WHAT IS SIFTING?

• ISAIAH 30:28• AMOS 9:8, 9 • LUKE 22:31

CHURCH—WHEAT & TARES

SELECTED MESSAGES, VOL 2, p. 114 (1896)

DIVISIONS WILL COME INTO THE CHURCH. TWO PARTIES WILL BE DEVELOPED. THE WHEAT AND THE TARES GROW UP TOGETHER FOR THE HARVEST.

WHY SIFTING? MATTHEW 13:41

SIFTING—OLD TESTAMENT

• EXODUS 12:33, 37, 38 • NUMBERS 11:1, 4, 5 • NEHEMIAH 13:1-3

SIFTING—WHO…WHAT REASON…? God is sifting His people. He will have

a clean and holy people. {10MR 21.2}

SIFTING: ACCEPTANCE & REJECTION

ACCEPTANCE

• REFINEMENT• CLEANLINESS• HOLINESS• PURITY• HIGH STANDARD• EXALT—WORD • LOVE GOD FIRST• WORD

REJECTION• REBELLION• MEDIOCRITY• WORLDLINESS• DEFILEMENT• LOW STANDARD• EXALT—

OPINIONS • LOVE SELF FIRST• WORLD

SELECTED MESSAGES, VOL 3, p. 422.2

We are now living in the last days, when the truth must be spoken, when in

reproof and warning it must be given… If there are some who will become

offended and turn from the truth, we must bear in mind that there were those

who did the same in Christ's day. . . INSTRUMENT—SIFTING…?

The world is the instrument that sifts the church and tests the genuineness of its

members. {6BC 1102.5}

SIFTING: DOCTRINE & DISCIPLINE

ELIJAH—1 KINGS 18:17-40THREE HEBREW BOYS—DANIEL 1:8

12—DISCIPLES THE APOSTLES

JUDAS—SELECTED—DISCIPLES

SIFTING—TARES—SLEEPER CELLS

• REVELATION 2:9, 13 [SIN OF BLASPHEMY]

• JOHN 6:51, 53, 56, 60, 64, 66, 70 [SIN OF NEGLECT]

• MARK 15:1 [SIN OF HYPOCRISY]• LUKE 4:28, 29 & MATTHEW 13:20,

21 [SIN OF OFFENSE]

SIFTING SEALING SHAKING

Seal Is a Settling Into Truth….it is not any seal or mark that can be seen, but a settling into the truth, both intellectually and spiritually, so they cannot be moved--just as soon as God's people are sealed and prepared for the shaking, it will come. (MS 173, 1902). {4BC 1161.6}

SIFTING—12 DISCIPLES SEALING PENTECOST SHAKEN—UPPER ROOM

SIFTING—SCRIPTURES —SPIRIT OF PROPHECY—SPIRIT OF GODPRIOR—HOLY SPIRIT • JUDAS: THIEF –NARCISSIST [PENITENT-

PUNISHMENT]• JAMES & JOHN: POSITION—FIRE • PETER: BIGOT [GALATIANS 2:11-14;

ACTS 10:9-23]• THOMAS: SKEPTIC POST—HOLY SPIRIT • PRESENT TRUTH –MESSIAH • HOLY SPIRIT –DISCIPLES • BIBLE TRUTH—STANDARD • STUDY –PROPHECIES—LUKE 24:27

GREAT CONTROVERSY, p. 299

THE DOCTRINE OF THE SECOND ADVENT IS THE VERY KEYNOTE OF THE SACRED

SCRIPTURES.

The time of Christ's coming, His anointing by the Holy Spirit, His

death, and the giving of the gospel to the Gentiles, were definitely

pointed out. It was the privilege of the Jewish people to understand

these prophecies, and to recognize their fulfillment in the mission of

Jesus. Christ urged upon His disciples the importance of prophetic study.

As the message of Christ's first advent announced the kingdom of His grace, so the message of His

second advent announces the kingdom of His glory. And the second

message, like the first, is based on the prophecies. The Jews

misinterpreted and misapplied the word of God.

DESIRE OF AGES, p. 234

SOUNDS & SIGNS—SIFTING

SIFTING—STATE OF EMERGENCY

VITAL SIGNS: HEART-PULSE-BREATHING CONSCIOUSNESS

A prayer meeting will always tell the true interest of the church members in spiritual and eternal things. The prayer meeting is as the pulse to the body; it denotes the true spiritual condition of the church.

(Ph 149) 32. {PaM 183.2}

SIFTING: HIGH ALERT—STANDARD PROCEDURE—

WARNING SIGNS

EVEN ARM & HAMMER PRODUCTS:STANDARD

PROCEDURE/WARNING LABEL

MESSAGES OF WARNING—SIFTING

REVELATION 14:6-12 • WARNING—CHURCH REVELATION 14: 6-10

• THE HOLY SPIRIT—RIPEN—HARVEST

REVELATION 14:13, 15

• TARES—SIFTED OUT—WINEPRESS

REVELATION 14:20

MATTHEW 5:8 • PURE IN HEART—GOD

1 PETER 2:9

• CHOSEN—ROYAL—HOLY—PECULIAR

DOES GOD’S WORD PROMOTE A STANDARD OF PURITY?

SIFTING: “PRIMITIVE GODLINESS”

Who are standing in the counsel of God at this time? Is it those who virtually excuse wrongs among the professed people of God and who murmur in their hearts, if not openly, against those who would reprove sin? Is it those who take their stand against them and sympathize with those who commit wrong? No, indeed! Unless they repent, and leave the work of Satan in oppressing those who have the burden of the work and in holding up the hands of sinners in Zion, they will never receive the mark of God's sealing approval. Mark this point with care: Those who receive the pure mark of truth, wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost, represented by a mark by the man in linen, are those "that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done" in the church. {3T 267.1}

SIFTING—STORY: TEN VIRGINS

MATTHEW 25:2-5 [FOOLISH VIRGINS] NO OIL LUKE 12:45 [SERVANT—MY LORD…]HEBREWS 10:37-39 [NO DELAY—SON OF

GOD]

OBADIAH 1:3The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation [is] high;…

SIFTING—PROFESSION VS. VOCATION…WHO?

RELIGIOUS PROFESSION & AN ATHEISTIC PRACTICE

• FIELD—NOT—FATHER

• “GOD—GOLDEN PARACHUTE” “GO”

• IN THE SPIRIT—HOLY SPIRIT

SIFTING—BELIEF: JAMES 2:19 MESSIAH-NOT-MASTER

JUDAS BELIEVED JESUS TO BE THE MESSIAH. THE DISCIPLES WERE ANXIOUS THAT JUDAS SHOULD BECOME ONE OF THEIR NUMBER. HE WAS A MAN OF…A KEEN DISCERNMENT AND EXECUTIVE ABILITY, AND THEY COMMENDED HIM TO JESUS AS ONE WHO WOULD GREATLY ASSIST HIM IN HIS WORK. THE AFTER-HISTORY OF JUDAS WOULD SHOW THEM THE DANGER OF ALLOWING ANY WORLDLY CONSIDERATION TO HAVE WEIGHT IN DECIDING THE FITNESS OF MEN FOR THE WORK OF GOD.

DESIRE OF AGES, pp. 293-295

SIFTING—TWO SEALING

JESUS CHOSE HIS DISCIPLES:

HIS ELECT/CHOSEN DISCIPLES WERE SEALED UNTO EVERLASTING LIFE…

THE DISCIPLES [MEN] CHOSE JUDAS. HE DECEIVED THEM [ELECT] TO THE

VERY THE END.

PARALLELS OF JUDAS: O.T. & N.T.

ACHAN’S —JOSHUA 7:16-26

SIMON MAGUS–ACTS 13:6-8; 14:2, 4; 8:9, 10,

13, 18

THE TIME HAS COME WHEN WE CANNOT DEPEND UPON THE DOCTRINE WHICH

COMES TO OUR EARS, UNLESS WE SEE THAT IT HARMONIZES WITH THE WORD OF GOD. REVIEW AND HERALD, MAY 3,

1887. THE PEOPLE OF GOD MUST BE ABLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE GENUINE

AND THE SPURIOUS. GOSPEL WORKERS, pp. 226, 227 (1892)