You'll take your Bibles now and
turn with me to Genesis chapter 14. Genesis chapter 14. Just hold your place there. I'm
going to talk to you for a few minutes before we read. The 14th chapter of Genesis is
an account of a war. where four kings rose up against
five kings. And it's hard to tell what this
war was about. I've read through here and it
said that General Omer, he was the big shot king of the whole
outfit. And he had control over these
other men, evidently for a long period of time had a least a
verbal agreement of friendship or alliance with these
other kings who now dwelt down in the plains. But they began
to rise up in economic prominence, and that well-watered plain began
to look pretty good. And for whatever reason, those
kings down in the plains would not subject to his authority
anymore. Or perhaps it was that the Big
Shot King decided he wanted the whole enchilada. I don't know. It doesn't really say what these
wars were over. But most likely it was over greed,
each one wanting more power, more authority, more riches,
more recognition. Men fight over things like this. They fight over it. They contend
over it. They begin when they're about
this big, fighting over toys, fighting over who's going to
sit in which seat. My kids, I used to buy them these
little candy called Skittles, and they're all different colors.
And they'd actually get them out and make sure that each one
had the right number of red and the right number of yellow. And
if they didn't match up, the war was on. So that's the way
it is. Men fight. We don't count these
things that our nation fights over as being trivial things,
but they are trivial in the light of eternity. They're trivial
things. But the first cause of this war is the redemptive purpose
of God. That's why wars, that's why God
allows these wars to come. That's why he allows this kingdom
to go down and this kingdom to come up. It has to do, he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And his will
is to glorify himself in this redemption of Christ. The first
cause of all these things, whatever it is, is this redemptive purpose
of God. I'm going to take my time tonight
and I want to nail down that statement I just made to you.
over in Ephesians chapter 1, he says this, we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him. Now, what purpose under the sun
would predestinate you to salvation except the purpose of God in
redemption? You see what I'm saying? We have
obtained an inheritance. And that's what he's talking
about here in these verses. He's talking about that in the
fullness of the dispensation. You see it there? In the dispensation
of the fullness of Christ. He might gather all things in
one unto himself, things which are in heaven and things which
are on earth, things under the earth. He's going to gather all
these things unto himself. And that one who is gathering
all them things unto himself, in him we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. In Proverbs
chapter 21, verse 1, this is an enlightening verse also. He
said, The king's heart, the king, which king? any king. The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water. He turneth it
whithersoever he will. Just like he guides that Mississippi
River this direction and takes another river and sends it that
way, that's the way he does with the heart of the kings. He's
sovereign. In his quest for power and gain,
old Cheddar Laomer He took Abram's nephew and all his goods. He
had done just fine. If he had went down and conquered
the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and conquered those other two
who allied up with him, or the other three, he would have been
just fine. But he messed with the wrong guy. And he took Abraham's
nephew with him, and took his inheritance with him. And Abraham
chose out 318 men, fit and trusted men, bond slaves born in his
own house. And he pursued his nephew's captors. And he then, in an unexpected
attack, slew the kings and their armies, put them down, slaughtered
them. That's what the Scripture calls
it. Slaughtered them and gathered up all they had stolen. and return
to his nephew's hut. And on his way back from the
slaughter of the kings, a very mysterious character walks into
the life of Abraham. His name is Melchizedek. Melchizedek. And that name means that the
literal meaning of that name is king-priest. That's what that
name means. Now, let's read a few verses
here. beginning in verse 17 of Genesis chapter 14. And the king
of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter
of Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him at the valley
of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And Melchizedek, king of
Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of
the Most High God. And he blessed him and said,
Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemies into thy hands. And he gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto
Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself." You
can have it all. Just give me the people that
they took, and you keep all the goods for thyself. I'm telling
you, every statement in here is important, so pay attention
to it. And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I lift up my hand
unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven
and earth. that I will not take from a thread
even to a shoelatch of that, I will not take anything that
is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abram rich."
Evidently, Abraham said this and took an oath before God before
ever he started out. That tells me a lot. It tells me that Abraham knew
that Lot was in a bad place and that this king was an evil king.
and that he'd been making intercession for old Lot down there all his
time. And he said, the only thing I'm
going to keep, verse 24, save only that which the young men
have eaten and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner
and Eshcol and Mamre, let them take their portion. Now, there's
three inspired writers. in the book of God, in the Bible,
three inspired writers of scripture who talk about this meeting of
Melchizedek, Moses here in Genesis chapter 14 that I've just read
to you, David in Psalm 110, he talks about Melchizedek, and
Paul in Hebrews 5, 6, and 7. Moses in Genesis chapter 14 records
this historical fact and the occasion of this meeting. He
writes it down. I just read it to you. These
are the historical facts of this meeting with Melchizedek. David
gives us a prophetic application of Melchizedek, and he gives
us the promise that he is going to appear again in Psalm 110. And then Paul in Hebrews chapters
5, 6 and 7 gives us an explanation and a declaration of David's
prophecy. and tells us who Melchizedek
is. We don't have to go about doubting
who he was. And there's endless, just endless
lessons all the way through these stories, everyday applications
here in Genesis chapter 14. But tonight I just want to limit
our thoughts to just three things. I want you to think about the
occasion of the meeting. That's what I want to talk to
you about. And then the reason. Why did Melchizedek come out
to meet Abraham? Why in the world would he come
out to meet him? And then I want to talk about the significance
of the one who met him, Melchizedek. So let's just consider, first
of all, what prompted this meeting. Now, it says here that Abraham
was returning from the slaughter of the kings, and in this account
of Abraham, battling with these evil kings, he stands as a type
of Christ. That is what I want you to see.
He stands as a double type, but he stands first of all a type
of Christ. And as Abraham had taken a lot
to his responsibility, and he took him under his arm and under
his care, And he loved him as a brother. And he calls him so
in the Scriptures. I just read it to you. And even
so, by the death of our father Adam, our persons and future
and our responsibilities were laid into the hands of Christ
just the same way they were here. You think about it. Laid into
his hands. Our father Adam died, didn't
he? He died. And with him died our inheritance.
With him died our lives. It all died out in him. But Abraham
stood in for him and stood there as a representative and as a
father to him. Fully trusted into the hands
of Christ. But our natures is what has carried
us off. It has carried us off. Just like
old Lot, he was there and these things were so and these things
were fixed. And they were probably done.
It doesn't really say how old Lot was, but in my mind I picture
him a small child when Abraham took... I just can't see Abraham
taking a nephew that was 35 years old and old enough to work and
by then having his own family and all these things and taking
him under his care. I believe he was a very young
boy there in Mesopotamia when his father died and he took him
under his care and raised him. That's the idea I get from the
Scriptures. But I see this boy, he's come
of age now, and he's got some material blessings, and he stands
there, and between the two of them, the land won't even bear
him. I mean, Abraham, he was a wealthy man, and evidently
so was Lot. And the land wouldn't bear him,
and they began to fuss and feud and carry on between the herdsmen. So Abraham told him, he said,
just choose what you want and I'll go the other way. It's not
a good thing for you and I to be fussing and fighting. Tell
me what you want, whatever it is, you can have it and I'll
go this way. Left or right, don't matter to me. You take what you
want. And old Lot, he chose that well-watered
plain down in Sodom. And that's what I see. I see
us carried away by our own lust and our own greed from the time
we're born. We come forth from the womb speaking
lies. And as soon as we get up and
our father watches over us and cares for us and feeds us and
clothes us and keeps us. I think back on my life and just
shiver. I should have been dead a hundred
times. A hundred times. Why did that call? Just seconds. Just seconds. I told my dad one
night, I got braced. I was in the back seat the last
time I ever let him drive. He was getting old and he wanted
to just look off. For minutes he'd be looking off. He'd be all over the place. But
there was a parked car there and I just knew we were going
to hit that car. Boy, I got braced up for it. I always do believe
the Lord just let us pass through the car because I was braced
to hit it. But we didn't. We didn't. And
I could tell you this hundreds of times. I should have been
dead. And I had no sense of God. I
had no sense of my father watching over me. I didn't have any sense
at all. I was just a young rebel running
and running and getting into this and getting into that. But
the Lord watched me and cared for me just like old Abraham
did a lot. And then there come a time when old Lot He wasn't
satisfied there anymore. He wanted to be on his own. He
just liked the prodigal. I'll go down here. I'll take
my portion and go down to the well-watered plain. And so that's
where he went. And I see the sinner in a lot,
choosing that well-watered plain, preferring the pleasures of sin
for a season, living for a while what he thinks is the good life.
Yeah, he thinks it's a good life. And then he discovers that this
world has powers that he cannot resist. And they take him in
captive and he comes to that understanding. Comes to that
understanding. Those powers take what they want
and they do what they please. Like a flood, they just suddenly
spring up in your life and take you away. Just take you away.
You know, he thought he was making decisions and choices, and he
thought that's what life was all about. And he's just a pawn
in this thing. That's all he was, just a pawn.
There's evil powers in this world, and men sit right here in this
church. Men and women sit right here
in this church, and in their mind, bow up and, I'll make my
decisions. I have a right to do this. I
have a right to choose that. I know good from bad. I know
this from that. You don't know nothing. It's
the grace of God that keeps you out of hell. That's what it is.
It's His hand protecting, keeping, preserving. That's where Lot
was. I know what I want. I know best
for me. I'll go down here. And boy, all
of a sudden, reality comes into his life. He swept away. That king come in there, conquered
them cities. He didn't ever think Sodom and
Gomorrah could be conquered. They were huge cities. There
was five kings in an alliance down there. They had no idea
those four kings could come down there and take it away from them,
but they did. It didn't sound to me like reading
scriptures. They had a whole lot of trouble
doing it. A whole lot of trouble. They come down there. In God's
providence, they swept that place clean and took a whole lot with
them. This world has powers. God in
His grace allows believers to become aware of those powers,
that power of darkness, that power of Satan. He surrounds
this place. I would never come up in this
pulpit, at least I can say that by the grace of God, I won't
come up in this pulpit and not understand something of that
power of resistance that's all around us. That's why I don't
want to come up here in the power of the flesh or in the power
of my own wisdom and understanding and try to preach to you. These
powers are too great. I can't resist these powers by
myself. I can't undo what Satan has done.
I can't give you life. I come up here with one hope
that I can stand here in the power of God's Holy Spirit and
deliver you the truth of the gospel which is able to set you
free. And that's it. I mean, go a half
a mile down this way, there's a church. Go right up this way,
about two miles, there's a church. Go that-a-way, less than three
miles, there's a church. Go over here on 318, take off
toward Magnolia. You've run into two churches
before you even get down the street. They're everywhere, on
every corner, all of them preaching something different. All of them
standing for something else. And I tell you, that's just the
way it is. And they sweep down. And God's providence, He holds
this little place right here. He's preserved this little place
right here in Arkansas. It just amazes me. I look around
and I see a little place clear up there in Fairmont, West Virginia.
A little nothing up there in the mountains. But God put His
hand on it and for 50 years ain't nobody touched it. And He goes
here and He puts one. And nobody touches it. He goes
over here and He puts one. Nobody touches it. I tell you,
we're out here in this world, and we've become aware of these
powers, and it's just like a flood. All of a sudden, that iniquity,
it just picks you up and carries you, and you feel the power of
it, and you know something then about what it is to be lost.
You can't swim your way out of it, climb your way out of it.
You can't turn on lights. You're just in it. You're just
in it and aware of it. Oh, there is a captivity that
took place back in the garden, a possession of a man by sin
that reigns in his being like a leprosy within. It affects
all that he is and all that he does, and it strips him of all
his inheritance. Here is a boy who had everything
a man could want, and in a moment's time it was gone. It was gone. Strips him of all his inheritance.
Strips him of his standing. Scripture of all of His honor
and His station. And sin, whether we know it or
not, it takes us where it wants us to be. But by the grace of
God, sin will have you exactly where it wants you to be. It
reigns, is what the Scripture says, unto death. But how can
you say that? What do you base such a thing
on? What do you base an idea like that on? That all mankind
is under this tyranny and it controls their goings and doings
and sayings. It controls things that they
hear and thoughts that they have and the things that they say,
the things that come right out of their mouth. These things
that make sense to them are just so stupid when you look at them
in the light of grace. How can you make such a statement?
What do you base all those things on? Well, first of all, I base
it on the Word of God. First and foremost, that's where
I'm coming from. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. And so death passed upon all
men. Here's the evidence. They all
sinned. It's the Word of God. That's
where I'm coming from. And then secondly, I base this
on man's history. Has there ever been a generation
from the birth of Adam to this day without sin? Not one. Not one. And that's what he says.
Here's the evidence. All have sinned. Every one of
them. Every one of them. All have sinned, Paul said,
and come short of the glory of God. And only sinners sin. Christ did no sin because there
was no sin in Him. The devil came and he tempted
him for 40 days. He looked for something in him,
something he could stir up, something he could use. He is a master
at it. He found nothing. That is what
the Lord said. He came and found nothing in
me. There was nothing in him to find. Nothing in there but
goodness and grace and justice and mercy. The very evidence
of spiritual death and captivity and that captivity of sin is
that all have sinned. I hear about men, I was raised
in a church that believed in sinless perfection, and I've
heard about men all my life who profess to be without sin. But
is not that very profession contrary to the word of God, evidence
of the sin that's in them? If we say we have not sinned,
he said we're a liar. That's what he said, we're a
liar. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in it. And what
about this idea of big sinners and little sinners? Bad people
and good people. Some people way up here and some
people way down there. I want to ask you something.
Was Lot a little bit captive? Huh? Was he just a little bit captive
or was he altogether captive? If the king let him wear a band
on his wrist, took everything else but left the band on his
wrist, did that make him a little less
captive? Maybe he let him keep his garment
on. He might have had some patches on there declaring the station
that he had. Did that make him a little less
captive? Matthew chapter 15. In verse 18, the Lord said, These
things which come out of the mouth come forth from the heart,
and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murderers, adulterers, fornications, thefts, false witness,
and blasphemies. Now, let's say a man is restrained
of God by law, by his family, by his neighbors, and whatever
else God's pleased to restrain him with. And he's got a few
evil thoughts, and he shows a little bit of anger from time to time,
but he doesn't do these other things. He's not an adulterer.
He didn't murder anybody. Does that mean that murder ain't
in his heart? You see what I'm saying? But
he is what he is because God gave him that restraining hand
and kept him from being as evil as he could be. And when men
and women stand up and start talking about their righteousness,
what they're calling righteousness is the restraining hand of God.
It's not righteousness at all. If God turns you loose, you'll
be as evil as any devil in hell. Brethren, we're either taken
into bondage or there's no bondage at all, and we're free to go.
A lot wasn't free to go. That king took him where he wanted
him to be. He fastened him up in the place where he wanted
him to be. Whatever he had to eat is what that king gave him
to eat. Whatever he had to drink is what that king gave him to
drink. We are in bondage. Bondage. And in Luke 11, the Lord told
His disciples, He said, When a strong man armed keepeth his
palace, His goods are at peace. When a stronger than he shall
come upon him, and overcome him, and take from him all his armor
wherein he trusted, and divide his foes." That's the only way
he's going to get free. I see here the Lord Himself.
He wasn't interested in the cause of Sodom. He wasn't interested
in the cause of Gomorrah. He's interested in his elect.
He's interested in Lot. That's who he's interested in.
He had no intention of keeping any of the loot. He had no intention
of using anything except what it took to go get the job done
and get back. That's all he used. And when
we're as a church in this world, and we're up here and we're preaching
the gospel and going out into these places, we use means. We
use things. We use money. We use monetary
things. We use means. I use the Internet. I use what? But I don't use any
more than that. The rest of it is all spiritual,
and it is all of God. And that is what we are interested
in. The Lord himself, he wasn't interested in the cause of Sodom
and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah profited by
this because of Lot. And these nations, like our nation
right here, has profited for years and years and years. But
its profit is because God has an elect in this country. And
he is calling them out, and he protects them and preserves them.
But I tell you, the day is coming when they will be called out,
and this country will go down in the tubes just like all the
rest of them. God has no special interest in
this country, and he has an interest in his elect. I tell you this, I see in Abraham
also a type of the church. He is the father of the faithful.
and seeing God's elect held captive. I know they're held captive,
don't you? Sure you do. They're held captive. My interest
is not to reform this world. My interest is not in this world
whatsoever. My interest is in God and in
his glory and in his elect. You see what I'm saying? And
these were powerful forces, powerful forces. These four kings come
down and defeated those five kings in the plain with no problem
whatsoever. And these kings had armies. Abraham
took 318 men and whooped their butts. He did. And he took all
they had, got locked, and come back home. These forces were powerful forces. Abram and even his chosen army
could not defeat these powers alone, but he was blessed by
the king priest who told him this. He said, ìThe Most High
God hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.î Thatís why youíre
coming home. Thatís exactly why youíre coming
home victorious. And once the believerís eyes
are opened to see the truth of whatís going on and the glory
of God thatís being ignored, and defied by powers and ministers
of this world, he will without hesitation commit himself to
that cause. Abraham didn't hesitate. He went
and he got trusted men. He got chosen men, men that he
had confidence in. They were bond slaves. And he
took them and he said, Come with me. We've got a battle to fight. And he went and fought the battle. And Abraham himself, just as
God was not interested in Sodom, neither was Abraham. His interest
was in his brother and in the promises and glory of God. And
he went forth with the means that God provided for him. And
he overcome his captors and he brought Lot back to his home. And then on his way back, this
character steps into his life, this king priest called Melchizedek. And I want you to see here, this
is my second point, is the reason for the meeting. The reason for
the meeting. And in keeping with the text,
I don't want to go beyond my text, but the reason for the
meeting was to bless. Ain't that what he did? He blessed. And he blessed both man and God. He blessed Abraham and called
Abraham the possessor How does it say that then? He blessed
him and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor
of heaven and earth. What a title! He blessed him. And he blessed the
Most High God which had delivered his enemies into his hands. And
when the church has armed itself and organized itself and prepared
itself to do what has been left here to do, and that is to preach. Preach the gospel to the captives,
to set at liberty them that are bruised. That is what the Lord
defined preaching as. That is why He said, I came.
I came to preach. To preach, to free the captives,
to set at liberty them that are bruised. And He goes into this
world with a holy zeal to honor God and recover what is His by
promise and by blood. It belongs to Him. I've had folks tell me, well,
you're just trying to bust up churches. You're just trying
to disrupt this and disrupt that. I'm not trying to disrupt anything.
The only thing I lay claim on by the promise of God is what's
rightfully His, and His elect belongs to Him. And if you want pastors to arrest
them goats, you go ahead. That's all they are, goats. When His elect have been delivered
by His grace and delivered into the presence, they come right
into the presence of this King Priest. That's what deliverance
is about. When we're delivered, when the
church goes forth in the power of the gospel and the power of
God's Spirit and preaches, and a man is delivered, he's delivered
into the presence of Christ. He's called out of darkness into
that marvelous light. That's where he sees it. That's
the first thing he sees. And when he sees it, that's where
he won't stay. He won't go anywhere else. And this is what happened. Abraham went out. And in this
beautiful picture, he gets locked and he brings him back. And before
he ever gets back, he meets him in the way. He meets him in the
way, this king priest. And Abraham recognized him. He
knew who he was. And his appearance is to bless. God, this is where people get
turned around. God, as absolute God, rules. We can't even fathom His rule. His rule and reign is over the
atoms and over the minerals and over the weather and over creation
and over eternity. His rule and reign is more than
this mind can even conceive. God is absolute God. He rules
over all things, determines the end of all things, works with
all things after the counsel of his own will. Listen to this. This is in Isaiah chapter 45.
He said, The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil. You can't even conceive of a
sovereignty like that. He says, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. That's God. That's God. And the king priest appears to
God's elect not in a reaction so much to what they did, but
as the very reason and foundation for it. Here's the reason he
went and got it. Here's the reason he was taken
to start with. Here's the reason why he went
down to Sodom. All of those providential things were to lead him into
this presence of this King Priest. That's what it was all about.
And I know there's a thousand meetings in between where we
meant it for this and meant it for that, but God meant it for
good. And this is where you wind up. You wind up in the presence
of the King Priest. And I can see a thousand things
in my life that were dishonoring to God. I see things every day
that's dishonoring to God in my life. And I want them to change
and I want them to disappear. But the one thing I do see in
my past is God's hand leading me to Christ. And I wouldn't
change a thing. I wouldn't change a thing. And then that brings me to this
point, the significance of the one they met in the way. And
there's all kinds of speculation about who Melchizedek was. Most
of them think it was Shem, one of Noah's sons. In Psalm 110
in Hebrews 5, 6, and 7, he indicates pretty plainly to me that this
is Christ. I don't see any other way you
can make him to be anything else other than Christ. It says he
had neither father nor mother. That pretty much rules out Noah,
don't it? And I looked at that for a long time because Christ did have a mother. I looked at that for a long time
and suddenly it comes to me. He had neither father nor mother.
As God, Christ had no mother. As man, he had no father. He
had neither father nor mother. He had neither beginning of days
nor end of life. He had no descent, Paul said.
He didn't descend. As the great high priest of God,
he did not descend from Levi, and Paul argues that over in
Hebrews 5, 6 and 7. But he appeared in eternity at
the decree of God, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
And of this eternal priest, God said in Hebrews 5, 5, listen
to this, Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest. But he that said unto him, Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And in another place, Thou
art a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." Way back
yonder in eternity, that's a quote from the early Psalms, where
God said, this day have I begotten thee. Where he tells him, he
said, I've set my king on my holy hill. That's the king he's
talking about, that king priest. There was an eternal begatting
of this priest. That's what he's talking about
here. This day have I begotten thee. And in another place thou
art a priest forever. Forever. After the order of Melchizedek. He's a priest forever in his
business as the eternal priest of God and king over his kingdom
is to bless. He said, I came not to condemn
the world but to save it. The world's condemned already.
And how will you look at this king priest and not be blessed? On belief, that's the only way.
If you look at him, you have to be blessed. You have to be
blessed. Is it not a blessing to see your
humanity as his dress? He stands in our flesh, flesh
of our flesh and bone of our bone. Is that not a blessing?
He took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham.
The seed of Abraham. Hebrews 7.4. He said, Consider
how great this man was. One mediator between God and
men, the man, Christ Jesus. And is it not a blessing to consider
his appearances on this earth in the exact description as the
prophets foretold him coming? You think, you know, so many
things that those old Roman soldiers, now you might say one of these
Jews who had a good understanding of the Old Testament, maybe he
might have made some stuff up in your mind, in an evil mind,
you might conceive that. But you can't conceive of an
old Roman soldier who didn't know apple butter from buttermilk. How in the world is he going
to come up with this stuff? And yet what he said was exactly
what the prophet said he would say a thousand years before he
ever said it. You see what I'm saying? Where
he was born and where he went and all the providence that affected
his life. Over into Egypt, the king wanting
to kill all the children under a certain age and so on and so
on and so on. Too much providence, too many
things. All in a row it has to happen
for this not to be an exact prophecy of Scripture. Oh, he came and appeared to bless,
to bless God by his blessings on men, and to declare the glory
of God, the glory of his love and mercy and grace in his person
and work. And without him, we're just delivered
to be taken captive again. We're going to make these little
false professions and walk down aisles and things, and we're
just setting ourselves over here so that evil king can take us
again. He said, take us captive at his
will, I think, is exactly how the scripture puts it. By his
priesthood, he blesses men by representing them in things pertaining
to God. And by his office as king of
peace, he orders all things to make it certain. He blesses with
blood and wine. I'll tell you again why I say
that this was Jesus Christ and not an earthly priest, because
no earthly priest ever came before God to bless him without blood. This man didn't come with blood.
He came with bread and wine, that bread being his flesh and
that wine being his blood, and he came to bless. And the blessings
were with him. All the blessings of God were
with him. Now, let me show you one more thing over here in Genesis
14, verse 20. The very last line. It says,
And he gave him tithes of all. Now, you may not know or understand
that we're not under the law. We're not under Levitical tithing. I'm not under the law most. And there is no part of that
law carried over into the New Testament. You are free from
that law. Free from it. I don't say that
the law was not holy and just and good. I agree with Paul.
It was holy and just and good. And all those things are righteous.
But I tell you this, in your flesh you can't keep that law.
Christ kept that law. And he honored it to its highest
elevation. He took it as high as it can
go. And that is our righteousness. I'm not under that law. And there's
no part of that law carried over into the New Testament order
of grace. But this tithing spoken of here,
there wasn't a law yet, was there? Huh? There wasn't a law. There
wasn't a Levitical priesthood yet. This is Abraham. And Abraham,
without anything to go by, gave him a tithe. of all that he had. He had no laws as far as I've
been able to see in the scripture that said any percentage or amount
on men to give, yet the Father of the faithful gave a tithe
of all that he had. And I'm not trying to establish
anything here tonight about tithing. When a man comes to see the glory
of God in Christ, to see Him as the blessing and the blesser,
his heart will purpose to give. I believe that's what the Scripture
is setting apart. He'll purpose in his heart to
give. And it won't be a half-hearted
spur of the moment that reaches down for the little change purse
you used to see and squeeze it open to see if you can find two
or three quarters in there to throw in the pot. It's not going
to do that. Abraham, I'm telling you, Abraham
gave thought to what he gave. He gave thought. He gave much
thought to it. What a man gives is his business.
That's between you and God. And that's where I'm going to
leave it, between you and the Lord. But whether it be a penny
or a pound, give it out of love and gratitude to Christ. That's
what Abraham did. Abraham realized who won the
battle. He had 318 men. And he just went up against five
kings, or four kings who slaughtered five down here in the valley.
And he put them down and spoiled their goods and come back. And
he knew something about gratitude. And he knew something about love.
And he wanted to give. And he recognized the greatness
of this man Melchizedek. And Paul goes so far as to say
over there in the New Testament that we actually paid tithes
in him. Whether it be a penny or a pound,
give out a love and gratitude to Christ, not because you think
it's your duty. And like Abraham, I think we'll
find even our giving to be a blessing. He blessed him. He did. He blessed
him. He blessed him. He blessed him
by giving him a heart to give, a willingness to give, and a
readiness to give. And I tell you this, when Melchizedek
blesses us, He'll make us a blessing. And old Abraham said to the king
of Sodom, he said, I've lifted up my hand that I won't take
from you a thread or so much as a shoe latching. The Lord
said this about faith. He said, by grace are you saved
through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
work. Why wouldn't Abraham take that
money? He earned it. He fought the battle. That little
wiggly king down there in Sodom, he probably run and hid himself
in a cave. Abraham fought the battle. That
money is rightfully his. Why didn't he take it? He could
have took it all. Why didn't he take it? He didn't need it. He didn't
need it. didn't belong to him, and he
didn't want it. But more than anything, he didn't
want that king running around all over the country, saying,
I'll tell you why Abraham defeated them guys, because we paid him. We made him rich. He said, no,
that ain't going to happen. That ain't going to happen.