Psalm 38:1 O LORD, rebuke me not in thy wrath: neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. 

  38:2 For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore. 

  38:3 [There is] no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither [is there any] rest in my bones because of my sin. 

  38:4 For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. 

  38:5 My wounds stink [and] are corrupt because of my foolishness. 

  38:6 I am troubled; I am bowed down greatly; I go mourning all the daylong. 

  38:7 For my loins are filled with a loathsome [disease]: and [there is] no soundness in my flesh. 

  38:8 I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart. 

You could parallel this chapter with Romans 7.

Paul discovers what a wretched man he is when we come to a realisation of our sinfulness.  My wounds stink.  A dark cloud wants to oppress you and go down under.  I find myself in such a miserable condition. 

What can you say and do and realise this is your condition?  How can I reprove someone else when I am the one so worthy of the reproof?

Psalm 38:15 For in thee, O LORD, do I hope: thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.

38:16 For I said, [Hear me], lest [otherwise] they should rejoice over me: when my foot slippeth, they magnify [themselves] against me. 

  38:17 For I [am] ready to halt, and my sorrow [is] continually before me. 

  38:18 For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin. 

  38:19 But mine enemies [are] lively, [and] they are strong: and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied. 

  38:20 They also that render evil for good are mine adversaries; because I follow [the thing that] good [is]. 

  38:21 Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. 

  38:22 Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation. 

Are you able to relate in your experience to these scriptures where you feel you stink?  Why?  Because of your foolishness.  People don’t want to come near

Micah 7:9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, [and] I shall behold his righteousness. 

The pleading of our cause in practicality.

Zechariah 3:1 And he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 

  3:2 And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: [is] not this a brand plucked out of the fire? 

  3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel. 

  3:4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. 

  3:5 And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD stood by. 

Here stands the Christian professing to be a follower of Jesus and yet there is the filthy rags.  When Satan stands there the accuser to resist him.

Zechariah's vision of Joshua and the angel applies with peculiar force to the experience of God's people in the closing up of the great day of atonement.  The remnant church will be brought into great trial and distress. Those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will feel the ire of the dragon and his hosts. Satan numbers the world as his subjects, he has gained control of the apostate churches; but here is a little company that are resisting his supremacy. If he could blot them from the earth, his triumph would be complete. As he influenced the heathen nations to destroy Israel, so in the near future he will stir up the wicked powers of earth to destroy the people of God. All will be required to render obedience to human edicts in violation of the divine law. Those who will be true to God and to duty will be menaced, denounced, and proscribed. They will "be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends."  {5T 472.2}

   Their only hope is in the mercy of God; their only defense will be prayer. As Joshua was pleading before the Angel, so the remnant church, with brokenness of heart and earnest faith, will plead for pardon and deliverance through Jesus their Advocate. They are fully conscious of the sinfulness of their lives, they see their weakness and unworthiness, and as they look upon themselves they are ready to despair. The tempter stands by to accuse them, as he stood by to resist Joshua. He points to their filthy garments, their defective characters. He presents their weakness and folly, their sins of ingratitude, their unlikeness to Christ, which has dishonored their Redeemer. He endeavors to affright the soul with the thought that their case is hopeless, that the stain of their defilement will never be washed away. He hopes to so destroy their faith that they will yield to his temptations, turn from their allegiance to God, and receive the mark of the beast.  {5T 473.1}

Satan urges before God his accusations against them, declaring that they have by their sins forfeited the divine protection, and claiming the right to destroy them as transgressors. He pronounces them just as deserving as himself of exclusion from the favor of God. "Are these," he says, "the people who are to take my place in heaven and the place of the angels who united with me? While they profess to obey the law of God, have they kept its precepts? Have they not been lovers of self more than of God? Have they not placed their own interests above His service? Have they not loved the things of the world? Look at the sins which have marked their lives. Behold their selfishness, their malice, their hatred toward one another."  {5T 473.2}

The people of God have been in many respects very faulty. Satan has an accurate knowledge of the sins which he has tempted them to commit, and he presents these in the most exaggerated light, declaring: "Will God banish me and my angels from His presence, and yet reward those who have been guilty of the same sins? Thou canst not do this, O Lord, in justice. Thy throne will not stand in righteousness and judgment. Justice demands that sentence be pronounced against them."  {5T 474.1}

   But while the followers of Christ have sinned, they have not given themselves to the control of evil. They have put away their sins, and have sought the Lord in humility and contrition, and the divine Advocate pleads in their behalf. He who has been most abused by their ingratitude, who knows their sin, and also their repentance, declares: "'The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan.' I gave My life for these souls. They are graven upon the palms of My hands."  {5T 474.2}

This is the experience of the remnant church, it is not in the future, it is now.  Satan is there with his accusations.  Christ is with them clothing them with his with garments.  There is a work to be done. 

God leads His people on, step by step. He brings them up to different points calculated to manifest what is in the heart. Some endure at one point, but fall off at the next. At every advanced point the heart is tested and tried a little closer. If the professed people of God find their hearts opposed to this straight work, it should convince them that they have a work to do to overcome, if they would not be spewed out of the mouth of the Lord. Said the angel: "God will bring His work closer and closer to test and prove every one of His people." Some are willing to receive one point; but when God brings them to another testing point, they shrink from it and stand back, because they find that it strikes directly at some cherished idol. Here they have opportunity to see what is in their hearts that shuts out Jesus. They prize something higher than the truth, and their hearts are not prepared to receive Jesus. Individuals are tested and proved a length of time to see if they will sacrifice their idols and heed the counsel of the True Witness. If any will not be purified through obeying the truth, and overcome their selfishness, their pride, and evil passions, the angels of God have the charge: "They are joined to their idols, let them alone," and they pass on to their work, leaving these with their sinful traits unsubdued, to the control of evil angels. Those who come up to every point, and stand every test, and overcome, be the price what it may, have heeded the counsel of the True Witness, and they will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for translation.  {1T 187.1}

This is the refining and purifying process.  God will place us in circumstances where we will be tested where we see how we will react.  Others come to the same point and they fail.  Time after time the testing goes on.  The Israelites were tested, they were promised that if they were to follow Gods will and come up to every test and every trial, making those sacrifices.

Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 

  4:2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard [it]. 

They came up to testing points and many passed.  They made the sacrifices but it was not mixed with faith.  In due time it became a drudgery. 

Be afraid that even in our testing experiences that we can miss out on the promised rest.

1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 

We are called of God to make sacrifices to enter into these experiences that we might be broken, that we will give God a contrite heart.  As we engage in this work, it can become a drudgery. 

The sacrifices of the Israelites in the sanctuary, became the end of everything.  They did not by faith pierce beyond the scene to partake in the ministration of the unseen.  As Christians we are called a holy priest hood.  As a holy priest hood we are to offer up sacrifices.  Our Christian experiences must be bound up in the heavenly experience.  Our ministration here on earth is a type of that which is in heaven.  We are partakers of the heavenly spiritual sacrifices.  As we go through our exp they must be mixed with faith. 

Romans 8:34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 

As we go through this training process of breaking again and again.  we do make and will make many mistakes.  The accuser of the brethren stands there and condemns.  He will have you take your minds eye off the heavenly.  He will have you focus on your own faults rather than on the perfection of Jesus Christ.  Who is he that condemeth?  It doesn’t matter. 

When we fail, our faith needs to pierce beyond the scene and take hold of the unseen.  To partake of the intercession of Jesus Christ.  The Israelites went about their duties and they missed the point.  Christianity today studies the priest hood of Jesus and misses the point completely.  Even amongst those who profess to be the church of God, do not understand practical realities of the ministration of Jesus Christ.  It is all written in black and white and you can know it all in theory.  We need our faith to take hold of it to partake of it as we minister it.  Let us look at the ministration of Jesus.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. 

  7:26 For such an high priest became us, [who is] holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; 

  7:27 Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself. 

We have such a high priest.  Do we understand what such a high priest is?  We are learning in our individual studies, we are learning that we have such a high priest.  When there is a failure in this program of Gods restoration, there is a sin, and the wages of sin is death.  In the Hebrew system they were to slay an animal.  They had to do it again and again and again.  but we have such a high priest who did this once and this once is applicable throughout eternity.  This is the ministration of the I am in the heavenly sanctuary. 

   Christ Jesus is represented as continually standing at the altar, momentarily offering up the sacrifice for the sins of the world. He is a minister of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. The typical shadows of the Jewish tabernacle no longer possess any virtue. A daily and yearly typical atonement is no longer to be made, but the atoning sacrifice through a mediator is essential because of the constant commission of sin. Jesus is officiating in the presence of God, offering up His shed blood, as it had been a lamb slain. . . .  {AG 154.3}

Here is a key to unlock the ministration of the I am.  He has offered up one sacrifice.  And yet that sacrifice is applicable through out eternity.  Jesus is represented as continuously standing at the altar.

Can you understand the I AM in these words?  There is a moment application, a moment of the death of Christ when he once offered up himself and yet he stands continuously at the altar.  His experience there upon the cross, the cleansing of the blood.  It’s so important that we grasp this understand as we have such a high priest.  This high priest,

Hebrews 4:14 Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast [our] profession. 

  4:15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as [we are, yet] without sin. 

Our high priest is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  We have such a high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.  How is it that we have this high priest?

Hebrews  2:16 For verily he took not on [him the nature of] angels; but he took on [him] the seed of Abraham. 

  2:17 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto [his] brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things [pertaining] to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. 

How can people conclude that it was all done away with at the cross?  He became a human being, a partaker of flesh and blood to be our high priest.  As he walked on the earth, he was gaining his qualification and then he became the victim.  This now speaks of his qualification.

Hebrews  5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things [pertaining] to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: 

  5:2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. 

Jesus could not be our high priest if he did not take on human nature.

Hebrews  2:18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

As you go into your temptations and trials, he can feel with you what you are feeling at that time.  There are so few that appreciate this.  I spent time with many last year, members of this organisation and I’m sorry to say there are very few that knew this.  In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound Himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages He is linked with us. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." John 3:16. He gave Him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice; He gave Him to the fallen race. To assure us of His immutable counsel of peace, God gave His only-begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain His human nature. {DA 25.3}

Of this covenant God made with mankind.  Jesus Christ today is touched with the feelings of our infirmities because he still has human nature.  Under the old system there were sins that needed to be cleansed.  Today the blood of Jesus cleanses all transgression. 

Christ is able to save to the uttermost all who come to Him in faith. He will cleanse them from all defilement if they will let Him. But if they cling to their sins, they can not possibly be saved; for

   Christ's Righteousness Covers No Sin Unrepented of.  {ST, February 14, 1900 par. 11}

He pays the price.  To bring this into a practical reality, is what Christianity does not know.  Here is the present day application of the continual and daily.

As the life-giving waters flowed from the smitten rock, so from Christ, "smitten of God," "wounded for our transgressions," "bruised for our iniquities" (Isaiah 53:4, 5), the stream of salvation flows for a lost race. As the rock had been once smitten, so Christ was to be "once offered to bear the sins of many." Hebrews 9:28. Our Saviour was not to be sacrificed a second time; and it is only necessary for those who seek the blessings of His grace to ask in the name of Jesus, pouring forth the heart's desire in penitential prayer. Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood, symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel.  {PP 411.3}

Christ was only to be sacrificed once.  Yet here we are in 2008 and yet we become before the Lord with penitential prepare confessing our sins, that sacrifice is applicable now. 

Such prayer will bring before the Lord of hosts the wounds of Jesus, and then will flow forth afresh the life-giving blood, symbolized by the flowing of the living water for Israel.  {PP 411.3}

Let your mind grasp the I AM continuing standing before the altar offering up sacrifice. 

The blood of Jesus can cleanse and remove your sins in the year 2008.  Practical living experimental religion is what we need.  We read in Hebrews of how Christ was tempted in all points as we are and is therefore able to succour us.  We come to him and find grace and mercy in time of need. 

Christ our Saviour came to the world to seek and save that which was lost. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." During every moment of Christ's life in our world, God was repeating His gift. Christ, the sinless One, was making an infinite sacrifice for sinners, that they might be saved. He came as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and those for whom He came looked upon Him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. The cup of suffering was placed in His hand, as if  He were the guilty one, and he drained it to the dregs. He bore the sin of the world to the bitter end. And yet men continue to sin, and Christ continues to feel the consequences of their sin as if he Himself were the guilty one.  {13MR 369.3}

He became the author of eternal salvation.  In the days of his flesh, he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears.  His death on the cross was continual, yet only momentary.  Our prayers he offers up as though they are his own.

In consideration of this testing work, if we let these realties sink in to our life, we will partake of a fellowship like none other.  Jesus will represent our prayers as though they are his own.  He has become so much as one with us, our temptations are as his.  Did Jesus himself not learn obedience by the things which he suffered?  So when the trials come, you want to do what is right but you are afraid to offend God.  You don’t want to do what’s wrong but it’s so hard to do what is right.  Let your mind grasp this.  You are there in that situation and Jesus is in that situation with you.  As Satan clouds around your mind and seeks to ensnare you, Christ is feeling the same thing, he himself is feeling the hellish shadow of Satan, and he himself is experiencing the strong weakness of humanity.  With strong crying and tears… he has come into your experience with you, he is afraid to offend God, with strong crying and tears he is reaching out to the father for help.  At the present time at which we are going through, Jesus is there pleading with the father for grace.  If your mind will take hold of this reality in it, he was heard in that he feared.  the father cannot deny the prayer of the son as it is perfect and spotless.  As his cries went up, the grace came,  if you are yoked up with Jesus Christ.  That divine current will flow into you and will enable you with Jesus to have the victory.  How little is this understood.  How few truly understand such a ministration.  If you fail and you don’t take hold, that dark cloud separates you from him.

This was Christ’s experience.

Christ our Saviour came to the world to seek and save that which was lost. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." During every moment of Christ's life in our world, God was repeating His gift. Christ, the sinless One, was making an infinite sacrifice for sinners, that they might be saved. He came as a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and those for whom He came looked upon Him as stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. The cup of suffering was placed in His hand, as if He were the guilty one, and he drained it to the dregs. He bore the sin of the world to the bitter end. And yet men continue to sin, and Christ continues to feel the consequences of their sin as if he Himself were the guilty one.  {13MR 369.3}

Who wants to fail?  When you continue to sin, Christ continues to feel the consequences of your sin.  He has become one with you and your experience.  Your sins have separated you and your God.  The son of God still feels today those consequences.  Is it no wonder as Lamentations says, is it nothing to you?  Is it nothing to you that you don’t lay hold of the strength that I am offering.  After I have suffered, after I have done so much for you.  Is it nothing to you?  Do you not care what I have done for you?  Let your faith pierce the sacrifices.  Take hold of the sacrifices of JC and you will be afraid to sin and let the wrong words come out of your mouth.  Is it nothing to you?  Yet men continue to sin. 

Christ stands in the sanctuary and yet he is with you in your experience.  As you fail and experience that consequence, what does he say?  What did he plead to hold the four winds back?  My blood, my blood.  He has gone to such an immense sacrifice to provide this cleansing blood and he wants again for that blood to flow forth from his hands and wounds so he himself no longer has to go through all of this suffering.  That he himself does not need to wait any longer.  Have you ever been distanced from someone for a while?  And you have missed them?  Christ has been in the sanctuary for 2000 years.  It’s a human being that stands before God.

"In My name," Christ bade His disciples pray. In Christ's name His followers are to stand before God. Through the value of the sacrifice made for them, they are of value in the Lord's sight. Because of the imputed righteousness of Christ they are accounted precious. For Christ's sake the Lord pardons those that fear Him. He does not see in them the vileness of the sinner. He recognizes in them the likeness of His Son, in whom they believe.  {DA 667.5}

When you fail and the devil comes in like a flood, think of Jesus.  How is it that you can stand before God?  He has taken your infirmities and given you his righteousness.  He who did no sin, was made to be sin.  Is it nothing to us?

I have given you a very simple look beyond the veil that when you partake of this perfecting process that God wants to do, that you will forget yourself, that your mind will see Jesus there making intercession for you with strong crying and tears unto him that can save.  When we enter into trials, we can often think of our own sufferings.  When you know that someone else is suffering, and you love them, you forget all about your suffering and you do the very best you can to aid them.  Do you care about Jesus?  I believe you do.  He can save us to the uttermost. When the devil comes in like a flood, we have a standing.  We understand the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

We go through our trials and afflictions and we think it’s so hard. 

In the garden, Mary had stood weeping, when Jesus was close beside her. Her eyes were so blinded by tears that she did not discern Him. And the hearts of the disciples were so full of grief that they did not believe the angels' message or the words of Christ Himself.  {DA 794.4}

   How many are still doing what these disciples did! How many echo Mary's despairing cry, "They have taken away the Lord, . . . and we know not where they have laid Him"! To how many might the Saviour's words be spoken, "Why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?" He is close beside them, but their tear-blinded eyes do not discern Him. He speaks to them, but they do not understand.  {DA 794.5}

When you are tempted, Jesus feels that temptation and he hates sins.  let you yoke up with him that is pleading with the father with strong crying and tears and you will have the victory.  If you do not discern him in that experience, then the words will be spoken, why weepest thou?

Let Jesus be a partaker in your experience.

Oh that the bowed head might be lifted, that the eyes might be opened to behold Him, that the ears might listen to His voice! "Go quickly, and tell His disciples that He is risen." Bid them look not to Joseph's new tomb, that was closed with a great stone, and sealed with the Roman seal. Christ is not there. Look not to the empty sepulcher. Mourn not as those who are hopeless and helpless. Jesus lives, and because He lives, we shall live also. From grateful hearts, from lips touched with holy fire, let the glad song ring out, Christ is risen! He lives to make intercession for us. Grasp this hope, and it will hold the soul like a sure, tried anchor. Believe, and thou shalt see the glory of God.  {DA 794.6}

May the lord anoint our eyes with his eyesalve with the things that are not seen. 

Amen.