Thank you Pat I appreciate the songs all the music tonight why the children were so good always they can't make a mistake you know kids are always so good Hebrews chapter 7 please Hebrews chapter 7 let me echo what Andrew said we're having the great American hot dog night having a Sunday night cafe and if you're visiting tonight you are always free so you just come on back and enjoy the hot dogs with us and stay in fellowship It's delightful to have the children here, and so many of the children are here from Bible school. And as you can tell, it was a great week, and we had a wonderful group, and we praise God for that. For those who haven't been here, we're studying the book of Hebrews on our Sunday night messages. And the background, just to kind of understand the context of what we're talking about here. There were Jewish Christians, this is the first century, who had trusted Christ and because of the persecution in Jerusalem they were scattered all over the world. They tended to live in communities and so therefore there were many Jewish people who had not trusted Christ. There was tremendous pressure on them to turn back from Christianity back to the Jewish religion that they'd grown up with. And so it is interesting that that is the circumstance in which this book is written. And if you understand that, it really makes the book make a lot of sense. You understand what he's talking about. Now tonight, as I was thinking about tonight's service and thinking about all the visitors here, I thought, wow, I don't know if they're going to get this or not. So I hope you do. There's a man who appeared out of nowhere. Here's the name Melchizedek. Can anybody spell that? i can either and uh... he appeared and he had no beginning and no end he just appeared and he doesn't he he was there and he disappeared uh... and then this this man milk is a vexed name only appears here in genesis rather and in some one ten now and some one ten milk is a deck appears his name appears in what is called a messianic song in other words he was a tight of the lord jesus So that's important to know. So the writer of Hebrews is talking about a priest. He's talking about the high priest. Because in the Jewish religion, they had high priests. And by the way, they came from the tribe of Levi. All the high priests, they came through the tribe of Levi. So the point he is making, and we will get to that in a moment, is that Jesus was not of the tribe of Levi. He was of the tribe of Judah. So the thing he is talking to these Jewish people, and by the way, while we are not Jewish, and you may not know that name or understand the background, yet Jewish people did. And therefore he was a character that came in the life of Abraham. So let's read Hebrews chapter seven. I want to read the first three verses. For Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave tenth of all. That is called, a tenth is called a tie. So he, Abraham, apparently without any instruction, gave ties to this man, Melchizedek, the king. First, being by interpretation King of Righteousness, after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace. Now here's his description, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest forever. Now you ask, why is that important? Well, this Melchizedek, who was a priest of the Most High God, very clearly, we don't know if he was of the tribe of Levi or what he was. So the precedent is laid down that every priest does not have to be of the tribe of Levi. Now here's the point. Melchizedek appeared hundreds of years before Moses was given the law and established the priesthood in the Levitical priesthood. So he came way before the tribe of Levi was designated as the priest. So now Jesus himself is presented here as the high priest. Now the high priest made sacrifices on behalf of the people. The high priest stood in intercession for the people. The high priest was God's representative to the people. So the writer of Hebrews is showing them that Jesus himself has the right to be our high priest. So he says, if you look down please at verse number 23, verse number 23, for they truly were many priests. because they were not all suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood." The first thing that distinguishes Jesus as their high priest was he is eternal. Now understand, a priest could make a promise and not be able to keep it because he said he died. But Jesus, all of his promises are true because he never dies. He has an unchangeable priesthood. He has an eternal priesthood. So compared to the earthly priest who only served for a few years, Jesus serves forever as our high priest. The verse number 25. Wherefore, this Jesus, is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for him. The word uttermost there has the idea he is able to save completely. One of the differences, the priest in the Old Testament, the Levitical priest offered a sacrifice called an atonement for sins. They did it every year. The sins had to be covered. Just imagine, in order to be right with God, you had to go to the temple every year and have a sacrifice for sin offered for you. But Jesus was a better high priest than that. He was able to save completely, and that's the word, This morning in our service we quoted the saying of John the Baptist and it was very important because John the Baptist dispensationally is the last Old Testament prophet. He was really an Old Testament character in the New Testament time and he said this, behold the Lamb of God, now get it, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now what is different about that? Somebody tell me. Yeah, the atonement covered sin for a year. And then next year, the offering was made and next year was the offering made, but Jesus is able to save completely. His sacrifice was one time forever. By the way, just so you know, when the high priest went in to offer that sacrifice every year, the tradition says there were belts on his clothing. And as long as he was moving around in there doing the sacrifice, the bells were ringing. But when he came out, there was a great shout and a great celebration, because he had once again gone in there and presented the blood on the altar, and the sins were covered for another year. But the writer of Hebrews says to us, Jesus has an unchangeable priesthood, and he's able to save completely. John the Baptist said he does not cover sin. takes away the sin of the world. Verse 26, for such a high priest became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. This Jesus, this high priest. Now look at this. These high priests of the tribe of Levi, there were some who were good, and there were some who were not good. the sons of Eli they were shameful high priest but this one Jesus look at the description of him he is holy he is harmless he is undefiled he is separate from sinners made hard in the heavens aren't you glad Jesus is not like us fickle, changeable, angry at times, wishy-washy at times, and Jesus is always the same. That song we sang. Always the same. He's never changed. His nature is immutable. It does not change. You know, here's the thing to put in your computer. If He loved you ever, He always loves you. if he wants to save you ever he always wants to save you if he ever offered salvation he always offers salvation just the fact that he is separate from sinners he's not like us sometimes in our minds we saw that in romans chapter one this morning sometimes in our mind we want to make him like a man and we try to see him that way if you remember a greek mythology the greek gods would kill each other and fight each other and take away each other's wives and do all kind of terrible things because they were just like them. They saw them like themselves. But the writer of Hebrews says this priest isn't like that. And by the way, the Jewish believers understood there were priests in the Old Testament that were not godly. But this man, he is not like that at all. He is made higher than the heavens. He's separate from sinners. Now here is a major, a major thing. Look at this verse 27. Who needs not daily as those high priests offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. Now let's stop there. Do you get the picture? Before a priest could go in and offer sacrifice for the people, he had to first go to the labor. and wash his hands and wash himself. He had to go to the mikvah and be clean. And then he had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins. And then he was qualified to go in and offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people. What's different about Christ? He had no sin. So he never had to offer sins for himself. He offered sins for us. He came in and offered a sacrifice as a cover for sin. The word that you need to remember, it was a sacrificial death. He died the death he did not have to die. He was never a sinner. To make us live a life we will never deserve. We are born again by the power and the blood of Christ. Our sins are not just covered, they are forgiven. And so that sacrifice, now notice the difference. They offered sacrifices often, not just on the Day of Atonement, but there were many sacrifices offered during the year. But notice what it says, "...who needeth not daily, as those high priests who offer sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. This he did once when he offered up himself." How many sacrifices? There are religions that teach Jesus is crucified every week. We come together and we receive the body of Christ and He's crucified all over again. My friend, that's blasphemy. Jesus was crucified once. And that sacrifice that He made that day was once for all. It took care of sin for all time. In a few weeks, we'll get into where that sacrifice was offered. You'll be amazed. It's something many people never thought of. But Jesus offered His own blood. as a sacrifice a perfect sacrifice for sin and he only did it one time because one time was sufficient and my friend listen salvation is one time you don't need to get saved over and over and over again that that again that is it is not believing the Word of God hey whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have what is everlasting means It means forever. You know, there's so many passages that teach us that not only did Christ only offer one sacrifice, but we need to be saved one time. Put our faith in Christ. There is a regeneration of our spirit and our heart. We're given a new life. His blood has cleansed our sins, and we are called the children of God because of that one sacrifice for sin. We see in verse number 28, for the law maketh men high priest, which have infirmity or weakness. But the word of the oath, which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. The point he makes later is that he was of the tribe of Judah, but he is the designated high priest for believers. He does not have weaknesses. He mentions here that preachers were sacrificed even though they did have weaknesses, even though they were not what they should have been and did not do what they should have done. But Jesus, by the appointment of God, is designated as our high priest forever. His word is always the same. He does not change. We can depend on Him. And He ever lives to make intercession for us. One day, we'll all stand before God. It depends on where you are, what you think about that. But let's just say this, when you stand before God, if He were to ask you, why should you get into heaven? On what basis do you deserve to be here? There's only one answer. And what is the answer? The cause of the blood of Christ. My sins have been forgiven. He's taken away my sins. I am now a new believer. I have a new life in Christ. I am a son of God, not because of my righteousness, but because of His. Not because of my good life, but because of His good life. Not because of what I have done, but because what he has done. And that sacrifice is once forever. Amen? Wonderful thing. And we'll continue, by the way, if you come back on this guide to Melchizedek and about the priest. It's an interesting study and helps us to understand how people might be drawn away and how believing in Christ as our priest makes it solid and good. So we finish our service tonight with a song. Brother Rob always comes and leads us in a song as we go. Let me say to our visitors again, please come back and join us. There's plenty of food, plenty of places to sit. If you're a visitor, you're free. You can't beat that deal anywhere. Come back and join us for our All-American Hot Dog Night. How can you beat that? Brother Rob. 629. 629. Oh, how he loves you and me. Why don't we stand to sing 629? We'll sing both stanzas.