Lay Hold on the Sign

Beloved family, hear this with an open heart.

The Sabbath is the first instruction given from God for holiness. It is the beginning of our righteousness, and the sign we are commanded to lay hold of while we await His salvation and His righteousness.

Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

Isaiah 56:1-2 · KJV

Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

Hosea 12:6 · KJV

It is a perpetual covenant, and the sign of sanctification, that we may know that the Lord doth sanctify us.

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.

Exodus 31:13 · KJV

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever.

Exodus 31:16-17 · KJV

Stay in place and be still

Keep the Sabbath day holy by staying in place and being still on the seventh day, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

Exodus 16:29 · KJV

Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.

Exodus 35:3 · KJV

Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still. Selah.

Psalm 4:4 · KJV

Six reminders from Galatians

These six reminders are established in the sign of sanctification.

First. Do not live for the approval of others.

For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10 · KJV

The Sabbath is not subject to the customs of men. Uphold the first instruction of holiness, whether it is popular or not.

Second. You are not defined by your past.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 · KJV

Former neglect of His holy day does not define you. The old life is crucified. Christ now lives in you to walk in His statutes.

Third. Your worth is in Christ, not in your labor or learning.

For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Galatians 3:27 · KJV

You have put on Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath. Your identity is that you have been sanctified by the Lord, whose sign you bear. Worldly standing cannot confer holiness. The Sabbath does.

Fourth. Heirs of God.

Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Galatians 4:7 · KJV

You are no longer a slave to sin, but now a servant of righteousness unto holiness.

Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

Romans 6:18-19 · KJV

Fifth. Be led by the Spirit.

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Galatians 5:25 · KJV

And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

Ezekiel 36:27 · KJV

Sixth. Do not grow weary in well doing.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:9 · KJV

Do the commandments and keep the laws, for they are holy, and just, and good. The law is spiritual.

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Romans 7:12, 14 · KJV

When the time is right, you will reap what you have sown, if you have laid hold of the Sabbath and not polluted it.

Establish and uphold this sign. Stay in place on the seventh day. Be still.

The Lord who sanctifies you has given you the seventh day as the beginning of righteousness, and the token by which you wait for His salvation.

Shabbat Shalom.

Immanuel Nwobu