First 7 verses of chapter 7 speaks
of the forerunner that's entered even Jesus, made a high priest,
a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priests of the Most High God who met Abraham, returning
from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed Abraham, to whom
also Abraham gave a tenth part of all." This Melchizedek being,
by interpretation, king of righteousness. After that also, king of Salem,
which is king of peace. Without father, without mother,
without descent, or that is without pedigree or lineage, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the
Son of God, he abideth a priest continually. Now consider how
great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave
the tenth of the spoil. Verily, they that are of the
sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, they
have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the
law, that is, of their brethren. They come out of the loins of
Abraham, but he whose descent is not counted from those of
Levites, he received tithes of Abraham and blessed Abraham that
had the promises. And so without all contradiction,
the less that is Abraham is blessed of the better. So he says in verse 4, you consider
how great this man was, Melchizedek, this great king priest. Now this
is a mystery to most people, but it's not a mystery to God's
people. I'm quite sure you know who this Melchizedek is. I believe and am sure that he
is, or was, Jesus Christ in person back then. One of several visits
that the Lord made to men throughout history. He whose delights, the
Scripture says, were with the sons of men. He came at vital,
at important times to speak to certain ones of God's will and
purpose. He came to Adam and Eve in the
garden. Remember? It says the voice of God came
walking in the garden. And he preached the gospel to
the first sinners. Who was that? That was Jesus
Christ, the Word, the voice of God. Who was it that gave Noah
instructions of how to build the ark? It was the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abraham, here, to bless him and
tell him of his people. Moses, up on the mount. Who was
Moses talking to? Christ is the voice, the Word
of God. Joshua. Remember when Joshua
met that man with a sword in his hand and said, who are you?
Are you on our side or on their side? He said, neither. I'm captain
of the Lord of Hosts. And Joshua hit the dirt. That
was Jesus' cry. Gideon, remember? Gideon. And other times. Because Christ
is the image of God and the fullness of the Godhead in a body. To any time it says the Lord
appeared to someone in the Old Testament, that's Jesus' cry. That's Jesus Christ. Now, we're
going to look at this type, and we have to be careful that we're
not amazed, simply amazed by this story, and rather amazed
by Jesus Christ. I hope, you know, there's a tendency
to say, wow, this is wonderful, this is amazing, and not be amazed
in glory in Christ Himself. So, all right, this Melchizedek,
verse 1, the king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, it says
he met Abraham. He appeared to Abraham. Now down
in verse 4, It calls Abraham a patriarch. Patriarch, that
means parent, the chief father. Father. Abraham is called the
father of the faithful. He's the one that the Lord appeared
to in Genesis 12, I believe it is, and told him, I've chosen
you and your seed. Remember that? He's the father
of the faithful, Abraham, in whom all the people are blessed.
The Israelites came from, the Jews came from Abraham. But this
Melchizedek came to Abraham. He came to him. Abraham didn't go to him. Abraham
wasn't looking for him. Abraham didn't even know God.
But God knew him and came to him. And this Melchizedek, the
same way, came to him and said, blessed him, verse 1. Melchizedek
blessed him. And even so, the Lord Jesus Christ
was sent by God to this earth to his people, his chosen people. Not everybody. Christ was sent. The Scripture says, Call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people. Not try to save everybody. But he shall save his people
from their sin. And Melchizedek came to Abraham. sent by God, and blessing Abraham,
he blessed those that were in Abraham. So Christ was sent to
bless, to save his people as their great high priest, like
this Melchizedek. Now Abraham was a great man.
A great man. And he's called a patriarch.
the chief of the fathers, the father of the faithful. Abraham
was an old man at this time. He was at least seventy-five
years old. He was eighty years old. He was wise. He was rich. Kings back then, we're going
to see in Genesis 14, kings honored Abraham. They knew Abraham. The
king of Sodom came to Abraham. Even kings knew Abraham. They
came to him. And even now, thousands of years
later, people honor Abraham, don't they? They honor Abraham. The Jews, when Christ was on
this earth, the Jews said, We have Abraham as our father. But
verse 7 says, without contradiction, Abraham is less than this man. Without contradiction, the less,
Abraham is blessed of the better, or the greater. As great as Abraham
was, Melchizedek was greater. Abraham came back from the slaughter
of the king. We're going to see that in a
minute. And yet, God used Abraham and 320 men, 18 men, to slaughter
kings. But when this one man came to
Abraham, Elchizedek says, Abraham, this man is greater than I am.
This is the great priest of God, king here. You remember when
John the Baptist, our Lord said there's never been a man born
of woman greater than John the Baptist. You remember that? Our
Lord said that. Never been a man born of woman
greater than John the Baptist. But when Jesus Christ came walking
up, John said, he's greater than I am. Without contradiction. He's great. He must increase.
I must decrease. He is better than me because
he was before me, and he's over me now. All of God's people know that.
There's really nobody great in comparison to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abraham owed his greatness to
the Lord Himself. He is greater than me, Abraham
said, without controversy. Alright? Abraham was called a
great man, but he was born a sinner. Abraham was born a sinner. He
was an idolater. As all God's people are born
dead in trespassancy. But God Almighty in mercy and
in grace to Abraham chose him, called him, changed him, appeared
to him. It was the Lord who made Abraham
a great man. He wasn't born a great man. Nobody
is. Everybody is born a sinner. And
it's only by the grace of God that we are what we are and can
do what we can do or know what we know or have what we have
by the grace of God. As we said before, as Scripture
said, what do we have we have not received? And man can receive
nothing except it be given him from above. And every good and
perfect gift comes from above. So nobody can share God's glory. God's glory. Nobody is great
in and of themselves. Abraham owed his greatness to
the Lord. But this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, was born great. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
the Son of God. Where is He, this born King,
the wise men say? The Scripture says He was declared
to be the Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness and
the resurrection from the dead. He was born holy. He was born
without sin. I mean perfectly, purely without
sin. Born without sin. In him was
no sin. This is what declared him to
be the Son of God. God manifest in the flesh. Never
has been a human being born without sin except this man. You consider
how great this man was. And by the resurrection from
the dead, he said, I have this power to lay down my life when
I please and to take it up again. Nobody has that power but Jesus
Christ. You consider how great this man
was and eternal. There in verse 3 it says of this
Melchizedek, he is without father, without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, made like unto
the Son of God and a priest continually forever. Who could this be other
than the Lord Jesus Christ? A man without a father and without
a mother. And this is what threw men back when Christ walked this
earth, and it throws them now. They hear about Jesus. They believe
in Jesus. They see Jesus, born of Mary,
you know, and they say, well, how can you be God? They all
had trouble with it then, they have trouble with it now. The
Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and everybody say, yes, he's
a man, he's a son of God, but no more so than you and I are.
That's what they say, that's what they believe. God's people
know, it's no mystery to them. They don't fully understand it,
how God can be a man, a man be a God, how that baby in the arms
of a mother is really the father of the mother. That that baby
who began one day had no beginning. No, they don't fully understand
that, but they believe it. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I am He, you'll die in your sin. Who? That He's who? God. Very God
of very God. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Without Him was
not anything made that was made. The same was in the beginning
with God, and without Him was not anything made that was made,
and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld
His glory as the only begotten, the only image, the only human
being, You can't really call him that,
can you? The only bodily image of God
who is the Spirit. Equal with the Father. Without Father? And our Lord said that, didn't He?
He said that to Philip and the disciples who said, Show us the
Father. He said, Philip, he that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that the Father
is in thee, and I in him?" So, we believe, don't we? We
know that He is God, though we don't fully understand that.
But He is declared to be God, without Father, without Mother,
no beginning or end. Now, the mystery of Melchizedek
remains a mystery to most. And so does the mystery of Jesus
Christ, like we said, but not to his people. We understand. that this one Melchizedek can
be no other than Jesus Christ who came to bless Abraham. And
by faith we also understand, God has given us an understanding,
that we might know Him who is true, Jesus Christ, and that
we are in Him that is true. And this is the true God and
eternal life. All right. Go to Genesis 14. Genesis
14 is where this story took place. And you'll see some things with
me that I had never seen before. Genesis 14, or at least I'm sure
my pastor preached them, but I just didn't hear it. Because
there's nothing new. Nothing new. I haven't discovered
anything, it's just been revealed to me. Now, this is wonderful. In the first
three verses, there's war between kings. Go back and read it all
for yourself later. There's war, and it seems like
every king that was in the East at that time went to war. War
between kings. Verse 4, Chidoleomer. Chidoleomer, he was the greatest
of all the kings. He was a Persian king, greater
than all the rest. And they had this battle, this
huge battle, fought in the Valley of Salt. It mentions that. Verse 10, it says this vale of
Siddam, or Valley of Salt, was full of slime pits. Now, I just want you to see something.
Verse 11, they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah. King was
captured there. And Lot was also taken captive
there in this valley of salt and slime pits. All his goods. That was Abraham's brother's
son, Sodom. We just looked at that. Now all of this is, well, let's
go on. Verse 13, there came one to Abraham
that escaped, to Abraham the Hebrew. It's the first time the
word Hebrew is used. And Abraham dwelt in the plain
of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Esau, brother of Aaron. And
these were confederate with Abraham. They came to Abraham and told
him that there's been this big battle and war and they've taken
Lot captive. Verse 15, so Abraham divided
himself against them. He had 318 servants in his house
and they came and smote Cheduleomer, this king that smote everybody.
I don't understand that. Kind of like Gideon and his men
with 300. Remember that? But Abraham with 318 men came
and defeated, slaughtered that man who took his nephew captive
and everybody else and all their goods. And verse 16 says, Abraham
brought back all the goods and brought again his brother Lot
and his good, the women also, and the people. He recovered
all. Now, no doubt Abraham is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, but here is the actual story. From the beginning, kingdoms
have come and gone. There have been many kingdoms.
This story is about many, many kings there. Kingdoms have come
and kingdoms have gone. Kingdoms over this world. And
there is a God of this world whom the Lord Jesus Christ said,
call Him that, Satan. Not a figment of men's imagination,
not a storybook character, but a real person whom Jesus Christ
said, I beheld Satan as lightning fall to the earth. Before this
world existed, there was a person named Lucifer in Isaiah 14. Christ was there and said, I
saw him. I cast him out. I was there. He was cast into this earth of
which revelation speaks a great deal of him, the beast, the dragon
being cast into the earth. Much said in the revelation about
that. Who did that? Jesus Christ, who
is King of kings and Lord of lords. Cast him out. But there is this big battle
on earth with all these kings and they are all taken captive
by this one king, Chetil Naomer. Well, that's a picture, isn't
it, of how men are taken captive by Satan at his will. He has
a little season, the scripture says, on this earth. Jesus Christ
allows him that according to his will, because he's the king
of kings. We're going to see, somebody's
coming. I've got all these kings and somebody's coming in a minute.
He's the king of kings. But he sent Abraham and his servants,
and the Lord God, the Lord Jesus Christ sent his prophets, his
apostles, his gospel, his messengers with a message of deliverance.
This is how God Almighty delivers, sets the captives free from the
God of this world, and that's by the gospel that's found in
the Old and the New Testaments. whom Abraham and his servants
represent, the prophets and apostles. God Almighty, the Lord Jesus
Christ, sends his gospel to set his captives free, to tell them
that the warfare is accomplished. The warfare is accomplished.
Now look at it. Verse 18, now here comes Melchizedek. Melchizedek. After the battle
is over, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and
wine. And he was the priest of the
Most High God. First time you'll hear mention
of a priest. Whose priest? Priest in Rome? Priest in Israel? Priest of the Most High God?
A priest is one who represents God to the people and the people
to God. A mediator. There's one mediator
between God and man. And he always has been and always
will be a priest forever, like this man, after the order of
Melchizedek. Priest of the Most High God. Melchizedek. Do you know what
his name means? Paul told us there in Hebrew.
Melchizedek, which by King of Righteousness. That's my interpretation. Melchizedek, the word means Melak,
King Sidkenu. That's his name. King Sidkenu. That's what Sidkenu, have you
ever heard that name before? Jehovah Sidkenu? Who's that? That's the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what we tell Jehovah Witnesses
and everybody for that matter. We worship Jehovah. We witness
Jehovah. Who is it? Jesus Christ. Jehovah Sidkenu, Jehovah Shalom,
Jehovah Shalem, Jehovah Raha, Jehovah Rapha, Jehovah and on
and on it goes. Melchizedek, Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness, Jesus Christ, came to this earth to
bless His people with righteousness, to fulfill all righteousness
for us. Because we are not saved by our
righteousness, by our good works. Most everybody believes that
the good people go to heaven. You can't be good enough to get
to heaven. It's not good enough. Scripture
says it must be perfect to be accepted. And we can't do that. Jesus Christ did. And He imputed
or charged that righteousness to His people. That's why He
came. The Lord, our righteousness. Here comes Melchizedek, Jehovah-segundo,
to bless Abraham. To fulfill all righteousness.
And it says he's king of Salem, verse 18. That's peace. Shalom. Peace. King of peace. King of
righteousness and king of peace. King of peace. The Lord Jesus Christ. And people
say this all the time. Oh, so-and-so made his peace
with God. You can't do that. You can't
do that. We can't do that. God who's angry
with the wicked every day. God whom we offended. God whom we've sinned against.
God who said the soul that sinneth must surely die. You sin against
God, you've got to die for it. God's holy. God must punish our
sin. We can't make peace. But Jesus
Christ did. He came and made peace for us. How? By the blood of His cross. The soul that sinneth must surely
die, so God Almighty made his soul an offering for sin. He was made sin for us, and God
said, peace. Christ made peace. My peace I
give unto you, he said. And you trust me and believe
me, and my peace I leave with you. King of peace. He brought
forth bread and wine. Melchizedek came to Abraham and
he brought bread and wine, bread and wine. Well, of all things,
what did our Lord leave with us to observe? One thing. He said, as often as you eat this,
this bread and this wine, you do show forth the Lord's glory
in His death till He comes. You do this in remembrance of
me. Bread and wine. Christ said, my body is this
bread, my blood is this wine. And here comes Melchizedek, this
great man with bread and wine to bless Abraham. That's Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ, King of righteousness,
King of peace. And it says he was the priest
of the Most High God. He was a representative of God,
the mediator, the intercessor, the one who offers a sacrifice,
just one. Before God, this is long before
Moses and the Law goes down, isn't it? It's long before Moses
and the Law. Long before God said, now here's
the priesthood, here's what you do. Long before that, here comes
Melchizedek, the great high priest. Who made him that? God did. And evidently, he's offering
up sacrifices. before the law. That's Christ, the priest forever,
who was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And
it says he blessed Abraham, verse 19. He blessed Abraham. And he
said, here's what he said, he pronounced these blessings upon
Abraham. Blessed be Abraham 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." Melchizedek blessed Abraham. Blessings, he
said, this man had the power to bestow blessings from God. This man is Jesus Christ. He's
the only one. I remember reading one time a
little. I was in somebody's house. They were Catholic. And I saw
on their wall a little certificate. On their birthday, it was signed
by the Pope. And it said, according to the
apostolic authority granted me, that is as an apostle, The court,
by the heavenly Father, I bestow upon thee heavenly blessings,
signed Pope John Paul. I couldn't believe that. I wrote
it down. I couldn't believe it. I was reading that with my own
eyes. No man has any power to bestow
any kind of blessing from God upon anybody. There's no human
being, anybody that says that, I bless you from God Almighty,
I bestow upon you blessings, I absolve thee of your sins,
I forgive thee of your sins. Nobody, no human being has that
power to do that but Jesus Christ. He said to that man sick of the
palsy, he said, Thy sins be forgiven thee. And those Pharisees who
thought, we're the ones that do that. We're the high priest. No, you're not. You're a fake.
You're a phony. They said, no one can forgive
sins but God. That's right. Nobody can bless
us from the Father except the Son. He was with the Father. Blessing. Possessions bestowed
upon. Deliverance. Deliverance. All that. Actually, what Melchizedek
did here was prophesy of Abraham. Didn't he? He prophesied. So
that makes him the prophet. Alright? Then he's the priest
and he's the king. There's never been a person in
scripture who bore all three offices but one. Hasn't. Prophet, priest, and king. Who can this be? But Jesus Christ. All right? And He's got to be the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so once in the end of the
world, the Lord Jesus Christ came to obtain peace for us and
to tell us that the battle is over. The gospel is that warfare
is accomplished. I won. It's all mine. I've led captivity captive and
I've come to bless you with this message of peace. I've obtained
peace for you like old Melchizedek. I've bestowed righteousness,
imputed it to your account. Now all you have to do is just
remember me." So that's what this Melchizedek,
that's who he is. I want you to see one more thing,
okay? Look at verse 17. Somebody else came, a king of
Sodom. King of Sodom came to Abraham. See that? King of Sodom. And it says, verse
21, the king of Sodom said to Abraham, here, give me the persons,
you take all the goods to yourself. You take all the goods to yourself. And what did Abraham do? Abraham
represents all of God's people to whom Christ comes and blesses. Okay? What did he do? He said, I don't need that stuff.
You take it. I don't want any of that. Look
at it. This is important, people. Verse
22, Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand
unto the Lord, the Most High God, the Possessor of heaven
and earth. I will not take from a thread
even to a shoelatchet. I will not take anything that
is I unless you say you have made me rich. I don't want what
you have to offer. I have just been blessed with
the blessing of all blessings. I don't need all that stuff. You can have it. Here is a test
of the true people of God. All the people of God, if you
offer them all that this world has to offer for Jesus Christ, for the gospel, which will it
be? I'll give you all the riches. Behold, all these riches I'll
give you if you just renounce this gospel. No, sir. You can have that stuff. You can have that stuff. I'll take the blessing. I've
been blessed. I've got all I need now, thank you. What do you got?
Bread and wine. food and raiment, salvation. I've been blessed with peace.
I have an inheritance, and so on and so forth. So, don't you
consider how great this man was, and is, the man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the priest forever. after the order or the
manner of Melchizedek. Q. Thank you, sir.