Joseph Smith, for those that don't know, was born in 1805. By the time he was 24, and obviously do the math, in '29, 1829, he said he had a vision of two people. Supposedly that was maybe God the Father and the Son, who knows? And they told him to go dig up some gold plates. And he found them and he dug them up and he wrote The Book of Mormon. Now what's interesting about this Book of Mormon is that most people think, “Well, it's just like the Bible,” but it is not. In fact I have a first edition of his writings. It's kind of interesting, because I started collecting some of the things that would round out, we'll call it Christianity in America, because I don't want to say anything derogatory at this point. Anyway, in these writings, you find also an attachment, if you will, called The Covenants, they're referred to typically as the “D and C,” “D and C,” of Doctrines and Covenants of the LDS church. Now when you understand that there was no hierarchy in the church, in the Latter Day Saint church, until the 18-, early 1830's and then this doctrine of hierarchy was introduced. By the mid 1830's we have, we have a hierarchical procedure within the Latter Day Saints church: the priesthood Melchisedec, which is the first, the Aaronic priesthood, which is the second, and the Patriarchical priesthood which is the third and you're going, “Oh, boy, wow!” And when you come into the church you, some people, some of the people in that particular church are bestowed these honors and titles in their priesthood. And this is what's so bizarre. The━in 1843 this, we don't know if they ordained women, but the priesthood actually extended to women by 1843, and then, it also then extended in 1978 to all members of the LDS church, including African Americans, because they had been excluded all this time from receiving anything. And by the way, I'm just putting in a parenthetical in passing. No one balks at the fact that they never publicly apologized for their racism. No one balks at that, it's just assumed, “Okay, you know, African American people are allowed in now, so it's okay,” like as if that's going to make up for so many years back of segregation and racism. But that's another thing, because when I read the Bible, my Bible tells me that God now does not see male or female, He does not see Jew or Greek, He does not see black or white; He sees the red blood of Jesus Christ. Now that's another story. Now why would you, why would you want to know about this? You know, I actually have a message to go somewhere with. You'd want to know about this because if you where church shopping, which a lot of people tend to do here, this seems to be the popular thing to do in L.A. I've seen it for at least the last nine years, people pop in and then they want to go to the popular place, the popular place is not offering them any spiritual food, it's just popular to be in the popular place. And friends all I want to say to you is if you are concerned at all about your standing with God, learn His word and get to a place where you'll be taught about His word, and listen to somebody who doesn't really care too much about what other people think, but what God thinks, because as I said I have to stand and give account of what I do and you're going to have to stand and give account for what you do as well and you're decisions that you make. And when people say, “Well, I, I want to go where it's easy and its relaxed and I can kick back.” And well, you know, listen, there's a there's a bus probably to take you Hell, Texas? If you are not willing to put out, I'm sorry, this is going to seem to be very crass, but if you're not willing to put out for God for all that He's put out for you, you probably shouldn't be a Christian. You probably should go somewhere else, because the way I see it, the price that He paid at Calvary, and I say it for me and I mean it from my heart, I did nothing, I deserve none of His sacrifice, not one drop of His blood did I deserve, but yet He shed it that I might be spared from judgment, wrath, and the ultimate hammer comes down: death, which people like to run away from, they don't like to talk about it. There's two subjects in the church that are not popular: money and death. Now I like to talk about both of those because for the Christian who understands the Bible, Jesus asks the question: if you will faithe in Him, King James says, “Do you believe that you'll have life eternal,” you'll never die. Now He's not saying you're never, never going to die because this flesh pot this sinful flesh being must be laid down, but He's saying that just like Him as the First-goer, you too will be like Him and you'll be with Him. He conquered the power of death. Go back and read the first two chapters of Hebrews and go back and read 1 Corinthians 15. He conquered that power, He conquered that power; it has no more power. Well, we're right across from a cemetery, go tell those people. Well maybe those bones are going to rise one day. I say maybe, I don't know. It's a mixed bag over there. And thank God I don't have to sort it out; He will. This is going to be a weird kind of message, I can already tell. So I brought this to read to you. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I just, I thought people might say, “You know, you're telling me about this Mormon, LDS priesthood thing; are you making this up?” No, this came right off their website. “Doctrines and Covenants, section 107. Revelation on the priesthood, given through Joseph Smith, the Prophet, at Kirtland, Ohio, about April 1835.” And then it goes on to talk about how “There are two priesthoods: The Melchizedek and the Aaronic&Those who hold the Melchizedek Priesthood have power to officiate in all offices in the Church,” and it's just quite a lengthy thing. It's multiple pages. I'm choosing not to read it, but the purpose in presenting this to you is that if a person doesn't study this book and is not reading this book and is not understanding this book, this could be plausible. This could be completely plausible, except for the fact that I come back to repeat the thing I say over and over again, which the opening of this book says that God at diverse times and “in diverse manners and sundry times spoke unto the fathers by the prophets and hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son,” that is Jesus Christ, “whom he hath appointed heir of all things.” So understand this book and those type of doctrines, you- it will leave you scratching your head, but you will say this is how people fall into error. Now you can make a little edge and hypothetically go down the pathway of what I called minor heresies, where Melchisedec was considered to be Christ and Melchisedec was considered to be the Holy Spirit and Melchisedec was considered to be& those are shades of interpretation, versus taking a big stride over here and saying, “And these things are still in operation in the church.” You understand the difference when I say shades, versus left field? I might be actually standing to the other side of the field, but you get the idea. So this is the purpose for studying theology. And while I'm at it and I might as well just, you know, we're going to, we're going to kill some sacred cows, but━and there's always people that are upset with me. You can do nothing about that. The day that they all come to sing my praise and tell me how great I am, I'll resign; I don't think that's going to happen real soon. In fact, I can pretty much say as long as anyone stands and preaches Christ, just like Christ, you'll be hated without a cause. You'll be hated. People will dislike you. Have you noticed that some of you who are newer to the church and newer to the faith, do you notice that? That the minute you, “I got Christ in my heart and I love the Lord,” and it seems like when you didn't and when you weren't, everybody was back-slapping, happy, friendly; you were the best, you could do no wrong and suddenly you're walking, you think the path of the Lord, which it is, but it seems wrong, because everybody's turned their back. They think you're a weirdo. Okay, maybe that's just three of you. Never mind. I think it's more than three of you. Now why I said you might as well to go the distance, we're talking about priesthood now in the book of Hebrews. And for the Roman Catholic Church, it's equally difficult. Most people, including myself, never stopped to read the history of the church. It seemed unimportant. Why bother with dates and people who are dead? Right, why bother? So, it's like if you were coming through grade school, you might say, “Why bother learning those dates and those dead people? Right, I'm just a selfy nation here; why bother?” Right? But you need to know these things. And in the Roman Catholic tradition, the primacy of the Apostle Peter is stressed and his attachment to Rome. And to me there begins this great contradiction. And the contradiction is, first of all, Jesus Christ did not appoint Peter as the head of the church. Oh, He gave him special orders. That was the grace that He gave him for being such a failure, a pathetic failure. We all resemble him a lot. But Jesus called other disciples too. So because of Peter's primacy and his importance at Rome, of course, the emphasis is put on the priesthood there. And this is where the contradiction for me comes in, because if that was the case and Peter is therefore the prototype of the priesthood, don't you read in Matthew's Gospel that Peter was married? Do you read that anywhere? Am I━is it just in my Bible? It says Peter's mother-in-law was taken with a fever. So you tell me, if Peter is the prototype for the priesthood, for the Roman Catholic Church, why would they disallow marriage? Now this is not a message against the Roman Catholic Church. I'm just telling you what happens, the minute you stray from this book and you start making interpretations, this is an even greater catastrophe, because the focus is on the primacy of Peter, and if you read the writings, what does Peter say regarding the priesthood? It's somewhat interesting. You know, if people would take the time, and some people just don't care, but I do. In 1 Peter, in the second chapter, talking about the people of God, “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, hypocrisies, envies, and evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby,” that's referring to the total body, right, not just a few individuals. If so be ye have tasted the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone,” lively stone, “disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious, ye also,” that's referring to the whole church, not just a few, “ye also, as lively stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood,” ALL OF YOU, not just some of you; ALL OF YOU, “a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” And if you'd read down again in verse 9, he says, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a nation of peculiar people,” treasure people “that ye should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” Think about that. So the one that they elevate to primacy and head of the church as a sole leader, and then by succession is the very one that says, “You all are; all of you, the whole bunch of you”" “Well, are you going to make that doctrine?” Absolutely, because it happens again in Revelation 1:5 and 6; you're called kings and priests, the whole lot of you. “Well, how do you figure that?” Well, the same way that you're called a Christian, after Christ. What have I been teaching here? One of those key words in Hebrews, prodromos: the one that goes before; that means people will follow after Him. Ahh? Okay, just ch-ch-ch-chisel away. So, one might ask why the theology? Why do all the heavy stuff? Because it sets the precedent for rightly understanding and rightly dividing the word of God; shades, versus left field. And, well, somebody's going to say, “You just, you just hurt a whole bunch of people's feelings.” I'm not interested in feelings, friends. We're talking about eternal perspective. And if the breath of God is on you and the breath of eternity is on you, you should care. Now you know, the severity of this all is that not too many people take this seriously. You know how hard it is to get people━I'm telling you, I'm just going to share my heart a little bit before I get into what I've got to say. You know how hard it is to get people into the church because the conditioned mindset. I did a message once here about what the church is not, but that's the conditioned mindset. No one seemingly wants to learn about the historical perspective, so that we don't repeat. Well, why, why do they, why do people no change it then? Why doesn't somebody complain? Well, all you need to do is look at the Reformation. It took━Martin Luther did not necessarily start it per se. It was started 150 years before him with Wycliffe translating the Bible into the English tongue. But it took somebody to stand up and say, “This is not right!” And very few people are willing to do that in the church today. They're wanting to be in the church to belong to a body that's just a bunch of conformists going with the flow of things and who cares if it's wrong? Everybody's going this way. And I say if the majority is going this way, turn around and go the other way because you're going to be going in the right direction! It really is━I love the pastorate and I love the church, but sometimes I think it's almost like a curse to see people come and reject. Now I, I settled it through the word; they don't reject me, they reject the word, just like the prophet saying━well, you know, God said the prophet, “They're not rejecting you; they're rejecting Me.” That was God speaking to the prophet saying, “It ain't you. It's not about you.” And it's not about me. And you know, I'm really grateful for that cemetery across the street, because you know what it reminds me of? It reminds that that is an inescapable part of this. For radio people, I just held up my hand. And as long as you are not willing to take a look at why you should even believe, which starts with the Resurrection, which leads you to faith, you're not even half way there. You're just practicing some type of habitual recipe that you think is going to get you in which still falls under the works department and not faith, so that's the reason for doing all this. Now, "a priest after the order of Melchisedec," all of that and all these weeks and I've been trying to point you to something. Some of you for years have been, you know, you've held on so tightly to something, and now what I've told you, really the person. Who the person is per se, it doesn't matter. Now what a letdown, you know, you were waiting; we were going to swish-swish, right? What a letdown, because it's the purpose of why he's introduced. And if that is caught, everything else falls into place and then you realize people propagating priesthoods of Aaron and Melchisedec and other things today━they went that-a-way. So what can we know about the order of Melchisedec, because Christ is a type of that, which we keep reading about? So here are a few things we're going to go over, because I want to bring this section, I want to try and start bringing it to a close, because the real important thing, after we have focused on the purpose of introducing Melchisedec is to establish something so crystal clear. These people, recipients of this letter were definitely attached to the Levitical order. That was their origins. That was their custom, their ceremonies. And the brilliance of this writer, who introduces Melchisedec, not to be a part of the Levitical order, but to say there was something else before the law. Before there, the law was even introduced there was something else at work. And we know because we started studying in part, at least, Psalm 110, which references. Psalm 110 is a psalm of David and you know that between Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 there's a couple of hundred years. And that was a prophecy written, inspired by the Holy Spirit to tell us about Christ being both King and Priest: future time. At the time David wrote it, not yet fulfilled. So, what can we know if we put these in━trying to line these things up? What can we know? Well, the first thing I want to highlight, which is probably the most important thing is what is said in verse 19 of the seventh chapter. It's pretty blunt when he says, “For the law made nothing perfect.” Now in order to understand about why the big deal about the order of Melchisedec and what that meant for these people, you must understand “the law made nothing perfect.” There are some people today that would like to tell you when you come into the church, "you've got to live the law." And I guess they don't read both Old and New Testament, because if you want to live the law, first of all, it means you want to live under a curse. You know, the law, in the law it said, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” And Jesus walks on the scene and He says, “I'm going to raise that up more than just a couple of notches: if you look with lust.” Now, you know, none of this will connect. Some of you old-timers, you get this, but there's people that will come in, sitting and listening and you can't wrap your mind around this concept of the law, because the law says do-do's and don't-do's about what you ought to do and how you ought to do it and how you can't do it and when you can do it and if you can do it. I would want to abandon that just for the sake of not being bound to time. Never mind. Some of you more carnal ones got that. The rest of you, stay where you are; it's safer. “The law made nothing perfect,” this is a poor translation in verse 19, “but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.” If you think about it, your margin might read, “but it was the bringing in.” Think of this coupled with what Paul said, “the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to faith, and then when is come, the law is no more of use.” Until the law, you know, if you don't━if you're driving on this street right here and there's no speed limit and there's no signs, you won't know that you're breaking any law, because there's━you know, how convenient. Some of you have tried to say that, “I'm sorry officer. There were no signs posted,” right? A few of you. Signs are posted that say this is the speed limit, therefore, the law is set so you can know what the boundaries of the law are. And in terms of the spiritual realm, unlike the one I just gave, which is carnal and fleshly and probably silly, the law that was given, no one could keep. Can you imagine? I think sometimes God must have been sitting up there with His King James Bible on Mount Sinai, “Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery.” Hey, they can't do it anyway, so don't worry about it; they'll be back. I don't think so. The point is the law had a purpose. Without the law, we would not know. But then, as I'm quoting from another book in the Bible, “When faith is come,” so let's look at this. What about the order of Melchisedec? So, first thing we can know, Melchisedec was before the law. When we talk about the order of Melchisedec, this is important, he was before the law. That's one. Two, if you read our text in Hebrews, it says that “Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God,” there's some subtle words here. They appear unimportant, but it says, “Who met Abraham,” he, that is Melchisedec, approached Abraham directly. Now, under the Levitical priesthood, the priest would not approach a stranger and men had to come and present themselves to the priest. These are all the details, because when you think about it, Christ will be born of a woman under the law, but then fulfilling the law, in speaking of this second one. As Melchisedec approached Abraham directly, Christ came to us in the flesh and said, “When you've seen Me, you've seen the Father,” in the flesh. Third, he blessed him with words. So much of people's interpretations━let's put this here: he approached him directly, that's part of 7:1, Hebrews 7:1. He blessed him with words; that's part of Hebrews 7:6 and Genesis, all of these, Genesis 14. He blessed him with words. You know, when people are so busy super-spiritualizing and making things mystical and mysterious. He blessed him with words. What does Ephesians say? We're blessed with eulogetos, the good words of God. When people say, “Well, I'm looking for a blessing of a certain kind,” He blessed us with His word, He blessed us with The Word and He blessed us with spoken words; all the words we have captured and encapsulated that are in the New Testament. We're looking at what makes this “order of Melchisedec. You know, I started down the path of looking at Psalm 110:4, thinking the order is there, and I almost, I almost bit into what Luther said regarding the Hebrew translation that he made. I reject it now. It's a fanciful idea, but the order of Melchisedec is spelt out in this book, which is why the writer keeps repeating is so much. It makes perfect sense. Here's one that's pretty lengthy, so I'm just going put here 7:4-10 of Hebrews and that is the reception of tithes, so Abraham paying tithes to Melchisedec. We'll just put an M in a circle. And that Levi was in Abraham's loins. That prefigures something quite important. Essentially, by the writer saying this, he's saying, do━ you do realize that they were worshiping Melchisedec, even though Levi was in the loins of Abraham, he was not yet born, the writer is pointing out that they were worshiping from a different line, which is the whole point of him emphasizing and underscoring the fact that is says, “But he whose descent is not counted from them which received tithes of Abraham. If you understand that, what he's saying is pretty radical. Why is Jesus a type of this priesthood after the order of Melchisedec? Because these people where already worshiping; when they paid tithes, Abraham that is, paying tithes to Melchisedec, while Levi was in his loins is essentially saying that these Levites were essentially bowing down and doing homage, before they were even out of the loins of Abraham, to another priesthood. So, he is making the point to show what this “after the order” is. It's right here in the book. You don't have to go far and you don't have to be crazy to try and see what it is. And I also would attach this to a concept out of Zechariah, because if this is rightly understood that these were in the loins of Abraham paying tithes to Melchisedec, then it equally says as a prefirguration of what was yet to come that was spoken of by the prophet Zechariah, saying they'll look on Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn; they'll recognize. The beginning of that worship began even before they even came out of the gate. Pick whatever gate you want, oh boy, all right. Number five, ministry to or apart from the circumcision (I ran out of room; it could be the 'circus five'). Levitical priesthood to the circumcision; Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec, typifying his ministry not to an exclusive group, because Abraham had not yet circumcised himself. What more? Let's go to a new page. He was from another tribe. That you will read on your own. It does not; you do not need to be a translator. You read that in 7:6. I did this on Festival, but “he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham.” The writer is saying from another tribe, and this is why he goes down to highlight that the “Lord sprang out of Juda,” which had nothing to do with the Levitical priesthood. And there is a little comedy right there. I say comedy because it's God's way of saying, “But I still get the last word,” because back there in the set up of the tabernacle, before you could even enter in, you had to come through that tribe of Judah, placed right there at the east part, right before the door. It's as if God was saying all along, “You know, this is what it's going to be like one day, right there.” And this is why he brings up━these are all very strong arguments to this audience. He brings up that, he says, in verse 14, “For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. Then of course, of the order of Melchisedec, we have the easier things to see, which is Melchisedec was king and he was priest. That's obvious in the opening 7:1 and Genesis 14 as well. Now we come to the last part of this order of Melchisedec, which is the reason why the writer chose to say, and it's great confusion of “having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God,” which we've covered already. Essentially, there is no record of his death, meaning that if there is no record of his death, there's no record of his priesthood ending. That does not mean that he still lives, as some would have us believe, but simply that there is no record of his priesthood ending. And this is why, in prototype, we have a High Priest in Christ whose priesthood will never end. Why? Because 7:25 says, “He ever liveth to make intercession for them,” He is alive. He rose from the dead. We're not dealing with a priest that died. He's alive. So these are the things that you begin to look at. Now there are other things, but in the order, if you're trying to figure out, “Well, why does he keep saying priest after the order”? Well, one of those comes back to the prophecy that is uttered in Psalm 110, where it says, “The LORD hath sworn.” He quotes it here, “The LORD hath sworn an oath,” and he even elaborates that in the passage and says these other priests weren't made priests by an oath, but only Christ was. Now I ask you a question, because it's, it really does, it turns into from a theological understanding. He's made the case for Christ's Sonship out Psalm 2 and through, through at least six chapters, reading of a focus. So when he gets to this “the law made nothing perfect,” can you imagine being in that forum, wherever this letter was going to be read and hearing these words, “The law made nothing perfect,” because these were pining to go back to that. “The law made nothing perfect.” This is why, with a right understanding you begin to see that this priesthood he is speaking of then leads you through the doorway of understanding that Christ went beyond the veil, and we'll begin to talk about His better sacrifice and a new covenant and how His blood is better. You know, that's why I said all these things are tied together. In a perfect world, I could come here and I could say we only deal with one thing and we hit the nail on the head and we go. But the reality is this whole passage is leading up to something that, in fact, in my own investigation it led me to be actually staggered at how limited the people where in the Old Testament. I went through the whole book of Leviticus. Some of you who are in that first Hebrew class know, we were reading a strange chapter, which probably in no church is ever read, because that's chapter 18. So you who don't know what that chapter is, you can go look it up. But it's all about forbidden sexual practices. We were studying that chapter in our Hebrew class. And I was kind of dwelling in that area for a reason. And the reason is very simple. I've been studying the book of Leviticus to find out what on earth did these people do when they were sick? We're talking internal sickness, because the bulk of the things that you read about are exterior problems: a man has boils, he's got a skin disease, your house has mildew. A woman is done with her menstruation, she has to go outside the camp; she has a child, she has to━she's not clean for seven days━but it's, there's nothing that says when somebody is laying sick of a fever, when some━there's nothing━I mean I've been looking because I'm coming to a point to tell you that God does heal. And a lack of understanding about the Atonement and the sacrifice that is made and mentioned in this book will lead people to conclude that God does not heal and He does not heal through the Atonement. But the fact of the matter is that a clear understanding of this book, coupled with Leviticus and a couple of other places, tells you this is why Isaiah 53 is so important, because it clearly, without question tells us why we needed Christ to come and why the law could make nothing perfect, and why, without Christ coming, we would be without hope. You think about it, if you sinned knowingly or unknowingly, if the priest sinned, if the community sinned; any type of sin, you brought your perfect offering to the door of the tent. And that perfect offering, the perfection of that animal at the moment that you laid your hands on that animal's perfection it was your sin imputed to that animal as an act, and then that animal, you had to watch it being sacrificed. Now I don't know about you, I, I mean it's bad enough to think about when Jesus was on the cross and the suffering that He must have gone through, but can you imagine that's one act, frozen in our minds, but daily or weekly, having to go. And for the priest it was twice a day, minimally, in these offerings and sacrifices, slaughtering and the blood that kept flowing of animals nonstop, that could never cleanse men's consciences, could never made anybody━this I why this key word in this chapter, after we read of the things we need to establish with Melchisedec, will become law in perfection. The law could make nothing perfect. The law was impotent. The law could not fix the inner part of man. The law said you're prescribed to do these things, but I come back to this, because it will have value when we get into the ninth and tenth chapter. So what did Christ's sacrifice do, not only as a, as the Person of God, that was so much better? Well, obviously, it says clearly, the blood of bulls and goats could not clear, could not cleanse. It was a temporary thing. But then I go back to Isaiah 53 and I read how specifically in the Hebrew, forget about what that English translation says, and I read about our sicknesses, our diseases being laid upon Him as part of the full atonement made. If, listen, if, if the disconnect is somewhere in my message, it is going to be right here, because this is the juncture where we understand why the author is making this push to get people away from the Levitical system and to look to the completed sacrifice of Christ. You say, “I have encountered these people and these articles and things that say there is no healing in the Atonement.” Well, let's go back to the beginning for a second to remedy that. And I hate to do this like it can be done in a nutshell, but let's remedy that real quick, so any of you who need healing today will not say, “Well, but&,” and start going off on some other direction. Does the Bible not say in Romans 6 and 23, “The wages of sin is death”? Isn't that what is says? All you need to do is read that and combine that with what it says in Romans 5, “By one man's disobedience sin entered the world.” And that means that all were covered in that sin. The condition of fallen man and at the time that they were in the garden and she partook, and that whole undoing occurred, in that one moment in time, when the serpent said, “Ye shall not die; dying ye shall not die,” which was a lie, because in the day that they ate, they began to die. The record shows that. They began to die. Their longevity was being reduced and radically at that. They began to die. And at the moment of that beginning of death entering in, the perfection of life, the perfection of communion, the perfection of oneness with God was broken, including sickness, weeds, destruction. It all entered in at that moment. People have this idea that, well, if you are sick, it's because you have sin in your life. Come on. That means you don't understand that our condition is a fallen condition in Adam. I was born in this container. And this container in its condition is susceptible to everything that is part of the curse. Don't tell me, as a woman; and some of you women will go, “Amen, Sister!” Don't tell me that the curse that was put on Eve didn't effect and mess up your life. Come back and talk to me later about that one, because some of you men only had to do the thing of getting out there and having the sweat on your brow and you didn't have to worry about what happened to you every month as you turned into some Ninja Turtle from another planet. “Oh happy day, oh happy day, oh happy day,” no━there's nothing like being in church, right? But the point I'm making is, never once in all of the places that I've been feeling around in the Bible, never once does it become more clear that with all of these things that were designed to bring man to God, there was still a wall of partition. The white, the white boards of the tabernacle said, “Stay away from My holiness. Do not approach. And if you must, you bring something to slaughter, something to vicariously put your sins upon and I will count it as vicarious, in your place.” When you think about these things, and especially as I come back to the Atonement, you recognize that this, this picture being painted for us, “the law made nothing perfect” includes the fact that as long as the law was pined for and as long as the law was desired and as long as the law even mildly in view, the full redeeming force of Christ was not available. That includes, by the way, His healing power. Now the reason why I point to this is because I will be teaching on this. I determined I have not taught enough on healing and there's way too many sick people around me, and I get sick all the time. Now God doesn't say, “I'll spare you.” The Adam container is susceptible. The faith meter and the Amening of His word give me the place to, a la Dr. Scott, to run to, to take refuge and to stand on. And it is there I make my claim about “the law made nothing perfect.” We'll define perfection as well. It doesn't mean perfection as we know it, rather completion, or better yet, the terminology would be bringing into right relationship man and God. The law couldn't do it. When you think about the sacrifice and the shed blood, you begin to realize, that's why I said the importance of Isaiah 53, because had, had that not been made clear, had that not been revealed, had that not been painted for us, we'd be a people walking around asking the question; “Okay, we have a Savior who's made a one time, once and for all for us, but what does that cover?” Again, I refer back to the garden. If everything occurred at the garden, the disconnection of communion, the plunging humanity into darkness, then it also entails the shalom in which these first parents were in the garden. And by that alone, Christ coming as Redeemer and atoning and The Atonement also reconciles that first act in its entirety, not just in portion, because otherwise, somebody might says, “Well, it's just for the sin and the fallen condition.” It meets the whole thing. Now, you might say, “What does this have to do with this”" A lot, because we're looking at a prefiguration of something the writer's trying to the argument for: that this priest Melchisedec was before the law, he was a different kind, another kind of priest, he in terms of prototypically speaking, prefigured the One that was yet to come, and in the big picture did something, this One that obviously is the substance of the shadow, Christ, did something that the law could not do. Aside from death coming upon mankind, because no one can live the law and the curse fell upon Him, Galatians says, but that the full Atonement made the possibility. When we read the word “reconciliation,” we recognize it's not just, "I was an alien and I was estranged and I was in a sinning condition." And people think, “Oh that means that when you come, your condition is forgiven.” No, my condition is covered by Christ. I still remain. My condition is covered. Two dynamics at work: the condition of fallen man in Adam and then the things that I, by my uniqueness mess up and call sin. There are two things being dealt with. They are both dealt with by Christ in His offering of Himself, including my wellbeing. Now we'll get to that, but as I said, painting these broad strokes right now is important. Why? Because I come back to “the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope; by which we draw nigh unto God.” Now there are at least five things that I'm determined to get in before I leave here on the subject of Christ and the perfection that comes by Christ. And the first one is access to God. Before and in the law, you had no access. How many times do you read where God tells Moses, “And make sure that these people do not touch the mount; they don't come near, they stay away,” No access. But we know when we read in Paul's writing, in Romans, both in the third and fifth chapter: we have access by faith, to God. Equally in Ephesians 2, the same thing right there, we have access by one Spirit to God that previously wasn't there. Can you imagine? I think to myself, this is the tragedy of what I just started explaining about these other traditions. If I know that I have this High Priest who ever lives; He's still alive, He rose. It says clearly, He sat down at the right hand of the Father, the right hand of the Majesty on high. He lives to make intercession for me. He is acquainted with all of my sins and all of my sicknesses. What, what mortal man or woman can take the place of that? Tell me. What mortal man can take the place of that? Nobody. And you're worried that I'm being harsh about talking about these other people's traditions when the reality is, by virtue of going after and touching a man or a woman and claiming that they have the power and the capacity, they negate the very access given to them. It's like God saying, “Here, I'm giving you a key to My kingdom.” “Oh, no thank You; I'll ask the butler. He'll let me in.” Really? Okay, have it your way. Access to God is one of the keys that comes with this priesthood that we see in Christ. The next one is righteousness. The Old Testament says all of our righteousness is as filthy rags, but through Him and by Him and by His sacrifice, He looks at us━this is my hope. I remember when Dr. Scott used to put on his━he used to have rose-colored and blue-colored glasses. And he's say, “God puts on the spectacles and He sees us just as though.” We're not, but that's the way He sees us. When we're covered in the blood, when we're faithing in Him, that's the way He sees us. His righteousness, by His very act, being the Prodromos, and we have this anchor; we are recipients of that righteousness of His, by faith. I'm in right standing with Him. Now many people look at me and say, “How could she be in right standing with Him?” Through Christ! Not through works, not through any merits; by faith in Him. Assurance is another one of these byproducts, if you will, of this order of Melchisedec, the benefits of this: assurance. What is this assurance? God had prefigured at the beginning a prototype, established the priesthood. It says here very clearly that under that priesthood the people received the law, so why should there be another priesthood? Because God knew this was only for a time until the coming of His Son. God foretold of the coming of His Son in Genesis 3:15. Don't think God's constantly━that's why I said God's not constantly changing His mind. This was a prototype of what was to come, a much better thing, so have the assurance that God swore an oath and in eternity this thing was done. That brings me to the eternal priesthood, which is never ending, and as I come to Him and as you come to Him, with our daily needs, not needing to lay hands on an animal or go to another person, but as we have direct access. Elsewhere we read in the fourth chapter, in verses 15 and 16 about that access to the throne of grace. As we go, as we go daily we have an eternal force, never ending. Unlike these Levitical priests that died, eventually they had to die. Some of them God killed. But they had to die anyway. They were just human. And we have one who has conquered death, made the eternal perspective that when I think about a priesthood, I'm not looking to brothers and sisters and people. I'm, I see you as body of believers as priesthood, just like we say Christians following Christ, a body of priests following the High Priest. That's what we are. We have a Prodromos, One that went before us. We will go where He is. And last of these, I should say they all encompass His priesthood, but they encompass the specific priesthood being spelled out here. When I say the peace, it is the peace of understanding that unlike the law, which had many ambiguities. In its; in its specificity of do-do and don't-do, it did have many ambiguities. As I said, what did people do when they were sick? And please, don't tell me about the, the snake, the brazen serpent on the pole, because that was God giving that to Moses as an antidote for the people grumbling. They were bitten by those serpents that God sent because of their grumbling! Now, don't tell me. Jesus picks that up later and speaks of Himself in that nature. Tell me, what did you do when you where sick in the Old Testament? What did you do? Anybody have any clue? Well, you might go to the priest, if I, if it's visible, and he could say, “Yup, that, that looks pretty bad. Come back in seven days. You've to live outside your house for seven days and when you're done, you've got to shave off your eyebrows and any other body hair that you might have.” That's going to look beautiful. It's the&, hmm. Oh, I forgot. After you've done all that, you have to put on some schleppy clothes and say, “Unclean, unclean, unclean,” to let everybody know, “Unclean!” You think that in that type of a situation they didn't know you were unclean? The law made nothing perfect, but we have this greater High Priest, and this is why the focus should be the purpose of telling these people about Melchisedec is to say the very thing you've been holding onto, it could not bring you to perfection. And that perfections is a right standing with God, not perfection as in I'm perfect or even as in completion; a rightness with God; could not accomplish that. And it took the coming of Christ and for all of our shalom, our entire being, this sacrifice was made. Now think about the argument that is presented here and you'll see why I said it's, it's pretty fabulous. He says here, “(For those priests,” in verse 21, “were made without an oath; bu”" this one “this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent,” He will not change His mind, He will not deviate, “Thou art a priest for ever,” that is into the eternities, for ages and ever and ever and ever and ever “after the order of Melchisedec:)” a different kind of priesthood, not under the law, not under limitations, not under “only this group can come,” but “whosoever will” is the call, if you will. “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. And they truly were many priests, because there were” they died! They didn't continue because they died, “But this” one, “this man,” this one, “because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.” Why do you think the end of the book says, “Jesus Christ: the same yesterday, to day, and for ever”? That's not just some little nice quip in the Christian book that you can open up and say, “Ah, I can quote that Scripture.” It's saying that this same Priest that came, that paid this price, that lives, has not changed. He's still interceding; He's still sitting by the right hand of the Father. He will come back one day. Ohhh! Right? People get all “Whoa!” But the reality is, whether it is my lifetime, I've already settled the matter. Oh, I'd like it to be that He comes and He takes His church, but whether it's in my lifetime that that happens or I die holding on to the promise, holding on to the anchor, holding on to the Prodromos as I go, I know when I wake up I will be with Him that eternal Priest, and I will be serving with Him in an eternal Priesthood. And that, my friends, no matter what happens here on earth, the things that we're burdened with, the things that we suffer through, the things that we are traumatized by in living this life, they all are reduced to very little in value comparison to the glory that awaits those, who by faith claim the promise that this greater Priest has indeed paid the price, He still lives and He's coming back again. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com