Genesis 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.… That the Sabbath was originally a Divine institution, nobody can doubt. It originated with God: and now God has either abrogated the Sabbath, or He has not. If God has not abrogated the Sabbath, the matter is quite clear: it comes commended to us with all that Divine authority itself can rest upon. But if God has abrogated the Sabbath, I ask, who is the man that would dare to reinstitute it? I. THE OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH. First, I say that the fourth commandment is absolutely obligatory on Christian men. If not, one or other of these alternatives must be adopted: either the whole of the ten commandments are abrogated and abolished, or the fourth is an exception out of the ten. There is no escape from one or other of these alternatives. But now suppose for a moment, for argument's sake, you were to allow that the fourth commandment, as far as it is found in the Mosaic economy, is abrogated. What then? Is the law of the Sabbath destroyed? Now, here is the proper argument for the Sabbath. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." What has that to do with the Mosaic economy? Why, here is the institution of the Sabbath more than two thousand years before the Mosaic economy is introduced! Suppose you allow all the Mosaic law to be abrogated, here stands the original institution. And if any man says, "But that refers to Eden," I grant it, Was it abolished when our first parents were cast out of Eden? Then I will give you a proof for once to the contrary, in the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, the twenty-third and twenty-ninth verses. Listen to these words. "And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake," and so forth. Again, in the twenty-ninth verse: "See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath." This is the sixteenth chapter of Exodus. How did they come to have the Sabbath day here? You know the law was not given till some considerable time after this: yet here you have the observance of the Sabbath, not based on the tea commandments at all — it is before they are uttered: here you have God recognizing the same thing. But now notice another remarkable fact. Why does the fourth commandment begin with the word, "Remember"? There is not another of the commandments that begins with the word "Remember." They are all positive institutions at that very time. But here is the fourth commandment notably commencing with the word "Remember." Why? Because it was an original institution, and the word points back to that. Another very remarkable fact in regard to the institution of the Sabbath, so far as it is connected With the Mosaic economy, is, that God institutes it in connection with the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt. In the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy, at the fourteenth verse, it is said — "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," and so on. Now observe. "Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore" — I beseech you to notice this — "therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day." You observe, that the reason why God commanded Israel to keep the Sabbath there is because they were brought out of the land of Egypt; but when God gave the fourth commandment in connection with the ten from Sinai, evidently intending it to have a general application, He makes no mention of this particular deliverance, but merely states the reason we find in the second chapter of Genesis — because God had rested Himself on the seventh day. So that if we admit, as I will do, that there was a peculiarity in the reason for the institution of the Sabbath in connection with the Israelites, yet God marks a distinction between that peculiarity and the general application in the passages I have referred to: giving as the peculiarity in their case the deliverance from Egypt, but in the other case giving as a reason that He Himself rested from His work, that the institution might be known to be applicable to all men. One further proof let us for a moment notice. The object of the Sabbath — let us see what that involves. There is a two-fold object alluded to in my text — with reference to God, and with reference to man. First, with reference to God. God rested on the seventh day, in commemoration of the finishing of His work. Now, whatever that may involve, I suppose it will be admitted that it is applicable to all men, and that it does not apply to the Jews or to one age only. If God thought fit to commemorate the fact of His resting from His labours by setting apart one day in seven, you and I are as much concerned in it as the Israelite was. But this will be still further enforced, when we come to consider the reason for which the Sabbath was instituted with reference to man. This was a two-fold reason. It was in order to his physical rest, and in order to his spiritual profit; the one subservient to the other. His physical rest: is not that equally necessary at all times? What gave rise to this reason for the institution of the Sabbath? On what ground was it necessary that there should be one day in seven set apart? I tell you: the law of rest was based on the law of labour. That was true in Eden. In Eden man was to till the ground; and even in Eden, in his unfallen state, there was a day of rest appointed. If that was true in man's perfect state, before his physical ability became deteriorated and broken down through sin, as it has been, how much more is it necessary in his fallen state! Again, let me ask this: If it was needful to Israel that they should have a day of rest, on the ground of the physical system being liable to exhaustion, and on the ground of the law of labour not being remitted, will any man pretend to argue that the law of rest shall be abolished and abrogated while the law of labour still remains? Or again: look at the spiritual purpose of the Sabbath. It is instituted in order to give man an opportunity — by resting from labour and the ordinary transactions of secular concerns, to have an opportunity of cultivating a holy and heavenly taste, and becoming fit for heaven. Now, I ask this question: Do your secular avocations, the cares and anxieties with which you are conversant every day, produce the same general results that they did in Israel's days, or do they not? Do you find, or do you not find, when you go about your ordinary business six days in the week, that you have immense difficulty to keep your hearts and affections separated from these things, and give them to God? Do you find that you could afford to be without one day in the week, on which to meet in God's house, and have an opportunity of reading your Bible and meditating at home, feeling it to be so easy in your worldly vocation to separate your hearts for communion with Him? It is monstrous to suppose such a thing. But again. That the Sabbath is an eternal Sabbath is clear from this: that in the Hebrews the apostle says, "There remaineth a rest." I need not tell you that the word there translated "rest" is "Sabbath" — "There remaineth a rest," a Sabbath "for the people of God." "A Sabbath!" What is the present Sabbath? What was the original Sabbath? Without controversy, a type of the coming Sabbath. "There remaineth a Sabbath." And yet God gave a Sabbath from the beginning! The Sabbath God gave was of course a type of the eternal Sabbath. Now, do you conceive that Israel should enjoy the type of the heavenly Sabbath, and yet that you and I, who live so much nearer to the time of the end, and are supposed to be, by virtue of the pouring out of the Holy Ghost and a knowledge of Christ, so much more holy in heart, are not to enjoy that type? But a type is in force till it is fulfilled. When will that type be done away? Never, unquestionably, till it resolves itself into the eternal Sabbath. II. THE MODE OF OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. If God has given us the Sabbath, and we are to keep it on the Lord's day, every right-minded man will ask, How are we to keep it? Now, it is very remarkable and important, that in the passages where God teaches us how the Sabbath day is to be kept, He deals with the subject as a general subject. It is not spoken of in the passages I will refer to in reference to any peculiarities connected with Judaism; but there are such declarations and instructions as would be applicable to all men, and all Christian men, to the end of time. There is the fourth commandment and the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. The fourth commandment we know. Here is the passage I quote from the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah: at the thirteenth verse — "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, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord." If you take the fourth commandment in connection with that verse, you will find that you have instruction as to the spiritual and physical obligation of the Lord's day. The fourth commandment instructs us in regard to our rest from all labour; this passage instructs us in regard to the object for which that physical rest is to be enjoyed, as subservient to our spiritual advantage. (C. Molyneux, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. |
    |