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And we shall begin to read at verse seven. Hebrews thirteen, beginning at verse seven. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation or the issue of their lives. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines, 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.
We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without or outside the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without or outside the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp or outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come.
By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, but to do good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased. Obey, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls that they, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly. But I beseech you the rather to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now, the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let me read that last expression again, and it would be good if we would all respond to the truth of it. Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
So be it, for this is right. The assigned theme, the assigned theme for this session is contained in the words of verse eight, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. To catch the full import of these words as they sit in the context of this epistle, we have to just take a very quick glance through the epistle. This was written, of course, to Hebrew Christians who had begun well, but because of their faith in Christ, they had been excommunicated from their religious connections and from their ceremonials, and they had turned to Christ and gone on at the beginning very well.
But when things became difficult and the dark days came, they began to look back again to the old things and ceremonies, the things that had provided for them a measure of comfort in their conscience. And there was a danger at this time of them turning back again to those things of their past life to find, they hoped, some kind of comfort again in those things. And so the letter was written to point out to them that Christ was sufficient, better than all things and persons for dealing with the matter of sin and entering into the holiest in fellowship with God.
Of course, the Hebrews had a great history of dealings with God, did they not? And so they point to that history. Did they not have a ministry of prophets? Yes, indeed they did, a mighty ministry, great men of God who were prophets. And so the Hebrews point to their prophets at the beginning of the letter here. But the writer to the Hebrews points to the creator of the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is better. They point to the angels and the mighty angelic ministry, and they had known intervention of angels in their experience.
But the writer to the Hebrews points to the Lord of the angels. He is better by an infinite degree. They point to Aaron, the high priest standing before the mercy seat, or standing before the altar. But the writer to the Hebrews points to our great high priest seated upon a throne. And they point to Moses, who is faithful in all God's house. Who could be better than Moses? Well, says the writer, what about the son who built the house? And so this argument develops through the letter that wherever they look, whatever ceremonial or wherever they might have looked in the old way of things, for comfort, for ease of guilt and conscience, for some method of entering within the veil, why the le- the writer here, led of the Spirit of God, points to Christ as the better one, as the transcending answer to the needs of the human heart, and this beautiful line of things develops through the epistle until it comes to the end of chapter ten where he seals the argument with a quotation from Habakkuk, the
just shall live by faith. Now, we don't know whether Paul wrote this or not. I rather think he did, but it doesn't matter. It was the Spirit of God, and the reason, of course, that no name of man is associated with it is because Christ is to be preeminent in this epistle. But there's something very interesting because Paul has picked that sentence up out of Habakkuk, and he wrote it to the Romans, and he said, the just shall live by faith. He puts the emphasis on the just. He wrote it to the Galatians, and he says that just shall live, live by faith, and he put the emphasis on the life. And the Spirit of God took it and wrote it to the Hebrews, and he puts the emphasis on the faith, and he says, the just shall live by faith.
Then follows those three magnificent chapters, eleven, twelve, and thirteen. Now, Hebrews eleven, we know, is the great faith chapter, and Hebrews twelve is the great hope chapter, and Hebrews thirteen is the great love chapter of these, of this wonderful epistle. Now, chapter eleven ends where faith ends, faith as we know it now ends, in the caves and the dens of the earth. Chapter twelve ends where hope as we know it now ends, with our service for God down here. But chapter thirteen, the love chapter, where does it conclude?
In the glory forever and ever. For we have learned that faith and hope shall cease, but love abides. Now, chapter thirteen is a magnificent chapter. It's the love chapter. It begins with the note of love. Let brotherly love continue. And there are eleven exhortations in this chapter, and if we had a week of meetings ahead of us, it would be a delightful study. These eleven exhortations are divided into two. There are four that are directed to the mind and seven to the heart. The uh four that are directed to the mind are easy to pick out because they're associated with the word remember or forget not. And the reason our mind is called to activity with regards to these four exhortations is because they have to do with the kind of people that we are more likely to forget.
Don't forget the prisoner, don't forget the stranger, don't forget the elder, and don't forget the poor. And then seven exhortations come to us, directed to the heart. And there's an exercise, if these exhortations are carried out, there will be an exercise of love expressed in different ways. And this brings us to one of these exhortations in verse seven. Remember them. This is one of the exhortations directed to the mind. We're told to remember them which have the rule over you, or the pioneers, those who have taken the lead, those who have gone before us.
They may include spiritual elders in our context, but remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end or the issue. The word really is the issue of their lives. The Lord Jesus Christ was the issue of their lives. Everything that they did and said and thought and the whole outflowing of their life had this one great objective. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Some objective. We are living in a day of diversion and a day of distraction, and it is a master ploy of Satan to divert the minds and hearts of the people of God away from Christ.
He does not matter how he does it. It doesn't matter, he doesn't care how he does it. He may divert them by holy things. He may divert them by service. We know he diverts as often by sin and other things, the pleasures of this world, sport, or whatever, anything at all, so long as Christ is not central, transcending, and preeminent in the life. Dr. F. B. Meyer said in one of his books, in all believers, Jesus is present. In some, he is prominent, but in others, all too few, he is preeminent. And the question must rise up in our hearts.
Is he only present, or is he prominent, or is he preeminent in the life? In chapter twelve, there is an exhortation, consider him, lest you be wearied and faint in your mind or soul or heart. In other translations, those three words occur at the end of that verse. And I suppose it could be any of them. But there is a danger of the Lord's people fainting, giving up before the end of the race, because we are not Christ oriented in our thinking and in our objectives.
For a few minutes, as the Lord will help us, let us consider him. There is no higher occupation of the human soul, no more enlivening exercise of the mind, no more moving occupation for the human heart than to consider the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us consider him then in the context of the verse, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Consider him, first of all, as the foundation for stability upon whom we rest.
By faith in his unchanging character. And this will preserve us from error. We read in verse nine, be not carried about with diverse, various, and strange doctrines. If ever there was a day when there are various and strange doctrines, it is the day in which we live, especially associated with the person of our beloved Lord Jesus. And this is a day when elders are to be wide awake and sensitive and aware of what is being said publicly in the ministry of the word from the platform in our assemblies, and have the discernment and the courage to do something about error.
We were talking about this, I think it was the breakfast table or with a few. Uh, there's a brother who came over from Ireland. His name was Sam Jardine. His father had a church, uh, preached in a church there, very large congregation, and he was a very godly man, very sound in the word of God, and he... They were very careful about the men who would do any public preaching, and uh, one man was recommended to them very highly, and he was invited to preach, and so he stood up and he read the scriptures, and Mr. Jardine's father was down near the front in the audience. And when the brother finished reading the scriptures, his brother Jardine spoke up from the audience. He said, excuse me, brother, do I detect coming in your message baptismal regeneration?
Well, said the preacher, um, yeah, yes, uh, yes, I did have something like that in mind. Well, said Mr. Jardine, while you're packing your Bible bag, we will stand and sing, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. The students sang, and the rafters rang, because that man had the courage to put his finger on an error before it got out of his feet. Now, brethren, I think we've come to it again. We have to do this. And those who stand upon their feet to public minister, I tell you, it makes us tremble, and it ought to. For those who do so, the scripture says, speak as the oracles of God. And once we get away from the scriptures, then we're on very dangerous ground.
Jesus Christ the same, let us consider him as the foundation of stability. Oh, what a wonderful. In times like these, we have an anchor. What a great thing it is when everything is shifting. Earthquakes, explosions, Mount whatever you call her up there, Saint Saint Helen, is it? These are but physical evidences of a tremendous moral and spiritual uncertainty. There is no anchor, no stability, there is nothing solid in this world, but the believer has a strong foundation. No other foundation can be laid than this.
The Lord Jesus Christ, we discover, is that great foundation. The Lord said one day in Matthew's Gospel, chapter seven, therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken them to a man who built his house upon a rock. And when the rains descend and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, it fell not, for it was founded on the rock. The Lord Jesus says, I will liken that man. I will liken that one to a man who built his house upon the rock. The foundation of Christ, the strong, solid foundation, unchanging in days of uncertainty.
As the object of loyalty, consider him as the object of loyalty unto whom we gather. By love for his sacrificial ministry, we read in verse thirteen, let us go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. There are two very key words in the middle of that text, and it's this, unto him, unto him. This is a theme that we could follow right through the scriptures from the very beginning. God is the great objective. And I repeat, the enemy is in the business of diverting us.
And if we gather to a man, or gather to a system, or gather to a method, or gather to an organization, we are not gathering unto him. He is to be the great objective, the object of loyalty unto whom we gather, and this will preserve us from wandering. It will give us direction. I wish we could spend a little time on this. Time forbids that we go into it very deeply, but let me just leave one or two things for you to think about. In Ezekiel chapter forty four— we didn't turn to these scriptures, just very briefly refer to them. The Lord was going to relight the candle, the lamp of testimony in Israel again.
And he was going to reestablish the form of ceremonial worship. To do this, the Levites had to be recalled again to minister, as was their duty. But many of these Levites had been involved in idolatry at the altars of, uh, idol worship when the children of Israel went away from God. But some of them were faithful, and so the Lord said in his grace, the Levites will still be permitted to minister to me. At least they shall not come near unto me to minister, but they shall minister to the house. But he said, the sons of Zadok, who kept their charge, they shall minister unto me.
Notice the two directions of ministry there. The one is ministry to the house, but the other is ministry to God himself. Now that is the privilege that you and I have been given. We are called to minister unto him, and that is the highest and holiest exercise of the human spirit. Worship is that exercise. To minister to him in worship. The word worship is a beautiful word. It's the word that means to kiss towards. And it speaks of affection, of allegiance, of loyalty, of obeisance. And you remember that the Lord had to rebuke Simon long ago, who made a feast at some cost and sacrifice, and he said, Simon, thou gavest me no kiss.
And it would be a very sad business if we got home to heaven with lives full of service and all kinds of activity, to hear the Lord stand and say at the bema, yes, Nicholson, you were very busy, but thou gavest me no kiss. Beloved, we have to get our values and priority right. First, it must be God. We're all crying out for revival. How does it come? It does not come by shouting hollow hallelujahs. It does not come by shouting praise the Lord and jumping up and down. That is not how revival comes. According to the scripture, there is a principle for revival. Here it is.
Malachi said it. Bring all the tithes. Malachi wrote it, but the Lord said it. Bring all the tithes into my house, that there might be food in my house. I'm, I'm just misquoting that, so rather than misquote it, I'm going to look it up. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
Now there's the principle of revival. God must get his portion first. It is first unto him, and when he gets his portion, stand back and look out, for the windows will be opened and the blessing will come. It is the inevitable process of God's plan and purpose. So we are called then to loyalty to Christ, his name alone, not the names of men, be they ever so noble. Luther, Knox, Wesley, Darby, or whoever, great and godly men, but we do not identify ourselves with the name of a man.
We do not identify ourselves with the name of a city, be it Rome or Plymouth. We are not to identify our names with a system of church government, be it one thing or the other. There is one name, and what a name. Why should we be satisfied with a name that is less? And we are called here in Hebrews, we are called to four movements of increasing intensity. Come out. Out from what? Out from the systems of men where Christ's lordship is denied.
This was the problem in the Hebrews. Christ's lordship was not acknowledged. And this camp, as it's spoken of here, was the system of ceremonial religion, of things instead of Christ. Holy things, be it so, but still not Christ. He says, come out. And the second movement is, go forth. There must be a clear-cut separation, and this is a word we need to preach again. It's a good Bible word, because this is why Christ died. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people, separate them unto himself.
He, with his own blood, he suffered without the gate, that he might have a people walking the face of the earth that are separated from sin, from the world, and from the ecclesiastical systems of man's own religious imagination. Out to him alone, in lovely simplicity and honesty and loyalty, we are to come out and we are to go forth. That's a very clear renunciation. Unto him, a positive identification, bearing his reproach. Now, what is the reproach of Christ in this context?
It's the reproach of not belonging, not belonging to the accepted systems of men. It's often my occasion to cross the international border. As I go through, they ask me a few questions. Where are you going? How long will you be away? What is your business? Oh, I'm a minister of the gospel. What church? They've got to have a name. It is impossible for the natural man or the carnal man to think of a company of people who are identified only with the living Christ. There must be a human organization. What church? And I'm not going to sit there with a line of twenty cars behind and give him a dis- dissertation on church truth, but I give him a biblical answer.
We are called then, it is the reproach of not belonging to the accepted systems of men, and there is a reproach to that. There is a reproach to that, and dear brethren, there are some among us who don't want that reproach, and we still want to belong to some organization. God deliver us, because God is calling us here out. Of not belonging, it's the reproach of not remaining near the system. He says, I want you to go forth to him, and it's the reproach of not identifying ourselves with the name of a system that is contrary to the mind and purpose of God. So we have to consider him as the foundation of stability upon which we can depend.
As to his character, the Lord Jesus is absolutely dependable, and this will preserve us from being blown around if we are right in the doctrine of Christ, if we are settled in the truth of Christ, that is the greatest preservative from error. We do not need to study all the aberrations of cults and systems and other religions, but we are to be occupied with Christ, and if we are taken up with Christ as the center and the source and the sure foundation, that will be the preservative from error among us. And we are to be occupied with him, consider him as the object of loyalty unto whom we gather out of love for him and of loyalty to him who died for us, and this will preserve us from wandering.
And consider him also as the power for ministry and service through whom we serve. Notice verse twenty again. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ working in the person. I heard a man say once, the Christian life is not difficult to live, it is impossible. It is impossible for us to live the Christian life as God intended it to be lived.
Only one can live the Christian life as God means it to be lived, and that is Christ himself. And that's why he wants your body and mine to live it in, so that Paul could say, and would that we all could say it as he did, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So he is the power for the ministry. It is not my own dead works. There's a great deal of Galatianism among us again.
Having begun in the spirit, we seek to be made perfect in the flesh. And it is only not what is done for Christ that will last, it is what is done by Christ that will last. And through these members of ours and through these bodies of ours, the Lord Jesus longs to make himself known to the sons of men. This, of course, will preserve us from wasted lives. In verse fourteen, there is the suggestion that it is possible. Uh, verse seventeen— it is possible that the report of some believers' lives will be given not with joy at all, but with grief.
Dear Christian, it is a solemn thing to think about it, but it is a fact. All of us are saved by grace, but not all of us are saved from disgrace. There are some whose souls are saved, but whose lives have been lost. One of Scotland's greatest preachers finished his days playing a fiddle on Princes Street in Edinburgh with a begging bowl. You say, can that really happen? It did happen. And I think we have to live not in craven fear and trembling, but with the conscious knowledge that there are enemies, there are dangers, the allurements of the world, the wiles of the devil, the weakness of our own flesh, and we are not able to cope with these by ourselves.
It is only Christ in us, and so long as we are oriented and occupied with him, we will be preserved from wasted lives. The same yesterday. What yesterday? Oh, the commentators are all a little divided on which yesterday the writer is referring to here, but let's just take it in the context of the Hebrew epistle. The yesterday of the eternal existence of the Son. Now, the testimony of scripture to the eternity of the Son of God, the yesterday of eternal days.
We have to use words like days and time because we're time oriented. It's very difficult for us to speak of eternity without referring to time in some way or another. But eternity is not just time extended to infinity. Eternity is quite different from time. But we have the yesterday of the eternal ages, the eternity of his sonship, which is being, of course, attacked in the day in which we live. What is the testimony of scripture? Ephesians one verse three and four, we read, with regards to the pre-temporal past of the Lord Jesus. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.
Now those two, uh, words, hath blessed and hath chosen, are both past tense, and they both relate to an action of the Father before the foundation of the world. If there is a Father, there has to be a Son. God cannot be the Father without there being a corresponding Son relationship. Isaiah nine verse six: unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. He was a son when he was given. Colossians one thirteen to sixteen, it is said of him there that he created the world, that everything that was made was made by him.
And who is this one? The son. Again, in Hebrews one, it is the son who created the ages of time. So before there were ages of time, there was the Son, the Creator. We could follow through many other scriptures in the book of Proverbs. What is his name and what is his son's name? And in Luke chapter one, we read the word coming to Mary, uh, he shall be called the Son of God. That is his name. It was not simply a title as son, but his name was the Son of God.
Luke chapter one. And he himself said in John chapter three and also in John chapter one, the Son of Man which is in heaven. And because we are time creatures, it's hard for us to understand this thing of endless, beginningless, topless, bottomless, infinite eternity, the vanishing point of the ages. Ages of ages, says Darby in his translation of the word eternity. The term only begotten sometimes gives us a little difficulty because we think of it in human terms and the begetting of children.
But when it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ, it does not imply either only one, uh, that is the only child, that's not the em- the emphasis here, but rather it is the relationship that is involved. And when we read the word begotten, it doesn't mean what we think of it in the terms of begetting a child. But this, in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, is only used five times in the New Testament, and it's always John who refers to it. But the idea behind this expression, the only begotten, speaks of the one who is the peculiar and exclusive object of the Father's love.
The word firstborn, again, is a difficult word for us. The cults have taken it and misused it, misunderstood it completely, and it is also only used five times. Never do we read firstborn son, but the firstborn with relation to things created, the firstborn of all creation, in relation to the resurrection, the firstborn from among the dead, in relation to the church, the firstborn among many brethren. And this expression, the firstborn, doesn't really mean that he was the first to be born, but rather he is the firstborn because he is first when everything else came into existence.
But it is in relation to creatures, the first. The priority of the Lord Jesus Christ is a very important and interesting subject, and the Lord Jesus spoke to John on the Isle of Patmos. He says, I am the first. That means that he was the first in point of time. In other words, the Lord is before us in the order of life. We have to wait through the process of the revolution of this earth and its path through the heavens till we reach tomorrow.
But the Lord doesn't have to wait for that. He is already in tomorrow. He is in that realm, eternity, and he doesn't have to wait in the procession of the planets to reach tomorrow. We have to do that because we are locked into time. And the Lord Jesus can say to his sheep, my sheep know my voice, and they follow me. They follow me. That is, he is up ahead in the experiences of life, and he undertakes for us.
Dear Christian, this is a tremendous comfort to us, that the Lord is already ahead of us in tomorrow, and he is sorting out the path that we will take, making sure it is not too rough, too steep, or in such a condition that we can't handle it. He is already up ahead. In point of time, he is first. But in order of experience, he is first before us in the experiences of life. Sorrow. Loneliness. Dying. The Lord has gone before us in those ways.
He has gone through the valley, and he knows every shadow of the valley, and he knows every darkness that is there. He is first in order of rank. That is, he is over all and above all. And he is seated on the throne room of the universe. And therefore, we need not fear the unknown future. He is first. Therefore, he is the same yesterday and today and forever as the one who perfectly satisfies the Father's heart as his own beloved Son.
It's a wonderful thing to think that in the universe today, there is one person who fully satisfies the heart of God the Father, and that is his own beloved son out of the eternal ages. Perhaps we have to consider the yesterday of universal creation as the Lord. Had we read in chapter one, verse two, we discover that this one who is the Son, yesterday, in the yesterday of creation, he created the ages of time. It's an interesting thing, time and eternity.
These are very interesting subjects, but, uh, I just want to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. There was time before there was a sun. The evening and the morning were the first day, but there was no sun yet. That was not solar time. And there will be time after the sun has passed away, the ages of ages. Eternity for us will not be timeless, it will be timeful. Only God inhabits eternity, with neither beginning nor ending. He alone inhabits eternity in an, in an unmoving presence, shall we say, for want of a better word, but we are time creatures.
We began in time, and we'll process through this solar time until we die or are taken out of it, and then we will enter into the eternal ages of ages that we read about in the scriptures. Each of these ages will be characterized by themes of worship and praise and service, which will honor and glorify God. We discover some of these things in Ephesians chapter three. He laid the foundation of the earth. He is the one who set it in place. He hangeth the earth upon nothing. I love that verse. Another scripture that thrills me is, he made the stars also.
My favorite star is Antares, low in the southern sky on a summer evening, you can pick it out, right in the center of the constellation Scorpio, a pink star. Find it some night, and when you see it, just bow your head and worship the God who put it there. Three hundred and ninety times the size of the sun, so that we could slice it open like a ball, we could put inside that star our sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and close the lid, and those planets could continue their orbit undisturbed without touching the outside edge of that single star. And that's only one star, a moderate star in the heavens, for there is Origae out yonder, two thousand seven hundred times the size of our sun, and of all the stellar magnitude, and all its vast dimensions that stagger our minds, the Bible says, the work of his fingers, the work of his fingers.
He calleth them all by their names. He telleth the number of the stars, and who put them there and who holds them there? My Savior did it. He hangs, he holds them together by the word of his power with such meticulous laws that man can hook his little satellite onto those laws, and they will take him right to the moon and back. Right to the split second, and those were created, brought into existence by our beloved Lord. Therefore, as the one who created the ages of time and laid the foundations of the earth and spread the reaches of space that have staggered the minds of the physicists, physicists.
He is the sovereign one, dear Christian. The Lord Jesus is really in charge. He is the one who sits upon the throne of the universe, and there's one verse that never ceases to thrill me when I read it. In First Peter chapter three, in the last verse, we read, Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. I love that verse. And when things look as though they're falling apart, remember they may get out of our control, they may get out of the control of the White House, they may get out of control of London or Moscow, but things will never get out of his control.
He has them all in his hand, working out his eternal purpose. May I just take a minute and tell you a p- personal story that greatly impressed me with the truth of this verse. First time I was visiting our brother Bill Deans out in Nyankundi. My mother's, my wife's mother passed away to be with the Lord while I was in Africa, and I desired, of course, to return home as soon as possible. The letter had taken two weeks to reach me. My mother-in-law was already gone and buried, and I wanted to be home. To make the arrangement, rather than going the long, torturous route down through Kinshasa, over a thousand miles away, with waiting at every spot, I was able to get a ride on a missionary aviation flight out of Nyankundit to Entebbe, Uganda, in the days when President Amin was throwing the Asians out of the country and giving them so many days to get out and one suitcase to go.
Just before we were due to leave, three days before we were due to fly out, word came through that no foreign aircraft were to be permitted into Uganda airspace at the risk of being shot down. Nevertheless, we felt we had to go. The pilot did have a piece of paper, but it's hard to wave a piece of paper to a flying jet going by trying to shoot you down. But anyway, we set off. We couldn't raise Entebbe on the radio until we got to about forty miles away, and finally they gave us a court permission to land. We landed with a sigh of relief, dragged our luggage. The pilot, a lady missionary with a little sick baby, was going to meet some friends and be joined by her husband there in Kampala, and the pilot was returning to Nyankundi with a load of children coming back from school.
And so we got inside, and I went to report to the immigration, and he furiously demanded that, uh, we leave the country immediately. Well, I said, sir, that's exactly what I want to do. As soon as I can get a flight to London, and there was one that night on the South African Airlines, I said, I'm going out tonight. He says, you go get out the country the way you came in, and you'll be out by two o'clock or you'll be arrested. Well, I could believe him. The place was crawling with armed soldiers and police. I thought that was a good time to pray. So standing by the desk of the immigration officer, the widow, the, the lady missionary, and the pilot and I, we bowed, and I prayed aloud and claimed the promise of First Peter chapter three.
Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subject unto him. I didn't point, but that's who I meant. And, uh, the lady was taken away by friends who met her there, and the pilot loaded up his load to go back to Zaire, and there I was sitting, waiting on something to happen. Well, something was happening, the time was going on. And about one thirty, thereabouts, I saw a jet coming in. I read its, uh, insignia on the side, British Caledonia Airlines. Now, Caledonia is another way of saying Scotland. I didn't know whether that was a nomen or not. But anyway, I said to the man at the desk, where is that aircraft going?
He says, going non-stop to London. I said, put me on it. He says, I'm sorry, this is a non-scheduled stop for fuel only. Strong headwinds have risen up between here and London, and they have to top up the tanks so they can go non-stop to London. In any case, he says, I have the passenger list from Nairobi. There are one hundred and eighty six seats on that plane, and there are one hundred and eighty six passengers with a lot of children, and there's no room anyway. Well, I said, would you put my luggage on? Yes, I'll put your luggage on. So I felt a little more mobile without my luggage, and I saw them take it out and put it on, and a few folks came off to refresh themselves and go into the store. I suppose, and I thought this may be an opportunity for me.
So I made my way towards the gate, and I stood by the gate until they got the call to reboard, and when they got the call to reboard, I stepped in behind them and started for the plane, waiting for the shout. Nobody stopped me. I had no ticket for that aircraft. I had no boarding pass. And I got to the top of the steps. I was waiting to be challenged by the stewardess or someone, but there was nobody there. So I stepped on the plane, walked up the aisle looking for that one important seat, and it wasn't there. The place was crowded with children all over the place. I stepped through the first class, and a crew member came out of the, the flight deck, and he said, can I help you, sir? I said, I'm just looking for a seat. He said, where was your seat?
I said, I didn't have one. I just got on here. Oh, sir, he says, I'm sorry, you'll have to leave the aircraft. We are not permitted to take passengers. This is only a fuel stop because of the situation. There were a few seats that were empty, marked with op- occupied tickets, but one had no occupied ticket on it. And I said, what about that seat right there? Well, he said, uh, he said it's supposed, we're supposed to be full. Well, I said, if it'll cost a little more, I'll be glad to pay. He says, if that seat is open, he says, sir, you won't have to pay any extra. That greatly pleased me. He went down to the end of the aircraft, and I was sitting there for about ten minutes, I suppose, and I had a thump that sounded like the door closing, and he came back, he says, I don't understand it.
We were supposed to be full when we left Nairobi, but the seat is empty, and we can't wait any longer. It's yours. We rolled down the runway, and I could feel the clunk of that undercarriage coming up. For an old pilot, that's a beautiful feeling. And especially that day, as I looked at my watch, it was two o'clock. Angels and authorities and winds and airlines being subject unto him. Dear Christian, he's really in charge. Let us not manipulate our circumstances and get second best or tenth best. Remember, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday with Abraham and today with us and will be forever.
He is the sovereign one, the creator and sustainer of the ends of the earth. The yesterday of the Jewish dispensation, maybe that was what the writer was referring to. The yesterday of the Jewish dispensation as the Christ, not the Son, not the Lord, but the Christ. What is the Christ? That is the word that is the translation, really, of the anointed one. In the Old Testament, there were three important classes.