Lesson 13: "Exhortations from the Sanctuary"

Sabbath School Today
> With the 1888 Message Dynamic
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> The Sanctuary
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> Lesson 13: "Exhortations from the Sanctuary"
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> The sanctuary truth has immense practical significance. A true heart-appreciation of what Christ accomplished on the cross that goes beyond both Calvinism and Arminianism is what the 1888 message sees. The message motivates immediately to true repentance, confession, a total change of lifestyle, the new birth, reconciliation, yes, "good works"--all under the "constraint" imposed by being under grace, not under a sense of fear of the wrath of the law.
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> The 1888 message illuminates the experiential implications of the sanctuary truth: Sin is unmasked; lukewarmness is seen to be sin; there is a deeper conviction of sin; unbelief is seen as a re-crucifixion of Christ--it was "we" who crucified Him.
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> At the same time comes a deeper conviction of righteousness--Christ is already our Saviour, He has died our second death; if we stop resisting His grace (His ministry in the Most Holy Apartment) He will prepare His people for His soon return. [1] Cleansing the heavenly sanctuary is His job, and we are to "work in harmony with Him," to let Him do it.
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> Christ has elected us each one personally, individually, to eternal salvation; so if we "let" Him have His way, He will prepare us for eternal life. Only if we cherish unbelief can we fail to "overcome." We stop worrying about whether we will individually, personally get our reward, and we become free to be concerned for the honor and vindication of Christ.
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> Thus the message is an "under grace" and not "under the law" motivation. We find something more important to live for rather than saving our own poor little souls. It's His grace, not fear of being lost, that teaches us to say "No!" to ungodliness and worldly lusts.
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> Thus the agape of Christ constraineth us henceforth to live unto Him who died for us and rose again because "we thus judge, that if One died for all, then all were dead," that is, if He had not died, we would be dead. Therefore covetousness (worldliness, selfishness) is killed at its root, we yield ourselves to Him.
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> The bridge that spans the last chasm between us and full fellowship with Christ is the surrender of the will in precisely the same way that Christ, in our flesh, surrendered His will. "By that will [God's] we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10).
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> Therefore we have "boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh" (Heb. 10:19, 20). As He surrendered His will to the Father, He fulfilled that love. As we surrender our will to Him, that same love is forthwith fulfilled in us. The way to boldness is through His flesh. [2]
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> Anxiety and the "Fear of Death": Anxiety is basically what the Bible calls the "fear of death." What we have called "death" the Bible calls "sleep." Few fear that. Our "fear of death" is that of the second death, a fear of the nakedness, aloneness, forsakenness, the horror of great darkness, that comes when one is forever separated from the life and light of God and His great universe of joy. This buried anxiety touches every aspect of our waking life and even intrudes upon us in our dreams. We have seen that only as we sense the dimensions of Christ's sacrifice on the cross can we possibly come to grips with that problem of naked anxiety.
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> "Full Assurance of Faith": Just how does one get this most precious "full assurance of faith" (or "full assurance of hope unto the end") that Hebrews speaks of (10:22; 6:11)? It would be nice if we were not constantly hounded by fear lest we won't be saved at last. And, on the other hand, we have enough common sense to realize that "many" in the last day will come up to Christ expecting entrance into His kingdom and He must say, "I never knew you" (Matt. 7:23). How do we "balance" this important issue of true versus false assurance?
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> Although there are billions who must settle this issue, the Father being infinite is concerned about you as if you were the only person on earth (Matt. 10:29-31). Come into His presence and address Him as your personal heavenly Father, just as Jesus did (Matt. 7:6). This is step one--believe it.
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> The Father wants you to be saved eternally, and His Son "gave Himself a ransom for all," which means--including you (1 Tim. 2:3-6). He did His job faithfully. It follows that the only way you can end up lost is to impede, resist, reject the will of your heavenly Father, and of course, of Christ. In other words, do as Esau did, the man who had the birthright already but who "despised" it and "sold" it. This is the second step--believe this truth that is such good news.
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> This will mean that you do not trust yourself; your fear will not be that the Lord may turn away from you; your fear will be that you may forget Him. He has promised to "hold" you by "your right hand" (Isa. 41:13). You can be like a spoiled, rebellious child and wriggle yourself out of His hand. Choose to let Him hold you. Realize, you're lost if you don't. This is step three--believe it.
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> Scripture says, "draw near with a true heart." That is, simply be honest. All the angels in heaven plus the Holy Spirit can't make you honest if you choose not to be. The decision is yours. "Draw near." This is step four--"draw near."
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> The Conscience: The "conscience" of those who believe in Jesus is to be "purged," a deep work never before fully accomplished until the grand day of atonement. Let's draw near to the Most Holy Apartment, "our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Heb. 10:22).
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> Hebrews 9 and 10 describe His High Priestly ministry as cleansing the hearts of His people, "putting away sin," "purging the conscience," preparing a people to "receive the promise of eternal inheritance," "purifying" hearts and minds and lips, to "make the comers thereunto perfect," to render obsolete any "conscience" or "remembrance of sins," to "take away sins," to "perfect forever them that are sanctified," to write His "laws into their hearts ... [which are] sprinkled from an evil conscience," to "provoke [motivate] unto love and good works," to "believe to the saving of the soul."
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> He naturally wants His people to understand why what He is doing is so incomparably important, and second, He would appreciate our cooperation because He can accomplish nothing without you. Your cooperation means you stop interposing a rebellious will to counteract what He is seeking constantly to do for you!
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> In other words, through His Vicar (the Holy Spirit) Christ as High Priest is constantly pressing upon His people the conviction of sin buried deeper than they had imagined it to be; and when the conviction is welcomed and the sin is gladly surrendered and put away, the heart is more closely reconciled to Him. This process is called "atonement," or becoming at-one-with God. In Romans 5:11 it is "receiving the atonement" or "reconciliation." Thus the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary is a "final atonement."
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> Only the gospel can produce a truly converted people who will pass the test of the mark of the beast. They will be genuine gold through and through with no known or unknown sin.
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> --Paul E. Penno
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> Endnotes:
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> [1] Cf. Review and Herald, Jan. 21, 1890.
> [2] "In His coming in the flesh--having been made in all things like unto us, and having been tempted in all points like as we are--He has identified Himself with every human soul just where that soul is. And from the place where every human soul is, He has consecrated for that soul a new and living way through all the vicissitudes and experiences of a whole lifetime, and even through death and the tomb, into the holiest of all, at the right hand of God for evermore. ... And this 'way' He has consecrated for us. He, having become one of us, has made this way our way; it belongs to us. He has endowed every soul with divine right to walk in this consecrated way; and by His having done it Himself in the flesh--in our flesh--He has made it possible, yea, He has given actual assurance, that every human soul can walk in that way, in all that that way is; and by it enter fully and freely into the holiest of all" (A. T. Jones, The Consecrated Way, pp. 87, 88, Glad Tidings ed.).
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> Note: "Sabbath School Today" and Pastor Paul Penno's video of this lesson are on the Internet at: http://1888mpm.org
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