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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Clifford Goldstein Weekend

Clifford Goldstein

Called by Name

The Pre-Advent Judgment

Existence of God

You know, as Seventh-day Adventists, we're not alone in dealing with a question.

How do we reconcile 2 clearly biblical teachings, that of justification by faith and salvation and judgment by works.

Because the Bible teaches over and over we're justified by faith without the deeds of the law, and then yet over and over the Bible talks about some pretty strong texts about judgment by works.

And I believe as Adventists, we've been given a very clear answer.

And I believe the answer is found in our sanctuary message.

And the text reads, Vayomer Eli Ad Erev Boker Al Payimu Shlosh Meyot V'nitzchak Kodesh.

And most of you would recognize that, and he said unto me, unto 2, 300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

And that's why the title of my talk is the Pre-Advent Judgment.

Now, if you're an Adventist, ideally, you believe in our 28 fundamental beliefs, and I say that ideally, okay, and this 1 of them, and it's number 24.

Now I want you, for the time being forget about higher medicine in the cornfield, okay?

Forget about 1844, Forget about anything SDA and whether you believe in number 24 or not.

The fact is, over and over, The Bible talks of a judgment of believers, of every single 1 of us.

And so the question is for each of us, again, forgetting the phrase pre-advent judgment, forgetting the phrase investigative judgment, forgetting all that, the question I wanna ask you, how well will you fare?

How well will you fare when this inevitable judgment that the Bible talks about when it comes to you and God judges you and your deeds.

And again, you don't need to be an Adventist to worry about this or to think about this because a lot of Christians have done.

Because what do you do with these Bible texts?

For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing Whether it be good or evil How are you gonna fare when that happens?

Every work, every secret thing, the God who knows the number of hairs on your heads, he knows all those nasty, dirty little things about you that you'd rather die than let anybody else know about.

And here's Jesus himself, Mark 12, 36, Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof on the day of judgment.

You've probably forgotten a lot of your idle deeds.

And yet here's Jesus, every idle words maybe you've forgotten it but I guarantee you God hasn't or here's Paul God will bring to light the hidden things of Darkness and make manifest the council some translations say secrets of the heart Okay, the councils made manifest brought to light How well are you gonna fare when that happens to you?

Here's Peter for the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And here's Paul again, for we must all, sounds like he's talking about believers, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each 1 may recompense, be recompensed for the deeds in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

And then, you know, Isaiah, Isaiah says all our righteousness is this filthy rags.

The Hebrew word for filthy phrase, begeti din, it's so disgusting, I'm not even gonna translate it for you.

So again, I ask you, how are you going to fare with that?

Let me read you these words of Ellen White, because I'm sure you've all heard them, okay?

After quoting some of these texts, because she wrote about what happens in this judgment.

She said, every work passes in review before God and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness.

Opposite each name in the book of heaven is entered with terrible exactness.

Every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, every secret sin with every artful dissent dissembling.

Heaven-sent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, she goes on and on, all are chronicled by the recording angel.

Now again, she's just fleshing out some of the Bible text.

She's just fleshing out, for God will bring every work into judgment for every secret thing, and on and on.

So again, I ask you, I ask you, how well are you going to do when with terrible exactness every secret thing comes under scrutiny?

Many would be ashamed to have their deeds exposed before other humans, but before an all-knowing God?

How are you gonna, what's gonna get you through this?

Your deeds, your faithfulness, your character?

Well I think, are you gonna rely on that?

And again, I believe The answer is found in this text.

And he said unto me, unto 2, 300 days, then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.

Now, there's a lot in this text, but there's just 2 points I wanna focus on.

Now, the moment you bring in the sanctuary, the temple, what are you bringing in?

You're bringing in the whole plan of salvation.

The sanctuary is where ancient Israel was taught the gospel in types and shadows.

The whole sanctuary service was to teach people the plan of salvation.

Every sacrificed animal, every bit shed of that bloodshed, that was all pointing to the gospel, to Jesus dying for us.

So the moment you bring up the word sanctuary, you bring up the gospel.

And then the sanctuary is being cleansed.

This is very clear reference to Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement.

It's the 1 time a year, It's the 1 time a year when you know when the high priest went into the most holy place.

And it's also among the Jews, Yom Kippur is understood as the day of judgment.

In fact, if you parallel Daniel 7 and Daniel 8, with Daniel 7 you've got Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, you've got this massive judgment scene, this massive heavenly pre-advent judgment scene because right after this judgment, God establishes his kingdom.

And if you parallel that with Daniel 8, this massive judgment scene is paralleled to this verse about the cleansing of the sanctuary.

And this judgment in Daniel 7 is made in favor of the saints and that's ultimately because it's on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.

And atonement is about, you will, and here when you understand this, you will find the key to answering the question about how you fare when your name comes up, when God is going to judge every work whether it be good or evil.

So how well Leviticus 16 is like the earthly type and I'm not going to read you obviously all of Leviticus 16 but I want to read you a few lines and see if you notice a motif.

This is the shadow explaining what we believe really goes on.

The high priest shall take some of the blood of the bull, and he shall take some of the blood with his fingers, and he shall bring his blood inside the veil and do with the blood as he did with the blood of the bull.

And he takes some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat.

Then he shall sprinkle the blood on it and on and on and on.

It's blood all the way through and every drop of that blood symbolize what?

Of course, it symbolized the Jesus blood shed to make atonement for us.

And we believe that since 1844, we have been living in the day of atonement.

A day dedicated to what God has done to atone for our sins, to forgive us our sins.

Only Adventists, I hate to say it, only Adventists could take a day dedicated to atonement, Dedicated to what God has done for us and turn it into a bummer Okay, turn it into a bummer.

Okay, I wasn't raised but my wife was And my wife can be very sarcastic and I love it, except when she turns it on me.

Then it's not so funny, it's not so funny.

But I still remember, we hadn't been married that long.

And it was, oh, I haven't, it was still, I've never still been totally, I don't totally fit in here, but you're kind of stuck with me.

I have to be an Adventist, but that's another story.

But I remember her telling me how she, and again, if you have to know her, but how she was taught the judgment as a kid.

I wish I could catch her, she goes, well, she told me, they tell you, the judgment's going on in heaven right now.

And you don't know when your name is gonna come up.

And when your name comes up, if you're not perfect, if you're not, if you're at the movies or something, you're eating a ham sandwich or whatever, then your name, you're blotted out.

Series

Clifford Goldstein Weekend

The Pre-Advent Judgment

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

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Plenary

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Sound Doctrine