All right, if you wish to follow
along, turn to Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. I want us
to consider Mainly verses 16 through the end of the chapter,
that's verse 16 through 24, I will read those, but my text will
be found in those verses. It will not necessarily be all
of those verses, although I will mention almost all of them. Genesis
chapter 14, let's begin reading in verse 16. And he brought back
all the goods. Now this is talking about Abraham.
Some people have been taken captive by some kings. So Abraham goes
out with his hired servants. He arms them for battle. And
they go to battle, and Abraham is bringing back everything that
was taken. And he brought back all the goods,
and also brought again his brother Lot. Aren't you glad it said
that that way? Aren't you glad? His brother, not because they
were both of the same bloodline. but because they were both righteous
men in God's sight. That's what it said. Brought
again his brother Lot, his goods, and the women also, and the people. In other words, he brought back
everything. And the king of Sodom, now if you go back to chapter
13, you see it's already stated, chapter 13, verse 13, but the
men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord. Remember
I told you about the word before? right up in the face of, against. Were wicked sinners before the
Lord exceedingly. And when the book says that,
that lays special emphasis on the absolute rebellion that these
people had within them. And yet we see here, Abraham
delivering, what? Sodom. That's what it says. And the king of Sodom went out
to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Kedorlehomer,
and the kings that were with him at the valley of Sheba, which
is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the
most high God. And he blessed him, that is,
Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And he blessed him and 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 he
gave him tithes of all. That is, Abraham gave Melchizedek
tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto
Abram, notice the king of Sodom is still here. And the king of
Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and take the goods
to thyself. And Abram said to the king of
Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the Lord, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth. Where do you get that
from? Well, he was just told that by Melchizedek. that I will
not take from a thread, even to a shoe latchet, and that I
will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say,
I have made Abram rich. Save only that which the young
men have eaten, and the portion of the men which were with me,
Aner, Eschol, and Mamre, let them take their portion. Now,
in Genesis chapter 14, the whole chapter, we see Abraham is in
the promised land. We see that Abraham and Lot separate. But remember, they separated
at Abraham's request. They separated at Abraham's request. Then we see Lot is captured.
And then we see Lot rescued by Abraham. Oh, what a type that
is there, isn't it? Chapter 14 and verse 16. Isn't
that a glorious type, a glorious illustration of what God Almighty
does for his people? Here, Abraham represents Jesus
Christ. And where are his people? In
Sodom. In Sodom. You remember what Isaiah
said about even Israel to this day. He said, had the Lord not
left us a seed, we'd have been just like Sodom and Gomorrah. But that's not my message. But
isn't that a glorious type? Then we also, the King of Sodom
is present. Oh, what a type that is. Let
me tell you something, God Almighty visits his people right in the
face of his enemies. God is saving his people. He
doesn't have to take them out in some special place. He is
sending his spirit and his gospel to them right in the midst of
this world. Right in the midst of Sodom.
But remember Sodom, the king of Sodom, he's still there. God
is also delivering his people. Now listen to me. If you're offended
by this, then you need to start doing a little repenting. God
delivers his people in spite of the Sodom that's in here. I'm talking about me and you
and anybody else who hears me. God delivers his people in spite
of Sodom still being present right down in here. But that's
not my message either. There is a whole lot here, not
only in this chapter, but even in these last few verses of this
chapter. Go back and read it sometime.
But think about this, in this midst of all this, there's all
kinds of illustrations and actual examples, not just illustrated,
but examples of God's mercy and compassion. In the midst of this, a magnanimous
figure brings forth bread and wine. Isn't that what it says? And Melchizedek, he just shows
up on the scene. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
go back and read, he had no part in any of this battle thing that
was going on. In the physical aspect, basically,
he wasn't one of the kings on either side of this deal. And
Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. That's where my title and my
subject come from. I've tried to do this during
this series on Genesis just to hopefully help these things to
stick in our minds. I know it takes the spirit of
God to do that. And I don't mean, I just want
you to remember my titles and subjects. But I want you, there
is always a subject in this book, and that subject is always Jesus
Christ the Lord. And Melchizedek brought forth
bread and wine, and I'll just deal with that. Here's my title,
and here's the subject. Melchizedek and his tokens. You see? Melchizedek and his
tokens. He had two tokens he brought
with him, did he not? When he blessed Abram. And Melchizedek,
king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. Now if you know Christ, if that
don't already ring your bell, then you're having like just
a mental lapse for today or something. Now one thing's sure. Melchizedek
did not bring forth bread and wine because Abraham needed those
things physically to eat and drink. Go back and look, Abraham
was rich. He was rich. He got rich in Egypt
when he went down there and lied about his wife. Now go figure
that one out with this health and wealth gospel, people. That's
just the facts of scripture, folks. I'm not trying to justify
Abraham's lying. Not in the least. But God Almighty
blesses his people in spite of his people. Because our blessings
are based upon the person and work of Jesus Christ and not
us. And aren't you glad? And those
of you who truly know God anywhere, you know that's not license to
sin. That's reason to rejoice. It's
reason to rejoice. Melchizedek and his tokens, his
bread and wine. Yes, Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek,
tithes plural. People fuss about tithes or talk
about tithes, brag about tithes, but most of them usually go by
the gross or the net under paycheck. At best, this said Abraham paid
tenths. It's not a tithe, but tenths. So it come to more than a tenth
Mason had to at least be 20%. Do you see what it's saying?
Because he paid tithes to Melchizedek. Now let the tithers chew on that
one for a while. That's the first time tithing
is mentioned in the book of God. Wasn't even no law of Sinai around
then, was there? So when a person thinks, well
I gave my 10%, I've done all I'm supposed to do. Wait a minute,
you ain't even touched what Abraham did yet. But that's not my message
either. Think about it. Here's the point
there. Melchizedek acted before Abraham did. Melchizedek has
just slaughtered these people and saved his brother Lot and
all that appertained to him. That's what he done. Abraham
just slaughtered him. And Melchizedek just shows up
on the scene with bread and wine. Not because Abraham or his servants
needed bread and wine, but Melchizedek's gonna show Abraham a lesson here. And I just believe, I can't prove
it, but I believe that Melchizedek said and did a whole lot more
with Abraham than what we're told in the book. But we know
what Melchizedek did with Abraham in the book. Second thing, yes? This is also true. Levi paid
tithes also when Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek. We're told that in Hebrews chapter
seven, seven, eight, nine, or seven, eight, nine, and 10. Isn't
that an amazing thought? Levi did not even exist. He would
have been, somebody help me here, Abraham's great, great, great,
great grandson or something pretty close to that. But the book of
God says that Levi paid tithes in Abraham when Abraham paid
tithes to Melchizedek. Why? How? Because he was in Abraham's
loins. He was there, now I'm gonna use
the word, I don't mean this to be, he was there in Abraham's
semen, his seed. Oh, what a message is there.
Everything our Lord Jesus Christ did, If you are in him, if you
are a part of his seed, that chosen seed chosen even before
the foundation of the world, everything Jesus Christ did,
you did it too. Doesn't that help you just to? Love your mother and father.
Honor them. And Mason, if I'm in him, when
he honored his mother and father, I honored my mother and father.
But that's not even my message. Remember, my title and subject
is this. Melchizedek and his tokens. So enough of all the other things.
I just throw those out as a few choice morsels for you to chew
on later when you go back home or sometime maybe later this
week want to think about this. Think about this subject is imminent
because it's the first thing that this figure when he shows
up on the scene does is he brings forth bread and wine. Now we know without question,
according to Hebrews chapter seven and verse 15, that Melchizedek
is a God-ordained example of Jesus Christ. It calls it a similitude
or a similitude, however you want to pronounce it. It's an
example, it's a type. Now when I began this study,
I knew I was gonna get to Melchizedek eventually. It wasn't my overall
purpose, but I thought I'm going to prove that Melchizedek was
truly pre-incarnate Jesus Christ. Well, as I really studied it
and looked at the word, I can't do that. Somebody might can,
someone who knows more about the Hebrew, the Greek, the language,
they might can. I cannot, but I know this, the
book tells me they are similitude. Melchizedek is this according
to God's book. He's there to teach us a lesson
about the person and work of Jesus Christ. And what's the
first thing Melchizedek does? Before he blesses Abraham, he
can't bless him otherwise unless he brings forth what? Bread and
wine. Think about that. Bread and wine. Secondly, let's look at it now.
Now we're going to get to the nitty gritty. Here's where we're
actually going to look. Melchizedek, we'll look at that
for a moment. and his tokens, remember there
were two tokens, bread and wine. First of all, Melchizedek, and
this is not me looking in Strong's and figuring it out, although
you can look in Strong's and figure it out. This is actually
told to us by Hebrews in Hebrews chapter seven, verse two. And
it's amazing, Hebrews is what, 13 chapters divided we have?
Three of them in a short book like that deal with Melchizedek.
When in the Old Testament you have two mentions of Melchizedek
only. And then when the writer of Hebrews
comes along with all of this old Hebrew, Old Testament stuff,
he takes three chapters, chapter five, chapter six, and chapter
seven, and talks about Melchizedek. Talking about Christ. Talking
about Christ. Applying it to Christ. Showing the example of Christ. Melchizedek's name means King
of Righteousness. King, not just a righteous king. No, king of righteousness. In other words, there is no other
righteousness that exists except in this king. Do you see what
the word, that's the meaning. King of equity, it will be stated
in the Hebrew. King of right. Now listen, my
brothers and sisters, The only righteousness that resides before
a holy God is in our great high priest, King Jesus Christ, our
true Melchizedek. Even when we conduct ourselves,
even when we do something that's right in God's sight, It is based
upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, whereby God is enabled,
a holy God, is enabled to take a clay pot, a piece of worthless
corruption like me, and work in me, both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. But more than that, all true
righteousness resides in this king only. He's not a king of
righteousness, he is king of righteousness. There is no other
righteousness other than in him. But the book Hebrews also tells
us he was king of peace, king of Salem. By interpretation,
Hebrews 7.12.2 says, it is king of peace. So what we see here
is Melchizedek, that's his name, that's his person, king of righteousness. But he's also king of Salem or
king of peace. That gives us his station, his
work. we see here in Melchizedek's
name, the person and work of Jesus Christ. Then this figure,
Melchizedek, shows us two vital, vital, I say, tokens of this
person and work. Bread and wine. Isn't that glorious? Isn't that
glorious? As I've said, I heard Henry Mahan
say it on a Zip drive or whatever you call it. I still can't remember
what that thing's called. I call it my stick. The thing I plug
in and it gives me these messages I have on it. He said, if that
don't ring your bell, your clapper's broke. I like that. Think of it. According to Psalms
85 in verse 10, and turn there if you wish. Psalms 85. Just a couple verses. Think of
this. Righteousness and peace. are intertwined in and find their
equilibrium in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ only. Psalm 85 verse
10, mercy and truth. Uh oh, think about it. What does mercy imply? Mercy
implies at least one party has broken the law. You don't need
to show mercy to a man that's done what's right. Now I know
our society's all topsy-turvy and most people don't understand
this today, but that's just the facts. The very statement of
mercy, if I'm the object of mercy, the subject of mercy, lets me
know I got a problem. If I need mercy, it means I've
fouled up somewhere. I'm in a bad state. I've done
some bad things slash both. I am bad and I do bad. That's why I need mercy. So how
does truth become equilibrium with mercy? Truth. Truth is not gray. It's absolute. Mercy and truth are met together. Isn't it glorious? Now look,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Now someone says, why does that
say anything about Christ? Because this whole book's about
Jesus Christ. The only place you're gonna find
mercy and truth meeting together and righteousness and peace kissing
each other is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. There is
no other place. Christ alone brings these two
things together. Listen to what, there's a, no,
I'm gonna form it in the form of a question. You'll find the
statement in Romans 3 verse 26 if you want to look it up. But
I'm gonna form it in a question. Here's the point, here's the
key. It's something that modern day so-called Christianity today
does not ever deal with. They never, ever, ever, ever,
ever deal with it. especially those of the free
will ilk. How can a holy God be just and
justify a believer in Jesus? Because believing alone cannot
settle the question of sin. You cannot believe God enough
to take care of what you did before or what you are by nature. And he didn't just say, Paul
didn't just, he didn't ask it in a question, but you go back
and look at Romans 3 verse 26. It said, how can a holy God be
just and justify, not just a sinner, that's a part of it, but even
a believer, him that believeth in Jesus. Because believing can't
die for your sins. Believing never atoned for one
sin. Believing doesn't satisfy God.
in his holiness. Believing satisfies God concerning
his son. Because you believe in the son. Him that believeth in what? The five points. Sovereign grace. Free will. No. Him that believeth
in what? It's a who, not a what. Jesus. Jesus. How can God be just and
justify? a believer, a person who's in
need of what? Mercy. Mercy. How can he do that? He must do
that if he's to retain his holiness. He cannot say, well, oh, they
believe in Jesus. Everything's all hunky dory now.
He could not remain God. But I tell you how he can do
that. He can do that by the sufferings of his son. by his son actually
suffering the penalty that was due sin and sins. That's where mercy and truth
meet together. That's where righteousness and
peace kiss one another. And there only, there only, Our
believing is worthless apart from what he did on that tree.
Even if that believing is a product of the spirit of God and the
gospel of God. It would have no bearing before a holy God
had Jesus Christ had not come in a body and shed his blood,
bread and wine. Bread and wine. You see, those
who don't see that as the crux of the gospel message are not
preaching the gospel. They're preaching what Paul calls
a perversion of the gospel. I don't care how religious or
righteous it seems, Christ is the king of righteousness. Christ
is the king of peace. It is his body and blood that
redeems fallen humanity and that only That only, Christ alone
brings these things together. Now that's Melchizedek's name
and station. Melchizedek, that's simple enough, isn't it? But
oh how profound. Mason thinking, a holy God. I'll
give you an illustration of this. And actually illustration can
only go so far. Do you remember when it was found
out that Daniel was praying in a way he wasn't supposed to be
praying according to the king's decree? Remember that? Some people
had tricked the king because they was trying to get at Daniel.
So they tricked the king into coming up with this decree that
nobody prays to anybody but him or whoever, whatever it was.
So they knew that Daniel prayed however many times it was a day
and turned his face toward Jerusalem and prayed, and they knew he'd
keep that right up. Well, they caught him. And you know what?
They gonna put him in a den of lions if they caught you doing
any other kind of praying. And you know what, was it Darius
wasn't it? I think it was Darius. Whichever the key was. He labored
night and day to try to figure out a way to uphold his law but
deliver Daniel. And he couldn't. He couldn't! He just couldn't! So what did he have to do? If
he's gonna retain his kingship, Daniel got to go in the dead
of night. And Daniel went to the den of
lies, but you know what even that old heathen king said? Your
God, whom you serve, he knows more than most so-called professing
Christians today. Your God, whom you serve, he
will deliver you out of the mouth of the lions. And they said when
they throw Daniel in there, they didn't even lick a tongue toward
that man. They didn't harm a hair on that
man's body, didn't even, Joe, pull at a shirt sleeve. Why? Because his God was able
to deliver him. You remember the three Hebrew
children? Some of us used to sing that song when we were in
Sunday schools and stuff. That fire was so hot, it says,
that when the men who came to throw those three Hebrew children
over into that fire, it was so hot that it killed the men who
threw them in. It killed the men who threw him
in. But you know what they told the king, this is another king,
you know what they told him before he said, well, you're going in
the fire. They said, listen, our God's able to deliver us.
But if not, and they weren't talking about his ability, if
he don't deliver us, we still ain't gonna worship your God.
Because either way, God's gonna deliver us. We'll be done with
you. one way or another. But you know
what happened? They throwed him in that fire.
It said even the threads on their clothes wasn't singed when it
killed the men that cast them in. And the kid was up there
looking, he said, we cast in three, right? There's a fourth
man walking around down there. I think that might've been Melchizedek.
the Melchizedek, if you know what I mean. I can't prove that
Melchizedek was a pre-incarnate theophany of Jesus Christ, but
I do know this, he was the voice of the Lord God that walked in
the cool of the day when Adam and Eve had sinned against God
and hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden, and he was
looking for them. He was also that rock that was
in the wilderness, You remember what 1 Corinthians 10, I think
it is, says about that rock? It doesn't say that rock was
a similitude of Christ. It says that rock that followed
them. Now, I don't know that it had legs, but wherever they
went, that same blessed rock was right there. Wasn't it? That
rock that followed wherever they, 40 years, that rock was always
right over there, Joe. All right, let's move over here
this day. Where's that rock again? 1 Corinthians
says that rock was. That's not, I don't even, that's
not a theophany. That's some other kind of technical theological
word. That's Jesus Christ. Now, I don't
know if Melchizedek, who met Abraham, was actually Jesus Christ
or not, but he sure shows us a perfect picture of Jesus Christ. Go back and look at Hebrews 5,
6, and 7. It's so glorious. But think about it. What's these
two tokens? Bread and wine. Remember, this is not because
Abraham was hungry and needed a little liquid refreshment.
Melchizedek is bringing forth tokens of the person and work
of Jesus Christ. Christ's incarnation, that's
what it's a token of. Body and blood. So much so, now
it was a human body with human blood. but so joined in the one
person of the Son that that body and blood is said to be the very
body and blood of God Almighty Himself. Isn't that something? Isn't that something? What about
Christ's condescension? Body and blood. That's when I
say, do you know what it meant? We don't know what it meant.
I can only think about what it meant for the eternal Son of
God, and as Earl used to say, to confine himself to an ovum. The God whom the heavens cannot
contain. He didn't dwell in temples made
with hands. Confined himself to a virgin's
womb for nine months. Isn't that mind-blowing? And
came forth in sweat and pain and blood and was brought forth
as a man-child. Circumcised on the eighth day
according to God Almighty's law. That's a condescension, folks.
He became like we are in our fallen state, only he didn't
have a fallen state. He came not in the likeness of
pre-fallen Adamic flesh, he came in the likeness of sinful flesh. That's a condensation, a condescension. Think about this, bread and wine.
There was all kinds of bread offerings and wine offerings.
demanded in the Old Testament. Would they? They're called what?
Meal offerings, I think it is, Joe, and drink offerings. And
it was bread, and it was wine. And every time you turn around,
there's some bread offering in there, and there's some wine
offering in there. Why? It's all about the personal work
of Jesus Christ. But even before that, even before
the law was given to Moses on Sinai, you remember the Passover?
What two main things are mentioned. Bread and wine. Bread and wine. Oh, what a glory. And then our Lord comes along
and they're partaking of the Passover. They're remembering
the Passover. Joe, you preached a message on
that and it corrected me and here I still forgot it. They
weren't taking the Passover, they were taking the memorial
of the Passover. God had done Passover back yonder
in Egypt. Okay, so they were taking the
memorial of the Passover, and they're sitting there eating
this roasted lamb with bitter herbs and unleavened bread and
wine. That's right, I said wine, not
buttermilk grape juice or Pepsi Cola. Unleavened breaded wine,
and Jesus Christ said, you see this bread? This is my body. You see this cup, you see this
wine? This is my blood. It's my body which shall be broken
for you. And this is my blood which shall
be shed for you. But you know what he's gonna
do with that blood? He will remit the sins of many. Now that's
a couple good tokens, isn't it? And like, Neil, I don't know
what all Melchizedek said more than what's in this book. I can
only suppose. But I can just wonder, everybody
ever said, why did you bring bread and wine? We're pretty
fixed up over here. See all my herds? Look, look, I got cattle. I got sheep. I got goats. I don't
guess he had pigs. I don't know, the law hasn't
come along yet, but be that as it may. What are you bringing,
some bread and wine? Huh? Oh, these are tokens of
someone that's coming. into something, Abram, that you
absolutely need or you'll perish in hell forever. Now whether
he told him all that, I don't know, but I do know this. I know
there were probably various ways in which it was so. I don't think
it was just one time. Our Lord himself said, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day. He saw it and was glad. And when Melchizedek brings forth
bread and wine to you, to you, you seed of Abraham, you chosen
seed of Israel's race, or you Gentile sinners. And he brings
forth the bread and wine to you. You will rejoice when you see
who that is and what it means. Remember the tokens? Brought
forth, brought forth, brought forth. He didn't say now there's
a movie on it or if you've got the strength to go get it. I know you've been
fighting hard. Here Abraham. Abraham, I figure he walked right
up to him and handed it to him. Here you go, bread and wine,
Abraham. Like you said, when God gives
something, bless God you got it. Or you can't call it a giving. He don't offer, he brings forth. Bread and wine. Consider his body. First Peter
2.24 just tells us, this is so profound. He bore. Whoever sins
he did bear, he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Wow. Mystery of godliness indeed. And consider his blood. It says
we are justified by his blood. Not just, yes, there is a justification
that is connected to faith. It is the experience of the justification
wrought by Jesus Christ in his body and blood on the tree of
Calvary. Justified by his blood. Somebody
says, but preacher, that's just the same old message over and
over and over and over. That's all I got. Now, if you
need something else, go find something else. I'm not gonna
try to hold your arm. You better believe this, you're
gonna go to hell. Well, you're gonna go to hell, but it ain't up to me to
try to stop you. This is my message. Bread and
wine. That bread and wine is a person.
That bread and wine is a Melchizedek. He is the true Melchizedek. Consider this. Here's the thing. Now, turn to Colossians 2 just
for a moment, and I'll end with Colossians 2. But I got a question
to ask us all. I don't mean, I don't mean to
preach down to anybody. Colossians chapter two. Then
I'll make these statements. Here's the thing to consider.
Yeah, it's the same old message. It's the same old thing. Over
and over and over and over and over again. And somebody says,
well, I just don't get it. Well, I'm keeping preaching it.
Hopefully one day, per adventure, God will open your eyes and turn
the lights on, or at least bring the lights in. and you'll see
it all of a sudden. And you'll say, you know what,
that's what he's been saying all along. I rejoice in that. Here's the
question that I gotta ask myself, and you need to seriously ask
yourself, has Melchizedek brought forth bread and wine to me? Now, Melchizedek, our Melchizedek,
Jesus Christ hung on that tree and shed his blood 2,000 years
ago and secured salvation for his people. But that salvation
as bread and wine, as body and blood, is brought forth to each
one of God's people in time, individually, through the power
of the Spirit and through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Has that happened to me? That's the question. I'm
not talking about I decided to go forward and pray the prayer,
tell God I was a sinner and ask him to save me so I don't have
to go to hell. I'm talking about all of a sudden, you meet up with Melchizedek
and he's got bread and wine and he gives it to you. That's what
I'm talking about. You see, the person and work of Christ is
the food and the drink, yea, the life to all that Christ has
come to bless. Melchizedek came to bless Abraham. But what's he do first before
he can ever bless him? He says, here's bread and wine. You don't partake of God's son,
you will never know the blessing of God almighty. You reject the
son, you will perish. Now listen to Colossians 2. I'm
not gonna read it all. Paul talks to the Colossians
and even to Laodicea. Remember what the son later said
about Laodicea? They had some troubles, serious
troubles. But yet he says, verse 2, that
their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love,
under the full riches and full assurance of understanding to
the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and the Father and of
Christ. And that's kinda just like, okay, okay, and you read
it. You gotta admit, doesn't it? And it just goes on, it's
like, okay, I can't even grasp two or three words. What does
all this mean? But then look what it says. In
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This
is all in a whom. See, that's what it's all about.
Someone said, I don't understand. Some of that predestination stuff
confuses me. It ain't about believing predestination. It's about partaking of Jesus
Christ. And when you begin to partake
of him, he will begin to show you these things. You'll begin
to see these things. Here's the thing, submit to him
rather than fighting against his doctrine. I submit to him,
but look, and this I say, lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words, and we are surrounded by those kind of men. Look, for
though I be absent in the flesh, yet I'm with you in the spirit,
joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your
faith, where? In Christ. See it? As you therefore have received
Christ Jesus the Lord, well now since you've received Jesus,
he's your personal savior, now you need to learn how to serve
God. Well, look what he says. As you have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Our walks are, you
want to know how to love your, husbands, you want to know how
to love your wife like you're supposed to? Study about Jesus
Christ. Wives, you want to know how to
reverence your husbands like you ought to? Study about Jesus
Christ. You want to know how you ought
to bring up your children? Look at Jesus Christ. You want
to know how you ought to pay your taxes? Look at Jesus Christ.
Every subject, all of it has Christ as the example of pure,
unadulterated righteousness. And the only way I can have that
is for he gives me the bread and the wine. Says here, just
eat this. Partake of this. Because when you partake of this,
what did Christ say? You're partaking of me. by faith,
now look at it. Rooted, rooted and built up in
him. See it? Established in the faith
as you've been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving, beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after
the traditions of men, after the rudence of the world, and
not after what? Christ. Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead, Bodily, there's some bread, there's bread. And
then look at that next phrase. And I want you to go on, I don't
have time to go on through this. If you're not holding the head,
be careful. Don't worship angels. Don't go out here and let it
feel so. You hold to the head, capital H-E-A-D. Hold to the
head. Don't be caught up with touch
knots, taste knots, handle knots. Now that's not to say there's
some things you ought not touch. But don't be caught up with that
thing. Be caught up with the head. Okay, but look at what
he says. For in him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him. In him. That is a very, that in him,
you could spend years preaching on what in him means, but I wanna
just, if God is pleased, to use a simple, silly little illustration. Can you see this water in this
bottle? Where's that water in that bottle? It's in the bottle. It's in the bottle. Now if this
was a colored bottle, Joe, what would that water look like? It
would look like the color of the bottle, wouldn't it? But
what's the shape of that water? Look at it. What shape does water
have? Well I know, it's got molecules that are supposed to stick a
certain way with a little doodad on it and they all hook together
and they eventually form. What shape does that water have?
That water's got the shape of the bottle. How's this water kept safe? Does
the water keep itself safe? This bottle, it's still sealed,
it's not even opened yet. This bottle is keeping the water. You know why? Because the water
is in the bottle. You see, if I am in Christ, bless
God, I'm okay. Because when God sees the water,
he's not looking at the water, he's looking at trusting in the
bottle. Our Melchizedek. Now let me stop
and I'll start preaching on Hebrews chapter five, six, and seven.
Y'all wanna stay that long before you eat? No, we will eat now. Let's all stand and sing number
130, please. And we'll close and gobble and we'll eat together.
130.