REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY

“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy.” Exodus 20:8

OF course you are all well aware that this is the fourth commandment which God spake to Israel at Mt. Sinai in the wilderness. He gave this express command to them, by Moses, “remember the Sabbath day.” Remember! call to mind; think back over the past and so bring before your attention this Sabbath Day. Then, we find that this is not a new command which never existed before. Think back over Israel’s history, as in verse 2, how God had brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. What great reasons they had to remember the Lord and worship Him. But, not for such reasons should they, nor we, remember the Sabbath; but we must remember it because of its divine institution of God. Because He set aside that Day on purpose for man, to worship God, resting from all manner of work.

After God had finished the creation of the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, “He rested on the seventh day, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” Not that God was weary and worn out through any lack of vigour, but His was a rest of satisfaction and contentment. “God saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good,” Gen. 1:31. So, He delighted in His creation, set apart the seventh day, blessed it, and, sanctified it. Now, then, if God has so instituted this Sabbath, must not all mankind follow after His example and keep this day, apart from the other six days, in a special manner? I believe so!

God not only instituted the Sabbath for man to rest naturally in their bodies; but, its being of divine origin there is required also a worshipping of God on this day. And that to consist in remembrance! Remember what? The Lord of the Sabbath! To worship Him! To, “keep it holy” unto the Lord God of all the universe! It is the Lord’s Day and not man’s! Man must keep it holy by not doing any work in that day, “thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates,” verse 10. Thus resting from all manner of work, man is required to turn unto God his Creator with all attention, thought and concern, with body and soul. Give himself entirely over unto His Creator that One day, as he strives the other six days in his own temporal interests. Every one that so remembers the Sabbath day will surely be blessed of God.

God himself has so promised to bless them that honor Him by keeping His day holy. And, because God so blessed and hallowed it, therefore, it must follow, for God cannot lie, that in the keeping of it there is the reward of blessing. Even to those that merely keep it so in an outward, natural sense, there awaits God’s blessing. And, so too, those that are blessed of God spiritually, may rest in their souls as well as in their bodies. So, in remembering the Sabbath, to keep it holy; everyone enjoys a blessing of God, and thus the blessing rests upon the day that God has Himself hallowed. But, of course, the opposite must be true also. In not keeping this day holy, then, it must of necessity bring with it, the curse, anger, wrath and judgment of God. Because, as God not only blessed it but also sanctified it; so, everyone that does not use it for the very purpose which it has been set apart for, will certainly bring down upon their own head, God’s curse and wrath. He sanctified it, means set it apart unto the end of time, for Himself. For man to use it to His purpose of institution; namely, that His name might be honored and glorified.

So to remember the Sabbath day, brings a blessing from God; but, where it is not remembered, by both professors or profane, it brings the curse of God. Brings either of these two, upon an individual, or family, state, city or town, or nation, according to the proportion of consecration or desecration of the day.

The holy scriptures verify this throughout the Old Testament. God so hallowed the Sabbath that He would not even send manna down from heaven, to the Israelites in the wilderness, on the Sabbath. See how His blessing was upon that manna to preserve it from the morning of the sixth day to carry over the Sabbath. The other days it would stink if they gathered more than one days supply. So God honors and blesses His own day; and, Israel enjoyed and shared in that blessing of God; (Exodus 16:10-26). Again, in Isaiah 56:2 we read, “Blessed is that man that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it;” verses 4 and 5, “For thus saith the Lord, unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths,—even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters:” (what name shall that be?) “I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off;” and what follows in verses 6 and 7, read it dear friends and ponder over it. Is it worth striving after? Does God value His day and the keeping of it? Can you obtain a greater or more lasting blessing than that, “an everlasting name”! A name which will never be cut off! This is promised to them that keep My Sabbaths, saith the Lord. One more evidence must suffice for the blessings of God in keeping the Sabbath. See God’s favour and blessing upon Nehemiah’s zeal for the Sabbath in Neh. 13:20 and 21, “From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath.” Did not God reward Nehemiah with success in his reformation? Indeed He did to such an extent that Judah enjoyed rest on the Sabbath and did again sanctify it, kept it holy unto the Lord. So blessings abound through the scriptures upon all who did remember the Sabbath day.

Now look at the opposite curse, anger, wrath, and judgment of God upon all who DO NOT REMEMBER the Sabbath. See how God beholds from heaven the acts of men on earth. Exod. 16:27, some went out on the seventh day to gather manna, but, they found none. God saw those persons breaking His Sabbath and He was angry on that account. He said, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” etc. verses 28 and 29. They despised the fourth command of God’s law and so dishonored God and desecrated God’s day. Which resulted in those people not having any food over the Sabbath, thus did God’s curse rest upon them. Again, see what happened to that man who was gathering sticks on the Sabbath day. He was put to death! The wrath of God upon him for breaking the Sabbath. Another instance by Ezekiel 20:12-26; see how the fathers kept not the Sabbath but greatly polluted it in the wilderness, and therefore God was so wroth with them that they had to die there and was not permitted to enter the promised land. God said, “I will pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them.” So dreadful and fearful is the desecration of the Sabbath day. Nehemiah gives us the sad decline of Israel in chapter 1:3 “The remnant that are left—are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire.” The result of desecrating the Sabbath, transgressing God’s law and not keeping His commandments. God’s curse, anger, and wrath and even His judgments were so heavily inflicted upon them that they were reduced to a remnant, and that, in great affliction and reproach. This is an exact picture of our present age.

We too, could see, if we had but eyes to see, as Nehemiah did in Judah. Some treading wine presses on the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and lading asses, as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day: also men which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath day: so the gates were wide open on the Sabbath as during the six days of the week. Is it not so in our present day? See how we as individuals, families, towns, states and nation despise God’s command, break this fourth commandment of the law. How we misuse the Sabbath day by sleeping in, on the Lord’s Day, till 8, 9 and 10 o’clock, some till noon hour. A day of rest! say they. But friend not that kind of laziness. Why do you use God’s day for such a rest of your body? You have six days a week to yourself, why not sleep in on one of them! Oh, then you will lose your employment or it may cost you a few cents less in your pay envelope, and so you would be the loser. What do you consider the greatest loss ? Temporal or spiritual things ? Read again the blessings and curses of God as stated above. Others misuse the Sabbath in dressing in worldly fashions, highly polished on the outside but a monument of pride and nothing more. Oh, cast a look at your beauty, (how soon it fadeth), as you must some day lie with the pale face of death and be lowered into the dust upon which you now tread. What then shall become of your soul. Can you appear before God, clad in your fashionable dress? Nay, except ye be clothed with the robe of Jesus Christ ye shall perish forever. Remember, then, the Sabbath day. It is for that purpose. To seek after the robe of righteousness for soul and body. Others seek their pleasure in this day. Cannot use their time for it but must use God’s day. Sacrificing their soul for a little seemingly pleasure in this short life. Miseries surround them on every side and yet they term it enjoyment. Yes, friend, that’s our corrupt nature. Because God forbids us this one only day out of seven, therefore that forbidden fruit is so tempting that it is more sweeter than all our six days can afford us. Remember the Sabbath day, it is not ours, it is God’s. We may not seek our own pleasure for the flesh, but are required to seek that which will afford us an everlasting joy and happiness, which will never be accompanied with any sorrows, pains, sufferings, afflictions nor miseries, of any kind! Is it not worth seeking after; more than the fading vanities of this life? And others again buy and sell and make most of their money on the Sabbath day. Oh what a blood stained and guilty money that is. Murdering the soul for earthly gain. Resulting in eternal death and utter destruction of soul. Is the church member any better? Is the church in general any better? Oh what a sinking there also! As in Judah and Jerusalem, so too, today the church in general thinks lightly of buying and selling, traveling for pleasure drives, loitering upon the highways drinking in iniquity like water. What is the trend of their conversation? Have they time to read the Word; no! but plenty of time for worldly nonsense, fiction and novels, funny sheets, and what not. Oh readers, “what evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath day?” And do you wonder why conditions are so bad ? “Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city, (and nation) ? yet, YE bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath.” (Neh. 13:18). God grant that Isaiah 59:13 and 14 may be ours.

And you that belong to that remnant which is in great affliction and reproach. Oh may God the Spirit descend unto us in mercy and compassion and humble us in the dust before Him. Oh may He quicken us to a penitent weeping and mourning and fasting, in prayer and supplication before God beseeching Him to bend His ear to our cry and to open His eyes to our sad state. Yea, may it be so, day and night, that we may realize and confess to God, “both I and my father’s house have sinned.” Oh Lord, “we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept Thy commandments.” May this be our portion from God. For then indeed will the King of kings grant us our request. And what is thy request? That, thy kingdom may come with power to our souls! That Zion may be built up! Oh that the walls of Jerusalem may again be reared to our realization within our breasts! That we may remember Thy Sabbath days, and keep them holy. Beloved, God grant to us, Neh. 2:17 to 20, even though we are laughed to scorn and despised and considered rebels.

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