The Sign of God’s People
The Sign of God's People
Ellen G. White - November 22, 1899
The enemy has worked in the
religious world to deceive men into the belief that the law of God can be set
aside. He has had long years of experience in this work, for he began with our
first parents, using his powers to cause them to distrust God. If he could
interpose himself between their souls and God, he knew that he would succeed.
The prospect of becoming gods, knowing good and evil, was pleasing to Adam and
Eve, and they yielded to the temptation. In receiving a knowledge of good and
evil, men feel that they are gaining much; but they do not understand the
purposes of Satan. They do not understand that they are taken in his snare when
they tamper with the law of God. The enemy knows that if the church can be
controlled by political enactments, if she can be led to unite with the world,
she virtually acknowledges him as her head. Then the authority of man-made
commandments will work to oppose the rule of the government of heaven. Under
the leadership of Satan men will dispense with the righteous, holy enactments
of God concerning the Sabbath, the observance of which is to be a sign between
God and His people forever. {ST, November 22, 1899 par. 1}
Satan's plan has taken with the
religious world. He has created an order of things entirely his own, making
void the law of God. Through his deceptive working he has gained in the
professedly Christian world that which he thought to gain in heaven,-- an
abrogation of the laws of Jehovah. Through the Roman power he has worked to
remove God's memorial, and has erected a memorial of his own to sever God from
His people. Today the Protestant world is estranged from God by its acceptance
of a spurious sabbath. Not one iota of sacred authority can they find for doing
this; yet, full of zeal, they assert that the Lord's memorial given at creation
should be ignored, despised, trampled upon, and the first day of the week take
its place. {ST, November 22, 1899 par. 2}
No deeper wound could be
inflicted on God than to ignore His holy day, and place in its stead a spurious
sabbath that bears no mark of sanctity. God gave the Sabbath to the world to be
set apart for His name's glory. He says: "It is a sign between Me and you throughout
your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. .
. . Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their
generations, for a perpetual covenant." {ST, November 22, 1899 par.
3}
And who are Israel? The Holy
Spirit by the apostle Paul declares, "If ye be Christ's, then are ye
Abraham's seed." Upon all who through Christ become a part of the true
Israel, the observance of the Sabbath is enjoined. {ST, November 22, 1899
par. 4}
Those who disregard a plain
"Thus saith the Lord," are casting off their allegiance to God, and
exalting human power in His stead. By thus placing themselves in opposition to
the God of heaven, men are failing to receive the mark, or sign, by which the
people of the world are to know God's true followers. There is no justification
for those who, having the light, close their eyes and their ears to a plain
"Thus saith the Lord." They have taken up the weapons of their
warfare against God, and their guilt is made manifest. {ST, November 22,
1899 par. 5}
God calls His people to a
special work for these last days. "They that shall be of thee shall build
the old waste places," He says; "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." What is this breach?--It is the broken
Sabbath of the Lord. "If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath,"
He continues, "from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the
Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not
doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own
words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to
ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of
Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." But there
must be no assumption of power on the part of God's chosen people. Those who
take their orders from Christ must not seek to compel others to obey the law of
Jehovah. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; 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." {ST, November 22, 1899 par. 6}
Even Christ, as the Prince of
Life, did not seize the scepter of power and enforce His laws of righteousness.
Patiently has He waited in the heavenly courts in behalf of His people who have
suffered for their loyalty to Him. Patiently has He waited for the Gospel of
the kingdom to be preached in all parts of the world, until every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people shall have received the light of God's Word. And man,
too, must wait patiently until the time when the work shall be accomplished,
and every human being has had opportunity to decide for himself. Decisions will
be made for and against God; and every man will decide his own case by his
decision in regard to the law of Jehovah. Then both classes will be developed;
the sentiment of every heart will be revealed. Each party will gather under its
chosen leader, as loyal to God and His commandments, or as transgressors of the
law, with the first great rebel at its head. {ST, November 22, 1899 par.
7}
God declares: "Israel shall
keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a
perpetual covenant." "It is a sign between Me and you throughout your
generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you."
We are not merely to observe the Sabbath as a legal matter; we are to be
intelligent in regard to its spiritual bearing upon all the transactions of
life. {ST, November 22, 1899 par. 8}
Christ's prayer to His Father
for His disciples was, "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is
truth." The sign of God is sanctification through obedience to the truth.
This sanctification makes the loyal subject like his great Head, Jesus Christ.
He is brought into peculiar and eternal relations to the Saviour on condition
that he maintains his allegiance to the end. When we are thus sanctified, we
shall not have a spurious faith, a spurious doctrine, a spurious experience. In
coming out from the world and accepting the Sabbath of creation, which God has
blessed and sanctified, we give evidence of true conversion. We are stamped
with the mark of God's government. As we accept the Sabbath to keep it holy
unto the Lord, we are sanctified, soul, body, and spirit. {ST, November
22, 1899 par. 9}
All who earnestly desire to know
whether they have the King's mark will examine His Word critically. A spurious
sabbath is now exalted before the people. This is the mark, the sign, of a
ruler who stands in opposition to the King of kings, the Lord of hosts. This
ruler has sought to show his power and authority by taking a common working
day, a child of the Papacy, and giving it to the world as the Sabbath of the
Lord. He has sought to destroy the sign which God has said should be preserved
to a thousand generations. {ST, November 22, 1899 par. 10}
The observance of the Sabbath,
the seventh day by God's people, is the sign to the world that they are linked
to the God of heaven as His loyal subjects, who trust in His everlasting
veracity and His power as the Creator of the heavens and the earth; and it is
the sign that God recognizes them as His chosen people. Those who understand
that the Sabbath is a sign between them and God will represent the principles
of His government by bringing into their daily practise the laws of His
kingdom. They will live in constant submission to His will, having the words of
His law written in their hearts. His injunctions will be regarded as the spring
of their existence. Faithful and true, they will heed every command given, and
reveal in their daily lives the religion that emanates from God.
Mrs. E. G. White. {ST,
November 22, 1899 par. 11}
Romans 6:16
16 Know you not,
that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to
whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
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