To turn in your Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 7, if you will, Hebrews chapter 7. The Hebrew writer
wants us to fix our thoughts on our great high priest because
he wants us to make sure that we understand the grounds upon
which our salvation is sure. The Hebrew writer wants to make
sure that we do not fall prey to presumption and therefore
miss this great high calling to which all believers are called
in Christ Jesus. He has exhorted us for six chapters
to look to Christ and to understand the sufficiency that's in Christ
and to know the full scope of his office and his work and his
person and the glory that's invested in Jesus Christ as God the Father's
representative in the world by way of his redeeming glory and
the people of God's mediator by way of covenant blessings. He wants us to realize, the author
wants us to realize and remember and consider several things about
Christ. First, that mediation, this is
what we've been talking about for the last several weeks as
we've contemplated the office of priesthood, that the idea
of mediation, someone standing as a mediator, a representative,
an advocate, a surety, a fit and proper person, man that is,
is the revealed will of God the Father to secure and affect the
everlasting and eternal salvation and joy to everyone who believes. Let me state that again as what
I recognize as the author's primary objective in the book of Hebrews. He wants us to understand that
a mediator, a representative, an advocate, Assurity. These are all the terms that
are describing that person that stands between God and man with
the purpose of God in view and with the salvation of men in
view. Has to be a proper and fit man. This role of mediator
is the revealed will of God the Father in Christ for the everlasting
salvation and assurance of God's people. In other words, children
of God. To fail to understand the critical
and essential role of a mediator is to set yourself up for presumption
of salvation based on something other than a work that someone
else outside of you must do to secure your eternal salvation. For you and I to be committed
to a theology that basically focuses on us as the means by
which we secure our salvation, even if it's, I've got great
faith. What good is great faith if it's
in the wrong thing? Even if I've done all of these
good works, and I have labored, and my motives have been right,
and I have sought to serve God all the days of my life. What
good are your good works if God has already counted them as filthy
rags? Even if I've given to the poor
and sold all that I've have and have lived a life of poverty
vow of poverty to just be as poor as mother Teresa and everyone
else who thought that by Poverty we can obtain favor with God.
What good is poverty? If your poverty does not begin
to eradicate and erase your sin debt before God So the objective
for us as we consider the superlative nature of our high priest in
this concept called Melchizedek, which will take a few weeks to
do because the writer wants to move us into the covenant. And
I've told you before, the covenant has a key by which we enter into
the blessings of that covenant. And that key is the priesthood. You don't enter into the covenant
blessings apart from a priest. The priest, the high priest,
is the one who affects and opens the covenant so that you and
I are blessed by the promises in that covenant. Are you guys
following me? You see, one of the tragedies in our present
day evangelical church is that people who profess to have faith
may very well have nothing but presumption. That is the assumption
that they're right with God based on something contrary to what
the Word of God has said. and how tragic it would be for
a man or woman to stand before God on the last day and God say,
I never knew you. We prophesied in your name. We
did miracles in your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We did many wonderful works in your name. And the whole world
applauded us. And everybody said we were Christians.
And the Master said, but I never knew you. What does it matter
if everyone in the world affirms something that ultimately amounts
to a delusion? Here's what I'm saying, ladies
and gentlemen. The goal of the believer is to make sure that
their faith is anchored in a reality of which God himself must provide
so that you actually end up where faith says it will lead you to
glory. So your job in mind is to drink
in biblical truth, learn more and more and more about Jesus
until our faith is strengthened and grows up and it enters into
full maturity in Christ. The job of the Christian then
is to constantly examine their faith, whether or not their faith
is authentic and whether or not it's rooted in the right thing.
Am I making some sense? And so primarily, it's not about
liver quivers. It's not about you getting all
excited. I mean, if you want to worship with me, you certainly
can, but make sure your worship is not in vain. Use your mind. Think with me, because our religion
is a thinking religion. Think first, then dance. The greatest thing God could
do for you is to give you a mediator. It's the greatest thing. And
in fact, by virtue of him giving you a mediator, he is securing
your destiny because he knows he can't trust you. But but but
faith, listen to me now. Faith, therefore, is designed
for you to cast your contemplation, your thoughts, your your perspective,
your hope, your goals, your objectives on something outside of yourself.
Am I making some sense? The moment you start becoming
comfortable with your own faith, you are in trouble. In fact,
you're deceived. The moment you think your faith
is adequate enough to hold on to the promises of God for you,
you are utterly lost in your own deception. Now, I want to
clean this up before the new year starts. A false faith will
do you no good. Okay, and so so if you're really
authentically born if you're legitimately born again, you
have an interest you have a profound interest in what God has said
he has done for you in Christ if you are bored with Christ
you are still lost if you are bored with the covenant you are
lost if you're bored with your mediator you are lost if you
and I are living out of a desire and passion to be gratified in
our own person we're lost and Have you figured out that you
can't satisfy yourself yet? You know how you go after it?
You go after it, and it always fails to achieve the goal. Isn't
that right? Five minutes later, you want it again. So the Hebrew
writer actually is seeking to accomplish three things that
I recognize in the book of Hebrews. One is to set our eyes on our
high priest and mediator for us to be humbly submitted to. And this is humbling, child of
God. It's humbling for you and I to be told that you need a
mediator. It's humbling to be told not
only that you need a mediator, but that there's only one mediator.
One mediator between God and man, and that man and God-man
is Jesus Christ. It's humbling, but it's necessary
for us to grapple with. And secondly, in order for us
to avoid, as I said earlier, presumption of faith, through
error. In order for us to avoid presumption
of faith through error, we want to make sure that our faith,
our firm conviction, our believing God, our trusting God, our depending
upon God, our relying upon God, our needing God is rooted in
us observing and being committed to the work that God has done
for us alone. There your faith will grow. There
your faith will abound. There your faith will bring you
into the perfections for which Christ hath given himself for
you. So let's ask some questions as
we work through our outline. There are five points that I
wanna deal with today, and we're gonna work a little bit more
critically with point number one, then we'll make our way
hastily through the other four points. The reason why is because
the author is going to develop some of the other points as we
go through the book of Hebrews. But the critical point that I
wanna work with you on, which is somewhat of a, literary controversy
is the question, who is Mel Chesedek? Let me ask you to raise your
hand. We don't play turn to your neighbor in this church, okay?
So we're not asking you to go through all these weird bodily
exercises. I'm not going to ask you to do all that stuff. We're
not here to manipulate you, but if you want to. Who has heard
of Melchizedek for the first time in here? I just need to
know. Good. There's a few. Thank you. Bless
you. That means that we have to always back up and deal with
fundamentals because we care about people's understanding.
And we never want to presume that people are where you are.
And I can probably assert that those of you who have heard about
Melchizedek don't know much about him if you already have heard
of him. So it'll be worthy of asking the question, who is Melchizedek? So that's the first point in
your outline. And let me work through this a little bit. Who
is Melchizedek? Well, you have a number of things
in your point. Is Melchizedek the Archangel Michael? Now I raised that question because
in the, In the world of scholarship and commentaries, that interpretation
has been rendered to Melchizedek primarily by our Jewish brethren
who hold to the Old Testament scriptures but have been from
the beginning of time up to this present point blinded to the
centrality of the scriptures. in the person of Christ. So if
God hasn't revealed to you that Jesus Christ is the key to all
the scriptures and that he is the reality to every type, reality
to every shadow, reality to every symbol, then you're gonna always
give a wrong conclusion as to what a thing may signify. And
they have done that for thousands of years now. They have assumed
or asserted that Melchizedek was the angel Gabriel. But we know quick, I'm sorry,
the archangel Michael, we know quickly that that would be wrong.
Remember back when we first contemplated the idea of a priest? What were
the qualifications of a priest? He had to be one like you and
me. Priest had to be a man like we
were chapter 5 verses 1 through 3 opens up saying a priest is
taken from among men in order to serve in the behalf of men
to God and Because Michael the Archangel is ontologically not
human, but an angel he cannot be our mediator Am I making some
sense? He cannot, so that automatically
negates the possibility of a valid interpretation in terms of Michael
the archangel, for he is indeed just an angel. Who is Michael,
who is Melchizedek then? The other interpretation that's
rendered, a non-christocentric interpretation, which I don't
pay any attention to in any system of theology. Any system of theology
that I read or hear about that does not exalt Christ as everything,
to me is a completely useless system of theology. Since Jesus
told me, Lo, I come in the volume of the book is written of me,
I'm the key. So until you come to Christ,
you haven't gotten a proper interpretation. They would assert, our Jewish
brethren would assert, holding to the Old Testament scriptures,
that this mysterious person called Melchizedek was really Seth,
the son of Noah. Remember, Noah had three sons,
Japheth, Ham, and Seth. And of course, Seth is a wonderful
person in the Old Testament literature. We're learning this in biblical
theology. But I would assert to you that Seth could not have
been Melchizedek. And he couldn't have been Melchizedek
based upon the clear argument that the opening passages render
with regards to the uniqueness of the Melchizedekian priesthood.
So now follow this. If our text opens up saying,
for this Melchizedek, priest of the most high God, who met
Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,
to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of everything that he had
received in the battle, first being by interpretation, king
of righteousness and afterwards, king of Salem, which is king
of peace. This Melchizedek was without
what? Did Seth have a father? Did Seth
have a father? What was his father's name? We
knew it. So the author would have been
lying. Had he known or believed that
Seth was really Melchizedek in what we would call a coded terminology,
right? For the scriptures are asserting
that there is no genealogy attached to Melchizedek by which we could
follow his order of priesthood from patriarch to patriarch to
patriarch to patriarch. Are you guys following me? That's
why when you read your Bibles, you have to what? Think. The
writers of scripture are using divine reasoning, divine thinking,
divine logic, divine rationale to help us understand what we
call the coherence of biblical truth. They're helping us to
deduce and induce truth by negating things that make no sense and
then affirming them by the clear and explicit teachings of the
Word of God. That means you have to think things through. A priest
of a normal order, which is what the Hebrew writer is going to
argue, is a priest who is in the line of a patriarchal system
that continues backwards and forwards. There is a genealogy
to the priest. He could not enter into the priesthood
unless he had a genealogy that said he was part of this line,
that line or the other line. Am I making some sense, ladies
and gentlemen? So we discard both Michael, the archangel,
Since Hebrews chapter 2 verse 16 tells us that Jesus did not
take on the nature of what angels But he took on our nature in
order to call us his brethren in order that he might be to
us a faithful and merciful high priest we therefore also reject
our Seth as being the mystical or mysterious Melchizedek because
the author of Hebrews is arguing that there is no genealogical
line to trace backwards or forwards in this unique priesthood of
Melchizedek. What then are we to conclude
as to who Melchizedek is? Melchizedek, ladies and gentlemen,
is a real human representative for mankind in the occupying
the office of priesthood, a very unique priesthood. He is a real
historical person and yet he is a type of the coming Messiah. Melchizedek is a real personage
who lived 2,000 years before Jesus in the era and time of
Abraham. He's a real person who happened
to have been a real king over a real kingdom and a real priesthood,
ministering to people in a real priestly ministry, only his ministry
was not that of the line of Aaron and Levi. It was a profoundly
mysterious priesthood of which God had set up of which we only
have two passages of scripture in all the Old Testament that
actually address Melchizedek. The first is in Genesis chapter
14, verses 18 through 20. And I want you to see that briefly
with me as we lay a foundation. Genesis 14, verses 18 through
20. This is the only place we have
concerning this person, Melchizedek, The priest of the Most High God. I want to know about him, don't
you? Now, I want to know about him because I know he alludes
to and points to and foreshadows something Profoundly important
about the Lord Jesus Christ. So while we are Ear-hustling
as a third party on a conversation between two people groups the
writer to the Hebrews and the Hebrew Christians You and I will
see by application how important it is to us But let's just take
up the reading of Genesis chapter 14 verses 18 through 20 briefly
listen to what it says in verse 18 Genesis chapter 14 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 Abraham 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 your hands and he gave him a tithe of all
That's all you read, ladies and gentlemen, in Genesis chapter
14. about Melchizedek. The next time you read about
him is in Psalm 110, which is one of the Psalms. Go there,
Psalms 110. Let's briefly read it in verse 4. Psalms 110 is
one of the most commonly used Psalms all throughout the New
Testament for very important reasons, one of which is because
of the designation of the office of Jesus Christ as the mediator
and head of the Church of the Living God and the role that
he plays in securing our eternal salvation. of which purpose we
are compelled to want to know everything I possibly can about
my Mediator. Because to the degree that I
know, and I am rooted and grounded in, and I am committed to the
revelation of God in Christ in the area of my Mediator's work,
to that degree I'm going to be anchored in the truth. It doesn't
matter what storms come. It doesn't matter what troubles
come. If my anchor is fixed on Christ, you can let the wind
blow. You can let the seas rage. You
can let the enemy come. You can let every adversary in
the universe come against me. If I'm anchored to Christ, I'm
going to be well. In fact, we can sing it. It is
well. It is well with my soul. I might be tossed to and fro. I might be tossed hither and
thither, but my anchor is hinged to a man already in glory. And I know that where he is,
I will be one day. And my faith may be shaking down
here, and I might be looking back in your presence, but my
faith has an anchor, and that anchor is in glory. And as long
as that anchor does not lose, I'm all right. I may not look
all right. I may not even feel all right.
But I know I'm all right. This is what we're talking about.
Verses one through four. The Lord said unto my Lord, this
is David under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, speaking of the
Father and the Son, right? The Lord Jehovah said unto my
Lord, Adonai, sit thou at my right hand. What does that mean?
Accomplish redemption. Until I make thine enemies thy
footstool. What does that mean? Total victory. The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. That's the preaching of the gospel
rules out in the midst of dying enemies. That's what he did when
he came to you and me and the power of the gospel and subdued
us before him. Before we knew God, we were his
enemies and God came in the power of the gospel and brought us
low and put the handcuffs of grace on us and made us captives
of Christ and brought us into the kingdom of God. Am I making
some sense there? This is the decree of God the
Father concerning the success of Christ the Son to redeem every
one of his rebel children. And that's what you were before
salvation. And that's what you are after
salvation. Rebel children. Put it on your back, R.C. I'm
a rebel child of God. It's true, isn't it? I'm a rebel
child of God. But he got me anyway. I thank
him for the power of the gospel. Your people shall be willing
in the day of your power talking about free will no man has the
power to come to God Unless God draws him and when God begins
to draw you by his grace, guess what he does He changes your
passions. He changes your desires. He changes
your aspirations. He changes your your impotency
It changes all your affections and you want to do the will of
God. It's strange, isn't it? how the arrows that come out
of his quiver and pierce your heart hurts at first and then
all of a sudden you fall in love with him. I've told you he's
our heavenly Cupid. He gonna get you. He gonna get
you. By the time he brings you to
himself, you're gonna be in love with Christ even though it hurts. That's what the writer's saying.
That's what he's saying. Isn't it about saving his people?
You know, you get people to say, destroy my enemies. Listen, I
was God's enemy, you too. Destroy my enemies in Christ.
Destroy my foes in Christ. Destroy the thing that would
destroy me in Christ. Then I'll be all right. Listen
to what he says. Your people shall be willing
in the day of your power and the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning. This is talking about the resurrection.
Don't have time to develop it. You have the do of your youth.
This is talking about his eternal position as the Son of God in
his post-resurrection glory. He possesses all life. Life is
in the Son. He that hath the Son hath what?
He that hath not the Son of God does not have what? And this
is what the text is saying. The Father here is extolling
the Son because he has obtained eternal redemption by his death,
burial, and resurrection. Verse 4. The Lord has sworn This
is what the writer is saying in Hebrews. The distinct difference
between the Aaronic priesthood and the priesthood of Melchizedek
is Melchizedek's priesthood is an oath by God the Father to
accomplish some things through God the Son. This is an oath.
This is what I want to know. I want to know how secure my
eternity bound soul is. now that it has been bought by
the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. I want to know
what God the Father and God the Son has done to make sure my
eternal destiny. In order for me to know that,
I need to listen to what they said they did in order to accomplish
that for me. I need to be able to hear and
understand these mysteries that were taking place in eternity
past, between the father and the son. Listen to what he says
to the son. The Lord has sworn and he will not what? I love
him, don't you? God's not a man that he should
lie, nor the sort of man that he should repent. Has he spoken
and not make it good? Has he declared it and will not
bring it to pass? Our God is good with his word,
isn't he? And we know this because Jesus came, died, rose again
and went back to glory. Is that right? Listen to what
he says. The Lord has sworn and will not
repent. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Got it? Go back with me to the book,
Hebrews, because this is what the Hebrew writer wants the people
of God to get. He wants the people of God who
have been used to a temporary, would not do, could not do, Covenant
of works. This is a terminology. I used
ten years ago for the old saints at grace the covenant of works
Which was under the Aaronic priesthood Which we're getting ready to
attach together and demonstrate which was always a temporary
system was a covenant of works Which would not do and could
not do you guys got that and yet it was the only system Israel
knew they only knew I would not do and could not do system and
It's a would-not-do, could-not-do, would-not-do, could-not-do system
which could never make their conscience clear. I mean, if
it never actually obtained salvation or never actually pleased God
or never actually accomplished righteousness, then we are always
in this sort of mode of fear of being rejected by God because
it's a would not do, could not do system. Are you guys following
me? Now you can imagine how a whole people group could be affected
as a religious society being under a works religion that never
could do or would do. They are fearful every year that
God will reject them because nothing ever came to perfection
under that old system. And yet, you know what people
do? I found this to be true in the evangelical church. Folks
will stay in churches where the gospel is not preached. Folks
will stay in would not do, could not do, covenant of words churches
where the gospel doesn't work. They will stay in places where
they preach words salvation by something God did and something
you do and they know what's wrong and they stay there. They will
stay in these churches where they are told you must do this.
You must do that. You must do the other thing to
merit favor with God. They will know the book plainly
said it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but they
will stay in those churches under that system because they don't
have faith. They have presumption, which
is what I told you before. It's the consequence of Christ
not being preached sufficiently enough for them to know the grounds
upon which faith has its origin, its sustaining, and its perfection. Why would a man or woman stay
in a legalistic works religion that would not do and could not
do, knowing it will ultimately cause them to perish? Because
they have never ever effectually heard the preaching of the gospel. Do you remember how that was
for you when you were under that system of works? And then God
in his mercy caused the light to shine out of darkness, to
shine in your hearts and gave you a revelation of the sufficiency
of Jesus Christ. And it broke the shackles, didn't
it? And then God said, come out of Babylon and come into Christ
and come to know something about the finality of the crosswork
of Jesus Christ, which brings rest to the soul. This is what
the Hebrew writer is trying to get the people to do. Come out
of that legalism that they were used to and come into the reality
and perfections that's in Christ. That's Hebrews 6.1. Let us go
on to perfection. Not laying again the foundation
of principle things over and over and over and over and over
again. Don't let me get started. It blows me away. It blows me
away how religion will do exactly what our master said. You have
the keys of knowledge, but you won't go in and you will hinder
those who are trying to go in from going in by blocking the
door with your own self, your own system and your own works.
And so the Hebrew writer wants them to grasp these realities. What are our arguments about
Melchizedek? Melchizedek was not himself Christ. And some are arguing that Melchizedek
was Christ. No, he was not Christ. For him
to have been Christ would be to violate the language of the
text. Let me see if I can make this
plain. When the text says, to whom also Abraham had given a
tenth part of the tithe, Verse three says that he was without
father and without mother. Therefore he was without what?
Descent. Could it be said that Jesus Christ did not have a father? No. Perish the thought. That would be eternal blasphemy
for us to assert at any time or entertain at any time that
the son God did not have a father. In fact, that would be a logical
inconsistency. How can you be a son? Without
a father and we've already been told 13 times in 13 chapters
You will read the Son of God the Son of God and in fact in
order to make sure that we didn't get the mistake the writer says
also 13 times in 13 chapters his name is Jesus the son of
God, which means we already are bound by an ontological relationship
between father and son. I know who his father is, don't
you? I know who his father is. His father has always been his
father from all eternity. Now he had no human father, but
he had a divine father and therefore he had a father and we know who
he was. And that is critical to the nature and character and
role of our high priest. And in fact, you know what's
beautiful about this whole idea of the fatherhood of God is that
Christ came to reveal to the world that aspect of God's nature. We call this in theology, paterology. Christ was the one who revealed
to us God as Father. More times than anywhere in the
scriptures you will read of Christ saying, my father, my father,
my father. I came to do the will of my father. This is the work of my father.
I came to glorify my father, exalt my father, make manifest
my father's name. Are you hearing me? And so while
Melchizedek has no genealogical traits of fatherhood or motherhood,
isn't that what the text says? No mother. We can't say Jesus
didn't have a mother. For us to assert that Jesus didn't
have a mother is for us to deny His humanity. If I deny His humanity,
even though I affirm His divinity, I fail to qualify Him as my mediator. Am I making some sense? See,
for though He is the Son of God from eternity, He is not rightly
and properly my mediator until he takes on a what? Human nature. Remember, the priest had to be
taken from among men. Are you guys following what I'm
saying? For while he is the Son of God from eternity, one with
the Father and one with the Spirit, until he assumes my nature, he
cannot properly be called my high priest. So in order for
this person, Jesus Christ, to be my high priest in the sense
in which he takes on the role of Melchizedek, he has to be
understood and comprehended in two dimensions. First, as divine. Secondly, as human. Are you hearing
me? Then, pastor, what is the language
and argument that the Hebrew writer is rendering when he says
that Melchizedek was without father, without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of days or end of life? What's
that argument? That's the argument of what we
call silence in the scriptures. It's a device in the scriptures
where the Holy Ghost chose to craft the language in a fashion
to make the priesthood of Melchizedek correspond to the ministry of
Jesus Christ as high priest of his people. Did you guys get
that? In other words, God could have easily told us who Melchizedek's
mother and father was. He could have easily done that.
He could have easily given us the lineage, but that would have
complicated the matter of his unique priesthood in relationship
to us. The language was crafted to give
us a type, not a reality, a type of the eternal priesthood of
Christ. Type therefore his mother wasn't mentioned his father wasn't
mentioned his brethren wasn't mentioned and we take what we
read in Genesis 14 and in Psalm 110 and simply say God the Father
made Melchizedek to be a type of Christ eternal priesthood
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Am I making some sense to you?
Let me stack that a little bit more just for argument's sake.
Let's say Melchizedek was actually Christ as some of my theologians,
my theological brethren assert. And some of them are men of very
good company. They hold that this here is a
foreshadow of the pre-incarnate Christ, that Jesus took on that
image while he was there and he met Abraham and blessed Abraham,
gave him bread and wine to foreshadow the reality of himself 2,000
years down the line. Well, if that were the case,
you know what we would have in our text? We would have a gross
redundancy of language that would actually amount to an absurdity
on the part of God. What do you mean, Pastor? I mean,
if Melchizedek was actually Christ, it would make no sense for God
the Father to say to God the Son, as we read in Psalm 110,
I am going to make you a priest after the order of Melchizedek. That would be like saying, I
am going to make you a priest after the order of who you already
are a second time. I'm going to make you a Melchizedek
a second time. That's called a useless redundancy. And ladies and gentlemen, let
me help you understand something about redundancy. God is not
redundant. Did you hear me? God doesn't
make two things that are exactly the same for no advanced purpose
at all. That's why we don't believe in
homosexuality because it's a redundancy principle. Are you hearing what
I'm saying? We do believe in complementarianism because what
it does, it glorifies God in the area of production and fruitfulness. A male and a female can advance
things. Am I making some sense? But the
logic fails to assert that God would say to his son that he's
going to make him something that he already is. It's like saying,
son, I'm going to make you the son of God in the same way at
the same time as I already have you being the son of God. That's
a fallacy of logic. That's a fallacy of language
rather. It makes no sense, does it? So if we're talking about
advancing from one stage to another, what we are actually talking
about doing is advancing from an inferior to a superior. We're talking about advancing
from something that is lesser to something that is more. We're
talking about advancing from something that is typical and
shadowy and representative to something that is substantive
and real and fulfilling. So Melchizedek only typifies,
foreshadows, represents the reality that's in Christ. Am I making
some sense? In fact, we need to go on to
the next point in order to develop that. The Hebrew writer actually
builds from a framework of interpreting the book of Hebrews that way.
Let me assert it this way. And I'll start in verse 22 of
our text. Listen to what verse 22 says.
Are you there? Here's what it says by so much was Jesus made
a surety of a wet better Testament See the book of Hebrews is about
as some authors have said long ago better things better Things
as verse 22 stay with me now This is why we believe in a new
covenant Because we believe that God working throughout human
history in stages went from lesser things to better things, from
typical things to substantive things, from symbols to realities. That from the time that he created
the heavens and the earth, he already had a new heavens and
new earth in his mind. We call this protology in theology. It's already having a design
of the reality and the fulfillment and the perfection of a thing
before he actually creates what would simply be a typical picture
of the thing. So this present heavens and earth,
as you and I believe it, will be burned up and there will be
a new heavens and a new earth, right? But that was in the mind
of God before the world began. And everything in this world
corresponded to the blueprint that was in the mind of an eternal
God before He made it. If you guys are going to build
a house, don't you set out to develop a blueprint of the house
first? And you have every facet and detail drawn up first, and
then you go to build the house? Am I making some sense? In the
mind of God, He saw the end from the beginning, and what He's
doing throughout time is unfolding the reality of those things through
shadows and types. bringing them into the reality
that's in Christ. And what we are told as the New
Testament church is that you and I have entered into the new.
We've entered into the new. Am I making some sense? We've
entered into the new. And you have got to comprehend
the new because the old will send you to hell. The old was
the temporary would not do, could not do system that was only pointing
to the reality. It was only pointing to the reality.
So in your outline, we have the argument of type and reality.
He says in Hebrews chapter 1 that God spoke to the fathers in days
of old through the what? Prophets. But in these last days
He's spoken to us in the Son. So the lesser are the prophets,
the greater is who? Jesus. Chapter 1 also says that
God views the angels as mediators in this present dispensation,
but Jesus becomes the greater mediator in this new dispensation. So Jesus is seen in Hebrews chapter
1 as greater than the what? Angels. In chapter 2 we find,
or rather chapter 3, we find God talking about Moses building
his house, but Jesus becomes a builder of a greater house.
Moses is a type of Christ. We're going from the lesser to
the greater. In chapter 3 and 4, we talk about Joshua bringing
the children of Israel into the promised land, a type of rest,
right? Those of you who have understood
Old Testament theology with us, we realize that the children
of Israel going through the wilderness for 40 years is a type of you
and I going through this wilderness world. We are in a wilderness,
ladies and gentlemen. I don't care what people say.
We have not arrived yet. I don't care what people say. We are not in glory. We taste
glory, yeah. Some of the what we call first
fruits of glory are given us, yeah, by the Spirit of God. But
according to Revelation chapter 12, we are that bride that have
been given two wings of a great eagle to fly into the wilderness
where we are hid from the face of the serpent for a time, a
time, and a half a time until God comes to save us from this
world totally. So we have, as the church, for
the last 2,000 years been going through a wilderness world sojourn
where God has been feeding us with the manna of the gospel.
Remember that? Bread from heaven, hot biscuits
in the morning, butter and syrup, and fried chicken. Let me go
back to broiled chicken. The more saints I meet, y'all
done got past all of this killer food. But in the evening, pheasant. And it was all typical of those
graces that God must give us to lead us through this wilderness.
Well, we have to feed on Christ daily until we ultimately enter
into that state of permanent glory. where all the former things
are passed away and everything becomes what? Totally new. Are
you guys following me? This will keep you from being
deceived by false prophets, as I told you before, who will claim
things that cannot be actually experienced by children of God
here until we reach glory. We're headed there. And what
it means is that as people of God going through the wilderness,
we must depend upon God. You must depend upon God. You
must depend upon God to feed your soul daily. You must depend
upon God to watch you in that wilderness where there are scorpions
and vipers and dragons and snakes and enemies of all kinds. Am
I making some sense? And so, the Hebrew writer is
telling us that we are dealing with types and shadows. Joshua
brought them into a temporary rest that was earthly and limited. Jesus brings us into the rest
of the gospel, right? So we read in Matthew 11, 28,
So Jesus is a greater Joshua. Chapter 5 of Hebrews now moves us into what we are
contemplating now, the priesthood. Are you with me now? And so what we're dealing with
is understanding the book of Hebrews in a framework called
type and reality. Type and reality. Type and reality. Temporary, eternal. Old and what? New. Old and new. And so what the Hebrew writer
wants the people of God to understand, lest they are deceived by the
old system, is this. Jesus is a better priest than
Aaron or his sons could ever be. Are you following me? This is what he's talking about.
This is what he's talking about. And so we read in the book of
Hebrews that he talks about an old Jerusalem and a what? New
Jerusalem. And by the way, what he tells
us in chapter 12, 22, is that we have come unto the new Jerusalem. Isn't that right? So we are in
a better place and a more superior place. than we were under the
old system, and this is what he's trying to get the Hebrew
people to comprehend. And by the way, just like the
Son of God is a term used 13 times in Hebrews, and just like
Jesus is a term used 13 times in Hebrews, guess what? The term
better, better, is used 13 times in Hebrews. You know what he's
saying? 13 times, Jesus, the Son of God,
is better. Did you get that? Jesus, the
son of God is better. Jesus, the son of the living
God is better. 13 times. To drive it home to those brothers
and sisters who are going back to that old system of works and
legalism simply because they don't see a physical temple.
They don't see a physical priesthood. They don't see a physical priest
because our priest is in glory. Our altar is in glory. We have
no altar down here. That's why in our church we never
set up the front as an altar that would deceive you. To come
to the altar here is to move about 30 or 40 feet from where
you are. And ladies and gentlemen, listen
to me carefully. That's not enough to get you
out of hell into heaven. out of sin into righteousness,
out of works into grace, out of unbelief into faith. It takes
an eternal transition of which only God can do. He must take
your soul out of darkness and bring it into his marvelous light
and translate you out of the kingdom of darkness into the
kingdom of his dear son. Will you stay with me? And for
that, you don't have to move from your seat. You know, I feel sorry for some
of our churches. I'm at a revival conference last
month, and the revival conference went great. After the service,
here comes tradition again. Come on up. Come on up. You know, people ain't really
coming up as much anymore, are they? You know why? Because they
didn't get it 500 times since they were little children. Now,
am I telling the truth? They didn't come up 500 times.
They come up every week. They go out, get high during
the week, have sex on the weekend, conscious, all guilty. Then the
preacher goes through the manipulation, just as I am, without formal
plea. Then they come up and they realize that they haven't accomplished
anything because two days later, they're back at it again. That's
not the altar that changes the soul. Let me say it again. That is not the altar. Read it
for yourself, Hebrews chapter 13. We have no altar down here. I feel sorry for them because
they're operating out of old paradigms. Do you understand
that faith is a gift of God? And do you understand that that's
the secret work of the Holy Ghost that's made plain in a person's
life by them trusting Christ? that you don't prove that you
have faith because you raise your hand or say the sinners prayer
or come up front or any of that. See, these are all human man-made
methods which deceive men and women into thinking they're all
right with God when they're not all right with God by those things. And the Hebrew writer is saying,
don't go back. Don't go back. Jesus, the son
of God, is better. He's better. Let me keep working
on this. So the Hebrew writer is clearly
giving us the framework. This is why he starts off introducing
in verse 22 that Jesus is made a surety of a better what? Testament. Same as covenant. Some technical differences. Point
number three in your outline. He's another and superior priesthood
in Melchizedek is what's being argued. Another and superior
priesthood in Melchizedek is being argued. Why is the Hebrew
writer arguing? for a Melchizedekian priesthood,
first and foremost, because Psalm 110 clearly tells us that the
father said, I'm going to make you a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. That's enough for me. But what he's going to
do is explain why the father chooses the Melchizedekian order
and not Aaron's and not Levi's. Are you guys with me so far?
Let's work with it now. And so the Hebrew writer is making
it very plain. Let's start again in chapter
7 at verse 4. Listen to what he says. Now consider
how great this what? What was Melchizedek? He was
a man. See it? Now consider how great
this man was, not is, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave
the tenth of the spoil. He's entered to build his case
for the superiority of Melchizedek's priesthood, not over Christ,
But over Aaron and Levi, the would-not-do, could-not-do temporary
work system of which these Hebrews are ready to go back to, of which
our present predispensation, our premillennial dispensationalists
want us to buy into. Are you hearing me? a reestablishing
of the temple, a reestablishing of the Aaronic priesthood, a
reestablishing of the red heifer, a reestablishing of the sacrifices
and the offerings, and a division between Jew and Gentile, man
and woman. Are you hearing me? Why on earth
would I buy into a system that Christ demolished at Calvary
2,000 years ago? How on earth will that glorify
the Son of the living God for us to erect that which he already
tore down? Paul tells me in Galatians 2,
that would make me a transgressor. For me to build again what I
tore down makes me a transgressor. How can I go back to an Old Testament,
would not do, could not do system of works when I have the perfection
in Jesus Christ? How can anyone do better than
Christ? How can you do better than Christ?
And the church of the living God today has but one thing to
look forward to. And that's for the son of God
to break the heavens and to appear in person and to glorify his
church and to establish the kingdom forever. Are you hearing me?
Watch this saints. We ain't going back. The church
of the living God is not going back. There's nothing back there
for us. We're pressing forward to perfection. That's the goal of the writer.
That's what I want you to comprehend in your theology. the perfections
that's in Christ. That's what's going to give you
rest. Are you hearing me, child of God? See, on a human level, can
I just be practical? I'll let you go in a minute.
On a human level, that would be just like you coming to a
gospel church like this and being taught sound theology, deep theology,
crystal-centric theology, biblical theology, and then you going
back to Catholicism. Am I making some sense? where
you have to now deal with the earthly order of temporal priests
under the priesthood who tell you that they can forgive you
of your sins. Perish the thought. See, now you're choosing an earthly
priest over a heavenly priest. When the writer of the Hebrews
is about to argue, these priests live and die, and they must have
sacrifices for their sin. But Christ, Christ is a high
priest forever, forever. Am I making some sense? Don't
mean to be picking on our Catholic folks, but they need to know
just like our evangelical folks. See, because our evangelical
folks are really headed back to Catholicism too. They don't
know it, but they are. The goal of the enemy is to make
you so confused in your ignorance of Christ that you are willing
now to bow down to a man in order to get security for your soul.
Am I making some sense? what the preacher should be doing
is preaching and exalting and lifting up Jesus Christ and saying,
Holy Ghost, make your son glorious in the heart of everyone that
sees him. All right. Another and superior
priesthood is what's being argued by the writer. Here's what he
says over in verse five. And verily, they that are of
the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood,
see what he's done now, going back to the Levitical priesthood,
have 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. See how he has put Levi and Aaron inside of Abraham? Because Abraham becomes the pinnacle
of the lineage. Abraham is the pinnacle of the
lineage. And what he's getting the Hebrew people to do is think
about Abraham. Let's go back to the top of the
line of our genealogy. And let's think about Abraham.
Guess what Abraham did when he met Melchizedek. He had to give
to Melchizedek the tip affirming the superiority of Melchizedek
over Abraham. Now who was in Abraham? Not Aaron.
Levi. Because the writer is developing
the sequential unfolding of the genealogy in order. Now Aaron
is in Levi, but Levi is in Abraham. Did you guys get that? So watch
this now. Aaron would technically have
to pay tithes to Levi. And Levi would have to pay tithes
or homage to Abraham. But Abraham is paying homage
to Melchizedek. And if we follow the logical
syllogism, guess who Melchizedek is going to pay homage to? The
Son of God. The Son of God. Am I making some
sense? He has to defer to the Son of
God. This is called deference of the
inferior to the superior. This is the argument that's taking
place here. He's arguing for, that's our third point, another
and superior priesthood in Melchizedek. So he goes on to say, Verse 6,
but he whose descent is not counted from among them received the
tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. Abraham
gives tithes to Melchizedek even though Abraham is not tithed
to Melchizedek in terms of his genealogy. He immediately affirms
Melchizedek as being the high priest of the Most High God and
renders to him the sacrifice that's due. Abraham therefore
is teaching Levi and Aaron that there's a greater priesthood
that you guys have to submit to one day as well I'm making
sense Emma and Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the brother
Then he goes into verses 8 9 I'll go from verses 8 9 through 11
because he wants us to understand that the aim is perfection he
says and here men that die receive tithes and But there he receiveth
them of whom it is written that he liveth. Here men, that is
Aaron and his sons, received tithe. But there he receiveth
them, that is Melchizedek, of whom it is written that he what?
Lives. Why? It didn't mean that he lived
physically. It meant that his priesthood
continued. Because in the device of silence
in the scriptures, we don't have a starting point for Melchizedek's
priesthood, nor an ending point for Melchizedek's priesthood.
In other words, we are not dealing with the ontological nature of
Melchizedek's humanity. We're dealing with the nature
of his priesthood being a permanent priesthood that God established
so that Christ could take it up after that first Melchizedek. Are you hearing me? The first
Melchizedek started it, Christ ends it. The first Melchizedek
starts it, Christ ends it. If we don't follow this logic,
ladies and gentlemen, do you know what kind of problems we
have throughout the whole of the Aaronic and Levitical priesthood?
For there would have been a priesthood operating that God had sanctioned
and ordained in the people of God through Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, the twelve tribes, with Aaron and Levi, They would have
been functioning according to that priesthood. And everyone
had to come to Jerusalem if they were going to be saved. For the
true and the living God dwelt between the cherub on the ark
of the mercy seat. And all had to come to Him there
if in fact somewhere down the road there was another priesthood
going on that was simultaneous to the Aaronic priesthood. Are
you hearing me? If the Melchizedekian priesthood
was a physical priesthood that sustained itself from the days
of that first Melchizedek all the way through, then we would
have had two priesthood operating in tension. What I am saying is, that the
language of silence simply framed the Melchizedekian priesthood
to be an eternal priesthood that would be brought to reality,
not through the sequential genealogical trend of father, son, father,
son, but Melchizedek to Jesus. Am I making some sense? What
sustained is the Melchizedekian priesthood, not the person Melchizedek. Not the person Melchizedek. I
think you guys are with me. It's very important for us to
comprehend there'd be a lot of problems if that were the case.
Verse 10 and 11. For he was, I'm sorry, verse
9. And as I may also say, Levi also
received tithes, paid them in Abraham to Melchizedek, didn't
he? Look at it. And as I also may
say, Levi also, who received tithes, paid tithes. Who did
he pay them to? Melchizedek threw Abraham. That's what he's arguing. See,
Abraham has in his loins Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes.
And Abraham is forcing the whole of the sons of Abraham to pay
homage to this priesthood, which means the priesthood that they
had received from God was necessarily flawed. This is why I said it
was a would not do, could not do, temporary system of works
religion that God had structured to keep the physical nation of
Israel intact until Messiah came. Am I blowing your fuses? Let
me move forward. So the Hebrew writer is making
it clear that we could have never, ever, ever, it was never designed
for us to reach a perfection of the conscience through the
Levitical priesthood. Verse 11, if therefore perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received
the what? So you understand that whenever
God gives law, He has to give priesthood where sinners are?
Wherever God gives law, He has to give priesthood where sinners
are? If God gives you law without priesthood, you're going to hell.
Do you understand priesthood becomes the symbol of the gospel
in order to make our violation against the law something God
could live with. Are you guys following me? So
he gives us the Ten Commandments, right? Love the Lord with all
your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself,
right? About a second after you receive the commandment, you're
doomed. So before God has to send you to hell, because he's
got to send you to hell now, he attaches the priesthood to the
law and says, shed the blood, shed the blood, shed the blood,
shed the blood. Are you hearing me? Shed the
blood. Shed the blood. Now, the blood
of the old covenant could never put away sin, but it did cover
it because God loves us enough to be patient till his son comes.
Since they already agreed that he would show up in the fullness
of time, born of a woman made under the law to redeem us from
the curse of the law. Am I making some sense? Shed
the blood, shed the blood, and in fact, sprinkle the blood on
the law. And then sprinkle the blood on the people. And then
sprinkle the blood on the sheep. And sprinkle the blood on the
altar. In fact, sprinkle blood on everything so I can have a
relationship with these knuckleheads. Did y'all get that? Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. I need the
blood. You need the blood. We need the
blood. We need blood. Because I don't
think right sometimes. I need blood on my conscience.
That's why the priest had to stand there and receive the blood
on their right thumb, on their right toe, and on their right
ear. Are you hearing me? So I can get my hearing right.
So I can get my acting right and get my doing right before
God under the blood. Am I making some sense? I need
the blood. I need law too. But I need the
blood. See, because the law is going
to teach me about the character of God and what he demands. Talking to my wife this morning
as she's teaching the children over there about the cursed fig
tree. Can you imagine she's preaching
the gospel out of the cursed fig tree to two to five-year-olds? She's teaching them the gospel
to two to five-year-olds. I said, you think they're going
to get it? Oh yeah, they're going to get it. Because she's going to make it simple.
God requires fruit. We fail to produce fruit. So
Christ had to be the tree that got cut down in order that we
might bring fruit to God. I said, that's simple enough.
That'll work. That'll work. Because if he didn't
cut Christ down, he'd have to cut me down. If he didn't cut
Christ down, he'd have to cut you down. Because you and I don't
bear the fruit we ought. And if we ever bear fruit, it's
Christ in you. bearing the fruit as the father
purges you and produces fruit through you so that you give
him the glory for it. Am I making some sense? I know
I'm boring you, but I got to get through these next two points.
Point number four. A superior covenant in Melchizedek
is what's being affirmed here. We need to understand that. And
it's not so much about Melchizedek, but it's about Christ's priesthood,
which brings me to my fifth point. I'm not going to develop point
number four. I'll see if I can do that down the line, because
it really needs to have rich appreciation. But point number
five, the combined offices of priest and king. The writer knows
the depth of the superior nature of Melchizedek's priesthood over
Aaron's. And so what he does, he opens
up by saying, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the
Most High God, who met brother Abraham, returning from the slaughter
of the kings, and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth
of all. What he just did was give what
we call a parenthetical, because he started off with a portfolio
and resume of Melchizedek. But then he broke into Abraham
giving a tenth of the tithe in order to help the Hebrew people
be sensitive to the highest and most important man in the nation
of Israel, Abraham. Then he jumps back to the portfolio
and resume of Melchizedek by giving the interpretation of
his name. Melchizedek means king of righteousness who is king
of Salem are king of peace. What you may not recognize here,
and we're shutting it down here, is that we have two offices combined
in one. We have the kingship and the
priesthood in one. We have King Melchizedek over
the city of Jerusalem. That's what Salem is in its contracted
form. Are you hearing me? Jerusalem! City our foundation of Shalom
is what peace? Who's the king of Jerusalem?
Melchizedek? No Jesus of whom Melchizedek
was only a type But he was literally the king of Jerusalem He was
also the priest of Jerusalem was he not ladies and gentlemen.
Are you with me? He was both the king and the
priest now stay with me now I've got to develop this for five
minutes just to give it to you Now anywhere in the world where
you have a political kingdom, where there's a monarchy, and
a king, and a senate, and princes, and rulers, and also in the same
city or nation, you have a religious or ceremonial system, such as
the priesthood, where you have the high priest, and then you
have the priests, and the sons, and the Levites together. Those
two systems, anywhere in the world, will always be at odds
with each other. They will always be in conflict.
When Israel said we want a king like all the other kings of the
nations in 1st Samuel chapter 7 all the way through 12, God
says you guys have just messed up. You just messed up because
you have completely missed my purpose for you. See, when they
set up that monarchy, that monarchy always attempts to usurp authority
over the priesthood. Am I making some sense? And this
is why political kingdoms have always sought to usurp authority
over the church, control the church, domineer the church,
snuff out the church, as it were, cause the church to be ineffective.
You cannot have the priesthood and the kingship coexisting together
in earthly kings. Earthly kings cannot work together
in a political-religious structure. I have told you that's the framework
for the Antichrist system that we are facing and dealing with.
Wherever the church falls prey to politics, it loses its celestial
power. You can never go to bed with,
sleep with, co-join, have a co-regency with or an affinity with the
political systems of this world and actually preach the truth
of the gospel. This is why I've told you, your
president can never be a Christian. Am I boring you? This is why
those of us who, we want a Christian president, he, after he gets
this big old, big old Bible, Four feet wide, four feet, with
big old cross on it. He goes to church, right, for
about six months while he's campaigning to be the president, right? And
the media gives you pictures of him going into church and
coming out of church with his family. He never darkened the
doors of the church for several years before that. But now he's
running for the presidency. Oh, he's a Christian. Obama's
a Christian. Bush a Christian. Clinton a Christian.
Clinton a Christian. Stay with me for a moment now
stay with me. See this is how deceived my religious generation
is my present Religious generation is deceived because it does not
read the Bible and does not understand its prophetic implications Are
you hearing me? There's only one kingdom where
the kingship and the priesthood could coexist in harmony and
unity and that's in Christ and Christ is both King of Salem
and he is the priest of the Most High God. And that office is
subsumed in one person and that's Jesus. This is Zechariah chapter
6. I need you to go there. I'll
close right here. I can talk about this forever
and ever and ever, but I just want you to see it for yourself.
Go with me in your Bible to Zechariah chapter 6 so that God can make
it plain to us. He never meant, God never meant
for any earthly king to occupy the office of both king and priest. Will you hear me? Even King David
didn't get it right. Solomon messed it up royally.
Solomon messed it up so bad that he becomes a picture of the epitome
of the Antichrist system. 700 wives, 300 concubines. Is that not a jacked up king?
He makes Clinton look good. Dead knee? That boy got problems. And then he builds temples on
the other side. Dozens and dozens of temples
over against Jerusalem where the true and the living God can
see it from the Ark of the Covenant. God allowed that to happen to
affirm what he had already told the people of God in Samuel,
that it's impossible for you to have both a kingship and a
priesthood coexisting in one person until Jesus shows up.
Are you hearing me? This is why when Jesus was born,
Israel was not a monarchy. I keep telling you that. It was
under subservitude to the Roman Empire. And this is why the rulers
said we have no king but Caesar. Remember that? They had totally
submitted to the pagan rulers of the world and thus they were
not ready for the revelation of Christ. Am I making some sense
to you guys? Are you guys hearing me? This
is why you need to know that the key to your scriptures is
a person and that person is Christ. And he already told you that
in John 5 39. You are searching the scriptures and in them you
think you have eternal life, but they are they which testify
of me. If you don't see Christ there,
you don't have the right interpretation. He's the one that's fixing all
of this messed up interpretation of the word of God. He's fixing
it all. And here's what the spirit of
prophecy says about both the kingship and the priesthood right
here. Are you ready? Listen to what he says in chapter 6 verses
9 through 13. He says. Chapter Chapter. There it is. Listen to this. Even he shall
build the temple of the Lord, who is he? Christ. What is the
temple? It's the church of the living
God. And even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he
shall bear the glory. Who shall bear the glory? Christ.
Who gets all the glory? Christ. Even he shall build the
temple of the Lord. Isn't that what he said? I will
build my what? And the gates of hell will not
prevail. And he shall bear the glory. That's why we know, we
know that gospel preaching always gives him the what? Glory. And
he shall sit and rule upon his what? That means he's a what? King. And he shall be a what? Upon his what? Ah, the priesthood
and the kingship on one throne in one person for one temple,
which God is building through Jesus Christ. Do you guys see
that? Let me read it again and we'll close right here. So very
clear. He shall build the temple of the Lord. He shall bear the
glory thereof. He shall sit and rule upon his
throne. He shall be a priest upon the
throne and the council of what? Jerusalem, foundation of peace,
shall be between them both. Why? Because there's one king
and there's one priest, and that priest is Christ. Melchizedek literally means king
of righteousness. Melchizedek is the term, Melchizedek
means king. I is a personal pronoun, which
means my king. And Zedek is the contracted word
for righteousness. He is a king of righteousness
and he is the king of a city called Jerusalem which is a foundation
of peace. You and I only have peace through
the righteousness which comes through the merits and blood
of this King Jesus Christ. And we're not talking political
peace. We're talking spiritual peace. We're talking peace between
God because of the merits of Christ. Are you guys following
me? And I may say this. as much as the Holy Ghost will
give you and our peace in our soul from time to time. Man,
a whole lot of time, I ain't got no peace in my soul. Can
I get one witness in the house? I'm not at peace a whole lot
of time. My kids get on my nerve, my wife get on my nerve, y'all
get on my nerve, the world get on my nerve. I'm not at peace.
And I know you're not at peace with me sometimes. Pastor gets
on my nerve. Listen, but I have a peace deep down in my soul. that's rooted in my hope of glory
that transcends the unstable troubledness of my mind and that's
called the peace of God that passes understanding which keeps
our minds and soul and am I making some sense all right good we'll
have the offering at this time in closing prayer