Jesus Christ: A Greater Priest - [Hebrews 7:1-10]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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Well this morning to start the service, for the sermon at least, I�d like to have some word association with you to get you to think about what

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I�m thinking about, that is, the text. If I say this word, what comes into your mind immediately?

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If I say the word �Melchizedek ,� what�s the first thing that pops into your mind for a word association?

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Maybe some of you think that I was speaking in tongues, maybe that�s what you thought. Maybe some of you think it�s maybe a celebrity child�s name, which

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I�ve seen in the past include Gravity, Pilot Inspector, Zuma Nesta Rock, and others.

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But when I say the word �Melchizedek ,� I hope you�re thinking, this is the priest that informs us about the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This is a priest that helps us understand the work of Christ, the intercessor, and the one who gives a sacrifice.

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In a world of moralism and pragmatism and how -to�s in sermons, unless you understand what

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Melchizedek did and who Melchizedek is, you cannot fully comprehend the person and work of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. He�s a very important figure in the Bible, and if you�ll take your Bibles and turn to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 7, this morning we�re going to look at the priestly order of Melchizedek.

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You, friend, need a priest. If you�ve sinned, and I know you have because of Adam, I know

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I have as well in Adam and also by our own nature. If you have sinned, you need a priest.

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You need a priest who offers a sacrifice for your sins. You need a priest who makes intercession for you before the throne of God, and Jesus is a priest.

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He�s a prophet? Yes. He�s a king? Yes. But He�s also a priest.

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And that�s what the book of Hebrews is about, that Jesus Christ is the sacrifice for sins as a great high priest.

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He�s the intercessor for sinners as a great high priest, and He is the ultimate mediator.

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Now another word while you�re turning to Hebrews for word association is this. If I say the word �forever�, what goes through your mind?

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Melchizedek seems like a strange character, but what about when I say the word �forever�?

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Probably words like �everlasting� go through your mind, and �eternal� and �constantly� and �perpetually.�

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If you combine the two words �Melchizedek� and �forever�, you get Hebrews chapter 7.

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For instance, look at chapter 7 verse 3, �He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life.

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But resembling the Son of God, He continues a priest forever.� Look at verse 17 of the same chapter, please, �For it is witnessed of Him, �You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.�

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Verse 21, �But this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said in him, �The

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Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, �You are a priest forever.��

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Verse 24, �But He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever.�

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And then finally, combining these terms �priest� and �forever� in the same verse to give us a picture of the entire chapter,

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Hebrews 7 .28, �For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath which came later than the law appoints a son who has been made perfect forever.�

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Jesus Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek and He does this work for His people forever.

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I call this the priest chapter, the forever chapter. And it is important that we'll see for 28 verses, do you see how many verses are in the chapter?

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28 verses, you have this exposition about this man named Melchizedek. Have you ever heard,

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I should probably just ask a question, who here has heard a whole sermon on Melchizedek? Some have, but not many.

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After today, everybody can raise their hand. I see that hand there in the back. Since God's character never changes,

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He's always holy and therefore has wrath upon sin, it never changes that we need a mediator, a priest to stand before God and His character and therefore

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His law. It's not just we get saved and everything's fine and we no longer need God as a priest.

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You need a king of peace, you need a high priest.

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And this entire book, the book of Hebrews, is written to Jews who are thinking about going back to their old priesthood.

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How hard is it to change? For 1400 years, the Jews have had a Levitical system, an

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Aaronic priesthood, and now this writer is saying, no, no, no, that's all in the past, that all pointed to a greater priest, but this is all now done because you have a better priest, a new priest, a high priest.

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To tell a bunch of Jewish people for 1400 years you've done it this way and now let me tell you the new way, it's difficult, especially if those

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Jews that you're preaching to are getting persecuted for believing this new way. If we just run back to the old way, everything's going to be fine.

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And so this writer writes a sermon, he writes a letter, it's a letter sermon, and he's trying to exhort them, what you believe about Jesus is important.

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If you wanted me to summarize everything about Melchizedek, it's this, when I say the word Jesus Christ, those words, what comes into your mind is the most important thing about you.

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And you've got to have categories of prophet, yes, he proclaims God's word and represents

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God. As king, yes, out of all the kings, king, he's the king, out of all the lords, lording, he's the lord, but he's also a priest.

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You have to be thinking prophet, king, and priest. So that when you, maybe you're not getting persecuted in your life, but when things go bad, things are difficult, instead of running back to the old religion, you think, you know what, what

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I believe about Lord Jesus Christ is important and it helps me to get through this trial, to think rightly.

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For 1500 years, almost, these Jews had a priesthood and it was a good picture, it was an echo, but it was not to be permanent.

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Jesus is the goal, everything is looking forward to that. Matthew Henry, the commentator, said this, nothing made the

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Jews so fond of the Levitical dispensation as the high esteem they had of their priesthood.

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And it was doubtless a sacred and the most institution, most excellent institution. It was very severe threatening, therefore, that this writer denounces the

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Jews. Can you imagine, I have to go back on my old religion, and by the way, that's at the heart of the religion, this is like a poke in the eye, you're going after the priesthood.

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And here the writer's saying, Jesus is a better priest, he's merciful, he's a better priest, he's faithful, and he's approachable.

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And Melchizedek is going to point you to the Lord Jesus. I like to think of Melchizedek as the

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Old Testament version of John the Baptist. Remember what John the Baptist did? Don't look at me, look to Jesus.

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And that's exactly what Melchizedek does here, as we see in Hebrews chapter 7.

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Do you notice how the end of chapter 6 ends? Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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And now we move into an exposition of Melchizedek. Who is

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Melchizedek? Where are we going? That's right. Where are we going?

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To whom shall we go? For 28 verses,

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I mean, when we think about Melchizedek, oh yeah, it's some Old Testament priest or somebody, you know, Jesus is related to him.

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God wants you to know, 28 verses in the book of Hebrews. And this is a good chapter to come to the

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Bible and say, you know what, Lord, there are lots of things I underline in my Bible, and I'm glad you do.

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I'm glad you have a marker and you underline things. But how many people underline things about Melchizedek?

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Have you underlined anything in chapter 7? Maybe towards the end. But everything here is inspired and breathed out by God, and so mentally we should be thinking this all needs to be underlined.

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Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now to understand

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Melchizedek better, why don't we go to the Old Testament and see where Melchizedek is discussed.

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Not Psalm 110, he's discussed there, but Genesis chapter 14. Let's go to Genesis chapter 14 and take a look at Melchizedek.

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S. Lewis Johnson said, Genesis 14 has great importance for biblical Christology, for it is the beginning of the unfolding in depth of the high priestly ministry of the

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Lord Jesus. One old writer said it is the most important chapters in all the book of Genesis.

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Maybe you thought it was Genesis 1 or Genesis 3. Another writer said if a writer of the New Testament considered

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Old Testament episodes, even something so brief as this encounter with Melchizedek, so important, we would do well to become as familiar as possible with the wealth of information

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God has revealed in the Old Testament. Genesis chapter 14, what has happened in chapter 12 of Genesis, Abraham has been called and God said you're going to be a great nation, and I'm going to make your name great, and I'm going to bless you, and you're going to be a blessing to the other nations.

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And then there's a famine in the land, and so Abraham goes down to Egypt. He's with Lot as they return, and he gives

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Lot his choice of land, and Abraham takes the other part.

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And we come to Genesis chapter 14. Now there's a lot of names here of kings. It's the first war in the

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Bible, and this is really like a military battle going on, and what comes out of the battle is the important part.

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I'm not going to read every verse, but let's start in Genesis chapter 14, verse 1. In the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Ariok, king of Elessar, Ketalamar, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goim, these kings made war with Bera, king of Sodom, that sounds familiar,

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Bersha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Adma, Shemember, king of Zeboim, and king of Bela, that is

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Zohar. And all these forces in the Valley of Siddim, that is the Salt Sea down by the Dead Sea.

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12 years they had served Ketalamar, but in the 13th year they rebel. These powerful eastern kings invade the

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Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea, and there's a battle. In verse 8 it says, the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, the king of Zeboim, and the king of Bela, that is

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Zohar, went out and they battled in the Valley of Siddim, with Ketalamar, king of Elam, Tidal, king of Goim, Amraphel, king of Shinar, and Ariok, king of Elessar, four kings against five.

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Now the Valley of Siddim was full of bitumen pits, and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell, some fled, sorry, king of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and some fell into them.

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I messed up on my words because I was thinking about La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, where all those mastodons would get stuck in the tar, and they couldn't get out.

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It's very hard to fight with these bitumen pits everywhere. Verse 11, so the enemy took all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their provisions and went their way.

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So what's the big deal? It doesn't matter, does it, all these kings fighting, that's just what they do.

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Here's why it matters. Verse 12, they also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who was dwelling in Sodom.

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Abraham didn't choose that, Lot chose Sodom, and now he's been captured and his possessions and went their way.

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Then the one who escaped, that was pretty lucky by the way, the great god of fortune had this one escape, and one escaped and told

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Abram, and the first time here's a description of Abram, the Hebrew, who was living by the

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Oaks of Mamre, the Amorite, brother of Eshgal and Aner, these were the allies of Abram. I am positive there were a thousand other fights that went on back in those days that are not recorded in the

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Bible, dogfights and kings and fighting and battles not recorded. Why is this one recorded?

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Because Lot's involved, because Abram's involved, and we're going to introduce a character named Melchizedek. What do you think

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Abram did? Lot got what he deserved, finally that rascal, that scoundrel is going to get it.

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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.

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That's all the way to the top of Israel. Instead of it serves him right, he gets his 318 crack, some of you aren't paying attention so I'll get you to pay attention right now,

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Jason Bourne kind of guys. See now everybody's awake. These were his rangers, these were his navy seals.

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He's a rich influential man, and we've got to get Lot back, and it's all the way to the top of Israel at Dan, 318 men against army after army after army.

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Who could win with odds like that? A paltry force of 318. If you have not studied

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Operation Entebbe, you ought to sometime, because this is the ancient version of Operation Entebbe.

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Remember Entebbe? 1976, Air France, flight 139, 248 passengers from Tel Aviv hijacked to Libya.

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They spent seven hours refueling there, and off they go to Entebbe in Uganda. And the hijackers had all benefit of every tactical position, yet when those crack assassins, those crack rangers from Tel Aviv came to rescue them, in less than one hour the commandos from Israel rushed the old terminal, gunned down the hijackers, rescued 110 out of the 113 hostages.

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And the premier of Israel at the time, Isaac Rabin said, this operation will be certainly inscribed in the annals of military history in legend and in national tradition.

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It's a great event, but 4 ,000 years earlier, 318 crack men of Abram go up to Dan to get lots.

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Verse 15, and he, Abram, divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants.

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And can you imagine? He defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, a hundred miles even farther north, north of Damascus.

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Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsmen lot with his possessions, and the women, and the people.

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Everything's recovered. I mean, the bravery of Abram, the skill, intrepid,

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I mean, praise Abram, from whom all blessings flow. But to make sure he got it right, to make sure he understood who gave this victory, a man shows up, verse 17.

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After his return from the feet of Ketel -Omar and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the valley of Shavah, that is the king's valley.

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And the text almost makes it seem before anything could even be said, Abram, you're great. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

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He was a priest of the Most High God, or literally God Most High.

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Who really gave the victory? Verse 19, and he blessed him and said, blessed be

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Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who, note it, has delivered your enemies into your hand.

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And Abram gave him a tenth of everything. Who's the real hero?

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It's not Abram. It's not the 318. It's God. And this priest shows up. And what do priests do?

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They sacrifice. Yes. They intercede. Yes. They bless. And this priest blesses

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Abram. I mean, this is amazing to me, the providence of God. He, Melchizedek, interrupts the meeting of Abram and king of Sodom.

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To make sure, Abram, let me give you not just a historical perspective, but a theological perspective.

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Here's how you should put the grid between you and these events. It is from God and God alone that the victory came.

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The success that you had, Abram, was a result of God's blessing. The military victory belongs to God.

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Now, I have a question for you, congregation. Where was Levi when all of this was happening? Yeah, where was

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Levi? I didn't say Levi's, but you can remember it that way. Where was Levi? Where was

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Levi the priest that remembered the Jewish people back in Hebrews are saying, well, maybe we should go back to this old

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Levitical system and sacrifice and the temple and the gold and the incense and the trumpets and the bowls and the labor and all the priests and all the

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Levites. Where was Levi in the middle of all this? Answer? He wasn't even alive.

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He was nowhere to be found. When this great man, Melchizedek, meets a great man,

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Abram, who's the one who's the superior, Melchizedek? Who's the one as the superior who blesses,

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Melchizedek? How does Abram even know that this person is superior? Because he receives the blessings and he gives tithes.

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So what the writer of Hebrews is doing is this. I know you Jews need to have a priest because you've got to have a priest to stand before God.

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Who could stand before the wrath of God, the holiness of God, the justice of God, with one sin? You need a mediator.

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You need to go between. You need an advocate. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, and Jesus is that advocate.

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He's the risen savior who chapter one, purge sins and sits at the right hand of God, the father almighty.

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And I know what you're saying. Jesus is no priest because he's not from Levite's tribe.

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Jesus is from the lion of the tribe of what? Judah. So he can't be a priest.

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He's not from Levite. He's a Judean and he can therefore be not my priest.

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And the writer is saying, uh -uh -uh, before the Levitical priest came, from whence the Levitical priest came,

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Abram. There was a man that Abram recognized as a priest and his name was Melchizedek. There's more priests than one, not just Levitical priest, but Melchizedekian priest.

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And this great Melchizedek blesses Abram. What a great providential meeting, this interruption that happened.

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So Abram knows. Side note, text doesn't have anything to do with this, but it's just good to be reminded when it comes to all victory, all spiritual victory, all walking by faith, it's the

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Lord behind the scenes who does all this. Now Melchizedek, people, since he's such a kind of a guy that just walks on the scene and walks off the scene, they try to think, who is

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Melchizedek? And these are the two views. There are 10 views, two main views. He was a pre -incarnate son of God, Jesus before he had a body, or he was a real priest named

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Melchizedek. He has to be a real priest named Melchizedek, a historical person, king of Jerusalem.

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He's described as a king of a local city. That doesn't sound like a Jesus. How can

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Jesus be better than Melchizedek if Jesus is Melchizedek? How can this be

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Jesus when Jesus shows up in the Old Testament as a Christophany before he has a body? The text is always the

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Lord appeared, the angel of the Lord appeared, appeared, appeared, appeared. There's no appeared language here in chapter 14.

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Back to verse 18 of Genesis 14, and Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of God most high.

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Melchizedek is greater than Levi because Melchizedek is something that Levi never was. A king and a what?

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Priest. Levi's only a priest. He's better because Abram recognizes that he's greater, but he's also greater because Melchizedek is a king and a priest, not just a priest.

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So the writer of Hebrews is trying to say, listen, Jesus is a priest and he's better than a Levitical priest.

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Blessing verse 19, blessed verse 19, blessed verse 20,

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Melchizedek, the superior blessing Abram, his inferior, and Abram responds with giving tithes.

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Now let's go back to Genesis, excuse me, Hebrews chapter 7. The backdrop for Melchizedek we've seen is

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Genesis chapter 14. Now what the writer of Hebrews is going to do the first 10 verses of chapter 7 is give an exposition of Genesis 14.

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So I'm pretty much just going to read it and make a few comments. Hebrews 7, 1 to 10 is a theological summary inspired that summarizes

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Genesis 14. To establish that there is another priesthood that's not

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Levitical, but Melchizedekian, is that a word? I just like to say that, that's one of my new favorite words.

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I love to say sacerdotal, I love to say propitiation, and now I like to say Melchizedekian.

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By the way, when we're studying Genesis 14, all those king's names, try to pronounce those in front of people.

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It's easy for you to sit there and go, he just didn't pronounce that properly. But when you get up here, uh -huh,

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I'm Raphael. Chapter 7 has been something that the writer of Hebrews has been wanting to talk about since chapter 5, but remember what he said?

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You're not mature enough to take it. So finally now he's getting to what he wants to talk about, that Jesus is this great high priest.

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And again, God wants you to think about him as he's revealed himself.

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And friends, it is not adequate enough to just think about Jesus as he died on the cross and was raised from the dead and that's it.

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Of course there's nothing wrong with that. But that's baseline, that's what you learn when you're a brand new Christian. Jesus paid it all, all to him

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I owe. That's the heart of the gospel, yes. But there are other facets of the diamond of salvation.

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And when you look at the diamond of salvation from this perspective, you see, oh, I was a slave to sin and now Jesus redeemed me.

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And then you look over here, reconciled, there were irreconcilable differences between the holy God and my sin until Jesus made us friends.

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And then you turn it over here, God's wrath is poured out against sin or else he wouldn't be holy and just. Jesus intercepts that wrath and satisfies it in my place as a propitiation.

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And you keep turning it and now we're turning it to Jesus as a priest. You need a priest. With all the scandals that we have in New England about bad priests, that shouldn't make you go, you know what?

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All priests are bad. Friends, all priests are sinful except one.

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And if you're going to stand before God, you don't want a sinful priest because he's going to have to answer for his sins.

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Since you are sinful along with me, I need someone who is the perfect high priest, who's greater than Aaron, who's greater than the political system, who's greater than Melchizedek even.

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But Melchizedek is going to point, yes, that Jesus whom you serve is the right kind of priest,

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God's priest. So here's a theological summary of what we just read. Hebrews 7 .1.

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For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of God most high or the most high God, met

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Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. And to him

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Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness.

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Melech, by the way, is king and Sedeq is righteousness, so his name means king of righteousness. And then he's also king of Salem.

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You're going to understand that if you think about Jerusalem. That is king of peace.

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He is without father or mother or genealogy. Having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the son of God, he continues a priest forever.

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In other words, in the book of Genesis, you have genealogy after genealogy after genealogy. You have death after death after death recorded.

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You're nothing about Melchizedek. Not that he didn't have a genealogy, not that he didn't have a death. But this is to make you see that he's pointing to the greater one,

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Jesus. He's a type of who Jesus is. And we have this man that should come into our mind.

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This is not like a normal man. He resembles the son of God because he continues a priest forever.

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The dignity of this priest, the excellency of this priest. Verse 4, and here we have the first command in this chapter.

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And it's the word, see. See, observe how great this man was to whom

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Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the spoils. 58 times in the

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New Testament, this word see is used. And it comes from the word where we get our English word, theater.

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When you go to a theater, you are seeing, you are watching, you're observing. You sit and you see.

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Take a good long look. Remember when we were kids, at least we did in Nebraska, we would say if somebody was staring at us, we'd say what?

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There are some universal truths. Take a picture. It lasts longer. This is not speed read through Hebrew 7 because all this boring kind of dry

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Melchizedekian stuff. Just stop. Let it sink in. It's almost like the Old Testament Psalms and in Habakkuk, say la.

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Just stop and let that sink in. If Abraham meets somebody greater, and Jesus is greater than that greater one, then the people that come from Abraham's line,

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Moses, Aaron, Levites, they must not be as great as Abraham. They must not be as great as Melchizedek.

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They must not be great as Jesus because Jesus is greater than Melchizedek. He's greater than Abraham.

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He's greater than the Levites. That's his argument. See, watch, perceive.

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This word could be used for inspect an army and see if they have any lint on their collars, to see if their shoes are signed.

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NBA players do that. They sign their shoes to see if they're shined.

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You're supposed to hear not look at any shoes, any colors, any ties. Look closely at this picture.

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Give attention. Seriously ponder. Don't speed read past. This word is, we beheld his glory,

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John 1, verse 14. Take a good long look. They beheld Jesus's miracles.

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Watch very carefully. Consider the ramifications. Hebrews 7, 5, and those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.

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But this man who does not have his descent from them, remember he's before them, received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

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It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. The Melchizedekian priesthood is superior to Abraham and Abraham's descendants, the tribe of Levi.

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Verse 8, in the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

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One might even say, as it were, that Levi himself who received tithes paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when

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Melchizedek met him. So the writer wants you to know it's okay.

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Jesus is a high priest. You need a priest to stand before God and even though we're saying no to Levitical priests, we have a greater priest than that.

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Let me give you some truths as we think about this chapter that's really theological discourse of a narrative.

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Number one, did you notice that Hebrews 7 gives you the interpretation of Genesis 14?

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Hebrews 7 gives the interpretation of Genesis 14. I think, beloved, you ought to regularly see that in the

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Bible. When Jesus is on the road to Emmaus and he's raised from the dead, he teaches his disciples that comprehensively, may not be minutely or atomistically, but generally and comprehensively, the

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Old Testament speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And do you think Genesis 14 speaks of the Lord Jesus?

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I think the answer has to be yes. The ultimate fulfillment of Melchizedek was the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, to make sure we understand and to make the implicit explicit,

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Jesus is superior to Aaron because Melchizedek was superior to Abraham. Number three, don't miss the names.

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The names matter. There's so much theological import in the names. What does it say in Hebrews 7, verse 1?

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Melchizedek, king of Salem. He's the king of righteousness and he's the king of peace.

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What two great concepts prefigure the Messiah? If you would like to talk about the

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Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and you'd like to describe him with a couple of terms, these two should be on there.

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Righteous, peace. He gives righteousness and he gives peace. What a great description of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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What does 1 Corinthians chapter 1 say when it comes to righteousness? He is our righteousness.

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Jesus has been a man and he has been born of a woman, born under law that he might redeem us from the curse of the law.

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And when he earns our righteousness by obeying the law, he doesn't need to obey the law for himself in terms of making himself righteous.

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He already is. But he's doing it for us. 1 Corinthians 1 says, And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, that is, righteousness.

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You stand before God, Christian, as perfectly righteous, because of the

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Lord Jesus. You can't be less righteous, you can't be more righteous. When it comes to legal standing and position, you are righteous.

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If you had to pick a type in the Old Testament that would point forward to Jesus, I bet you would pick somebody named righteous, because that's exactly the work of the

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Lord Jesus. He righteously obeys the law, because we are unrighteous. That's the theme of Hebrews, I mean Romans as well.

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I have no righteousness, Jesus earns righteousness, he imputes righteousness, and in light of that we want to live righteously, or justly.

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What a great concept. He's Melchizedek. And the other word that's wonderful there is

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Salem, and it just means peace. Salem, it means peace. How can

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God and man have peace? Because Jesus, the righteous one, dies and has become our peace.

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Romans 5, 1. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, the war is over. Peace with God through the bloodshed of Christ Jesus.

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Number four. There are not very many people in the Bible who are kings.

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There are not many people in the Bible who are priests. There are not very many people in the Bible who are prophets.

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And there are few that are kings and priests, but there are no prophet, priest, and king.

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And Jesus is both king and priest and prophet in one person, and even that, therefore, makes him better than Melchizedek.

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Fifthly, just things to think about as we work through.

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When it comes to evangelism, this is just a deduction here from this text.

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When it comes to evangelism or proving a point to other Christians, what do you think is better for options?

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Rationalism or opening up your Bible? Long, long time ago, and I've done lots of dumb things as a pastor, but somebody said,

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I don't want to come to you for biblical counseling, pastor. And I said, why not? He said, because you're just going to open up the

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Bible and tell me what's in the Bible. I don't have anything else to give you.

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I have two modes. The Bible says, and if I were you, those are my modes, right?

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One's scripture, one's wisdom. Don't confuse the two. You've got to prove to a bunch of Jews Jesus is better.

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Where do you go? I guess you can go to archaeology. I guess you can go to rationalism.

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I guess you can go to a variety of other evidences and how lives are changed. But this writer, the writer of Hebrews, he regularly and often quotes scripture to make the point, because the

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Bible's powerful. The Bible does its work. I don't have to win any argument. Well, this is what the

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Bible says right here. When you think about Jewish people and you go to Isaiah 53 and you just read

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Isaiah 53, I've met people before who have said to their husbands, their husbands are evangelical, they were

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Jewish. Do not quote the New Testament from me. And he said to her, I just quoted you Isaiah 53.

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You notice what's happening. How does this person who's preaching the sermon win the argument?

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This is what the Bible says. Another side note, another takeaway. I know, and I know this for Pastor Mark too, the new pastor at Cape Cod Bible, and you'll meet him just momentarily.

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Since your problems in life are difficult, you need to have a great God to solve these problems.

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And if you're expecting the pastor to get up and give moralistic platitudes and everything will be okay, you're not thinking rightly.

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And I know this church and I know Cape Cod Bible, they don't think that way. Hebrews 7 is a sermon about Melchizedek going back to Genesis, doing all these things, thinking, come on, just tell me everything's going to be fine.

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It'll be a good year, better than last year. I'm going to be more prosperous. No, this writer says you're in a deep fix here.

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You're getting persecuted. You're losing your homes. It's going to get worse. That temple up there, he doesn't know when it's going to be destroyed, but 70

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AD, it's coming down. And then what are you going to do? And he's saying, listen, I want you to begin to think about who

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Jesus is because you walk by faith and not by sight. Think about who Jesus is in all the aspects because as you do, you'll start forgetting about yourselves.

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You won't think about the problems that you have. And when you think about them, you'll think about them in light of eternity, in light of forever.

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So when you want preaching, it better be deep. If you've got problems that are deep, it better be from the text.

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So whether you're evangelizing or proving a point or listening to a sermon, you want the Bible. And by the way,

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I'm sad to inform Pastor Mark that you don't have the best congregation in New England to preach to because you're listening to him right now.

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Who wants to hear about Melchizedek? And I will quit after, when do I normally preach? For 75 minutes and they'll still want more.

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Wesley Blackstone came to me one day and he said, Pastor, you know, you just got a, whatever it was, a 6 % raise and I'm expecting 6 % longer sermons.

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Fair enough. And isn't it true that as we've been going through the message, as you've been trying to engage, and it's tough,

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I mean, it's cerebral and you're trying to really focus on it. I hope you've forgotten about the issues that need to be taken care of in all the compartments of your life and how you fall short and others fall short when they're around you and all these other things.

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But here's this one that never fails you. He's always going to do the right job and he's sent by God because God the

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Father loves sinners because Jesus loves sinners and came for them and he's the intercessor and he's the high priest.

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I want sermons that are straight from the text. And if they're difficult, if they're technical, if they're from Old Testament passages

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I know nothing about, then please preach away, Pastor. And I know that's you and so I'm thankful for you.

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Two more takeaways and then we're done. Everything in the Bible is important. I know you know that, but I want you to remember that.

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Everything in the Bible is important. You have all these genealogies. Genesis chapter 5, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and he died.

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I mean, really, how devotional is that? And he died. And when you study it, remember what

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Satan said? You will surely not what? Die. And the accent and the exclamation point in chapter 5 is

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Satan is a liar. And when it comes to the first lie in the Bible, you're not going to be judged for your sin.

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Genesis 5 in the genealogy, you know what? And he died, and he died, and he died, and you'll die.

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Everything in the Bible is important, including Genesis chapter 14 and Melchizedek.

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There are reasons that God has for everything in the Scripture. Before there were computers, a man named

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Bengal counted how many little dots on a particular Hebrew letter. How many yods?

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It's like the dot of our eye or the crossing of our T. How many of those were in the

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Bible? And Bengal hand -counted 66 ,420 yods.

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And Jesus says not one of those is going to pass away. Matthew chapter 5. Everything is important.

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I got up this morning thinking there are churches across the country that cancel their services, and I'm going to get up and tell everybody about Melchizedek.

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And then I thought, I can't wait. Melchizedek. Jesus is a priest.

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That's right. He can be my priest. He's not from Levite. He's from Judah, but he's better than Abraham because he's better than Melchizedek, and that means he's better than the

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Levitical system. And by the way, we're going to learn next week, and he doesn't die and stay dead.

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All these other priests, dead, dead, dead, dead. And then lastly,

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I want you to consider that key word in the book of Hebrews 7, in that chapter, and that is forever.

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I want you to regularly and often think about forever. I don't think we do that often enough, congregation.

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Forever. Sometimes we think forever in that direction in the future, but if you also include forever that way in eternity past, when there was one

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God, three persons, the

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Father, the Son, and the Spirit, perfect communion, perfect harmony, perfect love, and they made a decision to go rescue sinners.

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The Father loved sinners, and the Son loved sinners, and the Father said to the Son, go rescue my church.

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Go rescue the elect. Go rescue sinners. That all happened in eternity past, among other things.

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We don't think about that enough because we're thinking now. We're thinking today. We're thinking tomorrow, work.

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And to think of forever that way, no matter what your trials are now, it's not forever.

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It helps when you're talking to unbelievers. They rarely think of forever. Can you imagine forever? I'll tell you what

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I think hell is. Since God is omnipresent, it's not like hell is run by Satan, and God is just not there.

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You know what makes hell hell? God is present in hell, and you have no mediator, and Jesus is not there interceding for you.

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You think God's not present in hell? He's present in hell. That's exactly what Revelation talks about. But what makes heaven heaven is what?

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God is present with all his attributes, but you have Jesus as your advocate, as the mediator.

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No wonder when Jose read, by the way, on Christmas Eve, Revelation chapter 5, I felt like I was getting pulled up into the heavenlies and thinking, no wonder all of heaven is just shouting, worthy is the lamb who was slain forever and forever and forever.

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I have to regularly think forever for security, for hope, for wonder, for awe, for I can't lose my salvation because I have a high priest who is one forever.

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So my assignment, congregation, is to read Hebrews 7 this week, because we only touched upon the beginning, the first 10 verses.

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And now in verses 11 through 28, the writer is going to tell you why this is important theologically, why this makes any sense, why he's better.

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That he's better, verses 1 through 11. Why it's 1 through 10. Why he's better, what does it matter?

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Verses 11 through the end of the chapter. What you believe about Jesus makes a difference.

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Jesus asked the question to the man around him, who do you say I am? And the answer must include, he's my great high priest.

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Let's pray. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I'm thankful for Hebrews 7.

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The riches found in there about the mediatorial work of Jesus. That we would be able to stand blameless in your presence with great joy is amazing.

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Because we know what we've done. We know how sinful we are. And yet you cleanse us.

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You wash us. And you see us as perfectly obeying the law because you see us in Jesus who did.

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And you see us as forgiven people because Jesus, our high priest, has paid for our sins and now makes intercession for us.

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So I would pray for 2019 for this congregation. Father, would you help us to live by faith?

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Paul said that in Galatians 2. And honor you as the one who gave your son because you loved us and he loved us.

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And he gave himself up for us. Father, this last year with cancer, with all kinds of issues at the church, you're still faithful.

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And whether you slay us or give us cancer or whatever you do, you're still faithful.

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You're good and worthy to be praised. And I pray that would happen this year. This is a fallen world and things will probably happen.

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And yet I'd ask that your spirit attend to us that we might think about our Lord Jesus as we walk by faith as prophet, priest, and king.

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In his name we pray. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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