Friday, May 25, 2018

1888 Glad Tidings : Insight #8 May 26, 2018

SECOND QUARTER 2018
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #8
MAY 26, 2018
"WORSHIP THE CREATOR"
 
 
Our topic this week, "Worship the Creator", is a very important one because it is at the core of the Great Controversy and Satan's accusations against God that He is unjust, unmerciful and that the universe He created is only worshipping Him out of fear and/or expected rewards.
 
This, of course, is the exact opposite of who God really is which is clearly brought out in the Scriptures.  As we study this together, we need to be able to answer the key question, "What is our motive for worshipping the Creator?"
 
When we attempt to describe God, many thoughts come to mind as we mortal humans look at an infinite Creator which could include: He is eternal, totally unselfish, with a character that reflects His infinite love, mercy, patience, justice, longsuffering and forgiveness.
 
However, more fundamental than all of this is what we are clearly told in 1 John 4:8-16 that "God is love"!
 
"He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  No man hath seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.  Hereby know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him."
 
The complete everlasting gospel is encompassed in these verses. The words "God is love" are not just describing an attribute of His character but it is a complete description of who He is. God's love is the complete opposite of human love which is conditional, changeable and self-seeking which is all that our sinful nature is capable of on our own.  In contrast, let us look briefly at God's infinite love for us.  His love is:
 
  1. UNCONDITIONAL:
    His love is spontaneous, uncaused, and independent of our goodness. This is the ground of our salvation.  See Romans 5: 6-10, Eph. 2: 1-9, and Titus 3: 3-5.  
  2. CHANGELESS:
    God's love is everlasting and never fails.  See Jer. 31-3, 1 Cor. 13-8, John 13: 1, and Romans 8: 35-39  
  3. SELF-EMPTYING ( AGAPE):
    God's love is selfless, and always giving not taking. Therefore, everything He does and says is for the benefit of others and not Himself.  His love is humbling Himself and stepping down, and this He has done for all of us, the entire human race.  See 1 Cor. 13-5, 2 Cor. 8-9, Phil. 2 6-8.  
Our God has done everything for us, given everything He has to us, and sacrificed everything for us, not because we deserved it or earned it in any way but because He truly is love as we saw above: infinite, unconditional, changeless, and self-emptying!  He is not only our Creator but our Re-Creator.
 
Now, when we look closely at those familiar verses in John 3: 16-17, we may see a little more of the depth of the sacrifice that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have made on behalf of the entire human race:
 
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."
 
Let's now look at some Ellen White quotes that also bring God's love clearly into focus for us:
 
  1. "The plan of salvation, making manifest the justice and love of God, provides an eternal safeguard against defection in unfallen worlds, as well as among those who shall be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. Our only hope is perfect trust in the blood of Him who can save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.  The death of Christ on the cross of Calvary is our only hope in this world, and it will be our theme in the world to come.  Oh, we do not comprehend the value of the atonement!  If we did, we would talk more about it.  The gift of God in His beloved Son was the expression of an incomprehensible love.  It was the utmost that God could do to preserve the honor of His law, and still save the transgressor.  Why should man not study the theme of redemption?  It is the greatest subject that can engage the human mind.  If men would contemplate the love of Christ, displayed in the cross, their faith would be strengthened to appropriate the merits of His shed blood, and they would be cleansed and saved from sin. (ST Dec. 30, 1889).  
  2. "Without the cross, man could have no connection with the Father. On it hangs our every hope.  In view of it the Christian may advance with the steps of a conqueror; for from it streams the light of the Saviour's love.  When the sinner reaches the cross and looks up to the One who died to save him, he may rejoice with the fullness of joy; for his sins are pardoned.  Kneeling at the cross, he has reached the highest place to which man can attain.  The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ; and the words of pardon are spoken: Live, O ye guilty sinners, live.  Your repentance is accepted; for I have found a ransom.

    Through the cross we learn that our heavenly Father loves us with an infinite and everlasting love, and draws us to Him with more than a mother's yearning sympathy for a wayward child.  Can we wonder that Paul exclaimed, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ"?  It is our privilege also to glory in the cross of Calvary, our privilege to give ourselves wholly to Him who gave Himself for us.  Then with the light of love that shines from His face on ours, we shall go forth to reflect it to those in darkness. (RH April 29, 1902)  
  3. Jesus placed the cross in line with the light coming from heaven, for it is there that it shall catch the eye of man.  The cross is in direct line with the shining of the divine countenances, so that by beholding the cross men may see and know God and Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent.  In beholding God we behold the One who poured out His soul unto death.  In beholding the cross the view is extended to God and His hatred of sin is discerned.  But while we behold in the cross God's hatred of sin, we also behold His love for sinners, which is stronger than death.  To the world the cross is the incontrovertible argument that God is truth and light  and love. (ST March 7, 1895).  
Now as we go to scripture and look at 1 John 4:19, we see that: "We love Him, because He first loved us."  This takes us back to our original question, what should our motive be for worshipping our Creator and Re-Creator?
 
When we begin to see and understand more of God's infinite self- sacrificing love for you and for me and the entire human race, as exemplified by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, then hearts and lives are changed and we want nothing more than to love and worship the God who has given everything for our redemption so we can be with Him for eternity.
 
Further, as we by faith (the faith of Jesus) learn from God's word that Christ, as the second Adam, took us, the entire human race, into Himself at the incarnation and that we were all in Him at the cross when He died the second death and won the victory over sin releasing us from the condemnation of sin, we can only stand in awe and wonder as the First Angel in Rev. 14:7 exclaims "Fear God and give glory to Him".  This is what it means to fear God, not a fear of His justice or punishment (See Tuesday's lesson.)
 
When we truly see and believe that God is love, that He is a seeking Saviour that draws all men to Him then human fear does not drive us but fades away.  In 1 John 4: 18 we see that "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.  He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
 
Similarly, in Desire of Ages (pg. 480), we also clearly see God's love, not fear, as our motivation: "It is not the fear of punishment or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him.  They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul.  Love awakens in the heart of the beholders.  They hear His voice and follow Him."
 
In fact, we have Christ's own promise to us in John 15: 4, "Abide(remain) in me, and I in you." What a beautiful promise! Christ has already corporately put the entire human race into Himself and when by faith we choose to remain in Him, he promises that through the Holy Spirit , He will remain in us.  His faith, His power, His victory over sin, are all a gift to us, embodied in the free gift of salvation given to all.   We must choose to believe by faith that it is ours and accept or reject His free gift.  With our sinful human natures, it is still a moment by moment surrender as our High Priest cleanses us from sin in the heavenly sanctuary.  But always remember that the free gift of salvation is exactly that, a gift, not an offer.  He has already won the victory!  It is a personal gift to each of us, with our name on it, to be believed and accepted.  It will not be re-wrapped with someone else's name on it should we reject it, but will remain unopened forever, always a remembrance to God of those who spurned His love and sacrifice for them.
 
This is, indeed, the everlasting gospel of Rev. 14: 6 that we are to share to the world.  This is the same everlasting gospel that Christ returned to share with his disciples from scripture prior to Pentecost.  And when they fully understood His wonderful message of infinite love and sacrifice and the victory He had won over sin, they were changed from frightened men cowering in an upper room, to fearless warriors for Christ relying totally on His strength and power through the Holy Spirit in their lives.
 
This is also why God's remnant church was given a most precious message in 1888 so that we also might see and understand the full everlasting gospel that He wants us to share with the world.  As Ellen White says in TM pgs. 91-92:
 
"The Lord in His great mercy sent a most precious message to His people through Elders Waggoner and Jones.  This message was to bring more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.  It presented justification through faith in the Surety; it invited the people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.  Many had lost sight of Jesus.  They needed to have their eyes directed to His divine person, his merits, and His changeless love for the human family.  All power is given into His hands, that he may dispense rich gifts unto men, imparting the priceless gift of His own righteousness to the helpless human agent.  This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world.  It is the third angel's message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of His Spirit in a large measure."
 
This is the message God has sent to His last day church as a remedy for its Laodicean condition to deal with our lukewarmness and lack of need. It is indeed, the everlasting gospel that will bring unity to our church and take us through the end times as a people that will follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
 
May we all be worthy stewards of this wonderful gospel message for the world with the same burning desire the apostles had after Pentecost.  He wants to take us home!
 
Blessings, John and Monica

http://www.1888msc.org/article/556/resources/sabbath-school-insights/2018-quarter-2-apr-june/insight-8-may-26-2018

Friday, May 11, 2018

1888 Glad Tidings : Insight #6 May 12, 2018

SECOND QUARTER 2018
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #6
MAY 12, 2018
THE "CHANGE" OF THE LAW
 
The real New Testament "change" of the law was Messiah as a human for the first time keeping the law, thus changing the relation of the entire human race to the law. His faith established the law, and His love fulfilled the law.[1] These comprise His righteousness, which He gives to all in that He "believes all things"[2] about them (what they can be in His plan), and in that He "loves" them more than Himself.[3] In this way, as the last Adam He redeemed "them that were under the law."[4] What does this new relation to the law mean for every human, especially those that respond to His faith with faith, and to His love with love? And what has happened when, in spite of this infinite gift of "all the riches of the universe,"[5] typified from Eden, some have felt they could equal this extravagance in some creaturely way?

One group who "change" the law is blinded on creature merit. They think they can keep the law, and thus trust "in themselves that they [are] righteous, and [despise] others."[6] Jesus illustrated them in a parable of a Pharisee who boasted of his goodness but ended unjustified. Later the former Pharisee Paul confessed he had "blameless" "righteousness which is in the law."[7] But then he met Messiah, and encountered the commandment in His sinless, unselfish life and substitutionary death. Paul saw his own covetousness and realized that when Messiah died for the sins of the world, he was included. His proud, Pharisaical ego died.[8]

As he realized that this new, last Adam reversed the sin and condemnation that the first Adam brought on all men,[9] Paul could enter for the first time into the deep battle against the sin and condemnation residing in his first-Adam nature, the flesh, with the freedom that came through "no condemnation" in Jesus.[10] He found the sin dwelling in him had a paralyzing effect on the law of God. But he also found God's solution. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" made him "free from the law of sin and death" which was in his body. This law of life was at work in Messiah Himself when He came "in the likeness of sinful flesh." Paul affirmed that Jesus' victory over sin and death "condemned sin in the flesh" and brought "justification of life"—freedom from condemnation, enabling "the righteousness of the law" to "be fulfilled in us" by the Spirit dwelling in us, where the sin dwells. The result is a walk "after the Spirit" and "not after the flesh."[11]

The Pharisee's misuse of the law becomes evident in one's battle with indwelling sin. In their failure to grasp what Jesus' mission was, they "change" the law by shrinking it and dishonoring it. Jesus came to correct that—"to magnify the law and make it honorable."[12] And thus the "change" of the law in Jesus is the only way the condemnation inherent in sin can be turned for any Pharisaical human into the full life that results from the justification that the faith of Jesus brought. When one truly believes this (Jesus' creative faith meeting a believer's responsive faith), the blessing of probationary life turns into eternal-life blessings, and one, like Paul, can relegate their own "law righteousness" to the dung heap.

Another group who "change" the law is also based on creature merit. These mistakenly think they can improve on God's stipulations of worship. As prophesied,[13] these arose within Christianity, claimed God's prerogatives, and attempted to alter the worship elements of God's law. What unfolded was an ingenious (and lengthy but limited) amalgamation of pagan philosophies and practices with God's law.[14] The gospel given Paul by revelation remains the only bulwark against the sophistries of this counterfeit of Christianity. For the "gospel of Christ" wherein "the righteousness of God [is] revealed from faith to faith" is held back and hindered by these who reject the lessons of the Creator God. These end up changing "the truth of God into the lie," and worshiping and serving "the creature more than the Creator."[15] This is the end-time worship scenario that Revelation addresses at length.

The revelation of Messiah in His earthly life addressed this error. His teaching and example affirmed "the commandment of God" with its "doctrine" in the face of their worship-destroying "tradition" which was nothing but "the commandments of men."[16] In his teaching of Messiah's "gospel" that revealed "the mystery of God" with His faith that roots, builds up, and establishes us, Paul warned of these man-made teachings of "philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men"—"after the commandments and doctrines of men"—not "after Christ." These "spoil" us from experiencing Messiah's "fullness of the Godhead" and our completeness "in Him."[17] Man-made teachings cannot free us from condemnation.

Revelation shows messengers with the victorious final message—"the everlasting gospel" that is the only effective antidote to the law-changing "wine of Babylon" that intoxicates the world. Those carrying this final call to "worship Him that made" (as revealed in the fourth commandment) are noted to "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus"—"the law and the gospel going hand in hand."[18] Their life witness unmasks the deception involved in this attack on God's character by redefining his law with pagan traditions, and by presuming to promote His faith while rejecting His word on everything from creation to redemption.[19]

This last message of mercy is carried by a Laodicean church that has finally opened the door to Jesus, accepting His diagnosis and remedy. As Paul found the answer for his wretchedness in Jesus, so the final passages of Revelation reveal a Laodicea which has the eye salve, seeing her true condition in herself and the true solution in Jesus; she has the gold, knowing the faith of God is the answer to her unbelief,[20] and the love of God is the answer to her love waxing cold;[21] she has the white raiment, accepting His righteousness as the only there is, to cover her lack of it.[22]
 
Summary of the Role of the Law in the Gospel
The law, being a description of what love does and does not do, helps us to see what God is really like. But in so seeing, we also see how unlike Him we are as a result of Eve and Adam rejecting the truth of the image of God in which they were made, while believing the lie that by taking for themselves they could be like God. Instead of making them like Him, they lost, almost completely, the likeness they did have. So, the law has two sides: a description of righteousness, what faith and love look like, and a description of their lack, what it looks like to be "under the law." Jesus came under this law in His incarnation, by identifying with us, but in a victorious way. He overcame sin in the suffering of temptation, by condemning sin while justifying the sinner. He overcame death in the suffering of death, by the resurrection from the dead. The law is in partnership with Jesus, actually being an expression of His heart, letting us know our need, so we can be led to the Lawgiver Who is also the Redeemer. In Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection, He fulfilled the law that it might be fulfilled in us—the image of God restored in us by the abiding Spirit.
 
A. T. Jones on "The Law Without Christ, and With Christ"
Only in Christ can the law be understood. Christ is God's own exposition and explanation of his own law. Nobody but God can fathom or reveal the wide meaning of his law. In Christ, God has done this. Whoever, therefore, would understand the law of God, must study not the law, but Christ,—not the law as it is in the law, but the law as it is in Christ. To study the law as it is in the law is to court destruction. To study the law as it is in Christ is to court salvation.

"By understanding the law in connection with Christ, receiving him by faith as his substitute and surety, man sees himself a prisoner of hope. The truth as it is in Jesus is an acquaintance with the holy, just, and good law of God, as this law is elevated, and its immutability demonstrated, in Christ."

Christ is God's own explanation of all law—moral, ceremonial, natural, or what not. Then study Christ, and Christ alone. In studying Him, and Him alone, you are studying everything that can ever be known; for He is the truth, and "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him."[23]
 
E. J. Waggoner on "Civil Government and the Law of God"
"And he shall speak great words against the Most High and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time." Daniel 7:25. The apostle Paul, writing by inspiration of God, sets forth the Papacy as "that man of sin" "that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 2 Thessalonians 2:4, R.V.

These characteristics are met in every case where men think that they can enforce the law of God. For to say that men can enforce the law of God, is to say that man has the power of God; and that is for those who make the laws to set themselves forth as God. So, every nation that enforces religion by law puts itself in the place of God. But when a nation puts itself in the place of God, it turns the attention to just that degree away from God, since it is not indeed God, and has none of His attributes; therefore, such enforcement of religion is nothing else than idolatry. Therefore, we find that the professed enforcement of even the Christian religion is heathenism. The union of Church and State, or the union of religion and the State, which is the same thing, is the very essence of Paganism.[24]
 
~Fred Bischoff
 
[1] Romans 3:31; 13:10
[2] 1 Corinthians 13:7
[3] John 3:16; Philippians 2:5-8
[4] Galatians 4:4, 5
[5] Ellen White, Christ's Object Lessons, page 118.2
[6] Luke 18:9-14
[7] Philippians 3:6
[8] Romans 7:7-9; 1 John 2:2; 2 Corinthians 5:14
[9] Romans 5:16, 18
[10] Romans 7:14 to 8:1; the word "condemnation" in 8:1 Paul used only two other times, in 5:16, 18, both to describe what Adam brought, as a background for what Jesus brought—a new relation to law call justification.
[11] Romans 8:2-11, in light of 5:18; 7:17, 20, 23
[12] Isaiah 42:21
[13] Daniel 7:25, Acts 20:29, 30, 2 Thessalonians 2:4, 1 Timothy 4:1, and Revelation 13:4-7
[14] See Ellen White, The Great Controversy, page 49.2, for an excellent one-paragraph summary of this process, before and after Constantine.
[15] Galatians 1:11, 12; Romans 1:16-25. Note the reciprocity of faith—the implied dynamic "from [the] faith [of Jesus] to [the] faith [of the believer]." Rejecting this gospel is what leads to "the lie" (the definite article is in the Greek of 1:25) of creature worship that Revelation details prophetically.
[16] Matthew 15:6-9
[17] Colossians 1:23 to 2:10, 22; do a word study on paradosis (tradition) and didaskalia and didache (doctrine).
[18] Revelation 14:6-12; Ellen White, The EGW 1888 Materials, page 217.3; this is the "gospel … obedience of faith" (Romans 16:25, 26).
[19] For a recent example of this philosophy and technique, see "The Easter Effect and How It Changed the World" by George Weigel that explicitly repudiates the seventh-day Sabbath worship, and claims a first-century origin of Sunday in Christianity. (https://eppc.org/publications/the-easter-effect-and-how-it-changed-the-world/; accessed 5/3/18). Research also the influence of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on the Catholic view of evolution.
[20] Romans 3:3, 4
[21] Revelation 2:4; 1 John 4:19; Matthew 24:12-14
[22] Isaiah 54:17
[23] Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, March 8, 1898, page 156.5-7; paragraph 6 quotes Ellen White in Review, February 8, 1898 par. 5, from an article "The Truth Revealed in Jesus."
[24] The Present Truth, January 26, 1893, page 20.8&9

http://www.1888msc.org/article/554/resources/sabbath-school-insights/2018-quarter-2-apr-june/insight-6-may-12-2018

Friday, May 04, 2018

1888 Glad Tidings : Insight #5 May 5, 2018

SECOND QUARTER 2018
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #5
MAY 5, 2018
"CHRIST IN THE HEAVENLY SANCTUARY"
 
Society's sharp descent into moral relativism became more acute throughout the 1960s with even the secular psychiatrist, Karl Menninger expressing his alarm in a 1973 book, Whatever Became of Sin? That question brings into focus the moral compass of some Adventist Christians heralding the extremity of our need to re-examine the great Truths of the Heavenly Sanctuary of which the Old Testament Sanctuary was but a type.  Is there only forgiveness of sin found in the Holy Place of the Heavenly Sanctuary or is there also a cure for the disease found in its Holy of Holies?  A study of Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary provides a most enlightening and encouraging answer and outcome!
 
Virtually all Christians will agree with the fact that Christ is our High Priest and is the Lamb slain and risen, the efficacious Savior of the World and the Example of the believer!  The stumbling block for many, however, is whether any action or event beyond the AD 31 Ascension has relevance for Christians today.  Within the environs of the two-apartment Sanctuary is where the critical distinction and difficulty emerges.
 
In the Old Testament type, the Daily Sacrifice offered in the Courtyard symbolizing Christ's earthly ministry of Atonement, is the acknowledgement of our sin(s) and need of a Savior.  Christians of all stripes agree; but overwhelmingly the majority of Christians, including a growing number of Seventh-day Adventists, stop with an application of the blood shed on the Cross for the forgiveness of sins only. What about the blotting out of sin(s) in the Most Holy Place as clearly taught in the Day of Atonement Type? This leaves me asking: Upon His ascension, as many believe, did Jesus go directly into the Holy of Holies thereby whitewashing the critical antitypical Day of Atonement ministry in which sins were not only forgiven, but blotted out?

This segues us to the stumbling block of 1844 and whether Daniel 8:14 is still the major distinguishing feature of Seventh-day Adventist beliefs.  "… then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed."
 
Ellen White framed these salient words: "As a people, we should be earnest students of prophecy; we should not rest until we become intelligent in regard to the subject of the Sanctuary, which is brought out in the visions of Daniel and John." Evangelism p. 222. Quite a vital topic indeed!  "… then shall the Sanctuary be cleansed."  In the typical Day of Atonement as outlined in Leviticus 16 and 23, we very clearly note that the cleansing of the Sanctuary was symbiotic to the cleansing of the individual believer within the Body of believers.  Daniel 8:14 does more than imply that something special in the extreme was to commence at the end of the 2300 day (years) prophecy.  Its context communicates an urgency of understanding!  Daniel 8:9-13 outlines two entities that are in a death struggle with God.
 
The early pioneers of Adventism saw these two usurpers as Paganism (the "Daily") and the Papacy ("transgression of desolation").  It is noteworthy to see that the apostate Church, the Papacy, was not the result of Christianity absorbing Paganism, but the other way around.  God was displaced by an imposter.
 
Since then, the enemy has been working overtime to undermine this truth that the Sanctuary would be cleansed of the defilement that sin through apostasy has wrought.  History and the ongoing delay of Jesus' return demonstrate that Satan's frantic efforts to defile and destroy have yielded him a bountiful harvest of error.  Too often we have been silent as he has "stolen a march" on the understanding of many resulting in the cacophony of confusion swirling around the return of Jesus.  Let us never forget that the original "light bearer" was transformed into a "bearer of darkness" who ingenuously masquerades as a bearer of light.
 
So, why the 1844 prophecy that the Sanctuary would be cleansed, and what could possibly be its connection to 1888?  If indeed the 2300 Day prophecy reached its conclusion in 1844, we must carefully look at ramifications of the message of Daniel 8:14.
 
A study of the typical Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16 and 23 provides insight for living in today's antitypical Day of Atonement since 1844.  We could say that the forgiveness of sin in the Holy Place was individualistic only, and that the blotting out of sin in the Most Holy Place pertained not only to the individual but to the Body—that is, antitypical Laodicea.  In summary, the individual and, by extension, the congregation—today's Laodicea—was called to do four things that were symbiotic actions corresponding to the work of the High Priest as He not only forgave sins but blotted them out! That is, provided a permanent cure!  These four acts of worship were/are:
 
  1. The day was a holy convocation of the Body, a Sabbath.  No one was to be an island but must seek the fellowship of believers.
  2. Each individual was to "afflict his soul" that is, to search his heart and put away sin.
  3. Offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord."  God desires that the "whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thessalonians 5:23.
  4. All work laid aside and entire thought given to understanding and cooperating with God in His character and work. "…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" 1 Cor 10:31.
 As the 1888 Message was brought into focus by Ellen White, A.T. Jones, E.J. Waggoner, W.W. Prescott, S.N. Haskell, and others, one overarching theme began to emerge.  The whole focus of the beginning of the Latter Rain (teacher of Righteousness, Joel 2:23) with the attendant Loud Cry (Revelation 18) was inherent in the cleansing of the Sanctuary!  The 1888 Message was, and still is, the call of God for His people to stop their rebellious resistance to His grace, justice, and mercy and embrace Him fully!
 
The rhetorical question that is its own answer is this: Is the delay His doing or ours? Many times, over many years, God's servant made it clear it's ourdoing— which clearly evidences our lack of cooperation with Christ's "Daniel 8:14" work.  1888 was another major intervention by Christ to underscore His commitment to cleanse and blot out our sin!  Sadly, Ellen White applied Zechariah 13:6 to our corporate rejection. Christ "was wounded in the house of His friends:
 
At this point, I think it is vital to refer to a must-read book by one of the 20th century servants God used to illuminate the Cleansing of the Sanctuary aspect of the 1888 Message.  "And Then Shall the Sanctuary Be Cleansed", by Donald Karr Short clearly develops the distinction between the forgiveness of sin and the blotting out of sin.  The former a Holy Place process and the latter a Most Holy Place process.
 
As already noted, knowledge of the forgiveness of sin is widespread, but there exists a very low level of familiarity with the blotting out of sin, especially unknown sins, in the Most Holy Place.  The key difference is illustrated in the Parable of the Wicked Vinedressers in Matthew 21, Mark 12 and Luke 20.  Here Jesus vividly illuminates the core issue of the Fall—The SIN-- that afflicts us all.  The desire to kill the SON of the Owner of the vineyard shouts that our real issue with a holy God far transcends such everyday thoughts and actions as pride, anger, lust, intemperance, etc. The stunning revelation of man's true nature as revealed in the parable couples quite naturally with the words of Jesus when He spoke to the Jews: "You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, …" John 8:44.
 
Now connect those texts with Isaiah 14's five "I" statements related to Satan and there we have it—our base carnal nature.   A desire to displace (KILL) God!  This is the unconscious sin of the ages which the Cleansing of the Sanctuary is designed to expose, cleanse, and cure!  And, as modern Laodicea, we continue in our state of blissful denial …
 
Listen to A.T. Jones in the 1893 GC Bulletin pp225-6: 

"Now some of the brethren…they came here free; but the Spirit of God brought up something they never saw before.  The Spirit of God went deeper than it ever went before, and revealed things they never saw before, then instead of thanking the Lord that it was so, and letting the whole wicked business go, and thanking the Lord they had ever so much more of Him than they ever had before, they began to get discouraged… Isn't it too bad that a person whom the Lord has loved so much as to give Himself for him, should act that way with the Lord, when the Lord wants to reveal more of Himself?  Brethren, if any of you have got into discouragement, let us quit.  It the Lord has brought up sins to us that we never thought of before, that only shows that He is going down to the depths, and He will reach the bottom at last; and when He finds the last thing that is unclean or impure, and that is out of harmony with His will, and brings that up, and shows that to us and we say, 'I would rather have the Lord than that'—then the work is complete and the seal of the living God can be fixed upon that character."
 
Doesn't that sound like the cure for sin is found in the cleansing of the soul sanctuary and the corresponding blotting out of sins is in the Heavenly Sanctuary?  The Investigative Judgment is then over!  As His wayward Bride has finally made herself ready (Revelation 19:7), our merciful and just High Priest will rise in the Holy of Holies (Daniel 12:1) and pronounce the words recorded by the aged apostle John in the Revelation of Jesus Christ: "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still" (Revelation 22:11). Praise the Lord, cleansed Laodicea will cease to seek cheap self-serving relief as she repents down to her core!  Our God is thereby vindicated, or justified, as the One who has not only revealed His Righteousness through Jesus Christ but has demonstrated to the on-looking Universe that He can reproduce His righteousness even in the fallen flesh of His Bride!  Little wonder then, that the cleansed ones give all glory to him and we declare with the Psalmist! "Your way, O God, is in the Sanctuary: Who is so great a God as our God?" (Psalms 77:11). 
 
~Kenneth Dale Martin

http://www.1888msc.org/article/553/resources/sabbath-school-insights/2018-quarter-2-apr-june/insight-5-may-5-2018