"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you," -John 15:15.

Our Savior calls us not "servants" but "friends." Notice that in one verse it says there is a difference between those who serve and those who do not serve, but here He says He will not call us servants. What is the difference? It is the attitude with which we serve.

The attitude of a friend is one who wants to do His will because "I love Him," and it is my desire to do what promotes His pleasure. A servant does the orders of his master, a friend does the will of his friend. The Lord Jesus is telling us we are not a servant to Him, we are His friend. He has told us the will of the Father, and we obey because it is His will. We do not serve Him under compulsion or with a slavish servitude. The motive with which we serve the Lord is being a friend and doing that in which He delights.

This does not tell us that we are not to serve Him, but it tells us with what attitude we are to serve Him. We see this in John 15:9-10.

"As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

How did He keep His Father's commandments? It was from a motive of love. The Lord Jesus Christ could have rendered perfect obedience, strictly to the letter of the law, yet the Father would have had no delight in it if it were done grudgingly. We are to keep His commandments even as Jesus kept His Father's commandments. "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart," -Psalm 40:8. That is how we are to keep His commandments, not out of servitude as a servant with slavish fear. We are to keep His commandments as a friend and with a motive of doing what is pleasing to Him because we love Him.

Herein we see how precious the condescension of Christ is in the attitude with which He kept His Father's commandments; that was wherein the Father was so glorified. We see this in Philippians 2:6-8. Notice is this passage how He humbled Himself, and see the condescension of our Savior!:

"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

The Son of God committed no robbery to be perfectly equal with the Father, yet He "...made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant."

When we are true friends of the Lord Jesus Christ, we become His brother; we serve Him because we love Him and have a desire to please Him. Notice that He humbled Himself; that is the beginning of doing what is pleasing to the Lord. Our hearts must be humble, serving the Lord because it is our pleasure to do so.

When we can come into that self-sacrificial spirit where we can love even as Christ loved us, we are able to sacrifice ourselves for our friends. Then we become the friend of Jesus. Outside of that we are His enemies; we have a carnal mind. It is so important that we understand that.

Remember our lovely Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane? In Luke 22:41-44 we read,

"And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly [After receiving such additional strength it was all used to intensify the urgency of His prayer]: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

In such agony He prayed so intensely, "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me," but He was still in total surrender to the will of the Father, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." -Luke 22:42.

Remember our lovely Savior being scorned and mocked in Pilate's hall? He humbled Himself and allowed them to mock Him. Voluntarily He stepped into the wrath of the Father and took on this shame. Despising the shame He endured the cross. Why? Our sins were placed upon His head. Matthew 27:28-31 says,

"And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns [when God placed the judgment and curse upon Adam, the earth brought forth briars and thorns. Those thorns are the symbol of sin and the curse of the broken law.] they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away [for what?] to crucify him."

Can you see our lovely Savior hanging on the cross praying for sinners? "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots," -Luke 23:34. If you claim a portion in the blood of Christ, it was you who hung Him upon the cross.

If we understand what our lovely Savior was saying when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you," -John 15:13-14, then we would understand how important our attitude of obedience is toward one another. Then our hearts will be inflamed with love for one another. Why? His commandment is to love one another even as He has loved us. That is the measure of love we must have for each other. Amen.

I LOVE TO TELL THE STORY

I love to tell the story of unseen things above, Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love;

I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true, It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do.

I love to tell the story--more wonderful it seems Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams;

I love to tell the story--it did so much for me, And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.

I love to tell the story--‘tis pleasant to repeat What seems each time I tell it, nore wonderfully sweet;

I love to tell the story for some have never heard The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.

I love to tell the story, for those who know it best Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;

And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song, ‘Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.

God's Holy Day
Seven Studies on the Sabbath Truth
By Lester G. Osborn

And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.  -Genesis 2:3

Lesson One

ORIGIN AND EARLY HISTORY

     The instinct for a weekly day of rest and worship is woven into the fiber of every nation and race. And small wonder -God made it so "in the beginning."   The Divine rhythm of a healthy life is six days of labor and one day of rest.

 

A. The institution of the Sabbath-Genesis 2:2-3.

1. The earth was a formless mass, "waste and void"-desolate and empty, covered with dense watery vapors. But "the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." In six days; God brought order out of this chaos, making it fit for habitation. Then God created man on the sixth day, after preparing every-thing man would ever need for his physical well-being.

2. But man-created in the image of God-is a spiritual being. He needs more than physical comforts. So God established a religious institution for his spiritual well-being-the Sabbath.

3. Analysis of Genesis 2:2-3.

a. Fact-the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day.
b. Factor-God, the Creator.
c. Reason-God "rested" on that day.
d. Purpose-to make the seventh day the Sabbath. (Note: In Hebrew, a little untranslatable word-"eth"-signifies that the word following it is the definite and direct object of the verb. It occurs here before "the seventh day" and before "it," thus showing that it was the seventh day which was set apart and given a special "blessing:")

4. The week is an arbitrary division of time. The earth moves in relation to no heavenly body in a cycle of seven days. This seven-day cycle has never been lost (see Genesis 7:4,10; 8:10,12; 29:27). Nations both ancient and modern have this seven-day week, and two-thirds of them call the seventh day "Sabbath."

5. Mark 2:27-"The Sabbath was made" -it had its origin in a distinct act.

B.     For Whom Was the Sabbath Made?

1. Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man." The Greek uses the generic term, "anthropon"-the race of mankind.

2.     Was the Sabbath created just for the Jews? What nationality was Adam? He lived at least 2,000 years before Abraham, the forefather of the Jews. True, the Sabbath was committed to the Jews (cf. Nehemiah 9:12-14, "made known to them your holy Sabbath"), just as the Scriptures, monotheism, and the prophecies were committed to them-to keep for the world. But the Jews have no monopoly on the Sabbath any more than they have on Christ, who according to the flesh was a Jew.

C. The Purpose of the Sabbath.

1. Creation’s birthday-Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus20:8-11.

2. Sign that God, the Creator, is our Covenant Lord-Ezekiel 20:12,20.

3. For man's wellbeing-Mark 2:27. Man requires rest, physical and mental. Experiments have shown that man lives longer and accomplishes more when he rests one day in seven (cf. Exodus 31:15). Man needs spiritual refreshment, too. The Sabbath gives him a time for fellowship with God, time to study God's Word, associate with God's people, and serve in the cause of Christ.

D. The Sabbath (a) compared to the sabbaths (b).

1. Different in time of institution.

a. At the Creation, based on a weekly cycle.
b. At Sinai, based on phases of the moon.

2. Different application.

a. Universal and eternal.
b. Local, national, temporal.

3. Different in position in Mosaic code.

a. One of the Ten Commandments, written by the finger of God.
b. Written in a book by Moses.
a.     Kept inside the ark of the covenant.
b. Kept in a pocket on the side of the-ark.
a. One of-the fundamental laws of the theocracy.
b. One of the "ordinances."

4. Different -in the emphasis placed upon them in the Old Testament.

a. Death penalty for violation. Prophets protested formalism in its observance.
b. Desecration was considered very serious.

5. Different in place in Jesus' teaching.

a. He taught how it should be kept-spiritual Sabbathkeeping (Matthew 12:10-12; Mark 2:23-28; John 7:22-23).
b.     He did not emphasize the importance of the "sabbaths."

E. God's Holy Day-Isaiah 58:13.

    God told Moses from-the burning bush, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5). Here He says, "-keep your feet from breaking-the-Sabbath" -don't trample it underfoot. God's presence in the day, as in the bush, makes it holy. One may worship -and commune with God better on the day in which He is present in a peculiar way.

F. Has the Original Sabbath Been Lost?

    We can trace chronology back -to Christ. He certainly knew which day was the seventh. From New Testament times back to the Creation, -we see -these three steps: Luke 23:56, He "rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment"; Exodus 20:8-11, the fourth "Commandment"; which refers back to Genesis 2:2-3.

    However, we need not go back further than the Exodus and the wilderness wandering, for God designated the Sabbath by a threefold miracle connected with supplying manna every week for 40 years.

    In addition, the seventh days coincide in our calendar and in the Jewish calendar, which are entirely independent.

Conclusion

    God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, thus making it the Sabbath. He never did this for any other day, nor did He undo it for the seventh. What God does is for all time, for God does not change.

    It is interesting to note that "sanctified" is the same word used of the cities of refuge, which were publicly proclaimed. Thus Genesis 2:2-3 seems to refer to a public proclamation-practically declaring a law for the Sabbath. Sanctification of the Sabbath occurred at Creation, not at a later time. (to be continued)

reprinted from- www.7thdaybaptistchurch.org

5 Positive Biblical Principles for Keeping the Sabbath
by Dale E Rood

The Bible commands us to "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." The Bible clearly understands the Sabbath to be the seventh day of the week (our modern day Saturday), and that it is to be kept from evening to evening (Friday night to sundown Saturday).

But how is it to be kept today? Let us suggest five positive biblical principles for New Testament Sabbathkeepers.

Principle 1: Keep it holy
Make it special for God
Exodus 20:8
(Deut. 5.12)
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

What am I doing to make this day special for God? To dedicate it to seeking God? What day-to-day chores can be set aside in order to have time for seeking God and the things of God?

Principle 2: Rest on it

Exodus 20.9-11
"Six days you shall 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... For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth... and rested the seventh day."

How do I make Sabbath restful? Do I use it for both physical and spiritual rest? Am I truly refreshed and renewed after Sabbath?

Principle 3: Make it a day of sacred assembly

Leviticus 23.3
"...The seventh day is the Sabbath of rest, a holy convocation."

Do I gather with God's people on the Sabbath? Do I join with God's people in worship on that day?

Principle 4: Make it a delight

Isaiah 58:13-14
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him... then you shall delight yourself in the Lord..."

Is your Sabbath a day of light, a day of joy, a day to really look forward to?

Principle 5: Do good on it

Mark 3:4
"And (Jesus) said to them, 'Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?'"

Is your Sabbath a people day? A day to do good for others? An unselfish day?

First published as a tract by the Dodge Center MN Seventh Day Baptist Church, reprinted from the Sabbath Recorder.

The Sabbath in Early America

by Doug Ward

This article is reprinted from its expanded version, "Our Own Thanksgiving Story", by Doug Ward, as found on the web site for the Association for Christian Development. Their web address is www.godward.org.

The Baptist congregation in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, to which Stephen and Anne Mumford belonged in the early 1660s kept its membership records in code to ensure secrecy. When the Mumfords arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1665, no further secrecy was required. The charter that Baptist leader Dr. John Clarke had secured for the Rhode Island colony in 1663 explicitly guaranteed freedom of worship. The Mumfords could worship openly with the First Baptist Church of Newport, which had been founded under Clarke's direction in 1644.

Two other Newport Baptists, Samuel and Tacy Hubbard, began to keep the seventh day Sabbath in the spring of 1665, and soon the number of Sabbatarians in the group increased to eleven. For a while, their relationship with the rest of the congregation was peaceful, but fellowship became strained in 1669 when four of the eleven changed their minds and started to speak against the Sabbath [5, p. 98]. At this point, the remaining seven were not sure what to do. Should they remain together with the rest of the Newport Baptists, a course of action that was becoming increasingly difficult, or should they form their own separate congregation?

Counsel on this question came to Newport from several sources. Baptist churches in Boston and Providence urged the Newport congregation to stay together. On the other hand, letters to the Mumfords and Hubbards from fellow Sabbatarians in London encouraged them to start a new congregation. One thing that probably increased the tension in Newport was the fact that about ten years before, twenty-one members had left the Newport Baptists in a disagreement over the practice of laying on of hands and other doctrines of Heb. 6:1-2. This incident may have made the congregation wary of other doctrinal differences. In any case, the situation reached a crisis point in 1671 when Obadiah Holmes gave a sermon against the Sabbath, saying it was causing people to leave Christ and go to Moses. On January 3, 1672 (by today's calendar), the Mumfords, Hubbards, William Hiscox, Roger Baster, and Rachel Langworthy signed a covenant to become the Newport Seventh Day Baptist Church.

This first Sabbatarian congregation in America received continuing moral support from the Bell Lane Seventh Day Baptist Church in London, which kept in touch with the Newport group for about twenty years. Stephen Mumford returned to London for a brief visit in 1675, and shortly thereafter, Bell Lane member William Gibson and his family joined the Mumfords in Newport. Gibson would later succeed William Hiscox as pastor of the Newport church.

Under Hiscox and Gibson, the Seventh Day Baptists thrived in Rhode Island. There were thirty-seven members in 1678 and seventy-six by 1692. In 1708, a second congregation was formed in Westerly, Rhode Island. The Westerly Church (later called the First Hopkinton Church) became the leading Seventh Day Baptist congregation in the United States, with 764 members by 1800 [5]. These congregations maintained a good relationship with the Rhode Island Baptists who met on Sunday.

Seventh Day Baptists played a significant role in the history of the American colonies. Especially notable are the descendants of Thomas and Amy Ward (no relation to the author), early members of the Newport congregation. Their son Richard was governor of Rhode Island from 1740-1742, and their grandson Samuel (1725-1776) was governor of Rhode Island in the 1760s and later represented the state in the First and Second Continental Congresses. Samuel Ward, who became a baptized member of the Westerly congregation in 1769, was chairman of the Committee of the Whole of the Continental Congress. Unfortunately, he did not live to be able to sign the Declaration of Independence, dying of smallpox on March 15, 1776. His great-granddaughter Julia Ward Howe later wrote the words of the famous Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Meanwhile, some people in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, two other havens of religious liberty, became Sabbatarians during the colonial period. When the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference was organized in about 1802, it consisted of 1119 members in eight churches in four states. During the nineteenth century, the denomination spread across the United States, and by 1902, there were 9098 members in 100 churches in twenty-three states. Missionary efforts and the discovery of the Sabbath by people in various parts of the world have since resulted in the founding of Seventh Day Baptist congregations in a number of countries. Today the churches in the Seventh Day Baptist World Federation include well over 50,000 members, the vast majority outside of the United States. For over 300 years, the Seventh Day Baptists have provided a living testimony to the fact that Sabbatarianism does not necessarily lead to legalism or exclusivism.

The Seventh Day Baptists are also indirectly responsible for the acceptance of the Sabbath by other groups of Christians. In particular, they helped introduce it to the Adventists of the Millerite movement. In 1841, Rachel Preston Oakes, a Seventh Day Baptist, joined a congregation of Adventists in Washington, New Hampshire, and convinced her pastor, Frederick Wheeler, to accept the Sabbath in 1844. Other Adventists soon adopted the seventh day Sabbath, and two Sabbatarian denominations---the Seventh-day Adventists and the Church of God Seventh Day---soon came out of the Millerite movement. Later, in the 1930s, Herbert W. Armstrong and others associated with the Oregon Conference of the Church of God Seventh Day began the Radio Church of God (later called the Worldwide Church of God), which itself has had a number of Sabbatarian offshoots.

At present, there are well over ten million Sabbatarian Christians in the world, and that number is likely to continue growing in the years ahead. In today's fast-paced world, the value of a weekly appointment with our Creator is greater than ever. And as more and more Christians reclaim the Hebraic roots of their faith, the number who choose to keep that appointment on the biblical seventh day will increase. The courageous Sabbatarians of the seventeenth century would no doubt be glad to know about the ultimate fruits of their efforts. I, for one, am honored to follow in the footsteps of such people of integrity and am very thankful for the freedom to do so openly.

-reprinted from Creative Love Fellowship

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