision for the forgiveness of sins. In our generation comes the provision for the blotting out of sin. And the blotting out of sin is what will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord; and the blotting out of sin is the ministry of our High Priest in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary; and it makes a difference to the people of God to-day in their ministry, in their message, and in their experience, whether they recognize the change of the ministry from one apartment to the other, or whether they recognize and experience the fact of the change.
The very center and heart of the advent message for this generation is found in the ministry which Christ, our High Priest, is carrying forward in the heavenly sanctuary in behalf of his people in this generation. That ministry began, that change in the ministry took place, in A. D. 1844, according to the prophecy. It has been continued until this present time; it is to be carried forward until an end is made of sin, until it is blotted out, until all that rebellion that would cast God down from his throne, and put the creature in place of the Creator, is utterly removed from the universe, and the universe is clean, so that out of the heart of every created being has been cast even the lurking thought of that sin.
And that is the ministry of our High Priest in this generation; and our co-operation with that ministry of our High Priest in this generation will prepare the way of the Lord in this generation.
A word further concerning that blotting out of sin: It is the revelation of the glory of God that blots out sin. The time for the blotting out of sin has come when our High Priest takes all the sins of the people upon himself, and goes into the most holy place, and stands in the immediate presence of the glory which blots out sin. The sins blotted out are the sins confessed, confessed upon the Priest,—not that by arbitrary act of ours we can lay our sins upon him; God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Our confession is that we personally confess that our sins are on him. We agree to that, and, having confessed that, and agreed to that, we let go of them; we say our sins are on him. Our very agreement with him, in the confession that our sins have been laid upon him, is God’s means of removing them from us, and letting them be upon him in our behalf.
Now I want to put together the prophecies and the facts concerning this advent movement in 1843 and 1844. Note, now, the pairs of events: The first message, the second message, and the midnight cry, and the third message; and now, in our time, the message of Revelation 18 uniting with the message of the third angel. Those are definite facts in the development of this advent message in this generation.
Note, on the other hand, in 1844, exactly that happened which the Scripture said would happen, and our High Priest changed his ministry from the holy place to the most holy place. The Bridegroom came at just the time the cry was raised, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.” The messages that were given were in God’s order, and they were to do just the work that God had in mind, and fulfill his definite purpose for that time.
So it is with the third angel, and so it is with the union of all three and the angel of Revelation 18, in the wonderful manifestation of power that will bring the coming of the Lord.
Now, is there any relation between these things?—Certainly, a most definite and clear relation. You mark the steps. The first angel’s message prepared the people for exactly the thing that did take place. It was given under God’s providence; it was under his guidance. It prepared the people, that they might unite intelligently with our High Priest in his change of ministry. They did not know it at the time, but that was God’s purpose. The midnight cry prepared them to step right over with the High Priest into the most holy place. The third angel’s message, with all these other messages united with it,5should make perfectly clear and distinct the way into the holiest of all, and should fasten the minds of the people directly and definitely upon the present work of Christ, our Mediator and High Priest, in the most holy place in the heavenly sanctuary above as a definite fact.
Now that should be distinctly brought out in the third angel’s message; and with that, of course, will come the clearest revelation of the gospel ministry for this time, the blotting out of sin in this generation, thus preparing the way of the Lord.
These events did not come by chance. The facts of history concerning this advent movement and the facts of prophecy come together according to God’s purpose. And we find ourselves now facing the very next and last development in these steps of experience in the advent message; and what is that?—It is the hour of temptation that is to come upon all the world, to try all them that dwell upon the face of the earth; and the message of Revelation 18, united with the message of the third angel, will prepare a people to stand in that hour of temptation. If the third angel’s message is understood and preached as the gospel for this day, it will bless the people in the very experience through which they are passing.
Now that preaching of Christ, and him crucified, that preaching of the righteousness of Christ as the gift of God through faith in Jesus, which does not extend to and take in these definite developments of advent history, of advent experience, and these definite developments of the truth for this generation, is not the preaching of righteousness by faith, or Christ crucified, that God would have preached to the people now.
Now do not misunderstand me. I will speak in the plainest manner. You know I am not preaching against the forgiveness of sin, the righteousness of Christ, and the glory of the cross of Christ. But what I want to emphasize is this, that not by going off on one side, and ignoring all the historic truth, and all the prophetic truth, and simply preaching a general message of salvation through faith in Christ, without applying God’s message of salvation through faith in Christ to this generation, is not the preaching that God wants in this generation. [Congregation, “Amen.”] The preaching of the glory of the cross of Christ, the preaching of the light that shines from Calvary’s cross, the preaching of the righteousness of Christ as our only hope of salvation, must in this generation extend to a definite application and enforcement of these truths, in the light of advent history and advent prophecy. And when those truths are preached in the light of advent history and advent prophecy, they will save people from sin and from sinning now. They will prepare a people to stand in the hour of temptation that faces us, and will prepare a people to meet the Lord in the air, and so to be ever with the Lord; and that is the message to be preached in this generation.
Let us make as clear as possible what God’s definite purpose for his work is now, that we may all unitedly co-operate with God’s purpose for this time, that there may be just as much the one voice that shall speak the one message, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God,” as was heard when the one man, John the Baptist, went forth with his message. Thus we shall not have a message of one sort on this coast, and a message of another sort on the other coast, and a message of some other sort in some other country. There will be one world-wide message, with only one voice, ever preaching salvation from sin through faith in God’s provision,—a complete deliverance from sin, the blotting out of sin, and the salvation of God fully revealed.
And that is what I believe is the message for this time. We have simply looked at it; we have simply opened it up, to look at it; but I want to add that not one truth of the Bible is shut out of the third angel’s message. I want you to think of that. I mean that not one truth from the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis to the last verse of the twenty-second chapter of Revelation is in any way shut out from this message. But now let us add another thing, and that is that every truth from the first verse of the first chapter of Genesis to the last verse of the last chapter of Revelation, in this generation is to be preached in the light of those few verses of Rev. 14:6-12. Those few verses cast a light upon the whole question; and when we begin to enter into the study of it, and to find what it opens up to us, we shall find ourselves face to face with every truth of the Scriptures, with the light of all the ages concentrated, as it were, upon this time, and we shall have a message to bear that will have the power in it to save to the uttermost.