Hebrews 7:1-10

The speaker begins by introducing the topic of the lesson, which is about Jesus as the king and high priest of the order of Melchizedek. He explains that this is part of God's new covenant, which is superior to the old covenant with the Aaronic priesthood. The speaker then prays and asks for wisdom and understanding through the study of Hebrews. He proceeds to explain the significance of the Melchizedek priesthood and how it differs from the Aaronic priesthood. The Melchizedek priesthood is superior because it is not hereditary, it is not limited by age, and it provides permanent forgiveness and righteousness. The scope of the Melchizedek priesthood is also superior because it is the priesthood of the Most High God. Overall, this lesson aims to show that Jesus is a superior priest and mediator between God and humanity. Well, good evening everybody. We are five seconds early. So how about that? We're going to give David a chance to give the full load. So that means that we're going to be here for two and seventy-three minutes. Two hours and seventy-three minutes. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Well, thank you so much for being here. This lesson is going to be one of the key lessons in all of our studies. And it's going to be, Jesus is going to be the wonderful example of who the king and high priest of the order of Melchizedek is. And so we get to study that and it's going to be fun. Because this opens the floodgates of God's new covenant for us. The old covenant was the Mosaic covenant with the Aaronic priesthood. And we find out that that's not all that God had for us. He had something much, much better for us. And that's the fact that he gives us a picture of what Jesus Christ is going to be for us. The all and in all. So we are going to have a good lesson today. Well, let me pray for us. Dear Lord, thank you again for this evening. We thank you for this day that you've made. And thank you that through your word you're going to help us to be glad and to rejoice in it. So that Psalm 118.24 becomes a reality. We pray for our prayer from Psalm 90.12 that you'd help us to order this day aright so we will continue to gain a heart of wisdom. And the wisdom we receive is from your word, which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, divides to the soul and the spirit, joints and the marrow, is a discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. So thank you that you're teaching us through Hebrews, especially Hebrews 4.12, that to know your word is to know you and love you and to see who you really are, the great, awesome, wonderful High Priest in Jesus Christ. And we pray that today's lesson to show us who Jesus Christ really is is going to be an encouraging time for all of us. We pray these things to Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Alright, David, you have two hours and 72 minutes. Okay. I don't know that y'all want me to go that long. So, we come to the, as Ron said, we're in the middle of the book, the middle of the letter of Hebrews, and the consensus among everybody I've read is that Hebrews 7, 8, and 9 are the crux of the entire letter. When you have a clear grasp of 7, 8, and 9, and you've got a clear understanding of the primary point that the author is driving home to his readers, which, remember, were a bunch of Jewish Christians. And so they had as their context, their backdrop, so to speak, what they grew up with, they had the Old Testament Scripture. And that's what they relied on, was the Old Testament Scripture as they grew up. So as Jesus comes along, and there's a challenge to that, because Jesus is replacing the Old Testament Scripture in terms of how you achieve righteousness, how you get right with God, how you stay right with God. And so, here we go. This is where he brings into the picture, and again, he introduced Melchizedek back in chapter 5. You might recall in chapter 5, he said, you know, I wish you guys were off the milk and onto the meat. And this is David's paraphrase, right? Off the milk and onto the meat, but since you're still on the milk, I can't teach you about Melchizedek. So a couple of chapters later, he says, okay, I'm going to teach you about Melchizedek anyway. Alright? So you can have a clear understanding of who Melchizedek is, and how he relates to Jesus. And this teaching here is going to solidify in the hearts and minds of his readers the fact that Jesus is a priest that comes from a superior priesthood over the ones that they're used to. So what did a priest do? Let's review that. What was the purpose of a priest? He went in to offer sacrifices for the people to replace or to take the place of their sins. Right. So he was the mediator. He was the mediator between the people and God. Right? And a couple of weeks ago, we studied about all that, right? And we made the point that he's the one that once a year, the high priest, once a year on the Day of Atonement, what's known as Yom Kippur, once a year he would go in and he would... As a matter of fact, the Lord God, when He laid down the law, He says, the high priest can only go in once a year to the Holy of Holies. And not without blood. In other words, he's got to go in first of all, and he's got to cleanse himself. So he's got to make himself right before he can represent his people. So remember, he goes in first with a sacrifice, and I made the point that night that I think he was... If you look upon the mercy seat and you see the glory of God, you're a dead man. So he had to put incense into the pan, and the incense would create a cloud of smoke, and that smoke would cover up the mercy seat so that the glory of God would be hidden in the shroud of smoke. And then he would go in and he would walk around the mercy seat, and I was demonstrating this, I think he had his head turned away from the mercy seat. I think he's kneeling or knocking. Right? He's taken from that basin of blood, and he's going like this without looking at the mercy seat. You know? All the way around the mercy seat. And I made the point that night, you think God's serious about sin? Yeah. He's dead serious about sin. So, once a year, the high priest would go in. But what happened the very next day after he went in? What did he have to do? Start over again. He had to go out the very next day and start sacrificing again. Why? Because it wasn't sufficient to take away the sin. Okay? So now we're going to see that the Aaronic priesthood, which is what they're used to, is going to be compared to the Melchizedek, or one like the Melchizedek priesthood, which is totally different. So we're going to see what that's about. So this Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth part of all the spoils, was first of all, by the translation of his name, King of Righteousness, then also King of Salem, which is King of Peace, without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he remains a priest perpetually. So we talked about the context of the liturgical priesthood, I got ahead of myself here, but the entire tribe of Levi was dedicated by God for religious service. Let's look at Numbers 8, 14 through 16. Somebody want to start tonight? I'll start. Okay, go ahead. Thus you shall separate the Levites from among the sons of Israel, and the Levites shall be one. Then after that the Levites may go in to serve the tent of meeting, but you shall cleanse them and present them as a wave offering, for they are wholly given to me from among the sons of Israel. I have taken them for myself, instead of every first issue of the womb, the firstborn of all the sons of Israel. So all the priests had to be descended from Aaron. Aaron is actually part of the tribe of Levi. It was strictly a national and Jewish priesthood. Their ministry was strictly to Jews. They were subject to the king, but their priestly duties were not under control of the king. In other words, they could not be king, yet they were subject to the king. Does that make sense? And their priestly duties could not be controlled. Their priestly duties were controlled by God. He is the one that gave them the duties. The king could not interrupt that. So the priestly sacrifices were not permanent, but had to be repeated continually. It provided no permanent forgiveness, righteousness, or peace. The priesthood was hereditary. You were born into the right family, and that is the way you became a priest. It had nothing to do with how you lived your life. There were a lot of priests that were not ideal model citizens of the priesthood. Service was temporary and limited. Look at Numbers 8.24.25. This is what applies to the Levites. From 25 years old and upward, they shall enter to perform service in the work of the tent of meeting. But at the age of 50 years, they shall retire from service in the work, and not work any more. Now that's a good gig, really. If you lived through it. If you lived through it. But, point being, is that priesthood was not permanent. It was temporary. Alright? It was temporary. So, we've got the context of a litical priesthood. Now let's see how his priesthood is superior. His Melchizedek priesthood is superior. His scope is superior. This is interesting. He is the priest of the Most High God. Genesis 14.18-20. Someone read that, please. The Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine, how he was a priest of God Most High. He blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, professor of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. God Most High translates the word, or the name of God that you've heard before, called El Elyon. El Elyon. Okay? The covenant name of God for the nation of Israel, when Moses encountered God, and he says, Who should I say sent me? And he said, I Am. Right? Well, the I Am has been translated, and there's no vowels, right? So, Yahweh or Jehovah. Whichever way, that's the way it got. But that, in the English version of that, as well as in the Hebrew version of it, when they didn't want to ever come close to pronouncing His name, they substituted the word Adonai. And Adonai means Lord. And so, Adonai, in the English, translated Lord, you see in your Bible, it's got the capital L, right? And then, a smaller capital O-R-D. So, large capital L, and small capital O-R-D. You see, if you go up and look in your Bible, you'll see that all over the place. What that is, that's Adonai. That's Lord. And that's, for the Hebrew or the Jew, that was the way they referred to the covenant God of Israel, Yahweh or Jehovah. Okay? So, the scope is superior because He's Priest of Most High God. What's interesting is, when you look back at Genesis again, it says, He says, He blessed him and blessed Abraham, God Most High, and that word God Most High, has as its scope, Possessor of Heaven and Earth. It's not limited to Israel, or the Hebrew people. It's everything. The scope is universal. Possessor of Heaven and Earth. So, the scope's universal. So, how is this relative to Jesus? If Jesus, let me, let me, let me go back a little bit, and let's reset the stage. Here. Melchizedek is a type of Jesus. Alright? He's a type of Jesus. Now, what that means is, he, he, you look at his life, or you look at his ministry, and it is, it is like what Jesus' ministry is. There are a lot of similarities. But Melchizedek is not Jesus. Okay? So, being a type of Jesus, being like Jesus, then how is Jesus, in terms of its scope, how is this relative to Jesus? Is Jesus, let me ask it in the form of a question, a little bit differently. Is Jesus Messiah of just the Jews? No. No, he's Jesus Messiah for everyone. For everyone. So, just like Melchizedek, his priesthood was a universal priesthood, Jesus' scope of ministry is a universal scope of ministry. Okay, y'all with me now? Alright. So, he's the Messiah of the whole world. His priesthood is universal. Just as Melchizedek's. Alright, so first of all, he has a superior priesthood because his scope is superior. Next, he has a superior priesthood because his rule is superior. He's also a king. As I said a minute ago, the priest in the Aaronic priesthood line could never be king. But here we have this guy named Melchizedek. He was both a king and a priest. A king and a priest. A king and a priest. So, the dual role of priest and king was prophesied by Zechariah. Look at this. Somebody get Zechariah 6, 11-13. Take silver and gold, make an old man crown, and set it on his head of Joshua, the son of Melchizedek, the high priest. Then say to him, Thus says the Lord of hosts, Behold a man whose name is Branch, for he will branch out from where he is, and will build the temple of the Lord. Yes, it is he who will build the temple of the Lord, and he who will bear the honor and sit and rule on his throne. Thus he will be priest on his throne, and the council of peace will be between the two offices. Alright, so context of this. Zechariah was a priest at the time of Zerubbabel. It's after the return of the exiles back to Jerusalem. And they were tasked with rebuilding the temple. At the time, Joshua, the son of Jehoshadak, was the high priest. He was the priest. So you had Joshua as the priest, and Zerubbabel as the king. So Zerubbabel was king, Joshua was priest. And Zechariah, under the control of the Spirit of God, gives instruction, make a crown for the priest. Make a crown for the priest. Never has happened before. But make a crown for the priest. Now why is he doing that? He's doing that because he is foretelling about Jesus. What does he refer to here? He refers to Jesus as the branch. See, the branch was a foretelling of Jesus. Okay? So, make a crown for the priest because there's going to be a king named Branch, who's going to branch out from where he is, and he's going to build the temple of the Lord. Now what temple of the Lord do you think he's referring to there? Okay, let me rephrase that. Are we part of the temple? And who's building this part of the temple? He is. Right? Yeah. So it's not a physical house. It's a spiritual house. He's building a spiritual temple of the Lord. That's what the branch has done, is doing, and will do. The temple of the Lord. And at the same time, he's going to be wearing a crown. He is who? The king of what? Kings and lords. Of lords. Isn't that an interesting prophecy? I just love that. Well, David repeats something similar to that in Psalm 110. The Hebrews refers to this psalm several times. Verse 1 we've already seen before. Let's read that. Psalm 110, verse 1 and 4. Hold it right there. So what is that? Is that the king or the priest? Who has a footstool? Who's sitting? Who's reigning? God. God is the king. So this is the part about the king. The Lord said to my Lord. Who do you call Lord? Jesus. The king. You don't call a priest Lord. You call the king Lord. So this is the part about the king. The Lord says to my Lord. Go ahead. The Lord is one and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Oh my. So now we see again the prophecy of how a priest and a king come together into one. Okay? So this Melchizedek. Look at this. The first time Melchizedek is introduced is in Genesis 14. It's a thousand years later before David writes about him in Psalm. And somewhere a little bit further out than that when Isaiah writes about him in Isaiah. And then it's another thousand years when the author of Hebrews says Okay. Now I'm going to explain it to you. Look what God did. He introduced it at the very beginning. And everybody goes Okay. Great to know. But nobody really knew what that meant. But later on he says Here's what that means. There's going to be a king and a priest in one person. That's one way to tell the Scripture is complete. Yeah. Because you can go from the beginning you can see to where we are now that the prophecy is complete. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So you're a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. His rule is superior. Get this. Salem is an ancient name for Jerusalem. He's the king of peace. Salem means peace. King of peace. But Salem is an ancient name for Jerusalem. God's a special city. Psalm 132, 13 and 14. Someone read that please. For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell for I have desired it. Alright. So God chose Zion as his resting place forever. It's his special city. So God's special city. God's special city. Melchizedek was both a faithful king and priest over God's special city long before Israel's priests ministered there or Israel's kings ruled there. Long before it. How's that relative to Jesus? Well we've already said it. He is both not only is he priest and king right he's perfect priest and perfect king. He's Savior and Lord. Just like Melchizedek. The order of Melchizedek was both priest and king. Jesus is both priest and king but he's perfect priest and perfect king. He's Savior and Lord. Okay. So Melchizedek's priesthood was superior in the scope and rule. It's also in ministry. His ministry results are superior. So his name is translated as King of Righteousness. Melchizedek. Somebody who was talking about a moment ago? Was it you Claire? Yeah. Is that about what you told me? Oh, when I was reading the first paragraph without father, without mother, without genealogy having neither beginning days nor end of life it's just confusing. Confused, yeah. As they think that. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to get to that. Alright. Melchizedek means King of Righteousness. I thought you said you had somebody named Mel in your life, in your family. Somebody said that. No, there's a kid in our Bible study on Monday night too. That's what it was. He joined and his name is Melchizedek. Okay. It's not a common name. No, it's not. His name is Melchizedek. His name is Melchizedek. Yeah. A little guy came in Monday night and he goes by Mel. That's what he said. That's all he did. That's all he did. That's all he did. That's all he did. That's all he did. So. He's got a great name. Think about it. He's got a great name. Right? Because it means King of Righteousness. Melchizedek. That's what it means. King of Righteousness. So this Melchizedek ruled righteously. He was also King of Peace. Taylor means Peace. Peace was experienced by those under his rule because he ruled righteously. Now the purpose of the Aaronic priesthood was to obtain righteousness for the people. The sacrificial system and all that was attempted to restore the people to the right relationship with God. But as we know, they could make the proper sacrifices and they do them in the right way. Sin was forgiven for the moment. But it was never succeeded in being removed from them. Melchizedek as well. He couldn't make men righteous or give them peace permanently. Okay? Who's the only one who can do that? God. Yeah, Jesus Christ. Right? Jesus. He's the divine priest whose sacrifice lasts eternally. Let's look at Romans 1, 5, 1 here. Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Alright. Did I read that right? You read the right one. Alright. Alright. Okay. Let's read the next two. Isaiah 32, 17. Who's next? Whatever. And the work of righteousness will be peace in the service of righteousness, quietness, and confidence forever. And one more thing. Look at Psalm 85, 10. Psalm 1. For the kindness and truth have met each other, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Get the picture. Get the picture. I want to stop here for just a minute and I want you all to focus on something. Alright? Righteousness always goes with peace. Always. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. They're intimately acquainted. If there is no righteousness, there is no peace. Exactly. Exactly. Everybody's clamoring for peace, peace, peace, but there is no peace. And there will never be peace until there first is what? Righteousness. No righteousness. No peace. What does Jesus do for us? When He makes us righteous, we have what? Peace. Think about that. The moment I received Him as my Savior, that moment my soul was at peace. Now, do I stay at peace continually? Probably not. I ask my wife what she thinks. Let's stop. You know, I've gone through this before and we call this the Circle of Blessings, but I'm going to rename it tonight. I'm going to call it the Circle of Righteousness. Alright? Circle of Righteousness. So here's what we just say, C-O-R up here, alright? Circle of Righteousness. Remember inside, to get inside the circle we had to receive Jesus as our Savior, right? So, when we get into the circle, we receive Jesus as our Savior, at that moment in time there are a bunch of things I had up here before, right? I had, you had, you have, you have, you experience the presence of God. You experience the power of God. You experience the purpose of God. You experience the provision of God. Right? Y'all remember the rest of them? Presence, power, purpose, provision. Let's see, I think there was one that was powerful prayer. Because when you pray inside the Circle of Righteousness you'll be praying prayers that are lined up with God and His will. And when you pray a prayer that's lined up with God and His will, what happens? It'll get answered. It'll get answered. Right? Powerful prayer. There was seven of them, I can't think of those two all of a sudden. There's one more that, huh? Well, I know what the last one is, I'll get to it. Peace. Peace, yeah. Peace. Peace. Now, peace is the one that I focus on. I always focus on peace. Now, to stand inside the Circle of Righteousness, Jesus said two things. He said, if you love me, right? So, you want to love right. Alright? You want to love right according to Him. How He loves. That's John, I mean, Ron's favorite word. Agape. Agape, right? Agape. You want agape, right? But He also said, if you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my what? Commandments. So, you want to obey right. Okay? So, you obey right. The thing is, David, you can't do any of that unless you're His child. You can't get in that circle. That's right. That's right. I mean, I'm thinking all this stuff. There's no way you can do all that without the Holy Spirit. It's impossible. Yeah. But what I said before, right? Right. So, what happens when we don't obey right? Or don't love right? We step outside the circle. Now, I'm not talking about losing your salvation. I'm talking about all of a sudden, you're not in that circle of righteousness. I'm not talking about... I'm just talking about in terms of practical living. Right? So, you step outside the circle and all that goes away. There's no presence. There's no peace. Yeah, you can start X'ing up through them all. There's no... But the big one is, there's no peace. No peace. No peace. Righteousness and peace go together. Now, how do you get back in the circle once you step out? You get back in. 1 John 1... What? 9. 9. That's how you get back in. Where there is no righteousness, there is no peace. But the moment you confess, what does it say? If you will confess your sins, He is faithful and just to what? Forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of what? All your unrighteousness. Now, what does that mean? Now, I'm again righteous. I'm back inside the circle. And now I've got His peace again. It's a simple illustration. And I've got to use it who knows how many times over the years in counseling people. It's so profound. It's so simple. Outside of His righteousness, there is no peace. If you want to know, am I right with Him right now? Do you have peace? Do you have peace? If there's no peace, then you've got to be looking at yourself, what's not right? Because something's not right if I haven't got peace. Okay, Ron, is that good enough? Oh man, that's awesome. Okay. They say it's blessed. I mentioned I might do this, and Ron says you've got to do this. Okay, I'll do it. I love it. Man, righteousness and peace have kissed. You know, David, when you've experienced this, and just hearing you remind me, it makes so much sense. But to someone that hasn't experienced God's presence and His power, that wouldn't make any sense. But it makes so much sense when you've experienced it. I don't know how to explain. Maybe I'm not saying what I mean. If they've never been righteous to begin with, then they have no concept of what it's like to be righteous. All they've ever known is no peace. Okay. So Jesus Christ is the one who brings peace. His ministry results are superior. He's the King of Righteousness and the King of Peace. Alright, His appointment is superior. Now this answers the question that was raised by Claire. The point of Melchizedek not having any record of a birth or a death or parents or genealogy, the point of that whole thing is that it doesn't mean He wasn't born and didn't die. It just means it wasn't recorded. But the purpose of not recording it is to make the point that genealogy had nothing to do with His priesthood. It had nothing to do with His priesthood. And the same thing is true of who? Jesus. His genealogy had nothing to do with His priesthood. So, His genealogy is irrelevant to His priesthood. He was appointed based on worthiness and not heritage. He had no genealogy and He needed none. I said, how is this relevant to Jesus? Well, just like I said, He was chosen as priest because of His personal worth, because of who He was, not His genealogy. Right? And His term of office is superior. His term of office. He remains a priest, according to our study here, the word is perpetually. This is in verse 3. He remains a priest perpetually. So, perpetually means what? Continually, no end. So, He's not limited to 25 years like the Aaronic priests. Mechizedek didn't live forever, but for the order of the priesthood in which He ministers, it's forever. So, how is this relative to Jesus? Well, Hebrews 7, 24 and 25. Somebody read that, please. Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, He is able also to stay forever. Those who draw near to God through Him, because He always lives to make intercession for them. That's powerful, isn't it? You've got a priesthood that's never-ending. Therefore, get this, my righteousness is never-ending. Not because of me. Thank goodness it's not because of us. But because of Him. My righteousness is never-ending. Wow. Isn't that good? So, He is eternal. His priesthood is eternal. He saves forever those who draw near to God through Him. He always lives to intercede for us. So, I thought let's just ask ourselves these questions. When you get up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror. Am I truly at peace within? Think back to the illustration. Am I truly at peace within? If not, then the assumption has to be something's not right with me. So, the question is, what do I need to confess and repent of? There's got to be something there. Ask the Spirit of God to show you what it is that needs to be confessed. And then confess, and take Him at His Word knowing that once you confess, if you truly confess, that means you agree with Him. And an element of confession is repentance, which means you walk away from it. To repent is to turn around. You've seen that illustration before, right? Everybody seen that? So, if you confess with repentance, then take Him at His Word. He forgives and He cleanses. I have this little saying I've said before in here probably. When you mess up, fess up, then get up, and get after it. Sounds corny, but it's true. Mess up, fess up, get up, and get after it. Live for Him. Okay. So, Jesus, typified by Melchizedek and His superior priesthood, also in His superior greatness. Now observe how great this man was to whom Abraham, the patriarch, gave a tenth of the choice of spoils. And those indeed of the sons of Levi who received the priest's office have commitment in the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descended from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. Without ease to speak, the lesser is blessed by the greater. In this case, mortal men receive tithes, but in that case, one receives them of whom it is witnessed that he lives on. And so to speak, through Abraham, even Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So, Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek. He recognized Melchizedek as a faithful priest of God Most High and gave him a tithe of the best spoils of war as a voluntary act of thanksgiving to God. This was before the law of the tithe existed. This was before Aaron and his descendants existed. Through Abraham, Aaron and his descendants gave a tithe to Melchizedek. The tithe is always given by the lesser to the greater. So which priesthood is superior? Melchizedek. Melchizedek. Melchizedek. How is that relative to Jesus in what we give of our possessions? He's the highest. Say it again. He's the highest. He's the highest. Right? He's the highest. And so, we'll have a conversation about the tithes. Alright? So, I'll just tell you, Jimmy Draper in his book, he addressed the tithe. He says people say that the tithe is not addressed in the New Testament. He says, well, what is this then? This is the New Testament and we're talking about the tithe. Okay? So he makes the point that the law of the tithe, yes, the law of the tithe was after, you know, was during the time of Moses, right? And it's considered part of the Old Testament covenant, et cetera, et cetera. But that doesn't mean the tithe went away. Jimmy takes the position the tithe is the starting point. And I don't want to put words in his mouth because I can't remember everything he said. So I'm going to be kind of summarizing here. Alright, so don't hold this against me if I messed up a little bit on this. But I kind of lined up with him when I thought about it. Here's the deal. The basis of our giving should be our love and devotion to God and gratitude for His unquantifiable gift to us. Now, if that's the case, how much are you going to give? I don't need numbers. I'm just saying. There's... First of all, it's not mine, right? It's not yours. It's His. He's the one who gave it. You are what? Starts with an S. Steward. Cold Star Hooper said that. You're a steward. He can show you real easy if you get to thinking that it's all yours. Well, and I told you all my tithing story. How he disciplined me when I withheld the tithe. And I'm looking at our pocketbook. I'm going to that bankbook. It doesn't have much in it. I'm looking at the little hungry mouths we got to feed. And I'm thinking about what the income is coming in. I'm self-employed. I'm thinking, hmm, this doesn't look too bright. And I don't write a check. I'm repeating this, but it's worth repeating. So I got sick. Self-employed individuals don't get sick. They come to work no matter what. I was sick, so sick, I couldn't even get out of bed sick. I went to the doctor. He gave me a prescription. Now I'm going, how am I going to pay for that? I mean, it was a mess. Got to feeling better, but it was on the second day I think it was after the doc. And I was bored, laying in bed. And I get up, turn on the TV. It's 10 in the morning roughly. Flipping channels, and I land on a guy named... What's the guy over there in Dallas? Tony Evans. And Tony Evans is preaching out of Malachi chapter 3. And almost... I mean, almost the exact moment I landed on that channel, the words coming out of Tony Evans' mouth is, Ben, Rob, God? I put my hands up in the air and said, it's me. It's me. It's me. And... So I got up and I grabbed the checkbook and I wrote the check. I said, Lord, I don't know how you're going to cover it, but here it is. And he covered it. Man! I learned that lesson early in life. Early in life. And whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. And He disciplined me. And He got my attention. And what I've come to realize is, I can't give Him enough. Now, it's not always money, is it? It's time. It's service. It's devotion. It's all the things that you have. It's all His. Romans 12.1 says, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you do what? Present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service of worship. And so if you're going to say, here I am, that includes your pocketbook, it includes your talents, it includes your time, it includes everything about you. There are a lot of promises, David, that come with that. Well, and what's interesting, right? In Proverbs it says, bring all your tithes to the storehouse, right? And see if I won't do what? Open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing on you. Amen. And what has He done time and time again? He's done exactly what He said He would do. Look at the example of this building we're sitting in. This whole thing is paid for, which is highly uncharacteristic at this day and time. So uncharacteristic, it was so obvious that God... I mean, the people were faithful and gay, but impossible to see what God does to have this money and that money paid off early and then be able to do this and be able to do that. I mean, if you can't see that that's God's hand, then you're completely lost. And what's really great though, what's really great is the number of lives that have already been impacted because of it. I mean... Not by our hand, but by God's hand. No, but see, we get to participate in His blessing. When you give like this to what He's doing, you're investing in His kingdom and you get to participate in the blessing. Isn't it good? Yeah. So, let's make sure that our giving under His direction reflects a heart of gratitude, love and devotion. Abraham tied to Mechizedek. Mechizedek then blessed Abraham. It says, The record is always blessed by the greater. Since Mechizedek blessed Abraham, he was what? Greater than anyone who came from Abraham. Which means Aaron was still in his loins at the time they say. So, in essence, Mechizedek blessed Aaron. Therefore, Mechizedek is greater. And finally, Mechizedek lives on. Since there's no record of Mechizedek's death, there's typically no end to his priesthood. If the priest hadn't died, or there's no record of it, then there's no end to the priesthood. Since the Aaronic priesthood ended in when? 70 A.D. What happened in 70 A.D.? Who knows? Yeah, the temple's gone. Rome wipes out Jerusalem. The temple scatters the Jews far and wide. The genealogical records are destroyed. There hasn't been a priest, officially a priest, of Israel since. The priesthood is ended in 70 A.D. So, since that priesthood ended, Mechizedek's priesthood is superior. How is this relative to Jesus? Well, he is the true priest who lives how long? Forever. He's not just a type like Mechizedek. He is the only priest that can bring God to man, and man to God. And once he brings you to God, you're there how long? Forever. Eternally. Does my giving truly reflect my gratitude, love, and devotion to God? What do I need to do to improve? That's my lesson on Mechizedek. Any questions? Yes, ma'am. I have a question and observation of something I was saying earlier today, which just kind of brought up talking about the timeline of how from the very beginning through the New Testament. But I was trying to look up a little bit about Melchizedek because I hadn't really been that familiar with who he was, and I admit my study of the Bible is not where it should be. But one of the things that I found fascinating was the fact that one of the articles I had read was that he was the only Canaanite priest ever mentioned in the Bible. And to think that back in Genesis that this was mentioned to lay the foundation for Jesus, who came so much further down the road just to chill down by the pond. Yeah, yeah. And talking about how the interaction with Abraham laid the foundation for tithing, and the breaking of the bread and the wine is the beginning of the Eucharist. Yep. And I just was like... There's a lot of similarities there. I didn't get into all that, but actually I'm glad you brought it up. Here's what's interesting. There's no written record that Abram knew who Mechizedek was. Or that Mechizedek knew who Abram was. There's no written record of that. So if you go back and you look at the context, the context was there was a war between kings. And the kings that won came to the king of Sodom where Lot was. And they attacked the king of Sodom and took Lot and the people and their possessions captive. That's what brings Abram into the picture. Abram's going, well, you're not going to take my nephew and get away with it. Right? And with God at his side, God in the middle of it, Abram takes 360 or 80 men, that's all he had, and they go and they conquer those kings. And they recover Lot, and they recover the king of Sodom, and they recover all the spoils of war. Well, here comes Mechizedek. And somehow or another, Abram recognizes Mechizedek as being who he was. King of righteousness, king of peace or Salem or Jerusalem. In other words, it almost hints to you that he knew he existed but really had never interacted with him. But there's no record of it. And then, but recognizing that he is a priest, Abram gives him a tithe. Now you go and you look at the Hebrew in there, that tithe was a tithe of the choices of the spoils. The choices of the spoils. It was the first fruits. It was the best fruits. Now, and that's another lesson. What do we give? Do we give what's left over? Or do we give what's best? Isn't that, you know, I'm sorry, you got me stirred up now because I'm going to teach them. I was concerned about the amount of time I'd have and didn't include that, but here we go, right? So that's the context of it. He recognizes that Mechizedek is both king and priest, and he gives him a tithe of the best of the spoils. And then, Melchizedek, somehow or another, recognizes who Abram is. And he's the chosen one of God to bring God's, to be God's people, right? God's nation. Where the promises, where the promises are found. Remember what God told Abram? He said, in you, all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. Right? In your seed, singular, all of the nations of the earth will be blessed. Somehow or another, Melchizedek recognized that. And he blesses Abram, bestowing a blessing upon the one who received the promises. Isn't that good? It's not good. It's great. You got another hour and a half. I'm done. It's so impossible for that to happen, that it has to be God. I mean, it just... Oh yeah. I mean, even just talking about it, for him to know, and him to know this, I mean, it just has God written all over it. I mean, we've all been here, and David and I have talked before about some of the things that we've seen God do, that there is no other explanation except God. And that is so cool when you see something and you can't, you have no explanation but to give God the credit for it. And the number one thing he did with me, but God, but God, because of his great love that he has for me, I have Ephesians. Yeah, this springboards us into a great discussion, because all of us here are good, in the sense that not like we're goody-goody gumdrops people, but we are good in the sense of being competent in handling God's Word, we're competent in being able to pray, we're competent in being able to come to a gathering like this, which is to encourage each other to love and to give deeds. But do you think God is satisfied? We study the book of, a little bit of MacCusade, does he, do you think that he has for us plans to be great? What do you think? Or are we just satisfied with being just good? He doesn't have plans for us to sit on the sidelines. Right. I'll say that. Yeah, we're good at that. I mean, I'm good at that. I did that all the way through the World Series and just sat and yelled like my head off. But you see, God wants us to be cheerleaders for each other. See, that's the idea of what Melchizedek does. You know, in the order of Melchizedek, priest and king, both. And so he brings us to an important part in Genesis, Genesis 15. Starts in Genesis 14, David taught us so well. But Genesis 15, it talks about Abraham. He believed God and God counted that to him for? Righteousness. A plus, see. Now, did Abraham, was he righteous in and of himself? No. No, see. A plus to infinity. Because now we realize that who we really are is we have been, we've been targeted. Now, the world targets us also, but God targets us and specifically he aims for our hearts. And so he was aiming for Abraham's heart. God permitted Abraham to be challenged with the decision either to trust him or not. See, we're challenged to be challenged to believe God or not. See. And we get to do that every day. And so now we realize that what God is doing now is giving us an opportunity to either be just good or to be great. See, now, I'm taking this from a guy named Ingram. It's him. He wrote a book called Good to Great. And he is a Bible teacher and he was... Talking about Chip? Yeah, Chip Ingram. He would come from a line of very famous people. I'm not related to him. Yes, you are related to him. It's a blood relationship through Jesus Christ. But see, the idea of being good to great. Now, remember when the disciples are arguing, deciding, well, who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Do you remember that? Jesus had to chime in. What did he say? Who is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of God? I know you know. I'm just here to remind you. See? Remember he tells the least is going to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So God is talking about an attitude cultivating an attitude of humility. The only way that we can receive that which God offers is to receive, which Tom gives his famous quote from Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace are we saved through faith in that not of ourselves, but the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, because we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. So God is now working in Abraham to cause him to think through, well, is he going to be willing to leave the land of Ur? I mean, he's rich and famous there. Why would he want to leave? See, but God says, Abraham, I want you to leave. And he does. And so finally, after a hundred years, he had this thought. And he says, what I want you to do with your son is I want to take you to a high place. And I want you to sacrifice him to me. A test of faith. So now we realize that God is giving us a test of faith to challenge us to be great in the world. So good to great is to think great thoughts. And that's Chip Ingram's mantra. See, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. And see, now God is saying, through Solomon, he says, I want you to be thinkers with your heart. And as we think with our heart, what happens then is that God changes us from being thinkers of this world to be thinkers of that world. Not this world, but that world. To think outside the box, so to speak. And so what happens is this. You see, that God has in it, we are in the middle of a great cosmos. And the cosmos is of the world. And the world has us in a position where we have to see whether we want to live by the world, 1 John 2, 1 John 2, 15, by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. So what's in us, and we're in sort of a box. We're boxed in. And we're boxed in because of the fact that the world is saying, is saying that I want you to be molded by the, and be conformed to this world. And it's doing a good job, isn't it? Yeah. Because we have pressure from outside us to say, well, what are we to do in this world that is trying to suppress the things that are truthful? See, we live in a cancel culture. So the negative parts of the world says, well, you need to do what I tell you to do. You know, Judges 21, 25. In those days, there's no God, so they did what was right in their own eyes. So we have spiritual apostasy, we have moral awfulness, we have political anarchy. So we live in a world full of political anarchy. In medicine today, you know, there was a fellow that did his training at UT Southwestern, and he's now, he's a famous cardiologist, and he trained at UT Southwestern. Now he's at the University of Northwestern Medical School, and he's now a dean. So he comes back to talk to the first and second year students last week, you know, on the ethos of medicine. So what's the ethos of medicine? So, is it right to kill babies? Is it right to kill people? Is that doing no harm to people? So he's bringing up the fact that Hippocrates, thousands of years ago, he said, well, what is the Hippocratic Oath all about? And those of us here who are associated with medicine, we realize that it's in a very shaky grounds, because in 1973, we passed a law, Supreme Court law, that is now legal to terminate the lives of babies. Now if I brought that up, you know, as a know-nothing orthopedic surgeon to the class over here at UT Southwestern, I'd be shot down. But here now is a dean of another medical school, and he's listened to. Because he's able to directly speak to that issue. See, now, what keeps us from speaking to the issues of life is the fact that we have, we fear the world. Right? The cancel culture. So the cancel culture says good is evil, and evil is good. Now, that's not very good, really, in a world that's full of, full of, really, nonsense. How do we make nonsense into sense? You know, we have to come back to what Dave was teaching today, the Word of God. See, the Word of God is in true fact living and active and sharper than any to a disorder that divides to the soul and the spirit joints and the marrow. It's a discerner of the motives and intents of the heart. Now we realize that now God is wanting us to be challenged to think in terms of eternal issues. Think with our hearts. And thinking with our hearts is taking God's Word seriously. Second Timothy 3, 16, 17, 18, you know, it talks about all scriptures inspired by God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness, that the man and woman of God may be thoroughly equipped to do every good work. Now the good that He does in us is now not just good work, which is to be willing to share that which God offers us through our hearts. Because the only way to open up the floodgates of God's provision and power and grace to us, we have to believe in Him. So the challenge is to trust in Him regardless of the circumstances that we face in life. So now we're starting to open up the floodgates of what is Melchizedek all about. Melchizedek is pointing us to Jesus Christ, who says to us, He's the answer, the only answer to get us out of this barnyard fertilizer life that we have. Okay? Now Jesus is not going to just reach down here to planet earth and pull us out and dust us off and take all the smell out and say, go sick him, Ron. So what He's saying to us is that He wants us to realize who Jesus Christ is. See, like in Colossians 1, 15, it says, Jesus is the visible expression of the invisible God. Now we see that the picture that we're seeing lined up for us by the writer of Hebrews, we all have our beliefs on who that writer is, but I have fun with this all the time. But the thing is that the Holy Spirit is the writer, isn't He? So now the Holy Spirit comes up touching us in planet earth to tell us that the visible expression of the invisible God is Jesus Christ. And so now what do we do? It goes on further. See, Colossians 1, 27 says, the mystery and secret of life is Christ in us, the hope of glory. The secret of life is Christ in us. He's here in our hearts. Now He's saying, now He's saying, now what I want you to do with this. So now He says, now if you ever accept that, and we do receive His word well. So if we accept who God is through Jesus to us in our hearts by grace through faith, like Tom says, it's a gift of God, not of works that any man should boast. Just like Abraham believed God and God counted that to him for righteousness, that we get to do the same. We have the opportunity. So now, first in Colossians 1, 28, he says, now therefore, with God's spirit, the triune God is acting through us and in us. We have the Holy Spirit here, we have God the Father here, we have God the Son here. So the triune God, three in one, acts through us to help us to, Colossians 1, 28, proclaim Him, teaching and admonishing everyone with all wisdom so that we would be able to present everyone that we are able to meet, greet and serve to be perfect and complete in Christ Jesus. Now if we got out there and stood on a soapbox and started preaching Jesus, they'd throw us into the clinker, okay? They'd think, now that guy is crazy. Now we are crazy in a sense, but in a supernatural way. So we have the opportunity to use God's wisdom to touch the world in a magnificent way. Now wisdom from above, James 3, 17, is first of all pure, peaceable, considerate, submissive, full of mercy, full of good truth, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, impartial and sincere. That's why I wanted Dave to present his P circle. The P is the circle of love, isn't it? So we get to now be the conduit of God's love and grace to the world. Now the best way of doing it is not to stand up there on the microphone and preach it so necessarily because sometimes we can be quite offensive because Jesus is offensive to the world. But we can ask questions. And the one thing that's common to this whole room is you have a grace face. Okay? Now the grace face, that's that wonderful smile that you all have. That grace face is going to attract people to want to converse with you and interact with you. Even in this world full of barnyard fertilizer, we now can have an impact. You know, just like St. Francis of Assisi says, preach the word of God at all times and when necessary use words. So the words we speak are really God's word through us and in us by the way our attitudes are to the world, how we interact with people that have differing ideas than us. How do you expect, how would you receive someone who calls you a four letter word every time you see him on a ward? Okay? That's what I, that was my challenge. Okay. This was a former health angel and he tried to, with his motorcycle, take out an 18 wheeler and he lost. So he, but he was, he made it alive but he broke about every bone in his body. But as I met him through this long series of time, it became clear that he was valuable and precious to me as a person. And so that gradually changed his attitude toward medical doctors. He didn't, he called me bad words at first but later on it was more soft and then he looked me up several years later and now he's a law abiding citizen that gave up motorcycle riding and drinking and drugs, etc. But God changed him. How does God do that? You see, we're talking about, David's talking about repentance. How do you turn from the way of the world to turn to God? You know, every moment we have a come to Jesus moment, don't we? You know, Matthew 11, 28, 29, he says, come to me all you weary and heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me because I'm gentle and humble of heart and you'll find rest for your souls because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. See, the light burden that God gives us, he says, I want you to take upon yourself my yoke. And that's the new command that he gives us like in John 13, 34, in the upper room he says, I want you to remember this, a new commandment that I give you, that you love, agape one another as I have just agaped you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have this kind of love one for another. Agape love. Now, all you girls know this one, okay. Us guys, we need to be reminded. You know, that agape love is, first of all, you know, patient and kind, not envious, not boastful, not proud, not rude, not self-seeking, not easily angered, keeps no records of wrongs, does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always toasts, always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres. And this kind of love never fails. Why not? How and why does God's word so pervade the world so that it changes the world inside out? You know, that kind of love is not prevalent in the world, but the thing is, we have it. So God wants us to unload on people so we can give love to people even though they don't know that they're being loved. You know, every time I'm challenged out on the freeway, I'm going to be there early tomorrow morning and I'm going to have people that's going to cut me off. I know that they're going to cut me off, so I'm anticipating some evil move, okay. But normally what I do is I say something when they do that. It's invariable. My lover will tell you. And it's not good what comes out of my mouth. I say something like, you stupid... I can't repeat. But the thing is, is that I need to make sure that what comes out of my mouth is... Exactly. Exactly. You see where I'm going with this, you know. Because we've received that which is beyond measure. You know, we have a high priest in the Order of Mount Kizidek. We have the opportunity to now share that with other people. And Jesus is superior to everything. Everything. Angels, prophets, high priests, and especially the high order of the priesthood of Mount Kizidek. We have Jesus. And now because we have Jesus, now He's saying, I want you to do something special. Not just only proclaim Him, teaching and admonishing everyone with all wisdom, you know, so that you present everyone perfect in Christ Jesus. But He goes on from that. He says, now, what I want you to remember is the fact that, you know, just as you come to know Jesus, I want you to go further with that. To use the same faith to grow in that faith. This is Colossians 2, 6, 7, and 8. Because now that you're doing this and moving forward with my love through faith in Him, I want you now to consider what I want you to do is to consider forbearing one another, forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, also do for others. Above all these things, put on charity, which is agape love, with the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule. And that's what we're talking about. Belchizedek was a king of peace. And the only way that we can bring about the peace is to do that, let the peace of God rule in our hearts. Just like Colossians 3, 14 says. Now, the only thing that we can do is to do it with Him. Old Testament and New Testament, they coincide. So like in Micah 6, 8 says, what does the Lord require of us? To live justly, to love His merciful kindness and walk humbly with the Lord. Now, we have to realize that the Aaronic priesthood is no longer in function. See, the law is no longer, Mosaic law is no longer functional. Because what has to happen at the cross of Calvary is Jesus paid the penalty for all, once and for all. That's why there's no temple today. The sacrificial system is now done away with. Because now we have had one sacrifice done at the cross of Calvary by Jesus Christ. Now, therefore, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We're talking about Romans 8 now. And since there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, now what happens? God helps us to now turn around and be transcendent in our thinking and He also is going to help us to be transformative in our thinking. But it comes at a cost. This is what we have to think about. What's the cost of discipleship? And David shared that so well with us. The cost of discipleship is Romans 12, 1 and 2. But it starts with Romans 11, 36. For Him, through Him, to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Sounds like the end of Romans. But then he starts, he says, therefore, you know, he says, I want you to remember therefore, I urge you therefore by the mercies of God that you present or offer yourself a living sacrifice wholly acceptable, which is a reasonable service of worship. Be not conformed to this will, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may know and understand the good and perfect will of God. Can't do that without Him. So what's at the center of the circle? See, Jesus Christ is. Jesus, the big answer. So basically, if Jesus is at the center of our circle, we are crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, we live. Yet not us, but Christ lives in us. And the life we live, we live by faith. We live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us. There's a journey with Him. Now we realize that now it begins. And every day it begins. But Jesus is the answer because He's the High Priest now forever and ever for all eternity. And we can turn to Him. He is not only our Savior, but He's also our mediator between God and man. So God the Father initiates it, the love, agape. God the Son mediates it. And God the Holy Spirit makes it real, actuates it. So to have a soft heart toward God is to say, am I willing to follow Him? See, the question Jesus asks is, who do you say that I am to the disciples? That point in moment. So in Matthew 16 and Mark 8 and Luke 9, Jesus asked that question. Peter answers rightly. Who do you say that I am, Peter? And what did Peter say? You are Christ, the Son of the Living God. Amen, amen. A plus to infinity and beyond. See, now all of you agree, see, so now you all can share that A plus. But you see, now then He says, if any man will, let him deny himself, take up his cross, follow me. Follow me and I will make you who I want you to be. You know, fishers of men's souls. You know, like Matthew 4, 19 says. So are you saying on the freeway in the morning when I'm going to work, and they cut me off, that I should not let that bother me? It doesn't matter. No, no, it won't bother you. But what I say is something that's cursing. No, no, I'm saying, it's funny that you bring that example because I run into this every time when I get almost to work. See, people that are in the no turn lanes, driving 70s, and you see them getting in. Someone's letting them in. And I just hate your examples, Ron. Well, but you see, the end of Romans 12 is, how do you return a curse with a blessing? But it's practical. This is a practical example that everyone probably in here runs into because we know better than to go on the no turn lane and pass everybody. But it does bother me. I'm going along. If someone signals, you know, I'll let them in, I don't like it because I know where they work. But it's just the point that I'm bringing up is that that is so insignificant to what God has given us that I need to go to work tomorrow and someone cuts me off, say, you know, God bless you, it doesn't hurt me. I mean, it bugs me, but in practicality it means nothing. I still get to work. I still do my job. It didn't make any difference in the world but maybe two minutes. But it bothers me. But you have less peace when you're angry about it. It does. You do. But you see, Noah will get to A plus infinity and beyond because you're all agreeing with him, okay? Because it's all happening to us, right? This is the world. And it's nasty out there. It's full of barnyard fertilizer. How do we stand up to the barnyard fertilizer of life? See, that's what Romans is all about. That's it. We love Christ, Lord. Jesus, if they cut him off, he would have let them in. Yes, and so, exactly right. Romans 5.3 says... Yeah, they're good. I'm not coming anymore. I don't like it. So, in closing, you know, to be thankful for those barnyard fertilizer homes, to be thankful in our suffering because suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character. Character produces hope, which never disappoints because of the love of God that's bountifully poured into a heart by the power of God's Holy Spirit. So, in closing, see, this is all surrounded by a thing called John 13.34. And John 13.34 says a new commandment that I give you, that you love. So, the word is compassion. This is love. Love in action. And that's agape in action. So, compassion is the word that God uses. And that's what He uses on us. So, God looks around the world and sees with compassion the barnyard fertilizer out here. And it stinks, you know. So, God wants us to survive, not just survive by the power of God's Holy Spirit. He wants us to thrive in it. And this is the way to thrive. See, so what he's saying... So, this is a thought to just throw out at you because, you know, Peter is a guy that sticks his foot in his mouth all the time. And so, in 1 Peter chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 5, he said, God mocks proud walkers, but gives grace to the humble. So, what ought we to do? Humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God that He would lift us up in due time, passing all our care upon Him because He cares for us. But see, there's a promise that goes with that. And the promise is in verse 10. He says, But the God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory that after we suffer a while, He'll restore us, perfect and complete us and make us firm, strong and steadfast in Him. That's survival. But then he says, I want you to thrive. But you have to do this with me. So, I'm going to give you all the resources that you need in 2 Peter chapter 1. I'm going to give you my agape love, which you all know. I'm going to give you my wisdom from above, which you all know, James 3.17. I'm also going to give you the fruit of my Spirit, which you all know. Now, therefore, be diligent to add to your faith virtue, which is the courage to excel, to virtue knowledge of Him, to knowledge self-control, the last of the fruit of the Spirit, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, holiness. So holiness, brotherly kindness, phileo, and to phileo agape. For if you do these things in increasing measure, your life will be neither unfruitful nor unproductive in the Lord. But verse 9 says, But if you don't do those things, you're nearsighted and blind and you've forgotten that you yourself have been forgiven of your many past sins by the death of Jesus on the cross, our great high priest. So therefore, be all the more diligent to add to your faith so you'll not stumble, you'll not fall, and you'll have a rich reward in the kingdom of heaven. We're all heaven-bound. Thank God. Thank you, Lord. But you see, we're only here for a little while. The best is yet to come. Jesus is coming again. Our high priest in the order of Balthasar. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this evening. Thank you for this wonderful teaching you've given us from Hebrews chapter 7. And yet, the best is yet to come because we haven't even come to even close to the wonderful, wonderful chapter of faith in Hebrews chapter 11. And dear Lord, we just have a few weeks to go before this semester closes. But thank you that we are closer to you because we understand that Jesus is all in all. Jesus is our high priest. And Jesus is going to give us not only righteousness, but he's also going to give us peace. Thank you for your word, which is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, divides to the soul and the spirit, joins to the marrow, the discerner of the motives and intends the heart. Help us to continue to think with our hearts. Help us to continue to seek first the kingdom of God and your righteousness, and all these things will be added to us. And help us, dear Lord, to trust in you with all our heart. Help us to lean not on our own understanding, but in all our ways. We pray that we will continue to acknowledge you and you would direct our path this day and every day. Pray these things to Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Thank you all for being here.