We'll turn please in the scriptures to the Psalm 110. The Psalm 110. And we're coming this afternoon again to the verse four. And focusing upon this detail that the Lord As he has ascended and taken the throne that he is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Psalm 110 verse four, the Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. We'll seek the Lord's face together, please, in prayer. Let us ask the Lord for his help as we come around his holy word. Our gracious Father, we thank thee that we do have a sovereign protector, an unchangeable, faithful God. Lord, we cry out to thee. Come and meet with us in this season as we meet around the Word. O Lord, we cry to Thee that these words will come with freshness to every waiting heart. Grant help from heaven, that help of the Holy Spirit of God. O Lord, may there be a reviving even in our own hearts. We pray in our Lord's great name. Amen, amen. If you were to come to the Bible for the first time and you know knowledge of its contents, you begin in Genesis chapter one, you come and read through Genesis 14 and you read there of Melchizedek, you might continue reading, passing on thinking that Melchizedek is of no great importance. in the whole story of redemption. As you continue to read the Bible into Exodus, Leviticus, and so on, after some months you come to the Psalms, you come to Psalm 110, and maybe by that time you've forgotten there was ever such a person as Melchizedek in the Bible. And you come to Psalm 110, And how striking must this opening part of the verse be. The Lord hath sworn and will not repent. And surely the reader is being directed that something most significant, something most important is to follow. The Lord has sworn and will not repent, thy art a priest forever. And so perhaps the reader would be thinking, how amazing. This Messiah is not only to be king, but he is also to be priest. Thou art a priest forever. But then how surprising these words. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. after the order of Melchizedek. And so for the person reading the Bible for the first time, they might not have been surprised if it had have said, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Aaron. Or Thou art a priest forever after the order of Levi, the tribe of Levi. But Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. As I've said, the opening words of the text show us that this is an extremely important statement. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. Here is the Lord's oath. The Lord a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This little statement from Psalm 110 verse four is taken by the writer to the Hebrews and greatly enlarged upon. And so the message this evening is not an exhaustive study of Melchizedek. Hopefully it won't be exhausting either, but it won't be exhaustive. And I trust in coming weeks and the Wednesday evenings as we come to these chapters in Hebrews that deal with Melchizedek, we'll see more than what we do this evening. We want to look then at Christ, a priest. priest after the order of Melchizedek. I want to say with you first of all that these words are setting forth to us the preeminence, the preeminence of Christ as priest, the preeminence of Christ as priest. I've mentioned that the person who is new to the Bible might not have been surprised if the king priest was a priest after the order of Aaron, after the order of Levi. But Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And so maybe at first glance it looks like Melchizedek is inferior to Levi. But actually what is being emphasized here is Melchizedek is superior. And so when it says here Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, it is saying that the priesthood of Christ is infinitely greater than the Old Testament priesthood of the tribe of Levi, of the house of Aaron. And there are a number of ways in which that is true. With the Lord's help, I want to show you some of them this evening. And so many of the thoughts in this first point are going to come from the chapter we read, Hebrews chapter 7. So first of all, under this first point, this statement, the priest after the order of Melchizedek is showing Christ's preeminence. This priesthood of Christ is preeminent because Christ's priesthood is unending. Christ's priesthood is unending. In verse 3, Hebrews 7 verse 3, it says of Melchizedek, he's 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. Being greater, he abides a priest continually. Now much ink has been shed over some of the details that we have here in Hebrews chapter seven, verse three. And I think every orthodox Christian agrees on what the closing words of the verse are saying, Christ abides a priest continually. And so as I've said here, Christ's priesthood is unending. But there is some difference of opinion over what the opening words of this verse mean. Melchizedek is without father, without mother, without descent. Does this mean that Melchizedek never had a father or a mother? Some of the Lord's people answer yes to that particular question and they take the view that Melchizedek is what we call a Christophany. That is when we read of Melchizedek in Genesis chapter 14 that it is actually one of these appearances of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures. And so in the book of Judges we read there of how the angel of the Lord appeared on to the parents of Samson, appeared on to Gideon, The angel of the Lord is there, a Christophane. So, the argument is then that Melchizedek is also a Christophane. After I finished in the Whitfield College, one of the questions that the students were asked one year in their exegesis exam, I think it was, was, is Melchizedek a Christophany? And prove your answer from the scripture. I personally take the view that Melchizedek was not a Christophany, that Melchizedek was A true man, as it were, in Old Testament history. Why is he not a Christophany? Well, there are many reasons why I and others take that view that he's not a Christophany. Melchizedek is very different and his appearance is very different than the Christophanies in the book of Judges or even those that we have in the book of Genesis. I mentioned the parents of Samson and Gideon, after they met the angel of the Lord, they fell down and they spoke words like this, we have seen God face to face. There is no mention of that. in Genesis 14. Abraham did not fall down having met Melchizedek and said, I have seen God face to face. But an even stronger argument I believe is found here in Hebrews 7 verse 3. without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto, made like unto the Son of God. The argument here is not he was the Son of God, but rather made like unto, that is, there was a resemblance between Melchizedek and the coming Lord Jesus Christ, made like unto him. That is, Melchizedek was pointing us to Christ. It is not the argument that Melchizedek is Christ. But this still leaves the question then, what does this mean without father or mother? Because if my view is correct Melchizedek did have a father and a mother. Well the answer is actually found in Hebrews chapter 7 and the answer itself is very simple. Hebrews chapter 7 verse 6, but he whose descent is not counted, he whose descent is not counted and so it's as if the writer here is coming back to the words that he had said in verse 3 without dissent and he explains it. His dissent is not counted or his dissent is not recorded. So the argument is not that Melchizedek didn't have any dissent, but there's no record of lineage. There's no record of a family history in the book Now that in itself is something rather unusual because you'll know as you read through the book of Genesis, almost every character that we encounter, we find out who his father was and who his son is. But there's no record of that. There's no record of Melchizedek's family heritage. We don't know who his parents were or if he had any children. And so then, going back to Hebrews 7 verse three, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. Again, bearing in mind what we read in verse six, it's in this sense that we don't have any details about Melchizedek's birth. We don't have any details about Melchizedek's death. And so we don't have anything like this in the book of Genesis. Melchizedek lived after he begat his son 90 years and begat sons and daughters and all the days of Melchizedek were 130 years and he died. So you'll read words like that in the book of Genesis about others, but not about Melchizedek. So as far as the record goes, no record of his parentage. no record of his birth or death, and in that way, neither beginning or ending of death. And so since we don't read of his death, we don't read of his priesthood ending. But for Levi, we do read of his birth and of his death, For Aaron, again, we know of his birth and death. And the same is true for all of the Levitical priests that followed. In fact, scripture emphasizes that not only did the priests obviously have a birth and a death, but there was a point in which they entered into service. comparing two different passages in the book of Numbers, it seems that they entered into official training at the age of 25. They were what we might call fully-fledged priests at the age of 30, and they laboured then in the ministry from the age of 30 until the age of 50. And so there was a beginning and an ending to their priestly work. but then also these priests died. Hebrews 7, 23, they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, they died. But Christ having ascended, he ascended to die no more. Christ has ascended to be a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And what a comforting thought this is to be for us as God's people. There are times that we forget to pray. There are times that we have not prayed for ourselves and others. The Lord has never ceased to pray for you. An unending priesthood. But Christ's priesthood is not only preeminent on account of this unending, Christ's priesthood is preeminent because it is perfect. It is perfect. That is, the priesthood of Christ cannot be improved. There is nothing better than the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we cannot say that of the priesthood of the tribe of Levi. Now as Paul writes about this in the book of Hebrews, Paul is not speaking against the Levitical priesthood. It had its place and it had its time. But it was always to be understood that something better was coming. And so the very fact that it was priest following after priest showed that there was a need for something better. One of the arguments that is made in Hebrews chapter 7 is that the Levitical tribe submitted itself to the order of Melchizedek right back in Genesis 14. So even before Aaron became high priest. The tribe of Levi had submitted to the order of Melchizedek. If you look with me then at Hebrews chapter 7 verse 9, and as I may so say, Levi also who receiveth tithes, that is, in later Old Testament history, people would bring their tithes to the house of God and it would support the tribe of Levi. So, 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. And so the argument here is this, that Abraham is the father and the great-grandfather of Levi. And as Abraham then paid tithes to Melchizedek, Levi being yet unborn, but in that sense in the loins of Abraham, As Abraham peptides, the tribe of Levi was submitting to the order of Melchizedek. And so the argument is that right back in Genesis 14, before we even know anything about the tribe of Levi and the Levitical priesthood, it is being taught the superiority of the order of Melchizedek because we have here the superiority of Christ's priesthood. So the tribe of Levi and his priestly work was imperfect. But the argument then in Hebrews chapter 7 is that of perfection. So I've mentioned this issue of the tithes and the words that follow then. Hebrews 7, 11, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical 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 so Paul is saying, but there wasn't perfection with Levi, but there is perfection in Jesus Christ. Here is this preeminence in perfection. And then thirdly, Christ's priesthood is preeminent because it is performed in sinlessness. And so, towards the end of chapter 7, speaking of these priests in the Old Testament, they offered daily sacrifices. Hebrews 7.27, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity. It speaks earlier in the chapter of how, sorry, it's actually in the verse 27, the priests offered first for their own sins and then for the people's. That is because the priests themselves were sinful. I'm not arguing that Melchizedek was sinless, but just as we have no record of his parentage, we have no record of the sins of Melchizedek. We have no record of Melchizedek offering sacrifices for himself. And so what is true as far as the record goes is true in reality of our Lord Jesus. His priesthood is performed in absolute sinlessness. There's no sacrifice for himself. And therefore his priesthood is preeminent. How glad we are then as God's people that we have Christ as our high priest. And before I move on, I want us just to think of a couple of implications and applications of this first point. If Christ's priesthood is preeminent, then there is only one priest by whom we come to God through. We have no need of an earthly priest. In fact, the Lord put an end to the sacrifices as the Lord tore the veil in two on completion of our Lord's finished work. The Jewish people, generally speaking, resented and rejected what the Lord had done, and they continued with sacrifices. The Lord was saying it's over, but they were saying we need to continue. The Lord providentially intervened. The Lord ended the sacrifices in AD 70 with the fall of Jerusalem. because it was all emphasizing as the New Testament had taught us. There's only one priest. We come to God through him. There's no place then for the Romish priesthood. There's no place for the mass, for a fresh sacrificing. There's no need, as Rome talks about, of a priest on an altar. Christ is our one great priest through whom we come to God. But then secondly, every true Christian is a spiritual priest. So we don't have a literal priest in the house of God, but every true Christian is a priest. And since Christ being a priest after the order of Melchizedek does not cease to be priest, Our priesthood doesn't stop either. And if Christ does not cease to pray, surely we are being exhorted in this section that we would not cease. The Lord has sworn and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Therefore, dear Christian, take your ministry of offering the spiritual sacrifices seriously. This is our ongoing ministry. the preeminence of Christ as priest. I want to see then with you secondly the provision of Christ as priest. The provision of Christ as priest. In Genesis 14 we aren't given very many details about Melchizedek. We are given his name obviously, Melchizedek. which then the writer to the Hebrews tells us means King of Righteousness. And so it may be that Melchizedek actually had another name given to him. but then entering into this work of kingship, here was his official title, Melchizedek, King of Righteousness, but then he's also King of Salem, the King of Peace. And he is the priest of the most high God, Genesis 14 and the verse 18. But another detail that we're given in Genesis 14 is that Melchizedek brought bread and wine and gave them to Abraham, Genesis 14 and the verse 14. And this is the provision then that I want us to think about. That as Abraham was coming back from this battle, Melchizedek met him, and Melchizedek gave to Abraham in his need the bread and the wine. And so when the child of God is weary, as so often we are, we are to, as it were, encounter our heavenly Melchizedek afresh. And he feeds us, he provides for us, He gives to us the bread and the wine. Remember Melchizedek is here the king priest. And what he gave to Abraham was surely pointing to Calvary. For the very elements, if we're to use that term elements, The elements are the very same elements that we have in the Lord's table. The bread and the wine. The bread, the testimony of our Lord's broken body. The wine, the testimony of our Lord's precious shed blood. And so surely it's no coincidence that the gifts that were given by Melchizedek as the priest are the very things that Christ has left for us until we reach glory, that we might remember him, that we might come to the table and spiritually feed upon him. the bread pointing us to our Lord's broken body, the cup pointing us to the precious shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Equally, as we think of the Lord's table, we have at the table the signifying of the Lord's priestly work of sacrifice. Bread and wine. But then also at the Lord's table, we are reminded of the Lord's priestly work of intercession. Because remember, in the words of institution, we are told it is till he come. And so every time we meet at the table, we are not only remembering the sacrifice that is finished, But we are reminded that Christ continues his priestly work today, this work of intercession, and we continue at the table till he come. Now, here in Genesis 14, Abraham and two important interactions. He met with Mechizedek, And then he had an encounter with the king of Sodom. And the book of Hebrews is making it abundantly clear that as we read this in a spiritual sense, that we are to understand that the believer then is to have an encounter with Jesus Christ. But we do also have an encounter as we live on this earth with the King of Sodom. We have an encounter with the forces of evil. We have an encounter with Satan and the forces of wickedness. The meeting with Melchizedek was preparation. in order to meet for that encounter with the King of Sodom. When Abraham met with the King of Sodom, Abraham was to remember the bread and the wine. And how is it that we are enabled then to encounter Satan from day to day as he comes to test us and to tempt us we are always to remember we have a priest, a priest who has given himself for us, a priest who has shed his precious blood for us. And remember, Melchizedek, he is the king of righteousness. The latter part of that particular title, Melchizedek, It's part of a word that you're familiar with because it's in one of our hymns, Jehovah Sidkenu. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord is my righteousness. And as we come then and we meet with Satan, Satan is accusing us. Satan says you've failed and we have. but we point to our priest, the Lord is my righteousness. Satan comes to steal away our peace, but we say to Satan, I have a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He's the king of Salem. He's my peace. My sin record is dealt with. It is well with my soul. Here is the provision of Christ as priest. But I want to see then thirdly, our perseverance through Christ as priest. Our perseverance through Christ as priest. And for we've seen that Paul writing the book of Hebrews, he spends much time expositing these words there to priests forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now remember, the great theme of the book of Hebrews is perseverance. Paul is writing to people who were tempted to give up. Paul is writing to professed Christians who were struggling. and they were tempted to turn back to Judaistic ritual. And Paul writes the book of Hebrews for their benefit. If you imagine today a Christian who is struggling, a Christian who is tempted to give up, a Christian perhaps tempted to go back to his old religion and ritual of the past. A Christian that is saying, the Christian life is just so hard. And he comes to his pastor. And the pastor says, have you ever thought about Psalm 110 verse four? Have you ever thought about Melchizedek? And the pastor is saying, Psalm 110, verse four, is the answer for you in all your need. And now if some Christians heard that thought today, they would say that pastor is off his head. That pastor's crazy. But that's actually what Paul does in the book of Hebrews. Paul is saying to these Christians that are tempted to give up Are you not thinking about Psalm 110 verse four? Now you might be saying, like those first readers were saying, well how would that help me? Well everything I've already said applies. But I want you to think about this. The king of Sodom came to Abraham very subtly. He came with the pretense of congratulating the servant of God, with the pretense of congratulating Abraham. He came to reward him, at least to, on the surface, appear to reward him. And so the king of Sodom, he wanted to say to Abraham, you keep the goods from the battle. You keep the goods, you keep the spoils. And on the surface, there might not seem very much wrong with that. Abraham had gone into battle, would it not be right for him to carry the spoils back to his tents? But it was a trap. Genesis 14, 23. Abraham says, I'm not going to take these things, but I will not take from a thread even to a shoe latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou should say, I have made Abram rich. And Abram sees beyond the veneer. Abram sees that there's a subtle plot on the part of the king of Sodom. that if Abram goes home with the spoils, the king of Sodom will say, I'm the man that made Abram rich, which of course would be an utter falsehood. Also, the king would be saying, I have rewarded Abraham, now he's under obligation to me. And if the people through these various cities hear this story, Abraham is a rich man because of the great king of Sodom. It would be a clear attack upon the honor that was to go to God for this victory. And so the king of Sodom was seeking to detract attention from the Most High. Now how was it that Abraham Abram as he was then, was able to see this clearly, he was able to see the trap. I put it to you, it was because of what Melchizedek had already taught him. Verse 19, he blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. Melchizedek was saying to Abram, you are God's purchase. Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God. That is, Abram doesn't belong to the king of Sodom, Abram belongs to God. Also, Melchizedek spoke of God's position. The most high God, he's Elyon. He spoke of God's possessions. God is the possessor of heaven and earth. And he spoke of God's power. It's God that delivered the enemies into your hands. And so Abram had heard all of this. And along comes the King of Sodom saying, you see these spoils, you take them home and make them yours. And Abram immediately recognizes that the King of Sodom is saying, take these goods so I can manipulate you. And Abram in a sense is responding, why would I take these goods? when I belong to the Lord who owns everything. You're offering this little bit of plunder, but my God has all of the riches of the universe. You want to be able to say, I made Abram rich But I respond, God gave me the victory. How do you and I then persevere? We are tempted at times to give up. We persevere as we meditate upon the words of our heavenly Melchizedek. His words enable us to go on You see, had Abraham taken those spoils, he would have been turning away from God's riches and going away with that which was inferior. And that's how this fits into the whole argument of the book of Hebrews. You've had the whole message of Christ and his finished work. and you're going to leave that and go back to mere ceremony. You're going to leave the message of the fullness of Christ and go back to longing for peace in a sacrifice, in literal blood. Paul's saying it's madness. And it is. So then we lift up our eyes afresh to Christ tonight and we say, Lord, deliver me from looking to man's rewards. but let me focus upon the heavenly. Let me focus upon all that I have in my heavenly Melchizedek. We trust the Lord will take his word and seal it to every heart. We'll bow together please in closing in prayer. Our gracious Father, how thankful we are for Christ. There is none like him. We rejoice this evening that we have this priest, a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Oh Lord, we confess that we are weak. We confess like those first readers of the book of Hebrews that we are tempted, But Lord, we cry to thee that we will hold on to that which is more excellent and that by God's grace we will persevere to the end. See thy holy word to every waiting soul, we pray. And Lord, we cry to thee, that even in this congregation, that thou wilt enable us as Paul himself to run to the end, that we will indeed keep the faith. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, And to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now