Verse 14 to the end of the chapter
says, For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah,
of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it
is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of
Melchizedek there ariseth another priest, who is made not after
the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life. For he testifies thou art a priest
for ever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we have
drawn nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an
oath he was made priest, 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 for ever, after
the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, than they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. For such a high priest became
us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. who needeth not daily as those
high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity, but the word of the oath which was since
the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore." We said last week that this,
of course the whole book, but this chapter particularly and
this next few chapters in the book of Hebrews are given to
us to set forth the superiority of the priesthood of the Lord
Jesus Christ over the priesthood that was set forth in the law
given by Moses. Now that would make specific
application if you happen to be born as a Jew and raised up
in the Jewish customs. This would particularly be of
a great and startling revelation to you. because you would have
a great respect and reverence for that priesthood which was
given by Moses, and well, you should, because the Lord gave
that unto the Jews. Unto them were committed the
oracles of God. And so He gave to them the truth
as he saw fit to reveal it to them specifically in a way that
he did to no other people on the face of the earth. Nobody
else received the things that the Jews did. The Lord favored
them. He gave them such truth as he
was pleased to reveal. Now they thought and they still
think that the Lord gave it to them for the purpose of making
them as a people who sprang from Abraham's loins and from Jacob
in particular, that he gave that to make them to be the recipients
of earthly promises and that they have an inside track before
Almighty God because of that fact and the keeping of those
things. And they go about because of
that. to establish their own righteousness because they do
not see what the true giving and the revelation of the law
actually is. They see the law as a guideline. They see the law as a covenant
wherein if they will do this, God will do that. They do not
see what can only be revealed by the power of the Spirit of
God, and that is that it is impossible for a man to keep that law as
God has given it. Now, just like Brother Al brought
out, there have been and there are even in the present time
those that will tell you, oh, I keep the Ten Commandments.
I see them sometimes. People have little placards out
in their yard with the Ten Commandments on it. There's a monument down at the
Dixie County Courthouse out front that's got Ten Commandments on
it. There's nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with printing
out the Ten Commandments. But what the problem is, is when
men look at that and they think, well, I'm doing all right. Yep,
let me see. Let me check it off. I'm following
God. I'm doing great. Because you
see, a man that looks at the Ten Commandments and thinks he's
doing okay, he doesn't know what the Ten Commandments are. See,
all they are to him is some words chiseled on a monument in front
of the courthouse. All they are is a little placard
that's out in the yard that's got them written out on it. Because
when he looks at those things, if the dagger of God's judgment
and justice does not smite him in the heart, he has never had
any understanding of what those Ten Commandments say in reality. Because you see, the law, Paul
said this. He said, I was alive without
the law or without an understanding of the law once. But he said,
the commandment came. He said, when the understanding
of what the law was came to me, he said, sin was higher than
I died. I mean, it killed me, because
I said, man, I thought I kept the law, but now I know that
I do not. And that which I thought was
of profit to me I found to be under my condemnation, and I
said, oh, woe is me. You know, I can't go along in
thinking that I'm going to keep the law of God because I know
that within me dwells no good thing. And how to do it, I don't
know. Now, he says something down here. In verse 18, he said, For there
is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. Now, is the writer here saying that
the law is of no profit? No, there is some profit in the
law, but if we understand what the profit is. See, there is
no profit in the law unto redemption. There is no profit in the law
unto salvation. There is no profit in the law
unto being made righteous in the sight of God. There is no
profit in the law in those things. Why is that? Because the Scripture
says the law is weak. Now wait a minute. God gave the
law. He chiseled it in tables of stones. How could it be said to be weak?
But that is what Paul said it was. He said the law was weak. How? in the flesh. You see, that is the weakness
of the law. The law is good. The law is holy. The law is just. But the law is unprofitable to
a sinner. It cannot help him because he
is weak in the flesh. You see, he cannot perform that
which he knows to be right. Now, I would defy anybody to
pick out any of the commandments of God and say that there is
something wrong with them. No, you can't find anything wrong
with what God said. But you see, the law was never
designed to bring men into conformity with the righteousness of God.
But there is one who is. For there verily is a disannulling,
that is, a cancelling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. The priesthood of Moses
stood in the very same law that was given, and that priesthood
could never do anything to take away sin. Why? Because they had to keep doing
it. And every year, what did they do? They remembered sin. So you see, every time that the
priest went into the holy place with the blood of bulls and goats,
it was not a taking away of sin, it was a reminder of sin. And when the sacrifice was done,
guess what? People said, well, we are going
to have to wait until next year. And we're going to see the same
thing over again and over and over and over again. It was unprofitable,
could not take away the sin. The law made nothing perfect.
It didn't make anything complete. It never satisfied anything. It never brought anything to
fruition. You see, if God makes a covenant
and He says, as long as you keep this covenant, you are My people
and I'm going to bless you. Now some people think that's
a good thing. And they would want to be in that. I don't want
to be in that. Because, brethren, to be in a
covenant like that is a terrible thing. Because there is a big
if there, if you keep this. Now, which among us has done
that? But you see, the Lord said, I will make a new covenant. And He said, I will write my
laws in your heart. I'll take out the stony heart
and give you a heart of flesh. And he says, and you shall be
my people. He didn't say, you shall be my
people if. He said, you shall be my people. Now you see, that's
the kind of covenant I want to be in. One where he says, I will
perform that which you need. You are my people and I love
you. With an everlasting love and
with cords of love I'll draw you unto myself. Now, brethren, that's a covenant
that can't fail because there are no ifs involved in it. You
see, the only ifs that are involved in it is with the Lord. And He said He would do it, and
what did He do? He also swore. So by two immutable
things, He said it and He swore. And he who cannot lie actually
swore. That's what He said here. He
said, the old priests, they were not made priests by swearing. The Lord did not swear and say,
I swear that these sons of Levi will be my priests. No, He never
swore that they would be a priest. He said, under the carnal commandment
that I am giving to Moses, these priests will be it. And year
after year, as they die off, some will come along and others
will rise up. And that is all they could do.
would just be continuous. Now, if all that a man wants
to do is be religious, then he can embrace the Ten Commandments. If he just wants to put on a
front and he wants for everybody to say, well, he keeps the law,
he keeps the Ten Commandments. If he wants to say in his mind,
oh, I keep the Ten Commandments, now those folks over there, they
don't do it. When he is looking around, whenever you look and
you consider your righteousness by comparing it to others, then
you have missed the boat. Because, dear brethren, there
is only one righteousness that is of any use whatsoever in the
kingdom of God, and it is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
And so if you stand in any righteousness, whether it is supposed Or maybe
even real, like the rich young ruler. He had a real righteousness,
didn't he? It wasn't of any profit to him,
but he had it. The Pharisees had a righteousness.
The Lord never said the Pharisees didn't have a righteousness.
But He said, Do the disciples except your righteousness exceed
that? So the Pharisees and the disciples
said, Wow! Buddy! I mean, if our righteousness
has got to exceed that of the Pharisees, we know we're to get
hung for. But that's exactly what he said,
because you see, the righteousness of the most righteous men that
ever lived upon the earth, the greatest law keepers or whatever
is of no value, but it takes the righteousness of another. And so he was made a priest forever,
As the Lord said, the Lord swears and will not repent. He is not
going to change this. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Now we talked a little bit about
Melchizedek and believing that Christ is Melchizedek. Melchizedek
is Christ. That order of which the Lord
Jesus Christ came was as one who is a priest. See, he is a
priest forever. Now what is forever? Forever
is something that doesn't have a beginning and it doesn't have
an ending. It's forever. Now that's a concept
that's really outside the realm of man's capability to consider,
but yet that's what the Lord says here, that he is a priest
forever. You see, he didn't come in order
to be ordained as a priest like the Levites who had to be ordained
and set apart as these priests in this this religious order
that they had. But he was a priest when he came. You see, when he sprang forth
from the virgin's womb and he was laid in a manger, he was
a priest. He was our great high priest,
though he was an infant. Now that is an amazing thing.
Now there has never been a Levitical priest that was a priest! when He was born. He had to become a priest according
to all the ramifications and stuff that went with becoming
a priest under the Levitical order and set apart, cleansed,
sprinkled and all those things. But you see, Jesus Christ came
into the world as a priest because the Scripture says He is a priest
forever. after the order of Melchizedek,
by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Now what
is a surety? A surety is a guarantee. If you
co-sign a note at the bank for somebody to get some money, you
are a surety. And if they don't pay the money,
guess what? The bank doesn't care at all.
They don't care if they don't pay the money. It doesn't matter
to them because their phone is not going to ring. Your phone
is going to ring and they are going to say, Hey, this money
hasn't been paid. Well, I don't owe that money.
They owe the money. No, you owe the money. Why? Because
you are the surety. You see the Lord Jesus Christ
willingly. You know the Scripture tells
us not to become a surety for somebody. I mean in the Proverbs,
The Scripture warns against it. Don't do it. Why? Because the
Scripture understands the failing nature of men. It understands
what we are by nature. It says, Man, I'd be a foolish
thing to do. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Eternal Word, the One who penned, had the Proverbs penned and said,
Don't become a shirkee. for wicked men because they'll
fail. That one came into the world
as a surety for his people and he said, I know what they are.
But he said, I'll gladly stand in their place and I'll pay every
debt that they owe. And there won't one speck of
interest ever accrue to that loan that I will not stand good
for because I am the surety. of my people." Now, brethren,
he is a priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek,
by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, a better
covenant. You see, the Mosaic covenant
said, Do this and live. Christ comes and He says, Live! That is the difference. Oh, the
glories of a covenant God! that One who has given us a covenant
that cannot fail. And the reason that the covenant
cannot fail is because we have a surety that absolutely cannot
and will not fail. He is a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered or permitted to continue by reason
of death. These Aaronic priests, the Levitical
priests, they couldn't continue on. There was many of them. There's
a bunch of them. They're numberless. I don't know if we could calculate
how many of the Aaronic priests came into being in the years
that the Jews followed the Lord. But this man, Because he continued
with ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. Now the priesthood
was constantly changing. And you didn't know who was going
to be priest from one year to the next, because men were constantly
dying. I mean, you know, the older you
get, the more you look around, you realize the reality of death
is a certainty. When you're young, you don't
think about it that much. I mean, you might think about
it some. But the older you get, the more you realize, This is
a certainty. And you look around you and you
see people that have occupied positions in the community, and
they're no longer there, and you don't know who's going to
be there next week. Same way with the Levitical priesthood.
But you see, this man, because he's continuous ever, he has
an unchangeable priesthood. There's nothing that's going
to be different next year. or a hundred years from now,
or a thousand years from now. There's nothing that's been any
different two thousand years ago. Because there's been one
priest of those who are the saints of God, and he changes never. He is the high priest over the
household of God. He has an unchangeable priesthood. And then here's the sweet thing.
Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that
come unto God by him." Now that's a glorious thing right
there. I can't think of any more comforting words than all of
the Word of God for a trembling sinner. For a man that has come
face to face with the law and he knows himself to be condemned
before it. Now this is of no use whatsoever. And here is the problem with
what I call modern evangelism, is that they are trying to take
this passage of Scripture and apply it to people that have
never come face to face with what the law is, who they are
before the law, and the fact that they are condemned, and
apply it to them. He is able also to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Why do they come
unto God by Him? Because they know there is no
other way. You see, they have been convinced that they cannot
come in their own power. They are those who are convinced
that He is that priest that they need. Now, dear brethren, the
sweet, precious words of the Gospel are this, that such a
man who knows himself to be in deep trouble, to be in a place
of condemnation before God. He ever lives to make intercession
for those that come unto God by Him, and He will in no wise
cast out one. Never will there ever be a sinner
that comes to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ seeking mercy
that shall not find it. Because you see, it's ordered
by the Lord. He said, I'm going to save everyone
that belongs to me. And everyone that belongs to
Him, He will bring that way. Not another. You see, there's
one door of the sheep. And the Lord is the door and
the doorkeeper. And He calls His own sheep by
name and He leads them in and He leads them out according to
His good pleasure. But they are those who come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Now, I've often heard,
I'm going to stop on this, I've often heard the intercession
of Christ presented, I've even seen pictures painted, that shows
the Lord down on His knees praying before the Father. They say that's the intercession
of Christ. That's not the intercession of
Christ. Christ does not intercede on His knees. You see, the ever-living intercession
of Christ is His eternal priesthood. And His intercession is not words,
but it is the fact that He is in the very presence of the Father
in the behalf of His people. Charles Wesley captured it It
is him, he says, five bleeding wounds he bears, received on
Calvary. They pour effectual prayers.
They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransom sinner die. What go you see that? For which Christ shed his precious
blood he shall not lose, not even one. not even the weakest,
not even the youngest, but those whom He loves with an everlasting
love and does move by grace to call upon Him, He will save because
He ever lives to make intercession in their behalf.