A Priest Forever Means Forever Salvation - [Hebrews 5:6]

spread these great ideas as they pick someone who's good at a topic and then they have him speak for or her speak for 15 -18 minutes to kind of spark conversation and to disseminate ideas,

TED Talks. I pulled up the most popular TED Talks of all time in this order.

Are schools killing creativity? Your body language may shape who you are.

What makes a great leader? How can I find happiness? How to speak so that people want to listen.

Why we do what we do. The power of introverts. How to spot a liar.

What makes a good life? The happy secret to better work. This next one's my favorite.

Don't try this at home. How I held my breath for 17 minutes. How to make stress your friend.

TED Talks. Kind of motivational, peppy, morality -driven, how to get through life kind of talks.

And what I so love about the book of Hebrews. It's not a TED Talk. It's a proclamation.

It's a sermon. It's an oratorical written device that proclaims the truth about the eternal

Son Jesus Christ. No apologies. Not just 18 minutes.

It's not kind of talking and sharing and dialoguing. It is a monological proclamation, a declaration in light of Colossians chapter 1 verse 28.

Him, Jesus, we proclaim. This is what gets me up in the morning.

Not that I think, well, today I need to do a TED Talk. Today I need to kind of motivate you to kind of get through the week again.

I have the greatest job in all of the world. And that is to tell you every single week, this is who

Jesus is. This great God who's a prophet. He's a priest. He's a king.

And for you Christians, He loved you and He gave Himself for you. I get enough of me.

I'm tempted to say I get enough of you. But we can never get enough of the

Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me more. I remember when I got my little microscope set when

I was probably, I don't know, in fourth grade. And you know, you just take a piece of paper and rip it and put it under your microscope.

And this is like a flat piece of paper without the microscope. In the microscope, all these threaded pieces of particle and paper.

And you think, this is a whole new world. Let me just kind of examine this. Let me stare at it.

And that's exactly what Hebrews does. That's exactly what all the Bible does from Genesis to Revelation.

It is a constant proclamation of Jesus Christ so that you have the object of your faith always in mind.

If I had to every week talk about a trendy, man -centered sermon series about getting along and communication and marriage and me, me, me,

I don't know what I would do. But Paul knew it rightly when he said in 2

Corinthians chapter 4, for what we proclaim is not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord.

And you will never, Christian, tire of hearing the message of Jesus Christ not only in this world but in the next.

Because all the angels and all the redeemed saints of the ages will be swirling around the throne as it were proclaiming what?

Worthy are the TED talks we learned on earth. Worthy is the

Lamb who was slain. And if people want to talk about motivational things and how to hold your breath for 17 minutes, that's fine but it's not for a worship service.

I praise God that whether you're a Sunday school teacher, a junior church teacher, you want to talk about Jesus.

Last night I talked at the high school group and this Tuesday at the college group. Last week

I was at the Iwana banquet and by the way I was just thrilled. I was sitting in the back after I gave my little

TED talk at the beginning, after I preached the gospel at the beginning.

And people would stand up and say from Ann Garcia to Wesley Blackstone and everybody in between, we're teaching these young little children about good manners, no elbows on the table, yes ma 'am, no ma 'am.

No. What were they teaching? They were talking about man and sin and Jesus and how to be forgiven.

That's what we're teaching these little kids. And I thought victory in Jesus. Oh the

Ann Garcia's. Oh the Wesley Blackstone's and everybody in between. Hebrews is the model for your marriage, for your ministry, for the pulpit ministry, for your home devotions, for college group, junior high group.

It is an exaltation of Jesus Christ. So please turn there. You won't be disappointed.

The book of Hebrews. If Paul is the author, I'm not sure, but if he is, he certainly would have written in 1

Corinthians 2, something so similar to the book of Hebrews. I've determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Why? So that you might appreciate Him. So you might keep trusting in Him. So that you might rest in Him.

In this pell -mell, hither -thither world running to and fro. We no longer have to work for Him.

We don't have to work for our salvation. It's been worked for us. We don't trust in our own work to get there. We're trusting

Christ's merit to get there. And as we've been looking at the book of Hebrews, lots of things should be happening to you as you focus on the object of your faith.

And one, I hope, is humility. Can you study the person of Christ Jesus and not be humbled?

John Flavel said, They that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud.

Spurgeon said, The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the doings, the existence of the great

God, which He calls Father. You study Jesus in the book of Hebrews as the high priest and the king, and you say to yourself,

Our desire should be like John the Baptist. He, Jesus, must what?

Increase, and I must decrease. I hope what's happening to you as we've been going through very slowly the book of Hebrews is not just I'm humbled, but I'm also full of praise that this

God could be my God, that this Jesus, who's so great, said before He left this earth, which is a promise to all of us, and lo,

I will be what? With you always. This is our God boasting in who

God is along with Jeremiah. Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might.

Let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the

Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things.

And then lastly for this morning, I hope as you've been studying the book of Hebrews, it's taking your focus from a downward focus to an upward focus, thinking about who

Jesus is. Life's problems are not found in us. We do all have problems, but we're directed to look up in the book of Hebrews.

Second Chronicles says, but our eyes are on you. The sicknesses in this church, the diseases, the medical tests, the financial difficulties, the book of Hebrews says, let's lift our eyes as it were to you,

Lord. So we're in chapter five, Hebrews chapter five, and what we're doing is we're just going verse by verse through this book.

And I mean, I know you're going to laugh at this. This is not meant to be funny. I'm in no hurry to get through this book, because it's just nice to just settle in.

I need more humility. I need more praise. I need more upward focus. And that's exactly what happens with this book.

And in Hebrews chapter five, there's kind of a turn. And the turn is we've been seeing

Jesus as the son of God, the king. But now we're turning to he's a priest.

He's not just a king, but he's a priest. Back in the old days, you either were a king or a priest or a prophet. Here, the

God man, he's a king priest. It's one thing to have God as a sovereign.

It's another thing to have him pray for you. It's one thing to have God control every little atom in the universe providentially and through his mighty, powerful hand.

It's another thing that, here, the priest loves you and cares for you and sympathizes you as a great high priest.

So let me read Hebrews chapter five, verses one and following, as we pick up to where we're going to land today.

And that is Hebrews five, verse six. Hebrews five begins this way, all focusing on Jesus didn't choose this for himself.

The father chose this for him. For every high priest, Hebrews five, one chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God to offer gifts and sacrifices.

He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.

Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins. We're talking about the

Aaronic priests, just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.

And now here's the tie -in between the Levitical Aaronic priesthood and Jesus.

So also, verse five, so also, there's the connection. Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said, and then we have those two quotes.

So here's what's going on. There are people who are receiving this letter, and they're Hebrews. And they know about the

Old Testament. And they know that you have to be from the line of Levi to be a priest.

And Jesus is from the line of Judah. How can Jesus be a priest? Here, Jesus, they might be thinking, saunters in and says, hey,

I'm a priest. I choose myself to be a priest. And so the writer is painstakingly trying to tell you he didn't make himself be a priest.

The father, just like he said, priests come through the line of Levi. He's also said, this is my particular priest.

He's the son, chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. And he is the high priest. And now he gives two quotes.

That last time I talked about how they were kind of welded together. And if you understand these two

Psalms, you pretty much understand the entire Bible and the messianic lineage of Jesus and his work.

From Psalm 2, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

As he says also in another place, here's another, you are. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

So we've got these two Psalms, these Psalms welded together, kind of conjoined twins, as it were, setting kind of a review.

Psalm 2, he's the eternal son. That was talked about in the first four chapters of Hebrews. And now in chapter 5, he's the priest.

So he's the son, he's the king, and now he's also the priest. Now read this slower than you did the first time in verse 6.

So far we've sang Psalm 110. By the way, didn't you love doing that? I was loving reading, singing that Psalm.

I don't want to go to Psalms only, but I want to sing some Psalms. What an easy way to remember Scripture.

Let's read it slower. And do any kind of words just kind of pop out if you read it slower and kind of think through it and kind of mull through it and not read too fast?

I'm convinced that a big problem with Bible reading is we just read too fast and we don't think. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Now all these other priests died. This is a priest who's a forever priest.

This is very significant and you're going to find this all over this book. He is a forever priest.

He's a forever king and he's a forever priest. Now what does that even matter? Okay, forever. Let's kind of work through this a little bit.

You have eternal life when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible says. John 5, Jesus said, he who hears my word and believes him that sent me has eternal life and comes not into judgment but has passed out of death into life.

We know when Jesus says in John chapter 17, now this is eternal life that they may know you the only true

God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Paul said it in Romans chapter 6, the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is what?

Eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son that whoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Most of my memory work is in the NAS but some of it defaults to the

King James. Robert Muto, is that okay with you? Where are you? Where is he?

Right there, okay. I talked to Stephanie and Timothy this week. They're excited to get married on Friday.

Eternal life. You believe you get eternal life. God gives you that. He grants that.

Could you ever lose your salvation once you're in heaven? I mean, let's just start thinking about beyond and forever.

I mean, angels before the fall, they were perfect and one third of them fell. Angels were before the face of God as it were in heaven and they fell.

Could you be in heaven for a long, long time and then fall? Seemingly the angels did.

But you know, here's the good news. Jesus is a high priest for how long? Till that next trial, till those next lab results, till you're on your deathbed, till after you die.

What about after 50 ,000 eons in heaven? Could you lose your salvation? Jesus is a high priest, what?

Forever. He's your mediator forever. He gives you access to God forever. He is the sacrifice forever.

You won't ever fall on this world or in the next because he is a high priest forever.

And you think, Mike, you're making a big deal about forever. Exactly. Because look at chapter 6, verse 20.

There are lots of wonderful words in Hebrews, better Jesus.

Here's one of those words you can't lose. Where Jesus, Hebrews 6 .20, has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest, what?

Forever after the order of Melchizedek. It doesn't stop there. Hebrews 7 .3, talking about Melchizedek.

He's without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the

Son of God. He continues a priest forever. That's the kind of priest Jesus is. Chapter 7, verse 17.

It doesn't stop in verse 3. For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Two more, verse 21 of the same chapter. But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him, the

Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever.

And then verse 24. How long does Jesus hold his priesthood? To have a sacrifice before God and supplication for us.

And he holds, 7 .24, his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

Ever. Now, if I was your

Aaronic priest, what would happen? Well, one day I would die or I would move or I'd be transferred and you would have to have the next priest.

Jesus is the one who continues forever. You have access to the eternal

God forever. You have the promise of the love of God based on the work of Christ forever.

Now, let's go back to chapter 5, verse 6. He says in another place,

Psalm 110, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Is the

Old Testament important? Should you be reading the Old Testament? Do you think the book of Hebrews kind of says, you know what?

The Old Testament is the Old Testament. And once we get to Malachi, that's the end of our

English translation. Or if you're Jewish, 2 Chronicles, that's the end of the

Jewish Old Testament. So you've got English, you've got Jewish.

I'm tempted to, if I was on the radio, I would say, and you've got the Italian ending, Malachi, right?

That's at the very end. And all of a sudden, it's just over and you've got your little pocket New Testament. That's all you need.

And there's a huge chasm between New and Old Testament. Because frankly, if we all agree, and I think we could, there's a lot of rough stuff in the

Old Testament about God, about stoning people, children getting killed, the Canaanites, killing large swaths of people, anti -homosexuality.

I mean, there's a few things that just kind of like aren't apropos for today. So let's just cut it off at 2

Chronicles, at Malachi, and then move into the New, because we just cannot have that kind of bad taste.

I mean, what would you do if you had to preach to millennials today and had to describe all that kind of icky stuff in the

Old Testament? But that's exactly what Andy Stanley just said last week.

That's exactly what he said. First century church leaders unhitched the church from the worldview, value system, and regulations of the

Jewish scriptures. Peter, James, Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their

Jewish scriptures. And my friends, we must as well. This is one of the largest churches in the world.

Jesus' new covenant, His covenant with the nations, His covenant with you, His covenant with us, can stand on its own two nail -scarred resurrection feet.

Listen, it does not need propping up by the Jewish scriptures. And I just think a child can read the book of Hebrews and you see how things are linked together.

The same God, the same plan of redemption, the same eternal Christ, the same Son, the same everything.

Don't let people who are influential... He's more influential than I am by thousands.

Don't let people tell you to unhinge the Old Testament from the new because the book of Hebrews won't do it.

And neither should you. So in light of that, let's go to Psalm 110 and see from where Hebrews 5 -6 comes.

Let's just, like we did last time, teach all of Psalm 2 last time. We're going to teach all of Psalm 110.

So we sang it, we talked a little bit about it, and now we're going to look at this national anthem of Israel.

It's like their star -spangled banner. They would all know it. They would all be very familiar with it. This is like the psalm of psalms for the

Israelites. For you, it might be Psalm 23. For them, it was Psalm 110. On Wednesday night with the

Awana banquet, Taylor Crane got up and he led pledge allegiance to the flag.

I know that one. I memorized it. But pledge allegiance to the Awana flag. I want you to know after 22 years of coming to the

Awana banquet, I mumble through that every year because I just don't know what I'm supposed to say. But I think it's something about Jesus is great and I pledge allegiance to the lamb or something.

Pop culture references riddled throughout. A pledge of allegiance to the flag.

There's an American flag there, an Awana flag there. This is their pledge of allegiance to the God who's sovereign and a priest.

It's one thing to have sovereignty. It's another thing to have sovereignty and priest. It's one thing to have a great king rule you.

It's another thing for that king to be one of you and to be sympathetic for you and to pray for you and to love you like his own son or daughter.

For those of you that love the sovereignty of God, and I do, the awesome transcendent glories of the sovereignty of God are tempered with the eminent close realities that there's a friend who loves you closer than a brother and sticks to you just the same.

Now, every four to eight years, we get a new king in America, our president.

And we have a big coronation, don't we? But when they got a new king, they sang this song.

And they all got together. Be like you turn on CNN, Fox News and everything in between. And let's all stand.

And instead of just saying pledge of allegiance, let's sing Psalm 110 together because, oh God, that if we could have a king like this, who is sovereign and merciful, who is transcendent, who is eminent, maybe this is the year we'll get such a great king.

But every time you read in the book of Kings, and so and so did what? Most of the time, evil in the sight of God.

This is the text that pretty much all of Hebrews is based on.

S. Lewis Johnson said the theme of Hebrews is Psalm 110. In other words, if you get

Psalm 110, you get the book of Hebrews. Another commentator said it is the text of the epistle of Hebrews.

It's a royal psalm. It's a messianic psalm. And it goes way beyond David to a great king.

And we know his name. It's the Lord Jesus. I want to teach this so that you can understand it. That will help you with Hebrews, but also that you can continue to see the object of your faith,

Jesus, to rest in him, this great risen savior of ours. For our outline,

Barry said to me the other day, I like outline, so Barry, this is for you. Words that describe

God the Father calling and ordaining Jesus as the king priest. I think

I have four or five words. I have several words. Words that describe

God the Father calling and ordaining Jesus as the sovereign king priest.

Word number one, sit. It's found right there in verse one.

Sit. Listen to this language. Don't miss this. Verse one, the Lord, that's all caps.

That means Yahweh. It says, Yahweh the Father says to my

Lord, Adonai. David's talking. I thought David's in charge. How great is

David? He's at the top of the list, but he's got a Lord. This is the second person of the Trinity. The Father says to the

Son, Yahweh says to Adonai, what? Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

David's Lord is going to be this sovereign king. And this is a declaration of the

Father to the Son. This is great Trinitarian language here.

How would you like to kind of eavesdrop on what the Trinity is saying? What went on before Genesis one, one?

We know our triune God existed in eternity past and they communicated to one another. What were they saying? It's kind of wonderful to me to kind of just eavesdrop a little bit.

What were they saying to each other? What would they talk about? This Trinitarian perspective of the

Godhead talking to one another, proclaiming. David's successor is going to be great.

The Lord says to my Lord. This is almost like, are we supposed to be listening to this?

Is this too secret? Is this too intimate? Spurgeon said, how condescending on God's part to permit a mortal ear to hear.

And a human pen to record his secret converse with his co -equal son. How greatly should we prize the revelation of his private and solemn discourse with his son herein made public for the refreshing of his people.

Oh, God, that you give me a little insight on what you talk about to each other within the Trinity.

And with divine authority, the Lord says you see that often in prophetic literature. The Lord says this is not a this is not a group think this is not newspapers.

This is the Lord saying something. What does he say? Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

Son, I want you to sit in a place of authority. That's right hand dignity.

That's right hand power. That's right hand. And it's like the father saying, I'll stand and honor you.

So you sit kind of reminds me of those old shows that you might watch in some officer in the military walks in and everybody has to stand up until that highest ranking officer sits down and then all the men will sit here.

It's the father so exalting the son that he stands and he says, son here,

I want you to sit at my right hand enthroned eternally in the place of honor. And have we not even heard some of that language back in Hebrews chapter one after making purification for sins, talking about Jesus, he what sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high and the father says, you sit down and I'm going to destroy your enemies for you.

Is that not what the text says? Until I, the father, make your enemies, son, your enemies, your footstool until I just defeat them, you just sit right here in this place of honor.

Hebrews eight one. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

Hebrews ten. But when Christ offered for all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Hebrews 12, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

The work is done. No more sacrifice needs to be made. Jesus did that on the cross. It's a place of honor and authority and power.

And the father said, sit down, my son, for this great honor. I think the

Messiah is greater than David. Don't you? No wonder David called him my Lord. Now, think about what's going on.

The Jewish people think Jesus just sauntered in. Hey, I'm a priest. I'm in charge. I'm the Messiah. This is the father saying to the son,

I affirm you. I commend you. I appoint you. I designate you. You sit here.

I subdue your enemies. I love it when

Jesus said in Matthew 26, I tell you from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven.

This is exaltation language. This is coronation language. This is language that's good for a

Christian soul. Romans 8, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who is raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.

And then the language here is never used of angels. It's used of the father to the son. And I'm going to make your enemies of what?

Don't you like the picturesque language? A footstool. What a great metaphor.

What you do back in the old days is you conquer a land. You take the enemies, leaders, generals, and kings.

And then you, if you're the king of the vanquishing army, you put those vanquished foes down there and you put your foot right up on their neck as a footstool.

You're moving too much. God didn't do that with angels.

This is right from Joshua 10. It came about that when they brought these kings out to Joshua, that Joshua called for all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the men of war who had come to him, come near, put your feet on the necks of these kings.

So they came near and put their feet on their necks. Vanquished, triumphant, conquering.

Son, I affirm you. I appoint you and you're going to be the king and I will destroy your enemies for you.

Word number two that describes the father calling and ordaining the son as king priest.

Sit is the first word. Rule is the second word. Rule. There's going to be a great rule.

And you expect that because he's the king. We're talking about the king language here. Priest is coming up. Yahweh the father enables

Yahweh the son for messianic rule. We are Trinitarian here. By the way, one of my all -time favorite moments in my life.

Seriously. It was a year and a half ago and I was officiating the

McDonald wedding, Vincent and Rachel. It's not McDonald. It's McDonald. We have

McDonald's here though. And we were in a building and the building was a Unitarian church. Uni, one

God, not Trinitarian, not believing Jesus as deity, as this eternal son.

And usually Unitarian churches are universalist as well. And that means just everybody goes to heaven.

So I used to tell my kids when they were little, if you drive by church and it starts with you, it's bad. Pretty much.

I think they do TED talks there. And here we are in a

Unitarian church. And we're here witnessing a wedding. And I try to say over and over and over in the name of our triune

God, Yahweh the Father, Yahweh the Son, and Yahweh the Holy Spirit.

We celebrate this great joining of these two together. To just stand in that pulpit where they never get to hear who

God is. And how He subsists in three persons, yet one. Co -equal, co -essence.

And even having dialogue and intercourse inside the Trinity where they're talking and saying things and making me far away from an

Islamic God who doesn't love because there's no one to love within the Trinity before eternity passed.

This is Yahweh the Father speaking to Yahweh the Son and now pushing Him into ministry, as it were.

Enabling Him to be ruling over the earth. And oh, wouldn't it be great to have such a

King? Verse two. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepters.

Your mighty scepter. And here's what He says to the Son. Rule in the midst of your enemies.

Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. In holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours.

Great poetic language. Now remember, this is a psalm. This is a poem. This is something you sing.

And it's got that kind of poetic feel. And you can see that in the language here. You can't come to this and think

Romans chapter one, Pauline epistle. This is this language of garments and womb of the morning and dew of the youth.

It's just extolling. Jesus is going to reign by the Father's decree.

Jesus didn't make Himself King. God the Father appointed Him King. And you know what?

If you've got such a King, what do the people do? Verse three. They offer themselves freely. They just will sacrifice themselves with love and with determination and with joy.

I'm just going to serve you freely. Yes, God sovereignly monergistically saves us.

And our response is we're not drug like cavemen drag their wives over to the side.

We freely respond. We don't freely save ourselves. And of our free will, we have none to save ourselves because our will is in bondage because of Adam.

But now after we're saved, the reflex is God, you save me. You conquered my enemies.

You conquered me. You forgave my sins. And now what? I freely serve you. I will be the free will offering.

Do you notice what the text does not say? It doesn't say bring a free will offering. It says you are the free will offering.

And you don't just live impure lives either. Look with splendors of holiness literally are in holy array.

God, you saved me. You conquered me. You love me. And my response is I want to serve you.

And I'll do it with a holy life, a pure life, an unsane life in festal clothing with holiness.

Now, we don't know exactly what the dew reference is here. But dew at dawn is abundant.

Last night, cold was abundant, wasn't it? I saw a lot of dew on the grass today. And as the sun comes up and hits that dew, it just kind of dazzles.

Maybe this is poetic for refreshment. Maybe it's there's so much dew on the yard.

That's how many servants there are that gladly worship such a king and follow him. Word three that describes

God, the father calling and ordaining Jesus, the king priest. Word one, sit.

Word rule. Word two, rule. Word three, sworn or swear. Now we're moving from king to priest.

Everything was sovereign. How God is sovereign over everything. God plans the death of Jesus.

Yet Caiaphas said, yes, kill him. Yes, Herod said, kill him. Yes, the Pharisees said, kill him.

Yes, Judas gave the money to kill him. Yet God was sovereign over everything. He's this great sovereign. But is he anything else?

Yes, he's a priest. He's a mediator. He has compassion for his people. He's tender.

He's one of them. Sit, rule, swear or sworn.

Verse four, Yahweh has sworn. And unlike me and unlike you, he will not change his mind.

Here's what he swears. By the way, does God have to swear to make it true? Is this oath for you or is it for God?

Well, God's like, you know, I'm gonna have to do something extra with my words for myself to make sure I do it. No, this is for us.

This is so it's language of import and impresses upon our mind. He is going to do this.

And he swears he's not going to change his mind. He's not frail and fickle, putting his finger up, seeing where the wind's going to go.

You're a priest, what? Forever after the order of Melchizedek. That's the verse from Hebrews.

This is irrevocable. This is why if you think you're going to try to get to heaven and not believe in Jesus, you're going to just try to be good or get baptized or have some ceremonies and have more good in your life than bad.

This is why that's not going to work out for you. The only access you have forever is through Jesus Christ.

This is the father saying to the son, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And if you all would like to get to heaven, it's through my son.

Well, I'd like to go a different way. I think the way I used to kind of think about it was if you were trying to get on my good side 10 years ago, and you'd come over to my house and you were trying to butter me up and trying to kind of win me over.

And every time Luke walked by, you gave him a kick. I mean, he probably deserved it, but I'll be the one metaphorically kicking.

And you're like, you know, I'm just trying to be nice to Mike. There goes Luke. And all this talk about spirituality and I'm spiritual and I believe in God, but Jesus, I just kind of kick.

The father has said, this is my priest that I've made forever. He's the only access.

There's no other way. When Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the father but through me. It's because that's what the father said.

That's the God who made you dictating terms. These aren't words that just go out and fall on the ground.

This is the father speaking oath language. If you need to be forgiven, it's through this priest.

If you need to be prayed for by God himself, the son, this is the priest. Hebrews 7 gives language of oath that we'll get to soon.

You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Forever, forever.

That's the refrain. Zechariah talked about this conjoining of king and priest, where he says a priest will sit on his throne.

Zechariah chapter six. How does that work? A priest sitting on his throne. It is the son.

The one that David said is my Lord. This is after the order of Melchizedek.

What the writer does in Hebrews is, he mentions Melchizedek, this man that we meet in Genesis, and he says,

I'll tell you a little bit about Melchizedek later in chapter seven. So that's what I'm going to do today. We're not going to talk about Melchizedek.

But Jesus is a kind of Melchizedekian priest. And then finally, our last word that describes

God, the father calling and ordaining Jesus, the son, also that you might trust in him and admire him and to be humbled before him and believe in him, is victorious.

Sit, rule, sworn, victorious. Military victories, warrior -king language.

Verse five, the Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter kings on the day of his wrath. Doesn't that sound like Psalm 2?

He will execute judgment among the nations, filling them with corpses. I mean, they're just stacked up.

He will shatter chiefs over the wide earth. This is the language that's so vicious, so powerful, so overwhelming force.

No wonder the Jews, when they weren't thinking rightly, said, you know, we're waiting for this kind of Messiah to come. And Jesus rides in on a donkey.

Jesus rides in meek and lowly. We want this kind of force. Destroy, judge, rule, execution.

Corpses stacked. This is Jesus, and this is what he does.

Verse seven, I wonder if he's able to do it.

I'm wondering if he'll have enough power. I'm wondering if he has enough stamina to do such a mighty task.

There's so many enemies. He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head.

He's a human too. He's not just this God, this spirit being.

He's this God that slaughters his enemies. Yes, he's patient and kind. And that's why Paul got saved. First Timothy chapter one, that's why we got saved.

But on that day, that terrible day, Luther said there's two days in my calendar, today and that day, on that terrible day of judgment, he slaughters.

But we still get this language of incarnation. He'll drink by the brook of the way. Therefore, he will lift up his head.

Can you imagine? The language is there's all these troops and you've got a great general.

And he does the job of what he's supposed to do in vanquishing the enemies. And he goes over and he just takes a drink of water in victory.

And the troops are confident in such a great leader. They're not worried.

This language has to a flicker of death could not hold Jesus. Because in his great victory, he dies and he's raised from the dead.

And he's a priest forever. He can't die. So what's the moral of the story?

There's no moral to this story. It's not a TED Talk. The idea is

Jesus got to where he was not by self initiative, but by divine decree.

Jesus is who he is sovereign and priest because of his nature and the decree of God.

And the writer of Hebrews wants this. He wants people that are losing their homes and are in jail and are on the run.

And one day probably will die for their faith. So just remember who Jesus is to just stop and think what a savior you have.

To just stop and kind of like wonder and think and contemplate to love the Lord, your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

To do what my mom did when she's dying of cancer. And she just thinks, you know what? I've got to get my mind off cancer.

So I'm going to start thinking about the attributes of God. And I'll start with an alphabetical list and see how far

I can go. A. Almighty. B. Bountiful.

K. King. P. Priest. And by the time you get to X, I just say that's the cross because there's no word for X.

It's an attribute. By the time you get to X, you're thinking upwardly. You're thinking with humility and you're thinking with praise that this

God bought me and loved me and gave himself for me. The son of man comes in his glory with his angels and he will sit on his glorious throne.

The message of Hebrews is behold your God. Prophet, priest and king.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I'm so glad that we could just spend some time thinking about your son today and your divine decree.

Think about that Baptist minister that you raised up in England over 100 years ago.

And he would say things like, if I had one more sermon to preach before I die, it would be about Jesus.

He would say no one on his deathbed will regret talking about Jesus too much.

Ever repent having preached Jesus too much. Listen to Jesus too much. Father, we have all kinds of issues in our lives and we need wisdom for that.

But that's all in light of who your son is and what he's done. He's the sovereign who's over everything. And he's a priest who's our brother, who sympathizes with our weaknesses.

We thank you for that. I pray for people today who are Christians that you would strengthen their faith.

You'd help them to walk by faith and not by sight in this one, the Lord Jesus. And for those who don't know you as been prayed by Pastor Steve.

If they think there's some other way and they're playing games in their mind on how they deal with their sin,

I pray that you would give them no sleep or rest until they rest in the King Priest, Jesus. In whose name we pray.