Thank you. Let's open our Bibles
to Hebrews chapter 13. This is the Scripture that was
read to us just a bit ago. Hebrews chapter 13. I'm actually
going to take as my text verse 8. and speak to you on this subject.
Jesus Christ the same. But I also want to consider it
in its context, and so let me read verse 7. Hebrews 13, verse
7. Remember them that have the rule
over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God. whose faith
follow considering the end or the goal of their conversation. Our Lord's church is a kingdom
and there is but one king in the kingdom and that is Christ
Jesus himself. There is but one Lord over the
church Christ Jesus is that Lord. After all, He selected the church
in old eternity in everlasting love. He redeemed the church
with His own blood. He quickens the church by the
power of His Spirit as they listen to the gospel of His free grace. Now, while there is but one King,
just one Lord over the church, God has been pleased to give
to His church preachers. That is, men who are pastors,
men who declare the gospel of God's grace. God's church has
these men who speak to them of the things of the Lord Jesus. These are His resurrection gifts
to His people. These men who preach the gospel
to them. Go with me back to Ephesians
chapter 4 if you would. Ephesians chapter 4. Our Lord Jesus having finished
the work of redemption, He went back to glory. He ascended back
upon high where He was before. You'll notice in verse 8, Ephesians
chapter 4 and verse 8, Wherefore He saith when He ascended up
on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. He ascended back to where He
was before. He could not ascend if He had
not descended He descended to redeem His people. He descended
to save those that God gave Him in the covenant of grace. He
descended to finish that work that was assigned to Him in that
great council of peace. And having ascended back on high,
in verse number 9, now that He ascended, what is it, but that
He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth.
This is our Lord's time of humiliation, when He was made lower than the
angels. Our Lord Jesus had to descend,
He had to go into the lowest parts of the earth, that is,
He had to go into the grave. This doesn't mean that he went
into hell. It doesn't mean that he went
to the regions of the damned. That's Roman Catholic doctrine. Our Lord Jesus, when He died
on the cross, He went to paradise. That's what He told the thief.
He said, today you'll be with me in paradise. I know there's
an old teaching, and it's Catholic teaching, that the Old Testament
saints were right beside the Old Testament unbelievers. That
there is a place of the dead, divided, one side those who believe
God, the other side those who didn't believe God. And that
then when the Lord Jesus died, that he went down to the regions
of the earth. regions below the earth and that
he took those in that right side of the place of the dead and
they went to glory with him. That isn't true. That's Roman
Catholic doctrine. Those in the Old Testament who
died, they died in the Lord just like we died in the Lord and
they went to paradise. They went to be with the Lord
even where our Lord Jesus went when He went back to glory, having
died upon the cross and redeemed His people by His suffering unto
death. Believers, we follow Him in the
glory, even as did that thief on the cross, the one who was
brought to belief. Now, our Lord Jesus ascended
back to where He was before. In dying the death of the cross,
we know that He took, as it says in verse 8, He led captivity
captive, He gave gifts unto men. It says here, He led captivity
captive. Who's that? It's not those who
are in the place of the dead. That's not what that's saying. What this is saying, every enemy
of our souls. Sin, the world, Satan, death,
every enemy against the people of God, our Lord Jesus has taken
them captive. They held us captive, says in
2 Timothy chapter 2. Satan holds all men captive by
His will. But that One who held us in captivity,
our Lord Jesus, by His death on the cross, He has conquered
them, and now He's taken them into captivity. He has triumphed
over them, and He has given gifts to His people as a result of
that triumphant death. Now what are these gifts? Verse
11. Here are the gifts that he has
given. He has given the gift of, first of all, apostles. Apostles. These men were the chief officers
of the church of our Lord, chosen by Christ, commissioned by Christ,
called by Christ. Their doctrine was received from
our Lord Jesus. They saw the resurrected Christ. He gave them the message to proclaim. He said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel. Their doctrine was received directly
from the Lord Jesus, who is Himself said to be the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession. There are no more Apostles today. Some of us recently read on the
internet a particular preacher's website and he said he had an
experience where he went up to heaven and Jesus made him to
be the apostle. In fact, he now says he is the
apostle. That's how He refers to Himself.
That's how people in His congregation refer to Him as the Apostle.
I have news for you and I have news for that man. There is but
one who is addressed as the Apostle. That's Christ Jesus our Lord.
He is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. He received
His commission from God the Father. Those Apostles that our Lord
selected and commissioned to preach the Gospel, They received
their authority from Him, and when John died, the last of the
apostles died then. There are no other apostles.
These were God's Christ's resurrection gifts to His church. These men
being gifts to His church, they've written the New Testament for
us. And we have in the writings inspired by the Spirit of God
of the very life and the death and the resurrection and the
ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ in this age which we call the Gospel Age. And this is set
forth in the New Testament. From the very beginning of our
Lord's earthly ministry to His end of His earthly ministry and
all the way stretching to that time when He comes back when
the Lord Jesus returns in great glory, and every eye shall see
Him." He gave some apostles, and then it says, and prophets. He gave some prophets. These
were men who had unusual abilities to interpret Scripture, and in
some cases to even foretell the future, like Agabus and others
in the church at Antioch. But, once again, there are no
prophets today. There are no prophets today.
Not in the strict sense of the word, because we have the Word
of God. We have all the completed canon
of Holy Scripture. No more apostles, no more prophets. And then evangelists. That's
a resurrection gift of our Lord Jesus. These are traveling missionaries. These are men who leave a local
assembly and go forth preaching the gospel wherever they feel
the Spirit of God opens a door for them to set forth the good
news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And then God has given,
our Lord Jesus has given to His church pastors and teachers. These are His resurrection gifts,
people who teach the Word of God to us, people who instruct
us in the things of the Scriptures. And specifically, he says, pastors. The word is literally under shepherds. God has given under shepherds
over His flock. What it says over here in our
text, and you can go back to Hebrews 13, Now, when it says
in Hebrews chapter 13, remember them which have the rule over
you, he's talking about pastors. He writes to the New Testament
church, to each individual church, and it says to remember them
who have the rule over you. Now this is not a rule in every
situation. I don't rule your family. I don't
rule your home. I don't rule your finances. I
don't rule you. I'm the spiritual ruler right
here. This is my pulpit as it works. And I guard the pulpit. I have
a great responsibility. I have to answer to God for what
I preach to you. And I seek to preach only the
very truth of God's Word to you. And you have to remember me because
I have the spiritual rule over you. I have spiritual authority
over you. It doesn't mean that I tell you what to do. It doesn't
mean that I lay down rules and laws. and regulations which you
must live by. But it means this, I preach the
gospel to you, and this is the gospel you must believe. You
must believe this message. I have the spiritual guidance
of this congregation. God has entrusted that to me.
I am an under-shepherd. And that is what the word pastor
means. An under-shepherd. Now, I am
not the shepherd. God's church just has one Shepherd. That's Christ Jesus the Lord.
He's the Great Shepherd in the covenant of grace. He's the Good
Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. And He's the Chief
Shepherd who shall come again in great power and in great glory. But God has given to His church
pastors, shepherds to guard, to watch over, and to feed the
sheep. This is exactly what our Lord
Jesus meant When he said to Simon Peter in John chapter 21, he
said to Simon Peter, feed my sheep, and literally be a shepherd
to my sheep. That includes watch over my sheep,
guard my sheep, tend the sheep, and direct the sheep to the green
pastures of God's Word. I read that in the World War
II, a pilot who guided another pilot whose aircraft had been
disabled in some way, that pilot who guided the other pilot who's
trying to make his way back to an airport or trying to make
his way back to an aircraft carrier, that one who led him, who directed
him, who said to him, I'll lead you back to the mainland. I'll lead you back to the airport.
I'll lead you back to the carrier." They called that man a shepherd. He was a shepherd because he
guided those who needed guiding. He led those who needed to be
led. And that's the responsibility
of a preacher. That's the responsibility of
a pastor. We need to be led. But not just
led anywhere. I'm not leading you hither and
yonder. I'm not saying, well, here we
are. We're going to lead you. Over here and over there, no,
we're leading you to Jesus Christ. This is the goal. This is always
the object. This is always the object of
God's pastors, those men that God has given as resurrection
gifts to His church. He gives them under shepherds
who lead them and guide them to the shepherd, the apostle
and high priest of our faith, Jesus Christ the Lord and His
work of redemption. This is our great responsibility. Back there in Ephesians 4, why
has God given us pastors and teachers and these others? Why
these gifts? For the perfecting of the saints.
To equip us. To make us ready. Ready to face
what's out there. Ready to face the world. Ready
to face the trials of life. Ready to face God. Ready to face
God. You see, even people in false
religion, they can have a false peace and a false hope and they
can meet trials. They can meet troubles. And sometimes
it seems like they meet them better than we do. Yeah, they
say, that's the Lord's will. And they don't know a thing about
the gospel. But this is our real goal. is to lead you to be ready
to meet God. To meet God. Because to meet
God, you must be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus. You
must be robed in His imputed righteousness. You've got to
know Jesus Christ, the Lord, the only Savior of sinners. We
lead you to Him. We guide you to Him. That's what
a shepherd does for the perfecting The word perfecting means mending. The mending of the saints. Boy, the world rips you apart,
tears you up. The world chews you up and spits
you out, doesn't it? I tell you, the world's rough.
You come in here. Or shall I tear you up and spit
you out too? That's what some preachers do.
They just run roughshod over God's people. But really, the
preacher's work is mending. The perfecting of the saints
is the mending of the saints. Did not the Lord say back in
Isaiah chapter 40, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people? Saith the
Lord. My people need comforting. They
don't need you to rip them. They don't need you to walk over
top of them. They don't need you to beat them
in the ground. They don't need you to strip
them and whip them and make them miserable. I sat under a ministry
like that one time and I was miserable all the time. And I'd
go out and I would weep. I'd say, I'm such an awful wretch.
I don't do the things that I ought to do. I don't behave myself
the way a Christian ought to behave himself. And that's all
we got. Every time we came, we got whipped.
We got beaten. Then somebody preached the Gospel.
And I said, now that man's doing some mending right there. He's
doing some comforting. That's what I need. And that
doesn't mean we don't need to be instructed and reproved and
corrected from time to time. Because the Word says, whom the
Lord loves, He chastens. But He doesn't chasten in a mean
way, in a hard way, in a rough way, in an anger way. He does
it in love. And when we have to rebuke, we
rebuke in love. When you have to discipline your
children or your grandchildren, you shouldn't do it in anger.
You're going to kill them. Though sometimes you want to.
No, no, you don't feel like it. But what do you do? You chase
them in love. In love. You keep a hold of your
temper. You do it because you love. You
want what's best for them. And that's the way God deals
with His children. And through the preaching of
the Word, it's an amazing thing what the preaching of the Word
will do. Because it will comfort those who need comforting. And
then others, it will rebuke them. You see, I'm not up here like
with a .22 rifle aiming at one person. I'm up here with a shotgun
aiming for everybody. I want to hit everybody. Because
we all have various needs as the people of God. I know we
all need salvation. We need the grace of God. We
need forgiveness. No question about that. But we
have individual needs as well. It's miraculous. The way God's Word is, one, maybe
one statement that I make will hit one person one way and another
person another way because God knows just exactly what you need. So it's the job of the shepherd,
of the under-shepherd to feed the sheep, to set forth the Word
of God. A preacher shouldn't lord it
over the congregation. These are men who rule not in
an arbitrary way, not according to their own will, but according
to the will of the Lord. Ruling with faithfulness, prudence,
and diligence by God's design. You see, I have the oversight
here, but I don't have the management. You know, in the Scripture, the
job of the shepherd is on the lowest rung of the ladder. And it is an honor to be a servant
and under-shepherd to the people of God, to the sheep of the Lord.
But I tell you, it's a fitting reminder for God's preachers
This is not intended to make us prestigious. It's not intended
for exaltation, to make us feel like we're up above everybody
else. I'm the servant of the Lord. Have you ever noticed how
the apostles in the New Testament, they refer to themselves as servants?
It means slaves. I'm a slave. I'm a slave of Jesus
Christ. And I'm here to serve you. That
doesn't mean call me at midnight and I'll come over and fix you
a snack. That's not what serve you means. I serve you the Word
of God. I serve you the Scriptures. I
study and seek God's face and get a message from the Lord for
you, a spiritual meal. I prepare a spiritual meal for
you and then when you come here, it's come and dine. Here it is
set before you that which God has given to me for you. I'm
your servant. You're a servant for Jesus' sake.
Well, what do these servants do? They speak to you. Look at verse 7. They've spoken
unto you the Word of God. This is what the under-shepherd
does. He speaks unto people the Word
of God. Not his own thoughts. He doesn't
get up and read out of a book. Except it's the book of books.
It's the only book. It's the only authority we've
got. It's the Word of the Living God. We speak to you the Word of God.
It says here in verse 7, "...who have spoken unto you the Word
of God." That's both the written Word and the incarnate. The living Word, that is Christ
Jesus. The written Word and the living
Word. That's what we've done and that's what we do. It's our
reason for existing here. It's not to rule over your life.
It's not to inspect you and then go visit you and tell you what
I think you're doing wrong. areas where I think you could
improve. No, my job is confined within these walls, except if
you're sick and you need to be visited, that sort of thing.
My job is confined here behind the pulpit to feed you the Word
of God. Sheep food. That's my job. Sheep
food. Which means, speak to you the
Word of God, the written Word, the living Word. We preach Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. Watch what he says. Whose faith?
Follow. The word follow means imitate.
Imitate my faith. Now, faith means two things. Number one, you should imitate,
you should believe the same gospel I believe. This is what I want
for you. I want you to believe this same
gospel. Listen, I rest my soul's welfare in Jesus Christ's hands. Imitate me. You do the same thing.
I trust the Savior. I rely on Him. I hug up to Him. All of my confidence is in Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. I believe He is made of God unto
me. Wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. He's the one I trust. Now you
imitate my faith. You believe Him too. That's what
I want for you. I don't want you to perish. And
I'm not trying to make you just a religious person. I'm not trying
to make you a Calvinist. I want to preach Jesus Christ
to you so that you'll believe Him, you'll embrace Him, you'll
lean upon Him for all of your salvation. Whose faith follow. Follow my faith. But the word
faith also means a body of truth. I believe the body of truth,
the systematic body of truth as God lays it out in His Word
of salvation by grace. I believe who God is in the Trinity
of His person. I believe in the everlasting
Sonship of Jesus Christ. I believe in the Father's work
of salvation in electing a people, the Son doing the work of redemption
and reconciliation and bringing in righteousness. I believe in
the necessity of the work of the Spirit of God in taking the
Word of Life and making us alive by His mighty power and bringing
us to Jesus Christ. I believe in salvation all together
by grace. This is a body of faith, the
body of truth that I embrace. I want you to embrace the same
body of truth. The same faith. It's called the
mystery of faith in the Bible. It's called the word of faith.
It's called the faith of God's elect. The body of truth. I want you to imitate me. Imitate
me. Believe as I believe. Trust Christ as I trust Him. Believe this salvation by grace
as I believe it. Now, having set forth the subject
of God's preachers that we preach to you, the Word of God, the
writer now tells us something about this incarnate Word of
God. He tells us this in verse 8.
Here is the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. And what does he say
about Him? He is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Jesus
Christ the same. The same. He was well pictured
by Melchizedek of whom it was said in Hebrews 7 verse 3, without
father, mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, made like unto the Son of God, abided the priest
continually forever. Our Lord Jesus, He was the same.
The same as He is today, He was yesterday. And the same as He
was yesterday, He will be tomorrow. Now, of course, yesterday doesn't
mean Saturday, and tomorrow doesn't mean Monday, and today doesn't
mean Sunday. He's looking at the whole scheme
of time. As you look back to the very
beginning of time and you consider Jesus Christ, all that He was
then, He is now. And all that He is now, look
out to when there shall be no more such thing as time, He will
still be the same. He's Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He's the same. He's the same. He's the same Savior now as He
was in the covenant of grace. He's the same Savior now as He
was when He died on the cross. He's the same Savior now as what
He was when He was revealed to your heart. And when you see
Him face to face sometime in the future, He will still be
the same. Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday,
today, and forever. Jesus Christ is the same in His
person. God over all, blessed forever.
What was He yesterday? He was God. He was God. He was God when He spoke the
world into existence. He was God when Adam and Eve
fell and He went after them. He was God yesterday when He
came into this world and gave His life a ransom for many. He
was God when He shed His blood to put away our sins. He was
God when He died, when He gave up His life. He was God when
He took it up again. He was God when He went back
to glory. What was He yesterday? He was
God. Who is He today? He is still
God, up in glory. Our advocate. Our intercessor. Our go-between. Our mediator. Jesus Christ the same. He's the
same. And in the future, He's coming
back. The angels said to the apostles there in Acts chapter
1, this same Jesus that you've seen ascend up into heaven shall
so come again in a like manner as you've seen Him go. Same One.
Same One. Same One who died on a cross,
He's coming back to receive us in Himself. Peter in his great
sermon on Pentecost, the day of Pentecost, he preached about
Jesus Christ being crucified, you with your wicked hands, you
killed the Lord of glory. He said, but God raised Him from
the dead and God has made, listen to what he said, this same Jesus. Both Lord and Christ. Jesus Christ. He's the same in
His person. He's always the same. Always full of love and tenderness
for His children. Always protecting us. Always
the shepherd over the flock. The same Jesus. Secondly, Jesus
Christ is the same in His love for His people. He's never wavered,
never changed, never will change. Jeremiah 31.3, Jehovah said,
Jehovah who saves, God who saves, said to Jeremiah, I've loved
thee with an everlasting love. You see, His love doesn't change.
His love is like Himself. It doesn't change. He says, therefore
in loving kindness have I drawn you. I loved you yesterday. I
love you today. I'll love you forever. Forever. His love doesn't vary. There is no lukewarmness to His
love. Our love, scarcely worth mentioning. We do love Him because He first
loved us, but our love, it has highs and lows and runs hot and
cold and somewhere in between. But not His love for us. It's
always fervent. When David was committing murder,
having Uriah, Bathsheba's husband sent to the very front of the
army line and then told Joab to sound retreat and leave him
out there by himself. You know, God still loved him
as much then as He loved him before the world began. Even
though he was acting, he was doing a dirty deed, It committed
adultery and now He's committing murder to cover it up. And yet,
the Lord's love for Him never changed. It never wavered a bit.
And you know, that leads us, guys, what kind of love is this?
I'll tell you what kind of love that is. That's divine love.
That's what that is. Some of us, you know, we think,
well, I hope when the Lord comes back I'm behaving myself and
doing what ought to be done. Well, we ought to always be behaving
ourselves and doing what we're doing. But no matter where His
coming may find you, His love and His kindness and His compassion
toward you is just like Himself. It's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And that's good news for us because
most of the time we're in a state of spiritual lethargy. There's nobody in here's all
that they ought to be. Our faith is weak. Our love is
weak. Our faithfulness is weak. And
I'll tell you what, our faith's in a strong Savior. And our love's
in a mighty Savior. Our confidence is in that one
who's God over all, blessed forever. And Jesus Christ is the same
in His covenant offices. in relationship with His people. Was He the Savior yesterday?
Yes. Was He the surety yesterday?
Oh, yes. Was He the Lamb yesterday who
Himself was slain before the foundation of the world? Oh,
yes, He was. He's the same today. He's still
our Savior. He's still our surety. He will
always be the same forever. always the shirt and the Savior
of His people. He'll never turn His back on
us. And Jesus Christ is the same
in His power and nobility. He's never lost any power, never
lost any authority. He never grew weak. Yesterday,
today, and forever. Yesterday when He hung on the
cross, yesterday when He was nailed
down that Roman tree, Bleeding, suffering, dying. Let me tell
you what kind of power he had. He raised the spiritual dead.
He saved that thief. That's right. He quickened his
heart. And this same Jesus, ever lives, still saves sinners. Still gives life to sinners.
He's the same today. He still has the same power and
ability. You may be listening to me this
morning and have no interest in the Gospel, but this same
Jesus, He still has all power and all authority. He just might
be pleased to invade your heart today. And I'll tell you what,
if He does, first of all, there's nothing you can do about it. You can't keep Him out if He
intends to come in. You go ahead and bar the door,
and I know the door to your heart is shut against the Lord Jesus
Christ, but He puts His hand in, and He makes an entrance
and a welcome for Himself. And He opens your heart up, and
here He comes in and establishes His throne within you. That's
Almighty Grace. That's our Savior, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Still He loves to save the sinful. We're going to sing that in just
a few minutes. He's the same in His power and His ability.
And then He's the same in His great salvation. His forgiveness
is unchanging because He's put away our sins already. The bringing
in of everlasting righteousness is unchanging because He's already
brought it in. His work as advocate is unchanging
and certain. We have a high priest who has
entered into the heavenlies. And you know who He is? This
same Jesus. This same Jesus. This same Jesus
who has always loved us. This same Jesus who died for
us, gave His life's blood to redeem us. This same Jesus. And our standing before God in
Christ Jesus is unchanging because we're accepted in the Beloved. Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, forever. We're going to sing a last hymn
this morning, 283. It's an interesting story that
I'd like to tell you. I had already selected the songs
for today and a little issue arose and we found the necessity
of changing this last song. And when that arose, of course,
when I had picked the songs out, it was the first of the week,
I didn't know where I was going to preach on this morning. But
when this issue arose and we needed another song for right
now, Here's what I thought in my mind, Lord, you are in sovereign
control over all things. And I didn't want to change the
song to begin with, or I wouldn't have, except the issue arose
that we needed another one. So I dropped the one we were
going to sing, and we're going to sing this one because this
fits in really well with what I just preached. Yesterday, today,
forever, Jesus is the same. 283. You couldn't pick a better song
to end the service with or for our last song than this one.
283. So let's stand together and sing this.