A MATTER OF FAITH by Walter E. Gillis

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 4, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 40.

A MATTER OF FAITH.

By Walter E. Gillis

BY WALTER E. GILLIS.

THOSE who are not acquainted with the Lord's dealings with the children of Israel can not understand the vital importance of the Sabbath as a sacred and particular rest day.

The Sabbath in the beginning was a particular day, the last of the cycle of creation week. See Gen. 2:1-3. It is here stated that God rested on the seventh day, and for this reason sanctified it—set it apart for a holy use.

"God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24. In the face of this fact, God's rest on that day in Eden was a spiritual rest, and it therefore follows that all who ever after partake of God's rest in the constantly-recurring Sabbath days must necessarily put themselves in spiritual accord with the identical day and its Author.

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. 14:23. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. 10:17. Christ said: "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." And of the commandments which ordain forever the Sabbath rest, the Spirit speaks on this wise: "Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. . . . For we know that the law is spiritual." Rom. 7:12-14. Do we keep the day by faith? Then it is because God's Word has taught us; and it must be the identical seventh day, for of such only does the Word of God teach; and, I repeat, obedience to the Word can alone be the basis of our keeping a day at all, if it be with intention to serve God.

When the Lord made known His law at Sinai, His first care was to make known and require reverence for His Sabbath (Ex. 16:22-30), making the obedience of His people in this particular the test of their keeping of the whole law. Ex. 16:28. This was to be the token, or evidence, that they knew the Lord, and that it was His sanctifying power that was being manifested among them. Ex. 31:13-17. The children of Israel were thus started in the way that will eventually terminate in the restoration of Eden. The Sabbath was a part of Eden, and as an earnest of their inheritance, God at this time more fully revealed to them the Sabbath truth, to remind them every week in a tangible way of the blessedness of that goodly land. All who did not by faith obtain the spiritual rest that God had placed in the Sabbath never so much as entered Canaan, which was to be the type of Eden restored. Hebrews 3 and 4.

In Jer. 11:3-5 we read, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey My voice, and do them according to all which I command you; so shall ye be My people, and I will be your God [Listen as He gives the reason]; THAT I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day." So we see that the Lord's ability to give them an abiding inheritance in Canaan hinged entirely upon the people's obedience to His commandments.

Again, in Ezekiel 20, we have the same proposition stated in still stronger language. Beginning with the fifth verse, the Lord recounts His visitation of the Israelites in Egypt and the giving of the law, which received only stubborn disobedience and pollution at their hands, until they compelled the Lord to bring judgments upon them, and in verses 15 and 16 He says, "Yet also I lifted up My hand unto them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands; BECAUSE they despised My judgments, and walked not in My statutes, but polluted My Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols."

In this same chapter from the thirty-third verse onward the Lord speaks of the latter house of Israel, who are found faithful to Him at the time of His second coming. He says, verses 36, 37: "Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord God. And I will cause you to pass under the rod; and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant." What covenant?-The commandments of Sinai. Jer. 11:3. Will the Sabbath question be revived?-It will; for the Lord has spoken, "Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness." Eze. 20:36. "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." Mal. 3:6. Will it be a very important time?-Yes, indeed, for listen: "And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against Me ['sin is the transgression of the law.' 1 John 3:4]; I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel." Eze. 20:38. This refers to the earth made new, Eden restored.

"Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." Heb. 4:11.

Mountain View, Cal.