"The Salem" Genesis 14:17-24 Sunday Morning Worship Service

This morning, Genesis 14 to prepare our hearts before communion, verses 17.

I I wanted this to be like part of our Advent series.

It was our in our series of Jesus in Genesis, but there just wasn't enough Sundays in Advent.

So this sermon just kind of hangs out here on this communion Sunday.

Verse 17.

After his return from the defeat of Cheddar Lamor and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him, him being Abram, at the valley of Shabbat, that is the King's Valley.

And Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

See, it's a communion passage.

He was priest of God most high.

And blessed him and said, Blessed are Abram by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hands.

And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

The king of Sodom said to Abram, Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself.

Abram said to the king of Sodom, I've lifted my hands to Yahweh, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and I wouldn't take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that's yours, lest you should say, I've made Abram rich.

I'll take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, let Ann or Eshkel and Momre take their share.

This is the word of God, and I pray that God would seal its reading on your heart.

The basic theme in this passage is that there are two cities in this world.

There is the city of man and the city of God.

There is the kingdom of man as expressed through the kings on earth, and the kingdom of God as expressed through the king, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a theme throughout Scripture.

These two kingdoms are often at war.

They are in conflict.

They both demand exclusive loyalty.

They both have differing agendas, differing motivations, differing ethics.

They are hostile towards each other.

It's too much to say they don't overlap.

Of course they overlap.

We are citizens of both kingdoms.

We're a citizen as Christians of the kingdom of God.

We're a citizen of our own earthly country as well.

But those kingdoms, you have to understand, pull against each other.

They have tension and they are in conflict.

And this conflict does not begin in Genesis 14, although it is throughout the Bible.

The first time you see this is, well, you see Cain rise up and murder Abel.

You see, even after that, Lemech, who refuses to uh honor the Lord.

You see the line of Seth carrying on the this promise given to Eve of a Savior, and you see the other people in the world hostile towards Seth and his followers, the devil siding with them.

But after the flood, this becomes, this scene in Genesis 14 really crystallizes this conflict.

You have the kings of the world against the promise of the king of heaven.

These two kingdoms both demand loyalty, and as much as people try to live in both worlds with a divided loyalty, listen, you cannot.

You cannot have ultimate allegiance to both.

You cannot serve both God and money, is the language that Jesus says.

And money is the currency of the kingdoms of this world.

God is the Lord of both kingdoms, God is the king of both kingdoms, and we live in both kingdoms, but we must understand that there is a war between them.

This chapter describes that war and describes what is arguably the most significant battle in Abram's life.

And Abram himself was a warrior.

In fact, in the first half of chapter 14, he is returning from war where he defeated a whole heap of kings.

Abram is experienced in battle.

He is put in difficult and uh treacherous situations throughout his life, and yet I'm telling you, this battle you see right here, so much is hinging on it.

This is the most critical and difficult battle of Abram's life.

Now, first of all, this is a highly symbolic scene.

Now let me tell you what I mean by that.

The three people we meet in this chapter.

We meet the king of Sodom, we meet Melchizedek, the king of peace or the king of righteousness, and we meet Abram.

All three of these people are real people.

I'm telling you, they're real people.

The king of Sodom, the king named Melchizedek, and Abram are actual people.

The king of Sodom and the King of Salem, both kings of real places, this conversation really happens.

However, there is a lot more going on than on the surface of this congress conversation.

For example, it says this conversation takes place at the end of verse 17 in the Valley of Shabbat, that it's the King's Valley.

I mean, that's that's the Mount of Olives.

It's the base of the Mount of Olives.

That's the Kidron Valley.

On the side, if you're standing there, uh on the side up the hill is the Temple Mount today.

If you're standing at this place today, it's in shade most of the day because the wall of the Temple Mount blocks it.

Across the road, and today it's a little two-lane road, but across the road there is the Garden of Gethsemane.

It's the Church of the Temptation.

All that's right here at this little intersection.

This is where this was.

This is a specific place.

The Jews have made a monument of this today.

It's Absalom's tomb, they call it.

I've taken groups to Israel before that have gone and seen this.

I mean, this is that spot, the top of the hill.

The Mount of Olives is not that big of a, it's called a mountain, but it's not that big of a hill.

And at the top of it is where Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.

The Garden of Gethsemane is where he prays, let this cut pass from me.

This is the place where that conversation takes place.

If you go around the creek a little bit, it becomes the Galilee of Gehenna, the Galilee, the Valley of Gehenna, the Valley of Hell.

This is all right here.

So when you have the king of Sodom and the King of Righteousness arguing over Abraham in the Garden of Gethsemane, you don't have to go to Bible college to realize there's something more going on here.

Now, this shouldn't surprise us either, as we're familiar with Genesis.

I've done this series through Genesis to show you how Genesis is providing outlines of types of Christ.

Genesis is giving you the outline that Jesus then fills in in the New Testament.

So Genesis prepares you to recognize Jesus.

Genesis gives you a series of these types, or you can use, if some people don't like the word types, you can use a different word, I don't really care.

But the idea is that Genesis is giving you this outline, then Jesus then fills in so that when you get to the New Testament, you recognize him.

And as I mentioned, this has been our Advent series.

Genesis chapter 3 taught you that the Savior would be the seed of the woman, a prophecy of the virgin birth.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It teaches you the humanity of the Savior.

The Savior will be a human being.

In Genesis 8, the Savior will be, well, a Savior.

This is Peter's language that the ark represents salvation by pointing to the fact that God knows how to protect his people through judgment.

God, through their savior, uh, can carry people through judgment.

So Jesus will be a savior.

Genesis 15 teaches you the savior will be a son.

He will descend from Abram, he will be a Jew, he will be a male Jew, he will be a descendant of Abram.

The Savior will be a son and he will be Jewish.

Genesis 22, the Savior will be a substitute.

This is where Abram was going to offer Isaac, and his knife goes up, and God stops the sacrifice, and Abram says, Yahweh himself will provide the sacrifice.

This prepares you so by the New Testament you understand that the Savior will be a human being, virgin born, will save his people from their sin, will be a son in the line of Abram, and will be a substitute for sinners.

And finally, we saw that the Savior was a scepter.

He will be a king, he will be from the line of Judah, and he will be a true and proper king.

All of that Genesis is preparing you for.

There's so many others in Genesis that the Savior will be like Joseph, you know, betrayed by Israel, betrayed by the twelve tribes, sold into captivity, flying to Egypt, returning from Egypt, thrown into a pit to die, resurrecting on the third day, that kind of image.

This stuff is all over Genesis.

But Genesis 14 is even more blatant than even those.

Genesis 14 is where we will turn our attention this morning.

And as your outline, I want to walk you through how Jesus is our peace.

He's Machizedek here is identified as the king of Salem.

Salem just means peace.

The word Jerusalem, where this conversation takes place, is the you know the phrase for the city or the town of peace, Salem being in Jerusalem's name.

This conversation establishes that Jesus will be our peace.

He will be our Salem, he will be our peace in at least five different ways.

There's probably more than that, but at least five that I'll draw our attention to this morning.

First, this passage teaches us that the Savior will be an intercessor.

The Savior will be an intercessor.

Now it's customary when the people go out to war, in the ancient Near East, anyway, when the kings would go out to war, that the priests of the town the kings were from would walk with the troops as they went out for battle, and they would remain outside of the city praying and making sacrifices and offerings, and all the different kingdoms would do this, and they'd all have different rituals and traditions, and they would each reflect their own religion.

That's what would happen.

The priests would be out there praying and making their sacrifices, waiting for the soldiers to return.

And of course, when the soldiers returned, they would be met by their wives and their parents, you know, wives looking, they'd their husband make it back, and parents and my kids make it back, and kids and my dad make it back.

But the priests would be out there, and he wasn't looking for any particular person to return.

He had been out there praying for a successful victory.

This is what Abram encounters.

Now, what's happening in Genesis 14, remember, is that Abram and Lot split up.

They were on the top of the mountain.

Lot went towards Sodom.

Abram went towards Jerusalem.

Lot has now been kidnapped.

He built his life in Sodom, and these warring kings came down and pillaged Sodom, kidnapped Lot.

They plundered and pillaged all up the Jordan River Valley.

They took all kinds of loot, kidnapped all kinds of people, wreaking havoc wherever they went.

And Abram hears about this, and Abram goes, makes up a little army, takes his slaves, and gets a little coalition together, and goes after them to rescue the kidnapped people, including Lot.

Abram chases them all the way up the Jordan River Valley, past the headwaters of the Jordan, all the way into Syria, finally catches them in Damascus.

That's the first half of chapter 14.

Abram goes to war, wins the battle, gets all of the loot, all of the plunder, and the people, and brings them back.

And he does not bring them back to Sodom.

He brings them back to Jerusalem, with the area that would one day be Jerusalem.

And it is here where he encounters outside of Jerusalem, in the little valley that would be just like the town limits of Jerusalem.

Here is where Abram encounters this priest who has been praying for him to Yahweh.

It's not a false religion.

It says in the parentheses there in verse 18, he's a true priest of God most high.

How do you know he's praying for him?

Well, it says in verse 19 the content of this, it's somewhat of a benediction, and you're familiar with the benediction, and we do it at the end of every service.

It's like half prayer and half admonition.

And that's what this is.

It's it's you know, go in the grace of our Lord and Savior.

May God bless you and keep you as you walk according to his will.

So it's a prayer to God that you would walk in imperative towards you.

This is what Melchizedek is doing for Abram.

Abram gets back, Melchizedek is outside waiting for him, having prayed for him, and he his prayer you see in verse 20 and verse 19 that Abram would be blessed by God most high.

God most high has delivered him.

It's a prayer towards God who's delivered Abram into his hands.

And I say interceding here, he's not just praying for him, he's also gently chiding him or warning might be too strong of a language, but he's telling him, Abram, remember, God gave you the victory.

Abram just plundered a whole stack of kings here.

He's got all this loot and all these people.

He's wealthy now, he's powerful.

There would be the temptation for him to be arrogant and think that he is some kind of military hero, that he is bigger than he is, that he's responsible for his victory.

That would be a temptation.

That would be a temptation for anyone, not even particular to Abraham.

Anybody who has that kind of victory and success in life would come back feeling pretty good about themselves.

And here he meets Melchizedek, who reminds him, hey man, I'm praying for you.

I'm praying that you would recognize God gave you the victory.

Not you, God through you.

This little admonition we're gonna see wards off potential catastrophe in Abram's life.

Abram is supposed to be separate from the people of the world.

He's gonna produce his own nation from him.

He's not supposed to intermingle with them, he's not supposed to build a life with them, he's supposed to be distinct.

And after the victory, the king of Sodom is trucking to go meet Abram.

The king of Sodom wants to intercept Abram and get Abram to follow him and move in with him and get the wealth to him and wants to join forces with Abram.

And right at the moment the king of Sodom gets there, it appears that Melchizedek gets there first.

I picture like secret service style, jumping in front of the bullet.

Right as the king of Sodom is about to make his entreaty.

There is Melchizedek.

He says, Hey, I've prayed for you.

I've prayed that you would remember God's promise to you.

That God made the God most high, the one who owns heaven and earth, he's the one that delivered the enemies into your hand.

That's what I mean by he's an intercessor.

God's favor towards Abram is here seen through Melchizedek.

That's what an intercessor means.

God gives Abram favor, but through the funnel of Melchizedek.

God's favor to Abram comes through Melchizedek.

And Abram in turn returns worship to God, but look at verse, the end of verse 20.

Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Abram returns worship to God, but by worshiping through Melchizedek.

That's an intercessor.

God blesses Abram through this person.

Abram worships God through that person.

Intercessor, he's praying for him.

Mediator, he's dispensing the grace of God to him.

And mediator the other way, that Abram works back his worship to God through Melchizedek.

That's what a mediator is.

Now, the Roman Catholic Church looks at this story and says, this is the pattern for all saints.

That all saints are now mediators, that there are those in heaven with uh with excess grace and works and merit, and so you can receive God's blessing by praying through them, and they can dispense God's blessing to you.

They are mediators.

But the New Testament says there's only one mediator between God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus.

In other words, that the Father in heaven only blesses people through Jesus Christ.

That God can bless whomever he wants, but he only wants to bless people through Jesus Christ, through no other channel.

There is no other door of blessing in all of the universe than through Jesus Christ.

The only people the Father blesses are those whom he blesses through the Son, and vice versa.

It goes backwards.

You can worship the true God, but you can only worship the true God through Jesus Christ.

There is no other way to worship the true God than bringing your worship through Jesus Christ.

There is no other mediator, only Christ.

What then of this passage?

Because this looks pretty mediator-ish to me, doesn't it?

Father to Abram through Melchizedek.

That's because Melchizedek is a type of Christ.

He's demonstrating to you that when you see the Savior, your only way to receive blessing from heaven will be through him.

The only people God blesses come through Christ.

And the only way to worship God is by worshiping him through his own chosen mediator, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

Abraham is acting that out for you right here by saying, I want to give God.

I just had a victory given to me by God.

I want to give some of it back to him.

I want to show him I'm worshiping him, but how can I give to God?

You give to his mediator here, Melchizedek.

And like I said, there is only one intercessor.

Just as Sodom was going to tempt Abram and the mediator steps in, so the devil is after you.

So worldliness tempts tempts you, so sin tempts you.

The moment of temptation, recall that you have a mediator in heaven right now, the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, the God man at the throne of God, in heaven, even now, making intercession for you.

And recall that when you're tempted, that we have a better mediator than Melchizedek, who is praying for us even now.

So, first, this story teaches us that the Savior will be a mediator.

Second, that the Savior will be a priest king.

He will be a priest king.

It says in verse 18 that Melchizedek is the king of Salem.

It also says that he's a priest of the God most high.

That should set off all the alarm buttons in your head.

You can't be both a king and a priest.

That is low Tove.

That is not allowed.

You can't do both functions.

You can't do both functions for a lot of reasons.

First of all, the kings in Torah come from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, the fourth son of Israel, Judah, all the kings will come from him.

The priests, meanwhile, all come from Levi.

And it's more than just like, you know, Jacob sharing the wealth of assignments in the kingdom.

It's a very practical function to this.

The tribe of Judah, remember, all the twelve tribes get land allotted to them.

The tribe of Judah, their land includes Jerusalem.

Where this conversation takes place.

This land will belong to the tribe of Judah.

That is why the kings that come through Judah in the Old Testament always reign in Jerusalem.

That's the land given to the tribe of Judah.

That's the place where kings are.

In contrast, the tribe of Levi does not get any land.

They're supposed to disperse throughout all twelve tribes.

So that everywhere in the promised land, all of Israel can worship God through the work of the priests.

The kings are consolidated in Jerusalem.

The priests are scattered, and you cannot be both.

Beyond just the genealogy and the land function, there's just think of what a king and a priest does.

They're so different.

Kings lead people to war, priests pray for peace.

Kings rule, priests intercede.

Kings collect taxes, priests offer sacrifices.

Kings consolidate power, priests direct worship.

Kings bring people to themselves, priests bring people to heaven.

I mean, there's totally different functions in society, even the Israelite society.

And so God prohibits one person from doing both.

And it would be so tempting if you were a good king to want to be a priest, wouldn't it?

There's a temptation in people.

If somebody is good at one thing, they somehow think they're good at all things.

Have you met a person like that?

You know, you meet the pilot who's a good pilot, so he thinks he'd be a good accountant.

Or probably it's more dangerous to flip it.

The guy who's a good accountant who thinks he would be a good pilot.

Uh-oh.

I met somebody after a second hour who said, just so you know, I'm a pilot and also a CPA.

Alright, so for you it doesn't count, but you're definitely not good at gardening, I'll tell you that right now.

That guy can't garden at all.

You know who's specifically susceptible to this kind of temptation?

Politicians.

They're good at leading people, they're good at winning an election, and so they suddenly think they're good at all things.

There's nothing they don't know.

I have an example of one.

Uzziah.

Godly King Uzziah.

He walked in the ways of the Lord, 2 Kings 15 says.

He was a godly man.

Everybody respected him, loved him, he honored the Lord in his life.

He was so good at what he did.

2 Chronicles 26 says he was skilled at warfare.

He also beat all kinds of kings, brought all kinds of people into submission.

In fact, 2 Chronicles 26 says he was famous throughout all of Egypt for his military victories.

The most famous warrior in Egypt was an Israelite king, Uzziah.

But in 2 Chronicles 26, he came back from one battle after just winning all kinds of kings.

He parades them back to Jerusalem and he comes back and he doesn't like how worship is being done in the temple.

And he's going to straighten that out next, too.

So he heads to the temple to rearrange the worship there.

And he's not allowed to do that.

He's the king from Judah.

He's not a priest.

And so the high priest Azariah intercepts him and says, You can't do that.

And he throws him aside and heads on anyway.

And the high priest goes and gets 80 other priests.

And if you remember 2 Chronicles 26, they lock arms to block him from getting into the temple.

They make a blockade and he gets so angry at them for keeping him from going to the temple to worship.

And they tell him, It's not right.

You're a king, you cannot be a priest.

He gets mad at them, and God strikes him with leprosy.

That was a good king.

One of the best.

And he was tempted to be a priest.

This is the king that, when this king died, remember, this is the king that made Isaiah cry.

When the king Uzziah died, Isaiah was broken.

He thought he was the one.

He was not the one.

The one will be a king priest.

Uzziah tried it, rejected by God.

You can say the pattern positively that the Savior will be a king priest.

Or you can say it negatively.

If anyone tries to be a king priest and God rejects them, they are not the Savior.

Israel would know no king priest until Zechariah 6.

And Zechariah 6 comes in and says, When the Savior comes, he will take the branch of Jesse, the kingly line, and unite it with the priest, and the two will.

Have one function.

They will be on the throne and rule together.

There will be a priest king.

That's Zechariah 6.

That's after the exile.

That's, you know, 800 years or whatever after David.

That's a long time away.

But when he says it, it's not brand new.

It's prophesied here, even in Genesis 14.

The Savior Himself will be like Melchizedek.

He will be a king priest.

Thirdly.

Jesus will be our peace because he's our intercessor.

He's our priest king.

Thirdly, he is righteous.

The name Melchizedek here means the king of righteousness.

Melech being king, Zadek righteousness, his name literally means the king of righteousness.

Righteousness is an attribute of God.

God is righteous by his own nature.

Something is righteous if it corresponds to God.

Righteousness is an attribute of God.

People cannot earn righteousness.

We often think we can.

We think if we do good deeds, we merit or acquire righteousness.

But no, righteousness cannot be earned or merited.

It can be forfeited.

When you do bad deeds, it exposes your lack of righteousness.

Righteousness is a commodity that you can sell, but you can't buy, in other words.

You can only lose it.

This is why righteousness is so precious.

Nobody can see God unless they're righteous.

When you die, you will only stand before God and be accepted into heaven if you are righteous.

But you cannot gain, earn, or merit righteousness by your own works.

There's no way to do it.

This is the great mystery of the Bible.

How can God forgive sins and be righteous?

A righteous judge can't just overlook sin.

A righteous judge can't just say, Oh, you're a sinner, you've done bad things, you don't have righteousness, but I'm gonna overlook that.

You can't do that.

This is a massive theme in the New Testament.

It's a mystery in the Old Testament, it's a theme in the New Testament.

I'm thinking specifically of Romans.

Romans 1.17 says that in the gospel of God, the righteousness of God is revealed.

Think about that verse for a second.

In the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.

What does that mean?

Well, God Himself is righteous, but in the gospel, God passes over our sin by giving our sin to his sinless son, Jesus Christ.

So Jesus was sinless, he had no sin of his own, he takes on our sin.

God then pours out all the wrath and judgment on Jesus that we deserve, so that sin is actually and legitimately punished by pouring wrath on Jesus.

Now we can put our faith in Jesus, and God can forgive us and still be called righteous.

That's the righteousness of God on display through the gospel.

As I mentioned, people cannot get righteousness on their own, but God passes over sin even in the Old Testament.

Romans 3 says that back in the Old Covenant days, God passed over sins previously committed in order to display his righteousness.

There's that concept again.

How can God pass over sins to display righteousness?

Because God demonstrates his righteousness by punishing Christ for our sin.

You can't earn righteousness by law-keeping, but you expose your need for it by sinning.

God passes over your need to display his own righteousness.

Romans 4.22 connects all the dots by saying, When you place your faith in Jesus, God counts that to you as righteousness.

That's Romans 4.22.

He credits you righteousness.

He gives it to you as a gift.

You didn't earn it, but you place your faith in Jesus and God declares you to be righteous.

Romans tells you that this comes from the Old Testament.

Do you remember where in the Old Testament?

From Abram.

Abram believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

This is not a secondary point in Genesis.

This is the heart of the Abram story in Genesis.

Over and over and over again.

This is not a point of Abram.

This is the point of Abram that he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

You see it in Genesis 12, Genesis 13, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, Genesis 22.

Over and over and over again, it's showing you Abram puts his faith in God, and because of that faith, he is declared righteous, and God makes a covenant with him.

When you place your faith in the seed of Abram, you are declared righteous.

Romans 6.18 says that when you have your sins forgiven through faith in Christ, you become a, listen carefully, Romans 6.18, you become a slave of righteousness.

What about Melchizedek?

He is the king of righteousness.

I don't know much about flow charts in the ancient Near East and authority structures, but I do know this.

Kings outrank slaves.

Slaves report to kings, not the other way around.

You, through your faith in Jesus, are a slave of righteousness.

Melchizedek is the king of righteousness.

Jesus, in his human nature, of course, exercised faith.

But in his divine nature, he is righteous.

Jesus doesn't need an imputed righteousness to him.

He is righteous by his own nature.

He doesn't have to be declared righteous through faith.

He is righteousness.

He is the king of righteousness.

This is the pattern laid out by Melchizedek that the Savior will fulfill.

Jesus is not righteous because of his faith, he's righteous because of his deity, and that righteousness can be ours.

As we place our faith in Jesus, we are adopted into Jesus, and what is his becomes ours.

His righteousness becomes ours through faith.

Meanwhile, in contrast, you have Melchizedek here, who is just the king of righteousness.

That's the pattern.

So first, Jesus can make peace between God and man because he's an intercessor, because he's a priest king.

Thirdly, because he's righteous.

Fourth, because he is greater than Abraham.

He's greater than Abraham.

And here I'm just saying directly what I've already hinted at.

Abraham had a righteousness given to him, while Melchizedek is the king of righteousness, Ergo Melchizedek greater than Abraham.

Now the plot line of the Bible, to be sure, follows Abraham.

The camera doesn't go with Melchizedek, it goes with Abraham.

The rest of the Genesis narrative is Abraham's descendants, how God does give him an offspring, and Isaac to Jacob and Jacob becoming Israel and the 12 tribes and Judah, and it follows them to Israel or to Egypt, and how they get through Joseph to Egypt, and then Exodus is how they get back into uh out of Egypt and aim towards the promised land.

Joshua and Judges are entering the promised land and 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles about the king reigning in Jerusalem.

It's following, the Bible follows the story of Abraham all the way to the New Testament.

But when you get to the New Testament, it intersects again with Melchizedek.

In the New Testament, you find Jesus fulfilling this type of Melchizedek.

And where do you find him?

Right at the same blade of grass, practically.

Right on the top of Mount of Alzheiming over Jerusalem.

Right in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying that the cup would pass from him.

This is where the two stories meet again.

Jesus is greater than you and I because he is God.

He is has a true human nature, but his true nature has no beginning.

Your nature has a beginning.

Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.

You know, the book of Genesis delights in telling you where everything comes from.

Have you noticed that in Genesis?

It's the story of the name, it's the story of beginnings, where things have their start.

You want to know where zebras come from?

Genesis tells you.

You want to know where rainbows come from?

Genesis tells you.

You want to know where people come from?

Genesis has got that.

Marriage check, sin check.

You want to know where something important comes from?

Genesis tells you.

And it loves to tell you what dates and ages.

It tells you how old everybody was when they died, how old your parents were when you were born, how many kids you had, where you went.

Everybody gets the family tree.

And then there's Melchizedek.

It's startling in a book that delights in telling you everybody's family that you don't get it for Melchizedek.

Just pop, he's here, then poof, he's gone.

Interstage left, wave, exit stage right.

And you don't see him again.

He makes like a cameo in Psalm 110.

He like peeks his head around the curtain in Psalm 110, waves, and goes back behind stage again.

He gets three whole chapters in Hebrews, 5, 6, and 7 are about him, but for the most part, he's here and gone.

Melchizedek, he is better than Abraham.

Abraham's parents were pagan.

Well, let me just say it differently.

Abraham had parents, not Melchizedek.

Abraham has a beginning and an end, not Melchizedek.

Not Melchizedek.

Melchizedek is no father, no mother, no genealogy, has no beginning of days, has no end of life, but he resembles the Son of God in that he continues as a priest forever.

And how does he continue as a priest forever?

Because of the power of an indestructible life.

That word is a seity, that you have life in and of yourself.

Only God has a seity.

But here, Melchizedek, with no beginning and no end, has life in and of himself, the power of an indestructible life.

In the days of Abraham, Abraham wandered around looking for a home.

Not Melchizedek, Melchizedek is the king of righteousness.

Abraham, in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplication with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death.

Meanwhile, here's Melchizedek praying for Abraham.

Do you see the difference?

Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.

Why is that important?

Because the Savior will come from Abraham, but will be greater than Abraham.

That's the basic gospel tension.

The Savior will be a descendant of Abraham, but Abraham's Lord.

Jesus tells the Pharisees, right up the street from where this conversation takes place, he tells the Pharisees, before Abraham was, I am, and they picked up rocks to stone him for claiming to be God.

He is certainly greater than Abraham.

In other words, the plan of salvation doesn't, Jesus is a priest, but not from Levi.

The plan of salvation doesn't begin with Jacob or Isaac or Abraham.

The plan of salvation goes way before that, back with Melchizedek.

At the dawn of time, with no beginning or end.

It is without question that the lesser is blessed by the greater.

And it is without question, it's indisputable, that the lesser offers tithes to the greater.

You can give charity to people below you, but you offer your giving and tithes above you.

And you are always blessed from the top down, not from the down up.

And yet Abraham here gives to Melchizedek, demonstrating Melchizedek is greater than him.

And Melchizedek blesses Abraham, demonstrating that Melchizedek is greater than Abraham.

That means the priesthood of Jesus is better than any Levitical priesthood, better than any Jewish priesthood.

So first, Jesus is our peace because he's an intercessor.

Secondly, because he's a priest king.

Thirdly, because he's righteous.

Fourthly, because he's greater than Abraham.

And finally, Jesus can make peace because he is exclusive.

You have to choose sides.

You cannot serve the kingdom of Sodom and the kingdom of Salem.

And that's where the story, action picks back up again.

As Abraham is offering his tithes to Machizedek, the king of Sodom is speaking to Abraham.

So this story seems compressed here.

It seems like this is, bam, happening all at once.

The king of Sodom would have had a journey to get to Jerusalem.

It's not on the way.

He would have had to go over in Gedi and back through what was now Bethlehem, or he'd have to go through Jericho.

He's going way out of his way, is the point to intercept Abram in Jerusalem.

When he finds him, Makizedek is talking to Abram, and the king of Sodom just comes up, and Macedok is giving a tenth of what he has to Macized, and the king of Sodom comes up and says, Give me the persons, verse 21, and take the goods for yourself.

Give me the people, but you can have the loot, Abram.

How generous.

How generous.

The loot is Abram's.

He has it already.

And I hope you understand.

This is the way the devil works.

This is the way the devil tempts you.

The devil tempts you by offering things that are already yours.

Yeah, I'll let you keep what you got.

But everything from here on out will be mine.

That's not bargaining.

That's bribing.

That's not any kind of deal at all.

The loot already belongs to Abram.

He has it.

And the king of Sodom says, I'll let you keep it.

I just want the people.

You may as well hear the devil saying this.

You can have whatever material success you want, have whatever finances you want, have whatever worldly success you want.

That's fine with me.

Just give me your kids.

Just give me your family.

Just give me your soul.

The devil is offering Abram the riches of the world.

All he wants is the promise of Abram's children.

All he wants is the people that are with Abram.

That's all he wants.

That's why I say this is the most significant fight of Abram's life right here.

Is the promise that God gave him going to be deluded?

Right now, Abram doesn't have a child.

Is he going to settle for being wealthy and powerful and forfeit the promise of God?

What decision would you make?

It is astonishing how often parents will decide they're going to live their life in the world, they're going to live for the world, they're going to try to teach their kids, you know, we'll take my kids to church and get them some kind of Christianity exposure, while, meanwhile, their whole life is built for the pleasures of the world.

And they think you can have a foot in both worlds.

And what that is, that the parents that are chasing material success and think that the health and wealth of their family will be decided by the health and wealth of their checking book rather than their spiritual condition.

They think they provide for their family with material means rather than spiritual means.

That's taking this bargain that Abram rejected.

That's saying, I will give the devil, I will give the devil my kids as long as I get the stuff.

Abraham wouldn't say that.

Abram, verse 22.

Remember why Abram went to battle, by the way?

He didn't go to battle to get rich.

He went to battle for the people.

He went to go get Lot.

That was the only thing he wanted.

He didn't want the cash.

He wanted to rescue people.

It's so insane.

Lot, also, by the way, rescued by Abram.

Abram resists here.

And remember what Lot does?

Lot goes back with the king of Sodom.

It is insane, Lot, but that's a different sermon.

Abram says, I've lifted my hand, verse 22, to Yahweh, God most high, possessor of heaven and earth.

He's rejecting the king of Sodom here, and where are his words coming from?

He is quoting to the king of Sodom what Melchizedek had just told him.

That's why I think Melchizedek got there in the nick of time.

No, Abram is going with fresh manna right here.

He is regurgitating what Melchizedek had just told him five seconds earlier.

I'm not going to fall for this devil.

I'm not going with you, King of Sodom, because Yahweh is the possessor of heaven and earth.

You're offering me stuff.

Yahweh owns everything.

What would I want from you?

God owns the universe, and you're going to offer me sheep and cattle and cash.

No way.

Then he says in verse 23, I'm not going to take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you would then say, Oh, Abraham made me rich.

Let me Americanize it.

He says, I'm not going to take a shoestring from you.

I'm not going to take the change from the ashtray of your car.

Even cars had ashtrays back then in Abraham's day.

Nothing.

And this is the thinking.

Because if I get any of my wealth from compromising with the world, then any way the Lord blesses me for the rest of my life, the world will say, We're responsible for that.

That person has a good family, that's our influence on him.

That person succeeds here.

That's because he took from us.

That person is a compromiser.

God won't get any of the credit.

And Abraham gets that and says, I won't take a shoestring from you.

So when I stand, I will stand before Yahweh and not the kings of the world.

Take a hike, devil.

Take a hike, King of Sodom.

In fact, keep the stuff, he says.

What a mic drop at the end, huh?

King of Sodom?

Fine.

You can have all the stuff.

I only want the people.

And there goes Lot.

What integrity.

Abraham wasn't resisting the devil because he likes he was giving a tenth of all he had to the Lord through Mchizedek.

One commentator points out.

Abraham gave more to a type of Christ than many Christians give to the real Christ.

And giving a tenth of what he had.

How often people close their hearts towards worship when it comes to giving.

Not Abram.

He would depart with everything to serve the Lord.

Everything.

And he refused to take a reward from Sodom.

He met it with even disgust.

He chose spiritual blessings over temporal blessings.

He chose the kingdom of God over the kingdom of man.

He starts a counterculture.

He's showing the world that he's going to have his own values, his own standard, his own people, his own hope, his own currency, meaning the love of people and the flourishing of souls over the currency of Sodom, their sexual immorality and their finances and their wealth and their materialism.

All that can perish, and it will in a few chapters when God burns it to the ground.

Looking Godward, Abraham says, I tithe to God through the mediator.

Looking to man, he says, I don't even want a shoestring from you.

There's some pretty obvious applications here.

For a believer, you have to have your heart solidified, that you're worshiping and trusting Christ alone, that your identity is not wrapped up in the things of this world, the kingdoms that rise and fall, that offer you success, they lie.

And for the unbeliever, I hope you see through the devil's lies, and I hope you see that all the devil offers you, materialism, and everything the devil offers you in the world, it's stuff you already have.

See through it, see that it will cost you your soul.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?

God, we're grateful for Makizedec.

The picture of Christ that he provides.

Let it rattle in our own hearts, in our own minds and consciences.

Help us see the beauty and the preciousness of serving Christ over this world.

Make us a people set apart for your glory.

By your grace, we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.