p. 8 | Short Sermons on the Ten Commandments

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 9, 1907

Short Sermons on the Ten Commandments

By W. A. MC CUTCHEN

The Fourth Commandment

W. A. MC CUTCHEN

“REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20: 8-11.

In this commandment there are two things—the Sabbath day and the Sabbath command. The Sabbath day is the seventh day; the Sabbath command is to “remember” the day “to keep it holy.” We keep the Sabbath command all the week (if at all), and the Sabbath day at the end of the week. In other words, we are to “remember the Sabbath day” all through the week, lay our plans and make all our arrangements and appointments with reference to it, so that we shall be ready for, and prepared to enter upon, its sacred rest when it comes.

This is what is commanded with reference to the Sabbath day, and hence is the Sabbath command, which command is to be observed and carried out all the week, but we certainly can not keep the Sabbath day until we get to it. We could not keep the Sabbath day on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, or any other day but the seventh day; but we can and must obey the Sabbath command to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” every day in the week.

The question of which day is the Sabbath needs hardly to be argued before a people who believe in taking the Bible for what it says. The command itself plainly says the “seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” And although the vast majority of Christendom observe the first day of the week as the Sabbath, that in no wise affects the integrity of God’s law, its truthfulness in designating the seventh day as the Sabbath, nor the obligation to Christians to observe that day. And the very reason assigned in the command for the setting apart of that day as the Sabbath shows that no other day could be observed as such and meet the requirements specified. “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore [for this reason] the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

From this we see that the Sabbath was set forth, and to be forever regarded, as a memorial of God’s work of creating the world and his rest therefrom—the birthday of the world, marking his finished work, and designed to keep forever in mind the Creator. This being so, we are justified in the conclusion that if man had never departed from the observance of the true Sabbath, there never would and never could have been an idolater. For however much man might have been disposed to forget the true God, the Creator, the recurrence of the weekly Sabbath rest regularly would have brought him to mind at least once a week. It was for this express purpose that the Lord gave the Sabbath: “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20: 12, 20.

We have seen that the Sabbath is the Lord’s memorial. Concerning it David says: “Thy name, O Lord, endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.” Ps. 135: 13. It is plain, therefore, that the Sabbath was designed to continue forever,—“throughout all generations,”—and that it has never been changed by any divine authority. Indeed, it could not be even by God himself, consistent with his own nature and the facts upon which it is based. In the language of a first-day observer: “No; it never was changed, nor could it be unless creation was to be gone through with again; for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance or respect to the reason can be changed. It is old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day.”—Alexander Campbell, in “Christian Baptism,” Vol. I, page 44. The “reason” assigned for the Sabbath is that God rested upon the seventh day after working six days. It is still a fact, and always will be, that God rested on the seventh day; and just as long as this is a fact, it will be appropriate and proper to observe that day, and improper to observe any other as the Sabbath. Hence, even in the world to come the Sabbath will be observed. Isa. 66: 22, 23. In fact, a birthday celebration can appropriately occur only on the birthday.

The manner of keeping the Sabbath is clearly indicated in the command. In the injunction concerning it the command does not say, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it”—and there stop. But it reads, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The Sabbath is holy or “hallowed.” God made it holy, and commands us to keep it holy—keep it holy, not simply in the sense of preserving it holy, but of observing it holy. And in Isa. 58: 13 he gives an idea of what it is to observe it holy: “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable: and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord.” We are not to talk of our own business and affairs nor find our selfish pleasures on the Sabbath. Let us remember that merely to refrain from work and to take physical rest is only a part of Sabbath-keeping. It is to be a day of spiritual as well as physical rest, a day of communion with God, and contemplation of the works of creation, a day of rendering homage to him who has made us and the world.

Keene, Tex.