It says, For this Melchizedek,
king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of kings, and blessed him, to
whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
the king of righteousness, after that also king of Salem, which
is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent,
having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like
unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider
how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave
the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the
sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, have
a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the
law that is of their brethren, though they come out of the loins
of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted
from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that
had the promises. And without all contradiction,
the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive
tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed
that he liveth. As I may so say, leave I also
who receive tithes, paid tithes, in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore
perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the
people received the law, what further need was there that another
priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not
be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being
changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For
he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe,
of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident
that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing
concerning priests to him. 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 testified, Thou
art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. For there
is barely 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 draw 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 forever after
the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. And 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 an high priest
became us, or was fitted to us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who
needed 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." Now
this passage, this chapter, if we had to sum it up, would be
the writer showing the supersession of the priesthood or the superiority
of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ over that which
was established in Moses' law. Now the Jews were taught that
the commandment that was given to Moses was the law of God. And indeed it was. The Lord gave
that law, but that law was not spiritual in the essence of it. The Lord Jesus Christ came as
a lawgiver But he came speaking the law in the spiritual sense. The Lord explained that to the
Pharisees who said, Well, we have the law. The law says, Thou
shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
The rich young ruler said, Well, all of these I have kept from
my youth up. But the reason that he said that
was because he looked at the commandments of Moses as being
the law of a carnal commandment. And they were the law of a carnal
commandment. But he had no understanding that
the law that came from the Lord that was not revealed unto Moses
was not specifically concerned in those carnal commandments,
but rather was a commandment that was to be written in the
heart so that He said to the Pharisees, Thou shalt not steal,
but you have stolen in that you have desired the things someone
else has. He said you've not committed
adultery in the flesh, But he said, you've looked upon a woman
with lust in your heart and therefore you have committed adultery. So that the law is summed up
in two things. He said, Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. Now that's a far more sweeping
law, is it not? than what we read in the Ten
Commandments. Now the Ten Commandments do indeed
set forth that very principle, but they are not revealed in
such fashion. And so he says here, for the
priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as he goes on to say,
did not arise out of the Mosaic law. Now sometimes And those
who are what we call covenant theologians or believe in covenant
theology, they do not see that there is a difference between
that which is established by Christ and that which is established
by Moses. They believe that what was established
by Moses is merely carried on in Christ, that that which is
established in Moses is eternal. But that which is established
in Moses was carnal. It is not eternal. And the Lord
demonstrated that by the very fact that when Moses himself
could not enter into the promised land, he could see it afar off. He went up to Mount Pisgah and
he could look out there and he could see it in the distance,
but he did not enter it because he could not because That which
is of the law cannot inherit the righteousness of God, but
it is that which is of a more superior priesthood that must
come to satisfy that law which is superior to that of Moses. The blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin, but that which is of Christ did.
I got kind of ahead of myself here, but that is the theme.
In fact, that's really the theme of the whole book of Hebrews,
is to show the superiority of the ministry of Christ over the
ministry of Moses. Now the Jews to this day, and
many who call themselves Messianic Jews, they call themselves those
who are followers of Christ, but they hold on to the law.
And they have kind of a superiority in their mind whether they would
express this or not that, well, we're going to have this, just
like these in the book of Galatians did. But the Lord has plainly
taught that there is no superiority of anything that can be found
in Moses. And because a person adheres
to the way of Moses does not make them superior in any way
to those who recognize that our Sabbath, for instance, is in
Christ. It is not of a day of the week,
but it is Christ Himself. For this Melchizedek, King of
Salem, now who was Melchizedek? He is a very mysterious character.
And I have vacillated in my own thought about Melchizedek practically
every time I read about him. But I lean towards Melchizedek
actually being a pre-incarnate appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ
for several reasons which I'm not going to go into. But the
main thing is that the emphasis is placed on the fact that he
had no He had no mother. He had no ancestry. He is a mysterious
character that just appeared out of nowhere, and he appeared
with a priesthood. He was a priest. He did not become
a priest. He was a priest. Now, the only
one who is a priest and did not become a priest is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the scripture says that he
is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Well, what
is the order of Melchizedek's priesthood? Did the Lord Jesus
Christ descend from Melchizedek? No, he is Melchizedek. He is
that one who is the priest after the order of Melchizedek. That
is, after the same fashion as the priesthood of Melchizedek.
And so, how did Melchizedek become a priest? He became a priest
by the fact that he was a priest. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as we go on to read, He was made a priest by an oath. That is,
God said, I am going to redeem my people. Now, the priests of
Aaron, the Scripture says of them that they were not made
priests by an oath. They were made priests by the
law of a carnal commandment. The law said you are going to
be a priest. The law never said to Jesus Christ
you shall be a priest. He is a priest forever. Before
ever the law came into being, the Lord Jesus Christ was already
the priest of His people. Scripture says He was that Lamb
which was slain from the foundation of the world. His priesthood
is eternal. It's without beginning. And because
it's without beginning, it's without ending. Because only
that which is without beginning can be without ending. And that
is that one of whom Al has been speaking to us of, that one who
is the transcendent God, that one who is, that one who has
no beginning and no ending. He just is. And so the Lord Jesus
Christ is, as Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most
High God. Now He is the priest of the Most
High God. That is, He is of the essence of God. Why? Because
He is God. Priest of the Most High God who
met Abraham returning from the slaughter of kings and blessed
him. Now who is it that has the power to bless? It is only the
Lord Jesus Christ because all blessing is in Him. Men do not
receive blessings except they come to them through Jesus Christ. All blessings of any type for
all creation have come through Jesus Christ. It doesn't make
a difference what type of blessing it is, but of course this is
speaking about spiritual blessings. Because Abraham returning from
the slaughter of kings, Melchizedek met him and he gave
him a spiritual blessing and it says to whom also Abraham
gave a tenth part, a tenth of everything that he had. Now of
course a lot of people They use this to try to extract money
from people. You know, you ought to tithe,
so buddy, here it is. Now, having said that, let's
think about that for a moment. Why did Abraham give? Was there
a law that told him he had to give a tithe? Not a thing in
the world. See, Abraham was before Moses.
The Lord didn't talk about any tithing. to Abraham. But you see, why
did Abraham give to Melchizedek? Because he wanted to. Because
he said, you know, it's just right that I should give unto
the Lord of those things that he has blessed me with. And such
is the basis upon which God's people are to give. that oftentimes people think
that because they are not under a carnal commandment to give,
that they get in their mind and the flesh tells them, don't worry about it. But you see, God loveth a cheerful
giver. Now we don't say that in order
to extract money. Now a lot of people will use
that in order to extract money just like it was a carnal commandment. It's not a carnal commandment.
But it is incumbent in the work of the Spirit of God in the people
of God to cause them to desire to return unto the Lord such
things as He has blessed them with. And so Abraham gave a tenth
part of all, first being by interpretation, King of Righteousness. That is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the King of Righteousness.
There is not another one. And this Melchizedek is called
the King of Righteousness. He is the King of Salem. He is
the King of Peace. Now, the Lord is our righteousness
and He is our peace, is He not? I mean, we have acceptance before
the throne of God in the righteousness of Christ. Apart from that righteousness,
we couldn't come into the presence of the Lord. Who shall enter
into the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. Now, if I came and I told you
that and that was all I ever told you, would you have good
feelings about coming into the presence of the Lord? But yet
people do every day. Don't they? They say, oh, well,
I'm doing all right, because they look over here at so and
so, and they say, well, I'm doing a whole lot better than him.
I mean, I'm not as wicked as that dude over there. But you see, all of that doesn't
make any difference. He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, that hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn
deceitfully, have you ever done any of those things? Probably you might have. You
might have. Likelihood is you have. I'm going
to go out on a limb and I'm going to say you have. And so if he
that hath clean hands and a pure heart is the one that's going
to enter into the kingdom of God, then who is it that's going
to do it? It's going to be somebody with
righteousness. There's only one. There's only
one. who has been tempted in all points
yet without sin, and that is the King of righteousness, that
One in whose righteousness we hope to stand. He is the King
of righteousness. And apart from His righteousness,
we wouldn't have any. But He is also the King of peace.
Because you see, not only has He established righteousness
for His people, but He has declared it. He has manifested it. He has shown it to them. And
He has seen fit to bring it forth unto them in the unfolding of
the gospel and the revelation of His Spirit to show them that
He is that Savior. In fact, that's why we do what
we're going to do here this morning is looking at this, not because
we believe that this is going to give it to us, but because
we believe that what He has done is that. which would give us
peace. And it is a reminder unto us
of that which He has done in our behalf. So He is the King
of Peace, as well as the King of Righteousness, without father,
without mother, without descent, not having beginning of days
nor end of life. He cannot be anybody but Christ, made like unto the Son of God.
abideth a priest continually." It doesn't say that Melchizedek's
priesthood ever ended, does it? Now if Melchizedek's priesthood
never ended, who could he be? But the Lord Jesus Christ, because
His priesthood is a continual priesthood. Now consider how great this man
was unto whom even the patriarch
gave the tenth of the spoils." Now, he's using this Melchizedek
whom the Jews were aware of as the illustration. He's showing them by something
historically that they knew to be true. He's showing them what
the reality of it is. And he is showing the superiority
of the priesthood of Melchizedek He said, now consider how great
this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth
of the spoils. Abraham gave him a tenth of everything
that he had gotten. How great of a man would this
be? And verily they that are the sons of Levi who received
the office of the priesthood. Now see, nothing tells us Melchizedek
ever received the office of priesthood, did it? What's it say? He was
a priest forever. That is without beginning. He
didn't receive a priesthood. He is a priest. And verily they
that are of the sons of Levi who receive the office of priesthood,
in other words, they become priests because they are born into that
tribe. who received the priesthood,
they have a commandment to take tithes of the people according
to the law. Now you see, that's what the
law demanded, the tithe of the people, and the Levites were
the ones that got that tithe. They have a commandment to take
tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their
brethren, though they came out of the loins of Abraham. So they
have this commandment, a carnal commandment, to take this money,
But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that
had the promises. And here men that die receive
tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed
that he liveth." Now Abraham gave tithes to somebody who The
Scripture says he lives, that is, he does not die. And yet the Levites, the law
of a carnal commandment, what does it do? It gives tithes to
men who are going to perish. And all of those things that
Moses has commanded the Jews to do, they have perished. Now not that that law has ceased
to be, But it dies every time a man dies because that's not
going to do him any good. All that the law can do is minister
condemnation to a man. Can you imagine standing before
God? You're standing here and the
Ten Commandments are standing over there. I mean, if that was
the only thing there was, what would you have to say if you
knew what the Ten Commandments were? And so it is. that he said, Hear men that thou receive tithes,
but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he
liveth. As I may so say, Levi also who received tithes paid
tithes in Abraham." Now, Levi was a descendant of Abraham.
And so being in the loins of Abraham, the seed really of all men are
in Adam, are they not? I mean, when Adam was created,
the seed of all his posterity was in him. And so he is saying
here, the sons of Levi, Though they weren't physically present,
yet when Abraham paid tithes, they are as those who paid tithes
themselves. Because why? They are descendants
of Abraham. And so consequently, they owed
the money and paid the money. So he's showing the superiority
of the fact that even those who now are commanded by the law
of a carnal commandment to receive tithes, they actually paid tithes. Because that is all that the
law can cause you to do, is to pay and pay and pay, and it can
give you nothing in return. For he was yet in the loins of
his father when Melchizedek met him. Now, and I am going to close
with this. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, For under it the people received
the law. What further need was there that
another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and
not be called after the order of Aaron?" Now, if what the Levites
had was a perfect priesthood is what he is saying there, why
did another priest have to come along? Because there was no perfection
in the Levitical priesthood. It never was intended to be. Though the Lord looked upon these
things at the time because of the purpose that He had for them,
and He said, these things are good, I want you to do them,
yet they were temporary. Everything about that which Moses
had was temporary. It was not eternal. It was carnal. And He said, if perfection came
by that, then there wouldn't be the need for another priest
to arise after the order of Melchizedek. Now again, what was Melchizedek,
the order of his priesthood? It's that he's a priest forever. That's the order of Melchizedek.
So he said it was necessary that this one should arise after the
order of Melchizedek and not be called by the office of Aaron. Nothing in the priesthood of
the Lord Jesus Christ is tied to the carnal commandment given
to Moses because it is a perfect priesthood. For the priesthood
being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of
the law. Now covenant theologians would
not like that. They do not like that verse.
It has got to mean something else, doesn't it? But it means
exactly what it means. Because there is a priest who
is our priest who is not after the law of a choral commandment,
then it is of necessity that the law must be changed. Because the law that made the
Levitical priesthood stand as the priesthood of God cannot
stand at the same time that this more perfect priesthood does.
I mean, God does not have two priesthoods. He has won. Always has. There was never a
time when the Levitical priesthood was the priesthood of God. Never
was. The priesthood of God has always
been after the order of Melchizedek. But he used the law to demonstrate the righteousness of Christ.
and the wickedness of men. That's exactly why he came, for
the priesthood being changed. Dear brethren, do we have any
doubt that the priesthood has changed? I mean, do we expect that there's
some other priest that comes to us because the law said he
was a priest? Do we think he has any sway or
help to give to us? Not at all. There is made also,
if that be true, a necessity of change of the law. Because
you cannot keep the law, you cannot hold on to the law and
hold on to the priest who is an order after the order of Melchizedek
because he arises completely upon another basis. May the Lord
give us a mind to contemplate upon that. You see, we don't
serve Christ out of the law of the carnal commandment. Paul
said, all things are lawful to me. Now, that started making people
get worried, especially those that worship and serve the law
of carnal commandments. Because they're of the mind that
if all things are lawful to us, oh my goodness, that just means
people can just go off and do whatever they want to. Well,
they can in a measure. But you see, all things Paul
said are lawful to me, but he said not all things are expedient. So you see, God's people are
under a law, but it's the law of expediency. The law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The law of sin and death is that which brought us the Levitical
priesthood. But the power of an endless life
is that which we have in Christ. And while all things are lawful
to me, not all things are expedient. Not all things are useful. Not
all things are good. And we can learn much about things
that are good by reading the Law of the Coral Commandment,
can we not? Well, sure you can. It's just
that that Law of the Coral Commandment is merely that. But you see,
the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus is that Law under
which we serve God. And so a man who is indwelt by
the Spirit of God is taught a more clearer picture of what it is
that God expects of His people that ever could under the law
of Moses. And not only that, but you see,
He is constrained under these things by the work of that same
Spirit whom the Scripture says He works in us both to will and
to do of His good pleasure. So may the Lord give us a mind
today to cast our thoughts upon the One who is that priest forever,
because it's here in these tokens of bread and wine that we remember
the functionality and the effectuality of that which the Lord Jesus
Christ has performed, for His body was broken for us and His
blood was poured out. Now the carnal commandment required
that a sacrifice be made. But you see, the Lord Jesus Christ
didn't make a sacrifice because the carnal commandment said it.
He made the sacrifice because he was a priest, and that's what
priests do. And he offered not for the sins
of himself, but for the sins of his people. Because He is
that perfect High Priest. And He came that we might have
eternal life. And He poured out His blood because
in the shedding of blood is the remission of sin according to
the purpose of God. That He might show us, that He
might demonstrate to us what it is that He did for us because
you see, To a man, there's nothing more important than this life. I mean, we'll do anything we
can to hold on to it. You know, when a man is sick,
he's fighting for every breath that he has because that life
is important to him. And we'll do everything we can
to sustain and support life. The Lord Jesus Christ, being
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, willingly and
gladly laid down his life. He just put it out there. And
lest we forget what he did, we have the symbols of the bread
and the wine that we might know that his body was broken and
his blood was poured out because in the blood is the life. The life is in the blood is what
the scripture says. So what do we see here before
us? The death of Christ for our sake. He gave himself, but he
is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So it was
not possible that even death itself should be the end of this
priesthood. but he ever lived it to make
intercession for them that come unto God by him. And that's what
we come here today to remember.