(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) I'm gonna make a six. Oh Oh Oh Heavenly Father, thank you for having us on Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh All right, well if you'd like a bulletin Slip up your hand and I'm sure someone will grab them and get them around to you We're gonna need someone to hand out bulletins and take you off for tonight So someone can be on top of that They also I don't have to go on about this, but if you're unfamiliar with this basically those numbers and attendance then you have Over the right-hand side how many times that service had that number of people in it or below or above? really Look at the 35 attendance over the a.m. We have two services in March That had 35 people or less so basically 34 or below 35 So anyway, that's gives a more accurate picture of the services down here rather than just throwing averages And don't forget also if we break the record attendances for 2024 We will pop pop for it after the service. I've got The ship bell in so we're gonna have a nice bell and make sure it has the right that has a nice low tone I think one of those high tone clangy bells. I got a nice little one. It's not quite a gong. Although I did consider a gong a little much to have a gong But anyway, we'll have the bell in the ring. We've got the offerings below that and also Congratulations to the newlyweds. Don't forget there is the So many in Eloy on Saturday April 13th. That's this Saturday. So it's coming up quick There's anybody By yours Oh Oh Oh Oh 57 Yeah Yeah Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh 12 years And there went out to do the sodom The king of Gomorrah the king of Adam and the king of Savoy and the king of Bela the same as oh And they joined battle with them in the veil of Sittah with Keto and Leor, the king of Elah and the title of the king of nations And Amurfell, the king of shiny and Erior, the king of Elessar, four kings with five And the veil of Sittah was full of slime bits and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there And they that remained fled from the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah and all their dictions and went their way And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son who dwelled Sodom and his goods and departed And there came one that had escaped who told Abram to heal him for he dwelled on the plain of Amur, the Amur, the brother of Eschim, and the brother of Amur And these were the confederate of Abram. When Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants Born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto death And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, with smoke and pursued them unto hope Which is on the left hand of Damascus And he brought back all his goods and also brought again his brother Lot to his goods And the women also, the people, and the king of Sodom went out to meet him After his return to the slaughter of Keto-Leor and of the kings that were with him at the valley of Shavu Which is the king's dam And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine, and he was the priest of the Most High God And he blessed them, and said, Blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possession of heaven and earth And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand And he gave them the tithes of all And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the person to take the goods to thyself And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, the Most High God, the possession of heaven and earth And that I will not take from the dread, even to the shoe lashing And that I will not take anything that is done, lest thou shouldest save, and be able rich Save only that which the young men had needed, and the portion of the men which went with me And me, eschat, and manly, let them take the portion, let's pray Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this opportunity to gather together, Lord And pray that you should feel a beacon of your Spirit Reach unto us, Lord God, and help us to learn tonight and apply it to our lives and to be fulfilled Lord, love you to your sons and we pray, Amen Amen So in Genesis chapter 14 we're picking back up a story where if you remember in Genesis 13 Abram and Lot have parted ways and Lot has chosen the well-watered plains of Sodom And he pitched his tent towards Sodom And you kind of see the poor decision that he made there Kind of what carnal decisions will get you They can get you more than you bargained for Because in this story, of course, Lot is taken captive and Abram has to come and rescue him So let's look again at verse 1 It says, And it came to pass in the days of Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Elisar Kedarlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Nations That these were made war with Berah, king of Sodom and Bershe, king of Gomorrah Shinab, king of Admah and Shemiber, king of Zeboam And the king of Bela, which is Zoar All these were joined together in the veil of Sidom Which is the salt sea So you kind of get what's taking place in here now And then it backs up in verse 4 Twelve years served, they served Kedarlaomer And in the thirteenth year they rebelled And in the fourteenth year came Kedarlaomer And the kings that were with him And smote the Rephaims, and Asheroth, and Carnaem And the Zuzims, and Ham, and the Emims And Sheveth, Kyra, Thaim, and Horites, and Mount Seir And Elperan, which is the wilderness So they're getting together and basically These kings, you just have these two factions of kings that are going to war You know, there's a bunch of people that are dead We really don't know who these guys are It's not that significant who exactly they were But basically the real significance here Is that when this goes down That Abram is tipped off that they've come and taken Lot along with them It says there in verse 9, verse 10 rather And the vale of Sittim was full of slime pits And the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there So the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah are going out against the other group of kings They've got their kings So it's just this big regional war that's taking place With these different city-states And it says in verse 11 And they all took the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah And all their victuals and they went their way And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son Who dwelt in Sodom and his goods and departed So the problem here is that Lot is being taken captive Abram's hearing about it and he's going to go do something about this But before we get into that I want to point out one thing here The way this reads If you look there it says And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son Okay, so the Bible does What would we say that today How would we put that If we were to bring that into our modern vernacular We would say nephew, right But if you remember Nephew in the Bible has a different definition In the Bible nephew means grandson So that's why it puts it Abram's brother's son So that we know this is not his grandson But rather his nephew, right Because we all understand The relationship there When it's your brother's son That's your nephew That's what we would call it today But this is just And there's a broader point to archaic meanings I'm going to get into tonight And it's an important point And this just serves as one example Leading into the latter half of this chapter Where I'm going to make a broader point About archaic terms, okay It's important to understand That language changes over time And that words change meaning Even with the Bible, okay We're talking about a book That's over 400 years old Okay, almost four and a quarter centuries years old Almost So obviously there's going to be words That we've used down through Those centuries that have changed meanings Okay, and it's not That doesn't mean we have to throw out The King James Bible And get a new Bible Or update the Bible It just means that sometimes We have to do a little Do our due diligence You know And heaven forbid You know Go Google something You know Look up Get a dictionary out And actually just look up a term Right It's not that difficult You know People want to throw out The baby with the bathwater When it comes sometimes Sometimes when it comes to These archaic terms And it's foolish Okay Now they are there And I think that nephews Is a perfect example of that If you would go to 1 Timothy 5 1 Timothy number 5 We'll see an example of this There's also another example In Judges chapter 12 verse 13 Which reads And after him Abdon the son of Hillel A pyrothonite Judged Israel And he had 40 sons And 30 nephews So this guy Abdon Right Had 40 sons And 30 nephews Now the Bible doesn't really I mean what What's the significance What's the significance Of nephews No one really brags about How many nephews they have Right No one gets up and says You know I can't wait till I'm older And I have a lot of nephews Right What we do say is I can't wait to see My grandkids Right You know We look forward to that Today We say Man I hope I If every one of my children Has as many children as I have Then I'll have 25 grandkids And won't that be something Right I don't really think about How many nephews I'm gonna have Right That's you know He had 40 sons And 30 nephews Because nephews is talking about His grandchildren 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 4 If any have children or nephews Let them learn first to show Piety at home And to requite their parents For that is good and acceptable Before God So it's talking about You know If a widow is in need How the church support her Before she's taken into the number You know She has to meet certain stipulations And also one of those things You know Has to be taken into consideration Is whether or not She have any children or nephews Right So the Bible's not saying here That you have to provide For your aunt Okay Although there's nothing wrong With taking care of your Your auntie Right There'd be nothing wrong With that if you wanted to But it's not commanded By scripture Right However Grandchildren should take care Of their grandparents That's something the Bible Does command So that's another example Of the way nephew Is used in the Bible And I'm making the broader Point Okay That archaic terms do exist In the scripture And they're simply archaic Because of the fact That we Are using We don't use them We use different terms Okay Just words change meaning We could They could become Unarchaic tomorrow If we all started Using them again But they're not going to Now If you would Keep something there In Timothy We're gonna First Timothy We're gonna go over to Hebrews 6 here In a second So that's right there Right next to You know First Timothy Titus We're gonna go over that There But go back To Genesis Chapter 14 So again We've seen the story Abram's going to Rescue Lot And it says In verse 13 And there came One that escaped And told Abram The Hebrew For he dwelt In the plain of Mamre The Amorite And brother of Eschol And the brother Of Einor And these were Confederate with Abram So he's got You know people That he's friendly Confederate He's at peace With He's kind of Dwelling among them Because remember He's dwelling In a strange land Okay Now I don't believe That Abram Goes on the war path Here as some kind Of a political move He's not trying To get wealth We see He actually Is offered the wealth By Sodom He says I don't want it His main reason For going to war here Is for the sake Of Lot And nothing else The Bible's Very clear about that Is His nephew Lot Right He's talking about His brother's son Lot You say Well why is he calling him brother Well it's just It's just a term You know To express the fact That he's his kindred Okay So in the Bible It's time to be redundant His brother's son He's just saying His brother Right He's a relation He armed his trained servants Born in his own house 318 And pursued them Unto Dan And he divided himself Against them Which is on the left hand Of Damascus Now That's actually You know One of these Again one of these Little things That you just kind of Mentioned in scripture It's actually Quite profound That he's taking These guys 318 And then splitting That force In half Right And then going Pursuing these Other kings These five kings And chasing them off Right It's pretty cool You talk about Trained servants And all those courses And everything else I mean They must have really Been training hard In his house That's another sermon Which should be Probably be preached Another time But he goes out And he just You know Uh Runs them down And it says in verse 16 And he brought back All the goods And also brought again His brother Lot And his goods And the women also And the people And the king of Sodom Went out to meet him After his return From the slaughter Of Kedor Laomer And of the kings That were with him At the valley Of Sheva Which is the king's Dale And Melchizedek The king King of Salem Brought forth Bread and wine And he was The priest Of the most high God Now this is the part I want to focus in On here Because this is a Pretty well known Story It's referred to Quite a bit A few times And quite at length In one particular Chapter we're gonna Look at In the book of Hebrews Here Hebrews chapter number 6 And so we see in the Story as Abraham's Coming back From the slaughter Of the kings After having rescued Lot That he is met By Melchizedek King of the most Or priest of the most High God He's coming out And he's bringing Bread and wine With him Now when it comes To this story There's really Two ways you can Interpret it One you could say Is a literal appearance Of the Lord Jesus Christ In the Old Testament And I believe that That's very possible That certainly could be The case because of the fact That you see the Lord Jesus Christ Showing up and appearing Elsewhere in the Old Testament And God often would be Manifest in the flesh Even back then He would show up And it was him No question about it So That's one interpretation You could look at this And say And you could read Hebrews 6 And elsewhere in Hebrews Hebrews 6 and 7 And say this is obviously Christ come In Abraham's In Abraham's day Now that's You know That's something that I've kind of been On the fence about For a very long time And Here we are In Genesis 14 I guess I have to just Kind of come clean About where I stand On that Alright I personally do not Believe that this was The Lord Jesus Christ Himself I believe that it's a great Picture of Christ Okay I believe that it is A similitude Of Christ That it is a picture Of Christ For example He's bringing bread And wine You know that reminds us Of Christ Who is the bread That came down from Heaven And how the wine Is a representation Of the blood Of the New Testament Right And this Melchizedek being A priest He's referred back to As the priesthood That came before The Levitical priesthood Which is the priesthood That Christ took after Okay And there's a lot to Unpack there In Hebrew 7 But I'm really just Going to try and Make my case tonight As to why I do not believe That this is a literal Appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ In Hebrews chapter Excuse me In Genesis chapter number 14 So let's look at Hebrew 6 Which talks about this At length It says there in verse 13 For when God Made promise to Abraham Because he could swear By no greater He sware by himself Saying, Surely I will bless thee In multiplying I will multiply thee And so after that He had patiently endured He obtained the promise For men verily swear By the greater And an oath of confirmation Is to them An end of all strife Wherein God willing More abundantly To show unto The heirs of promise The immutability Of his counsel Confirmed it By an oath That by two Immutable things In which It was impossible For God to lie That we might have A strong consolation Who have fled For refuge To lay hold Under the hope Set before us Now look Hebrews 6, 7 There's a lot going on In this chapter Okay You know It's talking about The two immutable things Right One is that God Sware by the greater Himself Right That's the first immutable thing That God is the greatest You can't swear By any greater than God God swear By himself Of himself By the greater He confirmed it With an oath Right The second immutable thing Is that God cannot lie That's why We have A strong consolation Because No one's gonna trump God's word And two God cannot lie Alright We have a strong consolation Who have fled For refuge To lay hope On the set before us So I'm just trying to give you Explain some of these verses As we read through it It says in verse 19 And Which we hope Have Which we have As an anchor Of our soul Both sure And steadfast Whether The forerunner Is for us Entered Even Jesus Made an high priest Forever After the order Of Melchizedek Now you say Why is it that I believe That this is not A literal appearance Of Christ In the Old Testament In Genesis chapter 14 Because Of The verbiage The diction That is actually In these passages That we're gonna look at You know Whenever I've read this Whenever I've just Read through these chapters You know I've always Kinda had a sense That it was just talking About Christ being a Or Melchizedek rather Being a type of Christ And not literally And I You know that's the sense That I get just From reading it Okay For exi For instance End of verse 20 He's Made a high priest Forever After the order Of Melchizedek Meaning In that way That Melchizedek Was a priest So is he Right He doesn't say He was that priest He's saying Meaning in the same way Okay Again Melchizedek Was a type of Christ That's what I believe He's a picture Salem being the Meaning peace Meaning He is the You know He's the Prince of peace Right Christ is the Prince of peace You have the King of Salem Right Prince Principle So again Melchizedek Being A king of peace Or king of Salem Christ being A prince Or a king Melchizedek Melchizedek Is a picture Of Christ Okay I do not believe He is The literal Appearance of Christ Though And again This is brought up Elsewhere Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6 As he saith Also in another place Thou wert a priest Forever After the order Of Melchizedek Not thou art The priest That was Melchizedek He's After the order Of Melchizedek In the same way So let's just look at Hebrew 7 now and consider again the verbiage that is being used here in Hebrews chapter number 7. It says in verse 1 of Hebrew 7, For this Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the Mosiah God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation of righteousness and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace, without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. The first thing I want to point out here is the way in which it refers to Melchizedek. This Melchizedek. Little words matter. This Melchizedek is something, and then if you go down to verse 4, now consider how great this man was. It's saying this Melchizedek, this man, right? He's referring to one person and then he's going to refer to Christ as a separate person. Look at verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, but this man, because he continued with ever half an unchangeable priesthood. So when he's referring to Melchizedek, he's saying this man, this Melchizedek, when he's referring to Christ, he's saying this man, right? It's like he's making a distinction. There's this man and then there's this man, okay? They're not the same guy. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, made like unto, verse 3, the Son of God. It doesn't say he was the Son of God, right? It said he was made like unto him. Another reason I believe that Melchizedek was not a literal appearance of Christ is because, again, of the words that are used in Hebrews chapter number 7, such as similitude and phrases like made like unto, right? Again, this goes back to what I was saying about archaic terms. Similitude today, you know, simply means the quality or state of being similar to something, right? A striking similitude between the brother and the sister, right? They look alike. They have things in common, right? But they're not the same person. You know, I recently saw a brother and a sister. It was very evident that this man was this woman's brother. You know, but he didn't look feminine, you know, and she didn't look masculine. But there was some striking similarities between them. You know, there was a similitude there, okay? Now, the archaic definition of similitude is literally a comparison between two things. Keep that in mind when you're reading this, right? It's a comparison between two things. He's saying this Melchizedek, this man, Jesus, right? And he's saying that there was a similitude there, a person or thing resembling someone or something else. He's made like unto the Son of God. He abided the priest continually. So here's the thing. If Christ was literally manifest in the Old Testament, in the story in Genesis chapter 14, wouldn't it just be easy to say that? Couldn't the Bible just be crystal clear about that? Couldn't the Bible just flat out tell us this was Christ? I mean, because in other Old Testament appearances, the Bible does exactly that. It makes it very clear. Genesis 18, okay, I'll just read to you, verse 1. And the Lord appeared unto him, Abram, in the flames of Mamre, and he sat in a tent door in the heat of the day. The Lord showed up and met Abram in the heat of the day and sat in his tent. And it's very explicit. It was the Lord, right? We're not going, well, was it the Lord or was it somebody like the Lord? No, it's the Lord, right? Daniel, when they're in the fiery furnace, when the three Hebrews are thrown into the fiery furnace, right? And then the king looks in and says, lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire and they have no hurt. And the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of God. It's telling us he sees the Son of God there in the fire with them, right? How about Joshua? When Joshua goes out by the river, the bank of the river Jordan before they go and invade Jericho the day before, and he sees a man walking on the riverbank and he asks him, are thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, nay, but as a captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come? And Joshua falls on his feet. He worships him. And he says, what doth saith my Lord unto a servant? And the captain, the Lord's host, said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place where I now stand is as holy. And Joshua did so, which hearkens back unto when Moses was confronted by the Lord in the burning bush. He also was told to loose his shoes from off his feet. OK, so the Bible is real clear. When the Lord appears, oftentimes in the Old Testament, he just makes it abundantly clear. There's no question about it. You know, there's nothing in Genesis 14 that would tell us that's Christ. When we go to Hebrews, then that's when we start to make this connection and say, well, maybe it was Christ. And again, maybe it was. I just when I read Hebrews 7, when I'm reading Hebrews 6, when I'm reading things like this Melchizedek and this Jesus, this man, when he's making, you know, saying this is one and this is another, basically. When he's saying that the king of peace was made like unto the son of God. Right. He wasn't the son of God. You know, that's that's when I start to think, well, it's just a similitude. It's just he's made like unto me. It's not literally Christ. Look at verse four of Hebrews, chapter number seven. It says, Now consider how great this man was unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave tenths, tenth of the spoils. And verily, they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according law, that is, of our brethren, though they come not out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. Now, whose descent is not counted, as it says in verse six there? It's talking about Melchizedek. OK. And this is what some people will say. They'll say, well, see, he has no genealogy. His descent is not counted. Therefore, it is not counted. Therefore, it is Christ, because Christ, you know, he's, you know, from the beginning, you know, he's been the son of God. He's eternally the son of God. OK, we understand that, you know, his earthly lineage that came through, you know, Mary and Joseph, but he has been with the father ever since, that he senses without beginning. Right. His descent is not counted. You can't trace back Christ to the very beginning. He is the creation. Right. So people say, well, that's an obvious clue that that is referring to the fact that he is, that Melchizedek is Christ. But that's not what it says. It simply says that his descent is not counted. Right. That makes him a, that's why he's made like unto the son of God. Right. Because we don't have a lineage of Melchizedek. He just kind of appears like he's always been there. Right. It doesn't say he doesn't have a descent. It doesn't say that one couldn't have been counted. It just simply says that it is not counted, that we don't have the record. We don't have a genealogy. It's as if he just came out of nowhere. Right. And that's kind of like Christ, that he's just always been. Look at verse nine. He says, And as I may say also, may say so, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him, if therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law. What further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek, and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth unto another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. So again, Paul is making the comparisons between Melchizedek and Christ. Melchizedek has no genealogy. He comes before the Levitical priesthood. And if you remember in the Levitical priesthood, genealogies mattered. You had to prove your genealogy if you were going to go into the priesthood. You had to prove that you were of the tribe of Levi. And if you couldn't, you were put out from the priesthood. And he's saying here that just as the Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood, and yet it is far more evident for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there riseth another priest. So just in the same way that Christ does not come out of the Levitical priesthood, so Melchizedek does not come out of the Levitical priesthood. Which is why Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He predates the Levitical priesthood. And that does not necessarily mean that Melchizedek was Christ. Again, it says in verse 15, and yet it is far more evident that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there riseth another priest, referring to Christ. There arises another priest which is similar to Melchizedek. It doesn't say that he was Melchizedek. It's after the similitude of Melchizedek, right? That he is without descent. His genealogy is not given. He does not come from the tribe of Levi. He does not come from the Levitical priesthood. He predates it. Verse 16, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of endless life, for he testifieth thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So let's jump down here, verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety for a better testament, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. So, you know, that's my case for it anyway, and I really haven't heard any compelling evidence to the contrary. I haven't really, you know, I've heard the other side of it, and I've definitely seen where people are coming from when it comes to this issue of whether or not Melchizedek was Christ, and I've definitely thought in the past, you know, that's certainly a possibility, and it certainly could be. What all I'm saying tonight is that when you read just what the text says, it seems to me that when he's using terms like similitude, after the order, made like unto, when the Bible could just be abundantly clear, and when it could just state it as plain as day, I mean, why be so cryptic? Why be so vague? You know, why have to have, you know, the uncertainty in the text? Because even people that'll say, oh, no, it was definitely Christ in Genesis chapter 14, appearing as Melchizedek, even they'll say, but, you know, we could be wrong because the Bible isn't crystal clear about it, right? Well, you know, it seems like it's a little clearer to me that it wasn't Christ that was appearing then. But, you know, again, this isn't something that we have to split hairs over. You know, if you want to sit there and believe that that was Christ that showed up in Genesis 14, that's fine. You know, you can still come to church here. We could still be friends. You know, I'm just preaching what I believe tonight because that's what I believe. You know, I've thought about these things. I've heard preaching about it. I've had to come to my own conclusion. You know, I'm not just going to tow a line to make everybody happy. You know, I'm going to preach what I believe. And, you know, maybe I didn't articulate it as eloquently as I would have liked to tonight. But if you just read the text whenever I've read it, you know, that's the end of the story. You know, if you just read the text whenever I've read it, you know, that's the impression that I get. That Melchizedek was a similitude. That Christ was made after the order of Melchizedek. That he was not literally Melchizedek. And that there's certain attributes that they both share. Right? So, let's just finish up the chapter in verse 19. It says, And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram the Most High God, Possessor of heaven and earth. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And gave him tithes of all. And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. And Abram said unto the king of Sodom, I have lifted up mine hand unto the Lord the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I shall not take from a thread even unto a shoe-latchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abraham rich. So, the king of Sodom says, Hey, you know what? You did all this work. You're the one who went to war. You know, we were done for. It was over. All the people have been taken. We would basically not exist if it wasn't for you, Abram. Just give us back the people and you keep all the wealth and keep all the riches. Abram's saying, I'm not going to do it. And the reason why is because he doesn't want the king of Sodom to be able to turn around and say, Well, Abram has all that wealth because of me. Because, you know, he took what was once mine. You know, although I gave it to him, although, you know, you could say he deserved it, you know, if it wasn't for me, the king of Sodom, then Abram wouldn't be the wealthy man that he is today. And Abram's saying, No, I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to take anything from you because I don't want the credit for my success and my prosperity to go to the world. There's a great lesson here is that we need to learn to rely on God in our lives. You know, God wants to bless us. God wants to make us prosperous, but we have to trust in him. And that's not always easy to do. But if we give it time and we walk with the Lord and we live for God and we give God the glory for the things that he accomplishes in our life, you know, God will in time lift us up. And in time we will give God the glory for that. And we have to trust God for that, that in time he will lift us up. So he ends there, verse 24, Save only that which the young men have eaten. Obviously, that's kind of hard to give back. I'm not sure you'd want that back. You know, stuff that somebody's already eaten. And the portion of the man that went with me, Aner, Esgal, and Mamre, let them take their portion. He said, you know, let these other guys have what they want. Give them whatever they need. But ask for me. We don't need your stuff. We're good. We're all set. And, you know, I'm going to give glory to God for everything that he's done for me. That's basically what he's saying. So, you know, it's kind of an interesting story. There's a lot there. We could have dove into some other things, but I really kind of wanted to just at least give my take, albeit brief, on why I don't believe that Melchizedek is a literal Christ in the Bible. And I think I don't want to be redundant and just repeat myself. So let's just go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Dear Lord, again, thank you for the Bible. Lord, thank you that we have a high priest, Lord, in Christ that has anchored our soul within the veil, Lord, that he has come after the order of Melchizedek and he has paid the price for our sins, Lord, and he has made a way for us to approach you in the holiest of holies, spiritually, to come boldly before your throne. Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the beautiful pictures of Christ throughout the Bible and all of its significance. We thank you for such a great book. We pray you'd help us to read it, to love it, and to know it. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. We'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go. If you could please open up your song. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. Let's give it a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31. It's a song number 31.