<TITLE>02. Par 4-6</TITLE>L-4 And now, tonight we find Israel in a backslidden condition. Israel had its ups-and-downs. It was a very type of the church today. Sometime they were on the housetops; the next time they were down in the valley. That's what takes to make us appreciate the good things.
There's what they call the law of contrasts. The black man of Africa never knowed that he was black, his skin, until he seen David Livingston. And he said... Then he realized his skin was black, because Livingston's was white. It's a contrast. You would never how to appreciate a day if you didn't have a night. You'd never know how to appreciate the sunshine if you didn't have a cloudy day. You would never know how to appreciate righteousness unless you had had some unrighteousness. You'd never know how to appreciate good health unless you've had some foul health, some bad health. It's only those... And that's the reason I think that we'll appreciate heaven so much, because we've lived on earth once.
And I think the law of contrast. The reason that we appreciate the Holy Spirit so much tonight, is because we lived so long in a church that told us there was no such a thing. The reason we appreciate It tonight because we have had the other side. And that's the way God has intended it to be, because His people has had their ups-and-downs. You never know how to appreciate a mountain top unless you've been in the valley. And so you never know how to appreciate good water unless you drink some bad sometime. And then you--you... All the way through it's a law of contrasts.

L-5 Now, Israel was in one of its backslidden states. And what a thing they had done. Now, Israel was a chosen, elected, selected people. That God had chose Israel for one specific purpose, that the blood of Israel should be the cleanest bloodstream. For out of that lineage was going to come the Messiah Himself.
All down through the Old Testament God appeared in men. God appeared in Abraham as a faith believer. God appeared in David as a King. He appeared in Joseph as righteousness. He appeared in Moses as prophet, priest, law giver. He appeared down through the ages in the prophets. He always made Himself known in man, in portion, through prophets, kings, priest, law giver, so forth.
But in Christ He dwelled in Him the Fullness of the Godhead bodily, and knowing that this Spirit must finally find a resting place. On Elijah, He was a man of God's justice; he played it out, the justice of God. In Moses He was a law giver, that you toe the mark or get out. And in all these things God represented. But when He came to Christ, He was perfect. The entire Fullness of the Godhead bodily rested in Christ.

L-6 And God represented Himself once in the Fullness beforehand in the book of Genesis, in the order of Melchisedec, Who had no father, no mother, no beginning of days, or ending of years, or ending of life. And He was a priest, the King of Salem, a priest of God, of the most high God, Who was without beginning or without ending. He was none other than the prefigure of the Lord Jesus Christ, 'cause He was the King of Salem which is the King of Peace which is the King of Jerusalem. And He was in prefigure, even the patriarch Abraham paid tithes to Him. He was a prefigure of the coming of the Lord Jesus.
This same Melchisedec met Abraham out on the plains before the destroying of Sodom and Gomorrah. And--and He met him after Sodom and Gomorrah when Abraham paid Him a tithings of all the spoils that he'd taken from the king. All these things is shadows, typed up to Christ.
And now, all the shadows of the Old Testament saints, their ups-and-downs, was a shadow and type and example for us today.


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