there's no other way to peace, peace with God, peace of mind, peace in our hearts but through Jesus Christ who is the King of peace and it fits in well with our sermon this morning which is entitled, The Son, His Superior Priesthood. The Son, His Superior Priesthood, looking in the book of Hebrews which is the book of better things and that Jesus Christ is the better way. We're going to read this morning from Hebrews 7 and Hebrews 7 and verses 1 to 11. And also read verse 20 of chapter 6, the verse in the preceding chapter, The Bible reads... Then from chapter 7 verse 1, For this 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 a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. 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 continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi who received the office of the priesthood have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law that is of their brethren though they come out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises and without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better and here men that die receive tithes but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore perfection were by the vitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this, your precious word. We thank you Lord that your word no matter where we go in it there is something for us to learn Father, something that you want to teach us and Lord we know that it's not only to give us head knowledge but Father to mould us and shape us into the image of your Son. We thank you Lord that within this text there lies deep and precious truths which are so pertinent to us Father. So I just pray, Lord God, that you would enable me to be on my means this morning and that you would indeed speak to every heart, Father, and that you perfect those things which concern us. Lord, that we would draw nigh to the throne of grace this morning, that we would be challenged, encouraged, blessed, comforted, strengthened, helped. We do pray for your help. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. son, his superior priesthood.' And here the writer speaks about this one, about Jesus Christ being after the order of Melchizedek. So what is an order? And according to A.P. Barnes he says, the word rendered order is the word taxis here, the word rendered order, taxis, means a setting in order, hence arrangement or disposition. It may be applied to ranks of soldiers, to the gradations of office, or to any rank which men sustain in society. To say that he was of the same order with Melchizedek was to say that he was of the same rank or stations." And so here, the Lord Jesus is put forward as being after the station, after the order of Melchizedek, in contrast to Aaron, the Aaronic priesthood. and showing, and then as the passage develops and goes forward, showing that the priesthood of Christ is far better and far greater than that of Aaron. And when we ask the question, well who is this Melchizedek? Pastor Ian Weston, I have a quote here from him on this very matter and a lot of scholars are divided on the exact identity of Melchizedek, he's either a Theophany, a Christophany, or he is simply a type of Christ. we'll go into this here. He says, Then, about a thousand years later, we find one verse in the Psalms concerning him. Then, after another thousand years, the Holy Spirit takes up this fragment of history and bases the major thesis of the book of Hebrews on it. in nine verses of Hebrews the person of Melchizedek is mentioned and in four of these in the words from Psalm 114 are repeated a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And so back there in Genesis, okay relying a bit on people's memories there, after Abraham had gone out to rescue his rebellious relative there, Lot, he defeated this great coalition of Kings there by God's strength and power and following that he's approached by this priest, this king and priest called Melchizedek and from there Abraham gives him 10% of the spoils of war that were taken and then would not take anything else and for himself and so that was the introduction there of Melchizedek, this king and priest who comes onto the scene back there in Genesis, is then referred to again in the Psalms and then now in the book of Hebrews and so either a type of our Lord or a theophany, okay, I seem to lean more towards this being a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ before he was born of a virgin, okay, and there were multiple appearances of Christ in the Old Testament that can be cited but I believe that this is such and one. So first of all, point one for the main point here is we're going to look at Melchizedek's personage and what we can say about Melchizedek, whether he be a theophany or whether he be a type, Melchizedek is like our Lord Jesus Christ. It's very clear from the text that he is made like unto the Son of God. And so we're going to look at some devotional aspects here of the person of Melchizedek here and how that applies to our Lord as our great high priest. So we see some identifying characteristics regarding his personage. So we see his kingship and we see his priesthood but let's first of all look at the fact that Jesus Christ is our King. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and we see that in Revelation 19 verse 6 and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords that Jesus Christ is King although Kings rise and Kings fall Jesus kingship is forever. do you know that sinful man right here has a problem with the fact that Jesus is King? People don't mind a religious Jesus, a religious leader from time gone past, but Jesus who is both God and King, the Almighty God and King, people have a problem with that when it comes to salvation. I remember working on a project one time, moving furniture around, one of my first jobs and I remember one of the men who was working for the removalist company that was bringing this stuff in, my brother Jeremy spoke to him and tried to witness to him a bit and he said, no, he said, I've never believed in God. my brother said, I don't know, he said, nah, he said, I never have believed in him eh? He said, no high power run in my life. Ah, so not that you don't know that there's a God but he knew who that God was, that he is a higher power who does want to run people's lives and he said not for me. See people have a problem with the fact that Jesus is King and they do not want him to reign and rule and reign over them. Yeah, it's nothing new in the heart of man, in the heart of mankind that they do not want God being in control of their lives. You know, we Aussies, we don't like authority very much. Very autonomous, the spirit of the Eureka Stockade is in our blood, that dust is in our lungs. But we see that that same mindset, not just in Aussies but throughout the world and throughout mankind, that men have that resistance toward God. And do you know, you might say, but some people seem very devoted to God. Yes, but they are resistant to the true God. says it must be done in my way and that's when there is a problem. You know that happened when Israel wanted a king, they wanted a king that would reign over them and we see back in 1st Samuel 8, 7 this is what the Lord God says to Samuel, He says, why do, sorry, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee. for they have not rejected thee but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.' God desires to rule over his people and God is a good ruler, we're going to see that in the millennium, we're going to see government as it was supposed to be with Jesus Christ as King ruling and reigning on the earth but the sinful heart of man fights back against it. know, people don't mind a king that doesn't really rule. You know, some people, even in Australia, they love the monarchy. Have you ever met people like that? Okay, I've got some respect for the monarchy as well but they are monarchists, you know, they are royalists, they love the monarchy. I worked for a family not far actually from the church here and they were British expats and they absolutely love the royal family and love the Queen. He said to me, he's a police officer, he said, we were devastated when the Queen died. Just, they were devastated by it, they just loved the Queen. And you know, I wonder though, with all the people who would love the British monarchy and would love the Queen or love the King, if the King or the Queen really started to rule, as in time gone past, I wonder how many subjects, how many loyal subjects, would continue to submit and love the Queen or the King. Maybe that family would. But how many would say, no, all of a sudden, all of our view of who the monarch is has all of a sudden changed, we like them when there was this picture of a king with all the beauty and all of the pageantry and the form and all of the history and the romantic ideology of it all, but when that king or that queen begins to rule, they all of a sudden don't like that anymore. You know, it's like that, isn't it? Perhaps with some people, when it comes to our Lord. is they'll quickly say, oh yes, Jesus is King. And they love these devotional thoughts about Jesus being King and Jesus ruling and reigning, but yet they don't want that authority in their life. And you know, the reason that many do not trust Christ as Lord and Savior, because they have a problem with the authority of God. You know, it takes true humility to bow the knee to King Jesus and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. you know and people sometimes they would prefer to have all sorts of problems in their life so long as they don't have to bow their knee to Jesus Christ. might have full-blown depression but they'll say no to Jesus Christ. They might be suicidal but they will say no to Jesus Christ. They might have all sorts of other problems, marital problems, family problems and in spite of all those problems they will continue to say no because they do not want a king that will reign over them. the reason that many believers do not know the blessing of God upon their lives is because they are unwilling for Christ to rule upon the throne of their lives. They want Jesus to be the Saviour who takes them to heaven but they do not want Him to be the King who rules over them. Make sense? They want Jesus to take them to heaven but they do not want Him to rule and reign in their life here on earth. It can be said that there is a throne in every heart and there's only room for one ruler and that ruler can only be Jesus Christ. Who's sitting on the throne of your heart? Christ or self? There's no co-regency. There's no, I'm going to rule with Him in my heart and I'm going to exert my will against Him at times and He's going to exert His will against me. But no, it is either Christ or me who is on that throne. is only as Christ is King in the heart and life of the believer that the fruits of righteousness and peace can be known and enjoyed.' Because we see about this kingship here, we see two aspects here, that he says that he is first a King of righteousness, then also king of peace. To him also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, verse 2, and after that also king of Salem which is king of peace. Let's look firstly at how this kingship of Melchizedek is a kingship of righteousness. don't we see that there our Lord Jesus Christ is the king of righteousness Jeremiah 23 5 to 6 behold the days come saith the Lord that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth in his days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness Jesus Christ is the king of righteousness and here's the propitiation for our sins we see that there in 1 John and he's referred to as being Jesus Christ the righteous and you know it takes Jesus Christ who is righteous to make you righteous. there is no way that we can make ourselves righteous, Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And their self is displaced when we see that our own righteousness is not enough and it must be the righteousness of Christ and that is why so many people end up in the fires of hell is that they will not submit to the fact that their righteousness is as filthy rags with Almighty God. that they will still hang on to their own self-righteousness and they will go to hell for that because their righteousness is as filthy rags. To know salvation, to know forgiveness, to know eternal life in heaven, you must have the righteousness that only King Jesus can give you. You know that song, Nothing But the Blood of Jesus? This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus. And part of that song also says, this is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus. And you say, well, I've done that this morning, I've trusted Christ. Well, what a privilege to have the righteousness of King Jesus, the King of righteousness imputed to you. that when God sees you, you know, it's not nice to go back and just to meditate on all your sins of the past or even sometimes our sins of the present but when the blood of Christ washes us and cleanses us and yet God looks at us and he sees us as righteous. know perhaps you're someone even you say you know I know God's saving but I can just never seem to get past this fact in my heart and in my mind of how I just feel like this worthless evil sinner and I just can't see how that God would love me with the love he ought to have, that I would think that he would want to give to someone. I just can't see how God would love me in that way. You know God, when God sees you, he sees the righteousness of Christ and he loves you and you are accepted with him. You know, here is another issue when people come to the idea of wanting forgiveness and wanting salvation through Christ, is you know, they want Christ's forgiveness but they do not want His righteousness as well. They want His forgiveness, they want His eternal life, they want all the benefits and blessings that God can give but they want their sin. And this is where the matter of repentance in salvation is so, so important. People do not want King Jesus who is going to change their life and who is going to rule and to reign on the throne of their life, they fight against it, they want a soft effeminate long-haired Jesus who will talk to them all about love and forgiveness and acceptance and never talk to them about their sin. That's why a lot of the contemporary churches they preach a big grace and a big love, they don't want to deal with the matter of righteousness. They're okay with the Jesus who confirms them in their sinful habits. A Jesus that says it's okay to be a sodomite, it's okay to have that drinking problem, it's okay to go clubbing, it's okay to do all these things because Jesus loves you anyway. That Jesus is not the Lord Jesus of the Bible, one who is loving and forgiving, yes he is, but he is also the one who was the God of truth. And even in his earthly ministry, when you heard the words that came out of the kind and gentle, yes he was, loving Lord Jesus, he said other things too. O generation of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Oh, that's the true Lord Jesus, who had love and truth, who had grace and truth. And remember that all the words of this book are the words of Jesus. And you know, there are many Christians, they might be saved and they're happy with the Lord Jesus Christ who has forgiven them of their sins, has washed their sins away and has imputed them his righteousness, but they do not want the King of Righteousness reigning in their lives and doing His work of righteousness. You understand that? Jesus being central in my heart and in my life, in the realm of my spirit, sitting there on the throne of my life and ruling and reigning, so many do not want that. Yes, Jesus is King but I do not want Him reigning in my life. You know, the King of Righteousness sees all that we do, I can say, I'm not meaning it all in an irreverent way, when you are filling out your tax return, the King of Righteousness, as it were, is looking over your shoulder. He sees. The King of Righteousness is watching you when you are searching for entertainment. I was all by myself. No, the King of Righteousness is right there and He's within you. He sees it all. The King of Righteousness knows what you're reading. The King of Righteousness knows what you are listening to. The King of Righteousness knows what you are watching. The King of Righteousness heard what you said to your spouse. You never would have said it in front of anyone else but the King of Righteousness heard it. And the King of Righteousness also heard what you said to your spouse inwardly but not outwardly. didn't even want your spouse to hear what you said but the King of Righteousness heard it. Who is ruling and reigning in your life? People like the idea of a King of Peace. A King of Peace but they don't like the idea of a King of Righteousness. want to live a life with a sinful mind and a sinful heart and yet still have God's peace. They want to have righteousness and peace divorced the one from the other. Psalm 85 10 says, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Jesus is both the King of righteousness and peace and does God want to give you peace along with your unrighteousness? Does God want to give you peace with false doctrine? Does God want to give you peace with a heart that's full of bitterness? Does God want to give that person peace with their gambling addiction? Does God want to give that person peace with their pornography addiction? Does God want to give them peace with their alcohol addiction? Does God want to give that individual peace with their anger? Peace with their carnality? No, no, no. He's the King of righteousness. And if you want Jesus' peace, you must also have his righteous workings in your life. He's the King of righteousness. I love Jesus. What Jesus are you seeking for? Isaiah 32, 17 says, and the work of righteousness shall be peace. the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. You know, as we allow the King of righteousness to rule in righteousness on the throne of our heart, then that leads to us also having his peace. And next, we see it's a kingship of peace, King of Salem which is King of Peace, secondarily we see that here. And that was prophesied, wasn't it? Christ is not only the Prince of Peace but the King of Peace. You know, so many today are in search of peace. they just want peace. They're trying to find peace in some way. I remember seeing a documentary and it was about perhaps more but some soldiers in fighting in the Middle East from America and one of them was a medic and in the medical corps and he went through his tour and everything then on the on the the DVD or on the program there he choked up a little bit and he got a little bit teary and he said now he said I'm like every other guy out there who's searching for inner peace. People are searching for inner peace and they perhaps like him saw the horrors of war or maybe people had horrendous upbringings or maybe they've had a decent upbringing yet still they have not peace and they can't have that peace without the king of peace. People seek for peace in religion by being religious and yet they don't have peace. And it's not through religion that we can have peace, but through Jesus Christ. You know, the Gospel is also called the Gospel of Peace. It gives us peace with God. And the fruit that comes out of it helps us to have peace with one another, peace with our fellow man, peace with ourselves. You know, ever since the Garden of Eden, there has been conflict. man was, when he sinned, was estranged from God, he no longer had peace with God. He was estranged from the rest of human beings, there was only two of them at the time but there was conflict between Adam and Eve, there was not peace there. Conflict with their environment, not at peace with their environment, that's yet to come too. And man is not at peace with himself, fractured inwardly. it's through Christ that we can have peace and then in the future perfect peace. And you know that even as a believer if you try to find peace another way than through Christ you will be horribly disappointed. sometimes people do that, they go to the system of legalism, they say I want to know God's blessing, I want to know God's working, I want to know God's peace and I want to know this abundant Christian life and so I come out with a list of rules for myself and standards are not wrong, a list of rules and I look to this list of rules to sanctify me and it all backfires and I find myself in turmoil and there is no peace because you can't have peace but through Christ. If you set up a system on the throne of your life, rather than Christ on the throne of your life, there'll be no peace there. But when Christ is in control, He rules and reigns and He brings that peace in my heart. Peace does not come from this troubled world. Maybe Christians go through church battles and church difficulties and church trials or issues with other Christians and they're looking for peace and so then they look out into this world for peace. And it may give you a temporary peace but it is not the peace of God. And perhaps I can just say this applies to all of us young and old but for young people and for teenagers you might think that this world will give you some sort of peace. it will give you relief from your problems but it will not. It will not give you peace. It will actually take from your peace and you may enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season but then your heart will long for peace. The peace that only Jesus Christ can give. those precious words of our Lord in John 16 33 said these things I have spoken unto you that in me you might have peace oh let that sink in that in me he says you might have peace in the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world John 14 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Can I just also encourage you that Jesus wants to, as he rules in your life, give you his peace. Peace to your troubled heart. many things which press us, many things which can trouble us, all sorts. But you know, if you're a Christian, and again I'll say this kindly, all right, gently, if you're a Christian who is living a life of fear, you are probably not putting your faith and trust in the King of Peace. you start sitting on the throne of your own life and saying I'm going to have to work out all of these particulars so that everything works out and that nothing goes wrong, you are going to be a nervous, nail-biting king or queen. Because you can never ever ever ever deal with every detail that's there. Anything can happen, anything can go wrong. That's why when Jesus, the King of Peace, is ruling and reigning in my heart and in my life, then I can place my faith in Him and say, well Lord Jesus, help me to remember right now, I am not the ruler of my life. does that mean then that my life is unruly, that there's no one in charge? No, I can be at peace because the King of Peace is ruling and reigning. The King of Peace is on the throne of my life and as I by His grace subject myself to Him I can be at peace because there is a King ruling and reigning. Also we see his priesthood, Melchizedek's priesthood, a priesthood of God, priest of the Most High God it says there in verse 1 and verse 3 it says, abideth a priest continually. we see that this priesthood is continuous, it says, abideth a priest continually and from the whole context there of the passage is that our Lord Jesus and his priesthood is forever, that there is no end to it. And we see some of that priestly work there in verse 25 which is yet further to be dealt with another time, wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. And we see glimpses of this intercessory work when our Lord was on earth, Luke 22 and 31 to 32, and the Lord said, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when they are converted strengthen thy brethren. John 14 15 to 16 if you love me keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever. The intercessory work of our Lord as High Priest. goes before the Father to the throne of grace and Andrew Murray says this, he says, His very person and presence is that prayer so closely and then so inseparably is he identified with those he calls his brethren. Wonderful, the Lord bringing, coming before the Father with us on heart and mind and lips as it were. We see also Melchizedek's perpetuity, the continuous priesthood, that he was without parentage, no beginning and that parentage, there's no beginning point in history here for our Lord Jesus who is after the priesthood of Melchizedek. Jesus, yes, of course born into this world around 2,000 years ago but really, as the Son of God, has no parentage, no beginning and no ending. That's what we see in John 8 56 to 58, speaking here. to the some of the Jews he says... And that's when they took up stones to stone him. But our Lord Jesus has no beginning. There'll be people who will tell you that Jesus at one point was in the eternity past, sometime was created. Not so. Before Abraham was, I am. He has no point of beginning and no point of ending either. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. we see that when our Lord Jesus came to earth we see that the infinite God entered a finite world, don't we? That he who had no beginning, no ending, took upon himself human form, God was manifest in the flesh. And Heroes 4.15 says, for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And so our Lord Jesus came and was moved amongst us there. Let's also look at Melchizedek's preeminence verses 4 to 11. We see that he had preeminence over the patriarch Abraham. Now consider how great this man was under whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And so we see here the matter of tithe giving but it's interesting as we apply it here to more than that but just simply to our lives of giving ourselves to our Lord. Andrew Murray says the following, he says, our High Priest has a right to the surrender of all we have as belonging to him. To the willing sacrifice of all he asks or needs for his service. The connection between the tithes and the blessing is closer than we know. the more unreservedly we place all that we have at his disposal, we're not talking about just money here, the more we in very deed forsake all for his sake, the richer will our experience be of the fullness and the power which our high priest can bless. You ask the question sometimes, not what have I given to the Lord of myself, what am I holding back? Some people make limits with God. They say I will go this far and I will go no further. Or do not expect God to be able to bless you further until you lay your entire of who you are and all that you have at his disposal. People make those sorts of decisions. I remember one guy was very arrogant the way he said he said oh basically God and I we have a bit of a deal. Really? You know, basically, I don't do pastoring, I don't like wiping snotty noses. Not a very nice view of the pastorate and obviously not really a pastor's heart there but basically, no, I don't do that, you know, he does soul winning and that sort of thing but no, not that. Oh, missions isn't my thing. What do you mean? Missions isn't my thing. So they're just, no, not doing that. know you want to be part oh no no I'm not going to be a pastor and I won't make enough money boom line oh no no no I won't I won't I won't go to church twice on a Sunday no it's not me prayer meeting oh no some people get pretty no I would get a prayer I won't get a prayer no done Outreach? Oh yeah, there's people who do it. Our church does outreach so we do outreach. I don't but we do so I sort of find this little enclave where I can appease my conscience that I don't but we do. Line. How do you expect God's blessing upon you when you start telling the King where the boundaries are? King says here's what I will require, here is what I want and we say no. Some people just won't move, it does not matter what is preached, what the preacher preaches on they have made a decision it seems that I will go this further with my Lord but no further. You can guarantee when people are making are forcefully holding out against what God clearly teaches and says in his Word that Jesus Christ is not the one who is, although he is King, he is not on the throne of that person's life because they have chosen to rule and say I will do these things in my way rather than God's. this is why the life of blessing is missed by so many because they choose that they will do things their ways, that they will hold back and will not give over to him. What is it that holds some people back and you might be someone who says no look by the grace of God I'm surrendered completely in all that I am and all that I have as much as I know. God bless you for that. But sometimes you might go, if I'm to be honest, there's something or someone that's holding me back. And I've made up my mind it's going to be this way. You know, you won't be able to experience the blessing of God in the same way if you make limitations to your surrender. But you know, the blessed part is, is the more that we say, okay, Lord, This is hard for me to let go of, but I'm going to open my hands and I'm going to let you take it if you want to. The more he's able to bless, the more of his priestly life and power is going to be able to be made manifest in your life. We see that Melchizedek blessed Abraham and it says about, you can see how great this man was and about the tithes, but then also that Abraham blessed him And the writer really drives the point home that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham and the Jewish mind with Abraham being so great being the father of the Jewish people and yet we see that Melchizedek is greater still. And do you know another reason that so many do not go on to know the blessing which God wants to bestow upon them is the fact that they are too great in their own eyes. They are too great. What is it? The less is blessed of the greater. And without all contradiction, verse seven, the less is blessed of the better. so he's driving the point home Melchizedek blessed Abraham means that Melchizedek is greater is better than Abraham and he blessed him and you know one of the reasons that we people don't often know Christians can't often don't know a greater level of God's blessing in their life is because they are too big in the picture and God might show them sin that needs to be removed an area of surrender but yet they are too big in it all. And you know it's it's a hard thing for us to face sometimes. that when I want and even when you as a believer say by God's grace I'm surrendered and I want to serve my Lord and right there we have to also just hold on a minute is that although you have gifts and talents and abilities that God has given you or that you're born with God doesn't have to use any of them and he's not actually reliant upon any of them and if he's to use them it is to be him that is using those things so that he is glorified not you and like a snake something comes up within us and says, what do you mean? You mean that me, that God doesn't need me as such, although I'm precious to God, that really that God doesn't actually want to bless me in my own efforts of self, but rather he wants to actually take me as a vessel, empty me of myself and fill me with himself and live through me? And all of a sudden that's disappointing because I thought I had so much to offer. But you know the way of blessing is to let the priest of God, the king of God, to have his full and unhindered way and to remember that he is great. I am precious but I am far, far less, infinitely less. And that I am so small and I'm dependent upon him for absolutely everything. As self is diminished more and more, the more room is made for our great High Priest to do his blessed work of sanctifying us and blessing us. And God can do more in an instant with a surrendered soul than someone who is trying to control their life can do in a lifetime. We see preeminence over the patriarch Abraham, then preeminence over Aaron, the priesthood of Aaron. Greater than Levi and greater than Aaron. And K.S. Wu says, you think of Christ as priest, which order do you want him to be under? More of like the Aaronic priesthood or of the Melchizedek priesthood? Because again, some people want more like an Aaronic priesthood for our Lord when it comes to his precious blood, yes, and his salvation but then not the ongoing work. Andrew Murray says this, there are too many Christians who see in Christ only the fulfillment of what Aaron typified. Christ's death and blood are very precious to them. They do seek to rest their faith upon them, and yet they wonder that they have so little of the peace and joy of the purity and power which the Savior gives, and which faith in him ought to bring. The reason is simple, because Christ is only their Aaron, not their Melchizedek. They do indeed believe that he is ascended to heaven and sits upon the throne of God but they have not seen the direct connection of this with their daily spiritual life. Which Lord Jesus do you want? Do you want him to be more than an Aaronic type of priest but to be the Melchizedek in your life? the one who is ruling and reigning, the one who has all of you and is able to do with you just as he will. we become less and less not in a self carnal self-loathing but an understanding of who I am in comparison with my great high priest that he then fills me with his all in all and can do great things. Let's pray, Father we thank you for your precious word we thank you for your your great high priestly work Lord Jesus and we know that there's so much more Lord that we could meditate on that is in this aspect of your priesthood Lord and we just pray Lord God that you might indeed have more of us that we would be emptied of self filled with your Holy Spirit that Lord we will be conscious to know when we would illicitly usurp the throne and ascend the throne of our lives and to Lord that you would catch us in that moment and we would realise Lord that we have once again mounted the throne that is only for you and that we would quickly take our place again knowing that you are the greater and that we would then know your blessing as you rule and reign in Jesus name we do pray and for his sake Amen. you