You Will Not Be Guiltless By Allowing Deception.

Continued …

The New Testament, those who wish to violate it for some worldly object, pride, or the fear of man, will not be guiltless.

 God will not be trifled with. His word will not return unto him void. Jehovah said of Jesus : " This is my beloved Son : hear him." Mark 9 : 7. If all would hear Jesus, and teach as he taught, they would not make such work with the law of God as they now do. Here we will listen, and learn of the meek and lowly Jesus.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law." What law ? Ans. " Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least COMMANDMENTS," etc. See Matt. 5. 17-19. Jesus then quotes the sixth, seventh, and third commandments from the decalogue, in the 21st, 27th, and 33d verses of this same chapter, which forever settles the fact that the law, not to be destroyed at his first advent, was the ten commandments.

To abolish a law is to destroy it. We know that Jesus did destroy, or abolish the hand-writing of ordinances in Moses' law; but we have this plain, and positive declaration that he did not come to destroy the law of commandments, at his first advent. This is worth more to me, than all the assertions of men to the contrary. I am bound to " hear," and believe Jesus. " For verily I say unto you, 'TILL HEAVEN AND EARTH PASS, ONE JOT OR ONE TITTLE shall in NO WISE pass from the law."

If the Sabbath was relaxed, and passed from the law at the first advent, then certainly, heaven and earth then passed away ! Such a view, no doubt would suit spiritualists ; but not those who are still waiting for Christ to come, and make all things new. Jesus has here forever settled the question to the satisfaction of all candid minds, that will carefully investigate this subject, that the ten commandments are all to remain in full force, not one changed, or relaxed, until heaven and earth pass away at the close of time.

Those that understandingly reject the Sabbath, with such testimony as this from Jesus, -whom they are commanded, to,  " hear," before them, would not be ready to love, and observe God's sanctified day, if the Almighty should speak from heaven, and tell them to keep it, and shake the old earth as he did Mount Sinai.

" For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one, [point here is a supplied word,] he is guilty of all. " For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also, do not kill." James 2 : 10, 11. James here quotes two laws from the decalogue, which proves that he was speaking of the law of commandments.

The ten commandments are principles of goodness, justice, and holiness. Their essence is love. The first four, teach us love to God, and the last six, love to our neighbor; "therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Rom. 13 :10. "For this is the love of God that ye keep his commandments:" 1 John 5: 3. "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the Scriptures, (the decalogue, Ex.20 : 3-17,) Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." James 2 : 8

The Apostle James has enforced the Sabbath, and guarded the waiting brethren scattered abroad, against the view that we are at liberty to take the Sabbath from the royal law, by showing us that if we offend in one commandment we are guilty of all. The language is positive and plain, and all may see the truth if they wish to. "

Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you; but an old commandment which ye had from the BEGINNING: The OLD commandment is the WORD WHICH YE HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING." 1 John 2 : 7.

The only commandment which came from the beginning is the Sabbath. The word from the beginning is this ; " 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." Gen. 2 : 3. " Again, a new commandment I write unto you," etc. See verse 8th. Here John makes the distinction between the old commandment from the beginning, which is the Sabbath, and the new commandment, given by Jesus to the Church, to love one another. "I rejoiced greatly, that I found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the Father." 2 John 1:4. This commandment from the Father, which we had from the beginning, must of necessity be the Sabbath, for the reason that none of the Father's commandments except the Sabbath were given at the beginning. "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a LIAR, and the truth is not in him." 1 .John 2:

As the commandments of God mean the ten, which he wrote with his own finger on stones, and nothing more, nor less than the ten ; and as Christ positively declared that not one jot or one tittle, should pass from this law of commandments while heaven and earth remain : and as the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ have taught and enforced the commandments of the Eternal Jehovah, and have not written one text, no, not one word, in all their epistles from which we can reasonably infer that the Sabbath law is relaxed and destroyed, we are abundantly furnished with proof positive, that the Sabbath is taught and enforced in the New Testament. If the Sabbath-breaker should be asked in the judgment, what excuse he had to make for breaking the Sabbath, he would not dare, while standing before- the great white throne, to say that he broke it because the fourth commandment was not separately enforced in the New Testament. Such an excuse may ease the conscience now, for a few days ; but the time is not far distant, when those who are teaching men that they may break the fourth commandment, and be guiltless, will see and feel the force of this tremendous truth, that Christ and his holy Apostles when enforcing, and making the strict observance of the commandments, a test of Christian fellowship, and Eternal Salvation, mean the COMMANDMENTS OF GOD, and not NINE of them.

To be continued….

*******

Taken from-

THE PRESENT TRUTH, 

PUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY—BY JAMES WHITE.

Vol. 1.  MIDDLETOWN, CONN. AUGUST, 1849.  No.3

*******

We are now studying - 'The Present Truth' papers published in the middle 1800's. These are called the 'Present Truth' because it WAS Present Truth for that time. So why study them now? Because TRUTH at any time is worth studying, and we KNOW that often ORIGINAL truth presented before Satan has had an opportunity to corrupt it, can be very enlightening. At the very least we will see, by the grace of God, through the Holy Spirit, what truth then is still uncorrupted today and still very relevant for us living in these dark, dark times. Our world today compared to a hundred and seventy years ago is so much worse than it was, with so much evil being called good, and good being called evil.  May God bless us as we seek HIS truth for us in our present, bringing us only closer to Him and prayerfully the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!