Hebrews chapter seven. Our subject
this hour is Melchizedek. Melchizedek. Some of you may
have never heard that name. Some of you might have. Who is
he, is what I hope to answer. If you ask a religious person,
most churches around, most pastors, who's Melchizedek, what was his
significance? What was the purpose of him?
The men that I've asked, they couldn't give me an answer. Not
the believing brethren that we have, but they said, well, he
was a priest of God. They told us he did this and
he did that. But they don't really understand
who he is. And I'm just gonna go ahead and
tell you he's the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll just come, I won't,
I'm not gonna hide it. That's who he is. The priest
of God, the king of the Lord, king of peace, king of righteousness. But he's mentioned only two times
outside of Hebrews. The first time is in Genesis,
where he meets Abraham. He meets Abraham. And then it's
not mentioned again until Psalm 110, when the Lord reveals unto
David And you know, David would have had scrolls that he would
have read throughout. He would have been looking through
Genesis and he'd just been reading a scroll. It didn't have chapters
and verses or anything like that. He's just reading a scroll. And
then he sees this Melchizedek and the Lord reveals unto him
who he is in that. And so David writes Psalm 110.
And then hundreds of years later, it's not mentioned again. He's
not mentioned again until Hebrews, until Hebrews. And that's the
subject in Hebrews chapter seven. He's mentioned in chapter five.
He's mentioned in chapter six at the very end. He's also mentioned
in chapter seven. And I would like to know, I would
like for us not to look like deer in the headlights whenever
Melchizedek's mentioned. From now on, if the Lord be merciful
and teach us who he is, let us preach the gospel and open up
our hearts to hear who he is. It's a comfort to the Lord's
people. And that's our hope. And the reason for this, the
reason we beg the Lord, the reason men don't understand who Melchizedek
is, It's because it's spiritually discerned. Everything, I wrote
this down in bold letters, everything pertaining to God, God has to
reveal. Now that might sound like a simple
statement, but men really don't believe that unless the Lord
reveals who he is. If we see who God is, we'll realize
everything pertaining to God, Lord, you're gonna have to reveal
it. You're gonna have to give us truth. You're gonna have to
do a work in the heart. Otherwise, we will not believe.
We will not believe. You remember the disciples, they
asked the Lord, why do you speak to these in parables? Why are
you talking in mysteries to them? He said, because it's not for
them to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but it's
for you to know. It's for you to know. And that's
our hope this hour. Lord, cause it to be so that it's for us
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Cause it this
hour for us to hear your truth. I love what he said in Ephesians
1 and 9, having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to his good pleasure, which he had purposed in himself. Why
is anybody ever gonna see the mystery? How is anybody ever
gonna know the mystery? Well, it's gonna be by the power
of God, by the will of God, according to the pleasure of God. That's
just how he does it. This is God's gospel. This isn't
my gospel. We can call it our gospel now
that the Lord's revealed it to us, but it's God's gospel, isn't
it? It's not a man-made gospel. This is God's gospel. He must
reveal it. I hope that he gives us clarity
this hour, the significance of Melchizedek. Now, we're actually
gonna end up doing something that we've never done before,
as long as I've been your pastor. We're gonna go through this entire
chapter, Lord willing. And my intention is to break it up as
best we can, read the first 11 verses to begin with, elaborate
on that, turn a few places, and then go just a few verses and
elaborate on those. This is one complete thought
that he has here. I tried getting away from that, but I feel like
that's the best way to go. So we're going to try. Hebrews chapter 7 verses
1-11 says, 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, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after
that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, 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. Now consider how great this man
was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the 10th of his
spoils. And verily they that are of the son 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 own 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 received tithes paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in
the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore,
and this is where we're gonna stop right here, this statement,
this question, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people received the law, that further need What
further need was there that another priest should rise after the
order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of
Aaron? First thing that the writer does
here is he begins to describe Melchizedek and he begins talking
about how that Abraham paid tithe to him. Why is that significant?
Well, because Abraham was hailed in very high esteem. He was the
father of the Jews. He's called the patriarch here.
These would have been, He never does use Moses and Sinai because
he's trying to get them to understand that it's not about the law,
it's about the covenant of grace that was given to Abraham. And
so he tells us that whenever Abraham paid tithe unto Melchizedek,
it showed forth that this man Melchizedek was greater than
Abraham. And that's the whole, you remember whenever the, what
was it, John chapter five or chapter six, I can't remember,
they said to the Lord, whenever we're talking to Pharisees and
Sadducees, we're talking to Christ, they said, are you telling us
that you're greater than our father Abraham? Are you saying
that you're greater than our father Abraham? And you know
what the Lord said? Before Abraham was, I am. I am. And what'd they do? Did they
fall down and worship him? Did they believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ? They took up stones to stone him. To the Jews, Abraham
was the, he was the top, he was the guy, you know, he was the
one they all looked up to, the patriarch. You telling me you're
greater than our father Abraham? And this is what the writer of
Hebrews is trying to get across to the Hebrews here is that Melchizedek,
yes, indeed is greater than Abraham. How is that? Well, he tells us,
number one, he's the king of righteousness and he's the king
of Salem. Now that Salem is the word peace. Salem is the word peace. And
Salem is just the previous name for Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. It means the city of peace. You
have Salem here is peace. And then you have later on Jerusalem
became the city of peace. Now it says that Abraham returned. in Genesis after the slaughter
of the kings. So we have to find out what the
slaughter of the kings are here. So let's turn to Genesis chapter
14. So this, this Melchizedek is
the king of righteousness. He's the king of Salem, the king
of peace. Now in this chapter, chapter
14, there are Five kings that rebel against
four kings. And there's one king in particular
that's over, that was over all of them at one time. The five
kings got tired of putting up with the king. His name is Cheddar
Loamer. Cheddar Loamer. I'm gonna say that several times
wrong, I promise you. But I'm not gonna pronounce every
single name that's in this chapter for that reason, because the
rest of them are harder than that one. So we'll just have to, this
is the kings, that's all we're gonna say, we'll leave it at
that. So they were, apparently, they would have been at a time,
they rebelled. They rebelled against this king,
said, we're not gonna have this king reign over us. And so they
got together, all these cities, this is in the beginning of the
chapter 14, Sodom and Gomorrah is part of this, and the king's
there. And they got together, and they warred against the king.
And it was 10 years that it happened. Well, Cheddar Loamar, went down
to Sodom, went down to Gomorrah, and he conquered it. He thought
he had won against these rebels. He conquered these kings. He
thought he won. But in the previous chapter,
if you were to read it, you would find that there was a man named
Lot that was in Sodom. He pinched his tits towards Sodom.
Do you know who Lot is? It's Abraham's nephew, Abraham's
nephew. They came in and they took Lot
and his possessions. They carried him away. So this
Cheddar Loamar thought he was in charge. He's conquered these
other Kings. I've got the victory, but he
forgot about one thing. A man named Abraham took his
nephew. Abraham got men together. He got men together, 318 of his
servants. He armed 318 of his servants
and they pursued. They pursued after this Chedder
Loamar to recover Lot. Now the Lord gives us numbers
in the scripture. We went through, you all remember
the numbers that we went through whenever I was first your pastor.
We started at number one and I can't remember if we ended
on 12. I think we ended on 12. So we know what those numbers
represent. We know that 318, we know that
three, that's the triune God, we know that, that's what three
represents. Number one, the Lord's the only one, that's number of
perfectionism, that's the number of God. Number eight, well, that's
the number of cutting away the flesh, isn't it? Remember they
were circumcised on the eighth day, it's also the number of
You won't be saved by any deed of the flesh. When they went
into the ark, how many went in? Eight went into the ark. So the
salvation comes not by our flesh, that has to be cut away. That's
what that represents. So these men are pursuing and
it's gonna be God that's doing it, the triune God, and no flesh
will get any glory in it. That's what those numbers represent
there. Now Melchizedek is never mentioned
in the scripture until now. He's not mentioned with any of
these kings. He's not mentioned any other place prior to this
until right now. And not again until Psalm 110,
as I mentioned. But let's read verses 17 through
24. 17 through the end of the chapter. And the king of Sodom
went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of
Chedorlohemar, and of the kings that were with him at the valley
of Shevi, which is the king's dale, and Melchizedek, His first
mention of him right here. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought
forth bread and wine. Now, do you find that interesting?
He brought forth bread and he brought forth wine. And he was
the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said,
blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven
and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered
thine enemy into thy hand. He gave him tithes of all. And
the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take
the goods to thyself. But Abraham said to the king
of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the most
high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take
a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything
that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abraham rich.
Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion
of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshkol, and Mamre. Let
them take their portion." We see he meets the king of Salem,
Melchizedek. He meets him. He pays tribute
to him. Melchizedek brings bread and
wine to him. And then the king of Sodom says,
well, here, I'm gonna give you all the goods. You keep all the
spoils. I'm just gonna keep the people. So let me have the people
back. Abraham says, I'm not taking a thread from you. But if I take
anything from you, you'll say, I made Abraham rich. No, it's
the Lord that made me rich. The Lord's the one that got the
victory over all these. Abraham and his men went down
and they destroyed every single king. They destroyed all of them.
They brought back everything that was lost. That's a picture
of the Lord, Jesus Christ, losing none. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me on the cross of Calvary, paying their debt,
fighting the war that they could not fight and winning the victory.
And Abraham comes back and that man says, well, I'm gonna give
you this. And he says, no, you're not getting any glory in this.
You're not getting any glory. All the glory goes to the Lord.
Now, what of Melchizedek here? What did we learn about him during
this? Well, he's the priest of the Most High God, number one,
the priest of the Most High God. Second thing we've learned is
he brought bread and he brought wine. And brethren, I thought
today we were actually gonna have the Lord's table, but I
remember we did that at the beginning of the month, well, it was the
second. It just seems like it's been a while, I don't know. But
isn't that exactly what that picture is? This is my body broken
for you. This is my blood that shed. for
the sins of many. That's what he's given to Abraham.
It's the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ saying, it's the body
broken and it's the blood alone, Abraham. That's what that is.
Abraham sees him and it is revealed unto Abraham who this man is,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he could be both king and
priest. Only he could be both king and
priest. Do you remember under the Levitical law, Whenever you
were going to be a priest, you had to be born a Levite. You
had to be born a Levite. You took the oath, you're born
into it after Aaron. Only a Levite could be a priest.
Saul one time, you remember King Saul, he was worried because
Samuel had not came yet and they were in a battle and he wanted
to know, are we going to get the victory? Are we going to die? What did
Samuel, he tarried it says on purpose. He lingered on purpose.
And what did Saul do? Saul as King over Israel goes
in and he makes sacrifice unto the Lord. He took the place of
the priest. That's what he did. And what
did the Lord do? He said, the kingdoms rent from
you. You don't have the right to be
priest. You don't have the right to be
priest. But this man, this king, Melchizedek,
he was both king and priest. He was both. He was both. Who else could that be but the
Lord Jesus Christ? He blessed Abraham. You know
what, people, they sneeze and they say, bless you. You can't
bless me and I can't bless you. Did you know that? Only the Lord
can bless. Only the Lord can bless. We started saying gesundheit
to try to get away from that. I think it came from some medieval
superstition that your soul leaves your body whenever you sneeze
and so you have to say God bless you or the demon's gonna snatch
your soul up or something. It's just a superstition. Anyway,
we can't bless one another is the whole point. We can't. God's
the one that must bless us. And what happens here? Our Melchizedek
blesses Abraham, blesses Abraham, indicating, Abraham tithe to
him, indicating that he is greater than Abraham. These Hebrews would
not have believed that. If you said, no, that Melchizedek
was greater than Abraham. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't.
We won't have this man reign over us. That's how they treated
him, wasn't it? But I'm thankful for our Lord's words. He said,
before Abraham was, I am. The rest of the description we
have in Hebrews of Melchizedek. Go back to Hebrews 7, verse one. Look at his description. 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 10th part of all, first being by interpretation
king of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which
is King of Peace. 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. I found it interesting that it
says he was made like unto the Son of God. And as I was studying
this, some people get a little hung up on the fact that it says
made because the Lord's timeless. He literally says he was completely
timeless here, without neither beginning of days nor end of
life. But then it says made. What does that mean, made? Well,
the translators did the best they could on some of it. That's
the best I could tell you. But he was made. like unto the Son
of God. Like who else is like to the
Son of God but the Son of God? You know, I mean, me and you,
people say, well, they're God-like. No, we're not. No, we're not. We may see reflections of love
in one another. We may see things that we do
out of compassion. We're not God-like. Only Jesus
Christ is like the Son of God because he is the Son of God.
This is who this is. It can't be none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. Notice also that first he is the king of
righteousness, and then the king of peace. That's very important,
you know why? Because you can't have peace with God until God
has made you the righteousness of God in Christ. Can't have
peace with God until you're perfectly righteous. Peace doesn't come
before righteousness. The Lord gives us his righteousness,
therefore we have peace with God. He's first the king of righteousness,
then he's the king of peace. Outside of this king and priest,
outside of this Melchizedek, there is no righteousness and
there is no peace. The good news is he hath made
peace with God, breaking down the middle wall of partition.
Whenever his veil, the veil signifying his flesh, was rent entwined
from top to bottom, when he entered into the holiest of holies, God
was satisfied with him. He made peace by his own blood,
made us accepted in the beloved. You know what our Melchizedek
did after that? He sat down. He sat down, the work was finished.
The work was finished. This is what the writer's clearly
declaring. He's saying we're no longer under the Levitical
law, trying to perform all these Levitical tasks that could never
bring about salvation. Actually, we'll read it in a
bit. Or we did, if therefore, verse 11, if therefore perfection
were by the Levitical priesthood, that means it was not perfect.
Perfection couldn't come through and by the Levitical priesthood.
It came through the order of Melchizedek. It came through
the one priest who was perfect, who he did not have to offer.
It says this in the same chapter two. He didn't have to offer
himself a sacrifice for his sins first, and then for the sins
of the people. No, he offered his own blood
freely unto his father for his people and the father was satisfied. No one could be saved under the
Levitical priesthood, but everyone that was in Christ when he died,
they're saved under the order of Melchizedek. This man, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down, sat down on the
right hand of God. Turn with me to that other passage
I mentioned, Psalm 110. Psalm 110, David's reading a
scroll, and I don't know exactly when this
would have been. It could have been late at night, He could have
been in a cave somewhere running from Saul. We don't know where
he was when he was writing this, but he came across Melchizedek
in Genesis chapter 14, and this is glorious, brethren. The Lord
revealed who Melchizedek was. The Lord revealed the Lord Jesus
Christ to David. Look what he says in Psalm 110
verse one. The Lord, now that's Jehovah,
see capital L-O-R-D? The Lord, Jehovah, the Father,
said unto my Lord, who's his Lord? Well, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. The father said to the son, sit thou at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And the Lord shall
send the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power and in the beauties of holiness. From the
womb of the morning, thou hast the due of thy youth. The Lord
hath sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge
among the heathen. He shall fill the places with
dead bodies. He shall wound the heads over many countries. He
shall drink of the brook in the way. Therefore shall he lift
up the head. The Lord The Father says unto
the Son, sit thou here at my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. Here's our high priest, Melchizedek,
sitting, making intercession for his people. Therefore the
Lord's people will be willing in the day of his power. Are
you willing in the day of his power because of something you
do? No, because of something he has
done. He's our intercessor. He makes
his people willing in the day of his power when he reveals
himself, just as he did David here in Psalm 110. Brethren,
I love the thought that every time we pray, every time his
people pray, he hears our prayer. If the Lord's ever given us any
inkling, any insight, any understanding of what wretched, vile creatures
we are, to know that because of the blood of Christ, Our prayers
go directly to the throne of God, washed in his blood, and
the Father hears it. The Lord hears us when we pray.
We take that for granted, don't we? We don't really think about
it. The Lord hears you whenever you pray. You cry out to him,
you look into Christ, you have complete confidence in looking
to Christ that the Lord hears your prayers when you pray. Furthermore,
whenever you hurt, whenever you're sad, whenever you're brokenhearted,
whenever you feel lonely, The Lord was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. Everything that we experienced,
the Lord was touched with those feelings as our high priest.
This is what he did on the cross of Calvary. You don't have to
bear that alone. Lord knows his people. The Lord
knows the hurt and the struggle of his people. And the Lord's
faithful, and the Lord's just, and the Lord's good to give grace
and to give peace at the time of need. That's why he said,
come before the throne of grace boldly. Coffee, complete confidence
of the Lord, a complete confidence of our high priest, our Melchizedek,
that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time
of need. I like the thought that it's sitting there waiting on
you. Ask and you shall receive, that's what the Lord said. It's
sitting there, everything needed, it's already been provided. Ask
and you shall receive. This isn't just marvelous, brethren,
this is the best news that ever has been or will be. God hears
his people when they pray. If he hears us, that's because
we've been made the righteousness of God in Christ. That's the
cause and effect, isn't it? What the Lord said to his people,
if you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You
know what he gives his people? He gives them double. Double
for their iniquity, double for their sin. What is that double?
That's that bread and that's that wine. That's the body and
that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what he
has, a ready supply for his people. He blesses his people with mercy
and grace and peace. Now go back to Hebrews with me. Hebrews 7 verse 4, now consider
how great this man, you see that word was, you see how that's
in italics? That word was put in by the translator
so that it may help us understand what they're saying more, but
it shouldn't be there. It's not consider how great this man was,
but consider how great this man is. Consider how great this man
will be. Consider how great this man always
has been. Consider how great this man,
unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the 10th of the
spoils. And verily, they that are the
sons of Levi who received the office of 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 who 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." Now, who's the less? Who's the
less? You and I are the less, aren't
we? You and I, who's the better? He's the better. He's the better. The less is blessed by the better. Why? Because of how great this
man is, how great this Melchizedek is. He is good and we are false
and full of sin, but the good news of the gospel, he took our
sin and nailed them to his own cross. The blessing, people talk,
and we heard that song earlier, Lord, give us the blessing at
the end. And it wasn't plural, it was
singular, it wasn't plural. And that's the point, he is the
blessing to his people. He is the blessing. This is the
hope we have. He's made peace with God for
his people. Now let's read on, verse 18,
or verse eight. And here men that die receiveth 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. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, For under it, the people receive
the law. What further need was there for another priest should
rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order
of Aaron. For the priesthood being changed, there is made
of necessity a change also of the law. What is he talking about
a change of the law? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For priesthood, verse 12, for
the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a
change also of the law. For he of whom these things are
spoken pertaineth to another tribe of which no man gave attendance
at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord
sprang out of Judah Of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning
the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident
for that after the similitude of Melchizedek there ariseth
another priest who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth thou
are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there
is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. What else he's saying? He's saying all those commandments,
all those rituals, all those things they were doing could
never bring about salvation. Therefore, the Levitical priesthood
had to come to an end. Having more sons of Aaron wasn't
gonna change anything. No, one from the lion of the
tribe of Judah. That's who had to come forth.
Melchizedek had to come forth. And when he says, This was the
first account when Abraham saw him. This was his first incarnation,
if you will, to appear unto Abraham. But then he was born of a woman,
born under the law. And you and I can't wrap our
brains around those things. I know we can't, but we know
it's true. Why did he do that? To redeem them that were under
the law. That's what he's trying. That's
what he's telling us here. The unprofitableness of the commandments,
keeping the law and trying to, you're not going to please God
with keeping it. You need a high priest that put away your sin.
You need a king and priest. And there's only one. Melchizedek. Levitical priesthood was imperfect
because it was performed by sinful man. But when Christ came as
the perfect man, He was ordained, that word made should be ordained,
I believe. He was made, where does it say
that at? Verse 16, who is made, not after
the law, it should be ordained. Who was ordained, not after the
law. That was the Lord ordained him to do so. Well, let's read on verse 17. For he testified thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek for this verily is a disannulling of the commandment going before
the for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof for the law made nothing
perfect but the bringing in of the better hope did by the which
we draw nigh unto God. There's ever a verse that should
give perfect clarity as to what the law accomplishes when you
keep it. This one's it. The law makes
nothing perfect. The law makes nothing perfect.
You can live a perfect life in your eyes, you can keep every
law to the best of your ability, the law makes nothing perfect.
Makes nothing perfect. You have the law, people have
moral laws, they have social laws, they have the laws given
of the Lord, but Doesn't make you perfect, does it? Doesn't
make you perfect. No matter what you do, the law
cannot make us perfect. It's called weakness. It's because
it's based on the law and it never made anyone perfect. Therefore,
it had to end. Imagine all these priests, they
were born. They would come to a certain
age. Once they got to that age, they
would start offering sacrifices like their dad did. They would
live their entire life offering those sacrifices. They would
receive tithes of the people. And those tithes, remember that
we talked about a flesh hook one time, that would be part
of their tithe. They would take part of that animal that was
cooked as part of the sacrifice, that would be what they ate,
that's their tithe. They would just keep doing that after generation,
after generation, after generation, not one sin was paid for. But
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he came, When he bowed his head
on Calvary's cross, he satisfied God with the sacrifice of himself.
When he said, it is finished, there is no more offering for
sin any longer under the Levitical priesthood. No, it's under the
order of Melchizedek, all of grace. There's a fresh supply
of grace found in the blood of Christ. He says here that he was made
a priest by an oath, not by birth, as in the Levites being born
into it, but by an oath. It was an oath that he gave to
his father, and it was an oath the father gave to the son. In
election, in redemption, that's the oath that was given. Look
at verse 20. 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 a surety
of a better Testament. And they truly were many priests
because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death.
But this man, because he continueth forever, hath an unchangeable
priesthood. He hath an unchanged, He continueeth
forever. We're not looking for another
priest. We're not looking for another sacrifice. He is the
priest, He is the king, and He is the sacrifice. There is no
limit to His power. That's why He says in verse 25,
wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost, that
come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. I love that word uttermost, don't you? Uttermost. Means there's no limit to His
power. There's no limit to his sovereignty. There's no limit
to his ability. He saves to the uttermost, the
uttermost, everything he purposed, everything he accomplished. And
then he consecrates his people because he was consecrated. Look
in verse 26, for such and high priest became us. means he was
necessary for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth
not daily, as those high priests offer up sacrifice, first for
his own sins, and then for the people's, for this he did once
when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men, high
priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which
was since the law, maketh the son, who is consecrated, forevermore,
who is consecrated forevermore. You know that word means perfected,
perfected forevermore. What does that mean for everyone
that was in him when he died? They're perfected forevermore,
not by the works of the law, not by the deeds of the flesh,
not by what we do at all, but by what he did on the cross of
Calvary as our Melchizedek, as our king, as our priest. He makes
his people perfect by his power and his will. And I like what
Hebrews 10 says, that by that which will, that's how it's worded,
by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once and for all, once and for all. He's called merciful. He's called
the faithful high priest. Hebrews 9.12 says, neither by
the blood of goats and of calves, but by his own blood he entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. As priest, as the sacrifice,
as the blood atonement, as our intercessor, as king, he placed
his blood upon the mercy seat and the father was well satisfied.
Father said, sit thou here at my right hand. He saved his people
from their sin. Sit thou here at my right hand.
He successfully saved his people from their sin. So I started
by asking this question. I'll close with this question.
Who's Melchizedek? What's his significance? He is God's priest and he is
God's people's priest. He is king of kings and Lord
of lords. He is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ, the successful redeemer of his chosen people. He is the king of righteousness
first. and the king of peace. He gave us righteousness so that
we could have peace. He's the king of them. That means
he's the alpha of it, and he's the omega of it, of righteousness
and peace to everyone that believes him. Let's pray. Father, thank
you for your understanding and your words. Bless this to our
understanding according to your will, in Christ's name, amen.
In closing,