Who is Melchizedek?

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There are many wonderful evidences for the truth of the Bible.
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We have been in our academy going through a course in what is called apologetics.
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Apologetics is defending the faith.
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And every Thursday for the last seven weeks, we have been discussing the wonderful truths of Scripture, and we've talked a lot about the evidences for the truth of the Bible, even though we teach a presuppositional approach, but that's a conversation for another time.
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But we have discussed evidences.
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We've discussed prophecies, historical narratives, verified by copious amounts of archaeological data.
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We've talked about eyewitnesses, many of which were faithful men and women willing to go to their own deaths for not what they believed, but what they had seen.
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And we are reminded over and over and over again of the evidences of the reliability of the truth of Scripture.
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They are endless.
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But one of the things that gets my attention regarding the Bible and its authority and its confirmation of its own being the Word of God is the structural coherence that we find in the Bible.
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You realize the Bible was written over 1,500 years.
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It was written in three different languages.
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It was spanned across really three continents, and it had over 40 different authors.
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And yet there is a structural coherence in the Bible that begins and ends and carries out an entire text of message that is coherent and structured throughout the entire book.
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The Bible is not a random smattering of unconnected stories.
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It is a series of writings, all forms of literary genre, which tell one story, his story.
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And we see this clearly in how there will sometimes be a small passage, a seemingly insignificant passage that we read in the Old Testament, and it's almost as if we could just pass it by without any thought.
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One or two verses that just sort of kind of come out of nowhere and go into obscurity, and we see these verses and we say, oh, we move right past them, and then later we find out that those verses actually were laying a foundation stone which would later be built upon.
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And God would structure the Bible that those two or three verses are going to actually have a foundation that the whole Bible is built upon just these few verses.
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Well, that's what we're going to see today.
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We're going to read eight verses of scripture, but three of them are going to be about one man, and this is the only verses in the Bible that give us a narrative account of this man's life.
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Three verses of the Bible are all we have about this mysterious man named Melchizedek.
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But what we're going to see is later in the history of redemption, God will, by the Holy Spirit, show us that this three-verse king, and that's all we have, will become foundational in the history of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So I would encourage you to stand.
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We're going to read these eight verses, and then we're going to ask the Lord to bless the hearing of His word.
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We're beginning in verse 17 of Genesis 15.
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Speaking of Abram, it says, After his return from the defeat of Kedilamar and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavah, that is the king's valley, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
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He was priest of El-Elyon, God Most High.
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And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram, by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
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And the king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
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But Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted my hand to the Lord God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, and I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, I have made Abram rich.
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I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me.
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Let Aner, Eschel, and Mamre take their share.
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Father in heaven, may you bless the reading, the hearing, and the preaching of your word, in Christ's name.
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Now, I want to begin by giving a little bit of a recap of last week's message.
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If you were not here, we're jumping right in the middle of a story that the Bible tells about the life of Abram.
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You'll remember Abram was called by God to leave Mesopotamia, to go where God would show him.
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God didn't give him an address.
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He just said, Go.
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And when he got to where God wanted him to be, he said, Stop.
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Look at this land.
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Lift up your eyes to the north, the south, the east, and the west.
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This land is yours.
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And Abram had a nephew named Lot.
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And he and Lot, they both had a giant entourage.
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Both of them had many people under them.
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Both of them were very rich, had a lot of herd and livestock, and they couldn't live together because their herds and livestock and the people were arguing, so they divided.
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Lot chose to go to Sodom, which we will learn later, a terrible decision.
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But he chose to go to Sodom, and Abram gave him that choice.
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He let him have the choice, Where do you want to go? And that's where Lot wanted to go.
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Well, shortly thereafter, when Lot was there, he found himself embroiled in a political and military conflict.
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There were five kings in the area of Sodom, and there were four kings to which they were responsible because 12 years before, there had been a siege that was laid to the area of Sodom, and they had become vassals, which basically meant essentially indentured or slaved to these kings.
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And in the 13th year, they refused to pay their tribute.
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They refused to give tribute to those kings.
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And so those kings, large battle battalion, four kings lead their battalions down, destroying city after city on their way to Sodom, and they end up taking Sodom and the other four kingdoms into captivity, and they take Lot with them.
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So Lot ends up, because of his choice to go to Sodom, he ends up in captivity.
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So Abram becomes like the special forces.
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He takes 318 men, and they go, and they destroy those four kings.
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Four kings who had destroyed entire cities.
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Four kings who had destroyed and taken captive five kingdoms.
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Abram and 318 men went and destroyed and took back what was taken, including Lot.
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So I want you to imagine, that was a little recap of last week, but I want you to imagine what happened after that, because that's where we're coming to today.
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Abram has just demonstrated the power of God in battle.
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He took 318 men, and he destroyed four kingdoms of fighters.
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In fact, later we're going to read in Hebrews, we are going to read this later, but I can't help but get to it now.
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It says he slaughtered them.
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The book of Hebrews, chapter 7, it says, after Abram returned from the slaughter of the kings.
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So this wasn't just, because if you read Genesis, it might kind of read like he went in by night, and sort of Navy sealed him, kind of went in, snuck in, got Lot, and snuck him out.
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No, no, he laid siege, and he laid slaughter to his enemies.
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By the power of God.
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So as he is returning from the slaughter of the kings, Abram is coming back as the victor.
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The kingdoms, who could not be overcome by other kings, are now overcome by this man Abram, this relatively obscure man, who the text simply calls Abram the Hebrew.
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Abram the Hebrew has led 318 men to war, and they have slaughtered their enemies, and now they're coming back in victory.
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And as they come back in victory, Abram returns to Canaan, and he comes into contact with two kings.
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Two kings come out to meet him as he returns from victory.
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And this is where we find ourselves today.
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And this is my goal for today's sermon.
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One, I want to explain the account of the two kings, and then I want to explain the significance of one of the kings, Melchizedek.
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So that's my goal.
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We can put the outline up on the screen if we will.
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That's the outline for today's lesson.
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We're going to examine the account of the two kings, the king of Salem and the king of Sodom, and then we're going to explain the significance of the king of Salem.
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So let's look at verse 17.
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It says, After his return from the defeat of Ketilammar and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shaba, that is the king's valley, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.
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He was priest of the Most High God.
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Notice the distinction between the two kings.
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We have the king of Salem.
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We have the king of Sodom.
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Salem, you may not know this, but Salem would eventually become Jerusalem.
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Right? The name Jerusalem is the Jebusites had Salem, and Jebusalem would eventually become Jerusalem.
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Right? So you have this area is the area of Jerusalem.
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And so you have this king, and he comes and he brings a banquet.
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He brings bread and wine.
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Now for a minute, and again I feel like I'm jumping ahead of myself, but for a minute, is there any significance in the Bible to bread and wine? Yeah, exactly, right? Is there any significance scripturally to bread and wine? Absolutely, and we're going to see that tie later on.
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But for now, just keep in mind, Melchizedek is bringing a banquet to Abram as the victor.
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He has won the battle, so Melchizedek comes, and he brings what 1 Samuel 16 20 would basically identify as royal feast.
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A royal feast was made of bread and wine.
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And he brings to Abram a royal feast.
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But who is he? Who is this man who is bringing Abram this banquet? He's not mentioned before.
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And interestingly enough, he won't be mentioned afterward.
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Not in Genesis, not in Exodus, not in Leviticus, not in Deuteronomy.
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He won't be mentioned in Numbers.
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He won't be mentioned in Joshua, Judges, or Ruth.
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In fact, the next time we're going to see this guy is in a passing reference in the book of Psalms, which is written 500 years later.
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Actually, it's written a thousand years after this point, but it's Moses' writing about 500 years before the Psalms.
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So you figure it's just a thousand years.
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We're not going to hear anything else about this dude.
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Very strange guy.
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He doesn't say anything about him as a person except this.
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It says he was king of Salem, which we know was a city of the Canaanites at that point.
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Salem was a city.
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So in one sense, we could say Melchizedek is a Canaanite king, and he's a priest.
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Notice it says he's a king and priest, but it says something more important than that.
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It says he knows the true God.
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Notice it says he is priest of El Elyon.
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El Elyon was the word for God most high.
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El is actually a generic term for God.
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The prefix El is often used in the names of God.
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We think about El Shaddai, El Gibor.
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The word El in that statement simply is God, but the El Elyon is referring to God most high, and notice how he describes in a moment, we'll see it's God possessor of heaven and earth.
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This is the true God.
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This is not Baal, the God of the Canaanites.
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This is not the moon God, Nanna, which was in Mesopotamia.
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No, this is the true God.
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This is Yahweh.
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This is God most high.
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So we know one thing about Melchizedek from this.
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We know he was a man who knew the true God, and we have to wonder, how does he know the true God? Isn't Abram the only man who knows God at this point? Isn't Abram the only one who knows who God is? And some people have questioned that.
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They've gone back and they've said, well, who could this man be? Who could Melchizedek be? If he knows God, who could he be? Some people believe he's Shem.
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Now, who is Shem? Shem was one of Noah's sons.
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Remember, he was one of the three that came off the ark.
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That's the Jewish, some of the older Jewish commentaries would say, this is Shem, that he lived so long that this was actually Shem who came out to meet Abram.
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I don't think that's correct, but that's one interpretation, that this could be Shem, and that's how he knew God, because he's the son of Noah, right? And if anybody knew God, it was Noah, right? Some people believe he was an angelic being.
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Some people believe he was Christ himself in a pre-incarnate state.
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We're going to talk about that when we get to Hebrews 7, but one thing that we know is we know that he knows God, and people say, well, how could he know God if he wasn't an angelic figure, if he wasn't Jesus, if he wasn't Shem? How did he know God? I'll answer this way.
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Even though Abram does know God, he's not the only one at this time who knows God, because there's another man in the world who knows God.
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His name was Job, and he lived in this same area, and he lived at the same time as did Abram.
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He knew God.
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So God...
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There are people here at this time who still know the true God.
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The Canaanites are pagans, but even within and among the pagans, there's at least one, Melchizedek, who knows the true God.
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There's at least one, Job, who knows the true God.
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So God...
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What does the Bible...
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What did God say when the prophet...
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Oh, I'm the only one left.
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God said to the prophet, there are 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal, that I have set apart.
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I will have a remnant, right? God has his people.
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He's got his man.
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Even in the midst of this situation, God has this man, and this man is a priest of the Most High God.
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He knows who God is.
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He knows the true God.
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And though the Canaanites be pagan, there's a believer among them.
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His name is Melchizedek.
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And he brings a banquet, and then he brings a blessing.
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Look at verse 19.
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It says, And he blessed him, that is Melchizedek blessed Abram, and said, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, that's El Elyon, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.
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By the way, I mentioned last week that the reason why Abram won in battle was because God fought the battle for him, and that proves it right there.
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God delivered Abram's enemies into his hand.
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I don't care how good a fighter 318 men are, they're not going to beat five kingdoms without the power of God.
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So Melchizedek blesses Abram, and then Abram does something amazing.
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Abram gives Melchizedek a tithe.
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Look at verse 20.
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He says, And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
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You know that's the first time in the Bible that tithing is mentioned.
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A tithe is 10%.
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That's simply all a tithe means is 10%.
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Now some people use this to argue that tithing is universal and everybody should tithe 10%.
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The New Covenant standard is, I think the New Covenant standard, and I don't want to take a right-hand side trip on this, is we no longer live under the Old Covenant tithing system, but it is a good example.
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The tithe is a good example, the one-tenth of what we have, and we see that example given to us in Abram.
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But more important of the example of the tithe is what we see Abram doing here that is hugely significant, and that is he is demonstrating that Melchizedek is superior to him.
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And we're going to see this in Hebrews 7 because it makes the point that the blessing goes from the superior to the inferior or from the higher to the lower.
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And the tithe goes from the inferior to the superior, from the lower to the higher.
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By the way, when you bring your offerings to the church, you're not giving them to me.
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I am not superior to you.
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We're giving them to the Lord because He is greater than all, right? And that's an important point.
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But when the tithe is given, the tithe is given to Melchizedek to demonstrate his superiority.
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Now, in the history of man, outside of Jesus Christ, who's greater than Abram? Right? You ask, who are some of the greatest men in history? Abram's going to be on the list.
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Abraham's going to be on the list.
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But Abram sees Melchizedek as greater than he, for he is willing to receive a blessing, and he's willing to give a tithe.
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So that is the interaction.
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Three verses.
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That's all we get.
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Melchizedek comes.
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He brings a feast.
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He blesses Abram.
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Abram receives the blessing, gives the tithe.
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That's it.
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But we're going to see in a minute that that becomes a foundational stone for something very important in the life of Jesus Christ.
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But before we do that, let me just mention the King of Sodom, because I don't want to come back to this next week.
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I want to move on to chapter 15.
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I'm so excited about the Abrahamic covenant.
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You have no idea.
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That's chapter 15, and that's where we're going.
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But for now, let me just finish the chapter, because we see this.
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The King of Sodom, he offers a reward, and he receives a rejection.
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Notice this.
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He offers a reward, verse 21.
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It says, The King of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.
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Remember who this dude is.
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Okay? This is the guy who lost.
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The King of Sodom was one of five kings who went against Kittel Ammar and his kings and immediately retreated and ran for safety, and some of them died by falling into the asphalt pits.
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You remember that from last week? This is the guy who lost.
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He's coming to Abram, who won the battle by the power of God, and he begins to negotiate his part of the bounty of the win.
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He deserves nothing.
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He is the loser in this.
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I want to stress that.
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He's negotiating for something he doesn't deserve.
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Because some people say, Oh, the King of Sodom is so gracious here.
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He's offering Abram a portion of the spoils.
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Those spoils belong to Abram.
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He's the victor.
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Sodom's king is the loser.
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He doesn't deserve anything.
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So this is not a gracious offer by the king.
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In a sense, it's a self-serving demand.
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You give me the people, I'll take the goods.
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Or you take the goods.
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But notice Abram.
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Abram doesn't want to be in business with this guy at all.
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Notice what he says.
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But Abram said to the King of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand to the Lord God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth.
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Notice, Abram calls God the same thing Melchizedek called him.
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He repeats Melchizedek's identification of God.
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He says, I have raised my hand to El Elyon, Possessor of heaven and earth.
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So it's indicating that Abram and Melchizedek worship the same God.
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That's very important.
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He says, I have lifted up my hand to El Elyon, Possessor of heaven and earth, that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say I have made Abram rich.
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I will take nothing but what these young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me.
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Let Aner, Eskel, and Mamre take their share.
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So basically, Abram says, I don't want anything from you.
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I don't want a business partnership with you.
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I don't want a relationship with you.
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I don't want nothing.
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You take everything.
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See, it belonged to Abram.
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He didn't have to give it up.
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He could have taken it and said, what are you going to do? You ain't going to beat me.
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You couldn't beat that guy and I whooped him.
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You're not going to whoop me.
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That, by the way, is how men work.
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If I can whoop him and he can whoop you, then I can whoop you.
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Sorry, maybe that was too real.
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But that's the way we think, right? And that's Abram here.
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He done whooped four kingdoms.
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He ain't worried about the king of Sodom, but he says, you take it all.
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You take everything.
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The guys have already eaten some food.
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We'll call that square.
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And hey, Aner and Eskel and Mamre, they're on my team.
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We work together.
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You let them have what they want, but I don't want a thing.
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I like what Kent Hughes says about this.
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He says, this oath, this refusal, was Abram's declaration of dependence upon God.
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Abram knew that the name of God and he lifted it up and he believed God's word with all his heart.
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He risked everything because of his trust in God's word.
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He was at that moment a victorious king.
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His faith had made him so.
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This closing oath was a militant statement of faith and also a polemic against the perspective of the king of Sodom and all who trust in the things of this world.
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I like that last sentence.
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It's a statement against those who trust in things of this world.
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Abram did not want to be in business.
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He did not want to be in partnership with this worldly king.
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Abram had one person, if you want to call God a person, one person that he was in partnership with and that was God Most High.
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Now he's willing to receive a blessing from Melchizedek because Melchizedek is a priest of that God.
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He's willing to pay a tithe to Melchizedek because Melchizedek is a priest of that God.
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But ultimately, Abram's allegiance is to one and one only and that is his God.
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And we're not going to be in this relationship, in this partnership, no.
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You're not going to get anything from me and I'm not going to take anything from you.
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That's not how it's going to work.
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So that ends the chapters.
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The two kings, in a way, picture the world.
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Because think about it, beloved, there are only two ways in this world.
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There is the way of God Most High and there is the way of the world which is pictured by the people of Sodom.
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Abram comes back and he gives allegiance to the priest of God and he rejects the king of the world, Sodom.
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So we see here a separation.
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Having said all that, I now want to focus my attention for the rest of my time, which I guess is as long as I want, but I'm going to focus the rest of our time on the significance of Melchizedek.
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Because as I said, this passage is only three verses long.
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The story of Melchizedek, three verses long.
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If you were reading the Bible for the first time and you read this chapter and you came across this verse, you would probably get to the story of Melchizedek, you would say, boy, that's a hard name to pronounce, and you'd move on and you wouldn't think much more about it.
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You might think it's kind of interesting that he gave a banquet to Abram and you might think it was interesting that Abram gave him a tithe, but that's about it.
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You wouldn't think much more about this king and the fact that his name never comes up again in Genesis, his name never comes up again in Exodus, or any of the rest of Moses' books.
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You'd probably think, well, he wasn't that important because he only came up one time.
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He kind of just, you know, candle in the wind.
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He lit up and burned out, and he's over.
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But a thousand years later, King David, by God and his superintending, sits down to write a psalm.
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And I want you to turn there with me right now.
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Psalm 110.
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King David sits down to write a psalm, and this is a psalm of the Messiah.
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This psalm is prophetic in nature because it is looking forward to the coming of the Messiah of Israel.
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Psalm 110.
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You have heard these words, even if you've never read Psalm 110, because this is actually the most quoted, one of the most quoted passages of the Old Testament.
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I think it is the most quoted psalm of the Old Testament.
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It's quoted or directly alluded to over 27 times, according to Jim Boyce.
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And so you've heard these words.
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Listen to these words.
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Psalm 110.
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The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.
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The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter.
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Rule in the midst of your enemies.
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Your people will offer themselves freely in the day of your power, in holy garments from the womb of the morning.
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The dew of your youth will be yours.
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The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind.
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You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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The Lord is at your right hand.
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He will slaughter, or excuse me, shatter kings on the day of His wrath.
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He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses.
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He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth.
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He will drink from the brook by the way.
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Therefore He will lift up His head.
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Now again, this is a thousand years after the moment that Melchizedek comes on the scene.
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This is a thousand years after Melchizedek received a tithe from Abram and gave Abram a blessing.
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And out of nowhere, David, in writing this psalm, brings up Melchizedek as an important figure in the history of Israel.
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He brings him up as the one through whom the Messiah would have His priesthood.
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See, understand this.
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This psalm tells us something about the Messiah.
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This psalm tells us that the Messiah would be both a king and a priest.
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You read the psalm again and you'll notice in the first few verses of the psalm, it talks about the Lord as king.
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It talks about His scepter.
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It talks about Him fighting His enemies.
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It talks about His power.
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It talks about His garments.
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All that is referring to His royalty, of His kingship.
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But then it moves on to talk about His priesthood.
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The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind.
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You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
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You will be both king and priest is what David is saying to the Messiah.
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But understand this.
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He won't be a priest like the other priests.
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You see, in Israel there's a lot of priests.
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Starting with Aaron, you have what was known as the Levitical priesthood or the Aaronic priesthood.
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And that would be the priesthood that was through the line of the Levites.
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You know, we have a book in our Bible called Leviticus.
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Leviticus is written to the priests because it's the book that tells the priests how to function in their duty as holy priests of God.
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They are the Levites and they are from the tribe of Levi.
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So how did someone become a priest? They were born into the trade.
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They were born as a Levite.
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But the Messiah would not come from the tribe of Levi.
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Who would the Messiah come from? The tribe of Judah.
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If we go to the end of Genesis, we read something.
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When the 12 sons are receiving their blessings, Judah is given this one reminder of his blessing.
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The scepter shall not depart from your house.
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What is a scepter? Scepter was something the king held.
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So he was saying, the position of kingship, the role of the king, will not depart from the house of Judah.
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So if the Messiah is going to be priest and king, how is he going to be from the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Levi? How can he be from both? He doesn't have to be from both because it is through the tribe of Judah that he is king.
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But he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
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Jesus is not a Levitical priest.
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Jesus is a Melchizedekian priest.
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Try to say that.
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So we have Jesus as king and priest here in this passage.
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Psalm 110 reminds us he has the scepter, but he also is priest of his people.
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So now I want you to move ahead another thousand years.
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Another thousand years to the book of Hebrews.
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Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 7.
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Actually if you would, look at chapter 6 verse 19.
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This leads into chapter 7.
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This is the writer of Hebrews talking about Jesus as our great high priest.
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Notice what he says.
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He says in verse 19, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
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Notice this is the first time Melchizedek's name has come up again for a thousand years.
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So his name, he's mentioned in Genesis 14.
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That's the only time we have the narrative of him.
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A thousand years later, David comes along and David says, yes, there is coming a Messiah.
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The Messiah is going to be king and priest and his priesthood is going to be according to Melchizedek's line, not according to the Levitical line.
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And then we fast forward another thousand years and we find ourselves with the writer of Hebrews and he's going to write a whole chapter about Melchizedek and how Jesus fits into the line of Melchizedek.
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Now, time will not allow me to give a proper exegesis of the whole chapter, but I don't want to do that because that's not my goal today.
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I did, we preached through Hebrews a few years ago.
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That's not the goal.
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I just want to hit the high points.
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I just want to hit the high points because I don't want to turn this into a three-parter.
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I want you to hear it all today.
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I want you to understand how this all fits together today because as I said, that three verses in Genesis become the foundation of an entire understanding of who Jesus is.
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And the writer of Hebrews gives us a divine commentary on this whole thing.
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And it's Hebrews chapter 7.
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Notice what he says.
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He says, For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abram returning from the slaughter of the kings, remember I mentioned that, and blessed him.
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And to Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything.
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He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness.
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That's what Melchizedek means, by the way.
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Melchizedek means king of righteousness.
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And he is also the king of Salem, and that is king of peace.
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The word Salem is peace.
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Later it would become shalom.
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We're familiar with that word for peace, right? So he's both king of righteousness by name.
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He is king of peace by title.
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And then verse 3.
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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.
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Now, I want to explain something to you because this one verse, verse 3, creates a lot of confusion and I think creates some debate that is not altogether necessary but does need to be discussed.
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Because people see the phrase without father and mother, without beginning of days nor end of life, and they think, okay, then he must have been an angelic figure.
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He must have been either a pre-incarnate Jesus or some type of an angel because everybody has a mother, everybody has a father, everybody has beginning of life, and everybody has end of days.
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So if he's a natural man, then this couldn't be said of him.
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But understand what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across to us.
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What he is saying to us is that in the book of Genesis, we have no record of Melchizedek's mother or father.
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We have no record of Melchizedek's birth.
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We have no record of his death.
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So in that regard, we know nothing of him except that he was a priest of God, which means he didn't receive his priesthood by birth.
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He didn't receive his priesthood by genealogy.
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He didn't receive his priesthood by the way the Levites did.
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But he was appointed by God a priest.
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So when he says without mother or father, that is an idiomatic phrase which simply means that he's not included in any priestly genealogy.
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Melchizedek had no genealogy in Genesis.
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And by the way, does Genesis have genealogies? Yeah, haven't I preached through like five of them already? Right, because we've been going.
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All the genealogies of all the important people.
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Then you get Melchizedek, no genealogy.
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Why? The writer of Hebrews tells us why.
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Because his genealogy is not what's important.
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What's important is his priesthood, which was ordained directly by God.
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He is a priest of the most high God.
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And in that way, he resembles the son of God, Christ.
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Because there's no record of his death, meaning he abides forever as a priest.
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And Jesus Christ comes along and takes over that priestly line.
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Now again, some people say, well I just think Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate Jesus.
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Here's my response.
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If you think Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate Jesus, I would say I don't think that's heretical, and I don't think that's anything to argue about.
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If you want to see Melchizedek as a pre-incarnate Jesus, that's fine.
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I would take the position that I think Melchizedek is a type of Christ.
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And if you're not familiar with typology, a type is someone in the Old Testament whose purpose was to point forward to a greater fulfillment in Christ.
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Adam is a type of Christ.
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Remember in 1 Corinthians it says Adam and Christ have a special relationship.
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The first man Adam, the last man Jesus.
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Through Adam all die, through Christ all are made alive.
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So Adam is a type of Christ.
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And we work our way through the Old Testament and we see these people who are types of Christ.
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And you have the type, and then you have the anti-type.
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And the type represents something, but the anti-type is Christ, and he is the greater fulfillment.
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Colossians says that it's signs and shadows, but the fulfillment is Christ.
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So Melchizedek is a type of Christ who points forward to the greater fulfillment, who is Jesus Christ.
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He sets up the foundation of this priestly line through whom the Messiah would come.
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And Hebrews goes on to tell us that not only is Christ part of this Melchizedekian priesthood, which makes his priesthood different than the line of the Levites, but it actually tells us it makes it better than the Levites.
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Look with me, we'll start drawing to a close soon, but I want you to see verses 4-10.
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Because what the writer of Hebrews tells us is that the Melchizedekian priesthood is greater than the Levitical priesthood.
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Read this.
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He says, See how great a man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of his spoils.
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And those descendants of Levi, who received the priestly office through these, though these also are descendants from Abraham, but this man who does not have his descendants from them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.
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It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior, and in the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives.
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One might even say that Levi himself, who received tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.
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Understand this.
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What the writer of Hebrews is doing is he's explaining the significance of the tithe and the blessing.
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He's saying tithes go up, blessings go down.
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Blessings go from the superior to the inferior, tithes go from the inferior to the superior.
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So in that situation, who's greater, Abraham or Melchizedek? Melchizedek.
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Because blessings went from Melchizedek to Abraham, that's a demonstration of superiority, and tithes went from Abraham to Melchizedek, that's a demonstration of superiority.
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And now the question is, where's Levi in all this? Levi hasn't been born yet.
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He's still in his father's loins.
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Kind of an interesting picture there.
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But he says he's still inside Abraham at that point.
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He hasn't been born yet.
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So if Abraham is inferior to Melchizedek, by nature, Levi is inferior to Melchizedek.
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Therefore, who has the greater priesthood? Melchizedek.
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So Jesus is not a priest according to the line of Levi, the inferior priesthood, but he is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, the greater and more superior priesthood.
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This is why, verse 22, jump down with me, verse 22, this makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
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I tell you what, that should stir our heart.
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Because let me tell you something, Israel was blessed of God.
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Israel was blessed of God to be called of God, to be given a priesthood, to be given all those things.
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But we have a better covenant.
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And we have a better priest.
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We have Jesus, the high priest of our faith.
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And he is a priest forever.
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He doesn't die and then another priest takes his place, and then he dies and another priest takes his place.
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And one thing Jesus never had to do, Jesus never had to go offer an offering for his own sin.
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Because Jesus, though he was tempted in every way like us, he is without sin.
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So we have a perfect high priest.
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We have a perpetual high priest.
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And we have Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who stands before God, ever making intercession for us.
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He is our priest forever.
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There is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
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And it is he who is the fulfillment of what Melchizedek represented.
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Melchizedek pointed to something greater than himself.
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And the one who was greater than Melchizedek was Jesus.
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So I tell you, this story in Genesis, this is not about mysterious Melchizedek.
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This is about the glorious Messiah.
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And in the end, it's a reminder of our need of a priest.
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Beloved, do you understand how desperate you are for a priest? The Bible tells us no one has ever seen God and that no one will look upon God and live because of sin.
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But God sent His Son into the world, perfect and sinless.
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And He lived a perfect life.
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And He went to the cross and He gave Himself as the substitutionary sacrifice for sin.
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He became the priest, sacrificing Himself on the cross, making atonement for our sin that we could be able to have a relationship with God through Him.
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Many Christians are willing to say, Jesus is the best way to heaven.
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Some are willing to say, Jesus is the most comforting way to heaven.
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Some are willing to say, He's the most expedient way to heaven.
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But the Bible tells us He's the only way.
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Because apart from the mediator, we will not see God.
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Is He your priest today? Have you made Jesus Christ the priest of your life? Have you received Him by repenting of your sins and trusting in Him as God's only sacrifice for sin, as God's only priest for us? If you haven't, I pray for you.
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I pray that God would open your heart to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and know that there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You.
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I thank You for this opportunity, Lord, to come and be reminded of the truth of the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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You made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we could become the righteousness of God in Him.
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He is our high priest.
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He is our mediator.
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And Lord, for those who are here who know not Christ, Lord, may You in Your mercy make this the day that You might draw men and women, boys and girls to Yourself, that they may know the truth and the truth may set them free.
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I pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Amen.