Let's turn back to Hebrews chapter
7. Who is Melchizedek? It could be you've never heard
a message on Melchizedek before, and I hope by the end of this
message you'll know who he is. But I was thinking if I interviewed
probably every preacher in Lexington, every pastor of a church, Central
Kentucky, and if I asked them, What is the significance of Melchizedek? They would say, well, he's in
the Bible, but what his significance is, I do not know. Well, he is
very significant, and I think this is mysterious, it's amazing. Melchizedek is mentioned in Genesis
chapter 14, one time. when he blesses Abraham when
he's returning from the slaughter of the kings. And Abraham pays
him tithes. Abraham knew who he was. He wouldn't
have paid him tithes if he didn't know who he was. And he's not mentioned again
for another 900 years. David in Psalm 110. And I like
to think of David, probably, reading Genesis 14. I guess it wasn't 14 then, but
it was a scroll. And he was reading about Melchizedek
and he was thinking about that. And the Lord revealed to him
the significance of this man, Melchizedek. And that is when
David said, I know with a thrilled heart in Psalm 110, thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He saw the superiority
of the priesthood of Melchizedek over the Levitical priesthood. And then Melchizedek is not mentioned
in any of the Gospels, in any of the writers of the New Testament. except right here in the book
of Hebrews by the unnamed author of the book of Hebrews. He speaks
of Melchizedek. And look what he says in verse
11 of Hebrews chapter seven. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood. Now this is what I have to be
in order to be accepted by God. I have to have perfection, absolute
perfection. It shall be perfect to be accepted. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, that's talking about the priests
established in the book of Exodus, beginning with Aaron, the sons
of Levi, who would offer up the sacrifices, the great high priests
and so on. If perfection were by the Levitical
priesthood for under it, the people received the law. What
further need was there that another priest should rise after the
order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of
Aaron? Now, actually this priesthood
came 500 years before the Aaronic priesthood. This has been around
since then. Now, turn with me to Genesis
14. We'll come back to Hebrews 7,
but let's read the account in Genesis 14. Now, I practiced
on Pronouncing the names of these kings in chapter 14, I read the
passage out loud and tried to get them down, and I messed them
all up, and I thought I might be going to try it. But there's
a bunch of kings mentioned. In the first three verses, there
were four kings who went to battle against five kings. Verse four says, 12 years, and
this is the main king, 12 years they served Chedulemer, and the
13th year they rebelled. Now this is kind of a microcosm
of human history. You have some kings putting people
under burdens, heavy tax burdens. They had more power than they
did. And they thought, well, I'm going to get everything I
can out of them. And these people dealt with this
for years and years and years, being overtaxed, being burdened
by these people who had more power than them, these kingdoms.
And all of a sudden, they rebelled. They said, hey, we're not going
to take this anymore. And there was a rebellion. And these five
kings went to battle against these four kings, and Chedorlohemar
won. Now look in verse 9. With Chedorlohemar, the king
of Elam, with Tidal, king of nations, and Amraphel, king of
Shinar, and Ariok, king of Elzar, four kings with five, and the
vale of Siddam was full of slime pits, and the kings of Sodom
and Gomorrah fled. and fell there with these four
kings chasing them. And the remain fled to the mountain,
and they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their
vittles, and went their way. They took everything they had." Now, here's when things start
going south for Chedda Larimer, who thought he was a great victor,
carrying away the spoils, and they took a lot. There's where
his problem begins. They took Lot, Abraham's brother's
son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed. Now, I think
it's interesting. He had no idea after he'd won
this big victory and that he was taking the spoils home with
him. And now he had Lot and all of Lot's family. He didn't know
he'd signed his own death warrant. Look in verse 13. And there came
one that had escaped and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt
in the plain of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother
of Aner. And these were confederate with Abram. These men joined
with him. And when Abram heard that his
brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born
in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. He was going to
go rescue Lot and Lot's family. and all the people of Sodom that
they've carried away with 318 people. Now, 318 trained servants,
and there's always a significance to any number in the scripture.
I don't claim to be an expert in any way on this, but I read
about it, and 300, 18, three, one, eight. The triune God in
one person. Three, one. Eight, from what
I've read, is the number of newness of life. Eight people were on
the ark. They started a new life, didn't
they? When were you circumcised? Which
represents the new life God gives you, the new birth. When were
you circumcised? On the eighth day. There are
many examples of how eight represents newness of life. And I guess
that's what this represents, Abraham coming in by the power
of God and delivering these people and there's newness of life.
Now let's go on reading. And he divided himself against
them He and his servants by night, and smote them, and pursued them
into Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. You know, this
is called the slaughter of the kings in the New Testament. He
annihilated everybody in delivering Lot. And he divided himself against
them, he and his servants by night, and smote them, and pursued
them into Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And
he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother
Lot and his goods, and the women also, and the people. He delivered
all these people. And the king of Sodom went out
to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer. Here it's called the slaughter.
I mean, he destroyed all of these people in delivering Lot. And
of the kings that were with him at the Valley of Sheba, which
is in the Kingsdale, he slaughtered all of them. And then this almost
seems out of place. And Melchizedek, here's his first
mention. And Melchizedek, king of Salem,
brought forth bread and wine. And he, notice was as in italics,
he, the priest of the most high God. Now, the writer to the Hebrews
tells us, you know, King of Salem, he says, first, he's King of
Righteousness. After that, he's King of Peace. First, Righteousness, the King
of Righteousness. Now, who is the King of Righteousness? What man could have that title?
Can you imagine somebody saying, there's Todd, King of Righteousness?
He wins, how offensive. How wrong? There's only one man
that title fits, the Lord Jesus Christ, king of righteousness. As far as that goes, there's
only one other man that was both a king and priest. He's the priest
of the most high God, and he's the king of righteousness and
the king of peace. Who's the only other man that was both
a king and a priest? the Lord Jesus Christ. Anytime
a king in the Old Testament tried to take the office of a priest
and start offering sacrifices, what did God do? He killed him.
There's only one who is king priest, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I love the way this, the
writer to the Hebrew says, he's first king of righteousness. After that, he's king of peace. Now, the only way I'm gonna have
peace, real peace, The peace of God is if I am perfectly righteous,
without any sin, seamless, perfect before God, and only when I have
perfect righteousness do I have peace. If there's anything left
out of that perfect righteousness, I don't have any peace. I think
somehow it's not gonna fare well for me. But oh, if I'm perfectly
righteous, having the righteousness of Jesus Christ as my personal
righteousness, I have peace. Peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, Melchizedek, King of Salem. Salem is the early name of Jerusalem
and it means peace. Brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the
Most High God. Now since when does a priest bring bread and
wine? What does a priest bring? A blood
sacrifice of an animal. This priest brings bread and
wine. And I have no doubt that this
priest is the Lord Jesus Christ and this prefigures the Lord's
table. bread and wine. He's the only
priest that could bring bread and wine. You see his work is
finished. He accomplished salvation and he didn't bring the blood
of a slain beast because the blood's already been shed from
the foundation of the world and accomplished. Now he would have
to come in time several thousand years later to die as the Lamb
of God, but he comes to Abraham as the priest with the sacrifice
already accomplished. And he brings bread and wine
as the priest of the Most High God. Verse 19, and he blessed
him and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God possessor
of heaven and earth. Now, you'll remember in the Hebrews
account, it says without any contradiction, there's no controversy
about this, the less is always blessed by the better. You can be a blessing to me and
you are a blessing to me, but you can't bless me. You know, when people say, I've
heard people say to me on many, several times, bless you. I'm
thinking, oh, you can do that? I don't want to be facetious.
I know they mean well, but there's only one who blesses. The less
me is blessed, the better. I can be a blessing to you. I
hope I am, but I can't bless you. But this man blesses. Melchizedek, the priest. And
I love the way he's called the priest of the most high God.
Oh, he is the most high God. You can't even give words that
are suitable for his highness, his glory, his majesty. He's
the priest of the most high God. He's the eternal priest of the
most high God. He blessed him and said, blessed
be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth.
I love the way he's called the possessor of heaven and earth.
You see, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the
world, and they that dwell therein. I love the way the Bible begins,
in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You
know what that means? It's all His. You're breathing
His air right now. You're in His world. It belongs
to Him. He's the possessor of the heaven
and the earth. Blessed be the Most High God,
which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. Now, why did and
how did Abraham get this amazing military victory with only 318
people against all these kings? All these armies, because the
Lord delivered them into his hands. That's his only reason
for victory, and he knew that. He understood that. And he gave him tithes of all. Abraham knew who he was, and
as the priest, he gave him tithes of all that spoil. Now somebody's
thinking, Does that mean the scripture teaches tithing, giving
10% of your income? Is that how much we should give?
Well, maybe I'll give more. Maybe I'll give more, but it's
not teaching tithing. It's just not. If tithing was
taught in the New Testament, it would be taught in the New
Testament. Give 10% of your income. But the scripture says to give
as the Lord has blessed you. As a man has purpose in his heart,
so let him give. There's no law. Tithing is law. It's a law of the Old Testament. You can give everything you've
got. You can give a nickel. You give. And this thing of tithing,
somebody says, well, is that teaching tithing? No, it's just
teaching about how great Melchizedek is. He is so great, he is so
infinitely glorious that Abraham, the patriarch, paid tithes to
him because he knew who he was. Oh, the astonishment he had at
the greatness of this man. I'm sure he fearfully gave him
these tithes knowing that everything he had belonged to him. It's
beautiful, isn't it? Verse 21. And the king of Sodom
said to Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself.
Now I'm sure the king of Sodom was very thankful. Maybe it was
his wife that came back and his children and Abraham brought
all these people back and he was mighty glad. He was glad
to see him. He was thankful. He said to Abraham, just give
me the people and you take all the spoils for yourself. I don't
want any of it. You can have it all. I'm just
thankful to have my family back. And look at Abram's response.
You know, it almost appears rude. And Abraham said to the king
of Sodom, I've lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the most high
God, the possessor of heaven and earth. I won't take from
you a thread, even to a shoe latchet. I won't take anything
that's yours. Lest thou should say, I've made
Abraham rich. Now you think about this, this
man says you keep all the spoils and it seems like a generous
thing to do. Abraham said, I'm not going to
take a thing from you. I'm not even gonna take a thread from
you. I don't want you saying, I made Abraham rich. There's
one person who is my salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
was making an issue of this. I don't want flesh to get any
credit, any glory. And that's the way a believer
is. I don't want flesh to get any credit, my salvation, because
I know who did it. I know full well who did it.
He did it all. And I'm not going to take a thread
to a shoelatch of credit for anything, and I'm not going to
let you do it, he says to the King of Sodom. I love thinking,
well, I've left up my hand to the Lord God, the possessor of
heaven and earth. I'm completely dependent upon
him. I am what I am by the grace of
God. He made me to differ. Now he says in verse 24, save
only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of
the men which went with me, Aner, Eshel, and Mamre, let them take
their portion. What he's saying, these fellas
that aren't my family, to help me out, let them have what spoils
they want. I'm just representing my family right now. I don't
want anything from you. Now we don't hear about this
man for another 900 years. That's the only time he's mentioned. And we don't hear of him only
one more time in the Old Testament for another 900 years. Now turn
to Psalm 110. Now David is writing this Psalm,
Psalm 110, some 900 years after this took place, and it
hadn't been mentioned anywhere in the scriptures. Maybe David
was out, maybe he was a shepherd then, I don't know when he wrote
this. Maybe he's out watching the sheep, throwing rocks, sitting
around reading the scriptures, I don't know. Here he is reading
the scriptures, and he comes across Melchizedek, and he says,
King of Salem. And the Lord revealed to him
what this means. If you and I learn anything,
it's because God opened our understanding. That's how David learned this.
You remember how the disciples said, did not our hearts burn
within us as he opened the scripture unto us, by the way? Well, that's
what was going on. David was reading Genesis 14. And look, let's read this Psalm
together. Psalm 110, the Lord said unto my Lord, God the Father
said unto my Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sit thou
at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule
thou in the midst of thy enemies. 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.
That's his eternal unchangeableness. Now listen to this. The Lord
has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever, eternally,
after the order of Melchizedek. Now the order of Melchizedek
was way before Aaron was way before the Levites. This is the
priest forever eternally that never stops after the order of
Melchizedek. Now let's go back to Hebrews
chapter seven. Now up to this point, this is
all the information we have with regard to Melchizedek in all
the Bible. And the writer of the Hebrews
had brought him up a couple of times and went in another direction
for a couple of reasons, but now he spends this seventh chapter
speaking of the priesthood of Melchizedek. Verse one, for this
Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God. Now there's only one other who's
king and priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now understand this.
My goal in this message is not simply to get you to see that
Melchizedek is Jesus Christ, although I believe he is, but
my goal in this is for me and you to understand the superiority
of the priesthood of Christ, the priesthood of Melchizedek,
over the Levitical priesthood that could never save anybody.
This priest saves. For this Melchizedek, King of
Salem, Now there's not a more important verse of scripture
than this. Here's what comes first. Here's
what's most important. He's the king of righteousness.
And all of his salvation is an absolute righteous, just salvation. And he makes everybody he saves
perfectly righteous. You have the very righteousness
of Jesus Christ as your personal righteousness. I don't know of anything that
makes me happier than that. His righteousness is my righteousness. Now, after that, peace. Peace. Now, if he's not all my
righteousness, you know how much peace I have? None. But if he's
all my righteousness, peace. Where does peace come from? Having
Him is your righteousness. And you may not even feel it,
but He's at peace with you. I mean, it's nice to feel it.
I love the feeling of peace, but even if I don't feel it,
I have it because I have it in Christ Jesus. Now listen to this description
of this man Melchizedek. Without father, without mother,
without descent, without a pedigree, without genealogy, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life. He was never born, and
he never died. You know, it's amazing, I started
trying to read up on what people said about Melchizedek, and most
people said, well, he was probably Seth. No, Shem, I mean, Shem. And Shem was alive at that time,
and I thought, Where do you get that from the scriptures? It
says he didn't have a mom or dad. He was never born. He never
died. Without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest
continually. He still is priest. Now, the
one argument people have used that perhaps this is a man who
is a great type of the Lord Jesus Christ is this verse of Scripture
where it says he's made like unto the Son of God. Well, if
he's made like unto the Son of God, then he's not the Son of
God. That's the argument people use against this being an actual
pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember what Nebuchadnezzar
said when he saw that fourth likened to the Son of God in
the fiery furnace? Does that mean he saw somebody
that was like this? No, this is the Son of God he
saw. You remember when John saw that
appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, where at the end of it
he fell at his feet as dead? He said, I saw one like unto
the Son of Man. Does that mean he didn't really
see the Son of Man? Of course not. That's a way of speaking.
And this is a way of speaking. He's like unto the Son of God. You know, there's only one who's
like unto the Son of God, the Son of God. Isn't that so? You know, I, we, I want to be careful the way
I say this. I want to be, I want to be like
the Lord. But whenever we call someone
Christ-like, really? Really? There's nobody like Him. Now I'll be conformed to His
image one day, perfectly conformed to His image. Nobody's like him. He is other. He's utterly unique. And I wouldn't
look at any man, I don't care who it is, the best man I know
and say, he's really Christ-like. No, he's not. There's one Lord
Jesus Christ. The only one like Christ is Christ. And here's another thing that
I think is interesting. We say this, I want people to see Christ
in me. And I want to be someone who If you see me, you see someone
who loves the Lord Jesus Christ and you know it. I want that
to leak out on me. I want my conduct, my attitude,
the way I treat you, I want it to be like that. But when we
say something like that, I want people to see Christ in me. They
didn't see Christ in Christ. And if they do see Christ in
you, you know what they'll do? They'll hate you. They'll hate you. Might
put you to death. But this, Now, without father,
without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth
a priest continually. He's still abiding as a priest
continually. Now let's go on reading. Verse
four, now consider how great this man And I love the way the
was is in italics. He is. He is, was, and always
will be this great one. You consider how great this man
was, is, and always will be, unto whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tenth of his spoils. Abraham paid tithes to
him. Now look down in verse 9, I'm
going to be preaching on this in the next week or two, but
look in verse 9, he says, I may so say Levi also, who received
tithes. Now Levi is the Old Testament
priest. The priest came out of Levi,
and they gave him tithes. And all the Old Testament priests
tried tithes. They didn't have their own property.
They were supported by the people, and they paid them tithes. Now
look what he says, and as I may so say, Levi also, who received
tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of
his father when Melchizedek met him. Levi, the man who received
tithes, paid tithes. This is how great the Lord Jesus
Christ is and this is how superior His priesthood is to the priesthood
of the Levites. Verse 5, For verily, 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 came out of the loins
of Abraham. Even though they're receiving tithes, they paid tithes
to Melchizedek because they were in the loins of Abraham when
he did it. But he whose descent is not counted from them, he
didn't have a Levitical priesthood or pedigree, 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. I hear men that die receive tithes,
but there he receiveth him of whom it is witness that he liveth. You know, Melchizedek's alive
right now. He's eternal. He's the son of God. And what
a, what a difference the fact that he has, he lives. Look in
verse 16, verse 15, I mean. And it's yet far more evident
that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there arises another
priest who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment.
He's a priest just because he was a Levite. Now you think of
how many bad priests there were. I mean, think of Nadab and Abihu. Think of the sons of Eli. I mean, there were just some
really evil men that took the office of priesthood because
they were born to it. That's not gonna happen here. This is
the eternal Son of God. He was made not after a carnal
commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testified,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment. That's talking about the Levitical
priesthood. That's talking about the whole Levitical system. That's
talking about the whole Old Testament economy. There is a disannulling
of the commandment. because of the weakness and unprofitableness
thereof. That's strong language, isn't
it? But here's why that language is used. Verse 19, for the law
made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope
did by the which we draw nigh unto God. And as much as not
without an oath he was made priest, for those priests were made without
an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the
Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made assured
to have a better Testament. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
They die. But this man, and I love the
way man is in italics, but this, what are you calling? Words can't even express who
this is. But this, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore, here's the point,
wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost. That's a big word, isn't it? To the uttermost. They've come unto God by him,
seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Do you
know right now, there's somebody in heaven, a man, the God man,
and he is making intercession for every one of his people. And every prayer you pray, you're
probably ashamed of it. He takes it and makes it a sweet
smell to God because of who he is. The great high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. Now you look at even Aaron, the
first priest. He was a weak man, wasn't he?
He did a lot of bad things. He got in a lot of trouble. He
believed wrong and just on and on. And he died. He was a Levite. This is the
priest that never dies. This is the eternal priest seated
at the right hand of the father. He, look at verse eight, and
hear men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of
whom it is witness he liveth. He liveth. You look into his
tomb, you know what's there? Nothing. You know why? He liveth. As our priest, he brings his
own blood before the father, not the blood of an animal. He
brings his own blood before the father, and the father accepts
him and everybody in him. Now, the Levitical priesthood,
God gave it to teach us things about the gospel, and we're thankful
for it. But this priesthood is utterly superior. A priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek, king of righteousness, king of peace. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the priest after the order
of Melchizedek, the perfect priesthood of him
who is perfect, who makes us perfect by his priesthood. Lord, how we thank you for him. Bless this message to our understanding
for your glory. In Christ's name we pray, amen.