4.
The Creator blessed the seventh day. This is the day specifically
blessed by God (Genesis 2:3).
5.
He sanctified the seventh day. This is the day set apart by
God (Exodus 20: 11).
6.
The origins of the Sabbath day go back to creation week and
the Garden of Eden, to the very beginnings of the world’s existence
(Genesis 2:1-3).
7. It was
made before the fall, hence it is not a type; for types were
not introduced till after the fall.
8. Jesus
says it was made for man (Mark 2:27), for humankind.
The word man is here unlimited and refers to all people, for
the Gentile as well as for the Jew.
9.
It is a memorial of creation (Exodus 20: 11; 31:17). Every time
we rest upon the seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate
that grand event and acknowledge Him as the creator.
10.
It was given to Adam, the head of the human race (Mark 2:27;
Genesis 2:1-3).
11.
Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations and
all people (Acts 17:26).
12.
It is not a Jewish institution, for it was made 2,300 years
before ever there was a Jew.
13. The
Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always "the
Sabbath of the Lord thy God." Men should be cautious how
they label God's holy rest day.
14.
Evident reference is made to the Sabbath and the seven-day week
all through the patriarchal age (Genesis 2:1-3; 8:10, 12; 29:27,
28, etc.).
15.
The Sabbath was a part of God's law before Sinai (Exodus 16:4,
27-29). In the law at Sinai God confirms its earlier existence
by introducing the Sabbath commandment with the words “Remember”
(Exodus 20:8).
16.
Then God placed it in the heart of His moral law (Exodus 20:1-17.).
Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine
precepts, which all admit to be immutable? But unlike the other
nine, this commandment brings to view both the name and title
of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens
and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship
above all (Exodus 20:8-11).
17.
The seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of God (Deuteronomy
4:12, 13).
18.
Later in time God wrote the commandment with His own finger
(Exodus 31:18).
19.
He personally engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating
its imperishable nature (Deuteronomy 5:22).
20.
It was sacredly preserved in the ark of the covenant in the
holy of holies (Deuteronomy 10:1-5).
21.
God forbade work upon the Sabbath, even in the most hurrying
of times (Exodus 34:21).
22.
God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they
profaned the Sabbath (Ezekiel 20:12, 13).
23.
It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him
from false gods (Ezekiel 20:20).
24.
God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if His people
would faithfully keep the Sabbath (Jeremiah 17:24, 25).
25.
He sent them into the Babylonian captivity for breaking it (Nehemiah
13:18).
26.
He destroyed Jerusalem because of its violation (Jeremiah 17:27).
27.
God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who
will keep it (Isaiah 56:6, 7).
28.
This is in the prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian
dispensation (See Isaiah 56.).
29.
God has promised to bless all who keep the Sabbath (Isaiah 56:2).
30.
The Lord requires us to call it "honourable." (Isaiah
58:13). Be cautious not to call it the "old Jewish Sabbath,"
"a yoke of bondage," etc.
31.
After the holy Sabbath has been neglected for "many generations,"
it is to be restored in the last days (Isaiah 58:12, 13).
32.
All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.
33.
When the Son of God came, He kept the seventh day throughout
His life on earth. It was his custom to do so (Luke 4:16; John
15:10).
34.
The seventh day is the Lord's day (See Revelation 1: 10; Mark
2:28; Isaiah 5 8:1 3; Exodus 20: 10).
35.
Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28).
36.
He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed
for man's good (Mark 2:23-28).
37.
Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it
should be observed (Matthew 12:1-13).
38.
He taught His disciples that it was lawful to do good deeds
on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12).
39.
He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully
regarded in the future years after His resurrection (Matthew
24:20).
40.
The pious women who had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh
day after His death (Luke 23:56).
41.
Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly
calls it "the Sabbath day." (Acts 13:14)
42.
Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the "Sabbath
day" in A.D. 45 (Acts 13:27). Paul clearly knew which was
the seventh day Sabbath.
43.
Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as late as A.D.
62, calls it the "Sabbath day" (Acts 13:44). All other
gospels written after the death of Christ also consistently
refer to it as the Sabbath and make no mention of any change
in the day of worship.
44.
The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath (Acts 13:42).
45.
In the great Christian council, A.D. 49, in the presence of
the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the
“Sabbath day" (Acts 15:21).
46.
It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day (Acts
16:13).
47.
Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on that day (Acts
17:2, 3).
48.
It was his custom to preach upon that day (Acts 17:2, 3).
49.
The Book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four
meetings upon that day (See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4,
11).
50.
There was never any dispute between the Christians and the Jews
about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Christians still
observed the same day that the Jews did.
51.
In all their accusations against Paul, they never charged him
with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did
not keep, it?
52.
But Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the law.
"Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the
temple, nor yet against Ceasar, have I offended any thing at
all." (Acts 25:8). How could this be true if he had not
kept the Sabbath?
53.
The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times,
and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the
Old Testament, "the Sabbath day."
54.
Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath's
being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind.
55.
God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. The
seventh day was never designated for common labor?
56.
No Christian of the New Testament, either before or after the
resurrection, ever engaged in ordinary work upon the seventh
day. Why should we as modern Christians do differently from
Bible Christians?
57.
There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or
sanctification from the seventh day or transferred it to another
day, or expressly authorized others to make that change.
58.
As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will
be observed eternally in heaven, in the new earth after the
restoration of the world (Isaiah 66:22, 23).
59.
The seventh-day Sabbath was an important part of the law of
God, as it came from His own mouth, and was written by His own
finger upon stone at Sinai. (See Exodus 20) When Jesus began
His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy
the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law,
or the prophets." (Matthew 5:17). Jesus severely condemned
the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while
at the same time they made void one of the Ten Commandments
by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a tradition
of men.
60.
The law of the ten commandments lives and will live throughout
eternal ages, it will maintain its exalted character as long
as God endures, for the law is the expression of God’s character.
The types and shadows, offerings and sacrifices had no virtue
after Christ’s death on the cross; but God’s law was not crucified
with Christ. God did not make the infinite sacrifice of giving
His only begotten Son to our world, to secure for man the privilege
of breaking the commandments of God in this life and in the
future eternal life. Had the law been destroyed at the cross,
Satan would have achieved all that he set out to do in heaven.
For this he was expelled from heaven and today he is deceiving
human beings in regards to the law of God, by leading people
to believe that it is obligatory to keep all of the laws of
the commandments (not to steal, murder, lie…) but that its not
obligatory to keep the Sabbath law. The Sabbath commandment
is the heart of the Law of God.
