Wednesday, November 15, 2023 PM

Sunnyside Baptist Church

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I guess we'll get started. Would you join me in prayer?

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God, thank you for this evening. Thank you for the people you've brought here. Thank you for blessing us with food.

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Thank you for blessing us with fellowship. And we thank you for your word and ask that your spirit would be with us.

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We pray that you would illuminate the texts and I pray that you would be with my tongue, be with my mind as I seek to bring these truths out.

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Let me say what should be said and not say what shouldn't be said. In all things, I pray that you would increase and the excellency of Jesus Christ would shine forth.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So, I'd like to talk about kind of a large issue that's happening in the world recently, but I'll pose it as a question, a general question.

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Who should we bless? Who should we bless? And that's very generic. You could think, well,

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I should bless my children. I should bless my spouse. I should bless the people at church that I go with.

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All these things are true, but more to the root. And so hopefully we'll get there.

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When talking about this, I'd like to say a couple of things. We wanna make sure that we have rightly ordered affections.

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So just because we are addressing something may not mean we're disregarding it or we're saying there's no significance at all.

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We just wanna make sure that our affections are rightly ordered and I hope that comes out.

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And then also we'll be in the Old and New Testament and the fancy word is hermeneutics.

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That hermeneutics that I'm using is that often when we read the

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Old Testament, it is a narrative. It might be historical, it might be poetry.

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The New Testament interprets the Old Testament. So we may take something in the

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Old Testament and read it and interpret it a certain way, but ultimately it's through the lens of the

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New Testament that we have a greater understanding of some of the meanings in the Old Testament.

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I'll give an example here. Matthew 2, 14 through 15, you're familiar with this.

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It says, when he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt and there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the

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Lord through the prophet saying, out of Egypt, I have called my son. And so this is, he says by the prophet, this is a prophecy from Hosea.

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Well, when you read that prophecy by Hosea, it says, when Israel was a child,

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I loved him and out of Egypt, I have called my son. And so Matthew is interpreting

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Hosea statement about Israel and saying, he's talking about Jesus.

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When they fled to Egypt to prevent Jesus from being killed by Herod, it says that he called them out of Egypt, he was talking about Jesus.

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So we use the Old Testament to interpret, we use the New Testament to interpret the

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Old Testament. So with that in mind, let's start in the Old Testament. If you'll turn to Genesis 12.

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Genesis 12, and this is a promise to Abram before his name was changed to Abraham.

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Genesis 12, we'll start in verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, get out of your country from your family and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.

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Verse two, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great.

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And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse him who curses you.

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And in all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Shall be blessed.

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So this is a promise to Abram. Notice a couple of things here.

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Verse two, I will make you a great nation. Did God do that? Yes, God made

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Abram a great nation, Israel. I will bless you. Did God bless

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Abram? Yes, God blessed Abram. He made his name great. He made

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Abram a blessing. I'm sure Lot greatly appreciated Abram's assistance at certain points, but Abram was a blessing.

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Notice verse three, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.

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Okay, this is important. Keep those in mind. Turn to Genesis 15, excuse me.

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Let's start in verse, oh, let's see here, six.

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And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. So we see here that Abram believed the promise.

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Then you see the covenant there. Abram falls asleep and God takes it upon himself.

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And we see God's covenant with Abram. Okay, so this is a continued thing. There's multiple places where this is promised.

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There's something interesting that happens between 12 and 15.

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So if you'll go back to chapter 14, Abram at this point is going around the land and Lot is captured and taken off prisoner.

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And he's led captive and then Abram goes off to war with some of the various kings.

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And they go off and they end up rescuing Lot and Lot's family and bring Lot and his family back.

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Look at verse eight. And the king of Sodom, king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah and the king of Zeboim and the king of Bela, that is

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Zor, went out and joined together in battle in the valley of Sidim against Chalmomer, king of Elam, king of nations.

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Okay, so then we continue down further. We've noticed several kings mentioned here.

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The king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah. Look at verse 18.

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Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine and he was the high priest of God most high and blessed him and said, blessed be

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Abram of 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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Okay? And he, meaning Abram, gave him a tithe of all.

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I wanna notice, I wanna point out several things here. We have Melchizedek who is a king.

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He's also a priest, which later on is kind of odd. So a priest, according to the

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Old Testament, could only come from the tribe of Levi, right? You could only have a priest that's through the tribe of Levi.

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And the kings were usually separate. Priests and kings were a separate thing. It's a bad thing if you think of King Saul who tried to take on some of the priestly duties.

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It did not go well for him. It was a bad thing. Those were separate. But here, the king of Salem, who is a priest of God most high, notice king of Salem.

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Salem means peace. So he's the king of peace. He brings out bread and wine.

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He's also a priest, okay? So he blesses Abram.

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Well, we just had a promise. I will bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you. Here is a king and priest of God blessing

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Abram. So this person will be blessed. And then

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Abram's response is to give him a tithe, a tenth.

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Now, if you continue in verse 21, "'Now the king of Sodom said to Abram, "'Give me persons and take the goods for yourself.'

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"'But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "'I have raised my hand to the Lord, God most high, "'the possessor of heaven and earth, "'that

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I will take nothing from a thread "'to your sandal strap, "'and I will not take anything that is yours, "'lest you should say,

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I have made Abram rich.'" So Abram's like, no, I'm going with the king of Salem, not the king of Sodom, okay?

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And again, this is Old Testament. So we have all those promises to Abram in chapter 12.

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Here in chapter 14, we have a person coming out of nowhere.

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He comes and then he's gone. And we have these terminologies. So we'll hold onto those for a minute.

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How is the New Testament going to interpret this? A king, a priest who shows up, a king of Salem, he brings bread and wine,

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Abram blesses him, or excuse me, Melchizedek blesses Abram, and then Abram tithes to Melchizedek.

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Oh, with those two things in mind, the narrative from the Old Testament, let's go to the New Testament. Galatians 3.

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Galatians 3. Let's look at verse 15.

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Sorry, chapter three, verse 15, says this.

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Brethren, I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant, yet it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.

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Now Abraham and his seed were the promises made. So in the Old Testament it says, to you and your seed.

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To you and your seed, your promises were made. He does not say, and to seeds, as of many, but as one.

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And to your seed, who is Christ? So now we know who the seed is. It just tells us, the seed is

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Christ. So those promises from the Old Testament are to Abram and to his seed.

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Verse 17, and this I say, that the law, which was 430 years later, after that promise to Abram, it was 430 years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it would make the promise of no effect.

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Verse 19, and this is kind of a turning point, verse 19.

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What purpose, then, does the law serve? Remember, the law came years, hundreds of years after this promise.

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So what is the purpose of the law? What does it serve? It was added because of transgressions till the seed should come, to whom the promise was made.

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So the law was added temporarily. There was a promise made to Abram and to his seed.

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The law was added because of transgressions until the seed would come, which is

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Christ. Christ is the seed. The Mosaic law, the

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Mosaic covenant, does not annul the Abrahamic covenant. It is a temporary addition.

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Now it instructs, the Bible says it is good. David says the law is good, but it had a specific purpose.

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And here, the New Testament tells us that it was for transgressions until the seed,

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Jesus Christ, should come. The law was for transgressions until the seed.

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So Jesus is the seed, okay? Now in 2 Corinthians 1 .20, it says, for all promises of God in him are yes and amen to the glory of God through us.

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So those promises are kept. They are yes and amen in Jesus. So Jesus is the seed.

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But it's my contention here that Jesus is the timeless seed, all right?

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We establish that he's the seed, but in John 8, if you'll turn to John 8, this is

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Jesus speaking with teachers of the law and Pharisees.

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If I say this, you guys finish it. Before Abraham was, I am, okay?

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So John 8, start in verse 54. It says,

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Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It's my father who honors me, and of whom you say that he is your

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God. Yet you have not known him. Who's he talking to here? He's talking to the

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Jews here. He says, you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say,

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I do not know him, I shall be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.

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Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad.

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Then the Jews said to him, you're not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham.

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And Jesus said to them, most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

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What was their response to this? Let's kill him. Let's stone him.

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He's claiming to be God. Now, notice verse 56.

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Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and was glad.

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Their response to this is, how did Abraham see you?

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You're not 50 years old. So Jesus is saying that this is something that happened in the past, that Abraham saw

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Jesus and was glad and rejoiced to see it. What does the

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New Testament, what are ways the New Testament describes Jesus? Jesus is king of kings.

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Jesus is our high priest, right? What were the things that it said about Melchizedek back in the promise when he met

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Melchizedek? So he went and met Melchizedek, which was the king of Salem, right?

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And now we have Jesus, king of kings, who is the king of Jerusalem.

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Now, when I looked up what Jerusalem means, it means double peace. So Salem means peace, and there's a connotation of double peace.

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And my mind immediately went to, woe to you who say peace, peace, when there is no peace.

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Jesus came to his city, which means double peace, and they crucified him there in that city.

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Woe to them. If only they had known what had made for peace, but they didn't, they missed it.

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Jesus, excuse me, Melchizedek, when he meets Abram, he meets them in what's called the king's valley.

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So you've got king of Sodom, you've got Melchizedek, who is a king, you've got these other kings. The king's valley,

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I looked that up. The location is between Jerusalem, which is where the

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Temple Mount is, and the Mount of Olives, right? You have the king's valley. So Jesus comes there, and when he cleanses the temple, he leaves the temple to go to the

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Mount of Olives, and he pronounces a judgment on the temple there, right?

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What did Melchizedek bring? He's a king, he was a priest, he brought bread, he brought wine, what did

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Jesus bring? Bread and wine for the new covenant. Melchizedek came, and he blesses

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Abram. Jesus comes to bless Israel. Melchizedek comes, and Abraham was glad to see him and rejoiced,

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Jesus comes to Israel, and they crucify him. Abraham received

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Christ through Melchizedek. He met the king, he met the high priest, and he received him, he was glad.

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And the Jews are saying, well, we're of Abraham. Jesus is saying, no, you're not, because if you were of Abraham, you would receive me, and they did not receive him, they crucified him.

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So from this, and Jesus says this here in John 8, look at verse 37.

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These people are physical descendants of Abraham, but they are not spiritual descendants of Abraham.

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Abraham's spiritual descendants were the people of God. These people are against God, for they do not receive

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Jesus. Look at verse 37 in chapter eight, John 8, verse 37.

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I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.

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I speak what I have seen with my father, and you do not, excuse me, and you do what you have seen with your father.

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They answered him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which

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I heard from God. Abraham did not do this, right? Abraham received

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Melchizedek. These men are not receiving the king, they are not receiving their high priest.

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So Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. They said to him, now they try to get a dig in at him.

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We were not born of fornication. We have one father, God, right? They're questioning

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Jesus's birth, right? He was born of a virgin. We were not born of fornication.

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We have one father, God. So now they switch. Well, that argument's not working about Abraham. Our father is

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God. Jesus said to them, if God were your father, you would love me for I proceed forth and came from God, nor have

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I come for myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you're not able to listen to my word.

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You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father are what you want to do.

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These are the Jews who did not receive their king, did not receive their priest.

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And he's saying, you are of your father, the devil. Abraham received,

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Israel did not receive, did not receive their king, their priest. Now, if the law was given, if the old covenant was given as a temporary thing until the seed came, all right, the seed has come.

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New Testament tells us that Jesus is the seed. What next? What's after that? What's after the old covenant?

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Turn to Hebrews. Turn to the book of Hebrews. Multiple places it talks about the old covenant and it talks about the new covenant.

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The book of Hebrews is focused in on this because it has a particular audience.

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There are Jews and maybe some Christians who are doubting because they've heard promises that within this generation,

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Jesus will return, right? And so they're waiting, they're waiting, they're waiting. And yet it hasn't happened yet.

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Many of the promises about the temple being destroyed haven't taken place yet. And some of them are tempted to go back, to go back to the old covenant, to go back to the old things.

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The book of Hebrews is what next? The new covenant.

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What does that look like? So start in chapter seven. What is the newness of the new covenant or the new creation?

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The old covenant was the old, what's now? Now that the seed has come, what's now?

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In chapter seven, we have a new king. He talks about Melchizedek again.

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He talks about how Abraham blessed Melchizedek and tithed to Melchizedek.

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Now here, the priesthood that was at the temple then, they were receiving tithes from men.

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But Abraham, the father, paid tithes to Melchizedek. Jesus is that new king.

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In the new covenant, we have a new high priest. Look at chapter eight, verse one and two.

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Now this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right, excuse me, at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary of the true tabernacle, which the

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Lord erected, not men. We have a new king. We have a new high priest.

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We have a new covenant. Look at chapter seven, verse 22.

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By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant.

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And I'm gonna read in here, Isaiah 42, six. I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand.

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I will keep you and I will give you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the

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Gentiles. Jesus is the covenant. He's the surety of the covenant.

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He is the covenant. We have a new temple. Look at chapter nine, seven, eight, nine.

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He's going through all of the things that were there in the old. And he's saying they are there in Jesus.

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Chapter nine, look at verse 11 and verse 15. But Christ came as a high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation.

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Verse 15, and for this reason, he is the mediator of the new covenant by means of his death for the redemption of transgressions under the first covenant that those who are called may receive the promise of the internal inheritance.

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He mentions the first covenant. Those people that believed in the promise. What was the promise?

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The seed. Those people that believed in the promise have the promise of an eternal inheritance.

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They're not lost. What else is part of the new creation, the new covenant?

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We have a new sacrifice. Look at 10, chapter 10.

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Look at verse nine and 10 of chapter 10. Then said, behold,

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I have come to do your will, O God. He makes away, he takes away the first that he may establish the second.

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By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.

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We have a new, we have a better sacrifice. We have a new king, a new high priest, a new covenant, a new temple, a new sacrifice.

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We have a new understanding. Look at 11. This is the hall of faith.

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They go through all the people of the Old Testament. And like I said, the new interprets the old.

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What does it say in verse three of chapter 11? By faith, we understand that the world were framed by the word of God so that the things which are seen were not made of the things which are visible.

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What does chapter 11 do? It goes through Abraham. It goes through the patriarchs,

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Isaac and Jacob. It goes through Moses. With this understanding, it's all through the lens of Christ.

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We have a new kingdom. Look at chapter 12. Chapter 12, verse 22.

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But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living

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God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of church of the firstborn, who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood and sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

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In this new kingdom, we see we have a new people. We are the general assembly and church of the firstborn registered in heaven.

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We have a new mountain, Mount Zion, Jerusalem that we cannot touch. We have a new word that speaks better than that of the blood of Abel.

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All of the things that the Israelites are holding onto are found in Jesus, in the new and better covenant.

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Do not go back. Do not go back. We have something far better.

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So, finishing up, I'd like to piggyback off of Dylan's lessons on Psalm 2.

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So if you'll turn to Psalm 2. Okay, Psalm 2, the question, who do we bless?

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Who do we bless? We're not waiting for a priesthood to be established.

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We're not waiting for a kingship. Jesus is king of kings.

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Jesus is Lord of lords. We are made a kingdom of priests. That's who we are, right?

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The Levitical priesthood, that's us in him. We're not waiting.

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So Psalm 2, why do the nations rage?

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And the people plot a vain thing. The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the

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Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away the courts from us.

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We see kings and nations here, right? Kings and nations. He who sits in heaven laughs, the

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Lord holds them in derision. Then he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure.

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Now, verse six. Yet I have set the nation of Israel on my holy hill.

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Is that what it says? No. Yet I have set the church on the holy hill.

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Is that what it says? No. I have set my king on my holy hill,

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Zion. God has set Jesus there. I will tell the decree.

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The Lord has said to me, you are my son. And today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will give the nations of the earth your inheritance.

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Is Israel a nation? Yes. Israel is given to God as an inheritance to Jesus.

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And the ends of the earth, your possession. Well, I'm thankful for that as a Gentile that the ends of the earth are his possession.

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You shall break them with a rod of iron. You shall dust them into pieces like a potter's vessel.

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Verse 10. Now therefore, be wise, O kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

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Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Verse 12.

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Kiss Israel. Is that what it says? Lest Israel be angry.

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No. Kiss the son, lest he be angry. Does it say, kiss the church, lest he be angry?

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No. It says, kiss the son, lest he be angry. And you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled, but a little.

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Lastly, blessed are those who put their trust in Israel. Does it say that? It does not.

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Blessed are those who put their trust in the church. Does it say that? No, it does not.

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Blessed are those who put their trust in him. And we go all the way back to Genesis.

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I will bless those who bless you. The seed. I will bless those who bless

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Christ. I will curse those who curse Christ. Any nation or any church that does not bless the son is cursed, but blessed are those who put their trust in him.

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And then I get to Revelation and it says, the spirit and the bride say, come, right?

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We're invited to come to Jesus and in him we're made part of the bride.

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And that is the hope for all nations, including Israel. Let's pray.

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God, we thank you for this evening. Lord, I do pray for the nations.

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Our nation, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, any nation that does not bow its knee to you is in danger.

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Lord, may they repent. May the kings and the rulers be wise. May the people be turned to you and plead with their rulers.

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But Lord, we know it's in your hands and we know that you are wise and you are good and you are in control and we trust you.

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We pray for our rulers. May we not put trust in our nation, but in your kingdom and you and what you are doing.