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Dunlap SDA Church

P. Gerard Damsteegt

Reverence in the House of God

Heavenly Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be fully acceptable into your sight, our Savior and Redeemer, amen.

So let us just look here that the reference in God's house, as in the handout is stated, is in statement from scripture that you find in Leviticus 19 verse 1, 2 and 30.

And the word of God says there, and the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, speak unto the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them, you shall be holy for I am the Lord, your God am holy.

So we should be holy because God is holy.

There's no doubt about it, no discussion about it.

But then at the end of this chapter, you find a number of things that if you're holy and God is holy, that is what we should do.

And so at the end of this chapter, we read, you shall keep my Sabbath and the reverence my sanctuary.

And the same is repeated in Leviticus 26, verse 2, and onward, where it is connected to the covenant blessings and curses.

If you are reverent, you get, You follow those suggestions.

And here the point is, if you're holy, then if the Lord is holy, you are holy, and then you keep my Sabbath.

But together with keeping the Sabbath, there you will reverence my sanctuary.

So keeping the Sabbath is intimately related for Sabbath keepers to reverence of God's sanctuary.

Then in 0.2 here, we find a terrible incident.

Again, in Leviticus, but this time chapter 10, verse 1 to 3, there is the transgression of Nadab and Abihu and the sons of Aaron.

And they took either of them his censer, put fire therein and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not to do." So here are the instructions of the leaders in the sanctuary, God's people, and you have to follow certain procedures, but they did not.

In some way they were affected, in the created with their mind, and took fire that was not prescribed in the reference of the sanctuary.

And so they were and it says and then they went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord.

And it says also that Aaron was not to mourn of what his sons had done.

But again, they didn't follow the counsel of the Lord in reverence and what you should do and specifically an offering and therefore they were killed.

And throughout the Bible, you find the importance of we have in everything we do, we have to glorify God and show reverence.

In Psalm 89 verse 7, it says, God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

So again, if you want to glorify God, you follow this, especially in regard to reverence.

Then I looked at the spirit of prophecy, and there is a major section here in the book, Child Guidance.

And it seems that in the book Child Guidance, which is for children and parents, how to educate your children, that she is very concerned about the parents and the children being reverent in the sanctuary.

A whole major section there in child guidance, you find it.

And in on page 540, she says, "'Nearly all need to be taught "'how to conduct themselves in the house of God.

So there seemed to be a great need of reverence in God's people.

Then it says here, and that is also on 0.4 here, parents should not only teach, but what?

Command their children, you can follow this in the outline, their children to enter the sanctuary with sobriety and reverence.

So it is not simply a teaching how to do this, but it is a command.

This is what the Lord says, And that is what you should do.

So how are you going to teach people reverence?

You know, I mean, we use this term frequently, but how to teach this?

And the next statement, it's clearly showing the 2 important things, how to teach them.

True reverence for God is inspired by a sense of his what?

Infinite greatness and the realization of his presence.

With this sense of the unseen, the heart of every child should be deeply impressed.

So first of all, the almighty greatness, Infinite greatness, I mean, God is beyond everything else.

And therefore, because of this greatness of the Lord, the God we should be reverent.

But at the same time, he's not only far away, powerful, no, his presence is with us in the sanctuary.

So both his infinite greatness impresses us, but at the same time, his presence among us.

And those 2 elements we should keep in mind when we are going to worship.

Now people say, you know, I like to worship, I like to see my friends and whatever, and socializing and whatever.

You have a fellowship dinner afterwards, you know you can do that all the time.

And if we keep those things in mind, every time that we go to church, friends, we will be enlightened by this.

Then she continues here in Child Guidance 538, the hour and place of prayer and services of public worship the child should be taught to regard as sacred, because why?

So we have normally the common place and the sacred place.

And the church itself is a sacred place, not a fellowship meal that we get in the church.

That's very important, but it is specifically the sacredness because God is specifically there.

And then what you see in the Bible, in the New Testament especially, how Jesus is angry and he uses a whip and he kicks many people out.

The money changers, the sellers, the cattle, and specifically it's stated here because of the noise and the bedlam.

Matthew 21, verse 13, and John 2, verse 16.

And then see Spirit of Prophecy shows a picture of the situation there in the time of Jesus in regard to the sanctuary.

And it seems that he desires a holy stillness, a perfect order, neatness and humility in the church.

Now I think if you are really impressed with that concept, things may change in the church.

You know, reflect upon what is going to take place in every service.

Perhaps the first service, but is the second service a holy stillness?

Again, she writes, the house of God is often desecrated and Sabbath violated by what?

In some cases, they're even allowed to run about the house, play, talk, manifest the evil tempers, in the very meetings where the saints should worship God in the beauty of holiness.

And the place that should be holy and where a holy stillness should reign and where there should be a perfect order, neatness and humility, is made to be a perfect Babylon and confusion.

This is enough to bring God's displeasure and shut his presence from the assembly.

Now, you know, you may not think that if there is not the Holy stillness, but The consequence is the displeasure of God.

And it shut out his presence from our assembly.

So we go there to meet God, and because of the behavior, he will not be present.

Then in number 7 here, don't talk during the sermon.

Do not have so little reverence for the house and worship of God as to communicate with 1 another during the sermon.

Now, maybe the people say, yeah, but we're talking about a sermon.

If you talk about a sermon, you better pay attention to the sermon.

If those who commit this fault should see the angels of God looking upon them and marking their doings, they will be filled with shame and abhorrence of themselves.

Then it continues on the same vein, number 8 here.

Reverence is greatly needed in the youth of this age.

I am alarmed as I see children and youth of the religious parents show heedless of the order and propriety that should be observed in the house of God.

While God's servants are presenting the words of life to the pulpit, some will be reading, others whispering and laughing.

By diverting the attention of those around them.

So if we do those things, what will it do to people around us?

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Reverence in the House of God

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