Hebrews chapter 7 this morning. We'll pick up in verse 4, where
we left off last week. We'll read verses 4-10. Now consider how great this man
was, talking about Melchizedek, unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that
are of the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood,
have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the
law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins
of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted
from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that
had the promises. And without all contradiction,
the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive
tithes, but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed
that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also,
who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him." So we'll
pick up there and then we'll go as far as we can here this
morning. Verse 4 says, Now consider how great this man was. And that's
the title of this lesson, Consider How Great. Consider How Great. This man was so great that even
the patriarch Abraham submitted to him. Here we have two of the
greatest, if not the two greatest men mentioned in all of Scripture
outside of our Lord Jesus Christ. Abraham, of whom all true sons
of God are children. He is the father of the believer,
the spiritual Israel. And he is even the one from whom
Christ our Lord was born according to the flesh. Genesis 17 verse
5, God said to Abraham, A father of many nations have I made thee. Because from Abraham would come
a people God's elect, they would be scattered into every nation.
And so Abraham is a father of many nations, of people out of
every nation that God has determined to save. Abraham is called the
friend of God. Now this is the patriarch Abraham,
a great man, one of the first men counted in Scripture as a
believer, one that trusted God based on promise. And then we
have Melchizedek here. And he's the King of Righteousness
and the King of Peace that we saw last time. The best of all
the types of our Lord Jesus Christ in Scripture, period. He's the
best type we have of Christ, period. And the way we know that
is because seven times in Scripture, six of them right here in the
book of Hebrews, he's called a priest forever Christ is called
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, a priest that
is forever a priest. So here we have two of the greatest
men mentioned, Abraham and Melchizedek. But even the patriarch Abraham
bowed to this man, Melchizedek. Without all contradiction, Verse
7 says, the less Abraham is blessed of the better. And Melchizedek
here, as we said last time, he's a type of Christ. Verse 8, let
me give you a word on this. It says, here men that die receive
tithes. Aaron, Levi, all the earthly
priests, they receive tithes of the Israelites. But there,
then, during this time, he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed
that he liveth. Melchizedek. There's a picture
of Christ who receives, who lives forever. And as I may say so,
Levi also who received tithes from the people, he paid tithes
to Abraham for he was yet in the loins of his father when
Melchizedek met him. So what it's saying here is the
entire priesthood paid tithes to this king priest, Melchizedek,
in the person of Abraham. because they were in his lawns
when Abraham paid tithe. So even the priesthood and Abraham
submitted to this king. That is showing how great this
man was. And when we talk about how great
this man was, we are talking about how great our king-priest
Christ Jesus the Lord is, because that is who Melchizedek pictures. That is what we are talking about.
So here is the first lesson. If even the patriarch Abraham
the Father of all who believe, the Father of the priests, the
Friend of God, the One from whose loins Christ was born according
to the flesh. Now, if even the patriarch Abraham
submitted himself to Christ Jesus, the King of righteousness and
peace, the priest who abideth forever, if he bowed to Him,
who are you and I to resist the King of kings and Lord of lords? Now, that is a serious question.
The Jews said to the Lord, they said, you're 50 years old. How
have you seen Abraham? You're not even 50 years old.
How have you said you've seen Abraham? And he said, before
Abraham was, I am. So we see how great this man
is. Now secondly, this man was so
great that Abraham paid tithes to him. Abraham paid tithes to
him. What does that mean? Came back from this battle Abraham
gave a portion to Melchizedek out of the spoils of the enemy
which he had just conquered He took he took that which he had
just conquered. Let me put it into today in today's
terms Let's say a king had taken somebody one of your relatives
and you went out with a band of men to war against them and
you conquered them. And let's say they had a fleet
of Rolls Royces and a fleet of Mercedes Benz and they had multitudes
of cattle and large mansions and lands and all these things
and you conquered them and those things are yours to have. You
can have them. Abraham took a tenth of all of
that and he gave it to Melchizedek and said you can have And the
rest of it, the king of Sodom, look over Genesis 14, 16. The
king of Sodom came. He came out along with Melchizedek
to meet Abraham after this battle. And it says, Genesis 14, 16,
Abraham brought back all the good and also brought again his brother
Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the
king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the
slaughter of Kedar Lama, and the kings that were with him
at the valley of Sheba, which is the king's dale. And it says
down here in verse 21, And the king of Sodom said unto Abram,
Give me the person Take the goods to thyself take all the good
you could have them all and Abram said to the king of Sodom I have
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 it and that I will not take anything that is thine
Lest thou should say I have made Abram rich save only that which
the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which
went with me, Aenar, Eschel, Mamre, let them take their portion."
So Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek, and the remainder of it he told
the king of Sodom, take it. I don't want it. You can have
it. Now, think about that now. We put it in today's terms. You've
got a fleet of luxury cars. You've got a You've got goods,
treasure, jewelry, fine gold, fine silver. You've got all these
things, these goods that you've conquered and you can have them.
The king has come out. It's the king that these goods
were stolen from. He's come out and he said, you
can have them. Take them. They're yours. We'd probably take them, wouldn't
we? We'd probably say, well, you know, that's a nice car.
I believe I could look good driving that thing. I'll take it. But
Abraham gave, first of all, a tenth to Melchizedek, and he gave the
rest back to the king of Sodom and said, take it. The importance
of this is Abraham showed that the conquering of all his enemies
was by the king of righteousness and peace, by the everlasting
high priest, and not by his own hand. That's what he showed by
giving a tenth to Melchizedek. And Abraham also showed that
he did not depend upon that which was taken by his own sword from
his enemies to sustain his livelihood. His life was Christ Jesus the
Lord. The Lord confirmed Abraham's
faith there in Genesis 15. After he had given all that back,
and he said, I don't want it. You can have it. Then the Lord
says, after these things, The Word of the Lord came unto Abraham
in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram. Fear not. I am thy shield. I am your protector. I am your
defender. And I am your exceeding great
reward. That is what it is. That is why Abraham could give
those things back and say, I don't want them. Because he had a reward
better than those things. That is the second lesson. First
of all, all the believer's enemies are conquered by Christ the King
Priest. Satan. Golgotha is called the
place of the skull for it is there that our king priest crushed
the head of the old serpent. The law of sin and death says
the soul that sinneth shall surely die and we were all under the
law of sin and the law of death. When He was made sin, who knew
no sin, and died in the flesh, every elect child of God died
in Him. The law of sin and the law of
death was conquered, and all the demands of God's law toward
the guilty were answered on our behalf when Christ died. He conquered
our enemies. Our spiritually dead nature was
an enemy to us, our own self. But when God sent forth the Holy
Spirit of Christ into our hearts, Christ our righteousness entered
into these sinful dead bodies. And the result is we were regenerated
in spirit, quickened in spirit, made alive in spirit, recreated
after the image of Him that created us, a spirit created in the righteousness
and true holiness of Christ our King. And believer, you now are
alive for all eternity. That's an enemy that's been conquered. been conquered and the grave. The sting of death is sin. Yet when Christ put away sin,
He pulled the stinger out. There is no way any venom can
be injected into you anymore to make you die, to make you
swell up like a stinger, like you have been stung and die.
It can't be done. The stinger is gone. Sin is gone. Therefore, death is gone. Therefore,
the grave has no claim on you. Therefore, when Christ returns,
the body is going to be raised glorious. He conquered all our
enemies. And that's what Abraham showed
when he gave Melchizedek the tenth of the spoils from the
enemy. Abraham said this, I didn't conquer this army on my own. It wasn't me that conquered this
army. It was my Lord that conquered this army on my behalf. Did he
fight? Yes, he fought. Did he go out
and wage war? Yes, he went out and waged war.
But he confessed, he gave me the victory. He gave me the victory. And the third lesson we see here
is by denying the King of Sodom, Abraham showed the Lord was preeminent. Believers show men of this world
that Christ is preeminent. You know how we do it? in business,
in sports, toward our extended families, in our own families,
amongst our friends. We show Christ is preeminent,
that our life is dependent upon Him, not them, not this world. We are dependent upon Him, that
He comes first in everything. We show them that And I'll tell
you one of the best ways we do it, and I'll tell you something
we didn't do this week, and it hit me when I was reading this. We could have shown our families
that by meeting here Thanksgiving Day. You say, well, we worked hard,
we prepared meals, and we did all that, and you know, and I
had all our families here, we went somewhere and saw our families,
whatever. If it wasn't too much for Christ to come and leave
His Father and lay down His life for us, it's not too much for
us to say, you know what, family? I'm not coming down there to
have Thanksgiving with you. I'm going to worship the Lord.
Now, you're more than welcome to come to my house. We'd love
to have you come here, and we'd love to have you come and hear
about Christ with us. And you know what you show them?
Christ is preeminent. Is that too hard? That'd be tough,
wouldn't it? How hard was it? What our Lord
endured, what our Lord suffered. We talk about making our bodies
a living sacrifice unto God, but not when it comes to things
like that, right? No, even when it comes to things
like that. That's just a simple example.
But that's showing Christ is preeminent. You know, what would
you feel like if you go through life and, you
know, every little thing, we call them obligations. We got
obligations. And the more we get in business
and the more money we start making and the more bills we have and
the more we become a slave to this world. That's what we do.
Unbeknownst, unaware to ourselves, we have become a slave to this
world. And we start saying, well, I've got an obligation. I've
got to be here. If I don't, this political move
won't happen and this man won't do this thing and that and it
won't be beneficial for business and what have you and all that.
What if we went through life and did that? Provided everything
for our families. Raised our kids up. They saw
us working, doing those things and, you know, we worshiped when
we could, and when we had these obligations, we went to those
and did those. What if in the end, our children
said this to us, you know, Dad, you showed me something. I learned
something from you. I learned that it's best to go
out and to work hard, and when you have time left over, go worship
Christ. You taught me that, Dad, by your
actions. I'm thankful that you taught me that. I wouldn't be
proud if my son told me that one day. Dad, you taught me that
the most important thing is to go out and provide for my family,
and whenever I have time, worship the Lord. But I would love to
hear him say, Dad, you taught me that seeking Christ first,
showing that He is preeminent, has taught me that I can put
everything else aside and follow Him. and trust Him to provide
for me, and trust Him to be my all-sufficient Savior. Well, thirdly, this man Melchizedek
was so great that no carnal law was necessary to create a union
between him and Abraham. Melchizedek is a type of Christ
And he was under no legal obligation whatsoever to bless Abraham and
to bless God on Abraham's behalf. And likewise, Abraham was under
no legal obligation to pay tithes to Melchizedek. There was no
God-given law existing which required this respective devotion
between the king-priest and the servant Abraham. Look at Hebrews
7.5. They that are the sons of Levi,
who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment
to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is,
of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham.
But he whose descent is not counted from them, this Melchizedek,
did not come out of their loins, and neither did Abraham. He received
tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. That
was before that commandment, that carnal law ever existed. You know what that is? That's
the perfect law of liberty, is what it is. Let me give you this. I just wrote this down and I
don't know, but I think I've been trying my best to figure
out how can I show you the perfect law of liberty, what it is. And I think we're getting real
close right here in this chapter. The perfect law of liberty is
a spiritual union between Christ and the believer, wherein a mutual,
voluntary devotion reigns, which is born out of free grace and
love from God. and in no way depends upon any
carnal legal constraints whatsoever. None. Here we have the king priest,
Christ Jesus the Lord, and Abraham, a believer, no law existing saying
that it was necessary for this king priest to bless him. Christ
our Lord entered into a covenant to save His people, not by a
constraint of law. He did it willingly, voluntarily,
because He loved His Father and He loved those that His Father
gave Him, the children. He did it out of love, holy love. And likewise, Sinners don't surrender
to Christ because they're constrained by carnal law, but because they're
born by the power of Christ's endless life. It's a union. It's a union that is the spirit, the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. I was thinking last night, I
was laying in bed and I was thinking about listening sometime and
just going through them and looking at the laws, what's called laws. You have the law of sin and death,
and on the other side you have the law of the spirit of life
in Christ Jesus. Romans, the ends of Romans 3
says we're justified by what law? The law of works or the
law of faith. We have the law that keeps us
in bondage. We have the law of perfect liberty. And Christ is really the essence
and the substance and the sum of the Spirit of life. It's in
Him. He's the perfect law of liberty.
He's the mirror we look into and we're changed into the same
image from glory to glory. He's that perfect law of liberty,
the perfection of freedom. And He sets you free, you're
free indeed. If His Spirit be in you, the
Spirit of the Lord be in you, There's freedom. There's liberty.
There's freedom. And this is the perfect law of
the spirit of life in Christ. Not the carnal law of sin and
death which men preach daily, which never did make anybody
do anything. I'll tell you what it did. I'll
tell you what it does. It makes the outside of the cup
look really clean, but the inside of it is nasty. It makes the
outside of the sepulcher white as snow. but the inside is full
of dead men's bones. Carnal religion tries to work
from the outside in. God works from the inside out.
It's a difference. And that's how Christ loved His
people freely, and His people loved Him freely. Not by law,
freely, willingly. Do we see that here in Melchizedek?
There was no law that said Abraham had to give him a tenth of the
spoils. There was no law that said that Melchizedek had to
come out and bless him. They did both of them voluntarily,
freely, with liberty, out of love, out of gratitude. There
is the union that I am talking about. And this union is revealed
to us where? Where is it revealed to us? It
is revealed to us in Christ. We see it in Christ, this fruit
of love. We see it when God shows us His
glory, how He saves us freely by grace, and we behold all this
great love in the face of Christ Jesus the Lord. That is in His
person and in His work. Exodus 33, 19. You don't have
to turn there. Don't, don't. I want you to stay
with me here because we've got to move through just a little
bit more here. But you remember when Moses said, I want to see
your glory. And the Lord said, I'll make
all my goodness pass before you. All the Lord's goodness. He said,
I'm going to make it all pass before you. And I'm going to
proclaim my name before you. Where was Moses? Where did God put Moses to show
and make all his goodness pass before him? He put him in the
cleft of the rock. There's the Rock of Ages. That's
the Rock. Christ Jesus the Lord. There's
where we see all God's goodness pass before us. There's where
we hear His name proclaimed. It's in Christ. Paul said, God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in
our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. When we see Him, The righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Even the righteousness of God, where is it witnessed?
By the faith of Christ Jesus, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God set forth. He set Him forth. God didn't create this world
and set forth His Son to be the propitiation to reform you and
make you a moral people living in this world. He did it to show
you Him who is holy so that you will put your face in the dust
and worship Him and serve Him until the day that you've made
it in the likeness of His image. brought in to conform to His
image. And if you ever see Him, and if you ever see Him whom
God set forth, if God set Him forth, and God sent me here to
set Him forth, guess who I'm going to set forth? I'm not going to preach what
you need to be doing. I'm going to preach to you what
He's already done. And you know what that's going
to result in? That's going to result in you bowing to Him and
seeking to walk honorably before Him. You'll be a better husband. You'll be a better father. You'll
be a better child, son, daughter. You'll be a better employee,
an employer. You'll be a better citizen. All because you see and know
Him. Be a better husband, better wife, And he did it to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, that he might be just and justifier
of him that believes in Jesus. Look over Galatians 3.11. Galatians
3.11. What I'm trying to show you and
what we're going to see here as we go through chapter 7, Paul is showing how that the
old covenant Before the old covenant ever existed. He's showing that
Christ Was already the king priest just in the person of Melchizedek
That's what he's showing us and he's showing us that that old
covenant was given to show us the excellencies of Christ But
he's showing us here how that Christ is so much more excellent
that Aaron and and the Levitical priests They're not even a good
type of Christ Not as good as Melchizedek is And he's showing
here now that all of that is done away with. It's done away
with. It never was given for life.
It never was given to give a man salvation. It was given to point
us to Christ. That was it. That's all it was
given for. To put us in the dust and to
point us to Christ and to show us we have to have a substitute. We have to have a Christ. We have to have a Redeemer. We
have to have a mediator, an advocate, Innocence we cannot approach
God ourselves. We have to come in Christ the
way You want an application there's your application When people
talk about give me an application what they mean is and I know
You've been in this mess for so long of hearing people give
you these practical Legalistic applications so you can go out
and be better citizens in the world Practical applications
for a true believer are spiritual applications. They're spiritual
applications because that's how we worship God. We worship Him
in spirit and in truth. Practical applications are something
you can find on Oprah, or on Dr. Phil, or on any of these
people that are teaching you how to be better husbands and
wives and things like that. I'm telling you about salvation.
But that will make you a better husband and a better wife. It
sure will. If you see Him who is the Husband
and what He did. Let me move on here. Galatians 3.11 Here's God showing
us this glory. Here's Him showing us this liberty
that we have in Christ. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith. And the law is not of faith.
But, here's what the law says, the man that doeth them shall
live in them. We don't live in the law. We
live in Christ, by faith. Here's the beauty. Here's the
glory. Here's what causes a man to fall in love and to see this
glory and this beauty I'm talking about. Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. And he did it that the blessing
of Abraham, the blessing that we're talking about here that
Abraham received, might come on the Gentiles through Jesus
Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. What is the promise of the Spirit? What is the promise of the Spirit? It's eternal life and life is
Christ. He's our life. God promised the
Spirit and He gave the Spirit. But the Spirit came and witnessed
of whom? He said, when He comes, He'll
speak of me. He won't speak of Himself. He'll
speak of me, Christ said. He's the promise. Believers honor Christ in a daily
walk because He loved us. We see these things He did for
us. Did you catch when you read there
in Genesis 14, verse 8, that Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought
forth the bread and the wine? He was the priest of the Most
High God, and He blessed Abraham. He said, Blessed be Abraham of
the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. Blessed
be the Most High God which hath delivered thine enemies into
thy hand. He blessed Abraham first. Then what happened? Then Abraham freely gave to the
king priest tithes of everything. Abraham didn't give him the tithes
first and then the priest blessed him. The priest came to him with
the bread and the wine and blessed him. And then Abraham gave him
tithes of all. There's a difference. Did you
come to Christ or did Christ come to you? Did you love Christ or did Christ
love you? I remember hearing I think it
was Brother Henry and Brother Scott Richardson, maybe Maurice
Montgomery, was talking one day. They were watching a TV or driving
down the road listening to the radio or whatever, and they heard
Billy Graham's wife. And she said, I've always loved
the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of these old fellas said,
that's just a little bit too long. A little bit too long. He loved us. Herein is love, not that we loved
Him, but that He loved us. God sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Now if He loved us, that's how
we ought to love one another, freely. But when He comes and
He blesses and you see it, you see Him, you'll quit talking
about yourself. You'll quit talking about what
you've done. You'll quit talking about your faith. You'll quit
talking about how you made Him Lord of your life. And you'll
start saying, He is Lord. Whether before I ever acknowledged
it or whether I never acknowledged it, He's Lord. And He is life. I didn't have a life before He
came. I was dead and trespassing in sins. And He is my life. He's my everything. You see how
great this man was that met Abraham? Paul said, We commend not ourselves
again unto you, but give you occasion of glory on our behalf,
that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance,
and not in heart. Turn over there and look at that
one. 2 Corinthians 5.12. There's a difference. For we
commend not ourselves again unto you, but we give you occasion
to glory on our behalf, that you may have something with to
answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. For whether we be beside ourselves,
it is to God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause."
Do you see that? Whatever we're doing, we're doing
it for the Lord's people, for the glory of Christ. That's what
Paul's saying. He said, you take that to these
people that glory in appearance and tell them that. Everything
we do, we're doing it to exalt Christ, to preach Christ in Him
crucified on behalf of Christ's people because that's how God's
going to save His people. Do you think the people in the
community in Jericho, do you think they ever at any point
looked at Rahab and said, Boy, now she's come a long way. She's
come a long way. No, she was a harlot! She was
a whore! That's what she was. That's what she always was. But she was a child of God, redeemed
and holy in Christ. And he says this, here's why
we do what we do. Verse 14, For the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge, we discern, that if one
died for all, then we were all dead. And that he died for all,
that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto him which died for them and rose again. You know what
people do that glory in appearance? They live unto themselves. They
want you to see them. They want you to see what they've
done. They want you to see how far they've come. It's all me,
me, me. Look at what I've done. We give
awards now on award shows to people who have built homes for
the poor. We give awards to people that
have done the most benevolent deeds for people. Christ said
when you do something for somebody, don't sound a trumpet. Just do
it. That's doing it unto Him. This
award giving awards for benevolent deeds is doing it unto themselves.
Glory and an appearance. It will sell more records. Or
even MacIntyre sold a bunch more records because she is a member
of Habitat for Humanity and made sure everybody in the world knows
about it. She's a nice lady. She's a kind lady. But that's glory in appearance. Here's the application. Consider
how great Jesus, our great King Priest is. Even the patriarch
Abraham was under his rule. along with the whole priesthood,
as are all the true children of Abraham and this entire ungodly
world. He's Lord. He's King. And secondly, He conquered all
the enemies of His elect, and He is our life continually. You want to show me how far you've
come, rich young ruler? Go sell everything you own. Go
to Mar and sell everything you've got. Sell it all. Follow me. You know why he went away sad?
He realized he hadn't come as far as he thought he had. He
realized he hadn't kept all the commandments from his youth up.
Because there was one he couldn't deny, and that's himself. Christ saves us in spite of ourselves. He saves His people in spite
of them. He doesn't look at their good
or their bad. He just, free grace, saves them. And thirdly, He is
so altogether lovely that one look at Him causes the sinner
to do something a million carnal commandments could never do,
and that is to trust our eternal souls into the King's hands and
rest beneath our shield to wait for Him who is our exceeding
great reward. There ain't a commandment given
that could do that. Not a carnal commandment. And without all contradiction,
the less is blessed of the better. Here's your main application. Take this. If you don't take
anything else home with you, take this home with you. Hebrews
8.1. Hebrews 8.1. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the psalm. Here's the point. We have such
an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the holy place
and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched in an odd man. That's a great man. That's the
king priest. That's the God man. You want
to look at somebody, at a body, look at his body. He's seated
there in the majesty. Look at him. All right. We'll be dismissed and come back
here in about five minutes.