Daily Devotional

January 27, 2017

The Sabbath Was Kept Anciently, and Is Today

“Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come; and worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water.” … “Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:7-12, NKJV.

The prophet … points out the ordinance which has been forsaken: “Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. 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” (Isaiah 58:12-14)….

Hallowed by the Creator’s rest and blessing, the Sabbath was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden; by Adam, fallen yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs, from Abel to righteous Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob. When the chosen people were in bondage in Egypt, many, in the midst of prevailing idolatry, lost their knowledge of God’s law; but when the Lord delivered Israel, He proclaimed His law in awful grandeur to the assembled multitude, that they might know His will and fear and obey Him forever.

From that day to the present the knowledge of God’s law has been preserved in the earth, and the Sabbath of the fourth commandment has been kept. Though the “man of sin” succeeded in trampling underfoot God’s holy day, yet even in the period of his supremacy there were, hidden in secret places, faithful souls who paid it honor. Since the Reformation, there have been some in every generation to maintain its observance. Though often in the midst of reproach and persecution, a constant testimony has been borne to the perpetuity of the law of God and the sacred obligation of the creation Sabbath.

These truths, as presented in Revelation 14 in connection with “the everlasting gospel,” will distinguish the church of Christ at the time of His appearing. For as the result of the threefold message it is announced: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” And this message is the last to be given before the coming of the Lord. Immediately following its proclamation the Son of man is seen by the prophet, coming in glory to reap the harvest of the earth. – The Great Controversy, 452-454.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 156.

Daily Devotional

January 26, 2017

Believe God’s Word, Not Human Reasoning

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law. Deuteronomy 29:29, NKJV.

It has been the special work of Satan to lead fallen humanity to rebel against God’s government, and he has succeeded too well in his efforts. He has tried to obscure the law of God, which in itself is very plain. He has manifested a special hatred against the fourth precept of the Decalogue, because it defines the living God, the maker of the heavens and the earth. Yielding to his devices, people have turned from the plainest precepts of Jehovah to receive infidel fables.

They will be left without excuse. God has given sufficient evidence upon which to base faith, if one wishes to believe. In the last days, the earth will be almost destitute of true faith. Upon the merest pretense, the Word of God will be considered unreliable, while human reasoning will be received, though it be in opposition to plain Scripture facts. Men and women will endeavor to explain from natural causes the work of Creation. But just how God wrought in the work of Creation He has never revealed to mortals. Human science cannot search out the secrets of the God of heaven….

Human beings professing to be ministers of God raise their voices against the investigation of prophecy, and tell the people that the prophecies, especially of Daniel and John, are obscure, and that we cannot understand them. Yet some of these very ones eagerly receive the suppositions of geologists, which dispute the Mosaic record. But if God’s revealed will is so difficult to be understood, certainly people should not rest their faith upon mere suppositions in regard to that which He has not revealed. God’s ways are not as our ways, neither are His thoughts as our thoughts….Humans, with their vain reasoning, make a wrong use of these things which God designed should lead them to exalt Him. They fall into the same error as did the people before the Flood – those things which God gave them as a benefit, they turned into a curse, by making a wrong use of them. – The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 155.

Daily Devotional

January 25, 2017

The Sabbath Reminds Us of God’s Creative Power

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable. Psalm 145:3, NKJV.

Infidel geologists claim that the world is very much older than the Bible record makes it. They reject the testimony of God’s Word because of those things which are to them evidences from the earth itself that it has existed tens of thousands of years. And many who profess to believe the Bible are at a loss to account for wonderful things which are found in the earth, with the view that Creation week was only seven literal days, and that the world is now only about six thousand years old. These, to free themselves from difficulties thrown in their way by infidel geologists, adopt the view that the six days of Creation were six vast, indefinite periods, and the day of God’s rest was another indefinite period; making senseless the fourth commandment of God’s holy law. Some eagerly receive this position; for it destroys the force of the fourth commandment, and they feel a freedom from its claims upon them.

Bones of human beings and animals are found in the earth, in mountains and in valleys, showing that much larger humans and beasts once existed. Instruments of warfare are sometimes found; also petrified wood. Because the bones found are so much larger than those of humans and animals now living, or that have existed for many generations past, some conclude that the earth was populated long before the record of Creation by a race of beings vastly superior in size to those now living. Those who reason in this manner have limited ideas of the size of people, animals, and trees, before the Flood, and of the great changes which then took place in the earth.

Without Bible history, geology can prove nothing…. When human beings leave the Word of God, and seek to account for His creative works upon natural principles, they are upon a boundless ocean of uncertainty. Just how God accomplished the work of Creation in six literal days, He has never revealed to mortals. His creative works are as incomprehensible as His existence. – The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 154.

Daily Devotional

January 24, 2017

The Sabbath Memorializes a Literal Day

God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend. Job 37:5, NKJV.

When God spoke His law with an audible voice from Sinai, He introduced the Sabbath by saying, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” He then declares definitely what shall be done on the six days, and what shall not be done on the seventh. He next gives the reason for thus observing the week, by pointing us back to His example on the first seven days of time. “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.” This reason appears beautiful and forcible when we understand the record of Creation to mean literal days.

The first six days of each week are given to us in which to labor, because God employed the same period of the first week in the work of Creation. The seventh day God has reserved as a day of rest, in commemoration of His rest during the same period of time after He had performed the work of Creation in six days.

But the infidel supposition, that the events of the first week required seven vast, indefinite periods for their accomplishment, strikes directly at the foundation of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment. It makes indefinite and obscure that which God has made very plain. It is the worst kind of infidelity; for with many who profess to believe the record of Creation, it is infidelity in disguise. It charges God with commanding us to observe the week of seven literal days in commemoration of seven indefinite periods, which is unlike His dealings with us, and is an impeachment of His wisdom….

The Word of God is given as a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Those who cast His Word behind them, and seek by their own blind philosophy to penetrate the mysteries of Jehovah, will stumble in darkness. A guide has been given to mortals whereby they may trace His works as far as will be for their good. Inspiration, in giving us the history of the Flood, has explained wonderful mysteries that geology alone could never fathom. – The Signs of the Times, March 20, 1879.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 153.

Daily Devotional

January 23, 2017

Jesus Kept the Sabbath by Doing Good

Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one thing: is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” Luke 6:9, NKJV.

It is no violation of the Sabbath to perform works of necessity, as ministering to the sick or aged, and relieving distress. Such works are in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law. Our great Exemplar was ever active upon the Sabbath, when the necessities of the sick and suffering came before Him. The Pharisees, because of this, accused Him of Sabbathbreaking, as do many ministers today who are in opposition to the law of God. But we say, Let God be true, and every man a liar who dares make this charge against the Savior.

Jesus answered the accusation of the Jews thus, “If ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless.” He had already declared to them that He had kept His Father’s commandments. When He was accused of Sabbathbreaking in the matter of healing the withered hand, He turned upon His accusers with the question “Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? to save life, or to kill?” In summing up His answer to the questioning of the Pharisees He said, “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days.” Here Christ justified His work as in perfect harmony with the Sabbath law. – The Signs of the Times, February 28, 1878.

Those who hold that Christ abolished the law teach that He broke the Sabbath and justified His disciples in doing the same. Thus they are really taking the same ground as did the caviling Jews. In this they contradict the testimony of Christ Himself, who declared, “I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:10).

Neither the Savior nor His followers broke the law of the Sabbath. Christ was a living representative of the law. No violation of its holy precepts was found in His life.

Looking upon a nation of witnesses who were seeking occasion to condemn Him, He could say unchallenged, “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” (John 8:46, RV)….

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath,” Jesus said. The institutions that God has established are for the benefit of humankind…. The law of Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath forms a part, God gave to His people as a blessing. “The Lord commanded us,” said Moses, “to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive” (Deuteronomy 6:24). – The Desire of Ages, 287, 288.

From Devotional: To Be Like Jesus, p. 152.