Hebrews 7:1-10 PRBC AM Service June 27, 2010

Alpha & Omega Ministries

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I would be pleased to look at Hebrews chapter 7,

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Epistles to Hebrews chapter 7. We have been working through the book of Hebrews for about a year now.

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We now enter into the heart of the argument of the Epistles chapter 7 through 10.

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Before we return to the Word of God, let's once again ask Him to open our hearts and our minds.

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Indeed, our Heavenly Father, as we have sung and as we have prayed, we would ask that You would be with us now. We desire to understand

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Your Word. We desire to understand this section of Your Scripture, which opens up for us so clearly the very purpose of Father, Son, and Spirit, and redemption itself.

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And that we recognize this is going to take work on our part. Give us a desire to hear and to understand

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Your truth. We pray in Christ's name, Amen. Indeed, we have come to what might be called the cathedrals of the book of Hebrews.

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That section that opens up the primary argumentation of the

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Epistle in regards to Christ, His work, His high priesthood, the redemption that has been wrought by Him in His sacrificial death.

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To remind you of where we have been, remember that we are listening to an extended argument for the supremacy of Christ.

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It is addressed to those who specifically are under pressure to go back to the old ways, to Jewish Christians, to Hebrew Christians, who might experience from their families and friends, the pressure to go back and offer sacrifice.

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To offer that sacrifice would be, of course, to say that Jesus Christ is not the finished sacrifice.

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It would be to offer the greatest blasphemy against His name. And our author has already opened up for us many

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Old Testament Scriptures. He has demonstrated for us who Jesus is, having come in the flesh, the one through whom all things have been made.

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He has identified Him as Yahweh Himself, come in the flesh, in Hebrews chapter 1.

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We have had many exhortations to continued faithfulness and warnings of what would happen to anyone who has once made profession of faith, but then goes back and offers that sacrifice.

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Those warning passages, those exhortation passages, have come up in a number of the texts we have already examined.

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You may recall that in the last time we were together, we finished a section of exhortation.

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The author had begun to talk about Jesus in his high priesthood, and had made mention of Melchizedek back in chapter 5, but then he stopped and for quite some time gave us a section again of exhortation, being quite concerned that his audience might not be ready for what he actually begins here in chapter 7.

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I understand his concern. This is a difficult section.

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It is difficult to study. It is difficult, even more so, to attempt to present in a sermon form.

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It defies easy division into sections, because it is an extended argument.

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It defies simplicity, because it requires us to know the Old Testament text, and to keep it in mind, and to understand its parameters.

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Even more so, as we get into chapter 9, I have a feeling, I haven't decided fully on this yet, but I have a feeling that once we finish chapter 8 and its

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New Covenant themes, that we might have to take a bit of a time out, and go back and look at the tabernacle, its form, and its worship, before chapter 9 can really be of a great deal of benefit to us.

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That is probably one of the reasons why I have repeatedly lamented the fact that this section of Scripture, which is the clearest on the atoning work of Christ, is likewise one of the least addressed in many churches today, because there is no way that you can come up with three points, a poem, and a story about a puppy dog to fit into this section.

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It just does not work, and it defies all efforts to attempt to make someone feel warm and fuzzy as they leave at the end of that time.

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And so, I would encourage all of us, just as those who engage in a great attempted physical feat, some of us do a lot of exercise.

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I know that Brother Callahan, for example, was training for a long time to go up to the

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Grand Canyon. Well, if you're going to try to do something that's going to take everything you've got, well, you train, you prepare your minds on it.

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I imagine Brother Callahan would tell you, just as I have been preparing to do things like riding

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Mount Lemmon and things like that, that you find yourself driving down a road, and you're thinking about that. You're planning it.

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You come up with, you know, it would help if maybe I did this, or if I did that. It's what consumes your thinking.

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It's what consumes your mind. Well, we are going to be attempting to climb a large exegetical mountain in the

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Book of Hebrews here. We've been on the uphill climb, and now we're getting to the steep part, the hard part.

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It's like going down to South Mountain. It's one thing to ride South Mountain until you get to the very top, and guess what

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South Mountain does? It saves the steepest parts of the ride to the very end, of course.

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After you've done all those miles and think, this isn't all that half bad, you get to the last three quarters of a mile, and that's when it tries to kill you.

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And that's sort of where we are now. We're hitting that steep part to go up to the highest point in Chapters 9 and 10.

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And so it's going to take some work. This is not the type of sermonizing where you can daydream and tune back in, because by the time you tune back in, you'll have missed something that's really important for the next three chapters.

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And so I'm exhorting you to put forth some extra effort, as I will, to attempt to understand this section.

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So let's look at Chapter 7. We're not going to get anywhere near all the way through it, obviously.

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But let's look at it so we have sort of a survey of the land that we're going to be seeking to conquer.

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For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met

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Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness.

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And then also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 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, observe how great this man was to whom

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Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the choicest spoils. And those, indeed, of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office, have commandment and law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham.

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But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises.

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Without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case, mortal men receive tithes, but in that case, one receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives on.

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And, so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when

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Melchizedek met him. Now, if perfection was through Levitical priesthood, on the basis of it that people received the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

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For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.

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For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe from which no one has officiated the altar.

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For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests.

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And this is clearer still if another priest arises according to 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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For as it attested of him, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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For on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness.

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For the law made nothing perfect. And on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

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And inasmuch as it was not without an oath, for they indeed became priests without an oath, but he with an oath, the one who said to him, the

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Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. So much the more also

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Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. 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.

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Therefore, he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

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For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens, who does not meet daily like those high priests who offer up sacrifices.

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First for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself.

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For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a son, made perfect forever.

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Well, you can see, I think, as we listen to those words, that we have a great deal of work to do to be able to follow and understand the argument that is presented here.

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And let me encourage you, should the thought be crossing your mind, I have a very busy week ahead,

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I have much going on in my life, I'm not sure I want to follow that argument. Let me attempt to encourage you to recognize that this establishment of Christ as high priest, after the order of Melchizedek, will then lead into chapter 8.

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Chapter 8 should be familiar to you, because it is the chapter that has the lengthy discussion of the

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New Covenant. And in fact, as we read there toward the end of the 7th chapter, where Jesus becomes a guarantee of a better covenant, that's the first time the word covenant has been used in the book of Hebrews.

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And so we're getting into the New Covenant, the covenant in His blood, which hopefully, immediately in your mind, you start thinking, ah,

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Lord's Supper, the New Covenant in my blood. This is something that we do remembrance of in the

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Lord's Supper, the third Sunday of each month here in our fellowship. And also then, that becomes the foundation of chapters 9 and 10, where we have the completed covenant, this one will by which we are sanctified through the body of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, the atonement, it's all right there. So this becomes foundational to that discussion.

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So it is well worth our efforts to follow the argumentation to understand this, because we are talking about the very basis upon which we can claim to have peace with God.

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Why do we have peace with God? So many evangelicals will say, well, because Jesus died. And as soon as you then ask them one question beyond that, you get this look like, well, why would you be asking me these questions?

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But really, we should have a rich, we should desire to have a rich and full understanding of how it is that God has revealed that we can have peace with Him.

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There are many, I've experienced this especially in the serious conversations that I have with Muslims.

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There are some conversations with Muslims that are not serious at all. And then there are those that are very serious.

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There is a real confusion on their part. Why do you think God had to go through all of that?

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If I can forgive you something you do to me, why can't God just forgive you for what you've done to Him without all the sacrifice and everything that goes along with it?

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And we should desire to enter into these things. If the Holy Spirit has given us these things, then we should consider that to be a gift from His hand.

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But even more so, to be able to give an answer to the hope that's within us. That is why we press through texts like this.

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So, we begin in chapter 7 with Melchizedek. And just a few moments ago,

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I read into your hearing from Genesis chapter 14, the first reference we have to Melchizedek.

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Let's go back to Genesis chapter 14. I sort of skipped over all the long names of the kings, but let's just summarize what it is that our writer refers us to in Hebrews chapter 7.

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You know that Lot and Abraham, Abram at this point, have entered into the land.

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His name hasn't yet been changed to Abraham. That's going to happen in the next chapter. When he's given the promises of the covenant there, and we have that single passage in Genesis 15, 6, which

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Paul identifies as that point where Abraham leaves God and is reckoned in His righteousness.

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But before that, they've gone to land, they've become a large people. As you can tell by the military action,

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Abram in essence rivals kings in his military ability because of the size of his household, which of course does not mean natural offspring, but his servants, his slaves that are with him.

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And so what happens is, there is warfare, as there frequently was amongst these kings. And of course, in that day, these kingdoms would be very small, very small areas.

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But there was warfare. And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled before other kings, and they fell into tar pits, and the attackers then come upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

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Remember, Lot had gone down into that land and lived amongst the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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They took the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their food supply, and departed. They also took Lot, Abram's nephew, and his possessions and departed, for he was living in Sodom.

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So a word comes to Abram, the Hebrew. Notice he's called the Hebrew there, in Genesis 14, 13.

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While he is by the Oaks of Mamre, which are going to become very important later on, because Jehovah and two angels come walking and meet

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Abraham by the Oaks of Mamre, beginning in Genesis 18. And you have the important story there.

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So then what happens is, Abram gathers up his family. It looks like he also takes along with him others.

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Eshel, the brother of Mamre, they're allies of Abram. He puts together, in essence, a small army.

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He pursues after the attackers. He defeats them. He rescues Lot.

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And he brought back all the goods and all the people, along with Lot. Then we have this situation that develops.

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He's returning from the defeat of these kings. The king of Sodom is coming out to meet him.

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And then, without any introduction, just out of the blue, verse 18.

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Back up just a moment. Notice he's in the king's valley. There are some who think the king's valley is right outside of Jerusalem.

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And notice, Melchizedek, king of Salem. Jerusalem. Melchizedek, king of Salem.

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Salaam. A root in the Semitic languages that means peace.

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In Hebrew, shalom. Arabic, salaam. Here you have Melchizedek, king of Salem.

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First reference. Never mentioned before this. Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

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Now he was a priest of God Most High. El Elyon.

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It's also the first time the word priest is used in the Bible. Because Melchizedek isn't that interesting.

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And Melchizedek blessed Abraham and said, Blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.

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And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And so Melchizedek comes forth.

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And he brings bread and wine. Which some have made great emphasis on the bread and the wine.

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Notice the writing of the Hebrews never even says anything about it. If there was any connection here to Eucharist or anything else, the writing of the

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Hebrews went right on past. Never says a word about it. Probably just simply food and sustenance.

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And he is a priest of God Most High. In the midst...

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And remember, Abraham has just come out of Ur of the Chaldees. He's been called out of paganism.

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And here you have this Melchizedek. And he knows the true God too. Just as Abraham has received this call from God, Melchizedek, never heard of him before, is a priest of God Most High.

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A priest? How did he become a priest? There's some kind of revelation that's taking place here.

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He knows who God is. He's called a priest. He blesses Abram. He knows that Abram is a servant of God Most High.

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We have no information whatsoever that he had ever met Abram before. Ever heard of Abram before.

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Seems like there's some direct revelation going on there. He knows God Most High is the possessor of heaven and earth.

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And so he blesses Abram. And Abram then gives him a tenth of all the spoils.

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So, Abram recognizes Melchizedek as having a right to receive a blessing in the form of a tenth of all that he's taken.

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And then, he's gone. Notice? That's it.

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I mean, the only thing you can say, I mean, verse 22, Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have sworn to Yahweh, God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take a threat as a...

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Was that part of the giving of the tenth to Melchizedek? It's possible.

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But Melchizedek appears, blesses Abram, receives a tenth from him, and...

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Gone. In fact, if you, you know, maybe flip to your concordance in the back, or if you're using an electronic version, you've maybe done a little search,

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Melchizedek disappears. Except for one other reference in the

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Old Testament. Where is that? Well, we should know by now, because we've heard it so many times, it is

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Psalm 110. So let's look at Psalm 110. It's short, easy to read.

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Yahweh says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Whereas we've heard that before, it's already been quoted numerous times in Hebrews.

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Yahweh will stretch forth your strong scepter from Zion, saying, rule in the midst of your enemies. Your people will volunteer freely in the day of your power.

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In holy array from the womb of the dawn, your youth are to you as the dew. The Lord, Yahweh, has sworn and will not change

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His mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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There's the only other reference in all the Old Testament. Melchizedek.

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Psalm 110, verse 4. So Genesis 14, Psalm 110, verse 4.

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That's it. In fact, if you continue with your search, you'll discover that only the writer of the

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Hebrews is concerned to expand upon this subject of Melchizedek. He's the only one who brings it up.

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Now I don't know about you, but two brief references with no context.

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One in Genesis. No further explanation. Melchizedek disappeared.

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And then one reference in Psalm 110. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

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It would not have been the first thought across my mind to make the central part of my argument

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Melchizedek. But that's what the writer of the

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Hebrews does. But notice how he goes about doing this.

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We've read the story now. How does he make his argument?

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Well, he doesn't go back and re -quote all of Genesis 14, but he assumes that his hearers are fully aware of the story of Melchizedek.

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He just reminds them that he was king of Salem, priest, and most high God. He met

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Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. To him also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils.

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And then he begins to, in essence, explain some things about Melchizedek. Melchizedek was, first of all, by the translation of his name, king of righteousness.

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And that's what Melchizedek means. Melek means king.

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Zedek, Zedekah, means righteousness in the Hebrew language. So Melchizedek means king of righteousness.

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And so however he gets his name, we are not told, but there is something about his kingship that is marked by righteousness, uprightness.

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And then, he's also king of Salem, which is king of peace.

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And so the writer sees Salam, Salem, king of peace. And so many people have made, as I mentioned, the connection between being king of Salem and being king of that city that would eventually, many years down the road, become the very heart of the worship, the place of worship of God, in Jerusalem itself, the city of David.

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Now, it seems that the author wants us to be thinking about both terms righteousness and peace.

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It would be fitting to think of righteousness and peace in that Melchizedek is going to be made a type of Jesus, the

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Son of God. And what is Jesus going to do in his work? He establishes righteousness.

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He establishes peace. Therefore, having been justified, made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ, Romans 5 .1. And so this Melchizedek, the writer of the

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Hebrews wants us to understand, is a king of righteousness, he's a king of peace.

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But then the next verse, to us Western thinkers, seems a little strange. 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, if we don't understand that the author here is speaking in supernatural terms, and that the author here is writing to Hebrews who think in that mindset, if we sit back and attempt to bring 21st century

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Western legal thinking to bear, we're really going to feel like the writer is stretching a long ways here.

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Because it's true that Melchizedek, we don't have his genealogy.

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I mean, if you look at the other kings, for example, in Genesis 14, very often you're told, well, his very name would talk about who he was the son of.

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And very frequently king lists would say that such and such a king was the son of such and such a person was the son of such and such a person, etc, etc.

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It was very common in establishing succession lines and things like that. And you'll have that in other portions of the

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Old Testament, even talking about the kings of Judah and Israel and things like that.

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But Melchizedek just pops in. We're not told who his father was. We're not told who his mother was.

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We're not given a genealogy. We're not told when he was born. We're not told about when he died. He just pops in and pops back out again.

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This has led many people to identify Melchizedek as a pre -incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ.

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That Melchizedek was the angel of the Lord. That Melchizedek was a theophany of some sort.

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And I don't think we have to go there. The text is actually going to make a differentiation between him. It said, but he is but made like the

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Son of God. The type and anti -type here needs to be kept in mind.

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The author is pointing to Melchizedek and he is paralleling in the experience of Melchizedek not only in the positive things that are said about Melchizedek but in the silence of the biblical text.

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And he is drawing parallels to Jesus. Melchizedek doesn't determine the type as applied to Jesus.

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It's the other way around. The author is saying, look, in the inspired word this is what we're told and this is what we are not told.

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And in light of what Abram does in acknowledging Melchizedek as his superior giving to him the tithe, receiving from him the blessing these are the things we can derive from that understanding.

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Especially in regards to then this strange statement of an oath made by God to a messianic figure in the 110th

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Psalm. And so he's taking literally an exhaustive look at everything that's said in the

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Old Testament about Melchizedek and saying what must be the conclusion we derive from this information.

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Well, one of the things he derives from this is that Melchizedek did not derive his authority from a genealogy.

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And since we are never told about his death his lack of a recorded death becomes a parallel to Jesus' resurrection and defeat of death itself.

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And so, since we're not given a genealogy we're not given a source for Melchizedek he just appears.

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And we're not told about his death even though I think we're probably stretching it just a little bit to say that Melchizedek is still running around in some place.

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I don't think that we want to ascribe the author the idea that Melchizedek was hiding in a cave somewhere near Qumran.

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The idea is that since the text does not refer us to his birth it does not like a natural king saying well, he was born during the reign of such -and -so and then he died during the reign of so -and -so.

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Instead, having neither beginning of days nor end of life but made like the Son of God he remains a priest perpetually and the fulfillment of this is then seen in Psalm 110 when the promise is made to the kingly figure there you will be made a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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What order of Melchizedek? No one had ever met anybody other than Melchizedek that had his priesthood so how can you have an order of Melchizedek?

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That's the whole writer's point. The only way you can be a part of the order of Melchizedek is if you are eternal.

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That is, no genealogy your authority is not derived from who your father is or your mommy is you don't have beginning of days nor end of life if you're going to be part of the order of Melchizedek there has to be something downright divine about you.

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And that's what he's going to parallel to Jesus and to the fact that he has an indestructible life having conquered death.

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But he wants us to see this he says, now observe how great this man was to whom

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Abraham the patriarch gave a tent for the choice of spoils. Think about who Abraham is to the

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Jews. I mean, Abraham, the Hebrew Abram, the founder of their entire covenant people

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Abram, the friend of God Abram, the one who gives birth to Isaac The whole line, if you all look back what do the

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Jews say? We're the children of Abraham. Every Jew said, I am the child of Abraham. Remember even the

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Jews We're the children of Abraham it was Jesus who said God can raise up children of Abraham from these rocks because you're not doing what

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Abraham did. But there's the founder of the entire covenant people every

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Jew says, Abram is my father and yet, Abram is demonstrating by his actions that he recognizes in Melchizedek someone who has authority over him.

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You see in the Jewish mind the Hebrew mind, the force of this see how great a man even

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Abram the patriarch founder of our race gave a tent for the choice of spoils

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He saw in him one who had superior religious authority he was a priest of the

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Most High God and Abram himself was a relatively new follower of the

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Most High God Then he draws something out in case we weren't aware of it those indeed the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commandment in the law to collect a tent from the people that is from their brethren although these are descended from Abram so remember

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Levi is not given any land remember when they go into the promised land and the land is apportioned to the tribes no land is given to Levi They have a different role they are set apart they are unique they are to minister the truth of God the word of God the law of God amongst the people of God and so to live amongst the people of God but they are to receive their inheritance in essence from the

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Lord through the giving of the people and one of the tithes of the Old Testament was to go directly to the support of the

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Levitical priesthood that's why there was so much strong condemnation in the prophets when even the

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Levitical priesthood became corrupt and they became rich and they became the people who would not speak the word of God openly but instead would say peace, peace and so on and so forth and stood against the true prophets of God and so they were to receive from the people a tent even though they also were descended from Abraham so amongst the descendants of Abraham Levi included

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I think Abraham would be his great grandfather so from him even though they live amongst the same people they're all descendants of Abraham there is to be this giving to them of a tent for their support and that is how there would then be the ministers of God amongst the people of God but the writer says the one whose genealogy is not traced from them

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Melchizedek selected a tent from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises

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Abraham receives the promises from God yet Melchizedek blesses him so the argument is made in verse 7 but without any dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater remember in the blessings this again is where we need to have the

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Old Testament background remember what happens in numerous stories about the blessings remember

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Jacob and Esau the blessing of the firstborn and the deception involved and all these things and the despair of Esau don't you have a blessing for me?

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and see for us that just seems so foreign I mean the only blessing that matters to us about an aged parent is do you have it certified and did the lawyer write it is it going to make it through probate?

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and you can change that a dozen times that's the only correlation we have the idea of a patriarch laying hands upon the head of a child and the family standing around the blessing being given we've lost all that we've lost all that we're far we're disconnected from that we're disconnected from kingship and royalty and things like that and I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing but we've lost all that but the argument is without dispute the lesser is blessed by the greater the blessing flows downhill in essence and so the argument is well if Melchizedek blesses

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Abraham then where is Melchizedek and where is Abraham in the relative proportion of things?

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Melchizedek is greater in this case mortal men receive tithes but in that case one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on and so if in the law the

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Levites mortal men could receive tithes from those who were their brothers all descendants of Abraham in this case we are talking about one who receives these tithes of whom it is witnessed that he lives on only in the sense that no reference is ever made to Melchizedek's death and there is this order of Melchizedek from Psalm 110 verse 4 then verse 9 begins with a statement that in essence is somewhat along these lines and we might even go so far as to say or it might be said so to speak the author is not saying well look

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I am making this a dogmatic statement and you know this is a hill to die on but he is illustrating something and so to speak through Abraham even

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Levi who received tithes paid tithes for he was still in the loins of his father when

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Melchizedek met him in other words Abraham is up here you've got the patriarchs you've got

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Levi of the twelve and so Levi is still in the loins of Melchizedek I'm sorry of Abraham at that time and so when

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Abraham pays tithes then clearly someone who is descended from Abraham cannot be greater than him and therefore is said to in a federal way have paid tithes to Melchizedek his whole point is even the

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Levitical line the Levitical priesthood clearly has to be lesser than this

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Melchizedek priesthood that Psalm 110 is going to tell us about Psalm 110 records an oath from God that he is going to make this messianic figure a priest after the order of Melchizedek and so since Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek then even

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Levi and then the Levitical priesthood coming from him is subjected to that greater authority of the

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Melchizedek priesthood now again that's not generally how we think in the

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West and especially because of the

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Old Testament backgrounds a lot of folks look at that and go well that's hard to follow that's hard to follow but I want to try to make at least one point of application here at the beginning of this difficult section because this is going to then lead to what we saw in the rest of chapter 7 as we continue to study even this evening but I want you to step back with me for just a moment we've had to get so in depth to follow the argument that sometimes we can miss some pretty neat things that are going past us

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I just want to make this just one application this morning we tend to think of the stories of the

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Old Testament as just that, stories maybe something you initially saw on a flannel board

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I'm dating myself there but now I'm sure it's on a computer screen but flannel boards and chalk drawings were the things of my ancient youth and it's easy for us to sort of push

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Melchizedek, Abraham kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and what does this really matter?

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but one of the things that I have derived from the background work necessary to approach this text is to once again think about that statement of the

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Apostle Paul that we all know so well all Scripture is Theotokos all

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Scripture is God -breathed if you had asked somebody to go through the book of Genesis and to identify the really key important text how many of us honestly would have said wow that Melchizedek thing is really important I think it would have much more quickly been drawn to Genesis 15 and the

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Covenant and Genesis 22 and Isaac and yes all those things are very important but the point is

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God's sovereignty is really sovereign I'm not sure if that's an appropriate phrase,

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God's sovereignty is really sovereign, in other words it's real sovereignty it really extends to everything that takes place

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Abraham didn't see this coming Abraham just went to rest your lot, that's what you did you had really close tight family ties back then and if people came and ran off with your nephew you go get them that's how clans worked and continue to work in many nations of the world today he's coming back and here comes this guy that as far as we can tell he's never seen before something happens and we are not given a whole lot of information but something really important happens

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Abraham recognizes in this man a fellow worshipper of the one true God and you know what they lived in a day where those types of people are few and far between in fact as far as Abraham could tell he was about to run around and man he met him he sensed in this man the spirit of God and God was sovereign in bringing this about how did

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Melchizedek know, did he hear it from somebody I suppose I don't have to necessarily think that it was a miracle but maybe it was but it's very clear that God is revealing himself to Melchizedek there's no scripture for him to be reading and yet he is a priest the only way he could be a priest is if there was a direct revelation from God as to what a priest would do

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Moses was down the roadways here so there is supernatural activity going on here and long long before that situation in the early church

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God had arranged his activities in history so as to provide foundation for his people to know the truthfulness of the gospel ever thought about that that's amazing sometimes we get a little bit nervous saying you know

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God's doing all this stuff all about well Jesus and the church but isn't that the whole message of the bible is that this is how

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God has chosen to demonstrate his wisdom to the entire universe so should it really surprise us that God is orchestrating events on that level but he is and what's neat is he's been doing it for a long long time this was a long time ago folks we're talking getting close to 4000 years ago so I just have to ask you if God was sovereign then isn't he still sovereign now so when you have doubts and you have concerns that God's promises are going to be made full in your life that you can trust

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God's promises you read about events that took place so long ago it boggles our minds and yet the

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God who was sovereign then was just and righteous then who brought peace into men's hearts then is the same

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God who continues to do that today and that is a wonderful lesson

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Our Gracious Heavenly Father we are awed to think about the fact that our punitive minds can begin to imagine thousands of years of church history and your dealing with your people before the time of Christ your sovereignty there by the oaks of man and yet you so orchestrated events so as to bring about your own glorification and to bring about yet another example for us of how we can trust you, how we can see that you have been faithful over generation after generation well let us not be blind to these things, let us not take any sense for granted may we rejoice to consider your faithfulness to us even as we work to understand your sacred scriptures we thank you for this time we pray in Christ's name