p. 756 | THE DECALOGUE by J. W. Watt

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 1, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 48.

THE DECALOGUE.

By J. W. Watt

The Fourth Commandment.

“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 man servant, nor thy maid servant, 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.”

We now take another step in the study of the law of God. We have found that obedience to the first commandment was very necessary to prepare us for the next, etc. The first commandment demands of us entire consecration to God, perfect obedience rendered in love. The second is a warning against taking the first step away from God after having accepted Him as our God, and is also an admonition with reference to the proper care of our bodies that we may be strong physically, mentally, and morally, and so be able to render unto Him acceptable service. The third commandment shows us that the name of God represents His character, which we, as His servants, are day by day to make manifest to the world. Having reached this point in our experience we are ready to consider the fourth commandment.

“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy.” Rom. 7:12. Is God holy?—“Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.” Lev. 19:2. Now what have we before us?—A holy God has given a holy law, in which we find a holy commandment that tells us to keep a holy day holy. This day was made holy at the close of the first week of time by the Lord resting upon it from the work of creation, and then blessing and sanctifying it, thus placing His own holy presence in the day. Can an unholy man or woman keep this holy day, given by a holy God, and embodied in a holy law?—No; it is impossible for a person who is unconverted to keep the holy Sabbath day.

Jesus, our Saviour, gave to man the Sabbath, He being the one through whom God made the worlds, as shown by the following scriptures: Heb. 1:1–3; Col. 1:14–16; Eph. 3:9; John 1:1–10. Christ is a sanctified Saviour. He says, “And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.” John 17:19. “For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one.” Heb. 2:11. “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” Gen. 2:3.

We have, then, a sanctified Saviour giving to us a sanctified rest day. Can any one who is not sanctified unto God keep such a sanctified rest day?—No; he who would keep a sanctified day must himself be sanctified to the God who gave the rest day and by the same power that sanctified the day.

Are God’s people, then, to be a sanctified people?—“And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” I Cor. 6:11. Thus we see that by the cleansing blood of the Lord Jesus we are washed from all guilt and sin, and by the Spirit we are sanctified to God.

The apostle Paul, in giving his experience at the time of his conversion, speaks of the work which he was called upon to do for the Gentiles as follows: “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the

power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Acts 26:18. Paul thus gives the words which Jesus spoke to him when He appeared to him on the way from Jerusalem to Damascus. Let us note a few points. Their eyes must be opened. This is the first thing that must be done for the sinner, for sin has made him blind. When his eyes are opened, he can see the light of the Gospel. This reveals to him Jesus, through whom he receives forgiveness of sins, and the power of Satan is broken. Then he understands that he is a child of God, and has an inheritance with those who are sanctified by the same kind of faith that was seen in Christ when He was in this world. All this must be accomplished by grace, for the one who would enter upon the keeping of the Sabbath in the spirit in which God designs it shall be kept.

This sanctification is a work of perfection wrought by the Lord Himself upon those who yield wholly to Him. “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” Heb. 10:14. Sanctification is the imparted righteousness which we receive from Christ day by day, which enables us always to resist temptation, and lead a life of continual purity and holiness.

The Sabbath is a sign of this sanctification. “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.” Eze. 31:13. Thus we see that the Sabbath is an outward sign of an inward work of grace; but to whom is it a sign?—Not to those about us in the world, but unto God. As “a sign,” God says, “between Me and you.” He does not say a sign to your neighbors that they may know that your view of the Scriptures is different from theirs. The Lord had no such thing in mind when He gave the Sabbath to man; for He gave this sign before man had sinned; and had sin never entered our world, the Sabbath would have stood as a sign of loyalty between God and His people. Every week they would have given evidence to God that they were mindful of Him as their Creator, by resting in Him, and communing with Him in a special way upon the day He had appointed for that purpose; and thus even now will all His dear children do, who are sanctified through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath, then, is a spiritual rest, a resting in the power of God, a placing of one’s self from week to week in the hands of God, to be used by Him as a willing, obedient child would gladly, in the spirit of love, obey its parents.

But the Sabbath is not only a sign to God that we are His children, but it is a sign to us that God is our God. “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. 20:20. The Lord thus pledges Himself to be a God unto all who will keep His holy Sabbath as He designed it should be kept; not to those who lay aside their manual labor on the seventh day of the week, and think and talk of worldly things; for this is not Sabbath-keeping at all. But those who with all their heart seek after God and hold sacred communion with Him, to such the Lord says, “I will be your God.” Happy is the man whose God is the Lord of heaven. When one has fully yielded himself to God, and has learned to keep the first three commandments so that in every act of life he is striving correctly to represent the true character of God, then he is ready to appreciate and delight in the holy rest day, which is, ever has been, and ever will be a sign between God and His people.

It has not been the writer’s design in this article to enter into a discussion of which day of the week is the Sabbath. The fourth commandment, which we have been considering, tells us that; and we feel sure that to the true child of God a plain statement from God Himself will be sufficient.

May the Lord help His children to walk in the way of His precepts. J. W. WATT.