In Hebrews 7, we have the superiority of Christ's person, of his priesthood, and of his testament. Hear now the reading of God's inspired, inerrant, and infallible word, Hebrews 7. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a 10th part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that, also king of Salem, which is king of peace. without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but was made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now, consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the 10th of the spoils. And verily, they that are the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest, for those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's? For this he did once, when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests, which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. Thus far the reading of God's holy word from Hebrews chapter seven. Quite a packed passage. Many good and choice truths laid before us here. This is what he said before he would tell them if God willed these things about Melchizedek, his priesthood and the relationship between him and Christ. These are hard things to be interpreted, to be understood. Verses 1 through 10, we have a more particular account of Melchizedek and his priesthood, showing its superiority to Aaron's. Verse 1 says this, Melchizedek, you may read of him in Genesis 14 verses 18 through 20. He is called the King of Righteousness. Here's the interpretation. Here's the exposition of the name. Melchi is King. Tzudek is Righteousness. The city Salem is the City of Peace. So His name means King of Righteousness. His location means He's the King of Peace. Both types of Christ. Both foreshadowing our Lord Jesus Christ. Note there, verse 3. He is without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. Now let me tell you, this is how He reflects our Lord Jesus Christ, not according to His manhood. Did our Lord Jesus Christ have a father? Well, He's the Son of David, so in that sense, yes. Was he without a mother? No, he had his mother Mary. Was he without descent? Of course not. We read of it in Matthew and in Luke, there is the genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And here he says, Melchizedek is without descent, agenelegeitas, without genealogy. In other words, he has no recorded genealogy. Now you will look high and you will look low throughout the book of Genesis and you will never find a genealogy of this man. You will not find who his mother was. You will not find who his father was. You will not find that he had a descendant. What about Aaron? Do you know who Aaron's father was? Yes. Do you know who his mother was? Yes. Do you know who his descendants were? Eleazar, of course. Phinehas, his grandson. We know all these things. That's the contrast. Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature as the son of God, he has no father. He has no mother in the sense of a genealogy. He has God as his father, of course. But there is no human genealogy in the son of God. That's how Melchizedek is made like unto the son of God. He is like an image impressed by this mold. Christ is pressed in and Melchizedek is a copy or they say a facsimile of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Now note that even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils to him. Here's how the argument runs. Abraham is the father of all that believe, right? He's the great one. He is the father of many nations, the first of those justified by faith recorded in the Bible. Okay, he is less than Melchizedek. That's the argument. You have the greatest of believers, Melchizedek is greater than him. Who is less than Abraham? Well, of course, all his descendants, including who? Levi, including Aaron, who's less than Levi. So if you look at it and you say, Aaron's less than Levi, Levi is less than Abraham, and Abraham is less than Melchizedek, who's greater, Melchizedek or Aaron? It's obvious, isn't it? There is a superiority in Melchizedek, both by the blessing that he gave to Abraham and by the receiving of tithes by Levi himself in the loins of his father, Abraham. The less is blessed of the better. It is an act of superiority for Melchizedek to pronounce a blessing from the most high God upon Abraham, the servant of God. Then note another contrast. This rank of superiority by tithes and also by blessing is given. Now he gives another or two others in verse 8. Here, men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. Note. here and there, on the earth in Jerusalem, in heaven, in the heavenly Jerusalem. Also note that on the earth in Jerusalem, those priests die. Men that die receive tithes. What about him who receives tithes in heaven? Well, it's witnessed that he liveth forever. He has an endless life. His priesthood then will never go to a son of his, will it? No, of course not. He is immortal. He is heavenly as our priest. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore his priesthood far outstrips the Levites upon the earth. Then this all gets applied in verses 18, or excuse me, 11 through 28 to our Lord Jesus Christ, showing that his person, his office, and his testament are superior to the Aaronic priesthood, the person of Aaron, and also the Old Testament. Verse 11, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek? This is a completed fact. God said he would raise up a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He did it. Are there any more priests after the order of Melchizedek? No, because his life goes on forevermore. There is no need for more. Now, but notice here in verse 12, he says, for the priesthood being changed, that is from the order of Aaron to the order of Melchizedek, there is made of necessity also a change of the law. What law? Is this the law of the 10 commandments? God's going to change the moral law because of what? The change of a priesthood? What law is he talking about? What law is he referring to? It is the law of the priesthood, the law of a carnal commandment, the law that a son of Levi should inherit the priesthood from his father by physical descent, the law of carnal commandment as it is called. Now it's contrasted this law of carnal commandment with what? The oath that God swore in Psalm 110. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek versus You are descended from Levi, from the household of Aaron, and you are the firstborn son, as it traces down through the genealogy. That is a carnal commandment. It concerns the flesh, it concerns physical descent, it concerns who is your father, who is your mother, what is your genealogy, which Melchizedek did not have in the book of Genesis, and which our Lord, who sprang from Judah, did not have. He was sworn in by the father himself, Psalm 110. That's the law that changed. If you want to change the Ten Commandments, you need to change two things. One, the nature of God. Two, the nature of God's creation of man. You have to change those two if you want to change the Ten Commandments. Why? Because the Ten Commandments is God's holiness adjusted to human nature. How is it that man created in the image of God is to live? The Ten Commandments tells you. You wanna change that? You gotta change man. Make him into a beast, make him into a demon, make him into some other creature, but not man. Okay, so this law of carnal commandment must necessarily be changed. Verses 13 and 14 show us that Christ's descent was not from Levi, but rather from Judah, the kingly tribe, not the priestly. Verse 16, again, who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. Christ is the son of God. He is immortal. Death could not hold him. He rose again from the dead. He has an endless life. That power contrasted with what? And he died. And his son Eleazar. And Eleazar died. We just read that, didn't we? Where was he buried? On the plot of ground that belonged to whom? Phanehas, his son, who did what? Who inherited the priesthood from him. The law of carnal commandment versus the power of a life that never ends. This is the difference between the priesthood of Christ that never ends and the priesthood of Aaron that stops when Aaron died. Then it's the priesthood of Eleazar, then it's the priesthood of Phanehas and so on and so forth. The endless life of Christ. I note then this doctrine, the Christian priesthood is exclusively Christ's. The Christian priesthood is exclusively Christ. Do we have a priest? Yes, but just one. And that priest is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself. And those who are united to him are united in his priesthood. So do we have official priests in the Christian church? Of course not. We have one priest who has an office that is untrespassable. That priesthood with an endless life never has a successor. Now, many claim to be the successors of Christ. Many claim to be priests on the earth. And do you know what they're doing? They're saying that Christ's priesthood has come to an end and someone else must succeed him. Do you realize how blasphemous that is? As if Christ's priesthood were over and done. As if his endless life had been terminated? As if his untrespassable priesthood could be stepped on by men? No. There is no Melchizedekian priesthood. There are no vicars of Christ. There are no priests upon the earth. The Christian priesthood is exclusively vested in Christ. And in that figurative way, we are a kingdom of priests. Every single believer participates in the rights of Christ, their head. Let us then rejoice that we are united together with our head, Jesus Christ. He has an endless life. What do we have? Endless life. He has the priesthood. What are we? We are a kingdom of priests unto God and our father. Verse 18 refers to the disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. Why was it weak? Well, the priests were sinners. They had infirmities. Why was it unprofitable? Because their priesthood couldn't go on and the sacrifices that they offered, what were they? Blood of bulls and goats. You think that's gonna profit you with God? You think that's gonna wash away your sins? Of course not. So God abrogated it. God disannulled it. God abolished that old commandment. It could not bring everlasting life. And this again is a rebuke. to all supposed priests, to all of their feigned altars, to all of their supposed atoning sacrifices, whether Jewish, Papist, Mormon, Eastern Orthodox, or Anglican, all are unprofitable. Every priest cannot profit me. He cannot atone for my sins. He is infirmed and sinful himself, just as Aaron was. And therefore all other priesthoods make nothing perfect. Verse 19. What makes perfect? The bringing in of a better hope by which we draw nigh unto God through the veil that is the flesh of Jesus Christ. We can pray to God who God has appointed his son as that means by which we draw near that better hope that we have. Imagine placing all your hopes for the future on Aaron. He couldn't even make it through the golden calf without falling. Right? How reliable was Aaron? How much hope could you place in him? Now contrast Jesus Christ our Lord. How much hope can you have in him? Absolute full confidence. You can draw nigh unto God himself through our Lord Jesus Christ. Note there, Christ is said to be the surety in verse 22 of a better testament. This word means a sponsor, a guarantor, one who makes good what is promised in the Testament. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. God's salvation is testamental. God made an oath to secure these gifts and goods. Then he appointed one to distribute those gifts. That is our Lord Jesus Christ, who will guarantee, who died and shed his blood to guarantee that all the benefits go to the heirs. And now, not only did he die, but he ever liveth to make intercession for us, and therefore all of the benefits will be realized for all of the heirs. Now this is very different from what we call covenant theology. The theology that the Bible is one big covenant book. Well, does the Bible have covenants in it? Yes. We read one in Joshua, didn't we? The people had to come together and consent to what God had said. Is that what this is talking about? No, this is God's testament. This is God's mediator, our Lord Jesus Christ, guaranteeing by His own death, by His resurrection, that we will be saved and receive all the benefits. The Testament is not a mere motif or theme. It is the major theme of our salvation. God has done it all. He has appointed the goods. He has appointed the heirs. He has sworn an oath. He sent his son to die so that the goods would come to the heirs. That's a Testament. The New Testament. The Testament in Jesus' blood. The Testament of which Jesus is a guarantor, a sponsor, and a surety. Is there a covenant motif in scripture? Yes, there are occasions that refer to covenants, obviously. There's no point in denying it. But we must recognize monergism is testament, synergism is covenant. So if we make our salvation covenantal, we're making it monergistic, or excuse me, synergistic, the work of two. We come together, covenere, to come together, covenant. Now there are two words in the New Testament, diatheke, where something is pushed through by the will of one. That is a testament. Then there is the word suntheke, which means the coming together of parties to make the terms together. A covenant is a suntheke, where multiple parties put together. God's salvation is monergistic, therefore it is not covenantal. Are there covenantal aspects? Yes. Must we receive the terms that God lays forth? Yes. But did you know that your receiving of God's terms is a benefit guaranteed by the Testament? Faith itself is a what? Gift of God. How do you get gifts? Freely by Testament. God gives faith that enables you to keep those covenantal parts. It's that simple. God does it all. Let us then bask in the goodness of our Father. We are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. Let us delight in Christ, who is our surety. He guarantees that the terms of the Testament will be fulfilled. What about Aaron? Could he do that? Of course not. This is why we have a better testament with better promises. Aaron was not suffered to continue by reason of death. This is part of the carnal commandment. He had to pass on the priesthood to his son. But because Jesus our Lord continueth ever, he hath an unchangeable priesthood. The power of the endless life becomes the power of his priesthood, becomes the guarantee of God's testament, becomes eternal life for the heirs. That's what he's saying. The endless life of Christ leads to an untrespassable priesthood, leads to a guaranteed salvation, leads to a strong hope for us. Christ's priesthood is said to be unchangeable. This literally means you cannot transgress upon it. You cannot violate it. Thayer says not to be violated or inviolable, unchangeable, and therefore not liable to pass to a successor. That's it. No successors in the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. No vicars upon the earth, unless you're a Jew and you want to go back to Judaism. There are no vicars of Christ upon the earth. Do you know whose vicars they are? The Antichrists. They represent some other priesthood, some other salvation, some other Testament, but not that of Christ himself. Christ is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Do you see what's bound up in this priesthood of Christ? Every good thing we expect from God is bound up in Christ's priesthood. Do you want to be saved all the way to the end or halfway there? All the way. So you need a priest that can get you all the way to the end. And do you know what a mortal priest can do for you? He can't even get you halfway. He can't even get you started. He can tell you he's got you on the way to hell. And that's it. We need the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that untrespassable priesthood, that by which He saves to the uttermost, because He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Did Aaron have an endless life to pray? You know that some of these half-pagan, half-Christians believe that the saints pray for you in heaven. Is that what he's talking about? Is it the saints who intercede for us to bring us at last to glory? No! It is Christ Jesus, our Lord, fully God, fully man. He knows all that we suffer. He knows all the obstacles between now and glory. And He prays specifically for each and every one of us that we will make it to the end. Can your silly little saints do this? Your demigods? Can they pray for you with omniscience? Can they know the will of God and pray so that you will come at last to glory? If you believe so, you are a fool. No creature can come and save to the uttermost. No Aaron in heaven, no Aaron upon the earth. Such an high priest became us, he says, exactly suited to our needs. How? Holy, harmless, undefiled. Does that describe Aaron? Does that describe any other priest? Does that describe any other elder or pastor? Absolutely not! Separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. These glorious attributes, this current reign of Jesus Christ, our priest who is a king, there we have salvation. The earthly priest must atone for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. Christ has no need to atone for his own sins. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and therefore when he once offered himself up, who was it for? Everyone else. None for himself. For he did this once, that is offer for the sins of the people once when he offered up himself, not some bull, not some lamb, not some goat, but his own body and soul himself. Now the word once, there are different words in the Greek New Testament. One is hapox, it means just once. Then there is a word epihapox, or ephapox, which means once and once only. Do you want to guess which one this is? Ephapox, upon the once, only once, never to be repeated, he offered up himself In the Mass? Every week? By the priest? On an altar? Do you see how ridiculous that is? Our Lord Jesus Christ, an untrespassable priesthood, having an endless life as the Son of God, offered himself once, and once only, he offered his own body upon the cross. Christ's offering is never to be repeated. There are no anti-Christian priests continuing to offer sacrifices for the living and the dead. Let us then rest in, delight in, rejoice in, have hope in what Christ has done once for all. Do you remember at the end of his life what did he say? Tetelestai, it stands finished, once for all, all completed, here's the pink slip paid in full. This is the nature of our redemption. This is the nature of Christ's priesthood. This is the guarantee of God's testament. And thus far the explanation of Hebrews chapter 7.