All right, we can turn to Hebrews,
the book of Hebrews. Let's ask the Lord to help us. Our God, our Father, in the name
of Christ, we come again. We ask that you would open your
words to our understanding. Give us ears to hear. hearts to receive in this attended
minds for a little while, let us watch with thee for a little
while. We pray that it might be to your
glory and for our good in Christ's name. Amen. Okay, we'd better
not be dull appearing. These are things hard to utter. These are things hard to make
simple. They're not simple things. So I hope you'll ask the Lord
from this very moment on to grant you an attentive mind. Now, the
apostle began talking. Back in chapter 2 of Hebrews,
about the high priest. Look at it. Chapter 2, verse
17. Apostle Paul began talking about
the high priest in verse 17. I hope you've been blessed up
to this point. He says that, speaking of Christ,
it behooves him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, made like unto his brethren, a man. But he's more than a man, and
he's a better priest than anyone that's ever been. He's a different
kind. This is what the whole book of
Hebrews, the theme of the book of Hebrews, is how much better
Christ is. He's better than the angels.
He's better than the priests. He's better than Moses. He's
better than religion. How much better, how much better
off we are with Christ only, Christ as our all. Christ, high priest, better than
all the rest, verse one. Chapter three, verse one, holy
brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, believers, consider
the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.
And there, the rest of this book is devoted to considering the
high priesthood of Christ. It's a difficult thing to expand. It requires attention. A high priest. Chapter 4, look
at chapter 4, verses 14 and 15. It tells us we need a high priest. We need one. God hasn't changed.
God's worshiped the same way. You've got to have a tabernacle.
You've got to have a high priest. You've got to have a sacrifice.
And these three are one. We've got to have a high priest,
Paul said. We have to. Look at verse 14. See him then
that we have. Not just any old high priest. He's a great one. A great high
priest. Where is he? Well, he's not in
the temple in Israel. He's not in a cathedral in Rome. He's sitting at the right hand
of the majesty of our high priest. God's got to approve of him,
accept him, accept what he brings on our behalf. We got one. He's
a good one. He's great. He's sitting right
now at the right hand of God. Where he ever lived, he's going
to stay right there. Well, chapter five, verse one,
says, Every high priest is taken from among men, ordained for
men. That's Christ. Verse five and
six, Christ didn't make himself a high priest, but God said,
Thou art my son, today have I forgotten thee. And as he said in another
place, Psalm one ten, Thou art a priest forever. After the order of, or after
the manner of, according to, this Melchizedek." Now, look
over at chapter 6, verse 19. He says, We have a hope. Oh,
the hope is set before us. Verse 19, We have an anchor of
the soul. both sure and steadfast, which
entereth into that within the veil." He's within the veil,
all right. And he's the forerunner who's
entered for us, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek, after the order of Melchizedek. All right, now, here we are,
chapter seven. All right, here we are. Four, who is this Melchizedek? What's this all about? Why is
he so important? How come he keeps saying this? All right, let's read verse one
and two. Four, this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the
Most High God, who met Abraham, returning from the slaughter
of the king. and blessed Abraham, to whom also Abraham gave a tent,
or a tithe, part of all. This one, Melchizedek, first
being by interpretation King of Righteousness, Melchizedek,
and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace. Who is this? What's this all
about? Now, let's go back to the story, OK? Genesis chapter
fourteen. We need to read this, or look
at this story. This is what Paul is alluding
to, about this king, this one, named Melchizedek, who appeared
to Abraham. All right, got it? Genesis fourteen. Now, the story here in Genesis
14 is about the battle of kings. This whole story here is about
a bunch of kings getting together to do battle against one another,
this king and that king. And Lot, you remember Lot? Lot was the nephew of Abraham,
and he was right in the middle of all this. He was captain. He was taken captain. by some
of these evil kings of the earth. And Abraham, you know, was sent
to rescue. He went and rescued his nephew
Lot. Well, at this battle of kings,
all these kings got together, and lo and behold, the king of
kings appeared. Look at verse 18. Now, Abraham coming back from the slaughter
of the kings and had a lot with him. And verse 18, now here it
is. Here comes another kid. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought
forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most
High God. He, Melchizedek, blessed Abraham
and said, Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, Possessor
of heaven and earth, God, the Possessor of heaven and earth,
and blessed be the Most High God which hath delivered thine
enemies into thy hand. And Abraham gave Melchizedek
this king, tithes of all." He gave him a tenth of all. All right, now you can turn back
to the text. That's the story. Okay? It said there that he was
king. And then it said, and. And he's
king. And. And it's no small and there. And he was a priest for the Most
High God. Now, you know, there's never,
ever been one before. Never been a king priest. No,
not before Melchizedek, and not since Melchizedek. Some of them
have tried it. Remember King Saul? That's the
reason the Lord rejected him. He was king all right, but he
went and made a sacrifice, and that's when God rejected him.
to be a priest, didn't wait on Samuel who was the priest, remember? Remember King Uzziah? King Uzziah? Isaiah said, when
King Uzziah died, I suffered King Uzziah was a king. Remember,
he went in to make a sacrifice unto God. He tried to play the
part of the priest, didn't he? What happened? God smote him
as a leper, and he died a leper. And Isaiah said, I saw the Lord.
Holy. There had never been a king priest
before. Can't do that. You only have one office. God made men either a king or
a prophet or a priest. Has never been one who's one
of both or all three, but one. Just Melchizedek was one. King,
priest, and he best Abraham, he promised. Prophet, priest,
and king. Who is it? He can't play that
part. He can't be just a type. Can
he? Nobody takes that on. Nobody. Who is it? Prophet, priest, and
king. No ordinary man, Paul says here. He says, now you consider how
great this man was. Look at verse 3. It says he, well, verse 2. His name is, by
interpretation, Malki Siddek, which means king or king of,
Malki, king of See that righteousness. Now, is that king of see that
word? See that? It's used another time
over in Jeremiah, 23 verse six. This is the name which they will
call him the Lord, our see that kindred. The only other time. Lord, our right
to see that means the right, the right, the right thing. This is what he's the king of
right. The priest right people. You may think that come down
to heart. Religion policy in particular. I mentioned it right. I'm not
nearly as hard as the old Puritans, Reformers, and so forth. That's
what the Reformation was all about, to come out from under
the bondage of that pagan religion. But have you ever seen this in
front of a man's name? The Rite? Reverend? Where do you think they got that? Be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be
right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be
right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right, be right,
be right, be right, be right, be right That name I just quoted
from Jeremiah 23, 9, the Lord our righteousness, the
right, the righteous one. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only righteous one.
He's the only prophet, priest, and king. And Paul goes to great
lengths throughout this book of Hebrews to talk about he's
the only priest too. There never has been really but
one priest, one high priest. Never has been. And since Jesus
Christ came, the rest of these birds are out of business. There
are no more priests. We've got one. Why would you
settle for a pinhead when you've got the potent text sitting at
the right hand? Why would you settle for sitting
in a little closet when you can go to the throne of grace? He's
better. He's a whole lot better. Why
would you settle for a man who can't do anything about his own
sins, let alone yours, when you can go right to the God who can
put them away? That's what this is all about.
That's what all these chapters are about. We've got a high priest.
He's a great one. He's better than all the rest.
He's better than Levi, better than Aaron. He's the Lord our righteous.
His righteousness is better than any one we could ever try to
attempt to make, produce. Ours is a filthy rag full of
holes. The robe he wraps us in before an all-seeing God, even
God can't see through that. It covers us. Is that making
it plain? He's just the right one that
I need. See that? Well, he's a king of
righteousness, and it goes on to say he's the king of peace. Oh, he is our peace, Paul wrote
in another play. He is our peace. He hath obtained
peace for us by the sacrifice of himself, not a lamb, himself,
that actually obtained peace with God. And God's not angry
with me anymore. Not because I'm a good boy, but
because He's the High Priest. He's the Lamb of God. All right.
Verse 3 said, now, He's describing this Melchizedek. He's without
father. He's still talking about this
Melchizedek. Without father, without mother. without descent or pedigree,
didn't come from anybody or anywhere. Sounded like he just always had
been. Had neither beginning of days
nor end of life. Well, he's made like unto the
Son of God. Who is this man? He's the same. The same priest
today as he was yesterday, and forever, who abideth a priest
unto Abraham. Well, you know what he brought?
What did he bring to Abraham? He brought two things, bread
and wine, of all things. What does that mean? What does
that stand for? Bread and wine. Well, that's
the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it represents. He's all we need. Don't need
to go through any rites whatsoever. He's the rite. Don't need to
go through any ceremony. Doesn't have to sprinkle water
on us and say so many words over. Just bring us Himself. Bread
and wine. Eat me. Believe me. And it's
counted on you for life. You'll be blessed. Take this
bread and wine, you'll be blessed. That's it. That's it. That all? That all he brought?
That's all you need. That's all you need. Bread and wine. That's a picture
of Christ's perfect life and his shed blood for the remission
of our sin. All right, when did he do all
this? He did it before the law. Before the law was given, Moses
came. Moses was after what happened. The law wasn't written yet. Abraham wasn't circumcised, but
he was blessed. He received a blessing. That's a picture of the law.
It can't bless us, nor is the law binding upon us. Christ is
our high priest before the law. Well, let's go on. I've got to
go on. Verse four. Now consider, verse four, how
great this man was, this Melchizedek, unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of spoils. Consider how great. The patriarch
means chief one, chief father. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful, isn't he? Paul went to great lengths in
Romans to talk about the faith of Abraham, didn't he, Victor?
How that Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness. But these things were written
not for his sake, but for ours too, if we believe. It's imputed
unto us for righteousness. Not other works of the law, but
faith, like Abraham. There was no law yet. There was
no law yet, but he met somebody who was a law unto himself. He had a high priest before the
law. All right? And consider how great he was.
Verse 5, Verily, they that are of the sons of Levi, these priests
who received the office of the priesthood, have a commandment. Now, God ordered that the priest
were to take tithes of the people, according to the law. You remember
that? The priest couldn't own land.
Well, he's a different priest, all right, isn't he? He owns it all. The earth is
the law. Well, they couldn't own land
and property and all that, and the people brought tithes to
them, freedom, according to the law. That is, of their brethren,
though they come out of the loins of Abraham. I hope I don't get
confused here. The Levitical priest, he's talking
about the Levitical priest. Now they weren't, Levi wasn't
born yet. Just Levi wasn't born yet. Abraham is the father, the
grandfather of Levi. Levi, the sons of Jacob, you
know. Twelve tribes. Well, the priests
weren't born yet. And Abraham came, all right,
read on, verse six, he whose descent is not counted from them
received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had to promise
it. All right, the Levite, the Levitical priest came out of
Abraham, those were the priests that God ordained. And they were
supposed to receive tithes from the people. But they weren't born yet when
this Melchizedek received tithes from Abraham. So in other words,
all the priests and everything was still in the loins of Abraham.
Moses, still in the loins of Abraham.
All of those, in a sense, by Abraham, the representative,
gave tithes to this one man. All the priests put together
that ever came, every Levitical priest that was ever born on
this earth, Aaron, all of them, Moses, all of them, Abraham included,
they all gave tithes to this man, wasn't they? All of them
gave a tenth back to this woman. Who is he? He's a great man,
all right. He's not just a man. He's the
God-man, like unto the Son of God. All right? Verse six, now it says, Abraham
received blessings. He was blessed of this man. He was blessed. Verse seven, and without contradiction,
without all contradiction, without a doubt, the less is blessed
of the greater. If you'd ask them who the greatest
of all the patriarchs are, and not just Jews, the Muslim world,
you know who they consider the father of their faith? Father
of Ishmael. You know him? Father of Ishmael.
Abraham is their patriarch. Uh-huh. That Mecca over there,
where they go and pray, that has something to do with Abraham.
Stone has something to do with where Ishmael was, and God came
down and blessed Ishmael and Hagar. Remember that? All of
that. Great man. Great. But this man
had to be blessed by this Melchizedek. Abraham, the greatest of the
greats, father of the faithful. He needed to be blessed by this
fellow. Melchizedek blessed him. He came to Melchizedek for Melchizedek
to bless him, or he wouldn't be blessed. Who is this Melchizedek? He's great. He must be great.
He's greater than Abraham. Yeah. Yeah, he and Abraham rejoiced
to see his day. And he saw it, and was glad. He came back from that battle.
And he was weary and need refreshing, and here this great one came
to him and gave him bread and wine, bread and wine, and was
blessed by him, and confirmed the covenant to him, the blessings
of God upon him. Who is this? Who is this? He's
Jesus Christ, that's who he is, Jesus Christ. He's not only a type of Christ,
this is Christ. This is Christ. This was a bodily
appearance of Jesus Christ, no doubt in my mind whatsoever. No doubt about it. All right,
let's keep reading. Verses 8 through 10. All right,
he says, now here, men that die, that is, these priests that die,
every priest that has ever lived has died. We don't know if you hear me
and that I received but there he received them. Abraham or or that is Melchizedek
received of whom it is said. It is witnessed that he lived
and he's a priest. We read that in Psalm 110 that
he's a priest forever. If you're a priest forever, you
can't die. You've got to live forever to
make intercession for the people. You've got to live forever. You've
got to live forever. You can't die. We can't die. It's Christ. Read on. Verse 9. And as I may,
so saith Levi also, who received the tithes. He paid tithes in
Abraham. And he was yet in the loins of
his father when Melchizedek met him. That's what we were just
saying, that all were in the loins of Abraham and paid tithes
to this Melchizedek. And he goes on to say that Christ
is not just another priest, and Christ does not continue this,
the old priesthood. Oh, no. He doesn't come from
Levi. He didn't come from Levi. He
didn't receive the same orders to give us from Levi. He's not
a priest that's of the order of Levi. He's a different priest.
He comes from a different tribe. This is what we're going to get
into now, all right? Look at verse 11 and 12. Now, if therefore
perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, under it the people
received the law. The law, the commandments, the
ordinances, and so forth. Now, if perfection came, if that
was the perfect way, then what did we have in need of another
priest for? Read on, verse 11. What further need was there of
another priest who should rise after the order of Melchizedek?
Why didn't he just call after the order of Aaron? Levitical. Aaron came from Levi. Why wasn't
he just a Levitical priest? Verse 12. Priesthood being changed,
there is made of necessity a change also of the law. Are you with me? Now, this is
really, this is hidden. This is a great revealing of
the law. Isn't it, brother? The law of priesthood has been
changed, therefore the law of the priesthood has been changed.
Change in the law. And like I said, Christ didn't
just come down and continue the Levitical priesthood, circumcision,
priesthood, ceremonial laws and all that. No, he put that away.
When he came, he said, and he fulfilled all that as a faithful
high priest should. Every jot and tittle of the law,
but then when he did, when he made one sacrifice, he said,
now, all that is done. Done with. No more. What about the slaver? No. No. Done with. Circumcision. No. I'll do the
circumcision. You don't circumcise yourself.
I'll do that. And it's on the heart. You can't
operate on your own heart. I'll do that. I'm about to saddle.
I kept that. Now I'm your saddle. Change the
heart. You see all these things? Incidentally,
here's a little message. Infant baptism is just a continuation
of this covenant theology or circumcision, so to speak. And
there are no more priests, no more high priests offering blood.
It's all changed. Change in the law, all fulfilled,
all righteousness. Romans 10 verse 4 says, He's
the end of righteousness to everyone that believes it. He's the end
of it. Changed. Changed. Christ didn't come from Levi.
He didn't come from Levi. He changed that, too. Now, if he isn't having company,
Christ didn't need him. He's a priest forever after he
was made a priest. He comes from another tribe,
and this is important. Everything's important. He comes
from another tribe, the tribe of the peace, the king peace
tribe. Look down here in verses 13 and
14. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another
tribe. He comes from a different lineage,
of which no man gave attendance at the altar." Nobody in this
family were priests. It's evident, verse 14, that
our Lord sprang out of Judah. Judah. The line of the tribe of Judah. Judah, of which tribe Moses faith,
nothing concerning the priesthood. Moses didn't say anything about
anybody being a priest out of Judah. Judah, kingly tribe. That's where kings come from.
Judah's kingly tribe. And Christ is king. No king came
out of Levi. And he's the priest. And the
scripture says, listen, We're shallow in a place. We're shallow, peace, same word
shadow. That's where the when Jacob was
blessing his sons, he said, concerning Judah, he said, the scepter shall
not depart from Judah. He'll shadow the king of peace
from his law. The king of peace and the king who's
the priest. All right, here's more evidence of who this is.
Consider how great this man is. Consider our high priest. We've
got one. He's a great one. Verse 15, it's yet far more evident
that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another
priest, evident in all these things, who is made who is made,
or declared, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but
after the power of an endless life. These earthly priests were
made priests by anointing with the hands of men and going through
all these rituals and ordinances of washings and so forth, he
was declared to be the priest just by his holy life and an
endless life, a priest forever. Christ, God said it from heaven
concerning his son, thou art my son, in whom I am well pleased,
my priest. I've got to hurry. Verse 18,
For there is barely a disannulling of the commandment, going before,
for the weakness thereof, a disannulling of the law that went before,
because of the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. Paul said those that desire to
be under the law, they don't understand it. They don't understand
it. And there's a weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. It's the law of God, but the
weakness of the flesh, our inability to keep it, and unprofitableness.
The law doesn't profit us for our salvation or sanctification.
Not one bit. Christ is made under us, our righteousness and sanctification. Christ is. All right, read on.
The law made nothing perfect, verse 19. The law made nothing
perfect. Ah, but the bringing in of a
better hope did. Back in chapter 6, he said, we
have a hope. He's within the veil. He's the
anchor of the soul. Ah, the bringing in of a better
hope did. A better priest did. A better
sacrifice did. By the which we can draw nigh
unto God. We can come straight to God through
this one mediator, this one high priest. And inasmuch as not without
an oath he was made a priest, not without an oath, oh no, not
without an oath, God made the oath. These priests, verse 21,
those priests were made without an oath. They were just born
that way. They were sons of the Levite
and they grew up free. But this one, Christ with an
oath, Melchizedek with an oath, by him that said unto him, God
said, the Lord said unto my Lord. Remember that? The Lord swore
and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. forever, the oath that God made,
the oath and covenant He made with this great high priest of
ours, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, a better covenant, better.
Read on. They truly were many priests.
There were many of them, because they were not suffered to continue.
They died, by reason of death. They all died. Every one of these
priests died. We've got priests. He never has died. Oh, he saved
Jesus. Well, he did, but he never lived
to make intercession for us. Christ Jesus. Jesus the man died,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, never died. And
verse 24, This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. Sounds to me like Melchizedek
never did cease to be a priest, even though Levi came on the
scene. Even though Aaron came on the scene. It sounded like
Melchizedek still was a priest all along. He was. Forever. Forever. And there's no more
priest. He's always been the only priest.
The only priest. Well, alright, read on. Verse
25. Wherefore, we're talking about
Christ now. He never makes a visible change,
does he? Does he, Rick? He never says,
now we're going to talk about Christ. We've been talking about,
it's just flowing together, isn't it? That's why I know that this
was Christ coming to flesh. Just like the angel of the Lord
that appeared to Abraham. The angel of the Lord that appeared
to Manoah and his wife. All these appearances. Melchizedek,
this is Jesus Christ. Read on. This man. He continues
forever after an unchangeable priesthood. Verse 25. Wherefore,
he is able also, who is the king of righteousness, king of peace. He's able also to save them to
the uttermost evermore, forever. Eternal life is what he's saying.
Eternal life. He's able to give eternal life.
Who? Melchizedek, a priest forever
able to give eternal life to, to the uttermost, forevermore.
I like that to say, to the uttermost. And read on. All that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became
us. He became like unto his brethren.
He became us. He became our substitute. He
became us. God hath made him to be sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made him. the righteousness
of God in him. And so now, then when he came,
he was us. Now we're him. We're in him as
he is. So he became us, and we became
him. Read on. He became us who is
holy, harmless, undefiled. And there's another place where
Paul said he's able to present us before God, thoughtless. before
the presence of his glory. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners. You mean this Melchizedek wasn't
a sinner? That's right. Made higher than the heaven,
who needeth not daily at those high priests to offer up sacrifice,
first for his own sins, then for the people's. Now, this he
did once when he offered up himself. He offered up himself. Now he's
definitely talking about Christ. The law made men high priests,
which have infirmity. But the word of the oath, the
word of God, which was since the law, make it the Son who
is consecrated forevermore. Forevermore. We have a high priest,
a great one, a great one. Whoever lives to make intercession
for us, a better hope, declared by God to be our high priest
forever. He's consecrated, sanctified,
set apart, exalted, declared to be the Son of God with all
power, the only high priest forevermore at the order of Melchizedek.
They're one and the same. You say, why does Paul call him
Melchizedek? Why, why, why, why, why? Because it's not given to everybody.
This is another one of those secret names, isn't it? That
he reveals, like Zerubbabel. Huh? Pathmath-pioneer. It's just not, it's just, to
the world it's hidden, to the wise and the prudent. And they might talk about him
as being a great man, which he was, but this is Christ. He's
revealed to us as Christ. Because nobody's ever blessed,
no mere mortal man can bless us. Didn't bless Abraham either,
wasn't there a mere mortal man? It had to be Christ. And we've
got the same high priest, Abraham. Every sinner has but one high
faith, one high faith. And he's entered within the veil
right now, the Lord. All right, let's stand. Our Lord, we thank you for this
blessed portion of your Word. As hard as these things are to
utter and be understood, like Peter said, And our beloved Paul
has spoken and written some things hard to be understood, things
hard to utter, hard sayings, who can hear them? Just like
our Lord Jesus Christ came and uttered hard things, who could
hear them? Well, he that has ears to hear,
he who has been given ears by God to hear. may hear these things and be
blessed by the Most High God and see in Christ as the one
great High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And that which makes men mad,
that which makes men mad, as it did in the day that our Lord
asked them that question concerning David, the Lord said unto my
Lord, And men like to have these offices and hold these offices.
Oh, how we are glad that we have a great high priest, just one,
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Thank you, Lord, for revealing
Christ to us and in us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. We're going to go ahead and get
started.