[0:00] We're now going to turn to the letter to the Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. And we're going to read the first few verses. For this Melchizedek king of Salem priest of the Most High God met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him.
[0:27] And to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first by translation of his name King of Righteousness, and then he is also King of Salem, that is, King of Peace.
[0:43] He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever.
[0:53] See how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils. And those descendant of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descendants from Abraham, and so on.
[1:17] And we want to take some thoughts from the beginning of these verses that we read together.
[1:28] And we're continuing what we begun last night to look at this man, Melchizedek. And last night we saw that the priesthood of Melchizedek was a universal priesthood.
[1:48] It wasn't confined to a particular nation like the priesthood of Aaron that was confined to the nation of Israel. And we saw that it was a priesthood that came at least 400 years before the institution of the priesthood was established through Moses.
[2:18] We also saw that Melchizedek was of royalty. He was a king. Now, a king and a priest occupying these two offices together was something that was impossible under the Aaronic order of the priesthood.
[2:44] Nobody from the tribe of Levi could be a king, and nobody from the tribe of Judah could be a priest.
[2:55] But we saw that the Lord Jesus Christ occupies both of these offices. And we considered that Melchizedek was a king long before God, who anointed David to be the king of Israel, established his kingdom in Jerusalem.
[3:19] So God had a king in Jerusalem long before King David conquered it and established his throne there. So he was the king of Salem.
[3:34] And as we mentioned last night, it later became known as Jerusalem. Jerusalem. And Jerusalem, the new Jerusalem, is the people of God.
[3:48] Now, this evening, we want to consider looking at this man, Melchizedek, who was a type of Christ. And we want to consider, first of all, that he was the king of righteousness and of peace.
[4:04] We're told here that his name signifies the king of righteousness. And we're told also that Salem means peace.
[4:20] So Melchizedek was a type of the righteousness of Christ and the peace that the Lord Jesus Christ has secured for his people.
[4:33] And that's what every good king strove for. They strove that things would be done right in their kingdom.
[4:46] And they strove for peace to reign in their kingdom. That's surely what every good governor or every good king would seek for the nation that they're leading.
[4:59] And we see that this is what the name of Melchizedek signifies. He is the king of righteousness.
[5:12] And he is the king over Jerusalem. And Jerusalem means peace. And we need righteousness if we're going to be accepted before God.
[5:31] Because it's only as we're accepted before God that we're going to experience peace. We cannot experience peace if we're still living lives of unrighteousness.
[5:48] In other words, if we're still living in sin, then we cannot experience peace with God for as long as we remain in that state.
[5:59] What is sin? Well, sin is disobedience, both outwardly and inwardly, towards God.
[6:11] And if we've got any sense of our own nature, we would have to confess that we sin outwardly and that we sin inwardly, daily, against God.
[6:29] So it's a problem. And it's a problem that needs to be rectified if we're going to experience the peace of God. So how can it be rectified?
[6:42] Well, we learn that a man once asked the Lord Jesus Christ the question, what must I do to work the work of God?
[6:53] And the response that Jesus gave is quite a simple response. Believe in Him whom He has sent. And if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as Jesus Himself said, then we will receive the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[7:14] And once we receive the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God grants us the peace that we have with God.
[7:30] We cannot have peace unless we are righteous before God. And if we receive this righteousness by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then we have peace.
[7:43] Now every high priest surely wanted the people to be righteous. And surely the desire of every good high priest was that the people would experience peace.
[8:02] Peace first and foremostly with God. But the problem under the Aaronic order is that the blood of bulls and of goats cannot take away our sin.
[8:23] The high priest continually had to offer up these sacrifices. But this Melchizedek that's been spoken of here by the apostle, whose very name signifies righteousness and the city that he ruled over signifies peace.
[8:45] Now, the Holy Spirit isn't dealing with the personal characteristics of Melchizedek himself. He's dealing with Melchizedek as a type of Christ.
[8:58] And if we understand what Melchizedek was bringing before the people, we understand that we need this righteousness in order to experience peace with God.
[9:19] And the person that Melchizedek was resembling, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the only one that can give us that righteousness because he has earned that righteousness for his people.
[9:37] Freely offered to us, but he had to purchase it. And he purchased it with the highest price that could possibly be paid.
[9:48] He purchased it with his own blood. He was willing to give his own life so that we might have peace with God.
[10:00] And when we have peace with God, we have communion with God. And this is surely what the sacrament brings before us. This is what we're reminded of every time that we partake of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
[10:17] That our standing with God is not dependent upon us because our righteousness, even our best righteousness, is as filthy rags before God.
[10:31] But the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is without spot and without blemish. And if we're coming trusting in him rather than trusting in ourselves, then we are righteous in the eyes of God.
[10:49] And if we're righteous in the eyes of God, we have peace. And we will have communion with God. Not just when we partake of the sacrament.
[11:00] It's something that we should experience daily. Peace with God. And this is what we should be praying for. One of the psalmists is exhorting us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
[11:18] And we are desiring that for the church because Jesus is praying that for the church. And if we're looking to the one that Melchizedek was the type of, the one who resembled the Son of God, then we will have the blessings that we so desperately need.
[11:44] We will be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, which Melchizedek's name signified. And we will experience the peace which Salem or Jerusalem signified.
[12:02] The second thing that we want to consider is that Melchizedek's priesthood was not hereditary. He has no record of genealogy.
[12:17] And the priesthood of Israel was entirely dependent upon genealogy. It was hereditary.
[12:32] Because nobody could become a priest except those who belonged to the tribe of Levi. No other person from any of the other tribes could possibly be a priest in Israel.
[12:52] You had to be of the tribe of Levi. Not only that, but your wife also had to be of the tribe of Levi.
[13:04] Levi. She had to have the same pedigree as the priests. There's an interesting incident recorded for us in the book of Ezra, which we read of some of the priests being put out of the priesthood because their wives couldn't prove prove their genealogy descending from the tribe of Levi.
[13:35] And because their wives couldn't prove that they were descendants of the tribes of Levi, then the priests who may have proved that they were from the tribe of Levi were put out of the priesthood.
[13:53] Because not only was it required that they would be Levites, it was required that they married Levites. So we see that the priesthood of Israel had nothing to do with qualification or suitability.
[14:11] It was all down to genealogy, hereditary. Now in contrast, Melchizedek was without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God, he continues a priest forever.
[14:37] That's what we read there in verse 3. So what does it mean that he had no genealogy? Well, we've already considered and dismissed the various theories that have been suggested down through the years as to who this man Melchizedek was.
[14:59] That he may have been an angel, that he may have been Christ himself, that it was a Christophany, and that he appeared in the form of man. But we looked at that last night and dismissed these theories.
[15:16] So how do we understand the Holy Spirit telling us here that he had no genealogy? Because the priests in Israel had to prove their genealogy in order to be priests.
[15:33] Well, where the Scripture says nothing, we're to assume nothing. What am I meaning by that?
[15:47] What am I suggesting? Well, I'm suggesting that the Holy Spirit deliberately has not told us the genealogy of Melchizedek.
[16:03] He's silent on it. And there's a reason for him being silent on it. Because we can learn as much from his silence as what has been revealed.
[16:24] The writer is saying that from the silence of Scripture about his mother or his father, it's not saying that he didn't have a mother or father. But the silence of Scripture concerning that is that we are to treat Melchizedek as though he was a man with no mother or father or genealogy.
[16:53] Now, to introduce a priest with no genealogy is a reversal of the rules and the requirement of the Levitical or the Aaronic priesthood, which the Jews were so familiar with.
[17:10] But it's recorded in Scripture that he was there, this man, Melchizedek, that he met with Abraham as we considered last night and that Abraham recognized him as the priest of the Most High God and that he was a priest of the Most High God long before the Aaronic or the Levitical priesthood was instituted because it wasn't instituted for a further 400 years after the time of Abraham.
[17:55] So here we have a high priest of God long before it was instituted for the nation of Israel. So he was long before they started having high priests because there was no nation.
[18:10] They weren't a people at the time that Abraham met with Melchizedek. Now just as Melchizedek had no father or mother or genealogy, neither did the Lord Jesus Christ in his ultimate origin.
[18:31] Yes, we know that in the Gospels we have his genealogy when he became incarnate and born to the Virgin Mary.
[18:43] But he pre-existed his incarnation. He pre-existed having humanity.
[18:56] John begins his Gospel with the words in the beginning was the Word. the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
[19:10] Whenever the beginning was, Jesus was. He was eternally begotten of the Father. In other words, there was no time that he wasn't the Son of the Father.
[19:28] the Father was never without the Son. He was always there in the beginning. Well, where does the beginning of eternity begin?
[19:42] It's eternal. He is eternally begotten of the Father. So, he pre-existed his incarnations. Yes, his incarnation.
[19:55] Not his incarnation. incarnation. Taking to himself, yes, incarnation. I'm getting mixed up here in my mind. Trying to focus on something as to where I'm going next with this.
[20:10] Because this isn't a natural generation. In a natural generation, a father cannot be a father without having a son or a daughter.
[20:26] because the father precedes a child. But there was never a time in the experience of the Godhead where the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit did not exist together.
[20:47] They were always one. so he preexisted his incarnation, eternally begotten of the father.
[21:00] He was without father, without mother. He had no genealogy. So you couldn't go back to a time and eternity and say, this is when the son came into existence.
[21:14] because he was always there. He was in the beginning. So he had a preexistence and Melchizedek typified this and that's the reason that the Holy Spirit was silent concerning his genealogy because he wanted to present Melchizedek as close as a type of Christ as possible.
[21:41] and that's why it's not recorded. The scriptures are silent concerning his father and his mother.
[21:54] And he says that he resembled the son of God by continuing as a priest forever. Again, the argument is from silence because the scripture doesn't tell us when he was born.
[22:11] Because he would have been born. It was Melchizedek. He was a man as we saw last night. Because every high priest was taken from among men as the author of the Hebrews tell us.
[22:29] So he would have had a birth and he would have had a death but he doesn't record his death either. The scripture is silent.
[22:40] Why is the scripture silent? Well he doesn't give us the spirit doesn't give us details of his birth, his genealogy or his death because it's the silence on these things that make him a type of Christ.
[23:00] Because the Lord Jesus Christ did not in his divine nature have a birth death. And he had no genealogy and in his divine nature he didn't have a death because God cannot die.
[23:22] Yes we know that he died in his human nature and that his human nature was attached to his person and we can say that the person died but we cannot say that his divine nature died.
[23:42] And Melchizedek perfectly typifies that and that's why we have silence concerning his birth, his death and his genealogy.
[23:53] because he was to be used as a type of Christ. And the next thing that we want to consider is that Melchizedek's priesthood is eternal.
[24:11] No, I'm not suggesting for one moment that Melchizedek is still alive and that he is still a high priest for God.
[24:21] what I'm suggesting is that the text says that he had no beginning and no end. Oops.
[24:37] And that's typically speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having neither beginning of days nor end of life but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.
[24:58] In chapter 5 and in chapter 6 this is repeated. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
[25:12] Now in view of the fact that there is no record of his death he appears as if he's still alive because we're not told that he died.
[25:24] And that's exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to convey. The idea that he is still alive although obviously he is not alive.
[25:37] But in order to resemble the Son of God he continues a priest forever. That's why we're not told that he died. Now in verses 24 and 25 we read that he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.
[25:59] Consequently he is able to save to the other most those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them.
[26:11] So Melchizedek gives us a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a type of Christ. Now a picture of a person is not the person and we considered that last night that Melchizedek was not the Son of God.
[26:32] He was a picture of the Son of God and like I said a picture is not the person. It gives us an idea of what the person is like but a picture is a picture.
[26:47] It's not a person. It's something to give us an idea of what the person that's been spoken of may look like. And that's exactly what Melchizedek was.
[27:01] And as we considered last night also, the Holy Spirit is wanting us to see the superiority of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ over the Aaronic priesthood because, as we mentioned, he's seeking to convince these Jews that Jesus is far superior to anything that they had under the old dispensation.
[27:39] that the priesthood that the Lord Jesus Christ has is far superior to the Aaronic priesthood.
[27:50] And the only thing that comes anything close to giving us a picture of that is the Melchizedek priesthood who resembled, who was a picture, who typified what the Lord Jesus Christ was like, far better than the Aaronic priesthood.
[28:11] Because he's not a priest for one nation. Melchizedek was not a priest for one nation.
[28:23] As we saw, he has a universal priesthood. And the Lord Jesus Christ is not prevented from also occupying the office of a king along with the office of the high priesthood, just as Melchizedek typified.
[28:50] And the Lord Jesus Christ is not a priest as a result of belonging to the tribe of Levi, because he didn't belong to the tribe of Levi.
[29:02] He belonged to the tribe of Judah. But he was God's chosen high priest. He was the Lord's anointed. And his priesthood is not limited by time.
[29:18] It's an eternal priesthood. It's a priesthood that continues forever. after the order of Melchizedek.
[29:31] So Jesus Christ stands forever as a priest. He is living. The one who died is alive.
[29:45] He's at the right hand of God, ever living and making intercession for sinners such as you and I who seek to come to God through him because we believe that he's able to save to the uttermost.
[30:04] Christ. And just one final point I want to bring before you. And that is that Melchizedek was greater than Abraham.
[30:20] Now, for the apostle to suggest this to these converted Jews shows you just how far he was prepared to go, running the risk of offending them, just to prove to them the superiority of Christ over everything that they knew of from their history and from the ceremonies that they were engaged in, in seeking to worship God.
[30:57] Because Abraham was highly esteemed. He was their father. He was the patriarch.
[31:12] And that's what patriarch means. Patriarch is made up of two Greek words. Arch is, it means first, and patri means father, the first father.
[31:26] He is the first father of their faith. Now, for the Jews, there was nobody higher than Abraham. They were proud to claim that they were the children of Abraham.
[31:43] And they contended with the Lord Jesus Christ over that point. For them, he was the greatest man.
[31:53] But the apostle tells the seer, see how great this man was, referring to Melchizedek, to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils.
[32:08] The point he's making is that you think Abraham was great, while Melchizedek was greater still. But you don't give him the same respect as you give to Abraham.
[32:23] Yet Abraham himself gave him that respect. He recognized him as the priest of God Most High. And he gave him what was due to him as the priest of God Most High.
[32:41] He gave him a tenth of the spoils. Now, the word spoils is also made up of two words. agron, meaning the highest point, and phun.
[32:57] It's taken from the Greek word agrophunion. And phun means heap. So, what he's saying is when he says that he gave him a tenth of the agrophunion, or translated a tenth of the spoils, is that he gave him the top of the heap.
[33:23] He gave him a tenth of the best that he had. He gave him from the top stuff. He gave him the best.
[33:37] Now, remember when God was displeased with his people in the book of Malachi, it was because they were bringing their sick animals as sacrifices.
[33:52] The worst that they had. Now, they were required to give him the best of what they had. And God was displeased with them because of the disrespect that they were showing him.
[34:11] And bringing these sick animals to the priests to offer up as sacrifices. They were disrespecting the priests and they were disrespecting God.
[34:24] And they were being chastened as a result of that. But that's not how Abraham dealt with God's high priest, the man Melchizedek that he met with.
[34:38] he gave him a tenth of the top stuff that he possessed or that he had taken as spoils.
[34:49] Now, the fact that Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth of the best that he had magnifies Melchizedek's greatness over and above his own.
[35:05] And the apostle goes on to show that in verse 7. It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.
[35:18] And that's because Melchizedek had blessed Abraham. He pronounced God's blessing on Abraham before Abraham gave him the tenth.
[35:32] Abraham, the father of our faith, gave respect to this man Melchizedek because he was a type of God's high priest who was to come.
[35:51] The one who would secure for us all the promises that he had given to Abraham. And Abraham was in possession of these promises.
[36:01] Yet, this high priest was superior to Abraham. And Abraham recognized that.
[36:14] And the question for us is, do we recognize the superiority of Jesus over everything and everybody in this world?
[36:28] Do we put Jesus first and foremost in all lives? Do we give him the preeminence? Do we give him the honor and the recognition that he deserves?
[36:44] Are we ashamed to profess him? Are we ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because if we're professing him, that's what we're claiming.
[36:57] We're claiming that we believe that he's the one that has secured our righteousness, that he is the only one that can give us peace with God, that's made it possible for us to have communion with God.
[37:15] That's what we're outwardly professing. God's love. But are we experiencing it? Is that how we're living our lives?
[37:29] And it's relatively easy for us to come forward and to partake of the sacrament and to fulfill that part of our profession.
[37:43] But are we really giving him the preeminence? Are we giving him the best that we can give him? As Abraham gave to Melchizedek.
[37:54] He gave him the top stuff, the very best that he could give. And that's what Jesus requires of us, that we don't put anybody or anything before him, but that we put him first in every aspect of our lives, not just in the parts that's easy for us to do, but in every aspect.
[38:25] And if we are putting him first, and if we are willing to give obedience to him, and if we are willing to publicly profess him and not be ashamed of him, then he assures us that if we are not ashamed of him before men, he will not be ashamed of us before God.
[38:49] But the consequence of not professing him before men is that he will not profess us before God.
[39:04] We've been reminded by his death of the sacrifice that he was willing to make so that we may have life. Are we entering into that life?
[39:19] Are we continually growing in our knowledge of God and in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because that's the work that Jesus is praying for.
[39:32] he's praying that we will continue to be sanctified by his truth. That his truth will have an effect on the way that we live our lives.
[39:45] And that his truth will give us the desire to be holy as he is holy. And that we will demonstrate the righteousness that he's imputed to us by the righteousness of the way that we live our lives.
[40:02] Because that's what it actually is. To be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. We will be written epistles. We will be seen and read by all men that we are the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[40:21] And others should be able to see from us that we have been in the company of Jesus because of the effect that he has on our lives.
[40:35] Well, as we come together at the Lord's table tomorrow, may we indeed experience the blessing of the high priest of God most high being bestowed upon us.
[40:50] And as a result of that, the blessing that was bestowed on Abraham, he then gave God's high priest the very best that he could give.
[41:03] May we be encouraged if we are blessed by God's high priest to give him the very best that we can possibly give him.
[41:15] May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come before you to acknowledge that we are at times disobedient children, and that we rightly deserve to be chastened, but we're thankful that your word reveals to us that you only chasten those whom you love.
[41:43] And we're thankful that you have set your love upon us, and that you have demonstrated that to us by the way that you have been patient in revealing yourself to us through the various ways that you have used down through the years in order to reveal yourself until the coming of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ into this world, who came to reveal the Father to us.
[42:13] Lord, help us as we come to partake of the sacrament that reminds us of the standing that we have before you, that's been made possible for us by the Lord Jesus Christ, that we would indeed be blessed as we partake of the elements that remind us of this, and that it would be indeed a blessing that would encourage us to give us the very best that we can give you, and that we would be prepared to sacrifice our whole bodies as living sacrifices unto you, which is only our reasonable service.
[42:57] Lead us to these ends. Have mercy upon us for our sins, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to conclude by singing in Psalm 110 on page 149.
[43:14] And we're going to sing from the beginning of the psalm.
[43:28] The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your foes a stool on which your feet may stand. The Lord will make your reign extend from Sion Hill with royal power.
[43:43] you'll roll among those who oppose your will. Down to the end of verse 4. The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand.
[43:54] right hand. The Lord said to my Lord, sit here at my right hand until I make your foes a stool on which your feet may stand.
[44:22] hand. The Lord will make your way extend from Sion Hill with royal power you'll rule among those who oppose your will.
[44:51] When you display your power your people talk to you at!
[45:07] God will like you will come! Sion come you!
[45:19] Unchangeably the Lord with soul and purpose for just like men his give you are a peace forever more!
[45:47] Now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, rest and abide with you all, now and forevermore.
[46:02] Amen. Amen.