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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Gerard Damsteegt: Sanctuary Series

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Sanctuary, Part 1

It's a pleasure for me to be here at Loma Linda.

Loma Linda has some fond memories for me.

Now you may say, you know, what is that, you know, a Honeymoon in Loma Linda?

We got married in the Washington New Hampshire Church, the first Seventh-day Adventist Church on the East Coast, and it was in the middle of September, and my wife and I were both impressed that besides the theological and ministerial education, we should also balance it with the healing message of health.

So we applied to the School of Health, And a few days after we got married, the School of Health, now it is called the School of Public Health, but there it was, School of Health, opened its doors for us and so we could just have a wonderful honeymoon drive of 5 days from the East Coast to the West Coast and right start in the books.

Presently my wife is addressing the women in Oregon and I am addressing here at Edmund Hope.

And so it's absolutely a fascinating life for us.

And so we spent here 2 years here at Loma Linda and I tell you we really enjoyed it.

We didn't have any student organization at the time and I'm pleased that you have here Advent Hope.

In fact, we had an Advent Hope with Andrews, but there is still a hope.

I'm not quite sure where the organization is.

But I'm glad that here is a group of people that are interested in the second coming of Jesus.

You know that is very, very important, the second advent.

Now I heard from Norman that you're all interested in the sanctuary message And I heard that my colleague Dr.

Davidson spoke here a couple of weeks ago and you know, you wonder you know and then the next week you have a living, a complete sanctuary and other people have been talking about the sanctuary, I asked myself the question, what else is there to see about the sanctuary?

So I prayed and prayed about it, what should I do, what should I do, and you know, the Lord impressed me with something.

In fact, this morning, this morning when I was working on my sermon for tomorrow morning, At the last moment when I left my home, the Lord impressed me with something that I never talked about.

I didn't talk about it because, you know, it's a message that generally people don't, are not waiting for.

You see, you have sometimes, You don't want to speak about it, you know.

And ever since I have been working from this morning, when I got up in the plane at 6.15 until I landed here at 1 o'clock, and for us it was already 04:00 and I have been busy working and I think I have just the message for tomorrow morning and so I thank the Lord for this.

Davidson's place, you know, a whole 5 minutes sermon on Yom Kippur.

How can you ever, how can you excel that?

So you have to pray to the Lord to give you another message, you see.

And the sanctuary is extremely important.

Now, you may say, you know, the sanctuary is so important.

You know, if this is so important, why don't they know it?

You know, Have you ever thought about it?

You know, this little group of Adventists, you know, a speck in the world, and they have the sanctuary message and the rest of them not, you know, Lord, what are you doing?

Because, I mean, if you were the Lord, and the sanctuary was the most important message, wouldn't you like that everybody else would know it?

And so Tonight I'm going to show you how the rest of Christianity lost it and how we got it.

And in fact because so few people know about it, and if you look at all the scholarly material that is published today, you don't find any reference to the uniqueness that we have.

And people have been wondering and wondering and pondering and finally they have given it up and left the church.

I mean to believe something that hardly anybody of Christianity know about it.

And people look at you, you think you're cult, you know, now maybe not the Illuminati, because you have quite an impressive presence.

When I was born in a country, the Netherlands, you know, where people...

When I told my family that I was going to be a Seventh-day Adventist, they felt I was ready for a mental institution.

And my mother didn't even dare to share it with any of her friends and relatives.

To become a Seventh-day Adventist was the worst of all, to get overwitness in a moment.

Anyway the Lord has blessed me and I'm still in the message and after resisting for many many years just before my mother dies she finally gave her heart to the Lord.

So I have something to look forward to when the Lord comes and together with my family because it would be tragic if my whole family would be lost.

And so what I decided then here to share you something here in regard something here in regards to our movement.

That we may be enlightened and understand how you have given us this message.

Father, our minds are slow, sometimes foggy, but now we need your Holy Spirit more than ever before and therefore we thank you for giving your Holy Spirit to us to understand, to speak and to share in Jesus name.

And so here then, and of course you know last week you celebrated October 22, 1844, right?

Great festival here, and you know it's interesting, I'm teaching this, And we went and I spent the last 5 weeks showing the importance of 1844 and whatever.

And a number of those students were preaching and go to churches and sharing.

And this, beginning of this week I said, you know, how was last Saturday?

Because it is very rare, once in so many years, that October 22 falls on a Sabbath.

And not 1 of my students who preached touched the subject.

So you wonder, you know, after so many weeks of teaching.

It's 1 thing, friends, to understand this, it's another way to live it.

And this is, I hope to share, you know, beside the dogma value, I hope to share experiences that make an indelible impression on your mind.

I have teach so many years but I have seen so few.

But live it, it's a different level, different level.

And specifically tomorrow morning, if you are not afraid to come, We go into the depth of Yom Kippur, as the Bible said, the people afflicted their souls, you know.

It's another way to think about 3 and a half thousand years in the desert with Moses, you know, whatever.

But what does it mean today, afflicting our souls?

And so here then the rise of the Ethnic Movement and the message of the sanctuary for today.

Now we have to put this historically and that is my privilege as a historian, as a historian to put it up, the unsealing of the book of Daniel in the time of the end.

And so this is the whole scene in the light of this opening of the sixth seal.

Now if you turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation, Revelation 6 and you know the Revelation 6 what it's all about, the seals, right?

And if you see the seals, the first seal, you know what you see here?

You know, victory, victory, victory, and of course we have interpreted this as the early church, the apostolic church.

Victory after victory, but then the conflict on earth for sin, the red horse, you know, sin comes in, blood shed, martyrs, you hear the period of the martyrs.

The third seal, verse 5, come and see there's a black horse, and there you know, it seemed that food is very scarce, the Word of God is very scarce you get apostasy coming in and then the fourth seal widespread death on earth what you see there The pale horse and the horse was given power to kill a fourth of the earth, to kill with a sword with hunger and death and the beast of the earth.

And then you see in verse 9 the cry of martyrs, Lord how long, how long?

Holy until you judge and avenge our blood of those who dwell on the earth.

I just read a report not too long ago of the Catholic Church, the Vatican Commission on Inquisition, and they looked at all the evidence and they said, whatever has been said in the past about the Inquisition, I think the facts have greatly overstated and greatly exaggerated, yes some mistakes were exaggerated, yes some mistakes were made and here and there people died.

But this we should relegate to the fable.

Friend, hear the cry of the martyrs, how long until you judge.

And then what do we see then in verse 12?

Sanctuary, Part 2

Thank you very much for that lovely, inspiring song.

And again, as I said yesterday, it is good to be back in Loma Linda.

My wife and I spent here a couple of years on the hill here, the School of Health.

I had already my doctorate in theology, and I told some of my seminary friends that I was going to Loma Linda and they were very curious why.

And after I explained why, they thought that I was not clear in my mind and that I was on the way of a detour that I would ever regret.

But my simple mind said that if my 1 and a half years or 2 years in the School of Health can give me enough information that I can prolong my life 2 years or 1 and a half years.

And now when I see some of my colleagues, you know, and the aches and pains, And I can praise the Lord that I am still vital, only if I look in the mirror I see there are changes.

But of course, you know, that are the hardships of life.

Especially if you have to teach students And you really want to do your best, it may change your hair.

Anyway, thank you so much for the invitation that I have here.

And I want to continue here in regard to the message of the sanctuary.

And I purposely didn't want to overlap with some of the other great speakers that you have had in the past.

But I want to reflect upon an aspect of the sanctuary that has disappeared from many minds.

And if I would be Satan, that very thing I would focus on.

Because if our people are confused about that 1, I got them in my hand.

And perhaps when we reflect upon the time, over a hundred years now, later, we are here when the Prophet said that we could already have gone into the promised land.

Now of course if everybody had done their best I wouldn't be standing here.

And so I appreciate, not that they failed, but I appreciate that they were alive.

And so, you know, but how long, how long will our church continue in the same pattern?

And I'm thrilled here that you have here a group of people, Advent Hope, and the main focus is the Advent.

The second Advent and the preparation for the Second Advent.

And so this morning, yesterday, I elaborated on the fact that why did Adventists get this light and not the rest?

And I showed that God in his mercy gave a worldwide message And that all the churches that you see today around you basically rejected this message.

And we are the only ones that carry now that prophetic torch.

I mean we can be thankful that the Lord has chosen us, isn't it?

But let us not come to the point that we also reject advanced truth.

That we are setting into an uncommon behavior.

No, the Lord wants us to soar higher and higher and higher with Jesus.

That is the wonderful thing of Adventism, through Adventist Christianity, that we never end up and say we have arrived.

And even in the earth made new, there are greater heights to be achieved.

And our love and compassion and concern and knowledge will grow day by day.

I want to ask you to turn in your Bible to Daniel chapter 8 verse 14.

And let us specifically ask for an anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Dear Heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit.

Make our minds open to your truth that we may see the message of this morning for our lives, not for somebody else's lives, but for my life.

In your age 14, and he said to me, for 2, 300 days and the sanctuary shall be cleansed.

And this morning I want to specifically focus on the cleansing aspect.

Not the sanctuary message at all, but the Yom Kippur, The Great Day of Atonement.

And we know that since 1844 we are living in the antitypical day of atonement.

And in 1844, and we talked about this yesterday, Jesus reveals the importance of his cleansing work.

And very few understand his cleansing work.

All we know about the sanctuary and whatever, but what is the practical application now for my life on this special day?

And as a result, here in the celestial sky, way, way above, Jesus Christ made the move that settled the destiny of the human race.

The fifth seal was opened and there were the cries of the martyrs, Lord, Lord, how long will it be until you avenge our blood?

And a few centuries later, in 1844 it began.

Light from the sanctuary defines the mission of the remnant.

Now, if you don't understand the sanctuary, and by the way, if you want to have also further insight of what I said yesterday, you take the book Great Controversy and start from chapter 17 to 28.

I mean, it's terrible, it's terrible if you invite me here and you spend some money on me, and that you don't do your homework.

I mean, this part can mean all the difference in your life.

And not so, you know, that some say, oh yeah, this is my assignment, and in the afternoon they read it.

In fact, when I read the Spirit of Prophecy, I sometimes can only digest 2 pages.

I mean not simply reading for the information, no, but what does it mean for my soul?

Everything in the Bible, Spirit or prophecy, what does it mean?

And on our knees we have to ask the Lord, Lord, teach me today how I shall live.

And so here then, it was astounding, the miraculous discovery by our Adventist pioneers.

They found that there was a vital connection between Christ's cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary and the work of the remnant church.

They must be prepared, can you read this?

For the second advent, there is a special preparation needed to pass victoriously through the final conflict.

But friend, without that experience, you will not make it.

And as a result, God has revealed in his mercy special truth so that we can meet the Lord alive.

Now many people say, you know, we have never made it and look at our grandfathers and they have never made it.

Listen we are not preparing people to die, we are preparing the people to be alive when Jesus comes, right?

Now if the Lord waits longer because of our failure and I pass of the scene without seeing him, at least praise the Lord, I am in his arms.

And when the Lord comes I will be a part of the first resurrection, a part of the special resurrection seeing the black cloud coming.

And so then, The cleansing of the sanctuary in 2 dimensions.

This was a new insight that 1 of our pioneers, Brother Crozier, who discovered also the truth about the sanctuary itself.

While Jesus cleanses the heavenly temple, the Holy Spirit cleanses the spiritual temple.

Now think about this, what is the implication?

Here Brother Crozier said, and he wrote this in 1846, There is a literal and a spiritual temple, the literal being the sanctuary the New Jerusalem, the literal city, and the spiritual the church.

The literal occupied by Jesus Christ our King and Priest, the spiritual by the Holy Ghost.

Between these 2, there is a perfect concept of action.

As Christ prepares the place, the Spirit does the people.

When he, Jesus, came to his temple, the sanctuary to cleanse it, the Spirit commands the special cleansing of the people in Malachi 3 verse 1.

Now that is a very unique concept because frequently people ask me, so what difference does it make?

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Gerard Damsteegt: Sanctuary Series

Sanctuary, Part 2

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