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[0:00] In Hebrews chapter 13, I direct your attention this evening to the 8th verse, the 13th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, the 8th verse, and these words, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. May the Lord enable us to consider the truth that is set before us in these few words, and that it might be as a blessing to our hearts. I believe this word is a very suitable one in preparation to come to the Lord's table. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. It's certainly a word to consider and meditate upon in the coming to take the bread and the wine.

[1:17] John Owen, who must be the greatest of all the commentators on Hebrews, he says, the due consideration of Jesus Christ as that he is always the same is the great encouragement of believers in their whole profession of faith and all the difficulties they may meet with.

[1:44] And if we can have some grasp of the truth of this verse, it will be as a strength to us in all matters of our living.

[2:00] Now, as we come to look at it, I want to consider, first of all, how it relates to the seventh verse. Because we believe that there's always a place for any text, and that oftentimes to take it out of its immediate setting is to miss the very point that is intended. It has been said that a text without a context frequently as a pretext. And we certainly don't want to in any way deal with pretexts. We want the word of God, all the counsel of God. And if you look at the seventh verse, then you see this word, remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. And Paul exhorts the Hebrew Christians to remember their leaders.

[3:10] The word that is translated, which have the rule over you, is from the verb that means to lead, to guide, and to go before. And John Owen does not believe that it refers in the seventh verse to eldership at all and oversight, as we normally understand it. But rather he says that it's that we should remember those that have gone before, remember those whose faith we are following.

[3:48] Just as in the previous chapter at the beginning, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now in the 17th verse of chapter 13, he says that it does refer to the oversight and the eldership. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls. It's again the same word that is used there as in verse 7. But you see the context certainly determines in the 17th verse that it be taken in terms of those that are the guides and the leaders in the congregations. But in the 7th verse it may be much wider than that.

[4:46] Remember them who have gone before. Remember them that you are following. We follow a man only so far as he follows Christ. But there have been those guides, there have been those whose example is certainly that which we seek to emulate and their faith we desire to follow, whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation. Remember these. Remember these persons that have gone before. Faithful they were in their generation. Remember the faithful men and women that have been in their generation as lights shining in dark places, who have been as the very salt of the earth, of whom this world has not been worthy. And it's one of the reasons why I believe that every Christian ought to make some place for biography of those godly persons who have gone before.

[5:51] We should not let some of these slip into oblivion. Not especially when there is that which tells us concerning the testimony they bore in their day. And I commend to you in your reading that there be some place for biography. Next to the commentaries on the word of God, I find that biography is often the most stimulating of all my reading. One finds that those that have served their generation, they are worthy to be remembered. They are example followed. They are faith heeded. And that we might in our day be such as our earnest prayer. And that we might have something to leave behind. That we might so live that we shall be missed.

[6:41] And it's good then to be profoundly thankful for the faithful that have gone before. Rome, of course, utterly perverts the scripture here. It speaks of those whose prayers we need in heaven.

[6:58] We don't need the prayers of departed saints. They are not praying for us. They have no need to pray for us. We have the Lord Jesus that prays for us. We don't need the prayers of saints. We have all things in Christ.

[7:15] But we remember them. We remember them for what they did below. Now they rest from their labors. They don't have to continue praying for us. They rest from their labors. Their works do follow.

[7:27] And we thank God for their example and for their testimony to us. Remember them. And what was that which gave them faith? What was that which enabled them to live godly and soberly and righteously? It was this, that in the past they knew Jesus Christ. In the yesterday of their experience, Jesus Christ was all and in all to them. And that, I believe, is how the seventh verse is the preparation for the eighth verse. Those in a past day, they had the same Jesus that we have in this day.

[8:05] For he is the same yesterday and today and forever. Now having looked at the seventh verse, let's go and look at the ninth verse. Let's look at the verse after. The apostle says, be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.

[8:24] For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. And here is the apostle saying that we're not to embrace error.

[8:37] We're not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. And in every generation, there are strange doctrines. There's nothing new under the sun. The novelties of today are the old heresies of the past, but they're continually being brought up. They're continually being taken down and dusted and presented as though they were new. And they're just as much error in our day as they were in a past day.

[9:06] And we're not to be carried away by these things. And especially by ceremonial religion, whether it be Judaistic or however it be put before us. And there is a tendency, even in some Christian so-called groups, to be wanting to go back to the Old Testament. From different angles you get this. You have got the Reconstructionist movement that want to put us back into the Old Testament and say that the Old Testament laws are for the present day. And we should be living this way and eating this way and behaving this way.

[9:41] And there are some charismatic groups that are trying to say that we're in that day when the Old Testament feasts and the worship is being reinstituted. It's none of the kind. We're in that day of a spiritual worship. We're in the day of new covenant worship.

[9:57] And we're not to be carried about with diverse and strange doctrines. We want our hearts established with grace. And you'll be established in heart by grace when you heed the word of God and when there's no departure from the word. And the meets religion, the legalism, the ceremonial religion, it doesn't profit them that have been occupied therein. As the apostles, there have been all these Jews.

[10:28] They've given themselves the little else but meats and purifications and this and that of Judaism. And where has it got them? They are dead in their sins. Let us be established in grace.

[10:41] Not under the law, but under grace. And what is the very essence of grace? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The law came by Moses.

[10:58] It was for that period where it acted as a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. But it's not that we're under it now as they were under it in past days. These Judaizers are trying to get the Hebrews to go back to the way of Moses. And Paul, as we know from our Thursday studies, is resolutely defending the gospel, showing the superiority of the gospel in every respect to the law of Moses.

[11:30] And may we be those then that are established with grace, not under law, under grace. Ceremonial religion in all its many guises. It's not the way. We worship God in spirit and in truth. And to worship in the truth that Jesus Christ has opened up to us is not to worship in these ceremonial ways whatsoever. So you see the connection. In a day of indifference and confusion, let us be established, our hearts established with grace. And you'll never be far wrong if you have this at the very center of your confession of faith. Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. We don't want novelties. We don't want the new things. However they come. However people say we should do what they do because this seems to be such a successful way of things. We want the old paths.

[12:31] Wherein is the safe way. We want the ways that are based upon the truth of God. Jesus Christ the same as he was to our fathers and as he is to us and as he will be to our children. The same yesterday, today, and forever. So these are the first two things that we note as we come to this eighth verse. The third thing now is to consider its truth. What is the doctrine here? We don't want strange doctrines, divers and strange doctrines. But here is the doctrine of the word of God. Here is the truth. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. It's saying that there is immutability with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is he's the unchanging Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ never changes. And there his name is set before us at the beginning. This one who is the same yesterday, today, and forever is Jesus the Christ. Jesus the

[13:39] Savior. Joshua, our Savior. Our Savior. I shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He is the anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ. He is the Christ of God and he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The end of Hebrews and the first chapter. Do you remember when we were looking at the superiority of Christ to the angels in these early chapters of Hebrews? It says there at the end of chapter one, thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish but thou remainest and they all shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up and they shall be changed. But thou art the same and thy years shall not fail. Thou art the same and thy years shall not fail. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now let us look at these three parts of that eighth verse. Yesterday and today and forever the same. Yesterday, sometimes the word is used literally as the day that was before this day. Yesterday was the day before this present day and it's sometimes so to be understood in the scripture of the nobleman's son in the end of John chapter four when the Savior said go thy way thy son shall be healed, shall be according to thy word. And he believed upon the Lord and he went his way and his servants told him when he asked them when did he get better. It was yesterday at the seventh hour that he got better. And the nobleman remembered it was at that very time that the Lord had said go thy way thy son shall be made whole. That was an example of yesterday used. But it's often used figuratively standing for the past in general. All our yesterdays is a familiar enough expression to us.

[15:57] All our past. And that's not unknown in the scripture. A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past. And in all the yesterday then, in all the past, Christ is the same. Christ is the same through all that's gone. And when you think of your past, when you think of from this very moment in time to when you first were drawn to the Savior, he's been the same all that time. All your yesterday experience of Christ, he's been the same. And in all the experience back to the days of his incarnation, he's been the same. And before his incarnation, he was the same when he appeared, as we saw this morning, he appeared to Jacob. And blessed Jacob who had wrestled all night until the breaking of the day. He's the same Christ. And he's the same even back beyond this will that he brought into being. He's the eternal Son of God. He is the same. And his years fail not. And there is that which abides. He is the same yesterday. The same yesterday. And then he is the same today. The scripture says he is the same today. Again, literally, he is at this very moment of time the same as he was in the past. If he was your

[17:34] Savior when you entered this evening, he's your Savior still. And he's the same. Did he love you then? He loved you still. And if he smiled upon you in the past, he'll smile upon you still. And he will lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace, however you may feel it to be otherwise. For he's the same today. He is an ever-present help in time of trouble. He is a present Savior. At this very moment, he is the same as he's been to his people through all the generations past. And then this word today is the figurative use where it speaks of the whole period of the gospel dispensation throughout the whole of the gospel age. He's the same. And of course, that is a wonderful truth. That's brought out as we've been seeing in Hebrews chapter 3, as Paul quotes from the 95th Psalm, wherefore, as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. While it is said today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. And if the psalmist said to the people of his day, today harden not your hearts when you hear God speaking, don't provoke him by indifference to his word. He is saying it still. Paul says he's speaking to you this word even now. And heed it. And don't provoke him by your unbelief and your indifference to it.

[19:08] And he's speaking this very night. Through the whole revelation of saving purpose and saving mercy. He is addressing men. And he is the same. He is the same today as he was in the past.

[19:26] And I was meditating on the verse this afternoon. And I noticed then, having looked at yesterday and today, that it doesn't say tomorrow. Have you noticed that? I never saw it quite so clearly till this afternoon. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today. And it doesn't say and tomorrow. Why doesn't it say tomorrow? Why does it say forever and not tomorrow? And don't say that, well, it's the same, that forever means tomorrow, because it's not the same. Not identical. There is a difference. It is not tomorrow. Because you see, I would feel that if it said that he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, it would give some the excuse of procrastination to put off for tomorrow. If I dwelt on the fact that he'll be the very same tomorrow as yesterday and he's been in the past, there would be those who would say, well, I don't need to listen with any great interest to this tonight. I can put it off. There'll always be a tomorrow. But one day, you see, there won't be a tomorrow. None of us is sure of a tomorrow. We're sure of yesterday. And we're sure of today. But not one of us is sure of tomorrow. I can't guarantee that I'll see tomorrow. I can't guarantee that any one of you here will see tomorrow. And the scripture then does not put cushions under our arms to hold us up. It doesn't say tomorrow. It says forever. And if you say, well, that's the same. It isn't the same. Forever isn't the same as tomorrow. We have no assurance that we'll see a tomorrow. But we can be sure of things that are forever. Hell is forever. If we're not in Christ, hell is forever. And if we are in Christ, heaven is forever. We can be sure of a forever, but we can't be sure of a tomorrow.

[21:12] Sure of a yesterday, sure of a today, but you can't be sure of a tomorrow. And the scripture then is so accurate inspiration as it wrought upon the apostle Paul did not give him to say, as we might expect, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and tomorrow. But rather in this way, it's set before us, this accurate way, this way that is always the way of truth. The Bible is the word of truth. It's yesterday and today and it's forever. And may it be that every one of us will know Christ the same forever and not know what it is forever to be apart from him and separated from him. Having heard these awful words, depart from me, ye wicked, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and for his angels. So there is then a forever and there isn't anything here of a tomorrow, but literally what is forever? It is through the ages. It is through the ages. And it is because we cannot conceive of eternity. We cannot conceive of eternity except in terms of endlessness, time that will never end. So the word for eternity forever is through the ages. But of course, you see, that's why we cannot be sure of tomorrow because if this is our last day, we go from time into eternity. You don't go into a tomorrow state. You leave time and after death, judgment. And forever is speaking of eternity.

[22:53] Eternity. We therefore have all that we can be sure of is yesterday and today. And if we're the Lord's eternity with Christ, forever with Christ, which is far better. Tomorrow really doesn't exist for us.

[23:13] And may we be in the assurance of this. May our hearts be established in the faith of this. That we know this Christ. This Christ of the past and of the present. And that we are in him for time and for eternity. Forever. The same yesterday, today and forever. And then that very word which is rendered same is really literally he himself. Isn't that a precious expression? What the verse is saying, if we translated it literally, is Jesus Christ, he himself, yesterday, today and forever. He is the I am. He is the ever living God. He is Jehovah Jesus.

[24:03] The same yesterday, today and forever. So we've looked at the verse before and the verse after and I've tried to state something of the doctrine in the terminology of the verse. Now in the fourth place, let us seek to see what this truth is meaning. What is the immutability of Christ, an unchanging Christ? What does it mean as it's opened up to us? Well it surely brings a number of things before us. He is unchangeable in his essential deity.

[24:39] He is that one that is the same in terms of his essential deity. He is the I am, as I've just stated. He is that one who never alters. He is the living God. But then also he is the one who is the same. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. And forever in the divine decrees. Now the decrees of God. John Gill says the decrees of God are God decreeing. We do not think just that there are those things that God has purposed. But we think, and it is good for us to think of God purposing, God decreeing all things that will come to pass. And when we speak of God decreeing all things after the counsel of his own will, we know that that is God in all the trinity of his sacred persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. And if the Father is willing, then the

[25:41] Son is willing. And the Holy Ghost is willing. And if the Son is willing, the Father and the Spirit are willing. We believe in that great mystery of the Godhead. And therefore since we know that God decrees no one unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world or from eternity. We know that all those things of Christ who has brought his works into being, who has brought the world into being, who holds it by the word of his power. He is the one whose decree is an eternal decree. The same yesterday, today and forever. He is the same in his attributes. He is the same in his attributes yesterday, today and forever.

[26:27] And there are various places in which you see the attributes that are particularly Christ's. He has all the attributes of deity as the Son is the express image of the invisible God. All that pertains to God to Christ, for Christ is God. But you see it in the 118th Psalm, the first verse, who gives thanks unto the Lord, for he is good because his mercy endureth forever. He is that God of goodness and mercy. This Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. The 117th Psalm, verse 2, his merciful kindness is great towards us. And the truth of the Lord endureth forever. The 111th Psalm, verse 3, his righteousness endureth forever. And in all of these Psalms it is in context clearly speaking of the second person of the Godhead. He is then the same in his essential deity, is the same in his decree, he is the same also in his attributes, he is the same in his word.

[27:43] Psalm 119, verse 89, forever O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Forever O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. His word never changes. The living word is that one who has magnified his written word above all his name.

[28:04] He is given us. He is given us. He is given us. He is given us. He is the living word. And he has established his word. Forever O Lord, thy word is settled in the heavens.

[28:19] And like the end of 1 Peter chapter 1. The word of God which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away.

[28:35] But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. His word abides. Truth is unchanged and unchanging.

[28:48] He is the same yesterday, today and forever in his word. He is the same in the covenant. The covenant is an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure.

[28:58] And the covenant provisions are the provisions that are unalterable. In the covenant administration there was change but not in the covenant of grace there can be no change.

[29:14] And it's in Hebrews and in the 8th chapter that you read of that one who is the mediator of the new covenant. And the new covenant is that abiding covenant. That covenant set up from everlasting which will abide to everlasting.

[29:28] And we're told in the 8th of Hebrews and in the 6th verse. He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises.

[29:41] For if that first covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second. But finding fault with them he saith. Behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a new covenant.

[29:54] With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

[30:05] Because they continued not in my covenant. And I regarded them not saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days.

[30:15] Saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord.

[30:30] For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. Well I remember no more in that he saith a new covenant.

[30:42] He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. We're not under the covenant made with Moses. We're under a better covenant.

[30:53] We're under an abiding covenant. That as Jesus Christ is his mediator. Who is the same yesterday, today and forever. And the provisions of the covenant of grace will never be outmoded.

[31:06] And they'll never be set aside. And the mediator is the same yesterday, today and forever. And what a mediator he is. The word that was made flesh.

[31:17] And you say well was there not change when he took our humanity upon him. Well he put himself in the place as the guarantor of the covenant.

[31:28] As the surety of the covenant. He put himself in the place where he was subject to changes in his humanity. But the actual human nature he took never altered for a moment his deity.

[31:40] He incorporated our humanity into his deity. So that he is the God-man. But there was no alteration. There was no change. There was no change in his essence. There was no change in the degree in power.

[31:53] There was no change in the attributes. There was no change in his word. There was no change in the covenant. Rather there was the implementation of the covenant.

[32:05] When he came to fulfill the promise. And he is a most glorious mediator. And an all-sufficient saviour. And now he is raised from the dead.

[32:16] And Romans 6, 9 and 10 says he is not even subject to those changes that he was brought to experience for your salvation sake and mine.

[32:26] Death. And he is prophet, priest and king. For in that he died. He died unto sin once. That's once and for all. But in that he liveth.

[32:39] He liveth unto God. And he is prophet, priest and king. In the state of exultation. As he was prophet, priest and king. In the days when he moved amongst men.

[32:52] He taught. Then he was as that priest who gave himself as both offerer and as offering. As priest and victim. For our salvation.

[33:03] And he was that king. He ruled from the cross. Why even over the crucified saviour was written. Jesus of Nazareth.

[33:13] The king of the Jews. He is prophet, priest and king in the days of his flesh. And he is prophet, priest and king to the end of the age. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.

[33:28] And he is the same able and all-sufficient saviour this night. As he was to our forefathers in the past. How were they saved in a past day?

[33:38] How were the Old Testament saints saved? Because they had a saviour. He was the same yesterday. In the yesterday of the Old Testament dispensation.

[33:50] He was the same in his regard to them. He saw them. He loved them. He supported them. He gave them to endure. As seeing the invisible. He gave them his promise.

[34:01] The promise of his coming. And that these all died in faith. It was not given them to see what others were to see. In the day when in the fullness of time. He was made of a woman and made under the law.

[34:14] But it's the same salvation. It's the same saviour. They looked to the promise of his coming. And they were saved. Because of what he had engaged to do in the covenant. Just as we know that he did it so perfectly.

[34:26] Perfectly. He accomplished our redemption upon the cross. But he is the same yesterday. He is the same today. He is the same in the Old Testament period. He is the same in the New Testament.

[34:37] The today of the New Testament gospel. It's the same Christ. The same saviour. Abraham he said saw my day and was glad. Moses endured as seeing the invisible Christ.

[34:49] And it's the same saviour. And justification is that which is God's. He willed to justify. He gave his son to perform the work.

[35:00] He applies the justification by his Holy Spirit to his people's hearts. And we are given to see that Jesus Christ is the saviour that we need. And he's the same yesterday, today and forever.

[35:13] What a dear saviour he is. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And there was healing to those that looked to him. Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

[35:24] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish. But have everlasting life. So you see that in these ways.

[35:36] And probably many more that we cannot take time now to go into. The unchangeableness of Christ is set forth. Now let me say in the fifth place.

[35:48] This Christ must be known. Do you know him? It's one thing to hear these things. It's another thing to know him. Whom to know is life eternal.

[35:59] Through Jesus Christ. To know the eternal God through Jesus Christ. Is surely that which we desire above all else. To know God.

[36:10] To know God for us. To know God in Christ. With all his mercy extended towards us. To know that in Christ there is a portion and place.

[36:21] Even for sinners such as we are. My question is. As it must always be. Do we know him? All other deities are false. They are but idols.

[36:34] He is the only God. He is the only God. A just God and a savior. I think of Isaiah in the 41st. Chapter the fourth verse.

[36:45] Who hath wrought and done it. Calling the generations from the beginning. I the Lord the first. And with the last. I am he. And it's in the 44th chapter.

[36:59] And in the 6th verse. Thus saith the Lord. The King of Israel and his Redeemer. The Lord of hosts. I am the first. And I am the last. And beside me. There is no God.

[37:11] We need God. But beside him. There is no God. For us to bring us. To the heavenly state. God will deal with us.

[37:22] Only through his son. Oh then kiss the son. Lest he be angry. And ye perish. In the way. All other deities are false. All the idols of man.

[37:34] Will do as done. To have no God. Is to have made an idol. Of our own minds. Because men professing themselves.

[37:45] To become wise. Have made themselves fools. And they have set up their images. Of the creature. And worship the creature. Rather than the creator. Even in the sophisticated ways.

[37:57] That they may do it. At the end of the 20th century. But it's idolatry. Modern idolatry. And there is no God. But Christ. The same yesterday. Today. And forever.

[38:07] No man. Cometh unto the father. But by him. Apart from Christ. With verse 6. I am the Lord. I change not.

[38:18] Therefore ye sons of Jacob. Are not consumed. Why is the spiritual seed of Jacob. Not consumed. Because I am the Lord. I change not. Jesus Christ.

[38:29] The same. Yesterday. Today. And forever. And if he be not known. Men are lost. In whom the God of this world. As Paul says to the Corinthians. Have blinded their minds.

[38:41] Lest the light of the glorious gospel. Of Christ. Should come unto them. We are surrounded by lost sinners. Whose minds are blinded. And they are happy to have their minds blinded.

[38:54] They are happy to have their ears stopped. Up against the truth. They are willing to have it that way. But there are so few that know Jesus Christ.

[39:06] And yet apart from the knowledge of him. I repeat. There is no knowing. Of God. May we be those. His people that know him.

[39:17] And know him as the same Jesus. Yesterday. Today. And forever. And if we have known him. We will ever want to know him better. To grow in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

[39:28] Jesus Christ. And the ordinance. That we will be coming to. Is that we might know him. As he is to be known. That we might worship him. As he is to be worshipped.

[39:40] That we might serve him. As he would have us to serve him. Not out of servitude. As slaves. But as sons. And out of the love that constrains us.

[39:51] Because we have come to admire the love. Wherewith he has loved us. And given himself for us. He is the same yesterday. Today. And forever. Have you been brought to feel your need of him.

[40:04] Have you been brought to know him. Have you got this desire to. Follow him more closely. To be his. More unreservedly.

[40:15] In this evil world. Have you got this longing. That you might go and see him where he is. And as we live longer in this world. I'm sure. More and more.

[40:25] We want that exchange. Of earth for heaven. And to see Christ. To be with him. Through eternity. The same Jesus. Jesus himself.

[40:37] We shall see him as he is. And when we see him. We shall be like him. And do you believe that he will gather in. All his people. All that the father giveth me.

[40:48] Shall come unto me. And him that cometh unto me. I will in no wise cast out. And do you believe that he will put down. All enemies. Under his feet. And he shall reign. The same Jesus yesterday.

[41:02] And today. And forever. Remember. Years ago. One of the evangelists. That I heard in these days.

[41:14] And a godly man. He was. But I remember. This was written of him. He didn't tell it. But I read it concerning this man.

[41:24] That he had been out to South Africa. And he was returning from South Africa. To England. By ship. And he was at the quay side.

[41:36] Where the ship was about to depart. And all the people were gathered. You know the sort of thing. For their last. Embraces. And saying farewell to one another.

[41:47] And some were going back. To their homeland. And others. Were going. After seeing loved ones. And they might never see them again. And there were tears. And emotion.

[41:58] And this man. Who had a great. Powerful. Booming voice. He stood. In a prominent part. On the deck of the ship. And he. He uttered these words.

[42:08] That booned over the assembly. Jesus Christ. The same. Yesterday. Today. And forever. And it says. That there was an immediate silence.

[42:18] What a solemn thing. I wonder what it did. For some that heard. That word. It was a word. Indeed. A word of God. Addressed. To the sons of men.

[42:31] May we address it. I wouldn't presume. To do what that man did. But. I wish I had the power to do it. To make men conscious of this. Supreme fact.

[42:42] That Jesus Christ. Is the same. Yesterday. Today. And forever. And oh. What a mercy. To have this Christ. As savior. Him that cometh unto me. I will in no wise cast out.

[42:54] But what an awful. Solemn. Thing it is. To have this. Christ. On the throne of judgment. Pronouncing sentence against us. See. Then.

[43:04] That. Ye heed him. That speaketh. Today. If you will hear his voice. Harden. Not your hearts. As in the day of provocation. And may we be those.

[43:15] That are taken up. With this Christ. That changes. Not. And may we rejoice. To have heard. In our day. That name preached. And may we be those.

[43:25] That say. That. This is the sweetest of sounds to us. How sweet. The name of Jesus sounds. In our believers here. Jesus Christ. The same yesterday.

[43:37] Today. And forever. Despise him not. If they. Perished. That despised. Moses long. How.

[43:47] Then. Shall we escape. Who neglects. All great salvation. Preached by the savior. And by those. That heard him. Confirmed with signs. Following in that generation.

[43:59] How shall we escape. If we neglect. So great salvation. Jesus Christ. Salvation is a savior. Who is this savior. Jesus Christ.

[44:11] The same yesterday. Today. And forever. God bless his word to us. And magnify. His son's name. In our hearts. And he lift him up.

[44:22]  And draw us individually. Unto him. For his name's sake. Amen.