Let's read verses 17 through
20. The king of Sodom went out to meet
Abram after his return from the slaughter of Keduleomer and of
the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba, which
is at Kingsdale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the
Most High God. And Melchizedek blessed Abram
and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor
of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High
God which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And Abram
gave Melchizedek, tithes of all, of all the spoils. Now, why do
we look at these Old Testament pictures? Why are we looking
at them? Well, it's God's Word. We preach from the Old Testament
because it's God's Word, because Christ did. He is the greatest
preacher ever. He preached from the Old Testament. His apostles did. Our Lord, it
says, began in Moses and the prophets and the Psalms and declared those things concerning
himself. The Lord preached himself, Christ,
from the Old Testament types. So we preach it because it's
God's Word. We look into it because it's
God's Word. We look into it because the Old Testament proves Jesus
of Nazareth to be the Christ. That's why it was written, to
reveal the Christ who was to come, that when he would come,
you'd recognize him by the Spirit, of course. But you'd recognize
Him through the prophecies that told of Him, everything about
Him. And so it proves that Jesus is
the Christ. And to increase our faith, faith
cometh by hearing the Word of God. And all the Word is profitable. And it proves who Christ is and
causes us to grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. Melchizedek.
Melchizedek is the story here of whom so much is spoken of
throughout the Scriptures, so very much. If something is written
in the Scriptures once, it's vital, isn't it? It's important,
or God wouldn't have written it. If something is written many
times, it must be very, very important, something we need
to understand, right? And Melchizedek is throughout
the Scriptures, throughout the Scriptures. Now, first we looked
at Abram. Abram, who is a type of Christ. I had a hard time getting away
from this story. But Abram, as a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, there were five kings. The king of Sodom, the
king of Gomorrah, among them. And all their people. When it
talks about these kings, there were kingdoms. There were thousands
upon thousands of people. under the leadership of these
kings. When it talks about these kings going out to battle, those
kings didn't actually do any fighting. The people did. And
all these people were battling, and they were defeated. They
were captured by this most powerful king on the earth at that time,
named Ketileomer. What's the significance of him?
Why would the Lord tell us about this? Just a history lesson?
No, nothing is just for a history lesson. It's all a picture of
salvation. That's why the Lord wrote this
book, not just for information, not just to give us a history
lesson of the Jew, but as someone said once, it is his story, Christ's
story. They are they, Christ said, which
testify of me. Him who was to come and deliver
His people from sin, from the God of this world, those who
are held captive by the most powerful of all foes, Satan. It's not a fairy tale. It's not
a fable. This is true. It's going on right
now. And there's some in this room
held captive by Him. That's how vital this is. And
there's only one way and one person who can deliver. How important is it? This is
how the Lord delivers the prisoner from captivity. Right here, what
we're doing this morning. All kingdoms, all people were
taken captive by this man, Cato Leomer. As we said, it's not
a fairy tale. This is a true story. And people, the Lord wrote through
Paul, he said, if God peradventure will give someone repentance
to the acknowledgement of the truth, that they may recover
themselves from the snare of the devil who are held captive
by him at his will. And they don't know it. They hear the Lord's voice, and
He does it through preaching. He does it through this. This
despised man, through this vessel of clay. Amazing, isn't it? But that's what He did. And that's
how important it is. And it's so current. It's so
relevant. Things haven't changed. God hasn't
changed. Man hasn't changed. The way of salvation hasn't changed.
His Word hasn't changed. We still need the same thing.
That Adam and Eve meeting. Same mission. In verse 10, we
saw that there were slime pits all over this place. And the
king, Sodom and Gomorrah, it says that these kings fell in
those pits. Well, it means everybody was
in these slime pits. And this world is a despicable
place. Our Lord called it this present
evil world. It's full of slime pits, and
people are in the pit. And the only way that they're
going to be brought out is if the Lord says, deliver them from
going down into the pit. I've found a ransom. Pull them
out of the pit. Slime pits. Quicksand of sin
and the world. Verse 11. They took all the goods
of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their victuals, everything. Lots, verse
12. Lots. Lot was one of the Lords. Lot was loved by the Lord. Lot
was one of the elect. Lot was chosen by the Lord. But
he doesn't know it yet, and it doesn't appear that way yet.
And Lot made his choice. Lot exercised, as it were, his
free will. And what did he choose? If left
to ourselves, what would we choose? If offered a choice between walking
with God or going to Sodom, what would we choose? Every time,
Sodom. That's what he chose. And I say this to our young people. I say this to everyone. Choices. The lot is cast in the lap. No pun intended. The lot. The lot is cast in the lap. We're
given choices, aren't we? We make choices. And boy, they sure are important,
aren't they? The young people, the choice
you make of where you are going to live, go somewhere. And most
people go where the jobs are. They go where the opportunity
is. They go where it looks good. Like Lot did in Sodom. It looks
good there. Lots of jobs there. Is the Lord
there? Is the Gospel there? Lot prospered for a while, but
he about perished, didn't he? We make a choice, don't we? We make a choice, so to speak,
of our mate. Oh, my. And the scripture says
this so much. If you marry an unbeliever, it's
hard. It's trouble enough being married.
Trouble enough even between two believers to be married to an
unbeliever. Bad choice. It's a life or death
thing. Let's hope, let's pray, that the Lord has chosen our Lot for. That He has chosen our inheritance
for. That we are one of His chosen. Lot didn't know it. Lot was,
at this time, he's held captive, and he is miserable, and he is
in Jeopardy. His life is in danger. He doesn't know that Abram's
coming to get him. He doesn't know that. And he
thinks he's going to perish. And he's held captive by this
Ketolaon. It's a true story. He doesn't
know Abram's coming to get him. He thinks it's hopeless. But he's got a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. And Abram heard. At first he's
called his nephew. And then it says down in verse
14, his brother. Somebody told Abram, they've
taken your brother's son. But no, Abram called him his
brother. He wasn't ashamed to call him brother. Brother Lot. And they told Abram. And Abram
said, I'm going to get him. And I hope you have a brother
that's coming to get you. Because if he doesn't, you're
going to perish. Abram is going to do something
about this. As we saw, he's going after his brother. One man against
thousands? Do you know how many thousands
there were with these five kings? How many thousands? Abram had
318 men. Abram was a shepherd. Having one man with 318 servants
go after kings and do battle, war with thousands. Watch him. If God's with a man, watch him. One man. You know, there didn't
seem to be any doubt about the outcome from the beginning. It
sounded like he's going to have a lot, no matter what anybody
says. No matter the people. Oh, what
the Lord can do and does through a man that believes Him. And
oh, what the Lord did through that man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
By one man, sin entered the world. And death. And by one man, the
free gift of life. When He had by Himself purged
our sin. Abram was not going to fail. And it doesn't even sound like
he was the least bit discouraged. I'm going after the lot and I'm
going to get him back. And the Scripture says that of
our Lord, doesn't it? He shall not fail nor be discouraged.
What does that tell you about these Jesus men who are preaching
today? What does that tell you about
what they're telling people? Would that give you any hope
of Jesus? If you're in a pit and there's
some fellow who wants to come but he can't do anything unless
you let him, you're in a pit. You're held captive. You need
somebody to come get you, don't you? You need somebody to feed
your folks. Lead captivity captive, don't you? That's what you need.
You need a powerful Savior. You need a Savior. You don't
need a wannabe. You need a Savior. You need somebody
to come get you. Well, thank God we had one. And
it says he brought everything back. He brought it all back. Every bit of it. He didn't lose
a person. Our Lord said in John 17, All
which thou hast given me I have lost nothing. I've lost nothing. We've heard this before, haven't we? Oh, that's the good news.
That's how you know it's the gospel to you. You can keep hearing
it over and over again from the same fellow, and it'll still
be good news to you. All brought back, all restored.
Verse 17 says, the king of Sodom went out to meet Abram. The king
of Sodom was rescued even by Abram. This vile fellow, whatever
his name was, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, these fellows
even came out and had to bow to Abram. And every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Everyone,
kings of this earth, will bow their knee to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, all of a sudden appears this strange, mysterious
figure named Melchizedek. He appears out of nowhere. He
appears out of nowhere. He's called, verse 18, the King
of Salem or Shalom, King of Peace. After this great battle, after
this warfare and this victory for Abram, saving his brother,
appears this mysterious man, the first mention of him in Scripture,
but it's not the last. He's going to be mentioned many
times after this. Great mystery. This man came
and appeared. And he appears just a moment
in time. And in the Old Testament, there's
three verses. And another one in the Psalms,
and that's it. That's all. And you never hear
back again in the Old Testament. Until much, much later. Thousands of years later. Who
is this? Now this is not just for us to
be interested. This is not just for us to marvel
at a type. I remember one of the brethren
one time saying to me, we were talking about these types, and
he said, there's a danger. and seeing a type and a picture
of just marveling in the type itself and missing Christ. Not seeing Him, not rejoicing
in Him, not having it applied to us. But who is this man? Most do not know about Melchizedek. Most people do not know about
Melchizedek. Most don't care, if you did tell. Most people will never even hear
a message on Melchizedek, although the Scriptures are full of it.
You know how blessed we are. Most people will never hear a
message about him. Though the Scriptures is full
of it. Six times, six times in Scripture it says that Jesus
Christ will be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Six times. That Jesus Christ
will be a priest forever after the order according to the person
and the work of Melchizedek, a priest. It must be vital. Well, Abram is the first one
to meet him. He comes to Abram. Abram, who
was Abram? Abram was the father of the Jews.
He's the father of the faithful. He's the one of whom all God's
people came from Abram, or Abraham later. He's the father of the
faithful. The father of multitude. That's
what Abraham meant. And all Jews were in Abram at
that time. All the people of God were in
his loins at that time, okay? And here comes this man to Abram. And he's going to bless this
man. And everybody that's in him is going to be blessed by
this man. So he comes at first to meet Abram. That's significant. He comes and David wrote of him. David wrote in a psalm. David,
a man after God's own heart, wrote about this Melchizedek.
And Peter preached about it at Pentecost. And then Paul wrote
a whole book, we think it's Paul in the Hebrew, devoted several
chapters to this person, this glorious person named Melchizedek. Who is he? Well, first of all, he's called
the King of Salem. See that? And that means peace.
King of peace. And down in verse 18, it says,
he was the priest of the Most High God. There were no priests
yet. There's no law. Moses is 400
years later. There's no law. There's no priesthood. There's no tabernacle. There
are no ceremonies. None of that. And here this man
comes. Well, he's a priest. Who's a
priest? Not of men. God sent him. He's God's priest. God sent this
priest. What's a priest? Well, Hebrews
tells us that a priest is one who represents God to men. A priest is one who takes the
sacrifices and offers them up to God for men. A priest is a
mediator. A priest is an intercessor. A
priest is the one whom God speaks through. A priest is the one
the people go to, and he goes to God for them. He's a representative. He's a head, a covenant head.
A priest is one between God and men. We need a priest. All right,
God in the very beginning sends this man, this priest. He's the
priest of God, of the Most High God. That makes him the high
priest. He's the only one. In the very
beginning, before the law, 400 years before there's any priest,
before Aaron, before Moses, all that, God says, here's my priest. Here's the first one. And you
know what? He's the last. So Jesus Christ
is a priest forever, just like Melchizedek. Now, our Lord is
not going to be compared to any man, per se. Men are usually
compared to our Lord, aren't they? So who must this be? They're
comparing themselves with themselves, not with men. This must be Christ
himself. who, as we said, well, the scripture
said in Proverbs, his delights were with the sons of men. You
remember we did that study in the Lord's appearances, his pre-incarnate,
before he became flesh, how he appeared to Adam and Eve in the
garden. That was the Lord walking in
the garden. That was Jesus Christ, the first
sinner. The first setters at sin, the
Lord Jesus Christ, came to them, and He's the one that shed the
first blood of the Lamb. He's the one that covered them
with His own robe. He's the one that came. Noah. The Lord was going to destroy
the world. And there's only one hope, one place of safety. And
our Lord came to Noah and said, Now here's the blueprint. Build
this ark. You reckon, Kelly, he was telling
him what that heart was. You know he was. He reveals himself
to all his people, as in the days of Noah, our Lord's son.
And here Abram. He came to Abram. He came to
Joshua. He came to Gideon. He came here to Abram, the father
of all the faithful. He appears to Abram and says,
Now I am the priest. These other fellows are just
going to be like me. These other fellows are emblems
and symbols and types and so forth. I'm the true praise. I'm the true high praise. King
of peace. King of peace. The one who makes
peace. His name, Melchizedek, his name
means in Hebrew. Go to Hebrew. Turn over to Hebrew.
His name, by interpretation, Paul tells us, is King of Righteousness. King of Righteousness. Look at
that. In Hebrews 7, verse 1, this Melchizedek,
King of Salem or Shalom, Peace. King of peace. Priest of the
Most High God met Abraham, to whom, verse 2, Abram gave a tenth
part of a... Abram paid tithes to this priest. King, and it says his name is
by interpretation, King of Righteousness. And after that, King of Peace.
King of Righteousness. What man has ever held the name
Righteousness? I recall Jehovah Sidkenu, the
Lord our righteousness. No man has ever held that name. There's one who deserves that
name. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
has made unto us righteousness. His name means King of Righteousness. Now, this book of Hebrews, and
there's so much here, and oh, I've listened to two different
men preach from this and was so blessed by them. This book of Hebrews declares
that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. That's
why the book of Hebrews is written. It's a summary, from chapter
1 to the end, is a summary of what the Old Testament is about.
Why the Old Testament was written? To bear witness of Him. It begins
by saying, God, in sundry times and diverse manners, spake unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son. And it talks about Christ being
better. That's the key to the book of Hebrews. Christ is better.
He's better than Moses. He's better than the law. He's
better than error. Christ is all. He is the one
of whom all this speaks. He's the one of whom this typifies. And it declares Christ to be
the fulfillment of it all. Christ to be the subject of it
all. Christ whom Hebrews said took away the first to establish
the second. We hear these things all the
time. You know, I really wish there were some people here that
have not heard this before. Some people are under the law.
Some people that need this desperately. Our community is full of people.
The world is full of people that have not heard this. They're
under the law. Going about to establish their own righteousness.
They're sincere, but they're going to miss God because they
don't know them. Well, they're not here today.
Maybe somebody here If it gets taken, maybe somebody
will hear it in here. That's who it's for. Christ took
away the law. Do you not hear the law? Paul
said, do you not hear the law? The handwriting of ordinances
is against us. Our Lord fulfilled the law. He said to fulfill the law. He
said, I didn't come to destroy it, I came to fulfill it. It
must be fulfilled. And Hebrews declares all these
things that the law speaks of, Christ came to fulfill that law. And Christ is this great high
priest of God who must go to God for us, for sinners, and
offer up something that we need for the remission of our sin.
And it's not the blood of bulls and goats, and it's not the blood
of the lamb. It's his own precious blood.
And when he had, Scripture says, by himself purged our sin. Scripture
says, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He himself
entered into the holy place, not without blood, but with his
own precious blood, and obtained eternal redemption for us. Fulfilled
the law, and now we're not under the law. I'm not sure we understand
the blessing of that, just what that means. Not under the law.
Anyone who's under the law, anyone who's going about to try to fulfill
the law is ignorant. People that are trying to dress
like Levites, though they're sincere, they're under the law
and now they're under the curse. And Hebrews goes into great depth
to tell us that Christ, if He had been here on the earth, He
wouldn't have been a priest. He could not be a priest. He's
not from Levi. He's from Judah. Only the Levite
could be a priest. If the Son of God was going to
be a priest, He couldn't be a priest. He's not a Levite. So it must be a necessity, Hebrews
says, that He'd be another priest after Melchizedek, just like
Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek, look at this,
and there's too much here, it's too deep, it's too much to go
through in 30 minutes, my, my. But Melchizedek is a king, notice
that, and a priest. No man has ever been a king and
a priest at the same time. A couple of men tried it. A couple
of men tried it. Saul was king. King Saul. Samuel was the priest. Saul didn't
want to wait on Samuel one day, so he offered up a sacrifice.
And God got angry with him. And Samuel said, You've made
a huge mistake. You can't offer up sacrifice.
He said, Oh, that's the priest's job. You're a king, yes, but
you're not a priest. You're not a king priest. Uzziah,
remember? Isaiah loved Uzziah, King Uzziah. King Uzziah went into the temple
to offer sacrifices. And even all the priests said,
you can't do this. This doesn't pertain to you.
You can't offer sacrifices to God. That's the priest's job.
He said, I'm going to do it anyway. And they pulled him out of there
a leper. But here, this man's king priest.
Who is this? It must be the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the only king priest to ever live. Both king and priest. King and priest. And look at,
and I'm going to wrap this up. In verse, go back to, well, verse
4 of chapter 7. It says here, Hebrews 7, verse
4. He says, Consider how great this
man was. Have you ever read that of another
man in Scripture? Consider how great this man was.
No, we hear about our great God, don't we? Even Abraham gave the
tenth of his spoil. This is before the law. If you
want to know what to give, at least that. Before the law. But Abram gave him gifts. Abram gave him gifts. It goes
on to say, usually, men that die receive tithes that are there.
The greater, he said, was the lesser was blessed of the greater.
Abram is held up in high esteem by everyone. We're children of Abraham. There's
one man greater, greater than Abraham, Melchizedek. Abram saw
that. This man is greater than me. Sounds like John, doesn't it?
Oh, he's greater than me. He was before me. And look at
verse 3. It says, He was without father,
without mother, without pedigree, that is any lineage or pedigree, having neither beginning
of days nor end of life, made like unto the Son of God. Who
else can this be? And He came at this most important
time. He came to Abram. to bless him
and show him and show us through this story that he's the most
high priest and that we're blessed in him and through him and he's
the one that must go to God for us. And go back to our text in
Genesis 14 and it says in verse 19, you have it, that Melchizedek
blessed Abram. Now God had already blessed him,
hadn't he? God already told Abraham then. What need does he have
of a man telling it? Well, no, God was confirming
it by an oath. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
confirming it at the mouth of two witnesses. Father and the
Son testify. And notice he brought bread and
wine. He brought to Abraham bread and
wine before he blessed him. What did our Lord serve his disciples
before he did that great battle on Calvary's tree? Bread and
wine. And he blessed Abram. He said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth. That makes him a prophet, too,
then. Prophet, priest, and king. And blessed be the Most High
God which hath delivered thy enemies into thy hand. And Abram gave him tithes of
all. And that's the last mention of
it. Scripture says in Hebrews, now
once in the end of the world hath Christ appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself. That priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. He came in the beginning and
in the end of the world he comes again. He said, I'm the high
priest. I'm the one. Look to me. I'm
the king of peace. King of righteousness.