He's brought us back. We went
astray. We were taken captive by Satan. Our Lord Jesus came after us.
He would not let us go. He would not let us perish. Why,
we're the apple of His eye. We're His chosen people. We're
the beloved of the Lord. All of His lots. That's all of
us. We went astray from the womb,
speaking lies, but our Lord didn't turn His back on us. He came after us. He has redeemed
us. He has reconciled us. He has
put our sins away. And that seeking shepherd, He
came after us with His gospel. by His Spirit. He pursued us,
and at the exact time ordained in old eternity, He found us. He rescued us. He brought us
to Himself. We were like sheep going astray.
It's what the Scripture says. Are you a believer? You are the
lost sheep. You are the wandering sheep,
and the shepherd He came after you. He came after me. He came after you. He wouldn't
let us go. He wouldn't let us perish. If
one of his sheep should perish, he'd lose a whole lot more than
we would. He'd lose his glory. He'd lose his honor. He'd lose
his good name. His name is Jesus. He shall save
his people from their sins. And if he should fail to save
his people from their sins, he'd be a frustrated, defeated savior. And that can't ever happen. Isaiah said, he shall not fail. So he goes after a lot. And the scripture says in the
women, also in the people, he brings them back, brings everything
back. Now verse 17, and the king of
Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter
of Chedorlaomer. He just whipped him. He just
slaughtered him. And of the kings that were with
him at the vale of Shavi, which is the king's dale. So the defeat
has happened now. Abram has sent those Four kings,
he sent them packing. They've been whipped. They're
leaving. And the king of Sodom goes out
to congratulate Abram and to thank him for all that he did.
But meanwhile, verse 18, and Melchizedek, he's king of Salem,
he brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the
Most High God. Now, if you don't mind underlining
your Bible, notice how many times the Most High God is used. He was the priest of the Most
High God. Verse 19, and he blessed him. He blessed Abram. And he said,
blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth. and blessed be the most high
God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And Abram
just said, here's tithes of everything I've got. And then the king of
Sodom stepped in. I'll come back to Melchizedek
in a minute. A king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the
persons and you take the goods to yourself. Now, in a war, The
victor is worthy of the spoils. That's the way it works, isn't
it? You history teacher. Those who win, they get what
the defeated enemy's got. And so the king of Sodom, he
says to Abraham, you give me the people and all the goods
you brought back, that Chedorlaomer and those other guys stole from
all of us, you can have it all. You can have it all. But Abram,
he's not a covetous man. God's blessed him. And he doesn't
need what the king of Sodom will give him. And Abram said to the
king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the
Most High God." Now he's using the same kind of language that
Melchizedek used, the Most High God. Who is it? Who is the Most
High God? The possessor of heaven and earth. I tell you, most of the people
that I'm acquainted with, people who don't know the gospel, they
don't know he's the most high God, the possessor of heaven
and earth. And that's what we're trying to tell people. We're
trying to tell people who God is. God's not to be felt sorry
for. God's not to be pitied. He's
the most high God. He's a possessor of heaven and
earth and everything that's in Him. That's our God. That's the
God of the Bible. Is that the God you worship?
And watch what Abram says in verse 23. He says, I've lifted
up my hand unto the Lord, the most high God, the possessor
of heaven and earth. Now verse 23, that I will not
take a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything
that is thine." I don't want anything you've got. Lest you
should say, I made Abram rich. I don't want anything you've
got. You keep all your riches. You see, Abram had riches that
this King of Sodom didn't know anything about the riches of
God's grace, the riches of mercy. He had an inheritance eternal
in the heavens. This is the man who it says in
Hebrews chapter 11, this man who is looking for a city, who's
builder and maker is God. I don't want anything you've
got. And he says this in verse 24,
the only thing is that which the young men have
eaten. And the portion of the men that went with me, Aner,
and Ashkel, and Mamre, let them take their portion. That food
that they ate, that's it, that's it. And so Abram, he turned down
what this king offered him because he's rich in grace. I'll tell
you what Abraham received here in this passage of scripture.
He receives this visitation from Melchizedek. This is the only
instance in all of the Bible that we actually meet Melchizedek. The rest of the times in the
Bible when he's mentioned, he is said to be, Christ is said
to be the priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But
as far as Melchizedek actually doing anything else in the Bible
or any other historical instance of his activity, there isn't
any. Here is this most unusual man,
and he all of a sudden appears on the scene. We're told something
about him. He's the king of Salem. He's
the king of peace. And he brought to Abram bread
and wine. And then we're told he was the
priest of the Most High God. He is a king, and he is a priest. And then it says he blessed Abram. And then he acknowledged the
greatness of Abram's God. And then Abram gave to this Melchizedek
tithes of all that he had. Abram received a visitation of
grace. He needed this visitation. He's
weary, he needed the refreshment. He has been in battle, him and
the 318 trained servants of his. It's been a difficult thing. He put all of himself into this
victory and he needs refreshment. and the one who meets him is
ready to refresh him and gives him bread and wine. Now you and
I as the people of God, we're in a constant warfare. You know
it and I know it. We're in a warfare with the world.
This world is not our friend. It's not a friend to grace. It's
not a friend to God. We're in a war. with the world. Love not the world, the Savior
said, neither the things that are in the world. And then we're
in a war, we're in a battle with Satan. We battle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers in
spiritual places. And then we're in another battle.
We're in a battle with our own flesh. And you can read in Romans
chapter seven, Paul writes of that. And all of the people of
God know about this. We know of this warfare. It's
ongoing. And just when we need him most,
our Lord Jesus, set forth by this man Melchizedek, our Lord
Jesus, he comes to refresh us. in sweet visitations of grace. How often have you been maybe
weary, perhaps you've been through sickness, some difficulty, some
tragedy, and all of a sudden, through the Word of God, by the
Spirit of grace, the Lord Jesus, He comes to strengthen you and
to encourage you. A sweet visitation of grace.
Aren't those precious times? When you read the Word of God
and you just pray, Lord speak to me. Lord encourage me. Lord
my heart is low. I need to be perked up. I need
some joy. I've kind of lost my joy, Lord.
And He comes with bread and wine. Bread. Christ is the bread of
life. And we feed on Him. Tell you
what, we get weak when we don't feed, when we don't eat. Eat
of Christ the bread of life. And we drink the wine of the
gospel. That's what cheers the lowly
heart, the broken in spirit. We need visitations of grace. And our Lord Jesus, He brings,
He comes to us with bread and wine. bread and wine, bread to
strengthen, and the wine of the gospel, which makes the heart
merry. I tell you this, and you know
this as a people of God, nobody, nobody can speak words of joy
to your heart like the Lord Jesus Christ can and does through his
word. Now, he doesn't speak to us outside
of his word, but through his word. And he just cheers the
broken heart. So that even in the midst of
the most difficult trouble and trial, he can perk up your spirit. He speaks words of grace to us. Melchizedek, he's a picture of
our Lord Jesus. Now, there are differences of
opinion as to who he is or who he was. Some say he was one of
Noah's sons, Shem, going by another name. I think we can dismiss
that theory. Others say that he was an angelic
celestial being, and I think we can actually dismiss that
theory because it says he was without beginning or end, without
mother or father, end of days. There are others, and I'm one
of them, who thinks that this was our Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate
form. I wouldn't fuss with you over
who you might think he is. But these things that are said
about him, without mother or father, without beginning of
days or end of days. This one who is the priest forever. This one who is the King. There's
so much here that just leads us to the Lord Jesus. It forces us to go to Him. And whether Melchizedek was our
Savior in pre-incarnate form, or whether he's just an outstanding
picture and type of our Lord Jesus, there is this for certain. He sets forth our glorious Savior,
who is the Prince of Peace, who is the King of Righteousness.
It says here, in verse 18, that He's the King of Salem. He's
the King of Peace. He's the Priest. He's the Priest of the Most High
of God. The priest, the priest who ministers
to God for us. That's what he does. In the Old
Testament, what did a priest do? Well, a priest prayed for
the people. Doesn't our Lord Jesus pray for
us? He said in John 17, I pray not
for the world, I pray for those you gave me. What did a priest
do? He offered sacrifices to God.
Well, that's what our Lord Jesus did. He offered the sacrifice
to God. The sacrifice of Himself. He laid down His humanity on
the altar of His deity. The sacrifice. Blood of bulls
and goats could never put away sin. But this man, he died and
he put away all the sins of his people. He's a priest forever. having offered to God the sacrifice
that just pacified God's justice, that satisfied the law of God. This is our great Melchizedek. The scripture says he was a king,
the king of righteousness and the king of peace. Righteousness first, you get
that from Hebrews 7. Righteousness first, and then
king of peace second. It's a reason it's in that order. Righteousness must be established
before peace can be given. That's the rule. And I didn't
make that rule. That's God's rule. That's according
to his own perfect character, according to his attributes.
Our Lord Jesus, oh Melchizedek. He is indeed the king of peace,
having first of all been the king of righteousness. Priest
and king. What does a king do? Know what
a priest does. He ministers to God. He speaks
to God on behalf of the people. He offers to God the sacrifice.
He burns incense to God. He takes all of our works in
which we try to worship and serve the Lord, and He purifies them
Himself, and He presents them to the Father. He's the priest who offered the
sacrifice of Himself, and He's the King. He's the King who governs
over all things for the good of His people. He's been exalted
by virtue of his successful redemption. Because he finished the work
the Father gave him to do, God made him king. God made him Lord. You can't make him Lord. You
can't make him king. God did that. And he's a king,
listen, who really reigns. That's not an empty title. In
some nations, they have a king or a queen, and that's a royal
title, but they really don't have too much authority or power. But our Lord Jesus, He wears
that title well, and He exercised His sovereign right in all things,
be it in creation, or in providence, or in salvation. And you know
what, Abram, he thought so much of this Melchizedek. He was so
taken back by him that he gave him tithes of all he possessed. He respected him that much. And
we bring our offerings, we bring our gifts to King Jesus, not
out of law, Abram when he gave tithes to
Melchizedek. It wasn't because Melchizedek
said, now give me a tithe. No, Melchizedek didn't say that. Abram has a heart of thanksgiving. He's grateful. He appreciates
this mysterious, gracious visitor. This visitor who makes an appearance
before Abram and then He's gone. Now, I believe that Melchizedek
was our Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form, so he'll be back. He'll
be back to visit with Abram again and again and again. He'll visit him in Genesis the
22nd chapter and tell him to offer Isaac, that son that he
loved, as a burnt offering to him. And then he'll tell Abraham,
okay, I see you love me. You got your son up on the altar
and you got the fire, the knife, everything's ready. You're going
to carry out the deed. I see you love him. I see you
love me rather. And you respect me and you worship
me. So I provided a substitute for
Isaac. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. This is an act of consecration
by Abraham. Here's a free, voluntary gift. And it was a reasonable gift.
And it was a gift of faith. Because Abraham knew all that
he had, God gave him. He just gives this gift to Melchizedek. And that's the way we give. We
give out of love, we give out of thanksgiving, we give out
of appreciation. While the Lord has given us bread,
the bread of life, and He's given us the wine of the gospel, and
the wine speaks of His blood. Here's His body and His blood.
Oh! Here's the two elements of the
Lord's Supper. Right here. Bread and wine. speaking of our Lord Jesus himself. And this is what Melchizedek
gives him, as though to say, these are tokens of myself. This speaks of me and the sacrifice
I will offer. Yet in the future, the bread
is my body, the wine is my blood, which is shed for many for the
remission of sins. Well, we're thankful that Mel
Kizidek still makes visits to weary, weary soldiers like you
and me. He visits us through the word
of truth and he encourages us by the gospel. And he gives to
us again, as he has this evening, here's bread for you. Here's wine for you. Be refreshed. Be encouraged. Our great Melchizedek
reigns over all things and he is himself a priest, the priest
forever. Forever. Let's close in prayer. We thank you, Father, for the
word of truth. And for putting here in the scriptures
this most unusual man, Melchizedek, whom we believe to be, he's certainly
a picture and a type of our Lord Jesus, but it seems, at least
to me, that this is our Savior in pre-incarnate form. And he
just makes a sudden appearance. There's no record of him ever
having appeared to anybody else before this. And after this,
there's no record of him appearing this Melchizedek to anybody else,
just to this man who was favored by the grace of God to have a
visitation from this most unusual visitor. And certainly he pictures
our Savior who was an unusual visitor to this earth 2,000 years
ago. And he, the king of righteousness,
the king of peace, he came to save all of his chosen lots. Though we had ruined ourselves,
he would not let us go. He would not let us perish, and
He came after us. And having redeemed us, and having
represented us before the majesty on high, He came to us through
the gospel by the power of the Holy Ghost, and He drew us unto
Himself. And He gave to us then, and He
has given to us again this evening. bread and wine. Thank you, O great Melchizedek. To God be the glory through the
name of our Savior. Amen.