Jesus Christ Immutable
A sermon
(No. 848)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, JANUARY 3, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever."- Hebrews 13:8.
FOR a very considerable number of years an esteemed and venerable vicar
of a Surrey parish has sent me at the New Year a generous testimony of
his love and an acknowledgment of the pleasure which he derives from
the weekly reading of my sermons. Enclosed in the parcel which his
kindness awards to me is a text from which he hopes that I may preach
on the first Sunday morning of the New Year. This year he sends me this
golden line, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever."
I have preached from it before–you will find a sermon from this text
in print. But we need not be at all afraid of preaching from the same
text twice. The Word is inexhaustible–it may be trod in the winepress
many times and yet run with generous wine. We ought not to hesitate to
preach a second time from a passage any more than anyone going to the
village well would be ashamed to put down the same bucket twice, or
feel at all aggrieved at sailing twice down the same river! There is
always a freshness about Gospel Truth, and though the matter may be the
same, there are ways of putting it in fresh light so as to bring new
joy to those who meditate upon it.
Moreover, what if we should repeat our teachings concerning Christ?
What if we should hear over and over again the same things "touching
the King"? We can afford to hear them! Repetitions concerning Jesus are
better than varieties upon any other subject. As a French monarch
declared that he would sooner hear the repetitions of Bourdaloue than
the novelties of another, so we may declare concerning our Lord Jesus,
we would sooner hear again and again the precious truths which glorify
Him than listen to the most eloquent orations upon any other theme in
all the world!
There are a few works of art and wonders of creation which you might
gaze upon every day in your life and yet not weary of them. A great
architect tells us there are but few buildings of this kind, but he
instances Westminster Abbey as one–and everyone knows, who has ever
looked upon the sea, or upon the Falls of Niagara–that look as often
as you may, though you see precisely the same object, yet there are new
tints, new motions of the waves and new flashes of the light which
forbid the least approach of monotony and give to the assembling of the
waters an ever-enduring charm.
Even thus is it with that sea of all delights which is found in the
dear Lover of our souls. We come, then, to the old subject of this old
text and may the blessed Spirit give us new unction while we meditate
upon it. Note, first, our Lord's personal name, Jesus Christ. Notice,
secondly, His memorable attribute–"He is the same yesterday and today
and forever.''" And then let us have a few words about His evident
claims derived from the possession of such a Character.
I. First, then, the personal names of our Lord here mentioned–"JESUS
CHRIST." "JESUS" stands first. That is our Lord's Hebrew name, "Jesus,"
or, "Joshua." The word signifies, a Savior, "for He shall save His
people from their sins." It was given to Him in His cradle–
"Cold on His cradle the dewdrops are shining, Low lies His head with
the beasts of the stall. Angels adore Him, in slumber reclining, Maker
and Monarch and Savior of all." While He was yet an Infant hanging on
His mother's breast, He was recognized as Savior, for the fact of God's
becoming Incarnate was the sure pledge, guarantee and commencement of
human salvation. At the very thought of His birth the virgin sang, "My
spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." There is hope that man shall be
lifted up to God, when God condescends to come down to man! Jesus in
the manger deserves to be called the Savior, for when it can be said
that, "the tabernacle of God is with men and He does dwell among them,"
there is hope that all good things will be given to the fallen race.
He was called Jesus, in His childhood–"The Holy Child Jesus." It was
as Jesus that He went up with His parents to the Temple and sat down
with the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. Yes, and
Jesus as a Teacher in the very first principles of His doctrine is a
Savior–emancipating the minds of men from superstition, setting them
loose from the traditions of the fathers–scattering, even, with His
Infant hand the seeds of Truth, the elements of a glorious liberty
which shall emancipate the human mind from the iron bondage of false
philosophy and priestcraft.
He was Jesus, too, and is commonly called so both by His foes and by
His friends in His active life. It is as Jesus the Savior that He heals
the sick, that He raises the dead, that He delivers Peter from sinking,
that He rescues from shipwreck the ship tossed upon the Galilean lake.
In all the teachings of His middle life, in those laborious three years
of diligent service, both in His public ministry and in His private
prayer, He is still Jesus the Savior. By His active, as well as by His
passive obedience, we are saved.
All through His earthly sojourn He made it clear that the Son of Man
had come to seek and to save that which was lost. If His blood redeems
us from the guilt of sin, His life shows us how to overcome its power.
If by His death upon the tree He crushes Satan for us, by His life of
holiness He teaches us how to break the dragon's head within us. He is
the Savior as a Babe, the Savior as a Child, the Savior as the toiling,
laboring, tempted Man.
But He comes out most clearly as Jesus when dying on the Cross–named
so in a writing of which the author said, "What I have written, I have
written," for over the head of the dying Savior you read, "Jesus of
Nazareth, the King of the Jews." There pre-eminently was He the Savior,
being made a curse for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. After beholding the dying agonies of his Master, the
beloved Apostle said, "We have seen and do testify that the Father sent
the Son to be the Savior of the world."
On Calvary was it seen that the Son of Man saved others, though,
through blessed incapacity of love, "Himself He could not save." When
He was made to feel the wrath of God on account of sin, and pangs
unknown were suffered by Him as our Substitute–when He was made to
pass through the thick darkness and burning heat of Divine wrath–then
was He, according to Scripture, "the Savior of all men, specially of
those that believe." Yes, it is on the tree that Christ is peculiarly a
Savior. If He were nothing better than our Exemplar, alas for us! We
might be grateful for the example if we could imitate it, but without
the pardon which spares us and the Divine Grace which gives us power
for holiness, the brightest example were a tantalizing of our grief!
To be shown what we ought to be, without having any method set before
us by which we could attain to it were to mock our misery! But Jesus
first draws us up out of the horrible pit into which we were fallen,
takes us out of the miry clay by the efficacy of His atoning Sacrifice
and then, having set our feet upon a rock by virtue of His merits, He
Himself leads the way onward to perfection! And so is He Savior both in
life and in death–
"That JESUS saves from sin and Hell, Is truth Divinely sure. And on
this Rock our faith may rest Immovably secure.'
Still bearing the name of Jesus, our Lord rose from the dead. The
Evangelists delight in calling Him Jesus–in His appearance to
Magdalene in the garden–in His manifestation of Himself to the
disciples when they were together, the doors being shut. He is always
Jesus with them as the risen One. Beloved, since we are justified by
His Resurrection, we may well regard Him as Savior under that aspect.
Salvation is still more linked with a risen Christ, because we see Him,
by His Resurrection, destroying death, breaking down the prison of the
sepulcher, bearing away like another Samson the gates of the grave. He
is a Savior for us since He has vanquished the last enemy that shall be
destroyed, that we, having been saved from sin by His death should be
saved from death through His Resurrection.
Jesus is the title under which He is called in Glory, for, "Him has God
exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give
repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins." He is today, "the Savior
of the body." We adore Him as the only-wise God and our Savior. "He is
able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them." As Jesus He shall
shortly come and we are, "Looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." Our
daily cry is, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus." Yes and this is the name,
the name, "Jesus," by which He is known in Heaven at this hour.
Thus the angel spoke of Him before He was conceived by the virgin! Thus
the angels serve Him and do His bidding, for He said to John in Patmos,
"I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify these things." The angels
prophesied His coming
under that sacred name. They came to those who stood looking up into
Heaven and they said, "You men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into
Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall
so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven."
Under this name the devils fear Him, for didn't they say, "Jesus we
know and Paul we know, but who are you?" This is the spell that binds
the hearts of cherubim in chains of love and this is the Word that
makes the hosts of Hell to tremble and to shrink back in fear! This
name is the joy of the Church on earth! It is the joy of the Church
above! It is a common Word, a household name for our dear Redeemer
among the family of God below! And up there they still sing it–
"Jesus, the Lord, their harps employ– 'Jesus, my Love,' they sing!
Jesus, the life of both our joys, Sounds sweet from every string."
That man of God, Mr. Henry Craik, of Bristol, who, much to our regret,
was lately called away to his rest, tells us in his little work upon
the study of the Hebrew tongue, as an instance of how much may be
gathered from a single Hebrew word, that the name Jesus is particularly
rich and suggestive to the mind of the Hebrew scholar. It comes from a
root signifying amplitude, spaciousness. And then it comes to mean
setting at large, setting free, delivering–and so comes to its common
use among us, namely, that of Savior.
But there are two words in the name Jesus. The one is a contraction of
the word "Jehovah," the other is the word which I have just now
explained to you as ultimately coming to mean "salvation." Taken apart,
the word Jesus means JEHOVAH-SALVATION. You have the glorious Essence
and Nature of Christ revealed to you as Jehovah, "I Am that I Am." And
then you have in the second part of His name His great work for you in
setting you at large and delivering you from all distress.
Think, beloved fellow Christian, of the amplitude, the spaciousness,
the breadth, the abundance, the boundless all-sufficiency laid up in
the Person of the Lord Jesus! "It pleased the Father that in Him should
all fullness dwell." You have no contracted Christ, you have no narrow
Savior! Oh, the infinity of His love, the abundance of His Grace, the
exceedingly greatness of the riches of His love towards us! There are
no words in any language that can bring out, sufficiently, the
unlimited, the infinite extent of the riches of the glory of Christ
Jesus our Lord! The word which lies at the root of this name "Jesus,"
or, "Joshua," has sometimes the meaning of riches–and who can tell
what a wealth of Divine Grace and glory are laid up in our Immanuel?
Mr. Craik tells us that another form of the same word signifies "a
cry." "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God." Thus
salvation, riches and a cry are all derived from the same root and all
find their answer in our Joshua or Christ. When His people cry out of
their prisons, then He comes and sets them free–He comes with all the
amplitude and wealth of His eternal Grace–all the plenitude of His
overflowing power! And delivering them from every form of bondage, He
gives them to enjoy the riches of the Glory treasured up in Himself! If
this interpretation should make the name of Jesus one particle more
dear to you, I am sure I shall be exceedingly rejoiced.
What do you think–if there is so much stored up in the one single
name, what must be laid up in Himself! And if we can honestly say that
it would be difficult to give the full bearing of this one Hebrew name
which belongs to Christ, how much more difficult will it be to give the
full bearing of all His Character? If His bare name is such a mine of
excellence, what must His Person be? If this, which is but a part of
His garment, does so smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia, O what must
His blessed Person be but a bundle of myrrh which shall lie forever
between our breasts, to be the perfume of our life and the delight of
our soul?–
"Precious is the name of Jesus,
Who can half its worth unfold? Far beyond angelic praises, Sweetly sung
to harps of gold. Precious when to Calvary groaning, He sustained the
cursed tree. Precious when His death atoning, Made an end of sin for
me. Precious when the bloody scourges
Caused the sacred drops to roll. Precious when of wrath the surges
Overwhelmed His holy Soul. Precious in His death victorious, He, the
host of Hell overthrows. In His Resurrection glorious, Victor cro wned
o 'er all His foes. Precious, Lord! Beyond expressing, Are Your
beauties all Divine! Glory, honor, power and blessing, Be henceforth
forever Yours!
Thus much have we spoken upon the Hebrew name. Now reverently consider
the second title–Christ. That is a Greek name, a Gentile
name–Anointed. So that you see you have the Hebrew Joshua, Jesus, then
the Greek Christos, Christ. And so that we may see that no longer is
there either Jew or Gentile, but all are one in Jesus Christ. The word
Christ, as you all know, signifies anointed and as such our Lord is
sometimes called, "the Christ," "the very Christ." At other times, "the
Lord's Christ," and sometimes, "the Christ of God." He is the Lord's
Anointed, our King and our
Shield.
This word, "Christ," teaches us three great Truths of God. First, it
indicates His offices. He exercises offices in which anointing is
necessary and these are three–the office of the King, of the Priest
and of the Prophet. He is King in Zion, anointed with the oil of
gladness above His fellows, even as it was said of old, "I have found
David My servant; with My holy oil have I anointed him: with whom My
hand shall be established: My arm also shall strengthen him. I will set
his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers. Also I will
make him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the
earth."
Saul, the first king of Israel, was anointed with but a vial of
oil–David, with a horn of oil–as if to signify the greater plenitude
of his power and excellence of his kingdom. But as for our Lord Jesus
Christ, He has received the Spirit of anointing without any measure–He
is the Lord's Anointed, for whom an unquenchable lamp is ordained.
"There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for
My Anointed." Beloved, as we think of that name, Christ, let us
reverently yield our souls up to Him whom God has anointed to be King.
Let us stand up for His rights over His Church, for He is King of Zion
and none have a right to rule there but under and in subjection to the
great Head over all, who in all things shall have the pre-eminence! Let
us stand up for His rights within our own hearts, seeking to thrust out
all rival objects, desirous to keep our souls chaste for Christ and to
make every member of our body, though it may have surrendered itself
before unto sin, to become subservient to the anointed King who has a
right to rule over it.
Next, the Lord Christ is Priest. Priests were anointed. They were not
to undertake this office of themselves nor without passing through the
ceremony which set them apart. Jesus Christ our Lord has Divine Grace
given to Him that no priest ever had. Their outward anointing was but
symbolic–His was the true and the real! He has received that which
their oil did but set forth in type and shadow. He has the real
anointing from the Most High. Beloved, let us always look at Christ as
the anointed Priest. My Soul, you can never come to God except through
the only ever-living and truly anointed High Priest of our profession!
O never for a moment seek to come without Him, nor through any
pretender who may call himself a priest!
High Priest of the house of God, we see You thus ordained and we give
our cause into Your hands. Offer our sacrifices for us! Present our
prayers! Take our praises and put them into the golden censer and offer
them before Your Father's Throne. Rejoice, my Brethren, every time you
hear the name Christ, that He who wears it is anointed to be Priest! So
with regard to the prophetic office. We find Elisha anointed to
prophesy and so is Jesus Christ the Prophet anointed among His people.
Peter spoke to Cornelius of, "how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good and healing
all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him."
He was anointed to preach the glad tidings and to sit as Master in
Israel. We hold no man's teaching to be authoritative among us but the
testimony of the Christ. The teaching of the Lord's Christ is our creed
and nothing else. I thank God that in this Church we have not to divide
our allegiance between some venerable set of articles and the teaching
of our Lord. One is our Master! We declare no right of any man to bind
another's conscience, even though they
are great in piety and deep in learning! Augustine and Calvin, whose
names we honor–for God honored them– they still have no dominance
over private judgment in regard to the people of God. Jesus Christ is
the Prophet of Christendom! His Words must always be the first and the
last appeal!
This, then, is the meaning of the word "Christos." He is anointed as
King, Priest and Prophet. But it means more than that. The name Christ
declares His right to those offices. He is not King because He sets
Himself up as such. God has set Him as King upon His holy hill of Zion
and anointed Him to rule. He is also Priest, but He has not taken the
priesthood upon Himself, for He is the Propitiation whom God has set
forth for human sin. He is the Mediator whom the Lord God has appointed
and set to be the only Mediator between God and man. And as for His
prophesying He speaks not of Himself–those things which He has learnt
of the Father, He has revealed unto us. He comes not as a Prophet who
assumes office, but God has anointed Him to preach glad tidings to the
poor and to come among His people with the welcome news of eternal
love.
Moreover, this anointing signifies a third thing, that as He has the
office, and as it is His by right, so He has the qualifications for the
work. He is anointed to be King. God has given Him royal power and
wisdom and government. He has made Him fit to rule in the Church and to
reign over the world. No better king than Christ! None so majestic as
He who wore the crown of thorns, but who shall put upon His head the
crown of universal monarchy! He has the qualifications for a priest,
too, such qualifications as even Melchisedec had not–such as cannot be
found in all the house of Aaron–in all its length of pedigree. Blessed
Son of God, perfect in Yourself, and needing not a sacrifice for Your
own sake, You have presented unto God an offering which has perfected
forever those whom You have set apart. And now, needing not to make a
further offering, You have forever put away sin!
And so is it with our Lord's prophesying–He has the power to teach.
"Grace is poured into Your lips: therefore God has blessed You
forever." All the words of Christ are Wisdom and Truth. The substance
of true philosophy and certain knowledge are to be found in Him who is
the wisdom and the power of God. Oh, that word, "Christ!" It seems to
grow upon us as we think it over–it shows us the offices of
Christ–His right to those offices and His qualifications for them–
"Christ, to You our spirits bow! Prophet, Priest and King are You!
Christ, anointed of the Lord, Evermore be You adored.'
Now, put the two titles together and ring out the harmony of the two
melodious notes–Jesus Christ, Savior-Anointed. Oh, how blessed! Can
you see that our Beloved is a Savior duly appointed, a Savior
abundantly qualified? My Soul, if God appoints Christ a Savior of
sinners, why do you raise a question? God set Him forth as a sinner's
Savior. Come, then, you sinners, take Him, accept Him and rest in Him!
Oh, how foolish we are when we begin raising questions, quibbles and
difficulties! God declares that Christ is a Savior to all who trust in
Him! My poor heart trusts Him–she has peace! But why do some of you
imagine that He cannot save you? Why do you ask, "How can it be that
this Man shall save me?" God has appointed Him! Take Him! Rest in Him!
Moreover, God has qualified Him, given Him the anointing of a Savior.
What? Do you think God has not girded Him with power enough, or
furnished Him with enough of merit with which to save such as you are?
Will you limit what God has done? Will you think that His anointing is
imperfect and cannot qualify Jesus to meet your case? O do not so
slander the Grace of Heaven! Do not do such despite to the Wisdom of
the Lord! Honor the Savior of God's anointing by coming now, just as
you are, and put your trust in Him!
II. We shall now examine the second point, HIS MEMORABLE ATTRIBUTES. He
is said to be the same. Now,
Jesus Christ has not been the same in condition at all times, for He
was once adored of angels but afterwards spit upon by men! He exchanged
the supernal splendors of His Father's court for the poverty of the
earth, the degradation of death and the humiliation of the grave.
Jesus Christ is not and will not be always the same as to occupation.
Once He came to seek and to save that which was lost, but we very truly
sing, "The Lord shall come, but not the same as once in lowliness He
came." He shall come with a very different objective–He shall come to
scatter His enemies and break them as with a rod of iron! We are not to
take the expression then, "the same," in the most unlimited sense
conceivable. Looking at the Greek, one notices that it might be read
thus, "Jesus Christ Himself yesterday and today and forever."
The anointed Savior is always Himself. He is always Jesus Christ–and
the word, "same," seems to me to bear the most intimate relation to the
two titles of the text. It does as good as say that Jesus Christ is
always Jesus Christ, yesterday, and today and forever. Jesus Christ is
always Himself. At any rate, if that is not the correct translation, it
is a very correct and blessed sentence! It is sweetly true that Jesus
Christ is always Himself. Immutability is ascribed to Christ and we
remark that He was evermore to His people what He now is, for He was
the same yesterday.
Distinctions have been drawn by certain exceedingly wise men (measured
by their own estimate of themselves), between the people of God who
lived before the coming of Christ and those who lived afterwards. We
have even heard it asserted that those who lived before the coming of
Christ do not belong to the Church of God! We never know what we shall
hear next, and perhaps it is a mercy that these absurdities are
revealed one at a time in order that we may be able to endure their
stupidity without dying of amazement!
Why, every child of God in every place stands on the same footing! The
Lord has not some children best beloved, some second-rate offspring and
others whom He hardly cares about. These who saw Christ's day before it
came had a great difference as to what they knew and, perhaps, in the
same measure a difference as to what they enjoyed while on earth in
meditating upon Christ. But they were all washed in the same blood, all
redeemed with the same ransom price and made members of the same body!
Israel in the Covenant of Grace is not natural Israel, but all
Believers in all ages. Before the first Advent, all the types and
shadows all pointed one way–they pointed to Christ–and to Him all the
saints looked with hope. Those who lived before Christ were not saved
with a different salvation to that which shall come to us! They
exercised faith as we must. That faith struggled as ours struggles and
that faith obtained its reward as ours shall. As like as a man's face
to that which he sees in a glass is the spiritual life of David to the
spiritual life of the Believer now. Take the book of Psalms in your
hand and forgetting, for an instant, that you have the representation
of the life of one of the olden time, you might suppose that David
wrote but yesterday.
Even in what he writes of Christ, he seems as though he lived after
Christ instead of before and both in what he sees of himself and in
what he sees of his Savior, he appears to be rather a Christian writer
than a Jew. I mean that living before Christ he has the same hopes and
the same fears, the same joys and the same sorrows–there is the same
estimate of his blessed Redeemer which you and I have in these times.
Jesus was the same yesterday as an anointed Savior to His people as He
is today and they under Him received like precious gifts.
If the goodly fellowship of the Prophets could be here today, they
would all testify to you that He was the same in every office in their
times as He is in these, our days. Jesus Christ is the same now as He
was in times gone by, for the text says, "The same yesterday and
today." He is the same today as He was from old eternity. Before all
worlds He planned our salvation. He entered into Covenant with His
Father to undertake it. His delights were with the sons of men in
prospect and now, today, He is as steadfast to that Covenant as ever.
He will not lose those who were then given to Him, nor will He fail nor
be discouraged till every stipulation of that Covenant shall be
fulfilled.
Whatever was in the heart of Christ before the stars began to shine,
that same infinite love is there today! Jesus is the same today as He
was when He was here on earth. There is much comfort in this thought.
When He tabernacled among men, He was most willing to save. "Come unto
Me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden," was the burden of His cry.
He is still calling to the weary and the heavy-laden to come to Him. In
the days of His flesh He would not curse the woman taken in adultery,
neither would He reject the publicans and sinners who gathered to hear
Him. He is merciful to sinners, still, and says to them yet, "Neither
do I condemn you: go and sin no more."
That delightful sentence which so graciously came from His lips, "Your
sins, which are many, are forgiven you," is still His favorite
utterance in human hearts. O think not that Christ in Heaven has become
distant and reserved so that you may not approach Him! Such as He was
here–a Lamb gentle and meek, a Man to whom men drew near without a
moment's hesitation–such is He now! Come boldly to Him, you lowest and
guiltiest ones! Come near to Him with broken hearts and weeping eyes!
Though He is King and Priest, surrounded with unknown splendor, yet He
still retains the same loving heart and the same generous sympathies
towards the sons of men! He is still the same in His ability as well as
in His willingness to save. He is still Jesus Christ the anointed
Savior!
In His earthly days He touched the leper and said, "I will. Be you
clean." He called Lazarus from the tomb and Lazarus came. Sinner, Jesus
is still as able to heal or quicken you now, as then! "He is able also
to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make
intercession for them." Now that the blood is spilt, indeed, and the
sacrifice is fully offered, there is no limit to the ability of Christ
to save! O come and rely upon Him and find salvation in Him now!
Believer, it will cheer you, also, to remember that when our Lord was
here upon earth He showed great perseverance in His art of saving. He
could say," Of them which You gave Me I have lost none." Rejoice that
He is the same today–He will not cast one of you away, nor suffer His
little ones to perish! He brought all safe in the days of His flesh. He
takes care to keep all safely in these, the days of His Glory. He is
the same today, then, as He was on earth.
Blessed be His name, Jesus Christ is the same today as in apostolic
days. Then He gave the fullness of the Spirit. Then, when He ascended
up on high, He gave gifts to men–Apostles, preachers, teachers of the
Word. Do not let us think we shall not see as good as days now as they
saw at Pentecost! He is the same Christ! He could as readily convert
3,000 under one sermon today as in Peter's time! His Holy Spirit is not
exhausted, for God gives it not by measure unto Him! We ought to pray
that He would raise up among us eminent men to proclaim the Gospel. We
do not pray enough for the ministry.
The Gospel ministry is peculiarly the gift of the Ascension. When He
ascended on high He received gifts for men and He gave–what? Why, men,
Apostles, teachers, preachers. If we ask for salvation, we plead the
blood–why do we not ask for ministers and plead the Ascension? If we
would do this more, we should see raised up among us more Whitefields
and Wesleys! More Luthers and Calvins, more men of the apostolic stock
and the Church would be revived. Jesus is the same to enrich His people
with all spiritual gifts in this year, 1869, as in the year when He
ascended to His Throne. "He is the same yesterday and today."
He is the same, today, as He was to our fathers. These have gone to
their rest, but they told us before they went what Christ was to
them–how He succored them in their time of peril–how He delivered
them in their hour of sorrow. He will do for us just what He did for
them. Some who lived before us went to Heaven in a chariot of fire, but
Christ was very precious to them at the stake. We have our
martyrologies which we read with wonder. How sustaining the company of
Christ was to those that lay in prison! To those that were cast to the
lions! To those that wandered about in sheep skins and goat skins!
England, Scotland–all the countries where Christ was preached–have
been dyed with blood and ennobled with the testimonies of the faithful!
Whatever Jesus was to these departed worthies, He is to His people
still. We have only to ask of God and we shall receive the same
benefit.
"Jesus Christ the same today," says the text. Then He is the same today
as He has been to us in the past. We have had great enjoyments of God's
Presence. We remember the love of our espousals and if we have not the
same joys today it is no fault of His. There is still the same water in
the well and if we have not drawn it, it is our own fault. We have come
away from the fire and therefore we are cold. We have walked contrary
to Him and therefore He walks contrary to us. Let us return to Him and
He will be as glad to receive us now as in our first moment of
repentance. Let us return to Him! His heart is as full of love and as
ready to weep upon our neck as when we first came and sought pardon
from His hands. There is much sweetness in the text, but I cannot
linger longer upon that part of the subject. It is enough for us to
remember that Jesus Christ is the same today as He always was.
Now, further, Christ shall be tomorrow what He has been yesterday and
is today. Our Lord Jesus Christ will be changed in no respect
throughout the whole of our life. It may be long before we shall
descend to our graves, but let these hairs all be gray and these limbs
begin to totter and these eyes grow dim–Jesus Christ shall have the
dew of His youth upon Him and the fullness of His love shall still flow
to us. And after death, or if we die not, at the coming of Christ and
in His glorious reign, Jesus will be the same to His people, then, as
now.
There seems to be a notion abroad among some that after His coming
Christ will deal differently with His people than now. I have been
informed by a modern school of inventors (and, as I tell you, we live
to learn) that some of us will be shut out from the kingdom when Christ
comes! Saved by His precious blood and brought near and adopted into
the family–and our names written upon the breastplate of Christ–and
yet some of us will be shut out from the kingdom! Nonsense! I see
nothing in the Word of God–though there may be a great deal in the
fancies of men–to support these novelties.
The people of God, equally bought with blood, and equally dear to
Jesus' heart, shall be treated on the same scale and footing. They will
never be put under the Law. They will never come to Christ and find Him
rule them as a legal Judge and beat them with many stripes in a future
state, or shut them out of His estate of millennial Majesty. He will
give to none, as a mere matter of reward, such rule and government so
as to exclude others of His redeemed family! They shall find Him always
treating them all as unchanging love and immutable Grace shall dictate.
The rewards of the millennial state shall be always
those of Divine Grace–they shall be such as not to exclude the very
least of all the family–all shall have tokens of reward from the dear
Savior's hand.
I know He will not love me today and give me a glimpses of His
face–give me to delight in His name–and yet after all, when He comes,
tell me I must stand out in the cold and not enter into His kingdom! I
have not a shade of faith in the purgatory of banishment which certain
despisers of the ministry have chosen to set up! I marvel that in a
Protestant sect there should rise up a dogma as villainous as the dogma
of "purgatory" and that, too, from those who say they are no
sectarians! We all are wrong but these Brethren! These are deeply
taught and can discover what the ablest Divines have never seen!
That Jesus will love His people in time to come as strongly as He does
now seems to be a doctrine which, if destroyed or denied, would cast
sorrow into the whole family of God! Throughout eternity, in Heaven,
there shall still be the same Jesus Christ with the same love to His
people and they shall have the same familiar communion with Him, no,
shall see Him face to face and rejoice forever in Him as their
unchangeably, anointed Savior!
III. Our time has failed us and therefore just two or three words upon
our Lord's EVIDENT CLAIMS. If our Lord is "the same yesterday and today
and forever," then, according to the connection of our text, He is to
be followed to the end. Observe the seventh verse, "Remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God; whose
faith follow considering the end of their conversation." The meaning
being–these holy men ended their lives with Christ. Their exit was to
go to Jesus and to reign with Him.
Beloved, if the Lord is still the same, follow Him till you reach Him!
Your exit out of this life shall bring you where He is and you will
find Him, then, what He always was. You shall see Him as He is. If He
were a will-o'- the-wisp, forever changing, it were dangerous to follow
Him. But since He is ever and equally worthy of your admiration and
example, follow Him evermore. That was an eloquent speech of Henry the
Sixth, of France, when on the eve of battle, he said to his soldiers,
"Gentlemen, you are Frenchmen. I am your King. There is the enemy!"
Jesus Christ says, "You are My people. I am your Leader. There is the
foe!"
How shall we dare to do anything unworthy of such a Lord as He is, or
of such a citizenship as that which He has bestowed upon us? If we are,
indeed, His and He is, indeed, Immutable, let us by His Holy Spirit's
power persevere to the end that we may obtain the crown! The next
evident claim of Christ upon us is that we should be steadfast in the
faith. Notice the ninth verse: "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and
today, and forever. Be not carried about with various and strange
doctrines."
There is nothing new in theology but that which is false. All that is
true is old, though I say not that all that is old is true. Some speak
of developments as though we had not the whole Christian religion
discovered yet–but the religion of Paul is the religion of every man
who is taught by the Holy Spirit. We ought not, therefore, to indulge
for a moment the idea that something has been discovered which may
correct the teaching of Christ! We must not even think that some new
philosophy or discovery of science has risen up to correct the declared
Testimony of our Redeemer! Let us hold fast that which we have received
and never depart from "the Truth once delivered unto the saints" by
Christ Himself.
If Jesus Christ is Immutable, He has an evident claim to our most
solemn worship. Immutability can be the attribute of none but God.
Whoever is "the same yesterday and today and forever," must be Divine.
Then, Believer, bring your adoration to Jesus! At the feet of Him that
was crucified, cast down your crown! Give royal and Divine honors unto
Him who stooped to the ignominy of crucifixion! Let no one stop you of
glorying in your boast that the Son of God was made Man for you!
Worship Him as God over all, blessed forever!
He also claims of us, next, that we should trust Him. If He is always
the same, here is a rock that cannot be moved! Build on it! Here is an
anchor! Cast your anchor of hope into it and hold fast in time of
storm. If Christ were variable, He were not worthy of your confidence.
Since He is evermore unchanged, rest on Him without fear. And, lastly,
if He is always the same, rejoice in Him and rejoice always! If you
ever had cause to rejoice in Christ, you always have cause, for He
never alters!
If yesterday you could sing of Him, today you may sing of Him. If He
changed, your joy might change. But, if the stream of your gladness
springs solely and only out of this great deep of the Immutability of
Jesus, then it need never stay its flow. Beloved, let us, "rejoice in
the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice." And, until the day breaks
and the shadows flee away, till the blest hour arrive when we shall see
Him face to face and be made like He is, be this our joy, that, "He is
the same yesterday, and today and forever." Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Hebrews 13.