A Priest Perpetually-Hebrews 7:1-3

Kootenai Church

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And with your Bibles turned open to Hebrews chapter seven, let us open with a word of prayer.

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Our Father, we have sung to you praise that you are worthy of, and we have expressed our confidence in the high priesthood of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and the righteousness that is ours because of his work on the cross on our behalf, because of his holiness, because he lives forever and ever lives to make intercession for all who come to him.

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We can say these things and sing these things with confidence. Because you have effected salvation and made it not just available to us, but effective to us.

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You have caused us to be born again. You have opened our hearts and our eyes. You have drawn us to your son. You have done all of these things by your grace, by your sovereign power, so that we might be redeemed and sing your praise.

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And we are grateful for that. And we thank you for your word, that not only having saved us, that you sanctify us by your word.

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And we pray that you would bless our time of study and meditation and reflection this morning, that what I say might be clear and that you would be honored and glorified through the proclamation of your word today.

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And may it find a place in our hearts to comfort and encourage us, to exhort us, to convict us and to assure us of who our

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Christ is and what he has done. Be glorified, we ask in his name, amen. Before we get started,

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I'm getting some ringing up here. Is that just me or is everybody's ears ringing? Oh, Nate's got it. Okay, very good.

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Hebrews chapter seven, let's read the first three verses together. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the

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Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also

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Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all by the translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

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Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually.

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Hebrews chapter seven is one of the chapters or passages in scripture that if it were our pattern to take a topical approach to preaching, this is one of those passages that we would just conveniently skip over.

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And of course, if we were just topically preaching around the New Testament, however we wanted to, whatever subject came up and presented itself to my fertile imagination, then we would never even know that I skipped

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Hebrews chapter seven. But when you're going through the book of Hebrews, it's very difficult, and you get to the end of Hebrews chapter six, if we were to just jump over into Hebrews chapter eight, without mentioning

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Melchizedek, some of you would notice that. Even if you were gone the particular Sunday before that, you'd say, you know, it's not

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Jim's pattern to really take a whole chapter in one Sunday. It seems like we've missed something. And if it were our pattern or our practice to simply jump around scripture like that,

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I don't know that Hebrews chapter seven is one that I would jump to or skip to any time in your lifetime, no matter how young you are.

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This is a difficult passage. It is a difficult, there's some difficult interpretive issues that come up, and it has required us to, even last

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Sunday, to take a brief break, and to address the subject of types and typology.

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And I told you two weeks ago that if you weren't interested in types and typology, that last

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Sunday was the Sunday to miss. Some of you might have missed that. If you did, and you took advantage of that, great, but you're gonna be somewhat lost today, because you're not gonna have any idea how it is that we are to approach types and typology.

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And one of the things I said to you is that we know something is a type of Christ, or a representation of Christ from the

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Old Testament. We know this definitively if the New Testament identifies or designates it as a type.

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If the New Testament does not say this is a type of Christ, then we are on shaky ground at best, and I would suggest not even to step on that ground, to say that such and such, or so and so, is a type of X, Y, and Z.

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If the New Testament says it is a type, then it's a type. We go beyond that, then again, we're stuck in this, we're stuck in the imagination of the interpreter, the reader response hermeneutic, where we see something that has similarities, and we say, well,

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I think that that's a type, and we don't want to do that. Well, Melchizedek is designated as somebody who resembles the

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Lord Jesus Christ. We see that in verse three, he is made like unto the Son of God, and the author of Hebrews now sees in Melchizedek from Genesis chapter 14 and Psalm 110 verse four, those two places where Melchizedek is mentioned in the

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Old Testament, he sees in Melchizedek these parallels between Melchizedek and Christ. And in verses one and two, we looked at the things that are specifically described regarding Melchizedek from Genesis 14, and we saw that those certain things the author of Hebrews identifies as being parallel to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, or a type resembling Christ. And what were those things? He is a king, he is a priest, he ruled in Jerusalem.

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He had both of those offices at the same time, by the way. He ruled in Jerusalem, he was righteous, he was appointed a priest, and he ruled in Jerusalem, which meant peace.

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And so Melchizedek's character, his qualifications, the offices that he hold, they all anticipate somebody who would come who would be like that, but on a higher level, in a greater way, be

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Melchizedek, but to the nth degree, who would do what Melchizedek did. He would hold those two offices.

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He would be righteous, he would reign in peace, he would rule over Jerusalem. All those things that Melchizedek foreshadowed, the

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Old Testament saints were waiting for this one who would come and who would be a priest on his throne, who would rule in Jerusalem in peace and righteousness, and he'd bring righteousness to the nations.

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He would fulfill all the Old Testament descriptions of the Messiah and all the promises regarding the Messiah. The Old Testament saints were waiting for that, anticipating that, they were looking for one who was very much like Melchizedek, but greater.

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We looked at that in verses one and two. Now we come to verse three. Now we come to verse three where the author of Hebrews sees more similarities to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, but these similarities are not in the things specifically mentioned about Melchizedek, these are in the things not mentioned about Melchizedek.

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So here the inspired author in the New Testament, the author of Hebrews, takes the white spaces of the

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Old Testament and he says these specific things are not mentioned regarding Melchizedek. Those things he draws out of the text to show that even in what is not described regarding Melchizedek, those things themselves are also like Jesus Christ.

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His mother is not mentioned, his father is not mentioned, his genealogy is not given, he's not said when he was born, it's not said when he dies.

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These things resemble the Lord Jesus Christ, the author says. So verse three is all about the things about Melchizedek that are not described in the

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Old Testament. The inspired, and I say this again, the inspired author of the New Testament is able to take the things that are not mentioned and draw the similarities there.

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That is what you and I cannot do, and if this hasn't occurred to you just yet, I will just say this right now. You and I are not free to take the white spaces of scripture and build doctrine off of them.

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The author of Hebrews can do that. We're not free to take Joseph and say, here's a bunch of things that are not mentioned about Joseph and the things that are not mentioned about Joseph, that's how he's like Christ.

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Or to take Moses and say a lot of stuff that the scripture doesn't say about Moses, here's how all of those things that the scripture doesn't say about Moses are also like Jesus.

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We're not free to do that. There is one person who was free to do that, it's the author of Hebrews, because he was writing by inspiration of the spirit of God, and so that's exactly what he does in verse three.

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Now, with all of that background and recap and little stuff that we haven't had yet, let's jump in at verse three and see what

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Melchizedek, sorry, what the author of Hebrews says regarding Melchizedek. Let's read verse three again together. He is without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the

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Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. Now, these things that he says, that he's without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, and being a perpetual priest, these things are not literally true of Melchizedek.

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I've had some folks ask me over the course of the last few weeks, what do you make of the fact, if Melchizedek is not a pre -incarnate appearance of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, what do you make of the fact that it says he is without father and without mother? In what way is he without father and without mother?

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The author here is noting what is not recorded of Melchizedek, these things are not established of Melchizedek, these things are not in the book of Genesis, and they are significant for a couple of different reasons.

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And here is why the author of Hebrews is able to point to these things by inspiration of the spirit.

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He sees in the way that Melchizedek is described in Genesis 14, he sees there intentionally things that the spirit of God does not mention about Melchizedek, which are also parallel to the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And the way that Melchizedek appears on the scene without reference to a father or a mother, and without any kind of a listing of his genealogy, these things are significant for a couple of reasons, and here are the reasons.

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Number one, because of the genre and the context in which Melchizedek appears in Genesis chapter 14.

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You read through the book of Genesis, and you read through the first 13 all the way to the appearance of Melchizedek in chapter 14.

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And I ask you this, do you think that Moses, in writing Genesis, shied away from genealogies?

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You get that impression? Some of you are like, no, man, that's what bogs me down, is I get to chapter five and there's a genealogy, and I don't know what to make of that, a bunch of names that I can't read and can't pronounce, and I don't want to pronounce, so I just let my eyes kind of gloss over as I'm going through the genealogy, and I get to the table of nations in Genesis 10, and I still don't know what to make of that.

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In Genesis 11, the genealogy's tracing who comes from Noah and Noah's descendants and all of that, and again, a bunch of names that I can't pronounce, nothing easy like Cheddar Lamer.

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You don't get any kind of names like that that you can pronounce easily, so you just let your eyes kind of gloss over, and you kind of get lost in some of the details of the genealogy.

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You know, if you've read through the book of Genesis, that Moses does not shy away from genealogies. In fact, Moses goes out of his way, he goes the extra mile to make sure that he traces the genealogy to the minutest detail of every significant figure in the book of Genesis, every last one of them, except one.

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Who is it? Melchizedek. You're reading through the book of Genesis, and genealogy, okay, genealogy, table of nations, genealogy, got it all the way here, and then on the scene, shows up this one, this character, who is a king over Jerusalem, and a priest of the

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Most High God, to whom Abraham, the one who received the promise, gives tithes, and this one blesses

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Abraham, and there is no mention of his mother, his father, or his genealogy. Do you know how odd that is to a

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Jew, to read of a priest whose genealogy is not only not mentioned, but it is not even considered in Scripture?

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That was so rare, so odd. Moses doesn't shy away from genealogies. In fact,

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Moses uses genealogies to do three different things, to date certain events from the creation of the world, you can do that, you can trace the genealogies, and say, so many years after the creation, the flood came, so many years after the flood,

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Abraham came, so many years after Abraham, David came, in the book of Genesis, the author uses those genealogies to date certain events and certain personages from the time of creation, all the way through the flood, and to Abraham, and to the children of Israel, going into Egypt, into bondage in Egypt.

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So he does use his genealogies to trace, or to chronology certain events, to time certain events.

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He uses it a second way, genealogies a second way, and that is to give the history of the nations. He does this in Genesis chapter 10, to show how

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God scattered the nations after the flood at the Tower of Babel, and where they were dispersed, and where they went, who was the head over all of these various nations, to show you how the nations came to be, and where they were at in their various localities.

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Moses does that. And he uses genealogies in the book of Genesis to trace God's promise of redemption, from Genesis chapter three, verse 15, when

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God said the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent, and bring redemption, and overcome the curse that God gave on Adam and Eve, and creation, and the serpent, because of the rebellion in the garden.

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And that that promise is given, that the head of the serpent would be crushed by the seed of the woman.

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Moses traces the lineage through which that promise would be fulfilled. It wasn't just any seed of any woman.

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It came through Noah, but Noah had three sons, so which of his three sons would that descendant come from? It wasn't

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Japheth, and it wasn't Ham, it was Shem. And so Shem becomes the one through whom that promise would be fulfilled, but Shem had lots of descendants, and lots of children, but there was one specific one,

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Abraham. But Abraham had two sons. Would it be Isaac, or would it be Ishmael? It would be Isaac. He was the son of promise, not

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Ishmael. But Isaac had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Which one would it be, Jacob or Esau? Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated, but Jacob had 12 sons.

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Which of those 12 sons would be the one through whom the seed would come? Well, it wouldn't be any of the other tribes except for Judah.

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He is the one whom Jacob gives in the blessing, the promise that the ruler would not depart from the tribe of Judah.

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So this ruler would come through the tribe of Judah. But Judah had lots of descendants, and lots of children. You follow the genealogies on.

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Which one of them would it be? It would come from the line of David specifically. So you can see in scripture how this promise gets narrowed, and narrowed, and narrowed down.

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We needed a Messiah who would come from David's line, from the tribe of Judah, the son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the descendant of Shem, who came from Noah, who went all the way back to Adam.

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That was the Savior that we needed. And Moses uses genealogies to trace all of those significant details in the redemptive history of God's plan all the way through Genesis.

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And then you get to Genesis chapter 14, and you notice one guy without any genealogy whatsoever. And that is significant.

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It's significant just in the way that his genealogy is omitted. That's significant.

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It stands out. It's significant for another reason, and that is because for priests in the

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Old Testament, in the Jewish, Levitical, Mosaic covenant system, for priests, genealogy was everything.

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It wasn't just something, it was everything. Everything came down to your genealogy. It was of utmost importance.

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Any priest had to be able to trace their lineage, not just back to the tribe of Levi, but specifically to the family of Aaron.

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And to serve as a priest, you had to be able to produce your unimpeachable lineage, genealogical credentials to show that you came and went all the way back to the line of Levi in the family specifically of Aaron.

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You had to be able to demonstrate that. In fact, there is an interesting episode when the children of Israel coming out of the captivity in Babylon, and Nehemiah has gone back to rebuild the wall, and Ezra has gone back to reinstitute the priesthood, and Zerubbabel has gone back to rebuild the temple.

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In Ezra chapter two, we find that the descendants from Aaron who were priests, who thought they were priests, or claimed to be priests, they were coming back to Jerusalem, and they were volunteering and coming up to serve on the part of the priesthood.

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And Ezra chapter two, verse 62, after naming a bunch of these unpronounceable names like we like to see in the

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Old Testament, a bunch of the unpronounceable names, Ezra chapter two, verse 62 says, these priests could not trace their genealogy back to the family of Aaron, so they were excluded from the priesthood.

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You could be the most godly man in the nation of Israel. You could have an impeccable spiritual track record.

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You could be looked up to and admired by everybody. You could know everything there is to know about the priesthood, but if you could not prove that you came from the lineage of Aaron, you could not serve as a priest.

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The Old Testament priesthood, genealogy and lineage, it was everything. It all had to come back to that.

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Your mother, not only did you have to be able to trace your father back to Aaron's line, but an

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Old Testament priest under the Mosaic Covenant had to be an Israelite, and that mother could not have been an immoral woman.

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She had to be a pure woman, who was a virgin when she was married to her husband, and your mother had to be pure, and your father had to be from Aaron.

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Those were the requirements, and yet you read of this priest in the Old Testament, his name is Melchizedek. Is his father mentioned?

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Doesn't matter. His mother, do we know anything about Melchizedek's mother? Nothing. Without father, without mother, that's what the author is indicating.

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It is not that Melchizedek did not have a father or a mother, he did, but it's that in terms of his priesthood, his mother and his father were irrelevant to his office and ability to serve as a priest.

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That is what the author of Hebrews is highlighting. Now, in many ways, there is something similar about the Lord Jesus Christ, but before I get to that, notice he says without father, without mother, and without genealogy.

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Now, was Melchizedek without a genealogy? These are the things that people point to that say these things indicate that Melchizedek was a pre -incarnate appearance of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think he was, he was an ordinary man, but his genealogy is not recorded. Neither his mother nor his father's names were given.

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That's what is significant. It's not that he didn't have them, it's that they're not recorded. You know how I know that Melchizedek had a genealogy?

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Look at verse six of chapter seven. Let me turn there myself.

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Chapter six, verse six of chapter seven, but the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tent from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

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So Melchizedek did have a genealogy. It's just that it's not traced from Abraham. That's the point. In terms of his office as a priest or as a king of Jerusalem, his genealogy is irrelevant.

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It has no bearing upon his ability to serve as a priest, Melchizedek. The Lord Jesus Christ in the same way.

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His genealogy has no bearing upon his ability to serve as a high priest. Now there is a sense in which

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Jesus was without a father and was without a mother, and I owe this observation to John Owen in his commentary on the book of Hebrews.

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So that if you don't like this and you have somebody else to blame, it's not me. I'm just telling you what John Owen said. John Owen the Puritan from the 1600s.

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John Owen observed that in regards to the, the humanity of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, he did not have a father. He was adopted a father of Joseph.

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He had an adopted father, Joseph, but he didn't have an earthly father. Conceived miraculously in the womb of the

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Virgin Mary by a miraculous creative act of the Holy Spirit, he was without human father.

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In terms of his deity as the divine son, he was without a mother. His deity has no maternal aspect to it at all.

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He is related and always has been eternally to the father as the divine son from all of eternity.

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In terms of his divinity, he has a father, heavenly father. In terms of his humanity, he has a mother, but in terms of his humanity, he has no father, and in terms of his divinity, he has no mother.

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So in some way, the fact that Melchizedek has no father and no mother, at least that they're not recorded, though he had them, that is something, says something about the

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Lord Jesus Christ. That he is also in that way without father and without mother. Now Jesus does have a genealogy, doesn't he?

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So Melchizedek doesn't have a genealogy, but Jesus has a genealogy, and how is that significant or similar to Melchizedek?

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Well, Jesus' genealogy is given to us in two places. Once in the Gospel of Luke, where Luke traces the humanity of our

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Lord Jesus Christ all the way back through Abraham, all the way back to Adam, to demonstrate that he comes from true and real humanity.

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It is the humanity of the Lord Jesus that is Luke's emphasis in his gospel. Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus, not back through Mary as Luke does to show his humanity, but through Joseph, his adopted father, to demonstrate his right to sit on David's throne and rule over the kingdom that was promised to the nation of Israel.

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And so Matthew traces his lineage all the way back to Abraham through David to show he has a legal right to the throne, and Luke traces his humanity all the way back through Mary to Adam to show that he has, as humanity, as real man, an ability to represent us before God and to be our high priest.

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So his genealogy is known. Melchizedek's genealogy is not, but is it significant?

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No, it's not, and that's the point. Melchizedek's genealogy is insignificant in terms of his ability to hold the priesthood because Melchizedek was appointed a priest not on the basis of a genealogy or a physical descent.

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That was not a consideration in appointing Melchizedek a priest. And so the absence of a genealogy in the book of Genesis is an evidence that in terms of the priesthood that Melchizedek possessed, genealogy meant nothing.

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It was not considered. Because you could look at the genealogy of Jesus and say, as a priest, you can't trace him back to Aaron or the tribe of Levi, where the priest came from.

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Doesn't matter. Well, he's from Judah, the tribe of Judah. He's not from the priestly tribe. It doesn't matter. In terms of Jesus' ability to hold the priesthood that is eternal as our high priest, genealogy means nothing.

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Now, in terms of his ability to sit on David's throne, genealogy means everything. But in terms of his ability to serve as our high priest, genealogy is irrelevant.

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Why? Because he is appointed, not on the basis of genealogy, he is appointed on the basis of, he has an indestructible life.

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It is a personal appointment. So Melchizedek was a priest without a genealogy. Jesus is a priest of the same kind, where genealogy does not matter.

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Aaron's priesthood was hereditary, under the Mosaic Covenant. Melchizedek's priesthood was personal.

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Aaron's priesthood, genealogy was everything, but in the priesthood that Melchizedek has, genealogy is nothing.

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So he's without father, he's without mother, he's without genealogy, these things, important for the

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Aaronic priesthood, irrelevant to the priesthood that Jesus has. He can serve as a priest, because his priesthood is not based on any of that.

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Now, if we're talking about his kingship, his royalty, those things are everything.

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Mother, father, genealogy, all of that matters. Is he qualified to sit on the throne? If that's the issue of the discussion, then genealogy means everything.

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Is he qualified to intercede for you and I, and to offer a sacrifice on our behalf? If that's the question we're discussing, well, he has been appointed a priest, not on the basis of the

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Aaronic priesthood, but the Melchizedekian priesthood, and therefore, those things don't matter at all, because he has been directly and specifically appointed by the

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Father. So the text says, he has no beginning of days nor end of life, and this is why some people say that he was either an angel or a pre -incarnate,

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Melchizedek was either an angel or a pre -incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. You read through the Old Testament and you read references to the angel of the

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Lord appearing to Jacob or to Abraham or the Lord appearing, those physical manifestations of God, those theophanies of the

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Old Testament, those, I believe, were always the divine son, the second person of the Trinity, according to John chapter one, who appeared in the

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Old Testament. You see them prior to his incarnation, him revealing and explaining God that he is the angel of the

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Lord that appears in the Old Testament, but the author of Hebrews doesn't describe Melchizedek as an appearance of the angel of the

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Lord, nor does Moses in the book of Genesis. In fact, specifically it says here that he is made like the son of God, not that he was the son of God.

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So the fact that the author here says he has no beginning of days nor end of life, again, those things are not literally true of Melchizedek.

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He did eventually die. He's not still alive somewhere guarding the Ark of the Covenant and the

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Holy Grail somewhere in a cave in southern Judea. That's not what Melchizedek is doing. He did have a beginning to his life and he did have an end of days.

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But when you read through the book of Genesis, do you read anything about that? Do you read that Melchizedek was born and he was so and so many years old when he was appointed a priest?

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Do you read that? And that he served as a priest for so long and then he gave up that priesthood and passed it on to somebody else and then he died?

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You don't read any of that. Not only do you get no genealogy of Melchizedek, you have no reference to his birth, how old he was, how old he lived, or when he died.

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None of those things. So he appears on the scene in Genesis as if he is one without any beginning and he appears on the scene in Genesis as if he were one without any end because neither his beginning nor his end are recorded.

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And in that way, he is just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the Aaronic priesthood, this is different than Aaron's priesthood because in Aaron's priesthood, not only did genealogy and your mother and your father mean everything, but so also did your age and your ability to serve because in Aaron's priesthood, you couldn't start serving as a priest until you were 25 years old.

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And you couldn't serve as a priest past the age of 50. When you reach the age of 50, they put you out to pastor and they pass that on to somebody else who was younger.

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So at the most you could serve was 25 years in Aaron's priesthood. And so that priesthood required that people be appointed a priest and that the next generation always come in and be appointed a priest.

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And so there were always a multitude of priests coming up and somebody would serve for several years and then he would hand that off to somebody else and he would step down and somebody else would become the priest and there was this endless supply of priests from this line as one high priest after another filled that office, but not with the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so Melchizedek is the same or at least he appears to be the same as the

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Lord Jesus Christ in this, that there's no recorded beginning and there's no recording an end.

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And so since scripture does not record an end to his priesthood, in this way, he is a picture of one whose priesthood never ends.

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Do you see the parallel? Because scripture doesn't record the end of his priesthood, he appears as one whose priesthood never ends.

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And that's exactly what we needed was one whose priesthood never ends. So in terms of the picture, it is just that it is not recorded.

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And so he is without father, he is without mother, he is without genealogy, his beginning of days is not recorded, his end of days is not recorded.

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And the author says in this way, he is made to be or made to appear, resemble, just like the Son of God, verse three, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like, that is made to resemble the

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Son of God. Now listen, if Melchizedek were a pre -incarnate appearance of the

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Lord Jesus Christ, this is where we would read it. And you know why we would read it here?

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Because if Melchizedek were a pre -incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, the author would say that because it would be the best argument he could make for the ability of the

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Lord Jesus Christ to hold that priesthood. Because then the author could just say, that Melchizedek that you read about, who met

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Abraham after he came back from the slaughter of the kings and who received that tithes, that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He held the priesthood then and he holds it now. That is why he had no beginning of days, he has no end of life.

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Melchizedek is Jesus, pre -incarnate before then, and the priesthood he had then, he still holds to this day, and therefore it is a superior priesthood.

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That would be the slam dunk argument for his case. It would be even better, it would bolster his case to make that point, but he doesn't.

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He just says that Melchizedek was made in the way that the Spirit of God recorded the details of his life, he was made to look like or resemble the

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Son of God. And that's your language of typology. So in this way, Melchizedek's story is like the

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Son of God, he lives on, he remains. He's a priest forever, at least in the terms of how

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Genesis kind of presents him. And the point is not that Melchizedek lived forever, but that his priesthood did.

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You see, his priesthood was greater because Melchizedek was a priest before it appears, before Abraham was called.

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Melchizedek was a priest before Abraham had Isaac, and Isaac had Jacob, and Jacob had Levi, and Levi eventually had

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Aaron. And so his priesthood predates, that priesthood predates Aaron's priesthood.

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And now that Jesus Christ has come and done his work, his priesthood continues.

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Just like it appears that Melchizedek's work continues in the Scripture, it appears, or it is true, that the

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Lord Jesus Christ's work continues to this day. He's a priest perpetually, never ending. And so it is clearly a superior priesthood because he was appointed, for God has appointed one who lives forever.

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Not one who will die or can die or who will someday give up his position as a high priest.

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He is a priest forever. And that is what he means when he says at the end of verse three, he remains a priest perpetually.

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Melchizedek does in how he's described. Jesus does in reality.

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Melchizedek remains a priest even today. You read through Genesis, there seems to be no ending to his priesthood. At least it's not recorded.

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Well, that's just like Jesus, but Jesus is greater. Remember, one of the aspects of typology, the fulfillment had to be greater than the thing that pointed to it.

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Jesus' priesthood is greater because his really does never end. It doesn't just appear to never end, it really does never end.

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Now, what does this mean for me? Let me give you two things. What does this mean for me? What's the whole application of this? First of all, and this is the whole theme of chapter seven of Hebrews, that the priesthood of the

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Lord Jesus Christ is superior to the priesthood of Melchizedek. That's the author's point. The priesthood of the

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Lord Jesus Christ is superior. It's a greater priesthood. It is a priesthood that is apart from one established by the law of Moses.

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It is a priesthood that is apart from any lineage. It is not connected to the Old Testament or the

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Old Covenant. It predates the Old Covenant. It is greater than the Old Covenant. In fact, it's a priesthood that is greater than that given by Moses to the family of Aaron.

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It is greater in every way. Aaron's priesthood had a beginning. Aaron's priesthood had an end.

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Aaron's priests had beginnings. Aaron's priests had ends. Aaron's priests served for a period of time and then died. The Lord Jesus Christ serves forever, and he always will serve in that capacity as our high priest to be recognized as such.

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So he is a priest perpetually. And Jesus possesses this priesthood now, and he is appointed not on the basis of his genealogy, but on the basis of something else.

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Look over chapter seven, verse 15. Chapter seven, verse 15, and this is clearer still. If another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such, not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life.

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So what is the author's point? Another priest has come, and his appointment is not on the basis of physical requirement.

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In other words, can you trace your lineage back to Aaron? Our high priest is greater because he is appointed a high priest based upon something else.

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His personal worth. He has an indestructible life. He lives forever, and therefore, he can serve forever.

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And this is the second thing. That this demonstrates to us our Lord's saving power.

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And for this, I want you to turn to the end of chapter seven, and it'll be a few weeks before we get to this, so I'm not spoiling any ending. But here's where the author applies this truth.

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Chapter seven, verse 23. The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

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But Jesus, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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That's the point. Because he is a priest forever, he always lives to make intercession for those who are his, and he is able to save forever those who come to him.

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Because his priesthood never ends, he is able to save forever those who come to him. And that is exactly what we as sinful human beings needed.

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We needed a savior who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We needed a sacrifice whose righteousness is never impugned, it never diminishes, it never needs to be replenished.

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We needed an offering or a sacrifice for our sins that was able to cleanse our conscience and remove our guilty stain, and to make us pure and righteous in the sight of God, a sacrifice which never needs to be re -offered because it is no longer valid, or because it is weak in some way as to not be able to do what is intended to do.

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What we needed was a high priest who could do all of that. And there is such a high priest, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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There is one at the throne of God who, age after age, is always the same. Nations crumble, kingdoms perish, priests die, generations come and generations go, and we need one who never does.

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We need one who can sit at the Father's right hand, who has offered, for one time, a once -for -all sacrifice that perfectly and fully and ably does everything it is intended to do, and that is to save forever all who come to Him to avail themselves of that sacrifice.

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That was our need. We didn't need another sacrifice or another priest to take that place, because it doesn't matter if it's the first -century

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Christian to whom the book of Hebrews was written, or if it is you living almost 2 ,000 years later, we can still come to the same high priest.

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And there's one sacrifice that avails for them and that avails for us. And there is one intercessor who was interceding for the early church

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Christians 2 ,000 years ago and who still intercedes for you today. And because he is a priest perpetually and he holds his priesthood, never to give it up because of age, never to give it up because of death, never to give it up because he died and has moved on or gone on to something better, he never forfeits it.

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He serves as a priest forever, perpetually, a son made perfect. Because he is all of that, then you and I can know that our

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Savior sits at the Father's right hand and interceded for us yesterday when things were really bad.

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And he intercedes for us today when things are really good. And he will be interceding for you tomorrow and next week and next month and next year.

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And when you're lying on your deathbed about to breathe your last and dying breath, your

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Savior, still holding that priesthood, will sit at the Father's right hand and make intercession for you because you belong to him.

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That's where our security rests. Ultimately in that one who holds that priesthood perpetually, continually.

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And he never dies. And next week we never have to worry, is the high priest gonna be able to perform his duties?

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Is the high priest gonna be able to give a sacrifice? Is it gonna be enough for me? Is he gonna do it all right so that my sins will be covered?

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Never have to worry about that. Why? Because unlike all of his other priests, one after another, we have one priest who was appointed a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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God has sworn and he will not relent of it. He has appointed him a priest forever because of his indestructible life.

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He always lives and ever lives. And he sits at the Father's right hand having made one sacrifice for sins and sat down at the

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Father's right hand, that one sacrifice, able to cleanse, able to provide righteousness. And now having made that sacrifice, he intercedes for those who are his so that that sacrifice might be applied to us.

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As he draws us to himself, applying that sacrifice to those whom the Father has chosen, an effective, full, omnipotent sacrifice that does exactly what it was intended to do, and that is to save forever all those who come to him by faith.

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That's our high priest. You think the Melchizedekian priesthood is important? It's the crux of your salvation.

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How is it that I have never preached on this before? What is wrong with me? This is important stuff.

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It is beautiful stuff. And the author of Hebrews is just laying it all out there. A priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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What a glorious truth that is. Now I ask you this, hearer, has that sacrifice applied to you?

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Are you his? Do you belong to him? Do you trust it in Jesus Christ for your salvation? Do you stand today knowing that your conscience is cleansed, that your sins have been forgiven, that your guilt has been removed?

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Or do you stand this day under the wrath of God for your sin, for your lying, your blasphemy, your cheating, your stealing, your lusting, your adultery, your fornication, your immorality, your impurity, your idolatry?

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Do you stand under the wrath and the judgment of God in need of a sacrifice that will take away that sin and remove that guilt?

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I would point you to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is willing and able to save any and all who will come to him. He has promised that if you come to him, he will not cast you out.

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He will save you. He will forgive your sin. He will cleanse you from unrighteousness. He will cleanse your conscience and he will take you to heaven to be with him.

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But you have to come on his terms and that's repentance and faith. You don't negotiate with the judge on the terms of your forgiveness.

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You come to the judge on his terms and here are his terms. Abandon your sin, forsake it, acknowledge that you have done wrong and come to the

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Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Come today and he will save you. Reject him and he will judge you.

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That is his promise. His promise to those who will bow the knee and it is a promise to those who will rebel and not bow the knee.

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There is righteousness available in Jesus Christ because he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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Come to him and be saved. Reject him and perish. Those are your two options. Let us bow our heads.

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Father, we thank you for a salvation so rich and so full and so free for all of those who have come to Jesus Christ.

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It is because of what we have read and studied and contemplated here this morning that there is only one way of salvation.

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No one else has done what Christ has done, offered himself as a righteous sacrifice in the stead of guilty sinners.

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And so it is only through him and through his blood that we can come and we thank you that you have made a way in Jesus Christ, that you have provided salvation for a lost humanity and we thank you that you have made that salvation known to us.

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Thank you for turning our hearts and cleansing us from our sin. We praise your goodness and your sovereignty and your grace for these great works of our divine king, our divine priest who has died to provide atonement for us.

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We do pray for any who are here who do not know Jesus Christ as their savior that you would convict their hearts and show them their need for righteousness, their need for forgiveness and grant that they may come to you on your terms so that they may receive the forgiveness that is freely offered in Jesus Christ and be born again to a new and living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

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Be glorified in drawing sinners to yourself so that the Lord Jesus Christ may receive all the full reward for his suffering and that you may be honored both now and for eternity.