OK, let's get right into the
subject. We've already read Genesis 14, the account of Abram meeting,
or rather, Melchizedek Now turn to Hebrews chapter 7. This man named Melchizedek here
is a mysterious figure about whom very little is known, but
very much is I have read various writers on
him. I've talked to various men, men
you know well, preachers, and nobody, not everyone agrees as to who
this was. Many think that this man was
just a man, nothing more. just a type of Christ. Some believe
he was a special man like Abram. Some believe he is a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. I happen to believe the last
thing, the third. I happen to believe that this
is actually the Lord Jesus Christ himself in a pre-incarnate But that is not the important
thing here. The important thing is that this
man does represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether or not he actually
was him or just a type of him, nevertheless, we are going to
see Christ very clearly in this man and the story of this man.
And one reason I believe that he was, though, is because, like
I just believe that the Lord would have us go away not admiring
this and wondering about this mysterious figure named Melchizedek,
of whom not much is written, but would have us think more
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, many times, many times, it is
quoted seven times to be exact. It is said in the scriptures,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Seven? Seven times. Thou art a priest,
that's the number of perfection in the scriptures. Anytime seven
is the number of perfection. A priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. It's written in Psalms 110, that's
the first time it's mentioned, that statement. And then Hebrews
5 and Hebrews 7, seven times here. All right, let's just go
down through Hebrews 7 here, because the apostle Paul here,
the chief apostle, the man of whom Hebrews, of whom Peter said
and acknowledged that he's the chief apostle, and Paul's going
to tell you, he said, Paul has written many things hard to be
understood. And Peter says, I'm not sure
I am, but Paul deals with many things hard to be understood,
and the Lord greatly blessed the Apostle Paul in dealing with
these difficult things, and here he's going to deal with them
in Hebrews 7. And like I said in chapter 5,
he said we ought to be able to hear it. This is meat. We're getting ready to eat some
meat tonight. All right? So, all right, verse 1. He says,
This Melchizedek, king of Salem, this Melchizedek, king of Salem,
priest of the Most High God, says he met Abraham, returning
from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed Abraham, to whom
also Abraham gave a tenth part of all." Now, this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, is first—I'm still reading here verse 2—first being,
by interpretation, king of righteousness. Now, here's another reason I
just happened to think—this is more than a man, but like That's
not important. Really, it's the one that he
represents who is important. King of righteousness. And after
that also, he's king of Solom, which is king of peace. King of righteousness and king
of peace. And now, this is the first, this
appearance unto Abraham. is the first appearance by this
Melchizedek, and the only appearance by this Melchizedek, and he's
never heard from again, and no one knows for sure where he went
or where he came from. And there's nothing more said
about Salem. Nobody knows for sure where Salem is, but he's
the king of it. It's called a king and a priest,
said back there in Genesis 14. He's the king and he's the priest. Now, this is the only one in
the Bible, the only man in all the scriptures who has these
two offices at the same time, king and priest, king and priest. King Saul tried it. There's a couple of kings that
tried to be priests. King Saul tried it, and John,
that's when Samuel said, God's removed you. He's going to remove
you from the kingdom, from being king, because you didn't wait
on Samuel. Samuel was the priest. And King
Saul, remember King Saul was waiting on Samuel, and Samuel
didn't show up, and he went and offered a sacrifice, and that's
when God said, this man's going to die. No man can be king and a priest
at the same time. This man was. King Uzziah. You remember the story of King
Uzziah in the scripture? Isaiah? King Uzziah went into
the temple to sacrifice the priests, and the high priests even, begged
him, don't do this. You can't do this. This is the
job of the priest, not the king. You're the king, we're the priests.
You reign, we offer sacrifices. You can't do both. We can't reign,
you can't offer. He went in there anyway. And
God smote him a leper. And that's when, in Isaiah 6,
that's when Isaiah wrote, When King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. I saw God's holiness. Holy, holy,
holy. His train filled the temple.
No king priest ever but this one. But this one, this one,
this was no ordinary man. I don't believe it. No ordinary
man. All right, look at verse 2. It
says that to whom also Abram gave the tenth part of all, first
being by interpretation king of righteousness, king of peace,
verse 3, without father, without mother, found John Gill went
to great lengths to explain this way. I don't know why, but it
says here. Gill says that he, nobody knew
who his father and mother were. Well, this just says he doesn't
have one. And I'm just not trying to prove that this is Christ,
but nevertheless, he sure is a mighty good picture. Mighty
good picture of the Lord without father, without mother. without
descent or pedigree, no past, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of
God, abideth a priest forever, continually." I rest my case on the Word of
God itself. Rest it. This is the first mention
of a priest of God. You'll not hear the word priest
mentioned up until this point. First mention of a priest of
God. Four hundred years before the
law, four hundred years before the ordinances, before the sacrifices,
the tabernacle debt, before all of that was given, four hundred
years before, this man's called the priest of the Most High God. D, not A, D. Only the ninth. Ever met D, priest of the Most
High God? And here's what he brought. Let's
read on. Well, back in the text it says
that he brought bread and wine. Not here, but it's back in Genesis.
Here's this priest, and he comes, and the first thing he brings
in this show of his priesthood is, of all things, Bread and
wine. Now, why did he bring that? Bread
and wine. Bread and wine. Why? Why did
he come? What's this all about? This priest,
like the Son of God, who came. What's it all about? Well, stay
with me. Before the law, before the sacrifices,
this man came to establish to confirm, to set forth the first
and the everlasting covenant of grace, to show forth Jesus
Christ as the better and only mediator, high priest, and king. He comes before the law to show,
to show and to set forth and to establish and to confirm.
Are you getting this? Some of you have been talking
to some people about the law, to some people who think they're
lawyers. And this man came. before the law, before the priesthood,
before the sacrifices, to establish, to confirm, to set forth the
first and everlasting covenant of grace, and the thing he brings
to represent it is bread and wine. Bread and wine. It seems like I remember somebody
else instituting that later on, who is called the head of the
everlasting covenant. Now, the surety that the one
who of whom the one who fulfills the covenant, the covenant head,
and what he came bringing to his disciples to bless them with
and to remember him by. And what he has done is bread,
bread and wine. Jesus Christ, who we were speaking
of, our Lord, our one Lord, one mediator, and one king. And all
coming kings and priests are merely pictures of the one real
king and priest, Jesus Christ. The one real king and priest. And you could possibly say that
Melchizedek prophesied of Abram when he said that he possessor
of heaven and earth. He just repeated the prophecy
that God had already said. So that makes Melchizedek prophet. priest and king. The same yesterday, today, forever. Three opposite Melchizedek held. Look at verse 4. It says, Now
consider how great this man was. Consider how great this man was.
And that's what we tried to do this morning in the message,
is show us how great this man was. And surely every knee should
bow. Consider how great this man was.
Unto whom? Unto Melchizedek, even the patriarch,
the father of the faithful. Abraham gave the tent of spoils. Abraham, the chief, the father
of the faithful, gave to him. Read on. Verily, they that are
sons of Levi, you know who Levi was. Levi is the one, one of
the tribes of whom God said, this is the priesthood, this
is where the priesthood is going to come. Right? Aaron was of
the tribe of Levi, right? He was a Levitical priest. Levi,
the Levites were the priests. Now I read on, it says that they,
they that are 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. In
other words, the Levites, the priesthood, the Levites, later
on, the people were to bring tithes to them. OK? Now read. It says that they came
out of the loins of Abraham. They came out of the loins of
Abraham. Read on. And he whose descent,
or he whose life is not counted from them. Melchizedek didn't
come from Levi. Levi wasn't born yet. He didn't
come from Levi. He received tithes of Abraham
and blessed Abraham that had the promises. OK? So instead of Abraham blessing
this man, this man blessed Abraham. So it says, verse 7, without
contradiction. The less is blessed of the better. Oh, now there's a key word in
it. Now, Kisbeth's better than Abram. Oh, but all men are alike. He's more than a man. It's got
to be. He's better than Abram, Scripture
says. Better. He's better. Read on. Read on. Now, verse 8, "...was here men
that die, priests that die." After they get old, they just
die. They receive tithes. But there,
he, Abram, received them from, or of whom, from Melchizedek,
that it is witnessed that he lives. It doesn't say he ever
died, without beginning or ending. Well, it probably sounds like
I'm trying to prove that this is Christ. Well, I'm not. I'm
just reading the Scriptures. It's speaking for itself. Well,
maybe it is important that we believe that. It's certainly
important that we know how that Christ is the eternal priest.
That's what's important. Read on. Read on. Verse 9. And as I may so say, Levi also who received tithes paid tithes
in Abraham. He was yet in the loins of his
father. That is, he wasn't born yet.
He was Abraham's grandson, and he was in Abraham's loins when
Melchizedek met Abraham. So Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek. All the priests at this time
were represented by Abraham. Aaron, Levi, They all had to
pay tithes, do obeisance, give a portion to this great man."
That's what Paul's saying. So he says, you consider how
great this man was, how great he was. Who else was in Abraham's
loins? Moses, the lawgiver. Aaron, the priests, everything,
all in Abraham. So in other words, everything
Everything from here on out that was coming, the tabernacle, the
law, everything did obeisance to this one man. Everything reported
to and had to receive a blessing from this one man. This man had
to bless everything from here on out. He had to give his blessing. This sounds like the only potentate. The king of kings, doesn't it?
Well, it is. It's a type. If it's not him,
it sure is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what
Paul goes to great lengths to show us. The whole kingdom meets
this man, this great man, and must be blessed by him. And Paul
goes on to say that Christ is not just another priest. He doesn't
just continue in the law and the priesthood. Christ didn't
continue in the law. Christ fulfilled it. And this
is the reason we're so adamant that there are no more priests.
This is the reason this is anti-Christ. The priesthood, which is still
in Catholicism and what else? Is it in, what do they call it? Episcopalians have it, don't
they? I believe they do. And maybe others. who have the
priesthood, and a high priest. That's who the Pope is supposed
to be, the high priest. And we're not just splitting
hairs here. We're contending for Christ, that Christ is the
only high priest, the great high priest, and he did away with
the priesthood. He's the last priest. He was the first. This is what
this is showing, that he was the first, and he's the last. He's the first and he's the last.
And all in between represent him. And there are no more priests.
You say, what about when it says we are made kings and priests
on our God? Well, there were common priests back in the old
days who ministered about the sanctuary, about the tabernacle
and all that. All they did was just feed the
people and this and that and the other thing, clean up things.
They didn't offer any sacrifice. They did this thing. Only the
great high priest, one man, entered into the Holy of Holies once
a year, and not without blood. And that was the great high priest,
the monk. Now I'm getting way ahead of myself. Read on, verse
11. He goes on to say, "...if perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, under it the people received
the law." Now he's going to say some things
about the law here. You may not pay close attention
here if you want to Those that desire to be teachers of the
law, I don't believe that they understand what they are teaching
or what they affirm. Desiring to be teachers of it,
right, Jeanette? I don't think they say we're confused. If you don't start right, you
really get confused, don't you? If you don't realize who the
lawgiver is, what this is all about, what the law is all about. And what came first? Which covenant?
If you don't realize which covenant came first, you're all messed
up. And that's the reason you have
to get all these dispensations and get all these little compartments
fixed up, and then you're still messed up. Still can't answer
anything. You can answer everything in
Christ. Everything has its answer in Christ. Everything. So read
on. All right? It says the priesthood
under the law. People receive the priesthood
under the law. What further need was there, then, that another
priest—in other words, if the law of the Levitical priesthood
was perfect—what further need was there that another priest
should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called
after the order of Aaron? In other words, that's what God
said in Psalm 110. He said, I'm going to have a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 110. Psalm 110 is a Messianic psalm.
It speaks of Christ and says, I'm going to raise up one after
the order of Melchizedek, a priesthood abided forever. And Paul says,
well, what about the Levitical priesthood? What about all that?
What about Aaron and so forth? Verse 12, the priesthood being
changed, there is made of necessity a
change also of the law. That was interesting when I read
that this afternoon. A change of the law. A change in the Levitical
ceremonial. In other words, it's all fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was all done away with. Abolished,
the scripture said. Because all righteousness is
found in Christ. All right, let me ask you about
some things in the law then. What law is he talking about
here? What law is he talking about? the Levitical law. It's talking about all the law,
all the law of God. It's all together. It's all the law of God. Whatever
God says is written forever. And all the law of God throughout
the Old Testament, every time he made a law, he said, This
is my covenant forever. You shall do this forever. When he said about circumcision,
he said this is a covenant forever. Didn't it? Forever. And other
things. He said this is forever. This
is forever. What about circumcision? What about it? Did Christ ever
say anything about it? Did he ever change it? Did he
ever say, it's got away with." No, he didn't say that, did he?
Huh? Wasn't it always supposed to circumcise our sons? No, he didn't say that. Huh? Now, what about the Sabbath?
What about the Sabbath? There's some people contend that
the Sabbath... What did Christ say about the
Sabbath? If there's one law that he did say something about, it
was the Sabbath. He said, man was made for the
Sabbath. And it seems that he appeared
to purposely break it, didn't he? What is he saying? Why is he doing that? What's
this all about? What am I saying? That Christ is better. That Christ
is a fulfillment of all those things. A fulfillment of all
those things. He never said, he never said
that these things were abolished. Did he? Did Christ ever? This
is what some people argue. This is what some people argue,
that these things, that Christ abolished these things. And then
some Sabbatarians say, but he never changed the day of worship. He never said that. He never
said anything about circumcision. He never said anything about
Never say anything about abolishing the sacrifices. Did he? What about the leopard
that he healed? He said, you go offer the sacrifice
that Moses told you to do. Didn't he? See, I'm confused. If you see
that Christ fulfilled it all, you're not confused. You see
the purpose of it all, you shouldn't be confused. Not at all. Not
at all. Why was the law given? Romans
plainly describes it, the law was given because of sin. That
sin might appear to be exceedingly sinful. Huh? But Christ came
as a type of Melchizedek came to show us the covenant of grace
to begin with, and the thing he brought to remember Christ
by, who hadn't come yet, was bread and wine. Not the law. Not circumcision. Not the Sabbath.
Just these simple elements. This dude in remembrance of me.
Melchizedek may have said that in Ligon. We don't know. This
dude in remembrance of me. Bread and wine. Bread and wine.
A change, what Paul said here, a change in the law. Oh, he's
just talking about the priesthood. Well, that's everything. That's
everything. Priesthood. Everything in the
law. That's everything handed down
through Moses concerning the tabernacle and everything, wasn't
it? The priesthood. Everything. Moses gave the moral
law, the Ten Commandments, at the same time, or just before
it anyway, didn't he? All right, read on. Verse 13,
"...for he of whom these things are spoken, That is Melchizedek. He pertains to another tribe
of which no man gave attendance at the altar. In other words,
where he came from, the tribe he came from, there was no priest. It is evident, verse 14, that
our Lord sprang out of Judah. That's interesting. Who's Judah? That's the king of the tribe.
That's the kingly tribe. When old Jacob was giving his,
when old Israel was giving his blessings to his boys, he said,
of Judah, he said, the scepter shall not depart from Judah. And of all things, he said, till
Shiloh come. That's the king priest. The king,
the king priest. That's who he's talking about
here. Jesus Christ shall come from Judah, of which tribe Moses
spake nothing concerning the priesthood." Read on. Have I
lost you? I hope not. I hope there are
some still standing, still left. Verse 15. It is yet far more
evident that after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another
priest. Far more evident. There rises
another priest who is made," verse 16, greater than Aaron,
"'who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment.'" It's diminishing the law, it
seems like, doesn't it? Well, it is. The law is subservient
to the lawgiver. And I keep bringing up the Sabbath,
but so many people are so confused. Christ said, the Son of Man is
Lord over the Sabbath. He said, come on boys, let's
eat. We can't do that. It's the Sabbath. I'm the one
that gave that law. He says, I'm the one that gave
it to Moses on the Mount. Come on, let's eat. And you know, every time Christ
mentioned the Sabbath, it was to the Pharisees deriding
them. Every time he starts, he says,
Can I do this? Is it lawful to do this on the Sabbath? Remember
that? Every time. You look it up. Every
time. He says something about the Sabbath.
He said, No, can I do this? And they were lying. He said,
I'm going to do it anyway. I'm Lord of the Sabbath. And
if you knew anything, you'd know the Sabbath is talking about
me anyway. Where do people rest? They remain at the high end of
the Sabbath, the Lord of the Sabbath. And you know, they took
Christ's body down from the cross, the murderers, because they didn't
want it hanging there on the Sabbath. I'm not making fun of the Sabbath.
I'm just telling you. Christ is better than the Sabbath. Christ is better. Christ is better. What about that message my pastor
preached? Christ is better than everything. Better than the law. And so much
more than the builder of the house is better than the house.
The lawgiver is better than the law. And the law is subservient
to the lawgiver. It answers to him in everything. God shall have no other gods
before me. Here, O Israel, the Lord our
God is one God, and He is Jesus Christ. We worship Him. I shall
not take His name in vain. I shall not make any graven image
of Him. They break that, don't they? Remember the Sabbath to
keep it holy. We do. We sanctify the Lord of
hosts. We tell everybody, he's holy. He's holy. We worship him, the
holy one of Israel. And I'll get him off. Read on. Verse 17, it says that, verse
16, this priest, after the order of Melchizedek, is building up,
building up to a climax, to tell you of Jesus Christ. He says,
This one who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment,
or the Levitical priesthood and the law, and so forth. But after
the power of an endless life, an endless life, for he testified,
he testified, God testified in Psalm 110, thou art a priest
forever. That's the order of Melchizedek. My son, thou art my son, this
day have I begotten thee. The Lord said unto my Lord, I'm
reading Psalm 110. And isn't that significant that
our Lord asked the men, the Pharisees, why does David call him Lord?
He chose this passage to confound them. After all questions were
asked, he asked a question that nobody could answer. If he's
a son of David, then why does David say, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thy enemies
thy footstool. This is where that comes from.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion, rule
thou in the midst of thy enemy. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power and the beauties of holiness, his own. From the womb of the morning
thou hast to do of thy youth. The Lord has sworn, will not
repent, thou art a priest forever." That's the order of Melchizedek,
an endless priesthood forever. Now, verse 18, read on. Now,
there is barely a disannulling of the commandment going before
for the weakness and the unprofitable bearness thereof. The law made
nothing perfect. Which law? I love it. You can call it whatever law
you want to talk about. The moral law never made anybody
perfect. It never will. That young ruler, Christ said,
when he came to him and the man said, good master, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? Remember what he said to him? He said, you know the commandment.
Keep those. He asked him the commandments
and the man started quoting the law. What did he do? He knew
the law. Christ said, keep the law. What
law did the man start quoting? The Ten Commandments. He said,
all these that I've done, why you stop? Christ said, well,
you're not far from the kingdom of heaven. You remember that message? You're
not far from the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is in front
of you, in the midst of you, and you're not in it. You're
in the law. You're not in me. It says that the law made nothing
perfect. That man wasn't perfect, was
he? He wasn't in the kingdom. But the bringing in of a better
hope did. By the which we draw an eye unto God. How do we draw
an eye unto God? Oh, we keep sinning. No. No. We rest in Christ. That's how. We draw an eye unto
God. We rest in Christ. How do we
draw an eye unto God? We worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit. That's
who God's looking for, not those who draw near with the lips,
who draw near with the outward performance of the law, but those
who worship Him in Spirit, really worship Him as God, who rejoice
in Christ Jesus, Him and Him alone, Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. My beauty are my glorious dress. My only hope, my only plea is
that when he died, he died for me. And have no confidence in anything
concerning the flesh. No outward keepings. Not by works
of righteousness. That's what he's talking about,
the flesh. Because that's what Paul said in one place. He said
bodily exercise profits little. It won't get you in heaven. But
they're sure trying it. That's the reason these fellas
and all, that's the reason all the goings-on, that's the reason
you see them in these meetings. They might as well be doing side
straddle, we used to call them side straddle hops. We called
them jumping jacks. You call them side straddle hops? We did. They might as well be
doing all this. OK, one, two, spiritual aerobics. You know, buy this and profit
a thing. None of that profits anything,
does it? None of that. Bodily exercise
profits a little bit. You'd be better off going for
a one-mile run than sitting and doing and going through all of
that. I'll tell you what will profit. Christ. Faith in Christ. That'll get you in the heaven.
I'll give you eternal life. He that believeth is appeared
unto him for righteousness. Not he that worketh. Let's work
real hard, let's do everything. No, he that believeth unto him
as in Abram did. Abram did. I believe that Abram rejoiced
to see his day, Christ's day. He saw it and was glad. And I
believe he saw it here. I believe he saw it in this miracle
today. I really do. Read on and on, and I'll close
this thing up. All right, he says in Paul, building
to a climax, I say, we are drawn now to God by a better hope,
not by carnal commandments or the law and so forth, which things
cannot profit. The only way they profit is to
show us Christ. Only way. And they are profitable,
aren't they, Deborah? You're going through the tabernacle
with our church? Profitable, isn't it? How? That we might
set it all up again and do all this and go through our little
ceremonies to match the... No, to show us Christ. And it's
profitable that way, isn't it? You see Him in all those things.
You believe more firmly in Him and His work. And it says, "...insomuch
as not without an oath he was made a priest." This priest,
this new one, this one after this old one, yet new one, who
is made like unto Melchizedek, was made a priest, not without
an oath, though. He was made a priest. Those priests,
verse 21, were made without an oath, swearing in. But this was an oath by him that
said it. In other words, the Levitical
priesthood, they were just born priests when they were born.
The boy was born in the tribe of Levi, he was automatically
born into the priesthood. They didn't go through a ceremony
and all that. He was mourning the priesthood. But this priest
has an oath involved. It said, This was the oath by
God that said unto him, The Lord swear, and will not repent, thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. It seems
like I remember him swearing again a couple of times. This
is my beloved Son." That's an oath, isn't it? This is my beloved
Son. Better hear Him. Hear Him. By so much was Jesus, by so much,
by all of these things, covenant, oath, all of these things, was
Jesus made by an endless life, by His character, by so much
was Jesus made a surety of a better covenant. Testament. Surety. Oh, let's take another hour and
go through that. Surety of a better Testament,
the insurer of this better covenant. They truly, read on, they truly,
these others, were many priests because they were not suffered
to continue by reason of death. They died, so another one succeeded. But this man, oh, no. He didn't die. He continues forever,
ever. He hath an unchangeable priesthood.
He never laid down the mantle. This man, this man, he never
dies. Says they were many. He was one.
They died. He lives on. They brought many
sacrifices. He brought one. They brought
animals. He brought his own blood. They
were on earth. They ministered on earth. He's
in heaven. Can't get any higher than that
high, priest, can you? They didn't last. He does. They didn't rest. He sat down. He made one sacrifice forever. You think about that, how great
a sacrifice it was. Made one sacrifice forever. And
having finished the work, verse 24, It says, This man, because he
continues forever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able. They tried. He's able. They continued to do the same
things over and over again. He offered one forever, and that
got the job done. He quit. He said, I'm finished. Is that all you're going to do?
That's all there is to do. Is that it? That's it. It's finished. if one of those old priests had
said that. And that's the reason those fellows are offering that
Mass over and over again, every Sunday morning, or whatever day
they do it on. And all the holy days, and this and that and the
other, they remain at the rest for the people of God, right?
The keeping of the Sabbath, the keeping of his commandment, of
Christ. He's able, though, to keep us
from falling. He's able to Keep that which
I committed unto him." He's able to present us holy and unblameable.
He's able to raise our vile body. He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by him. The pope can't do it, but our
great high pope can take care, seeing he ever live it. One of
these days, old John Paul's going to lay in that grave, and I'm
going to shout, hallelujah. But you know, another old man
just like him is going to But one of these days, that's all
going to be a whip. That's all going to be a whip. And the smoke
of that mess is going to rise up, and the saints are going
to shout, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Read on. Verse 26, For such a high priest. What a high, for such a high
priest. It would be a good title, for
such a high priest. By so much, by so much was Jesus
made better. such a high priest became us. He became us, a man. He who is
holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than
the heaven, who needeth not daily as those high priests offer up
sacrifice, first for his own sin, he didn't have any, then
for the people. But this he did once when he
offered up himself on the sacrifice of God's altar for our sin. make
men high priests, which have infirmity. But the word of the
oath, the word of God, which said, Thou art a priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek, which was before the law, or
since, means before, this oath makes the son who is consecrated
forevermore, it makes him the eternal priest. And as I've said
so many times, that my pastor said, I learned it from him,
that the book of Hebrews, if you want to go someplace and
talk into people about the person and work of Jesus Christ, the
person and work of Jesus Christ, and set forth clearly who he
is, his greatness, how he's better than everything else. and how
everything has its fulfillment in him, but the book of Hebrews
doesn't. The book of Hebrews. I once was talking to a Catholic
man, and of course they're in all of that priesthood and all,
and the ceremonies and all that, and I immediately took him to
the book of Hebrews. You know, you can lead a horse to
water, though, but you can't make him drink it. But the Lord
can. He can open a man's blind eyes,
and the book of Hebrews is a good place to do it, to show us Christ
is all, isn't He? He's all. Who is this Melchizedek? Who was that? You need to picture Christ. Consider
how great this man was. All right, stand with me. Our great high priest, after
the order of Melchizedek, we pray to thee, not to any other,
not to Mary, not to any saint, but to thee, the only mediator
between God and man, God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. We consider, O Lord, through
this study, how great thou art. O Lord, our God, how great thou
art. Thou abidest a priest forever. after the order of Melchizedek,
without father or mother, without descent, without beginning or
ending, priest forever, the Eternal One, Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever, He whose name is Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, with
governments upon your shoulders. The increase of your government,
there'd be no end. And of your priesthood, there's
no end either. Thou art our great high priest,
whom we pray to. We thank you for this glorious
title that you've given us, and we rejoice to see thy name in
this old title. Lord, show us more of yourself
through these Old Testament titles. We thank you for them. They're
glorious pictures. We're looking through your book
of pictures of Christ, and we're enjoying it. We thank you. We
ask that you would open more of them up to us, to our understanding. In Christ's name we pray and
are met together this day. Amen.