Hebrews chapter 7 this morning. The title of our lesson is Melchizedek
the King-Priest. Do you know the importance of
a high priest? We talk about a high priest.
We talk about a king. Do you know the importance of
a high priest? The office of high priest was
ordained by God. And the significance of a high
priest for a sinner is everything. He is everything. The high priest
presents the offering of righteousness, which is the sinner's righteousness
before God. And the high priest makes peace
between God and His people. Between God and the sinner. The
Son of God, the seed of Abraham, God-Man, is our King and our
High Priest. He is the sovereign ruler of
heaven and earth. He is our righteousness and our
peace with God. Throughout this book that we
have been studying here in Hebrews, we are constantly told The Lord
Jesus, Hebrews 2.17, is a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God. Hebrews 3.1, we're taught to
consider the apostle and high priest of our profession. Hebrews
4.14, the Spirit points us to our great high priest saying,
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God. He's tempted in all points like
us. He's a man, flesh and bone. And we're commanded to come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. We find that in our high priest.
Yet the most difficult thing for sinners to do is to cast
all our care, all our hope, all our dependence upon another,
to put it in the hands of somebody else. We just don't want to do
that by nature. We see that exemplified in what
we just went over in Hebrews chapter 6. Most folks, when our
Lord walked this earth, did not trust Him. They didn't put all
their care into His hand. They trusted Moses' law, and
they trusted the priests that they could see, that they knew
were of the natural descent of Aaron, rather than trusting Christ,
the high priest. Yet God declares to all that
the law given by Moses along with the priesthood of Aaron
is not salvation for a sinner. The Spirit of God declared to
us in Hebrews chapter 5 that Christ is the reason why Aaron
and the Levitical priest, that office was ordained by God. He
was given by God to show forth a type and a picture of Christ,
our great High Priest, and He's the fulfillment of it, we're
told in Hebrews chapter 5. And then, in Hebrews 5.10, the
Lord makes this statement. He says that Jesus, Hebrews 5.10,
is called of God and High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.
That comes from Psalm 110. In Psalm 110, Verses 1-4, Thee,
Lord, said unto my Lord. This is David speaking, but David
is speaking of Christ. Thee, Lord, said unto my Lord,
Sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
God said this to his son, When he raised him from the dead,
after he had accomplished the salvation of his people, he said,
Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. That's
where he's seated, at God's right hand, Mount Zion. Rule thou in
the midst of thine enemies. And that's what he's doing. He's
the king, sovereign king. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth." He's
ever new. He has no beginning of days nor
ending of days. He's always youthful. And then
verse 4, The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. What does that
mean? Hebrews chapter 7 verse 1. For this Melchizedek, now look
down to the last phrase of verse 3, abideth a priest continually. He's a continual priest. The continual high priest is
our Lord, our King, and our priest. Scriptures don't tell us who
Melchizedek was. Many people speculate about it,
but it's only speculation. We don't speculate about Scripture. I don't even like my time being
wasted with speculation about Scripture. But we are given,
in this chapter and in other places in Scripture, we're given
completely the purpose why Melchizedek is in Scripture. And the purpose
was to show the great preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
High Priest, our King and our High Priest. Jesus was and is
for all eternity the King and High Priest of the Most High
God. It's not something He became, it's something He's always been.
Now I want to cover these three verses here if we can. Hebrews
7-1. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, 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 all." Now the first mention we
have of Melchizedek and what this is referring to is back
to Genesis chapter 14 verses 18 through 20. Let me read it
to you. Abraham had just defeated his
enemies who had taken his nephew Lot captive. And it says in verse
18, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. What other priest do we know
that brought forth bread and wine? Remember the Lord Jesus
on the night in which he was betrayed? He brought forth bread
and wine and said, this is my body and this is my blood. Right
here, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine,
and it says that he was the priest of the Most High God. And he
blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God,
possessor of heaven and earth. And he said, Blessed be the Most
High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand.
And Abraham gave Melchizedek tithes of all." from that Scripture and from
this Scripture in Hebrews 7, 1 and 2, what I just read to
you of it, we can gather some things. Look here with me. Melchizedek
was a man. We know that. There is no speculation
about that. He was a man. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is man. He is man. He is the Son of God,
the Son of David. He is the Son of God and He is
Abraham's seed. He came from Abraham's loins.
Melchizedek was king and priest. He was king and priest of the
Most High God, our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is both
king and priest. Peter declared that on the day
of Pentecost. Remember, he stood up and he
said, This Jesus, whom you've taken and crucified, God hath
raised and made him both Lord, he's the sovereign King of glory,
and Christ, he's the Messiah, He is the King and the Priest. He is the King-Priest. Melchizedek stood in the midst
between Abraham and the Most High God, and he blessed Abraham
and he blessed God, standing in between the two, in the midst
of a world of idolatry and immorality. That is where Abram lived at
that time, when all around people worshipped the God of their imagination. in this wicked place where there
were sodomites and Amorites who ruled everything. God sends forth
a man named Melchizedek who is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ
and he blesses Abraham and the Most High God. He stands between
the two and blesses them, brings them together in Him, in Himself. If you and I are going to be
blessed of God, And don't make any mistake about it, we live
in a land just exactly like the one Abram lived in. It's just
as wicked and just as idolatrous. Do you think we have progressed
since Abram's day? I'll tell you what we've done.
We've taken the sins of our fathers, learned them, learned how to
commit them, and learned how to twist them into looking like
they're righteousnesses. That's the best we've done. We
hadn't gotten any better. I think I've said this to you
before. I went to college, majored in English, and I loved writing.
I loved to read William Shakespeare. You can look at our authors today
and tell that we're not progressing. We don't have any more William
Shakespeare's. If we're blessed, it's going
to be because God blessed us by putting us in our Melchizedek
before time began. And God sent Him forth, and He
now comes to bless us and our God for us. That's how we're
going to be blessed. When He came to this earth, Scripture
says, the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and
to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is
sprung up. That's what needs to happen today.
He's going to have to come. This great Melchizedek, sovereign
king, priest have to come and bring the bread and the wine
and bless us and bless our God. That's what Christ does for his
people. Now we know this, Abraham gave
a tenth to Melchizedek. He gave of the tithes. When he
conquered these kings, he got spoiled. He got some things from
them. And he gave Melchizedek a tenth
of everything. We've got a couple of pictures
here. Abraham's called the father of the faithful, isn't he? We
get a picture first of God the Father giving a people to our
king priest. Abraham's the father of the faithful.
God the Father holds that title before Abraham does. He's the
father of the faithful. Abraham gave a tenth to Melchizedek. God the Father gave an elect
people to Christ, our Melchizedek, before the world began. He gave
them to him. And then we see an example of
the believer's faith. If God's pleased to send forth
His high priest to bless anybody here today, our response is going
to be that of Abraham. It's going to be the same as
Abraham. Between Abraham and his God stood
the priest of the Most High God. Between Abraham and God, there
stood Melchizedek, this great high priest. And like Abraham's
offering, Abraham gave a tenth of everything he had to Melchizedek. What did he show by doing that?
By faith, believers submit to God. They bow to Him. That's what Abraham showed this
king, Melchizedek. He submitted to Him. He showed
that it was God who gave Him this victory. That's what we
do when we bow to Christ and we trust Christ. We show it's
God who's given us the victory in this King-Priest. And believers
don't just give a tenth, but they give everything. We cast
all our care on Him. By faith we trust Him completely. Totally, because he is the King
and High Priest of the Most High God. So every believer is accepted
of God in Christ Jesus, our great Melchizedek. Now, verse 1 says,
This Melchizedek, King of Salem. Verse 2 says, First being by
interpretation King of Righteousness, and after that also King of Salem,
which is King of Peace. Now, Melchizedek, King of Salem,
Salem. What was that? Salem was another
name given to that city, Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a type of the heavenly
city where our King reigns and rules. This Melchizedek was king
of Salem. In Salem is a tabernacle and
his dwelling place in Zion, the psalmist said. Before God made
David a king in Jerusalem, before that ever happened, God's own
Son, Christ our King, was the king of Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem. Before God made Aaron a high
priest over Israel, God made Christ, our Melchizedek, His
great high priest over spiritual Israel, His people. There was
a covenant given by God which showed to the people that earthly
Jerusalem was in bondage. This covenant
is called the Old Covenant. It is called the Law. It was
given to show that Jerusalem is in bondage. And that the Law
of Sinai was given to reveal to you and I that Jerusalem below,
God's people below, are in bondage, except we be redeemed and brought
out of captivity by our King Priest. Before this covenant
was given, though, God had made a covenant in Heavenly Jerusalem
with His Heavenly King. with his high priest. And that
covenant said that his people were always looked upon in the
king and high priest, Christ our Lord. And this king and this
priest would rule, and he would be the one offering that would
be accepted of God. He would be the one that would
stand between God and his people and reconcile them to one another. He would be the one that would
do that. Galatians 4.26, Paul there is speaking to those Judaizers
who were trying to bring the law back in and works back in.
He said, Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother
of us all. That's where God sits. That's
where the king priest sits at God's right hand. That Jerusalem
is free. Jerusalem below where we dwell is in bondage. outside of Christ,
outside of the king priest. For Abraham, this is that city
he looked for, looked for a city which hath foundations, whose
builder and maker is God. This is that heavenly Jerusalem.
So when we read king of Salem, he is king of heaven and earth. He is king of heavenly Salem. He is king of heavenly Jerusalem.
He is king that is seated on Mount Zion. He is the king. And
Melchizedek means king of Salem. It first means king of righteousness
and also king of peace. Christ Jesus. Melchizedek was
called the king of Salem, which first meant righteousness and
peace. Where righteousness is, God's righteousness, there is
peace with God. The two go together. And Christ
is the author of it, He is the cause of it, and He is the giver
of righteousness to His people. Jeremiah 23, 6 says, In his days
Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And this
is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord, the King,
our Righteousness. That's who Christ is. That's
who this Melchizedek typified. That's who he pictured. The King,
our Righteousness. And because Christ is the Lord,
the King, our Righteousness, He's also our peace with God. Now remember I said the High
Priest is everything to a sinner. He is our righteousness and our
peace. His salvation is nigh them that fear Him. Do you fear
Him? Do you reverence Him? Do you
see God as He is? Do you see Christ as He is, the
King? If President Bush walked in this
room right now, I bet you everybody in here would straighten up,
sit up a little, pay a little a little more attention, wouldn't
they? We have in our midst, if He's
meeting with us today, we have in our midst the King of Righteousness,
the King of Peace, Christ Jesus the Lord. He makes every president,
every ruler, every prince, everybody on this earth a pauper. They're
nobody. He's the King. He's the King. The finished work of righteousness
that He worked out by Himself, by His making God's law honorable
and by laying down His life as the substitute for His people. That righteousness that He worked
out for His people, that righteousness results in peace between God
and His people. And His work is effectual. I
want you to look with me at Isaiah 32, 17. Isaiah 32, 17. It says, the work of righteousness
shall be peace. And the effect, you hear us say
that Christ's work was effectual. That means He did something and
it had an effect. it made something to be a reality. The effect of righteousness shall
be quietness and assurance forever. You know what happens when this
King of Righteousness, this King of Peace of whom Melchizedek
pictured, he's just a type of it. But this one whom Melchizedek
pictured, when he comes, if he comes today, and he comes to
one of you young people today, and he brings the bread and the
wine, And He reveals to you that His work at Calvary, when He
walked this earth, right where you walk, when He was faced with
every trial that you're faced with, everything that gets you
riled and upset and causes you to lash out in anger or tears
or whatever, He endured as a man just like you do. But He did
it without sin. He obeyed God's law perfectly. and when he laid down his life
he did it for a specific people who was given him before this
world ever began and when he laid down his life and died under
the penalty of God's law those people died to God's law God's
law says the soul that sinneth must die when he was made sin
By God Almighty, in the place of His people, His people were
made the righteousness of God in Him. The righteousness of
the Law is fulfilled in us, in Him. And when He comes and He
applies the bread and the wine to your hungry, thirsty soul,
then you're going to see, you're going to realize the effects
of it. And here's what the effects of it are going to be. you're not going to be railing
against Him anymore. You say, well, I never lashed
out against Christ. Have you ever believed on Him?
If you haven't, you're a raging tempest against Him. If you haven't
bowed to Him and trusted Him and laid all your hope on Him,
you might as well be going after Him with a baseball bat. But the effects of Him entering
in, of Him bringing the bread and the wine and making it effectually
in your heart will be quietness. I've sinned against God. But you'll hear Him say, Fear
not. Fear not. I'm your shield and
your exceeding great reward. And as you're cut by that Word
of the Gospel and slain by it, it's a two-edged sword. You'll
be healed by it at the same time. And quietness will take the place
of that raging tempest of wrath against God. And you'll say,
I see. I believe. I see Him now. He is King and He is Priest. It will be quietness and assurance
forever. You know what assurance is? And
that means there's no possibility, no reason of any doubt ever entering
your mind because of something that you do good or bad. Remember,
you're dead in Him, but you're risen in Him, and you're alive
in Him forevermore. Alive in Him, in the King. And as soon as He can be dethroned
and cast out of God's presence, The King of Righteousness and
the King of Peace, the day that He can be dethroned and cast
out of God's presence is the day His people can be dethroned
and cast out of His presence. That will never happen. And that's
assurance. And that's what replaces the
heart of rebellion. Quietness and assurance. That's
who this Melchizedek pictured. That's why Romans 5 says this,
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is simply believing Christ
satisfied God on your behalf. Faith is believing that Christ
is your King, your righteousness, your peace, your everything before
God. That's what faith does. Faith
believes that. Trust that. Faith sits quietly
and assured that though waves and tempests and billows may
roll and this world may be all in an uproar and they may cut
down every tree there is and make posts aboard so they can
march against every cause they can march against, you can just
sit quietly with assurance. If you're not in that bondage,
you've been set free. And that bondage is not your
bondage. Your King is ruling, and your High Priest is seated
at God's right hand. Let's look here with me at one
more thing here. Hebrews 7, verse 3. It says, This Melchizedek was
without father, without mother, without descent. We don't know
where he came from. He just appeared out of nowhere
in Scripture. And he came and he blessed Abraham
and he blessed God. He didn't have a mother. We don't
read that he had a mother. We don't read that he had a father.
We don't read of any natural genealogy, a family tree. Nothing about him. Genealogy was essential for a
priest. He had to be a son of Aaron if
he was going to be a priest. One didn't. One wasn't. Christ Jesus the Lord wasn't
of the tribe of Aaron. He wasn't of the tribe of Levi.
What does that teach us? He didn't belong. It says that
He's without father, without mother, without descent. He's
God. He's God. Go home this afternoon
and read Colossians chapter 1. Read Colossians chapter 1. He's
the beginning. Everything that is made, everything
that you see, He made it, spoke it into existence. Go home and
read Hebrews chapter 1. He is before everything and upholds
everything by the word of His power. That is who this King
Priest is. And then here it says, verse
3, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. but made like unto the Son of
God, abideth the priest continually." Now this is talking about Melchizedek. I want you to notice something
here. The words, made like unto the Son of God. In man's estimation of time and
how you see things chronologically, we say, in time, in a sequence
of time, who came first? Melchizedek back in Genesis 14
or Christ? Who came first? Well, we see
it in time and we say, well, Melchizedek came first. Well,
Scripture says Melchizedek was made like unto the Son of God. You know what that tells us?
The Son of God came before Melchizedek came. He's before all. Now, look here. In estimation
of eternity, that's how God exists in eternity. We can't get our... All we can fathom is time. Because
we're creatures of time. But He's eternal. The Son of
God was before Melchizedek. And thus Melchizedek is made
like unto the Son of God. Everything that was done of Him...
Let me give you a simple illustration. You remember when the Lord walked
this earth and He said... He was going to the cross. And
He made this statement. He said, Accept a corn of wheat
a seed of wheat, like you're going to plant in your garden,
except it falls into the ground and dies. It's broken. Life won't
come forth. Fruit won't come forth from it.
Now, did he just look at that corn of wheat and go, that's
a good illustration that illustrates what I'm going to do. I'll use
that. No, he made the corn of wheat to bring forth life in
that manner That corn of wheat was made like unto the Son of
God to show you how that God brings forth life. Do you see what I'm saying? All
the types and shadows and figures that we have in the Old Covenant
were given so that we could have some kind of understanding of
who God is, of how Christ redeems. And everything that's written
People consider the Old Testament to come before and then Christ
came after because that just didn't work. Everything God gave
in the Old Testament, He gave as a covenant of works to show
us we couldn't do anything to please Him. And then He brought
in Christ to show us how we had been accepted in Him, His people
had been accepted in Him before He ever even gave that covenant
of works. That whole covenant of works was given and it was
made likened to the Son of God to show you His righteousness
and the peace that He is for His people. So, it says here,
Melchizedek had neither beginning of days nor end of life. Jesus,
our King Priest, is not a priest after natural genealogy, natural
ancestry, and He is not a priest under the limits of the Levitical
law. The priest entered at the age of 25 and they stopped at
the age of 50. Melchizedek wasn't that way.
He was a priest that didn't have an end of days. That's our high
priest. He was Melchizedek. Whoever he
is, whoever he was, I'm not even going to tell you. You all know
what men speculate on. I'm not even going to say it.
I don't even want to say it. Whoever he is, he was made the
way he was made to show us Christ. So let's concentrate on who he
was made like unto, and not on Melchizedek. This whole chapter
7 is going to show us that, how that everything about Melchizedek
was made, he was made that way to show us Christ, to show us
our King Priest. Alright, I'm going to end, and
I hope that's, I wanted to go through the whole chapter, but
I knew I couldn't do that, so we'll pick up there next time.