Now they can argue all they want
to I'm not gonna change my mind any more about Melchizedek than
I will about Jonah I won't do it because what the
scripture says it means I'm not going to get into Jonah
this morning I've been talking to you about our great high priest
and with a lot of ramifications taken into it the task of the high priest in
the Old Testament. Aaron was the high priest. The
sons of Levi, after Aaron, took over in the office of priesthood
and ministered, as well as Aaron's two sons, who died, by the way. For one thing, they offered strange
fire before the Lord, and God killed them. Does it matter how you walk?
Yeah, I reckon it does. If you read that, people say,
oh, if I believed what you believe, I'd go out here and live just
like I please. Go on. Just go ahead and try it. And
God will do to you maybe worse than happened to the sons of
Aaron or to the sons of Eli. And Eli was a prominent figure. The priesthood of Aaron, that
is the Levitical priesthood, did not continue. What was the task of the high
priest? The high priest made an offering
for sin. He made an atonement. And he made intercession for
the people. You read about all the other
sacrifices other than the day of atonement. You read about
all the other sacrifices that were made. Doves, sheep, goats,
Bullocks red heifers you see all of these sacrifices were
to come between the people and a holy God Without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sin none so the high priest
Made atonement through obedience to God in the offering of blood
And he made intercession in all of these other offerings for
the people but it did not continue if you
look at the uh... let's uh... verse seventeen of
hebrew seven well that's not right but here let me go on God testifies
in his word. See verse 17 of chapter 7 of
Hebrews. For he testifieth. Thou art a priest forever. How? After the order of Melchizedek. Now, God identifies him in his
word. Well, what then, Earl of Melchizedek? Here is a five-syllable, fifteen-dollar
word. He was a theophany. He was the
appearance of Christ, pre-incarnate. That's what He was. Now, did
that ever happen before? Why, yeah, it happened in the
Garden. When God came down and walked in fellowship with Adam
and Eve, who do you think that was? That was Christ, pre-incarnate. And then when I often think of
this pre-incarnate Christ, well, sometimes he's called the angel
of the Lord, or the messenger of the Lord. Now, if you remember
back when Joshua was coming up on that great battle, and it
evidently was dark, and off in the shadows he saw a figure, And Joshua whips out his sword.
And he said, Art thou for us or against us? Where do you stand? That's a pretty good question.
Well, the voice answered him and identified himself as the
angel of the Lord. So the god of battle was with
Joshua. And he manifested himself in
the person of Jesus Christ. We say it over and over again.
Walter says it, I say it, you've heard Henry say it a hundred
times. Christ is Lord. And He's real. It's not some
kind of dream that we've had. This thing, the Word of God says,
this thing was not done in a corner. And the reason we don't know
more about What the book teaches is the fact that we don't hear
it often enough. I'm thankful for this little
handful of people here. And to me, it's a necessary feeding
place. Now, the father then names Christ,
the son, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And
if you look at verses 21 through 28, for those priests were made
without an oath. That is the Old Testament priests.
This priest after the order of Melchizedek was made with an
oath. And it was God's oath. For those priests, Old Testament
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. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better covenant. How in the world can you say
that that was an angel? My soul it just it just won't
wash now look look at verse 9 of chapter 5 Well, I can't begin there And he saith in another place
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek talking
about the same thing now listen Who in the days of his flesh,
uh oh, here's the order of Melchizedek and he's got fish. In the days of his flesh, who
is he talking about? He's talking about Christ. When
he had offered up prayers and supplication with strong cryings
and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was
heard in that he feared. He was made like unto sinful
man. He was tested in all points as
we are tested apart from sin. Though he were a son, now I'm
not going to say that I understand all of what I'm reading here
in this verse. Though he were a son, yet he
learned obedience by the things he suffered. Now how do you learn
obedience and how do I learn obedience? The same way. the same way by the things we
suffer actually good times don't help us much in our relationship
with God not very much and like Tim James says that
he what was that statement he made
about the fact that he didn't pray for patience Because God
would send him tribulation. Because tribulation worketh patience. So this is Christ now, that he
learned obedience by the things he suffered, and being made perfect,
and he's the only one, Being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation to all that obey him, called
of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek, of
whom we have many things to say. Now, Paul wrote this to these
Hebrew believers. And we have many things to say
and hard to be uttered. Seeing ye, now he's talking to
these Jews here. Seeing that ye are, what? Dull of hearing. There are a
lot of believers. I mean, I expect they'll be in
the presence of Christ. I expect them to be a part of
the body of Christ. But they are dull of hearing.
Is that their fault? No. You've got to have something
to hear. And like Walter mentioned it,
I don't know how many times I've said that. It's no good news
to tell a man he's a sinner and go into hell. What's good news
about that? And yet this is what you hear
continually and continually, and do you know something else?
Unless God is in the healing ministry, he doesn't benefit
you any at all to believe. Bunch of nonsense listen we live
we're born we live by God's Purpose and God's will a lifetime and
we die and some sickness is going to take us out of the year Sometime
we're going to lay down and not get up Now that's just the truth
now, I don't know Whether angels will come to bear you home. I
don't know that I Don't read it Angels didn't even bear Christ
home. He ascended. And that's the truth of that,
too. But I'll tell you something far
better. He said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He's going to walk home with
you. Now that's just the truth. I'll tell you a story, and it's
about relation of mine. It's my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law
and my sister had a, he was just a common, ordinary Joe. I mean,
he wasn't educated at all, but was
a 2-1 die maker in a subsidiary of Caterpillar Tractor, and worked
all of his life at the trade. But he and my sister were going
into Peoria one time from Germantown Hills and a truck, a car passed
a semi on a hill and hit him head on. And they both nearly died. But he told me later, he was
unconscious for days. And he said, you know, I don't
remember a thing about that wreck. He said, all I know about that
wreck is what I was told. My sister was the same way. But he said, you know, they tell
me while I was unconscious that I was just in and out. But he
said, I'm going to tell you something that I've not told anyone else
because they think you're crazy. But somebody stood there with
me. I have no problem believing that.
None at all. Because he said, I won't leave
you. I won't do it. And I'm depending on that. Because
I'm not particularly enthusiastic about death. It's the last enemy. That's what the book says. Well,
but look what. Look at look at verse 9. I have
to hurry on and being made perfect. That is the son Christ being
made perfect he became the author of Eternal salvation now you've
had a lot of Greek thrown at you this morning in comparison
Well, this is a this is an interesting thing Eternal salvation in the
Greek New Testament is one word and And it occurs in one other place
in the book of Hebrews. All right, now the meaning of
this Greek word occurs in the American version,
authorized version, means eternal, everlasting, before the world
began, since the world began and forever. Definition number one, without
beginning and end, that which always has been and always will
be. Number two, without beginning.
Number three, without end, never to cease, everlasting. Doesn't
that do something for you? an everlasting salvation. That belongs to the one who believes
God in the person of Christ and obeys Him. Well now, Earl,
that's law. No. What is it to do the will
of God? What is it? It's to believe on
Him whom He hath sent. Bow to Christ. Bow to the High Priest as a sign, not in order to, but
as a result of being chosen in Him before the foundation of
the world. It's a result! Go down into the
waters of baptism, as did Patrick and Doug last Sunday. Go down into the waters of baptism.
Well, why do I have to be baptized? You don't have to be. Nobody
says that, but I do say this, that we are to confess with our
mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and baptism is the way to do
it. It's the way to do it. Well, you know, you stay
and you hold this task for some 60 years, and you wonder how
many things you've said before. But I want you to see, now I'm
still talking about that high priest. I want you to see a familiar
passage of scripture that you know by heart. Romans 8.33, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now, this whole section of Romans
here, from chapter 8 on down through the 12th chapter, is
to strengthen the believer and to assure them, in as much as
assurance can come, that salvation is real. And to strengthen them in this
walk in which there are manifold trials and troubles. to let the believer know, being
in Christ, he or she is safe forever. Not only safe from the
standpoint of being saved from something future, but being protected
from something that might be. Here, young people come up against
a situation, and come up against them they will. And they look
around, and they say, well, everybody else is doing it. I'll go this way, too. You don't
have to. You don't have to. You say, well,
I got the old nature within me. You're supposed to kill it. When you know enough, you're
supposed to stomp it to death. Trouble of it is, we don't know
enough. You look at something and you're attracted to it. This
goes for older people too. But, you say, no, uh-uh, that's
going to compromise me in the sight of my Lord. And you know what Paul told the
Corinthians? If a thing seemeth to be sin to you, it is sin. That's what he said. If you think
a thing to be sin, it's sin. And you'll be judged for it. But, where was the charge laid? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? No one. Paul's answering a question
down farther in the chapter. He answers that question that
he's already asked. He said, if God be for us, who
can be against us? Romans 8. Not only Romans 8,
but these things in Hebrews takes us into the inner court, figuratively
speaking now. It takes us into the inner counsels
of God, and shows us our eternal position in Christ. We are in
the High Priest, as well as being ministered for by the High Priest
in the presence of God. In other words, he ever liveth
to make intercession for us. Now, he's not asking God. He's
not asking the Father that we go to heaven. And the Holy Spirit, we read,
maketh intercession for us. Because we don't know how to
pray even. We're so dumb. We don't know how to pray. The
Holy Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. Well you say the Holy Spirit's
gonna pray for me, I don't know why I should. Well if he's gonna
pray for you, you're gonna have to. You can't make an interpretation
out of something that you don't hear. I was sitting with Unabella the
other night and there was a newscast on about the borders in Mexico.
And neither one of us could read the print. It was subtitled.
And we couldn't read the print because the background of the
print was light in color, you know. And bless Pat, the words
were white. So you can't see white against
white, or at least I can't. Oh, they had an outline around
them, but that didn't mean anything to eyes. They're like as old
as my hair. And you know, so I tried to get
I tried to interpret what the people were saying in Spanish,
and I told Elizabeth yesterday it was right pitiful. Because
I could only get a few words out of every, maybe 50%. Because
one, they talked too fast, and the other is I forgot most of
it. But now, what I'm saying is that
There are things that we don't know. And some things that we
did know, we don't remember. Or when we fall into temptation,
we disregard it. We don't hear right. We don't
see right. We don't feel right. And we go ahead and fall flat
on our face. And every time you do, you suffer
the consequences. Every time. Now, this preacher
doesn't condemn anybody to hell. But I'm saying the child of God
that doesn't heed the movement of the Holy Spirit will see difficulties
beyond measure. And they'll not cease. Now, let's look at this question. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Seated
in the heavenlies in heaven itself at the father's right hand is
our great high priest Paul asked another question there
in the 34th verse This high priest is making intercession for us.
I've said that before and He says who is he that condemns?
Who condemns you before God before the high priest? Because that's
all you're going to see The Son is the only one that
sees the Father. Who is He that condemned? It
is Christ that died. Now if you aren't condemned by
Him, if you have an imputed righteousness, condemnation is passed. Because
the condemnation did what? It fell on Him. Walter, that
was good this morning. I know how often I've used that.
We will not have this man to reign over us. You know the opposite
of that? Lord reign over me. That should be the prayer of
every believer, no matter what the path, no matter what the
circumstances, no matter what my condition, Lord reign in my
life. R-E-I-G-N. Reign! Cleveland colored quintet used
to have a song called rain blessed Jesus rain and they could bring
the roof down with it Sometimes just about did Now Did Hebrews 8 verses 1 &
2 gives us another thought I'm gonna be done just a little bit Now the things which we have
spoken of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum."
Paul said, I'm drawing a line and I'm adding it up. We have
such an high priest, that's Christ, who is set on the right hand
of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of
the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched
and not man of the true tabernacle that tabernacle that he occupied
was the body the fleshly body the tabernacle that he occupies
now is the heavenly tabernacle in the presence of God every child of God Whether young in the faith or
whether old in the faith if you're young in the faith and haven't
followed Christ in obedience and baptism do it Do it And older believers as well There's a lot of things that
Bring us to the place where we live in anxiety and fear. I told
Ellen this morning, I saw her go out last night with Jack at
five o'clock. You don't know what tomorrow's gonna be. I don't
know what tomorrow morning's gonna bring. But I know this,
I know this, I believe this, I'm convinced of this, that God
is able. to save unto the uttermost all
men that come unto God by Christ, for he ever liveth, Christ ever
liveth to make intercession for us. So the thing that we want
to do, you need this last section of Romans 8 in order to triumph,
in order to have some sense of victory, and I don't like that
word, but I use it once in a while, in the struggles and the disappointments
of life, and they're going to come. There are people out here
that, and I mentioned this before, that work at a regular job so
that they can party on Saturday and Sunday. That's what they
work for. And they work five days a week,
and they spend every nickel of it on the weekend partying. That's pitiful, you know it?
The only thing they're doing is trying to blot out an existence
that is so unhappy and so mean that they'd like never see it
again. But they do. They do. It's always
wake-up time. Always. We need to know what's happening
not only to us, but what's happening in us. And Christ in you is the
hope of glory. Now when we read chapter 8 of
Romans and we read verse 32, he that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, God did not spare his son, delivered
him. I was going to remind you of
this too. They said, we will not have this
man reign over us. Who did they ask for? One of
their own kind. And they got what they deserved.
They said, give us Barabbas. Give us the thief. Pilate said,
shall I crucify your king? They said, give us Barabbas.
And in order to satisfy the people, he turned loose a convicted criminal
and crucified the Lord of Glory. He delivered him up for us all.
Now God did this. This is what this says. God did
this. How shall He, God, not with Him, Christ, also freely
give us all things because he's already given us the greatest
thing that can be. There's nothing else that I know
that can silence the voice of conscience and bring our hearts to that
place that Hebrews talks about where we rest only in Christ. Only in Him. Not in anything
we do. Not in any of our deeds. And
we ought to have some deeds. I'm not saying that. But we don't
rest in those things. We're not going to stand before
God and say, Lord, what am I going to get for preaching 40 years,
Walter, or 60 years, whatever. Talk about crowns and mansions
and all of this junk. That's all earthly. I won't even
need a roof over my head. I won't have any need for it. It's
silly stuff. Streets of gold, it doesn't matter
one way or another because it's worthless. But I'm telling you, there's
a full rest in Jesus Christ. And no matter what turmoil lays
in your mind, and no matter how it goes around in a constant
circle, you can lay down and say, or fall down, or kneel down,
or sit down, I don't care what position you're in, and say,
Lord, I want to rest in you, and I know that you can cause
all of this to come out to strengthen me and for your glory. That's
very simple. You can do that. As long as we live here on this
earth, there will be a consciousness of sin's presence. There's not
a day passes that I'm not aware of sin. But as long as we look to this
passage of scripture and to this great high priest, we can be
quiet in our souls. God gave Christ for you as His
child and to you, and that Christ is now at the right hand of the
Father as our representative. I'm going to quit. But I want
to do something before I do. I don't think you've heard this
enough. That's tongue-in-cheek now. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who even is now at the right hand of God, who also maketh
intercession for us. What does that mean? It means
he's praying for us. Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? As it is written,
For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, Doesn't matter a bit, Paul
says. Doesn't matter a bit. In all
these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved
us. You can't conquer in yourself.
You're going to be a rambling wreck if you try to conquer in
yourself. And believe me, this old man
knows that better than most people. Mac, you know what a sprag is,
don't you? Well, I stood two-thirds of my life with a sprag in my
hand thinking to stop a runaway, but it never succeeded. So, and these things were more
than conquerors through him that loved us. Now listen, you know,
you've heard it a hundred times, maybe there'll be a word here,
a suggestion. help, for I am persuaded that
neither death, that's our last enemy, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, whatever
is real today, whatever is your worst worry today, your greatest
concern today, your greatest sin today, nor things present, nothing,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now this is speaking
to those who believe. There are a lot of people who
tell me, have told me, not so many anymore because I don't
see that many people. There's a lot of people that
tell me, have told me, well one of these days, I believe
the gospel, I fear God. One of these days I'm gonna do
right. I'm gonna confess Him. No, if you don't do it, if you
haven't done it, and won't do it, then it's, this doesn't apply. It doesn't apply. Do it. Lord, reign over me, no matter
what. Reign over me. Reign, blessed
Jesus, reign.