Spiritual Badges.

 Creationist - Sabbath.  As you read each of the following verses remember each word of God written here is filled with the creative life that God's word alone contains. There is power in the word of God. Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful…  

These aren't powerless words like those of mankind. 

Exo_31:13  Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

Exo 31:16  Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 

Exo_31:17  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Eze_20:12  Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

Eze_20:20  And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.

Mat_12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

Mat_12:11  And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out?

Mat_12:12  How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days

Mat_24:20  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day

Mar_6:2  And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

Luk_4:16  And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

The Sabbath - forever a memorial - never changed or altered in any way by Jesus except for Him revealing its true meaning- which was that the Sabbath wasn't bound by the many hundreds of rules and regulations imposed upon it by mankind and not God.

The weekly memorial is a day of worship, of renewal in the Spirit, as we set the Sabbath day aside to give glory to our CREATOR, our REDEEMER our GOD. As we purposefully cease from our work, our past times, from self-focus- we are then left to recognize we do so for a purpose. The purpose is the recognition of our powerlessness and God's all powerfulness. The purpose is God's unique ability to create and our inability. The purpose is to choose to be inactive towards self-centered pursuits so that we may ever learn of God centered life.  By ceasing from work we recognize our work unlike God's is something that must cease. We CANNOT work to save ourselves. We recognize this every Sabbath day, our works do not save us, our Creator alone saves us, just as He alone created us. Can YOU work to save yourself in any way? Only by belief, only through the work of faith- a SPIRITUAL comprehension we keep the Sabbath holy. Nothing we work at, nothing we fill our time with that is self-centered will give us any spiritual blessing- it keeps us from receiving the blessing offered.

If you were told that a special blessing was given to you on every Sabbath day, a blessing that held transforming, creating, redeeming power used upon you- not a power given to you to utilize - but a power given to the powerless as only God can give- would you do all you could to honor God on the Sabbath day as He wants us to?   If you were told all you could do was lie in bed all day long except for necessary bodily functions, in order to be given this spiritual transfusion, would you do that? IF the spiritual blessing offered to us were tangible how much more likely would we be to want to get those blessing? A spiritual badge- for your spiritual growth, something to pin to a special spiritual banner to denote the blessings you've received. 

 Is it any wonder we are told to cultivate faith- belief? We need a belief that makes the unseen - seen to our spiritual selves as reality indeed and not just thoughts of invisible uncertainties. The blessings are real though we can't see them as visible, tangible spiritual badges. Salvation is real. God is real. The Spiritual is real.  We lose so much through disbelief, through faithlessness. Without faith- it truly is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. We have to BELIEVE that HE IS.

Heb_11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

We must diligently seek God and we are given a WEEKLY scheduled day where we can be blessed with a special blessing if we but choose to seek after God in truth!

EXCERPT-

Creationist.

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But as certainly as you are an evolutionist, your Sabbath-keeping is a fraud.

Unless you recognize the word of God day by day as a creative energy in your life, your Sabbath-keeping is a fraud, because the Sabbath is a memorial of creation. It is "a sign between me and you, that [by which] ye may know that I am the Lord your God," the Creator of all things.

In the second chapter of Ephesians, eighth to tenth verses, we read, "For by grace are ye saved through faith,  and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."

You need not expect to get any good works out of yourself. 

You have been trying. The evolutionist tries and is always trying without accomplishing it. 

Why go about trying to do good works, when you know you fail?  Listen. There will never be any good thing in you of any kind whatever from now till the world's end, except it is created there by the Creator Himself, by His word, which has in it the creative energy. Do not forget that.

Do you want to walk in good works when you go out of this house? It can be done only by being created in Jesus Christ unto those good works. 

Stop trying. 

Look to the Creator and receive His creative word. "Let the word of God dwell in you richly," then those good works will appear; you will be a Christian. 

Then, because you live with the Creator and are in the presence of the creative energy, you will have that pleasant, quiet peace and genuine strength and building up that belong to a Christian.

When He tells you that "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," then recognize the Creator, recognize only the good works that are created in you, paying no attention whatever to any work that is not crated there, because there is nothing good but what is created by the Lord.

Now you are created new in Christ Jesus. He says so. Thank Him that it is so. What! Will you be an evolutionist on that verse? That is the present tense, "We are his workmanship." We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Are you? The word is spoken. It is the creative word. How much time are you going to allow between that word of God and your being created new? Of the creation in the beginning, you said that any man who allows even a minute to pass between the word and the thing is an evolutionist. What are you now as to this word of God, which creates men in Christ Jesus unto good works? Are you an evolutionist here? Come, let us all be creationists.

Do you not see that in this way it will not require a long, tedious wearing process to be made ready to meet the Lord in glory? So many people are looking at themselves. They know that, in the nature of things it must take them an exceedingly long time to get fully ready to meet Him. If it is done by evolution, it will never be done. But when it is done by creation, it will be both surely and quickly done. That word I have before referred to is the word everyone here may take to himself. "While so many are hovering about the mystery of faith and godliness,  they could solve the matter by proclaiming abroad [by telling it out], 'Jesus Christ is my portion forever.'"

Do you see how much we have been evolutionists? shall we quit? Come now, let us be creationists and be done with it. Let us be Sabbath-keepers truly. Let us believe the Lord. He speaks forgiveness. He speaks a clean heart.  He speaks holiness; He creates it. Let Him create it in you. Stop being an evolutionist and let that creative word work for you, let that creative energy work in you, that which the word pronounces, and before you leave this house, God can get you ready to meet Him. Indeed, in that very thing you do meet Him. And when you have thus met Him and do thus meet Him every day, are you not then ready to meet Him? Do you believe that? You believe He made the worlds when He spoke, that light came by His word when He spoke, and that the leper was "immediately" cleansed when he spoke, but with yourself you think considerable time must elapse between the time when the word is spoken and the fact is accomplished. O, why will you be an evolutionist? Creation,  creation--that is the thing.

You and I are to call people to the supper; we are to say to all people, "Come, for all things are now ready." How can I call to a man that all things are now ready, when I myself am not ready? It is a falsehood to start with. My words will not reach him. They are but an empty sound. But O, when there is in that call the creative energy of the word that has made us ready, that has cleansed us from sin, that has created us unto good works, that holds us as the sun is held in the course which God has marked out--then when we go forth and say to the world lying in wickedness, "Come, for all things are now ready," they will hear. They will hear in the call the tones of the voice of the Good Shepherd, and will be cheered to come to Him for creative energy for themselves, to make them new creatures and prepare them for the supper to which they have been called.

This is where we are in this world's history. God's mark is being set upon the people. But remember, He will never set His mark upon one who is not cleansed from every defilement. God will not set His seal to something that is not true, that is not good. Would you ask Him to set His seal to righteousness that is altogether unrighteousness? You would not have the face to do that. You know that He is too righteous to do such a thing.  Then He must cleanse you so that He can put His seal to His own work. He cannot put His seal to your work. His seal belongs only to a document which He Himself has approved. Let Him write His character upon your heart and then He can set His seal there. He can write His seal of approval upon your heart, only when His creative word has accomplished its purpose in your heart.

You can see in what a Presence we are; you can see in a measure how long it would take half to exhaust such a subject as this. But, brethren, when we do stop, let us stop in the presence of creation. Let us be no more evolutionists. Let not a moment pass between the word of God spoken to you and the accomplishment of the thing in you. Thus, living in the presence of creation, walking with the Creator, upheld by creative power,  inspired by the creative energy--why, with a people such as that, God can move the world in a little while.

If at the beginning you thought this was a queer subject for such an occasion as today [it was the closing service of the week of prayer] you can now see that it is a strictly present truth. There are only the two ways.  There is no halfway ground. Every man and woman in the world is either a creationist or an evolutionist.  Evolution is infidelity; it is death. Creation is Christianity; it is life. Choose Creation, Christianity, and Life, that you may live. Let us be creationists only and creationists forever. And let all the people say, Amen.

Excerpt- A.T. Jones February 21, 1899