By Rev. Robert Elder, D.D., Rothesay (Preached in Free Gaelic Church, Greenock on 15th October 1876 on the death of Rev. John MacRae).
“The words of the Lord,” says the Psalmist “are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” But there are some statements of Divine truth so glorious and comprehensive that they seem to include all the elements of faith and hope. Such is this brief and comprehensive verse, on which I wish, depending on God’s grace, to fix your minds and my own for a little this afternoon. It forms, as you will notice, what I may call a golden link between the exhortation going before and the warning that follows. In the verse preceding, the inspired Apostle exhorts the believing Hebrews steadfastly to follow the faith and holy conversation of their leaders, who had, by God’s grace, finished their course with joy. And in the verse following he warns them against strange doctrines and false leaders, whereby in the time to come they might be deceived, to their great injury. So he places this grand Gospel testimony in the midst, as if to tell them and us that we shall find in it — in the truth of this text — the one great secret of steadfastness in following the Lord and those who by faith inherit the promises, and at the same time the ground, from which, if we be Christ’s, we must never be moved by any doctrines or guides whatsoever. Such is the manifest connection in which this statement of Divine truth occurs; and, now, humbly looking to the Lord for light and strength, and for His blessing, let me fix your attention, in the first place, on the Subject of this testimony; secondly, on the Doctrine which is taught here concerning it; and, thirdly, on the great practical Lessons which we are called to learn from it.
I. A few words, in the first place, on the subject of this testimony — “Jesus Christ.”
I pray you, my dear friends, to observe that it is not the doctrine of Christ which is here spoken of, nor the spiritual experience of Christ in us, but Christ Himself, the grand object of faith — Jesus Christ in the glory of his person and offices — the sum and substance, I may say, of the glorious Gospel.
We have on the one hand, in this text, the grand mystery of the person of Christ, as we always have where the full name “Jesus Christ” is given in Scripture. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus;” “She brought forth her first-born son and he called His name Jesus.” By this name He is proclaimed to us as very man — bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh: as the holy prophet of old declared, “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” But also Christ the Anointed and Sent of the Father — as Martha testified, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.” Therefore this name or title declares His previous existence as the Son of God, His eternal Son, one with the Father in nature, counsel, and operation. So in that very passage already quoted, in which He is revealed to us as an infant of days, we find that remarkable testimony also to his supreme Divinity, quoted from the Prophets, “Behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us.” And in the beginning of our epistle you remember how it is stated, “God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds:— the brightness of His glory and the express image of his person.” I say we have the great mystery of the person of Christ set before us in this name or title, “Jesus Christ.”
Again, we have the glorious office of Christ presented to us by the same word, “The one Mediator between God and men.” Thus, in the passage quoted from the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel we read that by God’s will and appointment he was called Jesus. Why? Not merely to show that He was very man, but because “He shall save his people from their sins.” Again, he is called Christ, because, as he says by the spirit of prophecy, afterwards applying it to Himself, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord anointed me,” the Messiah, the Christ, “to preach good tidings to the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” He is the chosen Head of God’s chosen and redeemed people in the covenant of grace, the anointed Prophet, Priest, and King of his church and people. There is the grand object of faith; there is the comprehensive subject of my text, briefly set forth, as revealed to us in these two words, “Jesus Christ!” Oh, for that shining in the heart which would give us such a spiritual apprehension of this glory of His person and office, that we would be enabled to say with those of old, “We beheld His glory” — “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
II. Let me direct your attention particularly to the doctrine of my text concerning Jesus Christ the Saviour.
We may read the verse, not so much as part of the foregoing one, but as a distinct statement of Divine truth. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” When we look at the connection of this statement, as already explained, we may observe an interesting aspect which it bears towards the Hebrew Christians in particular, to whom the Apostle wrote this great epistle. He bids them in the verse preceding remember those who had spoken to them the Word of the Lord, and follow their faith and conversation — such men as Stephen and James, who, having served their generation, had been taken to their eternal rest; and then in the next verse he warns them against false guides and strange doctrines, whereby they might yet be tempted and harassed. But, ’tis as if he had said, Jesus Christ was all and in all to those faithful leaders of the Church. He was the constant subject of their testimony. He was the grand and only source of their strength and victory — “the author and finisher of their faith.” And, now, be assured, that what He was to them yesterday, so He will be to you to-day, and ever more, if you trust in Him, and through grace cleave to Him as they did with purpose of heart. “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” My dear friends, this is to us as well as to the Hebrew Christians, and the statement implies higher and more impressive views than even that which I have just now indicated.
1. Let us look at the general doctrine set before us in these words of my text.
Some explain them as referring to the different dispensations which God has given in his church, and as declaring that Jesus Christ has ever been, and that he ever will be the Head — the same under the Old Testament, now of “yesterday;” and under the New Testament, “to-day;” and, on, on to the consummation of all things — “for ever.” Others put it in this way: He was the same in His life on earth, “a Man of sorrows,” always going about doing good, as “yesterday,” and now “to-day,” in glory, sitting on the throne; and, evermore:— the same in his humiliation, in his exaltation, and for ever in respect of the glory of his person and his office. Perhaps the highest view of all is, that it presents Him to the faith of his people mainly in the Divine glory and unchanging excellence of his person. He was the same in the past eternity, as it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;” — the same also is He in this day of the world’s history; — and the same will He be in the coming eternity, for ever. It reminds us of that great testimony which we have concerning him in the first chapter of this book where quoting from the Psalms, it says in the tenth verse, “And 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.” So he revealed himself to John in Patmos, when he heard the Lord’s voice saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending saith the Lord.” And, again, “I am the first and the last, the living One; and I was dead and behold I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” All these views are true, and, when combined, serve in some small measure to bring out the glories of this grand object of faith. They may help us by God’s blessing to regard him, and that is the general doctrine of my text, as the Saviour of his people, unchanging, everlasting, and Divine.
2. Let me now try to illustrate this great general truth by two or three particulars.
His Person as the God-man
And, first of all, although it implies some repetition, I put in a sentence the fundamental truth of Christ’s unchangeableness, in respect of His person as the God-man — God manifest in the flesh. As revealed in man’s nature, he passed through marvellous changes, as you know, from the manager in Bethlehem, on through labours, and sufferings, and death, up to the mediatorial throne. But, here is the great truth — that the intrinsic glory and excellence of his person were ever the same amid all these changes; and that hence the infinite merit and efficacy of all that he did and suffered as the surety and substitute of his redeemed people. My dear friends, whatever we may know or discuss, this is the great foundation truth of the Gospel; the sure and immoveable ground of hope for poor sinners, believing in Christ, and united to Him by a living faith.
His Relation to His Church and People
But, I observe next, that He is the same from first to last, all through, in his relation to his church and people. This is a fundamental truth also. When he dwelt with men on the earth, he showered down blessings on the evil as well as on the good, curing all manner of diseases, and going forth in works of benevolence far and near; and now in this world of sin, this world so provoking to his holy Majesty, there is a free offer of salvation sent in his name, even to the chief of sinners, wherever the glorious gospel comes.
Oh, we say to the worst enemies of Christ, “To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts;” “Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” and we go forth in his name with the freest invitation. But let us never forget this — and it is often forgotten, and many think to magnify the grace of God by hiding it — that the Lord Jesus Christ has a church and people given him by the Father, with their names written in his book of life, in whose eternal salvation “He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied.” So he says, “I have manifested Thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:” “Thine they were and thou gavest them me.” And we find him in another place saying, “And this is the Father’s will that sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.” He undertook in the counsels of eternity, and came in the flesh to obey as a servant, and to suffer as a sacrifice for sins, all as the head, surety, and substitute of this church and people, bringing in for them an everlasting righteousness, according to the terms and provisions of the covenant of grace.
Yes, but here is the point — that covenant is perpetual; it never can and never will be broken. The federal relation between Christ the Head and his people never can be changed. He is “the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever” in this blessed relation to His own. Ah what a fundamental truth is this! He says, “Incline your ear and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live;” “And I will make with you an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David.” For in the same prophecy it is written, “The mountains may depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.”
His Thoughts and Intentions Towards All His People
Then, again, He is “the same, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever” in respect of His thoughts and intentions towards all his people who trust in him. There is a wonderful variety in the Lord’s dealings towards his people. Often they are staggered and confounded by the changes which come over them, in respect both of their spiritual and temporal condition. Sometimes the Lord manifests himself to them, and they walk in the light of his countenance; sometimes he hides his face from them, so that they cannot behold him; sometimes crowns them with the tokens of his grace and faithfulness; and at other times casts them into the furnace of affliction. Oh, but He never changes, and that is the grand truth, in his thoughts and intentions towards the people who are his, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end;” as if he had said, I will take my own way of bringing that about, but will surely do it. Often his church and people are tempted to think it is otherwise. Zion hath said many a time in her unbelief and impatience, “The Lord hath forgotten me; my God hath forsaken me;” but you remember the gracious rebuke in the next verse where he says, “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” And in connection with the institution of the supper, you remember it is said of the Lord Jesus, “Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” He bears the names of his people, as their great High Priest, on his breast-plate and his shoulders — their High Priest within the veil and before the throne; and, as it is said in this same epistle, “He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
His Suitableness and Perfect Ability to Save
Once more: He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,” in His glorious suitableness to our case, and perfect ability to save. We may have loving and very dear earthly friends who have not the ability to do for us according to their wish, and who, at the best, alas! continue not, by reason of death. So it is with all earthly props and stays; but there is never any shortcoming, nor any lack in the work of Jesus Christ, our surety and Saviour, nor in the saving application of that work to his church and people. Time would fail me fully to illustrate this position, and I shall only glance at some leading truths implied in it. Thus, his sacrifice as a sin-offering for his people is perfect for ever, so that it never needs to be repeated, and therefore it is written, “The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” There is nothing else needed — “from all sin.” Then, again, His surety righteousness is entire, is everlasting, “Christ the end of the law for righteousness.” See! “the end,” the entire fulfilment of the law, so that it can claim nothing more; can claim nothing from the sinner, believing in Christ, to complete his ground of acceptance, and foundation of hope. “He is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,” aye, from the days of righteous Abel on to the calling of the last elect sinner upon earth. And, further, all supplies of grace, according to all the several circumstances of his people, are laid up and are sure in him, as the Apostle says in another epistle, “In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily: and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” But consider what is implied in that last statement, as illustrated by the Saviour himself and his Apostles. He has the gift of the Holy Ghost for his people and church — the seven spirits of God, as it is expressed in the Book of Revelation. He is the Head of his people, effectually calling and uniting them by his Spirit to Himself as the living Saviour, working in them true faith, opening their hearts, sanctifying and comforting them, and fitting them for glory, honour and immortality. And, moreover, what a fulness of truth is included in this declaration, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He has the reins of universal Providence. All things are in his hands, and he is “Head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” And so it is written by the prophet Isaiah, where he bids all who hear, and who are drawn to think in faith on these things, “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.” And therefore it is written by the Apostle, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose;” and even in regard to the sharpest chastisement and suffering it is said, “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
III. Now let me offer a few remarks on the third and last part of my subject, viz., the great practical lessons which we ought to learn from the doctrine which I have thus imperfectly explained.
I have already pointed out — and there is a great lesson implied in that — that this declaration of truth concerning Jesus Christ casts light on the foregoing exhortation and on the following warning. It is like the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness to guide the people in the way, and also to guard and defend them from the enemy.
1. But let me say in particular:— Surely the people of the Lord — those who have fled for refuge, who have given their hearts to Christ and closed with him by a living faith — should learn from it (and may the Lord in mercy teach us) the great duty and privilege of cleaving in all circumstances to this glorious, unchanging Saviour.
My dear friends, be sure of this:— Your hope, your strength, your comfort, your security, your holy fruitfulness, and your eternal life, are all bound up in a believing apprehension of this grand truth — “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” You will remember how the Lord puts it by his servant Malachi — “I am the Lord, I change not” — you poor changing ones, often wandering, stumbling, and falling, take notice, “I change not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” That is the only ground of your sure hope. “Because I live,” saith the Lord Jesus, “ye shall live also.” Oh friends and brethren, if in your hearts any of you have really — as I do not doubt you have — embraced Christ, and committed all to him, I exhort and encourage you, depending on his own grace and strength, as Barnabas did the converts in Antioch, “that with purpose of heart ye would cleave unto the Lord.” Ah, be sure of this, all your springs are in Him — not in man, not in any experience you have had, but in Himself. Thus only will you follow the conversation of those who have gone before and who are up in glory; — thus only will you be guarded against what is false, and vain, and misleading in the world. That is what the Lord Jesus teaches: “Abide in Me and I in you; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me.” And what precious encouragement is there in the truth that He has Divine sufficiency, and also perfect human sympathy towards all his people. He is our life and our all, and His faithfulness shall never fail, as he says — “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
2. What a loud and urgent call is there from this subject to sinners under the Gospel, hitherto impenitent and unbelieving.
My friends, it teaches you very plainly, and the Lord give you to lay it to heart, that there never was at any time — that there is not now, and that there never will be, any other refuge and Saviour for sinners but Christ — Jesus Christ here set forth. Never! “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved.” Oh, bethink you, this one glorious Saviour freely invites you if you will hear his voice. “I am the door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” “Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely.” “Come, for all things are now ready.” These are His words, and we are his humble ambassadors beseeching you in Christ’s stead, “be ye reconciled to God.” What madness to trifle with such a Saviour, whose grace is so freely offered! Think of that solemn question in this epistle, “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Oh! ponder also, that testimony in the first chapter, as applied to Christ, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom; Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity.” He is a precious and unchanging Saviour to all who come to him. Yes, but remember, he is a glorious King and Judge as well; unchanging in his hatred of sin, and in his firm determination to punish the impenitent and unbelieving when they come before the judgement seat. Oh, how will you appear before him in your sins, and with the aggravated guilt and condemnation of having rejected his offered mercy? “Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little; blessed are all they who put their trust in Him.”
3. A word now to souls trembling under a sense of sin and apprehension of condemnation; hearing the Gospel, but fearing that the hope of it is not for them.
Well, if there be such here, the Lord knows them; and this is what I preach to them in his blessed name. You say, Not for me! not for me! my sins and provocations have justly excluded me. But, dear friends, surely there is Divine light and consolation for such as you in this word — “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” He received the worst of sinners when he was upon the earth; he saved the dying thief dropping into perdition; he plucked Saul the bloody persecutor as a brand from the fire; and be assured there is no change in Him, nor in his grace and all-sufficiency. Still he speaks in the same gracious strain to you and to all who hear, “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”
4. But I hasten to observe, lastly, that we should learn from this subject the true hope and security of the Church and cause of Christ.
Often his people are perplexed and at their wits’ end because of the craft and power of the enemies of Zion, and because of the weakness and insufficiency of Christ’s servants. But the hope of the church is here — “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” You remember that touching word of old Jacob when the time of his end drew near, “Behold I die, but God shall be with you.” So the servants of the Lord die; for here we have the treasure in earthen vessels, frail, brittle, and perishing. But the great High Priest, the glorious Minister of the sanctuary, ever liveth, being “consecrated for evermore” — “made a Priest not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.” “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”
In conclusion, I need hardly say that I have been led into this train of thoughts, and indeed to the choice of this subject of our meditations, by the solemn circumstances in which I have been called in providence to address you to-day. We mourn the loss of one who during a long ministry was honoured and beloved above many, and whose labours were singularly blessed in the Lord’s vineyard. Suffer me to say in a word that my own acquaintance with our revered friend and father who is gone has extended over a period of nearly forty years, and that I count it one of the greatest privileges of my life to have enjoyed so long his Christian friendship. I cannot look back on the occasions of our intercourse without feeling — the Lord give me to feel it in the right way — that I ought to have learned much from the fellowship of one so spiritually-enlightened, and so eminent in spiritual gifts.
His great natural powers and strength of character would have raised Mr M’Rae to influence in any circle wherein his lot might have been cast. But when it pleased God, in his early manhood, to arrest him in a worldly course (as he himself often testified) — in his course of ungodliness, though not of open sin, — to call him by his grace, and, after a long and sore struggle, to reveal his Son in him, and to give him peace in believing, and good hope through grace — all his great energies were consecrated to the service of Him who became all in all to his soul. No one could have intercourse with him without recognising the strong grasp of his mind, the soundness of his judgment, his great practical wisdom, the depth of his knowledge and experience in Divine things, and his single-hearted zeal for the honour of Christ, and the advancement of His cause in this evil world. I do not hesitate to say, after a pretty long life and ministry, that I never knew a man, in my judgement, more thoroughly honest in purpose, more upright in character, nor of more undaunted courage in the Divine Master’s service. And yet his whole spirit and demeanour were marked by modesty and deep humility, so that none would be more ready than he to take the language of the Apostle as his own, “To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
Of his great and valuable services to our beloved Free Church I cannot here speak particularly. At the Disruption period he was, as I can testify from personal recollection and experience, a great power in the North and in the West, in expounding and defending, as few men could do, the glorious prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ as the sole King and Head of his church, the independence of Christ’s church with reference to civil authority, and her sole subjection to Him and his laws in spiritual things; and also in vindicating the blood-bought privileges of his church and people. Perhaps there was no minister who exerted a more commanding influence, in leading the minds of the people to clear views of duty, during that eventful crisis.
Then, his unwearied toil and endurance afterwards, of which I can also speak from personal knowledge, in forming congregations, building up the Free Church in the scattered districts of our Highlands and islands, and, often in the cold winter of those regions, ministering to thousands who, up to that time, were destitute of the Gospel of the grace of God, time would fail me to describe.
And, further, his unflagging zeal and earnestness in preaching the Gospel, in maintaining the sound scriptural principles of our Church, and in promoting the cause of Christian love and unity in our own Church, and among the friends of Christ throughout the land, even when old age and growing infirmities admonished him that the end was near; these labours will cause his memory to be cherished with love and gratitude in this town of Greenock, and in many districts throughout the West and the North, where his visits were ever welcome, and were greatly blessed. I believe, my dear friends, to close this part of my notice, that there never has been, and that there could not be, a more thoroughly loyal, intelligent, devoted, large-hearted, God-fearing champion of the Church and her cause than our honoured and beloved friend, now departed.
But it was, let me say in a word, as a preacher of the glorious Gospel of the grace of God that he stood forth pre-eminent among his brethren. You in this place need no testimony on this point from me; and I trust that there are not a few now present who have a witness within of the power which accompanied his ministry. I shall never forget the clearness and power of his preaching, and especially at his communion seasons, during the years that he laboured in his full strength here. Oh, how he magnified the free grace of God as the one fountain of life and salvation to sinners! How skilfully, and yet how tenderly, did he expose the depths of man’s sinfulness and helplessness. How he was enabled to exhibit the glory of Christ in His person, and offices, and finished work, and kingdom; and while proclaiming the free and urgent offer of the Gospel to perishing sinners, to set forth, as few men could, the grace and power of the Holy Ghost in all his saving operations!
I, for one, don’t hesitate to say that I never heard preaching to excel it, in respect of life, of tenderness, and of power. His last public effort, as I understand, was a pleasing, precious illustration of his whole character and ministry. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd” — I believe that was his subject — “He shall gather the lambs in His arms and carry them in His bosom.” One felt, in listening to him, that here was truth drawn from the fountainhead; that the preacher believed, and therefore spoke. My dear friends, let me tell you it is no light responsibility that attaches to those who have been for years under such a ministry, as many of you have been. The Lord grant that it may prove a saviour of life unto life to your souls, and not a saviour of death unto death to some whom I now address.
I say these things, dear friends, not, I hope, to exalt the creature; but while offering my humble tribute to the memory of one whom I truly respected and deeply loved, I would magnify the grace of God which shone forth so conspicuously in his servant. But I must close. “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,” — taken him away as a shock of corn fully ripe; — “blessed be the name of the Lord.” When we think of his laborious life, his unceasing labours, and his many cares, anxieties, and trials, from first to last, how sweet, how appropriate do these words seem, “There remaineth a rest for the people of God.” “Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them.” The Lord comfort, sustain, and bless his sorrowing family in this day of their distress; and the Lord grant that we who remain for a little season — it will not be long with any of us — may be stirred up to “work while it is called to-day,” and by God’s grace may be ready when our call comes. “Oh, Lord of the harvest,” I would say, let us say it together, “Thou knowest our need; send forth labourers into Thine harvest.” “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, for the faithful fail, from among the children of men.” Our hope is in Thee, thou gracious Lord and Saviour, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” May God add His blessing, and to His name be all the praise. Amen.