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of the Lord thy God” (Ex. 20:10). The very word "sabbath” means "cessation,” to cease from labor. And this day was God’s gift to man. Thus it became a perfect type of that rest which we have when we have received salvation in Christ. 3. T o break the Sabbath rest was a ter rible sin under the Mosaic law. On one occasion a man was found who “ gathered sticks upon the sabbath day" (Num. 15:32). And for this infraction of the sab batic law, so trivial in the eyes of men, the lawbreaker was stoned to death. The typical meaning here is very clear. If the picking up of a few sticks on the’Sabbath brought the penalty of death, what shall we say of the man who breaks the Sabbath rest in Christ by thinking to add any works of his own to what Christ has done on the cross? If it was a terrible sin to break the Sabbath which was merely a "shadow,” how much more terrible is it to break the real Sabbath in the Antitype! There is nothing harder to get men to believe than that in Christ all works for salvation must utterly cease. The work is done. Y et we have the sorry spectacle of church leaders still teaching people that they must go on picking up a few miserable sticks. Golden Text Illustration E xodus 20:8 It will be remembered that Captain Phil lip, of the “Texas,” declared, after the Santiago victory, that the side which fired the first shot in a Sunday battle has always been defeated. The fact that Admiral Cervera deliberately selected the hour when the crews of the American ships were at religious service to make his dash out of Santiago harbor on that now historic Sabbath morning, probably had, in the providence of God, more to do with his overthrow than the world at large imagines. As though to disturb the Al mighty at His own devotions, the impious Spaniards, fuddled with wine, rushed forth, as it proved, horribly to die or finally to be captured. And when the sun set that Sabbath, its reproachful beams slanted across the smoking hulks of the fleet of the proud, irreverent Spaniards. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera,” and the stars in their courses fought against Cervera. God is not mocked.— The Bottles of Heaven, by Revilo. When Sunday Comes E xodus 20:8; L uke 13:10-17 Memory Verse: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (E x. 2 0 :8 ). Approach: Now we have come to the fourth commandment which God gave to Moses long ago, and which He wanted the people to remember then, and which He wants us to remember now. Lesson Story: The fourth commandment
these days are that, for those who observe them, both days are to be separate and distinct from other days of the week, and both are .concerned with a people whose ordinary affairs are put aside fpr that special day of worship of the Lord God. III. T he M isuse (Lk. 13:10-17) The rulers of the Jews had placed the Sabbath in the position of the Lord of the Sabbath. But they debased the Sabbath, while professing to honor it, by pleading its sacredness as an excuse for trampling upon human need. In the synagogue on the Sabbath ap peared a woman with an affirmity of eighteen years’ standing (vs. 10, 11). But none of the rulers of the synagogue had ever touched her with the power to give relief. Our Lord came upon the scene and with a touch of the hand and a word of mouth restored her to strength and health (vs. 12, 13). The rulers immediately accused Him of breaking the Sabbath law (v. 14). The callousness and utter in difference to human suffering which marked the rulers is revealed when this ruler said: "There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.” Who can doubt that this woman had been in that synagogue many times other than the Sabbath day, and that no healing hand had ever touched her and no voice of power had ever spoken to her. Our Lord’s condemnation of these men is severe but necessary. They could and would do good to their beasts on the Sabbath days, thus working to preserve their material property (v. 15), but they would not allow the Lord to work to pre serve one of His own children (v. 16). Our Lord was teaching them that He who gave the Sabbath was the Lord of that which He gave. But, hardened and deadened by their own misuse of the Sab bath which they professed to honor, they were deaf to all His instruction (v. 17). Points and Problems The Apostle Paul, writing in one of the passages assigned for study in connection with this week’s lesson, speaks of the Jewish Sabbath as a typical institution: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come" (Col. 2:16, 17). Let us consider in what respect the Sabbath was a "shadow” or type of things to come, remembering that all these Old Testament types find their antitypical goal in the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. "Six days shalt thou labor" is the introduction to the original sabbatical ordi nance (Ex. 2 0 :9 ). W e have here a type of man working for salvation. And the number of days is "six,” which is the number of man, the number of insufficiency, the number which is always short of the divine number of sufficiency and complete ness, seven. When man has done his highest and best, his labors bear forever the number of incompleteness. As long as man remains on the ground of works, he can never rest, for the work is never done. 2. "But the seventh day is the sabbath
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begins: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.” "Sab bath” means “rest,” and that is the first way t h a t G o d wants us to spend every seventh day. God, Himself, rested from His labor of making the universe,
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