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Who is Melchizedek, A Closer Look At Hebrews 7: 1- 10
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Feb 19, 2025
Welcome back to our study of the book of Hebrews, in today's presentation, we are going to be looking at Hebrews 7:1-10. Last week, we closed chapter 6 and looked at the certainty of the promises of God thoroughly. We talked about Abraham as being exhibit A for what a life of following God is like. Abraham's life was characterized with times of failures, successes and he eventually triumphed through faith. He didn't quite see the finality of God's promises to him on this side of eternity but saw them from a far and rejoiced at the prospect of some day receiving them completely. Scriptures tell us that he was looking forward to the city of God, whose chief architect was God himself. And these promises were made possible by Jesus, who derives his priestly order after Melchizedek. Join me today as we dive into verses 1 through 10 to unpack the identity of this mysterious OT figure.
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hello good morning and welcome back uh to our study of the book of hebrews and today we're gonna start chapter
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seven we finished chapter six last week and talked about the certainty of god's promise and as we
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looked at the end of the chapter we saw how god uh used abraham as an
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example of what uh trusting in him and his provision is like abraham was
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probably the perfect model because in his life we saw that he had his ups and downs and sometimes he failed the test
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but god remained faithful in the process and then eventually abraham received the
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promised son um isaac but isaac as we saw was a picture of
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abraham actual seed which was jesus christ because through jesus we have the
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promises today because the scripture says that the whole
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family of the earth will be blessed through his seed and his seed was christ as we saw and we also saw that abraham
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didn't quite receive the totality of the promise in the sense that he was looking forward to the city of god so one day we
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would all be united with our father abraham and that's what we talked about so and we talked about the fact that the
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people that the writer was talking to were people that were going through persecution as a result of their faith
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in christ jesus and some of them were being tempted to go back to judaism because they wanted
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to avoid the persecution and uh we talked about between chapter five and six how the writer
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was calling them to account he said listen if you guys go back to the old system that cannot take away since you
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are living the perfect for the imperfect and the reason why he was saying this because some of the guys and some of the
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people that were doing that they were not mature um believers they had been saved for quite some times but they
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hadn't uh quite and grasped all the the the basics of the faith so he called
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them to account and say listen you guys need to grow my charlie because if you don't grow maturi chances are you're
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gonna fall away and we talked about uh falling away and what it meant to fall away because not everybody's saved and
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sometimes as believers we might go through a period of time where we doubt and we struggle and the writer was
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writing to to encourage his reader saying listen i know what i say to you i know what i i said some very harsh words
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and those were those were actually good because godly uh sorrows leads to repentance so
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he wasn't trying to scare them what he was trying to do is tell them listen this is serious stuff and you guys need
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to pay attention so now that he had the attention he talked about the promise of god and how god is faithful and now he
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ended chapter 2 chapter 6 by talking about jesus being
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a priest after the order of melchizedek melchizedek and the whole reason why he was talking about mechizedek is because
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he wanted to show that jesus far exceeds the high priest because the high priest
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um they we saw that they were many numbers and some of them weren't quite um a good as far as like leading the
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people and being uh mediators because some of them were became callous they didn't have compassion and we saw in
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chapter four that jesus uh he truly has compassion because he is not unable to
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sympathize with our weaknesses but he is one who was tempted in every way yet without sin and as a result we are
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called on to come to the throne of christ to receive to receive mercy in in in in in times of uh need
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so today we're going to continue and we're going to talk about melchizedek because the writer has been mentioning melchizedek time and time and again and
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now he's going to reveal the identity of melchizedek so who is melchizedek is what we're going to look at today and
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we're only going to focus on hebrews chapter 7 verses 1 uh through 10. so
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what i'm going to do is i'm going to read the passage and then we're going to break it down so let's go to
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hebrews 7 verse 1 through 10. so the scripture says
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for this melchizedek king of salem priest of the most high
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god met abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him
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and to him abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything he is first by translation of
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his name king of righteousness and then he is also king of salem that is king of peace
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he is without father or mother or genealogy having neither beginning of
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days nor end of life but resembling the son of god he continues a priest forever
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see how great this man was to whom abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of
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the spoils and those descendants of levi who received the priestly office
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have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers
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though these are also descended from abraham but this man who does not have his descent from them
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received tithes from abraham and blessed him who had the promises it it is beyond
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dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior in the one case tithes are
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received by mortal men but in the other case by one of whom it is testified
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that he lives one might even say that levi himself receives tithes
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paid tithes through abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when
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melchizedek met him now this is heavy stuff that we need to
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understand so what is he trying to tell us in these uh scriptures it's what we need
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to learn now if you go to verse one he begins with uh former kiss for this melchizedek
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king of salem priest of most high god met abraham
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returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed them so we need to understand why this is so important see
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the writer he ended chapter six by saying that jesus was a high priest after the order of melchizedek so he
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began to talk about melchizedek in chapter five but then he had to stop his discourse because understanding the
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importance of melchizedek required a certain level of spiritual maturity so
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we saw in chapter six that he spent some quality time exhorting his readers to renew on their
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spiritual further okay and now that he had the attention he resumes his argument about the nature of the
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priesthood of melchizedek so he wanted to show through scriptures that
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melchizedek's priestly order exceeded that of aarons and jesus priesthood was
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after the order of melchizedek so if you could show them through scriptures that melchizedek's order was better than
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aaron's then he will automatically show that jesus is a far superior priest than
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the levite so verse 1 pretty much is a brief introduction of the identity of melchizedek
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now melchizedek is not only king of salem but he is also priest of the most high
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god and that's important because we talked about the fact that no one uh
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even the king could assume both the the role of a priest and a king and then those that tried to
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do that to usurp the the position of the priest were severely chastised by god we
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talked about king saul who offered um unlawful sacrifices it wasn't it wasn't lawful for him to do it
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and he did it anyway we saw that in first samuel 13 and as a result god
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removed him from being king because he did not obey the law he was a king that
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wanted to assume the role of a priest and he was not allowed to do that and god disciplined him
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we also saw another king king uzziah he forced himself to enter the temple to burn incense and was struck when i was
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struck with leprosy by god that's in second chronicles 26 verse 16 to 21. so
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we learn from this that those that wanted to assume both the role of a king and a priest
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were severely chastised by god we saw that in those scriptures that i just mentioned
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but there's something interesting interesting about melchizedek melchizedek was allowed to be both king
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king of salem and also priest of the most high god so the first thing that we learn about
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this uh mysterious figure melchizedek is that he is the only one allowed to assume both the functions of
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a king and a priest and we if you go to genesis 14 verse 18 and 22 we will see
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that let me read genesis 14 verse 18. listen here and melchizedek king of
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salem brought out bread and wine he was priest of god
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most high let me repeat that again and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine
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he was priest of god most high so we see here that he is both king of salem and
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also priest of the most high god so that gives him that dual role he can be both
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king and the priest at the same time and nobody else was allowed to do that so point number one melchizedek is the only
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one to assume both the role of a priest and the king now he was not a counterfeit priest
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because his ministry was legitimate and we will see that in the verses to come because aaron and the levite were only
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ordained as priests they were not kings so they were not ordained a king as kings they were only ordained as priests
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now listen to what verse two says here and to him abraham apportioned a tenth part of
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everything he is first by translation of his name king of righteousness and then he's also
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king of salem that is king of peace now the first thing we talked about is the fact that melchizedek is the only one
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allowed to be both king and priest now we're gonna talk about his name what does his name mean okay
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now we already mentioned in verse one that melchizedek his ministry was legitimate
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but before we talk about aspects of his ministry that makes him legitimate we need to talk about the meaning of his
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name okay according to verse 2 melchizedek means king of
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righteousness now that is huge because in the old testament name when
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just given to people for the sake of giving them names like today we just give people names for no reason people
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call their kids all types of crazy names but in the in the in biblical times
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when somebody was given a name that name carried with it the character and uh
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basically uh the attribute of that person it was a title so my name
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name is taib means in arabic a merciful so that means this is what characterizes me okay
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so in the bible that it was like that for example when peter was called by jesus jesus changed his
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name from simon to peter which means rock okay and there were several other people
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abraham at first it was abram and then god called him abraham so people's name
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were changed in order that their character will also reflect who they were and jacob went from jacob to being
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called i i am israel because jesus changed his name
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listen he said when he was wrestling with the angel of the lord uh i will not let you go until you bless me and then
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the angel of the lord asked him what is your name and he said jacob and the angel of the lord told uh jacob your name will no
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longer be jacob or now you you're going to be called israel so melchizedek means king of
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righteousness and his name pretty much runs parallel to his character so god gave him the
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name melchizedek not by accident but because god wanted him to be known as a
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king of righteousness then his second title is king of salem which also means
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king of peace according to the scripture so melchizedek is both king of
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righteousness and king of peace at the same time and we're gonna see that those two pieces like righteousness and peace
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they go hand in hand and why is that so important because we need to know why because god is a
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holy god and holy means that he's he's there's none like god he's in a category of himself there's none like
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god there can't be there can only be one god so god is holy in that way but he's also holy because he's morally perfect
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he's righteous so be to to for us to be righteous is to be at peace with
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god so to be righteous is to be at peace be god with god because god is righteous
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and god said i am holy for therefore you shall be holy so the prerequisite to be
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at peace with god is to be righteous okay but the scripture tells us in the book
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of romans that there's none righteous not even one so we need what we need a mediator we
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need a mediator and a high priest who can represent us before god before the
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throne of grace so one who is both what a peacemaker and who's also who also can stand before
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god so this is why melchizedek is important so important because mercideck
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is what is priest of the most high god because he's king of peace and righteousness he has those two qualities
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he can appear before god because he's righteous and he can also be our bridge
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to god a peacemaker because he's merciful now if you go to matthew chapter 5
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if you read uh the sermon on the mount listen to what jesus says in uh i want to read you uh verses 9 and i also want
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to read you verse 6 listen the sermon on the mount the beatitudes
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blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be
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satisfied for they shall be filled okay and then the next thing i want to read you is
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verse 9 blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god
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okay because then in verse 10 i cannot that too blessed are those who are persecuted for
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righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so why is that so important
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see melchizedek is both king of what righteousness and peace so
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he he is the king of righteousness he is king of righteousness
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and he's also a peacemaker according to what jesus says righteousness and peace
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those are prerequisites to be right with god to be at peace with god so the old
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system could not establish that because under the old systems
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uh the sins were not washed away they were only covered so now you see why the
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writer want to continue to link on jesus ordination to that of melchizedek because it's so important
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in that way see and another aspect mentioned here about the legitimacy of melchizedek is
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that is that he received tithes from abraham that's one point because
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long before the levites were established as priests we were to receive like a tithe from the people abraham paid tied
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to melchizedek we see that in in genesis abraham literally paid tithe to him so
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abraham the patriarch paid tithes to melchizedek like for me and you
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we are not jewish people so we don't see the weight that this carries it may not mean much but for a jewish
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reader this is very important because you legitimize this melchizedek as a high priest because abraham paid tithe
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to this man and abraham is like you said he is respected in the jewish religion
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he is highly uh venerated and honored so if abraham himself paid tithes to
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melchizedek he legitimizes melchizedek as a high priest okay
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so now so far let's let's talk about what we've talked about we've learned we've learned that melchizedek is the
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only one to be allowed to be both king and then priest and second we see that
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he is king of righteousness and his king of peace and those two elements are
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a prerequisite for us to be right with god okay and then melchizedek is a
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priest that can achieve those two things we just saw it and we saw that abraham
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also recognizes his ministry because abraham paid him tithes now he leads us
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to verse 3. now listen to what the scripture says here he is without father or mother or
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genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life but resembling the
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son of god he continues a priest forever why is that important again this is
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another key point of the identity of a melchizedek because we need to establish
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that this was a real person he wasn't this wasn't a case of a theophany or some kind of christopher this was
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actually a real individual he existed okay but god
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purposely did not mention his genealogy and his family line and we need to know
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why moses was prompted to do that by the holy spirit when he was pending down genesis there's
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a reason why god did that because the writer in verse 3 is using the argument of silence but this is very
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valid why because melchizedek was certainly a real man like i said he was
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a king and a priest in a real city but as far as the biblical records are concerned he was not born no nor did he
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die again let me repeat that again as far as the record are concerned
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he was not born nor did he die and why is the writer
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using this argument we need to understand it because in this way he is a picture of the lord jesus christ
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the son of god because the scripture says he is without father or mother or
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genealogy having neither beginning of days nor end of life
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but what resembling the son of god he continues a priest forever
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so this scripture mentions that by resembling the son of god he continues as a priest forever
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basically melchizedek was a prototype of christ even though jesus died touching his
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humanity he did not die touching his deity and after his death what happened
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god glorified his humanity after his resurrection so he became a high priest
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because he passed through the heavens and he's seated at the right hand of god so he continues forever and melchizedek
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was supposed to give you give us today a picture of christ was going to be like
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so in that way melchizedek resembles the son of god because he had neither beginning of days
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nor end of life so when jesus says that he is the son of god he's basically saying that he's of the same essence as
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god so melchizedek in that way resembles the son of god because in the records we
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are not given his genealogy he he has no neither beginning of days nor end of
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life which means he continues forever as a high priest he is not like the levite
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he does not die so that's the picture that the scripture is trying to show to us and
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this picture is supposed to be likened to that of jesus so the application is very clear
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neither aaron nor those who followed after him could claim that they had an endless life because they died okay they
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were they died aaron died his sons died eli died all the priests died so they
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could not be kings and they could not be priests at the same times and they didn't have an endless ministry so you
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can see how the writer is building his case we went from king and priest to
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king of righteousness and king of peace to now an endless ministry so in every
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category melchizedek exceeds to the 10 000 power
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the levites now we're going to go to verse verse 4. now listen to what he says now he drops
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a punch line here he goes see how great this man was to whom abraham the
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patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils now what's the observation see
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melchizedek was great because abraham the patriarch was highly highly regarded by the jews
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recognized his authority and ministry because he gave him a tenth of all the spoils see if you go back to genesis 14
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verse 17 to 20 let's read the scripture the scripture says after his return from the defeat of
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lauma and the kings who were with him the king of sodom went out to meet him
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at the valley of chavez that is the king's valley and then the king that's referring to abraham
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and melchizedek king of salem brought out bread and wine he was priest of god
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most high and he blessed him and said to abraham blessed be abram by god most
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high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be god most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand
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and then abraham gave him a tenth of everything
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why is that important so after abraham defeated shaddola uma and his allies the
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king of sodom went out to meet abraham right but prior to meeting the king of sodom abraham was met by melchizedek
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who then blessed him and made an interesting uh statement melchizedek made sure abraham understood
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who gave him the victory over the kings he was the lord and abraham did not question
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melchizedek's authority he didn't say a word he received it and he he gave him a
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tenth of everything so how do we know that because he gave him a tenth of everything okay so
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abraham understood the importance of melchizedek because as we saw in earlier chapters
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one of the role of the high priest was to represent mankind before god
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so abraham by giving giving him a tithe was recognizing his authority okay i
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also want to mention verses on 21 to 24 which i very important so let's go to
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verses 21 through 24 listen to what happens now and the king of sodom said to abraham
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give me the persons but take the good for yourself but abraham said to the king of sodom
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i have lifted my hand to the lord god most high possessor of heaven and
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earth that i will not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours
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that you should say i have made abram rich i would take nothing but what the young
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men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me let aener
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ashkel and mamri take their share so why do you think abraham was saying that to the king of sodom
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see by saying those words the king of sodom abraham was indirectly recognizing the authority of melchizedek
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why because melchizedek was not ashamed to boldly declare to abraham where his victory
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came from he told abram blessed be abraham by god most high possessor of heaven and earth
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and blessed be god the most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand
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and abraham gave me a tenth of everything so melchizedek told abraham listen you won
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this victory because god gave you this victory
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so he was basically abraham's intercessor okay because he's the priest
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of god most high both king and priests at the same time and he appears
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uh to abram to tell him listen i interceded for you so god gave you the victory now you need
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to recognize this and abraham gives him what a tenth of the spoils because abraham is recognizing his authority and
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he legitimizes melchizedek at that moment so abram was so
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tired was so significant because he symbolized the recognition of melchizedek's authority so you can see
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how the writer is just argument after argument is presenting his case and then he again drops another punch
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line if you go to verses 5 through 10 let's listen listen to what he says next and those
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descendants of levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in
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the law to take tithes from the people that is from their brothers though these are also descending from
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abraham but this man melchizedek who does not have his descent from them
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received tithes from abraham and blessed him who had the promises it is beyond dispute that the inferior
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is blessed by the superior in the one case tithes are received by mortal men
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but in the other case by one of whom it is testified that he leaves
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one might even say that leeva himself who receives tithes paid tithes to it through abraham
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for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when melchizedek met him
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why is he saying this this word here see in verse 4 we just saw that abraham
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himself recognized the authority of melchizedek by his by receiving a blessing from melchizedek and then
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giving him his tithe now in verses 5 through 10 now the writer is presenting
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a very strong argument to show how greater melchizedek's priestly order is than the
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levite see the levites were appointed by god as priests and they were to receive
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tithes from their own the other tribes of israel so now when abraham acknowledged the
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greatness of melchizedek the 12 tribes of israel were involved in the process
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okay the tribe of levi included because jewish people believed
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in racial solidarity and this is an example of it because when abraham paid
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his ties to melchizedek the unborn generation was also involved in the process this is
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why he uses the argument in verses 5-10 you say for he was still in the loins of
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his ancestor when melchizedek met him basically the levites were also involved in the process they also paid tied to
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melchizedek basically they are less than melchizedek if abraham was the father of
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all the tribes paid ties to melchizedek levi uh indirectly is also pain tied to
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melchizedek this is what he's trying to show here that melchizedek is a far superior um
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prison delivered because they actually paid ties to him through abraham their
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father so you see how he's just presenting one argument after the next see when you and
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i hear these words today it doesn't really give us goosebumps like it did those people who were
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reading the letter see they understood the writer's argument clearly it wasn't
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ambiguous to them for us we like here what does that mean i don't care no like it really means a lot okay because his
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main objective is to show through scripture that since jesus order was
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after melchizedek as declared by god himself in psalm 110 verse 4 and because
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melchizedek's order is greater than aaron then jesus is
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greater and is the best and is the highest of the highest high priest
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because he passed through the heavens he has an endless ministry he's both king
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and he's also priest and he's both king of peace and he's also both king of
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righteousness and he is greater than all now to me this is also strong proof that
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of the divine origin of the scripture because god knew god knew that a newer
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generation of believers would indeed someday need to be reassured about jesus
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so he he allows melchizedek to appear all the way in genesis so that today
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uh the writer of the book of hebrew could use that argument to show
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how jesus order is after melchizedek now the bible is a collection of books i had
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an interesting conversation with one of my friends the other day who said to me that the bible was written by people who
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wanted to dominate other people i'm like where did you hear that he can give me an argument for it first of all the
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bible is the collection of books written over thousands of years like 2000 years
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pretty much if i'm not mistaken and each book has by different authors and each author has
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a portion of the story and the way the harmony with which scripture comes together is incredible
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i mean i have so much more arguments about the veracity and the validity of the scripture for but to me though
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one of the most interesting aspects of it is the harmony with which scriptures come together to converge to the same
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point and that is jesus christ the stories begins with abraham and then you
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go all the way to the book of what genesis exodus every single one of the stories points to jesus all the way to
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revelation which is the the finality of all of it i mean it's incredible so the divine origin of the scripture is
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so clear but again the scripture says that to the natural man these are foolishness
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but to me and to those that believe this is great news now to wrap this up we
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talked about the identity of melchizedek who was melchizedek we know that this was a real man that existed in history
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and he was allowed to be both king or king of salem and king of what king also he was also a
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priest of the most high god they only want to be called king and priest at the same time and the second we see that he
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is king of righteousness and he's also king of peace and then third we see that abraham himself recognizes melchizedek's
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authority by paying tithes to melchizedek and we see that melchizedek doesn't have a genealogy he doesn't have
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a beginning of life and in the end of day so he continues forever as a priest so
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all those elements again the writers building this case which we're going to see versus from verses 11 to 25 he is
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trying to show how jesus derives his ministry after the order of melchizedek
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and there's a reason for it and then next week we're going to find out what that reason is but today all we wanted
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to see was the the origin of melchizedek and who is melchizedek and the identity
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of melchizedek and then next week we're going to talk about why this is so important for us today
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again one of the things that i've really enjoyed about the book of hebrews is understanding
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how jesus really came to identify with humans in order to be a high priest of better
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things of a better hope because he truly understands the human experience again i've i've i'm i'm asking the lord to
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give me uh reassurance about me coming to the throne of grace because the one to the
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person whom i come to understands my condition he knows what it means to be a
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human and because he is sin less and he's separated from sinners doesn't mean that he's isolated
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he can truly have compassion and help me because he said because i've overcome the world you shall also overcome so
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whatever you're going through i said let's go to him because the scripture also tells us in first peter
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cast all your burdens upon him for he cares for you so it's a real thing i don't just want to
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have these things like theoretically i want them to be applicable in my life i want to live it out
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and that's what i've been asking the lord and i pray that this is also what you're doing okay so have a wonderful day and i see you next week thank you