Alright, today we’ll begin in Hebrews chapter 5 and we’re going to start at verse 1. But, before we begin I would like to recap some things that we’ve said several programs ago. And that is the Book of Hebrews - written primarily to Jews, of course, that’s why it’s called the letter to the Hebrews. But these were Jews who were on the fence, and they had not made that total break from Judaism and so Paul here, who I feel is the author of the book of Hebrews, is trying or is attempting to convince these Jews to make that total break and put Judaism behind them with all their laws and rules and regulations, and step out into this whole concept of Grace by Faith plus nothing.

As I said in some of our opening remarks back in chapters 1 and 2 of Hebrews that you will not find the plan of salvation laid out in this book like it is, for example, in Romans or I Corinthians or Galatians. It is simply a book that is going to show that everything practiced back there under the Law was just simply precursors to that where we are today. That the whole concept of the Gospel of Grace didn’t just come out of the woodwork. But rather it was a progressive revelation and when Israel rejected the Messiah and God raised the Apostle Paul specifically then to go to the Gentile world with this tremendous Gospel of Grace, without works, and by faith alone.

You know most of Christendom still rebels at the thought that they can’t work for salvation, just as much as the Jews did here in the time of Paul writing to the Hebrews. So before we even look at Hebrews chapter 5, I’m going to use a verse that I use so often when I’m teaching in the Old Testament - and that would be back to Romans chapter 15. This verse is just as appropriate for our study of the Book of Hebrews as it is for our study of the Old Testament. Now of course, when Paul wrote Romans, he was referring to the Old Testament writers but since Hebrews is in that same vein, I’m going to use it for both directions. Romans chapter 15 verse 4. Where he writes:

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime (in other words, back in the Old Testament economy) they were written for our learning,…"

See not for our ‘doctrine’ not to find ‘salvation’ but these things were written aforetime for our learning. To give us basic understanding of the thoughts and the ways of God and how this is all progressed on up through human and Biblical history to the time of where we are. Alright, so these things were written for our learning -

"…that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." That word Scriptures means what? The whole Word of God. And now we can use it from cover to cover. And we can take comfort from them and it’s from the Scriptures then that we have hope for the future.

Of course, we realize, especially since September 11th, we’re living in tremendous times. We’re living in, I think, the end-time scenario. We’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg, and to coin a phrase, "We ain’t seen nothing yet." It’s going to get worse and it’s all leading up to the final seven years when God will finally pull the plug, so to speak, and His wrath will flow across the planet. But for now, you and I as believers, take comfort from the Scriptures. We don’t have to be alarmed by what’s going on. My, I had the sweetest letter the other day where a gentlemen recapped, he says, "Back on December 7th, 1941, when I was a young lad of 19, I was stricken with fear for myself and for my country. But, when September 11th struck, he said, there was no fear because in the meantime I have come to trust that Christ died for my sins, and that He was buried and rose from the dead and now I have nothing to fear!" Well, what a testimony!

And that’s where we as believers are in a unique position. The rest of the world may fear and tremble but we can just simply, almost smugly say, well, we knew this was coming. We knew this was part of the picture and it just shows us that the end is getting closer and closer.

Alright, so we take comfort from not only the Old Testament now, but from all the Scriptures and so we approach the Book of Hebrews in that same light. It’s the Word of God even though it was directed to Hebrew people who were having a time separating from the old program, yet it is full of things that are appropriate for us today. And I trust that even in all the previous programs in Hebrews (which is 3 books now) we are just simply cementing the basis of our faith as believers.

We started out, remember, in chapters 1 and 2, establishing that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son. And as the Son, He was given intrinsic authority. And then as we’ve seen in chapters 3 and 4, God detests unbelief. There is nothing that upsets God more than unbelief. Now of course, God hates sin in all it’s forms, but unbelief is the top of the list.

Then in the last three verses in chapter 4, as I say so often, Paul just sort of shifts gears and he slips up into the approach of the ‘high priesthood’ of Christ. And then in our last verse, as we closed our last program, we are now in a position as believers by Faith in the finished work of the Cross, to come boldly into the throne room in our prayer time. We don’t have to come with fear and trepidation. We don’t have to come before Him wondering if we’re good enough to be accepted. But rather we come boldly, only because of what Christ has already done.

Alright now as we slip into chapter 5 verse 1, we’re going to start having a comparison then between the priesthood of Christ and the priesthood of Aaron and the Old Testament economy.

"For every high priest taken from among men (from the Nation of Israel) is ordained for men in things pertaining to God." Do you see the relationship there? The whole role of the priest was to present the needs of mankind to the Holy God. Alright, but now we’ve got another point to make in another verse or two, so we’re going to put that on hold. But this human high priest, starting with Aaron of course, came to God with:

"…things that pertained to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:" They had to take care of the sin problem that man constantly was bugged with, and the high priest brought this before God. Now verse 2. This high priest of Israel, following in the line of Aaron then, was a man:

"Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way;…" In other words, there was no one too low on the totem pole for the high priest to be aware of and to present him before God. So this high priest:

The high priest was human, and he was plagued with the same sins and temptations and passions as anybody else. So just because he was the high priest, that did not mean that he was above reproach. Or above sin.

"So by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer (that is a sacrifice) for sins."

Now let’s go back all the way to Leviticus because we always like to compare Scripture with Scripture, and I guess our letters are constantly reminding us that they appreciate the fact that whatever we say, we back up with the Scriptures. And so when you come back to Leviticus chapter 16, we have the Day of Atonement when the high priest would go in behind the veil and sprinkle the blood on the Holy of Holies, or the Ark of the Covenant. Let’s drop in at verse 14 and we’ll just pick out the ones that pertain to establishing the fact that the high priest was just as much a sinner as the average Jew.

"And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; (that is in behind the veil) and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times. 15. Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:"

And here we find that he makes the atonement for himself first, and then for Israel. Well, now maybe I should back up a little further to verse 6 to make it a little more plain.

"And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house." Do you see that? That tells us then that Aaron was just as much in need of a sinner’s approach to God as the ordinary Jew. Then down in verse 14, he was to take the second bullock and sprinkle that blood then for the sins of the people. Alright, I hope I made my point, that the priesthood of Aaron was a human priesthood and they were just as much in need of forgiveness and the atonement of their sins as the ordinary Jew on the street.

Come back then again to Hebrews chapter 5. And so not only was the high priest human so that he could identify with the everyday experiences of the people but also that he recognized that he was a sinner and was just as much in need of forgiveness as the ordinary Jew. Now then verse 4 of Hebrews chapter 5.

"And no man (not even Aaron) taketh this honour (that is to be the high priest) unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." Get the picture? Who commissioned Aaron to be the first high priest? God did! Let’s go back again and look at the Scriptures. Let’s go back to Exodus 28 where we see the beginning of this whole system of religion. The building of the tabernacle, and the establishing of the priesthood, and the clothing that he would wear. This is all back here in Exodus. But let’s just look for now at how that God commissioned Aaron to be the high priest. Moses didn’t appoint him nor anyone else. Only God could do that, and here is His instruction to Moses.

Then the rest of the chapter is covered with instructions for their clothing. On the other side of the coin, turn with me to Numbers 16 and the strange fire of Korah. Now Korah was a member of the tribes of Israel and he got a little arrogant and puffed up and he just didn’t feel that Moses and Aaron were the only fish in the pond. And so he took it upon himself to play the role of a priest. And so here in Numbers 16 we find the account.

"Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men: 2. And rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown: 3. And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, ye take too much upon you." See their arrogance? They’re telling Moses and Aaron, hey, you’re trying to be the big wheel. We’re going to have just as much a part of this as you. And so they say:

"…Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, everyone of them and the LORD is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the LORD? 4. And when Moses heard it he fell upon his face: (and the thought how can anyone be so brazen) 5. And he spake unto Korah and all his company, saying, Even tomorrow the LORD will shew who are his, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto him: even him who he hath chosen will he cause to come near." Now this is Moses’ instruction to Korah and those that were following him.

"This do; Take you censers (that is the fire), Korah and all his company; 7. And put fire therein, and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow; and it shall be that the man whom the LORD doth choose, he shall be holy; ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi. 8. And Moses said unto Korah, Hear, I pray you, ye sons of Levi: 9. Seemeth it but a small thing unto you, that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel, to bring you near to himself to do the service of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the congregation to minister unto them?" Well, anyway, I think you know what happened, as the next day comes around and here comes Korah and these 250 and they’re going to play the role of the high priests. Now come on down to verse 20.

"And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, 21. Separate yourselves from among this congregation that I may consume them in a moment. 22. And they fell upon their faces and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth (angry) with all the congregation? And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Speak to the congregation? 23. And the LORD spake unto Moses saying, 24. Speak unto the congregation, saying, Get you up from about the tabernacle of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 25. And Moses rose up and went unto Dathan and Abiram; and the elders of Israel followed him."

Now come on down and now verse 28. Moses is going to give an example and he said:

"And Moses said, Hereby ye shall know that the LORD hath sent me to do all these works; for I have not done them of mine own mind. 29. If these men die the common death of all men, (in other words, if they continue on living and die from whatever other reason) or if they be visited after the visitation of all men; then the LORD hath not sent me. 30. But (Moses says, now take notice) if the LORD makes a new thing, and the earth opens her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain unto them, and they go down into the pit; then ye shall understand that these men have provoked the LORD."

Alright, now we come down to the confrontation.

"And it came to pass, as he had made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground clave (or separated) asunder that was under them (that is under Korah and his followers) 32. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all their goods. (In other words, those who had connected themselves with him in his rebellion) 33. They and all that appertained to them went down alive into the pit, (that is into Sheol) and the earth closed upon them and they perished from among the congregation."

That’s how seriously God dealt with false priests. And so always remember that when God stipulated certain things it was not to be taken lightly. We saw in the book of Hebrews in one of our earlier programs, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. Well, Korah and his family found out.

Now if you’ll come back with me to Hebrews again, so that Aaron was designated by God Himself, as the high priest and those that followed him. No man dared assume the role of a priest without God’s commission and that’s why I wanted you to see for yourself the account of Korah. Alright now then we’ll move on into the next verse and we move on into the priesthood again of Christ Himself. Now remember, the priesthood of Aaron was among men. They were human, they had the same failures, the same sinfulness as anyone else but God had commissioned them. But this priest, Christ, is not of man but the priesthood is a follow-up of what Aaron began. So, the functions of the priesthood are relatively alike but here we had a human priest and here we have the Son of God.

"So also Christ glorified not himself…" In other words, now here’s where it gets ticklish doesn’t it? When we start dealing with the Trinity, the Triune God, it is so hard for us to reckon the fact that on the one hand Christ was totally human. On the other hand He was totally God. And we have to take this by faith. So now here we see Christ from His humanity, not demanding that He be made a priest, but rather what? God declaring that He’s the priest. Just like He did with Aaron. Okay, now look at this very carefully.

"So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee." Now go on and read verse 6 and if we have time we’ll come back and look at verse 5.

"As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Now look, who’s speaking it? God the Father. To whom? God the Son. And yet we know that the Son is a part of the Godhead the same as the Father. But here we’re separating them just like in His earthly ministry. In His earthly ministry, I think I pointed out a few programs back, why does Jesus, especially in John 17, pray to the Father? Well, He’s praying from His humanity and then He can pray to the Father.

On another instance, He can make the same statement as the Father and so here’s where we have to separate these things by a study of the Scripture and just simply take it by faith. It’s beyond human comprehension. But nevertheless, here we find that God the Father designates to God the Son that He is to be the high priest, not patterned after Aaron, but after Melchisedec.

Now, I’ve only got two minutes left and then I get into a dilemma. I don’t want to go where I can’t continue, so I think we’ll go back to Psalms chapter 2 where Paul is quoting and whatever time we have we’ll use up and then we’ll pick it up in our next program.

Psalms chapter 2 where we have it word for word as Paul is using it here in the book of Hebrews.

"I (God says,) will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; (so who is speaking to whom? Well, God the Father is speaking to God the Son) this day have I begotten thee." Now we have to be careful, when did David write the Psalms? Well, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 BC. Was that when Christ was begotten, the only begotten Son of the Father? No, this is prophecy. This is something that is going to take place years and years out into the future. But, here’s the setting God the Father has spoken to the Son and He says, "this day I have begotten thee."

"Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."

So then you come all the way down through this chapter - it’s a delegation of the authority that God imparts to the Son.

Your letters are the highlight of our day and Iris and I just thrill at the way you share how the Lord is using us to bring you either to a knowledge of salvation or to make the Scriptures more enjoyable, whatever the case may be. We just give the Lord the credit for it. Alright, so we’re here to study the Bible so let’s go right back to where we left off in the closing moments of our last program and that was in Hebrews chapter 5 verse 5.

"So also Christ glorified not himself…"

Remember, we pointed out in the last lesson that no priest dared to take the role without God’s divine appointment. And so even Christ did not assume His priesthood but it was appointed to Him by God the Father.

Now we’re going to go back once again where we were earlier in Psalms chapter 2 because in case someone missed the last program we want you to understand what Paul is referring to. That God the Father designated to God the Son that He should be a high priest but not in the lineage of Aaron, the humanly priesthood, but it’s going to be the priesthood according to Melchizedek and we’ll see that a little later in this half-hour.

"I will declare the decree: the LORD (here of course, the Lord is a reference to God the Father) hath said unto me, (the Son) thou art my Son; (and remember it’s capitalized so we’re speaking here of Christ way back - 1000 BC.) this day have I begotten thee."

Now let’s turn all the way up to Acts chapter 13 and find out what that meant when God said "this day I have begotten thee." I pointed out, I think, in the last program, David wrote the Psalms around 1000 BC but that’s not when Christ became the only begotten Son of God - but prophecy-wise, that was when it was spoken. But in Acts chapter 13, we have the Scriptural definition of what it meant to be the only begotten Son of God.

I imagine most of us would be shocked that probably most people think that He became the only begotten Son of God at Bethlehem when He was born of the woman. But that is not so. Rather Acts tells us exactly when He became the only begotten Son. Here in Acts 13 we find Paul rehearsing how Christ was crucified, and how He was buried.

"God has fulfilled the same unto us their children, (that is the promise which was made to the forefathers) in that he hath raised up Jesus again; (that is from the dead) as it is also written in the second psalm, (that’s why I took you back there before I came into Acts) Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." (now verse 34 defines it) 34. And as concerning that…"

You know I’m a stickler for every word. The average reader just slips over this. As concerning that. Concerning what? That God declared Him the only begotten Son.

"Now as concerning that, he raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David."

So when did Christ become the only begotten Son? At His resurrection! See, and this is why I’m always stressing, at least I hope I am, that salvation can be through no other way but through Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. Turn to I Corinthians 15 again. For most of you this is over and over and over, but this is still the plainest portion of Scripture to reveal the gospel of the grace of God. This is where every lost person has to come. There is no salvation outside of this death, burial and resurrection.

Now you know that raises a lot of eyebrows. I had someone call again the other morning and say that their pastor (boy, I’d hate to be in his shoes) had said that after all, Christianity isn’t the only approach to God, there are many. Well, I’ve got news for him. He’s going to suddenly be shocked when he gets into eternity unless he has a change in the meantime because there IS ONLY ONE WAY. And another person called and had the same kind of a situation and the pastor had more or less said the same thing. And so he says on his way out, "Well, what do you do with John 14 verse 6? "I am the way the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me." And you know what that preacher said, "Well, that doesn’t mean what it says." Well, that’s a cop out, see?

It DOES mean what it says. There IS only one way and there is no other religion on earth that can make that claim, because Christianity is the only one that teaches resurrection from the dead. The others don’t mention it. Christianity alone teaches a resurrection from the dead. Not just a matter of dying and going to heaven but there is coming a resurrection day. Christianity alone stands on that premise. And that’s why Paul writes this 15th chapter of Corinthians then, in which there is more teaching on resurrection than all the rest of this Book put together and probably more than all the other religious books in the world.

And what’s the whole vortex of it? That if Christ be not raised from the dead then you are yet in your sin. And I’ve had some examples. Scientists especially and I’ve got one man in particular and he’s going to recognize it as soon as I share it. He said, "You know for the longest time I went to church and I had no problem with Christ’s crucifixion, that He died and that He shed His blood and that He was buried. But as a scientist I couldn’t accept the resurrection. But I was nothing more than a church member. But when I suddenly saw how that you constantly emphasized the resurrection, the Lord opened my heart and I could believe it. That yes, Christ was raised from the dead. And that’s where our Salvation lies."

We’ve probably got multitudes of church members who believe like this man, that Christ died the horrible death of the crucifixion but would not accept the resurrection. Without it, they’re lost. Alright, now look at I Corinthians and this is why the resurrection is at the core of our belief system. Remember now, this is all coming from "this day have I begotten thee." What day? The day He was raised from the dead.

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel (not a gospel – but rather The Gospel of salvation) which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; (as a believer, positionally. Now the next verse and plainer English could never be written.) 2. By which (that is this Gospel) you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain." Now here is Paul’s Gospel!

"For I delivered unto you first of all (because he was the one to whom this whole concept was revealed.) that which I also received,…" In other words, the God of Glory appeared to this raging persecutor of those followers of Jesus of Nazareth - and converted him there outside Damascus - took him into the desert and unloaded on him all of these new concepts of salvation by faith and faith alone in the death, burial and resurrection. This was unknown before. Alright, now look what he said.

"For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures (absolutely, the Old Testament foretold it.) 4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures;"

Now that’s the Gospel you must believe to have eternal life. You can’t pick and choose two parts. You can’t say, "Well I believe that He died. I believe that He was resurrected one way or another. But I can’t believe He was dead for three days." See that? You take it all or you’ve got nothing. But when we believe that Christ died for our sin, He was dead, He was buried, He was in the tomb three days and three nights, and God raised Him from the dead and He became then the only begotten Son of God.

Alright now, on that same premise I want to bring you back to Romans chapter 1, which falls right in line with Acts 13. Remember what Acts said. Now concerning ‘that.’ That God declared Him the only begotten Son of God, that concerning that, it was when God raised Him from the dead that He became then the only begotten Son of God. We’ll start with verse 1 to pick up the flow.

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2. (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures.)" See what that says. It fits perfectly with I Corinthians that He died for our sins according to what? The Old Testament Scriptures. That He rose from the dead. According to what? The Old Testament Scriptures. And here he repeats it, see? "Which he promised before by the prophets in the holy scriptures." Now verse 3,

"Concerning his son (the same Son that Hebrews is dealing with) Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed of David (that is in the flesh) according to the flesh." Now here it comes in verse 4.

"And declared (by the Psalmist. By God Himself. And here through the Apostle Paul’s writing) to be the Son of God with (what?) power, according to the spirit of holiness, (that is the very power of the holy Godhead. by the what?) the resurrection from the dead."

Do you see that? That’s when the power of the Son was confirmed, was consummated, was established or whatever word you can put on it. When He was raised from the dead. And without it there is no Salvation. And so if you doubt me, when you get home this evening you just read I Corinthians 15 all over again and all through the chapter, how that, the very basis of our salvation is that Christ arose from the dead. Another good one is I Thessalonians 4:14. In that passage, believing that Christ died for us and rose again is the qualification we must meet before we can go in the Rapture.

Alright now then, back to Hebrews chapter 5 and we’ll go into verse 6.

"As he saith also in another place,…"

That’s in Psalms where it says "thou art a priest forever not after the order of Aaron but after the order of (who?) Melchizedek." What a difference that makes!

We pointed this out in our Genesis study but, goodness sakes, that’s eleven years ago isn’t it? Most people have forgotten it or they’ve never seen it in the first place. Alright, let’s go back to Genesis because if Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek instead of after the order of Aaron then let’s go back and establish this Melchizedek. Genesis chapter 14, and for a little background remember that Lot had taken up residence near or in Sodom and Gomorrah and some enemy kings had overrun Sodom and took the Sodomites as well as Lot and his family captive. And when Abram got wind of that he raised up his own little private army and pursued them and utterly defeated them and took the spoil. Alright, then verse 17.

"And the king of Sodom (whom of course, Abram had rescued) went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of the Chedorlaomer, (that is the one’s who had overrun Sodom) and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh which is the king’s dale. 18. And Melchizedek (this is the first time he’s mentioned in Scripture) the king of Salem…"

I think most of you know what we’re referring to but in case you don’t. S-A-L-E-M is the last letters of what city? Jerusalem! And Jerusalem in Scripture is the city of what? Peace! It has never yet known peace but one day it will. One day the Palestinian problem will be completely taken care of. One day the world won’t have to wring their hands over the Middle East. Because when the Prince of Peace comes and the city of Jerusalem becomes His capital then it will finally reach that epitome of the capital of peace. Alright, but it’s been known as the city of peace from day one. And so this Melchizedek, verse 18 again:

"And Melchizedek king of Salem (the city of peace) brought forth bread and wine:"

Now we covered that when we were in our Genesis study but you see, bread and wine as such were not sacrifices in Temple worship. Bread and wine were never really introduced into the Scriptures until Paul in I Corinthians chapter 11 explains it as what most of us now call the Lord’s Supper. And the Lord’s Supper, as Paul explains it so graphically, had only one purpose. And what was it? Memorial! That’s what he says "and when you do this in memory." So you see it’s a memorial service and a reminder of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection and that’s what the bread and the wine signifies. The bread spoke of His broken body and the wine spoke of His resurrection life and so whenever we partake of those two, the bread and the wine, it is simply a means of reminding us of His death, burial and resurrection. And here God is giving a little preview of it way back in the life of Abram. But that’s not the point we want to make. Verse 18, the last part. After he had brought forth the bread and wine, which was indicative of the coming death, burial and resurrection of Israel’s Messiah.

"…and He was the priest of (Jehovah? No it doesn’t say that? But what?) the Most High God."

Now we have to realize there is only one God in Scripture but there are many names for Him and that confuses people. But you see, we have all these different names of God to signify a particular role in His being God. In His attributes. And so for example, when Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, and God withheld him. What was in the thicket behind him? Well, the ram! Who put it there? God did! And I always emphasize, you see, that ram was a wild ram. Remember Abraham was already three days journey from where he lived, so it was not a household pet like somebody tried to tell me one time. He was three days journey from home, so that ram in the thicket was not the family pet, it was a wild one. But, did Abraham and Isaac have any trouble getting that animal on the altar? None. Why? It was provided and it was docile, and it was a willing sacrifice. They didn’t have to struggle with it and. consequently. what did Abraham call the place? Jehovah-jireh which simply meant ‘God provides.’ Alright, so that was a name of Jehovah. Jehovah-jireh – He provides! It was just a distinctive attribute of God.

Psalms 23 is probably another one of the easiest ones. In the Hebrew it’s Jehovah-rajah, which simply means, I AM your shepherd. Well, any Jew could understand what it was like to be the sheep under the guidance and protection of a shepherd. Well, those are the various names of Jehovah to just simply explain how God would fill all these various needs of the human race.

Now, the same way then with this priest Melchizedek. He was a priest of – not Jehovah – but of the Most High God. My only way of defining that from Scripture in a real easy way is to turn to Daniel. Turn to Daniel chapter 4 and all the way through, periodically, but in chapter 4 I’ve got a couple that are real easy to pick out. And if you know anything of Bible study at all, Daniel is written of course, by the Jew, Daniel, but he deals almost exclusively with Gentile empires. Right? The Babylonian. The Medes and the Persians. And the Greeks and the Romans. All Gentiles.

Alright now, if we’re dealing with Gentiles, then it stands to reason that we’re not going to use the name of God that Israel claimed which was Jehovah. But we’re going to use the term "The Most High" because that’s how the Gentiles refer to Him. Here it is. Daniel chapter 4 starting at verse 1. Now this is the way you have to study the Scriptures.

"Nebuchadnezzar the (Babylonian) King, (a Gentile) unto all the people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: (that is the then known-world) Peace be multiplied unto you. 2. I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me." Underline that. That’s how Nebuchadnezzar referred to him. He didn’t call him Jehovah. He called him the Most High God. Alright, let’s go to another verse. They’re scattered throughout the chapter, and they’re scattered throughout Daniel. But the next one I can see quickly is in verse 17, still in Daniel 4.

"This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones; to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth to whomever he will…." Now drop on down to verse 34.

"And at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned to me, and I blessed the most High,…"

Now have I made my point? The name of God in Gentile language was the Most High God. Now flip back to Genesis then for just a second and we’ll see that this Melchizedek, King of the city of peace, Jerusalem, brought forth bread and wine, which spoke of His death, burial and resurrection. And now the important part for our study is "he was the priest (not of Jehovah. Not of Adonai. But he was the priest of what?) the Most High God."

Now I guess I can bring you all the way back to Hebrews and finish out the half-hour. You put this all together then, we find that the priesthood of Melchizedek was not something associated with the Nation of Israel as Aaron was. But his priesthood was associated with what? The rest of the world! So the priesthood of Melchizedek was not limited to the children of Israel. The priesthood of Melchizedek was that priesthood that would envelop everybody. And you know that it wasn’t until Christ’s death, burial and resurrection that Christ turned to the whole world.

People get upset when you point out to them that when Christ came to the Nation of Israel, it was Jew only (with two exceptions), and, oh, it makes them upset. But listen, if you study your Scripture you know that’s what He was. He came only to the Nation of Israel, as we see in Matthew 15:24, and Romans 15:8. John tell us, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not."

But when His own rejected him then where did it go? It went to the whole human race.

Before we begin our lesson let me share with you that we get letters from here to Timbuktu and some of them catch our program in the middle of the night, whereas some are early in the morning, and some are in the afternoon. So wherever you are, we appreciate the fact that you welcome us into your home.

Alright, we’re going to go right back into Hebrews chapter 5 and now verse 7. Speaking of this Priest after the order of Melchizedek. I’m not going to spend any more time on His Melchizedek priesthood because when we get to chapter 7, that whole chapter will be dealing with it and so I’m going to save a little for when we get there. But now moving on with regard to Christ being a Priest after the order of Melchizedek, verse 7,

"Who in the days of his flesh, (in other words, his earthly ministry) when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him who was able to save him from death,…"

Boy have you ever read that before – carefully? What is it telling us? That here again, God the Son, in His humanity, there in Jerusalem after His three years of earthly ministry, as He had gone down into the Garden of Gethsemane knowing that in a short period of time the Romans would be coming to make their formal arrest. And He knew exactly what was coming. You know I always like to let people understand that Christ knew the end from the beginning.

Come back with me to Luke chapter 18 for a moment. Now, most of you are aware this is the way I teach. When a verse comes to mind, I feel it’s the unction of the Spirit and we’re going to go back and look at it, because even though He was in the flesh, He suffered in the flesh. Yet, He was God. He knew the end from the beginning. Absolutely nothing took Him by surprise. Now the setting is Northern Israel up there at the headwaters of the Jordan River and it’s just at the end of His three years of earthly ministry. They will soon be making their way up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Passover and His crucifixion.

"Then he took unto him the twelve, and he said unto them, behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets (the Old Testament) concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. 32. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, (the Romans) and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spit on: 33. They shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again." Did He know what was coming? Absolutely! Absolutely, every detail. He knew every Roman that would be a part of it. He knew every Jewish voice that would be coming up against Him. He knew it all! But how much did the Twelve know? I don’t dare go without reading the next verse.

"And they (the Twelve) understood none of these things: and this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken."

See that’s how God can keep things from people’s understanding. And so when they get to Jerusalem in a few days with all the hubbub of the Passover, did the Twelve have any idea of what was about to happen? No! They had no idea He was going to die. They thought He was still ready to bring in the Kingdom offered to Israel. But, the Lord knew.

Alright, now back to Hebrews chapter 5 and maybe that will help just a little. And so during the days of His flesh, while He’s there in Gethsemane when He had sweat drops of blood, and He asked the Twelve to pray with Him. And instead of praying what’d they do? Hey, they slept. And He woke them up and He told them to pray with Him, and He went a little further distance from them, and again what did He find the Twelve doing? Sleeping!

But oh, He was going through the agony knowing what was coming. Alright, and so He did, He prayed and made supplication to God the Father from His humanity. Now, we always have to stop and realize. By the same token, He wouldn’t have had to ask God to bring ten legions of angels, He could have commanded it Himself. And He said it in so many words. "If I wanted to be saved from this, God the Father would send those legions of angels." But, He never asked for that, see?

Now the fear here is the beginning of wisdom. Godly fear is the beginning of wisdom. And so it wasn’t that He was afraid of what was coming, but in His respect for all that was involved in His death and He cries out to God the Father. In fact, you know what some of His prayer was. "If it be possible, Let this cup be taken from me." What cup was He talking about? The cup of suffering. But it wasn’t possible. It had to happen. And again this is beyond my understanding and I think it is so for any human. How that through all this suffering God was able to save, to the uttermost, those who believe. This is just beyond us. But, nevertheless, this was part and parcel of the suffering that He went through leading up to the Cross.

Alright, let’s go back to Philippians chapter 2 and we’ve used these verses so often. And I don’t think there’s any way I can wear them out. But come back with me to Philippians chapter 2 verse 5 through 8. My, periodically, just in your own devotional time read these verses. Where Paul writes:

Now another verse comes to mind. I won’t make you go back and find it but in Romans 12 verse 1, what does he say?

Well, this is all the same concept see? You know what, I have to be so careful and I just went through it again on one of my recent phone calls. When I explain salvation by faith and faith alone. By just simply believing that Christ died, was buried and rose again. I have to immediately follow that up with, but this is not license. Now that you’ve made yourself fit for eternity; you don’t have to worry about anything else. Can you go and live any way you want? NO! That is not the way it works. And the first thing I try to impress on people, especially older people that are up in their 40’s and 50’s and 60’s, I say, now look, just because I maintain that you are saved the moment you believe - remember that when you’re saved, God’s going to change you. You’re not going to be the same person that you were.

And the Scripture makes it so plain, that as soon as we believe, God makes us a new person with new appetites, new desires, and we’re going to hate the things we once thought we had to have. And that’s what people have to realize. That when we talk about a salvation by faith and faith alone, it’s not a salvation that permits no change in lifestyle. There has to be a change in lifestyle or there’s not a salvation. It’s one or the other.

So this is what Paul is admonishing here. Back to Philippians chapter 2, that if we have the mind of Christ, it’s not going to be that satanically driven process. It’s going to be the opposite side of the coin. We’re going to be driven now through the very thought processes of the One Who loved us and gave Himself for us. Alright, now verse 6. So the very first word of verse 6 is Christ Jesus of verse 5:

"Who being in the form of God, (the visible manifestation of God) thought it not robbery (and if you have a margin, I think the best way is ‘something that he could grasp at’) to be equal with God. 7. But (instead he) made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant,…"

He was born in a manger, raised in a carpenter’s shop, went through three years of earthly ministry with no place to lay His head. Don’t let these television preachers convince you that He had wealth untold. Not in His earthly ministry He didn’t. He said, "Foxes have holes, birds have nests but the Son of man hath no place to lay his head." That’s exactly what it was. He had nothing of this world’s goods. And so this is the reason, "He made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant."

Now that’s a kind translation. What’s a better word? Slave, or bond-slave! "He took upon himself the form of a bond slave." How many rights did a bond slave have in antiquity? None! They were treated like dirt, and cast aside at a moments thought. Alright, and so He took upon himself the form of a bond slave:

Now you know we’re always trying to make that analogy that in order for God to be the Savior of mankind, in order to be the High Priest of the order of Melchizedek, what did He have to do? He had to become one of us. He had to walk as men walked and He had to suffer the same passions of hunger and hurt and fatigue that we do, in order to fully understand what it was to save mankind to the uttermost. See? So, "made in the likeness of men" so that He could become one of us and thereby not only become our great High Priest but also the Savior and the Captain of our salvation. Now then verse 8,

"And being found in fashion as a (what?) a man,…" A man! He didn’t look bazaar or different. He looked very ordinary and He could walk though a crowd and strangers couldn’t pick Him out by His bazaar appearance. He appeared as an ordinary man.

"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,.." How could He? Because He was God! He could do this to Himself. He could take Himself from the realms of Glory from the power of the Creator and He could bring Himself down to be like mortal men. And so He humbled Himself and by becoming that epitome of humility,

"…and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." What does the word obedient imply? There was a requirement laid upon Him. He had to die. There was no way out, because without His death humanity would have been totally destitute of salvation. Even the Old Testament believers would have been simply wiped out of all of it had He not died. Because you want to remember even the Old Testament saints, the greatest of them, Moses, Abraham you name them - without that finished work of the cross, their salvation wasn’t complete either. See?

And that’s why when Christ went down into Paradise and set those Old Testament captives free, why were they kept down there instead of going on to Glory? Because their sins hadn’t been atoned for. Animal blood didn’t take away their sin. But it was when Christ’s blood was shed, that’s when the salvation of the Old Testament saints was complete. Their atonement was now complete and Christ could take them on up to Glory. But not until. Now back to our text, and reading verse 8 again.

"And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, (and not just an ordinary death of maybe being killed with a sword, or beheaded as Paul was, but something far worse) even the death of the cross."

Now you see most of us just take that so glibly. And we say, oh yeah, Christ died for me. But listen that’s not the half of it. We can never comprehend the suffering that He had to go through beyond the physical.

A verse is coming to mind, and I think it’s II Corinthians chapter 5 - let’s go back and look at it. Let’s just jump in at verse 17. I may have shared it before on the program, I know I have with my classes in Oklahoma. Some time ago, I think it was probably back in the summertime, I read an account of a pastor in the Chicago area years ago, so I know he’s long gone to glory, but he was a pastor of a large church in the Chicago area of over a thousand people and one Sunday morning (that’s what made me think of it) he read this verse II Corinthians 5:17. And I’m going to take the time to rehearse it because it shook me to my bootstraps and I think it should everybody. He read verse 17 of chapter 5 and he said

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: (or creation. Go right back to what I said three, four minutes ago) old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new."

Our old desires, our old appetites, they have to go. "Behold, all things are become new." Now that’s what happens when we believe. Alright, this pastor asked his huge congregation including everyone in the balcony, "If you are a Christian this morning please stand." How many stood? Everybody. Not a one stayed seated, they all stood.

He says, "Alright, please be seated." He read the verse again, "Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation" and so forth. Now he said, "If you know that you are in Christ and you are a new creation, please stand." How many stood? Just one here and there, just precious few. Well, what does that tell you? That’s typical, that’s why I’ve said on this program, others have said it, and the other night I shared it with my class in Oklahoma and lo and behold somebody brought me a clipping out of a newspaper where some famous pastor had said almost the same thing. "Our churches are full of unsaved church members. They’re not in Christ. They haven’t experienced a new life. They’ve still got the old appetites. There’s nothing different."

And that won’t fit see? Alright, so now then reading on, this isn’t where I intended to come, I just happened to see the verse as I was turning to it. Reading on, he says in verse 18:

"And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;" In other words, all the things that have set us apart from God have now been bringing us back to Him. Now verse 19:

"To wit, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; (in other words, because when we become a believer our sin debt is paid) and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."

We’re to tell a lost world, we’re to tell lost friends, lost co-workers, "Hey, Christ has already reconciled you if you’ll just believe it." Now verse 20,

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God." By believing it! Now here’s a verse I came back to read. Verse 21:

"For he (God) hath made him (Christ) to be sin for us,…"

Now don’t read that too casually. What does that really mean? God laid all the sin of the world, including mine, including yours, on Him. And here again I can’t comprehend that, and I don’t think that you can. God laid all the sins of the world on Christ as He hung on that Cross, see? That’s what Philippians means "That He died even the death of the Cross" knowing that the sins of the world would be laid on Him. Alright reading on in this verse: He Who became sin for us, He Who knew no sin. He was perfect. He was sinless. And He went through the whole process for you and I.

"… that we (as lost hell-bound sinners) might be made the righteousness of God in him."

And this is what we have to believe. We take it by faith. And when we believe for our salvation that He died, was buried and rose from the dead, then God imparts His righteousness unto us and we’re a new creation and we’re a new person. Now back to Hebrews again, and verse 8 still in chapter 5.

"Though he were a Son,…"

Again, you have to remember how we stressed that term Son in the first two chapters of Hebrews. He was not just a carpenter’s son, He was not just Mary’s son, He was the very Person of the Godhead that created everything. He was the One to Whom the rest of the Godhead imparted all the responsibility of creation and of this work of the Cross. And so:

"Though he were the Son, (He was all powerful,) yet he learned (what?) obedience (to respond to the responsibility that had been given to Him by the Godhead as a whole) yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered;" There in that agony leading up to and going through that death of the cross. Now verse 9,

"And being made perfect, (complete, I think, is a better word. A complete Savior, a complete Reconciler, and One Who forgives and saves us to the uttermost) he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."

Now back up a page or two - we covered almost the same identical word "author" in Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10. I like to use all these Scriptures because they all compliment each other.

"For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain (same word) of their salvation perfect (or complete, but what did it take?) through suffering."

Christ had to suffer in order to become then the Captain of our salvation, or as it says here, now come back to chapter 5 verse 9, the "author of our salvation." Without the suffering it could have never happened. Now verse 9 again.

Well what’s another word for obey? Believing. In fact, I just ran across a verse in Acts and I didn’t remember ever stressing it in my teaching and it just hit me like a thunderbolt as I was teaching the other night in my Tahlequah class. Come back with me to Acts chapter 13. My, this is a verse I’ve missed all these years.

"Wherefore he saith also in another psalm, Thou shalt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. 36. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God fell on sleep, (he died) and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: 37. But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. 38. Be it known unto you therefore, my and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: (and here it comes in the next verse) 39. And by him all that believe are justified…"

Hebrews chapter 5 verse 10. We’re still dealing with the high priest after the order of Melchizedek and how Christ suffered and died and rose from the dead and then as we saw back in chapter 1 verse 3:

"…when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;" Which indicated when He sat down that the work was finished. And never forget that. That twice in God’s dealings throughout the human history, He finished a work that was so perfect that He could sit down. The first one of course, was the work of Creation. Then the last verse of chapter 1 said, "and He saw that it was (what?) very good." It was perfect and then you get into chapter 2, it doesn’t say He sat down but it says "He rested." And I make the point that if you’re tired and you’ve had a long day what do you do to rest? Well, you sit down, and take a load off, as we say. And so God rested.

The work of the Cross is the same way. It was so perfect, there was not a flaw in that work. There was nothing that needed yet to be done. And so when He had purged our sins, He sat down. It was finished. And you know, ever since, what has mankind been trying to do? Add to it! One thing or another, adding to it. And, I think God is almost beside Himself that mankind cannot accept the fact that it was a finished work. Now let’s begin with verse 10.

"Called of God an high priest (not after the order of Aaron but) after the order of Melchizedek." Who, remember, was the high priest of the Most High God, which was the definition of God concerning the non-Jewish world. Now we’ll move down into verse 11 and we’re going to again depart from the priesthood of Melchizedek for a little bit and we’re going to come down into the life of the ordinary believer. The ordinary Hebrew in this case, but we’re no different.

"Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing." What is Paul referring to? It was hard for him to talk to them about the priesthood of Christ and after His finished work. Why? Because they were so thick-headed. They just couldn’t get it through their heads. And so he says, "You are dull of hearing." Now verse 12, why were they dull of hearing? Well it was a malaise, I think - it was just no real interest. In fact, I think, I can safely say, anyone of you, I don’t care what church you go to, it’s no different denomination by denomination. Large churches or small. How many of your fellow-church people have a hunger for the Word of God? How many of them can honestly say, I just can’t wait until I can get into another Bible study.

Oh, I had an interesting call from a lady out in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. She’s going to be tickled to death when she hears this. But she called the other morning, she’s started a prison ministry amongst women prisoners there in Bethlehem and she had kind of a hassle getting started from the powers that be, but anyhow, they finally gave her a place where she can meet. Well, a few weeks ago she had her first lesson and she uses a half-hour of our tape and then has some singing and so forth. Well, the first time they met there were three ladies, and she was excited to have three. But the next week she had, I think, nine if I remember right, and yesterday morning she called, she was so excited she could hardly talk, she had 19 ladies attending that class. And she said, "Les, the best part is we’re meeting on Monday and now they want a second one during the week!"

Well that is exciting. Because once people get an appetite once a week isn’t enough. And so I said, "Well, Daisy, one of these days, maybe you can go almost five nights a week like I’ve been doing, and you’ll just get filled up!" But you see this is the whole idea that Paul is expressing here. Most professing believers have no hunger for the Word of God. They’re dull of hearing. As long as they fulfill their obligation and they’re there for an hour or two a week, they think that’s all that’s necessary. But see, Paul is dealing with that when he says in verse 12:

"For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, (what does that mean? You should be sharing it with people but instead, Paul says,) you have need that one teach you again which are the first principles of the oracles of God." So right there between the lines what is the process that God hopes to see happen? That after you’ve been taught, you share it with others. Now that doesn’t mean you have to collar them and preach at them or anything like that, but be ready to open the Scriptures.

Another phone call I had just the other morning - a gentleman was so excited he could hardly talk. He said, "Les, I’ve always hoped I could have an opportunity to share all this with somebody. And the other day a fellow came into my office and asked just the right question. I did like you have said so often, I grabbed a sheet of paper and I drew the timeline. I went through the whole timeline with that fellow and he left on cloud nine, as he had never seen the Scriptures opened like this before."

Well, it wasn’t but another day later had another one almost exactly the same, but his inquirer was a Russian who was over here visiting in America on business. And he had asked the same thing. This was a different individual, but he did the same thing. Took out a sheet of paper and just laid out the timeline to that young Russian. He had never seen anything like it before in his life.

You see this is the whole idea. If you learn these things then it is so easy to share it with others. You don’t have to get out on the street corner and preach at people or collar them. But when they ask a question, and you’ve heard me say it before even on the program, you have both barrels cocked. Now, I’m going back to the old double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun that I grew up with. And when we were pheasant hunting, I know it was probably not the safest thing to do, but when we knew that there were birds not too far away, we walked with the barrels cocked and ready. Well, you see, this is what people should do, when someone asks you a question and it opens up, be ready! Be ready! Don’t hem and haw and say "Well I’m afraid to say something for fear I’m wrong."

Hey, if you’ve studied, and if you’ve done your homework, the Lord will give you what it takes to share. And it will be the most exciting thing you’ve ever experienced. Well, that’s what Paul is dealing with. But these people weren’t ready. And he said, "You need to be taught again the principles."

Now what are principles? The foundation. See? I’ve got kids, grandkids, unbelievable; they’re all three in algebra this year. My granddaughter is in college algebra and my older grandson is in an advanced algebra and my youngest grandson is in a second year algebra, but all three of them are struggling with algebra. Well, I wish I had the time and the where-with-all to just sit down and teach all three of them. But you see, there’s no use trying to teach algebra unless they’ve got what? Plain old basic math. There’s no use trying to learn algebra unless you know the principles of mathematics.

Well, it’s the same way with Scripture. People have to know the basics. That’s why when people call and they want to start a home Bible study and they ask what I recommend, I tell them to start in Genesis. Get people an understanding of Who God is, and how it all came about. How did it all start? What happened? How did sin enter? How did the need of salvation come about? And so you start with the principles and Paul says, "you people haven’t even got that. You cannot pass on the principles of the Word of God." Now, look what he says next.

"…and are become such as have need of (what?) milk,…"

Goodness sakes, who starts out on milk? Babies! We all know that babies start on milk, because they can’t handle beefsteak. They can’t handle the stronger foods, so they must start on milk. Well, it’s the same parallel spiritually. You don’t take a new believer and take him into prophecy, because he’s not ready for that. But you take a new believer and you build him on the oracles, the basics of the Word of God, and that’s why I like to teach the way I do starting in Genesis and just come on up through the Scriptures. And have people mature progressively in a knowledge of the Scriptures.

Alright now, Paul, the tremendous apostle that he was, had problems teaching people, too. Go back with me to I Corinthians chapter 3. The Corinthian Church was the congregation with the most problems. They were the most unspiritual, because they were believers that were so fleshly minded. They had not, as Hebrews says, gone on into the deeper things. They too, were guilty of not even understanding the principles of the Word of God. So, if Paul has the problem, don’t feel bad if you and I do. It’s not easy to overcome some of these obstacles but you just keep repeating and repeating and repeating and finally it starts soaking in.

"And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, (or fleshly) even as unto (what?) babes (or babies) in Christ." Now they were believers and they had been believers for quite some time but they were still in their infancy so far as spiritual things were concerned. What were their problems? They were too hung up on tongues, prophecies, healings, going to law of pagan courts against each other. They were too busy arguing between themselves who was the greatest, Jesus or Peter or Apollos or Paul. See? And what was that? Carnality. That’s carnal thinking and so he says, "even after all these years I have to treat you as babes in Christ." Now verse 2:

"I have fed you with milk,…" He understood when they were new believers fresh out of paganism that they needed the milk of the Word and so that’s what he gave them. And so he says:

"I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: (or the deeper things) for hitherto you were not able to bear it, (that was understandable. But, what does the rest of the verse say?) neither yet now are ye able."

He says "and you still can’t!" Isn’t that something? He says, "I understood that at the beginning when you were new believers that you had to be treated like babes in Christ, but, you haven’t grown a bit and I’m still having to treat you like babes in Christ." Alright, now verse 3, what was their problem?

"For ye are yet carnal:…" You are more hung up on material things than you are on spiritual. Does that ring a bell? Here it comes now; I’ve already repeated it.

"…for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" In other words, you walk like the unsaved world, and I’ve already referred to this. Some in the Corinthians Church would argue who they would follow. Some would say, "Well, we follow Apollos, or we think Paul’s the greatest." Others thought it was Peter, and then we had all their other problems. In fact I remind people constantly, that this Corinthian letter was written to confront problems.

The Book of I Corinthians does not admonish spirituality and position like Ephesians and Philippians do. So Paul had to deal with problems in that Church because they weren’t growing. Oh, they were saved - he refers to that. They were believers but they were more concerned with fleshly and material things than they were the spiritual. But, Paul was absolutely right in starting them out on the milk of the Word and I’m going to take you all the way back to Peter’s little epistle and see what he says about this.

As you are turning to I Peter chapter 2 verse 2, I’ll never forget a pastor - Iris and I enjoyed his ministry when we were first married and he too, I’m pretty sure, is listening to our program now in his retirement, and hopefully, this will put a feather in his hat, it will make his day. Because this is one of the verses that we first memorized under his pastorate. He’d have us try to memorize a verse a week. And I still remember memorizing this verse.

"As new born babes, (see the illustration? Just like a newly born infant, a human infant.) desire the sincere milk of the word,…"

Now goodness sakes, I imagine every last one of you have been around newborn babes. Usually when they cry, what do they want? They want milk. They’re hungry! And that little body is just crying out for nourishment. Well that’s the way a believer should be - so hungry.

And that’s what thrills Iris and I as we read our mail - we’re seeing it. People are hungry for the Word. They’ve been in these dead churches for so long and when all of sudden they taste of the Word of God they can’t get enough of it. I had a young man call just last night, and he watches the program in the morning, tapes it, watches it again when he gets home at night. Well, he gets 60 minutes a day of the Word.

You’d be amazed at what that young man knew. I was just telling Jerry Pool about this guy at break time. The guy just blew me away with his knowledge and he had never had any of this before in his life. Boy, I mean he just laid it out, one item after another. And I said, "You’ve learned all this just in the last few months?" He said, "I’d never heard it before!" So it’s possible to learn a lot in a short time if you’re hungry.

We as believers, we start out as newborn babes desiring the sincere milk of the Word. The principles, as Paul said in Hebrews, of the Word of God, the very foundations, the basics. And what’s the purpose to be? That you grow. Now babies don’t stay on milk. There comes a point in time when they can handle more solid food, because it’s a growth process. Well, the Bible is the same way. You start out with the basics and you grow in your desire and your knowledge. Alright verse 3.

"If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is (what?) gracious."

My, when you begin to taste of the goodness of God, it just whets your appetite. See? Well anyway, now we’ve got to come back to Hebrews, our time is going fast and we only have a few moments left. So back to chapter 5. Remember, the whole connotation is again, that instead of being ready to teach the Word to others, most believers are still on the milk bottle, and not ready for strong meat. As soon as you start talking some of the deep things of Scripture what do they do? They say, "I can’t understand that anyway, it’s over my head." Well, whose fault is that? It’s their own.

The reason these deep things go over their heads is that they haven’t taken the time to study the simpler things and to progress. Just like in our secular education, it’s a direct parallel. Would you take a kid and put him in a calculus or a physics class if he never had fourth and fifth grade arithmetic? Of course not! That would be impossible. And so our whole secular education is a progressive thing to bringing up our young people to the place where they can comprehend the deeper concepts of whatever discipline. Now then, let’s move on to verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 5.

"For every one that useth milk…"

They’re still on maybe Christ’s earthly ministry, at least let’s hope maybe they’ve gotten that far. They understand that Jesus of Nazareth had a ministry, and his miracles and so forth, but that’s as far as they can go. All they know is just simply His earthly ministry, and consequently, they are unskillful in the Word of righteousness.

Most of the deeper concepts come from the pen of the Apostle Paul, and I imagine that the vast majority of church members know nothing of those concepts. For example, the first one that comes to my mind is that the old Adamic nature is bent to sin. "We’re not sinners because we sin, but rather we sin because we’re sinners." Most people don’t even know what I’m talking about, and Paul enlightens us on that subject.

You see, the old Adamic nature that we’re born with, is hell-bent. And the only way you can overcome that is by the regeneration brought about by the power of God. And once we’re regenerated, then we can begin to understand spiritual things, but until that happens we can’t.

And most Church members can only rehearse Christ’s earthly ministry. I mean, they’ve heard that in Sunday School for years and they know that pretty much, but beyond that, they just don’t know. When it comes to end-time events as we see them rolling up around us, most people don’t have a clue as to what all this is about. They’ve never gotten off the milk bottle. They’ve never gotten any further than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then Paul goes on to say here in Hebrews:

"For every one that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe." They’re babes!" And even in believers, they may have been saved for years and years but they’ve never gotten beyond the baby stage spiritually and so Paul is admonishing them. Get off the baby bottle! Now verse 14 and I guess hopefully this will take us to the end.

"But strong meat (this adult food, see?) belongs to them who are of full age, (that is spiritually mature) even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."

What does all that mean? Well, after the rudiments of salvation and we’re babes in Christ, we begin to study the Word, and we begin to understand some of the basics. I think one of the first things we have to realize in this Age of Grace is that the moment we’re saved the Holy Spirit comes in, and indwells us. He then becomes our teacher. The Holy Spirit is the One Who opens up an understanding of the Scriptures. I guess I’d better use Scripture to define that. Come back to I Corinthians 2 and verse 10. This is where we start as a new believer with an understanding that we’re not just left out there to our own devices but we have that indwelling Holy Spirit Who is ready to reveal these things if we will ask Him to. Now I think we have to simply pray and ask God, "Give me understanding. Teach me. Give me wisdom." And the Lord will do it.

"But God hath revealed them (that is, the things that are only for believers to understand) unto us by his (what?) Spirit: for the Spirit (the Holy Spirit) searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." Alright then come all the way down to verse 13,

"Which things also we speak, (Paul says) not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, (see? You don’t go by what men say) but which the Holy Spirit teacheth. (And here’s how you study.) comparing spiritual with spiritual."

This is why I use as many Scriptures as I possibly can because we have to understand that the Word of God dovetails. Everything fits and we compare Scripture with Scripture. And then verse 14. My if this doesn’t just tell us everything,

"But the natural (the unregenerated, the unsaved) man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: (why?) for they are foolishness unto him:"

And why are they foolishness? Because he has no hunger, he has no desire to learn. And so we have to understand that it is a spiritual life that we have to feed the Word of God.

Let’s pickup where we left off in the last lesson in Hebrews chapter 6. Here in verse 1 we are faced with that word Paul uses over and over:

You know, I can almost stop and teach thirty-minutes on just the word ‘therefore,’ because you see, he’s reminding us of what he had just covered in those previous verses in the last part of chapter 5. You remember in our last program, we were talking about Paul lamenting the fact that these people were not skilled in the Word of God. They were not able to go out and teach others. But rather they were like babes on the milk-bottle, and they still had to be fed.

What a dilemma. The average believer has not made enough effort to search the Scriptures to get skilled with them, to be comfortable in sharing it with someone else. Now we hope that this is what we’re accomplishing in our kind of teaching. That we are getting people to have enough understanding of the Scripture to be able to sit down with someone who is totally ignorant and just show them.

I shared in our last taping that I had just had a couple of phone calls from men who worked in corporate situations and someone came in and asked the appropriate question of both of them! Both of them said that they just got out a sheet of paper and drew the timeline - what a glorious way to share the Scriptures. And, oh, that everyone could be able to do that when someone asked a question. And so this is what Paul was lamenting in those previous verses, that you’ve got to get off the milk-bottle. You’ve got to get into the strong meat, and be able to teach others also. "Therefore" since that’s what he has covered, look what the verse says:

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrines (or the teachings) of Christ, let us go unto perfection…."

Now I’m going to stop right there. And I’m thinking, I’ll cover the whole next thirty-minutes on just these few words. Maybe the next sixty-minutes, I don’t know. But there is so much right there, that the casual reader just reads over it. You know, that’s the other response we’re getting in so many of our letters. "You’ve taught me how to read!" Well, not that they couldn’t read as reading goes. But, people don’t stop to analyze what it really says, see? And this is what we have to do. So, "Therefore," since we have to come away from that milk-bottle environment and get into the deep things that we can share with other people, we have to start someplace and what’s the next word? "Leaving." Now what do you suppose leaving means? Well, it means what it says!

Come back with me to Ephesians chapter 5 and here we have the whole marriage situation for us in this Age of Grace. The husband and wife relationship, so I want you to drop in at verse 31. And all I’m doing this for is so that you get the meaning of the word leaving.

"For this case shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh."

Now, look at that a little more than just seeing a beautiful wedding ceremony. What really happens when a young couple gets married and sets up their own home? What happens between them and their parents? Well, they don’t forsake them. They don’t say, "Bye, Dad! I’ll see you in Glory!" That isn’t what marriage does. Marriage is still connected with both generations.

But, what does that young couple suddenly realize? The rent is due, car payments have to be made. Groceries have to be bought. The electric bill, and the phone bill are staring them in the face. Hey, they’ve never had this before, for the most part. And so what is it? It’s a whole progressive step from living in the home nest, to all of a sudden establishing a home of their own. But they don’t forsake that which has gone before, they merely move on away from it, still keeping the ties to the home folks. Now isn’t that understandable?

Now that started back in Genesis. You have the same word; "therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave to his wife." And so that’s the whole concept. But the point I’m trying to make, it’s not a matter of totally forsaking the parent, it’s simply moving on. In fact, the more I study Hebrews getting ready for these programs, the more I’ve come to the conclusion under the heading of the letter to the Hebrews, they could have added a letter promoting progression, because that’s what Hebrews is all about. To keep moving and moving. And as I was studying a little bit last night, I couldn’t help but think, that in the world around us, isn’t that exactly true? There is no status quo, at least not until you retire. And Iris and I were talking on the way up. I wonder what it’d be like to be retired? We have no idea! But for the average person going through life, there is no status quo if you’re going to succeed in life.

What am I saying? Whether it’s a sports team, a pro-football team, a college program, a business, a marriage, or an education, you have to either keep moving forward, be it ever so infinitesimal, you’ve got to keep moving forward or else what? Back you go!

You know I’m always using the analogy of paddling a canoe up stream. Oh, you may not be making much headway but I’ll tell you what, the minute you pull that paddle out of the water you’re going to make some movement! But it’s going to be back down stream.

Alright, now that’s exactly the way we have to look at Scripture. There is no such thing in this progressive unfolding of the Word of God as a status quo. We have to either keep moving on and learning and getting deeper into the Word or we going to get careless and lose interest. And so it always holds that we have to leave that which has gone before for the purpose of moving on. And that’s exactly what it’s talking about. Now, let’s look at the verse again.

Hebrews 6:1a

"Therefore leaving…" In other words, don’t forsake it. You don’t turn your back on it saying, "I don’t want anything more to do with that." You move from that one place into a progressive unfolding of that which lies ahead. But what is the Apostle admonishing these people to leave?

All the Greek that I can find and the various dictionaries and commentators, all use the same thing. And if you have a good marginal help in your Bible, it would be in your margin. This word principles is better translated "the words of the beginning of Christ."

Think about that for a minute. I’m know I’m taking this slow, because I just reminded myself all night long last night, "Now Les, don’t get in a hurry. Take this chapter slow!’ I don’t care if we have two or three books on chapter 6. We’re going to take it slow. Because this is so important that people understand that here we have to see these Hebrews, to whom of course, the letter is primarily written understand now that they cannot rest on the status quo. They certainly don’t want to be left slipping back. But rather they’ve got to move on ahead in their experience and their knowledge of the Word of God. And the only way they could do that would be to "leave the words of the beginning of Christ." Now that just flies in the face of most of Christendom. Doesn’t it? What were the "words of the beginning of Christ?" What are the ‘principles of Christ?’ Well it’s the Four Gospels! His earthly ministry!

Alright, now let’s look what Paul says concerning that in Romans chapter 15 verse 8. And again I imagine the vast majority of people who read their Bibles skim over this verse and never really understand what it says. But oh, it’s loaded! This says it all - of what we’re looking at now today, that we’re going to have to move away from the first words of Christ, and His earthly ministry. Because, here’s the purpose.

"Now I say, that Jesus Christ was (past tense) a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers."

Just look at that! You know, I read the Jerusalem Post from cover to cover. And, quite often, there’s an article in there with regard to these young Jewish men who are in Yeshiva. And of course, that’s part and parcel of Israel’s history. Now what do these young Jewish men do in a Yeshiva? Well, they’ll sit there day in and day out and contemplate maybe one verse of the Torah. And they’ve been doing it for centuries. And what do they still hope to do? Pull something out of there that some previous Rabbi had never seen.

Alright, now I don’t expect anybody to do that. We’re not in Yeshivas but goodness sakes let’s take a verse like this now again, and pick it apart. What does it really say? Well it says that Jesus Christ was the ministry of the circumcision. Who is the circumcision? Israel! So Paul that great Apostle of the Gentiles, is reminding us, that Jesus Christ in the "beginning of His words" here on earth was to what people? Israel.

You know I’m always stressing every word that Jesus said in His earthly ministry with two exceptions was always to the Jew under the Law. Oh goodness, that rankles people. I get a kick out of how it does, because it just sort of makes me smile that people can get so shook up with truth. That reminds me on our last cruise, we had a couple from out east someplace. I’m not going to identify them. But anyway one of the clergy of their particular denomination was on the ship with us and they had gotten acquainted with him and they had gotten him to come to one of our Bible studies.

Well, it didn’t take me two minutes to see that the guy was just enraptured with what he was seeing. Oh, he was just eating it up for the whole two-three hours that we were together that evening. So this couple said, "We’re going to make sure that he’s back tomorrow night." But tomorrow night came, and he wasn’t there. And I said, "Well, goodness sakes, what happened?" "Ah," she says, "he didn’t want to be confused with the truth!"

Isn’t that right? People say, "Don’t bother me with facts. I’m satisfied with whatever flies." But listen, we’re going to look at this in truth. Not what Les Feldick says, but rather what does the Book say? "Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision." And then what’s the next statement? "For the truth of God." Now that just nails it down. This wasn’t something that flippantly came of the lips of the Apostle Paul. This was in accord with the whole Sovereign working of the Creator God, that Christ should come to the Nation of Israel. And then what does the rest of the verse say? "To confirm the promises made to the fathers." Who were the fathers? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the rest of the Old Testament patriarchs. David, see? Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah you name them.

They were all talking about the coming of this Messiah King. And that’s what Jesus came to proclaim. That He was the fulfillment of those promises made to the fathers of Israel, see? And that’s so hard for people to comprehend. They think that Jesus came - like I had one guy explode in one of our classes in Israel, "Ah," he said, "What do you do with John 3:16, throw it away?" No, John 3:16 was the fulfillment of Christ coming to His earthly people. And then when He was rejected, yes, then He went to the whole world.

But for three years, He was the minister of the circumcision, for the truth of God to confirm the promises made to the fathers. Now see when you pick it apart and take it slow, doesn’t it make sense. Sure it does. Just as sensible as it can be that He came to fulfill those Old Testament promises. He never once told those twelve disciples, "I’m going to be going to the Cross and be crucified and raise up another Apostle and send him to the Gentiles," - at least not in a way that they could understand it.

Now then, let’s go back and see some of those "words of the beginning of Christ." And let’s just jump all the way back to the Book of Matthew. We’re going to jump in first at Matthew chapter 5 and verse 17. And this of course, is the beginning of His earthly ministry. And Jesus said:

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but (what?) to fulfill." Well, isn’t that exactly what Paul just said in Romans? Why did He come? To fulfill the promises made to the fathers. Now, back in Exodus, what did God promise that the Jewish people could be individually? Priests of God. Every Jew was to become a ‘go-between.’ Well, between God and who? The Gentiles. Those pagans out there around them. Now it wasn’t going to be tomorrow or next month. But some way, after the hundreds of years, Israel was going to have that opportunity and responsibility to announce their Messiah and King and also the Redeemer of the Gentile world.

Alright then you come all the way up, based of course, on that Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12. Isaiah writes so plainly that the Nation of Israel is to be a light to the Gentiles and then Daniel introduces us to the whole concept of an earthly kingdom over which the stone, cut out without hands, which of course, is always a reference to Christ, would take over and rule the whole planet.

See, those were all promises that the spiritual Jew at least, probably not all of them, but the spiritual part of Israel understood, that this was what was in their future. That God Himself in the person of the Messiah, the Son of God, would be coming and establishing an earthly kingdom with His capital in Jerusalem and Israel would enjoy all those promises of Deuteronomy 27 and 28. And what are those promises? Oh, you’ll not be the tail; you’ll be the head! You’ll be blessed when you go out; you’ll be blessed when you come in.

Those are the promises that Israel was longing for. And oh, they’re looking for them even today. Maybe not in the right quarters, but in their heart. Now those of you who read anything at all of the Jewish people. In the heart of every Jew, for centuries, has been that longing statement ‘next year’ what? Yeah, you got it. ‘Next year Jerusalem.’ Sounds like farmers. You know farmers are always waiting for next year. But, that was the heart of the Jew. ‘Next year Jerusalem.’ Next year peace! Jerusalem. The Prince of Peace ruling and reigning.

Alright, those were the promises that Christ came to the Nation of Israel to fulfill. And that’s what he’s talking about. He’s not talking about the Cross here. He’s talking about fulfilling those Old Testament promises. But He wasn’t coming to destroy the Law. He wasn’t coming to destroy the prophets. He came to fulfill everything that they’d been writing about. See? ‘To confirm the promises.’

Now, turn with me ahead a couple of pages to chapter 9, still here in Matthew and just drop in at verse 35. Now don’t lose sight of what I’m trying to show here. We’re looking at the "words of the beginning of Christ." His earthly ministry. What was He telling these Jewish people, and that these people that Paul is addressing now in the book of Hebrews had evidently embraced, they had become followers and believers of Jesus of Nazareth. Also don’t forget your time setting. The Book of Hebrews is being written at a time when most of these people to whom Paul is writing were certainly adults during Christ’s earthly ministry, even as Paul himself was. So he’s talking about people who had probably become believers during Christ’s earthly ministry. And now the whole idea of the Book of Hebrews is ‘move on.’

You know when I first started the book way back in chapter 1, remember I reminded you that throughout the Book of Hebrews it says "that was good, but this is better." Sure. And what is that? That’s a progression. Moving out of that which is good and going to something better. But now we’re still back here at the beginnings of the words of Christ.

"And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching (now if you haven’t underlined it before, underline it today) the gospel of the kingdom,…" Now what does that word Gospel always mean? Good news! He was announcing the good news of the kingdom.

What did that mean? Hey, He’s the King! He’s here! On the earth! Ready to fulfill the promises. So He’s preaching the good news of the kingdom of heaven. Now along with that Gospel of the Kingdom of course, we have, read on.

"…and healing every sickness and every disease among the people."

None excepted! That’s the difference. When Jesus healed the multitudes, He healed them all, but they weren’t all believers. Don’t ever get that idea. The press, as we sometimes refer to it, those multitudes in upon Him, hey, they weren’t following Him because of His spiritual offer. They were following Him for what I said before, the free lunch! Nothing they liked better as when He came out with that loaves and fishes.

And I’m going to be making reference to it sometime as I go into the book of Hebrews, but remember back in John’s Gospel, when the disciples had been fishing all night and caught nothing? And they came to shore and there the Lord was. And He asked them, you remember, "Have you any food, any meat?" "No," they replied, "Haven’t caught a thing all night." But, in the next verse it tells us that while He was standing there on the shore. What was also beside Him on the shore? "Bread and fish on the fire."

You know, when I rehearsed that again the other night, a thought struck me, that never had before. Since He’s the Creator, He’s the perfect operator of everything. Have you ever stopped to think, He must be the best chef the world has ever seen? I’ll bet that was the best tasting fish and bread that those disciples had ever tasted! And that gave rise then to the Lord’s question. "Peter do you love me more than – those?"

And I bet it was kind of tough to say, why yes Lord, because that must have been mighty good tasting food. Well, that’s beside the point. But He came to fulfill all these promises given to the Nation of Israel. And when He did He healed every sickness. Every disease. See? Because after all what was He proving? That He was the Christ! That’s what these "words of the beginning of Christ" were to do. To prove to Israel Who He was. Now you’ve heard me say that a hundred times, haven’t you?

Now then, let’s skip over into chapter 10. And you have no idea how mad people can get when you show them these verses. You wouldn’t think people would get angry at the Word of God, would you? Oh but they do. If it flies in the face of what they’ve always thought and known. Oh, they get angry. I’ve got heads nodding all over the place. Sunday School teachers you know what it’s like. Oh they can get angry. But look what it says, I probably haven’t got time to do it justice. I don’t think I do, but anyway. Chapter 10 verse 1,

See that? He’s imparting to them the same power that He had. Now we’re not going to go through and rehearse them because you all certainly know who the Twelve disciples were but alright we’ll come all the way down to verse 5, and we’ll be ready to pick right up there in the next lesson.

Now as we began our study this afternoon, we’re going to just continue right on with our Bible study where we left off in Hebrews chapter 6. And for those of you just joining us on television who may have never caught the program before, we’re just a simple Bible study. We don’t have a lot of glitz. We’re not banked with flowers. Because after all this is just a classroom. And classrooms aren’t fancy, are they?

You know, I get such a kick out of our listeners. We were at one of our seminars. Now, I shouldn’t probably do this but, you all know me well enough and my audience knows me well enough. We were at one of our seminars and a lady was saying something that Iris just happened to overhear. And she said, "You know why I give to Les Feldick Ministries?" And the other gal says, "No. She said, "He doesn’t spend it all on clothes!" Well, that’s true. We don’t try to come in here with a fashion plate; we just simply want to teach the Word in a way that anyone can understand.

Let’s go right back into Hebrews chapter 6, we’re still in verse 1. And we’re just going to use this for a ‘jumping off’ and we’ll go right back to where we left off in the last moments of our last program.

Because of what has just been said the in last verses of chapter 5, that it was necessary to feed them milk because they weren’t ready for meat. So Paul says:

"Therefore leaving (or moving on from) the principles (or the words of the beginning of Christ, and) of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;…" (or unto a maturity)

In other words, like someone just said at break time. Les, this is just like the Bible as a whole. Yeah! It’s a progressive revelation from Genesis to the book of Revelation; it’s a progressive revealing of the things of God. Alright, so now then to take another look at the "words of the beginning of Christ" or His earthly ministry. We’re going to go right back where we left off and that was in Matthew chapter 10.

You saw in chapter 9 in our last program, that Jesus went everywhere preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. My, very few people understand that that is not the Gospel of the Grace of God. The Gospel of the Grace of God was that which was revealed to the Apostle Paul through the revelation of the mysteries. But the Gospel of the Kingdom is what Jesus and, beginning with John the Baptist and the twelve, are proclaiming to the Nation of Israel and that is the good news that the King is here. He’s ready to give them the promised Kingdom that was promised all the way back to the Abrahamic Covenant. Now, in view of those promises then, we jumped into chapter 10 in the last moments of our program and we have the twelve disciples chosen and now here comes their marching orders. In verse 5:

"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and He commanded them, (now listen, when the Lord of Glory gave a command, that was not to be taken lightly. That was set in concrete and He commanded them) Go not into the way of the Gentiles,…" Did you hear that? Did you see that?

"These twelve Jesus sent forth, and he commanded them, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans (who were half-breeds) enter ye not 6. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

Now that’s plain language. As plain as language can get. Do NOT go to the Gentiles. Go only to the Nation of Israel, to the twelve tribes, to the lost sheep! Now let that sink in, and the next time you try to share it in your Sunday School class, they’ll run you out the back door more than likely. Yeah, I’ve got heads nodding, because you’ve experienced it. Oh, they don’t want to hear that, but see this is what Paul wrote in Romans.

And what were those promises made to the fathers? That Israel was to be the favored nation. And that God the Son would come and be a physical King as well as a Redeemer. And the Nation of Israel could come to that place of blessings. Living in peace and prosperity. Okay? Now reading on in Matthew 10. Let’s look now verse 7.

Now let’s jump over to Luke chapter one for just a second and get just a little glimpse of what that was to be for the Nation of Israel. Chronologically, of course, we’re going to back up a few years because this is when the angel had announced to Zacharias and Elizabeth that they were going to have a child. Now he’s just been born. Luke chapter 1 and I’m going to drop in at verse 67. And the angel has announced that this child John the Baptist to be born of Zacharias and Elizabeth, who also were in their older years, was going to be the herald of the King, and Messiah. Now, when the King would come, you see, this is what Israel was looking for in fulfillment of the promises made to the fathers. And I’m going to repeat it and repeat it and repeat it till you hear it in your sleep. This is what Jesus came to fulfill.

"And his father (that is John the Baptist’s father) Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost,…" He wasn’t just glibly speaking some Jewish hopefuls, but rather he was speaking the very mind of God and look what he said:

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; (Exclusive? Well, I reckon. This isn’t including the world. This is Israel.) for he hath visited and redeemed his people,"

Now, ever since Genesis chapter 12 and the giving of the Abrahamic Covenant, who were God’s people? Israel! See? You know that, and they’re still the ones we’re talking about. Now verse 69.

"And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." How many Gentiles are in the House of David? Not one! Now granted a few of the women came in by marriage, I’m not denying that. But largely speaking the House of Israel was Jew only. Now verses 70 and 71.

"As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71. That we should be saved from our (not sins yet but what?) enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;" Goodness gracious, who were Israel’s enemies at the time of Christ’s first advent? Well, the same one’s tonight. It was no difference as there was Egypt, Syria, the Persians, the Babylonians, and the Gentiles all around them. They were their enemies. Alright, so they’re going to "be saved from their enemies and all those that hate us." How many is that? The rest of the world.

See, ever since World War II we like to sort of stick our head in the sand and think that anti-Semitism is a thing of the past. Don’t you believe it. Anti-Semitism is raising its ugly head more and more every day. Now we all know why the Arab world hates Americans. And they do, they hate us! Not because of our prosperity, although that’s certainly a part of it. The liberals would like to make us think that that’s the problem, you know, we’ve got so much and they’ve got so little. No. The root problem is that they feel that we love and are going to do everything we can to support the little Nation of Israel and I think Osama bin Laden as much as said that. If Americans will quit supporting Israel then he can back off too. So that’s basically what’s behind everything is the hate for the Nation of Israel. Alright read on, and when this king would come He would come:

"To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, (same fathers that Paul referred to in Romans. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the prophets and so forth.) and to remember his holy covenant; 73. The covenant (or the oath) which he sware to our father Abraham."

Boy, it’s been a long time since we’ve rehearsed the Abrahamic Covenant on this program. Most of you hear it all the time in our Oklahoma classes, but for those of you out in television, the Abrahamic Covenant began back in Genesis chapter 12. Where God made three basic tenets to that Covenant. Maybe I should put it on the board once again, as I haven’t used the board in a long time. Maybe it’s about time.

That Abrahamic Covenant comprised, first the promise of a geographical area of land. Secondly, within that land, He would place a nation of people, the favored nation. The Nation of Israel. The third part of that Covenant was that in order to control the Nation living within the borders of a geographical area of land, He would have to establish a government. And this government is going to be in the person of a King and this King is going to be the Son of God. The Redeemer, the Messiah and that was all promised to Israel. Now those are just sort of the generalities.

You see, you have to kind of come through Scripture to pick this all up. Because even though this is promised back there in Genesis 15, 16 and 17, yet we do not have the revelation of Who this King is going to be until we get clear up into Samuel. And through the prophet Samuel and Nathan, God reveals that it’s going to be through the House of David. The bloodline of King David and Solomon and Nathan. And through that genealogy then of course, came Jesus of Nazareth. Now that was all part and parcel of that Abrahamic Covenant. Back to Luke, verse 74,

"That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out the hand of our enemies, (peace, prosperity. No fear) and that we might serve him without fear." See that’s what Israel is still looking for. Oh maybe, not so much on the spiritual level but oh, how they’re longing for peace. When they can go to bed at night and not have to worry about having to dive for a bomb shelter. You know, I read some time ago that up there in Northern Israel, just below the Lebanese border, there are generations of young people who from babyhood on up never slept in their regular bed. They slept in beds in bomb shelters in order to be protected from the constant bombarding from the Hezbollah and so forth.

But oh, how Israel is longing for peace! And they’re getting just about ready to sell their soul to get it. Well, it does get kind of provoking when you can’t walk down the street without fear of being blown to smithereens. It does get frustrating when you can’t drive down the highway without wondering, well, am I next?

I was just talking to someone on the phone the other day that way back in the ‘80’s, he and his brother had flown over to Israel, just the two of them, and rented a car and spent a whole month just driving up and down the roads of Israel. I told Iris, "You know, that would be the way to tour Israel," but, you couldn’t do that today. My land, you’d be in constant fear. But, this is what Israel is longing for, see?

Alright, "That he would grant unto us that we be delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear." Now here comes the spiritual element.

"In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life." (That was the hope of Israel based on the Covenant promises.)

Now let’s come back to Matthew once again. And so after being commanded to have nothing to do with Gentiles, we go through Christ’s earthly ministry and you have the Sermon on the Mount and all these high moral statements. Which of course, are certainly profitable. I don’t tell people not to read the Four Gospels, for goodness sakes. All I maintain is that there’s no doctrine of Grace in these Four Gospels, this is still under the Law.

But there’s still a lot to learn. Just like we’re finding out in the book of Hebrews. Now, I’m going to bring you all the way up to chapter 16 which is the end of Christ’s earthly ministry. And even though they are as yet up in Northern Israel, at the headwaters of the Jordan River, Caesarea Philippi. Yet, they’re soon going to be making their way south and up to Jerusalem for the Passover and the Crucifixion.

Alright, now look what Jesus is doing as we read Matthew 16:13. This is all part of this Gospel of the Kingdom from which the readers of Paul’s epistle were to move on from, they are instructed to leave it, and to move on to better things.

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?’"

In other words, what’s He asking? Whom do the rank and file think I am, the Jews among whom we have been performing miracles, whom we’ve been feeding the multitudes, and healing the sick. Whom do most of those people think I am? And here’s their answer. Look at this. I mean this is shocking. This was the answer.

"And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias, and other, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." Imagine! After three years of trying to prove to the Jewish Nation that He was the fulfillment of all those Old Testament promises. He was the Messiah. He was the Son of God, and they think anything but whom He really is. Now verse 15.

"He saith unto them, (remember this is the whole twelve. Judas is included yet.) but whom say you that I am? (and Peter of course is always the spokesman and so he speaks up) 16. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

What’s the other word for Christ? Messiah! I had a letter the other day and someone was bemoaning the fact that so much of Christendom uses Jesus Christ as a first and last name. Well, I hope you all know better than that. Christ isn’t his last name; it’s his title. And that’s why once in a while you’ll hear me slip in ‘Jesus the Christ’ which is really the most accurate. Because that’s what He was. He was Jesus the Messiah. Or if you want to reverse it,