Well, once again, good morning,
and we direct your attention this morning to the Book of Numbers.
The Book of Numbers. It has been amazing for me, and
it shouldn't be. I should get used to it, but
the Messages from Luke the messages from numbers and the messages
from Esther all agree They just dovetail together. Now. I don't
call Mike and say what are you what are you speaking about this
time? So I can kind of coordinate that He shows up and I show up
and oh my goodness Same Spirit directs His people to come to
the same truths of His Word. Well, here in the book of Numbers
this morning, we're going to spend some time on the everlasting
priesthood. The everlasting priesthood. What a thought. And it's brought
out in form, in typical form. It's type here. It tells us in
the book of Numbers chapter 25, and I'd like to read verses 11,
12, and 13. If you read the previous verses
up through verse 11, you'll find out that there was a lot of mayhem
was going on among the children of Israel, that they had fallen
after false gods, allowed Moab to bring in their religion, and
things are just in a terrible state. And yet, even among those
that are in this terrible state, there are a few that know the
truth about the gospel. And they are very defensive about
it. They're going to defend the gospel.
They're going to preach the gospel. They're going to declare the
gospel, even in all the mayhem. And they could have very easily
been carried off. But the Holy Spirit will not
allow us to be carried off. We must speak out for the Word,
for God. And here in verse 11, it says,
Phinehas, now he is a grandson of Aaron. And he's going to be
in line to be high priest. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar,
the son of Aaron, the priest, hath turned my wrath away from
the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among
them, that I consume not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Now, we're going to find out
that there were 24,000 people consumed by the wrath of God
over this incident. but not all Israel. All right,
verse 12. Wherefore say, behold, I give
unto him my covenant of peace. I wish I could grasp all that's
in that verse, but we'll try to get a little. And then verse
13. And he shall have it. He shall
have peace. And his seed after him. even
the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous
for his God and made an atonement for the children of Israel."
Now, when it comes to zealous and atonement and work in putting
away sin, these people, the priests, High priests or lower priests
could only do that in typical form. They could not do it in
reality because we find that there is only one that can put
away sin, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That was what His
purpose was in the covenant of grace, and He carried it out,
and He has put away sin. But these people spoke about
it, and we find that even the Lord Jesus shares with us, as
the Holy Ghost does here in this passage of Scripture, that there
are types and shadows and pictures that are brought out in the Scripture
to share with us, even to those people in the Old Testament,
that all the truths of the Gospel was evident to them, too. Now,
many of them had nothing to do with it, but there were those.
that we read about that had been given another spirit. And those
that had been given another spirit did not argue with God about
what God had to say. Keep your finger here, and I
would like to go over and read one verse of Scripture in the
book of Hebrews chapter 7. Now, we're going to be in the
book of Hebrews chapter 7 a little bit later, but I want to read
one verse of Scripture that shares with us that the reason that
these people could not continue in an everlasting priesthood
by themselves is evident here in the book of Hebrews. It is
brought out by the Holy Spirit as He gave the words to the author
of the book of Hebrews, the Apostle Paul, And in Hebrews chapter
7 verse 23 we read these words, And they truly were many priests. Now that s an understatement.
There truly were many priests. Now there were High priests,
there were subordinate priests, there were underpriests, there
were all kinds of priests, but there were many. And it goes
on to tell us why there had to be many. Because they were not
suffered to continue by reason of death. Now, the Lord is going to share,
and has shared over here in the book of Numbers chapter 25, that
Phinehas is going to have something said about him in regard to,
I will establish a covenant of grace, excuse me, a covenant
of peace, and I will grant an everlasting priesthood to him.
Now we find out that the Aaronic priesthood is called everlasting
because it was to continue and did continue throughout the whole
Jewish dispensation. From the time that it was established
at Mount Sinai to the time we come down to AD 70, the entire
Jewish dispensation, there was a priest. For good or for bad,
there was a priest. And we find out during the time
that the Lord was crucified, there was a priest, and a high
priest, and there might have been plurality of high priests.
But it did continue through the whole Jewish dispensation until
the coming of the Messiah, in whom it had been fulfilling an
end. There's going to be an end to
this Aaronic priesthood when Jesus Christ is established.
Phinehas is a type of Christ, but the types are not anything
compared to reality. What was different about him?
He continued not because of death. There could not be an everlasting
priesthood of human priests. It is not going to last. There
is going to be a person that may live to be a hundred years
old, but his priesthood would be over and someone else has
to take his place. But we find with regard to Christ
that there is an everlasting priesthood. He was a priest before
the foundation of the world. He was a priest in time, and
He is still a priest on the behalf of His people, making intercession
for us. He was a priest that offered
the sacrifice that could and would put away sin. He was a
priest that makes ambassadors for us, and we find that He is
that, and we'll read some more about it. Phinehas is a type
of Christ, but a type are not yet Christ. Christ's priesthood
is an unchangeable real priesthood and he does not pass from one
to another, his sacrifice has a perfect virtue in it. All of these sacrifices did not
put away sin. We have no way of knowing how
many sacrifices were offered and how many animals were sacrificed,
but there was no virtue in any of those animal sacrifices. They
could not and would not and did not put away sin. Sin was still
there. It was still in the person. Now
we know that all of those that belonged to him had their sin
put away, really from the foundation of the world or before the foundation
of the world. It was going to be taken care
of on their behalf. And God did not get angry with
them. He did not put them away. We find out that He took care
of them. He oversaw them. He blessed them. And in the time
of His favor, He granted them, blessed them with salvation,
and in their realizing that, says, My sin has been put away. It is as far as the east is from
the west. I?m convinced that Abel understood
that, that his sin had been taken care of and was as far as the
east is from the west, even though we don?t even have that verse
yet. We find that his sacrifice was a perpetual virtue and efficacy
in that it takes away sin and ever lives to make intercession
for us. So Phinehas could not fulfill
that. but Jesus Christ did. In verse
13 of that passage of Scripture over there in the book of Numbers,
if we could go back there for just a moment, in the book of
Numbers chapter 25 and verse 13, we read these words again. In verse 13 it said, And he shall have it, he shall
have peace, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an
everlasting priesthood. Now that lasted until there was
no longer any need. You know what happened? Many
things happened on the day of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus,
but one of those that just causes me to be thankful was that great
veil. It ripped from top to bottom.
exposing the mercy seat, saying this is over. There is one right
here that is the fulfillment of every type and shadow and
picture that has ever been represented there, every sacrifice that was
ever there, every blood that was splattered on that mercy
seat. Everything has been taken care of in this one person who
has just passed into the heavenlies if you please when he said it
is Finished sin has been taken care of and God by his great
Ripped it from top to bottom. Now if you read about that veil,
it was not easily done human beings could not do that Try
to rip up. Well our phone books today. You
probably could rip into But the old ones you couldn't rip him
in two. Well, that's the way it was.
We find that the priesthood that Phinehas represented, he was
the son of Eliezer, the son of Aaron, and could only pass on
his own seed. You know, the other day I was
reading over there in the book of Genesis about Those all those trees,
all the grass, everything, all the animals brought forth after
their kind. And that is what Phinehas could
do. That's what Eliezer could do.
That's what Aaron could do. And that's what every one of
those children born into that priesthood could do. They could
only pass on what they were. And we are born into this world
sinners against God, enmity against God, and it takes the grace of
God to change that. So these people were just born
into a sinful world and a sinful nature. And we find that they
could not do what Jesus Christ would do because they were of
human flesh. He brought forth after His kind.
They were fallen priests before they were born who would die
due to the curse. They would just die, be buried,
and another one would be raised up. But we're thankful as we
look into this that Phinehas was a type and a shadow and a
picture of him who would not have to have a new priest raised
up. Several things are apparent about
this covenant of peace and the recipient, Phinehas. You know,
under the Old Testament economy, if you kill somebody, and he's
killed two people with a javelin, they were performing a very immoral
act in a tent, and he went in and run a spear through both
of them and killed them. You know what could have happened
to him? The family of that man could come after him and legally
take his life. That's why the cities of refuge
were established. they could legally take his life.
And that principle still goes on in the world today. You take
somebody's life, you could probably have someone in their family
come after you, and in their minds at least, it may be against
our law, but in their minds they could fulfill it and take your
life. And so it goes back and forth. Brother Lance has shared
with us about the people in New Guinea. That's a principle that
they know about. You take somebody, they're going
to take somebody, and it's an ongoing taking somebody. Well,
we find here that the Lord Jesus promised Phinehas, you are not
going to have to fear anybody coming after you because I have
given you a covenant of peace. And in order to have a covenant
of peace, I've had to settle it with some other people, too.
It's just not, okay, you're going to feel good about this. I've
taken care of the issue with everybody else in this matter.
Isn't it wonderful that when Jesus Christ went to the cross,
He took care of it for everybody else that would be opposing us? As we heard, brother, that verse
of scripture in Colossians 2, verse 15, He took care of principalities
and powers. that were opposed to us. He got
involved in every enemy of the church. He just didn't settle
it for us. He settled it for all of our
enemies, and he settled it for God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. He was assured he had nothing
to fear from the brothers or relatives of that person he had
slain. And he would have enjoyed peace
and happiness externally, internally and eternally. Now that's a blessing
to have peace. I'm at peace out here, I'm at
peace in here, and I have peace eternal. That's what God grants
us, is to be at peace with God is eternal peace, internal peace,
and external peace. I am not looking for trouble.
True peace is the Messiah who is peace, the peacemaker, the
peace giver, in whom all the blessings of grace and peace
are found. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Isaiah chapter 54. As he had enjoyed a covenant
of peace, Wouldn't it be enjoyable if your phoenix that you didn't
have to watch your backside all the time? Wonder who's going
to attack you when God said I'll take care of that You know what
God said about the children of Israel when they went down to
Jerusalem and had their their feasts and all the men were gone
the men of war You know what? He said I'll watch your borders
I'll take care of your borders. Don't worry about it. I Except
the Lord keep the house, and except the Lord keep the city,
they that watch it, watch it in vain. Except us, if the Lord
didn't watch over us, we would throw ourselves into the ditch
again. He has provided an external, internal, and eternal peace for
us, and we cannot be lost. Though we stumble, we'll not
be cast down. He'll always catch us. And so,
as this wonderful principle goes through, he has established with
his church a covenant of peace. Peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. As a result of that, we have
peace with ourself, we have peace with our neighbor, we are at
peace. In Isaiah chapter 54, We read these wonderful words,
Isaiah chapter 54, and there in verse 10. For the mountain shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, though your life may be in an upheaval. My kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed. Saith the Lord that hath mercy
on thee, O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted,
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy
foundations with sapphires. He said, I will build you beautifully. Though you're afflicted and tossed. Verse 12, And I'll make thy windows
of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles. You know, we cannot even imagine
what he's speaking about here because of the glory of these
stones. This is a glorious thing that he is building. And all
thy borders of pleasant stones, and all thy children shall be
taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
An old brother, Bruce Crabtree, shared with me one time about
his dad. His dad was a preacher, free
will preacher. And you know, he would argue
with his son over grace and argue with his son over grace and argue
with his son over grace until the very last. And he calls his
son over there and says, Oh, Bruce, what am I going to do? There was no peace. We heard
this morning about the outside is so often, I'll keep it in
good order, but the inside is at constant turmoil. I've shared
with you many times about me fishing one time and saying,
Lord, if I'm saved, let me catch a fish. That's a terrible position
to be in. What if there's no fish in the
creek? The rest of my day is a bad day. You know, there was
a lot of bad days because there just was no peace. And God sent me the gospel, the
gospel of peace. That's what it is. It's a gospel
of peace. It's a good news of peace, that there's been peace
established. It's a covenant of peace. And
even though we go through rough times, and even though we have
turmoil, and even though things seem to be tipped upside down,
He says, I'll never take this away from you. In verse 14, In
righteousness shalt thou be established. Thou shalt be far from oppression,
for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not
come near thee. Behold, they shall surely gather
together, but not by me. Whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for my sake. Behold, I have created
the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth
forth an instrument for his work. And I have created the waster
to destroy. No weapon that is formed against
thee shall prosper. What does that mean? You cannot
find any fault in God's elect because God is justifier. He has justified and He will
not allow that to slip. And every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. And the church says, amen. I'm
thankful that it's his righteousness, because my righteousness is as
filthy rags, but his righteousness is absolute perfection. And by
it, he has granted to me a covenant of peace. I have peace with God. through the Lord Jesus Christ. He s established that peace.
In fact, we find out that that covenant of peace is mentioned
in the book of Romans. Turn with me, if you would, to
Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10, there in verse
15. Romans chapter 10 and verse 15, in that list of things that has
so often been used as the Roman road. You know, if you break
into a passage of Scripture that s not even talking about that,
and you use that for your text, you have a poor context You have
to look at the whole thing. And if you look at the whole
section of chapter 10, you'll find out, oh, God has this in
order, and this is gonna be in order. Let all things be done
decently and in order. Go through the context. Well,
in part of that, and I'm not gonna take time to read it all,
but in verse 15 it says, and how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, that preach
the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. The gospel of peace. There is
a covenant of peace that God has established in Christ Jesus
that is passed on to every one of His children. It is a covenant
that He's established. I will keep this covenant. It
will not be revoked, even though they do things like we find out
all of the people throughout the Old Testament and the New
Testament, believers did, and we know about ourselves. I will
not take away this covenant of peace. He is spoken of it in
the shadow and picture in the Levitical priesthood, but He
is far superior." Now, in Bible history, we find that there's
another that is spoken of besides the Levitical priesthood, and
that's the priesthood where we want to go. You know, we're going
to read a passage in the book of Hebrews that says, there's
no place in the Old Testament that said the Messiah was coming
through the Levitical priesthood. And you know what the church
says after they found that out? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. He is not of the
Levitical priesthood. He is of a tribe that there's
no mention of any priest until we begin looking about the covenant
of grace. And in the covenant of grace,
we find out that there is a priest, read with me over in the book
of Genesis, if you would. This is a verse of scripture
that we want to look at, Genesis chapter 14. In Genesis chapter
14, there is a mention of a priest who is a king and a priest. He's a combination. Now, He just
crops up. Where is He before this? Well,
when we get to the book of Hebrews, we find out He's always been
before us. Here is a priest in Genesis 14,
verse 18. Genesis 14, verse 18. Here is
someone that just pops up in history. I'm thankful that continues
on. That he just pops up. When there's
a lost sheep of the house of Israel, and they've come to the
point that God said, it is my time of love with them. And I'm
going to save him. Now, in order to do that, he
is going to coordinate the gospel getting to him. Now how he does
that is beyond my imagination. We can't figure it out, but he
does it. He said, before the foundation of the world, I have
this line drawn between this person who knows the gospel and
that person who doesn't, but needs to. So he gets the line
drawn out, and lo and behold, there's an intersect. And they
pop up in front of the person, and they weren't even looking
for him. Saul of Tarsus was not looking for that person. You
and I were not looking for that person. We thought we were fine
in our grave clothes. And yet, somewhere, God has it
determined, just as He did with the woman at the well, I must
needs go to that well, because there's someone there that I
have love from eternity, and I need to acquaint her with the
gospel of peace. And in order to do that, I MUST
have the gospel brought. Well, here in the book of Genesis,
chapter 14, Abraham has been in a warfare and recapturing,
taking back his nephew and a bunch of possessions. Lo and behold
a man by the name of Melchizedek pops up in his life now I don't
know if he had knowledge of this man before or this is the first
time it doesn't tell us but I know this that the person that this
man represents Melchizedek and Probably he is the pre-incarnate
Christ pops up in Abraham's life, and it tells us this description,
and Melchizedek, king of Salem. Now we get the word Jerusalem
from that. He's the king of peace. Brought forth bread and wine. Now what does that represent?
Are they just going to have a breakfast there? Now, they had bread and
they had wine, but this certainly represents the gospel of Jesus
Christ, broken body, shed blood. The gospel of Jesus Christ is
declared by this man, Melchizedek, who is a king. And it goes on
to tell us here, and he was the priest of the most high God. What a person. What credentials. What a statement
out here in the desert, out here where Abraham is fighting for
his nephew's life and recaptured him and brought him back. And
it tells us, and he blessed him and said. Now, who can really
bless? We say, may God bless you. But,
you know, we can't invoke that. We can't command it. But here
was somebody that blessed Abraham and said, blessed be Abram of
the most high God. Now this is God's credentials,
possessor of heaven and earth. That's the Most High God. And
verse 20, And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thy hand, and he gave him tithes of all. You know what that says? He had
the utmost respect for this person. He had the utmost respect for
his position, that he was king of Salem and priest of the Most
High God. and he went away blessed." Now,
turn with me, if you would, in the Psalms. Brother Loren read
this just this morning in Psalm 110. Psalm 110. We have a priest mentioned by
the name of Melchizedek, and in Psalm 110, verse 4, Psalm
110, verse 4, we have him brought up again. Psalm 110, verse 4, it says,
the Lord has sworn and will not repent. I've asked a number of
people recently, do you believe God can change? And you know,
the answer has been, well, of course he can change. That's why I pray. I said, what? I don't pray to, I think I used
to pray to change God's mind. You know what, that's what most
prayer chains are. If we can get enough people praying,
we can get God to change His mind on this. And what a piddly,
piddly, insignificant, foolish God we have if that's the truth.
We have nothing if God can change. But the scriptures are so clear
on this that God does not change. And we have a verse of scripture
that says, as a result of God not changing, he won't change
his mind about his people. Now, Moses gave every reason
to do that, and David gave every reason to do that, and Abraham
gave every reason to do that, and all the disciples. gave every
reason for God to change his mind about him. But he had a
promise made and a covenant made, a covenant of peace. And he says,
I will not change my mind because I've loved him with an everlasting
love. They are foolish people. They are descendants of Adam.
And that's the reason I have a covenant of grace and a covenant
of peace and a priest that will take care of the problem. So
he will not change his mind. He says, the Lord has sworn and
will not repent. will not change. Thou art a priest
forever. that eternal, everlasting priesthood
that was mentioned to Phinehas as a blessing, it lasted down
till that temple was taken from one brick to another, one stone
from another, and that was all over with, and God would never
recognize that religion ever again. He didn't recognize it
for peace. He did not recognize it for salvation. He did not recognize it for anything
as a type and a shadow and a picture of the real. But when the real
was here, there's no longer any need for the type or the shadow
or the picture. I don't need the picture of my
food on my table when I have the food show up. I may look
at that picture on the menu and say, that looks good, I'll have
that. But I don't want the menu after the food shows up. And
Jesus Christ showed up, and there's no longer any reason whatsoever
for the types, the shadows, and the pictures. Do away with it. Make sure it's no longer could
be an idol for anybody. You know, the Wailing Wall was
supposedly part of that old temple, and guess what? Americans go
over there today, and ba, ba, ba, they're at Holy Ground. No,
Holy Ground is at Jesus Christ and nowhere else in this world. He shall be a priest forever.
He has sworn He will not repent according to the likeness of
Melchizedek, after the pattern of Melchizedek. We find in the
book of Hebrews, chapter 5, this covenant of peace established
by an everlasting priesthood. Brought up again, here in the
book of Hebrews, it's brought forward to New Testament times,
chapter 5. And verse 1, it says, For every
high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things
pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sins. Who can have compassion on the
ignorant and on them that are out of the way? For that he himself
also is compassed with infirmity, and by reason thereof he ought,
as for people, so also for himself to offer for sins. Oh, to have
a high priest that has to offer the first sacrifice for his own
sins? That's not a priest that will do any good for us. We have
to have a priest that is the God-man. We have to have a priest
that is Emmanuel. We have to have a priest that
has the interest of God and the interest of the church in his
heart and mind. Established and promised in a
covenant of grace. And thus we have in Jesus Christ
the Lord. Here it tells us, going on in
that, no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is
called of God, as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest, But he that said unto him, thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. And he saith also in another
place, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
You know, no man taketh this honor to himself, but God gives
it. I'm skeptical of preachers that call themselves to the ministry. When I spent about that much
time in Bible school, I used to talk to those young guys that
are going to be preachers. Why are you here? Why do you
want to study here? And one of them sticks out in
my mind, well, becoming a doctor takes too long. Becoming a lawyer
takes too long. I'm going to be a preacher, and
I can make the same amount of money. Enough said and I didn't
even know the gospel, but I knew as the brother DJ said I knew
that wasn't right No man takes this honor to himself and you
know what Left to ourselves. We would never ever choose salvation
We'd say no, thanks We're thankful for a God that has an orderly
and covenant of grace that s ordered and sure, and He will carry it
out and save all His people from their sins. So we have again,
this is mentioned in verse 6, and He says also in another place,
we just read that in the Psalms, Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications, this is Christ,
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and he was heard in that he feared. Thou, he were
a son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered.
Can you explain that about Jesus Christ? I cannot explain it about
Jesus Christ, but I know he went through every bit of that. Alright,
join me if you would in chapter 6 of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews
chapter 6 and verse 13. Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 13. It says here, For when God made
promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he
swore by himself. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 13, saying,
Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will
multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise, for men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of strife.
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it with an oath, that
by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to
lie, he might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, in which entereth
into that within the veil. whether the forerunner for us
entered, even Jesus, made a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. How important this man was. What
a picture he is. What a type he is. And yet, what
a reality he is that in a pre-incarnate form, he would come down and
visit with a man and bless him with wine and bread and say,
describing and detailing and bringing to you the gospel of
a broken body and shed blood, and you're a priest forever as
a result of this. Then we find out as we travel
through the scriptures, we find out more abundantly more about
this great high priest, this one who is king and priest, and
this one that Jesus Christ overshadows the type and the shadow with
such pictorial declaration. I am a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. Travel with us just a little
further to chapter 7 of the book of Hebrews. This whole chapter
is just filled with thoughts about Melchizedek. Verse 1, For
this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God,
who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and
blessed him. You know, here, when we find
reference to this, we find him called Abraham. When we were
over in the Old Testament, he was called Abram at that time.
Now we have his full name. We have Abraham. And then it
says, To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being
by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem,
which is king of peace. What a description we have of
the person who actually can take care of the problem and grant
to us a covenant of peace and be a priest for us that will
appear before God on our behalf. Not only is he the priest, but
he is also the offering. He offered himself. and offering of sweet-smelling
savor to the Father. This transaction is on our behalf. but it is really presented to
God. That's the one that needs to
have the offering made for. We are the recipients of it,
but God Almighty is the offended party, and He is the only one
that can really appreciate what's going on on that cross, and as
a result of that, grant unto us everlasting life. God the
Father is the one that this sacrifice is made for, and it is what God
said in the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah, I saw the travail
of his soul, and I'm satisfied. And as a result of that, the
church is at peace with God. We have an everlasting high priest
who ever liveth to make intercession for us. You know, I'm not sure
that he ever says a word. I can just see him when accusations
are brought up. Look at my hands and my feet.
Now, if he says more, hallelujah. That's what he said to Thomas.
Look at my hands and my feet. And you know what Thomas said
then? My Lord and my God. You endured all that for me. Verse 11 of this chapter, chapter
7, If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people receive the law, what further need was
there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek,
and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood
being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of
the law. What's that? You know, under
the Levitical priesthood, he said, if you've sinned, bring
your sacrifice. Under this, the law is trust Christ and don't
move a muscle. Don't you do anything. Don't
you bring anything. You have nothing to bring. Trust
Christ. And then we find out that that's
been supplied to us anyway. That trust has been supplied.
That's the law. Trust Christ. I pray in my last
moment that the words that proceed out of my mouth is, I trust His
blood and righteousness alone. Verse 13, For he of whom these
things were spoken pertaineth to another tribe of which no
man giveth attendance at the altar. For it is evident that
our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake, not
concerning the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident,
for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth
another priest." You know, the church has been thankful ever
since we read that, that it has not been the Levitical priesthood.
priesthood of animal sacrifices this is a priesthood Jesus Christ
said I lay down my life a ransom for many and that is sufficient
an everlasting priest eternal priest who grants everlasting
peace brother Mike