[0:00] has those qualities anyway, whether he was that or not. We're not entirely sure, but he refers to him as the king of righteousness, refers to him as the king of Salem, which means peace.
[0:10] So righteousness and peace, that sounds a lot like Jesus as well. We talked about the superiority of Melchizedek in verses 4 through 10, how that Abraham came and he gave tithes to him, and it's always a matter of the lesser giving to the greater when it comes to tithing. We give our tithes to God because he is greater than we are.
[0:33] And the same happened with Abraham when he gave to Melchizedek. He came back from the slaughter of the five kings, and the spoils that he took, he gave 10% of it to Melchizedek.
[0:50] Then the second thing we started to talk about was Christ is a better priest for Christians. He is a better priest for Christians. And we talked about the need for a better priesthood.
[1:01] Look with me in chapter 7, beginning at verse 11. Chapter 7, verse 11. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there for another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron.
[1:22] For the priesthood being changed, there is made a necessity, a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance to the altar.
[1:40] For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, for which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning the priesthood. He says, look, we need a priest who doesn't come from the tribe of Levi because we need a priest who can do things that the tribe of Levi cannot do.
[1:59] What are some of the things we mentioned last week? Do you remember about why Melchizedek was better? Why Jesus was better? Well, we talked about the fact that the Levitical priesthood, it was a, what's the word I want?
[2:20] I keep saying heretical, but that's not it. Hereditary. Yeah. I think there's some, you can put an AL on the end of that, but I can't think of what it is. So anyway, yeah, it was a hereditary thing.
[2:31] So, you know, one man after the other, after the other. Now Jesus comes along. So he's not part of that Levite thing, but God says he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
[2:43] Go back with me. Hold your finger there in Hebrews. Go back with me to Psalm 110. We looked at it last week, but let's look at it again today because we'll reference it again. Psalm 110.
[3:00] And verse four. Psalm 110, verse four. Where it says, The Lord has sworn and will not repent.
[3:13] Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord said, you're going to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And he says, he said that and he's not going to repent of it.
[3:25] So it's going to be an everlasting priesthood, which the Aaron, Aaronic priesthood was not because every priest died and somebody else took over.
[3:36] Usually a son took over to being the next high priest. So. Did the Jews recognize Melchizedek? The other day? Well, Abraham did.
[3:47] So in Abraham, yes. So I meant in Jesus' time. In Jesus' time? I don't know. It's a good question. I don't know if they did or not. They should have because Abraham did.
[3:59] So he had to have some kind of a, at least some recognition as far as history goes. Whether they still recognize him as a priest in their time, probably not because they were following Aaron's thing.
[4:13] So. The law was set up and they were following the law.
[4:24] Jesus was not encumbered by the law. Jesus came to fulfill the law, the Bible tells us. And so he did not have to stay within those parameters. And what was the law for?
[4:35] We talked about this last week. We're actually going to mention it again this morning in the morning service. Galatians 3.24 talks about the law being our schoolmaster. It was there to teach us that we need a Savior.
[4:51] We cannot keep the law in and of ourselves. I'll mention it again this morning, the fact and how that kind of works that we can't do that. So he says the law was always meant to be the schoolmaster, to show us that we need a Savior, not to be the thing that we follow all the time because we can't do that.
[5:13] Which brings us to the second point of this, under Jesus being better, the benefit, benefit of a better priesthood.
[5:25] The benefit. Let's have a word of prayer. We'll talk about this. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you that we have this time together, Lord, to learn. Lord, we thank you that we have folks here who want to learn.
[5:37] Lord, they come and have questions. Hopefully we can answer some of them. Lord, I pray that you would just guide us in each thing that we do today.
[5:48] Lord, may we have our hearts set on you, our minds focused on you. And Lord, may we take your word and learn from it. Lord, pray that your word would be the foremost thing in our mind.
[6:04] Lord, help us today to grow closer to you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Look at verse 15 of chapter 7. Verse 15. And it is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
[6:30] For he testified, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and the unprofitableness thereof.
[6:45] For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God. So he's saying, look, the law never really made anybody perfect.
[7:02] You couldn't be perfect because we couldn't keep the law. And again, I'll mention some more about that this morning, but he says, Melchizedek, there was no ending of life.
[7:13] Verse 3. No ending of life. Melchizedek, he had a span that was just more than just a lifetime. Aaron's was a lifetime.
[7:26] And then the next guy. The order of Melchizedek was not limited by these different factors. The order of Melchizedek did not have to keep making atonement for their own sins.
[7:37] Aaron's priesthood, before the priest could make atonement for the sins of the people, he had to make atonement for his own sins because they were sinners. And here comes Jesus out of the tribe of Judah, not out of the tribe of Levite, out of the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe, and yet he can be a priest after the order of Melchizedek.
[7:59] And he has an endless life. He does not have sin in his life. He has a never-ending priesthood. All of those things that Melchizedek talks about there, Jesus had.
[8:11] So he's not limited by the things that the Levitical priesthood was. In addition to that, the external commandments of the law had been replaced, put away by a better, eternal hope.
[8:33] Notice he used that term in verses 18 and 19. He talks about the fact that, verse 19, but the bringing in of a better hope.
[8:46] He says, look, the law didn't make anything perfect, nothing, but there's a better hope. You have Jesus Christ who can take and wash away your sins.
[8:57] He doesn't just cover them like the animal sacrifices did. He takes them away, puts them as far as the east is from the west, never to be seen again. See, the animal sacrifices required that, you know, again, the priest had to make his own sacrifice for himself.
[9:14] Then he could go take and do ones for the people. And even then, it was a matter of, it was a covering. It wasn't a total wiping away. So, Jesus, as the Lamb of God, could take away the sins of the world.
[9:33] Remember when Jesus first appears on the scene as an adult, he's going to John the Baptist to be baptized. What does John say?
[9:44] Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, John 1.29. He says, Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. Jesus is the only way they could do that.
[9:58] Jesus is the only one. So, with Christ, God's people had a better hope than what the law of Moses could provide. Actually, you start to think about it, the Levitical priesthood actually kept people away from God.
[10:17] What do I mean by that? If I wanted to approach God as an Israelite, how did I do it? I had to go to the priest, let him do the sacrifices.
[10:31] If I wanted to ask God things, I had to go to the priest, make confession, ask, let them ask. See, and then when Christ went to the cross, what happened? That Holy of Holies, that middle wall, ripped apart.
[10:45] We had access now. So, Jesus is the better way because we can go directly to God, cut out all the middlemen. So, when you see religions today that say you have to go through this and this and this to do, you know, to get to God, no.
[10:59] Jesus said, nope, I'm the better way. Are you going to have something? You say this to you. Okay. So, so, you know, going to a priest does you absolutely no good whatsoever.
[11:12] Bible says there's one mediator between God and man, man Christ Jesus. So, we have to go to Christ and let him. So, that Holy of Holies is now open. We go directly, Hebrews here later is going to say that we can go directly to the throne of grace.
[11:29] We don't have to go through anyone else. We can go there ourselves. Jesus died as the complete sacrifice, not this partial thing that we have to do over and over and over again.
[11:41] Third thing, the permanence of a better priesthood. The permanence. Look at verse 20, beginning at verse 20.
[11:53] In verse 20 it says, and inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest. For those priests were made without without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent.
[12:10] Thou art a priest after the order of Melchizedek. So, by how so, by so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.
[12:22] And they truly were many priests, but they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
[12:39] Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost to come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. So, he says, look, again, he's pointing out, if you went to the priest, it was a temporary thing.
[12:55] It was a covering. But Jesus is a better testament. Jesus can take care of it. He's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God.
[13:08] Again, he quotes from Psalm 110, 4, about the repenting. The Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the word of Melchizedek.
[13:23] They focus on the oath. God made an oath. God said, this is who my son is going to be.
[13:34] He's going to be a priest after the word of Melchizedek. The physical priesthood did not say that. They had their method of coming up with a new priest. They had their laws for how to get a new priest.
[13:45] But they never made the oath that they were going to be the only one who could take away the sin of the world. God says, my son will do that. He will be the one who can take away the sin of the world.
[14:00] You know, they kind of point out in these verses the fact that Jesus is an eternal priest. So therefore, he just, whatever he does just keeps on going.
[14:12] it doesn't ever stop. It doesn't ever change. The biblical priesthood would change from time to time depending on who the priest was. The biblical priesthood came about because God gave a commandment.
[14:31] This priesthood of Jesus came about because God made an oath. I mean, you go way back to the beginning. God had a plan. God said, I have a way to save mankind from the foundations of the earth.
[14:47] The thing it tells about that Jesus was going to do the work that needed to be done for our salvation. And so, Jesus became that priest based on the oath of God that he would be the forever priest.
[15:05] people who are leaders in the church and who have the authority of the people in the church can be just as corrupted as those priests were back then.
[15:22] They weren't a real good example. Right. I mean, that happened in the world. Yep. You look around the world and you look at all the pastors who have fallen and done things.
[15:38] Pastors can be corrupted, can be changed. That's why we point everybody to Jesus, not to us.
[15:49] If you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, you don't point people to yourself. You point them to God. Point them to Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
[15:59] Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. What's significant about the fact that God made an oath concerning Jesus and His priesthood and recorded it way back in the Psalms?
[16:17] Don't think about it. God had a plan way back in the beginning. God had a plan and He said that plan is going to be carried out.
[16:30] That plan is not going to change. that plan is going to be secure. It is going to be the final remedy for sin.
[16:49] Jesus will take care of it all. And we don't have to keep doing all these other things with the priesthood. His priesthood would never be superseded by something else. The Levitical priesthood was going to be superseded by Jesus.
[17:04] But he said Jesus will never be. See, since the better priesthood was provided on the basis of the fact that God gave a better covenant when he said Jesus is going to come to be the Savior of the world.
[17:20] So, why is it again so significant? I think we mentioned this recently, I can't remember. But, when God makes an oath, what does he swear by?
[17:34] Himself. Based on his character and his name. If God does not fulfill what he has said, what does that do to his name and what does that do to his character?
[17:49] Even us. If you don't fulfill your word, what does that do to your name and what does that do to people to see your character? So, God says, I will swear by myself because he's a God who cannot change.
[18:02] And so, therefore, he says, I'm going to swear by myself that this is going to happen. And so, Jesus' oath was an oath that we can trust in, an oath that we can follow.
[18:13] So, you think about the fact that Jesus is this priest, this better priest, this unchangeable priesthood.
[18:25] What does that mean for us concerning things in our life, concerning things of, when we come into times of uncertainty and things of that nature?
[18:36] What is it? How does that help us? Stability. Stability. Jesus will not change. So, I'm going through tough times.
[18:48] I'm going through hard things in my life. I'm going, facing different things. Jesus does not change. He is always going to be there. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
[18:59] He's always going to be there. He's always going to be, if we sin and we stumble and we sin, and he's always going to be there, confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. There's a stability in knowing that Jesus is always there.
[19:14] Good word, stability. I like that. Again, when one priest died, another priest stepped into his place, so I had built in limitations.
[19:26] Christ, permanent, ever-living, unchangeable priest. He abides forever. His priesthood is permanent. He's never going to hand his priesthood over to somebody else that's less qualified than he is.
[19:44] He is always going to be there. As they face the threat of persecution, here in Hebrews, they're doing that. They're facing the threat of persecution and stuff. They can come to Jesus and be confident that he will always be there.
[19:58] He's not going to change. He's going to be there all the way until we arrive in heaven. So, from the moment we get saved until the moment we go to heaven, we have one person we have to deal with.
[20:16] And that's it. Oh, I was just thinking that I find Jesus more forgiving than man. That's a good one. I like that. Yes.
[20:26] Jesus is much more forgiving than man is. Yeah. People hold on to things and hold on to things and hold on to things and you need to get past that.
[20:37] You need to get rid of the bitterness. You need to have forgiveness. Oh, I do. Yeah. We need to move on because Jesus is, he's much more forgiving than man is.
[20:50] Good point, Margaret. Okay. Fourth thing. The blessing of a better priesthood. The blessing. Look at verses 26 to 28.
[21:05] 26 to 28. It says, For such an high priest became us who is holy, harmless, innocent, that's the idea there, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's.
[21:29] For this he did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh man high priest which have infirmity. But the word of oath which is since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore.
[21:49] So he says, Look, you're going to have a high priest who is going to be forever the same. Come on in.
[22:01] We've got a high priest who's going to be ever the same. He is not going to change. And he can forgive sin not because of what other people have done, not because they made sacrifices, but because he sacrificed himself.
[22:15] He gave himself so that we could have forgiveness of sins. So sinful humans need Christ because he's the only holy, sinless priest that there ever was.
[22:26] So we need him because he is totally sinless. There's nothing in his character that's flawed. He lived his life and his life was not not limited committed by fallenness or by finiteness because he didn't sin and he's going to be forever.
[22:55] So therefore, we have a priest that can more than take care of the sins that we have. Christ was without sin so he didn't have to make an offering for himself.
[23:10] We kind of mentioned that already. he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. The Mosaic Law instituted the idea of a priesthood in which sinful man had to make sacrifice for himself in order to make sacrifice for the people.
[23:28] Christ became a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Didn't have to do any of that because he was superior in every way. because Christ is a perfect priest and Christianity is the perfect and only way to approach God because it's the only way that we can come to God without having to try to go through somebody else.
[23:52] I go directly to God ask for his forgiveness talk with him and let Jesus take care of whatever is going on in my life. So he's the better priest.
[24:06] That's what chapter 7 is all about. The fact that he Jesus is a better priest than any of the priests or the Levites and it was because he came after the order of Melchizedek which again we pointed out Melchizedek no beginning no end no mother no father all that sounds a lot like Jesus doesn't it?
[24:25] Alright let's have a word of prayer. chemotherapy door always worshipping Lord there there it you