All right, let's open our Bibles
to Micah, chapter two. Book of Micah, chapter two. Now,
this evening I'm going to deal with the first six verses of
Micah, chapter two. The first six verses, and let's
just read through those first six verses, and then we'll come
back and make some comments. This is the prophet Micah speaking
to Israel and Judah, the northern and the southern kingdom. And
he starts off with the word, woe. Woe to them that devise
iniquity and work evil upon their beds. When the morning is light,
they practice it because it is in the power of their hand. And
they covet fields and take them by violence, and houses and take
them away, so they oppress a man. and his house, even a man in
his heritage. Therefore, thus saith the Lord,
behold, against this family do I devise an evil from which you
shall not remove your necks. Neither shall you go haughtily,
for this time is evil. And in that day shall one take
up a parable against you and lament with a doleful lamentation
and say, we be utterly spoiled. He hath changed the portion of
my people. How hath he removed it from me? Turning away, he hath divided
our fields. Therefore thou shalt have none
that shall cast accord by lot in the congregation of the Lord.
Prophesy ye not, say they to them that prophesy. They shall
not prophesy to them that they shall not take shame." Now, you
notice in verse 4, that little phrase there, When he speaks
of this parable that is taken up against the people of God
under the Old Covenant, he makes this statement down there. He
says, he, and that is the Lord God, he hath changed the portion
of my people. Now tonight, I want to talk to
you about our portion that never changes. our portion that never
changes. That's the title of this message. These here had a portion, a portion
from the Lord that He changed. But we who are in Christ, saved
by the grace of God, forgiven of all our sins by His blood,
and justified by His righteousness, blessed of God, with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. We have a portion that never
changes and that will never change. Now one of the things that you
need to understand about this whole thing here and this I believe
is so important in understanding the Old Testament and how it
compares and even contrasts in some ways with the New Testament.
With what the Apostle Paul, for example, described in the book
of of 2 Corinthians chapter 3 when he spoke of the old covenant,
the covenant of Sinai as a ministration of condemnation, an administration
of death, an administration of written laws, rules and regulations
that could not change the sinner. You can give sinners all kinds
of laws and rules and regulations, that doesn't change the heart.
So it was not a ministration of the Spirit. It was a ministration
of the law. And then he spoke of, in contrast
there, the greater glory of the new covenant, the gospel covenant,
eternal salvation and glory in Christ. He spoke of it as a ministry
of reconciliation, a ministry of peace, a ministry of glory,
a ministry of righteousness. You know, the law can show you
what righteousness is, but the law cannot make you righteous.
The Bible says that the law came by Moses, but grace and truth
comes by Jesus Christ. And so if you're going to understand
this, and I think this is a lot of the problem today when people,
you'll hear preachers on television and in so-called churches go
back into the old covenant and they begin to apply these promises.
to the church today when they don't even apply. You have to
understand. Now here's this nation Israel.
It's a divided nation now. The northern kingdom, the southern
kingdom, Samaria and Jerusalem. We read about that in the book
of Micah in chapter 1. Now this nation was blessed by
God in a special, special way. God made a promise to Abraham
years before he brought this nation together, 400 and some
years before that. And then he brought them down
into Egypt, they were in bondage for years and then he brought
them out by Moses and formed them as a nation, as an economy
from Mount Sinai and he gave them that covenant. And that's
the old covenant, that's the covenant of Moses, that's the
law covenant, that's the Ten Commandments and all the ceremonial
law, everything that they had that was given to them by Moses.
But that covenant, now listen to this very carefully, that
covenant under which that nation lived That covenant by which
they were ruled and guided for about 1,500 years, and that's
how long that covenant... When I say 1,500 years, I'm talking
about from Sinai to Calvary. That's about 1,500 years, give
or take a few years, depending upon how you measure time. That
covenant that that nation was under for that period of time
was a conditional covenant. Now, there were things that God
gave them unconditionally, don't get me wrong. The promised land,
that was promised to Abraham and they got it. But the covenant,
their blessings in that land, their being blessed or their
being cursed in that land was conditioned on their obedience. It was conditioned upon their
faithfulness as a nation, meaning from the leaders the priesthood,
all the way down to the majority of the people. And whether or
not they existed in that land or they were taken captive, which
they were, the northern kingdom here is about to be utterly obliterated
by the Assyrian army. And then later on, the southern
kingdom is going to go into captivity to Babylon for 70 years. Why? Because they didn't meet the
condition, they failed. They failed to meet the conditions
of that covenant living in that land. There were times when there
was great abundance of harvest in that land, and then there
were times when there was great famine in that land. What was
the problem? They didn't meet the conditions.
Now, why did God make such a conditional covenant with such a people? I'll tell you exactly why. to
teach one of the greatest lessons that a human being, a fallen
sinful human being in Adam can learn. That by deeds of law there
shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. You mean that God
did all of that? for 1,500 years just to teach
that lesson? My friend, do you understand
how important that lesson is? He put them under that conditional
covenant for several reasons, but for our purposes tonight,
just this reason is what I want to bring out. It was a living
testimony of history of the fact that man is a sinner. Why was
the law given? Several times in the New Testament
that question is asked. In Romans chapter 5, for example,
and Galatians chapter 3. Why was the law given? And you
know why that question was asked in those two places? It's because
that Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was trying to
explain That a sinner could not be made righteous before a holy
God by his efforts to keep the law. That a sinner could not
be forgiven of all of his sin by his efforts to keep the law.
Paul was explaining that in Romans 1, 2, 3, and 4, and 5. And so
the question comes, well then why was the law given? Why was
it given? Same thing in Galatians chapter
3. Wherefore then serveth the law? If I can't be justified
by the law, if I can't be saved by the law, if I can't be blessed
eternally and unchangeably by meeting the conditions of the
law, then why did God give it? And you know what the answer
was in both places, Romans chapter 5 and Galatians chapter 3? In Romans chapter 5, here's what
he said. He said, the law entered that sin might abound To show
the abundance of sin, that's our problem. To show that by
deeds of law, no flesh can be saved, justified before God.
No sinner can be made clean. by the blood of animals, by their
efforts to keep the law. No sinner can be made clean or
righteous by his efforts to keep the law. And then in Galatians
chapter 3 when it says, Wherefore then serveth the law? Remember
what the answer was? I can't remember what verse it
is. Somewhere around 20 or 21 or maybe before that. But here's
what he said. It was added because of what?
The transgression. It was added, it was a rule,
a standard whereby we could measure ourselves and see how much of
a sinner we really are. And somebody again says, well,
you mean God put those people through that for 1,500? Let me
tell you something. Not only those 1,500 years prove
that, but all of history before the Old Covenant and after the
Old Covenant proves that. That's really the purpose of
history if you read it in Isaiah chapter 46. Remember the former
things of old. Why? Why? To show the majesty
and the sovereignty and the purpose of God to save sinners by a righteousness
that He would bring near, He would bring in through His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Read it in Isaiah 46 verses 9
through 13. That's what he's talking about. So it was a conditional covenant.
It was a testimony of the fact that a sinner that we're sinners
just like Israel. You see, here's the way people
think today. I mean, this is true. Think about
this now. They go back and they read these
things in the Old Covenant and they see how sinful and how rebellious
and how uncooperative Israel was, and they actually believe
that they would have done better. But we wouldn't have. If we'd
have been in that nation too, we'd have been right with the
rest of them, disobeying God. We're sinners. And this covenant was a testimony
that man cannot save himself, he cannot preserve himself, and
he cannot preserve even any of the blessings that God gives
him freely. He may enjoy them for a little
while, but he's going to lose them. Now, that's why when the
Lord, through Jeremiah the prophet and Ezekiel the prophet, testified
of the coming new covenant, He said, I'm going to make a new
covenant with my people, His people, not like the covenant
I made with them on Sinai, which covenant they what? Broke. They broke it. You say, well,
we're under the new covenant. Do we break that? Not as long
as you keep your eyes on Christ. because He fulfilled all the
conditions of the New Covenant. So He's not conditioned on us.
The portion that God gave them changed. What was their portion? All the blessings that God gave
them in the Promised Land. But that was their portion. And
that's why we need salvation and blessedness not based on
a conditional covenant towards us, but a covenant that was conditioned
and fulfilled totally by the Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, our portion will never
change. I'm telling you, if salvation
or the blessings of God were conditioned on us, what would
we do? We'd do just like Israel under the old covenant. We'd
lose it. It would change. That's why we need an everlasting
covenant of grace. That's why the gospel is the
preaching of the terms of an everlasting covenant of grace.
All fulfilled, all of its requirements, conditions, and stipulations
fulfilled not by me or you, but by God the Son incarnate, the
Lord Jesus Christ. What is our portion in Christ?
It's all of salvation, all life, all righteousness, all blessings
in Him. And that's why it never changes.
We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. This is a salvation that God
gave us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now,
why did it change to Israel? Look at verse 1 of Micah chapter
2. The first thing he shows us here
in verse 1 is their portion changed because of sin, the reality of
sin. Look at it. Woe to them that
devise iniquity. and work evil upon their beds."
And he says, and when the morning is light, they practice what
they've devised the night before. They practice it because it's
in the power of their hand. That's what they can do. They
do it because that's their nature. That's what he's teaching here.
What he's teaching here is this, that sin, the reality of sin
is not just in what we do or don't do, it's in the heart.
It's what they go to bed at night and think about. It's what they
dream about. It's what's on their mind, and
the reason it's on their mind is because it's what's in their
heart. Sin is a heart problem, you see. The heart is deceitful
above all things, desperately wicked. Who could know it? Jeremiah
17, 9. Christ said, for out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,
murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. It's a heart matter. They devise
iniquity. That is, this shows a determined,
thought-out sin. This is not just a happenstance.
This is not just somewhere where you slip up without knowing it.
This is a thought process here from the heart. And it says they
work evil. It says they work evil. They devise iniquity and work
evil upon their beds. This is not casual. This is not
incidental. But it's working hard. That's
the hope. They're zealous for it. In other words, they're passionate
for it. You can talk about greed and
lust, but you can also talk about self-righteousness and pride.
I always think about that, you know, when I was studying this
verse and you do these word studies, what he's talking about is this
is a people who had a passion for sin. They had a zeal for
sin. And when I think about that,
I always think about Romans chapter 7. Turn over there just for a
second in Romans chapter 7. And in Romans chapter 7, he talks
about being married to Christ. That's a state of grace. You see, that's our only hope
of salvation, that God will take us who are by nature children
of wrath even as others, who are sinners, who cannot save
ourselves in a state of iniquity, in a state of alienation from
God, and bring us by his power and his grace through Christ
into a state of grace. And he describes that in verse
4. Look at it, Romans 7 and verse 4. Wherefore, my brethren, you
also become dead to the law. That is, when he means dead to
the law, it means the law cannot condemn you. The law has nothing
against you. The law cannot condemn you for
sin, nor can the law require obedience as to meeting its requirement. Now, how did I get that way?
He says it, by the body of Christ. That's the death of Christ on
the cross to put away my sin and establish righteousness,
which he imputes to me, in order that God can be just and justifier.
And he says that you should be married to another. That's the
state of grace, you see. Married to Christ. Not married
to the law. Not under the law. But married
to Christ. He's my husband. He's the husband
of the church. And it says, even him who is
raised from the dead. You see, sin demands death, but
righteousness demands life. Our righteousness is Christ,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. There's the result.
There's the fruit. There's the effect. Now, look at verse 5. Now, remember
what I'm talking about. These people in verse 1 of Micah
2, they're described as those who have a zeal and a passion
for sin. And he says, for when we were
in the flesh, that's unregenerate, unbelief, that's a state of alienation
from God. He says, the motions of sins,
now if you have a concordance in your Bible, it probably has
in that concordance the word passion. You have a zeal of sins. He says, which were by the law,
stirred up by the law. did work in our members to bring
forth fruit unto death." Now, how does that work? Well, if
you look back over here at Micah chapter 2, what was their passion? He's going to describe some of
their passion down here. But let me just put it to you
this way. In Israel, in that day, you had all kinds of different
people trying to do all kinds of different things. You had
those who were greedy and materialistic, who were self-centered, But you
also had those who were religious, who were going about trying to
establish a righteousness of their own. You see, these passions
of sin, these motions of sin which were by the law, that shows
itself in one of two ways. It shows itself either in a passion
of out and out rebelliousness, or it shows itself in a passion
for false religion. Remember what we read last time
in Isaiah chapter 1, what they were doing, what was going on
in Jerusalem and Samaria. They were praying, they were
having church services, they were keeping the feast, they
were doing all that without truth, without grace, without heart,
without Christ. And my friend, that's just as
passionately going after sin as the ones who are trying to
get all they can get here described in Micah chapter 2. Look at it
again. He says, they do this upon their
beds. That means out of their own comfort,
out of their own peace and rest. They spend their nights devising
evil. They spend their days working
it out. That's the works of their hands. And he says, because they
practice it, because it's in the power of their hand. That's
all the power they've got. That's man by nature without
Christ, without God's grace, without salvation. All he can
do is sin. It may be an immoral sin, it
may be an irreligious sin, or it may be a religious sin, but
it's all sin because without Christ, we're nothing but sin.
That's what this whole covenant is showing. And then look at
verse 2. He says, "...and they covet fields,
and take them by violence or by force, and houses, and take
them away, so that they oppress or they rob or defraud a man
in his house, even a man in his heritage." This is covetousness
which is idolatry. Paul described that in Colossians
chapter 3 and verse 5. This is the inordinate desire
for riches, for mammon, that takes a sinner into himself and
totally away from God. He will not seek the Lord. He
will not seek Christ. He's in it for himself. And you
know it says here, he covets fields. Do you know, did you
ever read this? I'll just read it to you. But it's in Leviticus chapter
25. But there was a rule or a law
concerning the land of promise. and who was to have their different
portions of it. And it was the old covenant concept
of land. And here's the way it went. Let
me read this to you. You can mark it down. Leviticus 25, 23. You
can read the whole thing if you want. But here's what happened. You know, when they came in the
land, they occupied the land. You know how it is. You know
people trade land. They do this, they do that. Some
get in trouble and dead and they have to give up the land. They
have to hire themselves out as bond servants, all of that. Here's
what the Lord said in Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 23 about
the land of promise. It says, "...the land shall not
be sold forever, for the land is mine." He says, the land doesn't belong
to you. You're just using it for a little while while I've
given it to you. You're just a steward. The land's
mine, God says. You can't sell it forever. He
says, for you are strangers and sojourners with me. And when
they came into the land of Canaan and the land of promise, they
were given parcels of land. And over that 1,500 year period
of time, if any of them lost that land, eventually that land
would come back to them or their heirs or their descendants. And you remember when? The year
of Jubilee. And you know why? Because God
put that into effect in order to ensure that that land would
be preserved until the time of reformation, until the time of
change that Hebrews chapter 9 speaks of. Because if it was left totally
up to the people, the land would have been lost and long gone,
probably within a few years of them taking possession of it.
But God said, the land's not yours, the land's mine. What lessons is he teaching there?
He's teaching this. Don't be too attached to this
world and its materials. You think you own all this stuff.
I think I own this. We don't own a thing. Ultimately,
isn't that right? Who's going to own it when it
all burns up? Who owned it before then? Who owns it? God owns it.
You say, well, I worked hard for it. God still owns it. And
the only reason you worked hard for it is because God enabled
you to work hard for it. He gave you the ability. He gave
you the opportunities. I've seen folks work hard and
not get anything. How about you? You ever heard
of that? I've seen folks not do anything
and get everything. You can't figure that out. God
owns it all. What does the Bible tell us to
do? It says, seek the Lord in His righteousness and all these
other things will be added unto you. Don't get too attached to
this world. Christ said that a man's life
consists not in the abundance of the things which he possesses,
Oh, my soul. And God had set up this covenant
system so the people could not lose the land given them permanently
because of their sin. Only God could take it away at
His appointed time. And there was an appointed time
for that. And even though, now you think about this, it's not
going to be long after Micah here, after the time of Micah,
that the northern kingdom was going to be lost forever. But
still God's promise is in effect because the scepter did not depart
from Judah until Shiloh Christ came and finished his work. Look at verse 3, he says, he
says, Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, against this family
do I devise an evil. This is God devising an evil.
From which you shall not remove your necks, your necks are on
the line and you can't get out of this, that's what he's saying.
Neither shall you go haughtily. You won't be proud here now.
You won't go with your heads held high here, for this time
is evil." Now, God devising evil simply means that the evil that
would come upon them would be injustice. Sometimes evil in
the Bible refers to moral evil. That's what we do. Sometimes
it's natural evil, like catastrophes or disasters. God said, I form
the light and create evil. And He said in Isaiah chapter
45, and He said, evil and create darkness, I make peace and create
evil, I the Lord do all these things. It's His justice. So He says, your necks are on
the line here. Don't ever forget it. Look at verse 4. He says,
in that day, "...shall one take up a parable against you." That's
a taunting song, that's what that is. What it is, it's like
they will mock you with parables and with sayings and songs. God will make an example of you,
that's what He's saying. He says you'll lament and will
lose the portion of the land that's given you, and He's changing
the portion for His people. You know that literally, when
it says He changed the portion, that's a legal term. It's a legal
term having to do with the transference of land. And he's simply saying,
I'm going to take it away from you and I'm going to give it
to the heathen who don't deserve it. You didn't deserve it either.
What's he teaching? He's teaching salvation is not
by works. Very basic gospel principle. I think about that, it reminds
me of God removing the gospel from the Jews and giving it to
the Gentiles. And then look at verse 5, or
verse 4 again, he says, "...we be utterly spoiled, he hath changed
the portion of my people, how hath he removed it from me? Turning
away, he hath divided our fields among the heathen." And then
verse 5, he says, "...therefore shalt thou have none that shall
cast accord by lot in the congregation of the Lord." What he's saying
here is there's no hope of regaining this. Casting of the cord or
of lots is not gambling in the Old Covenant, but it was simply
submitting to God's will. And this is how they divided
the land when they came into the Promised Land. They cast
the cord and divided the land. And what he's saying here is
those who formerly had the land, who formerly coveted and stole
it from others, not only are they going to lose their land
by going into captivity, but when God brings them back out
of that captivity and divides the land again, they're not going
to get any. They're not going to be there.
They'll get no portion at all. There is no hope, you see, without
God. Well, look at verse 6. Here's
what they say. Now, this is a message of woe.
It's a message of wrath. What do they say? They say, prophesy
ye not, say they to them that prophesy, they shall not prophesy
to them that they shall not take shame. What's he saying? Here's
the people rising up against God's prophets saying, don't
preach such stuff to us. Disgrace and shame will not come
to us or overtake us. This is a message that's repugnant
and offensive to the natural man. You see, they don't want
to hear it. They want preachers and prophets
who will tell them what they want to hear, not what they need
to hear. And it's the same today. Well,
let me give you these things. Now, I told you I wanted to talk
to you about this, our portion that never changes. They lost
the land because of sin. Well, we're sinners too. We're
no better than those folks back then living under the old cover.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No flesh,
no flesh will be justified in God's sight by the deeds of God.
How in the world can we talk about a portion, a salvation,
eternal life and righteousness that'll never change? Well, let
me give you these things. Number one, our portion will
never change because our God never changes. He said in Malachi
chapter 3 and verse 6, for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He never changes. He's the God
of all grace. He's the God of the covenant.
He's the God of all mercy in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.
But now somebody might object. They might say, well now, the
God who never changes, who made that permanent, promise of a
portion to his people in Christ in he the same God that made
the covenant with Israel and that changed There's a difference
and I'm going to show you that in just a moment You hold on
to that thought and this will bless you if you if you'll hear
it and read the scripture But our God never changes and when
when it says here he hath changed the portion of my people God
still didn't change He did exactly what He determined to do beforehand. He's still working all things
after the counsel of His own will. But the reason that we
don't lose our portion in salvation, in eternal life, in righteousness,
in forgiveness, in blessing, is because He never changes.
Well, why did they lose it in spite of the fact that God never
changes? I'll show you in just a moment. Here's the second thing.
Our portion in salvation never changes because our Savior never
changes. He's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He never changes. He is who He
is. He is what He always was and
always what He will be. He's the Alpha and the Omega.
He's the eternal Savior. He's the everlasting Savior.
So, He never changes. Here's the third thing. Our portion
never changes because His covenant never changes. It's the everlasting
covenant of grace. Now, I know in the New Testament
and in the Old Testament, it speaks of a new covenant. And
what that means, now see if we can get this in our minds. The
new covenant, what is the new covenant? Well, it's talking
about new in time, all right? But that newness in time, that
new covenant in time is merely the working out in time, the
fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant of grace made before
time. That never changes. You see,
the new covenant is not a change in the everlasting covenant of
grace, it's the fulfillment in time of the everlasting covenant
of grace. Christ was slain on Calvary's
cross 2,000 years ago, isn't that right? But doesn't the Bible
speak of him as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world?
Doesn't the Bible speak in Hebrews chapter 13, his blood as the
blood of the what? The everlasting covenant, isn't
that right? Wasn't Abel justified before
God based upon the imputed righteousness of Christ and forgiven by the
blood of Christ before that blood was actually shed in time? Yes,
he was. Wasn't David the same way? Let
me read you David's own words in 2 Samuel chapter 23 and verse
5. He said, For this is all my salvation
and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." Now, how
could David speak of a covenant, an everlasting covenant that
was ordered in all things insure when we see here in the book
of Micah the people of God losing their portion, that temporal
portion of that earthly land and their occupation. David wasn't
speaking of that covenant or that temporal blessing. He's
talking about his salvation. through the blood of the coming
Messiah, the righteousness of the coming Messiah. Here's the fourth thing. Our
portion never changes because Christ's priesthood never changes. Now I want you to turn with me
to Hebrews chapter 6 again. I want you to follow this along.
This will bless you if you'll listen to this and get hold of
it and read these scriptures. Hebrews chapter 6. Now, the God of the Old Covenant
and the God of the New Covenant are one and the same God. The
God who made the Old Covenant with the nation Israel didn't
change. But that covenant changed. That people changed. It was meant
to change. Now let me show you what I'm
talking about here. Talking about here swearing an oath in Hebrews
chapter 6. You see that? Verse 16. Now,
this whole thing is said as an example of the promise that God
made to Abraham even before the Old Covenant. And he says in
verse 17 of Hebrews 6, "...wherein God willed him more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise..." Now, who are the heirs of promise?
That's not the heirs of a physical descendant. The heirs of promise
are believers. God's elect people. for whom
Christ died on the cross, those who are washed in his blood and
clothed in his righteousness, who are called out by the Holy
Spirit, regenerated and converted, they believe the promise." What
promise? The promise of eternal salvation
and final glory through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going
to show these heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath. Now, do you have anything in
your concordance on that phrase, confirmed by an oath. Look in
your concordance, if you've got one in your Bible. And this is
good. Let me tell you what mine says.
I have a Cambridge Bible. Some of y'all do too, or most
of. It says, God, to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of his counsel, interposed himself by an oath. You understand? He interposed himself by an oath. In other words, in this covenant
of promise, this covenant of grace, this covenant of redemption
that's all conditioned on Christ, God engaged himself with an oath. And that's the certainty of it.
See, he says in verse 18, that by two immutable things, what?
God's oath and God's promise. That could not change. All right? That means immutable, cannot
change. In which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
strong consolation. Now, who's going to have that
strong consolation? All who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us. What is that hope? It's the hope
of Jesus Christ, the forerunner. He says in verse 19, "...which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
not conditioned..." You see, it's not conditioned on me or
you. Because if it were conditioned on me or you, it wouldn't be
sure and it certainly wouldn't be steadfast. That's why David
said, "...ordered in all things and sure." All right? He said,
"...and which entereth into that within the veil..." Now, who
entered within the veil? Christ did. "...whether the forerunner
is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever."
Temporarily, not for 1,500 years, but forever after the order of
Melchizedek. Now, you see that? Think about
that. Now, look over at Hebrews 7.
Now, he goes on to talk about the priesthood of Melchizedek.
And the priesthood of Melchizedek is an eternal order that is not
a succession of men, but is fulfilled in one man. the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one mediator between God and me. Melchizedek himself,
the man, was a type of that order. But look at verse 12 of Hebrews
chapter 7. Now listen to what he says. Now he's talking about the Old
Covenant priesthood here, not the priesthood of Christ, not
the priesthood of the order of Melchizedek. He says, for the
priesthood... He's talking about Aaron and
Levi and the sons of... For the priesthood being changed. That human priesthood under the
Old Covenant was changed, wasn't it? It was set up to be a temporary
thing, a type, a picture. So he says, for the priesthood
being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of
the law. That priesthood was the central
thing of that Old Covenant. The high priest going into the
holiest of all with the blood. Now if that priesthood changed,
that means what? It means a change of the law.
the whole law. And so he's talking about here
a changeable priesthood on earth, that's the old covenant. But
now jump over, and you read this whole passage, you jump over
to verse 19 of Hebrews 7, now listen to this. He says, for
the law made nothing perfect, that's why it had to change,
couldn't make anything complete, couldn't save a sinner, couldn't
justify a sinner, couldn't make a sinner righteous, He says,
"...but the bringing in of a better hope did, by which we draw nigh
unto God, and inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest."
That's talking about Christ. He was made priest, but not without
an oath. The immutability of that oath.
"...for those priests," verse 21, "...those priests of the
old covenant were made without an oath." There was no oath made
when God instituted that. In other words, God didn't interpose
himself behind that priesthood as a permanent fixture. It was
meant to change. It did exactly what God gave
it to do. It was given for a time. It changed
down through the ages. One man died, another man rose
up out of the tribe of Levi to be the high priest, and the other
priest replaced the other priest. And then it had an end, had a
beginning, had an end, just like God intended for it to do. But
he says, for those priests were made without an oath, but this
with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and
will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Just exactly what you read in
Psalm 110, 111. This was true even back in the Old Testament.
They were never to think of that priesthood or that covenant as
being a covenant of salvation by their works or even permanent. but they were to look forward
to this priest, this substitute. And look on verse 22, By so much
was Jesus made the surety of a better testament or covenant,
and they were truly many priests, because they were not suffered
or allowed to continue by reason of death. But this man, this
person, Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness, our advocate,
because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore
he is able. to save them to the uttermost.
You know what that means? That means we can't lose our
portion. Because he's able to say, see those old covenant priests,
they weren't able to do anything to the uttermost like that. But
he's able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession. So, lastly, our
portion will never change because our righteousness never changes.
What is our righteousness? Well, the Bible calls it the
righteousness of God. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, heirs of promise. To the Jew first and to the Greek
also, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Do you realize
that the reason that you who are in Christ, the reason that
your portion will never change is because you have charged to
your account an everlasting righteousness of infinite value that you cannot
lose and that will never change and never be corrupted. That's
why we can say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justified me. Who can condemn us? It's
Christ that died. He rather has risen again and
seated at the right hand of the Father. You see, they lost their
portion, Israel under the Oka, because of sin. We can't lose
our portion because of sin. Why? Because Christ has taken
away our sin. And in Him is no sin. 1 John
3. As I'm in Him, I have no sin.
In myself, I'm a sinner. If it were conditioned on me,
I'd lose it. But it's not. It's on Him. And He fulfilled
all righteousness. Adam had a portion in the Garden
of Eden. You know, he lost it. because
he was a human being, changeable. So we have even a better righteousness
than what Adam had before the fall. We have the very righteousness
of God, and it never changes. It never changes. So we'll never
lose our portion like they did. Well, that's our hope, isn't
it? That's the only hope of salvation for a sinner.