THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF THIS MESSAGE TO THE SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH AND THE CLOSING WORK OF THE

THIRD ANGELS MESSAGE (The message of the literal blood, shed by Jesus in Heaven) The mission of the Seventh Day Adventist church is co-labour with God in the closing work of the Third Angels message Upon every believer in present truth rests the responsibility of working for sinners. **God points them to their special work--the proclamation of the third angel's message**. They are to show their appreciation of God's great gift by consecrating themselves to the work for which Christ gave His life. They are to be stewards of the grace of God, dispensing to others the blessings bestowed on them. {UL 379.7}

What exactly and simply is our work... The work of the Third Angels Message? What is its fruit? We are called to work with God in making ready a people to meet God The third angel is represented as flying through heaven, proclaiming the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. **This message is to prepare a people for the coming of Christ.** If men should refrain from proclaiming it, the very stones would cry out. The people must be warned. {HS 234.1} As a prophet, John was "to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord." *In preparing the way for Christ's first advent, he was a representative of those who are to prepare a people for our Lord's second coming.* {DA 101.2} What does it mean to prepare a people for the coming of the Lord? Quite simply we understand that when Jesus finishes His work in the heavenly sanctuary, then those believers who are still alive and shall preserved unto the coming of the Lord, must be prepared to live in the sight of a holy God with no heavenly Mediator in between! 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.** Oh, 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 far better than it really is, will come up to the time of the falling of the plagues, and then see that they needed 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 awfully 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 righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." **I saw that none could share the "refreshing" unless they obtain 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.* {EW 71.2}

Clearly, those of us who are alive when Jesus finishes His Intercessory work and leaves the Most Holy Place, we must be cleansed from ALL OF OUR SIN. This is the point, this is the preparation, this the work of preparing a people to meet our God, because none but holy beings can dwell in His presence!

Please consider this statement: The world is a second Sodom; **the end is right upon us, and is it reasonable to think that there is no message to make ready a people to stand in the day of God's preparation?** Why is there so little eyesight? So little deep, earnest, heartfelt labor? Why is there so much pulling back? Why is there such a continual cry of "peace and safety," and no going forward in obedience to the Lord's command? Is the third angel's message to go out in darkness, or to lighten the whole earth with its glory? Is the light of God's Spirit to be quenched, and the church to be left as destitute of the grace of Christ as the hills of Gilboa were of dew and rain? Certainly all must admit that it is time that a vivifying, heavenly influence should be brought to bear upon our churches. {11MR 295.2} And again: Amid the confusing cries, "Lo, here is Christ! Lo, there is Christ!" will be borne **a special testimony, a special message of truth** appropriate for this time, which message is to be received, believed, and acted upon... {RH, October 13, 1904 par. 6}

I declare unto all of you that that message has come in the revelation that Jesus sheds His sacred blood in heaven in transferring our sins to the heavenly sanctuary!!! Behold why this message is SO IMPORTANT to completing the mission (which we have outlined above) of the Seventh Day Adventist church: Our challenge is to gain so intimate a knowledge and revelation of Christ that we cease from sin.

How? If we would come to him, let us fix our eyes upon him; for he is full of grace and truth, and he will let all his goodness pass before us while he hides us in the cleft of the Rock. Then we shall endure as seeing him who is invisible, and by beholding him, we shall be changed into his image. THE REASON THAT WE CARELESSLY INDULGE IN SIN IS THAT WE NOT SEE JESUS. **We would not lightly regard sin, did we appreciate the fact that sin wounds our Lord.** Did we know Jesus by an experimental knowledge, we would not esteem duty as of small importance; but would manifest faithful integrity in the performance of every service. A right estimate of the character of God would enable us rightly to represent him to the world. Harshness, roughness in words or manner, evil-speaking, passionate words, cannot exist in the soul that is looking unto Jesus. He who abides in Christ is in an atmosphere that forbids evil, and gives not the slightest excuse for anything of this kind. {YI, February 10, 1898 par. 3}

This message is to give us a powerful, stirring revelation of Him that we may know, if we would receive it, that sin wounds our Lord and this knowledge of what does and is to Him Who we love causes us, not only to cease from sin, but to be changed into His image by continually beholding Him! IT IS TIME WE FACE THE LAMB IN THE SANCTUARY!!! On entering the building, I saw that the vast temple was supported by one immense pillar, and to this was **TIED a Lamb all mangled and bleeding**. We who were present seemed to know that this Lamb had been torn and bruised on our account. *All who entered the temple must come before it and confess their sins.* {EW 78.4} ... Even after having entered the building a fear came over me and a sense of shame that I must humiliate myself before these people. But I seemed compelled to move forward, and was slowly making my way around the pillar in order to FACE THE LAMB, when a trumpet sounded, the temple shook... {EW 79.2} If we understood that when we sin and confess, that we must FACE THE LAMB Who IS ALL MANGLED AND BLEEDING in the sanctuary... We would not lightly regard sin. Yes, we must know this... "And they also which pierced Him." These words apply not only to the men who pierced Christ when He hung on the cross of Calvary, but to those who by evil-speaking and wrong-doing are piercing Him today. **Daily He suffers the agonies of the crucifixion.** Daily men and women are piercing Him by dishonoring Him, by refusing to do His will. {ST, January 28, 1903 par. 8}

The Lord desires us to be men and women in Christ Jesus. *Our natural dispositions are to be softened and subdued by His grace. **Then we shall not be continually crucifying Him afresh.* Our Saviour lived on this earth a perfect life. He is our Example. If we now follow Him, doing His will in all things, we shall in the world to come live with Him forever. Let us keep Him constantly in view. It should be our life-purpose to glorify Christ. This is the great purpose that has inspired Christians in every age. It is by cherishing this purpose that we make sure of eternal salvation. Let us learn to know Him whom to know aright is peace and joy and life everlasting. {ST, January 28, 1903 par. 9} This is why this message is so important to the mission of the Seventh Day Adventist church...

It is time to stop sinning... it is time to behold our Lamb in heaven... Our message is piercing and direct... we are not given a message to soothe our brethren and sisters to sleep in carnal security thinking that they can wait for the refreshing of the Latter Rain, while we indulge sin... By some there is shunning of the living testimony. Cutting truths must not be shunned. It needs something besides theory to reach hearts now. It needs the stirring testimony to alarm and arouse; that will stir the enemy's subjects, and then honest souls will be led to decide for the truth. There has been and still is with some a disposition to have everything move on very smoothly. They see no necessity of straight testimony. Sins exist in the church that God hates, but they are scarcely touched for fear of making enemies. Opposition has risen in the church to the plain testimony. Some will not bear it. {2SG 283.2,3}

SIN MUST CEASE... Thats why The Father ordains that a message showing, last of all, that literal blood, THE BLOOD OF SPRINKLING, shed from our Slain Lamb is required in this expensive undertaking of forgiving us of our sins... Let us plead for all the POWER promised, understanding the time and knowing, now more than ever, that God is greatly in earnest with us and He is saying... it is time to break your iniquities by Righteousness... My long-suffering is nearing His limit...