"New Year's message 1997"  
 
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever." (Heb.13:8)  
 
There are some texts which haunt the preacher.  
 
They are too great to preach on, and yet too great to omit.  
 
Here is one of them.  
 
When you announce it, you strike a magnificent chord which echoes all the music of Divine Creation, Revelation, Redemption, the Morning Stars singing together, the Patriarchs, the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of the Martyrs, the glorious company of the Apostles, and the Music of that Last Day when "The Kingdoms of this world shall have become the Kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ".  
 
High up on the mountainside, overlooking the ancient city of Antioch, is a cavern where, according to tradition, the early Christian Disciples used to meet, and where Peter preached to them.  
 
Standing in front of that cavern one looks down upon this city with its mosques and minarets, its markets and bazaars, and the Orontes river, cold and gray from the snow of the mountains, flowing rapidly through the city and under the Bridges.  
 
That River has been always changing from hour to hour, from day to day, from year to year, and from age to age, like the Humanity which has crossed those Bridges from the days of Chrysostom down to the present hour.  
 
But the mountain which looks down upon it is just the same as when Peter and the first Disciples in Antioch met there to break Bread and praise the Name of their Redeemer.  
 
So Christ looks down upon the ever-changing stream of Human History.  
 
But Christ is the same, "yesterday, and today, and forever.”  
 
The major theme of the Book of Hebrews is the Immutable Christ.  
 
The Author first of all, contrasts the changless Christ with the changing Universe.  
 
"They shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they shall all wax old as doth a Garment; and as a Vesture Thou shalt fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail."  
 
Then he contrasts the Immutability  of Christ as a Redeemer, a sacrifice for sin, with the changing procession of the high priests, who once in the year, on the great day of Atonement, went behind the Veil of the Temple to sprinkle  the blood upon the Mercy Seat.  
 
But Christ is the Eternal Priest, who "through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself on the Cross, once for all, to bear the sins of many".  
 
Then the Author contracts the changing Kingdoms of this World with the changless Kingdom of Christ.  
 
These Kingdoms are shaken down that the "things which cannot be shaken may remain, for we receive a Kingdom which cannot be moved".  
 
And finally he contrasts the changelessness of Jesus, as a Friend and Teacher and Companion, with the ever-changing friendships and associations of this life.  
 
He calls the role of the Heroes of Faith, from Abel down to David and Samuel.  
 
These all, having served their Day and Generation, disappeared.  
 
By this time too the Christian Disciples had lost in death many of their friends and loved ones, many of those who had spoken unto them the Word of God - and not a few of them no doubt had died the Martyrs Death.  
 
It is in this particular connection that he declares, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever".  
 
Here then is a text for The Coming Year.  
 
In the midst of the swelling Flood, the ever-rolling stream of time, let us lift  our eyes to the Eternal Christ, Immutable in His Person.  
 
"The same yesterday, and today, and forever".  
 
All that He is today, He was yesterday.  
 
All that He was yesterday, He is today.  
 
All that He will be tomorrow, He is today.  
 
All that He is today, He will be forever.  
 
"The same yesterday."  
 
How far back that takes us!  
 
Before the mountains where brought forth, or before He had formed the Earth and the World, Christ was the same.  
 
He was the same when the Morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy.  
 
He was the same when Abraham rejoiced to see His Day, and Moses wrote of Him.  
 
He was the same when Balaam, apostate but eloquent prophet, standing on the mountain peak in Moab, cried out: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold Him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel". (Num.24:17) 
 
He was the same when David sang of His Everlasting Kingdom.  
 
He was the same when Isaiah painted that masterpiece of His suffering and His triumph.  
 
He was the same when the Star halted over Bethlehem.  
 
He was the same when "He was transfigured in Glory on the Mount", when he was betrayed and denied and spat upon and crowned with thorns and hung upon a Cross between two Thieves and Murderers.  
 
He was the same when "He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven" and "Poured out The Holy Spirit on the church".  
 
He was the same when the dying Stephen saw "Him standing at the Right Hand of God".  
 
He was the same when Paul and John and Peter and Chrysostom and Augustine and Luther and Spurgeon and Moody declared His redeeming Love.  
 
He was the same when your Father and Mother told you of His Love.  
 
He was the same when you gave your heart to Christ.  
 
The same today that He was yesterday, the same yesterday that He is today  
 
Christ never changes!  
 
Which one of His Sayings has become obsolete or outmoded, no longer applicable?  
 
Which one needs revision?  
 
"Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name"?   
 
"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"?  
 
"Lead us not into temptation"?  
 
"Judge not, that you be not judged"?  
 
"It is more blessed to give then to receive"?  
 
"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God"?  
 
Which one of these Sayings is obsolete today?  
 
No; Christ has stood the severest of all Tests, the Test of Time.  
 
What He taught in the streets of Capernaum, He teaches in a thousand villages today.  
 
What He taught in Jerusalem, He teaches in Los Angeles, in New York, in London, in Paris, yes, right here in Thousand Oaks.  
 
As long as the heart has passions, as long as life has woes, the Words of Jesus will speak to the soul of Man.  
 
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."  
 
When John saw Him in his great Vision on the Isle of Patmos, standing in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks, with the Seven Stars in His Right Hand, and His Countenance flaming like the Sun, and fell at His Feet as one dead, Jesus lifted him up and said, "Fear not; I am the First and the Last: I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and I have the Keys of Hell and of Death."  
 
Today a struggling, suffering Mankind wants to know who has the Keys.  
 
Education does not have the Keys.  
 
Science does not have the Keys.  
 
The political Leaders and Statesmen do not have the Keys.  
 
Only Christ has the Keys!  
 
Today again we hear His Voice as He confronts the weary Nations: "I am He that lives, and was dead;... And, behold, I... have the Keys".  
 
"I am the way".  
 
"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power, and Riches, and Wisdom, and Strength, and Honor, and Glory, and Blessing".  
 
There, then, is the Eternal and Triumphant Christ.  
 
When we preach Him, we preach the Eternities.  
 
This is the Christ for you and for me.  
 
He is the same yesterday.  
 
He is the Christ for your yesterday.  
 
Have there been failures, mistakes, transgressions?  
 
Are there things you would like to forget and have blotted out?  
 
Here then is the Christ for your yesterday.  
 
Hear what He says: "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."  
 
"As far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed our transgressions from us."  
 
"Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."  

He is the same today, He is the same for your today.  
 
You have your fears, your burdens, your disappointments, your loneliness,  your sorrows, your infirmities, your thorns in the flesh or in the spirit.   
 
He is the Christ for that today, He is able!  
 
"Cast your burden upon the Lord".  
 
"Come unto me”, He says, “and I will give you Rest". 

"He is the same forever".  
 
Here is the Christ for your tomorrow.  
 
Who can tell about tomorrow?  
 
Tomorrow is hid from us; but whatever tomorrow brings, wherever tomorrow takes us, we can pass into that unknown Territory in safety and in peace, for He will be there to meet us.  
 
He has said, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you".  
 
"Lo, I am with you always"!  
 
And so as we stand at the threshold of another year, let our hearts be fixed in God, and remember that "In Quietness and Confidence is ours Strength!"  
 
And as the song writer expressed it, when he wrote "I don't know about tomorrow, I don't seem to understand, but I know Who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand..."   
 
I encourage you, all of you, "Just to put your trust in the Lord!"  

With this Ella and I wish you all a very blessed New Year!