Enjoy this classic from the 1888 message -
In the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets. That mystery of God finished is the gospel preached to all the world, that the end may come. That mystery of God finished in the world is the work of God finished in preaching the gospel to the nations.
And it is more than that, along with that. The mystery of God is God manifest in the flesh. The finished mystery of God is the completion, the perfection, of the manifestation of God in the flesh, in the believers in Jesus who belong to the church. Thus there are two places occupied in the finishing of the mystery of God. One place is the world itself, to which the gospel is to be preached, the other place is in the lives of the believers of the truth. We might preach and proclaim in words to the ends of the earth, to every soul on the earth in our generation, so that phase of the work would be completed, and would be finished, yet if the manifestation of God in the lives of those who preach that, is not completed also, we could preach that thing ten thousand years, and the end would never come.
It is not simply that the gospel shall be preached to all the world, and fill all the world, but it is that when that is done, there shall be a people ready to meet Him at the end. Without the finishing of that manifestation of God in the flesh of each believer, there can be no finishing of the mystery of God. That mystery finished, God manifest in the flesh,... mark it,... means that only God is to be seen in every act of life of the believer, so that in his life God is manifest...
And again you know that the mystery of God is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27. Then the finished mystery of God is the finishing of the growth, the manifesting of Christ in the believers, so that we shall stand in the world in the image of Jesus Christ, reflecting on Him, that when the believers shall be seen, only Christ will be seen, everything that is said, everything that is done, every tone of voice, all that we are, will tell only of Christ. Only that finishing of the mystery in truth, in the way that it counts. And that is what has to come, before the end can come. That is the church that He presents to Himself...
All that is needed to put this denomination, this whole collection of people, so into the church, and to make us so of the church that the work shall be finished in this generation, is unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ, and that surrender everlastingly maintained.
And this finishing of the mystery of God is only, in another way, the story of the cleansing of the sanctuary... Any preaching of the sanctuary, any study of the sanctuary, any proclamation of the sanctuary, that does not preach and proclaim the finishing of transgression in the life of him who preaches it, that does not mean, and manifest itself in, the making an end of sins in his life, that does not include the making of reconciliation of iniquity in him who gives the message, that does not bring in everlasting righteousness into the life of him who is preaching, is not preaching the message of the cleansing of the sanctuary at all...
There is a cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven. That is true. And while that is going on in heaven, and there is the making an end of sins there, and a reconciliation of iniquity there, and finishing of transgression there, and all that, yet if that is not also done in the saints and believers on the earth, then that cleansing of the sanctuary can never end. We never could, in that case, come to the end of this world. So, the cleansing of the church of the saints on earth must keep equal pace, must be exactly in proportion with the cleansing of the sanctuary in heaven, or that church will not be up to date...
That great day cannot come till the sanctuary is cleansed. The sanctuary cannot be cleansed until transgression is finished in your life and mine, till an end of sins is made in your life and mine, and reconciliation made for the sins that have been committed, and then, Oh, then, in place of it all, everlasting righteousness brought in, to hold us steady in the path of righteousness.
You know what difficulties we have had of keeping righteousness in the life. We love it; we give ourselves to it, in surrender, but this comes up, and that comes up, and the other, and we grow feeble, and fail, and lose the power of that righteousness out of the life that alone can make it everlasting righteousness. Oh, then,... there is need of such a cleansing of the sanctuary, such an idea of the cleansing of the sanctuary as will finish transgression in the life of every Seventh- Day Adventist , will make an end of sins there, and will make reconciliation for all the sins that have ever been there, and bring in, Oh, to bring in everlasting righteousness... a righteousness that comes to stay, a righteousness that comes to abide, a righteousness that comes to rule, everlastingly, and to keep us unto that everlasting inheritance, and take us to everlasting mansions...
