We're turning in our Bibles this
morning to the book of Hebrews. I'll be speaking from chapter
13, verse 8. Hebrews 13, verse 8. Now here's the subject. Jesus
Christ, the Eternal Savior. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Savior. I feel that this is one of the
most important messages that I shall ever bring on this television
program. And I want you just to pull up
a chair. and take your Bibles and follow along with me as I
speak on this subject, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Savior. Now, here's the text, Hebrews
13, 8. Listen to it. Jesus Christ, the same. Jesus Christ, the same. Yesterday
and today and forever. Now, my friends, one of the greatest
eras, and I hate to start off that way, but this is definitely
an era. It's a false teaching. One of
the greatest errors of our day, and of any day for that matter,
is the idea that Jesus Christ and redemption through his blood
and his obedience is only one of the many ways that God has
used to save fallen men. Now that's a great error. That
is that Jesus Christ and redemption through his practical obedience
And through his precious blood is only one of the many ways
that God has used to save sinners. But that's being taught. It always
has been taught. I'll show you that in a moment.
But the Scriptures plainly declare that Jesus Christ is now, always
has been, and always will be the only way that a sinner can
be justified in the sight of God Almighty. I don't care whether
he lived in Old Testament days, in the days of Abraham, in the
days of Enoch, in the days of Moses, in the days of David,
or Solomon, or Isaiah, or in the New Testament, or during
the Reformation, or where he lives now, any human being since
Adam. The only way to God for any sinner
is through Christ. Now listen to the Scriptures.
I'm saying that the Scriptures, the Word of God, plainly teaches
that the only way to God for any sinner of any generation,
of any age, of any century, of any nation, is through Christ,
Jew or Gentile. Now listen to the Bible, John
14, 6. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. No man. Listen to Acts chapter
4, verse 12. Neither, neither is there salvation
in any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must, we must be saved. Neither is there salvation in
any other. For there is none other name
under heaven given among men. Romans 6.23. The gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, Abraham
saw my day, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. Abraham saw my
day and was glad. We go all the way back to Abraham
and say that he saw the day of Christ and found his joy in redemption
through Jesus Christ. Not through the law, not through
his good works, but through Christ. Moses, Christ said, wrote of
me. And John wrote in 1 John 5, 11, this is the record. That
God hath given to us eternal life, this life is in His Son. And he that hath the Son of God
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Now this is the way, and who
can doubt, who can misread or doubt Isaiah's testimony? Isaiah
chapter 53. He was wounded for our transgressions. Does that sound like a man trusting
the law? Or trusting the ceremony? Or trusting the holy days and
the feasts? or trust in the sacrifices. He
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes
we're healed. That's Christ he's talking about.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. But the Lord hath laid on Christ
the iniquity of us all. There's only one way to God.
Now, this is the way this error was taught. I'm saying that many
men have taught and are teaching today and they'll go on teaching
this. That Jesus Christ and his blood is only one of the many
ways and the many dispensations that God has used to save sinners.
And this is the way it's usually taught. In fact, it was taught
just a few days ago on a television station right here in this area.
Now listen to what the preacher says. God created man in his
own image. and sought to have fellowship
with man." Now, that was God's intention. That was His original
design. They say He created man and hoped
that he could have fellowship with man. Well, man failed. Man
failed. And so God began then to seek
a way to save him. In other words, the law slipped
up on God. It was unknown to God. He didn't know what was
going to happen. And when it happened, it messed
up His plans, and He began to search through heaven to find
a Savior. So he tried this first. He sent
his prophets into the world, hoping that men would hear his
prophets and turn back to fellowship with God. But they wouldn't hear
the prophets, and they wouldn't listen to the prophets, and they
wouldn't follow the prophets. So that way failed. So then God,
out of desperation, gave the law. And he said, well, man will
hear my law. Thou shalt have no other god
before me. Thou shalt not make any graven image. I shall not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember this Sabbath
day. Honor your parents. and so forth. So God gave man
the law, hoping to restore man to fellowship with him by keeping
the law. Well, that didn't work. Man spit
on the law. He hated the law, rebelled against
the law. So God said, well, I'll send
my son. They wouldn't hear the prophets, and they wouldn't hear
the law, so I'll send my son. So he sent his son down here
in the world, and that failed because man rejected his son
and said, we won't have this man reign over us, and nailed
him to a cross, and that left God in a desperate situation.
And so God now sent the Holy Spirit. Somebody said He's not
the greatest, but He's the latest on the program. And men have
rejected and rebelled against the Holy Spirit. And then God
plans during the millennium, He's going to send Christ back
down here and put Him on a literal throne in Jerusalem and let Him
sit over there in that little walled city and try to rule the
world. But we know that's going to fail
because they've begun to organized rebellion against him, and after
a thousand years, Satan's going to lead a mighty battle in Armageddon
against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, you listen to me. This kind
of teaching is an insult to God Almighty. It's an insult to His
wisdom, an insult to His holiness, an insult to His power, an insult
to His majesty, and an insult to every attribute of God. And
this kind of theology is a denial of the Holy Scriptures. Now,
let me tell you something. And you listen to me. Almighty God
is eternal. He has infinite wisdom. Almighty
God is just that, almighty, all-wise, unchangeable. He's the immutable,
unchangeable, infinite God. He does nothing in time, nothing
absolutely in time, that He did not decree. and purpose and plan
from all eternity. Now, you put that down. God does
not change. He doesn't change His mind. He
doesn't change His purposes. He doesn't change His ways. I
can give you dozens of scriptures that say that. One in particular,
I am the Lord, I change not. And in Romans 11, 29, it says
the gifts and calling of God are without change. without repentance. In our text this morning, Jesus
Christ is the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. Now listen to this. Known under
God are all His works from the beginning. From the beginning. Jesus Christ, our Savior, is
no afterthought. Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, is
no emergency measure that God threw into operation when His
creation began to fail. He is the Lamb slain, listen
to this, before the foundation of the world. If God attempted
to save men by innocence and judges and prophets and law,
then why was Christ the Lamb slain before the foundation of
the world? Before God laid the first rock? Before God planted the first
tree? Before God created the first
man? Before Adam ever fell or thought
about falling? Almighty God says Christ is the
surety of an everlasting covenant Listen to some more scriptures
God declares the end from the beginning We were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world not chosen in the prophets
not chosen in the law chosen in Christ Paul writing to the
church at Thessalonica said this We give thanks brethren beloved
of the Lord Because God hath from the beginning, when is the
beginning? In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and was God. God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit
and what? Belief of the truth. That's the
only way God's ever saved sinners. That's how God purposed to save
them. That's how God chose to save them. That's how God decreed
to save them. Through belief of the truth.
The prophets were not saviors, nor did they claim to be, nor
did they pretend to be. Listen to Acts 10.43. To him
give all the prophets witness. All the prophets. Who were the
prophets? The prophets were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses was a prophet. He said God's going to send a
prophet from among the brethren like unto me. He was the first
mighty great prophet recognized by all as a prophet of God. And he told about Christ. He
wrote of Christ. To him, to Christ, give all the
prophets witness. Moses never claimed to be a savior.
He claimed to be a preacher of the Savior's gospel. That through
his name, whosoever believeth in him should receive remission
of sins. The law wasn't given to save.
The scripture plainly says the law is a schoolmaster. that brings
us to Christ. The Holy Spirit is not a savior.
Christ didn't say when he comes he'll save you from your sins.
He said when he comes he'll comfort you. He's the comforter. And
he shall not speak of himself. He shall glorify me. He shall
take the things of mine and show them to you. So God never intended
to save the prophets. The prophets were witnesses of
Christ. God never intended to redeem
men through the law. You can't redeem the lost man
by obedience to the law that he cannot keep. And God never
intended for the Holy Spirit to be the Savior. He is the witness
of Christ. But there is one gospel. Paul
said, if any man preach any other gospel, let him be accursed.
There is one gospel. There never has been but one
gospel. There never will be but one gospel. And that gospel is
the good news of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Listen to
Romans chapter 1, verse 1 through 3. Now listen carefully to Paul.
He says, Paul, speaking of himself, a servant or bondslave of Jesus
Christ, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, separated unto the gospel
of God, God's gospel, which he promised afore by his prophets
in the holy scriptures concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord."
In other words, Paul is saying this, the gospel of Christ is
the gospel that God revealed to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.15,
the gospel of Christ. Not the gospel of a law, or the
gospel of a prophet, or the gospel of a ceremony. The gospel of
Christ, His substitutionary work, His death, His obedience, is
the very gospel that God first revealed to Adam and Eve after
they had fallen in the Garden of Eden. God came to them and
said this, I'll put enmity between, talking about Satan, between
thee and the woman, between thy seed and the woman's seed, the
woman's seed. You'll bruise his heel, and he'll
crush your head. He'll bruise your head. He'll
destroy your power. Almighty God right there is promising
the virgin son, the seed of woman, not the seed of man, the seed
of woman. He's promising right there the
victor over Satan. He's promising right there the
one who would come, and though his human nature would be mocked,
and persecuted and even killed, yet by his power and by his death,
by his bruising, pleased the Lord to bruise him, but by his
bruising, Satan's power might be conquered. That's the gospel
of Christ. And then the gospel of substitution
through Christ is the gospel that God showed to Adam and Eve.
There they stood in their nakedness after they'd fallen, and they
gathered pigleys. to make them an apron to cover
their nakedness. They were afraid, they were ashamed,
they were convicted of their guilt, and they tried to cover
their nakedness. And God said, those homemade aprons won't do. I'll cover you. And God slew
a lamb, an animal, and shed its blood and took the skin of that
animal and covered the nakedness of Adam and Eve. And God's saying
right there, this is the way guilt is covered. This is the
way nakedness is covered. By death, by the shedding of
blood, by the sacrifice of the innocent to cover the guilty.
That's Christ. And this is the gospel that God,
the death of the Son of God, is the gospel that Abel believed.
It's the gospel that Abel pictured when he brought a blood sacrifice. Abel, one of the earliest worshippers
of God, the second son of Adam and Eve. He brought a lamb and
slew that lamb and put its blood on an altar. And God had respect
to his offering because it showed the coming Lamb of God. And Abel
believed this gospel and Cain refused it and shows us that
he refused it by offering his works instead of the blood. Without
the shedding of blood there's no remission. What I'm saying
to you is this. that Christ and His gospel didn't
begin in Bethlehem, nor at Golgotha's hill. The gospel of Jesus Christ
is as old as the purpose of God from all eternity. He's the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And then this gospel
of Christ, our sin offering, is the gospel Abraham was taught
by God when he came to Mount Moriah and put his son on that
altar. and would have taken the knife
and slain him as a burnt offering. And God said, touch not the lad,
do the lad no harm. And Abraham turned and there
was a ram caught in the thicket behind him. And God said, take
your son off the altar and put the ram in his place and slay
the ram. And the ram will take Isaac's
place on the altar. This is Christ taking our place,
suffering in our stead, suffering in our place. You see that? God
shows it all the way through the Scriptures. This gospel of
the atonement of Christ, of the death of Christ, is the gospel
seen in the tabernacle in the wilderness. Every time that the
high priest would slay a lamb and come under the veil and put
the blood of that lamb on the mercy seat. You see, the art
of the covenant was in that holy of holies. And in that art of
the covenant was Moses' law, the law God gave Moses, the broken
law. And covering that art was a gold
mercy seat, a beaten, pure gold. And over at the cherubims and
right in the middle, the Shekinah glory of God. And once a year,
the high priest would come into that Holy of Holies, not without
blood. And he would put the blood on
the mercy seat, covering the broken law. That's Christ. That's
His death for sin. You don't trust the high priest,
and you don't trust His ceremony, and you don't even trust that
sacrifice. Because the blood of bulls and
goats can't put away sin. They are but pictures of Christ.
What I'm showing you, and what I'm trying to reveal to you from
the Word of God, is there's never been but one Savior. There's
never been but one way to God, and that's by the sacrifice of
Christ, by the obedience of Christ, by the blood of Christ. That's
the only way to God. For you, me, Abraham, Isaac,
Abel, Adam, whoever, And this gospel of Christ crucified is
the gospel God taught Israel in the wilderness when they were
bitten by the fiery serpent. Now listen to me. Our Lord used
this illustration Himself. He said, As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up, that whosoever believeth in him, the lifted up Christ. should not perish but have everlasting
life." Well, the people of Israel were bitten. They were murmuring,
complaining against God's good providence. And God sent a plague
among them. Fiery serpents bit the people,
and they were dying. And God said, Moses, take a serpent
of brass, made like these fiery serpents, and lift it on a pole,
and whosoever looketh will live. The fiery serpents that have
bitten us is sin. And Christ came flesh, Christ
came down here and was made in the likeness of flesh, in the
likeness of flesh, and took upon himself our sin, and was lifted
up on a cross. God said, Believe on him and
live. Listen to the scripture in Hebrews 10. The law, the law,
talking about the ceremony law, the Levitical law, or even the
Ten Commandments, or whatever law, the feast days, or the Sabbath
days, or any other law, the law is only an outline. Read it,
Hebrews 10.1. The law is only an outline. It's
a pattern. It's a picture of good things
to come. It can never put away sin. Never, never, never. The blood
of bulls and goats can never, never take away sin. All of the
Old Testament scriptures are written to picture and to prophesy
and to promise and to illustrate redemption for sinners through
the sacrifice and substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 24, verse 44 through
47, our Lord clearly explains that to His disciples. He says
this to them, now He says, ìThese are the words that I speak to
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the law of Moses, That's starting with
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges,
right on through. In the Prophets, Joshua, Judges. In the Psalms, all these things
written in Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning me. And he opened their understanding
that they might understand the Scripture. He said, thus it is
written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer. And to rise
from the dead on the third day, that redemption, repentance,
and remission of sin should be preached in His name among all
nations, Jew or Gentile." Oh, how foolish men are. How foolish
we are. Following our human logic and
our natural wisdom, we reject God's way and we go our own way. We've all turned our own way.
And we try to make a Savior. We try to make a Savior. out
of those things which are but means, means of grace, means
of illustration, means of teaching, pictures. We take the means and
the pictures and try to make a Savior out of them. That's
the story of all flesh. Let me show you an illustration.
Turn to 2 Kings chapter 18. Now, all of you are familiar
with, and you who are not familiar with it, I mentioned it a while
ago about Moses lifting up that brazen serpent. All right, the
people were bitten. Moses made the serpent, like
God commanded, a picture of Christ, a type of Christ. Lifted up,
people looked and lived. Now, what do you suppose they
did with that serpent? What do you suppose they did with it?
I'll tell you what they did with it. They did what we'd do with
it. If we could find that lost ark of the covenant, we'd worship
it. If we could find the cross, we'd
worship it. Yes, sir, we would. Those people
took that brazen serpent down, and from that day, instead of
worshiping God, Instead of praising God, they worshiped the brazen
serpent. And along came Hezekiah in 2
Kings 18, verse 4, and removed those high places and took the
brazen serpent, took the brazen serpent that Moses had made,
and he, for it says, in those days the children of Israel were
worshiping that serpent and burning incense to it, and he destroyed
it, he'd break it into pieces, and he called it, listen, a worthless
piece of brass. And if you could find the cross
on which Jesus Christ's body hung when he bought our redemption
and died under the wrath of his father and died for our sins,
you could find that cross, tell you what you better do with it,
it's nothing but a worthless block of wood and you better
burn it or people will worship it. That's exactly right. It's
not the cross that saves, it's the Christ of the cross. It's
the one who hung on that cross. Jesus Christ is our Redeemer.
Jesus Christ is our Savior. Jesus Christ alone is to be worshipped. Jesus Christ alone is to be followed
and trusted. People today, I'll tell you what
they're doing, doing the same thing today. They're going over
to what they call the Holy Land. Nothing holy about that land.
It's Bible land. But there's nothing holy about
it. It's no more holy than any part of the state of West Virginia.
And people go over there, what they call the holy place and
the holy lands, and they bow before those shrines, and they
go to be baptized in the Jordan River. I'd just as soon be baptized
in the Ohio River, or any other river, or Frog Pond for that
matter. There's no magic in the Jordan
River. There's no magic in those shrines
over there. They can do nothing for you.
God is no more there than He is here. He is everywhere. And
that's just exactly what's happening to this generation as well as
any other. We've made a God out of means. Almighty God gave His
law to shut men up to Christ, and instead of looking to Christ,
we're looking to the law. God sent His Son into the world
by way of a woman's womb, and what have we done? We've worshipped
the woman called Mary. God gave baptism as a picture
of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and men try to
be saved by baptism. God gave the Lord's table as
a memorial of Christ and His saving work, and men have made
a sacrament out of the Lord's table, and they're trying to
be saved by the bread and the wine. The Lord God raised up
a church for His glory to preach the gospel and have fellowship
for the saints, but we've made a Savior out of the church. It's
a horrible, horrible demonstration of natural wisdom set up against
God's holy truth. Christ is the Savior. He's the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, my friends, there's one
gospel, and that's the gospel concerning His Son. And I'm trying
to be as kind and as tender and as understanding as I possibly
can be to show you the way to God. There's one gospel, that's
the gospel concerning His Son. There's one righteousness. It's
not yours, it's not mine, it's not any other human being's.
It's the righteousness of Christ without which no man will see
the Lord. In Christ judicially, in Christ positionally, in Christ
before God, we have a perfect righteousness that cannot be
questioned. And he that hath Christ shall
never be ashamed. He'll never be put to shame,
and he'll never be ashamed at Christ's coming. There's one
Savior, only one Savior, none other name under heaven, given
among men, whereby we must be saved. He said, I'm the door,
by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. I am the bread
of life. I am the water of life. I am
the resurrection and the life. He's the only way to God. Now
listen to this. There's one Mediator. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one Mediator between God and men, and that's the man,
Jesus Christ. And my friends, there's one hope,
and one hope of our calling, and that's the hope that we have
in Jesus Christ our Lord. The songwriter put it this way,
my hope is built. on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, I wholly lean on Jesus' name. His oath, His covenant,
His blood support me in the whelming flood, and when all around my
soul gives way, He alone is my hope and stay. On Christ the
solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Now I
have this message Jesus Christ, the Eternal Savior, and also
a message I'll bring next week on faith. I have this message
on a cassette tape. If you'll send two dollars as
a donation, we'll mail you the tape containing these two sermons
by return mail. Write for the message, Christ,
the Eternal Savior, and the Abraham, our example of faith. Until next
week at this same time, I pray that God will bless you, everyone.