"And God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." (Genesis 1:31) "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. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." (Genesis 2:1-3) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor, and do all your work; But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work; you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your 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." (Exodus 20:8-11) "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountain of waters." (Revelation 14:6-7) "I am the Lord your God: walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them: and hallow my Sabbaths; And they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God." (Ezekiel 20:19-20) "Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them." (Ezekiel 20:12) "Behold your God!" (Isaiah 40:9) "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) "My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest." (Exodus 33:14) "O how great is your goodness which You have laid up for them that fear You; which You have wrought for them that trust in You before the sons of men." (Psalm 31:19) "For by grace have you been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; Not of works, that no man should glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10) "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature ["there is a new creation," RV]; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God." (2 Corinthians 5:17-18) "Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins; Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; For by Him [in Him] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him." (Colossians 1:12-16) "After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. ... When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished; and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost." (John 19:28,30) "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has sent." (John 6:29) "Wherefore, even as the Holy Ghost says, Today if you shall hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, like as in the day of temptation in the wilderness, Wherewith your fathers tempted me by proving me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was displeased with this generation, and said, They do always err in their heart; but they did not know my ways; As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest. Take heed, brethren, lest haply there shall be in any one of you an evil heart of unbelief, in falling away from the living God. ... We see that they were not able to enter in because of unbelief." (Hebrews 3:7-12,19) "Let us fear, therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they; but the word of hearing did not profit them, because they were not united by faith with them that heard. For we which have believed do enter into that rest; even as He has said, As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has said somewhere of the seventh day on this wise, and God rested on the seventh day from all His works; And in this place again, They shall not enter into my rest. ... There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." (Hebrews 4:1-5,9-10)
Rest follows labor; but the labor must be finished, or else there can be no real rest. Moreover, the work must be well done, so that it is perfect and complete, or else the rest will not be perfect.
When God had worked six days in creating the heavens and the earth, and all things in them, He rested on the seventh day, because His work was done, and was well done. Everything was perfect.
The Sabbath is the sign that He is God, for only God could do perfect work; and the fact that God rested, shows that His work was perfect. "His work is honorable and glorious; and His righteousness endures for ever. He has made His wonderful works to be remembered." (Psalm 111:3-4)
Literally, "He has made a memorial for His wonderful works."
How is the Sabbath a memorial of God's creative power, and thus a sign that He is God? Thus: Just as one rests only after work is done, and finds the joy and satisfaction of rest in the contemplation of the work well done, the Sabbath is the constant reminder of the fact that God's works are perfect; it continually reminds us that He created all things, and, most of all, that He finished His work.
In the best and fullest sense of the word, His work was finished: it was complete and perfect. Creation was a finished piece of work. Otherwise there could have been no perfect rest following. The Sabbath is therefore the sign or mark of perfection.
When we look abroad upon the earth now, we do not see all things perfect. The curse has marred the works of God's hands. Man, creation's lord, has fallen, and his dominion has suffered with him. The Sabbath, however, remains. There remains a rest for the people of God. That is still left.
But it is a sign of perfection. It is the proof that God's creation was made perfect. It is the proof that He is a great God and does great things. Therefore since God makes nothing in vain, (Isaiah 45:18) and "Whatsoever God does, shall be for ever," (Ecclesiastes 3:14) the Sabbath is the pledge that everything, man included, shall be made new again. It is therefore the evidence of the sanctifying power of God. The everlasting Gospel calls upon men to "worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (Revelation 14:7)
That is what the Sabbath does. Therefore it follows that the Sabbath is the fullness of the everlasting Gospel. It is the seal of perfection. It marks a new creation complete and perfect. This new creation is effected through the cross. "If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation." (2 Corinthians 5:17)
The Messiah is the one who restores all things, and it is by the power of His cross that He does it. The power of the cross is the power that created the heavens and earth in the beginning; for the preaching of the cross is the power of God, (1 Corinthians 1:18) and the power of God is seen in the things that are made. (Romans 1:20) So when Jesus was about to yield up His life upon the cross, He cried, "It is finished." (John 19:30)
In Him, therefore, that is, through His cross, the works of God, which were finished from the foundation of the world, are ours when we believe. The rest which Christ gives those who come to Him, is the rest that comes from works finished and perfect. The Sabbath teaches us that Christ's power to save is the same as the power that made all things perfect in the beginning. "His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3)
The good works in which God wishes us to walk are already prepared for us. God himself has wrought them for us, and laid them up for us. We find them in Christ. In Him the works of God are manifest, and they are ours by faith. By faith we receive Christ, and receiving Him we have the finished works of God.
But when we have the finished works of God, it is evident that we have God's rest. The true keeping of God's Sabbath, therefore, instead of being an attempt to get righteousness by works, is the acceptance of righteousness by faith. It means simply trusting in the Lord for everything; letting Him be the One who both wills and works in us.
This is why those who do not have faith in Christ cannot keep the Sabbath. Only by faith do we enter into God's rest. Without perfect faith there can be no Sabbath keeping, because only by faith do we receive the perfect work of God in Christ.
How plain the Sabbath of the Lord makes the fact that there can be no such thing as a man making himself righteous by his own works. For instance, a man who does not know this fact, is striving to make himself righteous. Righteousness is right doing, and the righteousness that is required is the righteousness of God. Therefore only God's doing, God's work, can be counted righteous. So the man is trying to do God's work. We say to him, "My dear friend, you are working for nothing. How foolish are you to be trying to do a work that is already finished. The works were finished from the foundation of the world; and the proof of it is found in the fact that God rested the seventh day from all His works. Moreover, the work is that which only God could do, and that is why He has finished it. Leave off your own work, accept God's finished work, and thus be at rest."
In the Sabbath of the Lord we find the fullness of the fact that "To him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." (Romans 4:5)
The word "Sabbath" means "rest." Indeed it is the Hebrew word for rest. The seventh day is the rest of the Lord. God's presence alone gives rest, and that is why the Lord calls us to come to Him to find rest.
Now as the seventh day is God's rest,--God's Sabbath,--it follows that in it we find the "Real Presence." Not of course in the formal, outward cessation of labor on that day, but in the perfect trust in the righteousness of God, of which the rest from physical work on the seventh day of the week is a sign.
God's perfect works are found only in Christ, for in Him were all things created, and in Him all things exist. Therefore we must have the real presence of the Lord, in order to have the perfect work of God. But when we have the real presence of Christ, bringing the perfect work into our lives, then we have God's perfect rest, which comes from perfect works finished. So the true Sabbath of the Lord is His real presence with us. "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, ... Then shall you delight yourself in the Lord." (Isaiah 58:13-14)--Present Truth, December 8, 1898.