Now, it's very easy to look at a scripture like the
one that I read from Hebrew 7 and just sort of put it away,
sort of say, well, that's too deep for me. And I'm really not interested
in getting into all these particulars and so forth about the priesthood
and Melchizedek and the new covenant and this sort of thing. Well, to be perfectly honest
with you, any portion of the Word of God that has to do with
redemption by grace is too deep for an unbeliever. The natural
man, the natural man receives not the things of God, they're
foolishness to him. And neither can he know them
because they're spiritually understood, discerned, judged. But any part
of God's Word dealing with the redemptive work of Christ, his
priestly work, his intercession, is clear and plain as the Spirit
of God gives the believer understanding. So this is not that deep. It's all profound. It's all a
mystery. It's past human, natural understanding. But I believe when I get through
here tonight, if you have some understanding of substitution,
of God's holiness, our sin, our need of a mediator, our need
of a great high priest, that you'll have a stronger and better
hope of eternal life through Christ. You'll have a better
understanding of how you, a wretched, fallen, depraved son of Adam,
redeemed by the blood of Christ, have the privilege and liberty
of coming boldly into the very holiest of all before the very
throne of God to receive mercy and grace to help in time of
need. And I'm hopeful that you'll give it your undivided attention,
I believe it'll help you with your assurance, assurance of
a saving interest in Christ. Now, let me say this first of
all. The tabernacle in the wilderness,
the Holy of Holies, the holy place, the veil, the priesthood,
the blood sacrifice, all of the sacrifices, the atonement in
particular, the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat, The whole system
of the Old Testament priesthood declares one solemn truth that
we need to understand. All of this, whether it be the
tabernacle or the sacrifices, the atonement, whether it be
the priesthood, the Levitical law, these types and ceremonies,
they declare one solemn truth that needs to be understood,
it needs to be declared, and that is this, that there must
be a suitable priest And there must be an acceptable sacrifice
in order for any son of Adam to come into the presence of
a holy God. There's got to be. Absolutely no man or woman, born
of woman, will ever, has ever, will ever, deal directly with
a holy God. Now a moment ago, Bill stood
up here and prayed. He said, which art in heaven."
And it sounded like that Bill and the Eternal Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, it
sounded as if Bill was approaching the presence of an absolute,
eternal, omnipotent, living, holy God, and Bill was presenting
his thanksgiving and praise and petitions and prayer directly
to God. In a sense he was. But I'll guarantee
you, He'd have been snuffed out and annihilated with no hope
of eternal blessings if it hadn't been for the mercy and the grace
and the blood and the presence of our great high priest. Our
prayers are just so much rotten, stinking corruption, the best
one of them apart from Christ. Now, you've got to learn this.
We've got to see this. And I don't think... Actually,
listen to me again. Absolutely no man or woman born
of woman will ever, born from Adam, will ever deal directly
with a holy God without a priest with a proper, suitable sacrifice
between God the Father and that sinner. And that priest has always
been there, whether in type or in person. He's always been there.
Christ has always been there. When Abel came to worship God,
and this is the first illustration we have of a sinner worshiping. I think it's the first illustration
that Adam and Eve sinned and God put them out of the garden
and it said Adam knew his wife and there was born a son, Cain,
and another son, Abel, and then the two boys came to worship.
Cain, Abel, came to worship God and he was accepted and God did
business with Abel. Abel was accepted, but Christ
was present right there in the picture. in the lamb, in the
blood. Christ was there. The atonement
was there. The priest was there. The intercessor
was there. It was all right there. And down
in Egypt, when God said, I'll pass over you, when he passed,
when he came through Egypt at midnight and struck the firstborn
dead in every home, Christ was between God and those sinners.
The blood was on the door. Here was a holy God dealing in
judgment and wrath with a rebellious world. And there were sinners,
unclean, sons of Adam. But between that sinner and God
was Christ, Christ in picture, Christ in type. You see what
I'm saying? And the same thing's true of the tabernacle when the
great high priest came under the veil into the Holy of Holies
and put the blood on the mercy seat, the atonement, once a year. and waved the incense, you know,
burned the incense, and God in His absolute, infinite holiness
was there. The Shekinah glory was there
between the chair beams, overshadowing the mercy seat, the power and
glory, the absolute glory of God. And here was the sinner. Here was the man representing
the people. There was Christ in picture,
in time, always, always and always and always. And this we must
see. We must see that, no, God does
not hear any man apart from Christ. God does not receive any man
apart from Christ. God does not forgive any man
apart from Christ. God does not receive even the
most solemn worship apart from Christ. And now if we see that,
we must see it. Turn to Hebrews 4 a moment. We must see this. It's essential
that we see it. It's essential that we have some
kind of heart conception of it, some kind of heart understanding
of it. It's essential, absolutely essential.
Not that we see it in doctrine, but that we understand it at
least to some degree in our hearts. Hebrews 4 verse 14, listen. Seeing then, seeing, understanding,
discerning. You see that word seeing then,
understanding, that we have a great high priest. We do have a high
priest. Right now, we have. That is passed
into the heavens. Not into the tabernacle made
with hands. Into the heavens. Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. We've got a reason
to hold it fast. We've got a reason to have a
profession. We've got a reason to hope through that profession.
Because we see, understand, discern, we have a high priest. You see
what I'm saying? If you don't see that, you don't
have a profession. You don't have a hope of a profession.
Read on. We don't have a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but he was
in all points tempted as we are yet without seeing. Let us therefore
come boldly. Why? Seeing we have a high priest. Now don't you come if you don't
have one. And don't you come if you don't have one that's
God's one. God's one. Now, the Mormons have priests,
don't they, Tom? Catholics have priests. And all these different
folks have folks dressed up in funny hats and all kind of uniforms
and so forth, and that's not the priest he's talking about
here. We have a high priest that's passed into the heavens. He's
not ministering here in a building or a tabernacle or a temple or
a cathedral or a so-called holy place sprinkling water. That's
all been done. We have a great high priest who's
passed into the heavens. And seeing that, let us therefore,
verse 16, come boldly unto the throne. The throne. It's a sovereign
throne of grace. God's throne. Just one throne.
Just one throne of grace. And that's God's throne. That
we may obtain mercy through that great high priest. and find grace
to help in time of need. Turn to Hebrews 10. You've got
to get a hold of this. This is foundation truth. This
is rock bed truth. This is what you build on. This
is what you hope upon. This is what you build your hope
upon, right here. Hebrews 10, verse 21. Verse 21,
And having a high priest, over the house of God. Let us draw
near. Verse 19, having boldness, therefore,
having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God. Come on. But
I tell you, I don't care who the preacher is, the evangelist,
I don't care who the missionary is that invites any
sinners. God is now a God of love and
God is a God of mercy. Come on. I'm sorry, that's not
so. Not apart from Christ. Christ
said, I'm the door, by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved. I'm the door. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. And all this back
in the Old Testament. points the way. All this back
here is a picture, it's a type, it's a shadow of things to come.
And we better go to school. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures. He was buried and rose again
according to the scriptures. We better go to school here and
find out how did Israel come to God? That's the way we come
to God too. How did Abraham come to God?
That's the way you come to God. He's same God. How did Abel come
to God? Same way you come to God. Back
there, the high priest was between the holy God and the sinner in
picture and type and promise, and he recognized it. And now
the high priest is between us and God, in reality, having finished
his work. But he's there. He's always there.
And God's never spoken to or been spoken to, God's never dealt
with or been dealt with by any sinner apart from and except
through the person, the priesthood, the sacrifice, the atonement,
the blood of the Son of God. He's ever-present and ever-living.
If he's not there, you're a doomed branch fit for the burning. You're
wasting your breath, your time, your prayers, your religion,
your efforts, your work, your money, everything you're donating
to the cause without Christ. All right, let me show you these
things now. Here's another fact. Watch this. Here's another fact. You say, well, I care for Melchizedek.
You better care for Melchizedek. You must be born again in the
Bible one time. John chapter 3. One time. Let
me show you how many times Melchizedek's in here. Now this is just talking
about Melchizedek. Psalm 110. Let's turn over there
a minute. Psalm 110. And many people don't even know
who he is. They don't even know who he is. They'll argue with
you about what he's supposed to eat in the church or not,
but they don't know who Melchizedek is. They'll argue with you whether
or not to take alien immersion or not. They don't know who Melchizedek
is. they'll argue with you about the premillennial or postmillennial.
They don't know who Melchizedek is. God have mercy on our souls.
We're majoring on minors. Who is Melchizedek? Alright,
Psalm 110, verse 4. The Lord hath sworn and will
not repent. Thou art a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. How many times you ever hear
in the Bible God swearing about something and not changing? Not
many times. This is one of them. God, this
is, this is, this is God's primary Glory right here This is where
he's most acutely at work right here. This is where God is most
sensitive right here He has sworn and will not change thou art
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek turn with me to
Hebrews 5 Hebrews 5 and we've got to learn something about
this Hebrews 5 look at verse 6 verse 6 Let's read verse 5. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest. He didn't take this thing on
himself. But he that said unto him, Thou art my son, today have
I begotten thee. He said also in another place,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. That's
who you are. You're a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Now look at Hebrews 5 verse 10. Verse 9 says, and being made
perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation. Boy, that's
what I'm interested in now. Aren't you? Unto all them that
obey him. And he's called of God a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek. That's three times already. All
right, look at Hebrews 6, verse 20. It says here in verse 19, which
hope we have as an anchor of our soul. both sure and steadfast,
and which entereth into that within the veil." That's where
I want to do business, inside the veil. I'm tired of running
around out here, outside the veil, aren't you? Whether the
forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Four times. All right, Hebrews
7, 17. He testifieth the art of priests
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Five times. Hebrews 7 and 21. Those priests were made without
an oath. But this priest with an oath
by him that said, the Lord swear and will not repent that I am
a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Six times. Don't
you think, now really, don't you think, and how many sermons
have you heard on this subject? It looks like preachers would
wear this out, doesn't it? It just looks like that they
would dwell here and dwell here and dwell here, but they don't,
and I think I know why. But the book of Hebrews, now
watch this, the book of Hebrews declares the greatness and glory
of Christ. If you want a key to the book
of Hebrews, the book of Hebrews is one of the best gospel books
in the Bible. One of the clearest, one of the
most beautiful. And the book of Hebrews, all the way through,
declares the greatness, this is the key, and the glory of
Christ over the angels, over Moses, over the prophets, over
the tabernacle, over the Levitical law, over the sacrifices, over
Aaron, and here, over the ceremonial priest. The fulfillment, Christ
the fulfillment of everything that's written. Christ the fulfillment
of everything promised. Christ the fulfillment. You can
take the book of Hebrews and go from the time that God created
the world to this present day and it'll show you Christ in
every bit of it. Christ in his creation, in God's
original creation, Christ was the key to the whole thing. In
his purpose to redeem, in a revelation of himself, his attributes, how
that Christ is the fulfillment of Moses' prophetical office,
Aaron's priesthood, and David's kingship. Christ is all, and
in all. And here's what we're seeing
here in Hebrews 7. Here's what we're seeing here,
and it shows how Christ is greater than the angels, Christ is greater
than Moses, Christ is greater than the prophets, Christ is
greater and more glorious than all things, and here, what's
this? He is so infinitely above the Aaronic priesthood. He is
so infinitely, get this now, this is important, Christ's priesthood
and Christ's sacrifice and Christ's intercession is so infinitely,
so infinitely above this priesthood of Avon and the sons of Levi,
that the Lord is pleased to establish one certain true priestly type
of Christ outside of Avon in the priesthood. The Lord God
is pleased to take, because Christ is so infinitely above this priesthood,
this earthly priesthood, that he singles out and creates a
perfect type of Christ. above and beyond this priest.
That's what he's doing with Melchizedek. Now, here's the question. Who
is Melchizedek? Well, let's look at Hebrews 7,
1 through 3. 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. Oh, let's go
back to Genesis 14, briefly. Genesis 14. And I know somebody
said just then, you've never been briefly in your life. I
dropped that in to wake you up, but I'm going to try to be briefly.
All right, here's the only time, only time in the Bible, the only
time we meet with Melchizedek. He makes an appearance and disappears.
Never again. He's talked about, but he never
appears again. He appeared one time, that's
it. You remember these wicked kings
that come down and captured Lot, Abraham's nephew, And all the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah had taken him captive. And Abraham
got a bunch of men and he went after them. And he rescued them. And he brought them back. And
that's where we are in Genesis 14, verse 17. And the king of
Sodom went out to meet Abraham after his return from the slaughter
of Chedorlehomer and of the kings that were with him at the valley
of Sheva. Which is the king's day. Oh now
watch this verse 18 and Melchizedek first time he's mentioned king
of peace brought forth bread and wine and He was the priest
of the Most High God and he blessed Abraham and he said blessed be
Abram of the Most High God possessor of heaven and earth and blessed
be the Most High God which has delivered thine enemies into
thy hands and And Abraham gave him tithes of all he had, a tribute. And that's it. And that's it. We have no record of his mother,
his father, his nation, no record of his birth, his life, or his
death. But this is said about him in
Hebrews 7. Now go back to Hebrews 7. Are
you with me? That's the only appearance. He
met Abraham, to whom God had given the promises. He met Abraham.
who was the father of the faithful, he met Abraham, who was God's
chosen father of the Jewish nation, father of the seed, which is
to be blessed through him. And this man Melchizedek met
him, this high priest of the living God, and blessed him.
And Abraham gave tithes to him, he disappeared. It says in verse
2 of Hebrews 7, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of
all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, after
that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father,
without mother, without descent, without pedigree, having neither
beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the
Son of God, abideth a priest continually." Now some say this
was an appearance of Christ. I wouldn't make it a point to
argue about this. I wouldn't make it a point to
divide over it. I've read several commentaries and some said was
a real person who lived on this earth and so forth and so on.
Christ is a real person too, but they say it's a human person,
but I kind of think it was Christ who appeared to it. Christ. But
the main point is this. The main point is here. That
the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ is so infinitely and eternally
above that of Aaron. that in order for God to show
us the priesthood of Christ, its sufficiency, and its power,
and its eternality, that Almighty God gave us an appearance of
the priest himself when he met Abraham. I believe that's what
he said. Look at Hebrews 7, 23 to 25. Now watch this. These Old Testament
priests, there were many of them, verse 23 says, and there were
many of them. because they were not suffered
to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth." He always has lived, he lives now, he always will
live to make intercession for them. So this is what he's saying.
That in order to illustrate for us the priestly work of Christ,
the priestly office of Christ, its eternality, its unchangeableness. Aaron couldn't effectively illustrate
it. The sons of Levi couldn't effectively
illustrate it. They were men who were born a
woman, had sin, infirmity, and died. They had a short priesthood. Their place was taken by someone
else, and they couldn't effectively picture Christ. So here when
Abraham, to whom God gave the promise of blessing the nation,
when he came back from the slaughter of the kings, there met him Melchizedek. And Melchizedek blessed him.
Melchizedek gave him bread and wine. That's a picture of the
Lord's table. Melchizedek didn't meet him with an animal sacrifice.
He met him with bread and wine and blessed him. And Abraham
gave tenth of everything or tribute to him, and Melchizedek disappeared. And Paul picks this thing up
and goes right on picturing it. Now let's see the next thing
in verse 4, the greatness of Melchizedek. Now watch this.
Now consider, first of all we consider who he is, king of righteousness,
king of Salem, king of peace, without mother, father, beginning
of days, end of life, so forth. Now consider, he said, how great
this man was. under whom even the patriarch
Abraham gave the tribute, or the tenth of the spoils. Now,
verily, they that 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 lorns of Abraham." In other words, it says here
the people of Israel paid tithes to the sons of Levi, the people
of Israel. They came out of the Lords of
Adam, of Abraham, and so did these priests. But these priests
were commissioned to represent them to God, so they took tribute
from the people, and they blessed the people. Are you with me?
That's what he's saying here. These priests were ordinary men
who were born from the Lords of Adam. These people were ordinary
people born, or Abraham, born from the Lords of Abraham. But
because of their designation as priests of God, these people
paid tribute to them, and these priests blessed these people.
All right, now notice the next verse. But he whose descent is
not counted from them, that is Melchizedek, he received tithes
of Abraham himself. And he blessed Abraham who had
the promises. And without contradiction, the
less is blessed of the greater. Here's what he's saying. The
people paid tithes to the sons of Levi, these priests, and they
blessed them. The priest came from Abraham
who blessed them. Jacob blessed the twelve sons.
Abraham blessed Jacob. But here he is saying Melchizedek
blessed them all. He blessed Abraham. Melchizedek
blessed Abraham. Abraham who had the promises.
Abraham from whom the priest came. Melchizedek blessed him. See what he's doing? He's showing
you the greatness. That's what he said in verse
4. Now consider how great this man was. That's what he's saying. Now consider how great. How infinitely
great. And here you take down here the
people, the special chosen people, the special designated priesthood,
the special designated Aaron, and then you've got Abraham,
and over all of them is Melchizedek. King of Righteousness, who blessed
them all, because the less is always blessed to the better.
And here, men that die, these priests receive tithes, but there,
he of whom it is witnessed that he liveth, and as I may say so,
Levi also, who received tithes, he paid tithes tribute to Melchizedek. For when Abraham met Melchizedek,
Levi was in his lord, and the whole shooting match paid tribute
to Melchizedek. They all paid tribute to Melchizedek.
All right, now verse 11. Let's see what Melchizedek's
appearance teaches us. Now this, get, I'm trying to
bring this down to where we live. You know who Melchizedek is,
and then he shows his greatness above all. Above the tabernacle
and above the sacrifices and above the earthly priesthood,
above Abraham. The less is always blessed to
the better. And Melchizedek blessed them all. Now therefore, verse
11, if therefore salvation, perfection, redemption 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
Abel? In other words, if salvation, redemption could be obtained,
if acceptance with God could be obtained, by laws and deeds
and works through these priests and through their forgiveness.
And you have the same thing going on today. You have people coming
into a booth and confessing their sins, and a man puts water on
them or gives them wine and a wafer and goes, if perfection can be
attained. They did this in the Old Testament.
Same thing. They went through the sacrifices
and the priesthood and all these things. If salvation, acceptance
with God, can be obtained through all of this ritualism and these
sacrifices and this praying and burning of incense and sprinkling
of water and all of this thing, then why was it necessary that
another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and
not even from these fellows? Why? Why, he said in verse 12,
the priesthood being changed, there's necessity of change also
of the law. For he of whom these things were
spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ came from another tribe. He came
from the tribe of Judah. And from the tribe of Judah,
nobody ever gave attendance at their altar. It is evident that
our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing
concerning the priesthood. Here's what he's saying to us.
It's evident, evident to me from the Scriptures from the failure
of the Levitical priesthood, from the presence of a priest
like Melchizedek, that the old law is so counseled, so put away,
that when God made his son a priest, he wouldn't even let him be from
the tribe of Levi. He picked him from the tribe
of Judah. Going to change the whole thing. The whole thing. You see, this Levitical law and
Levitical priesthood is nothing but a picture, and it's not even
a good picture. I shouldn't say it that way,
but it's really not. It's so infinitely beneath him, he's
so infinitely above it, that Almighty God just picked another
picture altogether. Melchizedek brought him out of
nowhere and set him down in front of Abraham and gave us a picture
of the priesthood of Christ. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
came into this earth, into this world, upon this earth, to show
how the old Levitical law was disannulled, that it was taken
away, that the new covenant was established with an eternal priesthood,
Christ wasn't even born of the tribe of Levi, he was born of
the tribe of Judah, and no priest had ever come to the tribe of
Judah. No priest ever. And look at verse 19. For the
law made nothing perfect. Turn to Hebrews 10. Let me show
you something here. You say, well, why did they offer
those sacrifices? Why did they go through those
ceremonies? Why did they keep those feast days? They were pictures
of Christ and His work. That's all they were. They were
pictures. Verse 1 of chapter 10. For the
law, having a shadow, And my friends, a shadow is an image
that precedes the reality or the substance. I stand here and
the light's behind me, there's my shadow. The shadow can give
you my form, sort of an image of what I'm like. But when I
come in, I don't need a shadow. You have the person. He says
the law is a shadow of good things to come, Christ who is to come.
And not the very image of those things can never, can never with
those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make
the comers there unto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered? If you could bring a sacrifice
in the hands of a priest that would effectually save a sinner
and put sin away, you wouldn't need to bring another one. For
sin purged is sin purged. Sin forgiven is sin forgiven. That's what he's saying. Because
the worshipers once purged, and last Sunday night I preached
on he himself, by himself, purged our sins. And the worshipers,
once purged, would have no more conscience of sin. No more. But in those sacrifices, in that
priesthood, there's a remembrance, there's a reminder, a reminder
made of sins every year, every year. It's still there, it's
still there, it's still there. This priesthood won't put it
away, this blood of animals won't put it away, for it is not possible
that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. Wherefore
when he comes into this world when he comes into the world
Christ is talking about Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not
But a body has thou prepared me no more Christ didn't go into
the temple Christ didn't take any animal blood Christ this
great high priest brought bread and wine He said my body is the is the
bread and my blood's the wine where the wine is my blood see
what I'm talking about Christ didn't come into this old tabernacle
down here on the earth and offer a sacrifice. He offered his own
bodily. He burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin. God has had no pleasure. God
has had no satisfaction. Then said our Lord, I come in
the volume of the book all the way through this book it's written
of me to do your will. Above, when he said, Sacrifice,
and offering, and burnt offering, and offering for sin, thou wouldst
not neither have pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will. He taketh away the
law. He taketh away the Levitical
law. He taketh away the Levitical priesthood. He taketh away the
sacrifices, the first, and establishes the second, by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. Once for all. Now watch this,
and this is what he's saying in the rest of chapter 7. All
these priests, and there were many of them, there were many
priests, Christ only one, there were many of them. Every priest
standeth, they always stood. There wasn't a chair in the tabernacle,
they never finished their work. They stand daily. They had the
morning, noon, and evening sacrifice, next day same thing, daily. Ministering
off and off at times the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sin. But this man, after he'd offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. I'll go back to Hebrews 4 a moment.
Alrighty, it says in verse 21, Verse 19, I read, The law made
nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope, that is,
Christ and His sacrifice. He made some things perfect.
He perfected forever them that are sanctified. The law made
nothing perfect. Christ made us perfect. By the
witch we draw nigh to God, by Christ. And inasmuch as not without
an oath, He was made a priest. And these Old Testament priests
were made without an oath. But this priest with an oath
by Him that said, You're not a priest like Alan. There were
many of them, you're one. They were frail men with infirmities,
you're perfect. They offered animal sacrifice,
you offer yourself. They ministered in a tabernacle
made with hands, Christ in heaven itself. Their sacrifices could
never put away sin, yours does. They died. They had a short priesthood
and died. You ever lived. You see, they
couldn't represent Christ effectively. Verse 23, And this their tutor
were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue
by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost that come to God by him, seeing he
ever liveth, he ever liveth, to make intercession for them.
Does that help you? I hope that's helpful. And that's
the reason I say in closing, if we can see this, if we can
see the person of Christ, the glory of Christ, the effectual,
sufficient work of Christ, the ever-present, ever-present intercession
of Christ, that God is reconciled to me through Christ. that He
hears me, my very existence is permitted because of Christ.
Every blessing is because of Christ. You see, there's no way
I can touch God, communicate with God, there's no way that
God can suffer me to even call His name because of my sin. In the flesh no man can please
God, but we have a living eternal high praise from eternity to
eternity. And it's not And what he's saying
here in Hebrews 7 is this priesthood of the sons of Levi and Aaron,
it just couldn't effectively picture the work of Christ. And
so many reasons, these men, many of them, they lived, they died,
they had infirmities, they went through a ritual, had animal
blood, and all these things. And it's just so God, right here
in Genesis 14, in the early days of the world, He brought out
Melchizedek. Who's Melchizedek? without beginning
or end, without mother or father, having no pedigree, an eternal
priesthood, Son of God. That's my priest. That's my priest. And all the mechanics of religion
won't do. I've got to have Him. Seeing
we have a high priest over the house of God, let us therefore
come boldly before the throne of grace. that we may find mercy
and grace to help in time of need. I hope it's been helpful.
And go back and read it again. And I've got a Sunday school
lesson on that Hebrew 7 that I'd love for you to get out of
your files and read it again on that, because I do say, I
really believe, Ron, if we get a hold of that right there, if
we can get a hold of the Melchizedek picture of Christ, I just believe
it makes all the difference in the world in our assurance, in
our prayers, in our worship, in our confidence, in our message,
in everything. Because it's a perfect picture
of our Lord. Let's pray together. Our Father,
for your Word, we thank you. How beautiful is thy Word, and how complete,
and how rich, and what a unit all the way through. We see the
unity of the Word, that the Word is one without contradiction. And how you've pictured for us
all the way through the Word, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He is our prophet, priest, and king. He is our atonement, our
sacrifice, our sin offering. He is our surety, our savior,
our substitute. He's all things. our Creator
and our King, our Lord, our Messiah, our Master. Everything is in
Christ, all and in all. In Christ is neither male nor
female, Jew nor Gentile, circumcision nor uncircumcision, but Christ
is all and in all. And if we can honor the Son and
believe on the Son and look to the Son and rest in the Son and
build upon Christ and have Christ By the power of our Spirit revealed
to our hearts, He promised he that hath the
Son hath life. So reveal Christ to us. Make
this message a blessing. Use it for whatever it pleaseth
thee. For the glory of Christ we pray.
Amen.