Mystery of Melchizedek (Part B)

If you love the Scripture, this won't bore you. If Scripture doesn't move you, you're probably deep into a dream about this.

Don't even hear me saying this. But I love the Word of God. Even in my worst days, I know God's Word is true, and I know the time will come that whatever love I have for Scripture in this life will be so dwarfed by the presence of Jesus Christ in eternity that you can't even write about it.

That as much as you love Jesus now, you haven't seen anything yet to how you're going to love Him later. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with part two of his study called Mystery of Melchizedek in Hebrews chapter 7. If you are a backslider, we will intercede and we will pray for you.

If you are an unbeliever, we will intercede and we will pray for you. That's what priests do. They go to God on behalf of sinners. And so when he says he is a priest, this Melchizedek, he was the man. Of all the priests in that pagan world, they were passed by because they followed false gods. False religions have false priests.

The true and faithful God has His true and faithful witnesses. And so when we see David, David got men to touch God, men who otherwise would never have done so. They had distanced themselves for whatever reason from God and he drew them in.

He wrote their songs. He lived his life. He preached to them.

He rubbed off on them. We're going through Chronicles and that's one of those many lessons that's coming out of 1 Chronicles. His whirling before the ark of the covenant while wearing the priestly ephod.

That was a shadow of a reality to come. Christ. Seeing a king where the ephod, see a king has power with men. A priest has power with God.

Jesus Christ is the one that fulfills that. He has the power over men and He has the power of God. He fulfills the picture that David was illustrating with his behavior. David did not usurp the priesthood when he donned the ephod. He joined it as king. He said, I am the king of Israel.

I am totally about the God of Israel. This is not so much a monarchy. It is a theocracy. God rules the nation.

Total rule is the best rule if the king is holy and righteous and only Christ is and the millennial kingdom is all about that and the prophets write about how wonderful it's going to be in the millennial age when Christ rules from Jerusalem on earth. We talk about it as though it's already happened. To God it has. We're so sure of it. It's just a matter of fact with us, but the unbelievers, they struggle with this. Well, what about, what about, well, we'll answer your questions if they're honest questions, but if they're dishonest questions, if you just want to provoke a fight, we won't answer your questions. We'll just let you fight yourself. We won't strive with you, but we'll preach the truth and in addition we might just be praying for you.

You can't stop us from that. He says of the most high God, I better get rolling here. This made it clear that Melchizedek, a Gentile nonetheless, was distinct in his worship from all the other man-made gods and their priests that accompanied them, but this is a great honor to give such a character as Melchizedek, priest of the most high God. You don't get higher than that.

He is a priest of El Elyon, God most high. The Jews could back, they could not, they could not challenge that. They could not say, well, that's not true. That's not in the Bible.

We don't accept that authority. They could not escape it. See, they didn't see this coming.

When he first mentions Melchizedek, they don't see where he's going until he gets to this seventh chapter and then he lays it out on them. They can't get away from it. Have you ever been cornered by truth? If you're a born-again believer, of course you are. That's how you become born again. You're cornered. You're a sinner.

You're guilty. You're going to hell unless you repent, receive the invitation through Jesus Christ. He says, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. Abraham's conquest was brought about mainly by an irritable nephew, family.

Lot, a man named Lot. Lot lived in Sodom. Sodom was not as bad as it was going to be, but it was already starting. And, well, at the time that Abraham is going to rescue him, it's already percolating.

Abraham wanted nothing to do with them. Well, the kings from the east came and they conquered Sodom and Gomorrah and they captured Lot and the king of Sodom and all the people and they were taking them away in their spoils as slaves. Abraham gets word of this. He rises up with his army. He attacks the kings from the east. He defeats them and he captures or rescues all the people and retakes all the spoils.

And that is what this event is talking about. It was a day of stark distinction between righteousness and unrighteousness, between the low level of Sodom's king and the high level of Salem's king. You see, Melchizedek, he was a priest and he was a king. His name, Melchizedek, means the king of righteousness, but he was the king of a place called Salem.

King of righteousness, king of peace. We know Salem today as Jerusalem and we pick it up in Genesis 14. This is the part where the king of Sodom and Gomorrah says to Abraham, okay, I'll take the people.

You keep all the goodies. Abraham wants no connection with him whatsoever. I will take nothing from a thread to a sandal strap and I will not take anything that is yours lest you say I have made Abraham great. Abraham was sharp.

He knew a crook when he saw one and he wasn't about to have any association with him. He wouldn't receive nothing from Sodom's king as we're not supposed to receive anything from Sodom's king. But when Melchizedek comes out, Abraham not only receives, but he eats and he drinks and he tithes. Verse 2, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of all, first being translated king of righteousness and then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace. So you thought I was just really smart.

Well, I am, but it said it right there really and I just got ahead. Well the Jews again had to admit that Melchizedek's ministry was legitimate. It's in their scripture. So they could not dismiss this argument. Some of them were going, he got us.

He's right. And with that would come the freedom and glory. Others might have hardened up. But Abraham acknowledged that Melchizedek was a priest over himself, just like that. Instantly he knew it. That's what a righteous spirit does when it is in touch with another righteous spirit. Without hesitation there's a kindred spirit we would say. And so if Abraham recognized Melchizedek, then his descendants should do the same thing. That is how they thought and that is how they lived. Melchizedek, as I mentioned, impressed Abraham.

This kind of impression comes from love. There was that about Melchizedek that Abraham was drawn to with a love. We saw this happen with David and Jonathan. There's Jonathan with his father in Israel's army on one side of the Valley of Elah. There are the Philistines with big head Goliath on the other side. And nobody wants to make a move because they don't want to give up the advantage.

They don't want to have to attack uphill. So the giant comes out and he challenges them for the champion to fight it out. No one wants to deal with Goliath except this little shepherd boy shows up with raisin cakes from dad to give to his brothers. And he says, who is this Philistine? How dare he talk about God like this? Nobody's dealing with him? I'll deal with him. And they're all laughing at him.

Go finish with your play set. So David, the word gets to Saul. Saul didn't care who he sent to the slaughter as long as he got credit for any victory that could be had. He had really little problems sending David out. David's not a little boy.

He's a growing teen. He's large enough for them to consider putting Saul's armor on. Of course that won't work for David. David goes with the shepherd's garb, a sling, a stone, and a pouch that will hold four other stones, a loaded magazine. And so David, of course, we know the story.

He slays the giant. Jonathan and all Israel, watch this. Jonathan was instantly taken by this victory because it was shrouded in faith. David made it clear that he was fighting God's fight, that he was all about Yahweh.

He never for one moment gave any indication that he was going to take down this giant just because he could. And then we pick it up in Samuel 18. Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, this is after he came back with that head in his hand chopped off the giant's head. Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. That's what was going on with Abraham.

He comes back from this great victory, but he sees Melchizedek, the high priest, come out with bread and wine, the emblems to us of our communion table. And he's smitten. He loves him right away. Has that ever happened to you?

Have you ever met a Christian away from your hometown, your church, and you just love them? Their brother, their sister, instantly. That is a portion of what was going on. Melchizedek demanded nothing but he brought to Abraham. He didn't say, here I am with bread and wine, that'll be five dollars. If you want to receive, you know, the communion I have to offer, you're going to have to make a seed offering.

There's none of that stuff. Genesis 14, 8, Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was a priest of El Elyon, God Most High, and he blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth. That is, God is the possessor of heaven and earth. Just get this right, Abraham, we've got the same God. And he continues, and blessed be God Most High, there it is again, El Elyon, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And then Abraham gave him a tenth of everything he had.

Powerful moment. Abraham is being blessed and he's receiving the blessing and he is moved, emotionally, spiritually, willfully moved. God wants his people moved volitionally, without pressure of, you know, tricks. The pressure of love, the pressure of truth.

Those not pressures, more like forces, and there's a subtle difference as I'm using it here. There's a force behind love. There's a force behind truth.

How forceful a right word, said Job. He continues here in verse 2, first being translated king of righteousness, that is again, he's now addressing the name, I've gone off into Genesis, I'm coming back now to Hebrews. He's telling the Jews once more, no use pretending these titles are fulfilled in Christ and no one else, Isaiah chapter 9. You can still use this in preaching to a Jewish person. You can still take him to Melchizedek and say, listen, before Moses was even thought of, there was a law of the tithe, of the blessings. And then you go to Isaiah 6, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

All of that capturing this moment. Then there's Jeremiah, in his days, Judah will be saved. He's talking about Messiah, who is Christ. Israel will dwell safely.

That has not yet happened, not long term. Now this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord Our Righteousness, Jehovah Tsidkenu. And Christ is fulfilling the role of the righteous king and the king of peace. That is the point, it is there in their scripture. And it is in the New Testament. Therefore, having been justified by faith, Romans 5, 1, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and no one else. Is magnificent how the scripture, all these different men writing on different days, different times, different cultures, saying these profound things that all balance in the end.

Balance like a balance sheet. You get to the bottom number and it's all correct. And it is done through the power of God. I don't understand, I understand. When people say, well I don't believe the Bible was written by men, well it should have been written by deer.

What do you mean? Do you want to see the hand of God come out of the sky and write it for you for every single person over and over? Why can't God just move people? If he's God, why does he have a problem with that? I'll tell you what God has a problem with, you. God's got a problem with you, your doubt, your faithlessness.

It's okay to say that to them. Well, he continues at the bottom of verse 2, and then, also king of Salem meaning king of peace, and I have covered that, Ephesians 2.14, for he himself is our peace, Ephesians 2.14. Verse 3, hey, we made it. Without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the son of God, remains a priest continually. Now all of the scholars, and if you study scripture, you're a scholar. You may not be a scholar like some of the others, but you are a student of the word. But all of the bigwigs, and many of them great men of God, I don't want to take anything from them, they fuss over, well, was Melchizedek an appearance of Jesus Christ, God the son, in the Old Testament before his birth through Mary, a Christophany? And some say no, and some say yes. It is a mystery.

But you cannot just dismiss it one side or the other, I don't think. One moment I'm leaning towards the end, that was Christ, and the next moment, well, I think it was just a figure that the writer picks up. It's a mystery, and we'll leave it at that. But this picture, this verse 3, pictures Christ, self-existent and eternal. Those are credentials of deity, not a man. Now you could say, which many do, the writer is just using Melchizedek as an example, a type, a parallel to the life of Christ that will fulfill it all literally. Well, that is true, but he still could have been Christ before Abraham. There are good arguments on both sides, but we're not going to take the time to go through it because all you've got to do is listen to me and you'll be happy.

Especially when you fact-check me and find I made a mistake. But this description of Melchizedek, of course, prefigures the eternal priesthood of Christ. And so he's saying to his audience, he's saying to them, we already have a model of this in our scripture, and you're looking at Christ, you know he's the fulfillment of it, why are you playing games? Why are you thinking you can go and offer a sheep again?

Because it was so much fun going with dad when you were a little boy, when you turned 12 and you went with your dad and you think you want to preserve these things. There's a better priesthood, and it is the one of Christ and it is one of faith and grace and truth and law, just not mosaic ceremonial law. And so like Melchizedek, Christ is both priest and king, belonging to a priesthood independent and superior to Aaron, and that's what they've got to get.

Aaron's priesthood was fine for the dispensation, that period of Old Testament law, but it is now passed, made obsolete because of the fulfillment. Like an acorn, an acorn is made obsolete once it sprouts into a tree. And you can see it, you can pluck up a little sprout of an oak and you can still see the acorn attached to it and the root going down and the nut itself holding the nut going to the side and the tree coming up. That acorn will be obsolete once it's fulfilled its mission.

It's gone, you'll never see it again. But the tree, the tree remains. And so the law of fulfillment, the priest Melchizedek, is given in Scripture as one without human origin. That's his point, without mother, without father, without genealogy. The Jews were big on lineage when it came to the priesthood.

I mean, they were fierce. If you could not prove you were a child of, or of the line of Aaron, there would be no priesthood for you. And God, he put this proving of priestly pedigree into Scripture so that we could reference it and see this fact. Ezra, chapter 2. This is when the Jews are coming back to their promised land. They had been captive in Babylon for 70 years or so and now they're coming back with Zerubbabel and they're establishing their worship again and they want to find out, well, who are our priests? And we pick it up there. And there was a group that came and they said, well, where of the line of Aaron?

And this is the response and record of it. These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy but they were not found. Therefore, they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled. Defiled from the priesthood, not defiled like you're just a rotten liar, not that. No, you're not a priest and so you would be defiled if you entered into that office because you cannot prove you're from Aaron.

So Nehemiah now, Nehemiah is about 70, over 70 years after that event, Nehemiah 746. These sought their listing among those who were registered by genealogy but it was not found. Therefore, they were excluded from the priesthood as defiled. So you see, the Jews wouldn't play with this.

You're either of Aaron or you're not. That goes back to his anticipation of their question. If Jesus was a priest, why is he not of the line of Levi?

Because that's very important to us. And so then he trumps there, you know. He trumps them. He says to them, he has gone beyond Levi.

He goes back to Melchizedek, which is a higher priesthood. You say you're repeating yourself. Well, Hebrews is repeating itself. You can't get away from it.

He's pile driving again, not the wrestling move, but the pile driver that is driving on a construction site to find that bedrock to put the foundation on it keeps hitting it and hitting it until it won't move anymore. So fact, Jesus Christ is not of the tribe of Levi but of Judah. That's a fact. Fact, there is a different priesthood greater than that of Levi and it is explained in Melchizedek. Fact, it is to be received as superior to Aaron's priesthood. Jesus belongs to that line. Fact, scripture is the final authority, the final say so.

You either submit to it or you fight against it. And so the mysterious record of Melchizedek placed here just for this. Now where it says he has no father or no mother, he's without beginning. Jesus Christ, Revelation 23, 19, Jesus speaking, I am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In other words, I'm self-existent. It's exclusive to deity.

You have to be God to do that and he is. Micah 5, 2, But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are little among thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, the one, to be ruler in Israel. That is that Prince of Peace, that is that King of Righteousness, that King of Peace, the ruler to be in Israel whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting. But how far back is everlasting? It's eternal past. There's no beginning to it.

It's just there. And so one more, Isaiah 43. If you love the scripture, this won't bore you. If scripture doesn't move you, you're probably deep into a dream about this time.

Don't even hear me saying this. But I love the word of God. Even in my worst days, I know God's word is true and I know the time will come that whatever love I have for scripture in this life will be so dwarfed by the presence of Jesus Christ in eternity that you can't even write about it. That as much as you love Jesus now, you haven't seen anything yet to how you're going to love Him later. That the love of God is without measurement. This life clouds and fogs up and mars everything.

It is rotten, but it is necessary. But sweet will it be when you see the Lord Jesus Christ. So Isaiah 43 verse 1, speaking about Christ, indeed before the days was, I am He. And there is no one who can deliver out of my hand.

I work and who will reverse it? Before the days were, I am He. Before there was any such thing as time, I was there. And so when we look again at verse 3 and we listen to these words, without father, without mother, genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life would made like the Son of God a priest continually without interruption. He does not die. He does not stop from being the one who puts us in touch with God. That is the role of the priest. Made like the Son of God, he says here in verse 3. That could lock in for someone that Melchizedek was a type of Christ at the very least. At the very least, you read that made like the Son of God. He is a type of Christ. He represents something greater that will be fulfilled.

It is a prophetic moment. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.