Hebrews 7: Melchizedek (Part 2)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, Michael Lee Abendroth, Abendroth.

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If you�re a man, you got hair growing everywhere, all over your face and nose and ears and eyebrows and all that stuff, but you also then eat like an old man.

And so, I eat beets. I would never have eaten beets, brussels sprouts, whorehound candy, oh, this age thing is killing me.

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I don't know. I wonder what some of the people at BBC have been thinking about now. You know, it's the dance, dance revolution here at Bethlehem Bible Church with the pastor and his wife and several other couples.

We're taking some dance lessons on Thursday nights. By the way, I see Susan is watching.

Susan, you were not there last night. And it was the fourth part of the cha -cha, cha -cha -cha, 1 4th, 1 4th, 1 4th, 1 8th, 1 8th.

And next week it swings. So anyway, here's the good news. Since your legal standing before God, listeners, has been accomplished by another,

God requires perfection. Remember, because he is perfect and therefore his law is perfect, his expectations as creatures must be in accordance with his nature, that is perfectly keeping the law, perpetually keeping the law, personally keeping the law, exactly keeping the law, entirely keeping the law.

And therefore, we fall short, but we are trusted in one who perfectly kept that law, who perpetually kept that law, who personally kept that law, who entirely kept that law, who effectually kept that law.

What Adam didn't do, Jesus did, and in addition, Jesus then pays for the sins of all those who would believe.

And we know it worked. We know it was efficacious. We know it was validated because Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, the risen

Savior. So we stand before God not based on anything that we've done, and it's not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, it's what comes out of your heart.

And therefore, when you want to do things, and you want to eat a certain food, and you want to drink a certain drink, you,

I don't know, what's the latest drink, oat, oat milk is big, right? I think my wife has been making some coffee with something oat,

O -A -T. We're about opposite in every ways, Kim and I, and I don't want oat milk, and I don't want tea.

And what else does she have that I don't have? Well, I guess we both like to dance.

By the way, dancing is a perfect metaphor for marriage because in marriage, it's hard to lead and it's hard to follow, and on the dance floor, you have to lead and you have to follow.

Men have certain roles, women have certain roles. So back to the topic here.

We're talking about Hebrews chapter 7. That's where we are. Remember last time, just a few minutes ago, we were talking about Melchizedek and how most

Christians don't really care much about Melchizedek. I mean, if I had to ask most Christians, what's the gospel, sometimes they need to be coached and if I ask them, tell me a little bit about redemption, they get it, but they might not be able to do it off the top of their head, or reconciliation, or propitiation, or forgiveness, or substitutionary atonement, or hypostatic union, or virgin birth, incarnation, literal return of Christ, inspiration, inerrancy.

If I ask you to define those words, depending on where you are in your maturation, you would give me different answers.

Of course, when you're a brand new Christian, as Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so, great. But then we learn a little bit more as we appreciate this great diamond of salvation.

And if you have a diamond and you put it on a black backdrop, and you have the right lights, you can just see every little facet of that diamond, it looks wonderful, and especially looks wonderful with that black backdrop, and many preachers have talked about that black backdrop being our sin, and our rebellion, and our iniquities, and then we get to see the gospel highlighted for what it is, because it's about a person.

Remember, when you talk about the gospel, the gospel's about Jesus, and I think too many Christians are talking about the gospel as a noun, or a thing, or something abstract, and preach the gospel, and are you gospel -centered, and gospel coalition, and gospel this, and gospel that.

Is there a gospel swing -dancing? That's the question. For old people.

When I was younger, I thought, I'm not going to play tennis until I can't play full -court basketball anymore. And then after you can't play basketball, and you're like, well,

I'm not going to golf while I can still play tennis. You know, I'm not going to dance until I get, oh, there we are.

Melchizedek is an important person, and if I had to ask you, tell me everything you know about Melchizedek, I wonder what you would say.

If I had to ask you this question, or if I were to ask you, since I am asking you the question, how important is

Melchizedek to rightly understand the Lord Jesus Christ and His priesthood?

When it comes to Jesus being a high priest forever, I mean, let's even back up one more step.

Jesus, prophet, priest, and king, we don't hear that language very often. He's a prophet.

Remember Deuteronomy chapter 18, there's going to be a greater prophet, Moses said, than even Moses, and we know who that prophet is, who speaks the words of God and who knows the mind of God and who, let's see,

I fire up my S. Lewis Johnson sermon again, and when lo and behold, another no -co -life. Hey, it's

Christmas, Merry Christmas. Josh is up online. You ought to get Josh's book, Expository Parenting, and you can get that on Amazon.

And Josh has got a new book out, too, that has some crazy endorsers, but still the quality of the book is good.

Melchizedek, prophet, priest, and king, I mean, then you think about king. We understand Jesus has a king. He's the king of kings and Lord of lords, and in the

Greek, it's out of all the kings kinging, He's the king. Out of all the lords lording, you know, He's the

Lord. But the priest one is sometimes strange to us.

I mean, I live in an area where 80 % of the people call themselves Roman Catholics, even though they don't really practice at that percentage.

They might stand up against you to a higher percentage than that when you talk about how the

Roman Catholic Church is bankrupt. But I think people get the idea of priest, at least in the

Catholic circles. It's the Protestants who have the inadequate view of priests because I think we are so against Roman Catholicism that we forget why priests are needed.

And the main reason priests are needed, Bible class, is simply twofold. Number one, priests made sacrifices for sins.

And number two, priests interceded. And that is the theme of the actions of the

Lord Jesus Christ in the book of Hebrews. He is a high priest who becomes the sacrifice, right?

He's the priest's sacrifice. We could call him that, if you will. And then he's also making intercession.

Let's see, Wendy just said, I should get Josh's book for my daughter and son -in -law. They have a baby on the way next month. There you go.

That would be a great idea. And priests make intercession, and then they also make sacrifice.

So when you come to the book of Hebrews and there's this priest talk, remember

Hebrews chapter 8 verse 1, now the point in what we are saying is this, if only preachers would be so clear.

This is my point. We've got a great high priest. We have permanent, present tense, we've got this high priest.

And he's made a sacrifice, of course. He himself is the sacrifice, the sufficient sacrifice that was accepted by God, and that he makes intercession.

And he is a priest. And the Jew is thinking, no, he's not. He doesn't have the right credentials.

He's not from the tribe of the Levites. He's from the tribe of Judah. See, we've got you.

He's trying to make himself to be a priest. And if you want to talk about Jesus as prophet, priest, and king, well, you can't because he's from Judah.

And so the writer of Hebrews simply says, remember, Genesis chapter 14, there's a priest, and he is in a different order than the

Levites because, frankly, the Levites weren't even around. This is before Exodus and the

Levitical laws. This is in Genesis. And it all has to do with an encounter that Abraham has with Lot.

Let me read you a little bit of Genesis chapter 14. Here's the funny part. It's got all those king's names that are super hard to pronounce.

Genesis chapter 14, in the days of Amphra... I can't get the first one done.

Amraphel. That's not that hard. That's easy. Amraphel. Amphraphel. Amphrasound.

No, in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elsar, Kedolamer, king of Elam, Tidal king of Goyim.

Aren't you glad you don't have to pay for these downloads? These kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom.

That's an important one when you think about there's some kings and they get together and they make war against the king of Sodom, Bersha, king of Gomorrah, see those are words we're familiar with,

Shanab, king of Adma, and some other places, Zoar, et cetera. All these joined forces in the valley of Siddim, that is the

Salt Sea. All these forces in the valley of Siddim, that is Salt Sea, 12 years they had served

Kedolamer, but in the 13th year, they rebelled. And as one writer said, from Adma to Zeobim, it's from A to Z.

There's this big war going on. It says down in verse 8, when he said, stop it, you know, here's the craziest thing.

And I know, well, you know I have psych problems too, and daddy wounds and every other kind of dysfunctional thing.

But I'm just sitting here in this study on my own. There's nobody else here. You just...but I'm feeling like we're connected, right, through an older friend.

And she said, you know, do you space time here in California?

I said, yes. Because she was thinking, you know, go through space. And she didn't know it was called

FaceTime. She called it SpaceTime. So, we're doing some space time here on No Compromise Radio Ministry.

Verse 8, then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, and these other kings joined battle. And now the valley of Sidim was full of bitumen pits.

And as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled to the hill country.

Now, that makes me think of particular pits that I know of. And those pits are the tar pits in La Brea.

Remember in Los Angeles? And if you haven't been there, there's a museum right there close by, closely by.

And you've got some of the mastodons, at least representative mastodons, in the tar.

And it's kind of bubbly, and it smells weird. And you get in, and it's hard to get out. And as the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some fell into them, and the rest fled into the hill country.

So, the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way.

Proverbially, anything that wasn't nailed down, they took. Now, here's what you're going to be doing if you're reading that.

What's the big deal? I mean, there are kings, and there are kings, and there's fighting and land and grabbing, and this is just what people do.

And what's the big deal? Well, here's the big deal, and this is why it's not just history. There's a theological history.

The reason why it's important is verse 12 of Genesis 14. They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, see, who was dwelling in Sodom and his possessions, and went their way.

Remember, Lot went a certain way. Abraham went the other way. Abraham, take whatever you want. I mean,

Lot, take whatever you want, said Abraham. And he went this way, Sodom and Gomorrah way, and now he's taken, and his possessions are taken, and they go on their way.

Then one who escaped came and told Abram, the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre, the

Amorite, brother of Eshkol and Aner. These are the allies of Abram. Somebody got out way.

Somebody snuck out. Somebody made a dash and got away. Wasn't that lucky? Wasn't that fate?

Wasn't that serendipitous? Wasn't that fortunate? Wasn't that lucky?

Nine nations involved in the war, and some people call this a pagan dogfight.

Who cares? Here's why we care. They took Lot. And that one escaped, and now

Abram knows. Verse 14, this is kind of almost like a born identity kind of thing.

Listen up. When Abram heard that his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

These men go on this mission all the way up to Dan. Now, what would you say if you were

Abram? Lot, my nephew, he had it coming. He always gets into trouble. He got himself into it.

He can get it out. No. He gets this force, Abraham does, Abram does, of 318 assassins, really, and he is going to go rescue.

It's going to be one of these special missions because you're going to go up against the force of five kings, and these are pretty bad odds, not in Abram's favor.

You better have the tough guys to go do this. And you are going to go rescue my loved one,

Sodom. Sodom, I'm just looking at my notes. Can you edit that,

Lot? And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.

That was a long journey. Then he brought back all the possessions and all brought back his kinsmen,

Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.

I mean, that's like a TV movie. That's like a Netflix movie. The other day, I was riding my bicycle down the street past our library, the

Lancaster Thayer Library, cool library, old library, Isaiah, I think 11 is up on the

Candelabra area where the librarians are. And I couldn't ride past.

Why? Because they were filming something. Netflix is filming everywhere. They made me stop. I wanted to be in the movie.

I wanted to be, what do they call those people? Extras. You were thinking they want to be an actor, extras.

And now we have Abram going to get Lot, and he made it against all odds.

You say, what does that have to do with Melchizedek? I'm glad you asked. Verse 17, who gets the credit for all this, by the way?

The skilled assassins and night vision goggle guys. After his return from the defeat of Chedolamor and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavna, that is the king's valley.

And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out wine and bread.

He was the priest of God most. This is amazing.

Abram is going to be blessed by this great, interesting king.

Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out wine and bread. He was the priest of the God most high.

You'll remember that this is the first time priest is used in the Old Testament. And the God whom he serves is the

God most high. Who gives the victory for this great rescue?

Verse 19, 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. Let's frame this all theologically now.

What you just experienced, yes, there are secondary means, and there are fighters, and there are people in the army, and there are skilled 318 men.

But God is the one who has delivered your enemies into your hand. He's the one who did it. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The battles happened. We understand that this is God most high. Lot thought that Abraham was the

Calvary, but it was God himself. It's the providence of God. It's the goodness of God. And when

Melchizedek meets Abram, he was not acting like a politician. He was not acting like some army leader.

He was not trying to figure out, all right, let's meet at the Potsdam and split up Europe.

No, let's remind Abram of something very crucial. The victory is the

Lord's. God's the one that did this. God is the one who manufactured this victory.

And if you want to see why this happened and why there was success, the military victory belongs to God.

And how does Abram respond? He knew that was right, and then he gave him a tithe.

It's Melchizedek seemingly coming onto the scenes, interrupting what's going on between Abram and King of Sodom.

Isn't that fascinating? It's like these two guys are talking, Abram and King of Sodom, and Melchizedek just shows up and it seems to interrupt and reminds

Abram the victory was the Lord. And this is the blessing of God and the goodness of God.

And this is an extension of Genesis chapter 12, where God says, I'm going to bless you,

Abram. Remember, leave your relatives to the land. I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to make your name great.

And as Wendy just said, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever. We want to think that way, right,

Wendy, where we say to ourselves, when these things happen in our lives, as we watch the text, things happen in the text, as we watch things in our lives, and this is not the point of the passage, but this is a good truth.

It's good to be interrupted and to be reminded and to be told again. Now, remember, some people trust in horses.

Some people trust in wisdom. Some people trust in might and power and money and riches and education.

But let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts, boast about this, that he understands,

God said, and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these

I delight. And here we have this man, Melchizedek, who interrupts and who proclaims who gives the victory.

Now, the book of Hebrews chapter 7 gives us an exposition of this very passage, Genesis 14.

And when people look at Genesis 14, they pretty much say, you know what, was this

Melchizedek a pre -incarnate Jesus? That is to say, technically, the

Son of God before He added humanity, and really, Jesus is a word reserved for humanity on after the virgin conception.

Or is this a man who's a type? Are there things that we can learn about Melchizedek that will inform the way we think about Jesus?

And to me, it's not even a question. To me, it's not even an argument. This is not the pre -incarnate

Jesus, but this is the one who helps us understand who Jesus, the high priest, is.

Why do I believe this? Well, Genesis 14, it's simple. This man, Melchizedek, is described as a king of a real place, of a local city.

You're going to see language in Hebrews about Christ is better than Melchizedek. How would

Jesus be better than Himself? You're going to see that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek to differentiate between the two.

It doesn't say Christ is a priest, He is Melchizedek. He's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek to make sure you understand there's a difference.

And additionally, why do I believe that Jesus was not Melchizedek in Genesis 14?

Because when the Lord appears, the second person of the Trinity appears before the incarnation, you have the nomenclature, you have the language of appearing.

The Lord appeared, the angel of the Lord appeared. And when it comes to a Christophany, an appearance of Christ before the incarnation, you get the appearance language.

So, what do we have? We have a man who makes sure that Abram knows victory is from the

God most high. And this man who gives this blessing, this man who is a priest, this man who is a king informs us about Jesus.

Here's why, and then I've got a close -up shot for today. What do we do? Jesus is not a

Levite. Can He be a priest? Because He's from Judah. Yes, He can, because He's a different kind of priest.

Remember Melchizedek. And who's greater? Melchizedek or the Aaronic priesthood? Because later we're going to have from Abram the nation.

We're going to have Moses and Aaron and others. And we're going to have the father, Abraham, have people like Moses and Aaron come from him.

And therefore, if the father of the nation pays tithes to Melchizedek, that means the father of the nation realizes that Melchizedek is even greater than he is.

And that's why Jesus can be a priest after the order of Melchizedek, King of Righteousness.

This is not the pre -incarnate appearance of Christ. This is a great type of who

Jesus is. King of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God Most High.

There can be another priesthood. There is another priesthood, and Jesus isn't a Levite. He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We'll see you soon. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.